Canadian debut publication by one of the Spanish-speaking world’s top crime-fiction writers Elena Miranda and her brother, Pablo, have lived in the same spacious Havana apartment since they were children, not knowing that a $10-million treasure in diamonds is hidden behind a tile in their bathroom. Now the son of the man who buried them there wants them, and he knows the ideal person for the job: his ruthless former comrade-in-arms during the Vietnam War. Equipped with a Spanish-speaking “wife” and Canadian passports, the vet flies to Cuba to sweet-talk his way into Elena and Pablo’s lives and get his hands on the diamonds. But Cuba has a way of confusing even the best-laid plans, and soon the treasure hunters find themselves being hunted.A complex, hard-boiled novel of betrayal, deceit, and cunning, Havana Best Friends takes place in a Cuba that tourists rarely see. Stunning plot twists rocket the story forward, but not once does the action overpower the story’s heart — the emotional lives of the people whose worlds are changed forever by these so-called best friends.From the Trade Paperback edition.Review“Roll out the red carpet for a new and exciting voice in Canadian crime fiction. José Latour’s thriller Havana Best Friends takes you behind the scenes of tourist Cuba as it sets in motion a high-stakes con that quickly evolves into a race against time. With its believable characters and finely-tuned plot, this is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page. Not to be missed.”—Peter Robinson“A master of Cuban noir.” — Martin Cruz Smith“Cuba has been a closed world for most of us for decades now, and Cuban crime fiction has remained a well-kept secret. It’s alive and well, and brilliantly represented by José Latour.” — Lawrence Block“Latour’s superbly atmospheric thriller . . . is one of the most original and exciting crime novels I’ve read in ages.” — Mail on Sunday“Different, colourful, and utterly beguiling, Havana Best Friends is a delight. Latour is a great new talent in crime fiction.” — Irish IndependentAbout the AuthorJosé Latour’s novels have been published in Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands. He is a former vice president of the Inter-national Association of Crime Writers. In 2002, he left Cuba for Spain and immigrated to Canada in the fall of 2004. He lives in Toronto. Views: 35
Arthur Raffles is a prominent member of London society, and a national sporting hero. As a cricketer he regularly represents England in Test matches. He uses this as a chance to commit a number of burglaries, primarily stealing valuable jewellery from his hosts. In this, he is assisted by his friend, the younger, idealistic Bunny Manders. Both men are constantly under the surveillance of Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard who is always thwarted in his attempts to pin the crimes on Raffles... Views: 35
Return to Dreamland — America's training ground for a new generation.
The second paperback original novel in the smash-hit techno series, from Dale Brown.
Hidden in the Nevada desert is America’s most advanced aerospace weapons-testing facility. Dreamland is the place where the nation’s top minds come to develop artillery and aircraft that push beyond the cutting edge. And where the Air Force’s top guns come to test them — on the front lines of a new era in warfare… As politicians push for more budget cuts, Colonel “Dog” Bastian must do what he can to salvage a key experimental program known as ANTARES — a method of merging electronic data with a pilot’s natural senses. In need of quick results, a test pilot is hooked into the system — a system that allows him to operate several planes at once directly from his brain. But when he can no longer distinguish reality from computer-induced delusions, Dreamland’s worst nightmare comes to life. Views: 35
In The Silver Wolf, Alice Borchardt brought the brutality and decadent splendor of Dark Ages Rome brilliantly to life in the remarkable tale of Regeane, a beautiful young shapeshifter fighting to live and love as both woman and wolf. Night of the Wolf looked back even further in time, to the days of Julius Caesar, when a woman's beauty bewitched a wolf--and awakened the man who had been slumbering for millennia in the beast's savage heart . . . a man named Maeniel, who would become Regeane's soul mate. Now Borchardt takes the saga of these two extraordinary lovers to dazzling new heights of the imagination. The result is a novel of which the pages ring with magic, romance, and adventure--an irresistible call to everything wild within us.The armies of Charlemagne are poised in Geneva, ready to add Italy to their lord's growing list of conquests. On the other side of the Alps, the mercenary forces of the corrupt King Desiderus watch the mountain passes like cats crouched... Views: 35
A sartorial follow-up to her hilarious memoir in stories, Fat Girl Walking, internet personality Brittany Gibbons once again deep dives into the world of the plus size woman, this time chronicling her love/hate (but mostly hate) relationship with what fashion.From Pinterest boards and Instagram posts to shop windows and ad campaigns, fashion is everywhere. We shop and dress for practical reasons like job interviews or to make a good impression at the board meeting. We shop and dress for more adventurous reasons—for dates, to woo a lover, to catch someone's eye. Clothes are armor for women, and we wrap a lot of meaning in what we choose to wear. As plus-size spokesmodel and blogger Brittany Gibbons knows, what we choose to wear is especially important, and especially emotional, for curvy women. This isn't only because curvy women feel underrepresented and underserved by the fashion world. For the curvy woman who struggles with feelings of self-worth and a... Views: 35
From Pauline J. Alama comes a stirring fantasy tale of three vagabonds in a dying world and their terrifying quest into the heart of darkness...
The Eye Of Night
It is a magical world on the verge of collapse. In the North the Troubles rage. Cities and kings are being annihilated; the very earth is in upheaval, waking even the dead from their graves. All notions of time and space, of day and night, of seasonal change seem fractured beyond repair. But as the chaos moves slowly south, engulfing land after land, three unlikely heroes--an ex-priest, a battered serving girl, and an exquisitely beautiful, refined lady--journey bravely to the dying regions, their only weapon an enchanted stone of enigmatic power and ancient origin.
Jereth, disillusioned with his faith in the Rising God and robbed of his family after a deadly shipwreck, struggles to find meaning in his blighted life, searching the devastated land without direction--until he meets two extraordinary women. Each has her own secrets to keep; both are on a quest to save the world. But they must first save themselves, conquering their demons and rousing their well-disguised strengths. Only then will it be revealed how three penniless, unarmed wanderers can light a darkening world. For one is a prophet, one is a fool, and one’s life is now in their hands.
Reviews
From Booklist
The unlikely hero is a fantasy fiction staple, from The Hobbit's Bilbo Baggins to George R. R. Martin's dwarf antihero, Tyrion Lannister. Alama richly develops the concept. Jereth, a wandering former priest encounters and befriends an elegant beauty with a child's mind, Trenara, and her abused serving girl, Hwyn, in ghost-ridden Kelgarran Hall. Hwyn is there to steal the Eye of Night, a pocket-sized stone that contains the egg of something wonderful and terrible. She isn't sure just what the egg's hatching will bring, but she must bear it through miles of troubled wilderness to Larioneth. Jereth and Hwyn are young people with pain in their pasts, who resolutely pursue their tasks while learning to trust one another. Those they meet and the stories they hear occasionally lighten their hunger, thirst, and fear, and they are granted love before their journey's end. Martin's fans and lovers of Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion (2001) should enjoy this tale that is unencumbered by "high" language and full of everyday human eccentricity. --Roberta Johnson
One has to go back to the works of R.A. Lafferty to find another fantasy in which an apocalypse means not the end of everything or the begnning of a harsh and cruel world, but rather the beginning of new heavens and new earth. The Eye of the Night is an ingenious and exhilirating story with an indomitable woman protagonist. -Andrew Greeley, author of The Bishop in the West Wing
"In her debut novel, Ms. Alama delivers crisp dialogue, wonderful writing full of pathos and surprises, and clearly presents a complicated theology integral to the story." --Romantic Times
"an enjoyable and pleasantly different fantasy." --Locus Magazine
"A very good, engaging tale...a masterful first novel." --Rendezvous Views: 35
America is caught in the lethal center of an unwinnable two-front war -- in this gripping and explosive thriller from the master of geopolitical intrigue...The war on terrorism has borne bitter fruit, as the radical Islamic states forge an unholy alliance with a surging China, aiming for total control of the Middle East's vast oil reserves and the strategic Strait of Malacca. As a new axis of world power simultaneously launches a devastating double-pronged conflict -- one a depleted American military cannot possibly win -- President Maddy Turner, the first woman ever to occupy the Oval Office, must react swiftly to a global crisis of world-altering proportions. And so she turns to the only man she can trust in the brutal snake pit of Beltway politics: Brigadier General Matt Pontowski. A brilliant flyer and military tactician, and the intimate confidant of the most powerful woman on Earth, he must now undertake a mission at once bold and extraordinary -- and potentially... Views: 35
