E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on The Clocks2) "The Poirots": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detectiveSheila Webb, typist-for-hire, has arrived at 19 Wilbraham Crescent in the seaside town of Crowdean to accept a new job. What she finds is a well-dressed corpse surrounded by five clocks. Mrs. Pebmarsh, the blind owner of No. 19, denies all knowledge of ringing Sheila's secretarial agency and asking for her by name—yet someone did. Nor does she own that many clocks. And neither woman seems to know the victim. Colin Lamb, a young intelligence specialist working a case of his own at the nearby naval yard, happens to be on the scene at the time of Sheila Webb's ghastly discovery. Lamb knows of only one man who can properly investigate a crime as bizarre and baffling as what happened inside No. 19 — his friend and mentor, Hercule Poirot. Views: 424
T'Harris isn't the most demanding of the Guardians of the Empire but, like Gabriella, he hasn't been beaten on the battlefield yet. He is also a master swordsman, like she is. When not practicing, or performing his duty to the Empire as one of the guardians, he is lighthearted although he refuses to take a back seat to anyone, if pushed.He vows to win her through his gentle ways and charm. Is it enough? As she uses her talent to see if she can outwit the Fates, she realizes this is a battle she cannot win, for history tells her that no Elf who ever tried has. They also have a common enemy, one they feel they will need to be united against to defeat.When Gabriella is mistaken for a common Elven maiden and taken to enemy lands, T'Harris must fly to her aid, for this is his love, his Life Mate, and one he has promised to guard with his life. Can he get to her before they realize who and what she is? Or will he lose her to the point of an enemy sword? Views: 424
Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen\'s most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne\'s family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love? Jane Austen once compared her writing to painting on a little bit of ivory, 2 inches square. Readers of *Persuasion* will discover that neither her skill for delicate, ironic observations on social custom, love, and marriage nor her ability to apply a sharp focus lens to English manners and morals has deserted her in her final finished work. Views: 424
The man called the Q'adi was a religious zealot who wanted to start a jihad to drive the infidels out of his beloved country of Jidrat. Colonel Ta-arife was a leader who wanted to become the leader of more than just a small Emirate. Together they could tear the Middle East apart. Views: 424
In his three short stories, 'For a Night of Love', 'Nantas', and 'Fasting', Emile Zola presents characters in search of fulfilment ? romantic, religious, and financial. Read together, For a Night of Love is an extraordinary depiction of sexual mores. When the apparently angelic Th(r)r se commits murder, she offers sexual favours to a petty clerk if he will dispose of the body; the pregnant Flavie manipulates a neighbour's interest in her dowry to arrange a shotgun wedding; churchgoing women find their hunger for Christianity unsatisfied by a vapid priest ? these beautiful and poignant stories are united by the powerful themes of deception and dissatisfaction. " Views: 424
A body that vanishes after it's tossed from a speeding car arouses Maigret's suspicions that mobsters from America are in Paris. Beginning his careful investigation, the detective relentlessly questions a shady restaurateur but gets no solid leads to the imported criminals or their presumed victim. Maigret gradually realizes that friends from the FBI are working behind his back and pride insists that he compete with them to solve the case. Simenon gives a larky twist to his seriocomic police procedural, as riveting as his graver works. Views: 423
"Alas, Babylon." Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness. Views: 423
In the future, those who score high in polls, the High-Opps, live in plush apartments, with comfortable jobs, every possible convenience. But those who are low-opped, find themselves crowded in Warrens, with harsh lives and brutal conditions. When a former High-Opp finds himself fighting for survival in the city’s underworld, it is time for a revolution. And every revolution needs a leader. Views: 423
Mount Mellyn stood as proud and magnificent as she had envisioned...But what about its master--Connan TreMellyn? Was Martha Leigh's new employer as romantic as his name sounded? As she approached the sprawling mansion towering above the cliffs of Cornwall, an odd chill of apprehension overcame her. TreMellyn's young daugher, Alvean, proved as spoiled and difficult as the three governesses before Martha had discovered. But it was the girl's father whose cool, arrogant demeanor unleashed unfamiliar sensations and turmoil--even as whispers of past tragedy and present danger begin to insinuate themselves into Martha's life. Powerless against her growing desire for the enigmatic Connan, she is drawn deeper into family secrets--as passion overpowers reason, sending her head and heart spinning. But though evil lurks in the shadows, so does love--and the freedom to find a golden promise forever... Views: 422
PERRY RHODAN gives a command!Maj. Clyde Ostal, an experienced officer of the Solar Security Service, is to take Responsibility for the armed spacer Tigris. His mission, together with 31 picked men: to leave Earth in the ship in a deliberate attempt to learn whether the Robot Regent of Arkon can detect the frequencies of structural compensators and thereby determine the position of spaceships going through hypertransition. In 2042 the Positronicon that rules the Arkonide Empire does not yet know the location of Earth—and Perry Rhodan wants to keep it that way. Hence, Maj. Ostal's important mission. You're in for a wild time when— THE TIGRIS LEAPS! Views: 422
