John Tietjen loves New York City like life itself. But while he's out of town at a conference, confused reports come out of the city. Millions of refugees are streaming out, each bearing contradictory tales of fire, earthquake, explosions, collapse. Making his perilous way back, he gathers a few survivors and establishes a shelter. But the full nature of the catastrophe is still unclear.Amazon.com ReviewJohn Tietjen loves New York City. Even as millions of other urbanites retreat behind security guards and steel gates, fleeing the swelling numbers of gangbangers and homeless, John takes his sons throughout the city, trying to teach them its joys and beauties. But John's ex-wife fears the city; and, seeking to screen their sons from his influence, she persuades John to take a consulting job in the safety of the suburbs. When John is in Massachusetts, garbled broadcasts and swarming refugees reveal that disaster has struck New York. Fire, flood, earthquake, explosions-- the reports are contradictory, but all dreadful. John returns to New York despite the dangers to find his family, to preserve what he can, and to find himself confronting the force behind the nightmarish destruction.Tough, literate, and wise, The Stone War, a first novel by Madeleine E. Robins, is a dark and powerful modern fantasy. --Cynthia WardFrom Publishers WeeklyIn Robins's New York City, the homeless legally homestead vacant patches of land, armed guards check IDs at nearly every corner and Central Park is a no-man's land too dangerous to traverse. Yet John Tietjen still loves his city, and even enjoys walking its dangerous streets at night. While John is in Massachusetts overseeing an architectural project, something disastrous happens in New York. No one is exactly sure whatAthe shocked refugees escaping the cataclysm give conflicting reports: of fire, of earthquakes, of bombings. John makes his way back to his home's shattered remains and, after meeting the highly capable and maternal Barbara McGrath, establishes a haven for survivors. At first John and the others expect outside help to come, but assistance never arrives, leaving the survivors to deal with monsters as well as with the everyday challenges of making it in a ruined city. Given John's alleged fascination with the city's rich blend of cultures, it seems odd that the narrative focuses almost exclusivelyAand to its detrimentAon a cast of middle-class, Caucasian characters. And although this imaginative, well-crafted tale boasts a gripping premise and many appealing elements (warm protagonists, fantastic beings, animated statuary, weird powers, strong descriptions), it never delivers quite enough magic or horror to fully satisfy. Still, there's much promiseAand talentAon display in Robins's first novel. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 60
The Devil is on a search for the woman who can bear his offspring and start the End Times. After a centuries-long effort he has found her - the long-lost twin sister of Jackson Lewis. And what the Devil wants, the Devil gets, unless Jackson can find a way to stop him and save the world from being plunged into never-ending darkness. Views: 60
It's no joke to say that our world would be a lot less funny without Budd Friedman! In 1963, thirty-year-old Friedman—who had recently quit his job as a Boston advertising executive and returned to his hometown of New York to become a theatrical producer—opened a coffee house for Broadway performers called the Improvisation. His goal? Simply to make a living, and if all went according to plan, to also make enough professional contacts to be able to mount his first Broadway show within a year's time. Later shortened to the Improv, its first West 44th Street location in a seedy section of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen had previously been a Vietnamese restaurant. Initially attracting the likes of Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Albert Finney, Christopher Plummer and Jason Robards, as well as a couple of then-unknowns named Dustin Hoffman and Bette Midler, Friedman's new venture was an instant hit. But while it drew near capacity crowds... Views: 60
In Gerald A. Browne's spellbinding New York Times bestseller, a man bent on vengeance infiltrates a cabal of blue-blooded bankers that have taken over the Mafia In a quiet suburb of New York City, a mansion on a gated estate houses one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the United States—an elite Mafia whose dons belong to the finest families that the WASP establishment has to offer. Millions of dollars flow in and out of 19 Purchase Street, toted by bagmen who gladly risk everything to share in the syndicate's profits. Nothing disrupts operations—until a courier gets a dangerous idea. To avenge a loved one's death, Drew Gainer joins the money-laundering scheme, plotting a billion-dollar heist with the help of a beautiful, daring woman and pitting himself against a ruthless opponent. From New York to Paris to Zurich, Gainer risks his life to become the winner who takes all. But who is really conning whom? Views: 59
Would a lie keep them apart? SEA, SUN AND... MATTEO Expecting sun and relaxation from her stay with a friend in Italy, Grace Horton actually found herself walking into an emotional minefield. Her friend was clearly set on marrying Matteo di Falco. He was wealthy, gorgeous and equally determined—to see a lot more of Grace! Grace wondered what she could do to prevent her friend from getting hurt—and stop herself from falling into Matteo's arms. Then some shocking news was revealed, which threatened to keep Matteo by her friend's side forever.... Views: 59
As England is pulled towards war, the secrets within two families threaten to tear them apart, in the new novel from Juliet West, The Faithful . . .July 1935. In the village of Aldwick on the Sussex coast, sixteen-year-old Hazel faces a long, dull summer with just her self-centred mother Francine for company. But then Francine decamps to London with her lover Charles, Oswald Mosley's blackshirts arrive in Aldwick, and Hazel's summer suddenly becomes more interesting. She finds herself befriended by two very different people: Lucia, an upper-class blackshirt, passionate about the cause; and Tom, a young working-class boy, increasingly scornful of Mosley's rhetoric. In the end, though, it is Tom who wins Hazel's heart - and Hazel who breaks his.Autumn 1936. Now living in London, Hazel has grown up fast over the past year. But an encounter with Tom sends her into freefall. He must never know why she cut off all contact last summer, betraying the promises... Views: 59
The "Plainsman" series continues with this powerful story of the U.S. Cavalry following the shocking massacre at Little Big Horn. After Custer's defeat, the Army vowed revenge and declared total war on the Cheyenne and Sioux. As witnessed by scout Seamus Donegan, the long, arduous trek from the Black Hills to the Slim Buttes tested the strength and will of every man involved. Views: 59
In the Cave of the Delicate Singers by Lucy Taylor is a horror story about a woman with a rare form of synesthesia who can feel sound waves and the dangerous rescue mission she undertakes in a cave with a nasty past. Views: 59
