Showing results for "Christopher Ragland" in Crime Fiction

New Orleans, 1919. As a dark serial killer - The Axeman - stalks the city, three individuals set out to unmask him. As Michael, Luca and Ida each draw closer to discovering the killer's identity, the Axeman himself will issue a challenge to the people of New Orleans: play jazz or risk becoming the next victim. And as the case builds to its crescendo, the sky will darken and a great storm will loom over the city.

The girl who wouldn’t die, hunting a killer who shouldn’t exist… A terrifying and original serial-killer thriller from award-winning author, Lauren Beukes.“It’s not my fault. It’s yours. You shouldn’t shine. You shouldn’t make me do this.”Chicago 1931. Harper Curtis, a violent drifter, stumbles on a house with a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature – it opens onto other times. He uses it to stalk his carefully chosen 'shining girls' through the decades – and cut the spark out of them.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Texas Ranger by James Patterson, read by Christopher Ragland. Rory Yates' skill and commitment to the badge have seen him rise through the ranks in the Texas Ranger division, but it came at a cost - his marriage. When he receives a worrying phone call from his ex-wife, Anne, Rory speeds to what used to be their marital home. He arrives to a horrifying crime scene and a scathing accusation: he is named a suspect in Anne's murder. Rory's only choice is to find the killer himself.

In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the killer that stalked their small New England town. Of the body they found, the horror of that discovery echoing down the decades. And of Sky, Wilder's one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound. This book will be Wilder's revenge on Sky, a man who betrayed his trust and died without ever telling him why.

Chicago, 1928. In the stifling summer heat, three disturbing events take place: a clique of city leaders is poisoned, a white gangster is found mutilated and a famous heiress vanishes without a trace. Detectives Michael Talbot and Ida Davis are hired to find the missing heiress, but it proves harder than expected, and so Ida must elicit the help of her friend Louis Armstrong. But will any of them find the answers they need in the capital of jazz, booze and corruption?

A 14-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a ransom call: pay or else. It's only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads. Enter Timothy Blake, code name Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a psychopath with a dark secret and the FBI's last resort. But this time Blake might have met his match.

Fall, 1947. New York City. Private Investigator Ida Davis has been called to New York by her old partner, Michael Talbot, to investigate a brutal killing spree in a Harlem flophouse that has left four people dead. But as they delve deeper into the case, Ida and Michael realize the murders are part of a larger conspiracy that stretches further than they ever could have imagined. Meanwhile, Ida’s childhood friend, Louis Armstrong, is at his lowest ebb.

Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The catch: Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history. The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air. Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?

A Chinese astronaut is found dead in a NASA training environment in Houston, Texas. No one can explain how he got there. Amid fears of a diplomatic catastrophe, the CIA dispatches Timothy 'Hangman' Blake to investigate a convicted kidnapper who works in the facility – someone Blake put away years ago. Blake is deeply insane, afflicted by terrible urges he can barely control – but he's also brilliant. Zara, his beautiful and deadly CIA handler, suspects a secret Chinese spacecraft is surveilling the United States, but Blake can see something much more sinister is going on.

Murder comes in two familiar forms. Whether as a crime of passion with high emotions or a cold dispassionate plot to take life in order to gain in some way, the act strikes us all as somehow inhuman. Beneath us as civilised beings. But however we cloak our animal instincts the need to remove a human being and gain relief from abuse or gain from money, the term is just the same – MURDER. Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, J M Barrie, W W Jacobs and many others bring their literary heft to bear in as calculating a way as any killer could.

Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. She has died many times...but her many deaths are not final: they are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days. Only two people know of Carol's eerie condition. One is her husband, Dwight, who married Carol for her fortune and - when she lapses into another coma - plots to seize it by proclaiming her dead and burying her...alive. The other is her lost love, the infamous outlaw James Moxie. When word of Carol's dreadful fate reaches him, Moxie rides the Trail again to save his beloved from an early grave.

Seventeen-year-old Tessa, dubbed a Black-Eyed Susan by the media, became famous for being the only victim to survive the vicious attack of a serial killer. Her testimony helped to put a dangerous criminal behind bars - or so she thought. Now, decades later the black-eyed susans planted outside Tessa's bedroom window seem to be a message from a killer who should be safely in prison.

Martin Gabriel is a runner for Ben. He runs errands. He runs deliveries. And now he is running for his life. When a deal goes wrong, Martin realizes Ben isn’t the legitimate businessman he thought he was. He flees before Ben catches up with him, unaware that Ben’s criminal network and the FBI are also on his tail. No longer a runner, but still on the run. Is Martin fast enough to get away from his past?

We were so young when it all happened. Just 13 years old, making the most of the long, hot, lazy days of summer, thinking we had the world at our feet. That was us – me, Fat Bobby, Jim and Tara – the four members of the Outsiders’ Club. The day we found a burnt-out car in the woods was the day everything changed. Cold hard cash in the front seat and a body in the trunk… it started out as a mystery we were desperate to solve. Then, the Collector arrived. He knew we had found his secret. And suddenly, our summer of innocence turned into the stuff of nightmares.

Timothy Blake returns, with an insatiable appetite, in the thrillingly addictive follow-up to Hangman and Hunter. Timothy Blake, ex-FBI, finds himself at a remote house in rural Texas. The house is occupied by six criminals who believe Blake is their ally. Secretly, he intends to pick them off one by one. But when one of the psychopaths is found dead, he realises that someone else in the house may have the same plan - and he might be the next victim.

You're woken early by the doorbell. It's a young girl, the daughter of the love of your life. She's scared, covered in blood, she says her mother is hurt. You let her in, try to calm her down, tell her you're going to get help. You reach for your phone, but it lights up with a notification before you touch it. It's an Amber Alert - a child has been abducted by a dangerous suspect. The child is the girl standing in front of you. The suspect? You.

In the heat-wave summer of 1971, four kids find a body by a lake and set out to solve a murder. But they dig too deep and ask too many questions. Larson is a town reeling in the wake of the Vietnam draft, where the unrelenting heat ruins the harvest and the people teeter on the edge of ruin. As tension and paranoia run rife, rumours become fact, violence becomes reflex. The unrest allows the dark elements of the close-knit farming community to rise and take control. And John, Jenny, Gloria and Rudy are about to discover that sometimes secrets are best left uncovered....

Bartleby is one of the final works of fiction published by Herman Melville before he slipped into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after Moby Dick. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, Bartleby is often thought of as Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce decides they have had enough, and chooses to live a different kind of life?

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language. He began his first foray as a fabulist, publishing ‘Fantastic Fables’ in 1899. But tragedy struck two years later when his second son Leigh died of pneumonia relating to his alcoholism. He continued to write short stories and poetry and also published ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’.

Gary Foster's life is finally heading in the right direction. After years of trying, his wife, Beth, is pregnant, and he recently opened a business with his brother. But one phone call changes everything. After collapsing suddenly, Beth is rushed to the hospital. Tests reveal a devastating diagnosis: an inoperable brain tumour. Their only hope is an expensive experimental treatment available abroad, with a cost that's out of their reach. And Beth's time is running out.