Showing results by narrator "Shawn Compton" in All Categories

The grandson and great-grandson of Chicago police officers, Chicago Police Detective James Sherlock was CPD through and through. His career had seen its share of twists and turns, from his time working undercover to thwart robberies on Chicago's L trains to his years as a homicide detective. He thought he had seen it all. But on this day, he was at the records center to see the case file for the murder of John Hughes, who was 17 years old when he was gunned down on Chicago's Southwest Side in 1976. The case's threads led everywhere.

A mysterious, one-eyed stranger wanders into Farewell, New Mexico, a dusty border town rife with corruption. He's known only as The Preacher, an ex-Priest, ex-Special Forces commando, and now a professional gambler who has given up on his own salvation...but is determined to find justice for a murdered Vietnam vet...even if it means taking on the entire, God forsaken town.

The CEO of a promising start-up company is found dead in a luxurious hotel room. Two men who underwent what were supposed to be simple surgical procedures died on the operating table in two different hospitals. Are the deaths related? Ronnie Saar, a newly promoted partner in a leading venture-capital fund, is unexpectedly nominated to chair the board of a successful pharmaceutical start-up company. But before he can reap the rewards of his promotion, he must deal with these unexpected deaths and other ominous developments that threaten his and his soon-to-be bride's lives.

Combat takes a different toll on each soldier; so does coming home. All the Ruined Men by Bill Glose comprises linked stories that show veterans struggling for normalcy as they grapple with flashbacks, injuries (both physical and psychological), damaged relationships, loss of faith, and loss of memory. Beginning in 2003, All the Ruined Men spans ten years, from the confident beginning of America’s “forever war” to the confusion and disillusionment that followed.

Months after a life-altering revelation drove Sean Coleman from his mountain hometown of Winston, Colorado, the longtime security guard has found stable work as the sole caretaker of a retired nuclear missile site along the Eastern Plains. The desolate Cold War-era facility now serves as a rarely visited museum and records archive and provides, perhaps, the perfect job for a lonesome, headstrong man working to erase the painful memories of his past.

In 1972, America was completing its withdrawal from the long and divisive war in Vietnam. Air power covered the departure of ground forces, and search and rescue teams from all services and Air America covered the airmen and soldiers still in the fight. Day and night these military and civilian aircrews stood alert to respond to "Mayday" calls. The rescue forces were the answer to every man's prayer, and those forces brought home airmen, sailors, marines, and soldiers downed or trapped across the breadth and depth of the entire Southeast Asia theater.

The Seventh Taking is the chilling tale of a young man’s journey through harsh mountain country in his search for the girl he loves and the two friends who dare to brave the dangerous elements - both human and natural - to support a friend. When Joy Vincent disappears in the Blue Summit Mountains of Tennessee while vacationing with her family, park rangers begin an intensive search for the Louisiana high-school junior. Seven weeks later, the search is abandoned, and authorities conclude that Joy voluntarily ran away because of a fight with her father.

Nothing is at all what it seems, and for four strangers, they'll have to discover why before they're driven over the edge of madness. Within them are the keys to free themselves. They'll need to traverse a landscape of horrors and fettered secrets. Unknown to these prisoners, another four desperately hunt for their own freedom - a freedom denied them by the tormenting existence of a monster. They will have to rely on all of their talents and each other to defeat the beast.

In the midst of the Blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals in Salem Sound off the Massachusetts coast. When the Coast Guard heard the Mayday calls, they immediately dispatched a patrol rescue boat. But within an hour, the Coast Guard rescue boat was in as much trouble as the tanker - both paralyzed in unrelenting seas. Enter Captain Frank Quirk, who was compelled to act. Gathering his crew of four, Quirk plunged his 49-foot steel boat, the Can Do, into the blizzard.

After witnessing the aftermath of his wife's untimely death, Russell Clark finds himself hundreds of miles away from home at a casino resort tucked away in an unfamiliar town. While there, he encounters strange situations and stranger people, including a menacing figure that he swears has it out for him. With every passing night, Russell's sanity spins further out of his control and even in the face of his mounting losses, something sinister keeps pulling him back in. Can he beat the odds and hit it big, or does the house always win?

We are divided over the history of the United States, and one of the central dividing lines is the frontier. Was it a site of heroism? Or was it where the full force of an all-powerful empire was brought to bear on Native peoples? In this startlingly original work, historian Robert Parkinson presents a new account of ever-shifting encounters between white colonists and Native Americans.

Although slowly building its navy while neutral during the early years of World War II, the US was struck a serious blow when its battleships, the lynchpin of US naval doctrine, were the target of the dramatic attack at Pearl Harbor.

A homeland security agent is found dead. Shocking evidence reveals the cause of death is the simultaneous collapse of the man's blood vessels. When a second body sharing the same gruesome symptoms is found, the hunt is on for a frightening new kind of killer. A vicious assault on his leading genetics researcher puts Dr. Ronni Saar, the CEO of Double N, and his friend Gadi, a former military police investigator, on the trail of a sophisticated killer. The deeper Gadi digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes.

James Longstreet's countermarch and Samuel Johnston's morning reconnaissance are two of the most enigmatic events of the Battle of Gettysburg. Both have been viewed as major factors in the Confederacy's loss of the battle and, in turn, the war. Yet much of it lies shrouded in mystery. Recognizing the multitude of factors that affect human memory, In the Shadow of the Round Tops explores how the individual soldiers experienced, remembered, and wrote about the battle, and how those memories have created a cloud over James Longstreet's countermarch and Samuel Johnston's reconnaissance.

When I returned home from my latest deployment in the U.S. Army, my life began to fall apart. One night, after heavy drinking, I placed my 1911 pistol in my mouth and thought a prayer—silence. I deactivated the safety and began to slowly squeeze the trigger. BANG! I dropped the pistol, and I looked around me, but there was no blood. The bang I heard was the Bible on my desk falling and hitting the floor. I fell to my knees and asked God for forgiveness. I surrendered to Jesus Christ and asked him to help me. He answered.

Early in the crisis, a global volunteer collaboration called Pivot Projects was formed to rethink how the world works. Some members are experts in the sciences and the humanities; others are environmental activists or regular people who see themselves as world citizens. In The Pivot, the journalist Steve Hamm - who embedded in the enterprise from the start - explores their efforts and shows how their approach provides a model for achieving systemic change.

In this thrilling story of intellectual and archaeological discovery, David Roberts recounts his last 20 years of far-flung exploits in search of spectacular prehistoric ruins and rock art panels known to very few modern travelers. His adventures range across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado, and illuminate the mysteries of the Ancestral Puebloans and their contemporary neighbors the Mogollon and Fremont, as well as of the more recent Navajo and Comanche.

Once he served God as a priest. Once he served his country as a soldier. Now he serves fate...and his need for redemption...by roaming the country as a professional gambler known only as The Preacher, an unforgettable hero who once saved souls and now deals death.

A mysterious new player has entered the competition, claiming to be Julian's friend Emma. It takes Julian only a single match to see the new pilot's skill. The imposter is capable of imitating any pilot, even masters of the game like Vile and Vermillion Angel. Julian had hoped he and his friend could fight side by side. Instead, she sold her spot to a competitor. It's the aspiring professional pilot's first taste of the ruthless business world of Overdrive.

After Julian qualifies for the Selection, he soon discovers the dark underbelly of professional Overdrive. The company CEO is an egotistical bully who eagerly encourages an atmosphere of backbiting and constant surveillance. The Heaven's Boxer resurfaces, but the noble Mech is used to sabotage the player-created training system, driving countless beginners out of the community. The game administration does nothing. The only way Julian can reclaim the Heaven's Boxer is hacking the server and disguising himself as a beginner.