Showing results by narrator "Joel Froomkin" in All Categories

Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle, Lord Burghley, suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss - and in danger - until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.

Estranged from her husband through her failure to produce an heir, Lady Fieldhurst resolves to repay his neglect by taking a lover. Fate takes a hand when she and her would-be lover enter her bedchamber to find Lord Fieldhurst lying on the floor - with her nail scissors protruding from his neck.

Eddie Kensington had certain responsibilities, up until two weeks ago. Dress well, smile in public, uphold the family honor. Be straight. Never talk about being bisexual, or being in love with his bodyguard, Isaac Cole, for nearly 10 years. Protecting his mother and siblings from yet more tabloid scandal in the wake of his parents' high-profile divorce was always more important. Up until two weeks ago, when he was outed by the press. Now he's in the midst of an unscheduled identity crisis, and his entire family seems to be joining in.

I'm Bree Mortimer, and I can bring ghosts back to life. The hot-as-Hades Roman Centurion in my bedroom is living proof that I can raise the dead. Now, all I have to do is stop him from swimming naked in the duck pond and trying to stab anyone with a man bun, and my life will be perfect. Hah. That's a joke. My life is a spooktacular failure. I've got two ghostly lovers who are desperate for me to bring them back, too, but if I don't figure out how to control my new magical powers, there could be grave consequences.

Art teacher Walter Hartright is on the road to London when he encounters an enigmatic woman dressed entirely in white. She's an unnerving portent of strange things to come as Hartright starts a new job as drawing-master at Limmeridge House. There the teacher falls in love with Laura, his betrothed pupil, who bears a striking resemblance to the woman in white. Soon Walter is drawn into a family intrigue of greed, secrets, madness, and revenge.

Dante O'Donnell is white, gay, and getting older every day. He has wasted his better years on starstruck dreams and the wrong men, so now he's working as a concierge for a vacation-rental outfit in Palm Springs, where the guests have far more baggage than what's packed in their suitcases. But...

Eager to escape London following the scandal of her husband's death, Lady Fieldhurst accepts an invitation to spend the summer in rural Yorkshire as the guest of Sir Gerald and Lady Hollingshead. She soon discovers, however, that country life is not the panacea she had hoped for. Tension reigns and tempers flare at Hollingshead Place, due in large part to Lady Hollingshead's ambitions for her daughter, a lovely young lady destined for a brilliant marriage in spite of her love for a penniless curate.

London, 1941: Major Edgar Brampton is found shot dead in his office in Buckingham Palace. All signs point towards a self-inflicted tragedy, but when Palace authorities hurry his body away and order staff to stay silent, fellow courtier Guy Harford's suspicions are raised. While the outside world faces the onslaught of war, within the Palace walls a curious mystery unfolds. Rumours swirl about Brampton's relationship with the Queen, and there's talk of other plots involving those closest to the King.

It's been five years since the Breakers and I got back together. Five years since we opened our club, Twisted Bullet. Five years of laughter, love, passion, and a home with each other.

Greton of Willow returns in this sequel to the cozy fantasy neurodivergent sensation, Magic, Maps, and Mischief, a perfect read for lovers of Legends and Lattes, The Teller of Small Fortunes, and Under the Whispering Door. Within the idyllic city of Barrow’s Hill, the elderly, autistic map...

Lee Hargrove only wants one thing—to win a scholarship to Summer Sports Camp. His school is holding a competition and the winner gets to attend the camp for free. Lee is one of the favorites to win along with his friend, Cory "Lucky Duck" Duckworth and another athletic classmate, Laura Grodin. Laura is good...for a girl, but how can anyone compete with Cory's good luck streak? Lee has an idea and he's about to give Cory an unforgettable birthday present that will really get the party started.

Everything I've done, everything I will do, there will be no regret. The world is a vicious place for a woman. It's even crueler to the daughter of the Ceann na Conairte - discarded, married off, left powerless. But I am no ordinary daughter of the mafia. Unlike every other mafia family, my mother was Melody Callahan, Bloody Mel, the Don of the Italian Mafia, and the Don didn't raise some precious mafia princess. Bone by bone she broke me first, so no one else could - and bone by bone, I pieced myself back together.

Still haunted by memories of his last case, in which an innocent woman was accidentally killed, Bow Street Runner John Pickett welcomes the challenge of a new assignment in the West Country. Unfortunately, this time he’ll have to leave his beloved wife, Julia, behind, as he’ll be traveling in company with Harry Carson, a member of the Foot Patrol whose swaggering self-confidence is an uneasy fit with Pickett’s reserve.

This issue of Weird Tales presents a batch of entirely new short stories, flash fiction, poems, and an essay dealing with monsters who defy death, including zombies, vampires, mummies, and various and assorted revenants. There are some real heavy hitters here—bestsellers and names listeners might not yet know … but should. And will.

London, 1588. Someone's turning Catholics into widows - and masking the crimes under cover of Armada fever. Francis Bacon is charged with identifying the murderer by the Andromache Society, a widows' guild led by his formidable aunt. His assistants, Thomas Clarady and Lady Alice Trumpington, are also struggling for control over their own lives. Bacon must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle multiple crimes to determine if the motive is patriotism, greed, lunacy - or all three.

This combination of serious artistic engagement with warmth and clarity of prose revels in the experiences and pleasures of art and the body, identity, and community.

The town of Willow Creek is seemingly free after Remy's sacrifice set off a life-altering chain of events that resulted in the demise of most of the world's vampire population. Sabine flees to her home afterward, except her family has disappeared and a "For Sale" sign is planted in her front yard. Just when she thinks she's lost it all, she's summoned back to Willow Creek Manor.

It has been eight years since the Callahans defeated Avian Doers and conquered Chicago. Melody is now the Governor and public face of the family, while Liam rises as the Ceann na Conairte of both the Irish and Italians. Their reach is limitless; their power endless, but is it possible to have too much power? Can Liam and Melody raise a family, a city, and an empire? Only a fool would try to stop them now.

Mack is hot, popular, and used to getting exactly what he wants … until he sets his sights on the new exchange student from New Zealand. He’s never been one for love at first sight, but this chick has him feeling things he never knew existed within him, and in spite of her feisty rejections, he’s determined to get to know her.

The third installment of the John Pickett series of humorous Regency mysteries finds Bow Street Runner Pickett in Scotland investigating a woman found unconscious on the beach - a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the local laird's daughter, a girl missing and presumed dead for the last 15 years. Pickett is surprised to discover that the woman was found by none other than Lady Fieldhurst and her three young nephews - and gratified to learn that her ladyship has registered at the seaside inn as Mrs. Julia Pickett.