L.T. Vargus has 17 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 5 narrators, with an average listener rating of 3.3★ across 21 ratings. The most-rated is The Scattered and the Dead Series: The First Four Books.
The Scattered and the Dead Series: The First Four Books
Summary
More than 37 hours of post-apocalyptic survival. With 99.7 percent of the Earth's population dead and gone, the few who remain struggle to survive in an empty world. The scattered. The leftovers. These are their stories. This collection contains the first four volumes of the Scattered and the Dead series, audiobooks 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. Meet Mitch, a father infected with the zombie virus. His wife is gone. He has 24 hours until he turns. Can he make sure his kids are taken care of before time runs out? Meet Travis, a 23-year-old wimp who ran away as his parents were murdered by raiders. Surrounded by towers of scavenged booze and pills, he only wants to numb the pain...until he happens upon the men who killed his family. Now, he has a choice. Meet Erin. She's 16. Six months ago, she was worried about prom. Now, she worries about zombies and raiders and feeding an eight-year-old orphan. Meet Baghead. Meet Ray and Lorraine. Meet Decker and Teddy and Fiona. Meet the utterly lost who look for meaning in humanity's fading glow. Meet the scattered and the dead. Grab the audiobook bundle today.
©2017 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain (P)2018 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain
The Violet Darger Mystery Thriller Box Set
Summary
This audiobook includes the first four thrillers in the Violet Darger series: Dead End Girl, Image in a Cracked Mirror, Killing Season, and The Last Victim. Start at the beginning of the Violet Darger saga with Dead End Girl: Her body is broken. Wrapped in plastic. Dumped on the side of the road. She is the first. There will be more. The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now, rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement. Who could carry out such brutality? And why? Unfortunately for agent Darger, there's little physical evidence to work with, and the only witnesses prove to be unreliable. The case seems hopeless. If she fails, more will die. He will kill again and again. The victims harbor dark secrets. The clues twist and writhe and refuse to keep still. And the killer watches the investigation on the nightly news, gleeful to relive the violence, knowing that he can't be stopped. The serial killer thriller that "refuses to let go until you've listened to the last sentence". A pause-resisting thriller series packed with heart-stopping suspense. Fans of John Sandford, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, and Lisa Gardner should get to know Violet Darger. Buy this omnibus audiobook edition now!
©2017 Smarmy Press (P)2019 Smarmy Press
First Girl Gone
Summary
An absolutely addictive crime thriller with a twist Down the beach, she can just make out the rusting hulk of the Ferris wheel through the dawn mist. The hairs prickle on her neck as she drags her focus back to the chestnut hair fanned out in the shallow water at her feet, to the grains of sand decorating the beautiful girl’s white cheeks like freckles. Private Detective Charlie Winters never thought she’d find herself back on Salem Island, but she’s forced home to reopen the wound that never healed: Her sister was abducted from the small town when they were teenagers. For Charlie, her sister’s voice in her head - pushing her to risk everything to seek justice for the innocent - is a painful and constant reminder of what she lost. And never has that voice been louder than when a family friend comes to Charlie begging for help to find her missing daughter, Kara. Searching Kara’s messy, poster-covered bedroom, Charlie finds more questions than answers. Did Kara run away, or was she snatched? She’s clearly been keeping secrets from her family - but don’t all teenagers? A little black matchbook hidden in a jewelry box is Charlie’s only lead, but the seedy nightclub it comes from proves to be nothing but a dangerous dead end. Until Charlie is approached by a second distraught mother whose daughter has also vanished. Forced at every turn to relive the trauma she ran away from, Charlie’s blood runs cold when a girl’s body is discovered in the exact spot on the water’s edge where the last trace of her sister was found. It’s clear someone is taunting Charlie, but with other innocent girls’ lives at risk, she has no choice but to take the bait.... Fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni, and Lisa Regan will need to sleep with the lights on!
©2020 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (P)2020 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Dead End Girl
Summary
Her body is broken. Wrapped in plastic. Dumped on the side of the road. She is the first. There will be more. A serial killer stalks women in rural Ohio. He is deranged but brilliant, known only by the grotesque nickname the media has given him - The Doll Parts Killer. The name is apt. He dismembers his victims and leaves them in garbage bags in public places. A residential neighborhood. Next to a roller rink. Behind a Burger King. The investigation is a disaster. No physical evidence. Unreliable witnesses. To make matters worse, the FBI has lost contact with the star profiler working the case. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. When Darger travels to Ohio, she brings along demons of her own. Her last case ended in tragedy. The death of a 16 year old girl. Darger still has nightmares about the bloody scene, still has panic attacks when she remembers. The trauma shattered her core beliefs. Now she faces a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. If she fails, more will die. He will kill again and again. Will this case restore her faith? Or push her over the edge? The victims harbor dark secrets. The clues twist and writhe and refuse to keep still. And the killer watches the investigation on the nightly news, gleeful to relive the violence, knowing that he can't be stopped.
©2017 Tim McBain, L.T. Vargus (P)2017 Smarmy Press
Bad Blood: A Gripping Crime Thriller
Summary
The body slumps over the steering wheel. Pools of blood going tacky on the dash. Two shots to the back of the head. A mafia-style hit in a small town. Special Agent Violet Darger must make sense of this savagery - figure out how brutality like this could happen in rural Michigan. The victim had been living the American dream. A small-business owner who built a construction empire. Started a family. Coached youth hockey. He seemed to have it all. But his surface life didn’t tell the full story. He carried dark secrets to the grave. Left clues which offer more questions than answers, clues that seem to lead Darger to Detroit. In the city, she finds despair. Corruption. Decay. Blocks of vacant buildings line the streets. Crumbling. Caving in. It resembles ancient ruins more than a modern American city. Concrete caverns waiting to be explored. And there, among the rubble, she gets swept up in the hunt for a notorious hit man. He kills for profit. Navigates the brutal world of organized crime. Harbors secrets of his own, albeit domestic ones. He holds the answers to all of Darger’s questions, but only if she can catch him. This pulse-pounding thriller will have you on the edge of your seat until the final page. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, and Lisa Jackson should check out the Violet Darger series. The books in the series can be listened to in any order, so grab Bad Blood and get started today.
©2018 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain (P)2018 Smarmy Press
The Girl in the Sand
Summary
Shallow graves scar the desert landscape. A cemetery in the sand. Some of the lost are never found. Thousands of girls go missing every year in Las Vegas. Taken. Bought and sold. Or worse. Now the dead are calling. These lost girls summon FBI Profiler Violet Darger to Sin City - a new case. There are fresh dead to sort through - two bodies burned beyond recognition in the trunk of a sedan - and there’s reason to believe there are missing girls waiting to be saved. Rumors swirl that a legendary killer is responsible for these crimes: an escaped prisoner with a personal grudge against Darger - one who wants her and her partner dead. One who disappeared for 20 years. But the desert is full of deadly secrets - horrors waiting beneath the sand. If Darger finds the killer in time, the girls will live. If not... This pulse-pounding thriller will have you holding your breath until the final moment. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series. The audiobooks in the series can be listened to in any order, so grab The Girl in the Sand and get started today.
©2018 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (P)2018 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain
Take Warning: A Victor Loshak Novella
Summary
Some conspiracy theories turn out to be true. FBI profiler Victor Loshak works a brutal murder case in Watertown, New York - a woman found strangled in her basement, her face gone purple and baggy. But as he sifts through the crime scene details, his mind keeps drifting back to Kansas City, his last job. The human trafficking case there ended in something of a cliffhanger, and it's a loose end that everyone else in law enforcement seems in no hurry to tie up. The truth is out there. Always just out of reach. Loshak finds himself changed by the events that transpired in Missouri. His worldview shifted. His priorities shuffled. He reaches out to the people close to him, hoping to make major changes in his personal life. But they are watching. When Loshak pursues leads relating to Kansas City, however, the warnings start. They are watching him. Seem to know everything about him. If he keeps working the human trafficking case, everything - and everyone - he cares about will be in jeopardy. Justice bears a heavy cost. How high of a price will you pay? The shape of a man's life is largely defined by what passions he pursues, Loshak decides. Now he will choose what that means for him. While the Victor Loshak novels can be listened toin any order, we recommend listening tothis short after having listened to the earlier audiobooks in the series. Here is the full list of Loshak books in chronological order: Beyond Good & Evil (Victor Loshak Book 1) The Good Life Crisis (Victor Loshak Book 1.5) What Lies Beneath (Victor Loshak Book 2) Take Warning (Victor Loshak Book 2.5)"
©2019 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, and Tim McBain (P)2020 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, and Tim McBain
Image in a Cracked Mirror
Summary
A family has been massacred in their home, a display of violence both brutal and bizarre. The details prove curious - not only are the bodies savaged way beyond anything found at a normal murder scene, every mirror in the house has been shattered. The spectacle shocks a peaceful island community, and when local police turn to the FBI for assistance, Agent Violet Darger finds herself working another harrowing crime scene. She stares, once more, into the abyss, and mankind's warped reflection stares back.
©2017 Tim McBain & L.T. Vargus (P)2017 Smarmy Press
Killing Season
Summary
Two days. Fourteen dead. The next victim could be you. The first bullet punches through the windshield of an SUV. A head shot. The driver's death is instantaneous. And it's only the beginning. A sniper along I-20 kills eight and causes a 36 car pileup. Brutal. Efficient. The next morning, the same individual stalks through a grocery store parking lot with a handgun. He takes out six innocent shoppers along with the store's front window before fleeing without a trace. By the time Special Agent Violet Darger arrives in Atlanta, the city teeters toward panic. The vacant streets and restaurants paint an eerie picture. No one dares to venture out. A killer walks among them. A shadow. And the public cowers just the way he wants them to. Once more Agent Darger must identify with a murderer, must stare into the darkness to anticipate his next move. Putting herself in his head may be the only way to stop him. The longer she takes, the higher the death toll. He will kill again and again. But what hatred drives a man to such desperate, violent acts? And what price must one pay to invite that chaos inside themselves? A page-turner packed with heart-stopping suspense. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series. The books in the series can be read in any order, so grab Killing Season and get started today.
©2017 Tim McBain & L.T. Vargus (P)2017 Smarmy Press
Into the Abyss
Summary
"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster. For, when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." (Friedrich Nietzsche) The Violet Darger series continues with this gripping novella Into the Abyss. Will Violet Darger agree to a face-to-face meeting with the man who shot her? Still awaiting trial, the infamous serial killer Leonard Stump has hinted at the locations of additional bodies - more desert graves waiting to be uncovered. He wants to talk, but he has one condition. Violet Darger must be present at the interview. Now, the pressure is on. Should Darger head to Vegas and sit down with Stump? Everyone else seems to think so. It’s a chance to close some cases and give families closure, they say. A chance to learn something crucial about the criminal mind, they say. A chance to do something good. So, why does Darger feel like it’s all going to go terribly wrong? While the Violet Darger novels can be listened to in any order, we recommend listening to this short after having listened to the earlier books in the series.
©2019 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain (P)2020 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain
Night on Fire
Summary
Fire crawls up the sides of the church. The orange glow thrashes. Blackens the siding. Climbs up onto the steeple. The flames close in on the wedding party trapped inside. When a serial arsonist terrorizes Los Angeles county, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads over to California to investigate. The fires keep coming faster. The body count rises, and the threat hangs over the city as thick as the smog. The case file is brutal - stuffed with photographs of charred bodies, human faces melted beyond recognition. And when Darger gets up close to the crimes - the real thing - that sense of savagery only intensifies. What kind of a person could carry out such cruelties? Understanding the warped psychology will be the key to solving the case. The suspect seems hellbent on creating a spectacle. Bigger targets. More deaths. He treats setting fires like a Hollywood special effects sequence, like he's building up to the shocking finale. Watch the city burn. It's entertainment. And there's one more factor complicating the investigation: Autumn is settling in over Southern California. The leaves are changing color, and the Santa Ana winds have begun to change directions. The Hollywood Hills are ripe for a forest fire. The arsonist means to make it the biggest one yet. A pause-resister packed with heart-stopping suspense. Fans of John Sandford, Michael Connelly, Lisa Regan, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series.
©2019 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain (P)2020 L.T. Vargus & Tim McBain
Beyond Good & Evil (A Serial Killer Thriller)
Summary
He slips through the unlocked window. Creeps down the hall. A shadow standing in the bedroom doorway. Will you wake when death comes ripping? A string of brutal home invasion murders terrifies Dade County, Florida. The killer strikes in the dead of the night, savages innocent people in their beds, wipes out entire families. He attacks at random. Rich. Poor. Young. Old. No one is safe. When the city sleeps, he comes alive. Stalks the night. Walks among us. The investigation is hopeless. There's little physical evidence to work with, and the killer's chaotic behavior makes him as unpredictable as he is dangerous. What drives someone to such violence? And how can anyone make sense of such brutality? The task force leading the investigation needs a profiler, and there's only one man for the job. Loshak. Special Agent Victor Loshak. The 53-year-old likes his Dunkin' Donuts coffee shaken, not stirred. And now, for the first time, he's on his own. But how far will this case push him? In recent years, Loshak has slowed down some. He relies on more wit than grit these days, often playing a mentor role to his partner, Violet Darger. Until now, she always had more than enough grit for both of them. But Darger isn't around this time, and a killer this aggressive will push Loshak to his limits. And beyond. Yeah, he'll need to find that grit again...or die trying. This pulse-pounding thriller will have you holding your breath until the final chapter. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Michael Connelly, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Victor Loshak series.
©2018 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, Tim McBain (P)2019 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, Tim McBain
Five Days Post Mortem (A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller)
Summary
Her body floats. A bloated thing half atop the river. Naked. Pale. Mouth and eyes open wide. When two fishermen discover a corpse floating in the Clackamas river, profiler Violet Darger heads to rural Oregon to hunt another serial killer. What she discovers in the woods might change the course of her life. What secrets does the water conceal? The girl in the water marks the third such case in the area - all drowned with superficial stab wounds and discovered in a body of water - and Darger feels certain she won't be the last. The corpses are badly decomposed. The flesh purpled and softened from their time in the water. The forensic evidence distorted by decay and the elements. But the victims share one more thing in common - all were discovered roughly five days post mortem. A coincidence? Something with meaning to be discerned? Darger suspects the timeline to be significant, but without evidence, she can only guess as to why. That sets up what might be the key to the case: What is the killer doing to the victims for the four days between their deaths and dumping their bodies? It's Darger's first case without Loshak, and it will test her like none before. This pulse-pounding thriller will have you holding your breath until the very end. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series. The books in the series can be listened to in any order, so grab Five Days Post Mortem and get started today.
©2019 L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain (P)2019 L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
What Lies Beneath (A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller)
Summary
Some secrets don’t stay buried. Three elaborately staged victims. No clues. A public verging on panic. FBI profiler Victor Loshak heads to Kansas City to hunt another serial killer. But something about this case is all wrong. The three corpses lie posed. Face up. A glove laid to cover each right eye. The victims seem to be selected at random. Suburban. Upper middle class. Squeaky clean. It doesn’t make sense. A piece is missing from this puzzle. If Loshak can find the missing link that connects the victims, he believes he can solve the case. The obstacles are many, however. And the cryptic note someone left under his windshield wiper? It warns him that danger lurks all around. They bury it, and they bury it, but it won't stay dead. As Loshak digs deeper, uneasiness seems to creep over everything in the city. Paranoia. A sense of dread. Everyone he encounters seems to be keeping things from him. Concealing something. He gets a visceral sense of the lengths people will go to hide their sins. Bury them. When the suburban veneer finally strips away, all the dark secrets come clear one by one. But nothing can prepare Loshak for the shocking revelation this case unearths. Because what lies beneath the surface? It changes everything. This pulse-pounding thriller will have you holding your breath until the very end. Fans of James Patterson, John Sandford, and Lisa Regan should check out the Victor Loshak series.
©2019 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, Tim McBain (P)2019 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, Tim McBain
Silent Night: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller
Summary
No one is safe. A mass-shooter rages through Chicago in the days after Christmas. Brutal. Efficient. He etches a path of destruction through the city. Shooting up the mall. Opening fire in traffic. Rampaging through a movie theater. That's just his opening act. FBI profiler Victor Loshak heads to the windy city to investigate and finds himself swept up in a frenzied manhunt. This killer will strike again - it's a question of when, not if - so every second becomes critical. As always, Loshak must enter the shadowy mind of the perpetrator to help catch him. Understanding the shooter's psychology will be the key to predicting his behavior, the key to stopping him. The city veers toward panic. The killer seems invulnerable, always one step ahead. And then, there's the blizzard moving in. Endless snow. Wind. Frigid temperatures. The shooter and the elements will combine to test Loshak like he's never been tested before. But can he find the answers in time? This pulse-pounding thriller will have you holding your breath until the end. Fans of Michael Connelly, John Sandford, and Lisa Regan should check out the Victor Loshak series. Note: The books in the series can be listened to in any order, so buy Silent Night and get started today.
©2020 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, Tim McBain (P)2020 L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith, Tim McBain
Girl Under Water
Summary
Her numb fingers scrabble over upholstery, over metal, over glass, searching for a way out. Water stings her eyes as she’s dragged downward, clinging to her last breath as she’s absorbed into the cold dark below.... When Gloria Carmichael’s body is found broken and bleeding on the sidewalk just days after knocking on Detective Charlie Winters’ door begging for help to locate her father’s will, Charlie’s instinct is confirmed: Her latest case is about more than just a simple family feud. The Carmichaels are famous in Salem Island for their large family and charitable work, but, moments before she died, beautiful, trustworthy eldest daughter Gloria called Charlie to say she had uncovered a terrible secret that would break the mystery of her father’s death wide open. With the voice of her murdered sister ringing in her ears - pushing her to risk everything to bring justice to the innocent - Charlie takes matters into her own hands. She won’t let another family break apart like her own, and she knows the answers she needs are hidden somewhere inside the Carmichael home. But as Charlie races to confront her main suspect - a file containing evidence that will devastate the Carmichael family on the car seat beside her - she’s rammed off the road and over the edge of a nearby cliff. Fighting for breath in a sinking car, Charlie has to survive or other innocent lives will be taken. Everyone involved is keeping secrets, but only one twisted soul is prepared to kill to keep theirs.... An addictive crime thriller with twists at every turn, you won’t know what hit you after you’ve finished Girl Under Water. A perfect roller-coaster ride for anyone who adores Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni, and Mary Burton. An absolutely gripping crime thriller
©2020 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (P)2020 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Watch Her Sleep
Summary
Nestled in the autumn leaves, her hair tangled in thick brambles, the girl looks like she could be sleeping amongst the wild roses. But the trail of red across her delicate throat means this is a slumber she will never wake from.... When a search party trawling Salem Island find a girl’s body curled on the damp earth, the hunt for missing waitress Emma Jacobis grinds to a devastating halt. The day before, Emma had come to Detective Charlie Winters convinced someone was watching her. In her trembling hand, she held a sketch of herself sleeping peacefully with the stuffed rabbit she’d had since she was a child. On the back, scrawled in black ink: You will be mine.... A box containing handwritten letters found under Emma’s bed is Charlie’s first lead. But the handwriting isn’t a match to the note left for Emma. With the help of her new assistant, a troubled girl eager to learn the ropes, Charlie’s only hope is to canvas the bar where Emma worked. There, she finds a woman with fear in her eyes and a terrifying story to tell about an encounter with a dangerous stranger. Is someone in this small town targeting vulnerable girls as prey? Certain she’s found a twisted killer’s hunting ground, and with time running out before he strikes again, Charlie has no choice but to use her new assistant as bait to lure him out into the open. But when a scream pierces through the night, will Charlie survive the consequences? She has to, or there’s no knowing how many more innocent girls will die.... An absolutely nail-biting and completely jaw-dropping crime thriller. Fans of Kendra Elliot, Robert Dugoni, and Lisa Regan will be left reeling!
©2021 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (P)2021 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.