Showing results by narrator "David Michaels" in All Categories

Hot on the heels of the 500 Words: Black Lives Matter competition hosted by Virgin Radio this month, Bonnier Books UK is publishing a collection of 100 inspiring, moving and poignant short stories submitted by children from across the country. Almost 6,000 children, aged between 5 and 13, submitted stories expressing their personal experiences, tales of empathy, learning and respect, building on the international conversation around Black Lives Matter.

At first, the job sounds easy: lead a small herd of horses across the Arkansas–Texas border to the Double-D ranch near Texarkana. No problem—at least not for a man like Perley Gates. In fact, he’s looking forward to the 150-mile journey with his old sidekick Possum Smith and young Sonny Rice, and doesn’t expect any trouble along the way. Unfortunately, trouble has a way of finding Perley Gates. This time, it’s a trigger-happy trio of horse thieves who take one look at old Possum, young Sonny, and the low-key Perley, and decide they’re three very easy targets.

For more than 50 years, not a day goes by when Caroline doesn't think of her brother, Andy. The last time she saw Andy was when he left home to spend 30 days at Florida's largest reform school. Caroline's family was told that Andy ran away in the middle of the night. Fifty years later, Sean O'Brien receives a letter from a dead man. A year earlier the man had hired Sean O'Brien and chartered his boat for a fishing trip. Now the man is reaching from the grave to hire him again.

Jeston Nash bears a striking resemblance to his cousin Jesse Woodson James of Clay County Missouri. After killing a Yankee soldier in self-defense, Jeston meets his cousins, Jesse and Frank, and joins them to fight in Quantrill's guerilla forces. Later, after the war, he rides with the James-Younger gang as they invent their special brand of bank and train robbery. All the while, Jeston seeks vengeance against Daniel Zanone of the Free Kansas Militia - the man responsible for the death of his child.

In 1848, Dooley Monahan, son of struggling Iowa pioneers, went off to to pick up a new milk cow. Young Dooley never came home. Now, nearly three decades later, Dooley Monahan has become an accidental legend, managing to plant a bullet in the chest of a dangerous outlaw. All Dooley really wants is to claim his reward at a bank in Phoenix and make his way north to a gold strike he read about in a newspaper. But fate has other plans. It starts with a family slaughtered by Apaches, a dog smarter than most humans Dooley knows, and a girl with a wounded soul.

On the border between Mexico and Texas, Frank Morgan is caught between two warring ranchers, men who speak different languages but share the same stubborn courage - and are both being terrorized by a raider called the Black Scorpion. Texas Rangers are struggling to bring law and order to the chaos. But as the air is split by the sound of gunfire and men and women die, Morgan starts to see a different picture - and even comes face to face with the Black Scorpion himself. Suddenly, amidst deceptions, double-crosses and secret liaisons, the Last Gunfighter has become the next renegade.

When iron clears leather, anything can happen. In Frank Morgan's case, a sudden duel with an assassin has left an innocent woman with a bullet in her back - and a friendship between Frank and a young Texas Ranger in tatters. Wanting to make up for his part in the tragedy, Frank rides to central Texas to help Ranger Tyler Beaumont put down the so-called Fence-Cutting War. But as big ranchers battle small ones, an outlaw gang has hellish plans of its own.

Smoke Jensen is the most powerful man on the Sugarloaf frontier - and he's all that stands between a greedy group of Eastern slickers and their schemes for a criminal empire in the Rockies. When Smoke heads back to Boston with his wife, it gives his enemies the opening they'd been waiting for: to kill the mountain man and take over the West.

When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. Crossing into Ogre country is dangerous when you're a polite, respectful gal. Which means we all know I'm in for a wild ride, despite the new backup I've brought along. Even when things start to go sideways, and enemies close on us from every side, I still believe we have the upper hand. How very blind can one person be when it comes to a salvage for a missing child? I'm about to find out.

For Smoke, it starts at a high-class auction for a pureblood Hereford bull. Smoke wins the bidding - and earns the hatred of Pogue Quentin, Santa Clara’s leading citizen and a man living on bloodshed and lies. Then Smoke’s friend Pearlie drifts to Santa Clara. And when Pearlie runs afoul of Quentin, all hell will break loose. Now Smoke Jensen is heading to Santa Clara to face a man who already wants him dead - but Pogue Quentin never met anything like the fire of a mountain man....

In the immersive game Changing Worlds, there is a galaxy of possibilities, gunfights, arena battles, intergalactic warfare, adult pleasures, and pure escapism. Hermanos Granger plays for the paper. The Change-Set a mini-game using cards akin to those introduced to him in his youth. A quest in the cards brings him back to a relationship he thought was buried, and now he has a job to do — the Card Job.

As soon as Gail and Jon Durbin bring home their adopted baby Maya, she becomes the glue that mends their fractured marriage. But the Durbin’s social worker, Paige, can’t find the teenage birth mother to sign the consent forms. By law, Carli has seventy-two hours to change her mind. Without her signature, the adoption will unravel.

Matt and Sam never could refuse a damsel in distress, so a whole coach load of lovelies, lead by the fetching Charity McKenzie, seems like a gift from heaven. But if it looks too good to be true, it usually is — and in short order the blood will start to flow. Matt and Sam rush in anyway and faster than you can say “soiled doves,” they’re up to their necks in trouble.

The city of Haven has changed Hawk and Fisher from what they once were...but what, or who, were they? Discontent and a political assassination draw them to the Forest Kingdom. King Harald is dead and the kingdom is in turmoil. The King's Questor seeks out Hawk and Fisher to find the killer, break some spells, and help restore a kind of peace.

Amid top-level peace talks between the Low Kingdoms and Outremer, the streets of Haven are ravaged by a new drug, which brings out the vicious animal instincts of its victims. The distributors always seem to be one step ahead of the City Guard force. Someone may be revealing the Guards' plans. Could Isobel Fisher be the informant? Hawk and Fisher are pulled apart by circumstance as a political truce is threatened and the death toll climbs.

Murders are taking place on Haven's Street of Gods - the gods themselves are being killed. Hawk and Fisher are assigned to work with a Seer, a Sorcerer, and a Swordsman, a peacekeeping team known as the God Squad. Together, their task is to bring the killer to justice before the mounting panic erupts into an all-out War of the Gods, which could destroy the city of Haven.

The last thing Jason Fury wants is to lead this wagon train west to California. Hell, he just wants to head back east, where a smart young man like himself has a real shot at a better life. But halfway across Oklahoma the wagon train is attacked by bloodthirsty Commanche and Jedediah Fury - the leader of the settlers and Jason’s father - is counted among the dead. Before he knows it, Jason’s leading the wagons into Arizona Territory, where the squabbling settlers decide to stop for good and start a town they’ll name Fury in honor of Jedediah.

When visitors arrive, Clara Valmont must make an entirely new agreement with the vampire she is indebted to in order to stay alive. But even her brief reprieve might not be enough when something far more dangerous than a vampire comes to call. Things between Clara and Alaric are not what they appear to be, and if anyone learns the truth, then it could spell death, for both of them.

Lily learns she was right. Tom Weng - a powerful sorcerer allied with the Old One who keeps trying to take over the world - is still alive. But that's not the worst. Weng is a dragon spawn, the product of a botched hatching given a human form in an attempt to keep him from going mad. A failed attempt.

Join the lead character, Nick, as he continues his crazy adventure, now heading for the fabled fantasy world called Annwn, as he takes you on a diabolical journey the next of the Ten Worlds. Nick must not only survive, but he must relearn to use the magic he has forgotten if he is to survive the Ascension Quest and unravel plots so twisted and deep you would need an Albus Sorceress to help you find your way through! Fortunately, you will have one to help you figure it all out.