Showing results by narrator "Christopher Ryan" in All Categories

Frank Marr was a good cop, until his burgeoning addictions to alcohol and cocaine forced him into retirement from the DC Metro police. When an old friend from his police days needs Frank's help to prove he didn't shoot an unarmed civilian, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts, running in the same circles that enabled his addiction those years ago. Never one to play by the rules, Frank recruits a young man he nearly executed years before. Together, detective and criminal charge headfirst into the DC drug wars.

Chaiyal ""the Heretic"" North, former intergalactic heavyweight champ, flees the wrath of crimelord Gredok the Splithead by going to a place Gredok can't reach—the Reef. A frontier planetoid where citizens try to scratch a living from the rock, the Reef is a lawless land ruled by the strong and the vicious. For Chai, it's a hardscrabble life vastly removed from his former super-stardom. No more media, no more octagon, no more bright lights, and no more mods. When he hits rock bottom, he must carve out a new existence free from the weight of his past.

Frank Marr was a good cop with a bad habit until his burgeoning addictions to alcohol and cocaine forced him into retirement from the DC police. Now barely eking out a living as a private investigator, he agrees to take on a family case: a favor for his aunt, who was like a second mother to him growing up. Frank's surveillance confirms that his cousin Jeffrey is involved with a small-time drugs operation. Modest stuff until Frank's own home is burglarized, leaving a body on the kitchen floor: Jeffrey.

He was a boy with a guitar. She was a girl with a piano. Raised by loving grandparents in Depression-era rural Texas, their humble beginnings playing local shows to put food on the table started Willie and Bobbie Nelson on a remarkable path to global stardom. In a story filled with details of a childhood in rural Texas - with church socials, general stores, and town dances - Willie and Bobbie weave together an inspiring story of a long-ago time. With triumphs and tragedies, hard work, and determination, here is a deeply personal, gorgeously written, and profoundly moving tale of hope.

Having abandoned corporate law, David Adams is now the voice of justice for the city of Austin’s vulnerable outcasts. His new client is Parker Barnes, a trembling twelve-year-old runaway and foster-care poster boy arrested for petty theft. Dealt a rough hand in life, he reminds David of his own childhood. This should be a simple, if heartbreakingly familiar, case. Until the FBI muscles in. Parker is also a suspect in the murder of a federal witness. No matter how desperate Parker’s denial, David fears there’s so much more to the kid’s hard-luck story than he’s letting on.

In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following articles focusing on Texas society are now available in a bundle as an audio download: "Busting Out of Mexico" by Jan Reid, read by Bruce DuBose; "Showdown at Waggoner Ranch" by Gary Cartwright, read by Bruce DuBose; "Cops and Robbers" by Katy Vine, read by Lydia Mackay ; "Lost and Found" by Katy Vine, read by Lydia Mackay; and "The Trouble With Innocence" by Michael Hall, read by Christopher Ryan Grant.

In 1978, a Texas jury found Kerry Max Cook guilty of the state's most brutal murder on record and sentenced him to death row. Cook swore that, no matter how long it took, he would prove his innocence, unearth the truth, and free himself from this sentence. Spanning decades, numerous lawyers, and meanwhile the physical and psychological abuse of prison, Cook would be prosecuted four times, only to have the veil of innocence narrowly evade him in the end. "The Trouble with Innocence" opens with the hearing that would exonerate Cook.

It wasn't in Jacob's plan to have a wild, foul-mouthed little girl at his side. He had always pictured his "girl" as someone sweet and sensible. Then Ruby shows up and steals his heart at first glance. From her bohemian get up to the wild hair that matches her fiery personality, the pint-sized princess is everything he hadn't imagined, and the only one he wants.

Journalist Leslie Stern never wanted to write entertainment stories. So when she interviews Patton King, a rising country singer who claims to be Elvis' grandson, she decides to uncover the truth and write a scathing review. But there's more to Patton than meets the eye, and Leslie can't help falling for "The Next Elvis".

A legendary and retired police chief lies in a New York hospital bed, visited by two strangers: the first is ex-cop-turned-PI Mike Hammer, whose life was saved more than once by the old man. To the detective, the chief gives a mysterious key. The second visitor murders the chief, mere days before he would have died from natural causes. Someone is trying to tie up loose ends, and Mike Hammer is the only one with the evidence and calculation to ferret him or her out.

On a cold December day in northern upstate New York, the body of high school senior Joy Enright is discovered in the woods at the edge of a pond. She had been presumed drowned, but an autopsy shows that she was, in fact, strangled. As the investigation unfolds, four characters tell the story from widely divergent perspectives.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come discover that they must answer for their shocking holiday blunders. The three careless spooks misunderstood the slurred words of a toothless Jacob Marley and accidentally haunted Albert Netterscrudge instead of Ebenezer Scrooge. As a result of their visitations, Albert inspires a generation of ghost hunters. Christmas transforms from a holiday of spiritual good will to a holiday of seeking spirits.

The Chelsea Flower Show - hardly the most exciting or dangerous event in the calendar, or so Doctor thinks. But this is Chelsea 426, a city-sized future colony floating on the clouds of Saturn, and the flowers are much more than they seem. As the Doctor investigates, a familiar foe arrives, and the stakes suddenly get much higher. The Sontarans have plans of their own, and they're not here to arrange flowers.

Cyrus Longworth - the man who has carried the Son of the Dark Lord in his head since the day he was born. Sabrina Jennings - the woman who murdered her husband on their wedding night. Alfie Chapman - the British tourist with a psychopathic streak. And Danielle Roget - the French murderess who possesses his girlfriend's body. Unknown to all of them, they are caught in a tangled web of the Dark Lord's making, which on this night will bring them together and see the culmination of a diabolical plan stretching back to the dawn of time.

Former up-and-coming hotshot attorney David Adams left his glamorous corporate law firm to fight for the disenfranchised. With a caseload of petty offenses, a meager office in a crumbling building, and little in the way of compensation, David needs a real case. When he agrees to represent Rebel, David recognizes this will be the biggest challenge of his young legal career. The mentally unstable homeless man has been accused of murder, and the evidence of his guilt seems overwhelming. But it’s the victim who shakes David’s world: a county prosecutor.

A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself traces the complex consequences of one of the most personal yet public, intimate yet political experiences a family can have: to have a child, and conversely, the decision not to have a child. A first pregnancy is interrupted by test results at once catastrophic and uncertain. A second pregnancy ends in a fraught birth, a beloved child, the purgatory of further tests — and questions that reverberate down the years.