Gary Regal has narrated 12 audiobooks on Listento.it by 15 authors, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is After Eden.
The Final Mission of Bottoms Up
Summary
On November 18, 1944, the end of the war in Europe finally in sight, American co-pilot Lieutenant Lee Lamar struggled alongside pilot Randall Darden to keep Bottoms Up, their B-24J Liberator, in the air. They and their crew of eight young men had believed the intelligence officer who, at the pre-dawn briefing at their base in southern Italy, confided that their mission that day would be a milk run. However, that 21st mission out of Italy would be their last. Bottoms Up was staggered by an anti-aircraft shell that sent it plunging earthward, the pilots recovering control at just 5,000 feet. With two engines out, they tried to make it to a tiny strip on a British-held island in the Adriatic Sea and in desperation threw out everything not essential to flight: machine guns, belts of ammunition, flak jackets. But over Pula in what is now Croatia, they were once more hit by German fire, and the focus quickly became getting out of the doomed bomber. Seemingly unable to extricate himself, Lee Lamar all but surrendered to death before fortuitously bailing out. He was captured the next day and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner at a Stalag on the Baltic Sea, suffering the deprivations of little food and the coldest winter in Europe in a century. He never saw most of his crew again. Then, in 2006, more than 60 years later, Lamar received an email from Croatian archaeologist Luka Bekic who had discovered the wreckage of Bottoms Up. In this absorbing, alternating account of World War II and its aftermath, Dennis R. Okerstrom chronicles, through Lee Lamar's experiences, the Great Depression generation who went on to fight in the most expensive war in history. This is the story of the young men who flew Bottoms Up on her final mission, of Lamars trip back to the scene of his recurring nightmare, and of a remarkable convergence of international courage, perseverance, and friendship.
©2011 The Curators of the University of Missouri (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks
After Eden
Summary
When did the human species turn against the planet that we depend on for survival? Human industry and consumption of resources have altered the climate, polluted the water and soil, destroyed ecosystems, and rendered many species extinct, vastly increasing the likelihood of an ecological catastrophe. How did humankind come to rule nature to such an extent? To regard the planet's resources and creatures as ours for the taking? To find ourselves on a seemingly relentless path toward ecocide? In After Eden, Kirkpatrick Sale answers these questions in a radically new way. Integrating research in paleontology, archaeology, and anthropology, he points to the beginning of big-game hunting as the origin of Homo sapiens' estrangement from the natural world. Sale contends that a new, recognizably modern human culture based on the hunting of large animals developed in Africa some 70,000 years ago in response to a fierce plunge in worldwide temperature triggered by an enormous volcanic explosion in Asia. Tracing the migration of populations and the development of hunting thousands of years forward in time, he shows that hunting became increasingly adversarial in relation to the environment as people fought over scarce prey during Europe's glacial period between 35,000 and 10,000 years ago. By the end of that era, humans' idea that they were the superior species on the planet, free to exploit other species toward their own ends, was well established.
©2006 Duke University Press (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks
Clan of the Black Sun
Summary
A mysterious stone of black obsidian holds a magical grip over a rural French clan ripped apart by an ancient curse. The Nazis covet the relic as a weapon of immense power that will lead their armies to victory in the West. The Allies fear rumors of the stone mask a deadly weapon that threatens the invasion of Fortress Europe. The resistance risks annihilation to recover it. The French police and the Gestapo will destroy all in their path to possess it. Three allied agents parachute into enemy-occupied France in a desperate race to uncover the truth of The Black Sun. For Sergeant John Keene, the mission will alter reality for all time. For Ariéle, the stone promises either freedom from captivity or certain death. A medieval blood prophesy tells of a warrior rising in the West who will silence the cries of the ancient gods. Is the German occupation the Great Fire foretold in the prophesy? Has the Warrior finally come to bring peace to the land? Will fear once more unleash catastrophe throughout the countryside?
©2014 L.W. Hewitt, MBM (P)2014 L.W. Hewitt, MBM
As Angels Weep
Summary
A storm explodes on German streets in November, 1938 - The Night of Broken Glass. The Holocaust has begun - and the world has changed forever. The little girls Rabbi Shalev calls his "Three Angels" flee their burning orphanage in terror, fearing for their lives. Hunted by an obsessed Gestapo captain, the best friends are torn apart and cast in the violent maelstrom of occupied Europe. No government can help them. No army will come to their rescue. Corruption and greed stalk them at every turn. Their only hope for survival is to find sanctuary in the hearts of strangers who must risk their own lives as they plot treason - for it is a crime against the state to save a life. The Three Angels are the stories of just three survivors hidden during the Holocaust by quiet heroes. They remain mostly anonymous. We can never know how many there were. We can never know their names. We must be content to know they existed, and stood against a great evil ... alone and resolute.
©2014 L.W. HEWITT, MBM (P)2014 L.W. Hewitt, MBM
Cross of Fire
Summary
As Nazi-occupied France collapsed under the Allied onslaught in 1944, Gela Pientka defiantly kept a bloody truth that could topple governments and destabilize world currencies. To protect her family, she took the frightening secret to her grave. Gala's journal, however, exposes a stunning discovery - a corrupt "money train," supported by murder and slavery, fueled by the foul stench of greed. Powerful international forces seek to destroy the last evidence of their treason by silencing everyone who discovers the secret. Truth is fighting back - fighting to reunite a family ripped apart by the Holocaust, fighting to restore honor - carrying the Cross of Fire as a weapon against the forces of evil.
©2013 L.W. Hewitt, MBM (P)2014 L.W. Hewitt, MBM
Sins of the Father
Summary
Baker's Keyboard Lounge, Detroit's hotspot for jazz - it's there that Sam runs into his childhood friend, Johnny Delbeck, and Johnny's got a problem. A little over three months ago, Johnny and his wife, Grace, took in her niece. Myrna Lou Stevic had been nothing but trouble for her mother, Grace's sister, and her stepfather. Grace thinks she can turn the girl's behavior around by getting her into a new school and getting her involved in the church youth group. One Monday in April, the seventeen year old was sitting on the porch of the Delbeck's Dearborn home one minute, and in the next, she was gone. Did she just walk away on her own - something she's done in the past - or did something more sinister occur? This is what Johnny hires Sam to find out. Five days before Easter 1943, Sam tries to ensure her presence for the holiday. But when he starts asking questions, the picture others paint of this girl isn't pretty, and it's obvious there are few who really like her. The Detroit private detective wants to solve Johnny's problem - and he wants the ending to be a good one. Can he find the girl and return her to the home in Dearborn, safe and sound?
©2013 Judith White (P)2013 World Castle Publishing
Nock on Wood
Summary
At the height of the Cold War a clandestine government operation buried the secret of a deadly new nerve gas agent deep in the bowels of Mt. St. Helens for safekeeping. Twenty-three years later, that secret is exposed. Two separate teams are racing to recover the secret - the winner will change the balance of power in the War on Terror forever.
©2013 L. W. Hewitt (P)2013 L. W. Hewitt
Opened Wounds
Summary
Sam is hot under the collar, and it has nothing to do with the summer swelter! The frail woman waltzed into his office on a steamy Saturday in July, wanting Sam to exonerate her husband of the charge of murder. But the murders occurred over 19 years ago and the man in question was killed in prison some months back. But that wasn't the worst of it! It just so happens that her husband was Carlo "the Confessor" Andolucci, the once-notorious Purple Gang member. Sam knew this name all too well: Carlo Andolucci had brought devastation to the Flanagan family while employed by Abe Saperstein, head of the group of thugs that terrorized the streets of Detroit. There was no way he'd take on this case to help this woman...or would he? Once he discusses the matter with others, he begins to hear a side of Andolucci he didn't know. Had Sam held on to a belief that was wrong all these years? Only by rethinking his decision to take on this case will answer that. Only by agreeing to investigate would he ever find the truth.
©2015 Judith White (P)2015 World Castle Publishing, LLC
The Juno Letters
Summary
Letters discovered in a tin box hidden in the foundation of a small cottage in Normandy reveal a terrible secret, a desperate whisper between the lines. Antoine's world was collapsing. His beautiful Marianne, his precious daughter Ariéle, missing. The lives of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of allied soldiers preparing to storm Juno Beach on D-Day literally are in his hands. The Gestapo hunt him as a traitor - the French resistance as a collaborator. As chaos erupts all around him, Antoine must choose - to find Marianne and Ariéle, or face Hell even if it means he could lose his family, his only friend, and his life.
©2013 L.W. Hewitt (P)2014 L.W. Hewitt
Chicago Death Trap
Summary
On the afternoon of December 30, 1903, during a sold-out matinee performance, a fire broke out in Chicago's Iroquois Theatre. In the short span of twenty minutes, more than six hundred people were asphyxiated, burned, or trampled to death in a panicked mob's failed attempt to escape. In Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903, Nat Brandt provides a detailed chronicle of this horrific event to assess not only the titanic tragedy of the fire itself but also the municipal corruption and greed that kindled the flames beforehand and the political cover-ups hidden in the smoke and ash afterwards. Advertised as "absolutely fireproof," the Iroquois was Chicago's most modern playhouse when it opened in the fall of 1903. With the approval of the city's building department, theater developers Harry J. Powers and William J. Davis opened the theater prematurely to take full advantage of the holiday crowds, ignoring flagrant safety violations in the process. The aftermath of the fire proved to be a study in the miscarriage of justice. Despite overwhelming evidence that the building had not been completed, that fire safety laws were ignored, and that management had deliberately sealed off exits during the performance, no one was ever convicted or otherwise held accountable for the enormous loss of life. Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 is rich with vivid details about this horrific disaster, captivatingly presented in human terms without losing sight of the broader historical context.
©2003 Nat Brand (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks
River's Edge
Summary
River Prescott has everything she's ever wanted - except perhaps a man. The unconventional ranch owning artist is very certain she doesn't want a husband. But sometimes she can't help wishing for a lover; especially after her new neighbor trespasses and she gets a full frontal view of his assets. Edge Grayson moves onto the rundown spread he's inherited, expecting to stay aloof from nearby town business. But between local artists, River Prescott's determination to seduce him, and protecting her from a killer on the prowl, the ex-gunslinger is finding respectability a lot more dangerous than his former life of sin.
©2013 Gem Sivad, LLC (P)2015 Gem Sivad, LLC
The Chickamauga Campaign
Summary
From mid-August to mid-September 1863, Union major general William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland maneuvered from Tennessee to north Georgia in a bid to rout Confederate general Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee and blaze the way for further Union advances. Meanwhile, Confederate reinforcements bolstered the numbers of the Army of Tennessee, and by the time the two armies met at the Battle of Chickamauga, in northern Georgia, the Confederates had gained numerical superiority. Although the Confederacy won its only major victory west of the Appalachians, it failed to achieve the truly decisive results many high-ranking Confederates expected. In The Chickamauga Campaign, Steven E. Woodworth assembles eight thought-provoking new essays from an impressive group of authors to offer new insight into the complex reasons for this substantial, yet ultimately barren, Confederate victory.
©2010 Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks