Amazon.com ReviewPrivate enquiry agent William Monk is hired to investigate a potential case of fraud in the construction of a new railway line. His client is the fiancée of a man she fears is embroiled in the scheme, and Monk's investigation causes a strange sense of déjà vu--a former policeman afflicted with a case of amnesia concerning his prior life, Monk finds both the case and its milieu unsettlingly familiar. His case is somehow connected to the death of a railway magnate in a sleazy area of London where Monk's wife Hester, a nurse, operates a shelter for abused prostitutes. The women have been doubly victimized by an extortion scheme in which the dead man, who turns out to have been Monk's employer during his "lost" years, may have been involved. More than an ingenious way to fill in Monk's backstory, Anne Perry's newest mystery featuring the enigmatic investigator deepens the reader's understanding of an unusual and compelling protagonist and brings Victorian-era England vividly to life. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyBestseller Perry's latest novel (after 2001's Funeral in Blue) to feature mid-Victorians William Monk and his wife, Hester, offers an ingenious and baffling plot, compelling characters, both major and minor, plus plenty of courtroom drama, but is something of a diamond in the rough. In London's East End, Hester, a former nurse with Florence Nightingale, has established a shelter for prostitutes where the ill and injured can be treated. One night, a well-known railway magnate is found dead in a nearby brothel, and the police presence in the area grinds the illicit business of the pimps and prostitutes to a halt. William, meanwhile, has undertaken a private investigation into possible fraud. His client, the fiancee of a young executive for the same railway as the murder victim, fears her betrothed may be implicated in the fraud scheme. As William recognizes parallels with the past, memories that he lost in an accident seven years earlier start to haunt him. Unfortunately, the book suffers from hasty execution, as reflected in repetitious phrasing, pronouns with unclear antecedents and confusing narrative transitions between Hester and William and between William in the present and William before his amnesia. The result is a challenging read, though established fans will likely forgive the author her lapses because she tells such a wonderful story.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 39
Savannah surgeon Malcolm King had a perfect life—a loving wife, devoted daughter, and a thriving medical practice. But when a random airport parking lot hit-and-run links him to a dead body in a Florida hotel and an acquaintance is found dismembered and stuffed into a garbage bag, Malcolm finds himself on the run as a suspected serial killer. But he's no murderer. Or is he? Who is the mysterious Thin Man who lurks at the edges of his vision? Are the ravens that crowd the skies overhead a warning of impending doom—or do they exist at all? With the help of Seminole tracker Billy Littlebear, Malcolm tries to untangle the web of clues left behind by a mysterious chameleon-like killer known as the Shadow Man. But will he be too late? The Shadow Man is a complex, atmospheric thriller in the tradition of Stephen King. Darkly evocative and relentless in its twists and turns, it dares the reader to put it down—even for a minute. Views: 39
The Grasshopper's Child is an old-fashioned futuristic thriller, set in the same Crisis England as the legendary Bold As Love series: about young people taking the law into their own hands, and the savagery that hides behind wealth and power; full of odd characters, atrocious secrets, lost illusions and true friends. And gardening tips. Views: 39
The second in the series consists of three novellas and one novel. All four stories are unique with Super Sleuth detective Stacy Foreham at the forefront of the homicide investigation. Views: 39
The Six are stronger than the Five ... But the darkness is most powerful of all
Naran's remarkable Sight magic completed the Blending and brought solidity to their rule. But even their combined elemental powers--Earth, Fire, Air Water, Spirit and Sight--will not turn back the dark clouds of destruction massing at Gandistra's border. For war is inevitable, as a horrific army led by a faceless malevolent entity sweeps relentlessly across the neighboring lands, enslaving, devouring, and destroying everything in its path. And fallen nobles closer to home implement dire schemes to unseat the reigning Six, intent on regaining the throne through the blackest of acts: mass murder. Only by developing new, untested abilities--and unearthing startling secrets buried centuries ago--can Lorand, Rion, Tamrissa, Valiant, Jovvi and Naran hope to prevail.
The hour of reckoning is finally at hand. All else was a mere training for a grim and terrible destiny that they cannot avoid. Views: 39
It's all about that second chance... Simple Riches is Book Three of That Second Chance Series. (These are standalone books tied together by a common theme--belief in the beauty of that second chance.)Alexandra Chamberlain is a cosmopolitan woman whose uncle taught her to discard everything but the bottom line on a balance sheet. She'll do anything to earn his approval and prides herself on excelling at her job, which is selecting small towns to buy up, flatten, and replace with luxury resorts. When Alex decides to investigate Restalline, Pennsylvania as a potential site for the next resort, she enters the town under the guise of a researcher gathering information for a documentary. It should be easy, just like all the others. But this town is different, from Alex's zany landlord to Nick Androvich, the town doctor with a battered heart who questions Alex's motives yet can't deny his attraction to her. As Alex and Nick explore their growing relationship, they must face the truth about each other and themselves as they search for their own Simple Riches.That Second Chance SeriesBook One: Pulling HomeBook Two: The Way They WereBook Three: Simple RichesBook Four: Paradise FoundBook Five: Not Your Everyday HousewifeBook Six: The Butterfly Garden (Coming 2014)Review"An emotional story of healing and homecoming, spiced with secrets, passion and revenge."-Susan Wiggs, Bestselling Author, on Simple Riches From the AuthorI grew up in a small town in northwestern Pennsylvania, much like the one in Simple Riches. There were four of us kids, my two older brothers, me, and my younger sister--all of us born within 5 ½ years. There were no McDonalds in our town, no malls, no fancy movie theaters. I used to walk over a mile to school every day, (yes, I really did!) Time was filled with little things, everyday life; weeding the flower beds and garden by hand and getting snail guts under my nails, holding the flashlight while my brothers caught night crawlers, helping my mother bake bread or hang sheets on the line so they could 'catch the fresh air'. Huddling with my sister in bed on Easter Sunday before Mass and gorging on a milk chocolate baby doll, planting a maple tree-- my maple tree--with my father in our back yard, listening to my grandmother speak in broken English as she told stories of being a young girl in Italy and coming to America. Getting ready to go out on Saturday night and fighting over one shower and one hairdryer between the four of us... Today, my brothers and sister and I live hundreds of miles away from that little town in Pennsylvania, but it is still part of us, it will always be part of us because that's where we learned the true meaning of family and friendship, and the importance of honoring your word. And so, when I decided to write about a small town and its people with their traditions and values, I thought about life, as a child and as an adult, and this is the question that led to Simple Riches; What is real wealth? Is it a balanced stock portfolio and a seven-figure income? Or is it more elusive ... intangible...something perhaps that cannot be measured or identified or even...understood? Is real wealth that, which reaches out to us, touches our hearts, our souls, filling us yet leaving us longing for more? Is it a fall morning, crisp and clear, with the tip of frost covering green, ... a smile, full and honest, ... a tradition handed down, ... a string of memories planted with a maple tree... Views: 39
In this novel of superbly stylized fragments of memory, Sorrentino captures the grit of golden-era Brooklyn. Each episode, affectingly textured with naked detail, is followed by the narrator’s deeper, more subjective climb down to the very bones of pure, poetic recollection. The reader, as though privy to a penetrating pyschological confession, accompanies the narrator, ferreting out the gristle and unconventional beauty found among the scrappy immigrant boys, hard-drinking blue-collar stiffs, and poor, sexy, and magenta-lipped women who inhabit the novel.“Each of the novel’s 52 chapters can stand as an individual (albeit fleeting) narrative, and when taken as such, the parts become more than the whole. By themselves, the chapters are easily digestible morsels of delicious prose self-contained stories that offer sometimes dreamy, sometimes gritty glimpses into ordinary lives.” —Publishers WeeklyFrom Publishers WeeklyOften poetic in its digressive excursions into the minds of postwar Brooklyn denizens, this slender novel by Sorrentino (Mulligan Stew) zooms across time and geography on a dizzy journey of names, memories and tangents. The acclaimed poet and novelist stitches together disparate narratives, finding links between anonymous characters stepping into the story, whether for a page or several chapters. Deciphering the plot (or plots, as numerous story lines war with one another) proves nearly impossible and will frustrate some readers. The prose takes on a stream-of-consciousness quality that threatens to overwhelm with detours into sexual forays, short treatises on the origins of military slang expressions, hustling New York bookies and sundry other topics. Each of the novel's 52 chapters can stand as an individual (albeit fleeting) narrative, and when taken as such, the parts become more than the whole. By themselves, the chapters are easily digestible morsels of delicious prose self-contained stories that offer sometimes dreamy, sometimes gritty glimpses into ordinary lives. A sense of mischief reigns as the author leaps from character to character, locale to locale and year to year with reckless abandon. Sorrentino adds brief "commentary" at the end of each chapter often clever, frequently poignant, occasionally unintelligible. Mostly, though, his delivery is frank and relaxed, as if the reader were an old friend. Author tour. (May)Forecast: Sorrentino is well known to followers of innovative writing, and blurbs by Don DeLillo and David Markson should attract some mainstream browsers to this distinctive title.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. About the AuthorA luminary of American literature, Gilbert Sorrentino was a boyhood friend of Hubert Selby, Jr., a confidant of William Carlos Williams, a two-time PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, and the recipient of a Lannan Literary Lifetime Achievement Award. He taught at Stanford for many years before returning to his native Brooklyn and published over thirty books before his death in 2006. Views: 39
All her life, Jenny Sullivan has counted on her sisters for advice, opinions and suggestions. But this time she's facing a dilemma that threatens to devastate her world. And this time the decision has to be hers alone--even though it will affect four lives: hers, her children's and Sam O'Neal's.Sam O'Neal. Her husband's brother...and the father of her newborn twins. Views: 39
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Write It Right, by Ambrose Bierce Views: 39
In 1976, America's bicentennial, 24 young men set out to re-create French explorer La Salle's voyage down the entire length of the Mississippi River, abandoning their modern identities in order to live like the voyageurs of the 1600s...Reid Lewis never wanted to be an ordinary French teacher. With the approach of the American Bicentennial, he decided to put his knowledge of French language and history to use in recreating the voyage of René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the first European to travel from Montreal to the end of the Mississippi River. Lewis' crew of modern voyageurs was comprised of 16 high school students and 6 teachers who learned to sew their own 17th-century clothing, paddle handmade canoes, and construct black powder rifles.Together they set off on an eight-month, 3,300-mile expedition across the major waterways of North America. They fought strong currents on the St. Lawrence, paddled through storms on the Great Lakes, and walked... Views: 39
