In This Sweet Sickness, Patricia Highsmith, in her own inimitable fashion, has created a complex psychological tale as suspenseful as The Talented Mr. Ripley.
David Kelsey, a young scientist, has an unyielding conviction that life will turn out all right for him; he just has to fix the Situation: he is in love with a married woman. Obsessed with Annabelle and the life he has imagined for them—including the fully furnished cabin he maintains for her—David prepares to win her over, whatever it takes.
In this riveting tale of a deluded loner, Highsmith reveals her uncanny ability to draw out the secret obsessions that overwhelm the human heart. Views: 606
This is the story of a big-city political boss, a murder,
a double man-hunt, and a fall guy-the perennial underdog who tries too hard to
avoid trouble…
Jerry Clinch is the pigeon, who never had a break until
Big Dan, boss of the 17th Ward Political Club, helped spring him from prison and
hired him as his chauffeur. Big Dan has hidden enemies-and a beautiful wife,
Rhea: and one day Clinch is on his own-the pigeon-with both the cops and the
hoods of the town after him, while he is engaged in a desperate search for one
man!
In the tough, realistic vein of Little Caesar,
Vanity Raw, and The Asphalt Jungle, W. R. Burnett has written
another tense yarn of underworld intrigue and suspense-shift, unsentimental,
exciting to the last page.
***
"W. R. Burnett… his sure, tough touch… W. R. Burnett's
characters-tough and mean but with a strong urge of loyalty to their twisted
code-always ring true. UNDERDOG is a solid and exciting book!"
-San Francisco Call Bulletin Views: 606
Handsome would-be poet Lucien Chardon is poor and naive, but highly ambitious. Failing to make his name in his dull provincial hometown, he is taken up by a patroness, the captivating married woman Madame de Bargeton, and prepares to forge his way in the glamorous beau monde of Paris. But Lucien has entered a world far more dangerous than he realized, as Madame de Bargeton's reputation becomes compromised and the fickle, venomous denizens of the courts and salons conspire to keep him out of their ranks. Lucien eventually learns that, wherever he goes, talent counts for nothing in comparison to money, intrigue and unscrupulousness. Lost Illusions is one of the greatest novels in the rich procession of the Comedie humaine, Balzac's panoramic social and moral history of his times. Views: 606
A diffident young man of 24 years, easily pushed around by his overprotective uncle and the retinue of devoted family retainers who won't let him lift a finger for himself, the Gilly, the seventh Duke of Sale, sometimes wishes he could be a commoner. One day he decides to set out to discover whether he is "a man, or only a Duke."
Beginning with an incognito journey into the countryside to confront a blackmailer, he encounters a runaway school boy, a beautiful but airheaded orphan, one of literature's most appealing and well-spoken comic villains, and a series of alarming and even life threatening events from which he can extricate himself only with the help of his shy and lovely fiancé… Views: 606
Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot and so critically wounded that he is flashfrozen to await a future cure. Translated by Michael Kandel. Views: 605
Boysie Oakes is back.
The suave, womanising special agent for British Intelligence returns in his second thrilling adventure.
At the height of the Cold War, Boysie is sent on a routine mission to America.
In San Diego, he will be the official British observer for the test-fire of America’s latest nuclear missile: The Trepholite.
But the Soviets have other plans.
A double of Boysie has been sent into the field.
And very soon Boysie is embroiled in a game of bluff and double-bluff involving a holocaustic missile, a slick con man - and Vladimir Solev, an deadly opponent and yet also a man in whom Boysie sees something of himself.
Along the way, Boysie is mixed up with two gorgeous women - the sultry Priscilla Braddock Fairchild and the luscious Chicory Triplehouse.
As he adventures across the United States, Boysie must dodge bullets, deadly predators and jealous women.
And as he arrives in San Diego the clock is ticking and Operation Understrike is under way.
‘Understrike’ is the second in the series of highly acclaimed spy novels featuring cowardly secret agent, Boysie Oakes. It is perfect for fans of classic British spy fiction, including Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, and Desmond Bagley.
Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960’s John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker. Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.
'Cool polished story-telling with all the sexy sidelines in the best James Bond tradition' Evening Standard
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books. Views: 605
They laughed at Roberto Valdez and then ignored him. But when a dark-skinned man was holed up in a shack with a gun, they sent the part-time town constable to deal with the problem -- and made sure he had no choice but to gun the fugitive down. Trouble was, Valdez killed an innocent man. And when he asked for justice -- and some money for the dead man's woman -- they beat Valdez and tied him to a cross. They were still laughing when Valdez came back. And then they began to die... Views: 604
A Blandings novel
Unwelcome guests are descending on Blandings Castle - particularly the overbearing Duke of Dunstable, who settles in the Garden Suite with no intention of leaving, and Lady Constance, Lord Emsworth's sister and a lady of firm disposition, who arrives unexpectedly from New York. Skulduggery is also afoot involving the sale of a modern nude painting (mistaken by Lord Emsworth for a pig). It's enough to take the noble earl on the short journey to the end of his wits.
Luckily Clarence's brother Galahad Threepwood, cheery survivor of the raffish Pelican Club, is on hand to set things right, restore sundered lovers and even solve all the mysteries. Views: 604
8000 INTERSTELLAR EXILESThe 2nd Adventure of The colonists. In an Unknown Sector of the Milky Way. On the grey beast of a planet which they have named... Grauntier. These belligerent ex-Terranians, exiled from Earth, have begun to subjugate a new world. They could have created another Paradise on this unchartered globe but for the enmity of 2 strong men: one a determined defender of democracy, the other a fanatic disciple of dictatorship.The democratic leader of the Free Settlers has suffered near fatal wounds... and this is where the medical knowledge of an alien life form enters the picture. Learn, now, of the way of life on Grautier... and the role of—THE BLUE DWARFS! Views: 604
John Herries, a buyer for an American firm, becomes
involved in the attempt to solve a series of murders in Algiers—murders that so
closely resembled suicides that the Algerian populace thought a suicide epidemic
had struck the land. Herries finds an unexpected partner in Cockney John
Solomon, a secret agent working under instructions to investigate the suicides.
Views: 603
“Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.”—Hilary Mantel
In the fourth century BC, Nikeratos is an actor, a devotee of Plato, and a friend of Dion of Syracuse. Their relationship gives Nikeratos rare proximity to the Greek political stage at a moment when ambitions are about to collide. In Syracuse, the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger rules, but Dion is determined to bring democracy and strength to the city. In an effort to curb Dionysios’s excesses, Dion has Plato pose as a tutor—only to learn that the corrupt youth won’t be so easily contained. With a combination of erudition and storytelling force, Renault immerses the reader in intrigue and crafts a vibrant Syracuse that leaps off the page.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author. Views: 603
Blatty's debut book, based on series of comic articles written for The Saturday Evening Post, about his experiences in the Middle East.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Views: 603
Treece's Electra reveals more than the private lives of Electra and Agamemnon, of Clytemnestra and Orestes. Written from Electra's point of view, it shows in action the many forces which contributed at last to the downfall of Mycenae's brilliant culture, and the coming of the Dorian Dark Age which was to last for five hundred years and more. Views: 603