Showing results by narrator "David Stifel" in All Categories

In these stories, popular Chicago Tribune outdoor columnist Bill Stokes gives himself over to his true passion, trout fishing. It is an activity, possibly a madness, that moves him, time and again, to stand knee-deep in cold and murky waters, offer himself up to clouds of hungry mosquitoes, and attempt to keep from snagging his line in overhanging limbs while trying to outwit a wily rainbow or brook trout. And then remembering where the car is parked.

The First Battle of the Marne produced the so-called Miracle of the Marne, when French and British forces stopped the initial German drive on Paris in 1914. Hundreds of thousands of casualties later, with opposing forces still dug into trench lines, the Germans tried again to push their way to Paris and to victory. The Second Battle of the Marne (July 15 to August 9, 1918) marks the point at which the Allied armies stopped the massive German Ludendorff Offensives.

A town burns and flames light the night sky. Hunted and alone, 17-year-old Eric flees through the wreckage. The mob grows closer, baying for the blood of their tormentor. Guilt weighs on his soul, but he cannot stop, cannot turn back. For two years he has carried this curse, bringing death and destruction wherever he goes. But now there is another searching for him - one who offers salvation. His name is Alastair and he knows the true nature of the curse.

At the age of 14, Randall Miller is surprised to learn that he has the talent - for magic! Tricked into apprenticeship by a powerful Mage, Randall is forced to leave everything he knows behind. When his mentor is killed by Aiden, head of the secret police, he flees for his life, stumbling from one misadventure into another. Teaming up with a trio of greedy traders and a capricious imp along the way, Randall must learn to master his budding power, or die at the hands of the Rooks!

An average American middle class community is faced with a sudden and complete breakdown of the US economy, government, and society after a massive, nation-wide Islamic terrorist attack. Like the vast majority of Americans, none of the residents of Sea Breezes have a convenient bunker in the woods or a compound of survivalist friends to escape to. They have to find some way to organize themselves in order to survive with what they have on hand and what they can obtain by using their own wits and determination.

Bryan Murphy is chasing a rapist down the sidewalk when he feels the pain in his chest. Before he knows it, he's in the hospital and his days in the NYPD are finished. Quitting the force isn't enough; he needs to get out of the city. He needs to move to Los Angeles. It doesn't take long for Murphy to tire of clean living and California sunshine. He's on the beach one afternoon when he sees a fellow lost soul - a recently released inmate with nothing to do but stare into the ocean and pray for his luck to turn around.

Will the unlikely romance between the rough and tumble stoker, Mat Burke, and Anna Christopherson, the world-weary daughter of the captain of a coal barge, survive? Set in 1910, the timeless question of, "How does love make us grow?" is pondered. This American classic, Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill, is a play in four acts and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922.

A gold medal wrestler, Reza's inspiring life celebrates honor, family and freedom. After he leads bloody battles in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and serves in the Air Force, Reza desires a fate beyond the suffocating suppression of Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran. On the last night of the 1982 Military World Wrestling Championships, he grips his gold medal, knowing American wrestlers wait minutes away to help him defect.

For 14 years during the golden age of sports, Paul Gallico was one of America's ace sportswriters. He saw them all - the stars and the hams, the immortals and the phonies in boxing, wrestling, baseball, football, golf, tennis, and every other field of muscular endeavor in which men and women try to break hearts and necks for cash or glory. Then in 1937, at the height of his game (and the height of the payroll), Gallico suddenly and famously called it quits and left the New York Daily News.

It's summer in New York City. All is quiet and peaceful. Or is it? An ancient evil is about to be unleashed on the unsuspecting island populace. Former Civil War cavalry sergeant Denis Malone struggles to live a normal civilian life but the nightmares persist and gain strength. What do these haunting visions mean? Meanwhile - Nikola Tesla, his eight-years-long search for the Cult of Five Stars nearly over, has just arrived in the city from overseas.

All credit cards have stopped working. Today. This morning. What cash you have in your wallet is it. ATMs and bank systems are down. You can't get gas, or groceries. Commerce has essentially come to a halt. Such is the backdrop of The Back Door Man. Our society is computer centric. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. We're plugged in. Managing our finances online. Downloading apps for our iPhone. Reading the WSJ on our Kindle. There are things out there on the cutting edge we don't even know we need to fear. The Back Door Man takes us there.

Ricardo Pierce's two young daughters are kidnapped by a man from his past.

In a riveting account of the dark days leading up to France's defeat and occupation, Martin reveals a great and civilized nation committing a kind of suicide in 1938. When the relative calm in the first quarter ends with Germany's invasion of Austria, France is faced with hard questions about its diplomatic and military posture, and the leftist political alliance called the Popular Front makes its last stand.

Josh Miller has a talent for finding things. So far, the things people have asked him to find - antique tables, old movie posters - have been innocuous enough. And Andrea Montague, the daughter of a local writer, may be his most interesting find so far. But no one's asked Josh to find the missing fifth victim of an unexplained auto accident - the one who vanished from the scene of the crash without leaving a trail of blood, though he must have been badly hurt.

When beautiful 19-year-old Tiffany Grace is found murdered inside the house next door, Detectives Rick Parker and Joanna Knight are brought in to investigate. What they find is a tangled web of love, lies and infidelity between the homeowners, Alex and Mandy Kent, and their young neighbors - murder victim Tiffany Grace and her handsome brother, Steve.

Homicide detective Ricardo Pierce suspects that many of the city's missing persons are actually victims of a serial killer. When Pierce goes on a quest to find the killer, he discovers not one, but two monsters stalking the night. Pierce is the right man to stop them, however, the detective has his own demons that he struggles against. Will Pierce stop the night predators that threaten the city or will he ultimately become one himself?

Herschel Cobb's moving account of his relationship with his legendary grandfather reveals a side of Ty Cobb that few people ever saw, that of loving nurturer. A baseball icon and arguably the best player who ever lived, Ty Cobb's infamously cold, competitive nature allowed him to excel on the ball field but undermined his relationship with his children. Devastated by the untimely death of two of his sons, Cobb relished the opportunity to reconnect the broken family ties when young Herschel and his siblings visited him during the summers.

The master of adventure, Edgar Rice Burroughs, tackles the Frankenstein myth. A demented scientist discovers how to create human life - not perfect but improving steadily with each attempt. He is forced to flee to remote Borneo to continue his gruesome experiments; each experiment becomes one of the Monster Men. Add a beautiful young daughter, a scheming criminal as assistant, head hunters, and wild jungle terrain, and you have The Monster Men!

Following the horrors of Kristallnacht in November of 1938, frightened parents were forced to find refuge for their children, far from the escalating anti-Jewish violence. A courageous group of Belgian women organized a desperate and highly dangerous rescue mission to usher nearly 1,000 children out of Germany and Austria. Of these children, 93 were placed on a freight train, traveling through the night away from their families and into the relative safety of Vichy France.

Enala is surrounded, trapped on the blood-soaked sands of Malevolent Cove. Desperate and alone, she faces the sky, watching as the Gold dragons circle. Yet it is not the beasts she fears – but the men and woman encircling her. They promise their protection, but they are only words, and she has already lost everything to betrayal. Swamped by grief, she teeters on the edge of madness. Meanwhile, Eric is close to mastering the curse of his magic. The perilous force writhes within him, desperate for freedom, but he refuses to bend to its will. Instead, he is determined to wield it for good, to right the wrongs of his past.