The crew of the Triton continue their misadventure near Ossimi Ring Station. They are forced down different paths and a fight for freedom that will cost them dearly begins. New opportunities, dangers and experiences await them all, as the Order of Eden stirs, advancing their own agenda. Views: 67
This New York Times Notable memoir of a middle-class, middle-America family is a "beautiful bouquet of a book" (Entertainment Weekly). During the long farewell of her mother's dying, Patricia Hampl revisits her midwestern girlhood.Daughter of a debonair Czech father, whose floral work gave him entrée to St. Paul society, and a distrustful Irishwoman with an uncanny ability to tell a tale, Hampl remained, primarily and passionately, a daughter well into adulthood. She traces the arc of faithfulness and struggle that comes with that role—from the postwar years past the turbulent sixties. At the heart of The Florist's Daughter is the humble passion of people who struggled out of the Depression into a better chance, not only for themselves but for the common good. Widely recognized as one of our most masterly memoirists, Patricia Hampl has written an extraordinary memoir that is her most intimate, yet most universal, work to date.This transporting... Views: 67
John G. Jones is a real-life author with books on the worldwide & New York Times best-seller-lists, an Australian writer, musician and producer who worked with the Lutz family to produce The Amityville Horror II and its sequels, telling the truth about what happened after the Lutzes left Amityville. Now he tells the rest of the story: how the Evil that was unleashed found him and how it changed his life forever. Now, for the first time, John shares the terrifying true story of his own paranormal experiences and his work with an extraordinary group of gifted allies who fight to keep the escaped Evil from taking root in our world. The fight will never end – it can't. Because every confrontation, every supernatural experience, has taught them one terrible truth: Evil never dies...it just changes shape. Views: 67
Amazon.com ReviewDoing their best to ensure the future of the genre, St. Martin's Press and the Private Eye Writers of America give out an award every year for the Best First Private Eye Novel. The 1997 winner was this splendidly evocative work by IBM employee Steve Hamilton, which takes just about every cliché in the field and turns it inside out. Yes, Alex McKnight was an athlete in his youth--but a minor league baseball player, not a top pro forced out by injury. And yes, he was a cop in Detroit before he moved up to the town of Paradise on the shores of Lake Superior--but even this overused genre icon is made believable by the details of a particularly bloody shootout. In Paradise, Alex runs a hunting camp built by his late father and only drifts into private investigations because of two friends, a persuasive lawyer and a local millionaire with a gambling problem who needs his help. When two bookmakers are murdered and the millionaire disappears, all the signs point to the psychopath who killed McKnight's partner and left a slug near Alex's heart 14 years before. The only problem is that this man has definitely, positively been in prison ever since. You might figure out the plot twists a page or two before McKnight does, but don't bet the farm on it. And the deep layer of details that Hamilton provides about life in this bleak part of the world add to the book's many pleasures. --Dick AdlerFrom Publishers WeeklyHamilton combines clear, crisp writing, wily, colorful characters and an offbeat locale (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) in an impressive debut. Alex McKnight is a retired Detroit cop living in Paradise, Mich., on disability with a bullet next to his heart. He rents cabins to hunters and has recently taken out a private-detective license at the suggestion of Lane Uttley, a local lawyer. The book begins fast, with a lot of background deftly woven into the narrative. At a local bar, the lawyer's former investigator accuses Alex of stealing his business. Later, Edwin Fulton, the scion of a wealthy Detroit family and a compulsive gambler, calls Alex from a nearby motel where he has found the murdered body of his bookie. After Edwin's strong-willed mother hires Alex to protect the family, another local bookie is murdered and Edwin disappears, prompting Alex and the lawyer to start a search of their own. Meanwhile, Alex receives letters and calls that appear to be from the Detroit man who shot him and whom the then-cop had helped send to prison for life without parole 14 years ago. Hamilton cleverly joins the plots, leaving but one disappointment: how long it takes Alex to learn to place his trust in others with care. (Sept.) FYI: This book won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for Best First Private Eye Novel of 1997.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 67
Something Rotten is the fourth installment of the Thursday Next series and she returns to her parallel universe of England in 1988 along with her son, Friday, and Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Both Friday and Hamlet need to be watched and cared for, so Thursday tries again to undo her husband's eradication by the Goliath Corp., which has now changed from a huge corporation to a huge religion. The fictional outlaw Yorrick Kaine decides he wants to be elected emperor and embarks on an anti-Danish tirade to win support. Meanwhile, moody Hamlet watches plays and movies about himself and the Swindon team has a shot at winning the Superhoop, the world championship of croquet. It's more fictional fancy and wild imagination from Jasper Fforde and Something Rotten has received positive reviews. The Denver Post says, "The latest installment in the Thursday Next series is impressive, and arguably Fforde's best work to date. It is a compliment to the author's skill and creativity that his humor remains fresh and his central character gains depth." Views: 67
One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2015 Set against the grandeur of the Northern Scottish Highlands in the 1950s, here is the sixth evocative, fast-paced, suspenseful mystery in A.D. Scott's highly acclaimed series featuring beloved heroine Joanne Ross.Praised for their "well-drawn characters" (Publishers Weekly), "ingenious" plotting (Booklist, starred review), and "a terrific sense of place" (Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of Hush Now, Don't You Cry), A. D. Scott's mysteries never fail to enthrall and entertain. Now, in Scott's latest, Joanne Ross returns for a spellbinding case involving a woman accused of witchcraft in small-town Scotland. When Alice Ramsay, artist and alleged witch, is found dead in her home in a remote Scottish glen, the verdict is suicide. But Joanne Ross of the Highland Gazette refuses to believe it. As she investigates Alice's past, Joanne... Views: 67
Inspector Alvarez likes the quiet life, away from the disapproving gaze of his boss, Superior Chief Salas, and the antics of Mallorca's expatriate community. So he is not inclined to become too concerned when Bevis Ogden, a wealthy British man, reports the disappearance of his attractive young wife, Sabrina. No doubt she has found a younger, possibly wealthier, alternative and left for greener pastures. However, the discovery of a body at the bottom of a gorge changes his attitude dramatically. The husband is distraught, but is this just an act? Rumors abound over Sabrina's lifestyle-from the lovers to the over-indulgent spending. But their expat pack is rife with unsavory characters: The young gigolo who, dependent on a wealthy older woman, may have had an illicit affair with Sabrina; and the cynical and bitter friend whose advances she may have rejected. The investigation becomes even more complicated when the specter of an insurance fraud is raised. Alvarez... Views: 67
"Fang" Mulheisen is back for an explosive confrontation with his old nemesis, Joe Service. Mulheisen and Service came to an unspoken agreement to let each other be over the deathbed of Humphrey DiEbola, Detroit's then-mob head, in La Donna Detroit, and in Badger Games Joe and his lover, the mafia princess Helen Sedlacek, seemed to be going "straight." But nothing can stay calm for long.The novel opens with Mulheisen's aged mother nearly slain by a savage and incomprehensible bombing at an orderly protest by environmentalists against a planned development that threatens the habitat of a certain sparrow. Mulheisen resigns from the force and moves back home to nurse her. But as she recovers he turns his implacable attention to the bombers. Colonel Tucker, the head of the above-the-law outfit of like-minded government agents the Lucani, is in charge of the government's Task Force, and would really like Mulheisen on board, but he's not interested. However, his friend Wunney, a... Views: 67
Amazon.com ReviewNarrators Michael Tezla and Martin Ruben join forces to read Caroline Alexander's extraordinary account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's improbable Antarctic adventure. Tezla narrates the text while Ruben reads diary entries from the ship's crewmembers, employing a variety of native accents. The approach effectively divides the book into listener-friendly chunks, but at times, keeping track of all 27 crewmen requires the fortitude of the explorers themselves. Tezla describes the ice and snow with a haunting beauty but manages maintain the tension throughout, while Ruben injects character and humor into his various vocal interpretations. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --Kimberly HeinrichsFrom Publishers WeeklyThe unparalleled adventure and ordeal of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew, stranded on the Antarctic ice for 20 months beginning January 20, 1915, then forced to row a 22-foot boat 850 miles across storm-ravaged seas, has inspired at least three marvelous books: Shackleton's own memoir, South; Alfred Lansing's bestselling Endurance; and this stirring account by Alexander (The Way to Xanadu). In 1914, Shackleton sailed to Antarctica with 27 men in hopes of being the first human to transverse the continent. But his ship, the Endurance, was trapped, then crushed, by ice in the Weddell Sea, propelling the party into a nightmare of cold and near starvation. Alexander, relying extensively on journals by crew members, some never published, as well as on myriad other sources, delivers a spellbinding story of human courage (and occasional venality) in the face of daunting odds. She succinctly and boldly captures the character of the men and of the terrible land- and seascape they crossed toward salvation. What makes this book especially exciting, however, are the 170 previously unpublished photos by the expedition's photographer, Frank Hurley: stark, artfully composed tributes to the savage beauty of the ice and to the fortitude of the men and their dogs. Not one of the men died during their sojourn in a freezing hell; as Alexander makes clear in her gripping, emotionally resonant book, this incredible fact bears witness not only to Shackleton's leadership but to the strength of the human spirit. Agent, Anthony Sheil. Author tour. (Nov.) FYI: The Endurance is being published in association with the American Museum of Natural History, which in March 1999 will open an exhibit, curated by Alexander, chronicling Shackleton's voyage. A feature-length IMAX film on the subject will be released then, as well.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 67
Noted Lovecraftian scholar R.M.Price assembles this unique Lovecraft-influenced collection of twenty-eight rare tales, from such diverse authors as Neil Gaiman, Jorges Luis Borges, Manly Wade Wellman, and Gustaf Meyrink. Spanning from the 1930s to the 1990s, this kaleidoscopic collection is a triumph of interdimensional threats, ritual magic, and cosmic horrors. Views: 67
