Showing results by narrator "Steve Marvel" in All Categories

Matt Kile, ex-cop and ex-con, current smart-aleck, and a neighbor of Mr. and Mrs. Talmadge has built himself a comfortable career writing mysteries. Garson Talmadge sold weapons to Saddam Hussein, then moved out of France, came to America, and married Clarice, a woman half his age. When Clarice is arrested for murdering her husband, Matt becomes the investigator for her defense attorney, and quickly learns there is a line of suspects stretching from the US into Europe and the Middle East.

Willing to chance arrest and jail time, cougar-shifter Sean Fisher wants to make human Lauren Spencer his mate and Christmas is the perfect time to do it. However, on the way to obtain her parents' approval, a car runs them off the road. When Sean wakes up, he's tied up and alone, at the mercy of an anti-shifter group. Six months ago, Lauren never would've pictured herself with a cougar-shifter, but Sean was everything she hoped for and was willing to risk it all to be his mate.

Accompanied by Tanuki, his shape-shifting badger sidekick, Tarō embarks on a quest of self-discovery and revenge, falls for Kamehime, the teenage samurai daughter of a powerful warlord, and ultimately becomes embroiled in the political struggle for the imperial throne. Along the way, Tarō and his allies face fearsome yōkai, the ghosts, goblins, and ghouls of Japanese folklore.

Lucas Walker's life couldn't be more different from a few years ago. Now married and expecting his first child, he wants nothing more than to provide a good home for his family. With Christmas coming, he sets off to find the perfect surprise for his wife. As Tori Walker approaches the time for her baby to be born, she is comforted by the expert care that surrounds her. However, winter in the mountains can turn deadly at the blink of an eye. When her prankster husband fails to return from a short hunting trip, she doesn't know whether to be angry or worried.

Jacob Alexander has spent more than a decade perfecting his off-the-grid lifestyle in remote northwestern Wisconsin. But nothing prepares him for the Sovereign Resistance, a white nationalist paramilitary group. The Resistance's activities include kidnapping, torture, and murder. And Jacob's about to battle them face to face to rescue their victims. Jacob knows the terrain. The Resistance doesn't. But he's outgunned and outmanned. And his deer rifle might not be enough to make it out of this standoff alive.

Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the Wild West, which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th-century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind.

In 1948, American polls rated Bing Crosby "the most admired man alive", and it's no surprise given how popular he was across every major form of entertainment during the decade. With a string of major hits, Crosby was the most popular singer in the country during that era, with classic songs like "White Christmas" helping pave the way for other singers as varied as Bob Hope, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra. In fact, young Sinatra modeled his clothing and style after Crosby, who was his idol growing up.

Just months before Hawaii's gubernatorial primary election, a body is found on the floor of the open air capitol, a macabre scene specifically manipulated to draw attention to a sitting governor with waning political support. Frantic, he calls on the Honolulu Chief of Police Walter Tseng, demanding that the perpetrator be brought to justice as swiftly and silently as possible, fearful a scandal might destroy whatever chance he still has at gaining re-election.

Sensei Parker finds himself in Key West with his childhood friends, Willy and Sandra. They called for help and, of course, Parker came. Something is wrong in paradise, and they need their friend's help before it's too late. Synchronicity rears its quirky head as Opie Taylor hunts down their long-time nemesis, Luiz Crusado, and wants Parker to come help capture him. It just so happens that he's also in Key West.

Aikido Au Revoir is the fifth novel of the Aikido Mystery Series with Sensei Parker. He is in France on the Cote d'Azur teaching a pair of aikido seminars. It's tough work, but someone has to do it, right? Why not Parker? He is a master of the art, after all, and although he has his own school back in Orlando, Florida, it isn't doing as well as it was before the economy tanked. He is taking a break from his day job with this trip to France. He has had to resort to being a Private Detective to make ends meet, and this is going to be a vacation as well as a teaching job. Or is it?

Parker tries to help an old family friend and is caught up in a deadly mix of terror and kidnapping. Opie Taylor returns to help Parker and brings along a new friend, a young, Puerto Rican, mixed martial art master named Gabriel Condore. Along with the old friend, Parker, Taylor and Gabe battle a suspected drug cartel from Miami trying to free the beautiful kidnap victim. All this takes place in the teeth of an on-rushing hurricane that is determined to rip Florida from the map.

The Soviet Union delivers an ultimatum to the president of the United States: Surrender unconditionally within 72 hours, or a secret weapon of unprecedented capabilities will take millions of American lives. President William Mellon Stark ran on a campaign of peace and kept his promises, slashing the military budget and pouring millions into domestic programs. Now the nation is years behind in the technology of mass destruction.

Fate was working against little Brian Mauretti. The food that was meant to nourish him was poisoning him instead, and the doctors said the damage was devastating and absolute. Fate had written off Brian. But fate didn’t count on a woman as determined as Brian’s grandmother, Angela DiMartino - who everyone knew as Mama. Loving her grandson with everything she had, Mama endeavored to battle fate. Fate had no idea what it was in for.

When rare photos‚ a scandalous diary‚ and a beautiful woman all go missing at once‚ the stage is set for three challenging cases for Henry Swann. It begins with an offer to partner up with his slovenly‚ unreliable frenemy‚ Goldblatt. The disbarred lawyer-turned-"facilitator" would provide the leads and muscle‚ while Swann would do all the fancy footwork. A lost diary by a free-loving Jazz Age flapper is worth enough to someone that Swann takes a beat down on an abandoned boardwalk.

Someone is playing a game with Mapleton’s Chief of Police...and it’s deadly. For Mapleton Police Chief Gordon Hepler, life has become predictably boring - despite being a newlywed. Being a husband is great. Dealing with nothing but parking violations, speeders, and the occasional disorderly complaint is monotonous. Gordon wonders if he’s been so busy dealing with “Chief Stuff” that he’s lost his edge as a street cop. Especially when his biggest challenges are handling the penny-pinching mayor and deciding what goes into the station’s vending machines.

All Mapleton Police Chief Gordon Hepler wants is to enjoy a rare quiet moment and have a peaceful lunch. Before he can finish his sandwich, Angie, his wife, calls to say her business partner is going to be arrested at a wedding reception they’re catering. Seems her partner stumbled upon the body of one of the guests - the mother of the groom. Was it a natural death? Suicide? Homicide?

Gordon Hepler, Mapleton’s Chief of Police, has his hands full. During the groundbreaking ceremony for expansion of the community center, he discovers a dead body. Shortly afterward, the center’s CEO is assaulted. Does someone have it in for the community center and its new programs designed to benefit the homeless? Or does it have something to do with the highly contested upcoming mayoral election?

The essence of being street smart is the ability to take advantage of lucky breaks. And everyone—at least once in their lifetime—gets a lucky break. What they do with that lucky break varies tremendously from individual to individual. Street smart people don't just sit around waiting for something to happen and fall into their laps—they create their lucky breaks. It's certainly not taught in school and formal education!

From best-selling author Nathan Goodman: A nuclear device, a ruthless terrorist, and only one asset that can stop him. Special Agent Jana Baker's worst fears are about to be realized. A terrorist has a nuclear device and intends to detonate it deep within the San Andreas Fault line. The resulting explosion would kill millions. When terrifying post-traumatic stress episodes threaten to pull her from active duty, Jana struggles to maintain her grip on reality. Compelled to follow the terrorist's bizarre trail of clues, she finds herself in a death trap with no escape.

Over 90 percent of customers buy on trust, but only 3 percent of salespersons are trusted. Start with Who takes science-based storytelling for sales, marketing, and talent acquisition to a new level by showing you how to blend Aristotle's Persuasion Model, business neuromarketing, the educational 4MAT system, and a new approach to the Three-Act Play to build customer and candidate trust with only twelve bullet points and a story.