Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

America's intelligence security is in the hands of a million private contractors. Now one hacker may bring down their entire system. Four months ago, Alex Vane's friend James Stacy was murdered by private security contractors working for the intelligence-industrial complex. Alex exposed the killers, but most of the system survived, including the amoral torturer known only as Amand. From within Cuba's internet desert, James' widow, Innerva Shah, seeks her own kind of revenge.

On a cold, rainy night in Seattle, a legendary journalist is found facedown in the street below a posh high-rise. Local police are calling it a suicide, but Alex Vane sees signs of murder. With help from a brash young journalist, Alex pieces together clues from the dead man's extraordinary career. But an unexpected discovery leads him to believe that all those legendary scoops may have been built on a lie so great it led to his murder.

It's the spring of 2000, and Alex Vane is living the dream. He's brilliant, handsome, driven, and he has just landed his first major reporting job: covering New York's biggest trials for the city's second-biggest daily, The New York Standard. As if his luck couldn't get any better, Alex befriends a top prosecutor who helps him uncover a secret about a legendary defense attorney. When he breaks the story, the trial of the East Coast's most deadly drug kingpin falls into turmoil. But as he digs deeper, the story begins to unravel. 

Of all the names I’ve been called in Manhattan, “good guy” has never been one of them. But that’s what I have to become the day my father’s law firm, sexy lawyer Violet Keats, a salacious scandal, a hot new court case, and one unlucky bet fall into my lap. Being “the boss” has never been harder. Being office enemies with Violet Keats? Never hotter. But then one night - and one gamble - change everything. I guess earning that “good guy” title is going to be much harder than I thought....

In a style reminiscent of John Cheever and Alice Munro, Michael Nye's second collection of stories, Until We Have Faces, contends with transfixing themes: marital and familial estrangement, ways of trespass, the intractable mysteries and frights of modern life, the uncertainty of knowledge and truth, the gulfs between people and the technology we use, the frailty of our economic lives - while underlining throughout the persistency of love. His consummate skill, penetrating wit, and unfailing emotional generosity are on full display in this fine new collection.

Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer includes Straczynski's unique, tried-and-true methodologies that will help storytellers sharpen their work so that it's polished and ready for publication. Part toolbox and part survival guide, this book will be an indispensable guide throughout your entire writing career, offering fresh and practical insights every step of the way. 

When a missing person case lands in the lap of Black Knight Investigations, Jimmy Black and his partner, Greg Knightwood, jump back into action - until their missing person rises as an uncontrollable vampire and all signs point to a supernatural coup orchestrated by an unknown vampire of immense power. With the case going sideways, more missing girls, and a new cop in town way too curious about Jimmy's perennial youth, life in Charlotte is about to get interesting again.

Jackson Holt is about to graduate college, but he isn't ready to grow up just yet. He hasn't realized his dreams of being a gaming designer. He knows once he leaves the ARC, that dream might as well be flushed down the toilet. His parents were ready for him to come home and take on a real job within the Pack. Something respectable and boring that he would do almost anything to rebuke. He's already added a fifth year for his undergraduate degree, but his time at the ARC is closing fast. A chance encounter online late one night pairs him with a team featuring his biggest gaming rival.

Karis Begay is the only surviving heir to the Begay wolves of the Alaskan Pack. Someday she will take her place as Pack Mother, which is a lifelong burden she has always carried with pride. It kept her isolated from others and hesitant to let anyone close to her. As she enters her freshman year at Archibald Reynolds College, no one knows who she is or who she is destined to become. It's a chance at a fresh start, and just maybe...the beginning of something new.  

Everyone in Yaz's village has vanished. The only clue, a strange golden coin marked with mysterious runes. Can Yaz and his friends figure out what the coin means before it's too late? And what are the sinister Dark Sages up to in the northwest? It can't be anything good for our heroes. It's a race against time to rescue the missing villagers.  

For 10 years Bill Stokes was a roving reporter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal. He has written reams of material about his vivid impressions of people, animals, events, personal activities, and "things in general". Bill Stokes obviously enjoys his role as Wisconsin's favorite journalist. In this delightful book he shares that fun with all.

As lawman, rancher, and Korean War veteran, Ty Dawson has his share of problems in the southern Oregon county he calls home. Despite how rural it is, Meriwether can't keep modernity at bay. The 1970s have changed the United States—and Meriwether won't be spared. A standoff looms when the US Fish & Wildlife Service seeks to separate longtime cattleman KC Sheridan from his water supply—ensuring the death of his livestock. If that's not enough trouble, a Portland detective is found dead in a fly-fishing resort cabin.

Being undead isn't anything new for Westlake—former thief and deteriorating Zombivor—until he realizes there's not enough formaldehyde in the world to keep him together. He decides to embark on one last mission into the zombie apocalypse to find a long-lost drug cartel cache which will set his friends up for life. The hitch? It's in Florida. By the time they land in the Everglades, not only is the wildlife a lot wilder and more murderous than usual, but a hurricane looms on the horizon, ready to wipe them from the face of the earth. For Westlake, there is no other choice but to DO OR DIE.

Go deeper inside the hit TV show The Boys and its characters with psychologists, media experts, filmmakers, and more—including the original comic series' cocreator and the actors behind Soldier Boy and Stormfront. Supes Ain't Always Heroes offers a fresh look at The Boys, delving into the show's unflinching depiction of celebrity, politics, social media, corporate greed, racism, sexism, and more.

Ian beat the system, but he'll quickly learn the real world wasn't as safe as he remembered. Threats are rising, placing Ian in the crosshairs of global conflict. Reunited with an old ally from the loop, he must prepare to take part in an international tournament where the most powerful practitioners in the world fight for dominance. And unbeknownst to all, a calamity looms overhead - a continent-shattering trial that only Ian can stop.  

Alex Vane was once a top investigative journalist. Now he peddles celebrity gossip and clickbait listicles, watching from a distance as his wife moves on with her life - without him. But Alex's past catches up to him when he learns that an old source, James Stacy, has been killed in a random mass shooting. James left Alex one last scoop: a 50-year-old hard drive that may contain a secret worth killing for...and the name of the one person who can help him access the data. 

Ford and Neuland are paranormal mercenaries--one living, one undead; one of them kills the undead, the other kills the living. When a job goes bad in New York, they head west to wait for the heat to cool down. There, a young woman named Tilda Rosenbloom hires them on behalf of wealthy landowner Shepherd Mansfield to track and kill a demon haunting a mansion in remote northern California.

Bryan and Ellie Stockton hope they left behind their demons when they move to their idyllic new home in southern West Virginia. Above all, they want a fresh start for their young son, Derrick, who witnessed the tumultuous first years of their marriage—years that were rife with substance abuse, rage, and resentment. Their bright hope for the future is darkened when a child disappears from their neighborhood. The couple becomes suspicious of a reclusive resident with a degenerative brain disorder.

Based on very real and practical commentary, life experience, and occasionally, tongue-in-cheek-misfortunes of horror legends, Necessary Death explores how the horror genre offers individuals a unique opportunity for insight and understanding of their own lives.

When an airship crashes under mysterious circumstances, the Magebreakers find themselves embroiled in an investigation that takes them across the Audish Channel to foreign shores. In Belgrier, many blame Audish sabotage for the accident, and for the death of the influential nobleman on board—a dear friend of the Belgrian Kaiser. And if Tane and Kadka can't prove otherwise, it could become a diplomatic catastrophe. But the suspicion of a government that views all Audlanders as dangerous pro-magical radicals isn't the Magebreakers' greatest concern.