SHAYNE'S SUPERNATURALS is a collection of novels and novellas that took romance into unknown realms before "paranormal romance" was even a genre. Experience breathless passion, heart-stopping thrills, and the truest magic of all, the magic of love, with NY Times bestselling, RITA® Award winning author Maggie ShayneWhen private detective M.C. Hammersmith finds herself on the wrong side of a mob boss, she is desperate enough to leave the city and take refuge with her exotic aunt, who considers herself a witch. Going through one of her aunt's tomes, she reads an ancient protection spell, and is shocked when a hero steps right out of the eighteenth century into her aunt's living room.A short novel (over 100 pps) that is sure to appeal to fans of fun paranormal romance."One of the pre-eminent voices in paranormal romance today." ~RT Book ReviewsFans of TVs Supernatural, and film like Practical Magic will love this tale!*Formerly titled Musketeer by Moonlight Views: 12
A great holiday gift for mystery fans, this new short story collection of over thirty Christmas tales of crime contains contributions from some of the best writers of the genre: Patricia Moyes, John D. MacDonald, Rex Stout, Julian Symons, Georges Simenon, Margery Allingham, Lawrence Block, John Mortimer and many others. These holiday tales with a murderous twist include suspicious Santa's helpers; a Christmas pageant player who assumes the role of a killer; and evil elves with malicious intentions. Beware of hanging mistletoe and stuffed stockings this season, as you celebrate a creepy Christmas with Murder Most Merry . Views: 12
Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he’s on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil. When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an “old west” town, he’s unaware that he’s being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to unlock the secret behind his resurrection…and that he’s put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape…or letting any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well-armed mercenaries… or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death. Views: 12
Rhapsody is high fantasy, descended from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings through Eddings’s Belgariad and Malloreon series, complete with an elf-like people, cannibalistic giants, fire-born demons, and dragons. Inquiring fantasy readers will wonder whether it can live up to such distinguished predecessors. The answer is yes. Haydon’s first fantasy is a palpable hit. The three protagonists are well-realized characters whose adventures are by turns hilarious, horrific, and breathtaking. Best of all, though elements are drawn from familiar sources ranging from Norse myth to Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Haydon’s magic worldbuilding is convincing, consistent, and interesting. Rhapsody, a young woman trained as a Namer, can attune herself to the vibrations of all things, tap the power of true names, and rename people, changing their basic identities. Her magic lies in music: "Music is nothing more than the maps through the vibrations that make up all the world. If you have the right map, it will take you wherever you want to go," she tells her adoptive brothers. They are "the Brother," a professional assassin able to sense and track the heartbeats of all natives of the doomed Island of Seren, their homeland, and his giant sidekick Grunthor, a green-skinned Sergeant Major who enjoys making jokes, using edged weapons, and honing his cannibalistic palate. Inadvertently, Rhapsody has renamed the Brother Achmed the Snake, breaking his enslavement to Tsoltan the F’dor (a fire-born demon). Tsoltan sends minions in pursuit to rebind Achmed. The three escape into the roots of a World Tree, Sagia, emerging transformed into another country and century. But have they truly escaped the F’dor’s evil? And how does all this relate to the prologue’s story of Gwydion and Emily, two young lovers brought together across history and then separated by the mysterious Meridion? Views: 12
Prose; fiction, Masculine Views: 12
From Library JournalDixie Flannigan, an attorney turned bounty hunter, gets an overdraft notice from her bank for $5000. This alarming news brings her to the bank just in time to witness Edna Pine, a good friend and neighbor, robbing it. Edna makes off with a substantial sum but is gunned down by the police after "disposing" of the money. Two previous "Granny Bandits" have pulled off similar heists--one with equally fatal results. Dixie is determined to find out what's really going on--when, suddenly, the cops who gunned Edna down start getting killed, and Edna's son is arrested for the murders. Fans of Rogers's previous Dixie Flannigan novels (Bitch Factor and Rage Factor) will certainly enjoy Chill Factor. A small degree of sex and violence will make this book a bit too hard-boiled for some readers, but, overall, this is a typical adventure for D.A. Flannigan. Recommended for all mystery collections.-Alicia Graybill, Polley Music Lib., Lincoln City Libs., NE Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsDixie Flannigan, Houston bounty hunter, nabs the ``skip'' she's been tracingher fifth such catch in a two-week periodturns him over to the cops, and heads for home thinking she's had a good day. Wrong. On opening her mail she finds a bank notice indicating a shortfall in her account of some $3,000: serious money indeed to hard-working Dixie, whose residence has always been south of Easy Street. But the financial wrangle is mild compared to the tangle it leads to. Zoom in now on Dixie sitting in Bank Manager Len Bacon's office trying to get solvent again when a glance through his window has her blinking in disbelief. It's not just that a heist is in progress. It's not only that a neatly dressed, grandmotherly type is the perp. Most astonishing, it's that the armed robber is Dixies neighbor Edna Pine, her warm-hearted, sweet-natured, longtime friend. It gets worse. Edna makes off with the money, is chased by the police, and theninconceivablykills a cop before being gunned down herself. What's going on? An off-the-wall way to commit suicide, explain the media sages, but Dixie doesnt buy it. Urged on by Edna's son, she launches an investigation that takes her into strange byways and confronts her with unsettling ambiguities, most centering on the mysterious Colonel Jay and the paramilitary counterculture group hes brazenly named The People. Smart, feisty Dixie shines throughout her third adventure (Rage Factor, p. 29 , etc.). Too bad Kinsey et al. got there before her and used up so much of the freshness. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Views: 12
In the year 2000, computers are the new superpowers. Those who control them control the world. To enforce the Net Laws, Congress creates the ultimate computer security agency within the FBI: the Net Force. Reeling from a shattered personal life, Net Force Commander Alex Michaels is informed that top secret information from a joint Air Force — Navy venture has been accessed and downloaded. The research involves an atmospheric weapon with the capability to drive half a country into madness using low frequency wave generation. Now the technology has fallen into the wrong hands — and testing has begun… Views: 12
"There are three things about this planet which are too wonderful for me. Make that four things. The way of dreams in the mind; the way of tears in the eye; the way of words in the mouth; and the way of my wife Edna Bradshaw when she acts like a cat and love-nibbles me into her arms." This is the voice of Desi, the hero of Robert Olen Butler's novel Mr. Spaceman, who has kept a quiet vigil above the Earth for decades while studying the confusing, fascinating, and frustrating primary species of our planet, occasionally venturing to the planet's surface to hear their thoughts and experience their memories using his empathic powers. Now, on December 31, 2000, he prepares for the final phase of his mysterious mission, which begins when he beams a tour bus bound for a Louisiana casino aboard his ship. The twelve passengers will be the last humans whose lives he will experience before he positions his spaceship in full and irrefutable view of the people of Earth, and descend to the planet's surface to proclaim his presence to all of humanity at the turn of the millennium. Poignant, funny, and charming, Mr. Spaceman is filled with unexpected twists and turns, a tribute to the powers of love and understanding and the essence of what it means to be human.Amazon.com ReviewDesi is a spaceman who has a way with words. Listening to them, that is. He's been hovering over Earth for years, occasionally beaming up earthlings and telepathically auditing their personal histories. At the opening of Robert Olen Butler's metaphysical comedy, the date is December 30, 2000. Desi has beamed up a busload of gamblers bound for a Louisiana casino. His wife, Edna Bradshaw--beamed up earlier from Bovary, Alabama--is making sausage balls, a dish she believes will comfort the astonished visitors. Together, Desi and Edna put everyone so at ease that the abductees quickly become disciples.Butler's narrator is a happy comic creation, a deadpan alien in love with his wife and her fine set of knockers: "There are three things about this planet which are too wonderful for me. Make that four things. The way of dreams in the mind; the way of tears in the eyes; the way of words in the mouth; and the way of my wife Edna Bradshaw when she acts like a cat and lovenibbles me into her arms." In a novel that eludes classification, Butler propels Desi's linguistic struggles, busload of disciples, and attempts to plumb the mystery of human yearning to a tight climax as he plans his first public appearance on Earth, which his new followers believe is a second coming. Mr. Spaceman is by turns a fond satire of science fiction, an ode to the South, and an exploration of marital dynamics that's as besotted with detail as any Anne Tyler novel--though the perspective tilts a little off-center. Edna gives her spaceman a fond pinch on the cheek, and he observes, Her hand lunges forward and grabs a sizeable part of my cheek and squeezes and jiggles it. This physical attack is very distressing to me, especially given the sudden light-heartedness of her demeanor as she does it. This is a side to Edna that shocks me, and the violence goes on. I am bearing it the best I can and now Edna even says, "Oh you spaceman," in that cheery, loving voice that I have grown to recognize in spite of the neutrality of the words themselves. I am very confused and her attack on my cheek ceases and her hand drops and I think I may have missed something. I think she has meant this gesture as a friendly thing. After all, she does not have suckers on her fingers. Butler also frequently digresses into the narrative voices of the earthlings in their monologues about their lives. Alas, so appealing is Desi's narrative voice that these (admittedly often virtuoso) forays into other voices offer a degree of frustration. --Claire DedererFrom Publishers WeeklyAn alien with a heart of gold beams up 12 people on a casino-bound bus on the eve of the millennium in a last-ditch effort to understand humanity before making his long-planned descent to earth in Butler's boundlessly imaginative tale of self-discovery. Desi, who first appeared in the short story "Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover" (Tabloid Dreams, 1997), has been hovering over the U.S. (and watching our TV programs) for some 30 years, collecting the words, memories and yearnings of a few chosen people in a great machine on board his spaceship. Although he is the only remaining representative of his species, he is not alone; keeping him company are his curvaceous human wife, Edna Bradshaw, and their cat, Eddie. With the Wonders of Modern Technology at his disposal (Butler uses capricious capitalization throughout the narrative, to convey Mr. Spaceman's voice and delivery), Desi "interviews" some of the 12 gamblers, bringing forth their voices via the "memory machine" in a series of dramatic monologues that showcase Butler's talent for capturing vernacular and also his gift for parable. Each voice bears witness to a culture-defining event of the 20th century, from the first airplane flight in 1903 to the Branch Davidian debacle at Waco. But before he must make himself known to the world (and in so doing, reveal the "great and fundamental truth of the cosmos"), Edna prepares an unforgettable Alabama-style Last Supper for her spaceman lover and his 12 guests. Through Desi's alien eyes, Pulitzer Prize-winning Butler makes poignant observations about the power (and inadequacies) of language, the logic of dreams and the universal hope for redemption. He balances the playfulness of alien lore with the weight of religion, marrying the comic and the tragic with mastery. In Butler's view, our stories all have certain inevitable endings. This novel raises fin de siecle literature to new heights and turns inevitability on its head. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 12
Good King Julian IV of Aravis has been dead for two hundred years, but his kingdom still misses him. The current occupant of the throne is old and witless and has no heir. The true ruler of Aravis is the powerful Prince Bishop, who controls both church and state.When the King comes home, all wishes will be granted.Hail Rosmer wants to be an artist—not an ordinary artist, but a great artist, as great as the fabled Maspero, who painted the famous Archangel altarpiece in the Palace of Aravis and made Good King Julian’s crown.When the King comes home, all dreams will be made real.One day, Hail sees a man catching fish from the river and eating it raw. The man’s clothes are antique in fashion. He looks exactly like King Julian of Aravis. And there begins an adventure that takes Hail and her enigmatic companion from palace to wilderness to battlefield and teaches her, and the rest of Aravis, what happens when the King comes home in sober reality. Views: 12
