A second case for the intrepid Mrs Pargeter – sixtysomething and a little bit more. She has moved to a prosperous housing estate, but something rankles about her new neighbours. She soon learns that the estate might be perfect for social climbing, but it’s also perfect for murder. Views: 66
"Zeta Verity killed a man who deserved to live, and let a man live who deserved death. Now she has a limited amount of time to stop him and bring justice to Callisto.Born to excel but living in the shadow of her auspicious ancestors, Zeta is posted to the newly terraformed Callisto to work with specially bred horses. Killing a spy in possession of stolen data is just another day's work. She's not impressed by timid and scholarly Vladimir Bolokhovski, who arrives at the research base with a beautiful stallion he has genetically engineered. But when Zeta's superiors start disappearing and an arrest warrant is issued on her for spying, she discovers the man she killed is not what he appeared.Once Verity discovers they're all part of some twisted game, she needs the help of both Vladimir and the dead spy to find and stop the mastermind behind it all." Views: 66
Hollywood’s hottest bad boy, Garrick Maze, hangs with rock stars and parties harder than most. Now he’s just landed the lead in a new television series and he’s determined to prove himself. Love’s the last thing on his mind, especially when it comes to his ice queen female lead, Views: 66
Based on a true story, Arthur Japin’s new novel is a tale of consuming love and artistic creation that reimagines the last romance of the legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini.In Director’s Cut we enter the mind of Snaporaz, the lion of Italian cinema, as he slips into a coma in his final days. Having always drawn inspiration from the world of his dreams, he welcomes the chance to take account of his life and, in particular, his most recent love affair, with a beautiful but tempestuous young actress called Gala. Here is the story as Snaporaz tells it.Lured by the glamour of Rome, Gala and her boyfriend, Maxim, an actor as well, are hoping to be discovered when they manage the impossible: entrée to the studio of the great master. Despite an age difference of four decades, Gala soon becomes Snaporaz’s mistress, leaving Maxim, guardian of her secrets and her fragile health, to be an anxious and helpless observer of her physical and spiritual decline. As Gala becomes increasingly dependent on Snaporaz’s attentions, her desperation never to disappoint him leads her down a reckless path to anorexia and prostitution before the one true bond in her life is restored.Snaporaz’s intoxicatingly baroque—Felliniesque—account of the affair slyly challenges us again and again to ask what is dream and what is reality, and to conclude that the difference is irrelevant when such a genius immerses himself in his most natural element: the imagination. A dazzling tale from one of Europe’s most celebrated writers.From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklyThis story of romance between a young Dutch actress and a slightly fictionalized Federico Fellini flounders on poor plotting and overwrought prose. After being reared by a demanding father, Gala and an ambiguous male companion named Maxim travel to Rome in the 1970s to find their fortune as movie stars. There, the beautiful and epileptic Gala eventually attracts the ardor of Fellini stand-in Snaporaz. Told partially in the third-person and partially as Snaporaz's elegiac reminiscences, this potentially interesting story is hampered by clumsy prose; Snaporaz's frequent pronouncements often come off as banal or pretentious (I gather strange butterflies. My white is made up of so many colors). Plot momentum might have made such stylistic lapses easier to overlook, but Japin chooses to let his aspiring actors simmer in Italy with little to do for so long that Snaporaz's and Gala's eventual romance feels anticlimactic and belated. Though Japin, author of the widely praised In Lucia's Eyes, brings together a number of promising elements, this book comes up short. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistA Dutch actor and actress travel to 1970s Rome in hopes of finding their big break in this latest offering from Dutch novelist Japin (In Lucia’s Eyes, 2007). Gala and Maxim have been companions for years; each is overjoyed when the other finds work. But when Gala comes under the spell of the celebrated Italian director Snaporaz (a thinly disguised Fellini), Maxim is besieged by worry. Beautiful Gala is an epileptic, and her seizures seem to occur with greater frequency in times of emotional distress. Gala pins all her hopes on a role in Snaporaz’s latest movie, but the waiting game she must play after their initial meeting nearly drives her mad. Meanwhile, she earns money as a female escort, while Maxim lands a solid film role. Snaporaz’s lust for Gala is undeniable, and the fling between them is both inevitable—and anticlimactic. Based on a true story, Japin’s novel is overlong, and the characters are lackluster. Still, there are some vivid depictions of life in Rome, and the Fellini connection may interest cinema buffs. --Allison Block Views: 66
This delightful, romantic debut follows a sophisticated Manhattanite who trades her fast-paced Wall Street life for the English countryside, and unexpectedly becomes a nanny to the children of a widowed British lord. Who is as infuriating as he is intriguing...Jordy Greene has it all—the high-powered job, the high-octane New York lifestyle, the powerful lover—until she's suddenly forced to flee the city. Running to avoid false charges of illegal trading and a destructive relationship, Jordy escapes to England. There she finds refuge in a cottage on the estate of the icy Lord John Grey—a descendant of the Nine Day Queen, Lady Jane Grey. The four rambunctious Grey children are in desperate need of a nanny, and Jordy is in desperate need of a purpose—so they plunge into an investigation of the Tudor queen's mysterious life and shocking death. Amid flying subpoenas, willful adolescents, outraged aristocrats, and an unexpected attraction to Lord... Views: 66
TERRITORY is the story of Henrietta Southern, a young Englishwoman who trades her war-torn homeland for a place of wild tropical storms and searing heat, crocodile-infested rivers and barren red wilderness. Six months after the bombing of Darwin, she joins her new husband, Spitfire pilot Terence Galloway, for a new life on his Northern Territory cattle station. It is also the story of their sons. Of Malcolm and Kit, two brothers who grow up in the harsh but beautiful environment, and share a baptism of fire as young men in the jungles of Vietnam. And what of the Dutch East Indies treasure ship which foundered off Western Australia in 1629? How is the Galloway family's destiny linked with Batavia's horrific tale of mutiny and murder ...? From the blazing inferno that was Darwin on 19 February 1942 to the devastation of Cyclone Tracy, from the red desert to the tropical shore, TERRITORY is a mile-a-minute read from one of Australia's best loved writers. Views: 66
Grace Meredith is the CIA’s most deadly assassin. Too bad she’s gone off the grid and become a mercenary for hire. After the death of her daughter by a sniper’s bullet, Grace can no longer stomach the demands of agency life or keep herself from blaming the only man she’s ever loved. Her mind and body are fragile, and she knows she’s just a step away from breaking down completely. Views: 66
After intern Rachel was tied up and gang-banged by the firm's junior partners she finds herself blamed for enticing them to do the deed, fired by the senior partner for the conference room gangbang session. She decides to keep her job by making a play for the boss, going to his home in her skimpiest dress. He's not alone, and everyone there decides to teach Rachel a hard, wicked lesson. ~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~ He sighed, leaned against the door frame. "There's nothing to discuss, Rachel. Your intern position was terminated. We'll honor your summer stipend, supply you with a reference, but as I explained this morning, that sort of behavior cannot be condoned among our associates, particularly on business property." I stepped forward until I was almost leaning into Mr. Powers. I looked up at him, giving my best wide-eyed, innocent young girl face. "We strictly forbid physical relationships between employees, no exceptions. It's in all of our contracts, even senior management," I said,... Views: 66
At fourteen years old, Simon Britten is a keen ufologist. When his dad dies, two things happen: a UFO-watch on Wimbledon Common turns up something distinctly out of this world; and his mother joins a local 'church' and attempts to contact her deceased husband beyond the grave. Caught between the Extra-Terrestrial and the First Church of Christ the Spiritualist, Simon struggles to work out just what - or whom - he should believe in. Views: 66
The United Americas of Earth: 2250 A.D. On the eve of his execution, Death Row inmate Kerick Riley overpowers the guard and escapes the violent penal colony that has been his prison for over fifteen years. On the run to find the answers he seeks, the grim-faced, grey-eyed Kerick has two things on his mind: revenge and woman... Scientist Nellie Kan has spent the last several years researching a frightening disorder that has developed in certain populations of humans. On the verge of developing a serum, Dr. Kan is kidnapped by an escaped Death Row inmate and claimed as his personal sexual property. Is her captor the key to the answer she seeks, or a lunatic who will destroy them both? In this installment: Kerick recaptures Nellie in a reunion you won't soon forget; Elijah, Xavier, and Kerick plot the demise of the Hierarchy; Kieran begins to suspect there is more to the woman he claimed than meets the eye. Publisher's Note: DEATH ROW is a three-part erotic suspense serial consisting of the following titles: The Fugitive, The Hunter, and The Avenger. It is necessary to read the previous installment before attempting to read this one. Views: 66
Partly autobiographical, this is the second title in Judith Kerr's internationally acclaimed trilogy of books following the life of Anna through war-torn Germany, to London during the Blitz and her return to Berlin to discover the past...It is hard enough being a teenager in London during the Blitz, finding yourself in love and wondering every night whether you will survive the bombs. But it is even harder for Anna, who is still officially classified as an "enemy alien". Those bombs are coming from Germany -- the country that was once her own. If Hitler invades, can she and her beloved refugee family possibly survive?This was previously published as The Other Way Round. Views: 66
