First Mystery

It's 1956, and the cold war is hot. Hungary has just fallen, and Blackford Oakes is back from Budapest, puzzling over a betrayal and mourning a tragedy he couldn't prevent. But in Washington, all attention is focused on the race to put the first satellite in space. Ironically, Russia and America each have the secrets the other needs to succeed. The solution: kidnap a pair of extraordinary Russian scientists who can put the U.S. in the lead.

In this third Grisha Trilogy folk tale from Leigh Bardugo, a young girl's beauty causes discord in her small town, but her father's solution may prove far more dangerous. "Little Knife" is a companion story to the third book of the Grisha Trilogy.

In the autumn of 2020 Ned Boulting (ITV head cycling commentator and Tour de France obsessive) bought a length of Pathé news film from a London auction house. All he knew was it was film from the Tour de France, a long time ago. Once restored it became clear it was a short sequence of shots from stage 4 of the 1923 Tour de France. No longer than 2.5 minutes long, it featured half a dozen sequences, including a lone rider crossing a bridge. Ned set about learning everything he could about the sequence – studying each frame, face and building – until he had squeezed the meaning from it.

The hugely powerful and pervasive presence of the Colossus supercomputer mechanically runs Earth and its myriad operations. Managed by its creator, Dr. Charles Forbin, it is incapable of lies and void of human emotion. It is not a robot and not human. As part of its brief to enhance the human race, it runs eerie emotion research centers, authorizing acts of savagery to measure resistance and feeling. Art and abstract creation are banned, and surveillance is constant. No one is free.

The Ganymede facility is a fresh start. At least that's what Senna tells herself when she arrives to take part in a cutting-edge scientific treatment in which participants have traumatic memories erased. And Senna has reasons for wanting to escape her past. But almost as soon as the treatment begins, Senna finds more than just her traumatic memories disappearing. She hardly recognizes her new life or herself. Even though the cure might justify the side effects of the process, Senna knows that something isn't right.

Bree’s new home is luxurious and private, with a fancy Beverly Hills address. What a shame it’s not hers. Widowed, penniless, living in her car, and out of options, she’s climbed the fence and crashed in the pool house. All she wants is a good night’s sleep. But when Sophie, the absentee owner, finds her, she gets a whole lot more.

When Michael Garrick, a young White House lawyer, begins dating the irresistible First Daughter, Nora, he's instantly spellbound, just like everyone else in her world. A world where power is an aphrodisiac, your father is the President, your close friends wear earpieces and carry guns, and everyone watches your every move...

When President Geoffrey Hilliard’s son Cam, a 16-year-old chess champion, experiences extreme fatigue, moodiness, and an uncharacteristic violent outburst, doctors are quick to dismiss his troubles as teen angst. But Secret Service agent Karen Ray summons her physician ex-husband for a second opinion. Dr. Lee Blackwood’s concerns are dismissed by the president's team - until Cam gets sicker. Lee must make a diagnosis from a puzzling array of symptoms he's never seen before. His only clue is a patient named Susie Banks, a young musical prodigy who seems to be suffering from the same baffling condition as Cam.

In Coventry, Eric and Harry watch helplessly as they find themselves face to face with the latest arrival at Ground Zero. Tired and coming to terms with Eric’s devastating injuries, how can two men hope contain such an indestructible force, let alone escape the impenetrable energy shield that now envelops them and the city?

Scottish Police Superintendent Terrence Reid's race to derail the money pipeline fueling a string of deadly terrorist attacks suffers a devastating setback when his informant is brutally murdered. Reid's chief suspect, a ruthless financier, always seems to be one step ahead of him. After one of his men is murdered, Reid suspects he's got a traitor in own camp. When Reid's beautiful young wife becomes deeply embroiled in the investigation, things get dangerously personal.

First Counsel: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! White House lawyer Michael Garrick has a relatively anonymous position at a very public address. That is, until he starts dating Nora Harston (secret service code name: Shadow), the sexy and dangerously irresistible daughter of the President. But the confident young attorney thinks he can handle the pressure. Until, out on a date, Nora and Michael see something they shouldn't. To protect her, he admits to something he shouldn't.

A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells's War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.

A brutal murder, in which all the toes of a young student were amputated, causes horror in the murder department of Walter Kruger. The sometimes too casual main commissioner first hands over the case to his young assistant Marie Liebsam to show her how hard the job as a commissioner is. But she surprises all colleagues with a cool head and clever conclusions. Until she makes a fatal mistake. In the first part of the trilogy Blood, Corpses, Murder, Carlton Roster confronts the unequal team of investigators from Hamburg with very tricky investigations into extremely violent murderers.

Everyone in Denmark knew that Yousef Ahmed, a refugee from Iraq, brutally murdered the right-wing politician Sanne Melgaard. So, when part-time blues musician, frustrated home renovator, and full-time private detective Gabriel Præst agrees to investigate the matter because his ex—the one who got away—asked him to, he knew it was a no-win case. But as Gabriel starts to ask questions, his face meets with the fists of Russian gangsters; the Danish prime minister asks him for a favor; and he starts to realize that something may be rotten in the state of Denmark.

Home again in Atlanta after years on the Left Coast, crime reporter Samantha Adams finds that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Beau, the boy who broke her heart eons earlier, is more handsome than ever and is now the medical examiner. Sam finds herself deep in the kudzu once more when a lawyer, a family acquaintance, goes missing, then turns up dead. When the sheriff rules it an accident, Sam and Beau team up to deliver their own unique brand of justice.

One of the most significant works on our evolutionary ancestry since Richard Leakey's Origins, The First Signs is the first-ever exploration of the geometric images that accompany most cave art around the world—the first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language.

Reed Montgomery's retirement is doomed to be short-lived. After the CIA receives intelligence from deep inside North Korea of a startling new weapon, President Trousdale green-lights an illegal mission to extract the informant.

Jack McClure lost his daughter. Now it's his job to make sure the president-elect doesn't lose his. A new administration is on its way in, but the president has a few power moves left to see his legacy solidified. Moderate conservative Edward Carson is taking the reins, hoping to set America on a new course. But weeks before Inauguration Day, Carson's daughter, Alli, goes missing from her college dormitory.

If you devote your life to seeking revenge … Whether Confucius had it right or not is of little consequence to Patricia Fisher right now because she’s on the run from multiple criminals plus the cruise ship’s security team who have orders to arrest her on sight. Her arch nemesis, Angelica Howard-Box, has finally figured out how to win and she is going all out to make Patricia’s life a living hell. Dressed in a pink anime kitten outfit, cut off from her friends, and forced to perform ridiculous tasks because Angelica is suddenly holding all the cards.

For years, people have feared that sexual material removed from victims of alien abductions might lead to the creation of something that modern science considers impossible: hybrids of the alien and the human. They would think like aliens, but appear human, and be able to do something that full-blooded aliens can't: walk the earth freely.