Showing results by narrator "Darla Middlebrook" in All Categories

Faith, an anomaly to the human race, must defend herself, her world, and her universe from certain doom after accidentally injuring a monster she runs into at her high school graduation. Her adventures lead her and a Watcher known as The Man, to the planet Quii, a city-planet outside her own universe that potentially holds a key to stopping the end of planet Earth. On Quii, secrets come out, and they learn truths about the mysterious Rymuth Elves, the planet's only inhabitants.

Deanna was just another third-rate colony in the Terran Empire - and it was pretty much as boring a lump of rock as could be expected. That is, until Gary Beck, a.k.a. Beck the Badfeller, ran over an obsidian crow with his jeep on the highway to San Fedora and didn’t have a spare tire. Things pretty much went down hill from there.

After that disappointing and sudden end to what had been a promising career, Mei rewarded herself with a long, relaxing vacation in the outback to celebrate her gender reassignment and her new start in life. The first stop on her journey turned out to be a little backwater planet called Deanna....

In November 1912, popular and pretty 18-year-old Ella Barham was raped, murdered, and dismembered in broad daylight near her home in rural Boone County, Arkansas. The brutal crime sent shock waves through the Ozarks and made national news. Authorities swiftly charged a neighbor, Odus Davidson, with the crime. Locals were determined that he be convicted. This examination of the murder of Ella Barham and the trial of her alleged killer opens a window into the meaning of community and due process during a time when politicians and judges sought to professionalize justice.

After a virus wipes out all life on the planet, Ryan Steward believes he's all that's left. Now, a race of scavengers descends on Earth, ready to consume the remaining resources. Ryan, tasked with preserving humanity's written word, must travel the country in hopes of saving books from their destruction.

"If your death ever comes before mine, I hope the gods take my life soon after." Duli and her husband had stated those words to each other several times. Then the day came when his dwarf kin brought his body back from the field of an ambush...Duli only wishes her own death, but in the process sparks a liberation movement that shakes the subterranean city to its core values. Even if the women win over their clan, they must still prove they have the mettle to face their husbands' killers, and the magic that humans command.

Forty-seven-year-old housewife Marge Christensen finds her husband, Gene, dead in their garage, slumped over the steering wheel of his still running BMW. The police rule the death a suicide. Marge does not believe Gene killed himself and determines to discover what really happened to him. In the process, she discovers all their money is missing. So, what was Gene doing before he died? Why did he die? And what was she going to do now?

Rafe and Deor aren’t the only ones who know the nation is in trouble. The palace itself confides in Deor, begging her to save it, and the kingdom, from her father’s narcissistic reign. Staying quiet won’t help, and speaking up might get her killed. And if the king finds out about the affair, well, Deor might find out what the Tower of London looks like from the inside.

The Deannan Uncivil war was in full swing, and the fascists appeared to hold all the aces. All that stood in their way was the Loyalist Militia: a lot of angry locals who wanted their abducted friends and relatives back, didn't like to be told how to live their lives, and most importantly—could handle a blaster a little.

Deanna - the spotted cow of the galaxy, was in trouble. This was all beyond having a funny moon that fell down occasionally, or having jet-propelled birds that exploded if they flew too high; this was serious. An army of fascists had seized power and started rebuilding Deanna as a eugenic utopia—without all the messy inconvenience caused by diversity and dissent.

When an old friend comes calling, Caroline finds herself embroiled in a case involving clandestine meetings, bank robberies, a shady import-export business, and the murder of an FBI agent. And where this fearless female sleuth goes, Tupper Jones is sure to follow—only this time, following her could mean a long walk off a short pier into Lake Michigan.

Retired FBI agent Tupper Jones has made a name for himself as a private investigator, but nothing could prepare him for this. His partner and right-hand woman, Caroline Collins, woke up next to the body of the FBI's star mob witness with no memory of what happened. It's a race against time to solve the case before the Chicago DA puts Caroline away for murder.

Stuart Flane, Captain of the starship Mercury, and lately the butt-end of innumerable jokes doing the rounds at Space Fleet H.Q., is called upon once more—kicking and screaming—to investigate all manner of preternatural fuckery.

Charting the frontier of unknown space was a guaranteed humdrum, routine mission—which in the case of the starship Mercury, may or may not have been a subtle way to punish Captain Stuart Flane for recently losing 90 percent of his crew without a satisfactory explanation. It was hard to tell sometimes, when it came to discerning Admiral Tawney's motives. The Old Man was like that—but at least he seemed to have a sense of humor.

Priceless artifacts looted from Chicago museums with no evidence left behind except a unique calling card that Caroline Collins recognizes. Tupper Jones fears a confrontation with his partner—can he convince her to take the string of robberies seriously, or will the FBI force him to choose between his lucrative contract and his irreverent partner?

Troubled times had come to the small Terran Colony planet of Deanna–and having amusing names for its sun (Ramalama) and two moons (Ding and Dong) hadn't made this quaint little world immune to bad things…. After the shock assassination of a visiting member of the imperial family, and with the three largest cities on Deanna overrun by fascist troops, the local government goes into hiding.

Sheriff Peggy-Ann Muller suddenly found herself hip-deep in strange events - even stranger than usual...and skinheads, too - did she mention the skinheads? Something had stirred in the darkness on the remote, usually idyllic Terran colony of Deanna - something Nazi...and it only seemed to be getting worse! Nobody could say when it started or how, but something had changed. Without being noticed, hate had come to Deanna and made a nest there...and a terrible plot was about to hatch! The quirky residents of the third-rate colony faced a challenge unlike any they had seen before.

Kiya, a Portland hair stylist in her early 20s, becomes unexpectedly pregnant and determined to keep the baby as she struggles to recover from her brother's suicide. Peter, the baby’s father, wants to break away from Kiya and find love - somewhere else. Maddie, Peter’s mother, fights her own loneliness as she cares for Alex, incapacitated in a nursing home. Evie, Maddie’s mother, appears as a young woman in the 1950s, searching to heal herself both emotionally and physically.

During the Battle of Hoffnung, Boldair discovers his father’s secret betrayal and is declared Nagdor’s new king by the Northern Dwarven Alliance. Boldair and three of his fellow Dwarves begin their journey to Nagdor for his coronation. Due to possible threats on his life in opposition to his taking the throne, he decides to take a longer route home by detouring through the autonomous, majestic city lost to legend and hidden deep beneath the Frosted Peaks.

Cali Barrows has had it with love. After wasting three years with the man she thought was the love of her life, she finds out that he’s been sleeping with his boss. Brokenhearted and bored, Cali’s life had become a string of TV dinners and tawdry romance novels. She wondered where her life was going until she follows a mysterious stranger through the red door and enters a world that few would ever know had existed.