A nineteen year old woman is gunned down in a Queens car park, the latest victim in a brutal gang turf war that goes back almost a century. Suspended from duty, his badge and gun confiscated, Archer is nevertheless drawn into the fray as he seeks justice for the girl. People are going missing, all over New York. And soon, so does he. Views: 11
A huge international bestseller - The Chef is a thriller and a love story that has gripped readers across EuropeAs the financial crisis tightens its grip on Europe, the gilded world of Zurich's leading restaurant, Chez Huwyler, seems immune to plunging stock markets and collapsing banks. But behind the scenes, even the rarefied world of haute cuisine is feeling the bite and so Maravan - a Tamil dishwasher and undiscovered culinary genius - and Andrea - a stunningly beautiful waitress - find themselves out of a job and needing to find another way to survive.After Maravan seduces Andrea by cooking her a dinner that fuses the aphrodisiac recipes of his ancestors with the necromancy of molecular gastronomy, Andrea hits upon a business idea: romantic catering for couples. But even culinary magic can't ward off recession and when their new company begins to struggle, they are forced to enter into a... Views: 11
A series of bizarre murders leads to the arrest of a prime suspect and sparks the most explosive trial in lawyer Paul Madriani's career. By the author of *Compelling Evidence. *Reprint. *PW. *
### From Publishers Weekly
"The ugly marketplace of justice"--as one character terms the judicial process--is scrutinized with a riveting, you-are-there immediacy in the new legal procedural by the author of Compelling Evidence. When attorney Paul Madriani offers to assist a friend--the county's ailing district attorney, who subsequently dies--in investigating six brutal killings, he becomes entangled in a series of machinations that threaten his career and even his private life. Though Martini's plotting proves ingenious (the story is capped off by a nail-biting encounter in a darkened courtroom), the legal maneuvers themselves take center stage here. From the crime scene--the banks of California's Putah Creek--to a deceptively simple arrest to fascinating pre-trial scheming, Martini packs his novel with the quotidian details of the wheels of justice--and the numerous cogs therein. Madriani's first-person, present-tense narration invigorates the often intricate proceedings with first-rate wisecracks and one-liners. His character descriptions are by turns pithy and funny (frequently both): the prosecuting attorney "looks like nothing so much as Robert Duvall's incarnation of the Great Santini"; the county's female victim-witness coordinator is "the crime victim's answer to Don Corleone in drag . . . known as 'Attila the Hen.' " Prime is indeed the word for this involving read. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
### From School Library Journal
YA-When Paul Madriani agrees to fill in temporarily as Special County Prosecutor, he has no idea that he will become involved in a serial murder case. The search for the "Putah Creek Killer" leads to the arrest of a college security guard, Andre Iganovich. Adrian Chambers, the defense counsel, has a shady professional past and a deep-seated dislike for Madriani, who was instrumental in the attorney's previous suspension from the bar association. As the evidence unfolds, discrepancies between the first two double murders and the third one become apparent, leading the prosecution to believe that a copy-cat murderer is on the loose. Threats against Madriani's family, legal posturing, the identification of a witness to the third set of murders, and a killer's desperation combine to produce a thrilling story. *Grace Baun, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA* Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 11
The organized criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union are bound by what they call the thieves' code. The first rule is this: A thief must forsake his mother, father, brothers, and sisters. He must have no family – no wife, no children. We are his family. If any of the rules are broken, it is punishable by death. Frank Meyer had the American dream – until the day a professional crew invaded his home and murdered everyone inside. The only thing out of the ordinary about Meyer was that – before the family and the business and the normal life – a younger Frank Meyer had worked as a professional mercenary, with a man named Joe Pike. The police think Meyer was hiding something very bad, but Pike does not. With the help of Cole, he sets out on a hunt of his own – an investigation that quickly entangles them both in a web of ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminality, and at the heart of it, an act so terrible even Pike and Cole have no way to measure it. Sometimes, the past is never dead. It's not even past. Views: 11
Granted immortality by Catch, a lovable demon, a young man named Travis O'Hearn struggles to rid himself of this man-eating gremlin, who promises to make eternity hellish for him, in a supernatural comic romp through a California tourist town. Views: 11
“Highly refreshing setting, a great cast of characters and an intriguing plot.”—The Bloomsbury Review“Atmospheric.”—The New York Times Book Review“Flashes of the dark poetry of Ross MacDonald.”—Chicago Tribune“A rich stew of deception and menace.”—Anchorage Daily News“Outstanding . . . satisfies on all levels.”—The Kansas City StarSitka, Alaska, is a subarctic port surrounded by snow-dusted mountains. In addition to honest work, there is a lot of alcohol consumed and other people’s money appropriated. Bars are loud, fights are mean. Rowdy youths party in the ancient Russian cemeteries, sitting on overturned gravestones. Sitka is hardly straight-laced, but murder is uncommon enough to be widely noted—like the Indian big-game guide killed by an ex-miner obeying voices from the earth’s center. The victim’s mother, a Tlingit Indian, summons to her nursing home a local investigator named Cecil Younger. The case is old and ostensibly solved. She wants him to investigate anyway. What he unearths is a virtual fairytale contrived to hide a primal conspiracy.Set against the modern Alaskan frontier and the surviving pantheism of its indigenous population, The Woman Who Married a Bear is a brooding and exotic novel that touches on mysteries far beyond the conventional.John Straley, a criminal investigator for the state of Alaska, lives in Sitka with his son and wife, a marine biologist who studies whales. He is the Shamus Award-winning author of The Curious Eat Themselves and The Music of What Happens.State politics, family feuds, and Native American mythology all figure in the murder of Louis Victor, prominent Alaskan businessman and big-game hunter. But only a hard-drinking private eye named Cecil Younger can solve the crime and lay old ghosts to rest in this atmospheric and engrossing novel set in the Alaskan frontier. Views: 11
Hardboiled noir meets academic satire in Academy Gothic. Tate Cowlishaw is late for another faculty meeting when he discovers the body of Scoot Simkins, dean of Parshall College. Cowlishaw might be legally blind but sees that a man with three bullets in his head didn't put them there himself. The police disagree. When Cowlishaw investigates, he is told his teaching contract won't be renewed. Suspects aren't hard to come by at the college annually ranked Worst Value by U.S. News & World Report. While the faculty brace for a visit from the accreditation board, Cowlishaw's investigation leads him to another colleague on eternal sabbatical. Before long, his efforts to save his job become efforts to stay alive. A farcical tale of incompetence and corruption, Academy Gothic scathingly redefines higher education as it chronicles the last days of a dying college"Tate Cowlishaw, the droll narrator of Hill's fine first novel, may be legally blind, but he's clever enough to realize that the... Views: 11
Seven-year-old Lottie knows everything about everyone. She snoops, she spies, she eavesdrops. But when the beloved Crabtree School cat goes missing, can the greatest detective in Year Three crack the case and find Lady Lovelypaws before it's too late? It won't be easy, but Lottie has a plan. The first step? A sleepover at Crabtree School! In the fourth instalment of the Crabtree series, readers can join Lottie, Ava, Zoe, Isabel and Rani for a bit of mystery and—of course—a midnight feast! Views: 11
At 20, Dahlia has never seen a man, let alone talked to one. And why should she want to? Society has been rid of them for hundreds of years and things have never been better. Pulled into rebellion brewing not far under the surface, Dahlia is forced to rethink everything she ever thought she knew, as her world turns more dangerous that she ever thought it could be. Views: 11
In the Mouth of the Tiger is an epic story of adventure, love, mystery and intrigue set in Malaya, in the colourful and turbulent years before and after World War 2.Nona Orlov, a young Russian refugee abandoned in colonial Penang, falls in love with an Englishman who offers escape from her tawdry hand-to-mouth existence and catapults her into a world of mansions, expensive cars, well-bred horses and luxurious yachts.But Denis Elesmere-Elliott is much more than the urbane, wealthy man-about-town that he appears, and Nona is plunged into a dark world of treachery, violence and sudden death. As the mysteries multiply, Nona realises that, if she is to survive, her courage must match those of the tigers that frequent the jungles around her. Views: 11
Outside of Titan Group, there are few people that Roman Hart would die for. He’s a soldier, a protector, and he’s haunted that one of the people he should’ve been able to protect didn’t let him. That was years ago, and now a hardened heart and a cocky attitude are his impenetrable shields, until one woman—one challenge—drives him to distraction. On the outside, Beth Tourne has it all. Luxury car, gorgeous condo, and a job partying with the rich and famous. It’s a plush CIA cover, but she wants more. Anything for an adrenaline rush that can override her guilty numbness and let her forget the tragedy she never saw coming. Their scars make them perfect operatives. Their mirrored pasts give them deep, wounded reasons to stay alone. But the more they ignore the tension, the more vulnerable they become. Survival means trust. In one another, behind closed doors, and on the job. The only way they’re making it out alive is if they find peace while waging a war. Views: 11
Lady Jessica Charteris has tricked her way out of marriage and into the arms of Wolfe Lonetree, the bastard son of a viscount and a Cheyenne shamans daughter. There's just one catch: Jessica must accompany her new husband to America. Wholly unprepared for the hardships that await her in America, Jessica is more terrified still of Wolfe himself, whose raw sensuality leaves her breathless… Views: 11
