Showing results by narrator "Duffy P. Weber" in All Categories

Benedict Shade, were-cat and collector of exotic magical artifacts, is tasked by the Lord’s Investigation Agency to “collect” (i.e., “steal”) two pieces of fossilized dung from a river spirit in a backwoods town. What seems to be a routine job (for him) turns out to be anything but. Everyone in town believes Shade is an undercover agent for the LIA, a charge his hepcat buddy, Dwayne, is quick to remind him is true. A mysterious femme fatale can’t decide whether to seduce Shade or let him be killed by a horde of human mudfish.

Benedict Shade, a were-cat and collector of exotic and potentially lethal magical artifacts, arrives in Yerba City with his good buddy, Dwayne, to “collect” (some would say “steal”) an unusual dagger that is much more than it seems. Little does Shade realize that the dagger was involved in an assassination attempt with dire consequences.

Coming off a heartbreaking whirlwind relationship, a despondent Alexander Southerland returns to the streets of Yerba City when he hears that an old acquaintance is a person of interest in the murder of an unregistered adaro nymph.

A routine case of industrial espionage pitches hardboiled PI Alexander Southerland headlong into a maelstrom of shadowy political intrigue and deadly supernatural mayhem - not to mention some malevolent owls and the mysterious "boy who talks backwards"! After his exposure of a white-collar thief has harrowing consequences, a guilt-ridden and disconsolate Southerland roams the mean streets and dark alleys of Yerba City seeking to uncover a secret so stunning - so staggering - that just knowing it could unravel the bonds that keep the social order from dissolving into chaos!

A troll in a pinstriped suit walks into a bar. He's looking for Alex Southerland, private investigator and summoner of elementals. A gorgeous dame is going to come to Southerland with a case, and the troll tells him that he is going to turn the case down - or else! But Southerland doesn't respond well to threats. Besides, he needs the dough! Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Southerland weaves his way from seedy neighborhoods to the dazzling lights of downtown - and from one savage beating to the next - to clear his name and uncover a shocking secret.

Alexander Southerland knew Cindy Shipper for only the briefest of days, but his memory of the alluring femme fatale has haunted his dreams ever since. Now Cindy’s literal ghost has come rapping on his bedroom window, seeking the reasons behind her brutal demise. The mystery of Cindy’s death seems obvious to Southerland, but the working-class P.I. quickly learns a valuable lesson: when it comes to sudden death, nothing is ever simple.

Alexander Southerland is hired to discover how a teenage boy is disappearing at night without passing through any doors or windows. Next thing Southerland knows, he’s shackled to an altar while a hungry spirit prepares to sacrifice him to “the toothless one who brings nothing but good.” Southerland soon finds himself negotiating a minefield of dream-hopping supernatural spirits, howler monkeys, a homicidal client, a shotgun-wielding spinster, and a whistling demon.

Years ago, while serving in the Borderland, Alexander Southerland watched helplessly as his friend was terrorized and murdered by the Sihuanaba, a mysterious avenging spirit known as the Woman in White. Now an established private investigator in the teeming metropolis of Yerba City, Southerland finds himself on a collision course with this specter from his past. As the detective tries to solve the riddle of a beautiful nightclub singer’s death, Southerland finds himself battling corruption, temptation, betrayal - and deadly horrors from his own nightmares!

Alex Southerland is back, along with Smokey and Badass. Our hardboiled private dick and elementalist is searching the mean streets of the city for the secret behind a deadly curse. It all starts during a rare Yerba City heat wave when a witch with strange snake tats winding up her gams walks into his office to report that she has committed a murder. Thing is, the murdered man isn't dead, and, well, it's complicated.

Washed up pitching prospect, Rock Cobbler, now a hotshot detective with the Santa Lacrimosa PD likes working alone as much as he likes bourbon. That is to say, a lot.

Magic explodes as Ragnarök approaches. Vidarr must complete the Rod of the Dreki to have any chance of stopping the coming conflagration. The Ice Plains, Jotunn, and a host of vicious creatures stand in his way. To add to his woes, the Vala has the final piece, and the Gods have their own ideas of what should be done. The departed drakes and drekis complicate the situation further.

Vidarr Allefar emerges from his cocoon a dremma, a species that hasn’t roamed the Realm since the Great Departure. His mental powers have grown; and so have his challenges. He must retrieve the five parts of the ancient relic, the Rod of the Dreki, said to be distributed amongst the five d’oglemann clans. His first stop is his clan’s nemesis, the Soolv Spyda. If he survives the encounter, he will have to venture across the Ice Plains…in the dead of winter…to reach the northern clans.

The news is grim. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has threatened to attack Iran if they don’t stop enriching uranium. United States' interests back the threat. In LaBarge’s latest novel, Lightning Strikes Twice, US Navy pilots, aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), Captain “Sweetwater” Sullivan and LT “BigHands” Johnson, are called upon to carry out the impossible mission of deterring the Iranian threat under daunting circumstances.

Early morning. A wooded clearing. The body surrounded by a conga line of head-bobbing wild turkeys. Then, Detective Rock Cobbler’s Thursday really starts to get weird.

Imagine this: you’re 60 years old, divorced, broke. You’ve squandered away being the husband and father you should’ve been to your wife and children in your quest for status among your architect peers. Don't worry: that’s all about to change. Unfortunate encounters with large trucks on the highway have a way of altering your plans, like jettisoning you back into the past to wake up next to a woman you dated in college. You’re also about to realize she hasn’t aged a day - and neither have you. Thirty years stripped away, just like that.

They're taking Molly and Merrin - Millie and Daavi's new twins - packing their bags, and hopping a boat headed to Belvique for their assignment. Daavi's been hired, along his accounting systems designer Fran, and Motormouth - Fran's friend and interpreter - to set up accounting systems for three tiny neighboring countries.

Alex is bored. He's tired of being a sales rep for a communications company and getting sent off regularly to the middle of nowhere. Luckily, he sees a golden opportunity: the chance to swap with Daavi, one of the company's contractors, and skipping off to a tropical island, instead, to help Daavi's business partner Fran implement a new accounting system. Alex jumps at the chance for a sunny, low-key adventure and trades places with him, dragging his junior colleague Vivica along for the ride.

Shenanigans and surprises ensue when a hyperactive middle-age businessman hears about an epidemic reaching the small island where he grew up. He immediately volunteers himself AND his bicycle courier employees to go chasing around the isle as volunteer health services personnel for the relief effort's logistics team! Meanwhile, Millie, a Drachen restaurateur and cook extraordinaire, and her half-Drachen daughter are helping to coordinate the effort island-side and anticipating the arrival of Millie's oldest, dearest friend and his oddball crew.

Young half-Drachen Rinn thought with she was going to have a nice, quiet trip to mainland to visit with her finally-reunited parents, Millie and Daavi. Now, Daavi's missing, Millie is ill, Rinn's grandmother is being an insufferable pain in the tailfeathers, strange people are lurking around outside Daavi's workshop, corporate lackeys are trying to steal prototype equipment from radio towers, a slick salesman keeps hanging around - seemingly to be helpful - and a strange girl shows up on the doorstep.

That includes Daavi, to run communications, and their new darling, Millie, to perform survey, supply, and search flights with her little remote control aircraft. The staging area is a busy huge warehouse by the port, but all isn't as it seems. The warehouse staff seem more interested in keeping the relief personnel away from something than helping with the injured and homeless who are pouring in.