Rebecca Lopez enjoys a life of privilege in Elizabeth's England -- yet she guards secrets she dares not reveal. The beautiful, tempestuous daughter of the queen's own physician, Rebecca is also a converso -- a Jew who practices her prohibited religion clandestinely -- helping others of her banned faith escape persecution and death. And her insatiable hunger for excitement often takes her to the bustling streets of London in male garb to experience the kind of adventure available only to men. But one such outing is leading her into a dangerous viper's nest built of intrigue and foul murder in the company of a dashing young actor who inflames her romantic passions, even as he escorts her toward peril, a charming and fearless would-be playwright who calls himself Will Shakespeare. Views: 19
From Publishers WeeklySet against the sweltering, noirish backdrop of Los Angeles where "money is part of the architecture of the city," this bleak, violent novel upholds English author Stokoe's reputation for gritty, sordid fiction (Cows). Jack, a drugged-out tabloid fanatic and wannabe Hollywood star, grows worried when his wife, Karen, a street prostitute, goes missing for several days. He discovers that she has been murdered ("gutted like a fish") and that he is under investigation by Ryan, a sleazy minor vice cop, who takes on the homicide case himself since he was previously one of Karen's customers. Jack makes a promise to himself to find Karen's killer while supporting himself by becoming a hustler. Stokoe's plot thickens by way of urban legend. Before her disappearance, Karen confessed to Jack that she had sold one of her kidneys for $30,000 to a mysterious doctor trawling Hollywood Boulevard. After a succession of vile sex dates, Jack winds up face-to-face with Bella and Powell Vernier, an incestuous father and daughter surgical team who might be implicated in Karen's murder. Accusations and dead bodies (not to mention necrophilia) emerge just as Jack's acting career begins to take off. Stokoe's in-your-face prose and raw, unnerving scenes give way to a skillfully plotted (though largely implausible) tale that will keep readers glued to the page, if they can stomach the gratuitous obscenities and the excessively graphic descriptions of sex and violence (and violent sex). Stokoe's protagonist is as gritty and brutal as they come, which will frighten away the chaste crowd, but the author's target Bret Easton Ellis audience could turn this one into a word-of-mouth success.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalHow does a contemporary author update classic noir writers like James M. Cain and Jim Thompson? For Stokoe (Cows), the solution is to ratchet up the sex by several notches. Jack, an English transplant to Los Angeles, is totally immersed not only in bodily fluids but also in the mythos of Hollywood. He gains sustenance from obsessing about the lives of every Tom, Brad, and Leonardo in Hollywood - which comes at the expense of what passes for his real life. For about a year, he's been married to a practicing prostitute who has recently sold one of her kidneys. When she goes missing, he goes out to find her (or her body), an attempt that plops him amid a cast of kinky characters, including porn-star Rex and police officer Ryan, who leaves a trail of slime in his wake. Above all, though, are Bella and Powell, who give new meaning to the concept of keeping their marriage fresh. While Stokoe has the noir cadences and atmosphere down pat, and Ryan is a character of quintessential sleaziness, the relentless rough sex ultimately becomes as boring and mechanical as thumbing through Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis. Purchase where demand warrants. - Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 19
'RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. TELL ME: WOULD YOU RATHER LIVE, OR JUST EXIST?' For a man intent on escaping his past, a chance meeting in Vietnam with an American journalist looks like the perfect way out, but it is just the beginning of an adrenaline and testosterone-fuelled plunge into a world of danger and desperate men. Dragged into a seedy underground where Russian roulette is an everyday rush and life is very, very cheap, he finds himself taking on the journalist's identity - and his girlfriend. But soon his new ID gets him in way more trouble than it's worth. The boundaries between reality and hallucination blur and the body count mounts as he's forced to flee to Cambodia and, eventually, to Australia. A blackly funny and highly charged debut from a brilliant new voice in fiction. Views: 19
Following the "accidental" death of police officer Derek Hines, the members of the Southern Ladies' Glee Club (the "SLGC") know that, for their own good, they should keep a low profile. But, as usual, what's good for them and what they actually do are two different things.When SLGC member, Candy Putnam, falls for the lead investigator, she plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse, love and deceit, as she attempts to stay one step ahead of the investigation. At the same time, as things heat up between Candy and the tall, dark-haired sleuther, she must work with the SLGC to plan a new murder and stop a serial killer who is preying on local children.With her relationship on the line, as well as her freedom, she and the other SLGC members carry out their plans to kill a killer with hilarious, although satisfying, results. Views: 18
Penny Birch at her brand spanking best. Isabelle Colraine is in her third year at Oxford and an out and proud lesbian, indulging her private obsession with domination with a few select friends. She has put her past behind her, and most especially the assorted indignities, punishments and humiliations she was put through while struggling to achieve her goals. Unfortunately for her there are others who have not forgotten what she used to do: Portia, an upper-class brat who refuses to accept Isabelle's dominance, Sarah, who believes the right to dominate another woman has to be earned with age and maturity, and worst of all, Stan Tierney, an older man who wants to take advantage of her and won't take no for an answer.Follow Isabelle's adventures in The Indulgence of Isabelle, The Indecencies of Isabelle, The Indiscretions of Isabelle and The Indignities of Isabelle. Views: 18
A brutal ShadeShifter warrior, Navarre Viseus vowed to gain the rights to a woman in the games, even if it meant killing his rivals. His victory over his opponents earned him the second choice of the women paraded before them. And that is when he sees her—Kittana, the woman who stole everything from him, leaving his heart a bitter wasteland. She escaped his fury once, she would not again. Views: 18
In the ruins of a once great city, separated twin children are reunited and undertake a dangerous journey to participate in a blood ritual that will signal the end of human history. Philip K Dick Award (nominee) Views: 18
The Napoleonic Wars are raging and a group of eminent British citizens have been taken captive in the Mediterranean by French troops. The Admiralty traces their location and sends the valiant Lord Ramage to affect their release. As Ramage and his crew negotiate the hazardous waters off the Tuscan coast, they soon begin to doubt the accuracy of their instructions. Ramage comes to realize that in order for his mission to succeed he must embark upon a fearful and highly dangerous escapade where the stakes have never been higher. Ramage's Challenge is another action-packed naval adventure from the masterful Dudley Pope. Views: 18
With his life in ruins, Richard, Duke of Cleybourne, returned to his country estate to deal with the tragic loss he had suffered four years earlier. His plans, however, were interrupted by the arrival of Miss Jessica Maitland. The feisty, flame-haired governess had come to present her charge, Gabriella, as his new ward.As if their unwelcome presence weren't bad enough, Jessica also revealed that Gabriella was in danger. Someone was after the girl's fortune-- perhaps someone the duke knew only too well.Now fate and a raging snowstorm have brought together an odd assortment of guests at Cleybourne Castle. And when murder strikes, Richard and Jessica must catch a killer and unravel a dark mystery, even as they are plunged into the most passionate mystery of all--the secrets of the hidden heart. Views: 18
The adventures of Hot Dog and Bob continue in this bone-chewing new episode! All was going well at the fifth-grade fundraiser until talking dogs from the planet Bowwowwowwow arrive to take over Earth and turn Bob and his unsuspecting classmates into their pets! Hot Dog and Bob must battle this new lazer-beam-chewie-wielding alien duo and save their friends and themselves! Views: 18
By the #1 bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, Bella Tuscany and In Tuscany, Swan is a haunting novel set in the deep South -- a resonant tale of long-buried family secrets and mysteries brought suddenly to light.In her celebrated memoirs of life in Tuscany, Frances Mayes writes masterfully about people in a powerful and shaping place. In Swan, her first novel, she has created an equally intimate world, rich with striking characters and intriguing twists of fate, that hearkens back to her southern roots.The Masons are a prominent but now fragmented family who have lived for generations in Swan, an edenic, hidebound small town in Georgia. As Swan opens, a bizarre crime pulls Ginger Mason home from her life as an archeologist in Italy: The body of her mother, Catherine, a suicide nineteen years before, has been mysteriously exhumed. Reunited on new terms with her troubled, isolated brother J.J., who has never... Views: 18
