The Flying Flamingo Sisters, by Carrie Seim (author), Gabriel Vaughan (narrator), Bill Andrew Quinn (narrator), Jessica Almasy (narrator), Carrie Seim (narrator), Kevin Pariseau (narrator), Dina Pearlman (narrator), Khristine Hvam (narrator)

Audible Originals, December 2019

A Depression-era kids' wild romp in the sky.

When their aviator parents take off on a record-setting expedition, and then disappear over the Pacific, the Flamingo sisters--Flo, Faye, and Franny, ranging from 16 down to 9--have very little time to be worried before their Evil Uncle Freidrich swoops in to inform them he's now in charge. And girls can't fly airplanes, or aeroplanes, so he's taking possession of the girls' biplane. Oh, and they need to hand over the map to the Flamingo family treasure, immediately.

Marvel's Thor: Metal Gods, by Aaron Stewart-Ahn (author), Jay Edidin (author), Brian Keene (author), Yoon Ha Lee (author), Daniel Gillies (narrator)

Serial Box, December 2019

Thor and Loki have each had their adventures and made their mistakes. In this adventure, their past mistakes collide and they have a major problem they will have to solve--even if, this time, they have to, however reluctantly, solve it together, and learn from each other.

Many years ago, Thor responded to a request from the government of the planet of Miskandr, to help them put a stop to terrorist attacks from rebels. Thor does so, and upon successful completion of his mission, they give him a crown made of a metal unique to their planet. Thor has lots of such trinkets, and he puts it in his treasure room and forgets it.

Years after that, in the 1980s, Loki steals it, and uses it to boost a musician in the band he's amusing himself with into an apparently major talent. The musician, Sylvain, gets more self-involved and stops believing Loki has anything to do with his success. They break up, and Loki doesn't manage to get the crown back.

The Librarians and the Lost Lamp (The Librarians #1), by Greg Cox (author), Therese Plummer (narrator)

Macmillan Audio, November 2016

For millennia, The Library, and its Librarians, have been safeguarding the world from dangerous magical relics, collecting, cataloging, and safeguarding them against those who would misuse them.

Flynn Carsen, the most recent Librarian, in 2006 heads to Baghdad to look into the disappearance of the oldest known manuscript of The Arabian Nights, which might be of magical significance. He meets a beautiful museum curator who had been translating it, and they have run-ins with the actual Forty Thieves, a ghoul, a roc, and the actual Aladdin's lamp, complete with genie.

A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell Mystery #5), by Deanna Raybourn

Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 9780451490742, March 2020

Veronica Speedwell and Revelstoke Templeton-Vane are still recovering from their latest adventure, and continuing to hesitate about taking their relationship in the obvious direction, when Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk summons them with an alarming note making reference to the Jack the Ripper killings currently terrifying London. When they arrive, though, Lady Wellie is also receiving a visit from the Princess of Wales (who is, technically, Veronica's stepmother), and Inspector Archibond, of Special Branch.

It seems Prince Albert Victor, family name "Eddy," eldest son of the Prince of Wales, is involved in a bit of scandal, right at the time the royal family is attempting to arrange a marriage for him with Princess Alix of Hesse. Eddy is in love with her, but she is a young lady of strict morals, and learning that Eddy has been carrying on at the most exclusive sex club in London will end the negotiations. The Princess of Wales even fears the scandal could rock the monarchy. It's really unfortunate that Eddy has given the proprietress of the establishment an expensive jewel, with his initials on it.

The Lost World (Professor Challenger #1), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author), Glen McReady (narrator)

Naxos AudioBooks, February 2008 (original publication 1912)

In London, in 1907, Irishman Edward Malone is a journalist, and also has a certain reputation as an athlete. What he doesn't have, in the eyes of his beloved Gladys, is fame and a reputation for daring, romantic adventure. On these grounds, she utterly rejects him.

Malone is not yet ready to give up, though, and appeals to his editor for an assignment that will give him the scope for adventure and fame that Gladys wants the man she marries to have.

His editor sends him off to interview Professor Challenger, a naturalist who returned from South America with a wild tale no one believes, about impossible prehistoric beasts still alive there. Oh, and Challenger has assaulted those who disbelieve him too directly.

A Treacherous Curse, by Deanna Raybourn

Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 9780451476173, January 2018

Veronica Speedwell and Revelstoke Templeton-Vane--Stoker--are working away at their respective restoration and cataloging duties in the Belvedere, the future museum on the grounds of the home of the Earl of Rosemorran. It's the Earl's family collection of animals, insects, devices, and other oddities that they are cataloging.

Then an expedition to Egypt returns, with treasures, a story of a curse killing members of the expedition, and the expedition photographer, John de Morgan, missing, along with a valuable diadem found in the tomb the Tivington expedition excavated on this trip.

De Morgan was once Stoker's best friend. He's now married to Stoker's former wife, Caroline, who left Stoker apparently dying in the Amazon. Caroline returned to Britain and divorced him, claiming cruelty, and in the process destroying his reputation.

De Morgan may be a thief, who has stolen the diadem to finance an escape from his tempestuous marriage. Or he may be dead, killed by the real thief. If de Morgan is dead, Stoker is the most likely suspect in his murder.

A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell #2), by Deanna Raybourn

Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 9780451476159, January 2017

Veronica Speedwell and Revelstoke Templeton-Vane (known to his friends as Stoker) have settled into a comfortable partnership, cataloging a nobleman's natural history collection while planning a new expedition. Those plans start to get derailed when Veronica is invited to tea at the Curiosity Club, a club for ladies with intellectual and artistic interests. She's there to meet a Lady Sundridge, of whom she has never heard.

Figuring out who Lady Sundridge really is, is her first challenge.

Her next challenge is the one Lady Sundridge sets her: proving the innocence of a man sentenced to hang for murder in just one week.

A Curious Beginning, by Deanna Raybourn

NAL/Penguin, ISBN 9780451476012, September 2015

It's 1887, and in the English countryside, Veronica Speedwell has just buried her Aunt Nell, the second of two guardians to die. She's now alone in the world, but by the same token, free to set off on a long-planned expedition to the Far East in pursuit of her lepidoptory career. She has financed it through the sale of her butterfly specimens from previous expeditions, and is building a small reputation in the field.

It's rather a shock for her to return to her aunt's cottage and discover that no only has it been ransacked, but the housebreaker is still inside, working on the kitchen now. She successfully chases him out, but he then attempts to abduct her, and is prevented by the timely arrival of an older, armed gentleman, and he flees in a conveniently waiting carriage.

The older gentleman is Baron Max von Stauffenbach, and he tells her she's in great danger. He offers to take her to London in his carriage.

Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas, by Matt Lewis

Plume, May 2015

Matt Lewis is a newly graduated marine biologist looking for his first job when he takes a position as an Observer on a commercial fishing vessel in Antarctic waters. He's a little disturbed when he first sees his new home and workplace, the Sudar Havid, an aging and much-modified fishing boat of Dutch ownership and South African crew. In the coming weeks, though, he gets to know the crew, the boat, and the life, and is fully a part of the crew by the time they run into real trouble.

They're a good half full of fish, and newly refueled off the Falklands, when they run into stormy weather and rough seas. Being so heavily laden gives them less maneuverability, and the captain and the fishing master are reluctant to stop fishing and reorient the boat. As the boat takes on water, Matt and others struggle to get the pumps started, without success. When the captain gives the order to abandon ship, it's late, and a desperate scramble. That's when the real struggle to survive begins.