From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold HotelNatalie is a girl who should be going somewhere. Beautiful, bright and ambitious, she's stuck in a dead-end job in the accounts department of Nu-Line Telecommunications, living her life through wild weekends and yearning for something more.When she sees a chance to change her life, she takes it.After all, it's only a minor crime.Nobody's going to get hurt. But other people do get hurt, because Natalie's actions do have consequences - tragic consequences. Poignant and beautifully written, Final Demand is a cautionary tale about the battle between greed and love, about human hopes and our own frailty in the face of temptation. Views: 60
Hector, a member of the Plasmid street gang and product of the artificial womb, is not doing well. His girlfriend is pregnant, his best friend is a murderous, technological genius and his gang boss is a violent bully. But when a once in a lifetime opportunity comes his way, Hector will have to choose between safety and freedom, in the dangerous world of gang warfare. Views: 60
Student scientist Wilmer Dooley and his friends—and enemies—are back with another hilarious mystery to solve in this zany, action-packed sequel to The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School.Wilmer Dooley can't wait to be a seventh grader. But first, he really can't wait for the 45th Annual State Science Fair and Consortium. It will be a blissful summer weekend spent hanging out with Ernie and impressing Roxie with his dazzling project on bacteria. But Wilmer's dreams come crashing down when he arrives at the dilapidated Sac à Puces Palladium, Lodge, and Resort-Like Hotel. First, his old biology teacher, Mrs. Padgett, is a chaperone—and she absolutely despises Wilmer. Next he learns that the fair's final activity involves being stranded in the dark woods and trying not to get eaten by bears. And worst of all, his arch nemesis, Claudius, is there—and he's brought along his equally rotten cousin Vlad.... Views: 60
The way we feel about another person, or about objects, is often bound up in associations that have no direct connection with the person or object at all. Often, what we call a "change of heart" comes about sheerly from a change in the many associations which make up our present viewpoint. Now, suppose that these associations could be altered artificially, at the option of the person who was in charge of the process.... Views: 60
The small country of Medalon lies between the vast nation of Karien in the north and the nations of Fardohnya and Hythria in the south. For centuries the Medalonians co-existed peacefully with the Harshini, a magical race that abhors killing. But now they are gone and in their place the Sisters of the Blade rule Medalon from the Citadel. An elite army of Defenders enforces the Sisterhood′s oppressive rule. The Harshini and their demons are believed to be extinct and Medalon has an uneasy peace with its northern and southern neighbours. R′shiel Tenragan, daughter of the First Sister, and her half-brother Tarja find themselves caught up in the political infighting amongst the Sisters of the Blade. When their mother′s scheming becomes too much to bear, R′shiel and Tarja are determined to follow their own path and they flee the Citadel. Their lives take a turn neither could ever have imagined and the Defenders of Medalon hunt them as... Views: 60
British art historian Jonathan Argyll is in sunny Los Angeles conducting some profitable business with the Moresby Museum. Then the museum's owner is murdered and a Bernini bust disappears. And while awaiting the arrival of his friends from the Italian National Art Theft Squad, Jonathan finds himself targeted by the killer...
From Publishers Weekly Jonathan Argyll, Pears's ( The Titian Committee ) endearingly incompetent British art historian and art dealer in Rome, falls into a large sale of a lesser Titian--with a hitch: he must take the oil painting to the private Moresby museum in L.A. without so much as a down payment. The museum lives up to its nouveau reputation, having a collection without focus, a curator with grandiose plans and some Moresby family members with personal agendas sniping at the budget. Jonathan and amiable but dodgy art dealer Hector di Souza are invited to a party to celebrate Moresby's commitment to the Big Museum, otherwise known as "the BM." As the acquisition of a lost Bernini bust of Pope Pius V is announced, di Souza is visibly distressed; moments later Moresby is dead and di Souza and the bust have disappeared. Jonathan calls his old love in Rome, Flavia de Stefano of the Italian National Art Theft Fund, to report on the smuggled and now missing bust and moments later just escapes being killed. Flavia, connecting the bust to an old war story involving some of the suspects, flies to L.A. and, joined by an Italian LAPD cop, tries to get Jonathan out of trouble, the killer in jail and the bust back to Roma. With sharply etched characters and art world lore, Pears's latest tale is a lark in grand British style. Views: 60
