Showing results by narrator "William Dufris" in All Categories

First published in 1920, Flappers and Philosophers marked F. Scott Fitzgerald's entry into the realm of the short story, in which he adroitly proved himself "a master of the mechanism of short story technique" ( Boston Transcript).

Everyone knows the Frankenstein monster was played by Boris Karloff. But before Karloff’s memorable portrayal, another famous 1930s Hollywood icon, Bela Lugosi, tested for the part of the monster. The screen test footage was lost for decades, until Valentino, the never-say-die film archivist, gets a hot tip about the whereabouts of the incriminating (for really bad, heavily accented acting) footage. But it comes with a price far greater than the money he’ll have to pay.

In the spring of 1863, as he faces battle for the first time at Chancellorsville, Virginia, a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.

Juan Obrion discovers that a culture has been concealed for many years far below Antarctica, and Obrion ventures out as part of a four-man team to explore the unknown. Juan, Lena, Malachi and Magnus are awestruck when they discover myriad portals to parallel lands, but the maze they fall into makes them wonder if their journey will ever come to an end.

For generations, bitter old Andy Mattson terrified the children of Hillside and puzzled his adult neighbors. How did the scowling old codger, who seemed to spend his life stroking his cat on the front porch, support himself? How did he pass the days? And why did he die such a gruesome death? The police find Andy dead on his sofa, covered in blood, eyes wide with fear. The most likely suspect is the dead man’s cat, a howling beast that resembles a trapped badger.

Brooding, edgy, and sometimes violent, Controlled Burn's loosely linked stories are each in some way a distillation of hard time, spent either in prison, the backwoods of Vermont, or the badlands of the American West. Peopled by boxers, drunks, truck drivers, murderers, bounty hunters, drifters traveling under assumed names, and men whose luck ran out a thousand miles ago, these stories feel hard-won from life, and if they are moody and stark, so too are they filled with human longing.

"You want to borrow a casket?" Funeral director and part-time sheriff Barry Clayton finds United States Junior Chamber (Jaycee) member Archie Donovan’s request absurd, until he learns the casket will be the centerpiece of the Jaycees’ haunted house, a charity event with all proceeds going to the children’s hospital. But when the president of the Jaycees is murdered in the casket on Halloween, the national press descends upon Gainesboro to cover the bizarre crime.

Recently married, Gail Connor hopes to learn more about her husband by visiting Cuba, his ancestral home. Anthony Quintana's loyalties are divided between his family, believers in the Revolution, and his friends, including dissident writer Yolanda Cabrera. No one is aware that Yolanda's 20-year-old son, Mario, belongs to an underground group plotting the assassination of a Cuban general. The night before Gail and Anthony leave for Havana, the CIA pays a visit. They want Anthony to deliver a message to General Ramiro Vega: He is in grave danger, unless he defects.

A jaded homicide detective working a serial murder case is teamed up with a new partner - a law enforcer from an alien race. Big-city life in the near future is full of violence and tension for Saigo City homicide detective David Silver. His latest assignment is to track down a serial killer dubbed "Machete Man" because he hacks his victims to pieces. But Silver and his partner Mel Burnett just caught a break: One of Machete Man's intended victims - an elderly woman who would've been number six - escapes.

Of all the sports played across the globe, none has more curses, superstitions, or supernatural events like baseball, America's national pastime. While some of these can easily be explained, there are just as many that cannot. Field of Fantasies delves right into that superstition with short stories written by several key authors about baseball and the supernatural.

Warlock Marcus Shifter has been sent on the most dangerous mission of his career: travel to the remote Minotaur nation and convince them not to abandon the tenuous peace agreement between the humans and the paranormals. But securing that peace requires his best friend, Steve the Minotaur, to help him find a way into the isolated homeland. A homeland Steve left behind long ago, intending to bury his complicated past.

Oggie Cooder's charving has already taken him to the top of the world. (Charving, in case you don't know, involves chewing and carving pieces of cheese.) But there's one place Oggie Cooder has never been allowed to go: Donnica Perfecto's pool.

Nine brilliantly told and connected stories take place in a post-apocalyptic world sometime in the near future and follow the narrator at different stages of his life, trying to survive in a savage landscape of climate change, plague, larceny, and a new sexual order.

Yates is a Futurist. Which is to say he makes a very good living flying around the world dispensing premonitory wisdom, a.k.a. prepackaged bull, to world governments, corporations, and global leadership conferences. He is an optimist by trade and a cynic by choice. He's the kind of man who can give a lecture on successive days to a leading pesticide manufacturer and the Organic Farmers of America, and receive standing ovations at both.

Pleskit Meenom, the first alien to go to school on Earth, is starting to fit in with his new class. It's not easy, given how slippery the language is. (Just how many meanings does the word "cool" have, anyway?) But the biggest problem is Jordan Lynch, the class bully who just can't resist picking on the new kid. Finally Pleskit and his new best friend, Tim Tompkins, decide to take action. But taking action when you have alien technology at your disposal can mean taking things just a little too far...and we do mean little!

When Barry Clayton’s father developed Alzheimer’s disease, Barry gave up his career in law enforcement to run the family’s funeral home in the North Carolina mountain town of Gainesboro, where he is known as Buryin’ Barry. But even a small town in the Appalachians is not immune to crime. At a summer street dance, Barry’s friend Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins is shot at by an old man distraught over the death of his wife. The hospitalized Tommy Lee appoints Barry as the deputy in charge of the investigation, to the dismay of Deputy Reece Hutchins.

The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog who is part wolf and who eventually makes his peace with man.

In spring of 1858, Thompson Grey, a young farmer, travels to his father’s estate seeking funds to expand his holdings. Far overstaying his visit, he returns home to find that his absence has contributed to a devastating family tragedy. Haunted by remorse, Thompson abandons his farm and begins a westward exile in the attempt to outpace his grief. Unwittingly, he finds himself at journey’s end in the one place where his strongest temptations are able to overtake him and once again put him to the test.

Jack London's The Call of the Wild was written in 1903, but Buck's gripping adventure makes for a thrilling listen on audio more than 100 years after it was first published. This gripping story follows the adventures of the loyal dog Buck, who is stolen from his comfortable family home and forced into the harsh life of an Alaskan sled dog. Passed from master to master, Buck embarks on an extraordinary journey that ends with his becoming the legendary leader of a wolf pack.

When the first young boy goes missing in a quiet Cape Cod town, Lieutenant Bill Warren is pulled into a morass that promises no happy ending. As his pursuit uncovers the unimaginable, he is led into a world of gambling, drug peddling, corruption, and secret psychiatric experiments. Now he must fight to maintain control of an investigation that more and more people - from the state police to the district attorney to a tenacious Boston reporter - have become seriously interested in.