Showing results by narrator "J.T. McDaniel" in All Categories

This wonderfully illustrative publication provides a comprehensive and informative history of the Royal Navy. From the first standing navy created to repel Viking invasions during the reign of King Alfred and England's famous victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588, to the D-Day landings at Normandy during WWII and the Navy's role in the 21st century, this is a gripping account of the warfare force that became the most powerful navy in the world.

The Second World War is littered with moments in which the destiny of the whole globe was shaped, but arguably few were as pivotal as the Battle of Britain. With invasion threatened, the hour of destiny over British shores was at hand. This was conflict in the raw, a life-or-death struggle in which the terrors of 20th-century combat were brutally brought home to the nation's doorsteps during what became known as the Blitz.

The latest in a series of books by researchers extraordinaire Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger, Bela Lugosi in Person brims with new facts and figures documenting the actor's scores of live public performances from 1931 to 1945, the era of his greatest fame. Three-act plays, vaudeville sketches, variety shows, and personal appearances are all chronicled at length, bringing new perspective to Lugosi's life and career.

Have you ever wanted to truly know what goes on inside the head of Sherlock Holmes? Have you wanted to be able to read people and their expressions like books? Have you ever wanted to read a room and all the tells and clues that it provides? Then this is the book for you.

Detective Sergeant Jason Smith is days away from the end of his sick leave after a case that almost cost him his life when he gets a call from an old friend. His friend has been arrested for the murder of a student. He wants Smith to investigate the murder and prove his innocence. Smith is persuaded return to work. The student was killed with a bread knife. Ladybirds were scattered on his dead body.

DS Jason Smith is dragged away from paternity leave when a woman is killed with her baby in the next room. When more women with children are brutally murdered, Smith discovers they all have something in common - they all share a secret. When he finds out the mother of his own child is on this list of "Unworthy" women, he finds himself in a race against time to stop the killer before his whole world comes crashing down around him.

DS Jason Smith sets off for the peaceful Yorkshire village of Scarpdale for two weeks of country air, slow walks by the lakes, and no mobile phone reception. He wakes up on his first morning to find three policemen outside his room. A young woman has been found dead next to one of the lakes. The woman is Sophie Phoenix, the youngest daughter of Jimmy Phoenix. Ill-equipped to deal with such a serious crime, the local police make no headway, and Smith is begged by Jimmy Phoenix to find out what happened to his daughter.

It is Christmas Day in York. A woman is found dead in her bed. A suicide note is found on her chest. It reads "I am so sorry Martin". Hours later, the police are called to a house a few miles away. A mother and her daughter have been brutally attacked; the mother is dead and the daughter is barely alive. The father is found shaking uncontrollably in the corner of the room. He is covered in blood but he is unharmed. His name is Martin Willow

A man is killing people in York. Initially the murders appear to be the random acts of a maniac. Detective Jason Smith is put in charge of the investigation. It soon becomes clear that the murders are all connected to him in one way or another. All of the killings correspond to events in Smith's life and the murderer leaves dates at the crime scene which tie up to important dates in Smith's history. When one of the dates is a time before Smith was even born, he realizes he must look deep into the past.

The year is 1896. Sherlock Holmes meets Thomas Edison. At the dawn of Cinema, a beautiful Broadway danseuse is murdered in Edison's New Jersey Laboratory. Irene Adler encounters ghosts on Broadway. Harry Houdini mystifies the New York Vaudeville circuit. Holmes and Watson go hunting in New York City's Badlands with Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt. Meanwhile, Rachel Holmes journeys to the Pine Barrens to film the Jersey Devil and the denizens of Poughkeepsie reel in Kipsy the Hudson River Monster.

In the early 21st century, Benedict Cumberbatch gave the world the definitive portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock. Then again, Jeremy Brett had been declared the "definitive" Holmes in Granada Television's series in the 1980s. In short, four actors were declared to be the "definitive" Holmes, and yet their various interpretations of the greatest character in fiction could not be more different. Graced with a foreword by Sherlockian guru Roger Johnson, this audiobook sets out to trace the evolution of Sherlock Holmes and his audience across three centuries.

"Gary Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger have added the final chapter to Bela Lugosi's career, combining fascinating unknown details of his film and stage activities with post-WWII film history. Superbly researched and written as an engrossing story of an actor's struggle against professional decline. A must-read!" (Robert Cremer, author of Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape)

The Battle of the Somme, fought from July to November 1916 during World War I, stands as one of the most infamous and costly battles in history. Primarily orchestrated by the British and French forces against the German Empire, the offensive aimed to alleviate pressure on the French at Verdun and achieve a breakthrough on the Western Front. The battle witnessed unprecedented devastation and human loss, with a staggering casualty count of more than one million soldiers.

A football player is shot dead in front of a packed crowd of people. DS Jason Smith is put in charge of the investigation. The murder weapon is found in a house across the road from the football ground. It is a rare Russian army issue sniper rifle. As the investigation hits dead end after dead end, two government agents arrive and take over, pushing Smith and his colleagues to the side.

When a man is found tucked up in bed with his throat sliced open two days after Christmas, DS Jason Smith and his team are baffled. It appears he has been drugged, killed, and carefully wrapped up in a duvet. The only evidence Smith finds are some strands of hair belonging to a woman. One month later, another man is killed in exactly the same manner but there appears to be no link whatsoever to the two men apart from the fact that they were both single, lonely, and middle-aged.

A client forsworn, a threatened town, and a Goliath of unimaginable proportions. Sherlock Holmes has survived a three-year vendetta against him by Moriarty’s remaining henchmen. Wounded and bleeding, with Mycroft’s help, he clandestinely boards an Atlantic steamship. At the close of his great hiatus, Holmes finds sanctuary at Vassar Women’s College. This radical challenge entangles him in the web of a nefarious mystery. Its unraveling involves New York’s most revolutionary residents: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Picking up the trail with the incredibly influential films of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Volume II goes on to explore the antiheroic Sherlock Holmes films of the 1970s, and then the somewhat rocky journey of Holmes into the medium of television (actors Alan Wheatley, Douglas Wilmer, and Peter Cushing all declared their respective TV series as the worst experience of their professional careers).

Christmas Eve, 1890. Thanks to the tireless pursuit of Sherlock Holmes, Professor Moriarty’s criminal empire stands on a knife edge. Still, three ghostly visitors may yet convince the Napoleon of Crime that his destiny lies in another direction.

Is Sherlock Holmes really as rational as he seems? He talks about the importance of reasoning and logic, but why then does he sometimes seem like a “strange Buddha”? On the other hand, why in The Sign of the Four does Watson smash a Buddha? What is going on in all the original 60 stories in “the canon”? In this study of the stories, Sheldon Goldfarb explores questions like these, from the significance of the eggs in “Thor Bridge” to the reason Watson keeps leaving Holmes for an insubstantial wife.

The history of the world is marked by grand narratives of civilizations, rising and falling in a complex dance of social, political, and economic forces. None, however, quite compare to the power, influence, and sheer longevity of the Roman Empire. In this great saga of the ancient world, the Roman Empire stands as a pinnacle of administrative sophistication, military might, and cultural achievement.