Showing results by narrator "Charles Constant" in All Categories

Quick, punchy, and unpredictable—the same goes for the novella as it does for its titular protagonist, Chuck Masters. Chuck thought he was the next big gift to cinema, but he has proven himself a raging disappointment to the craft and to his family. Chuck is finally ready to claim his glorious return to the spotlight … in the worst hotel imaginable. Ghosts! Frights! Craft services! Enter the world of the Royal Eugenia Hotel, and watch a Master at work. It might just be his last.

In 1976, the body of Anna Mae Aquash, an American Indian luminary, was found frozen in the Badlands of South Dakota—or so the FBI said. After a suspicious autopsy and a rushed burial, friends had Aquash exhumed and found a .32-caliber bullet in her skull. Using this scandal as a point of departure, The Unquiet Grave opens a tunnel into the dark side of the FBI and its subversion of American Indian activists. But the book also discovers things the Indians would prefer to keep buried. What unfolds is a sinuous tale of conspiracy, murder, and cover-up.

The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great players in basketball history. With a devastating fadeaway and unexpected agility, the Dallas Mavericks superstar helped to pioneer the modern three-shooting game and became a global ambassador for the sport. Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger traveled with Nowitzki for more than seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. In novelistic detail, Pletzinger tells the dramatic story of how a lanky kid from the German suburbs became a top-five all-time scorer and NBA champion.

The author examines in detail Baum's (1856-1919) many fantastical tales, including The Wizard of Oz, the 13 others he wrote about that magical kingdom, and others, as well as his evolution as a fantasy writer, illuminating in the process his philosophy concerning nature, civilization, and industrialization.

With a reputation as the hot-air balloon capital of the world and the home of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta®, the southwestern desert city of Albuquerque frequently showcases the magic and adventure of ballooning. This legacy links back to the 1880s and a man by the name of Park Van Tassel.

Russian collusion. The lab-leak theory. The Hunter Biden laptop. Mostly peaceful protests. What if America’s misinformation problem is coming from inside the mainstream media? Fox contributor Ari Fleischer says most Americans live in a media-created fantasyland. Never before have we been so...

The film Casablanca opens with the words, "With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas." Leslie Epstein's Hill of Beans is the story of how one nation, one industry, and in particular one man responded to that desperate hope.

In this timely new book, Manhattan Institute legal scholar Copland discusses how unelected actors have assumed control of the American republic - and where we need to go to chart a corrective course.

For more than 70 years, Gifford's Ice Cream and Candy Company was associated with nothing but pleasure for native Washingtonians and visitors to the nation's capital. But behind the iconic business's happy facade lay elaborate schemes, a crushing bankruptcy, two million dollars of missing cash, and a tragic suicide. As the last Gifford heir unfolds his story with remarkable immediacy and candor, he reveals the byzantine betrayals and intrigue rooted in the company from its modest beginnings - dark influences that would ultimately destroy the legendary Gifford business.

Vienna: Years Ago includes six short stories focusing on a collection of people in 1945 Vienna, including a Vienna police inspector, an American soldier, a former SS major, an American woman doctor, and various friends, lovers, spouses, and enemies.

The sailing vessel Albatross went down in a white squall in 1961. The young man at the helm that fateful day, now in his 70s, meets Breeze in Pelican Bay. Together they set out to revisit the scene and allow for a final reckoning. Modern-day pirates interrupt their quest. They will be made to pay. Meanwhile, a pesky private detective resurfaces, threatening to reveal dark secrets. Breeze devises a plan to take care of the pirates and his nemesis at the same time. He is forced to race against time as a statewide Coronavirus lockdown looms.

A mysterious detective puts Breeze in a tight spot. Blackmail is the deal of the day, but Breeze isn't buying. Instead, he accepts a mission to rebuild a marina in Marsh Harbor. He assumes the relocation will keep him out of trouble. His assumption is wrong. He becomes a part of the lives of survivors there, as they work together to reclaim a piece of paradise.

Florida's government is building a bridge to North Captiva Island, which will ultimately result in a second bridge to Cayo Costa. Breeze takes action as only he can. He finds himself in an unlikely alliance with the governor as a result. He's given another assignment that appears to be out of his league. Can he pull it off, or will it be his downfall?

Breeze did not want to get involved. He had problems of his own, but when he saw the man on the sailboat punch his partner, he was forced to act. He didn't need a woman around while he plotted his revenge against the man responsible for Brody's death. He was on a mission, and this stranger could only slow him down. This thriller culminates on a remote Florida island, where only one warrior will survive - he who can harness the savage within.

Driven by eyewitness accounts and combining urban history with a life-and-death drama and a technological detective story, Floodpath grippingly reanimates the reality behind LA noir fictions like the classic film Chinatown. In an era of climate change, increasing demand on water resources, and a neglected American infrastructure, the tragedy of the St. Francis Dam has never been more relevant.

Planet Claire is the story of the untimely death of the author's wife and a candid account of the following year of madness and grief. With Claire's death, Jeff Porter tries to imagine life without her but struggles with the bewilderment that follows. There was no gradual transition, no chance to say good-bye or resolve unfinished business. The grief is crushing, her death the psychological equivalent of Pearl Harbor. But as Jeff's life unravels, he analyzes his sadness with growing interest.

Writer/director Robert Orlando, locked down during the Covid-19 pandemic, learned Citizen Kane was Trump's favorite film, and the parallels were astonishing. Both Kane and Trump are swaggering masters of media, and both claim to stand for the working man. Truth be told, Kane was crushed by scandal; Trump was not. He triumphed above front-page divorces, bankruptcies, unprecedented media attacks, and political chaos. Did his failed attempt at reelection end his star power? Citizen Trump gives us our looking glass.

A small-town librarian witnesses a murder at his local deli, and what had been routine sleep paralysis begins to transform into something far more disturbing. The trauma of holding a dying girl in his arms drives him out of his own body. The town he knows so well is suddenly revealed to him from a whole new perspective. Secrets are everywhere and demons fester behind closed doors. Worst of all, he discovers a serial killer who has been preying on the area for over a century, one capable of traveling with him through his dreams.

This indelible quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance applies especially well to California, where legend has so thoroughly become fact that it is visible in everyday landscapes. Our foremost historian of the West, Richard White, never content to "print the legend," collaborates here with his son, a talented photographer, in excavating the layers of legend built into California's landscapes. Together they expose the bedrock of the past, and the history they uncover is astonishing.

The smog beast wafted into downtown Los Angeles on July 26, 1943. Nobody knew what it was. Secretaries rubbed their eyes. Traffic cops seemed to disappear in the mysterious haze. Were Japanese saboteurs responsible? A reckless factory? The truth was much worse - it came from within, from Southern California's burgeoning car-addicted, suburban lifestyle. Smogtown is the story of pollution, progress, and how an optimistic people confronted the epic struggle against airborne poisons barraging their hometowns.