Dave Barry is the author of Babies and Other Hazards of Sex, Homes and Other Black Holes, Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead, Bad Habits , and Dave Barry’s Guide to Marriage and/or Sex . He received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his syndicated column. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his family. Views: 35
In this outing, Walker goes "Downriver," which is a Detroiter's term for any part of Michigan that does not include the city. Actually, he goes to the Upper Peninsula to give a released con a ride back to Detroit. When he and the con get run off the road and the con hires him to help find 200,000 dollars from a heist for which he was convicted but which he did not commit, Walker has his hands full.From Publishers WeeklyThe eighth Amos Walker novel (Motor City Blue) may not have an especially surprising chief villain, but Estleman is still in the top of the class of private-eye storytellers. Here Walker's client is Richard DeVries, fresh out of prison after a 20-year stretch for arson and armored-car robbery during the 1967 Detroit riots. DeVries, who's black, says he was framed for a murder committed during the robbery, and Walker believes him. DeVries also considers the $200,000 never found after the robbery as his due: "I paid for it, and now it's mine." He identifies a rising auto executive as the "revolutionary" who got him to throw the fire-bomb. Soon Walker finds himself involved with a hotshot, would-be car magnate, his "ex-model" wife and a centenarian auto pioneer. By the violent ending, Walker has uncovered a computer scam and some ugly, 20-year-old secrets. Estleman's colorful characters, crackling dialgoue, rich plot, authentic Detroit setting and throwaway humoras usualwork very well. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 34
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards."An exuberant celebration of excess set in a resource-poor but defiantly energetic twenty-first century."—The New York Times"A richly absorbing tale—with a marvelous premise expertly carried out."—Kirkus Reviews"Excellent. . . . Dark and witty and full of love, closely observed, and sprinkled with astonishing ideas. Science fiction of a very high order."—Greg Bear"One of the most imaginative accounts of futuristic bioengineering since Greg Bear's Blood Music."—LocusIn a future London, humans photosynthesize, organics have replaced electronics, viruses educate people, and very few live past forty. But Milena is resistant to the viruses. She's alone until she meets Rolfa, a huge, hirsute Genetically Engineered Polar Woman, and Milena realizes she might, just might, be able to find a place for herself after all.Geoff Ryman is the author of the novels The King's Last Song, Air (a Clarke and Tiptree Award winner), and The Unconquered Country (a World Fantasy Award winner), and the collection Paradise Tales. Canadian by birth, he has lived in Cambodia and Brazil and now teaches creative writing at the University of Manchester in England. Views: 33
In his brief career, Charles Beaumont (1929-1967) turned out several score of stories in a variety of moods, styles and genres. Most of the 30 selections collected herefive never before publishedare introduced by one or another of Beaumont's friends and colleagues, including Ray Bradbury (Beaumont's writing teacher, whose influence is easily detected), Richard Matheson (who, like Beaumont, scripted many Twilight Zone episodes), Ray Russell, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch and filmmaker Roger Corman. The stories are varied and wonderful; "Miss Gentilbelle," a woman who thinks men are beasts, is raising her son as a girl; "The Vanishing American" features a man who is saved from his meaningless life by an act of whimsy; "Free Dirt" is a cautionary little chiller about uncontrolled greed; and "Black Country" is an evocative, weird tale of life in the jazz world. Editor Anker has contributed an excellent biographical introduction. Views: 33
HE SAVED HER WITH CHIVALRY, HE LOVED HER WITH SAVAGERY- SHE LURED HIM TO ECSTASY When handsome Lord Chatham rescued the golden-haired Ondine from England's gallows, he demanded only one thing in return . .. her hand in marriage. In gratitude, Ondine consented to his plans -- yet refused his touch. Though his smoldering desire aroused her own secret temptations, Ondine defied her mysterious husband. Until suddenly, in the notorious court of Charles II, the sapphire-eyed beauty was plunged into a web of danger and desire, jealousy and romance. As secrets exploded, and swords clashed in vengeance, the strangers in marriage became partners in passion, and lovers on fire... Views: 33
Caught in the muddle of modern life, eyes gazing at the middle distance, the characters in Silent Retreats search, down roads paved by custom and dotted by the absurd, for escape, refuge, or, at least, merciful diversion.Many of the men in Philip Deaver's stories, having drifted out of their native Illinois to the far corners, find comfort from empty jobs and blank relationships in healing, often hilarious, seductions. In "Why I Shacked Up With Martha" a distracted DC executive pierces the gray blur of his glass box on Dupont Circle with illicit, painfully superficial notes passed to his beautiful, liberated coworker. In "Marguerite Howe," a businessman from Texas at a cocktail party in New Haven accosts his hostess, blindly convinced that she is the woman of his college day-dreams at the University of Virginia. And, in Nebraska, a defeated legal aid attorney escapes the cold wind of failure and a near suicidal woman in the deep warmth of "Fiona's Rooms."Other characters, still within the radius of central Illinois, tread through the familiar scenery of the past, measuring with landmarks of memory the distance, and yet the circularity, time has wrought in their lives. In the title story, Martin Wolf--overcome with tears during the morning commute and craving connection and the cleansing rituals of his Catholic youth--learns from the words of a parish priest, crackling through the lines of a pay phone as cars screech by on Roosevelt Road, that silence has become self-indulgent. And in "Infield," Carl Landen savors the well-ordered tableau of the Pony League diamond where he played shortstop and where his son now plays that position. Recalling the ache in the shoulder after an overhand throw, seeing in his mind the figure of his father intruding at the edge of the field, he relaxes the pain of generations, the soreness that comes from knowing a town too well.A well-known theme of Philip Deaver's stories is "what happened to men after what happened to women." The stories in Silent Retreats trace the tentative journeys of men as they redefine who they are in a changed world while still coping with memory and desire in the old ways. Above all, these stories chronicle a search for absolution�for the elusive freedom lurking among the very syllables of the word.From Publishers WeeklySelf-conscious men and tough women inhabit the highways and small towns of Deaver's mainly Midwestern landscape. A lapsed Catholic experiencing a mid-life crisis learns in the title story that church retreats have become encounter groups; a macho computer analyst fantasizes about the office feminist in "Why I Shacked Up with Martha"; a cowgirl drifter hides behind theatrical eye make-up and her ambitions as a writer in "Fiona's Rooms"; and brazenly sexy, country hick Rhonda strings along the faceless adolescent narrator in "Arcola Girls." Permeated with finely crafted writing, grounded in the solidity of objects and places realized through well-textured description and resonant dialogue, this debut (winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) makes a wise, quietly provocative statement about commonplace tragedy and the ironies and fragility of relationships. Most intriguing are the subtle connections that emerge as recurrent characters combat lossdeparted lovers; quick, pointless death by carwith various, always frustrated retreats from the communal realities of their lives. Less successful, however, is the dramatic integrity of the pieces in isolation. Though the stories accrue power in retrospect, individually they suffer from loose structure that sometimes makes them waver and lose direction. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewThe best of these stories linger, sad and profound, like songs you sing to yourself. --New York TimesDeeply felt stories, rooted in the American landscape. --San Francisco ReviewDeaver refuses to retreat in silence and from there springs the power of his work. --Baltimore Sun Views: 32
Read this classic romance by New York Times bestselling author Penny Jordan, now available for the first time in e-book! Originally published as Force of Feeling in 1988. Unleashing her hidden desire A searing passion left Campion crushed by a cruel hand. And since that devastating experience, she has closed out that side of her nature. Now she's being forced to confront it once again. Her literary agent, the shockingly sensual Guy French, declares her historical novels well written—but flat and lifeless. He demands she add passion. So Campion retreats to a remote cottage in Wales hoping inspiration will come. Only she soon discovers Guy will be there too...and his plans of seduction promise to be very inspiring indeed! Views: 32
A purloined feline from a Madison Square Garden cat show is the tip-off to a trail of murders, South American drug lords and a gang war that only Kinky can unravel. But there's more than one way to skin a cat, and Kinky may soon be wishing for nine lives. Out of print for nearly a decade and never before available in electronic format, When The Cat's Away is the third of Kinky Friedman's internationally acclaimed mystery novels, republished with a new introduction by the author. "His irreverent, bawdy and often outrageous adventures are like no others." (San Diego Union-Tribune) "A surefire cure for the blues." (New York Times) "Kinky Friedman is a hip hybrid of Groucho Marx and Sam Spade." (Chicago Tribune) "How is this mystery writer different from all other mystery writers? We don't read him to find out what happens next, we read him to find out how far he will far he will go." (The Washington Post) "Dear Kinky, I have now read all of your books. More, please. I really need the laughs!" (former President Bill Clinton) "A true Texas legend." (former President George Bush) "Genuinely funny fiction is rare, but genuinely funny crime fiction is rarer still. All the more reason, therefore, to celebrate..." (Sunday Times) From the Author's Introduction: "Mysteries with cats as central characters have become so plentiful and predictable that I can't believe that I've written fourteen and a half of them. ... I would also argue that the cat is not so much a character in my novels as it is a conscience. You remember those. A lot of people used to have them in the Sixties. Back then, consciences were really in style. They were almost as popular as cats. ... In When the Cat's Away, the search for Jane Meara's missing cat, Rocky, leads the Kinkster and his companion Ratso on a voyage of self-discovery not to mention traveling down the tawdry trails of murder, drug rings, gang wars, and the New York publishing business. In the real world Jane Meara was once a favorite editor of mine. Rocky was once a favorite cat of Jane's. Rocky was bugled to Jesus about five years ago but she walks these pages undaunted and graceful as ever. That's part of the reason I'm so pleased that Vandam Press has chosen this particular book to reprint as part of its new Masters of Crime series. It proves that some cats, as well as some books, do have nine lives. It also provides a chance, at least in the casino of fiction, for Jane to find Rocky again.. ..." Vandam Press is proud to be able to make this remarkable novel available to Kinky's old friends and to those readers who are discovering Kinky Friedman for the first time. Views: 32
A quarter of a millennium ago, before the nuclear apocalypse forced the inhabitants of earth to flee their home planet, few humans could have imagined the course their path would take. Now, the orbital colonies are the final sanctuary of humanity and life is more dangerous than ever before. The colonists fear the return of their dreaded enemies, the Paratwa—ferocious warriors who are genetically engineered to exist in two bodies, which remain telepathically connected. The new generation of Paratwa is far deadlier than the old, forming a powerful caste of fighter known as the Ash Ock. A mysterious virus infecting the humans database signals the return of their most feared enemies… Views: 32
From Publishers WeeklyMurder and mayhem come once again to New York's Hotel Beaumont in the 21st mystery featuring hotel manager Pierre Chambrun. Popular jazz musician Toby March disappears after performing at the Beaumont's Blue Lagoon, with his room in the hotel left wrecked and bloody. Finding March is made more complicated because no one knows what he looks like; he has never been seen without a mask since he was disfigured in an accident several years before. His manager, Frank Pasqua, is also missing; the body of a well-dressed stranger is found in the basement of the hotel; and Chambrun himself is shot and gravely wounded. The body turns out to be that of a London policeman who is investigating rumors tying March, an Englishman, to the kidnapping of 11 English teenagers by terrorists seeking the release of Iranian prisoners; the corpse of one girl, raped and beaten, has already been returned to her parents. Still recovering from his wounds, Chambrun must find March and the children and defuse a threat to blow up the Beaumont before the situation can be resolved. MWA Grandmaster Pentecosts indulges in some rather formulaic writing here; while some boilerplate is necessary in most series to set the scene for new readers, in this case it has become tiresome. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 32
In three scathingly humorous reviews of not-yet-written books, Stanislaw Lem brings us insights into the life of the 21st century. “One Human Minute” summarizes the activities of every person on earth during a single minute. “The Upside-Down Evolution” depicts a battlefield devoid of human activity, where synthetic bugs—synsects—vie for supremacy. “The World as Cataclysm” unfolds the universe as a crooked roulette wheel, where cosmic catastrophe prevails over orderly evolution. All reflect the speculative imagination and dark humor that have made Lem a grand master of the science fiction genre. FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem Views: 32
The way journalist Gus Bailey tells it, old money is always preferred, but occasionally new money sneaks in--even where it is most unwelcome. After moving from Cincinnati, Elias and Ruby Renthal strike it even richer in New York, turning their millions into billions. It would be impolite for high society to refuse them now. Not to mention disadvantageous. As long as the market is strong, there's absolutely nothing to worry about--except for those nasty secrets from the past. Scandal, anyone...?From the Paperback edition.From Library JournalBest-selling author ( The Two Mrs. Grenvilles , 1985) and Vanity Fair contributor Dunne presents a contemporary comedy of manners (really a satirical "tragedy of morals") that examines the values of Manhattan's old families and "nouveau riche" alike. Juxtaposed against the problems of opulent "Social Register" types at the "best" parties are basic issues with far-reaching consequences, often escaping the understanding of these inbred members of high society. When disasters touch those at the top, their lives must be reshaped, enabling some to restructure their existences more realistically. Discerning readers will find much to ponder within sublevels of this entertaining story. Highly recommended. Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review"Dead-on-target."--The New York Times Book Review"MERCILESS."--The New York Times Book Review"SPICY."--Los Angeles Times"WICKEDLY SHARP."--Philadelphia Inquirer"HILARIOUS."--Los Angeles Daily News Views: 31
While on a mission to warn a federal witness that a killer is after him, Joe Hardy is ambushed and suffers amnesia, which leads him to believe his brother Frank is an enemy and puts them both in serious danger. Views: 31
