Showing results by narrator "Malcom Hillgartner" in All Categories

Twenty years before shocking the world in Los Angeles in 1947 as “The Black Dahlia Avenger”, did George Hodel terrorize California by committing some of its most infamous crimes and serial murders?

Thousands of years before the Age of Elminster, dragons rule the skies of Faern, and elves dominate the huge forests that cover the land. Only in the mighty, magical empire of Netheril are men a force to be reckoned with. Bored and haughty in his midair castle, the Netherese mage Candlemas bets fellow wizard Sysquemalyn that a certain barbarian who has caught his eye can survive the most savage tests his friend - and deadly rival - can devise. The only rule: The tests must offer the subject some slight chance to survive.

The Netherese Empire will collapse in five generations. A forgotten foe, armed with a hell-spawned source of destructive magic, returns to seek her revenge, and a lost love is found in a most unexpected place. Against a backdrop of war and chaos, the barbarian Sunbright struggles to carve out a niche for himself - and his people - in a rapidly changing world.

In July 1883, just a few days after the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, a group of editors at the Century magazine engaged in a lively argument: Which Civil War battle was the bloodiest battle of them all? One claimed it was Chickamauga, another Cold Harbor. The argument inspired a brainstorm: Why not let the magazine’s 125,000 readers in on the conversation by offering “a series of papers on some of the great battles of the war, to be written by officers in command on both sides.”

New York Times best-selling author Steve Hodel has taken the known facts revealed in BDA, BDA II, BDA III and his subsequent investigations of the Elizabeth Short and LA lone woman murders and sews those facts together with the interstitial tissue of what could have been to create a thrilling courtroom drama in this historical fiction.

Netheril, empire of magic, where wizards wield power far beyond the ken of mortal men...Netheril, where citadels float, magic runs wild, and mages dabble in games better left for the gods...Netheril, a place of dangerous games where the barbarian Sunbright Steelshanks soon finds himself an unwilling pawn in a lethal match of wits, wiles, and powers.

In the early years of the 21st century, humanity has progressed into space, having established a permanent presence with Earth-orbiting Leo Station. Science and commerce in space are booming, and humanity’s future looks bright. But one man’s desire for vindication and revenge could end it all. Lodestar chronicles the complex political, personal, and scientific conflicts on Earth and in orbit - conflicts that must be resolved if humanity is to claim its destiny among the stars.

In writing The Early Years, my original intent was to present all my father’s suspected crimes from the 1920s and 1930s in one edition. I have found this is simply not possible, as it would require a book that would dwarf Dostoevsky’s nearly 700-page opus, Crime and Punishment. Therefore, I will present The Early Years in two parts, two editions. This edition is Part II, and it presents my investigations of his suspected crimes in the 1930s.