Showing results by narrator "Jeff Harding" in All Categories

As a secret service agent, Nick Averose spent a decade guarding the most powerful people in the US. Now, he's a mock killer, testing the security around the highest officials to find vulnerabilities, before America's enemies can. Nick's latest assignment leads him to the home of a former CIA director. But when he breaches the director's study, Nick is entangled in a vicious crime. One that will shake Washington to its foundations. Nick needs to find out who is framing him and why. If he can't uncover the truth, a dark conspiracy will consume him and everyone else in the Oval Office....

All the varieties of power – star, political, sexual, criminal and emotional – are on show in this definitive, untold story of Frank Sinatra and the Mafia. Drawing on an enormous archive of previously unseen records held by international law agencies, the FBI, the CIA and big-city police...

Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack and flirting with prescription painkillers, when a body is found in the centre of town. It's Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an occupational hazard. But when Barney's mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a look, it seems there's more to the killing than it seems.

Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar.

Writer Carl Borden mysteriously falls violently ill one evening whilst out walking his dog, and then again less than two weeks later, whilst asleep in bed. His friend and physician, Doctor Thomas Wingate, suspects foul play, but it will take a lot to convince Borden he could be in danger in his own home.

The Facility is gone. The cryptids being studied there are dead. Now the monsters are out in the open, changing the world forever. Dr Borm is on the run with Cryptid Nine, desperate to survive for the sake of the hybrid child his beloved ‘Nina’ carries.

Shaw and his loyal dog Girl do their best to avoid humanity, especially now that his fellow werewolves are nearly extinct. But humanity is heading his way. The Facility is a research centre that specialises in cryptozoology: the search for legendary creatures. Once these ‘cryptids’ are found...

Crease is known in Weaver as ‘the bug guy', the man who takes care of insects and other critters. But what emerges from the shadows of the town's waste plant is beyond anything found in nature. Fist-sized cockroaches. Bird-sized wasps. Spiders, millipedes, ticks, all swollen to enormous bulk with vicious appetites to match. And other things, creatures that should never exist.

A deadly captain is the subject if this short story. Young sailor Roberts recalls his experience of Captain Morbond, a cruel, heartless man who mysteriously is followed by small white mice said to carry the souls of dead men.

There have been reports of a phantom ship attempting to run down other vessels on the waters. It is said to be a cutter that went missing, along with its crew. A ship eventually stumbles across the missing cutter, a final log from those on board shedding light on the fate of the cutter.

There is a dark mood aboard Serapis, driven by its distracted captain. It was agreed that this ship would not be returning from its voyage, the insurance money paying for a new ship. But the captain loses more than he bargained for, and it is years until he is at peace when he is unexpectedly reunited with the wreck on the coast of Chile.

It’s not unusual for ships to vanish, lost to bad weather, but what isn’t so easy to explain are the abandoned ships, left floating on the waves, eerily silent with no sign of attack or destruction. In this short story, our unnamed protagonist recalls his experience aboard the Robert Sutter, an abandoned ship he was forced to take charge of during his journey from Sydney to Callao.

An earthquake throws a ship and its crew into disarray in this short story from Morgan Robertson. But the waves become the least of their worries when they discover a mysterious beast has been disturbed, invisible to natural light.

A smoking cigar is seen in the fog, but not the man behind it. Could it be the final smoke of Charlie Devereux? The crew aboard the Königen Teresa recall this ghostly story as they themselves plough into fog across the Mid-Atlantic.

Instructed to guide in a speed-boat crossing from Russia in the Bering Strait, special forces Major Rake Ozenna watches in horror as the operation culminates in a fatal firefight - and the loss of vital intelligence of a deadly new weapon. A weapon of unimaginable power. But who sabotaged the mission? Who possesses the weapon - and what is their ultimate goal?

A retired war pilot is travelling the French countryside. Entranced by the natural beauty of the area when he stops to rest by a lake, he sees visions of beautiful tree women who seek his protection.

Professor Jonkin is a scientist who has successfully cultivated a tree that produces many fruits. He doesn’t stop there though and starts experimenting on a pitcher plant with disastrous results....

The titular house in this short story sits not far from the state of Missouri. An old, run-down building, missing windows and doors, it has been overgrown with foliage, and its dilapidated appearance has given it an ‘evil reputation’.

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Evil Roots. Best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, this short story by Conan Doyle preceded the famous detective by almost a decade. After an altercation, a disgruntled American storms off into the night, only to disappear mysteriously. Could a giant flytrap really be capable of engulfing an adult victim?

The story is set in Padua and follows botanist Giacomo Rappaccini’s garden of poisonous plants. A student from the university of Padua falls for a maiden in the luscious garden, but he soon learns some troubling information about his beloved’s true nature.