A brilliant debut from a writer set to be the bestselling heir to Len Deighton and John Le Carré. Frustrated in his ambition, Alec Milius is a young man more comfortable with deceit than the truth. So when he's unexpectedly approached by MI6, he believes he's found the perfect outlet for his talents. But, operating alone within a complex web of bluff, counter-bluff, paranoia and betrayal, the difference between the truth and a lie can be the difference between life and death. And Alec's soon having trouble telling them apart... Taut, authentic and compelling, A SPY BY NATURE is the calling card of a major new thriller writer. Views: 14
The five-week New York Times bestseller, now in paperback.Running from a proposal of marriage from Sheriff Paul Davidson, Anna Pigeon takes a post as a temporary supervisory ranger on remote Garden Key in Dry Tortugas National Park, a small grouping of tiny islands in a natural harbor seventy miles off Key West. This island paradise has secrets it would keep; not just in the present, but in shadows from its gritty past, when it served as a prison for the Lincoln conspirators during and after the Civil War.Here, on this last lick of the United States, in a giant crumbling fortress, Anna has little company except for the occasional sunburned tourist or unruly shrimper. When her sister, Molly, sends her a packet of letters from a great-great-aunt who lived at the fort with her husband, a career soldier, Anna's fantasy life is filled with visions of this long-ago time.When a mysterious boat explosion-and the discovery of unidentifiable body parts-keeps her anchored to the... Views: 14
The beautiful South Pacific island of Grande Terre, (New Caledonia) was first used by the French in 1853 as a penal colony. In order to protect its vast nickel deposits from a British takeover, Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie announced a settlement program. In 1865 young women from the orphanages of Paris were offered a free passage to Grande Terre, there to secure the French presence by becoming wives and mothers of the new colony. Among the first to sail were Clotilde, Louise and Satine. Barely seventeen years of age. Will they fulfill their dreams of finding happiness, love and marriage, far away in an exotic new homeland? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Mageau is an award-winning composer and writer. Born and educated in the United States, she has lived in Australia since 1974. Her writings in the Japanese verse forms of haiku, tanka and haibun are published in the United States by Red Moon Press and MET Press. Mary's poetry also appears in American, Canadian and... Views: 14
A death in Brooklyn sends reverberations around the world in Jack Higgins's thrilling new adventure.
Higgins's novels of honor, bravery, and irresistible intrigue delight millions of readers every year, but few of his books pack the sheer narrative power of Day of Reckoning .
"Katherine Johnson was a couple of feet under dark green water. Her arms floated to each side, her legs were open, the eyes stared into eternity. There was a look of surprise on her face and she was achingly beautiful in death."
Journalist Katherine Johnson made the mistake of getting too close to the secrets of international crime boss Jack Fox -- but Fox made the mistake of killing her. Katherine's ex-husband is Blake Johnson, head of the clandestine White House department known as The Basement, and with the President's permission, the former FBI agent is about to take revenge. Wherever the money trail leads -- New York, England, Ireland, the Middle East -- Johnson and his Irish colleague, Sean Dillon, plan to hit Fox where it hurts the most, by cutting his illegal businesses to shreds, until Fox stands defenseless before his enemies. But Fox did not become powerful by letting his enemies get that close. If Johnson and Dillon want to take him on, they will have to face his own brand of revenge. And it is a revenge every bit as deadly as their own. Views: 14
From one of our most imaginative and inventive writers, a crystalline collection of perfectly modulated, sometimes harrowing and often hilarious investigations into the multifaceted ways in which human beings perceive each other and themselves. A couple suspects their friends think them boring; a woman resolves to see herself as nothing but then concludes she's set too high a goal; and a funeral home receives a letter rebuking it for linguistic errors. Lydia Davis once again proves in the words of the Los Angeles Times "one of the quiet giants in the world of American fiction." Views: 14
Brilliant, unorthodox Montreal detective Emile Cinq Mars has a complex case on his hands when a corpse with a bullet in its neck is found floating in a fishing hole cut into the ice of a frozen lake. The victim had shadowy connections with the pharmaceutical industry, but that's just the start.Amazon.com ReviewAs John Farrow's Ice Lake opens, a corpse, shot through the neck, is found under the ice in a fishing hut on a frozen lake near Montreal. It's the dead of winter in a region that Farrow (a pseudonym for literary author Trevor Ferguson, whose critically acclaimed novels include The Fire Line) knows like the back of his hand: its back alleys and distant suburbs, its ethnic diversity and big city evil, the long black nights and searingly bright days of its unrelenting winters. He also reveals intimate knowledge of the diverse power groups that drive the novel's plot: the biker gangs, the Mohawk Warriors, the Mob, the bigwigs in the lucrative pharmaceutical industry looking to cash in on an AIDS cure, the various police forces with their petty animosities and territorial conflicts.Since the advent of Sherlock Holmes, though, most detective thrillers stand or fall on the qualities of their lead character. In Detective Émile Cinq-Mars (whom he introduced in the bestselling City of Ice), Ferguson has created a man of genuine emotions, highly ethical yet thoroughly practical, an old-style, straight-ahead cop. He doesn't leap tall buildings (or frozen lakes) in a single bound, but he knows how to keep digging in his own dogged style. A likable lead detective, a wintry ice maze of a plot, and a supporting cast of characters some of whom are patently vicious and others satisfyingly complex all make Ice Lake a captivating thriller. --Mark FrutkinFrom Publishers WeeklyA taut and gripping mystery is on offer in Farrow's quietly powerful follow-up to City of Ice, but only once the reader gets past the jarring reverse flashbacks in the first two chapters. The opening few pages contain an information-packed summation of the novel's plot: two New York City cops have come to Montreal to consult with Det. Sgt. mile Cinq-Mars and his partner Bill Mathers about suspicious AIDS deaths in Manhattan, which have been linked to two Montreal women known only as Saint Lucy and Camille. The story then backtracks three days to the discovery of a dead body under the ice at the Lake of Two Mountains, northwest of Montreal; when it backtracks again to December of the previous year, we learn who the dead body is, and how and why he got there. Once everything becomes chronological, the novel turns into a Hitchcockian tale of betrayal and competing interests, where the audience sees more than any of the individual characters do, and suspense is generated by knowing who the bad guys are and watching as the good guys are gulled (or killed) by them. Canadian author Farrow's style is very low-key and quiet, but it creates a kind of cold stillness in which every revelation echoes for miles; a stillness resides in Cinq-Mars, too, whose experience of human behavior gives him insight into the actions of everyone from Mohawk Indians to his dying father. In the end, it's the characters, not the mystery, despite its clever twists and turns, that carries Farrow's tale. Agent, Anne McDermid. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Views: 14
First published in 1989 and taking place in downtown Toronto, one of the earliest of the modern urban fantasies, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light is the story of a fight against encroaching darkness by a developmentally handicapped young woman, a street musician with no idea of his potential, a bag-lady who's tired of picking up the pieces, and an adept of the light. Mixing actual Toronto ghost-stories with traditional Faire, a police procedural, and a cat, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light opened a gate at street level to the urban fantasy that followed.REVIEWS"A mentally disadvantaged young woman who sees what other people don't, a street musician, a social worker, and a bag-lady join forces with an 'Adept of the Light' to fight the encroaching darkness that stalks the streets of modern Toronto. In a departure from the 'strict' fantasy of Child of the Grove (LJ 5/15/88) and The Last Wizard, Huff's real-world fantasy presents an... Views: 14
I've seen him on the news. Followed the stories about what happened in Ohio. John Smith, out there, on the run. To the world, he's a mystery. But to me . . . he's one of us. Nine of us came here, but sometimes I wonder if time has changed us-if we all still believe in our mission. How can I know? There are six of us left. We're hiding, blending in, avoiding contact with one another . . . but our Legacies are developing, and soon we'll be equipped to fight. Is John Number Four, and is his appearance the sign I've been waiting for? And what about Number Five and Six? Could one of them be the raven-haired girl with the stormy eyes from my dreams? The girl with powers that are beyond anything I could ever imagine? The girl who may be strong enough to bring the six of us together? They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They tried to catch Number Four in Ohio-and failed. I am Number Seven. One of six still alive. And I'm ready to fight. Views: 14
