Showing results by narrator "Mike Alger" in All Categories

What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday's life would end up being a new beginning. After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret, which would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes and lead him to the birthplace of America's Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels.

“I’m working on the greatest mystery ever!” was the last thing noted mystery novelist Mercedes Livingston said to seven-year-old Chris Matheson before walking out of Hill House Hotel never to be seen again. For decades, the writer’s fate remained a puzzling mystery until an autographed novel and a letter put a grown-up Chris Matheson on the trail of a cunning killer.

When Homicide Detective Cameron Gates befriends Dolly, the little old lady who lives across the street, she is warned not to get lured into helping the elderly woman by investigating the unsolved murder of one of her girls. "She's senile," Cameron is warned. "It's not a real murder." Such is not the case. After Dolly is brutally murdered, Cameron discovers that the sweet blue-haired lady's "girl" was a call girl who had been killed in a mysterious double homicide.

Take a fantastical journey through the 1980s as we uncover every riveting storyline that dominated the "decadent decade". Revisit, or explore for the first time, the big stories and the forgotten facts of 10 fast-paced years that would reshape the world and lay the foundation for the way we live today.

It all started with a chance encounter in the city with Blair, his late wife. Chris Matheson and the Geezer Squad, working under the guise of a book club, dig into the events surrounding his late wife’s supposed death halfway around the globe. A state department employee shoots himself in the back three times. A CIA operative goes missing. A woman is targeted by an international assassin three years after being declared dead in a terrorist attack overseas. Nothing is as it seems.

It's trouble as usual for Bubba. His mother, Miz Demetrice, and her good friend, Miz Adelia, are up to no good with the DEA watching them for mysterious reasons. In addition, Bubba's also trying to get the beauteous sheriff's deputy, Willodean, alone for some quality time, when zombies invade in a cinematic manner. Further, the director of the movie is apparently murdered by persons unknown, and someone is pointing a finger directly at Bubba (again).

Joshua's eldest son, Joshua Thornton Jr. (J.J.) has graduated at the top of his class from law school and returns home to spend the summer studying for the bar exam. However, to Joshua's and Cameron's shock and dismay, J.J. moves into the main house at Russell Ridge Farm and Orchards, the largest dairy farm in the Ohio Valley, in order to rekindle a romance with Suellen Russell, the one-time leader of a rock band who is twice his age. Quickly, they learn that she has a deep dark secret.

Quite naturally, Bubba's got another problem. The woman he likes is missing. Folks around Pegramville don't have an inkling whether Bubba done did anything this time. In fact, Bubba doesn't know what to think, but he is plumb dedicated on finding Willodean Gray, through fair means or foul. It will take a trip to the big city of Dallas, a run-in with an unstable superhero called The Purple Singapore Sling, a kidnapping by a Dallas crime lord, and a headlong hunt for a devious individual who snatched the fair sheriff's deputy to figure out which end is up.

In Shades of Murder, Mac Faraday is once again the heir to an unbelievable fortune. This time the benefactor is a collector of stolen art. But this isn't just any stolen work of art - it's a masterpiece with a murder attached to it. Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece, she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio, and her painting is nowhere to be found.

Frustrated with their busy schedules, Murphy Thornton and Jessica Faraday attempt to find togetherness by scheduling a weekly date night. The last thing Jessica Faraday expected for her date night was to take a couple’s gourmet cooking course at the Stepford Kitchen Studio, owned by Chef Natalie Stepford--the model of perfection in looks, home, and business.

Four years after Bryce’s cheating husband is gunned down, her boyfriend-stealing former roommate’s remains are found buried under a statue at her alma mater. Declared the prime suspect by both detectives and the media, Bryce has no choice but to hire someone to clear her name. Enter Sam MacKade, private eye. To solve two murders, the former police K-9 officer and his canine partners must sift through the clues and the lies to reveal the true prime suspect.

Even while avoiding all the wedding nonsense and coddling Willodean, Bubba feels the need to support a friend, be he a loony or not. There's folks disappearing, murder, and mayhem at the Dogley Institute for Mental Well-Being. Armed with Precious, his faithful Bassett hound, and Ol' Green, his faithful Chevy truck, Bubba aims to do what he does best, and amble on through the mystery before someone goes to jail, or worse, gets themselves murdered most foully.

Three years ago, the nation gasped in horror when the President of the United States barely escaped an assassination attempt that left two dead - the vice president’s wife and the attempted assassin. Even after numerous investigations proved otherwise, conspiracy theorists argue that the assassin was acting on orders from the CIA, FBI, and every federal agency within a hundred miles of the capital.

Spunky Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens, a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection to her lover, Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was located in his cousin's basement. It doesn't take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué star's roots were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something that Cherry had kept off her show business bio.

True crime blogger Erica Hart starts a new chapter in her life with a bang when a dark shadow darts into the mountain road to send her SUV off a cliff and to the bottom of Deep Creek Lake. Spencer’s newest addition to the police force Dusty O’Meara assumes it was a bear. Erica is not so sure. Soon afterwards, contractors discover Konnor Langston’s body at the bottom of an abandoned swimming pool at the new summer home of Mac Faraday’s son.

Need a laugh to get through your workday? You’ve come to the right place. It’s time to lampoon the business world. There’s no richer target than being told to think outside the box by leaders spouting off about synergy, teamwork, and innovation, while at the same time exhorting you to stay in your swim lane. Join the fun as the two lead authors and 50 other contributors offer their humorous take on how the workplace really operates. With almost 600 diabolical definitions to enjoy, you're sure to find plenty to smile about.

When Sandy Lipton and her unborn child disappears, the court of public opinion finds young Chris Matheson guilty. Decades later, the retired FBI agent returns home to discover that the cloud of suspicion cast over him and his family has never lifted. With the help of a team of fellow retired law enforcement officers, each a specialist in their own field of investigation, Chris Matheson starts chipping away at the ice on this cold case to uncover what had happened to Sandy and her baby and the clues are getting hot!

Have no fear! The Great Book of Pub Trivia Volume 2 is finally here, and it’s the perfect companion for game nights, fun family times, fun evenings with friends, or just reading to brush up on your pub trivia knowledge. You’ll get instant access to fun quizzes covering different topics such as film, politics, science, history, fashion, and many more.

Homicide Detective Cameron Gates learned long ago that there is no such thing as a typical murder case. Each mystery is special in its own right. The homicide of a successful executive, husband, and father seems open and shut when the murder weapon is found in his estranged son-in-law’s possession. The circumstantial evidence is so damning that when her stepson, J.J. Thornton, agrees to act as the defendant’s public defender, he assumes his first murder case will be a loss. Only the report of a missing husband proves that this case is not as open and shut as it seems.

Get your mystery fiction fix with this collection of short stories featuring retired federal agent Chris Matheson; sleuths Mac Faraday, Joshua Thornton, and Cameron Gates; and a rambunctious crime-solving dog named Gnarly.