Showing results by narrator "P.J. Ochlan" in All Categories

Shrouded in mystery, a precious relic known as Il Testamento, or The Proof, circulated among the early Christians for centuries. Before their deaths, its guardians hid it from their adversaries, leaving only a crude map of its location. For centuries, it lay in darkness. Until now. Reports of its existence have resurfaced, inciting an ancient rivalry between a ruthless group that seeks to destroy it, and a secret association that lusts for its power.

A customer who ordered a toasted ham and cheese sandwich in one Melbourne restaurant got a mouthful - just not the kind you'd expect.

Occupied Munich, 1946: Irina, a Cossack refugee, confesses to murdering a GI, but American captain Harry Kaspar doesn't buy it. As Harry scours the devastated city for the truth, it leads him to his long-lost German brother, Max, who returned to Hitler's Germany before the war. Max has a questionable past, and he needs Harry for the cause that could redeem him: rescuing Irina's stranded clan of Cossacks who have been disowned by the Allies and are now being hunted by Soviet death squads - the cold-blooded upshot of a callous postwar policy.

Fighting to clear her brother of murder, freelance reporter Sassy Smith is suddenly kidnapped and thrown into a truck with other women who are about to be sold...or worse. When she sees an opportunity for escape, Sassy takes it, but she may have just jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Former marine Bryan Fisher (aka Hollywood) is no stranger to dangerous situations - or to his best friend's little sister. When he rescues Sassy, Bryan is determined to keep her safe...if he can keep his hands off of her.

A former SEAL and Black Ops specialist who left the CIA, Nick Donovan gave up a life on the edge to work in the private sector. But that didn't stop his enemies from coming after him - or his family. In a case of mistaken identity, a drug cartel kidnaps his sister-in-law's best friend - a woman from Nick's past.

Instantly reminiscent of the work of Osamu Dazai and Patricia Highsmith, Fuminori Nakamura's latest novel is a dark and twisting house of mirrors that philosophically explores the violence of aesthetics and the horrors of identity. A young writer arrives at a prison to interview a convict. The writer has been commissioned to write a full account of the case, from its bizarre and grisly details to the nature of the man behind the crime.

The incredible story made front-page headlines on newspapers and television stations across the nation. Affluent Chuck Stuart and his wife were attacked in their car, Mrs. Stuart killed and Stuart wounded. Then, the case exploded anew when Stuart's hoax was exposed and he committed suicide!

A shop owner in the city of Ahmedabad wanted a name that would honor his family and make his clothing store stand out, so he put a swastika on the sign and called the shop "Hitler".

An invaluable lesson was learned by the former head of Chile's national mint: When you're literally making money, typos aren't easily fixed.

The thousand-year Reich is crumbling, and the Red Army races toward Berlin. As the senior leadership of the Nazi party burns its files and flees the country, Colonel Helmut von Schraeder takes a different approach. After years in charge of the concentration camp at Lublin, he knows the Russians will not spare him. And so he throws away his uniform and asks a plastic surgeon to give him a disguise no one will question: that of a Jew.

The official English-language radio news bulletin in Prague recently featured two notable headlines in a serried list: "Ministry presents annual awards for promoting the good name of the country" followed by "Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek admits being drunk in interviews".

Award-winning author James Alan Gardner evokes a sense of wonder that is synonymous with great speculative fiction. Now, in his first short-story collection, he brings together the numerous tales that have made his reputation, ranging from the everyday experience to the cosmic, from peanut butter sandwiches to space drives. There are stories of wonder, imagination, humanity, and the unknown and tales that remind us of the importance of possibility.

From the introduction by James Thompson: Finland, the myths and truths. Internationally, it has a reputation as perhaps the best place in the world to live. A great economy. A low crime rate. Good and nearly cost-free health care. The needy are provided for by the state and live in reasonable comfort. Finns: peaceful and quiet people, living in the perfect example of a social democracy functioning as it should. A tourist, or even a person who has lived here for a length of time, might well view Finland as such.

With increasing urgency, the plight of the American family grips the national conscience. The family courts are often our society's last safety net to prevent disaster. In this penetrating exposé of the inner workings of the U.S. family court system, two award-winning journalists provide an intimate look at the lives of the children whose fate it decides.

It’s the height of summer, 1999, when local newspaper, the Record Sun, receives numerous tipoffs from anonymous callers warning of violence, weapons stockpiling, and rampant child abuse at the nearby homeschool on Heart’s Content Road. Hungry for a big break into serious journalism, ingnue columnist Ivy Morelli sets out to meet the mysterious leader of the homeschool, Gordon St. Onge referred to by many as “The Prophet”.

According to one Danish expert, "human testicles are just a natural target" for the piranha-like pacu, which normally eats "nuts, fruit, and small fish".

If your dog accidentally leaves his poop on the street in the town of Brunete, never fear! You'll get it back. Just be ready to sign for a package.

After 40 years of marriage, a couple in Prey Veng Province decided that the time had come to part ways - prompting the husband and friends to saw the house in half.

Zer is no angel - well, not anymore. He's explored every flavor of sin imaginable, drinking in the pleasures of humanity. But now he must find the woman who carries his salvation in her very blood...a woman like Nessa St. James. Nessa has considered the bargain the Fallen offer. Anything she wants in exchange for accepting Zer's bond? No way. Not her. Not when she finds out about the mind-blowing ritual involved, and the marks of surrender that will ink her skin. But with a serial killer to stop and centuries of experience on his side, this is one job Zer's going to nail.

Master of Thin Air opens with a fall that the author very nearly could not stop down an almost vertical rock ramp leading to a 3,000-foot drop. The qualities that saved him then on K2 - in addition to his mountaineering know-how and sheer good luck - drove his 16-year journey to summit all of the world's 8,000ers, the 14 peaks that exceed 8,000 meters (26,000-plus feet) and take climbers into the death zone. Incredibly, he accomplished that feat without the aid of bottled oxygen for every mountain but one.