Showing results by narrator "Kerry Shale" in All Categories

Thirty years after his death, Marsden Hexcamp's "Art of the Final Moment" remains as sought after as ever. But this is no ordinary collection. Hexcamp's portfolio was completed with the aid of a devoted band of acolytes and half a dozen victims, each of whom was slowly tortured to death so that their final agonies could be distilled into art.

The original Great American Novel, an incomparable adventure story and a classic of anarchic humour, Twain's masterpiece sees Huckleberry Finn and Jim the slave escape their difficult lives by fleeing down the Mississippi on a raft. There, they find steamships, feuding families, an unlikely Duke and King and vital lessons about the world in which they live. With its unforgettable cast of characters, Hemingway called this 'the best book we've ever had'.

The story of Hank Morgan, a 19th-century American who is accidentally returned to sixth-century England, is a powerful analysis of such issues as monarchy versus democracy and free will versus determinism, but it is also one of Twain's finest comic novels, still fresh and funny after more than 100 years.

In his compelling new work of fiction, Aravind Adiga has imagined the small Indian city of Kittur, an everytown nestling on the coast south of Goa and north of Calicut. Through the myriad and distinctive voices of its in habitants, an entire Indian world comes vividly and unforgettably to life. Adiga has produced a microcosm of Indian life in the 80s, the years between the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv.

All Alex Yow wants is to become a photojournalist and break her first story. All Brandon Yow wants is for his sister to keep out of trouble and come home. But that's not going to happen, because Alex has taken a picture of a statue. A statue that can move. A statue that makes people disappear. A statue that is hunting them down. In upstate New York, the Doctor is chasing weird energies that should not exist. Teaming up with Alex and Brandon, he discovers a powerful force enslaved to another's will.

A fight in an alley behind a bar: a visiting European is knifed by local thug Ramon Espejo, and all hell breaks loose. The dead man was a diplomat on an important mission to São Paulo, and next day Ramon is on the run heading north in his van toward land that no one has ever explored, or even thought of exploring, land so far only glimpsed from orbit during the first colony surveys.

Listen to the journey of "Rose", a Fender Stratocaster, through 1950s USA. Her story unfolds through the experiences of her owners. Cliff, a country picker with Hank Williams, has a backstage musical encounter with a young Elvis. Josh, a songwriter recording with legendary producer Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, argues civil rights strategies with Martin Luther King. This audiobook gives listeners insight into 1950s American social and music culture and a glimpse of the early forms of rock, country, and soul music that would revolutionize the youth of that generation.

This is a story from the Murders in the Rue Morgue (The Dupin Stories) collection. Auguste Dupin, investigator extraordinaire, was the remarkable creation of Edgar Allan Poe. Written in the 1840s, Poe presented the acutely observant, shrewd but idiosyncratic character who, with his chronicler, provided the inspiration for the more famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

It looked like an abattoir when they found the mutilated body of the young journalist inside her car. And if Carson Ryder and his partner had known what they were getting into, they would never have taken the case. Too late, what looks like the work of a lone madman spreads tentacles that wrap themselves round all sorts of strange areas. And it's not long before attention focuses on the city's most unlikely suspects: a wealthy family whose philanthropy has made them famous and influential.

When he was a prosecuting attorney, Penn Cage sent hardened killers to death row. But it is as mayor of his hometown, Natchez, Mississippi, that Penn will face his most dangerous threat. Urged by old friends to try to restore the town to its former glory, Penn has ridden into office on a tide of support for change. But in its quest for new jobs and fresh money, Natchez has turned to casino gambling.

When Kent Nerburn received a letter from Jennifer, a young woman questioning her calling to spend her life in the arts, the writer and artist was struck by how closely her questions mirrored the doubts and yearnings of his own youth. Nerburn resolved that he would write his own letter: a letter of welcome and encouragement to all young artists setting out on the same strange and magical journey, sharing the wisdom of a life spent working in the arts.

Solitude is a rapidly vanishing experience. Our society now embraces sharing like never before: time alone is being forced out of our lives by the constant pings of smartphones and prods of social media. But what if being alone still has something to offer us - something we have forgotten but that we still desperately need? In Solitude, award-winning author Michael Harris examines why being alone matters now more than ever before.

Auguste Dupin, investigator extraordinaire, was the remarkable creation of Edgar Allan Poe. Written in the 1840s, Poe presented the acutely observant, shrewd but idiosyncratic character who, with his chronicler, provided the inspiration for the more famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

In Higgins' acclaimed bestseller Dark Justice, intelligence operative Sean Dillon and his colleagues in Britain and the United States beat back a terrible enemy, but at an equally terrible cost. One of them was shot, another run down in the street. Both were expected to survive - but only one of them does.

This is a story from the Moses and Other Stories from the Old Testament collection.

A collection of stories about unscrupulous film writer Pat Hobby, a relic from the early days of Hollywood, looking for success in the changing world of the movies. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s collection paints a comic portrait of a man unwilling to accept his fate as a thing of the past. Entertainingly artless and insensitive; by turns lazy and scheming, Hobby keeps his head just above water as the decades leave silent film behind.

In 1987 a massive snowstorm hits New York as Peter Kaldheim flees the city, owing drug debts to a dealer who is no stranger to casual violence. Leaving behind his chaotic past, Kaldheim hits the road, living hand-to-mouth in flophouses, panhandling with his fellow itinerants. As he makes his way across America in search of a new life, the harsh reality of living hand-to-mouth forces him to face up to his past, from his time in Rikers prison to relationships lost and lamented.

It is 1953, a heat wave is sweeping across America and the Grossmans - Ben, Addie and their two children - are moving their lives from the political heart of Washington, DC to suburban Long Island. Benny was a successful lawyer in the Department of Justice, but all that has come tumbling down. With the McCarthy era of paranoia, persecution, and propaganda at its height, his past has come back to haunt him, forcing him to pack up his family and leave the capital behind.

Under-staffed and over-worked, bound by red tape and hobbled by political correctness, the men and women of Hollywood Station hold the front line in LA's epicentre. But add a diamond robbery, the Russian mafia and a cluelessly ambitious...glass freak, and something has got to give.

In 1993, a damaged, reclusive genius outlines a far-fetched plan for the ultimate terrorist attack, in a members-only internet chatroom. Eight years later, John Fagan awakes to see the World Trade Center in flames - and his casual brainstorm materialising into a murderous reality.