K. Cloud

"Got a gun?" With those words, David Allen Crockett, a retired police officer who simply wanted to be left alone, finds his seclusion shattered by his friend, therapist Ruby LaCost. At Ruby's request, Crockett agrees to teach one of her clients, Rachael Moore, how to defend herself with a handgun. During the course of those lessons, Crockett and Rachael begin an intimate relationship. When Rachael is found dead from an apparent suicide, Crockett is devastated and tries to slink back into his self-imposed seclusion.

When Ruben Beeler finds a rancher friend shot to death and mutilated, he calls on Marshals Marion Daniels and Homer Poteet for help. That call begins a chase that takes the men from St. Joe into Kansas and down to Hell on the Border and the Fort Smith court of Hangin' Judge Issac Parker. In pursuit of the killers, the Marshals venture into the Oklahoma Territory, or "The Nations" as it was known at the time, following a path of bloodlust that began before the killing of Arkansas Bill Cole. Serial killers are nothing new, as the Marshals find out on the Cutthroat Trail.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plainold "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

President of the Western Writers of America, Cotton Smith is critically lauded for his resurrection of the classic Western. A bit long in the tooth, Bass Tillman has given up the guns and gone respectable. But then his son and daughter-in-law are murdered in cold blood, and he swears on their graves he will bring their killers to justice.

Doc Ford’s old friend, General Juan Garcia, has gone into the lucrative business of smuggling Cuban baseball players into the US. He is also feasting on profits made by buying historical treasures for pennies on the dollar. He prefers what dealers call HPC items - high-profile collectibles - but when he manages to obtain a collection of letters written by Fidel Castro between 1960-62 to a secret girlfriend, it’s not a matter of money anymore. Garcia has stumbled way out of his depth.

Once again, Marshal Marion Daniels calls on Ruben Beeler for help in righting a terrible wrong. Cecil Man-Bear, one of Marion's old friends, has been crippled, his wife killed, and his daughter stolen by a half-breed. Marion and Ruben take to a trail that leads them far into the Sioux reservation of the Dakota Territory in pursuit of a man called Kills-Many and his band of renegades.

Why we think it’s a great listen: Seabiscuit was a runaway success, and Hillenbrand’s done it again with another true-life account about beating unbelievable odds. On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared....

Comfortable in his new life in Deer Run, young Ruben Beeler is called away by Marshal Marion Daniels to help in an investigation of murder and mutilation north of St. Joe. That begins a search for killers and leads the men northward into unfamiliar territory, pitting them against a family of outlaws who have ruled Nodaway County since before the Civil War.

Janeway has agreed to help Laura Marshall, a friend of his bookstore partner, who's accused of murdering her husband. While Janeway tries to gather the facts, he pulls long shifts standing watch over the Marshall home, filled with books signed by their celebrity authors. When a shifty pair of alleged book dealers turns up, and Janeway begins to suspect that Laura's son is hiding critical information, the case becomes a maze of clues and increasing danger.

Someone has tried to kill the French president. How many snipers can shoot from three-quarters of a mile with total confidence? John Kott—a U.S. Army marksman gone bad—is one of them. After fifteen years in prison, he’s out . . . and there’s a G8 summit coming up, packed with enough world leaders to tempt any assassin.