Showing results by narrator "Steve Carlson" in All Categories

What is the connection between bitcoin and the collapse of the Bronze Age in 1177 BC? Between the Temple of Moriah in ancient Jerusalem and the central banks of today? Between the Knights of Templar and the end of civilization? Follow ex-detective Dan Landes as he tries to unravel the riddle of thirty-three centuries in the Treasure of the Gran Ventura.

Where Are You? is a sequel to the novel Chapel on the Moor, and follows the lives of the two main protagonists a half century later in a quest to discover what, if anything, might remain of the Chapel. In the first novel, two young adults, Merritt Geary and Frank Dole, met by accident on the occasion of the renovation and dedication of a long-abandoned rural chapel built 100 years earlier by Merritt’s great grandfather. At the end of the story, the chapel suffered complete destruction in a colossal storm, and the two parted ways after a brief but intense summer romance.

One day, one short day, in the life of Panamaniac and expat Ricardo, a day where nothing - and everything - happens, from a magical talking Giant Fly to lectures on the effect of gravity on love by the old man of the town. Ricardo, stuck in Panama, bounces from the bars to the brothels to the gay bathhouses, and experiences his entire life, all in one day.

The fears of four young men are realized when the shrinking water level of Cypress Lake exposes a dark secret, hidden under the lake’s surface for 16 years. Long ago, when they were best friends, they made a pact to never speak of the secret to anyone. Now their livelihoods, their marriages, and possibly their very lives, hinge on keeping a childhood promise.

Join Dennis as he takes you on a rollicking ride, shifting gears from his days as an automotive novice to becoming a savvy used car connoisseur. He shares his hilarious mishaps and close calls, providing lessons laced with humor, wisdom, and a deep love for the open road. Learn how to negotiate like a pro with used car dealers, perform test drives that would make professional drivers nod in approval, and decode the cryptic messages your car sends you through those blinking lights and strange noises.

Escaping Northern Virginia, Talon and his small group of survivors are now confronted with the challenge of rescuing the rest of their group. With the country in complete chaos, the choices they make will determine their next steps. With enemies closing in, Talon must decide to stay and fight to help out his friends, or if he should just walk away and head to his family. Choices always have consequences.

The aging American expat Ricardo lives alone in a quiet town in Panama and dreams of one last romantic fling. But his nightly dreams are invaded by images of a mysterious brujo, an ancient sorcerer who has not been seen in 15 years.

When Ricardo moves into the small apartment complex of expats in Panama, he thinks he’s found paradise. An emotional and sexual sanctuary from all he left behind in the states, until Alison points out how strange some of the residents are.

The world has ended, the dead walk the earth, and a profound silence has fallen over the land. We return to the story of Seth and Melinda, siblings who've fallen in with the likes of Noone Tompkins, a bad man with a fast gun and a cruel disposition. The group's journey south, to a promised oasis in the New Mexico desert, is interrupted by a war between the citizens of Billings, Montana and the scattered survivors of the Crow Nation. There will be casualties.

A young writer meets an older man in a Belgian bar who weaves an erotic and disturbing story about a famous author that the younger man has long admired–a story that reveals dark secrets about all three men.

Amid much controversy over the legacies of historical figures comes a novel that explores Lincoln's complex and evolving views on slavery, emancipation, abolition, and racial equality. But more than a Lincoln novel, it is the lost story of a young man who likely was more influential than any celebrated abolitionist when it came to turning Lincoln from a pragmatic segregationist to a champion of freedom and equality for all.

The scale of the Second World War was enormous: so many countries, so many battles, the challenges of training and deploying huge numbers of soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Every participant in that war had fascinating and often unique experiences and stories to tell. It’s no wonder the major locations in that war were referred to as “theaters.”

When Death—that uninvited and unwelcomed guest—arrives, all plans cease; everyone has to stop and make adjustments; and everyone has to deal with it. Magali, a young prostitute of Villa Rosario, Panama, has died. Her ex-lovers, including friends Ricardo and Dan Landes, attend her funeral, each harboring different memories of her. In fact, everyone harbors different memories of her, because no one really knew who she was. But her ghost comes back from the grave to prod ex-detective Dan Landes to uncover the truth about her death.

Dan Landes is “ex” everything: expatriate, ex-detective, and exhausted. He has returned to Panama from a year of recuperation in the United States, ready to resume a quiet life of hunting ayahuasca plants in the mountains. But evil is coming to Panama—or rather, through Panama—as a sinister team of murderers seeks to smuggle the world’s most lethal biological weapon into the United States through Central America. A dead body in a hotel room starts the investigation, and that dead soul returns from beyond the grave to force Dan to find the killers.

As the son of a crofter family, young Berend Bouters natural talent finds him in the prestigious Art Academy of Amsterdam. It is early 1900. Everything points to a successful career as an artist; he works along Mondrian, becomes part of the Barbizon movement, until life throws him a curve ball. During the First World War, Holland remains neutral, Berend becomes the owner of a barge, and during heart-stopping escapades, smuggles goods to occupied Belgium for which he is richly rewarded. When the war is over, authorities confiscate all his belongings.

No one would suspect that Dan Landes, an ex-LA cop known for methodically building cases against criminals, was a former ayahuasca user. He thought he had buried his past when he retired to Panama 10 years ago. But a brutal murder forces him to return to the States. Now, to save his soul, he has to prevent another murder. But to do that, he may need to drink the psychedelic potion again.

In an unnamed and timeless Latin American country, the lives of six men and three police officers intertwine after a brutal murder in a gay bathhouse. Dan Landes, an expat LA cop, is recruited to hunt for a serial killer who preys on lonely men in the dark steam rooms. Dan is forced to use his friend Ricardo as bait for the killer.

Robert Rahula delivers a dazzling collection of contemporary “portilla” short stories—that writing style that interweaves graphic sexual detail, existential philosophy, wry political commentary, and intricate dream-like plots. A large talking bear waxes philosophical on the nature of evil while eating pancakes. Scientists work together mapping the Higgs Boson particle while secretly plotting the seduction of each others’ wives. A man joins the Bad Luck Club and learns the ultimate method for changing his luck. Forbidden pleasures in a crematorium. A duck walks into a bar.

What if, after you die, your life just continues in exactly the same manner as when you were alive? In this riveting and often humorous novel by Robert Rahula, an American expat wakes up dead in Toledo, Spain, and discovers that nothing has changed, except that he is dead. He continues to interact with all his old friends, and they with him. Only he alone knows that he’s dead. In his journey through this afterlife, he ponders the choices he made during his life, the nature of consciousness, the nonexistence of free will, the flow of time, and existence of multiple universes.

A troubled woman marches west across the great, barren prairie. Suffering from a mental trauma, she's barely aware of the grim changes that have consumed the world around her. She avoids the dead, hides from people, and wanders westward in a daze. Hungry and tired, she finds her way to Montana, where she is taken prisoner on an Indian reservation run by a man with an iron fist and a cold heart.