Showing results by narrator " Michael David  Axtell " in All Categories

The beloved creator of Blues Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and protégé of Fred Rogers explores the importance of kindness and how it can change your life in this essential guide and tie-in to the PBS special The Power of Radical Kindness.

Exhausted by dead-end forays in the gay dating scene, surrounded constantly by friends but deeply lonely in New York City, and drifting into academic abyss, 20-something graduate student Richard has plenty of sources of anxiety. But at the forefront is his crippling writer’s block, which threatens daily to derail his graduate funding and leave Richard poor, directionless, and desperately single. Enter Anne: his brilliant classmate who offers to “help” Richard write his papers in exchange for his company, despite Richard’s fairly obvious sexual orientation.

Sean O’Brien knows that his close friend, Dave Collins, isn’t a man who asks for favors. After three decades as a CIA officer, Collins learned self-reliance from the best school in the world - the streets. However, after five years out of the agency, he stops looking over his shoulder. And then the assassinations begin. One by one. Five of the CIA’s best former officers. Dave Collins’ old colleagues. Local police can’t protect retired CIA officers from ghosts of their past. Dave’s life is on the line, and they are coming for him.

Star Druid: Publisher's Pack contains books 1 and 2 of the Star Druid series. What is an exiled druid to do when their order is destroyed by a rising tide of darkness? 1. Seize magical power. 2. Get rich. 3. Gather a harem of beautiful women. 4. Revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.

When Courtney Burke appears at Ponce Marina on a humid summer morning, she leaves Sean O’Brien with a haunting tale. Her story could lead O’Brien down a path that began with a brutal crime 40 years earlier and hidden family secrets spawned from the desecration of the innocent. O’Brien learns that Courtney is linked to a series of carnival murders. Police are convinced she’s a serial killer, and all of her victims are men. But like the illusions found in the carnival’s house of mirrors, nothing is as it appears.

Glenda Lawson believes her husband was the only US serviceman shot and killed on American soil during World War II. But in 1945, investigators ruled that Billy Lawson died in a “mugging turned ugly.” Sean O’Brien is learning the ropes of commercial fishing when he gets his anchor caught on something underwater. He discovers a German U-boat partially buried in sand, and inside is a frightening cargo. The media pick up the story, and a 35-year-old woman who has a haunting tale visits O’Brien.

When visitors arrive, Clara Valmont must make an entirely new agreement with the vampire she is indebted to in order to stay alive. But even her brief reprieve might not be enough when something far more dangerous than a vampire comes to call. Things between Clara and Alaric are not what they appear to be, and if anyone learns the truth, then it could spell death, for both of them.

In light of the nearing disaster, the world had grown aware of the looming threat, bringing forth chaos as it slowly descends toward the apocalypse. In preparation to face off against the great calamity, Evan has decided to level up and awaken his companions as Dimension Transcenders. They must venture into the unknown territories of a dangerous Fragment Rift—one that would grant them a trial like no other before. Rumor has it that two mighty conquerors had overthrown its ancient world. They had reigned supreme for centuries being undefeated by many, guarding the secrets at its core.

For more than 50 years, not a day goes by when Caroline doesn't think of her brother, Andy. The last time she saw Andy was when he left home to spend 30 days at Florida's largest reform school. Caroline's family was told that Andy ran away in the middle of the night. Fifty years later, Sean O'Brien receives a letter from a dead man. A year earlier the man had hired Sean O'Brien and chartered his boat for a fishing trip. Now the man is reaching from the grave to hire him again.

On the brink of a disaster that could end all human life on Earth, tech genius Robert Eisenbraun joins a team of scientists in Antarctica on a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to mine a rare ore that can provide for Earth's long-term energy needs. But as he and the rest of the team train under the ice shelf in preparation for the long journey, trouble erupts. Before they embark, Eisenbraun finds himself the odd man out, and is put into cold sleep against his will.

When an old man sees an unidentified Civil War photograph of a woman in the newspaper, he begins a desperate search for a 160-year-old painting that he believes will match the image of the enigmatic woman in the photograph, and if it does, it will prove that his great-great-grandfather did not run from battle. After the old man hires Sean O’Brien to find the mysterious painting, O’Brien discovers it’s linked to a secret letter and map that will lead to a trapdoor where a hidden key to the most horrific war on US soil lies buried.

Before the death of his wife, Sean O'Brien makes a promise to her that he has no plans to break - until he starts building a new life in an old cabin on a remote stretch of a tropical river in the heart of Florida. It's there that he discovers an injured young woman who whispers a cryptic message into his ear.

Did anyone ever tell you about the Dimension Rifts? Yes, portals to other dimensions, which one day, sprung up all over the entire world. Rumors say it happened on a day like any other, and it came without any warning. With the Dimension Rifts appearing all over the world, a new era had come. Though filled with endless possibilities, its lurking dangers would prove to be our end. That was the start of the apocalypse; the Dimension Apocalypse. It's also the start of one man's story: Evan Cross, a warrior from the destroyed future of Earth.

A priest hears the confession of a frightened prison inmate, and he learns that a man facing lethal injection in 84 hours is innocent. The lead investigator on the high-profile case was his old friend, Sean O'Brien. And now O'Brien has a chance to right a horrible wrong. But he has less than 84 hours to uncover clues to a crime that sent an innocent man to death row.

In this second collection in the Music and Murder Mystery series, nine award-winning, bestselling authors have written their own interpretations of the Thriller song list. With original work from some of the best mystery authors out there, the anthology includes stories from Heather Graham, Jeffery Deaver, William Kent Krueger, Dahlia Rose, and David R. Slayton, among others. With poignant, frightening, and intriguing stories from some of the best writers in the genre, this eerie collection is sure to keep you up at night—and maybe even haunt your dreams.

In March 1938, German soldiers crossed the border into Austria and Hitler absorbed the country into the Third Reich. Anticipating these events, many Jews had fled Austria, but the most famous Austrian Jew remained in Vienna, where he had lived since early childhood. Sigmund Freud was 81 years old, ill with cancer, and still unconvinced that his life was in danger. But several prominent people close to Freud thought otherwise, and they began a coordinated effort to persuade Freud to leave his beloved Vienna and emigrate to England.

After being tossed into an unknown dimension, the earth's inhabitants must strive to fend off a supernatural menace, each possessing an overwhelming power. With the world's mightiest struggling to adapt, Evan Cross and his allies must now embark on a quest against time. Through countless perils, they must strive to acquire the strength to venture across an alien land to save all from a world of calamities.

Prince Aiden is gone. Taken. Kidnapped by the fae and portalled to only the Goddess knows where. And Penny Barclay is determined to find him. With a pack on her back and Aiden's trusty dog at her side, Penny rushes headfirst into Faerie—the world she'd always dreamed of but never thought she'd see. At first, the magical kingdom is mystical and fantastic, but as Penny journeys deeper into the seasonal Courts, she discovers that some magic is not to be trifled with and that her childhood fantasies were just that, fantasies.

Ten years ago, Jerry came to New York City to break into show business. Today, his career is stalled, his ex-fiancé is a TV star, and he survives by bartending in Manhattan’s high-end cocktail lounges. Stunned by loss and regret, he is sleepwalking through a hung-over life when he discovers Violet’s book about when they were young, hopeful servers at a Times Square restaurant. As he searches the words of his self-destructive soul-mate, can he reconcile his past and find the hope he lost along the way?

The comet, Cain, came from beyond our solar system, its debris containing elements unknown. It brought a powerful new metal to the once-declining Midwest, alien fungus to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and now, in the isolated region of Fairbanks, Alaska, the skies shift and stretch as an interstellar dust cloud seeds itself in the atmosphere. The National Weather Service dismisses the anomaly. Then, an hour outside of Fairbanks, a plane shudders its way through pulpy, swirling, bruise-shaped clouds, lit with sudden cracks of lightning. The sky opens. And the plane vanishes.