Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

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.

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.

Thirty years ago, cynical sleaze ball director Tito Bronze took a tiny cast and crew to a desolate island. His goal: to exploit the local tribes, spray some guts around, cash in on the gore-spattered 80s Italian cannibal craze. But the pissed-off spirits of the island had other ideas. And before long, guts were squirting behind the scenes, as well.

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.

Canada is the second largest country in the world—a land of seemingly endless coastlines, vast prairies, jagged mountains, and deep boreal forests. Despite the vastness of its territory, 90% of Canadians live within 150 miles of the US border leaving room for all manner of strange beings to exist undisturbed. Canadian Monsters and Mysteries will take the listener deep into the mysterious north where mammoths may still roam the frozen tundra while the Manwolf, loup-garou, and Waheela stalk the dense woodland and mysterious valleys.

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.

Perfect for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link, Jo Paquette’s Stories I Told My Dead Lover contains eight searing tales of psychological horror that probe the darkest and most deeply buried parts of the human psyche. A child is forced to grow up too soon. A woman trusts her doctor too much. An abandoned woman isn’t as alone as she thinks. An idyllic holiday masks an unspeakable act of violence. Driven, desperate, fighting for the power to choose their own fate, Paquette’s characters dare to push back at the walls that hold them in.

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.

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.

Ted and Susan Merchant have been coming to the Pine Lakes resort for nearly 20 years. In that time, their annual getaway has become a tradition, a peaceful week nestled in the picturesque mountains of northern Pennsylvania. For them, it isn’t just a simple vacation spot, but a magical destination where time slows and they become one with nature’s magnificence. When a freak summer storm forces Ted to lose control of their car and plummet off the road, they’re relieved just to have survived, but relief quickly turns to dread as they find out all too soon they’re not alone.

Meet Lawson: A cynical, wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance - the secret existence of a race of living vampires who have evolved alongside humanity for thousands of years. A fixer. Part-spy, and part-commando-James Bond with fangs, Lawson mixes shrewd cunning with unmatched lethality to get his job done. He tries his best to dismantle conspiracies, dispatch bad guys, and live long enough to get home. Arvella: A power-hungry member of the vampire governing body, the Council. She wants power and will stop at nothing to get it. Even if it means kidnapping a child.

At seventeen, Mia Rose Ellis is haunted by a tragic summer and painful secrets. Seeking refuge in the forest behind her house, however, she finds two things that change everything: a rotten corpse and an archaic journal filled with horrifying tales. As Mia begins to read the eerie stories of a terrifying, malicious creature, she begins to realize the forest surrounding her house is more dangerous than she could've imagined.

Lee, an urban shaman, gets tasked with tracking down a vinyl copy of the Dark Light EP by the ’80s hard rock band, Bad Obsession. The extremely rare record is said to be cursed. Nearly every copy of the album burned in a fire at Tower Records in Los Angeles the day of its release. With only one remaining member of the band alive and living in a home for those battling Alzheimer’s, Lee must return to Maine, a place where he’s battled evil forces before, and see if he can retrieve the album.

With her former captor, the shadow sorcerer Daktari, now serving as her mentor, Princess Shara must learn to control the power of the Divine Key. Concerned about the princess’ growing power, the Void dispatches its mightiest champion, the fallen prince, Nord, to capture her. And lurking in the dark between worlds is the elder demon Balthis, just waiting for a chance to join with his master and destroy the world. Can Shara grasp her power and seal away the Void before Nord forces her to free Balthis? It’s a race to the finish with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Of all the white American pop music groups that hit the charts before the Beatles, only the Beach Boys continued to thrive throughout the British Invasion to survive into the 1970s and beyond. The Beach Boys helped define both sides of the era we broadly call the sixties, split between their early surf, car, and summer pop and their later hippie, counterculture, and ambitious rock.

Although scholars have long recognized that local American parties play an important role in elections, surprisingly little is known about the individuals who lead these typically small, volunteer-based organizations. As Small Power shows, local party leaders influence the electoral process in myriad ways. Drawing from a survey of over 850 Democratic and Republican local party chairs, a nationally representative sample of voters, and dozens of in-depth interviews, the authors describe how parties are organized, who party chairs are, and how they serve the party.

In the aftermath of the release of Dr. Hallie Hayes’ weapon aboard the Nidus, Justin Barclay and his fellow survivors are forced to flee for their lives, but they soon realize they can’t run forever. The weapon is multiplying like a sentient plague...and it will consume everything and everyone in its path. As Justin and Hallie form new alliances with old rivals, facing down monstrous foes and treacherous enemies, they work to destroy the weapon and escape the infected ship. But the plague has other intentions—and it will not be stopped. 

Hell has come to earth as sadistic zombies rampage and massacre the human population. Reverend Thomas Martin has lost his congregation to the chaos but has found two wayward survivors to protect—Becky and John. The three of them have holed up in Martin's church in a desperate attempt for survival. But as supplies run low and civilization crumbles around them, Martin must come to a realization—God has abandoned them. But why?

The Eyler family was anything but average. The father a top literary agent and the mother a duchess, they thrived in their prestigious Oakmont mansion surrounded by luxury…and secrets. On a cold autumn night, their legacy ended with a grisly massacre in one of the most horrific scenes ever investigated. Soon details splashed across every newspaper of how the family of five lay slaughtered in their library, cursing the mansion as it became branded the Execution Estate. With no witnesses and no motives, the killer remained free. Speculations grew darker. Answers grew dimmer. Until now.

After barely surviving the horrors in ACM mine 1134, Justin Barclay and his ghostly tagalong board a colonist ship bound for a new world. As they explore the futuristic colonist city within the ship, they quickly realize all is not as it seems. The arrival of Dr. Hallie Hayes, a fugitive scientist, arrives on the colonist ship shortly after. Her charge: get her life’s work to the core Coalition planets before it falls into the wrong hands. But she’s too late.