Showing results by narrator "Rick Barr" in All Categories

A female rookie cop in Mobile, Alabama, finds an African-American teenager’s bones and a ring in the bottom of an abandoned well. Her training officer confiscates the ring and blames the rookie. Recruit Carly Redmund is in big trouble: She could lose her job if Field Training Officer Grey doesn't turn in the ring, or worse, be charged with withholding evidence. What she doesn't know is a white supremacist group is conspiring with Officer Grey's brother and mayoral candidate to manipulate the facts for political reasons.

Detective Levin must find the cause of an outbreak of mass murders in his hometown. Norcastle was the first town to fall. Not long after entire cities fell one by one to The Decay. It seems that everyone who enters Norcastle...goes insane. No one has come out alive. Some believe The Decay is a virus spread by the government. Others say it was brought by a cult known as the Ravelim. Can Detective Levin solve the mystery before he falls victim to The Decay? Or will he go insane like all the others who have tried?

In 1917 every man, woman, and child was called to civic duty as the “war to end all wars” encompassed the globe. When the patriotic call comes, Adella begins her campaign of encouragement by corresponding with the frightened and lonely soldiers. On the cusp of adulthood, the young woman is tired of living a cosseted life and hopes to gain her parents' support when she wants to volunteer her services to the war effort. Her mother worries for her safety, but Adella is more concerned for her heart.

In this suspense-filled, neo-monster horror novelette, a writer named Gene Winfield discovers an ominous handwritten book among the belongings of his late adventurer aunt. As Gene reads, he becomes captivated with the volume’s account of a savage, unearthly creature. In spite of the book’s warning, with his writing career failing, Gene can’t resist the inspiration. Near the roaring fire in his aunt’s otherwise cold, empty manor, Gene begins a story of his own. But will he unleash more than his imagination?

Michael felt like his life ended the day his family left. In a way, it did. While he struggled to remain composed when he was in the company of others, he allowed his thoughts and anxieties to consume him when he was alone. Though the life that he had always known had ended, a new one quickly emerged, one that had been suppressed by the Elders for far too long. While Michael struggled to wrap his brain around the information he was learning about his true identity, his heart continuously pulled him toward a young girl.

Katie was born into a cult. Her family lived there for generations. As she got older, she realized the Elders were keeping secrets from the community. Risking everything, she leaves the cult and searches for the truth. With the help of outsiders, Katie and her young husband David are put in touch with an organization called Purple Haven, which provides medical care, shelter, counseling and job training to individuals who have escaped from cults. She soon discovers she’s pregnant.

Just as Katie's life is settling into a new normal after leaving Zion and the birth of her son, she is given news that will forever alter her reality. Meanwhile, the moment that Michael has so desperately wished for, but never thought would come, has finally arrived. He must make the hardest decision of his life, and if he doesn't choose correctly, he could lose everything, forever.

A parish priest has a gambling problem, a girlfriend, and his brother just killed his bookie. A police detective and mobster both investigate, while the town questions if it's a crime at all or a public service. It has everything you need in a mystery: gambling, drinking, Girl Scout cookies, a wedding with a miracle, a canine ring bearer, a dead man telling a terrible joke, fast food, diners, and spit takes, and road rage.

Last Chance in 1895 is a shadow of what it once was, filled with too many women competing for the few men left to save them from poverty, starvation, and spinsterhood. Closed businesses and broken dreams rule the day, drawing a diversity of men to the struggling town; men on both sides of the law.

Emmaline Holton was five years old when the blizzard of 1878 left her an orphan. Her uncle wanted to raise her, but his difficult wife objected. That left only one relative to help Emmaline, her cousin Rachel and her new husband, Samuel.

Time continues to march on with no end in sight for kidnapping victim Jack Petrov. His family holds out hope that one day he will be found, and they will all be reunited, but although they have that hope, they do wonder, "What if?" Despite the stress and unknowns of the situation, the Petrovs continue on with their lives, but the unthinkable happens again. With another Petrov missing, the question remains - will they ever be together again?

A look back at a trio of teenage girls who belied their innocent looks to become serial killers. Sisters Regina and Margaret DeFrancisco were two teenage girls who made national headlines for murdering Oscar Velazquez, a suitor of Regina. Marlene Olive was the teenage girl who became notorious for the "BBQ murders" in which she murdered her adopted parents and tried to dispose of their bodies in a barbecue pit. Marlene was 16 at the time, and would go on to serve only four years for the crime.

When his girlfriend disappears, Jack Mathews' only option is to drive if he ever wants to see her again. He's got nothing but time, which is quickly running out. Five Hours is a nonstop thrill ride that never slows down. This short story is an adrenaline rush where nothing is what it seems.

Jessica never knew she was bored with her life until everything changed. She had always known she was adopted and spent her entire childhood not thinking very much at all about her biological parents. When Jessica’s parents move them six hours away - to the city Jessica was born in - to open a ministry for the homeless, her entire world gets flipped upside down. Jessica sees the faces of the people they’re ministering to without really seeing them, until she sees a face that looks exactly like hers.

In March 2012, a serial killer provokes terror in South Bend, Indiana, near the University of Notre Dame. The notorious FBI agent Jack Savage is hunting the serial killer, desperately trying to stop another brutal murder in the town where he "Woke up the Echoes" and led the fighting Irish to a national championship in 1977. The serial killer brutally tortures his victims while always keeping one heart-pounding step ahead of law enforcement.

Fear is all in the mind.... But Mia's nightmares become a reality when she and her troubled sister, Jamie, inherit their deceased uncle's house and experience phenomena that extends way beyond a typical haunting. Only Mia's infant daughter is aware of the sinister presence of a man that roams freely about the house, but it's Jamie who has become the subject of the entity's torment. No one's secrets stay buried for long, and the psychological abuse that the family are forced to endure soon turns physical.

When an explosive conflict is determined to destroy lives the world over, Ruby Rose Risler undertakes her patriotic responsibility to the Doughboys being called to defend liberty “over there.” But Ruby’s civic duty becomes a labor of love when her newest pen pal sparks a sweet interest. Farm boy Earnest Steiner cannot fathom the scope of the task before him when he’s pulled from small town America and dropped into the trenches of France. But the touching letters he receives from a gentle young woman provide a lifeline during his time on the Western Front.

Running from her abusive grandfather—broken and afraid—17-year-old Valentia Brocato flees her homeland, hoping for a brighter future in America. Little does she realize that America is about to enter its own conflict—The Great War.

When America declared war on the German Empire in 1917, young men were drafted and thrown into the conflict on the Western Front. A group of young women decided to help the war effort by writing to the soldiers. As Matrice Hamilton corresponds with several young men, only one claims her heart. Will he come home to her if he survives the carnage on the frontlines? If so, can they find love and fulfillment together, or will the dark clouds of war overshadow them forever?

Tatianna Murray joins her best friends in writing to the men headed for Europe during World War I. Ryan’s letters stand out from the others. Two strangers find within the words something they both share: loneliness and the loss of their parents. As the correspondence continues, they find love, although they’ve never met. While in the horrific war, Ryan carries a bit of Tatianna with him, a golden cross. When Ryan’s letters stop, Tatianna worries. Is he wounded, dead, or imprisoned by the enemy?