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"A SURPRISINGLY FRESH AND TREMENDOUSLY THOROUGH CONTRIBUTION to the debate...Weir's book is, no doubt, not the last on this subject, but it might be the best....[She] constructs a devastating case...[and] brilliantly illuminates the nature of late-medieval political power." --The Boston Globe Despite five centuries of investigation by historians, the sinister deaths of the boy king Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, remain two of the most fascinating murder mysteries in English history. Did Richard III really kill "the Princes in the Tower," as is commonly believed, or was the murderer someone else entirely? Carefully examining every shred of contemporary evidence as well as dozens of modern accounts, English historian Alison Weir reconstructs the entire chain of events leading to the double murder. We are witnesses to the rivalry, ambition, intrigue, and struggle for power that culminated in the imprisonment of the prince and the hushed-up murders that secured Richard's claim to the throne as Richard III. A masterpiece of historical research and a riveting story of conspiracy and deception, The Princes in the Tower at last provides a solution to this age-old puzzle. "Weir takes on this delicious mystery with a fearsome vengeance. The result is a fascinating and completely credible account." --Milwaukee Journal "Did Richard III do in his nephews or didn't he? How much of the evil-uncle legend was later Tudor propaganda and how much was true?...This is exciting reading." --The Denver Post "A fascinating historical whodunit in which truth is more sordid than fiction." --Kirkus Reviews A MAIN SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB


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Two hundred years after the Forbidding was broken, Santhenar is locked in war with the lyrinx - intelligent, winged predators who will do anything to gain their own world. Despite the development of battle clankers and mastery of the crystals that power them, humanity is losing. Tiaan, a lonely crystal worker in a clanker manufactory, is experimenting with an entirely new kind of crystal when she begins to have extraordinary visions. The crystal has woken her latent talent for geomancy, the most powerful of all the Secret Arts - and the most perilous. Falsely accused of sabotage by her rival, Irisis, Tiaan flees for her life. Struggling to control her talent and hunted by the lyrinx, Tiaan follows her visions all the way to Tirthrax, greatest peak on all the Three Worlds, where a nightmare awaits her . Find out more about this title and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk


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Santhenar is on its knees. The war with the alien lyrinx drags on, and humanity is losing it, but there is worse to come. The Aachim have invaded with an irresistible force: a fleet of battle constructs. Cursing humanity for the loss of Aachan and his own clan, the embittered Aachim leader, Vithis, demands half the world in reparation. The council is in no position to resist. But even if they agree to his demands, can anything satisfy his thirst for vengeance?Tiaan is in despair. Her life lies in ruins, and now she is being hunted through the abandoned city of Tirthrax by an implacable Nish, who blames her for the attack.The future of the world rests in the hands of three flawed people: Tiaan, whose geomancy holds the key to the power that can save or destroy them; Nish, who has sworn to bring her to justice; and Irisis, whose great talents are hidden even from herself.


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Who knows what awaits us tomorrow?  Much of the most innovative and exhilarating work performed in the boundary-less arena of SF is being done in the short form. This year's magnificent harvest--gathered, as always, by acclaimed award-winning editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer--offers glimpses of worlds and tomorrows that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Brilliant, bold, unusual, and soaring flights into the hitherto unforeseen yet increasingly possible future, "Year's Best SF 15" offers truly breathtaking stories by some of speculative fiction's brightest lights, including:  Stephen Baxter - Nancy Kress - Alastair Reynolds - Geoff Ryman - Bruce Sterling - Peter Watts - Robert Charles Wilson - Gene Wolfe - and others


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(Skulduggery Pleasant #1)
EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant  

 Ace Detective Snappy Dresser Razortongued Wit Crackerjack Sorcerer and Walking, Talking,  Fire-throwing Skeleton  

 —as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old.  

 These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.  

 The end of the world?  

 Over his dead body.


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Fantasy fiction. All resistance has been crushed. In a few minutes of overwhelming violence the Council's air-dreadnought fleet has destroyed Fiz Gorgo's defences. Xervish Flydd, Irisis and their rallies have been condemned to die in a brutal aerial spectacle designed to reinforce Chief Scrutator Ghorr's power and majesty. The only one left uncaptured is Nish, but he is trapped in a burning watchtower, and hunted by both the scrutators and his former lover, Ullii, whose twin brother he accidentally killed. Before Nish can hope to rescue his friends, he must convince Ullii to spare him, then overcome the most powerful cabal of mancers in the world as well as the Council's four hundred crack guards. And even if he succeeds, to win the war the allies still have to defeat the scrutators and overthrow Nennifer, the corrupt Council's dread bastion, before the rampaging lyrinx overwhelm all Santhenar.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

J.J. Smith is an official keeper of world records. Wherever he goes, would-be record holders vie for his attention. But J.J.'s boss says his records are dull. Either he comes up with something special for The Book, or he's fired. So when J.J. hears about someone who is rumoured to be eating a 747, he has to check it out. Soon he finds himself in Superior, Nebraska, where Walter Chubb is, indeed, in the process of consuming an entire airplane, hoping to impress Willa Wyatt, the editor of the local newspaper, whom he has loved ever since she was the only guest who turned up to his tenth birthday party. Richly romantic, joyful and tender, "The Man Who Ate the 747" stretches the imagination, bends the laws of physics and takes you on a whimsical flight of fancy. 'Ben Sherwood is a modern-day Mark Twain who writes of small-town America with love, affection and with a definite twincle in his eye. A delightful and surprising book from start to finish' - Fannie Flagg. 'A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed ...a genuine, old-fashioned tale of romance' - "Daily Mirror".


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

MAX MCDANIELS LIVES a quiet life in the suburbs of Chicago, until the day he stumbles upon a mysterious Celtic tapestry. Many strange people are interested in Max and his tapestry. His discovery leads him to Rowan Academy, a secret school where great things await him.But dark things are waiting, too. When Max learns that priceless artworks and gifted children are disappearing, he finds himself in the crossfire of an ancient struggle between good and evil. To survive, he'll have to rely on a network of agents and mystics, the genius of his roommate, and the frightening power awakening within him.


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Interweaving past and present, Sweden and Zambia, rich and poor, The Eye of the Leopard is a stunning novel from a modern master.Hans Olofson arrives in Zambia not long after independence, hoping to fulfill the missionary dream of his recently deceased friend Janice. Africa is a complete shock to Olofson, yet he chooses to stay and make it his home, eventually taking control of a small farm. Here, he learns of the fragile truce between the white and black populations of Zambia, and rumors of an underground army of revolutionaries wearing leopard skins alert him that violence may erupt at any moment. As a wealthy white man, he grows increasingly fearful and returns in his mind to the traumatic events that drove him from Sweden, playing back the complicated events of his past, as his present races toward a thrilling climax.


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From internationally bestselling author Henning Mankell comes a gripping mystery and a depiction of every parent's worst nightmare.When Louise Cantor finds her twenty-eight year old son dead in his apartment, everything indicates it was a suicide. Louise, however, refuses to accept this, and with nothing more than few suspicions and a mother's intuition, she and her ex-husband set out to find what happened. What they discover is a dark underworld of people exploiting the victims of the AIDS epidemic: corrupt businessmen dealing infected blood, suspicious researchers carrying out dangerous tests, and lecherous drug dealers peddling black market medicine. Their investigation takes them across three continents, and leads them into some mighty financial institutions and highest corridors of power, where suddenly their own lives are at stake.


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Stopping to get money from a cash machine one evening, a man inexplicably falls to the ground: dead. A taxi driver is brutally murdered by two teenaged girls. Quickly apprehended they appal local policemen with their total lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without trace. Soon afterwards a blackout covers half the country. When an engineer arrives at the malfunctioning power station, he makes a grisly discovery. Inspector Kurt Wallander is sure that these events must be linked - somehow. Hampered by the discovery of betrayals in his own team, lonely and frustrated, Wallander begins to lose conviction in his role as a detective. The search for answers leads Wallander dangerously close to a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden within the anonymity of cyberspace. Somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move. Wallander finds himself fighting to outsmart them In their gripping police procedural about our increasing vulnerability in the modern digitalised world.


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Fifth in the Kurt Wallander series.In an African convent, four nuns and a unidentified fifth woman are brutally murdered--the death of the unknown woman covered up by the local police. A year later in Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander is baffled and appalled by two murders. Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and bird watcher, is impaled on sharpened bamboo poles in a ditch behind his secluded home, and the body of a missing florist is discovered--strangled and tied to a tree. The only clues Wallander has to go on are a skull, a diary, and a photo of three men. What ensues is a case that will test Wallander’s strength and patience, because in order to discover the reason behind these murders, he will also need to uncover the elusive connection between these deaths and the earlier unsolved murder in Africa of the fifth woman.


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Fourth in the Kurt Wallander series.In the award-winning Sidetracked, Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. The next day he is called to a beach where Sweden’s former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped. The murder has the obvious markings of a demented serial killer, and Wallander is frantic to find him before he strikes again. But his investigation is beset with a handful of obstacles—a department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, a tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman’s widow, and the unshakably haunting preoccupation with the young girl who set herself on fire. Fascinating and astute, Sidetracked is a compelling mystery enhanced by keen social awareness.


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Cas Perry wants nothing to do with love -- her dad walking out on her mother was quite enough romantic drama, thank you very much. And why should she bother with relationships when she can manipulate just about any man for sex? The steely-hearted TV producer plays with other people's love lives and orchestrates unscripted fireworks on the edgy reality show "Sex with an Ex" -- a ratings blockbuster that is sending her already-hot career skyrocketing.  Now, the woman who has all the answers meets the man who, for the first time, poses questions other than "buy you a drink?." Stunningly handsome Darren would be a sensation on "Sex with an Ex" -- and Cas needs him to ensure the show's success. So why is she wining and dining the sexiest man she's ever met -- and talking about family values, marriage, and fidelity? Darren's principles are changing the rules of attraction. And this may be one game Cas won't mind losing....


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In this riveting Henning Mankell thriller, a disillusioned Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself in a deep personal and professional crisis after killing a man in the line of duty. After almost a year of sick leave, he hits rock bottom and resolves to quit the police force for good. Against his better judgment Wallander stays on the force when unforeseen circumstances compel him to investigate the murder of a friend. While working closely with Ann-Britt Hoglund, the department’s first female detective, he stumbles on a horrific world where human body parts are traded like stock, and just as he comes close to uncovering the truth, the same shadowy threats responsible for the murders close in on Wallander himself.


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JOEL WILL SOON be 12, and he thinks nothing is going on in the small community where he lives. But he’s wrong. One day, an incident that could easily have been a catastrophe turns into a miracle. Now Joel believes he owes the world a good deed, to prove that he deserved what might have been divine intervention. He thinks up an elaborate scheme, but it doesn’t go as anticipated. Even though his heart is in the right place, feelings are hurt. If he confesses what he’s done and why, will things be put right again? Readers who met Joel Gustafson, his father, and their friends in A Bridge to the Stars will follow, with appreciation, Henning Mankell’s shrewd depiction, in this companion novel, of the surprising changes in Joel’s existence. Mankell deftly explores Joel’s self-discovery, his realization that lives can be altered in a single moment, and his new understanding that a choice between telling the truth and keeping silent can make all the difference.


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This poignant novel explores how a unilateral decision can change a life.Two things are hard for Joel Gustafson to cope with: not knowing why, and not being able to do anything about it. Joel’s father was once a sailor who lived by the sea. Joel’s mother once lived with them. Joel’s father abandoned the sea. Joel’s mother abandoned Joel and his father. While looking out his window one night, Joel sees a lonely dog on the street. Joel spots the animal again and begins sneaking out night after night, trying to find it. During these nocturnal outings, Joel discovers aspects of life he has never imagined. And then one night he discovers that his father’s bed, too, is empty.As Joel investigates his father’s mysterious absences and continues to search for the dog, he discovers his own inner strength and learns about adult disappointments and needs.


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People who wouldn't dream of blaming parents for a child's asthma or diabetes are often quick to blame bad parenting for a child's hyperactivity, depression, or school phobia. The parents, in turn, often blame their children, believing that they're lazy or rebellious. Even worse, the children with these psychological problems often blame themselves, convinced that they're just bad kids. In It's Nobody's Fault, esteemed child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Harold S. Kopelwicz at last puts an end to this pointless--and erroneous--cycle of blame and helps parents get the help they need for their troubled children. Written in an easy, anecdotal style and filled with fascinating stories of real children and their parents, It's Nobody's Fault is an indispensable guide for anyone who lives or works with children who need help. "From the Trade Paperback edition."


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London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime - but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms and the bohemian demi-monde to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation of what turns out to be a series of brutal killings. The Oscar Wilde Murders is a gripping detective story of corruption and intrigue, of Wilde's growing success, of the breakdown of his marriage, and of his fatal friendship with Aidan Fraser, Inspector at Scotland Yard.... Set against the exotic background of fin-de-siecle London, Paris, Oxford and Edinburgh, Gyles Brandreth recreates Oscar Wilde's trademark sardonic wit with huge flair, intertwining all the intrigue of the classic English murder mystery with a compelling portrait of one of the greatest characters of the Victorian age.


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As summer begins on Osprey Island, preparations at the Lodge -- the island's one and only hotel are underway for the busy season. On maintenance and housekeeping there's Lance and Lorna Squire, Osprey locals and raging drinkers; and their irrepressible son Squee. There are college boys to wait tables and Irish girls to clean rooms. And a few unusual returnees, too: Suzy Chizek, single mom and daughter of the Lodge's owners, who's looking for a parentally funded vacation; and Roddy Jacobs, another former local, who has come back after a mysterious twenty-year absence. But when tragedy strikes, dark secrets explode, dividing the island community over the fate of a young boy suddenly more vulnerable to his violent father than ever. In the uniquely ephemeral atmosphere of a summer resort, Thisbe Nissen unfolds, with charecteristic warmth and charm, an ever-deepening story of lost loves and found romance, of loyalties and betrayals; and of lingeringsometimes fleetingjoy.


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Jacks best friend, Charlie, is in serious trouble, possessed by an ancient demon called the Scourge who plans to use Charlie to bring about its evil endswhich, unfortunately, involve the destruction of the entire universe. Now Jack and the butt-kicking, sword-wielding Esme must contend with floating sharks, intelligent jelly, oversized centipedes, gladiator pits, and vomiting bats, all for the sake of saving Charlie from the Scourge. And, hopefully, saving the universe from total and utter annihilation.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Dispatched to investigate an unidentified ship that has emerged from a mysterious rift in space, Cherijo discovers technology far more advanced than anything she's ever seen. Before she can unravel the alien ship's mystery, Cherijo's own ship is sucked into the rift and transported through time. Unless she can find a way to reopen the rift, they will remain trapped in another time. And Cherijo will never see her family-which she's only just been reunited with-again...


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In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, journalist Graham Bowley re-creates one of the most dramatic tales of death and survival in mountaineering history, vividly taking readers through the tragic 2008 K2 ascent that claimed the lives of eleven climbers, severely injured two others, and made headlines around the world.   With its near-perfect pyramid shape, the 28,251-foot K2—the world's second-highest mountain, some 800 feet shorter than the legendary Everest hundreds of miles to the south—has lured serious climbers for decades. In 2008, near the end of a brief climbing season cut even shorter by bad weather, no fewer than ten international teams—some experienced, others less prepared—crowded the mountain's dangerous slopes with their Sherpas and porters, waiting to ascend.   Finally, on August 1, they were able to set off. But hindered by poor judgment, lack of equipment, and overcrowded conditions, the last group did not summit until nearly 8 p.m., hours later than planned. Then disaster struck when a huge ice chunk from above the Bottleneck, a deadly 300-foot avalanche-prone gulley just below the summit, came loose and destroyed the fixed guide ropes. More than a dozen climbers and porters still above the Bottleneck—many without oxygen and some with no headlamps—faced the near impossibility of descending in the blackness with no guideline and no protection. Over the course of the chaotic night, some would miraculously make it back. Others would not.   Based on in-depth interviews with surviving climbers and many Sherpas, porters, and family and friends of the deceased, No Way Down reveals for the first time the full dimensions of this harrowing drama.


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Homeless Michael Fox is about to commit suicide when a mysterious billionaire surgeon stops him and offers him two million dollars...for his right arm. But Fox's arm is only the beginning, as the surgeon continues his mad experiments, removing parts of Fox's body bit by bit and reassembling him from other parts. And Fox isn't the only one the doctor is experimenting on.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

From the author of *The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart*, a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award, comes this sweeping novel of love and war, power and oppression, faith and deception, over the course of three defining american decades.   

 1941. Loyal Ledford works the swing shift tending furnace at the Mann Glass factory in Huntington, West Virginia. He courts Rachel, the boss's daughter, a company nurse with spike-straight posture and coal-black hair. But when Pearl Harbor is attacked, Ledford, like so many young men of his time, sets his life on a new course.  

 Upon his return from service in the war, Ledford starts a family with Rachel, but he chafes under the authority at Mann Glass. He is a lost man, disconnected from the present and haunted by his violent past, until he meets his cousins, the Bonecutter brothers. Their land, mysterious, elemental Marrowbone Cut, calls to Ledford, and it is there, with help from an unlikely bunch, that the Marrowbone Marble Company is slowly forged. Over the next two decades, the factory grounds become a vanguard of the civil rights movement and the war on poverty, a home for those intent on change. Such a home inevitably invites trouble, and Ledford must fight for his family.  

 Returning to the West Virginia territory of the critically acclaimed *The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart*, Glenn Taylor recounts the transformative journey of a man and his community. Told in clean and powerful prose in the tradition of Cormac McCarthy and John Irving, *The Marrowbone Marble Company* takes a harrowing look at the issues of race and class throughout the tumultuous 1950s and '60s. It is a story of struggle and loss, righteousness and redemption, and it can only be found in the hills of Marrowbone.


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Jake Entwhistle is smart and handsome, but living with a shadow over his romantic history. Janet Rossi is a bright, witty aide to the governor of Massachusetts, but Janet suffers from an illness that makes her, as she puts it, “not exactly a good long-term investment.” After meeting by accident late one night, they begin a love affair filled with humor, startling intimacy, and a deep, abiding connection.


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"I’m not hanging noodles from your ear." In Moscow, this curious, engagingly colorful assertion is common parlance, but unless you’re Russian your reaction is probably "Say what?" The same idea in English is equally odd: "I’m not pulling your leg." Both mean: Believe me.As author Jag Bhalla demonstrates, these amusing, often hilarious phrases provide a unique perspective on how different cultures perceive and describe the world. Organized by theme—food, love, romance, and many more—they embody cultural traditions and attitudes, capture linguistic nuance, and shed fascinating light on "the whole ball of wax." For example, when English-speakers are hard at work, we’re "nose to the grindstone," but industrious Chinese toil "with liver and brains spilled on the ground" and busy Indians have "no time to die."If you’re already fluent in 10 languages, you probably won’t need this book, but you’ll "get a kick out of it" anyhow; for the rest of us, it’s a must. Either way, this surprising, often thought-provoking little tome is gift-friendly in appearance, a perfect impulse buy for word lovers, travelers, and anyone else who enjoys looking at life in a riotous, unusual way. And we’re not hanging noodles from your ear.


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In the midst of the worst winter on record, Rage is beset with worry. Her mother still hasn’t fully recovered from her car accident despite Rage’s successful quest for healing magic. Her stoic uncle seems to be having second thoughts about looking after her. The school bully, Logan, is increasingly malicious. And her only friend, Billy Thunder, is just a dog again. As if that weren’t enough, there’s something wild lurking in the woods around the farm. Do Rage’s dreams hint at a sinister threat to two worlds?From the Hardcover edition.


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Rage Winnoway’s closest friends have always been her four dogs: Bear, Billy Thunder, Elle, and Mr. Walker. When Rage sets off for the hospital where her mother lies in a coma, the dogs and the neighbor’s goat tag along. On the way, they run into the firecat, who talks them into going through a magical gate. And something wonderful happens! Each of Rage’s friends is transformed. Bear becomes a real bear; Billy Thunder, a teenage boy; Elle, a warrior woman; Mr. Walker, a small, large-eared gentleman; and the goat, a satyr with an inferiority complex. Together, Rage and her companions embark on a quest to save the world of Valley, a journey that is somehow tied to Rage’s family. In this brilliant tale of courage and transformation, Isobelle Carmody captures the magic of Narnia and the whimsy of Wonderland without losing sight of the real world and all its difficulties.From the Hardcover edition.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**In the tradition of Seabiscuit, the riveting tale of twoproud Scotsmen who beat all comers to   become the heroesof a golden age—the dawn of professional golf**  



  Bringing to life golf’s founding father and son, Tommy’s Honor is a stirring tribute to two legendary   players and a vivid evocation of their colorful, rip-roaring times.  



  The Morrises were towering figures in their day. Old Tom, born in 1821,began life as a nobody—  he was the son of a weaver and a maid. But he was born in St. Andrews, Scotland, the cradle of   golf, and the game was in his blood. He became the Champion Golfer of Scotland, a national   hero who won tournaments (and huge bets) while his young son looked on. As "Keeper of the   Green" at the town’s ancient links, Tom deployed golf’s first lawnmower and banished sheep from   the fairways.   



  Then Young Tommy’s career took off. Handsome Tommy Morris, the Tiger Woods of the   nineteenth century, was a more daring player than his father. Soon he surpassed Old Tom and   dominated the game. But just as he reached his peak—with spectators flocking to see him play—  Tommy’s life took a tragic turn, leading to his death at the age of twenty-four. That shock is at the   heart of *Tommy’s Honor*. It left Tom to pick up the pieces—to honor his son by keeping   Tommy’s memory alive.  



  Like the *New York Times* bestseller *The Greatest Game Ever Played*, *Tommy’s   Honor* is both fascinating history and a moving personal saga. Golfers will love it, but this   book isn’t only for golfers. It’s for every son who has fought to escape a father’s shadow and for   every father who had guided a son toward manhood, then found it hard to let him go.


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The moment she heard herself say she would marry him, she knew she had hit rock bottom. Kate never intended the get-over guy to fall in love with her ...No, Keith was just the lovely fella who was definitely not her type, but would help her feel good about herself while she got over one of the World's Biggest Bastards. However, after the initial shock of hearing herself agree to marry him, Kate reckons that for once she is doing the right thing. A future with a wonderful man who is kind, generous, great in bed, sure to be a model husband and father and who - no mean feat this - can put up with her big mad family, is exactly what she wants.But is it?Because whatever her head might be doing, she can't stop her heart pushing her towards the most surprising - and unsuitable - man she could possibly fall for...


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A memoir based on the Emmy-nominated actor's Broadway play is a humorous and poignant portrayal of his youth that describes his experiences of growing up in a family headed by a father who worked two jobs to support the family before succumbing to heart failure when Crystal was fifteen. Reprint.


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You don't stumble upon a series like the Daring Finds novels every day... Divorced mom, Candyce "Dyce" Dare is the owner of the furniture refinishing store Daring Finds. When she discovers decades-old letters inside an antique piano she's renovating, she becomes distracted by an investigation that puts her at odds with the letter-writer's very powerful local family.


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The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them.


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HE WAS THE MAN SHE COULDN'T HAVE . . .On a humanitarian mission to fly doctors to a remote village in Mexico, pilot Lisa Merrick discovers something sinister lurking behind the organization in charge. Her plane is sabotaged, leaving her trapped in the Mexican wilderness with a price on her head and no way out. Injured and desperate, she manages to contact the one man she knows will help her: Dave DeMarco, a tough but compassionate Texas cop she was once wildly in love with, a man who left her with nothing but a whispered promise that now provides her only hope.. . . SHE WAS THE WOMAN HE COULDN'T FORGETDave DeMarco is stunned when a woman from his past phones him late one night with an incredible story of smuggling, sabotage, and attempted murder. Just hearing Lisa Merrick’s voice brings back memories Dave doesn’t want to face, but a promise he once made leaves him no choice but to help her. Soon, though, his mission to rescue Lisa becomes a struggle for survival against an enemy who wants them both dead. When the danger they face clashes with the passion that still burns between them, Dave vows to protect the woman he never stopped loving–and keep her in his life forever. . . .


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Welcome to secret world hidden behind shadowy fairy glamour, where thieving spriggans rob you blind, beautiful banshees mesmerize you with their song, big green trolls kick heads at nightclubs and vampire Mafiosi rule the streets. Here a seductive magic mirror lies hidden deep in a demon's lair, with a simple warning: don't stare at the glass...Ice is a light-fingered fairy who can't resist a look at the powerful mirror. She and her fairy friends run confidence games, pretending to be fortune tellers and bedazzling customers with their glamour. But Ice longs for moreshe wants a real life, a respectable job and something to strive for. The mirror offers her a chance to achieve everything she's ever dreamed of. But when she pilfers it, she discovers that its power comes with a price: the mirror is a gateway to obsession and madness... and it will take every trick in her arsenal just to survive.


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Facing down mercenaries in Africa, Jason Bourne witnesses the death of an art dealer named Tracy Atherton. Her killing dredges up snatches of Bourne's impaired memory, in particular the murder of a young woman on Bali who entrusted him with a strangely engraved ring - an artifact of such powerful significance that people have killed to obtain it. Now he's determined to find the ring's owner and purpose. But Bourne never knows what terrible acts he'll discover he committed when he digs into the past.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The acclaimed *New York Times* bestselling author returns with a new stand-alone novel—a powerful and utterly riveting tale that skillfully moves between past and present to explore the lasting effects of crime on a victim's life....*I'd Know You Anywhere*   

 Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen-year-old Iso and eight-year-old Albie. But her tranquillity is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects—or wants—to hear from: Walter Bowman. *There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere*.  

 In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she's never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She's always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he'll tell her—and share the truth about his other victims.  

 Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long-ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And Eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it—even if it means finally facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.  

 An edgy, utterly gripping tale of psychological manipulation that will leave readers racing to the final page, *I'd Know You Anywhere* is a virtuoso performance from acclaimed, award-winning author Laura Lippman that is sure to be her biggest hit yet.


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A winter of discontent...January 1766. A dangerous mishap brings young widow Charlotte Willett unexpectedly to bleak and marshy Boar Island, a few miles from the village of Bracebridge and home to two eccentric elderly women. Some say that arrogant, unpopular Alexander Godwin — the only villager to regularly call upon the island's two residents — hopes to inherit the cavernous house when its owner finally passes on. But when Alexander is brutally murdered after the town's annual winter fête, Charlotte and her neighbor Richard Longfellow can't help but wonder who among Alexander's detractors might be responsible. Is his death connected to his activities on Boar Island — or to the unearthly trickery rumored to take place there? Could the rivalry over a beautiful young woman have sparked a more dangerous passion? And will the answers reveal themselves before death strikes Boar Island again?


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Emília and Luzia dos Santos, orphaned when they are children, grow up under the protection of their aunt in the hillside village of Taquaritinga, Brazil. Raised as seamstresses, the sisters learn how to cut, how to mend and how to conceal. Emília treasures pretty, girlish things and longs to escape from the confines of the little town. Captivated by the romances she reads in magazines, she dreams of finding love in the bustle and glamour of the city. Luzia, scarred by a childhood accident that has left her with a deformed arm, knows that for her, real life can not be romantically embroidered, and so she finds solace in her sewing and in the secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life. But when Luzia is abducted by a gang of rebel bandits, the sisters' lives diverge in ways they never imagined. Whilst Luzia learns to survive in the unforgiving Brazilian outland, discovering love in the most unexpected of places, Emília meets the son of a wealthy doctor who seems to offer her everything she has always desired. But for the innocent dreamer, the excitement of her escape to the city is soon overshadowed by disillusion and loneliness. As she learns how to navigate the treacherous waters of Brazilian high society, the bandits' campaign against the land-owning 'Colonels' intensifies, and when a price is placed upon Luzia's head Emília realises she must risk everything in order to save her sister.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**The remarkable life story of the man who inspired the film *Hotel Rwanda***  

  Readers who were moved and horrified by *Hotel Rwanda* will respond even more   intensely to Paul Rusesabagina’s unforgettable autobiography. As Rwanda was thrown into   chaos during the 1994 genocide, Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, turned the luxurious Hotel   Milles Collines into a refuge for more than 1,200 Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, while fending   off their would-be killers with a combination of diplomacy and deception. In *An Ordinary   Man*, he tells the story of his childhood, retraces his accidental path to heroism, revisits the   100 days in which he was the only thing standing between his "guests" and a hideous death, and   recounts his subsequent life as a refugee and activist.


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Fred Thompson has enjoyed a remarkable career in Hollywood and politics, but when he sat down to write a memoir about how he got to be the person he is, he discovered that his best stories all seemed to come out of the years he spent growing up in and around his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. It was a small town but not the smallest—after all, it was the county seat and it did have a courthouse, a couple of movie theaters, and its own Davy Crockett statue. For truly small, you had to travel to nearby Summertown, where the regular Sunday dinner was possum and chocolate gravy. But Lawrenceburg is where Fred got to be a kid, get in his share of trouble and scrapes, get to know folks he didn’t realize were so colorful at the time but sure does now, get married, have a few kids, become a man, and start his career as a country lawyer (pretty much in that order). And as Fred tells it, getting that law degree was something of a surprise for him, since in school he’d been less than stellar as a scholar. “Teaching Latin to someone like me,” he says, “was like trying to teach a pig to dance. It’s a waste of the teacher’s time and it irritates the pig.” In these reflections, as hilarious as they are honest and warm, Fred touches on the influences—family, hometown neighbors and teachers, team sports, jobs, romances, and personal crises—that molded his character, his politics, and the way he looks at life today. We get to know the unforgettable characters who congregated at the Blue Ribbon Caf, like the rotund gentleman called “Shorty” whose claim to fame was his ability to quickly suck in his stomach and cause his pants to fall to the floor. Or Fred’s Grandma Thompson, who became an early TV adopter for the sole purpose of watching “Wrestling from Hollywood” and who once had a “gourder” removed from her neck and subsequently walked around town with it in a handkerchief showing it to folks. One day Fred and an accomplice placed small explosive Fourth of July “cracker balls” under the four legs of their teacher’s chair. Mrs. Garner sat down and, despite the racket, didn’t flinch so much as a muscle—but Fred felt a twinge of the one emotion he hated most—shame. Fred idolized Coach Staggs from his high school football days, even though he was “like Captain Ahab without the humor” and didn’t like smart alecks, comics, or individualists, which put the young Fred at a disadvantage. More than anyone else from those days though, Fred remembers his mom and dad, who taught him that kids are shaped most of all by the love and support they can take for granted. Teaching the Pig to Dance will delight everyone who admires Fred Thompson for his contributions to politics or for his work in movies and on TV, along with all those who just love to hear rollicking but unforgettable stories about growing up in a place where, as one of the local old timers put it, “We weren’t big enough to have a town drunk, so a few of us had to take turns.”


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Set in the haunting landscape of eastern Australia, this is a stunningly accomplished debut novel about the inescapable past: the ineffable ties of family, the wars fought by fathers and sons, and what goes unsaid.After the departure of the woman he loves, Frank drives out to a shack by the ocean that he had last visited as a teenager. There, among the sugarcane and sand dunes, he struggles to rebuild his life.Forty years earlier, Leon is growing up in Sydney, turning out treacle tarts at his parents’ bakery and flirting with one of the local girls. But when he’s drafted to serve in Vietnam, he finds himself suddenly confronting the same experiences that haunt his war-veteran father.As these two stories weave around each other–each narrated in a voice as tender as it is fierce–we learn what binds Frank and Leon together, and what may end up keeping them apart.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

From the #1 *New York Times* best-selling author of *God Is Not Great*, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages--with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. 

  Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they're all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens--"political and literary journalist extraordinaire" (*Los Angeles Times*)--can. 

  Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: *The Portable Atheist* will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.


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Every one of the immortal Sherlock Holmes novels appears in this single volume, unabridged, embellished with beautiful original illustrations, and reasonably priced. The classic works include: A Study in Scarlet, the very first Holmes adventure; The Sign of Four, where Holmes solves the case of a missing treasure in India; The Hound of the Baskervilles, in which Holmes and Watson find themselves involved in an age-old curse; and The Valley of Fear, with a battle between Holmes and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty. “Remarkably affordable and complete. Reproductions of old illustrations are enchanting.”—Baltimore Sun.


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Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon.The story details an incident when Marlow, an Englishman, took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Although Conrad does not specify the name of the river, at this time Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization in a cover up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region.This very symbolic story is actually a story within a story, or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts, from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary, his Congolese adventure. The passage of time, and the darkening sky, during the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallels the atmosphere of the overall story. (wikipedia)


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Shelley's enduringly popular and rich gothic tale confronts some of the most feared innovations of evolutionism and science--topics such as degeneracy, hereditary disease, and humankind's ability to act as creator of the modern world. This new edition, based on the harder and wittier 1818 version of the text, draws on new research and examines the novel in the context of the controversial radical sciences developing in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, and shows the relationship of Frankenstein's experiment to the contemporary debate between champions of materialistic science and proponents of received religion.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

*The Time Machine and The Invisible Man*, by **H. G. Wells**, is part of the **Barnes & Noble Classics* *series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of *Barnes & Noble Classics*: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. *Barnes & Noble Classics *pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.** *The Time Machine*, **H. G. Wells**’s first novel, is a tale of Darwinian evolution taken to its extreme. Its hero, a young scientist, travels 800,000 years into the future and discovers a dying earth populated by two strange humanoid species: the brutal Morlocks and the gentle but nearly helpless Eloi.*The Invisible Man* mixes chilling terror, suspense, and acute psychological understanding into a tale of an equally adventurous scientist who discovers the formula for invisibility—a secret that drives him mad.Immensely popular during his lifetime, H. G. Wells, along with Jules Verne, is credited with inventing science fiction. This new volume offers two of Wells’s best-loved and most critically acclaimed “scientific romances.” In each, the author grounds his fantastical imagination in scientific fact and conjecture while lacing his narrative with vibrant action, not merely to tell a “ripping yarn,” but to offer a biting critique on the world around him. “The strength of Mr. Wells,” wrote Arnold Bennett, “lies in the fact that he is not only a scientist, but a most talented student of character, especially quaint character. He will not only ingeniously describe for you a scientific miracle, but he will set down that miracle in the midst of a country village, sketching with excellent humour the inn-landlady, the blacksmith, the chemist’s apprentice, the doctor, and all the other persons whom the miracle affects.” **Alfred Mac Adam**** teaches literature at Barnard College-Columbia University. He is a translator and art critic.


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Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?   What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?   How much do parents really matter?   These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to parenting and sports—and reaches conclusions that turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They set out to explore the inner workings of a crack gang, the truth about real estate agents, the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, and much more. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, they show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

SUMMARY:
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.


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Long narrative poem originally titled Commedia (about 1555 printed as La divina commedia) written about 1310-14 by Dante. The work is divided into three major sections--Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso--which trace the journey of a man from darkness and error to the revelation of the divine light, culminating in the beatific vision of God. It is usually held to be one of the world's greatest works of literature. The plot of The Divine Comedy is simple: a man is miraculously enabled to visit the souls in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. He has two guides: Virgil, who leads him through the Inferno and Purgatorio, and Beatrice, who introduces him to Paradiso. Through these fictional encounters taking place from Good Friday evening in 1300 through Easter Sunday and slightly beyond, Dante the character learns of the exile that is awaiting him (an actual exile that had already occurred at the time of writing). This device allowed Dante not only to create a story out of his exile but also to explain how he came to cope with personal calamity and to offer suggestions for the resolution of Italy's troubles as well. Thus, Dante's story is historically specific as well as paradigmatic; his exile serves as a microcosm of the problems of a country, and it also becomes representative of the Fall of Man. The basic structural component of The Divine Comedy is the canto. The poem consists of 100 cantos, which are grouped into the three major sections, or canticles. Technically there are 33 cantos in each canticle and one additional canto, contained in the Inferno, that serves as an introduction to the entire poem. For the most part the cantos range from 136 to 151 lines. The poem's rhyme scheme is the terza rima (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.) Thus, the divine number three is present in every part of the work. Dante adopts the classical convention of a visit to the land of the dead, but he adapts it to a Christian worldview by beginning his journey there. The Inferno represents a false start during which Dante, the character, must be disabused of harmful values that somehow prevent him from rising above his fallen world. Despite the regressive nature of the Inferno, Dante's meetings with the damned are among the most memorable moments of the poem: the Neutrals, the virtuous pagans, Francesca da Rimini, Filipo Argenti, Farinata degli Uberti, Piero delle Vigne, Brunetto Latini, the simoniacal popes, Ulysses, and Ugolino impose themselves upon the reader's imagination with tremendous force. Nonetheless, the journey through the Inferno primarily signifies a process of separation and thus is only the initial step in a fuller development. In the Purgatorio the protagonist's spiritual rehabilitation commences. There Dante subdues his own personality so that he will be able to ascend. He comes to accept the essential Christian image of life as a pilgrimage, and he joins the other penitents on the road of life. At the summit of Purgatory, where repentant sinners are purged of their sins, Virgil departs, having led Dante as far as human knowledge is able--to the threshold of Paradise. Beatrice, who embodies the knowledge of divine mysteries bestowed by Grace, continues Dante's tour. In the Paradiso true heroic fulfillment is achieved. Dante's poem gives expression to those figures from the past who seem to defy death and who inspire in their followers a feeling of exaltation and a desire for identification. The Paradiso is consequently a poem of fulfillment and of completion.


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Robert Louis Stevenson's short novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, first published in 1886, became an instant classic, a Gothic horror originating in a feverish nightmare whose hallucinatory setting in the back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. Its revelatory ending is one of the most original and thrilling in English Literature. This new edition of Stevenson's most famous work includes three additional short stories, two short essays, and extracts from contemporary writing on psychological disorders. The introduction considers the reasons for the book's popularity, "the double," and psychoanalytic interpretations, as well as crime, sex, class, and urbanism in the 1880s. Appendixes provide contextual historical material by Henry Maudsley, Frederic Myers, and W.T. Stead. This edition also provides an up-to-date bibliography and full notes, including details of the initial responses of Stevenson's contemporaries, such as John Addington Symonds, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Rider Haggard.


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The Woman in White (1859-60) is the first and greatest "Sensation Novel." Walter Hartright's mysterious midnight encounter with the woman in white draws him into a vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue. This new critical edition is the first to use the original manuscript of the novel. John Sutherland examines Collins's contribution to Victorian fiction, traces his practices as a creator of plot, and provides a chronology of the novel's complicated events.


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The classic tale of Captain Nemo and the submarine the Nautilus, this is the quintessential translation by the internationally renowned Verne scholar, William Butcher. This edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea reports the very first study of Verne's manuscript and is packed with detail on artistic and scientific references.


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With an introduction by Arnold Rampersad  "The Library of America has insured that most of Wright's major texts are now available as he wanted them to be read." --Alfred Kazin, New York Times Book Review  Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny: by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection of the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.  "This new edition gives us a Native Son in which the key line in the key scene is restored to the great good fortune of American letters. The scene as we now have it is central both to an ongoing conversation among African-American writers and critics and to the consciousness among all American readers of what it means to live in a multi-racial society in which power splits among racial lines." --Jack Miles, Los Angeles Times


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The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony's revengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome; only two- the ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander-survive the journey. Delivered to the household of Octavian's sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian's family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts. The fateful tale of Selene and Alexander is brought brilliantly to life in "Cleopatra's Daughter. "Recounted in Selene's youthful and engaging voice, it introduces a compelling cast of historical characters: Octavia, the emperor Octavian's kind and compassionate sister, abandoned by Marc Antony for Cleopatra; Livia, Octavian's bitter and jealous wife; Marcellus, Octavian's handsome, flirtatious nephew and heir apparent; Tiberius, Livia's sardonic son and Marcellus's great rival for power; and Juba, Octavian's watchful aide, whose honored position at court has far-reaching effects on the lives of the young Egyptian royals. Selene's narrative is animated by the concerns of a young girl in any time and place-the possibility of finding love, the pull of friendship and family, and the pursuit of her unique interests and talents. While coping with the loss of both her family and her ancestral kingdom, Selene must find a path around the dangers of a foreign land. Her accounts of life in Rome are filled with historical details that vividly capture both the glories and horrors of the times. She dines with the empire's most illustrious poets and politicians, witnesses the creation of the Pantheon, and navigates the colorful, crowded marketplaces of the city where Roman-style justice is meted out with merciless authority. Based on meticulous research, "Cleopatra's Daughter "is a fascinating portrait of imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and most tumultuous period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of the past, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart. "From the Hardcover edition."


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In ancient Egypt, a forgotten princess must overcome her familyGÇÖs past and remake history. The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eighteenth DynastyGÇÖs royal family-all with the exception of Nefertari, the niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girlGÇÖs deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertari is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the PharaohGÇÖs aunt, then brought to the Temple of Hathor, where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen. Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her familyGÇÖs history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history. Sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, The Heretic Queen is a novel of passion and power, heartbreak and redemption.


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This fictionalized life of the notorious queen is told from the point of view of her younger sister, Mutnodjmet. In 1351 B.C., Prince Amunhotep secretly kills his older brother and becomes next in line to Egypt's throne: he's 17, and the 15-year-old Nefertiti soon becomes his chief wife. He already has a wife, but Kiya's blood is not as royal, nor is she as bewitching as Nefertiti. As Mutnodjmet, two years younger than her sister, looks on (and falls in love), Amunhotep and the equally ambitious Nefertiti worship a different main god, displace the priests who control Egypt's wealth and begin building a city that boasts the royal likenesses chiseled in stone. Things get tense when Kiya has sons and the popular Nefertiti has only daughters, and they come to a boil when the army is used to build temples to the pharaoh and his queen instead of protecting Egypt's borders. Though sometimes big events are telegraphed, Moran, who lives in California and is making her U.S. debut, gets the details just right, and there are still plenty of surprises in an epic that brings an ancient world to life.


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Charleen, a divorced woman attending her widowed mother's second wedding, makes startling discoveries about other family members attending the reunion and achieves a new understanding of herself and her own life. Reprint.


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Ian Wigby is about to find out that he is a very special boy. Along the southern coast of England, atop the White Cliffs of Dover, stands a castle. And at that castle's old keep is an orphanage. Delphi Keep has seen many youngsters come and go through its gates, and Ian Wigby and his sister, Theodosia, are happy to call it home. Life has always been simple at the Keep, and the orphanage safe, until one day, Ian and Theo find a silver treasure box. And within the box, a prophesy. Three thousand years ago a great Greek oracle wrote of a quest. A quest on which the fate of the world depends. A quest that names two childrenIan and Theodosia. Suddenly Delphi Keep is no longer safe. And Ian and Theo, along with a very special group of friends, realize they must unravel the meaning behind the scroll of Dover cavern before darkness falls on the world. And before an unfathomable evil catches up with them. From the Hardcover edition.


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Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of A Tale of Two Cities includes a Foreword, Biographical Note, and Afterword by R.L. Fisher.They fled to London, seeking safety, and found each other--Dr. Manette, falsely imprisoned for decades; his daughter, Lucie, whose stunning beauty was matched by her loyalty and grace; and Charles Darnay, who abandoned a royal title he hated to risk being called a traitor in France, a spy in England. Together, their love touched the hearts of even stodgy banker Mr. Lorry and cynical, jaded lawyer Sydney Carton...But in Paris, the fires of revolution exploded in uncontrollable fury. The noble goals of freedom fighters became the crazed bloodbath called the Reign of Terror. And when three exiles returned home on an errand of mercy, they were trapped in a nightmare of mock trials and made rage. Once in Paris, nothing could save Darnay, Lucie, or Manette...Except a miracle.


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(The Au Pairs #1) 
EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**SUMMER AU PAIRS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY**

 *For four energetic children, between 3 and 10 years old.

 Join a NYC family for the best summer of your life in

 East Hampton, July 4-Labor Day. 

 **Pay: $10,000.00**

 Driver's license a must.

 Familiarity with the Hamptons, a plus. 

 Send resumes and head shots to HamptonsAuPairs@yahoo.com* 



 Meet Mara Waters, Eliza Thompson, and Jacqui Velasco -- new au pairs for one of New York City's wealthiest families -- who will spend their summer in one of the most posh, most exclusive spots for summer summering: the Hamptons. 

 For good girl Mara, this job is a way out of another go-slow Massachusetts summer. Eliza, New York City's former It Girl, knows this is the fast lane back to the stylish world she wishes she'd never left. And for Brazilian bombshell Jacqui, it's a boarding pass back to her American love who told her he'd e-mail as soon as he got home, and didn't.  

 After all, how hard can an au pair job be? Slap sunscreen on the kids during the day and party at the coolest hot spots at night, right?ÿWrong. 

 While Eliza is desperately trying to hide her baby-sitting job from her superspoiled friends who think she's still just as rich as she used to be, Mara's getting awfully cozy with the kids' extremely attractive older brother, Ryan. And Jacqui is heartbroken when she discovers that the love of her life may have been nothing more than a spring fling. 

 If the girls can manage au pair duties -- all the while mastering the ins and outs of the Hamptons' social scene -- it might just turn out to be the most incredible summer of their lives. But to do it they'll have to stick together. And that's where things definitely get sticky.


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(The Au Pairs #2) 
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The girls are back for another summer of fun in the sun (and childminding), but a lot has changed since last time. Eliza is now working at a 'celebrity playground' nightclub: schmoozing with the A-List (well, serving their drinks), trying to regain her title of popularity queen, and attempting to forget all about her Big Palm Beach Secret. The others, meanwhile, are back at the Perrys looking after the kids: what with the arrival of sexy Philippe, the new French au pair, who forces Jacqui to reconsider her 'No More Boys' motto; and Mara's ex hanging around with his new Charlize Therone clone of a girlfriend, the au pairs have a lot to contend with... Will their three-way friendship survive this summer of gossip and secrets?


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Kissed (The Au Pairs #3) 
EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**Be careful or you'll get burned.**





The three hottest au pairs in history are back, and this time they're ready to rule the Hamptons. Mara has all the VIPs in the hottest clubs hanging on her every word. Eliza's family is back from financial ruin; and she's got the platinum charge cards to prove it. Jacqui is newly single and ready for some steamy summer hook-ups. The girls seem to have it all this summer...but looks, as we all know, can be deceiving.



Mara's living every girl's dream: playing house with her boyfriend, Ryan Perry, on his parents' luxury yacht while writing a column about night-life in the Hamptons. With a press pass to every hot event, Mara's ready to hit the red carpet and scoop even the most seasoned journalists. If only she could get a pass from Ryan, who just wants her to stay home and cuddle. 



Last summer's "No boys!" mantra is a distant memory for Jacqui. While the new au pair, Shannon, handles the Perry kids, Jacqui searches for some serious fun. And she doesn't have to look far: Three dot.com boy millionaires have moved in next door and are more than happy to compete for her affections. Thus Jacqui's new mantra is, "Why have just one when you can have them all?"



Eliza and Jeremy are in total relationship bliss. She's decided to take the next step with Jeremy and nothing's going to stop her this time. Unfortunately, what she thought would be a cakewalk internship for a famous fashion designer turns out to be more hours of hard labor than she, or her relationship, are ready for. Too bad Jeremy won't stop questioning her work ethic long enough for Eliza to get back in the mood. 



*The Au Pairs: Sun-kissed.* Because it's soooo much more than just a job.


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"Enthralling...As fascinating as any novel and more so than most!"THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWAgainst the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great. He brought Russia from the darkness of its own Middle Ages into the Enlightenment and transformed it into the power that has its legacy in the Russia of our own century.


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'Sushi for One? is an entertaining romp into the world of multi-culturalism.  I loved learning the idiosyncrasies of Lex's crazy family---which were completely universal. Enjoy!'  ---Kristen Billerbeck, author of What a Girl Wants    'In Lex Sakai, Camy Tang gives us a funny, plucky, volleyball-playing heroine with way too many balls in the air. I defy anyone to start reading and not root for Lex all the way to the story's romantic, super-satisfying end.'  ---Trish Perry, author of The Guy I'm Not Dating    Lex Sakai's family is big, nosy, and marriage-minded. When her cousin Mariko gets married, Lex will become the oldest single cousin in the clan.     Lex has used her Bible study class on Ephesians to compile a huge list of traits for the perfect man. But the one man she keeps running into doesn't seem to have a single quality on her list.   It's only when the always-in-control Lex starts to let God take over that all the pieces of this hilarious romance finally fall into place.


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In 1612, Shakespeare gave evidence in a court case at Westminsterand it is the only occasion on which his actual spoken words were recorded. In The Lodger Shakespeare, Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating but little-known episode in the Bards life. Drawing on evidence from a wide variety of sources, Nicholl creates a compellingly detailed account of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked amid the bustle of early seventeenth-century London. This elegant, often unexpected exploration presents a new and original look at Shakespeare as he was writing such masterpieces as Othello, Measure for Measure, and King Lear.


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Are the Wall Street players Jasper Cunningham encounters along his quest for power merely a pawn in his murderous passion for wealth? From Dawn to Deceit reveals the saga of a self-made multimillionaire whose greed and malice succumb him to fight the justice system to regain his freedom and stature in the business world. Through flashbacks of the adulterous years preceding Jasper's arrest and trial, we encounter cold-blooded murders, corporate fraud and embezzlement, and justified rape. In his journey, Jasper affiliates with seemingly faithful lovers and underworld cohorts who become jointly entangled in their common goal-the pursuit of wealth, sex, and power. But who can Jasper trust? The layers of deception only accelerate after his verdict.


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The Roses met at an auction on Cape Cod. Oliver had just bought a Staffordshire figurine-one of a pair-but Barbara outbid him for its mate. The figurines belonged together, and so did the Roses. Now the two objets d'art sat together on a shelf in the Roses' home-symbols of the passion their owners shared. A passion that united them and now was about to tear them apart .     

Sharing, for Oliver and Barbara Rose, was a way of life. Living in the mansion they had restored together, with the antiques they had collected together, their rare wines, their orchids, and their children-all the beautiful things they owned-they were happy. Their latest project had been the kitchen, which was to be the core of Barbara's new-found career as a caterer of gourmet foods. Though Oliver was a busy and successful attorney, he had shared all the planning chores with her.     

The tripping point occurred when Oliver collapsed with what seemed to be a heart attack, and Barbara, as he had expected, did not rush to his side. Her indifference to his fate was both galling and an eye-opener about the truth of their marriage, a truth based more on materialism than mutual sharing and love.     

The War of the Roses is a timeless novel.  Yet, this is a story uniquely of our own time, where more and more people measure their happiness and success in terms of the things they possess.     

This is the book that inspired one of the most famous movies about divorce ever produced. Shown somewhere in the world every week, the movie is an excellent adaptation of the book that has been translated in almost every language on the planet. The impact of both the book and the movie have made them both classics and brought the title The War of the Roses into the accepted jargon of divorce, describing the terrible hatred and cruelty engendered in the process.    

A Major Motion Picture starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner released by Twentieth Century Fox.


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A young insurance saleswoman is found strangled at Mitsuse Pass. Her family and friends are shocked and terrified. The pass-which tunnels through a mountainous region of southern Japan-has an eerie history: a hideout for robbers, murderers, and ghostly creatures lurking at night. Soon afterward, a young construction worker becomes the primary suspect. As the investigation unfolds, the events leading up to the murder come darkly into focus, revealing a troubled cast of characters: the victim, Yoshino, a woman much too eager for acceptance; the suspect, Yuichi, a car enthusiast misunderstood by everyone around him; the victimrs"s middle-aged father, a barber disappointed with his life; and the suspectrs"s aging grandmother, who survived the starvation of postwar Japan only to be tormented by local gangsters. And, finally, there is desperate Mitsuyo, the lonely woman who finds Yuichi online and makes the big mistake of falling for him. A stunningly dark thriller and a tapestry of noir,Villainis the English-language debut for Shuichi Yoshida, one of Japanrs"s most acclaimed and accomplished writers. From desolate seaside towns and lighthouses to love hotels and online chat rooms,Villainreveals the inner lives of men and women who all have something to hide. Part police procedural, part gritty realism,Villainis a coolly seductive story of loneliness and alienation in the southernmost reaches of Japan.


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For sometime I’ve been clean and at times it has been hard but I think about my love for me and know that I can´t and refuse to fall back into that self pity state of denial and  that now I understand that it´s not about me also there´s a saying that is so true which say´s in order to keep what you got you must give it away I hope this will help someone or some body´s out there that´s beginning to realize that life is bigger than they are and more important to someone else other than you thank you for time


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In this latest internationally bestselling thriller from David Rollins, author of **The Death Trust***, *a bizarre murder leads an ex–Air Force special investigator into a shadow world of conspiracy, cover-up, and military secrecy where the difference between friend or foe is thin as…****A scientist meets a grisly end when he falls from a military research ship and is attacked by a two-ton white shark off the Japanese coast. By the time Special Investigator Vin Cooper reaches the scene, there’s literally very little left to prove that the death wasn’t an accident. But Cooper’s instincts tell him that he’s looking at murder and that in assigning him to this case someone might just as well have shoved him, too, into shark-infested waters.What kind of top secret project could the military be engaged in that would require the services of a foremost marine biologist *and* a genetic researcher? The possibilities are ominous, but not as ominous as the truth. And then the unthinkable tragedy that everyone feared since 9/11 explodes with a terrifying sense of déjà vu—in San Francisco.Suddenly, with a second scientist presumed dead, an unidentified charred body in the morgue, and the “accidental” parachute death of a friend in a Florida training field, Cooper is following a trail as narrow and as dangerous as a knife-edge—a trail that leads to what we all fear most: a secret “government” within our government whose sworn duty is to kill anyone who opposes them.


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<p>Life in the court of King Henry VIII is a complex game. When fifteen-year-old Catherine Howard catches the king’s eye, she quickly transforms from pawn to queen. But even luxury beyond imagination loses its luster as young Catherine finds her life—and her heart—threatened by the needs of an aging king and a family hungry for power. Will their agendas deliver Catherine to the same fate as her infamous cousin, Anne Boleyn—sacrificed at the altar of family ambition?<p>Engaging historical fiction with a throbbing YA heartbeat, this thrilling novel will draw readers into the intrigues and dangers of the Tudor court.


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The year is 1865. The Civil War between the states is raging on. General Sherman, along with over sixty thousand Union troops, has just forced their way into Columbia, South Carolina. By the time the sun rises the following day, Columbia would be in ruins. Three-quarters of the once-striving showcase of the South would be reduced to ashes. The pride of the South, the pride of the Confederacy, would never recover.


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Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light. Night Watch Agent Anton Gorodetsky's holiday is abruptly shortened when an urgent call from Gesar - his boss and Night Watch head - forces him to return to work. Gesar has received an anonymous note, stating that an Other has revealed the full truth about their kind to a human, and intends to convert the human in an Other. The note has also been sent to the Day Watch, and to the Inquisition - but only the very highest-level Others know the addresses. So the Inquisition orders the cooperation of Night and Day Watch in an effort to unmask the culprit.


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Sidney Sheldon introduced the glamorous Blackwell family in his book 'Master of the Game'. Yet the intervening years have not lessened the Blackwells' drama or talent for manipulation, domination, and passion. Though Kate is long gone, the children of her beloved granddaughters, Eve and Alexandra, battle to carry on her powerful legacy. Each is determined to control Kruger-Brent, Ltd., the multibillion-dollar international corporation with holdings in diverse industries around the globe. But only one can reign supreme. Lexi Templeton is a ruthless competitor with the brains and beauty to match. Raised by her psychiatrist father, Lexi burns to follow in her great-grandmother's footsteps and become her own Mistress of the Game. She is not alone in her ambitions. Her handsome and nefarious cousin, Max Webster, the son of Eve, will stop at nothing to own the prize of Kruger-Brent. Driven by hatred, jealousy, and blinding devotion to his bitter and twisted mother, he will seduce, betray, and even kill to succeed. And there is another player with plans of his own - a little-known descendant of Kate's great-grandfather. Growing up in poverty in Aberdeen, Scotland, handsome and cunning Gabriel McGregor is determined to fulfill his destiny, a quest that will lead him deep into the heart of the Kruger-Brent empire. In a family rife with secrets - murder, hidden identities, perversions - and a depraved sense of honor, the player who wins the game may be the only one who will survive.


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Before the Dominion War and the decimation of Cardassia...before the coming of the Emissary and the discovery of the wormhole...before space station Terok Nor became Deep Space 9™...there was the Occupation: the military takeover of an alien planet and the violent insurgency that fought against it. Now that fifty-year tale of warring ideologies, terrorism, greed, secret intelligence, moral compromises, and embattled faiths is at last given its due in the three-book saga of Star Trek's Lost Era...A seemingly benign visitation to the bountiful world of Bajor from the resource-poor Cardassian Union is viewed with cautious optimism by some, trepidation by others, and a calculating gleam by unscrupulous opportunists. What begins as a gesture of compassion soon becomes something very different. Seen through the eyes of participants on both sides -- including those of a young officer named Skrain Dukat -- the personal, political, and religious tensions between the Bajorans and the Cardassians quickly spiral out of control, irrevocably shaping the futures of both worlds in an emotionally charged and unforgettable tale of treachery, tragedy, and hope.


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***Turn Left at the Trojan Horse*** has been described as *On the Road* meets *Eat, Pray, Love* because it goes well beyond a road trip. More than just a funny and profound narrative of Brad Herzog's cross-country trek toward a college reunion in Ithaca (New York) and more than another reimagining of Odysseus's ancient journey (he visits places like Troy, OR... Iliad, MT... Apollo, PA...), it is a memoir exploring the parameters of a heroic existence - by chronicling the lives of people in America's oft-ignored spaces, by examining the universal truths embedded in ancient myths, and by undertaking a fair bit of self-evaluation. It is the memoir of an Everyman searching for the hero within. *(added by author)*


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Originally published on Tor.com, Rachel Swirsky's contemporary tale of love in all its forms — and of one robot's quest to know it, and himself, on his own terms — is a finalist for the 2010 Hugo Award and the 2010 Locus Award.


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An exciting new tale set in the world of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials saga. This collectible hardcover volume includes a short story by Mr. Pullman, plus a fold-out map of Oxford and various "souvenirs" from the past. The book is illustrated throughout with woodcut illustrations by John Lawrence.From the Hardcover edition.


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In this delightful, moving debut novel, Peter Pezzelli brings to life the earthy sensuality of Tuscany-- the smell of just-baked bread wafting through the village piazza; the shopkeepers sweeping the sidewalks under the warm, early morning sun; groups of


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The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hit list.Escaping his sanatorium Tombs is pushed into painful confrontation with reality he has avoided since the rebellion. His insanity has been left uncured, because the near mythical hooder called the Technician that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race.The war drone Amistad, whose job it is to bring this information to light, recruits Lief Grant, an ex-rebel Commander, to protect Tombs, along with the black AI Penny Royal, who everyone thought was dead. The amphidapt Chanter, who has studied the bone sculptures the Technician makes with the remains of its prey, might be useful too.Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals, stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons.


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Leslie walked away from the Dark Court, determined to reclaim her life and live it on her own terms-even if it meant leaving behind the two faeries who love her. She knows Niall and Irial watch over her, and she would give almost anything to keep them from hurting. But she resists the pull to be with either one of them. Someone knows about Leslie-s past, however, and is intent on using her to reach the fey. And he doesn-t care who gets hurt-.


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It began with the discovery of The Star Scroll--the last repository of forgotten spells of sorcery. Now, as Andry, the new Sunrunner Lord of Goddess Keep, begins to master this potentially deadly knowledge and Pol, son of High Prince Rohan, seeks to touch the minds of dragons, their enemy is mobilizes to strike with forbidden lore and treachery.


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As High Prince and Princess, Rohan and Sioned must keep both the peace and the secret of the dragons. But the legacy of their evil predecessor remains-and as their son Pol grows up, the kingdom splits in what may become a bloody battle for the crown.     To make things worse, a long-vanquished foe vows to destroy the Prince. The only hope of defeating their dark sorcery lies in reclaiming the knowledge so carefully concealed in the long-lost Star Scroll.


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Melanie Rawn's best-selling debut is a novel of love and war, magic and madness, and deadly dangerous dragons that hold the secret to unimaginable wealth that could prove key to mutual peace-or a bloody tyrant's reign. And among it all, an idealistic young ruler struggles to civilize a culture that understands the strength of the sword-but has yet to discover the true power of knowledge.


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The past is another country, in Mary Robinette Kowal's Tor.com tale of time travel and aviation history. "First Flight" is a finalist for the 2010 Locus Award. The winner of the 2008 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Cosmos, and Asimov's. Her first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, will be published by Tor in 2010.


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In this richly drawn novel set on the streets, porches and in the parlors of 1960s Ohio, Mary Monroe brings to life the bond between two girls from opposite sides of the tracks--and the shattering event that changes their lives forever.

At the heart of the story is Annette Goode, a shy, awkward girl who keeps a terrible secret. Mr. Boatwright, the boarder her hardworking mother has taken in, abuses her daily. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. 

But the summer Annette turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend. Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not--gorgeous, slim, and worldly--welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father; her lovely, fragile, "Muh'Dear;" her brooding, dangerous brother Jock; and her colorful white relatives--half-crazy Uncle Johnny; sultry Aunt Lola; and scary, surly Granny Goose. 

With Rhoda's help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms into a woman. But after her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette's world will never be the same.

 "A moving tale of the intricacies of friendship, the awful devastation of silence, and the renewing spirit of survival."--*Ebony *

"Watch out Toni Morrison, there is a new sister in town."--*Rapport*


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Claire's older brother, Daniel, has disappeared. He leaves work one Friday afternoon, shortly before Christmas, and vanishes into thin air. Married, successful, rich, there seems no reason why he would abandon his life. Has he been killed? Has he been kidnapped? Or has he just had enough?   Set between London and Miami, this is the story of a family with ghosts to bury. It opens on the day of the Challenger shuttle explosion at Cape Canaveral: a tragic moment that rips this family apart and sets Daniel's disappearance in motion some 18 years later. In the midst of it all sits Claire—divorced, irresponsible, fluent in six foreign languages yet hopeless at interpreting life. It is Claire who knows Daniel best. It is Claire who becomes convinced that she knows where her older brother is and sets off on a journey to find him.


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Make an appointment for intrigue at Reyn Marten Sawyer's hair salon! Outrageous, flirtatious, and as colorful as a magenta mohawk, Reyn tracks twisted crimes, untangles tight knots, and never, ever leaves loose ends.  Someone clearly meant business when they targeted San Antonio's hair salon king, Ricardo, who was fatally stabbed with a one-of-a-kind weapon: a sharp plastic hair pick. Reyn had loaned Ricardo the tool -- and now she's not only mourning her friend and mentor's murder: she's also a suspect. And in the eyes of sexy detective Jackson Scythe, she's one alluring stylist who should drop her insistent sleuthing like a hot roller. But Reyn's wound a little too tight to stay out of the thick of things, including teasing and taming the stubbornly single Scythe while taking short cuts to catch a killer -- and uncovering the past of a dead man, whose secrets will make Reyn's hair curl....


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As his men are slaughtered around him, legendary Irish warrior Finian O'Melaghlin is held captive by the despised English Lord Rardove. Struggling to break free, Finian finds aid from an unlikely source: the beautiful Senna de Valery, who is also trying to escape Rardove's bloodthirsty grasp. Risking both their lives, Senna releases Finian from his shackles so they can both flee, but their plight has just begun...Seeking safe refuge, Finian and Senna have only each other to depend on for survival. Neither can deny their immediate attraction, but indulging their desires will put them both in grave danger. Finian vows to protect the woman who saved his life, but he soon learns she is a pawn in a much larger battle. For Senna has an unbreakable link to a priceless treasure many centuries old. It is the stuff from which dreams are made and for which men will kill - and not even Finian may be strong enough to save her.


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Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante.  She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias *don't *do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks.)

But Sarah can't quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she decamps South Carolina for a life in New York City. There, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication, to understand how much of their training applies to real life, and how much to the strange and rarefied world they've left behind.

 When life's complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto "Once a Camellia, always a Camellia"- and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.

*Girls in Trucks* introduces an irresistable, sweet, and wise voice that heralds the arrival of an exciting new talent.


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*From Cover to Cover* has been considered *the* definitive guide to reading, reviewing, and critically evaluating children's books since its original publication in 1997. Now revised and updated, it remains an invaluable resource offering a fresh, up-to-date look at a fast-changing field.  

 All-new material includes:   An updated introduction that reflects the many changes in the children's book industry A section on genres, including a discussion of graphic novels A section on children's literature blogs An introduction of two new major genre awards—the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award *And* more than 90 percent of the books cited have been updated to more recent publications!


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In 1806 William Thornhill, an illiterate English bargeman and a man of quick temper but deep compassion, steals a load of wood and, as a part of his lenient sentence, is deported, along with his beloved wife, Sal, to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia. "The Secret River" is the tale of William and Sal's deep love for their small, exotic corner of the new world, and William's gradual realization that if he wants to make a home for his family, he must forcibly take the land from the people who came before him. Acclaimed around the world, "The Secret River" is a magnificent, transporting work of historical fiction.


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A delicious and intriguing historical novel about the woman who was William Shakespeare's secret wife by New York Times bestselling author, Karen Harper. In Mistress Shakespeare, Elizabethan beauty Anne Whateley reveals intimate details of her dangerous, daring life and her great love, William Shakespeare. As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton is betrothed to Will just days before he is forced to wed the pregnant Anne Hathaway of Shottery. The clandestine Whateley/Shakespeare match is a meeting of hearts and heads that no one - not even Queen Elizabeth or her spymasters - can destroy. From rural Stratford-upon- Avon to teeming London, the passionate pair struggles to stay solvent and remain safe from Elizabeth I's campaign to hunt down secret Catholics, of whom Shakespeare is rumored to be a part. Often at odds, always in love, the couple sells Will's first plays and, as he climbs to theatrical power in Elizabeth's England, they fend off fierce competition from rival London dramatists, ones as treacherous as they are talented. Persecution and plague, insurrection and inferno, friends and foes, even executions of those they hold dear, bring Anne's heartrending story to life. Spanning half a century of Elizabethan and Jacobean history and sweeping from the lowest reaches of society to the royal court, this richly textured novel tells the real story of Shakespeare in love.


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Attending a corporate retreat at a remote resort in Alaska, Lisa Vaughn is plunged into the frigid rapids of the Wild River. Swept away, battered and alone, she has been left for dead.

Lodge owner Mitch Braxton knows something is terribly wrong when Lisa fails to turn up for a private meeting to clear the air and close the book on their broken engagement. Embarking on a heroic search that takes him miles downriver, he saves Lisa from the deadly water, but not before they've been swept deep into the wilderness.

Far from civilization, the former lovers must put aside their hurt feelings and find the will to survive against nature. There's a killer on the loose and, for now, they must measure their future together in days rather than years.


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The major fantasy debut from bestselling author Joanne Harris, now in paperback.Seven o'clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins have been at the cellar again. Not that anyone would admit it was goblins. In Maddy Smith’s world, order rules. Chaos, old gods, faeries, magic—all of these were supposedly vanquished centuries ago. But Maddy knows that a small bit of magic has survived. The “ruinmark” she was born with on her palm proves it—and makes the other villagers fearful and suspicious that she is a witch.But the mysterious traveler One-Eye sees Maddy’s mark not as a defect, but a destiny. And Maddy will need every scrap that One-Eye can teach her about runes, cantrips, and glamours—every ounce of magic she can command—if she is to survive that destiny. * “Harris creates a glorious and complex world replete with rune-based magical spells, bickering gods, exciting adventures and difficult moral issues.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred


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Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the bad science we're fed by the worst of the hacks and the quacks'¦When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water and turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home. 'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged of a weekend's immorality.'Dr Ben Goldacre is the author of the 'Bad Science' column in the Guardian and his book is about all the 'bad science' we are constantly bombarded with in the media and in advertising. At a time when science is used to prove everything and nothing, everyone has their own 'bad science' moments ' from the useless pie-chart on the back of cereal packets to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics ads. This book will help people to quantify their instincts ' that a lot of the so-called 'science' which appears in the media and in advertising is just wrong or misleading. Satirical and amusing ' and unafraid to expose the ridiculous ' it provides the reader with the facts they need to differentiate the good from the bad.Full of spleen, this is a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of 'bad science'.


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Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan.Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won't be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued...and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.


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A New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Lannan Literary Fiction AwardWinner of the Guardian Fiction AwardIn 1940 a boy bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from the soldiers who murdered his family. His name is Jakob Beer. He is only seven years old. And although by all rights he should have shared the fate of the other Jews in his village, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist, who does not recognize the boy as human until he begins to cry. With this electrifying image, Anne Michaels ushers us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, and redemption.As Michaels follows Jakob across two continents, she lets us witness his transformation from a half-wild casualty of the Holocaust to an artist who extracts meaning from its abyss. Filled with mysterious symmetries and rendered in heart-stopping prose, Fugitive Pieces is a triumphant work, a book that should not so much be read as it should be surrendered to.


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For three days in January 2007, the most-emailed article in The New York Times was "Appreciations: Mr. Noodle," an editorial noting the passing, at age 96, of billionaire Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen. The very existence of the noodle inventor came as a shock to many, but not to Andy Raskin, who had spent nearly three years trying to meet Ando. Why?


 To fix the problems that plagued his love life. 

 *The Ramen King and I* is Raskin's memoir about how despair-and a series of bizarre adventures at Japanese restaurants-led him to confront the truth of his romantic past, and how Ando became his unlikely spiritual guide. Through letters ostensibly penned to the culinary sage, Raskin reveals a relationship history plagued by infidelity, jealousy, and betrayal. After devouring Ando's essays (with titles such as "Peace Follows from a Full Stomach" and "Mankind is Noodlekind"), he sets out to meet the food pioneer-and to discover the secret to a committed relationship.


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Robert, recently returned to live in Chicago, is contacted by a childhood friend who has just completed more than twenty years in prison for a horrific crime.Without Prejudiceis a compulsive story of race and the dangers that can lie in the past.


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Slap bang in the middle of the hottest day of the year, the zoo's drains have blocked up and there's nowhere for the animals' poo to go! Mr Pickles the zoo keeper (who is looking distinctly green) must decide what to do with it all... before the naughty chimps beat him to it!


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John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it.



He’s spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.



He’s obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn’t want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he’s written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation.



Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don’t demand or expect the empathy he’s unable to offer. Perhaps that’s what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there’s something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means.



Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can’t control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could.



Dan Wells’s debut novel is the first volume of a trilogy that will keep you awake and then haunt your dreams.


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Welcome to a society governed through computer games! On New Earth, society is governed and conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. If you win, you have the chance to fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing. When teenage Erik dares to subvert the rules of Epic, he and his friends must face the Committee. If Erik and his friends win, they may have the key to destroying the Committee’s tyranny. But if they lose . . .


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Join the Mysterious Benedict Society as Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance embark on a daring new adventure that threatens to force them apart from their families, friends, and even each other. When an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown, the foursome must unravel clues relating to a nefarious new plot, while their search for answers brings them closer to danger than ever before. Filled with page-turning action and mind-bending brain teasers, this wildly inventive journey is sure to delight.


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Midnight TidesAfter decades of warfare, the tribes of the Tiste Edur have at last united under the rule of the Warlock King. But peace has been exacted at a terrible price - a pact made with a hidden power whose motives are at best suspect, at worst deadly. To the south, the expansionist kingdom of Lether has devoured all of its less-civilised neighbours with rapacious hunger. All save one - the Tiste Edur. But Lether is approaching a long-prophesied renaissance - from kingdom and lost colony to Empire reborn - and has fixed its gaze on the rich lands of the Tiste Edur. It seems inevitable that the tribes will surrender, either to the suffocating weight of gold, or to slaughter at the edge of a sword. Or so Destiny has decreed.A pivotal treaty between the two sides nears - but unknown ancient forces are awakening. For the impending struggle between these two peoples is but a pale reflection of an altogether more profound, primal battle - a confrontation with the still-raw wound of betrayal and the craving for vengeance at its heart. War and confrontation, magic and myth collide in this, the stunning fifth chapter in Steven Erikson's magnificent -Malazan Book of the Fallen- sequence, hailed as an epic of the imagination and a fantasy classic in the making.The BonehuntersThe Seven Cities Rebellion is over, Sha-ik is dead, but a last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y-Ghatan under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malaz 14th Army uneasy - for it was here that the Empire-s greatest champion Dassem Ultor was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled... But agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon, a schism threatens, sides must be chosen but whatever each god decides, the rules have changed - and the first blood spilled will be in the mortal world: a world in which a host of characters, familiar and new, search for a fate that they might fashion by their own will. If only the gods would leave them alone. But gods are disinclined to be kind. There shall be war, war in the heavens. And the prize? Nothing less than existence itself-


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Memories of Ice

The ravaged continent of Genabackis has given birth to a terrifying new empire: the Pannion Domin. Like a fanatical tide of corrupted blood, it seethes across the land, devouring all who fail to heed the Word of its elusive prophet, the Pannion Seer. In its path stands an uneasy alliance: Dujek Onearm's Host and the Bridgeburners  each now outlawed by the Empress  alongside their enemies of old including the grim forces of Warlord Caladan Brood, Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, and his Tiste Andii, and the Rhivi people of the Plains. But more ancient clans too are gathering. As if in answer to some primal summons, the massed ranks of the undead T'lan Imass have risen. For it would seem something altogether darker and more malign threatens the very substance of this world. The Warrens are poisoned and rumours abound of the Crippled God, now unchained and intent on a terrible revenge...Marking the return of many favourite characters from GARDENS OF THE MOON and introducing a host of remarkable new players, MEMORIES OF ICE is a thrilling new chapter in Erikson's magnificent epic fantasy and another triumph of storytelling.The awesome - and acclaimed - fourth instalment in Steven Erikson-s epic fantasy sequence THE MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN.House of ChainsIn Northern Genabackis, just before the events recounted in GARDENS OF THE MOON, a raiding party of savage tribal warriors descends from the mountains into the southern flat lands. Their intention is to wreak havoc among the despised lowlanders, but for the one named Karsa Orlong it marks the beginning of what will prove an extraordinary destiny. Some years later, it is the aftermath of the Chain of Dogs. Coltaine, revered commander of the Malazan 7th Army is dead. And now Tavore, elder sister of Ganoes Paran and Adjunct to the Empress, has arrived in the last remaining Malazan stronghold of the Seven Cities to take charge. Untested and new to command, she must hone a small army of twelve thousand soldiers, mostly raw recruits, into a viable fighting force and lead them into battle against the massed hordes of Sha'ik's Whirlwind. Her only hope lies in resurrecting the shattered faith of the few remaining survivors from Coltaine's legendary march, veterans one and all.In distant Raraku, in the heart of the Holy Desert, the seer Sha'ik waits with her rebel army. But waiting is never easy. Her disparate collection of warlords - tribal chiefs, High Mages, a renegade Malazan Fist and his sorceror - is locked in a vicious power struggle that threatens to tear the rebellion apart from within. And Sha'ik herself suffers, haunted by the private knowledge of her nemesis, Tavore...her own sister.So begins the awesome new chapter in Steven Erikson's MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN - an epic novel of war, intrigue, magic and betrayal from a writer regarded as one of the most original, imaginative and exciting storytellers in fantasy today.


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Gardens Of The Moon: Malazan Book Of The Fallen 1Bled dry by interminable warfare, infighting and bloody confrontations with Lord Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, the vast, sprawling Malazan empire simmers with discontent. Even its imperial legions yearn for some respite. For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners and for Tattersail, sole surviving sorceress of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, still holds out - and Empress Lasseen-s ambition knows no bounds.However, it seems the empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister forces gather as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand-Conceived and written on an epic scale, Gardens of the Moon is a breathtaking achievement - a novel in which grand design, a dark and complex mythology, wild and wayward magic and a host of enduring characters combine with thrilling, powerful storytelling to resounding effect. Acclaimed by writers, critics and readers alike, here is the opening chapter in what has been hailed a landmark of epic fantasy: the awesome -The Malazan Book of the Fallen-. Deadhouse Gates: Malazan: Book Of The Fallen 2Weakened by events in Darujhistan, the Malazan Empire teeters on the brink of anarchy. In the vast dominion ofSeven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha-ik gathers an army around her in preparation for the long-prophesied uprising named the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in its size and savagery, it will embroil in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known: a maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust that will shape destinies and give birth to legends-In the Otataral mines, Felisin, youngest daughter of the disgraced House of Paran, dreams of revenge against the sister who sentenced her to a life of slavery. Escape leads her to raraku, where her soul will be reborn and her future made clear. The now-outlawed Bridgeburners, Fiddler and the assassin Kalam, have vowed to return the once god-possessed Apsalar to her homeland, and to confront and kill the Empress Laseen, but events will overtake them too. Meanwhile, Coltaine, the charismatic commander of the Malaz 7th Army, will lead his battered, war-weary troops in a last, valient running battle to save the lives of thirty thousand refugees and, in so doing, secure an illustrious place in the Empire-s chequered history. And into this blighted land come two ancient wanderers, Mappo and his half-Jaghut companion Icarium, bearers of a devastating secret that threatens to break free of its chains-Set in a brilliantly-realized world ravaged by anarchy and dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is the thrilling, brutal second chapter in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. A powerful novel of war, intrigue and betrayal, it confirms Steven Erikson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality - a new master of epic fantasy.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

In her sixth engrossing outing, Jane Austen employs her delicious wit and family ties to the Royal Navy in a case of murder on the high seas. Somewhere in the picturesque British port of Southampton, among a crew of colorful, eccentric, and fiercely individual souls, a killer has come ashore. And only Jane can fathom the depths of his ruthless mind....**Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House**“I will assert that sailors are endowed with greater worth than any set of men in England.” So muses Jane Austen as she stands in the buffeting wind of Southampton’s quay beside her brother Frank on a raw February morning. Frank, a post captain in the Royal Navy, is without a ship to command, and his best prospect is the *Stella Maris*, a fast frigate captained by his old friend Tom Seagrave. “Lucky” Tom — so dubbed for his habit of besting enemy ships — is presently in disgrace, charged with violating the Articles of War. Tom’s first lieutenant, Eustace Chessyre, has accused Seagrave of murder in the death of a French captain after the surrender of his ship.  Though Lucky Tom denies the charge, his dagger was found in the dead man’s chest. Now Seagrave faces court-martial and execution for a crime he swears he did not commit.Frank, deeply grieved, is certain his friend will hang. But Jane reasons that either Seagrave or Chessyre is lying — and that she and Frank have a duty to discover the truth.  The search for the captain’s honor carries them into the troubled heart of Seagrave’s family, through some of the seaport’s worst sinkholes, and at long last to Wool House, the barred brick structure that serves as gaol for French prisoners of war. Risking contagion or worse, Jane agrees to nurse the murdered French captain’s imprisoned crew — and elicits a debonair surgeon’s account of the *Stella Maris*’s battle that appears to clear Tom Seagrave of all guilt. When Eustace Chessyre is found murdered, the entire affair takes on the appearance of an insidious plot against Seagrave, who is charged with the crime.  Could any of his naval colleagues wish him dead?  In an era of turbulent intrigue and contested amour, could it be a case of *cherchez la femme* ... or a veiled political foe at work?  And what of the sealed  orders under which Seagrave embarked that fateful night in the *Stella Maris?* Death knocks again at Jane’s own door before the final knots in the killer’s net are completely untangled. Always surprising, **Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House** is an intelligent and intriguing mystery that introduces Jane and her readers to “the naval set” — and charts a true course through the amateur sleuth’s most troubled waters yet.*From the Hardcover edition.*


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With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen of a rare Architeuthis dux—better known as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and impossibly vanishes into thin air.As Billy soon discovers, this is the precipitating act in a struggle to the death between mysterious but powerful forces in a London whose existence he has been blissfully ignorant of until now, a city whose denizens—human and otherwise—are adept in magic and murder.There is the Congregation of God Kraken, a sect of squid worshippers whose roots go back to the dawn of humanity—and beyond. There is the criminal mastermind known as the Tattoo, a merciless maniac inked onto the flesh of a hapless victim. There is the FSRC—the Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime Unit—a branch of London’s finest that fights sorcery with sorcery. There is Wati, a spirit from ancient Egypt who leads a ragtag union of magical familiars. There are the Londonmancers, who read the future in the city’s entrails. There is Grisamentum, London’s greatest wizard, whose shadow lingers long after his death. And then there is Goss and Subby, an ageless old man and a cretinous boy who, together, constitute a terrifying—yet darkly charismatic—demonic duo.All of them—and others—are in pursuit of Billy, who inadvertently holds the key to the missing squid, an embryonic god whose powers, properly harnessed, can destroy all that is, was, and ever shall be.


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The daughter of a distinguished soldier, Bess Crawford follows in his footsteps and signs up to go overseas as a nurse during the Great War, helping to deal with the many wounded. There, serving on a hospital ship, she makes a promise to a dying young lieutenant to take a message to his brother, Jonathan Graham: "Tell Jonathan that I lied. I did it for Mother′s sake. But it has to be set right." Later, when her ship is sunk by a mine and she′s sidelined by a broken arm, Bess returns home to England, determined to fulfill her promise.  It′s not so easy, however. She travels to the village in Kent where the Grahams live and passes on to Jonathan his brother′s plea. Oddly, neither Jonathan, his mother, nor his younger brother admit to knowing what the message means. Then Bess learns that there′s another brother, incarcerated in a lunatic asylum since the age of 14 when he was accused of brutally murdering a housemaid.  Bess rightly guesses that the dying soldier′s last words had something to do with the fourth brother. Because the family seems unwilling to do anything, she decides that she will investigate. It′s her own duty to the dead.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

After her brilliant detective debut in *Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor*, there can be no doubt that Jane Austen would have made aremarkable sleuth. And so, with great aplomb, Stephanie Barron reveals the next superb Jane Austen Mystery... 

Jane Austen and her family are looking forward to a peaceful late-summer holiday in the seaside village of Lyme Regis. But on the road thither, a fearful storm and an overturned carriage lead the shaken travelers to seek refuge at High Down Grange. And there, in a dismal manor house wrapt in an air of malevolent neglect, Jane meets the darkly forbidding yet strangely attractive master of High Down Grange, Mr. Geoffrey Sidmouth. 

What murky secrets does the brooding Mr. Sidmouth hope to preserve behind his fierce glower? And who is the exceedingly lovely young woman dressed in peasant garb who shares his home? Once settled in town, Jane seeks to learn the answers. Yet common gossip is soon forgotten when a man is found hanged from a makeshift gibbet by the sea. 

Only the day before, Jane had observed this same man in a heated exchange with Mr. Sidmouth. Still, the worthies of Lyme are certain the labourer's death is the work of "the Reverend," the notorious ringleader of the midnight smuggling trade. The Reverend's identity is the paramount mystery of Lyme Regis.  And Jane, who can never resist a puzzle, is determined to solve this one. 

But to her dismay, she must soon admit that she harbours a strange sensibility for a man who could very well be a murderer. And then a second mysterious death draws her into a perilous scheme to entrap and expose Geoffrey Sidmouth. From the drawing- rooms of the cultured and the devious to secret caverns and coarse haunts, her mission will take her far from a lady's proper venue...until even so canny a student of character and valiant adventurer must ask herself: "Is the prize worth the risk--to my heart as well as my person?" 

Stylish, suspenseful, and wickedly diverting, *Jane and the Man of the Cloth* delves deep into the foibles, passions, and ruthless machinations that lurk within the most polite society.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

New boss-love-child scandal! When plain-Jane Alex McGuire indulged in an innocent flirtation with a staggeringly perfect stranger, she never expected their paths to cross again. Meek and dowdy Alex was the ideal distraction for Gabriel Cruz in his heady playboy days- But, since running the Cruz family business has beckoned, frivolous distractions are a thing of the past- So on Alex-s first day of her new job she not only finds her perfect stranger is her boss-but she must tell him that their short affair left a lasting impression!


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For everyone who loves Jane Austen...a marvelously entertaining new series that turns the incomparable author into an extraordinary sleuth!On a visit to the estate of her friend, the young and beautiful Isobel Payne, Countess of Scargrave, Jane bears witness to a tragedy. Isobel's husband—a gentleman of mature years—is felled by a mysterious and agonizing ailment. The Earl's death seems a cruel blow of fate for the newly married Isobel. Yet the bereaved widow soon finds that it's only the beginning of her misfortune...as she receives a sinister missive accusing her and the Earl's nephew of adultery—and murder. Desperately afraid that the letter will expose her to the worst sort of scandal, Isobel begs Jane for help. And Jane finds herself embroiled in a perilous investigation that will soon have her following a trail of clues that leads all the way to Newgate Prison and the House of Lords—a trail that may well place Jane's own person in the gravest jeopardy.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Lilly, the main character of Camilla Gibb’s stunning new novel, has anything but a stable childhood. The daughter of English/Irish hippies, she was “born in Yugoslavia, breast-fed in the Ukraine, weaned in Corsica, freed from nappies in Sicily and walking by the time [they] got to the Algarve…” The family’s nomadic adventure ends in Tangier when Lilly’s parents are killed in a drug deal gone awry. Orphaned at eight, Lilly is left in the care of a Sufi sheikh, who shows her the way of Islam through the Qur’an. When political turmoil erupts, Lilly, now sixteen, is sent to the ancient walled city of Harar, Ethiopia, where she stays in a dirt-floored compound with an impoverished widow named Nouria and her four children.  In Harar, Lilly earns her keep by helping with the household chores and teaching local children the Qur’an. Ignoring the cries of “farenji” (foreigner), she slowly begins to put down roots, learning the language and immersing herself in a culture rich in customs and rituals and lush with glittering bright headscarves, the chorus of muezzins and the scent of incense and coffee. She is drawn to an idealistic half-Sudanese doctor named Aziz, and the two begin to meet every Saturday at a social gathering. As they stay behind to talk, Lilly finds her faith tested for the first time in her life: “The desire to remain in his company overwhelmed common sense; I would pick up my good Muslim self on the way home.” Just as their love begins to blossom, they are wrenched apart when the aging emperor Haile Selassie is deposed by the brutal Dergue regime. Lilly seeks exile in London, while Aziz stays to pursue his revolutionary passions.In London, Lilly’s life as a white Muslim is no less complicated. A hospital staff nurse, she befriends a refugee from Ethiopia named Amina, whose daughter she helped to deliver in a back alley. The two women set up a community association to re-unite refugees with lost family members. Their work, however, isn’t entirely altruistic. Both women are looking for someone: Amina, her husband, Yusuf, and Lilly, Aziz, who remains firmly, painfully, implanted in her heart. The first-person narrative alternates seamlessly between England (1981-91) and Ethiopia (1970-74), weaving a rich tapestry of one woman’s quest to maintain faith and love through revolution, upheaval and the alienation of life in exile.**Sweetness in the Belly*** *was universally praised for the tremendous empathy that Gibb brings to an ambitious story. *Kirkus Reviews* writes that the novel "reflect(s) the pain, cultural relocation and uncertainty of tribal, political and religious refugees the world over. Gibb's territory is urgently modern and controversial but she enters it softly, with grace, integrity and a lovely compassionate story. [It is a] poem to belief and to the displaced–humane, resonant, original, impressive."  According to the *Literary Review of Canada, ***Sweetness in the Belly **is “…a novel that is culturally sensitive, consummately researched and deeply compassionate…richly imagined, full of sensuous detail and arresting imagery…Gibb has smuggled Western readers into the centre of lives they might never otherwise come into contact with, let alone understand.”*From the Hardcover edition.*


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Julie and Ronan are the perfect married couple: with two incomes, and both personal and professional success, theirs is a lifestyle to envy. That is, until the day Julie comes home unexpectedly early from a week away to find a yellow wonderbra hanging from the doorknob. It seems that in the age-old style it has all gone terribly wrong - Ronan is having an affair. Fuelled by anger, despair and whiskey, Julie embarks on a campaign of detection. Revenge may not be sweet, but it is most definitely worth it . . .


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Before the Dominion War and the decimation of Cardassia...before the coming of the Emissary and the discovery of the wormhole...before space station Terok Nor became Deep Space 9™...there was the Occupation: the military takeover of an alien planet and the violent insurgency that fought against it. Now that fifty-year tale of warring ideologies, terrorism, greed, secret intelligence, moral compromises, and embattled faiths is at last given its due in the three-book saga of Star Trek's Lost Era...TEROK NORAs violence all across Bajor continues to escalate, Cardassian forces tighten their grip on the captive planet, driving back the resistance at every turn; but on Terok Nor and elsewhere, the winds of change are stirring -- the beginnings of a hurricane that will alter the landscape of the Occupation. And while secret dealings, shifting alliances, and personal demons buoy the wings of revolution, a mysterious shape-shifting life form begins a journey that will decide the fate of worlds.


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Before the Dominion War and the decimation of Cardassia...before the coming of the Emissary and the discovery of the wormhole...before space station Terok Nor became Deep Space 9(TM)...there was the Occupation: the military takeover of an alien planet and the violent insurgency that fought against it. Now that fifty-year tale of warring ideologies, terrorism, greed, secret intelligence, moral compromises, and embattled faiths is at last given its due in the three-book saga of "Star Trek"'s Lost Era...Eighteen years into the Occupation, a new star rises in Bajor's sky. It is the seat of power in this system, a place of slave labor and harsh summary judgments, the symbol of Cardassian might and the futility of resisting it. But even as the gray metal crown of Terok Nor ascends to its zenith, ragtag pockets of Bajoran rebels -- including a fierce young fighter named Kira Nerys -- have begun to strike back at their world's oppressors, and they intend to show the Cardassians that the night belongs to them.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Ever since Darwin and *The Descent of Man*, the existence of humans has been attributed to our intelligence and adaptability. But in *Catching Fire*, renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Wrangham shows that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evolution. When our ancestors adapted to using fire, humanity began. Once our hominid ancestors began cooking their food, the human digestive tract shrank and the brain grew. Time once spent chewing tough raw food could be sued instead to hunt and to tend camp. Cooking became the basis for pair bonding and marriage, created the household, and even led to a sexual division of labor. Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors’ diets, *Catching Fire* sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. A pathbreaking new theory of human evolution, *Catching Fire* will provoke controversy and fascinate anyone interested in our ancient origins—or in our modern eating habits.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Jane Winters--Lady Jane--was a noted gossip columnist enrolled in the Lachdubh School of Casting (fish casting, that is). She had something on everyone in class--and so, bobby Hamish Macbeth figured, any one of them could have killed her. Martin's.


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A blinding toothache sends Hamish Macbeth 120 miles out of Lochdubh to the dentist Frederick Gilchrist, only to find him dead. Since everyone is pleased the dentist is deceased--patients, several harassed women, and even his wife--Macbeth faces one of the more biting challenges of his career.


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HOLLYWOOD IN THE HIGHLANDS With the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe away in London, Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth pines for company during the long Scottish winter. He gets his wish -- and more -- when a troupe of flashy, urbane filmmakers clamors into the nearby town of Drim. Before long bedlam erupts around their make-believe mystery ...and culminates in the sudden appearance of one very real corpse. The initial suspect in the killing is one Patricia Martyn-Broyd, the aging mystery writer furious that her musty old cozies are getting a risque face-lift in their TV reincarnation. Yet, going behind the scenes, Hamish soon finds a town full of locals bitten by the movie bug and a cast of quarreling show business types, all harboring their own secrets, lies, and hidden agendas. And as the culprit strikes again, Hamish must quickly find the right killer -- or script the wrong finale to a show gone murderously awry.


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Recovering addict Tommy Jarret rented a chalet to check on reports of a sea monster near the dour village of Drim. When he turns up dead, apparently of a drug overdose, Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth finds the lad's demise to be particularly fishy - and not of the local salmon variety. Hamish decides to infiltrate the illicit drug trade in nearby Strathbane, but his daft scheme springs a leak.


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Murder is a Tasty Dish The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or-more accurately-dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remain of the murdered victim are his bones. But after the lobsters are shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth. Exiled with his dog, Towser, to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, his formerly beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, and his days of doing nothing but staring at the sheep grazing in a nearby croft. Now the lawman has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the modus operandi hushed up, a dark-haired lass who has an ulterior motive to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his victim-and without doubt will strike again...


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Although the Thomases were not initially liked by villagers, Trixie Thomas has become a model of domestic efficiency--the perfect wife. So it comes as a great shock to everyone when she is found dead--to everyone but police inspector Hamish Macbeth.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

"Pure bliss."  Atlanta Journal & Constitution

A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by the author of "Death of a Hussy."

With a cold in his head and no place to go for Christmas, Hamish snaps up the invitation of drop-dead gorgeous Jane Wetherby to spend the holiday at her Scottish island health farm -- and figure out who is trying to kill her.

When Hamish arrives on the island of Eileencraig, he finds threatening locals and fellow guests barely more civil, especially a terrible snob named Heather Todd.   It seems like everyone on the island has a grudge against Jane.  How to choose among so many suspects?

But then one suspect is eliminated.  Heather Todd is murdered.  And suddenly Hamish's Christmas is looking very black indeed . . .


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

When Hamish Macbeth hears that there has been a murder at the home of the practical joker Arthur Trent, he doesn't race to the scene of the crime. The last time he was called to investigate a death at the manor, the victim turned out to be a manservant covered in fake blood. Ready for another prank, Hamish arrives to find Trent most decidedly dead.


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"ENTRANCING . . . A GEM." --Ocala Star-Banner Hamish Macbeth's life is going to pot. He's been promoted (horrors!), his boss is a dunce, and--to add insult to injury--a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty, eye-sore-of-a-van in the village. Hamish smells trouble and as usual he's right. The doctor's drugs go missing. Money vanishes. Neighbors grow suddenly unneighborly. And when the unsavory newcomer is murdered, Hamish regrets it only because his bones tell him the killer may be one of his friends. Nobody wants to volunteer even a scrap of useful information, so canny Hamish single-handedly sets about the delicate work of worming the facts out of his neighbors. Yet in the process he uncovers a story so bizarre that neither he nor the villagers may ever recover from it. . . . "EXCELLENT.. . . A cast of winning characters." --Publishers Weekly "Scottish writer M. C. Beaton develops the locals with humor and verve." --The Christian Science Monitor


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Innkeeper Alex Winston's best friend is about to get married, and Alex couldn't be happier that Mor Pendleton wants to hold the nuptials at the Hatteras West Lighthouse.  The only problem is that before the ceremony can begin, the bride's ex husband is found murdered on the grounds, and Alex must solve the crime, or risk losing his friend forever.


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When the Carolina Rhapsody Emerald is displayed at the Hatteras West Inn, Innkeeper Alex Winston can't wait to see it leave.  There's just too much stress having the valuable jewel there.  Just before the exhibit is scheduled to end, the emerald is stolen, and the guard is murdered with Alex's lighthouse-shaped letter opener!


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The Trask family comes to the Hatteras West Inn to settle their late father's will.  Innkeeper Alex Winston's Uncle Jase is murdered before it can be read, and the document is missing.  Alex has a personal stake in solving the crime, but he has to wade through a family's secrets before he can find the killer.


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In this second Lighthouse Inn Mystery, innkeeper Alex Winston discovers a new attraction at the county fair: a corpse. "Myers cultivates the North Carolina scenery with aplomb and shows a flair for character." (Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)


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Alex Winston owns and operates the Hatteras West Inn, a replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  When one of Alex's favorite guests is murdered at the top of the lighthouse, Alex must find the killer before someone else checks out!


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The Queen's Witch is a short story connected to the New York Times bestselling Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series of urban fantasy novels. It features Kit Marlowe in a supernatural thriller set in Elizabethan England.


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The Day of the Dead is a short story connected to the New York Times bestselling Cassandra Palmer series of novels.  It was first published in the Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance (2008) and is now being offered as a free ebook. It features Tomas, a character from Touch the Dark (2006), the first Cassandra Palmer novel.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Meet Helena Andrews, sassy, single, smart, and, yes, a bitch—but Tina Fey said it best, bitch is the new black!  

 When Helena Andrews heard this declaration on *Saturday Night Live*, her first reaction was How daaare you? But after a commercial break and some thought, she decided to poke at the stereotype that says "successful" and "bitch" are synonyms. Unafraid and frank, she comes to realize that being a bitch is sometimes the best way to be—except, of course, when it's not.  

 *Bitch Is the New Black* follows Andrews—sexy, single, and a self-described smart-ass—on her trip from kidnapped daughter of a lesbian to Washington, D.C., political reporter who can't remember a single senator's name. Told in Andrews's singular voice, this addictive memoir explores the roller coaster of being educated and single while trying to become an "actual adult" and find love.  

 In these candid yet heartfelt essays, she chronicles that ride from beginning to end: a childhood spent on an all-white island, escaping via episodes of *The Cosby Show*; being set up with Obama's "body guy" Reggie Love by Maureen Dowd; and the shocking suicide of a best friend. Through it all, Andrews and her gang of girlfriends urge each other to "keep it moving." But no one can stay strong all the time—not even the women we believe do so without trying.  

 As Andrews says, "Despite the fact that the most recognizable woman in the United States is black, popular culture still hasn't moved past the only adjective apparently meant to describe us— "strong." She is also flawed, tired, naive, greedy, gutsy, frightened, and kind: secret sides that come out in honest detail here.


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When a young runaway is found dead one morning, a syringe hanging out of his arm, no one is terribly shocked. A known junkie, even local detective Rubens McCauley is quick to conclude that Dallas Boyd died of an accidental overdose. But anomalies in the boy's deathand the haunting memory of a childhood friendcontinue to nag at McCauley. Unable to shake his unease, he soon digs deeper into the case and finds himself enmeshed in a secret network of pedophiles, child abusers, and underage prostitutes. Forced to look evil in the eye, McCauley must conquer his own demons as he battles to find justice for a young boy he never even met.


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SUMMARY:
Sunny Hathaway--introvert, entrepreneur, inventor, poet, dog lover, and lateral thinker--has a lot on her plate. She's moving to a new house, dealing with step-siblings, and starting a dog entertainment business too. Sunny and her expertly blended, thoroughly modern family are moving into her grandmother's old mansion, Windermere. Sunny wins the turret bedroom from her step-siblings (using her powers of reverse psychology), but is soon tangled up in mischief involving bored dogs, a cranky old gardener, an angel sighting, a match-making mission, and a boy who knits. To make matters worse, over at her dad's house, Sunny's baby half-sister Flora has turned the world upside-down, and Steph can't seem to find a way to turn it right-side-up again. Even with a sunny disposition, storm clouds can gather on the horizon, and this winter Sunny must find ways to offer warmth and shelter to those she cares for most.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Laird Keir McQuade is a newcomer to his title, and has much work before him to restore the McQuade honour. Finding a wife is an excellent start. He's duty-bound to go to court and swear homage to his king anyway, a perfect opportunity - were not court women trussed in stupid fashions and corrupted with false mannerisms. Of course, not every lady hides behind a powdered face...Helena Knyvett may be a daughter of the aristocracy, but in truth she is little but a pawn in her brother's ploys for power. Her smallest acts of defiance carry a heavy price. But one honourable man among a crowd of dandies could give her all she needs to change her fortunes - and set her free...Among the ruthless ambitions of England's powerful, love at first sight is a dangerous game. But the treachery, scandal, and treason that follow can unleash as much passion as it does adventure...


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Ali Eteraz's *Children of Dust *is a spellbinding portrayal of a life that few Americans can imagine. From his schooling in a madrassa in Pakistan to his teenage years as a Muslim American in the Bible Belt, and back to Pakistan to find a pious Muslim wife, this lyrical, penetrating saga from a brilliant new literary voice captures the heart of our universal quest for identity. 

*Children of Dust *begins in rural Islam at the lowest levels of Pakistani society in the turbulent eighties. This intimate portrayal of rustic village life is revealed through a young boy's eyes as he discovers magic, women, and friendship. 

After immigrating with his family to the United States, Eteraz struggles to be a normal American teenager under the rules of a strict Muslim household. 

In 1999, he returns to Pakistan to find the villages of his youth dominated by the ideology of the Taliban, filled with young men spouting militant rhetoric, and his extended family under threat. Eteraz becomes the target of a mysterious abduction plot when he is purported to be a CIA agent, and eventually has to escape under military escort. 

Back in the United States, with his fundamentalist illusions now shattered, Eteraz tries to find a middle way within American Islam. At each stage of Eteraz's life, he takes on a different identity to signal his evolution. From being pledged to Islam in Mecca as an infant, through Salafi fundamentalism, to liberal reformer, Eteraz desperately struggles to come to terms with being a Pakistani and a Muslim. 

Astonishingly honest, darkly comic, and beautifully told, *Children of Dust *is an extraordinary adventure that reveals the diversity of Islamic beliefs, the vastness of the Pakistani diaspora, and the very human search for home.


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Missionary work in Africa was the most difficult and faith-affirming labor James Graham had ever faced, and warm, homey presents from a Good Samaritan back home gave him hope to carry on. But an injury halted his work and sent him home to Chicago. There, James met Rachel Ashcroft, who'd sent those thoughtful gifts, and he was intrigued by the sadness that shadowed her features. Bringing the light back into Rachel's face gave him new purpose, but was this respite only temporary? Or could James release his past and open his heart to receive Rachel's gift of love?


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SUMMARY:
Elizabeth Berg has published fiction and nonfiction and has been nominated for a National Magazine Award. She lives in Massachusetts. "From the Hardcover edition."


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When a competing candlemaker comes to town, Harrison Black tries his best to get along, but when the woman threatens to run him out of town at the Founder's Day celebration, Harrison argues with her.  A few minutes later she is murdered, and someone in the crowd points her finger at Harrison as the killer!


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Harrison Black is kayaking on the Gunpowder River in front of River's Edge when he thinks he hits a submerged log.  As he looks closer into the water though, he discovers that it's a body.  Horrified, Harrison tries to bring it to shore, only to realize that it is his ex girlfriend!  Harrison dives into the case, and tries to find out how Becka really died.


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SUMMARY:
Jennifer Shane is stunned when she's named Businessperson of the Year, but she's even more shocked when, at the presentation ceremony. Chamber of Commerce President Eliza Glade, over-dressed, over-made-up, and over-the-top, is killed. Jen and her sister Sara Lynn were among her worst enemies, so they'll have to bend over backwards to clear their names. And an easy resolution is not in the cards.


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Underwater investigator Hannah Sampson and her partner are suiting up for underwater training in the British Virgin Islands when a plane nosedives into the water and disappears.They save eight people-and lose four. Hannah plunges into an investigation to see if one of the passengers was a target and who would be desperate enough to kill all those people.And as she copes with a nine-year-old survivor, a shady suspect, a shaky relationship-and an approaching hurricane-Hannah begins to feel she might have gotten in too deep.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Custom Card Creations was Jennifer Shane's chance to break away from her big sister's scrapbooking business. But it hasn't been all glitter and tinsel. Customers are scarce, Jennifer isn't speaking to her sister, and - after finally landing a client - she hears a murder over the phone. When Jennifer receives a threatening note - in large block letters - it's clear someone has designs on her life. But why?


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An alien race known as the Kéthani come to Earth bearing a dubious but amazing gift: immortality. Each chapter is an episode that deals with human emotions in the face of the vast consequences of the alien arrival, and how the lives of a group of friends are changed.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Each of us will know physical pain in our lives, but none of us knows when it will come or how long it will stay. Today as much as 10 percent of the population of the United States suffers from chronic pain. It is more widespread, misdiagnosed, and undertreated than any major disease. While recent research has shown that pain produces pathological changes to the brain and spinal cord, many doctors and patients still labor under misguided cultural notions and outdated scientific dogmas that prevent proper treatment, to devastating effect.



In *The Pain Chronicles*, a singular and deeply humane work, Melanie Thernstrom traces conceptions of pain throughout the ages—from ancient Babylonian pain-banishing spells to modern brain imaging—to reveal the elusive, mysterious nature of pain itself. Interweaving first-person reflections on her own battle with chronic pain, incisive reportage from leading-edge pain clinics and medical research, and insights from a wide range of disciplines—science, history, religion, philosophy, anthropology, literature, and art—Thernstrom shows that when dealing with pain we are neither as advanced as we imagine nor as helpless as we may fear.



Both a personal meditation and an intellectual exploration, *The Pain Chronicles *illuminates and makes sense of the all-too-human experience of pain—and confronts with extraordinary grace and empathy its peculiar traits, its harrowing effects, and its various antidotes.


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SUMMARY:
In Tom Sharpe's fourth uproarious Wilt novel, the indefatigable Henry Wilt embarks on the voyage of a lifetime a cross-country trip through England, without map or compass, carrying little more than a backpack and the boots on his feet. A week later sees him drunk and unconscious in the back of an arsonist's pickup truck. His trip goes even further downhill from there until he revives in the hospital, unable to figure out how he could possibly stand accused of arson, assassination and robbery. Meanwhile, Eva has taken the quads to visit Uncle Wally and Aunt Joan in Tennessee. With the four girls leaving their customary trail of insanity and destruction wherever they go, not to mention a mob of embittered drug enforcement agents, Eva's journey has also spiralled out of control. Bitingly funny,Wilt in Nowherepits Wilt against the intricacies of police persecution and the underbelly of Britain's medical facilities, brilliantly exposing the farcical realities of small-town England and America.


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Wilt is still teaching at the Fenland Tech, attempting to drill English into plasterers, dozing through tedious committee meetings and occasionally getting mildly plastered in 'The Pig in a Poke' with one of his few bearable colleagues. But the even tenor of his days is rudely interrupted when the shadow of drug dealing flickers across the Tech. Suddenly Wilt becomes the target of suspicion. His colleagues believe him to be responsible for triggering a departmental inquiry, and his old adversary Inspector Flint, knowing that he's guilty of something, sees a chance to settle a number of scores. What his wife thinks is... well, what all wives think. But what none of them have reckoned with is Wilt's talent for making new enemies. What starts with an accusation of voyeurism in the staff lavatory (of the wrong gender to boot) leads, more or less directly, to a massive confrontation at a nearby US airbase with the forces of law and order on both sides and Wilt in his usual place- in the middle.


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The landscape is flawless, the trees majestic, the flora and the fauna are right and proper, the whole is picturesquely typical of rural England at its best. Sir Giles, an MP of few principles and curious tastes, plots to destroy all this by building a motorway smack through it, to line his own pocket and at the same time to dispose of his wife, the capacious Lady Maude. Sir Giles recruits to his side Hoskins, a corrupt local official, Lord Leakham, the environmental equivalent of a hanging judge, and Dundridge, a troublesome bureaucrat with an unhealthy passion for order. Against this powerful lobby are ranged a mere handful of local residents led by Lady Maude. Hardly at first sight a team to withstand the batteries of official inertia, Compulsory Purchase Orders and bulldozer blades. But Lady Maude enlists a surprising ally in her enigmatic gardener Blott, the Dresden born, ex-Italian naturalised Englishman, in whom adopted patriotism burns bright. Lady Maude's dynamism and Blott's concealed talents enable them to meet pressure with mimicry, loaded tribunals with publicity and chilli powder, requisition orders with wickedly spiked beer. To every official ploy Blott and Lady Maude oppose their own ingenious and unprincipled countermove until in a spectacular finale Blott, with four hundred tins of baked beans among his armoury, takes on the army single-handed. This explosively comic novel will gladden the heart of everyone who has ever confronted a bureaucrat, and spells out in riotous detail how the forces of virtue play an exceedingly dirty game when the issue is close to home.


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This sequel to Tom Sharpe's classic comic novel Porterhouse Blue takes the reader back to the hilarious goings- on at Porterhouse College.     Though as cunning as ever, the formidable Skullion- previously head porter, now elevated to Master- is showing signs of physical frailty after his stroke. So the tricky business of appointing a new Master must start all over again. Meanwhile the College's monstrous debts refuse to go away, and a sinister American media mogul seems determined to make a television documentary on the premises, destroying part of the chapel in the process. Moreover, the widow of the previous Master is convinced that her husband was murdered, so she plants an agent in the Senior Common Room to dig up an unpleasant truth that everyone else would prefer kept under the carpet. Faced with such continuing crises, the instinct of the true Porterhouse man is to reach for the bottle- or to fall back on the subtle and traditional Cambridge skills of blackmail and kidnap. But will those be enough?


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SUMMARY:
A Totally Filthy Novel To Put The Literary World In Spasms - But Sure To Make A Shameful Pile Of Money In America. Frensic, A Literary Agent With A 'Nose For A Bestseller' (As Well As Port And Snuff), Places This Hot Property With Hutchmeyer - Who Is The Least Respected Publisher In The World. And A Gullible Author Is Despatched Across The Atlantic For A Chaotic Publicity Tour.


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Tom Sharpe's second South African novel and a brilliant follow- up to Riotous Assembly  Once again the setting is Piemburgem, the deceptively peaceful- looking capital of Zululand, where Kommandant van Heerden, Konstabel Els and Luitenant Vekramp continue to terrorise true Englishman and even truer Zulus in their relentless search for a perfect South Africa. While that great Anglophile, Kommandant van Heerden, gropes his way towards attaining true 'Englishness' in the company of the eccentric Dornford Yates Club, Luitenant Verkramp, whose hatred of all things English is surpassed only by his fear of sex, sets in motion an experiment in mass chastity, with the help of the redoubtable lady psychiatrist Dr von Blimenstein, which has remarkable and quite unforeseen results. The Kommandant, hunting the fox in the Aardvark mountains, succumbs to the bizarre charms of Mrs Heathcote- Kilkoon, as Luitenant Verkramp's essays in counter- espionage backfire in the bird sanctuary. Once more, Konstabel Els, homicidal to the last, saves the day- or what's left of it- in one of the most savage hunts ever chronicled in fiction.


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Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it's the lesser offence of helping himself to some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable's wife. The Chief Constable has just survived charges of bribery and perjury and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. It is only when the Chief tries to frame his old adversary, the upright Miss Midden, hat things begin to go seriously wrong as his underhand ploy opens up the way to spectacular mayhem.


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A Rabelaisian portrait of a college and the ancient traditions of the university, Porterhouse Blue is one of the best-loved, classic comic novels of our times       Porterhouse College is world renowned for its gastronomic excellence, the arrogance of its Fellows, its academic mediocrity and the social cachet it confers on the athletic sons of county families. Sir Godber Evans, ex-Cabinet Minister and the new Master, is determined to change all this. Spurred on by his politically angular wife, Lady Mary, he challenges the established order and provokes the wrath of the Dean, the Senior Tutor, the Bursar and, most intransigent of all, Skullion the Head Porter -with hilarious and catastrophic results.


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SUMMARY:
When Miss Hazelstone Of Jacaranda Park Kills Her Zulu Cook In A Sensational Crime Passionel, The Gallant Members Of The South African Police Force Are Soon On The Scene: Kommandant Van Heerden, Whose Secret Longing For The Heart Of An English Gentleman Leads To The Most Memorable Transplant Operation Yet Recorded; Luitenant Verkramp Of The Security Branch, Ever Active In The Pursuit Of Communist Cells; Konstabel Els, With His Propensity For Shooting First And Not Thinking Later - And Also For Forcing Himself Upon African Women In A Manner Legally Reserved For Male Members Of Their Own Race. In The Course Of The Strange Events Which Follow, We Encounter Some Very Esoteric Perversions When The Kommandant Is Held Captive In Miss Hazelstone'S Remarkable Rubber Room; And Some Even More Amazing Perversions Of Justice When Miss Hazelstone'S Brother, The Bishop Of Barotseland, Is Sentenced To Be Hanged On The Ancient Gallows In The Local Prison. Not A 'Political' Novel In Any Previously Imagined Sense, Riotous Assembly Provides A Completely Fresh Approach To The South African Scene - An Approach At Once Startling In Its Deadpan Savagery And Outrageously Funny.


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First meet young Lockhart Flawse from Flawse Hall on Flawse Fell. Then hear his story of gassing, whipping, blowing up, killing and stuffing - in fact, the everyday tale of a wild child of nature plunged into the genteel mock-Tudor world of surburban Surrey.


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Peregrine Roderick Clyde-Brown, a bumbling British public schoolboy, has a penchant for taking the most innocent commands literally. His adventures whisk him to a French castle, where he commits murder and mayhem. British humor is rarely captured as effectively as this. Fry accomplishes an incredible range of accents and distinctions of age, occupation and sex. If hearing an imitation of a man with a missing lower denture tickles you, then Vintage Stuff is right up your alley.    

"When Tom Sharpe turns his attention to a very minor public school…the result is predictably savage. Hoaxes, chases, car crashes, shootings, and general mayhem. Wicked, riotous humour.”
—Daily Telegraph


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Henry Wilt, tied to a daft job and a domineering wife, has just been passed over for promotion yet again. Ahead of him at the Polytechnic stretch years of trying to thump literature into the heads of plasterers, joiners, butchers and the like. And things are no better at home where his massive wife, Eva, is given to boundless and unpredictable fits of enthusiasm -for transcendental meditation, yoga or the trampoline. But if Wilt can do nothing about his job, he can do something about his wife, in imagination at least, and his fantasies grow daily more murderous and more concrete.
After a peculiarly nasty experience at a party thrown by particularly nasty Americans, Wilt finds himself in several embarrassing positions: Eva stalks out in stratospheric dudgeon, and Wilt, under the inspiration of gin, puts one of his more vindictive fantasies into effect. But suspicions are instantly aroused and Wilt rapidly achieves an unenviable notoriety in the role of The Man Helping Police With Their Enquiries. Or is he exactly helping? Wilt's problem -although he's on the other side of the fence -is the same as Inspector Flint's: where is Eva Wilt? But Wilt begins to flourish in the heat of the investigation, and as the police stoke the flames of circumstantial evidence, Wilt deploys all his powers to show that the Law can't tell a Missing Person from a hole in the ground.


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In this, the second of Tom Sharpe's chronicles about Henry Wilt, our hero is no longer the victim of his own uncontrolled fantasies. As Head of a reconstituted Liberal Studies Department he has assumed power without authority at the Fenland College of Arts & Technology and the fantasies he now confronts are those of political bigots and reactionary bureaucrats- in addition to his wife's enthusiasm for every Organic Alternative under the compost heap and the insistence of his quadruplets on looking at every problem with an unflinching lack of sentimentality. Wilt's problems are compounded by nature in the shape of a rose bush, nostalgia, temporary infatuation with a foreign student and the hostility of medical services unwilling to attend to his most urgent needs. But it is only when Wilt becomes the unintentional participant in a terrorist siege that he is forced to find an answer to the problems of power, which have corrupted greater men than he. With a mental ingenuity born of his innate cowardice, Wilt fights for those liberal values which are threatened both by international terrorism and by the sophisticated methods of police anti- terrorist agents. In the confusion that follows, Wilt resumes his dialogue with the unflagging Inspector Flint and is himself subjected to the indignity of a psycho- political profile. Bitingly funny and brilliantly written, THE WILT ALTERNATIVE exposes the farcical anomalies, which have become the social norms of our time.


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World-class entertainer and Sazi councilman, Antoine Monier, has taken his big cats all over the world without any trouble—until his latest trip to Stuttgart, where one of his tigers is stolen and killed. to Antoine’s surprise, the German police have another tiger in custody—a tiger who is actually a lovely Turkish American woman, Tahira Kuric.

Like Antoine, Tahira is a shapeshifter, but of the Hayalet Kabile, the ghost tribe of shapeshifters. And despite their immediate attraction, Tahira wants nothing to do with Antoine—the Sazi are the enemy of the Hayalet Kabile.

But Tahira doesn’t have a choice, because she and Antoine have discovered that she is a fabled "power well," able to store magical energy from other shapeshifters—and something is hunting her, eager to use her powers for itself.

Only if they can set aside their peoples’ ancient rivalry and rely completely on each other—body and soul—can Tahira and Antoine save themselves and their people.


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He's Baaaaaack.

Hired killer Tony Giodone is back in action -- this time, believe it or not, working for the 'good guys.' Or should that be the 'not quite as bad guys?' He isn't sure. One thing is for certain, serving as a newly minted member of Wolven, the Sazi law enforcement agency, certainly does keep a guy busy. AND he gets to do what he does best. Kill things. Of course, Carmine doesn't plan to let Tony off the hook, particularly when he's attacked and nearly killed by the boys from the east coast.

Paired up with Ahmad al Narmer Tony's in danger up to his baby blues, which wouldn't bother him a bit, if his wife, Sue wasn't bound and determined to be a part of the action.


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He’s a Wolf...She’s a Jaguar...

Raphael is a former agent of the shapeshifter secret police, forced into retirement after a very public scandal. Now he’s assigned to help the victim of a hideous crime—a woman who has been attacked by a serial killer and accidentally turned into a were-jaguar.

Worse yet, Catherine turns out to be Raphael’s fated mate. But the serial killer is still on her trail, and perhaps even worse, Raphael’s pack wants her dead.

Caught between destiny and duty...

Raphael must make his choice—and in doing so, risk losing his pack—in this tale of obsession, revenge, lust, pack politics and true love.


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Even an assassin can be surprised...

Tony Giodone grew up in a world of predators and prey. He was one of the mafia’s top enforcers and is now a respected freelancer. He thought nothing could shock him more than a real-life werewolf ripping out his throat and leaving him for dead. Until he became one of them. Now, a new client has asked him to undertake an unusual assignment; one that makes even him sit up and take notice. The client wants him to kill her! Can Tony avoid falling in love with the woman he is scheduled to murder, or will his feelings for the one woman that can accept the beast he’s become make him more likely to end her life?


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Cara Salinas, the new Sheriff of Tedford County, Texas, has led her small pack of Mexican red wolves since she was thirteen.

Adam Mueller, a beat cop from Minneapolis, violated the Sazi’s single greatest rule—he allowed humans to see their kind, and must now lead his exiled timber wolves to start a new life with Cara’s pack.

Cara and Adam harbor secrets that could either make them fated mates or deadly enemies. Yet they must find a way to cooperate when a flock of vicious Sazi raptors begin feeding on humans. Can they embrace their future together to save the town, or will they begin a war that could destroy them all?

Hailed as “premiere authors of paranormal romance” and “true genre luminaries” by Romantic Times BOOKreviews and winner of the 2005 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Werewolf Romance for Moon’s Web, C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp are back with another tale of shapeshifters, passion and politics in Moon’s Fury.


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Tony Giodone made his living as an assassin—until one of his marks ripped his throat out and turned him into a werewolf. Now he’s the best hired killer there is.

When a curvy woman in an expensive suit tries to hire him to kill her, his wolf senses insist that she is his mate. One kidnapping, a plethora of gunfights, a psychic coma, and two faked deaths later, Tony and Sue have new identities and are hiding in a community of Sazi shapeshifters. All seems well, until Sue begins to pull away from Tony and he realizes that if he can’t be more open with her, he’s going to lose her. To add to his problems, Tony is getting flashes of other peoples’ lives—but he wants it to stop, because he’s learning things he shouldn’t.

What’s more dangerous than a psychic-powered werewolf assassin? Whatever it is, it’s kidnapping and killing female Sazi . . . after it sucks out their powers. Its latest captive is the girlfriend of Carmine, the Mafia don who used to be Tony’s boss. To get her back, Carmine will make war on all the Sazi—and while the Sazi would win, they can’t afford to be exposed to the humans. Now it’s up to Tony & Sue to save Carmine’s girlfriend— and possibly all of humanity!

They could really use the help of Bobby, the python member of the Sazi police force Wolven. But Bobby is a bit preoccupied. It seems that Chicago’s Indonesian pack enforcer, Asri Kho, a deadly Komodo Dragon on the full moon, makes his knees weak whenever she’s not trying to kill him.


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Josette Monier is one of the Sazi's most powerful seers. But even her foresight isn't infallible. She can be fooled, and has been: Fooled into thinking that Rick, her former husband is long dead. Fooled into thinking that her bitter enemy Ahmad al Narmer is behind all of the attempts on her life. But now Rick is back, and the two of them must find out who is behind the plot against all of the Sazi seers, and how it involves a drug reputed to keep Sazi from turning --- while dodging the assassins on their tails.


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KNOW YOUR ENEMIES

It's good advice—and Kate always thought she did. But everything has changed: there's a new force at the head of the Thrall collective. A force brilliant enough and ruthless enough to hide its sinister plan behind humanitarian work—building and funding halfway houses to ease the victims of drugs and the Thrall back into society.

And then Kate discovers that another part of the plan is rescinding the rules of fair play by which the Thrall have always dealt with humans. Kate is no longer Not Prey. Now she is just like everyone else: Prey.

Uncovering the plot is a start, but stopping it is another thing entirely. Kate must not only call on all of her own resources, but all of those that belong to her werewolf boyfriend Tom. But the Thrall collective has a brand new way of getting to Kate: a very personal series of attacks designed to tear her from Tom. Kate has to decide: save her relationship with Tom, or save the future from the Thrall?


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Kate Reilly has a hard time trusting people.

Six years ago, the love of her life turned her over to the vampire parasites who call themselves the Thrall. Katie survives the powerful bite of the master parasite only to discover that the Thrall's venom, coupled with her own natural psychic ability, has transformed her. Now she is next in line to be the Thrall Queen--and each day might be her last as a human.

Tom, a handsome firefighter, arouses all of Katie's dormant senses, but her heart shies away. After Dylan's betrayal, how can she trust any man—even a seemingly perfect and terribly sexy werewolf?

Tom's sincerity--and sex appeal--begins to wear down Katie's defenses. But his increasingly insistent charm hides a potentially deadly secret: his werewolf pack is hiding the one person who can stop the Thrall from completing Katie's transformation into Queen--and they won't give her up.


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Kate Reilly is having a bad month

She's on trial for murders she didn't commit. She's next on the list of a serial killer. The parasitic vampires known as the Thrall want her to investigate the murder of their young, and will use any means necessary to force her to bow to their demands.

And--possibly worst of all--her boyfriend Tom's werewolf pack is trying to break them up so Tom can mate with a werewolf to ensure the survival of his pack.

Now Kate must fight for Tom--and fight for her very survival in this brand new paranormal romance from the unbeatable, bestselling team of C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp.


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SUMMARY:
Eric Thompson's wolf howl can ruin electronics and send aircraft tumbling from the sky. Considered dangerous even by his fellow Sazi, Eric has become a lone wolf, living in self-imposed isolation. Yet when the very foundations of Sazi life come under attack, Eric knows he must defend his fellow shapeshifters at any cost. Attacked by a band of vicious Sazi, Holly Sanchez should have died. Instead, she survives, emerging as a powerful Sazi healer. Sent to return Eric to the Sazi world he rejected, Holly finds herself by his side as the lone wolf tracks the monster that is killing the Sazi. Holly soon realizes she must make a choicebetween a Sazi life with Eric, and life as a "normal" human being. But first, she must survive long enough to make that choiceand she must save her people, and the world, from evil.


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SUMMARY:
From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club: a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up. At nineteen, Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquility. What he got was a life of crime . . . crime reporting, that is, at the prestigious "Yomiuri Shinbun." For twelve years of eighty-hour workweeks, he covered the seedy side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking, and corruption are as familiar as ramen noodles and sake. But when his final scoop brought him face to face with Japan's most infamous "yakuza" boss--and the threat of death for him and his family--Adelstein decided to step down . . . momentarily. Then, he fought back. In "Tokyo Vice," Adelstein tells the riveting, often humorous tale of his journey from an inexperienced cub reporter--who made rookie mistakes like getting into a martial-arts battle with a senior editor--to a daring, investigative journalist with a price on his head. With its vivid, visceral descriptions of crime in Japan and an exploration of the world of modern-day "yakuza" that even few Japanese ever see, "Tokyo Vice" is a fascination, and an education, from first to last. "From the Hardcover edition."


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The provocative follow-up to the *New York Times* bestseller *Predictably Irrational*   Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive? How can confusing directions actually help us? Why is revenge so important to us? Why is there such a big difference between what we *think* will make us happy and what *really* makes us happy?   

 In his groundbreaking book *Predictably Irrational*, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in *The Upside of Irrationality*, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with, and more.  

 Drawing on the same experimental methods that made *Predictably Irrational* one of the most talked-about bestsellers of the past few years, Ariely uses data from his own original and entertaining experiments to draw arresting conclusions about how—and why—we behave the way we do. From our office attitudes, to our romantic relationships, to our search for purpose in life, Ariely explains how to break through our negative patterns of thought and behavior to make better decisions. *The Upside of Irrationality* will change the way we see ourselves at work and at home—and cast our irrational behaviors in a more nuanced light.


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Forced to flee his city of Melnibone, Elric and his sorcerous blade Stormbringer journey through barren hills to the edge of a black sea. Elric finds a dark ship and begins a voyage that will bring him face-to-face with all the champions Time can summon--and more. Reissue.


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Moorcock is off at full throttle. Every scene has ironic meaning. A couple of minor stories, and we're into the lush, manic rush to Armageddon that is STORMBRINGER! Still the greatest plot on the planet, build and build until the final, cataclysmic - and said to be the best in all fantasy fiction - ending, which is completely stunning. Long before Pullman won the Whitbread Moorcock was offering this mad, bad and thoroughly humane fantasy to the world. He remains a giant.


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SUMMARY:

Elric of Melnibonè, proud prince of ruins, last lord of a dying race, wanders the lands of the Young Kingdoms in search of the evil sorcerer Theleb K'aarna. His object is revenge. But to achieve this, he must first brave such horrors as the Creatures of Chaos, the freezing wilderness of World's Edge, the golden-skinned Kelmain hordes, King Urish the Seven-fingered with his great cleaver Hackmeat, the Burning God, the Sighing Desert, and the terrible stone-age men of Pio. Although Elric holds within him a destiny greater than he could ever know, and controls the hellsword Stormbringer, stealer of souls, his task looks hopeless - until he encounters Myshella, Empress of the Dawn, the sleeping sorceress...


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In The Weird of the White Wolf, Elric returns to Imrryr after a long journey and confronts Yyrkoon, who usurped the throne in his absence. Yyrkoon has regained Mournblade through unknown means and uses it to attack. Elric and Stormbringer kill Yyrkoon, and no further mention is made of Mournblade until it is later disclosed that it was recovered by the Seers of Nihrain, to be wielded by Elric's cousin, Dyvim Slorm. Imrryr is sacked, though the pillagers' fate is not much better, being pursued by the golden battle barges and the few dragons who were awakened, led by Dyvim Tvar. Only Elric's ship escapes, propelled by the aid of his sorcery.


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After much wandering and seeking Elric finally discovers the location of the sorcerer who had earlier inconvenienced him. A meeting of old friends and scattered brothers evolves into a union of vengeance. A demon sent hoping to devour an albino is thwarted, but it's master's aim's are met with Elric's capture. A bargain made with a well intentioned merchant wins Elric his freedom, but only half of him is allowed to escape. Elric restored with his symbiotic blade calls upon unholy aide to finally vanquish his meddlesome sorceress enemy. The final assault brings a grievous death as the dragon caves will no longer have a master. A promise broken and an unwanted soul taken by Elric's hungry companion. Another hollow victory causes Elric much discomfort.


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Elric of Melniboné is a requisite title in the hard fantasy canon, a book no fantasy fan should leave unread. Author Michael Moorcock, already a major player in science fiction, cemented his position in the fantasy pantheon with the five-book Elric saga, of which Elric of Melniboné is the first installment. The book's namesake, the brooding albino emperor of the dying nation of Melniboné, is a sort of Superman for Goths, truly an archetype of the genre. The youthful Elric is a cynical and melancholy king, heir to a nation whose 100,000-year rule of the world ended less than 500 years hence. More interested in brooding contemplation than holding the throne, Elric is a reluctant ruler, but he also realizes that no other worthy successor exists and the survival of his once-powerful, decadent nation depends on him alone. Elric's nefarious, brutish cousin Yrkoon has no patience for his physically weak kinsman, and he plots constantly to seize Elric's throne, usually over his dead body. Elric of Melniboné follows Yrkoon's scheming, reaching its climax in a battle between Elric and Yrkoon with the demonic runeblades Stormbringer and Mournblade. In this battle, Elric gains control of the soul-stealing Stormbringer, an event that proves pivotal to the Elric saga. --Paul Hughes


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

*The Artemis Fowl Files* is comprised of two original stories: "LEPrecon": the story of Fairy Police Captain Holly Short's move from Traffic to Recon following her initiation into the Fairy Police; and "The Seventh Dwarf", featuring Mulch, Butler, and Artemis himself.EXTRAS INCLUDE:. "Behind-the-scenes" interviews with major characters including: Artemis, Holly, Foaly, Mulch, and EoinColfer himself. Coded section from the Fairy Book for kids to translate. A section for Fairy Spotters including the different categories of Fairy and their physical characteristicsand personality traits, including: Elves, Trolls, Sprites, Pixies Goblins, Dwarves and Centaurs. Technical diagrams of Foaly's inventions


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Mindy is being stalked by someone with a vendetta against one of her older brothers and promises to kidnap her to 'make him pay'. After discovering that he is a military man, she's convinced that things like this are the reason she is hell bent against marrying military, even if it is five generations strong in her family.

But the military policeman assigned to her case is smoking hot and hard to ignore. Shane Newhope promises to keep her safe, is it so bad that he sends tingles down her spine in the process?

Only if you've told your brothers that you want nothing to do with the military, and they're convinced that a military man is just what you need.


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On the busiest shopping day of the year, some idealistic college students believe they’re about to carry out an elaborate media stunt at the largest mall in America. They think the jamming devices in their backpacks will disrupt stores’ computer systems, causing delays and chaos. What they don’t realize is that instead of jamming devices, their backpacks are stuffed with explosives, ready to be detonated by remote control and turning them into suicide bombers.Caught up in a political nightmare, battling a new interim director and still mourning the death of her boss A. D. Cunningham, FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell must put her own troubles aside and fly to Minnesota to help figure out what’s behind this terrorist attack — a massacre that is all the more frightening because no group has claimed responsibility.The search becomes personal when a tip reveals that one of the college students involved is Patrick, Maggie’s brother. Afraid and on the run, Patrick must decide if he can finally trust Maggie enough to help her unravel this horrifying nightmare.Sifting through the debris for answers, Maggie is joined by Nick Morrelli, who has recently taken a job with a national security company that oversees security for the mall. Although Maggie and Nick have investigated several cases together in the past, they’ve never investigated a relationship with each other. Nick would like to change that.When an informant confides in Maggie that there are other attacks on the secret agenda, she knows that she’s running out of time. In less than twenty-four hours she’ll need to figure out exactly when and where the second attack will take place, who to look for and how to keep her brother from becoming one of the casualties.


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Once they used to dance as children, now Jamar Q'ellan wants to take dancing with Kierra Vonne to another level. As the years have elapsed, the distance between Jamar and Kierra has become insurmountable yet both will become entangled in a dance of desire. 

On the planet of Manitee-a in 2975 C.E., skin color determines whether you're of the ruling class or a slave. Sex and love between them is forbidden between the black-skinned Jaquill ruling class and the white kattanee slaves. Kierra, a slave, knows the ultimate penalty if she makes love to Jamar but he is persistent, persuasive, and unwilling to let go of her and consequently the carefree past in which she loved and trusted him without reservation. 

The one time Kierra is allowed to choose, she must make a life or death decision - walk away from Jamar and true love or give him the passionate nights they both deserve. She just might make the wrong choice.


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His face was concealed by a mask...yet piercing blue eyes inexorably drew Jill Lawson into his arms. What came over her, she'd never know -- but a case of mistaken identity landed her in more than a little hot water, because now she was being framed for murder. Not to mention she'd made mad, passionate love with a stranger! Trying to establish her innocence proved a lot harder than Jill imagined, especially when she was so distracted by the memory of the mystery man's kisses -- kisses that were suspiciously similar to investigator Mac Cooper's. But was Mac set up, just as Jill was? In a race against time and a cunning adversary, could Mac and Jill unmask the real killer before it was too late...?


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FORBIDDEN LOVER? Charlotte "Charlie" Larkin believed she'd been cursed when it came to matters of the heart, especially since every man she'd ever been involved with had met with an untimely end. To add insult to injury, to-die-for true-crime writer Gus Riley had come to the remote Montana town to research her for his next book! Following an attempt on Charlie's life, Gus insisted the two join forces to pursue the investigation. Charlie was unwittingly drawn to her sexy protector, but she knew she should keep her distance. Except when Gus insisted they pretend to be involved to draw out the killer, her defenses crumbled at his all-too-real advances. And being in close proximity to Gus made Charlie forget that the arrangement was supposed to be temporary -- which was dangerous while the real killer lurked.


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Bestselling Erotic Novelist Begins B&D Trilogy! Rod Harden's "stories weave a powerful erotic spell over the reader," writes Michelle Houston in Sensual Romance Reviews. "Rod Harden brings to life the guilty pleasures that dwell with the dark recesses of the human psyche. Journey with him as he takes you away into a world of pleasure and pain, of domination and submission, treading always the fine line between darkness and light." Rod Harden's books are "the kind you read when you are all alone, convinced you will only take a peek, but soon finding yourself desiring more, hooked on the need of the characters, awakened to your own inner demons." Now collaborating with Alison McKenna, Harden produces an epic trilogy of bondage and domination, beginning with " Sharae and Melissa," a book that breaks new ground and reaches new heights of achievement. What does it fee like to actually be a slave girl? Harden and McKenna take you inside the minds and hearts of two slave women and show how pain and submission can lead to transcendent pleasure and self-fulfillment.


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A bold new series from the USA Today bestselling co-author of the Noble Dead saga. Eleisha Clevon has the face of a teen angel, but she is no angel. Unlike most vampires, she doesn't like to kill, but self-preservation comes first. When an old friend destroys himself by walking into sunlight right in front of her, Eleisha is shocked. And what she finds afterwards points to how very sick of his existence her friend had become-piling drained corpses in the basement and keeping records of other vampires' real names and addresses. That's a problem. Because now, there are policemen on the case: two very special humans with some gifts of their own. They know who Eleisha is, and, even more dangerous, what she is.


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Until recently, I led a pretty normal life. But then I did something that kind of changed things for me: I had a one night stand with a vampire. Things got a little carried away and he bit me, turning me into a vampire too. I guess you can say I learned the hard way that love bites, and once bitten there's no going back.


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Knit shop owner and sorcerer's daughter Chloe Hobbs felt the Fates finally got it right when she met Luke MacKenzie. And no one could have convinced her otherwise—including the trolls, selkies, or spirits who also call Sugar Maple, Vermont, home. But then out of nowhere Luke's ex-wife suddenly shows up, claiming to see the spirit of their daughter, Steffie—a daughter Chloe knows nothing about.

Steffie's spirit is being held hostage by a certain Fae leader. And if Chloe weaves a spell to free her spirit, her nemesis will also be free—free to destroy her yarn shop and all of Sugar Maple. But if she doesn't, Steffie won't be the only one spending eternity in hell. Chloe'll be joining her, cursed with a broken heart.


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On the run from her past, Rayna Halliday is devastated when her old car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. She soon finds that her ex has managed to block her credit cards, her accounts and even her cell phones in an attempt to exert his control over her. Giving in to him is something she refuses to do. 

When the owners of O'Keefe's Gas and Repair come to her rescue, they make her an offer that tantalizes the forbidden desires within her-she can find a way to pay for the car repairs or she can belong to them for two weeks and they'll see to her repairs for free. At the sexual mercy of four gorgeous men for two weeks? Why not? She can have fun and get things straightened out, all at once. But there are two problems heading her way: an ex on a rampage and her heart that's in for more than just fun.


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Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.  Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.  In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

"I can't just storm in and proclaim my intentions. I can't ‘steal' you away. I just have to wait and hope that, someday, you'll ask," Tamani said.  

 "And if I don't?" Laurel said, her voice barely above a whisper.  

 "Then I guess I'll be waiting forever."   

 Although Laurel has come to accept her true identity as a faerie, she refuses to turn her back on her human life—and especially her boyfriend, David—to return to the faerie world.  

 But when she is summoned to Avalon, Laurel's feelings for the charismatic faerie sentry Tamani are undeniable. She is forced to make a choice—a choice that could break her heart.


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An explosion in a nuclear power plant. Kids patched up with scavenged body parts and bionic implants. A growing army of superhuman soldiers programmed for destruction. "No," whispered Cameron to the monster in the glass. And he watched it shaking its hideous head. "That's not me. You're not me." As commercial and compelling as a computer game, this is the first book in a major new series.


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Autumn, 1541. Following the uncovering of a plot against his throne in Yorkshire, King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to overawe his rebellious subjects there. Accompanied by a thousand soldiers, the cream of the nobility, and his fifth wife Catherine Howard, the King is to attend an extravagant submission of the local gentry at York.  Already in the city are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. As well as assisting with legal work processing petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission - to ensure the welfare of an important but dangerous conspirator being returned to London for interrogation.  But the murder of a local glazier involves Shardlake in deeper mysteries, connected not only to the prisoner in York Castle but to the royal family itself. As the Great Progress arrives in the city, Shardlake and Barak stumble upon a cache of secret papers that holds danger for the King's throne, and a chain of events unfolds that will lead Shardlake facing the most terrifying fate of the age.


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FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD LEO NORTH’S prospects in life are limited. He attends military school, lives with his fearful grandmother, and looks after his brother Stirling. He resists his innate powers, because those who demonstrate any sort of magical ability are considered enemies of the state. But when he finds a blank book in the snow, his typical indifference melts away. From the first moment he touches the book, he senses its strange power. Passages start to appear on the pages—revealing family secrets, telling the history of Malonia, and uncovering the story of Ryan and Anna, two teens from a parallel universe. When Leo’s seemingly narrow path takes an unexpected tragic turn, he finds himself on a journey from which he can never really return. And, as he slowly begins to lose touch with reality, Ryan and Anna’s story comes to the forefront. Their idyllic summer romance—seemingly worlds away from Leo—has everything to do with Malonia.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

*Asking for the truth can be as painful as telling it. . . .*Anselm Andros has clearly defined roles in his family and they are roles he plays very well—he is confidante to his mother, Maria. He is the confessor to his stepfather, Leo, a man haunted by the secrets of his past. And Anselm is also the patient, caring brother to his precocious sister, Jasmine. When the political landscape of Malonia starts to shift, this unassuming family begins to unravel. Even though they’ve spent the past fifteen years leading a quiet life, Maria and Leo’s actions are forever linked to the turbulent history of Malonia and its parallel world, modern-day England. With so much uncertainty at home and in his world, it is more important than ever for Anselm to put all the pieces of the past together. He must listen to his own voice and acknowledge his fears and desires—whatever the cost.


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Alex Merrick is rich, handsome and one of the most successful property developers in the country. But to Sarah Carver the arrogant multimillionaire is her worst enemy: his business destroyed her family!When Sarah gets the chance to take one of Alex's business deals away from him, she relishes her moment of triumph. But the glory doesn't last long-because the gorgeous Alex has an ace up his sleeve. He'll propose a deal Sarah just can't refuse-and make her his mistress as part of the bargain!


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Isobel James, the last single girl (or so it seems!), can't believe she's come to Greece on her *own*, but she had to escape the wedding fever that's gripped her best friends.

When reclusive tycoon Lukas Andreadis finds Isobel washed up on his private beach, he thinks she's another journalist acting the "damsel in distress." He whisks her to his villa, where interrogation leads to seduction.

Now Isobel's struck down by something much more dangerous than wedding fever—a powerful infatuation with the legendary Greek….


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From the author of The Chosen and My Name Is Asher Lev comes an epic work of nonfiction chronicling the stormy lives of a Jewish father and son whose stories span the entire history of the Soviet Union. Solomon Slepak, an inflexible old-guard Bolshevik - military commander, diplomat, propagandist - not only miraculously survived the murderous purges of the thirties and late forties, despite his high visibility and his Jewish origins, but retained to the last his unwavering faith in the Communist Party. His son, Volodya, was raised as a true believer and easily entered the elite Moscow world of scientists and engineers - until, choosing the path of dissent, he became an internationally renowned "refusenik" hero. For eighteen years he and his wife, Masha, were the objects of government persecution for the "crime" of attempting to leave the Soviet Union - five of those years lost in Siberia as punishment for hanging a banner from the balcony of their Moscow apartment which read "Let us go to our son in Israel". The circumstances that shaped Solomon and Volodya Slepak - their personal and public histories and the clash of their ideologies - form the substance of this remarkable account of a family and a nation. Chaim Potok, who first met the younger Slepaks when they were still under siege in Moscow, tells their story with deep understanding and empathy.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

He'd kept a promise to marry his best friend's widow. But even an obligatory marriage could not diminish the hunger vintner Tony Carlino still felt for Rena Montgomery. Foolishly, he'd walked away from her once before…and she had never forgiven him. As far as she was concerned, no one would be toasting this arrangement anytime soon.

She had married Tony only for the safety his name—and money—would give her, her winery…and her unborn child. Never could she allow herself to reveal the desire she felt for her new husband. For their marriage was meant to be only about business. Neither dared speak one word about love.


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A thrill-seeking Harvard linguistics professor and an ultrasecret branch of the Catholic Church go head-to-head in a race to uncover the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis. The ruins of the technologically-advanced, eerily-enigmatic ancient civilization promise their discoverer fame, fortune, and power… but hold earth-shattering secrets about the origin of man.  While world-famous linguist and archaeologist, Thomas Lourds, is shooting a film that dramatizes his flamboyant life and scientific achievements, satellites spot impossibly ancient ruins along the Spanish coast.  Lourds knows exactly what it means: the Lost Continent of Atlantis has been found.  The race is on, and Lourds' challengers will do anything to get there first.Whoever controls the Lost Continent will control the world.


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"The men wear masks. Their guns are drawn on the bank manager. She nervously recites the alarm code, and the tumblers within the huge vault fall. The timing and execution are brilliant. It could be the perfect heist. But as the huge sum of cash is stolen, so too is one man's heart -- and that man is the Prince of Thieves... Charlestown, a blue-collar Boston neighborhood, produces more bank robbers and armored car thieves than any square mile in the world. In this gripping, intricately plotted thriller, Claire Keesey, the branch manager for a Boston bank and one of an influx of young professionals chipping away at the neighborhood's insularity, is taken hostage during a robbery. She is released, but Doug MacRay, the brains behind the tough, tight-knit crew of thieves, can't get her out of his mind. Tracking her down without his mask and gun, Doug introduces himself, and as soon as he and Claire meet, their mutual attraction is undeniable -- as are the risks of a relationship. Meanwhile, Doug's crew pulls off another audacious, meticulously planned job. Frustrated by their ingenuity and brazen ambition, FBI Agent Adam Frawley begins to zero in on Doug and his pals -- and against his own better judgment, he, too, develops more than a professional interest in Claire. Under pressure from Frawley's ever-closer investigation, Doug imagines a life for himself away from bank robberies and Charlestown. But before that can happen, the crew learns that there may be a way to rob Boston's venerable baseball stadium, Fenway Park. It's a magnificently dangerous and utterly irresistible opportunity -- yet for Doug, pursuing his former hostage may be the most dangerous act of all... Chuck Hogan's brash tale of four men -- thieves, rivals, friends -- being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent, and the woman who may destroy them all, is a spectacular, stylish, heart-pounding thriller. "


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

A three-day bed-in is the perfect way for aspiring DJ Erica Gibson to get on air. This promotional stunt could even lead to her having her own show on the radio. Too bad she's cohosting with the station Lothario rather than hottie Adam "the Hawk" Hawkins.

Her wish is granted when Adam shows up on location. Dream job *and* dream guy...does life get any better? After everyone leaves and the lights go out, Erica seduces him. While their steamy after-dark activities go against the station's rules, they agree that what happens in the bed stays in the bed. Back at work those forbidden adventures still tempt them. Then again, there's nothing like the thrill of the forbidden....


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

This haunting debut from a brilliant new voice is sure to be as captivating as it is controversial, a shocking look at the imminent collapse of American civilization—and what will succeed it. In the aftermath of the switch from analog to digital TV, an anarchic movement known as Salvage hijacks the unused airwaves. Mixed in with the static’s random noise are dire warnings of the imminent economic, political, and social collapse of civilization—and cold-blooded lessons on how to survive the fall and prosper in the harsh new order that will inevitably arise from the ashes of the old.Hiram and Levi are two young men, former Scouts and veterans of countless Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Now, on the blood-drenched battlefields of university campuses, shopping malls, and gated communities, they will find themselves taking on new identities and new moralities as they lead a ragtag band of hackers and misfits to an all-but-mythical place called Amaranth, where a fragile future waits to be born.


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On the heels of his resoundingly praised fantasy series THE GREAT GAME, author Dave Duncan returns to the form with which he originally established his reputation: the epic sword-and-sorcery adventure. The breathtaking saga of THE KING'S BLADES begins with THE GILDED CHAIN, the relentlessly exciting story of an unparalleled swordsman trained from early childhood to take his place among the King's elite corps of warrior/bodyguards in a dangerously uncertain fantasy realm. Audaciously taking as his own name of Kingdom's most fabled champion of long ago, Durandel sees his lifelong dream of serving his liege dashed to bits whenhe is bonded for life, not to his beloved king, but to an effete noble fop. ButDestiny has inscrutable plans for this able young knight in an ancient, isolated cityin a land far from the blood intrigues of the perilous court. On a mission thatpromises glory and great treasures, grisly secrets of opulence and immortality willbe revealed--while countless betrayals and untold horrors combine to threaten a remarkable future prophesied for a warrior who could be the mightiest hero in the history of the monarchy.


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When the king is killed, Princess Malinda realizes that is up to her to protect the heir to the Kingdom, her baby brother Amby, and that the only ones that can help her are the Blades of the Royal Guards.


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As unwanted, rebellious boys, they found refuge in Ironhall. . .Years later they emerged as the finest swordsmen in the realm— The Kings Blades Once bound, a Blade's life is no longer his own. Only death can break the gilded chain of enchantment that binds the bodyguard to the man he is sworn to defend. And never in living memory has a candidate refused the honor of serving his king. . .until now. Young Wasp never intended to be a rebel. Yet, at the sacred ceremony of binding, he follows the lead of his friend Raider, and together they spurn the wishes of King Ambrose himself. Now Raider and Wasp are outlaws hunted by the very Blades whose ranks they were a breath away from entering, and joined together by a destiny that binds them more securely than any knot tradition and sorcery might tie. Amid the turmoil their "treachery" has inspired, Wasp and Raider must undertake a desperate journey into the heart of the dreaded Fire Lands. And the outcome of their terrifying confrontation with dark truth and darker magic in this realm of monsters, ghosts, and half-men will ultimately determine the fate of two kingdoms.


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In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Edward M. Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and fifty years at the center of national events.TRUE COMPASSThe youngest of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, he came of age among siblings from whom much was expected. As a young man, he played a key role in the presidential campaign of his brother John F. Kennedy, recounted here in loving detail. In 1962 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he began a fascinating political education and became a legislator.In this historic memoir, Ted Kennedy takes us inside his family, re-creating life with his parents and brothers and explaining their profound impact on him. For the first time, he describes his heartbreak and years of struggle in the wake of their deaths. Through it all, he describes his work in the Senate on the major issues of our time--civil rights, Vietnam, Watergate, the quest for peace in Northern Ireland--and the cause of his life: improved health care for all Americans, a fight influenced by his own experiences in hospitals.His life has been marked by tragedy and perseverance, a love of family, and an abiding faith. There have been controversies, too, and Kennedy addresses them with unprecedented candor. At midlife, embattled and uncertain if he would ever fall in love again, he met the woman who changed his life, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Facing a tough reelection campaign against an aggressive challenger named Mitt Romney, Kennedy found a new voice and began one of the great third acts in American politics, sponsoring major legislation, standing up for liberal principles, and making the pivotal endorsement of Barack Obama for president.Hundreds of books have been written about the Kennedys. TRUE COMPASS will endure as the definitive account from a member of America's most heralded family, an inspiring legacy to readers and to history, and a deeply moving story of a life like no other.


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The Nebula Award-winning author continues the tale of Cleopatra's resurrection as the Queen of the Nile's DNA is blended with two present day hosts, forensic anthropologist Leda Hubbard and Egyptologist Gabriella Farouk--Cleopatra 7.1 and 7.2 respectively.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Kaylie Chatam is a pediatric nurse--she cares for babies and children. But her new patient is a very handsome man. One with a harrowing secret. Why is Stephen Gallow recuperating from a serious injury at her family home in Texas? And why has Kaylie been asked to nurse him back to health? Her dear maiden aunts seem to be playing matchmaker. But Kaylie isn't expected to find true love and marry--everyone knows that. Except Stephen...who just may hold the cure for them both!


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The hero of Christine Falls, Quirke, is a surly pathologist living in 1950s Dublin. One night, after having a few drinks at a party, he returns to the morgue to find his brother-in-law tampering with the records on a young woman's corpse. The next morning, when his hangover has worn off, Quirke reluctantly begins looking into the woman's history. He discovers a plot that spans two continents, implicates the Catholic Church, and may just involve members of his own family. He is warned-first subtly, then with violence-to lay off, but Quirke is a stubborn man. The first novel in the Quirke series brings all the vividness and psychological insight of John Banville's writing to the dark, menacing atmosphere of a first-class thriller.


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No one ever before dared defy THE MAFIA. . . but THE EXECUTIONER not only defies them, he kills, maims, and tries to destroy them piece by piece, with his Vietnam-trained tactics. . . using his knowledge of jungle warfare in his one-man crusade to wipe out the evil web of organized crime in America.


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The dreaded Black Hand has let out a $100,000 contract on Bolan's life, and every trigger-happy gunman in the country is trying to collect. At the same time, local, state, and federal police forces have banded together in the greatest manhunt in history to stop Bolan.

Fired with a holy vengeance, Bolan recruits nine buddies - all heroes of the Vietnam war, all specialists in the more sophisticated aspects of meting out death.


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War hero Mack Bolan, wearing a new Sicilian-style face fashioned for him by a plastic surgeon and ex-war buddy, infiltrates the inner family of the Mafia. Aided by the head mans beautiful daughter, Bolan almost becomes son-in-law and heir-apparent to the powerful Di George West Coast empire. Still hunted by police and mafiosi alike, with a $100,000 price tag on his head, the Executioner evades all the dragnets and strikes a crippling blow against the "invincible" underground organization before his identity is uncovered and he disappears - to fight another day.


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Mack Bolan is informed that Mafia overlords are meeting in Florida toomake arrangements to wipe him out - permanently! He penetrates their inner council, only to encounter the guns of the dreaded Talifero brothers. They are skilled "enforcers" whose cold-blooded modus operandi makes them powerful foes to be feared and respected - even by THE EXECUTIONER!

Overcoming near insurmountable odds, Bolan strikes with devastating force - once more catching the Mafia big shots off guard. . .


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The largest private gun squad in history follows Bolan to France, only to find the war has started without them, and 20 dead Frenchmen are mute testimony to the profinciency of the Executioner. . .


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Mack Bolan continues his war against the Mafia. Back in America after crippling the French and British Syndicates, he discovers the five families of the New York Mafia have plans in the political scene. Its strictly winner-take-all with the biggest stakes yet!

Hounded by the Mafias bloodhounds, and the police as well, Bolan must single-handedly foil an assassination plot, which, if it succeeds, would throw the country into panic.


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Mack Bolan faces the battle of his life as he invades the nerve-center of the Mafias powerful U.S. Operations.


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Mack Bolan, the one-man war machine, bets his life against the Mafia forces of glittering Las Vegas. . . and theres no business like show business once The Executioner gets in the act!


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Mack Bolan, the one-man army, tracks the Mafia to their island hideaways - and the lush vacation isles were never hotter.


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The sunny Golden Gate city finds out what the Executioner is all about when he explodes into their midst, hot on the trail of the inner enemy and "Mr. King," the behind-the-scenes boss of all that moves and breathes in the western states.

Bolans assault blazes a wide swath, zeroing in on the kingpins home base. A deadly Chinese Communist cell, some misled ecology freaks and a group of militant leftists all find themselves in danger of being burned by the swiftly racing torch of the Executioner. No one is going to stop him this time. No way.


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He rarely kills in anger; his is a war of cold methodology and precise maneuvers - but in this Boston campaign we find our warrior moving with a blazing determination to shake that town apart and to reduce its underworld to ashes. His only fear is that he may also destroy the only two persons in the world who are near and dear to him. Johnny and Val. They have been snatched by the mob.

It is a hellish nightmare come to flesh. The one and only pressure point which the mob could ever use against Bolan has now been found. . . and he sees confronting him not only the certain loss of these two cherished people but also the loss of a very important war.

There is only one strategy, and Bolan knows it. Boston is to be the site of the Executioners most daring and deadly battle yet. There would be no ending this one until Bolan was victorious, or dead.


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Power Play. . .

Thats the Washington game. When Mack Bolan crashes onto the scene he discovers a rats nest of mobsters and so-called political untouchables building a new game in town.

Here, at the nerve center of America, the Executioner finds his quarry once again - for the Mafia enforcers have been hard at work in various areas directly linked to the government.

Its Bolans toughest and most delicate mission so far. Law and order, the White House itself, are nearly powerless to cope with the insidious threat. Enter the Executioner. A new player. And a whole new game!


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Special Operator!

Thats the word that goes out from the Philadelphia mob. The Philly underground is in danger of coming apart at the seams, rocked from within by a succession of power plays by ambitious lieutenants of aging capo Stafano Angeletti. Through an unknown private arrangement, the special operator sent in is none other than Mack Bolan, who assumes the character of Johnny "Faces" Cavaretta, and international "security" enforcer reputed to be a man of a thousand faces. Bolan knows the real Cavaretta and knows, too, that this ploy means they must for the last time face each other.


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School for Assassins!

The hot and arid island of Sicily is infamous as the birthplace of the Mafia. From this Mediterranean spawning ground the deadly forces of evil and corruption have spread to all points of the globe. In the U.S. the Mafias influence has become as sophisticated as it is powerful. . . virtually no city is free of the mobs grip, hardly an industry is untouched by their sinister operations.

Now, after a long and bloody wipeout trail across our country, Mack Bolan must lash out at the very root of the Mafia monster. Sicily has seemingly been quite remote from the underworld activities on our shores in recent years, but Bolan has discovered that a top Mafia family in the U.S. has masterminded the formation of a small army of killers in Sicily. They are undergoing intensive training in a small village practically in the shadow of Mount Etna.

The purpose of their mission is secret. Bolans initial reconnaissance indicates that they are well into final preparations for what could be a major crime campaign. To strike where? And for whom? There is no time to learn more, or even to warn U.S. authorities. Bolan must go it alone, and face an army of assassins!


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Texas was hard territory, a giant state with a Mafia operation to match. But Mack Bolan would handle it one number at a time. In order of appearance. A single man against well-armed killers. It was a hell of a way to live. . . or die.

The word had come to the Executioner that mobsters were moving in on the tremendously lucrative oil fields. Klingmans Wells, among the most profitable in the midlands, was the first to go out of business. The daughter of the owner had disappeared, too, and Klingman himself was in seclusion in his Dallas apartment. No one knew why. Bolan would have to find out. And that was only the beginning.


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$150 Million Plus.

Thats the mobs annual "take" in Detroit. Fact, not fiction. The Mafia has big muscles in autotown.

Mack Bolans one-man war on the Mafia shifts into high gear in Detroit!


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Intermob War!

And Mack Bolan jumps right in the middle. On target in the center of the deadliest battle since the Mafia was destroyed in Boston. Now the Executioner hits New Orleans, and it will never be the same. The odds are long, but the time is right.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

*“For those who need to know what doctors and pharmaceutical companies are doing to people's health . . . this belongs in the library of every home.”*          -- Lendon H. Smith, M.D., author of *Feed Your Body Right *        

*Prescription Alternatives* is an easy-to-use, immediate reference for all the information you need about how medications affect your body, what you can do to counteract imbalances, and what alternative treatments work best.        ***“FDA approved” doesn't mean it's safe!**        Prescription drugs can deplete the body of essential vitamins and minerals    Studies show that H2 blockers for heartburn can cause bone loss    Drugs to treat diabetes can increase risk of heart disease and death        

Covering the major prescription drugs in use today and their dangerous side effects, natural health expert Dr. Earl Mindell lays the foundation for a sound body with safer alternatives to these medicines.             

    New drugs and natural alternatives for:    Heart disease    Diabetes     Obesity-related ailments    Asthma    ADD


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SUMMARY:
Tell-All is many things: a Sunset Boulevard-inflected homage to Old Hollywood when grand dames like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford ruled the roost. A Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama full of big gestures and muted psychic torment. A veritable Tourettes Syndrome of rat-tat-tat name-dropping, from the A-list to the Z-list. A merciless send-up of of Lillian Hellmans habit of butchering the truth that will have Mary McCarthy cheering from the beyond.Our narrator is Hazie Coogan, who for decades has tended to the outsized needs of Katherine Miss Kathie Kenton, a star of the wattage of Elizabeth Taylor and the emotional torments of Judy Garland. The survivor of multiple marriages, career comebacks and cosmetic surgeries, Miss Kathie lives the way legends should. But danger lurks when gentleman caller Webster Carlton Westward III arrives and worms his way into Miss Kathies heart and boudoir. Hazie discovers that this bounder has already written his celebrity tell-all memoir and that it foretells her death in a forthcoming Lillian Hellman-penned World War II musical extravaganza Unconditional Surrender, in which Miss Kathie portrays Lily defeating Japanese forces from Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki. As the body count mounts, Hazie must execute a plan to save Katherine Kenton for her fans and for posterity.A dark reimagining of All About Eve and an hilarious assault on celebrity, Tell-All is vintage Palahniuk.


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SUMMARY:
Her name is Pete Caldecott. She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life  mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete’s eyes—or so she thought. Now a detective[MSOffice2] , Pete is investigating the case of a young girl kidnapped from the streets of London. A tipster’s chilling prediction has led police directly to the child…but when Pete meets the informant, she’s shocked to learn he is none other than Jack. Strung out on heroin, Jack a shadow of his former self.  But he’s able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget’s kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fey.  Even though she’s spent years disavowing the supernatural, Pete follows Jack into the invisible fey underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget—and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago…


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SUMMARY:
"Jack Winter's deadly past has come back to haunt him...and his only hope lies in the shadows of Black London, the supernatural underworld teeming with dark magic and fey glamour."Thirteen years ago, Jack Winter lay dying in a graveyard. Jack called upon a demon and traded his soul for his life...and now the demon is back to collect its due. But Jack has finally found something to live for. Her name is Pete Caldecott--and because of her, Jack's not going to Hell without a fight.DEMON BOUNDPete doesn't know about Jack's bargain, but she does know that something bigger and far more dangerous than Jack's demon is growing in the Black. Old gods are stirring and spirits are rising--and Jack doesn't stand a chance of stopping them without Pete's help...Praise for the Black London series: "This dark tale takes supernatural shadows to the next level." --"Publishers Weekly""Crackles with conflict and perilous magic...For those who love their urban fantasy hypnotically treacherous, this book's for you!" "--Romantic Times BOOKreviews"


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SUMMARY:
The first book in a thrilling, addictive new series by a talented new voice in dark fantasy. Welcome to Nocturne City, where werewolves, black magicians, and witches prowl the streets at night'¦ Among them is Luna Wilder, a tough-as-nails police officer whose job is to keep the peace. As an Insoli werewolf, Luna travels without a pack and must rely on instinct alone. And she's just been assigned to find the ruthless killer behind a string of ritualistic murders'a killer with ties to an escaped demon found only in legend'¦until now. But when she investigates prime suspect Dmitri Sandovsky, she can't resist his wolfish charms. Pack leader of a dangerous clan of Redbacks, Dimitri sends her animal instincts into overdrive and threatens her fiercely-guarded independence. But Luna and Dimiri will need to rely on each other as they're plunged into an ancient demon underworld and pitted against an expert black magician with the power to enslave them for eternity'¦


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In the shadows of Nocturne City, witches lurk and demons prowl, and homicide detective Luna Wilder must keep the peace--while living life as a werewolf. Now bodies are turning up all over town, the brutal murders linked by a cryptic message: "We see with empty eyes...""PURE BLOOD"""To make matters worse for Luna, she can't get wolfishly handsome Dmitri Sandovsky out of her mind. The last time he helped her with a case, Dmitri suffered a demon bite that infected him with a mysterious illness...and now his pack elders have forbidden him from associating with Luna. But she'll need his help when high-level witches start turning up slaughtered. Because a war is brewing between rival clans of blood witches and caster witches--a magical gang war with the power to burn Nocturne City to the ground. Praise for the Nocturne City series: ""Pure Blood" pounds along hard on the heels of "Night Life," and is every bit as much fun as the first in the series. With a gutsy, likable protagonist and a well-made fantasy world, "Pure Blood" is real enough to make you think twice about locking your doors at night. A swiftly-paced plot, a growing cast of solid supporting characters, and a lead character you can actually care about--Kittredge is a winner." --Jim Butcher"Dark and cutting edge" --"Romantic Times""I loved the mystery and the smart, gutsy heroine."--Karen Chance"" "Hot, hip, and fast-paced...I couldn't put it down"--Lilith Saintcrow


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When werewolves from Nocturne City's oldest packs are found shot through the head at point-blank range, homicide detective Luna Wilder isn't sure what's killing them or why...now the killer is determined to make Luna its next victim. To make matters worse, her boyfriend Dmitri's demon bite is getting worse, weakening him and putting a major strain on their relationship.Luna discovers the murders are linked to the Wendigo, shapeshifting cousins of werewolves made of smoke and shadow who drink the blood of their victims for strength. She doesn't know whether Wendigo leader Lucas Kennuka is friend or foe, but he's clearly determined to wrest her heart from Dmitiri. And if Luna doesn't discover who's behind the killings, it could destroy her fragile relationship--and cost Luna her life...


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"Werewolf homicide detective Luna Wilder guards the fine line that separates Nocturne City's humans from the weres and witches that roam its streets. Now, Luna must thwart a new evil more dangerous than anything she's ever encountered."WITCH CRAFT Someone, or some"thing," is setting fire to the homes of the city's most infamous non-humans, racking up a body count that's growing by the day. And strange, otherworldly creatures no one has seen before--selkies trolls and harpies--are causing chaos throughout the city. Racing to stop the carnage, Luna turns to sexy federal agent Will Fagin for help. As they work to uncover the source of the bloodshed, Luna's attraction for Will deepens. But just as she learns Will's darkest secret, Nocturne City is thrust into total chaos--leaving Luna and Will in a path of destruction they may not be able to stop...or survive.Praise for the Nocturne City series: "A nonstop thriller laced with ferociously deadly menace." --"Romantic Times""I loved the mystery and the smart, gutsy heroine."--Karen Chance"" "Hot, hip, and fast-paced."--Lilith Saintcrow


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SUMMARY:
"Werewolf homicide detective Luna Wilder guards the fine line that separates Nocturne City's humans from the weres and witches that roam its streets. Now, Luna must thwart a new evil more dangerous than anything she's ever encountered."DAEMON'S MARKSomeone, or some"thing," is setting fire to the homes of the city's most infamous non-humans, racking up a body count that's growing by the day. And strange, otherworldly creatures no one has seen before--selkies, trolls, and harpies--are causing chaos throughout the city. Racing to stop the carnage, Luna turns to sexy federal agent Will Fagin for help. As they work to uncover the source of the bloodshed, Luna's attraction for Will deepens. But just as she learns Will's darkest secret, Nocturne City is thrust into total chaos--leaving Luna and Will in a path of destruction they may not be able to stop...or survive.Praise for the Nocturne City series: "A nonstop thriller laced with ferociously deadly menace." --"Romantic Times""I loved the mystery and the smart, gutsy heroine."--Karen Chance"" "Hot, hip, and fast-paced."--Lilith Saintcrow


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JUST ANOTHER NIGHT IN SIN CITYCandace Steele is as tough as she is alluring. For her, killing vampires isn’t just a job–it’s personal: She’s still haunted by erotic memories of an all-consuming affair with Ash, a seductive vampire who thrilled her–and then nearly destroyed her. Now, working undercover in a Las Vegas casino, she seduces the most powerful undead–right before she drives a stake through their unbeating hearts. When hot-ticket singer Temptation McCoy sweeps into town for a major concert, Candace is tapped for security. But after meeting Temptation, Candace feels the cold, tingling sensation that can mean only one thing: There’s a vampire in the diva’s entourage. To complicate matters, Ash suddenly appears in Sin City, vowing to do anything and everything to draw Candace back into his arms. Overwhelmed by desire and suspicion, she lets down her guard . . . a move that could cost Candace her life.


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WHERE’S THERE’S BLOOD, THERE’S PASSION Sexy vampire killer Candace Steele is back on the Las Vegas strip and determined to steer clear of Ash, the seductive vampire whose smoldering allure begs her to surrender to the dark side. But determination may not be enough when Candace’s job at the glitzy Scheherazade casino drives her right into the center of Ash’s deadly domain, for there are rumors of a New Year’s Eve vampire assault on the casino, and only Candace can stop it. With the clock ticking down to the fateful night, Candace isn’t sure if she can resist the overwhelming desire she feels for Ash, but she has run out of choices. She must go to Ash for help; even though she knows that the price he’ll expect in return is nothing less than her body and her soul.


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HE’LL GIVE HER A NIGHT SHE WILL NEVER FORGET.A vampire killer with a Las Vegas beat, Candace Steele has risked everything to vanquish the forces of darkness–and to resist her own passionate desire for Ash, a dark and seductive vampire. But suddenly the stakes are raised. Candace has been attacked by a member of the Board, an ancient, powerful, and secret vampire sect with a vendetta against Ash. Now the only way she can save her life is to give herself to Ash–body and soul–and become a vampire.Lusting for blood and starving for Ash’s embrace, Candace is pulled deeper and deeper into his world. She no longer trusts his promise that she will not have to remain a vampire forever. And as the hunger threatens to overwhelm her, it may be too late for her to leave the darkness behind.


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SUMMARY:
For once, Joanne Walker's not out to save the world. She's come to terms with the host of shamanic powers she's been given, her job as a police detective has been relatively calm, and she's got a love life for the first time in memory. Not bad for a woman who started out the year mostly dead.But it's Halloween, and the undead have just crashed Joanne's party. Now, with her mentor Coyote still missing, she has to figure out how to break the spell that has let the ghosts, zombies and even the Wild Hunt come back. Unfortunately, there's no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead. And if they have anything to say about it—which they do—no one's getting out of there alive.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW: Seattle police detective Joanne Walker started the year mostly dead, and she's ending it trying not to be consumed by evil. **Literally.** She's proven she can handle the gods and the walking dead. But a cannibalistic serial killer? That's more than even she bargained for. What's worse, the brutal demon can only be tracked one way. If Joanne is to stop its campaign of terror, she'll have to hunt it where it lives: the Lower World, a shamanistic plane of magic and spirits. Trouble is, Joanne's skills are no match for the dangers she's about to face—and her on-the-job training could prove fatal to the people she's sworn to protect….


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SUMMARY:
Barry Unsworth, a writer with an “almost magical capacity for literary time travel” (New York Times Book Review) has the extraordinary ability to re-create the past and make it relevant to contemporary readers. In Land of Marvels, a thriller set in 1914, he brings to life the schemes and double-dealings of Western nations grappling for a foothold in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.Somerville, a British archaeologist, is excavating a long-buried Assyrian palace. The site lies directly in the path of a new railroad to Baghdad, and he watches nervously as the construction progresses, threatening to destroy his discovery. The expedition party includes Somerville’s beautiful, bored wife, Edith; Patricia, a smart young graduate student; and Jehar, an Arab man-of-all-duties whose subservient manner belies his intelligence and ambitions. Posing as an archaeologist, an American geologist from an oil company arrives one day and insinuates himself into the group. But he’s not the only one working undercover to stake a claim on Iraq’s rich oil fields. Historical fiction at its finest, Land of Marvels opens a window on the past and reveals its lasting impact.


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SUMMARY:
Here is the first omnibus edition of two very successful Scarborough humorous fantasy novels, Bronwyn's Bane and The Christening Quest. The saga of the enchanted realm of Argonia continues with the adventures and misadventures of Princess Bronwyn and her hearthwitch cousin, Carole.


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SUMMARY:
In this extraordinary new book, Emeril Lagasse continues his lifelong commitment to using fresh, local ingredients in his restaurants and home kitchen. He has spent the past thirty years building close relationships with farmers, fishermen, and ranchers. "Farm to Fork" is his guide to help you explore the great local bounty through fifteen flavorful chapters--sweet summer in "The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash," juicy "Berries, Figs, and Melons," sublime naturally raised meats in "Out on the Range," fresh catch in "Fresh Off the Dock," and home canning tips from "Home Economics: Preserving the Harvest."  Fill your basket with the ripest ingredients from every season at the markets (or your backyard garden) and dig into delicious recipes such as Sweet Potato Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter, Cheesy Creole Tomato Pie, Honey-Brined Pork Chops with Nectarine Chutney, Watermelon Rind Crisp Sweet Pickles, and Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp. Even learn how to make your own cheese and pasta at home. Emeril shares his love for fresh from-the-fields foods--and the heritage of the artisans who bring them to the table.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**From the critically acclaimed, award-nominated author comes a new noir crime classic about one of the most notorious trials in American history.**



 Critics called Ace Atkins’s *Wicked City* “gripping, superb” (*Library Journal*), “stunning” (*The Tampa Tribune*), “terrific” (Associated Press), “riveting” (*Kirkus Reviews*), “wicked good” (*Fort Worth Star-Telegram*), and “Atkins’ best novel” (*The Washington Post*). But *Devil’s Garden* is something else again.



 San Francisco, September 1921: Silent-screen comedy star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle is throwing a wild party in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel: girls, jazz, bootleg hooch . . . and a dead actress named Virginia Rappe. The D.A. says it was Arbuckle who killed her—crushing her under his weight—and brings him up on manslaughter charges. William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers stir up the public and demand a guilty verdict. But what really happened? Why do so many people at the party seem to have stories that conflict? Why is the prosecution hiding witnesses? Why are there body parts missing from the autopsied corpse? Why is Hearst so determined to see Fatty Arbuckle convicted?



 In desperation, Arbuckle’s defense team hires a Pinkerton agent to do an investigation of his own and, they hope, discover the truth. The agent’s name is Dashiell Hammett, and he’s the book’s narrator. What he discovers will change American legal history—and his own life—forever.



 “The historical accuracy isn’t what elevates Atkins’ prose to greatness,” said *The Tampa Tribune*. “It’s his ability to let these characters breathe in a way that few authors could ever imagine. He doesn’t so much write them as unleash them upon the page.” You will not soon forget the extraordinary characters and events in *Devil’s Garden*.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

** From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast,f unny, violent new noir crime classic-a Coen Brothers movie come to life. **



 He has been compared to Lehane, Ellroy, and Pelecanos, but Ace Atkins's rich, raucous, passionate blend of historical novel and crime story is all his own and never more so than in *Infamous*. 



 In July 1933, the gangster known as George "Machine Gun" Kelly staged the kidnapping-for-ransom of an Oklahoma oil­man. He would live to regret it. Kelly was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, and what started clean soon became messy, as two of his partners cut themselves into the action; a determined former Texas Ranger makes tracking Kelly his mission; and Kelly's wife, ever alert to her own self-interest, starts playing both ends against the middle. 



 The result is a mesmerizing tale set in the first days of the modern FBI, featuring one of the best femmes fatales in history-the Lady Macbeth of Depression-era crime-a great unexpected hero, and some of the most colorful supporting characters in recent crime fiction.
EDITORIAL REVIEW:

** From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast,f unny, violent new noir crime classic-a Coen Brothers movie come to life. **



 He has been compared to Lehane, Ellroy, and Pelecanos, but Ace Atkins's rich, raucous, passionate blend of historical novel and crime story is all his own and never more so than in *Infamous*. 



 In July 1933, the gangster known as George "Machine Gun" Kelly staged the kidnapping-for-ransom of an Oklahoma oil­man. He would live to regret it. Kelly was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, and what started clean soon became messy, as two of his partners cut themselves into the action; a determined former Texas Ranger makes tracking Kelly his mission; and Kelly's wife, ever alert to her own self-interest, starts playing both ends against the middle. 



 The result is a mesmerizing tale set in the first days of the modern FBI, featuring one of the best femmes fatales in history-the Lady Macbeth of Depression-era crime-a great unexpected hero, and some of the most colorful supporting characters in recent crime fiction.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, private investigator Eddie LaCrosse, a slightly shopworn sword jockey with a talent for discretion and detection, is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime and the tragic past he thought he'd left behind.First in a series of hard-boiled fantasy detective novels, in the vein of Glen Cook's Garrett series.


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Nick Morrelli is the Platte City, Nebraska, sheriff who must be smarter than he appears, since there's a framed Harvard law degree hanging on his wall. Not that appearances don't count. The reader is treated to a number of descriptions of his sexy, lady-killer looks and his charismatic effect on even the most hard-bitten woman character in this somewhat muddled, serial-killer thriller. Nick is investigating the kidnap-murders of two young Platte City boys when FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell shows up and all but takes over the investigation. Several years earlier, the former sheriff--Nick's father--capped his own career with the arrest of the last serial killer in the neighborhood, who abducted and tortured three boys in an eerily similar crime spree. When Antonio Morrelli returns from retirement to meddle in the investigation, and when Nick's own sister uses her connections to advance his career, Nick hardly raises an objection. And that's the central weakness of what would otherwise be a good, first effort. --Jane Adams


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**They dubbed him the Collector -- so named for his  ritual of collecting victims before disposing of them in the most  heinous ways possible.    

FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell spent two years tracking him down,  caught in a game of cat and mouse that left her forever marked by this  killer.    

Now Albert Stucky has escaped from prison. And he is setting up a new  game to draw Maggie back into the chase.**    

Some say Maggie O'Dell has lost it -- lost the professional edge that  makes her one of the best criminal profilers, and lost her ability to  think clearly.  Since capturing Stucky she's been walking a tightwire,  battling nightmares and the guilt over the victims she couldn't  save. Now with news of his escape, she's been taken out of the field  until he's caught again. But Magge knows the truth: only she can see  into the twisted mind of this madman. Only she can catch him. Albert  Stucky wouldn't have it any other way.    

When it becomes undeniable that Stucky's trail of victims is leading  closer and closer to Maggie, the Bureau puts her back on the  case. Under the supervision of Special Agent R.J. Tully, Maggie joins  the hunt for a pyschopath who continues to stay one bloody step ahead  of them. And, once again under the control of a cunning killer, Maggie  finds herself pushed to the very edge.    

What ultimately, is Maggie O'Dell capable of? Has her desire to stop  Albert Stucky -- to make him look into her eyes before she ends the  game once and for all -- become a matter of personal vengeance? Has  she crossed that line in her need to make him suffer as he's made  others suffer? And is this Stucky's game -- to turn Special Agent  O'Dell into a monster?    

As *Split Second* races toward its inevitable climax, Alex Kava paints a chilling, unflinching portrait of the human psyche pushed past its limits. A runaway train of riveting suspense and heart-pounding drama, *Split Second* is a provocative, bold look at the nature of good and evil in all of us.


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SUMMARY:
In a secluded cabin in rural Massachusetts, six young men stage a deadly standoff with FBI and ATF agents. When dust from the flying bullets finally settles, three agents are wounded, one fatally, and five suspects are dead. In a wooded area near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., the body of a senator's daughter is discovered. Dead by strangulation, the young woman is left artfully posed, her clothes folded neatly beside her. For FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell, there is nothing routine about being called in to work these two cases. As an expert criminal profiler, Maggie provides psychological insight on cases that involve suspected serial killers. She can't understand, then, why her boss, Assistant Director Cunningham, has assigned her to these two seemingly unrelated crimes. But as Maggie and her partner, Special Agent R.J. Tully, delve deeper into the two cases, they learn that there is a connection between the crimes: Reverend Joseph Everett. The charismatic leader of a high-profile religious sect, Everett has cultivated a devoted following that is growing in numbers daily. The young men holed up in the cabin were members of Everett's church, and the murder of the young woman took place following a religious rally Everett held in the capital. The key to unraveling the significance of these two crimes is Everett himself. But he is untouchable, living on a heavily guarded compound the police are unable to penetrate. Maggie realizes, however, that she may have found a way to get to Everett: by using her own mother, a member of his church. Is Everett a psychotic madman who uses his position of power to perform heinous crimes? Or is he merely a scapegoat for a killer more cunning, more disciplined than he? Maggie realizes too late that there is more going on here than the FBI ever imagined . . . and her own mother may be about to pay the price.


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SUMMARY:
In the tomblike silence of an abandoned rock quarry someone is trying to hide their dirty little secret. A secret that reveals the depths of human depravity. A secret that is about to be discovered. FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell is just starting a hard-earned vacation when she gets a call from her friend, psychologist Dr. Gwen Patterson. One of Gwen's patients is missing on a trip to Connecticut. Can Maggie look into Joan Begley's disappearance? At first Maggie dismisses Gwen's concern. But when the body of a woman is discovered buried in an abandoned rock quarry in Connecticut, Maggie heads to the small town on "unofficial" business to see if there's a connection to Joan Begley. Soon the shocking news surfaces that more bodies have been discovered. And before she realizes it, Maggie is drawn into a case that confounds both local law enforcement and a seasoned criminal profiler like herself. The question remains: Where is Joan Begley? Is she in fact the woman discovered buried in the quarry? Or is she the unwilling guest of a killer obsessed with possessing an unimaginable prize from his victims?


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**Someone is killing Catholic priests across America -- ritualized murders that speak of vengeance and hatred.**    

As the killing spree continues unabated, it quickly becomes very clear to Maggie O'Dell -- the FBI profiler assigned to the case -- that more than one perpetrator is responsible. As she begins to drill down into the facts, Maggie discovers a disturbing Internet role-playing game for youths who have been victims of male authority figures -- including Catholic priests.    

With the first real lead in the investigation, Maggie wonders if this group has turned cyberspace justice into reality by dispensing their own brand of vengeance. As the ritualistic killings leave America's heartland reeling, Maggie gets a second lead -- one that leaves her stunned.    

For the past four years she has been driven by blind determination to find Father Michael Keller, the human monster whose acts of brutality continue to haunt her to this day. Sick and twisted, the priest seems to have vanished without a trace. But with an irony that only life can offer, now *he* has become a target.    

When Keller offers to help Maggie solve the crimes in exchange for protection, she has no choice but to ally herself with the elusive child killer -- the person she despises with a conviction that's almost religious in its fervor. Maggie must cross a dangerous line into a world of malevolence and evil from which she may not return unscathed.    

Maggie knows the bargain is a necessary evil . . . one that may be made in blood . . .


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Veteran FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell and Assistant Director Cunningham believed the threat targeted Quantico. It targeted them.A deadly virus—virtually undetectable until it causes death from a million internal cuts. The victims appear random, but Maggie wonders if vengeance isn't the guiding hand.An aficionado of contemporary killers, using bits and pieces from their crimes—the Beltway Sniper's phrases, the Unabomber's clues, the Anthrax Killer's delivery.Maggie knows dangerous minds, but she must tackle this new opponent from within a biosafety isolation ward—while waiting to see if death is already multiplying inside her body. She just fears her last case might end with the most intelligent killer she's ever faced escalating from murder…to epidemic.


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One by one they go missing. And in the lake a voice cries out: "Save them. . . ." 

In the darkness, in a lake in the middle of a prosperous college town, Rachel Matre feels the water caressing her bare skin, teasing her senses, drawing her body into a lush erotic embrace. 

For twenty years she has communed with the lake spirits this way-and told no one. 

The price is simple: She must help those in need. But now a series of young women have gone missing. 

The police don't have any bodies, or even a single suspect. 

Only the spirits seem to sense the truth. Through them, Rachel finds herself drawn into a madman's web. 

She alone can save the missing women. But who can save her?


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This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.From the Trade Paperback edition.


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SUMMARY: The modern obsession with celebrity began with the Bright Young People, a voraciously pleasure-seeking band of bohemian party-givers and blue-blooded socialites who romped through the gossip columns of 1920s London. Drawing on the virtuosic and often wrenching writings of the Bright Young People themselves, the biographer and novelist D. J. Taylor has produced an enthralling account of an age of fleeting brilliance. "The laziest way to put someone down is to call him or her an egomaniac. It's what we say when we loathe someone but can't think of anything more precise. That label was often and too easily applied, in London in the late 1920s and early '30s, to members of the so-called Bright Young People: a small, carefully circumscribed circle of elite 20-somethings who seemed to glide, as D. J. Taylor puts it in his nimble new book, on 'a compound of cocktails, jazz, license, abandon and flagrantly improper behavior.' The Bright Young People were the most glamorous, influential, self-absorbed, quasi-bohemian and overeducated creatures in existence. During their flickering moment they were adored and despised in almost equal measure. Good parties are enemy-making machines--You weren't asked? Surely your invitation was lost in the mail--and no one orchestrated them like the Bright Young ones. Nearly every event was an eye-popping spectacle, fully played out in the era's gossip columns. In his novel "Vile Bodies," published in 1930 (and still hilarious), Evelyn Waugh gave an overview of the Champagne-fueled social carnage: 'Masked parties, savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Russian parties, circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St. John's Wood, parties in flats and studios and houses and ships and hotels and nightclubs, in windmills and swimming baths . . . all the succession and repetition of massed humanity. . . . Those vile bodies.' Waugh, of course, was a Bright Young Thing himself, or at the least he existed at the group's margins. So did others who would go on to become well-known artists: John Betjeman, Nancy Mitford, Anthony Powell, Cecil Beaton and Henry Green among them. These bold-face names were among the lucky survivors. More than a few burned out, got lost or threw their promise away. Other would-be Bright Young People, Lytton Strachey snarked, seemed to have 'just a few feathers where brains should be.' Mr. Taylor, the British author of "Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age," is a biographer (he has written lives of Thackeray and Orwell) and literary critic, and he tells this story with a good deal of essayistic flair, precision and flyaway wit. Just as important, he relates this ultimately elegiac narrative with a surprising amount of intellectual and emotional sympathy. He plainly wants to be bothered by the Bright Young People's antics, too. 'One of the great consolations of English literary life, ' Mr. Taylor observes, wonderfully, is the idea that 'seriousness is automatically the preserve of people with cheery, proletarian values and prosaic lifestyles--that a barfly with a private income and a web of well-connected friends has already damned himself beyond redemption.'"--Dwight Garner, "The New York Times ""The saga of Beaton, Evelyn Waugh and the less famous social butterflies that everyone called the Bright Young People may be the ideal escapist fantasy for these sober economic times. Theirs was a life of glittering frivolity, of scavenger hunts that stopped traffic in Sloane Square, cocktails and dancing until dawn, notorious gatherings like the Bath and Bottle Party at a swimming pool ('bring a Bath towel and a Bottle' the invitation said), sprees that envious mortals read about in gossip columns. To make the fantasy complete, the story even offers a satisfying touch of schadenfreude. As D. J. Taylor emphasizes in this incisive social history, these flighty creatures crashed with a thud louder than you'd imagine butterflies could make. Taylor compares the Mozart party photo to a 'medieval morality play' capturing how the Bright Young People got their comeuppance: their zaniness became more self-conscious and attenuated; they tried to ignore the fragile postwar economy and the crumbling aristocracy, but those changes were ready to bite them. It was fun while it lasted, though, for much of the 1920s . . . Lightened by the book's beautiful design, laced with mordant period quotations and delicious satiric cartoons from newspapers and magazines. Taylor's richly detailed work also calls attention to two breezy, auspicious first novels about the Bright Young People that are unfortunately out of print: Nancy Mitford's "Highland Fling" and Anthony Powell's "Afternoon Men.""--Caryn James, "The New York Times Book Review" "Combining diaries, biographies, news reports and novels to paint the social life of 1920s London, D.J. Taylor has created that rarest of books--one you can safely recommend both to scholars of Evelyn Waugh and the entourage of Paris Hilton. The engaging "Bright Young People," written by a critic and novelist best known for his biography of George Orwell, reads like a case study in youth culture, trendsetting, log-rolling and cultivated bohemianism. It examines the symbiotic relationship between a loose-knit group of partygoers and a media that, in gossip columns and mocking denunciations, made them the first celebrities who were famous, in our contemporary sense, for being famous. By the most generous estimate, there were never more than 2,000 souls among the ranks popularly known at the time as the Bright Young People. By most accounts, those souls were self-absorbed, self-mythologizing and terribly jaded. Their defining exploits included boisterous scavenger hunts, extravagant hoaxes and the 'stylized debauchery' of more fancy-dress balls than you can shake an engraved 16-inch-high invitation at--including the Bath and Bottle Party, the Circus Party, the Hermaphrodite Party, the Great Urban Dionysia and the Mozart Party, where the menu came from a cookbook owned by Louis XVI. They excited the public imagination--and incited a moderate moral panic--with their fast living and reflexive flippancy. The greatest talents associated with the movement were Waugh and the photographer Cecil Beaton. Taylor deftly traces how the former drew on his friends' exploits for the hysterical satire of "Vile Bodies" and "Decline and Fall," and how the latter--an Edmund Hilary among social climbers--used his to further his career. Lesser accomplishments detailed here include "Singing Out of Tune," a novel by brewery heir Bryan Guinness that documented the Bright Young Person's daily routine: 'waking up late, meeting people for lunch, bringing the lunch party home for tea, moving on to cocktails and dinner . . . and ending up with a communal trek around the fashionable restaurants of the West End.' But in this realm any accomplishment was an exception, and the non-career of the occasional poet Brian Howard proved emblematic of this wasted youth revolt. 'The books Brian Howard never wrote would fill a decent-sized shelf, ' Taylor writes, elsewhere noting that the man lived out his frustrating life 'in that exotic never-never land where the Ritz bar meets the out-of-season Continental resort.' The fun ended soon enough; by 1931, England was in financial crisis and a 10-hour-long Red and White Ball rang down the era. But Taylor's skillful reconstruction of the whole hazy time feels like a lasting party favor."--Troy Patterson, NPR"A poignant study of the elusive relationship between art and the social world from whence it springs . . . D. J. Taylor, author of a first-rate life of George Orwell, shows the sharp instincts of an expert biographer in his approach to a 1920s English youth culture."--Damian Da Costa, "The New York Observer ""In "Bright Young People" Taylor is writing splendid social history, not fiction, and he brings a more tempered and rueful approach, showing the sadness beneath an entire generation's compulsion to waste its promise and dance in the spotlight. Scott Fitzgerald, a writer admired by Waugh (who was no soft touch), called his own 'lost' contemporaries 'the beautiful and damned'; here, Taylor makes us feel the full force of the reckoning implied in that sad conjunction . . . Taylor has a nice way with a one-liner--'The books Brian Howard never wrote would fill a decent-sized shelf'--and is excellent on the evolution of BYP argot . . . By placing generational tensions and tenderness center-stage, Taylor gives his book a beating emotional heart."--Richard Rayner, "Los Angeles"" Times ""Jam-packed and delicious, crammed with a cast of selfish, feckless, darling, talented, almost terminally eccentric, good-looking men and women, "Bright Young People" chronicles the doings of London's gilded youth in the Roaring Twenties. Even if you think you know a lot (or enough) about them; even if you've read the acerbic novels of the early Evelyn Waugh or plowed your way through Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time," there's bound to be material here you haven't seen or heard of."--Carolyn See, "The Washington Post ""If the flappers of the 1920s epitomized the Jazz Age on this side of the Atlantic, in England it was the Bright Young People. The British milieu of society scions flinging themselves into the nonstop pursuit of fun in the aftermath of World War I was immortalized--and hilariously flayed--by Evelyn Waugh in 1930 with his novel "Vile Bodies," but the real-life major players who made up this set are long gone. Thanks are due, then, to English critic D.J. Taylor, who brings them back to life in "Bright Young People." Some were distinguished, others once famous only for being famous and now pretty much forgotten--but they were almost invariably fascinating . . . Mr. Taylor also reminds us of lesser-known characters, such as Beverly Nichols and Bryan Guinness, up-and-coming writers whose work fed on this scene and who were celebrated in London at the time . . . "Bright Young People" was published last year in Britain. It arrives on these shores with a new resonance as we contemplate a world in its worst financial straits since the Depression, with many troubling political and military signs on the horizon as well. Then as now, parties everywhere ended as a more sober age dawned."--Martin Rubin, "The Wall Street Journal" " ""Absorbing . . . The book really takes hold when Taylor seizes on the actual trajectory of the lives of individual members, most . . . poignantly that of Elizabeth Ponsonby . . . The pages devoted to her, enriched by Taylor's access to the Ponsonby family papers, are all the biography her lack of accomplishments and frittered-away youth warrant; yet they greatly deepen this study of a social phenomenon."--Katherine A. Powers, "The Boston Globe ""Waugh was at once an enamored occasional participant in the Bright Young People's decadence and a revolted critic of it. In his novels that memorialize the age, "Vile Bodies" especially, the tone Waugh takes toward his generation is ambivalent. In his captivating new history of the age, "Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age," D.J. Taylor takes his sense of 1920s London from Waugh: Mr. Taylor's book is at once elegy and critique. And this is just as it should be, because it is hard not to be by turns enthralled by the splendor of this brief age and, in turn, dismayed by its selfishness and frivolity . . . The Bright Young People's decadence, their frivolity, their refusal of moral seriousness for a shared escapist devotion to pleasure is, as it should be--thanks to Mr. Taylor's deft managing of tone--both enticing and repulsive."--Emily Wilkinson, "The Washington Times" "Holroyd is an accomplished accumulator of facts and anecdotes; and he writes easily and fluently."--Richard Jenkyns, "The New Republic" "[Conveys] precisely the aspect of the Bright Young People that is most difficult to give expression to on paper: not books or parties, but 'an atmosphere . . . An outlook, a gesture, an essence.'"--Mark Bostridge, "The Independent on Sunday ""Compelling and ultimately touching . . . A witty and sensitive account of the pathos and the glamour of the generation fated to 'sorrow in sunlight.' "--Rosemary Hill, "The Guardian ""Excellent . . . the brightest of the Bright Young People [make] their fictional counterparts in Waugh pale into insignificance . . . [Taylor] lays bare their cavortings with an archeological eye."--Philip Hoare, "The Independent ""Taylor, for years a journalist, is fascinated by--and authoritative on--the lucrative relationship forged between the shrewdest of the Bright Young People and the glamour-hunting press . . . Shrewd and absorbing in his analysis of the way Waugh and Nancy Mitford . . . promoted the world they would soon skewer in fiction."--Miranda Seymour, "The Sunday Times" (London) "Moving and always entertaining."--Jane Stevenson, "The Daily Telegraph ""Fascinating . . . A complex study of family, fear and breakdown . . . Taylor's achievement is to remind us that there are few periods of recent history more culturally interesting than the years between the wars."--Frances Wilson, "New Statesman ""A goldmine . . . If I had to choose one book as a summing up of the BYP, it would be Taylor's."--Bevis Hillier, "The Spectator ""An engrossing social history of the blue bloods, bohos, and bobos who constituted the 'lost generation' of post-World War I England."--Michael Moynihan, "Wilson Quarterly" "One yearns to have been a fly on the wall at the 'fancy dress ball . . . featuring a gang of fashionable debutantes dressed as the Eton rowing eight, ' or the notorious Bruno Hat exhibition of faked modernist paintings. Taylor expertly connects this shrill game-playing to memorable depictions of it in Waugh's "Vile Bodies," Powell's "Afternoon Men" and Henry Green's "Party Going," while never neglecting the actual achievements of their lesser peers (e.g., Beverley Nichols's forgotten novel "Singing Out of Tune"). A note of genuine pathos is struck in his description of how the increasingly straitened economic and political circumstances of the '30s began rendering this gaudy subculture obsolete. Immensely readable, and of real value as a sharply pointed cautionary tale."--"Kirkus Reviews ""There are . . . plenty of juicy anecdotes to go around . . . The text is enlivened by several "Punch" cartoons from the period, vividly depicting the hold these rich young partygoers once held on the public's imagination."--"Publishers Weekly" SUMMARY: From Alexander Waugh, the author of the acclaimed memoir Fathers and Sons, comes a grand saga of a brilliant and tragic Viennese family.The Wittgenstein family was one of the richest, most talented, and most eccentric in European history. Karl Wittgenstein, who ran away from home as a wayward and rebellious youth, returned to his native Vienna to make a fortune in the iron and steel industries. He bought factories and paintings and palaces, but the domineering and overbearing influence he exerted over his eight children resulted in a generation of siblings fraught by inner antagonisms and nervous tension. Three of his sons committed suicide; Paul, the fourth, became a world-famous concert pianist, using only his left hand and playing compositions commissioned from Ravel and Prokofiev; while Ludwig, the youngest, is now regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. In this dramatic historical and psychological epic, Alexander Waugh traces the triumphs and vicissitudes of a family held together by a fanatical love of music yet torn apart by money, madness, conflicts of loyalty, and the cataclysmic upheaval of two world wars. Through the bleak despair of a Siberian prison camp and the terror of a Gestapo interrogation room, one courageous and unlikely hero emerges from the rubble of the house of Wittgenstein in the figure of Paul, an extraordinary testament to the indomitable spirit of human survival. Alexander Waugh tells this saga of baroque family unhappiness and perseverance against incredible odds with a novelistic richness to rival Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks.
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From Alexander Waugh, the author of the acclaimed memoir Fathers and Sons, comes a grand saga of a brilliant and tragic Viennese family.The Wittgenstein family was one of the richest, most talented, and most eccentric in European history. Karl Wittgenstein, who ran away from home as a wayward and rebellious youth, returned to his native Vienna to make a fortune in the iron and steel industries. He bought factories and paintings and palaces, but the domineering and overbearing influence he exerted over his eight children resulted in a generation of siblings fraught by inner antagonisms and nervous tension. Three of his sons committed suicide; Paul, the fourth, became a world-famous concert pianist, using only his left hand and playing compositions commissioned from Ravel and Prokofiev; while Ludwig, the youngest, is now regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. In this dramatic historical and psychological epic, Alexander Waugh traces the triumphs and vicissitudes of a family held together by a fanatical love of music yet torn apart by money, madness, conflicts of loyalty, and the cataclysmic upheaval of two world wars. Through the bleak despair of a Siberian prison camp and the terror of a Gestapo interrogation room, one courageous and unlikely hero emerges from the rubble of the house of Wittgenstein in the figure of Paul, an extraordinary testament to the indomitable spirit of human survival. Alexander Waugh tells this saga of baroque family unhappiness and perseverance against incredible odds with a novelistic richness to rival Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks.


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Like an irresistible siren, the veiled dancer with the bewitching green eyes lures dukes and earls down into London's underworld to see her dance—and succumb to her spell. Some say she's a princess, but only one man knows her darkest secret.  

 She is Amy Peel, an orphan from the city's rookeries, and she believes the bold rogue who unmasks her to be nothing but a scoundrel—albeit a dangerously handsome one. He may have rescued her from an attempted kidnapping, but she will not give in to his sensual seduction or to the wicked desire she begins to feel . . .  

 He is Edmund Hawkins, swashbuckling pirate turned reluctant gentleman, and he will not let the lovely Amy slip through his grasp, especially when he learns she's in greater peril than she could possibly know. He will do everything in his power to protect her—for this notorious scoundrel has truly, unbelievably, lost his heart . . .


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For once, business is going well for Quark, not that anyone on "Deep Space Nine(TM)" truly appreciates his genius for finding profit in the most unlikely of circumstances. Quark is even looking forward to making the deal of a lifetime -- when he suddenly finds himself stuck right in the middle of a major dispute between Bajor and the Ferengi Alliance. It seems that the Grand Nagus is refusing to sell one of the lost Orbs of the Prophets to the Bajoran government, which has responded by banning all Ferengi activity in Bajoran space.  With diplomatic relations between the two cultures rapidly breaking down, Quark loses his bar first, then his freedom. But even penniless, he still has his cunning and his lobes, and those alone may be all he needs to come out on top -- and prevent an interstellar war!


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Delving into a murdered man’s life, Detective Erlendur discovers that forty years ago he was accused of an appalling crime. Did his past come back to haunt him? Erlendur uses all the forensic sources available including Iceland’s Genetic Research Centre in order to find the answers.*From the Trade Paperback edition.*


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Downtrodden Detective Erlendur and his team must once again investigate Reykjavik's hidden past to unravel a case of human nastiness. Construction work in an expanding Reykjavik uncovers a shallow grave. Years before, this part of the city was all open hills, and Erlendur and his team hope this is a typical Icelandic missing person scenario; perhaps someone once lost in the snow, who has lain peacefully buried for decades. But things are never that simple. While Erlendur struggles to hold together the crumbling fragments of his own family, his case unearths many other tales of family pain. The hills have more than one tragic story to tell: tales of failed relationships and heartbreak; of anger, domestic violence and fear; of family loyalty and family shame. Few people are still alive who can tell the story, but even secrets taken to the grave cannot remain hidden forever. Alive with tension and atmosphere, and disturbingly real, this is an outstanding continuation of the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.


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<p>Following the huge success of <I>Silence of the Grave</I>, another spellbinding thriller from the winner of the CWA Gold Dagger.<p>Detective Erlendur encounters memories of his troubled past in this gripping and award-winning continuation of the Reykjavík Murder Mysteries.<p> At a grand Reykjavík hotel the doorman has been repeatedly stabbed in the dingy basement room he called home. It is only a few days before Christmas and he was preparing to appear as Santa Claus at a children's party. The manager tries to keep the murder under wraps. A glum detective taking up residence in his hotel and an intrusive murder investigation are not what he needs.<p> As Erlendur quietly surveys the cast of grotesques who populate the hotel, the web of malice, greed and corruption that lies beneath its surface reveals itself. Everyone has something to hide. But most shocking is the childhood secret of the dead man who, many years before, was the most famous child singer in the country: it turns...
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The third novel in the award-winning Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.The Christmas rush is under way in a big Reykjavik hotel when the police are called to the scene of a murder. The hotel doorman (and long-time resident of its basement) has been stabbed to death. With the hotel fully booked, the manager is desperate to keep the murder under wraps and his reputation intact.Detectives Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli discover that the dead man had had a childhood brush with fame and that two old 45s on which he had sung have become prized collectors’ items. Estranged from his family for decades, why had the man continued to pay secret visits to his boyhood home?As Detective Elinborg investigates a separate case of child abuse, and Erlendur continues to struggle both with his troubled family relationships and the ghosts of his own youth, their parallel stories probe deeper into the riddle of this latest Reykjavik Murder Mystery.From the Trade Paperback edition.


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A brilliant new mystery from the winner of the CWA Gold Dagger and Indridason's best book yet. In the wake of an earthquake, the water level of an Icelandic lake drops suddenly, revealing the skeleton of a man half-buried in its sandy bed. It is clear immediately that it has been there for many years. There is a large hole in the skull. Yet more mysteriously, a heavy communication device is attached to it, possibly some sort of radio transmitter, bearing inscriptions in Russian.                                                                    The police are called in and Erlendur, Elinborg and Sigurdur Olii begin their investigation, which gradually leads them back to the time of the Cold War when bright, left-wing students would be sent from Iceland to study in the 'heavenly state' of Communist East Germany. **The Draining Lake** is another remarkable Indridason mystery about passions and shattered dreams, the fate of the missing and the grief of those left behind.


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On an icy January day the Reykjavik police are called to a block of flats where a body has been found in the garden: a young, dark-skinned boy, frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The discovery of a stab wound in his stomach extinguishes any hope that this was a tragic accident. Erlendur and his team embark on their investigation with little to go on but the news that the boy's Thai half-brother is missing. Is he implicated, or simply afraid for his own life? The investigation soon unearths tensions simmering beneath the surface of Iceland's outwardly liberal, multicultural society. A teacher at the boy's school makes no secret of his anti-immigration stance; incidents are reported between Icelandic pupils and the disaffected children of incomers; and, to confuse matters further, a suspected paedophile has been spotted in the area. Meanwhile, the boy's murder forces Erlendur to confront the tragedy in his own past. Soon, facts are emerging from the snow-filled darkness that are more chilling even than the Arctic night.


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It’s midsummer in Sweden—when the light lingers through dawn and a long, isolating winter finally comes to an end. In this magical time, a brutal killer has chosen to strike. A female priest—who made enemies and acolytes in equal number—has been found hanging in her church. And a big-city lawyer quite acquainted with death enters the scene as police and parishioners try to pick up the pieces....Not long ago, attorney Rebecka Martinsson had to kill three men in order to stop an eerily similar murder spree—one that also involved a priest. Now she is back in Kiruna, the region of her birth, while a determined policewoman gnaws on the case and people who loved or loathed the victim mourn or revel in her demise. The further Rebecka is drawn into the mystery—a mystery that will soon take another victim—the more the dead woman’s world clutches her: a world of hurt and healing, sin and sexuality, and, above all, of sacrifice.In prose that is both lyrical and visceral, Åsa Larsson has crafted a novel of pure entertainment, a taut, atmospheric mystery that will hold you in thrall until the last, unforgettable page is turnedFrom the Hardcover edition.


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SUMMARY: Kyra's a con woman and a thief who can steal her target's strongest skill. But when she becomes the target of a hit man, she won't be able to hide from the passion that engulfs them.


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TROUBLE ALWAYS ACCOMPANIED THE RAINY SEASON Rain and isolation could make folks crazy in these parts. Sheriff Mitch Tanner -- the most eligible bachelor in the county -- would have his hands full for sure. Bigfoot sightings and sundry strange happenings he could handle...but he wasn't prepared for murder. With a killer on the loose, he'd have to keep a tight grip on the investigation and a close eye on the mounting list of suspects. Unfortunately, the person causing the most trouble to his male senses was none other than the town's biggest gossip and the one woman he'd do anything to avoid: Charity Jenkins. Sure enough, she'd whittled away at his confirmed-single status with her annoying questions and all-American-girl good looks and had him thinking about something more permanent. Except a killer had other plans for Charity.


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AN ENIGMA... Somehow Ford Lancaster seemed to turn up just when Rozalyn Sawyer needed him most. And as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't help but want more of his steady presence...his smoldering kisses. Rozalyn was sure a crime had been committed against her family, but was her desperate search for the truth based on fear or madness? Ford had come to settle an old score only to find his investigation colliding with a killer's next target: Rozalyn. She had every reason to doubt his hidden motives, but Ford knew he would pay any price to reconcile the past and claim Rozalyn as his wife.


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It's been a hell of a day for Abby Barlow. In just a few hours, she's survived an explosion, watched her employer die, had a startling dream, and now she finds herself in a seedy Chicago hotel with the sexy, unearthly Dante, a man she both desires and fears. For 341 years, Dante has stood as guardian to The Chalice, a mortal woman chosen to hold back the darkness. A terrible twist of fate has now made Abby that woman. Three hours ago, Dante would have used all his charms to seduce her. Now she is his to protect. And he will do so until his very death. A terrifying plan has been set in motion, one that will plunge Dante and Abby into an epic battle between good and evil and a desperate race to save their love.


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She skidded into town on a bike too powerful for most men, with ten thousand dollars in her saddlebag and a bullet wound in her shoulder. Maggie Randolph was searching for something and running from someone. But she didn't plan on running into a man she could trust.... Timber Falls' deputy sheriff Jesse Tanner had to convince the daredevil beauty that he'd protect her. But first he'd have to catch her--before it was too late.

Jesse was sexy as sin, and chivalrous to boot. But Maggie wasn't exactly playing by the books in her search for the truth about her father's murder and her own adoption. Could she share her secrets with Jesse and find solace in his arms for good?


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THE WILDEST OF THE MCCALL BOYS WAS BACK The wildest of the McCall boys was back...and he had a score to settle with Cassidy Miller! Like two outlaws facing off at high noon, they reunited at the Longhorn Cafe for the whole town to witness the long-awaited showdown. Rourke McCall had been fantasizing about this moment for more than a decade -- except he hadn't counted on Cassidy growing up and growing into a woman. That one high-school kiss suddenly hit him like a shotgun recoiling. But he couldn't let his emerging desire for Cassidy deter his search for a killer, who by all accounts was still at large in Antelope Flats and equally determined to destroy Rourke...and anyone close to him.


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It has been two years since the events of Christine Falls, the bestselling novel that introduced the world to an irascible Dublin pathologist named Quirke. Quirke's beloved Sarah has died, his surrogate father lies paralyzed by a stroke, and he’s been sober for half a year. When a near-forgotten acquaintance asks him to cover up his beautiful young wife’s apparent suicide, Quirke knows he should stay clear, for the sake of his sobriety and his peace of mind. But his old itch is irresistible, and before long he is probing further into the circumstances of Deidre Hunt’s death, into a web of drugs and illicit sex that may have snared his own daughter, Phoebe. With its vivid, intense evocation of 1950s Dublin, and intricate, psychologically complex storyline, The Silver Swan is "even more engrossing than last year’s Christine Falls" (Entertainment Weekly).


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**Is He Her Mortal Enemy-**

Lady Shay is the last of her kind. Half human, half Shalott, her blood is a precious aphrodisiac to vampires, who consider it more precious than gold. Though Shalotts are renowned assassins, a curse held over Shay lands her on the slave auction block, where her fate is uncertain-

**Or The Man Who Will Risk All-**

Viper, the beguiling chief of a deadly vampire clan, can't explain his longing to possess the beautiful Shalott who once saved his life, but now he is free to do anything he wants with her. Strangely, while he desires both Shay-s blood and body, he wants her to surrender willingly. 

**To Save Her Life? **

A hidden evil has been stalking Shay since she left the slave market with Viper. It is an evil that endangers the very existence of Viper's kind, and there's no reason he should court such danger just to protect a Shalott. But the love he feels for Shay is enough to make him willing to go to hell and back if it means spending an eternity with her in his arms.-


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HOW HARD COULD IT BE TO FIND A COWBOY IN MONTANA...? All J.T. McCall cared about were cattle. He'd always been the responsible brother and had taken over the day-to-day management of the family-owned Sundown Ranch years ago. He was as authentic as a cowboy can come -- and Regina Holland knew it. He was just what she was looking for, and she was determined to have him -- for business purposes only, of course. So when she finagled a job with his cattle drive deep in the Montana mountains, she didn't count on becoming a killer's target or on falling for J.T. But would they survive the assault of a madman?


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Quirke—the hard-drinking, insatiably curious Dublin pathologist—is back, and he's determined to find his daughter's best friend, a well-connected young doctorApril Latimer has vanished. A junior doctor at a local hospital, she is something of a scandal in the conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin. Though her family is one of the most respected in the city, she is known for being independent-minded; her taste in men, for instance, is decidedly unconventional.Now April has disappeared, and her friend Phoebe Griffin suspects the worst. Frantic, Phoebe seeks out Quirke, her brilliant but erratic father, and asks him for help. Sober again after intensive treatment for alcoholism, Quirke enlists his old sparring partner, Detective Inspector Hackett, in the search for the missing young woman. In their separate ways the two men follow April's trail through some of the darker byways of the city to uncover crucial information on her whereabouts. And as Quirke becomes deeply involved in April's murky story, he encounters complicated and ugly truths about family savagery, Catholic ruthlessness, and race hatred.Both an absorbing crime novel and a brilliant portrait of the difficult and relentless love between a father and his daughter, this is Benjamin Black at his sparkling best.


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COWBOY SHERIFF IN COMMAND

Despite his previously unblemished reputation, for years, cowboy sheriff Cash McCall had been the prime suspect in his fiancée's disappearance and presumed murder. So when a woman claiming to be her showed up in his office, Cash was finally off the hook...even though his instincts told him he'd never before held this woman in his arms.

Posing as a missing woman had seemed like a good idea to on-the-run Molly Kilpatrick...unfortunately, she'd made the mistake of stealing the wrong identity. Someone wanted the woman dead and would stop at nothing to make sure, this time, she stayed dead. Molly needed Cash's protection and had to trust in his innocence, but if she was wrong, she'd be *dead* wrong.


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Here is Volume Two of Seven Brothers-a magnificent fantasy saga of kingdoms lost, nobles enslaved, families reunited, and gods reborn.  Llesho has succeeded in finding several of his brothers and winning the aid of allies such as the trickster god, the emperor, two gladiators, a young witch and a goddess.  But can he discover the truth about his own identity?  Can he harness his powers?  And can he survive the ultimate masters of evil?


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WEDDING PLANNER UNDER COVER

By day, quiet and reserved Samantha Peters worked for a high-end wedding planner. By night she was a top-notch agent with Miami Confidential. Then she met sexy Alex Graham after tragedy struck outside the Weddings Your Way salon, and Samantha had trouble keeping her two lives separate. Being with Alex brought out Samantha's protective instincts--and the wild side she tried so hard to keep hidden--when she and Alex became the targets of a dangerous enemy. Samantha had to remain focused, or jeopardize the work and the team. After all, forming attachments to victims was wrong...even if being with Alex felt so right....


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He'd waited for this day--this woman--for forever it seemed. Harry Ballantine had been a prisoner of Fernhaven forest and now he found the key to his salvation in Jenna Dante. But would she surrender to him before she left the hidden hamlet?

With an angry ex on her tail and rain pouring, the last thing Jenna Dante needed was car trouble and a cranky child. Her only option was to seek refuge in the desolate hotel on the hill in Fernhaven. But the restored walls seemed to hold more than memories. For Jenna they vibrated with life and an all-male seduction she could only see and feel in her mind. But when danger came to call, she would need flesh-and-blood protection--and maybe something more lethal...like transcending love.


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The first in a new series, introducing a splendid hero, against the background of Europe in the One Hundred Years' War. Thomas of Hookton becomes an archer in the army of King Edward III. He revels in the life of an army at war with France and becomes known for his wildness and his fearsome skills.


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CHRISTMAS NEVER MEANT MUCH AT THE BONNER ESTATE...BUT COULD IT BECOME A HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER AT CHANCE WALKER'S MONTANA CABIN?

Ten years ago Dixie Bonner was the favorite wild child of a powerful Texas oilman. But after uncovering a dark family secret that cast suspicion on everyone close to her, she took off for a new life and never looked back.

Chance Walker was the cool-eyed cowboy hired to bring her home by Christmas. But after catching her, he couldn't decide if she was a blackmailer or a victim. Was he tempted to protect her because she told the truth--or was he falling for her? Holed up in a remote Montana cabin with the bad guys closing in, two stubborn souls needed to trust each other if they hoped to survive the season.


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Enter a world where bloody battles, and heroic deeds combine in the historic struggle to unite Britain in the face of a common enemy.The third instalment in Bernard Cornwell's King Alfred series, follows on from the outstanding previous novels The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman.The year is 878 and Wessex is free from the Vikings.Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, helped Alfred win that victory, but now he is disgusted by Alfred's lack of generosity and repelled by the king's insistent piety. He flees Wessex, going back north to seek revenge for the killing of his foster father and to rescue his stepsister, captured in the same raid. He needs to find his old enemy, Kjartan, a renegade Danish lord who lurks in the formidable stronghold of Dunholm.Uhtred arrives in the north to discover rebellion, chaos and fear. His only ally is Hild, a West Saxon nun fleeing her calling, and his best hope is his sword, with which he has made a formidable reputation as a warrior. He will need the assistance of other warriors if he is to attack Dunholm and he finds Guthred, a slave who believes he is a king. He takes him across the Pennines to where a desperate alliance of fanatical Christians and beleaguered Danes form a new army to confront the terrible Viking lords who rule Northumbria.'The Lords of the North' is a powerful story of betrayal, romance and struggle, set in an England of turmoil, upheaval and glory. Uhtred, a Northumbrian raised as a Viking, a man without lands, a warrior without a country, has become a splendid heroic figure.


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There was a standoff brewing between Dillon Savage and cattle inspector Jacklyn Wilde. Toe to toe, they were an equal match, but together they were an imperfect pair. After four long years, they were hitting the open range again, to bring justice to a lawless land. Attached at the hip until a rustling ring was busted, they had to make the best of a bad situation. But the real trouble was Dillon Savage. The cowboy was as cocksure and adventurous as ever. He had old scores to settle, and Jacklyn was there to make sure he didn't stray from his path. Only she didn't know that she was first in line.…


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Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.Joseph decides to take his mistress and son, together with a few friends, to stay in a cabin in deepest Wales for the weekend - with absolutely disastrous results. Beryl Bainbridge's gift for deadpan dialogue and spare narrative, and her darkly comic vision of the world, are all in evidence in this early novel.


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THE MISSION: FIND MOTHER AND CHILD Finding Isabella Montenegro and her young daughter and bringing them back to testify should have been easy. But one look at Isabella and Texas Confidential Agent Jake Cantrell remembered a woman he'd cherished...a woman who'd died. And one look at the child -- and he saw himself in her eyes.... Until she'd met Jake Cantrell, Isabella's past had been a blank. Now fragmented memories began to assault her. Who was she? If Jake had fathered her child, then her entire life was a lie. Now that false life and the life of her daughter were at stake -- and there was only Jake to trust.


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SHE HAD THE KIND OF SECRET NO WOMAN COULD KEEP... When Josie O'Malley found herself pregnant, she knew her father would surely mete out the Texas law of the West -- and shoot the no 'count before he'd demand a shotgun wedding. What her dad didn't know was the Josie has been with the one man he'd respected above all others. Clay Jackson. HE'D NEVER GUESSED HE FATHERED HER CHILD... Two years ago Josie left Texas in a hurry for the solitude of Montana. Now Clay knew why. But it boiled his blood that she'd had anybody's baby but his. It burned him even more that a thief led Clay to her doorstep. So what was Josie hiding besides a child? And what would Clay's investigation reveal about the toddler's father...and the woman he'd never stopped loving?


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Things are really bustling at the Witt's End resort in Northern Minnesota. Clients are vying for one of the few remaining rentals, except Cabin 14thing isno one gets out of Cabin 14 alive.  Sadie isn't your typical sixty-four year old senior citizen. She has things she wants to do and shouldn't be expected to solve a murder while trying to prevent an unscrupulous sheriff's deputy from shutting down the lakeside resort she owns with her straight arrow sister. But that's exactly what Sadie Witt must do.  When five guests with hidden agendas arrive at Cabin 14, they're stunned to learn that the flamboyant Sadie is their conduit to the hereafter. Clad in the latest fashion trends--fads typically reserved for those without sagging body parts--and sporting hairdos that make bystanders want to look away but can't, Sadie realizes one of the guests has been murdered and must work against the clock to untangle the web and prevent further mayhem.


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War with their archrival, the evil Ansara clan, is unavoidable. For Mercy Raintree, a war means she must assume her position as guardian of the Sanctuary—the sacred Raintree home place deep in the Smoky Mountains. But doing so threatens to disclose her most prized secret—one Mercy has kept to herself for six years. As the solstice looms and the battle heats up, Dranir Judah Ansara gathers his forces, intending to wipe every Raintree from the face of the land. Including Mercy, whom he's claimed as his to kill. Then he comes face-to-face with her—and with her daughter, Eve. Will Mercy's closely guarded secret change not only the outcome of the battle—but also Judah's own bitter heart?


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Darcy Smith always sensed she was different from everyone else - if only she knew how different. Possessing a secret strong enough to end an entire race of demons, Darcy unwittingly becomes a pawn in an epic battle between the vampires and the weres as she discovers a new world filled with ecstasy-and dark passions...Consumed with lust for Darcy, Styx - the Anasso of vampires - will do everything in his power to keep her out of the lair of Salvatore Giuliani, the deadly leader of the weres. But protecting the woman he loves could cost Styx the ultimate price...Salvatore Giuliani knows time is running out for the weres. Pushed to the brink of extinction, he will stop at nothing to make Darcy his ultimate conquest and queen - for she alone holds the key to his survival. But which of these men can Darcy truly trust? For all it takes is one bite to plunge her into a lifetime of servitude - or a lifetime of pleasure...


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SHE WAS EVERYTHING HE WANTED...OR WAS SHE?

The moment Will Sheridan met Samantha Murphy at a party, he knew she was the woman he'd been waiting for. Then a kiss, and suddenly she had disappeared. But Will hadn't given up looking for her, for he vowed to make her his bride--once he discovered who she was, that is....

Samantha Murphy's identity was something the female private investigator was trying very hard to hide. She had a job to do and Will, sexy and gorgeous as he was, was in the way. When her latest case took a dangerous turn, Will was caught in the middle of the chase and became her accidental partner. Now on the run to save an innocent life, can they fight their attraction long enough to stay alive?


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**

In A Town Full Of Secrets**

To most people, men like Mark Cantrell are fine, upstanding pillars of the community, completely beyond reproach. But their killer knows better. They are sinners of the worst kind, and they must burn on earth before they burn in hell. . .

**

Trusting The Wrong Person**

Eighteen months after her husband-s unsolved murder, Cathy Cantrell has returned to her Alabama home, eager to build a new life for herself and her son. But pieces of her past are everywhere-including Jackson Perdue, the town-s deputy sheriff. The spate of recent deaths-each victim burned in the same horrifying manner-leave Jack and Cathy in no doubt that a serial killer is at work, one whose rage grows more vicious each day. . .

**

Can Be Fatal. . .**

Now as a twisted killer moves in for a final, brutal act of vengeance, buried crimes are coming to light once more. And this time, justice will be swift, merciless, and as silent as the grave. . .


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With spot-on details, a smart new voice, and ingenious plot twists, Beverly Connor has been compared to the hottest crime writers on the scene. Now, she ratchets up the suspense with a brand new series featuring one of today's most cunning and complex sleuths: forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon. Her new job as director of the RiverTrail Museum of Natural History in Georgia takes Diane out of the game-until a former love and a murdered family bring her back in.


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THE ONE MAN SHE CAN'T TRUST Two hundred years have passed since Anna Randal gave herself to Conde Cesar in a night of relentless passion. Since then, Anna has become filled with unearthly power she can't begin to comprehend. And the sexy, charming vampire responsible has eluded all of her efforts to track him down, until now . . .IS THE ONLY ONE Cesar's blissful encounter with Anna cost him two centuries of penance. But one thing hasn't changed-his body's response to her is as urgent as ever. Now, commanded by the Oracles to keep watch over Anna, Cesar finds himself torn between his need to protect her-and to possess her . . . WHO CAN KEEP HER SAFE Someone wants Anna dead. And as an ancient enemy prepares to wage a terrifying battle, Anna must decide whether to succumb to a dark, burning desire and accept a destiny that could change the world forever . . . Praise for Alexandra Ivy's Embrace The Darkness . . . 'Ivy creates such vivid and complex characters, their emotional struggles feel real even though their exploits are supernatural. A true gift to the genre!'- Romantic Times 'Delivers plenty of atmosphere and hot-blooded seduction.'- Publishers Weekly


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The Guardians of Eternity are vampire warriors without equal, bound by their loyalties and sworn to protect their charges from every danger...except those posed by their own hungry desires...A scarred recluse, Jagr makes no secret of his disdain for others' company. But now, as a member of Chicago's powerful vampire clan, he has certain obligations to fulfill. The latest: track down a missing were pureblood and return her to her sister. The problem: Regan Garrett has no intention of complying. And though Jagr agreed not to harm an inch of this stubborn female's distractingly tempting body, he'll gladly kiss her into submission, awakening an urge he hasn't felt in years. Hell, in centuries...Regan vowed never to be at the mercy of another man. That goes double for arrogant, steel-muscled vampires with eyes of ice. All Regan wants is revenge against those who imprisoned her. She doesn't need an ally. She certainly doesn't need a mate. But soon Regan will have to choose-between a lust for vengeance, and a passion as dark and dangerous as the night...Praise for Alexandra Ivy and Darkness Revealed'A darkly erotic adventure with a vampire hero who can bite me anytime!' -Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author


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A year ago Holly Barrows had raced through a raging snowstorm -- convinced someone was trying to kill her -- into the arms of Slade Rawlins. She'd appeared before him like a beautiful apparition in the dark of night. But she was real, flesh and blood, and his fingers had memorized every curve of her body. Then she'd mysteriously vanished, only to return the following Christmas with an outrageous claim of kidnapping. Monsters, she'd said, had taken her baby. But any baby she'd had would also have been Slade's. And he was consumed by his need to protect Holly and locate their child before the family he desperately wanted was lost...forever.


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In Beverly Connor's absorbing series, the bones of the dead reveal the secrets of the living. In this latest investigation, forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon must lead a chilling excavation of a crime with harrowing implications: the murder of three people, hanged execution-style in an isolated patch of Georgia woods.


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When forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon finds three decades-old skeletons in different locations with desiccated bones, she is plunged into a seventy-year-old mystery of love, greed, and murder that someone would still kill to keep from being solved. Original.


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After centuries of calm, the Nameless One is stirring. An army is gathering: giants, ogres and other creatures joining forces from across the Desolate Lands, united for the first time in history under one black banner. By the spring, or perhaps sooner, the Nameless One and his forces will be at the walls of the great city of Avendoom. Unless Shadow Harold, master thief, can find some way to stop them. Epic fantasy at its best, Shadow Prowler is the first in a trilogy that follows professional thief Shadow Harold on his quest for a magic Horn that will restore peace to the kingdom of Siala. Accompanied by an elfin princess, ten Wild Hearts - the most experienced and dangerous royal fighters - and the King's court jester (who may be more than he seems ... or less), Harold must outwit angry demons, escape the clutches of a band of hired murderers, survive ten bloody skirmishes ... and reach the burial grounds before dark. Can he escape a fate worse than death?


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Reapers, Inc.- Brigit's Cross is the beginning episode of Brigit Malone, a thirty-something lesbian, that is accidently killed on the eve of her ten-year anniversary to her partner, Maggie Devon. When Brigit is offered a position with Reapers, Incorporated-- the firm that actually handles the business of passing souls to their final judgments-- she takes the position in order to keep her promise to Maggie to always be with her, thus, beginning her new career and adventures of being a Grim Reaper.


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As a child, Juliet Price witnessed the bloody slaying of an entire family. Then the killer chased her down, brutalized her, and left her for dead. The police were never able to find the man responsible. For years, Juliet's traumatized mind hid the events from her. Then she sees a television show featuring the unsolved cold case, and the horrors come to her in her nightmares. She shares her fears with Diane Fallon, who realizes that Juliet's shattered visions recall not one, but two intertwined crimes-crimes that Diane intends to uncover.


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SHE HUNTS THE REALMS MOST DANGEROUS GAME. HER FEES ARE EXORBITANT. SHE'S WORTH EVERY COIN SHE RECEIVES. OR IS SHE? Magiere has earned a reputation as the most formidable vampire slayer in the land. Villagers far and wide welcome her with both awe and disdain, grateful to her for ridding their towns of the undead menace, but finding themselves made poorer for their salvation. Magiere has always known she's dealing with simple folk who only wish to have their superstitions silenced, and she's never seen anything wrong with exploiting them for profit. Now, tired of the game, Magiere and her partner, the half-elf Leesil, are ready to hang up their weapons and settle down in a place they can finally call home. But their new found peace will not last. For Magiere has come to the attention of a trio of powerful and dangerous vampires who recognize her true identity  even if she does not  and who fear the birthright that flows through her veins. And they will stop at nothing to keep Magiere from fulfilling her destiny.


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“The sort of book that makes you want to invest in silver bullets before meeting the author.” –Neil Gaiman

SHE KNOWS WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.

Manhattan veterinarian Abra Barrow has more sense about animals than shehas about men. So when her adored journalist husband returns from a research trip to Romania and starts pacing their apartment like a caged wolf, Abra agrees to move with him to a rural mansion upstate in order to save her marriage. 

But while there are perks to her new life, particularly in the bedroom, Abra soon discovers that nothing in the bucolic town of Northside is what it seems. The local tavern serves a dangerous, predatory underworld. 

Her husband has developed feral new appetites and a roving eye, and his lack of humanity isn’t entirely emotional. As the moon waxes full, Abra must choose between trusting the man she married, taking a chance on a seductive stranger, or following her own animal instincts.


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On the heels of DHAMPIR, Barb and J.C. Hendee's acclaimed Fantasy debut, comes THIEF OF LIVES, the new novel featuring Magiere and Leesil, Slayers of the Undead....     

Magiere the dhampir thinks that her nights of hunting vampires are over. After settling down in her newly adopted village of Miiska — now vampire-free, thanks to her and her half-elf partner, Leesil — she looks forward to quiet days tending to her tavern.     

But far away in the capital city of Bela, a prominent councilman's daughter has been found dead on her own doorstep... and all signs point to a vampire. Knowing that the battered and burned village of Miiska could use an infusion of cash, Bela's town council offers a generous bounty to the dhampir if she will slay their vampire. Magiere resists, wanting nothing more than to forget her past and ignore her half-vampire nature. Only Leesil can persuade Magiere to follow her destiny — before more innocent lives are claimed by darkness.


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Clymene O'Riley is in prison for killing her husband - though Diane Fallon is sure she killed another, and suspects she may have left a veritable graveyard of dead men in her wake. Either way, Diane was happy to help put her behind bars. So when Clymene informs her that one of the prison guards may be in danger from a serial killer, Diane is suspicious. And when Clymene escapes from jail, Diane becomes the prime suspect in a bloody murder that puts her in the path of an angry killer who wants her dead...


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Some instincts are too powerful to deny.In the past year, veterinarian Abra Barrow has gone through some major changes: She’s left Manhattan for the deceptively quiet small town of Northside, ditched her cheating husband, and discovered that he has infected her with the rare werewolf virus. Now Abra is finally beginning to feel as if she has her life under control–except when the moon is full.But then, all of a sudden, Abra starts losing her temper–and her inhibitions–even when the sun is shining. Her new man, shape-shifting wildlife expert Red Mallin, seems to know more about her condition than he’s letting on, but he’s a little preoccupied with strange creatures that have been crossing the dimensional border. With her hormones in overdrive, Abra finds herself releasing the beast in all the men around her. As life in Northside becomes increasingly more peculiar–and more perilous–she must decide whom she can trust . . . when she’s not even sure she can trust herself.


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'Alison Sinclair's writing is addictive and elegant.'-LANE ROBINS, Author of MALEDICTEFor the Darkborn, sunlight kills. For the Lightborn, darkness is fatal. Living under a centuries-old curse, the Darkborn and the Lightborn share the city of Minhorne, coexisting in an uneasy equilibrium but never interacting.When Balthasar Hearne, Darkborn physician, finds a pregnant fugitive on his doorstep just before sunrise, he has no choice but to take her in. Tercelle Amberley's betrothed is a powerful Darkborn nobleman, but her illicit lover came to her through the daytime. When she gives birth to twin boys, Balthasar realizes that they can see-something unheard of among the Darkborn.Two days after the birth, men arrive in search of the children. Balthasar is saved only by the intervention of his Lightborn neighbour-and healed by the hands of his wife, Telmaine. Soon Balthasar finds himself drawn deeper into a web of political intrigue and magical attacks as an ancient enemy of both Darkborn and Lightborn appears in a new guise, while Telmaine must confront a power she can no longer keep sheathed in gloves-a power she neither wants nor can control.


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The Noble Dead saga continues as Magiere and Leesil, the slayers of the undead for DHAMPIR and THIEF OF LIVES, embark on a quest to uncover the secrets of their mysterious origins - and those responsible for orchestrating the events that brought them together.... Magiere is a dhampir - half human, half vampire - sired for the purpose of slaying the undead. Outside the village of Chemestúk, where she was born and raised, stands her father's keep. Within its walls, she hopes to discover the secrets of her past and figure out why a vampire would wish to breed a creature capable of slaughtering his own kind.... But there are those who don't want Magiere to learn the truth—and when her half-elf partner, Leesil, makes a startling discovery in the keep, he can understand why. Before Leesil can reveal the truth to Magiere, they must vanquish a creature of unimaginable and unlimited power who has damned a small village of people with a horrifying curse...


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Local politics get nasty when a new mayor is elected and Diane Fallon is replaced with an incompetent crony as head of the crime lab. But just as she's adjusting to life without murder, the newly appointed chief of police and the mayor are shot dead. Back on the job, Diane sees, but can't quite believe, the evidence damning the former chief of detectives as the shooter. Someone with plenty to gain intends to get away with more than murder, and as the investigation reveals an ever-widening web of corruption and treachery, Diane realises that no one is safe - least of all her.


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"Fascinating . . . Alison Weir does full justice to the subject."--The Philadelphia InquirerAt his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English throne: his only son, the nine-year-old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife Katherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the teenage daughter of his second wife Anne Boleyn; and his young great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey. In this riveting account Alison Weir paints a unique portrait of these extraordinary rulers, examining their intricate relationships to each other and to history. She traces the tumult that followed Henry's death, from the brief intrigue-filled reigns of the boy king Edward VI and the fragile Lady Jane Grey, to the savagery of "Bloody Mary," and finally the accession of the politically adroit Elizabeth I.As always, Weir offers a fresh perspective on a period that has spawned many of the most enduring myths in English history, combining the best of the historian's and the biographer's art."Like anthropology, history and biography can demonstrate unfamiliar ways of feeling and being. Alison Weir's sympathetic collective biography, The Children of Henry VIII does just that, reminding us that human nature has changed--and for the better. . . . Weir imparts movement and coherence while re-creating the suspense her characters endured and the suffering they inflicted."--The New York Times Book Review


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FBI agent-turned-private investigator Ross Kingsley comes to Diane Fallon for help after his client's family suffers a double tragedy. Nine years ago, the client's son went to prison for rape and murder. Now his daughter is dead under suspicious circumstances, and her father believes she was killed uncovering evidence of her brother's innocence. Against her better judgment, Diane agrees to help her old FBI friend. Now, she is about to discover that crime can have deep roots and some bones, like secrets, are deadly to uncover--especially when there are skeletons in the closet...


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In the fourth novel of the Noble Dead saga, following Sister of the Dead, Magiere the dhampir and Leesil the half-elf embark on an odyssey in search of the secrets of their mysterious origins and of those responsible for the events that brought them together.


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An errand to deliver rare Indian artefacts turns into a deadly game for forensic archaeologist Diane Fallon when a tree slams into her car, with a human skeleton sticking from the trunk. Then, leaving the car to investigate, she's ambushed by a shadowy stranger. Stumbling blindly through the woods, Diane plans to take refuge at a friend's house, but there she finds h and his wife seated at their kitchen table, their throats cut from ear to ear.Just who does the skeleton belong to, why are her friends dead, and who is the killer hot on her tail? It's up to Diane to uncover a deadly secret hidden away in the mountains by time and distance ? before it's too late...


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Following the tremendous success of her first novel, Innocent Traitor, which recounted the riveting tale of the doomed Lady Jane Grey, acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir turns her masterly storytelling skills to the early life of young Elizabeth Tudor, who would grow up to become England’s most intriguing and powerful queen.Even at age two, Elizabeth is keenly aware that people in the court of her father, King Henry VIII, have stopped referring to her as “Lady Princess” and now call her “the Lady Elizabeth.” Before she is three, she learns of the tragic fate that has befallen her mother, the enigmatic and seductive Anne Boleyn, and that she herself has been declared illegitimate, an injustice that will haunt her. What comes next is a succession of stepmothers, bringing with them glimpses of love, fleeting security, tempestuous conflict, and tragedy. The death of her father puts the teenage Elizabeth in greater peril, leaving her at the mercy of ambitious and unscrupulous men. Like her mother two decades earlier she is imprisoned in the Tower of London–and fears she will also meet her mother’s grisly end. Power-driven politics, private scandal and public gossip, a disputed succession, and the grievous example of her sister, “Bloody” Queen Mary, all cement Elizabeth’s resolve in matters of statecraft and love, and set the stage for her transformation into the iconic Virgin Queen. Alison Weir uses her deft talents as historian and novelist to exquisitely and suspensefully play out the conflicts between family, politics, religion, and conscience that came to define an age. Sweeping in scope, The Lady Elizabeth is a fascinating portrayal of a woman far ahead of her time–an orphaned girl haunted by the shadow of the axe, an independent spirit who must use her cunning and wits for her very survival, and a future queen whose dangerous and dramatic path to the throne shapes her future greatness.From the Hardcover edition.


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Thrills, chills, and a smoldering sexy hero combine to unforgettable effect in Bianca D'Arc's irresistible new novel of paranormal romance. . .When police officer Sarah Petit investigates a disturbance in an abandoned building, she expects to find a few underage drinkers. Instead, she's attacked by creatures straight out of a horror movie. Waking a week later in a hospital, Sarah is visited by Special Forces soldier Captain Xavier Beauvoir. The zombies who attacked Sarah are the result of military research gone terrifyingly wrong, and Sarah's immunity to the virus makes her the perfect person to help Xavier eradicate them. But his smooth Cajun accent, whiskey-colored eyes, and dizzying kiss are risky to her in a very different way. Sarah attracts danger like a magnet--and the smart, fearless cop attracts Xavier too, instilling a bone-deep need that's undermining his steady façade. Enlisting her aid is a necessary gamble, but vicious undead creatures are not the only enemy they face. And the only way to keep each other safe is to trust in an instant connection that could be their greatest strength--or the perfect way to destroy them both. . .


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Desperate to free his mother from a caste of ruthless elven assassins, Leesil joins his beloved Magiere, the sage Wynn, and their canine protector, Chap, on a difficult journey through mountains and harsh winter. Should they survive the hardships of wilderness, they still face the perils of the mysterious Elven Territories. Unbeknownst to them, they've been united at the command of Chap's Fay kin to forge an alliance against the forces of dark magic. But now Chap must guard his companions from enemies and allies-not always certain which is which. And as they uncover the truth, they discover just how close the enemy has always been.


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Nearly five hundred years after her violent death, Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII, remains one of the world's most fascinating, controversial, and tragic heroines. Now acclaimed historian and bestselling author Alison Weir has drawn on myriad sources from the Tudor era to give us the first book that examines, in unprecedented depth, the gripping, dark, and chilling story of Anne Boleyn's final days.The tempestuous love affair between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn scandalized Christendom and altered forever the religious landscape of England. Anne's ascent from private gentlewoman to queen was astonishing, but equally compelling was her shockingly swift downfall. Charged with high treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London in May 1536, Anne met her terrible end all the while protesting her innocence. There remains, however, much mystery surrounding the queen's arrest and the events leading up to it: Were charges against her fabricated because she stood in the way of Henry VIII making a third marriage and siring an heir, or was she the victim of a more complex plot fueled by court politics and deadly rivalry?    The Lady in the Tower examines in engrossing detail the motives and intrigues of those who helped to seal the queen's fate. Weir unravels the tragic tale of Anne's fall, from her miscarriage of the son who would have saved her to the horrors of her incarceration and that final, dramatic scene on the scaffold. What emerges is an extraordinary portrayal of a woman of great courage whose enemies were bent on utterly destroying her, and who was tested to the extreme by the terrible plight in which she found herself.     Richly researched and utterly captivating, The Lady in the Tower presents the full array of evidence of Anne Boleyn's guilt—or innocence. Only in Alison Weir's capable hands can readers learn the truth about the fate of one of the most influential and important women in English history.


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Exiled to a life of extreme loneliness because everyone she touches dies,  Emily Burke has every reason to distrust Raphael Robichaux. The immortal  werewolf possesses immense power and has been summoned by her pack to end her  life. And yet, from the moment she lays eyes on the powerful rebel, he awakens  all the longings she's kept bottled inside...and gives her hope. When Raphael meets Emily, he knows something enormous is at stake. For not  only does he see that her blood can restore life--but she is his destined  mate. 

Trust doesn't come easily to Emily. But somehow Raphael must convince her to  put her life in his hands. Only then will an ancient prophecy be fulfilled and a  terrible evil destroyed....


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A wealthy Englishman mistakes Lady Kate Coles love for novels as a desire for adventure and whisks her into an investigation that ultimately uncovers shes stolen his heart.


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For years, Magiere and Leesil have sought a long-forgotten artifact, even though its purpose has been shrouded in mystery. All Magiere knows is that she must keep the orb from falling into the hands of a murdering Noble Dead, her half-brother Welstiel. And now, dreams of a castle locked in ice lead her south, on a journey that has become nothing less than an obsession. Accompanying Magiere and Leesil are the sage Wynn, their canine protector Chap, and two elven assassins-turned-guardians who must fight their distrust of this sister of the dead. For forces more powerful than they are rallying around Magiere, arming her for the conflict to come. Because finding the orb may be just the beginning of the challenges that await her...


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KING OF KINGS, LORD OVER MEN AND DEMONS ALIKE Only one ruler had ever held that title, and now Iraj Protarus, an orphaned prince exiled to a small village high in the Valley of the Clouds, dreamed of being the next great conqueror. The key to his destiny would be Safar Timura, a youth with an awesome gift for sorcery, whose visions foretold Iraj's rise to power. And in those visions, Safar stood at Iraj's side, his soul-blasting spells enabling his friend to attain his dreams.   But Safar had other visions with darker portents, and his spellbound knowledge raised secrets better left buried. The road the two men followed would be rich in titles and fortunes, but it would also be rich in death and disaster, in intrigue--and in unforgivable betrayal . . . Let the Wizard of the Winds sweep you away with a tale of such power and passion that you will forget every other fantasy you've ever read. Enter a world where humans and demons are deadly enemies, where the destiny of entire dynasties is buffeted mercilessly by the stormy winds of sorcery powerful beyond imagination. Like the masters who have come before him, Allan Cole has created a haunting and unique world peopled with characters you will hate to love and love to hate . . . a unique world whose siren song will be irresistible to fantasy lovers everywhere . . .


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**The national bestselling Noble Dead saga is “one of those [series] for which the term dark fantasy was definitely intended” (*Chronicle*).**



After her adventures with Magiere and Leesil, Wynn Hygeorht has returned to the Guild of Sagecraft, bearing texts supposedly penned by vampires from the time of the Forgotten History and the Great War. Seized by the Guild’s scholars and sent out for copying without Wynn’s consent, several pages disappear—and the two sages charged with conveying these pages are murdered. Suspicious of the Guild, separated from the only friends she fully trusts, and convinced the Noble Dead are responsible for the killings, Wynn embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets of the texts.


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A modern-day international thriller hailed by James Rollins as "one of the best debut I've read this year. . . here is a novel that will have you holding your breath until the last page is turned." When brilliant archaeologist Dilara Kenner is contacted by Sam Watson, an old family friend who says that he has crucial information about her missing father, Dilara abandons her Peruvian dig and rushes to Los Angeles to meet him. But at the airport, Sam speaks instead of Noah's Ark--the artifact her father had long been searching for--and the possible death of billions. Before Sam can explain, he collapses. With his dying breath, he urges Dilara to find Tyler Locke--a man she's never heard of. Two days later Dilara manages to track down former combat engineer Tyler Locke on an oil rig off Newfoundland. Her helicopter transport goes down well short of the oil rig's landing pad and Dilara and those aboard nearly drown. No sooner is Dilara safely on the rig than she convinces Tyler the crash was no accident. Tyler agrees to help her uncover the secret behind Noah's Ark and, more important, her father's disappearance. As the picture begins to come into focus, they realize they have just seven days to find the Ark before its secret is used to wipe out civilization once again. With a chilling premise and a blistering pace, Boyd Morrison combines all the best elements of a blockbuster thriller with an intelligent and fascinating exploration of one of the Old Testament's great mysteries.


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** The new national bestselling Noble Dead story arc is "another must read series" (*Book Spot Central*). **



 Wynn journeys to the mountain stronghold of the dwarves in search of the "Stonewalkers," an unknown sect supposedly in possession of important ancient texts. But in her obsession to understand these writings, she will find more puzzles and questions buried in secrets old and new-along with an enemy she thought destroyed...


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As a gawky teenager, Rosie knew she never stood a chance with heartthrob Cameron Kelly. She had pigtails and glasses, and washed dishes by night to help support her and her mother, while Cameron came from one of the richest and most revered families in Brisbane.Years later they meet again, and Rosie finds herself on a date with the devastatingly attractive billionaire! There's something different about him—he's darker, more intense, dangerous. But she's determined to ignore his three-dates-only rule and get to the heart of the rebel tycoon….


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An abduction a trail of disturbing clues Politics are about to become deadly. As the controversial mayor of the beautiful coastal community of Santa Rita, Madison "Maddy" Glenn likes to face things head-on. But nothing can prepare her for a hostile visit from the chief of police-or his terrible news. Lisa Truccoli, Maddy's friend and the treasurer of her last campaign, has been kidnapped. All that remains at the crime scene is a shocking clue with Maddy's name on it. The ensuing hunt for answers only turns up more sinister clues in a terrifying game the abductor wants to play with Maddy. Caught between a haunting past and a dangerous present, Maddy finds the walls that keep her from faith beginning to crumble. The stakes turn lethal with a second abduction and a clue that reveals inside information about Maddy's run for Congress-a decision she has not made yet. Someone is going to dangerous lengths to make the choice for her but it is a choice she'll survive?


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When your worst fear comes true.Someone is watching Kaycee Raye. But who will  believe her? Everyone knows she's a little crazy. Kaycee's popular syndicated  newspaper column pokes fun at her own paranoia and multiple fears. The police in  her small town are well aware she makes money writing of her experiences. Worse  yet, she has no proof of the threats. Pictures of a dead man mysteriously appear  in her home-then vanish before police arrive. Multisensory images flood Kaycee's  mind. Where is all this coming from? Maybe she is going over the edge. High  action and psychological suspense collide in this story of terror, twists, and  desperate faith. The startling questions surrounding Kaycee pile high. Her  descent to answers may prove more than she can survive.


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**The co-author of the bestselling Noble Dead novels continues her "exhilarating"(*SF Revu*) new vampire series.**



 Eleisha Clevon has begun a correspondence with fellow vampire Rose de Spenser. Both reluctant predators, they venture outside only when the hunger becomes unbearable, trying not to draw attention to themselves-and feel guilty when ending human lives.



 But Eleisha has learned a way to draw blood from her victims without killing them. She wants to share this knowledge with like-minded vampires and create a haven where they can exist together-and forge a united front against Julian Ashton, a vampire who has been hunting down and destroying his own kind...


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When your worst fear comes true.    Someone is watching Kaycee Raye. But who will believe her? Everyone knows she's a little crazy. Kaycee's popular syndicated newspaper column pokes fun at her own paranoia and multiple fears. The police in her small town are well aware she makes money writing of her experiences. Worse yet, she has no proof of the threats. Pictures of a dead man mysteriously appear in her home---then vanish before police arrive. Multisensory images flood Kaycee's mind. Where is all this coming from?    Maybe she is going over the edge.     High action and psychological suspense collide in this story of terror, twists, and desperate faith. The startling questions surrounding Kaycee pile high. Her descent to answers may prove more than she can survive.


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In an alternate Atlanta where magic is practiced openly, where witches sip coffee at local cafes, shapeshifters party at urban clubs, vampires rule the southern night like gangsters, and mysterious creatures command dark caverns beneath the city, Dakota Frost's talents are coveted by all. 

She's the best magical tattooist in the southeast, a Skindancer, able to bring her amazing tats to life. When a serial killer begins stalking Atlanta's tattooed elite, the police and the  Feds seek Dakota's help.  

Can she find the killer on the dark fringe of the city's Edgeworld?  Among its powerful outcasts and tortured loners, what kind of  enemies and allies will she attract?  Will they see her as an invader, as a seducer, as an unexpected champion ... or as delicious prey?   

FROST MOON is Book One of the SKINDANCER fantasy series by debut author Anthony Francis. Filled with unforgettable characters, spine-tingling action, kinky rebellion and edgy love, FROST MOON is classic storytelling at its best, and Dakota Frost is an irresistible new star of fantasy fiction.   

Anthony Francis is a computer scientist who works at the 'Search Engine That Starts With A G'. By day he studies human and other minds to design intelligent machines and emotional robots; by night he writes fiction and draws comic books. He received his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Georgia Tech.  He lives in San Jose with his wife and cats but his heart will always belong in Atlanta.


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** First in a new series from the national bestselling author of *Witch Fury*. ** 



 When the Summer Queen of the fae orders Aislinn Finvarra to act as a guide for a half-incubus who is known to possess dark magick and sexual power, she must protect not only her heart, but her very life.


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For Bethanne Saunders, flying Sheikh Rashid al Harum's private plane has its perks. When her feet touch the ground it's on the plush carpet of his sumptuous palace. And just being near gorgeous Rashid makes her feel on cloud nine!Bethanne has all the luxury she can handle-until suddenly she's promoted to princess! But the dazzling rock on her finger is a stark reminder that it's a convenient engagement. Everyone knows sheikhs don't fall for ordinary girls from Texashellip;.


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After a chaotic marriage and a rough divorce, all Mira Hoskins wants is stability and normality. But when sexy Jack McAllister enters her life, she discovers that what you want isn't always what you need. Jack is a powerful witch with the ability to command fire and is anything but normal. As the head of a security detail for The Coven, a national organization that governs national witches, Jack has been assigned to watch over Mira. She is a natural born witch with the ability to call the air. And although she is unaware of her talent, a group of renegade witches has discovered her existence and are determined to steal her power--and her life.


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When the children of his village were struck with a mysterious illness, Number Ten Ox found master Li Kao. Together they set out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure, and together they discover adventure and legend, and the power of belief....


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Water witch Isabelle Novak must form an uneasy alliance with earth witch Thomas Monahan to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power, even though Thomas's very presence stirs deeper desires than she ever knew she had.


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Third in the Elemental Witch series from the national bestselling author Claire, a demon’s handmaiden, is rescued from enslavement by a handsome playboy. Now they’re both in danger of being captured by warlocks who are determined to harness Claire’s powers for evil.


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The sequel to Bridge of Birds and The Story of the Stone, this fantasy tale is the equivalent of Holmes and Watson in an ancient China that never was. Master Li and Number Ten Ox investigate a strange case of murder in a book that is equal parts Chinese folklore, sly parody, adventure, horror and fun.


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Witches are taking the nation by storm. With the untapped gift to create fire, witch Sarafina Connell is caught up in a war between good and evil. And she has no choice but to join an infamous playboy in the battle for supremacy—one that’s getting hotter by the minute.


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New trouble lies ahead for Darak and Griane, now the Memory-Keeper and Healer of their tribe. Keirith, the eldest of their three children, has been apprenticed to the Tree-Father but is dismissed when his master learns that he has been riding the spirits of other living creatures. Convinced that his parents will also view him as an abomination, Keirith flees, only to be captured by slavers. Carried to the heart of a distant civilization, Keirith must confront the truth about himself and his powers, even while Darak, following the kidnappers' trail, must struggle with his darkest fears if he is to have any hope of saving his son.


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In this hilarious and ultimately moving memoir, comedians and real-life married couple Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn prove that in marriage, all you need is love—and a healthy dose of complaining, codependence, and pinot noir. After thirteen years of being married, Annabelle and Jeff have found “We’re just not that into us.” Instead of giving up, they’ve held their relationship together by ignoring conventional wisdom and fostering a lack of intimacy, by using parenting as a competitive sport, and by dropping out of couples therapy. The he-said/she-said chronicle of their intense but loving marriage includes an unsentimental account of the medical odyssey that their family embarked upon after their infant son was diagnosed with VACTERL, a very rare series of birth defects. Annabelle and Jeff’s unforgivingly raw, uproariously funny story is sure to strike both laughter and terror in the hearts of all couples (not to mention every single man or woman who is contemplating the connubial state). Serving up equal parts sincerity and cynicism, *You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up *is a laugh-out-loud must-read for everyone who has come to realize that being “in love” can only get you so far.** ****On Cohabitation****He says: **“Within days of Annabelle’s arrival, I became very aware that she demanded solitude and had the housekeeping habits of a feral animal.”**She says: **“The guy had some sort of nudity radar. When I would take my clothes off for even a second, Jeff would be in front of me cheering as if he’d scored box seats at Fenway Park.”** ****On Sex****He says: **“I want to have sex every day, but Annabelle only wants to do it once a week. So we compromise: we have sex once a week.”**She says: **“Jeff says talking about money before you have sex is a turnoff, but it’s only a *turnoff *if you’re talking about not having money. Talking about money before you have sex when you have money is actually a *turn-on*.” **On Pregnancy****He says: **“For God’s sake, all I wanted to do was have sex without a condom for a little while; now we were moments from bringing a new life into the world!”**She says: **“My ass was expanding so fast it was like a Starbucks franchise. On every corner of my ass there was a new branch of ass opening up.”


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Rasa joins Aman's two other wives, Amollia and Aster, and travels to Sindupore in order to save Aman from the djinn who has changed him into a donkey


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The city of Isca is set like a dark jewel in the crown of the Duchy of Stonehold. In this sprawling landscape, the monsters one sees are nothing compared to what’s living in the city’s sewers.

Twenty-three-year-old Caliph Howl is Stonehold’s reluctant High King. Thrust onto the throne, Caliph has inherited Stonehold’s dirtiest court secrets. He also faces a brewing civil war that he is unprepared to fight. After months alone amid a swirl of gossip and political machinations, the sudden reappearance of his old lover, Sena, is a welcome bit of relief. But Sena has her own legacy to claim: she has been trained from birth by the Shradnae witchocracyadept in espionage and the art of magical equations writ in bloodand she has been sent to spy on the High King.

Yet there are magics that demand a higher price than blood. Sena secretly plots to unlock the *Cisrym Ta*, an arcane text whose pages contain the power to destroy worlds. The key to opening the book lies in Caliph’s veins, forcing Sena to decide if her obsession for power is greater than her love for Caliph. 

Meanwhile, a fleet of airships creeps ever closer to Isca. As the final battle in a devastating civil war looms and the last page of the *Cisrym Ta* waits to be read, Caliph and Sena must face the deadly consequences of their decisions. And the blood of these conflicts will stain this and other worlds forever.


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Beryl Bainbridge seems drawn to disaster. First she tackled the unfortunate Scott expedition to the South Pole in The Birthday Boys; later (but emphatically pre-DiCaprio) came the sinking of the Titanic, in Every Man for Himself. Now, in her 3rd historical novel (and her 16th overall), she takes on the Crimean War, and the result is a slim, gripping volume with all of the doomed intensity of the Light Brigade's charge--but, thankfully, without the Tennysonian bombast. "Some pictures," a character confides, "would only cause alarm to ordinary folk." There's a warning concealed here, and one that easily disturbed readers would do well to heed: Master Georgie is intense, disturbing, revelatory--and not always pretty to look at. Bainbridge's narrative circles round the enigmatic figure of George Hardy, a surgeon, amateur photographer, alcoholic, and repressed homosexual who counters the dissipation of his prosperous Liverpool life by heading for the Crimean Peninsula in 1854. His journey and subsequent tour of duty are told in three very different voices: Myrtle, an orphan whose lifelong loyalty to her "Master Georgie" becomes an overriding obsession; Pompey Jones, street urchin, fire-eater, photographer, and George's sometime lover; and Dr. Potter, George's scholarly brother-in-law, whose retreat from the war's carnage and into books takes on a tinge of madness. United by a sudden death in a Liverpool brothel in 1846, these characters plumb the curious workings of love, war, class, and fate. In between, Bainbridge frames an unforgettable series of tableaux morts: a dying soldier, one lens of his glasses "fractured into a spider's web"; a decapitated leg, toes "poking through the shreds of a cavalry boot"; two dead men "on their knees, facing one another, propped up by the pat-a-cake thrust of their hands." Glimpsed as if sidewise and then passed over in language that is as understated as it is lovely, these are images that sear into the brain. Master Georgie is full of such moments, horrors painted with an exquisite brush. --Mary Park


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Bernard Cornwell's new novel, following the enormous success of his Arthurian trilogy (The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur) is the tale of three brothers and of their rivalry that creates the great temple. One summer's day, a stranger carrying great wealth in gold comes to the settlement of Ratharryn. He dies in the old temple. The people assume that the gold is a gift from the gods. But the mysterious treasure causes great dissension, both without from tribal rivalry, and within. The three sons of Ratharryn's chief each perceive the great gift in a different way. The eldest, Lengar, the warrior, harnesses his murderous ambition to be a ruler and take great power for his tribe. Camaban, the second and an outcast from the tribe, becomes a great visionary and feared wise man, and it is his vision that will force the youngest brother, Saban, to create the great temple on the green hill where the gods will appear on earth. It is Saban who is the builder, the leader and the man of peace. It is his love for a sorceress whose powers rival those of Camaban and for Aurenna, the sun bride whose destiny is to die for the gods, that finally brings the rivalries of the brothers to a head. But it is also his skills that will build the vast temple, a place for the gods certainly but also a place that will confirm for ever the supreme power of the tribe that built it. And in the end, when the temple is complete, Saban must choose between the gods and his family. Stonehenge is Britain's greatest prehistoric monument, a symbol of history; a building, created 4 millenia ago, which still provokes awe and mystery. Stonehenge A novel of 2000 BC is first and foremost a great historical novel. Bernard Cornwell is well known and admired for the realism and imagination with which he brings an earlier world to life. And here he uses all these skills to create the world of primitive Britain and to solve the mysteries of who built Stonehenge and why. 'A circle of chalk, a ring of stone, and a house of arches to call the far gods home'


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This first novel in the *Seven Brothers* series draws upon the rich legends, cultures, and traditions of the East to create an epic tale.    Llesho was only seven years old when the Harn invaded Thebin, slaying his father and selling the boy into slavery.     On Pearl Island, he was trained as a diver-until a vision changed his life completely. The spirit of his long-dead teacher revealed the truth about Llesho's royal  family-his brothers were alive, but enslaved, living in distant lands.    Now, to free his brothers-and himself-Llesho must become a gladiator.    He must go face to face with sorcerers.    And gods.    And more.


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In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, *New York Times* bestselling author James Grippando, whom the *Wall Street Journal* calls "a writer to watch," explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can occur in a matter of hours—perhaps even minutes.   

 At thirty-one, Michael Cantella is a rising star at Wall Street's premier investment bank, Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until Ivy Layton, the love of his life, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas.  

 Fast-forward four years. It's the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday, and Michael is still on track: successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money. Reveling in his good fortune, Michael logs in to his computer, enters his password, and pulls up his biggest investment account: *Zero balance*. He tries another, and another. All of them zero. Someone has wiped him out. His only clue is a new e-mail message: *Just as planned. xo xo.*  

 With these three words Michael's life as he knows it is liquidated, along with his investment portfolio. Saxton Silvers is suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy, and he's the leading suspect in its ruin. Michael is left alone, framed, and facing divorce, with undercover FBI agents afoot, spyware on his computer, and mysterious e-mails from a "JBU." Embroiled in corporate espionage, he's desperate to clear his name and realizes that several signs point to his first wife, Ivy, as a key player. But what if Ivy has come back from the dead, only to visit on Michael a fate worse than death?  

 With echoes of *The Firm*, James Grippando's newest thriller takes readers to the inner circle of Wall Street, illustrating the very real dangers of what Warren Buffett called "financial weapons of mass destruction."


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On a rainy spring day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, twenty-five-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning brand new nine-thousand square foot house. And after meeting Sarah Sabin at a nearby ice cream shop, he has two reasons to visit the beach every weekend.  When bizarre things start happening in the rooms of the home, Micah suspects they have some connection to his enigmatic new friend, Rick, the town mechanic. But Rick will only say the house is spiritual. This unnerves Micah because his faith slipped away like the tide years ago, and he wants to keep it that way. But as he slowly discovers, the home isn’t just spiritual, it’s a physical manifestation of his soul, which God uses to heal Micah’s darkest wounds and lead him into an astonishing new destiny.





"An extraordinary read. Part *The Screwtape Letters*, part *The Shack*."



--Robert Liparulo, best-selling author of *Comes a Horseman*





"A profound spiritual tale spun with imaginative flair. I'm looking forward to more from Jim Rubart."



--James Scott Bell, best-selling author of *Try Fear*





"Unforgettable. The kind of book that is talked about long after the last page has been turned. The universe of readers is richer because of this debut novel."



--Alton Gansky, author of *Enoch* and *Certain Jeopardy*





"Two words about *Rooms*: blown away. It's been a long time since I read anything this unique and truly creative, and even longer since a book held me in such rapt attention during the moments I was reading it--and long after."



--Deborah Raney, author of the Clayburn novels


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Born in 2057, Remy Capra never expected a second chance at life in Los Angeles, or her only chance at love in 2007. On the run from a cop who cares more about pain than justice, Remy inadvertently goes 75 years back in time and abruptly arrives at the feet of P.I. Nathan Pierce. Remy needs help, and Nathan finds he wants to offer her even more. There are threats from all sides - are their street smarts and unexpected passion enough to keep them together... and alive?


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She's learned the hard way that following her impulses lands her in trouble. But being a by-the-book girl has never been so hard for Yasmine Talbot since the hot new guy started at work. Meeting deadlines is impossible with that delicious bod around. It's time to corner him under the mistletoe with a naughty suggestion or two!

Alex DiCarlo is so hot for Yasmine, he's almost forgotten that he's undercover investigating her. He tells himself that spending the holidays with her is perfect for some intimate observation. Truth is, he's so enjoying this sinfully sexy weekend, he wants it to continue. Too bad flings weren't meant to last....


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A brilliantly witty and intelligent memoir of the adventures, discoveries, rescues, and narrow escapes of Martha Gellhorn, one of America's most important war correspondents and the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. "Gellhorn is incapable of writing a dull sentence". The Times (London) "Martha Gellhorn was so fearless in a male way, and yet utterly capable of making men melt", writes New Yorker literary editor Bill Buford. As a journalist, Gellhorn covered every military conflict from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. She also bewitched Eleanor Roosevelt's secret love and enraptured Ernest Hemingway with her courage as they dodged shell fire together. Hemingway is, of course, the unnamed "other" in the title of this tart memoir, first published in 1979, in which Gellhorn describes her globe-spanning adventures, both accompanied and alone. With razor-sharp humor and exceptional insight into place and character, she tells of a tense week spent among dissidents in Moscow; long days whiled away in a disused water tank with hippies clustered at Eilat on the Red Sea; and her journeys by sampan and horse to the interior of China during the Sino-Japanese War. Now including a foreward by Bill Buford and photographs of Gellhorn with Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Gary Cooper, and others, this new edition rediscovers the voice of an extraordinary woman and brings back into print an irresistibly entertaining classic.


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**The Golden Age of Sail has Returned -- in the Year 2352** When his mother dies in a flitter crash, eighteen-year-old Ishmael Horatio Wang must find a job with the planet company or leave the system--and NerisCo isn't hiring. With credits running low, and prospects limited, he has just one hope...to enlist for two years with a deep space commercial freighter. Ishmael, who only rarely visited the Neris Orbital, and has never been off-planet alone before, finds himself part of an eclectic crew sailing a deep space leviathan between the stars.  Join the crew of the SC Lois McKendrick, a Manchester built clipper as she sets solar sails in search of profit for her company and a crew each entitled to a share equal to their rating. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION  2008 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Speculative Fiction for Full Share  2008 Podiobooks Founder's Choice Award for Double Share  2008 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Speculative Fiction for South Coast  2009 Podiobooks Founder's Choice Award for Captain's Share  2009 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Speculative Fiction for Double Share  4 out of 10 Books on Podiobooks.com Top Overall Rated by Votes (2. Double Share, 3. Quarter Share, 5. Full Share, 8. Half Share) -- as of Jan 2010  6 out of 10 Books on Podiobooks.com Top Overall Rating (1. Ravenwood, 2. Quarter Share, 3. Double share, 4. Captain's Share, 5. Full Share, 7. South Coast) -- as of Jan 2010 GOLDEN AGE OF THE SOLAR CLIPPER SERIES**Trader's Tales**Quarter ShareHalf ShareFull ShareDouble Share Captain's ShareOwner's Share* **Shaman Tales**South Coast  Cape Grace*


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What’s America’s top female action star doing on a tropical island shrouded in secrecy? To Gina Bliss, competing in a survival-type reality show is a nice change from fending off on-screen villains. Until she meets real-life action hero Derek Marks. A survival specialist in a tight black T and sexy stubble, he’s arousing every bad-boy fantasy she’s ever had . . . and testing her survival skills to the max.Martial arts, jungle warfare—Derek’s done it all. But his latest mission is more dangerous than a stick of dynamite. Try telling that to the sexy, adrenaline-pumped actress who’s got his libido racing off the charts. As the heat rises between them and real-life violence erupts, suddenly Derek and Gina are on the run . . . and when they uncover a secret so explosive it could blow the lid off their so-called reality show, these two unlikely heroes are about to discover what surviving’s really about. . . .


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In a world seething with sin and seduction, the chase is on.Hunting demons for a living can have its moments. Especially when Shay Pearson’s latest quarry is the gorgeous bronze surfer who just stepped out of the sea. Uncovering Nic Diavolo’s devilish side could prove Shay’s toughest assignment yet. Because while she’s acting as bait to snatch this sexy bad boy, Nic’s got a plan of seduction no woman—earthly or otherwise—can resist. Caught between two warring realms, Nic needs to stay alive long enough to figure out who his enemies are. That includes the beautiful hunter who won’t let him out of her sight. And something far worse: a force of evil with an almost unimaginable goal— possessing Nic’s very soul. But the hunt really heats up when a guy who’s hotter than Hades and a woman who’s afraid of love join forces, igniting an inferno of lust and longing that could send them into mortal danger...or straight into each other’s arms.…


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Ryder. The man was just as sexy as she remembered him: tall, lean, and dangerous, a demon hunter with the body of a god.… But archaeologist Angelique Deveraux has little time for lust. She’s been hiding a gleaming black diamond, a prize everyone wants—including Ryder—and now she’s running for her life. Hot on her trail is Ryder, a legendary demon hunter she desires but can’t quite trust, a man with an insatiable need for danger and a few dark secrets of his own.As sparks ignite between the rogue hunter and his latest prey, Angie’s world is rocked again when her twin sister vanishes, stolen away by the same dark forces stalking Angie and the black diamond. With Ryder offering protection—and more—suddenly a woman who’s never trusted anyone is falling for a man who isn’t afraid of anything…except losing his heart. Now, as an all-out demon war erupts and Angie’s family secrets unravel, Ryder’s demon hunt and Angie’s quest to save her sister are about to collide. And when they do, it’ll send these two wary hearts on the wildest adventure of their lives—and maybe even save humankind in the process.…


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He's the sexy demon hunter who just saved her life. Now she's about to show him what salvation's "really" about. It's a mission that could cost him his career and his life. But the woman he just rescued--his lover for one unforgettable night--has something Dalton desperately needs. That's why the fearless demon hunter is risking everything to spirit Isabelle to a secret hideaway in the Louisiana bayou. Saving her is one thing. Banishing the demon inside her is another. Especially when this gorgeous seductress brings out the devil in "him." Isabelle can see the passion roaring inside Dalton--and it both frightens and arouses her. Is Dalton her enemy or her savior? All she knows is he's beyond seductive and igniting all sorts of conflicting feelings. All Dalton knows is that they're both in big trouble--hunted by demons and demon hunters alike in an all-out war for survival. As their pursuers close in and passion overtakes them both, Dalton must make a stunning choice.... Caught between sin and salvation, between darkness and light, will he make the ultimate sacrifice to save the woman he loves?


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** Three sisters reveal their most intimate secrets in an erotic romance from "an undoubted master". ** 



 In the wilds of Oklahoma, three sisters have a date with destiny... 



 *Bound*: When Valerie left for the big city, she kissed her foreman husband goodbye-along with the best sex she ever had. Now, seeing him brings back sizzling memories. 



 *Branded*: Watching Gage wrangle untamed horses leaves Brea hot and bothered. But can she live out her fantasy with a man who may ask for more than she's willing to give? 



 *Brazen*: Ranch hand Walker Morgan can't afford to get too close to his new boss, Jolene, no matter how she tempts him. But Jolene's prepared to take the first step. 



 In the style of *Wild, Wicked, & Wanton*, national bestselling author Jaci Burton, delivers a threesome that no reader will ever forget in these steamy stories.


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The Royal Society of London plays home to the greatest minds of England. It has revolutionized philosophy and scientific knowledge. Its fellows map out the laws of the natural world, disproving ancient superstition and ushering in an age of enlightenment.



To the fae of the Onyx Court, living in a secret city below London, these scientific developments are less than welcome. Magic is losing its place in the worldand science threatens to expose the court to hostile eyes.



In 1666, a Great Fire burned four-fifths of London to the ground. The calamity was caused by a great Dragonan elemental beast of flame. Incapable of destroying something so powerful, the fae of London banished it to a comet moments before the comet’s light disappeared from the sky. Now the calculations of Sir Edmond Halley have predicted its return in 1759.



So begins their race against time. Soon the Dragon’s gaze will fall upon London and it will return to the city it ravaged once before. The fae will have to answer the question that defeated them a century before: How can they kill a being more powerful than all their magic combined? It will take both magic and science to save Londonbut reconciling the two carries its own danger


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In April 1945, the Allies are charging toward Berlin from the west, the Russians from the east. For Hitler, the situation is hopeless. But at this turning point in history, another war is about to explode. To win World War II, the Allies dealt with the devil. Joseph Stalin helped FDR, Churchill, and Truman crush Hitler. But what if “Uncle Joe” had given in to his desire to possess Germany and all of Europe? In this stunning novel, Robert Conroy picks up the history of the war just as American troops cross the Elbe into Germany. Then Stalin slams them with the brute force of his enormous Soviet army.From American soldiers and German civilians trapped in the ruins of Potsdam to U.S. military men fighting behind enemy lines, from a scholarly Russia expert who becomes a secret player in a new war to Stalin’s cult of killers in Moscow, this saga captures the human face of international conflict. With the Soviets vastly outnumbering the Americans—but undercut by chronic fuel shortages and mistrust—Eisenhower employs a brilliant strategy of retreat to buy critical time for air superiority. Soon, Truman makes a series of controversial decisions, enlisting German help and planning to devastate the massive Red Army by using America’s ultimate and most secret weapon.


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**A poignant and fantastical first novel by a timeless new literary voice. ** 



 With all the elements of a classic fable, vivid descriptions, and a wholly unique style, this idiosyncratic debut introduces a new and exciting voice to readers of such authors as George Saunders, Kurt Vonnegut, and Yann Martel. 



 In *Light Boxes*, the inhabitants of one closely-knit town are experiencing perpetual February. It turns out that a god-like spirit who lives in the sky, named February, is punishing the town for flying, and bans flight of all kind, including hot air balloons and even children's kites. It's February who makes the sun nothing but a faint memory, who blankets the ground with snow, who freezes the rivers and the lakes. As endless February continues, children go missing and more and more adults become nearly catatonic with depression. But others find the strength to fight back, waging war on February.


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Bold. Unfussy. Irresistible. Real. That’s the kind of food that comes out of Tyler Florence’s kitchen. With a culinary sensibility refined in some of New York’s most high-profile restaurants, and a down-home practicality gained as the cooking guru of Food 911, Tyler cooks food that’s fresh, flavorful, and totally doable. In Tyler Florence’s Real Kitchen, he’ll show you how to cook simple meals that taste amazing, from comfort-food to classics to vibrantly new dishes.Tyler’s long-awaited first cookbook stays true to his cooking philosophy—use great, simple ingredients and then let the natural flavors speak for themselves. He offers can’t-miss recipes for all the crowd-pleasing dishes that you crave—cold fried chicken, a perfect meatloaf, or drop-dead lasagna. Tyler’s bold, uncomplicated style even makes sophisticated food easy, with recipes like Pan-Roasted Sirloin with Arugula, Sweet Peppers, and Olive Salad or Steamed Mussels with Saffron and Tomato. He’ll show you how to get a great meal from the grocery bag to the table with the least fuss and the most flavor, or how to throw a barbecue with the best burgers (spiced up with horseradish and Havarti cheese) that your friends have ever had. From weekend brunch (including Soft Scrambled Eggs with Salmon and Avocado and an assortment of dim sum) to quick weeknight dinners for two (like Hong Kong Crab Cakes with Baby Bok Choy), and a selection of great party food and cocktails, this is a cookbook you’ll use again and again and rely on for every occasion.With helpful notes on essential pantry staples and a list of the kitchen equipment you really need, Tyler Florence’s Real Kitchen is a fresh, creative exploration of just how fun (and delicious) your cooking can be.


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**Bestselling author and radio storytelling sensation Stuart McLean revisits the heartwarming and hilarious friends from his iconic Vinyl Cafe.**



Dave and his wife Morley would no doubt tell you that life is what you make it. Unfortunately for them, that means a compilation tape of mistakes, miscues, misunderstandings, and muddle. That's not to say that there is anything particularly unusual about the family and friends at the Vinyl Cafe. After all, who wouldn't try to toilet-train a cat? Who hasn't started a small home fix-it job only to set fire to the walls? Created mass hysteria at a school concert? Lost an aging relative while visiting our nation's capital?



 *Vinyl Cafe Unplugged* is a warm and delightful collection of stories following the common foibles and everyday absurdities of family life.


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In this unforgettable classic novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag, the promise of a new love is imperiled by the secrets of the past. In the charming seaside town of Anastasia, California, Faith Kincaid is looking to start over after her bruising divorce from powerful, corrupt senator William Gerard. But the past still haunts her. As she prepares to testify against her ex at his high-profile bribery trial, the federal government is watching her every move. They’ve even sent a special agent, Shane Callan, to protect her. Faith doesn’t think she needs a bodyguard—especially one as physically formidable as Shane. But he refuses to take no for an answer. Soon the two are sharing secrets and the simmering attraction between them shows signs of sizzling out of control. But as Faith learns, Shane’s not a forever kind of guy—unless she can convince him to undergo a major change of heart.


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From the acclaimed author of the 2007 *New York Times* Notable Book *Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name* comes a stunning novel about the love between husbands and wives, mothers and children.   

 Twenty-eight years ago, Peter and Yvonne honeymooned in the beautiful coastal village of DatÇa, Turkey. Now Yvonne is a widow, her twin children grown. Hoping to immerse herself in memories of a happier time—as well as sand and sea—Yvonne returns to DatÇa. But her plans for a restorative week in Turkey are quickly complicated. Instead of comforting her, her memories begin to trouble her. Her vacation rental's landlord and his bold, intriguing wife—who share a curious marital arrangement—become constant uninvited visitors, in and out of the house.  

 Overwhelmed by the past and unexpectedly dislocated by the environment, Yvonne clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector. With Ahmet as her guide, Yvonne gains new insight into the lives of her own adult children, and she finally begins to enjoy the shimmering sea and relaxed pace of the Turkish coast. But a devastating accident upends her delicate peace and throws her life into chaos—and her sense of self into turmoil.  

 With the crystalline voice and psychological nuance for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a stunningly beautiful and mysterious landscape.


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Lauren Sutherland tries to set a good example for her twin sister, from her practical job to her dependable, if boring, fiancé. So when impulsive Meg elopes with her boss, a U.S. senator twice her age, Lauren hops on a plane to talk her into an annulment...but comes face-to-face with the senator's handsome son, Drew, instead.Demanding to know what she's done with his father, Drew is as infuriating as he is annoyingly irresistible. But he's not the only one who mistakes Lauren's identity. A relentless foe is on a deadly hunt for the missing newlyweds -- unless Lauren and Drew can find them first.Venturing into the elite Washington social scene, they discover an elaborate web of explicit photos and blackmail, but the biggest surprise is the fiery attraction they can barely control. The clock is ticking, and while the sparks between Lauren and Drew burn hot, the trail of clues is growing cold....


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Missi Bombay invents things--fatal flowers, Jell-O bullets, stroke-inducing panty hose and other ways to kill a target without leaving any kind of evidence. She's a great asset to her family of assassins. The one thing she can't invent, though, is a love life. Unfortunately, her mom has decided to handle that for her. Next thing Missi knows, she's packed off to Costa Rica for a wild reality show where she's paired with Lex, the hottest contestant on TV. Too bad she also has to scope out a potential victim. But the job becomes tougher when someone starts sabotaging the show...and love-of-her-life Lex thinks she's the culprit!


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Perennial grad student Veronica Gale gets more than she bargained for when her latest dissertation project puts her in the path of PHosopher/assassin/carnival-ride operator Coney Bombay-and an unsolved murder that might just kill her, too.


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**YOU CAN'T PICK YOUR FAMILY...**   Death by Chocolate is her favorite dessert. And those knitting needles   aren't just for craft projects. To most people, Gin Bombay is an ordinary   single mom. Then again, they don't know she's from a family of top secret   assassins.  Somewhere between leading a Girl Scout troop for her   kindergartner--would nooses count for a knot badge?--and keeping their   puppy from destroying the furniture, Gin now has to take out a new target.       

**BUT YOU CAN PICK THEM OFF**  Except this target has an incredibly hot Australian bodyguard who knows   just how to make her weak in the knees. But with a mole threatening to   expose everything, Gin doesn't have much time to let her hormones do the   happy dance. She's got to find the leak and clear her assignment...or   she'll end up next on the Bombay family hit list.


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From the National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, a darkly comedic novel about familyPatty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world. But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter’s college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes? In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s intensely realized characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.


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The discovery of a fragment of an ancient map leads Anthony Fowler, priest, CIA operative and member of the Holy Alliance, into an expedition in search of one of the most powerful ancient treasures of all.Anthony Fowler pays a visit to a war criminal living under a pseudonym because of the terrible experiments he performed on Jewish children. Fowler offers him a deal - he will not reveal the man's true identity in exchange for a huge candle covered in fine filigree gold. But it isn't the gold Fowler is after - it is the metallic object preserved within the wax, a missing fragment of an ancient map. Soon Fowler is involved in an expedition to Jordan set up by a reclusive billionaire who has links to the highest levels of the Catholic Church. But there is a traitor in the group - and he's patiently awaiting the moment to strike...


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Dakota Bombay prided himself on his blond Bond image---bad-guy killer by day, lady-killer by night. Then his life gets both shaken and stirred by an irate grandmother demanding a marketing plan for the family assassination business, a precocious six-year-old son Dak never knew he had, and a mysterious redhead who's erased his decades-old preference for blondes. Suddenly the perennial playboy is knee deep in pie charts and thinking he may have found the perfect mom for his boy. She's smart, funny, and directs a funeral home no less---what could be better? Now if he can just take out a team of rival assassins without getting killed himself, they can all live trigger-happily ever after.


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Archaeologist Annja Creed and her sword have never been outmatched— until now. When a surprise party for her mentor Roux includes some uninvited guests, Annja finds herself fighting desperately for her life. The intruders escape but leave a sinister message behind.

A legend has resurfaced about a sword that should be feared. A sword that seeks a master as bloodthirsty as itself. It is wielded by an assassin known as the Dragon who initiates a terrible game of cat and mouse. Eventually, the two swords—light and dark—must meet…and only one shall triumph.


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Eleven months ago, Ray Quinn was a tough, quick-witted Orlando homicide detective at the top of his game-until a barrage of bullets ended his career...and his partner's life. Now medically retired with a painful handicap, Ray battles the haunting guilt for his partner's death. Numbing the pain with alcohol and attitude, Ray takes a job as a night watchman at a swanky Orlando condo. But when a pastor and an exotic dancer are found dead in one of the condos in an apparent murder-suicide, Ray can no longer linger in the shadows. The pastor's sister is convinced her brother was framed and begs Ray to take on an impossible case-to challenge the evidence and clear her brother's name. Ray reluctantly pulls the threads of this supposedly dead-end case only to unravel a murder investigation so deep that it threatens to turn the Orlando political landscape upside down and transform old friends into new enemies. As Ray chases down leads and interrogates suspects, someone is watching his every move, someone determined to keep him from ever finding out the truth-at any cost.


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THE FIRST BODY IS A MYSTERY.She's young. She's beautiful. And her corpse, laid out in the office of Boston medical examiner Kat Novak, betrays no secrets - except for a notebook clutched in one stiff hand, seven numbers scrawled inside. THE NEXT BODY IS A WARNING.When a second victim is discovered, Kat begins to fear that a serial killer is stalking the city streets: a shadowy madman without mercy or apparent motive. The police are sceptical. The mayor won't listen. And Kat's chief suspect is one of the city's most prominent citizens.THE FINAL BODY . . . MIGHT BE HERS.With the death toll rising, Kat races to expose a deadly conspiracy and the brutal killer at its heart - a killer who will stalk her from the dangerous streets of the inner city to the corridors of power. Because he's closer than she ever dreamt. And every move she makes could be her very last.


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After a near-fatal head injury, navy SEAL lieutenant Tom Paoletti catches a terrifying glimpse of an international terrorist in his New England hometown. When he calls for help, the navy dismisses the danger as injury-induced imaginings. In a desperate, last-ditch effort to prevent disaster, Tom creates his own makeshift counterterrorist team, assembling his most loyal officers, two elderly war veterans, a couple of misfit teenagers, and Dr. Kelly Ashton-the sweet "girl next door" who has grown into a remarkable woman. The town's infamous bad boy, Tom has always longed for Kelly. Now he has one final chance for happiness, one last chance to win her heart, and one desperate chance to save the day . . . From the Paperback edition.


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Her passion is flying. As one of the best helicopter pilots in the navalreserves, Lieutenant Teri Howe is strong, dedicated, and highly skilled-- until a past mistake surfaces, jeopardizing everything she's workedfor.Rock steady Senior Chief Stan Wolchonok has made a career of tacklingdifficult challenges. So it's no surprise when he comes to Teri's aid, knowing that his personal code of honor -- and perhaps his heart -- willbe at risk. But when a jet carrying an American senator's daughter ishijacked, Stan's unflinching determination and Teri's steadfast courageare put to the ultimate test. The rescue mission will be daring anddangerous. But somewhere between peril and resolution, the line betweenfriends and lovers begins to blur, pushing both their lives "over theedge."Suzanne Brockmann has taken romantic suspense by storm with heraction-packed thrillers. Now she has written the most gripping novel ofher career -- an unforgettable story of an explosive hostage situationin which two people are caught between the call of duty and the lure ofdestiny."A taut, edgy thriller." LINDA HOWARD"Thanks to Suzanne Brockmann's glorious pen, we all get to revel inheartstopping adventure and blistering romance." "ROMANTIC TIMES"


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"An original, intriguing tale about the ways that love can break us or bind us."–Therese Fowler, author of *Souvenir *and Reunion**This haunting debut novel explores the intense bond of sisterhood as a grieving twin searches for her own identity in the ruins of her sister's past. ****A LOST SHADOW**Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin's shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls' sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she'd always shared with her sister. Though Moira's adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt her sister for years to come.**A LONE WOMAN**When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest–the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn't help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it.**A SHARED PAST**Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a *keris,*a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father's boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by the arrival of anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation and, with it, also opens a window into her past.Ultimately, she will revisit the tragic November night that shaped her and Moira's destinies–and learn that nothing can be taken at face value–as one sister emerges whole and the other's score is finally settled. *The Last Will of Moira Leahy*is a mesmerizing and romantic consideration of the bonds of family, the impossibility of forgetting, and the value of forgiveness. ***From the Hardcover edition.*


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Revenge: it won't bring your wife and kids back, but it might help with the nightmares.Patricio Carrera has been waging what amounts to a private world war to bring to justice the murderers of his family. He's raised an army and air force and used them. He's raised a fleet and he's about to use that. He's suborned one republic and is about to undermine another. He's tracked his enemies across half a world, breaking, in the process, any notion of international law that stood in his way.Now he's deployed his legions to Pashtia, penultimate hideout of the Salafi Ikhwan who have made him what he has become. But with each step further from his home, revenge seems no closer. And with each step he leaves behind him a little of his dwindling humanity. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Yet the trail itself grows cold, as cold as the snow-capped, windswept mountains of Pashtia. Only Carrera's hate still burns hot, and that's a fire that is slowly consuming him.


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Sometimes paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness. Carrera's won his war, and inflicted a horrific revenge upon his enemies. But there are wars after wars. The Tauran Union is planning an attack. The criminals of neighboring states are already attacking, and threatening to embroil him in a war with the planet's premier power. His only living son is under fire among the windswept mountains of Pashtia. An enemy fleet is hunting his submarines. His organization has been infiltrated by spies. One of the two governments of his adopted country, Balboa, is trying to destroy everything he's built and reinstitute rule by a corrupt oligarchy. Worst of all, perhaps, he, himself, bearing a crushing burden of guilt, isn't quite the man he once was. Fortunately, the man he once was, was lucky enough to marry the right woman....  The Lotus Eaters is the direct sequel to A Desert Called Peace and Carnifex.


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“Slavery is a part of Islam . . . Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.” —Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid (“Monotheism”) and senior Saudi cleric.Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to dhimmitude, a form of second class citizenship. They are denied arms, denied civil rights, denied a voice, and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya. Their sons are taken as conscripted soldiers while their daughters are subject to the depredations of the continent’s new masters. In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family’s yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother’s diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America.


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In the long war against terrorism, the US Government had taken on extraordinary powers. And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country-but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. . . .


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Five hundred years from now, humankind has found a link to a remarkably Earth-like planet and settled there, dividing –as humans will -- into dozens of nation-states.  The Federated States of Columbia has consolidated power and risen against the oppression of Earth's corrupt Caliphate. But when Salafi madmen bent on a new jihad kill FSC Captain Patrick Hennessey's family in a cowardly attack, they create an enemy that will show even less mercy than they do. 

  

            A legendary warrior is born:  Carrera, the scourge of Salafism. He will forge an army from the decrepit remains of a military in a failing state.  He will find those who killed his family. He will destroy them utterly. And he will try like hell to not become exactly like the enemy he is fighting.   

  

            Only when he is finished will there be peace: the peace of an empty wind as it blows across a desert strewn with the bones of Carrera's enemies.


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Tony Blair is a politician who defines our times. His emergence as Labour Party leader in 1994 marked a seismic shift in British politics. Within a few short years, he had transformed his party and rallied the country behind him, becoming prime minister in 1997 with the biggest victory in Labour’s history, and bringing to an end eighteen years of Conservative government. He took Labour to a historic three terms in office as Britain’s dominant political figure of the last two decades.*A Journey* is Tony Blair’s firsthand account of his years in office and beyond. Here he describes for the first time his role in shaping our recent history, from the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death to the war on terror. He reveals the leadership decisions that were necessary to reinvent his party, the relationships with colleagues including Gordon Brown, the grueling negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland, the implementation of the biggest reforms to public services in Britain since 1945, and his relationships with leaders on the world stage—Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush. He analyzes the belief in ethical intervention that led to his decisions to go to war in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and, most controversially of all, in Iraq. *A Journey* is a book about the nature and uses of political power. In frank, unflinching, often wry detail, Tony Blair charts the ups and downs of his career to provide insight into the man as well as the politician and statesman. He explores the challenges of leadership, and the ramifications of standing up, clearly and forcefully, for what one believes in. He also looks ahead, to emerging power relationships and economies, addressing the vital issues and complexities of our global world.Few British prime ministers have shaped the nation’s course as profoundly as Tony Blair, and his achievements and his legacy will be debated for years to come. Here, uniquely, we have his own journey, in his own words.


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**"Sinister, macabre, relentless and rich...the ideal blend of both *The Da Vinci Code* and *Raiders of the Lost Ark*." 

 -Bill Loehfelm, author of *Fresh Kills* ** 



 War-reporter Rob Luttrell is expecting a soft assignment when he's sent to Kurdistan to cover the excavation of the world's oldest human civilization. But, soon after he arrives, the site is violated, first by sabotage-and then by death. Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard detective investigating a series of spectacularly grisly murders discovers a link between the victims and what is happening in Kurdistan. As the two men race to prevent more deaths, they close in on a biblical era secret that will shake the foundations of the modern world. 



 *The Genesis Secret* and its audacious blend of science, history, and suspense burst onto the scene, becoming a sleeper hardcover hit. The paperback publication of this wonderfully atmospheric, fast-paced thriller is sure to find an even broader audience and catapult debut novelist Tom Knox into the ranks of bestselling authors like Raymond Khoury, Kate Mosse, and Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.


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The gripping new high-concept thriller from the author of The Genesis Secret, perfect for fans of Dan Brown and Sam Bourne.In America a young man inherits a million dollars, from a grandfather he thought was poor. Meanwhile, across Europe old men and women are being killed, in the most barbaric and elaborate of ways. And a brilliant scientist has disappeared from his laboratory in London, taking his extraordinary experiments with him.Tying these strange events together is an ancient Biblical curse, a medieval French tribe of pariahs, and a momentous and terrible revelation: something that will alter the world forever. One couple is intent on discovering this darkest of secrets, others will kill, and kill again, to stop them.Shifting from the forgotten churches of the Pyrenees, to the mysterious castles of the SS, to the arid and frightening wastes of Namibia, Tom Knox weaves together astonishing truths from ancient scripture and contemporary science to create an unputdownable thriller.


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Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven's home town in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone. Suffering fits of deep depression, he dropped out of college and ended up working as a repairman in a video games store, where he did an brilliant job of repairing a 30-year-old video game. That caught the attention of the game's owner in, who happened to be in a position to get Steven a government job, cracking computer codes, and reverse engineering unusual hardware. When he was given a tiny piece of hardware to examine as a "test," he worked out its functions so well that he and his boss were called to Washington for a top secret meeting. They asked him countless questions, yet declined to answer his; but he would soon learn all the answers. The "meteor" onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in Warp Speed) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders. Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after his was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or the Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment. . . .


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SUMMARY: it's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction. This edition also contains three stories: 'House of Flowers', 'A Diamond Guitar' and 'A Christmas Memory'. 'One of the twentieth century's most gorgeously romantic fictions.' Daily Telegraph


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Dangerous Admirer by Valerie HansenSomeone's stalking Rachel Hollister. With suspects at every turn, it's deputy Jase Morgan's job to halt the menace shadowing her steps. As the most romantic holiday of the year approaches, can she trust this charming officer with her life…and her heart?Dark Obsession by Lynette EasonHang-up calls, graffiti, break-ins at her shop right before Valentine's Day… Someone wants to scare Holly Maddox—and it's working. Her high school sweetheart, Eli Brody, comes to the rescue, but surely the handsome detective doesn't really plan to stay. There's nowhere for Holly to turn as danger—and heartbreak—start closing in.


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She had made a solemn promise to see her younger sister to safety in California. But the endless journey across the frontier was proving a heartbreaking test of courage and endurance for Faith Beal. All she had to sustain her was her steadfast belief in a loving God— and the guiding hand of a stranger who truly seemed heaven-sent.…and LoveConnell McClain was her selfless guardian as their wagon train slowly made its way west. And as they shared the dangers of the trail—and the closeness of a covered wagon—Faith felt the first tender stirrings of love for this roughhewn yet caring man. But would the secrets that seemed to haunt him threaten their growing feelings for one another?


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It's 24 on Mars: a nonstop futuristic thrill-ride, all in one day, through the critical events which were the breaking point for the underclass of Martian citizens and precipitated a revolution to break the Martian colonists free from the formidable Sol System government. The formerly red planet—now in danger of again becoming red, blood red—would never be the same, nor would the human race. It was one day that changed the course of history for the Solar System, raging from hand-to-hand combat to piloted armored mecha suits clashing to an enormous space battle, with dedicated heroes on both sides of the conflict wondering if they were doing the right thing—and if they would live to see another day. And wondering, as well, if the spark of this new war, that would eventually reach across whole star systems, would bring them peace One Day on Mars.


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The riveting edge of your seat sequel to One Day On Mars once again takes us on a blindingly fast pace through events from a futuristic Washington D.C. to the Tau Ceti star system. Just days before the presidential election a CIA operative uncovers a plot to overthrow America that reaches deep into the government. To top it off, the forces planning to revolt have somehow developed a technology that allows them to transport across the gulf between the star systems almost instantaneously. The CIA operative braves hand-to-hand combat and even torture in order to get a warning of the coming coup to American officials while at the same time the two most powerful battleships in the U.S. Space Navy are dispatched to overtake the enemy teleportation technology. With armored marines, intense space naval battles, fighter plane, and high technology wizardry perhaps the plot to kill the president can be thwarted. But will that be enough to save the land of the free?


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*One Good Soldier* is the third book in the rapid-fire hard science military SF series of *One Day on Mars* and *The Tau* *Ceti Agenda*.  In another *24*-like narrative set six years after the events in *The Tau Ceti Agenda*,* *this exciting action story unfolds in a single critical day in the history of the United States of the Sol System, the extra-solar colonies, the Separatist Revolutionaries of the Tau Ceti system, and all of mankind.   

            As another of Earth’s colonies, Ross 128, secedes from the union, the President of the United States, former marine major Alexander Moore, takes swift action to prevent a second American Civil War, this time on an interstellar scale. He sends the flagship of the U.S. Naval fleet through the Quauntum Membrane Teleporter based in the Oort Cloud to the seceding colony.  But the Tau Ceti Separatists have stationed their own teleporter there and the flagship will be met with heavy resistance from the Separatist Navy. 

            And, unknown to the president and first lady, their eighteen year old military school cadet daughter has been kidnapped and whisked away to the Separatist leader's house on Tau Ceti. 

            Only the heroics and sacrifices of ***one good soidier*** after another can save the flagship, the Union, and the first daughter in an all-out winner-take-all showdown that reaches its final climax with frenzied hand-to-hand combat in the Oval Office itself. 

  

*Praise for Travis S. Taylor:* 

“[*Warp Speed*] reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum. . . .You won't want to put it down.  FLUBELLS AWAY!” —**John Ringo** 

  

“In the tradition of Golden Age SF . . . [*The Quantum Connection*, sequel to *Warp Speed*] explodes with inventive action . . . dazzling . . . cutting-edge scientific possibilities. . . .” —*Publishers Weekly*


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Dr. Neal Anson Clemons, brilliant physicist and martial arts expert, was born at the very moment that men first landed on the moon, and his dream had always been to find a way to travel to the stars. And now he and his team have achieved a breakthrough, both in building a warp drive, and finding a new energy source powerful enough to make the drive more than an interesting theoretical concept. With the help of a beautiful Air Force Major and astronaut, Tabitha Ames, the US Government has funded the project, including assembly in orbit of the first faster-than-light probe. Unfortunately, forces working behind the scenes have much darker dreams, and they do not hesitate to blow up a space shuttle, attempt to kill Neal and Tabitha, and use the stolen warp technology to start what they expect to be a short victorious war with the United States. But Neal has ideas for using warp drive completely unsuspected by America's enemies, and repelling the all-out attack is only the beginning of a titanic struggle to reach the stars.


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Since it was first published in English, in 1946, Albert Camus's first novel, The Stranger (L'etranger), has had a profound impact on millions of American readers. Through this story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." Now, in an illuminating new American translation, extraordinary for its exactitude and clarity, the original intent of The Stranger is made more immediate. This haunting novel has been given a new life for generations to come.


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Marriage? No, thanks. She’d rather kiss a dragon.

An Enchanted story.

All Prince Cahill needs to assume the throne is one simple thing: a wife. Except every virgin princess in the kingdom has turned up deflowered before the deal can be sealed. The very next maiden to cross this threshold, he vows, will be his bride.

When she appears—injured, half-frozen and reeking of dragon dung—he holds to his promise and puts her to the final test to prove her worthiness. A test that involves a mattress and a pea.

Breanna couldn’t be less interested in marriage, especially to a cocksure royal like Cahill. Since losing her family to a dragon horde, she has become the continent’s finest slayer—a job she doesn’t plan on giving up until the last dragon’s blood drips from her sword.

Yet her sleepless nights are plagued with visions of Cahill doing wicked things to her untutored body. And when she fights at his side to repel a dragon attack, her visions become delicious reality.

But Queen Eleanor, whose reign is about to end, has no intention of giving up her power. Not to Prince Cahill, and certainly not to some young upstart…

Warning: This book contains corruption, seduction, conspiracy and magically-induced erotic dreams. And that’s just the first chapter.


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When her prince comes, her dream could turn into a nightmare.

An Enchanted story.

It’s not that Anais hates her new stepdaughter. She simply has bigger things on her mind, like birthing a son for the aging king. Temptation beckons in the mirror eyes of the king’s huntsman, leading her down a path of dark desires until, by the time she realizes Rui’s true nature, it is too late. Her heart is ensnared, and she will do anything to keep him in her arms. Especially when his roving eyes land on the princess…and Anais’s indifference turns to hate.

Upon her father’s death, the painfully shy Snow White quickly learns she can rely on no one—least of all the stepmother she once hoped would become a friend. Surrounded by undercurrents of treachery she cannot hope to understand, she turns to her seven dwarven guards for guidance. Freed of their magical bindings, these small yet perfectly formed, handsome men vow to open her innocent eyes to the dangers of court politics…and the ways of men.

Yet lust is a cruel master, and Snow White’s girlish longing for purest love could blind her to the destruction that waits to take a bite out of her dreams…

Warning: Contains explicit sex scenes between a queen and her lover, the lover and his male lover, and—yes—proof that size doesn’t matter when it comes to true lust, er, love.


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The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An élite establishment that moves to an exotic new city every term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes.What sinister secrets are guarded by the Few â the select group of students who keep outsiders away? Who is the dark stranger prowling the corridors at night? And what really happened a year earlier, when the last scholarship girl died in mysterious circumstances?One thing Cassie will discover is that a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but knowing too much can be deadlyâ¦


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

**Once, twice, ten times a bridesmaid!**    

I, Dana Rose, do solemnly swear to say "I won't" the next time someone asks me to be in their wedding party. My weak will has gained me a closet full of unflattering bridesmaids' dresses in various sizes to accommodate my ever-fluctuating waistline.    

As if that isn't enough, the past is paying me a most unwelcome visit (my prodigal brother, my back-stabbing sis). Then there's Mr. Practically Perfect, the ex who not only married someone else, but opened the business of *our* dreams -- right across from my new shop! It's no wonder I've got problems! I'm thankful I've got my friends, the Sassy Sisterhood, to rely on . . .    

**The Sassy Sisterhood:

  They get by with a little help from their friends.**


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PREGNANT AND UNMARRIED, SHE LEFT TOWN...

Now Cassie Collins had returned to reconnect with her oldest friends, the Calamity Janes, and put her troubles behind her. But trouble found her in the disconcertingly sexy form of Cole Davis--father of her child. Having discovered her secret, Cole demanded a convenient marriage--or Cassie could lose her son to the powerful, wealthy Davis clan. Time hadn't dulled Cassie's anger at the man who'd betrayed her ten years ago...nor cooled the fiery attraction between them. Could she rekindle their long-lost love, and unite Cole, herself and their son in the precious bonds of family?


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**May Steven Saylor’s Roman empire never fall. A modern master of historical fiction, Saylor convincingly transports us into the ancient world...enthralling!” *USA Today *on *Roma 



***Continuing the saga begun in his *New York Times *bestselling novel *Roma, *Steven Saylor charts the destinies of the aristocratic Pinarius family, from the reign of Augustus to height of Rome’s empire. The Pinarii, generation after generation, are witness to greatest empire in the ancient world and of the emperors that ruled itfrom the machinations of Tiberius and the madness of Caligula, to the decadence of Nero and the golden age of Trajan and Hadrian and more. 

*Empire *is filled with the dramatic, defining moments of the age, including the Great Fire, the persecution of the Christians, and the astounding opening games of the Colosseum. But at the novel’s heart are the choices and temptations faced by each generation of the Pinarii. 

Steven Saylor once again brings the ancient world to vivid life in a novel that tells the story of a city and a people that has endured in the world’s imagination like no other.


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An aspiring writer with a low-paying day job at a coffee shop becomes embroiled in an elaborate scheme to create a fake memoir of his own. Ian quickly realizes that fact and fiction can be dangerously intertwined.


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An angry fairy queen trapped his body. A woman’s love could imprison his heart.

An Enchanted story.

Prince Ryllio once lived so charmed a life, even he began to believe nothing bad could touch him. Then a moment’s indiscretion brought Queen Mab’s wrath raining down, encasing him in stone.

Hundreds of years later, he is losing hope that anyone will find him, much less counter the spell. Until a beautiful young woman wanders into his hidden glade to privately discover the pleasures of her own body. Her sensual innocence reignites his acute longing for freedom.

Lured into the old forest by an irresistible impulse, Myrina finds intimate communion with Ryllio’s imprisoned spirit. His whispered guidance weaves an erotic spell, rousing her to undreamed heights of ecstasy.

The intertwining of their minds comes at a devastating price. As each encounter intensifies, Myrina falls in love with a man she can never touch. And Ryllio realizes he must give up the last vestiges of his humanity—or condemn her to a life devoid of a flesh-and-blood lover…


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What's a daughter to do?    

*Three brand-new stories . . .three **exasperating** moms.*    

Abby Ashton's roommate-from-hell . . .her mother. If she doesn't get her parents back together, she'll go crazy. So Abby schemes to get them to Mexico with her, hoping the vacation will lead to romance. And it does -- for Abby and race-car driver "Gunner" Stevens!    

Tall, dark and charming Jason Lawrence keeps visiting Mel Anders's veterinary clinic -- with everything from a drooling St. Bernard to a potbelly pig. And the man doesn't even seem to like animals. Hmm . . .Mel is mighty suspicious -- but she never suspects her mom . . .    

Avery Rice is way too overprotective of her widowed mother. So when Mom gets a new man in her life, she enlists her cute tenant, David Marks, to keep Avery off the trail. And of course she's matchmaking. She's Mom!    

*When it comes to love, mothers know best.*


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One act of kindness cements a destiny she couldn’t fathom.

An Enchanted story.

As a child, the Lost Woods were Hannah’s passion. A place where she dreamed of mysterious creatures, including one she saved—a man who magically changed into a wolf. Now, twelve years later, the woods are her refuge from a horde of marauders who killed her mother.

This time, it is the wolf who saves her. And he is no dream.

Stephan can’t help but remember the time Hannah encouraged him to free his injured leg and continue the soul journey required of his kind. The child unwittingly bound herself to him, and now the woman tempts him like no other. Yet if she learns his secret, her fragile trust could be broken for all time.

Hannah doesn’t see how she can possibly fit into Stephan’s world—especially when their overwhelming passion reveals the one reason she should not trust him. Stephan has fought more than his share of battles, but the one for Hannah’s heart is the one that could break his own…


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FROM LONER TO LOVER...

Abandoned by his parents and separated from his brothers, Ryan Devaney never let anyone get too close. Then spunky Maggie O'Brien marched into his Irish pub and declared war on the icy fortress around his heart. Ryan claimed he didn't believe in love, but Maggie's bright smile and tender touch soon had him reconsidering. The beautiful redhead warmed his frozen spirit and awakened forgotten dreams--like the desire to search for his long-lost brothers. But did he dare accept her challenge to believe there was a place for him in happily-ever-after?


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Son of a shattered family, fireman Sean Devaney knew love never lasted, so he made sure he'd never be in a position to experience that kind of loss again. But then, he never counted on meeting scrappy-but-vulnerable single mom Deanna Blackwell, who had just lost everything in a devastating fire. Despite the warning bells going off in Sean's head, he felt an immense need to protect this struggling waitress and her spunky kid. How was he to know that mother and child would take chinks out of the armor surrounding his heart; A tower of testosterone, Sean was tough enough to storm burning buildings. But was he brave enough to risk the dangers of love?


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"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

Horse wrangler Wade Owens treated Lauren Winters like a pretty little interloper who had sashayed onto his turf. Wade's attitude sparked Lauren's temper, but she'd never backed down from a challenge. Weary from her high-profile career, Lauren had returned to Wyoming to reunite with her old friends, the Calamity Janes, and to start over--incognito--as a horse trainer. Wade was a refreshing change from the glitterati--*he* treated her like a real person. But the wrangler had made clear his distaste for the rich and powerful...would their stormy love endure the maelstrom when Lauren revealed her true identity?


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THE SAILOR WAS EDGY, STUBBORN...AND THE LOVE OF HER LIFE.

For years, Kelly Andrews had waited for her big brother's best friend to notice her. Now navy SEAL Michael Devaney was back in Boston--as her bitter physical therapy patient...but still every inch her hero. She vowed he could be whole again--with a little help from his family and her healing touch.

Broken in body and spirit, Michael seemed determined to defy Kelly and his reunited kin. Although he finally gazed at her with the passion she'd always craved, Michael held himself back, saying he was only half a man. How could Kelly convince her lifelong beloved that he was all the man she would ever need?


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As King Raven, Bran is Lord of the Forest. But his true crown seems out of reach. Bran is still fighting to bring his people justice from the shadows of the green wood. But Abbot Hugo is used to playing the long game and has been watching and learning. Abbot Hugo plans to bring the invading Norman marchogi to the forest in force, heralding the start of a campaign to wipe out King Raven and his band once and for all. Their merciless attack, the first of many, marks a dark day for the realm. And the dream of seeing a true king take the throne of Elfael seems increasingly remote. Bran and his few stalwarts desperately need encouragement and reinforcement if they are to survive. But Friar Tuck, a most unconventional priest, may just have a solution to their dilemma


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**When lightning strikes, lives are changed.**** **BECCA *On a sunny day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, eight-year-old Becca Burke was struck by lightning. No one believed her—not her philandering father or her drunk, love-sick mother—not even when her watch kept losing time and a spooky halo of light appeared overhead in photographs. Becca was struck again when she was sixteen. She survived, but over time she would learn that outsmarting lightning was the least of her concerns.* BUCKLEY *In rural Arkansas, Buckley R. Pitank’s world seemed plagued by disaster. Ashamed but protective of his obese mother, fearful of his scathing grandmother, and always running from bullies (including his pseudo-evangelical stepfather), he needed a miracle to set him free. At thirteen years old, Buckley witnessed a lightning strike that would change everything.* Now an art student in New York City, Becca Burke is a gifted but tortured painter who strives to recapture the intensity of her lightning-strike memories on canvas. On the night of her first gallery opening, a stranger appears and is captivated by her art. Who is this odd young man with whom she shares a mysterious connection? When Buckley and Becca finally meet, neither is prepared for the charge of emotions—or for the perilous event that will bring them even closer to one another, and to the families they’ve been running from for as long as they can remember. Crackling with atmosphere and eccentric characters, *The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors* explores the magic of nature and the power of redemption in a novel as beautiful and unpredictable as lightning itself.


