From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold HotelAt school they called her Porky on account of the pigs her family kept outside their bungalow near Heathrow. But she felt no different - not until she realised she was losing her innocence in a way that none of her friends could possibly imagine. Only a child robbed of her childhood can know too late what it means to be loved too little and loved too much. Views: 42
Edgar Award-winner Steve Hamilton introduced one of the most compelling characters in modern fiction with Alex McKnight. Now Alex finds himself in the middle of a very strange mystery with much greater consequences than he ever anticipated... AN OLD MAN WITH A SECRET...It may be one of the worst winters in recent memory in Paradise, Michigan, but Alex McKnight is looking forward to spending some quality time with his new girlfriend, Natalie Reynaud, an officer from the Ontario Provincial Police. But a chance encounter with a mysterious old man, Simon Grant, turns chilling when he seems to know a lot about Natalie and her family. A BIZARRE NOTE...When Natalie and Alex return to their room later that evening, they discover the same hat the old man was wearing lying outside their room filled with ice and snow and containing a cryptic note: I know who you are! A day later, Simon Grant is found frozen to death in a snowdrift. A BLOOD FEUD FROM THE PASTNatalie and Alex are stunned. The mystery is just too much of a coincidence for Alex to ignore. His trail leads him to a blood feud buried decades ago in Natalie's family's past-an event that can still drive men to kill each other...www.minotaurbooks.com "Powerful suspense and a socko climax."-Booklist Views: 42
Intelligent, evocative and darkly comic, Naama Goldstein's collection introduces a remarkable talent. In these sharply focused stories, the line between nation and self is as elusive as the distinction between past and present, fear and desire, the real and the imagined.Against a backdrop that spans from the Galilean wilderness to midtown Manhattan, and from the 1970s to the present, the inhabitants of these stories struggle to feel at home in foreign and sometimes unwelcoming lands. In "A Pillar of a Cloud," a young American babysitting her Israeli cousins scandalizes the children when she invites an Arab roofer for dinner. "The Worker Rests Under the Hero Trees" features a twenty-something Israeli expatriate vying for romance with a childhood hero turned cranberry expert. "Anatevka Tender" stands on a fault line between ideologies as a mother who blames herself for her elder son's battle shock following the Lebanon War resettles her children in the suburban safety of an East... Views: 42
When a bloody, pulverized body is found lying beneath the rustic timbers of an authentic torture device so vicious and complicated as to be blood-curdling, there's sufficient unrest in tiny Forbes Abbot to call in Chief Inspector Barnaby. Was Dennis Brinkley done in by crooked business partners, a teenage seductress, a couple of would-be publishers who've just inherited—and then lost—millions, or perhaps by tired, timid little Benny Fraye, who wouldn't hurt a fly—would she? Barnaby will soon find out just who set in motion the gruesome machine that crushed the unfortunate victim. Caroline Graham's delightful cozy village mysteries, which inspired the continuing Midsommer Murders series starring Inspector Barnaby on A&E Television, have long been fan-favorites; A Ghost in the Machine is sure to cement her reputation as one of the best crime writers in the mystery business today. Views: 42
EVERY SUPERHERO NEEDS TO START SOMEWHERE...Dale Sampson is used to being a nonperson at his small-town Midwestern high school, picking up the scraps of his charismatic lothario of a best friend, Mack. He comforts himself with the certainty that his stellar academic record and brains will bring him the adulation that has evaded him in high school. But when an unthinkable catastrophe tears away the one girl he ever had a chance with, his life takes a bizarre turn as he discovers an inexplicable power: He can regenerate his organs and limbs.When a chance encounter brings him face to face with a girl from his past, he decides that he must use his gift to save her from a violent husband and dismal future. His quest takes him to the glitz and greed of Hollywood, and into the crosshairs of shadowy forces bent on using and abusing his gift. Can Dale use his power to redeem himself and those he loves, or will the one thing that finally makes him special be his demise? The... Views: 42
From Publishers WeeklyFirst-time author Kerley debuts with a classically constructed, psychotic-killer-with-a-horrendous-childhood thriller featuring young detective Carson Ryder, himself troubled by a problematic past. Carson and partner Harry Nautilus are the newly formed two-man Psychopathological and Sociopathological Investigative Team, referred to as Piss-it by the other members of the Mobile, Ala., police force. While Piss-it's official mandate is the investigation of murders committed by particularly horrendous killers, the formation of the team is actually a public relations scheme. Nevertheless, when a headless body turns up in a local park, Piss-it has its first real case. At the autopsy, Carson meets new hire Dr. Ava Davenelle, who is handling corpse-cutting duties. "She was dour, abrupt, and projected the femininity of a hammer—yet her motions verged on symphonic." Of course he's immediately smitten, though his polite advances are rejected. Turns out she has her own life as well as a job-threatening problem, which Carson must solve while simultaneously identifying the killer who has meanwhile added several more headless victims to his growing list. Carson's secret weapon of detection is his brother, an insane mass-murderer who feeds him clues on the nature of madmen from an asylum, à la Hannibal Lecter. Kerley has certainly mastered the form, and the nail-biter takedown scene is as exciting as any in the business. This is a solid addition to the genre, and a series to look forward to. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistCarson Ryder is a Mobile, Alabama, police detective whose key role in solving a serial-killer case landed him a place on a special unit devoted to psycho crimes. Like almost all the characters in this narrative locomotive of a first novel, Carson has a secret: his ability to crack the serial-killer case had a lot to do with advice he got from his brother, who has reason to know how psychos think. Now another serial killer is at work, beheading his (or her) male victims and leaving cryptic messages carved on their bodies. As Carson and his partner (perhaps the most appealing character in the book), veteran cop Harry Nautilus, investigate the murders, they quickly become ensnared both in department politics and in a quagmire of secrets involving the medical staff at the morgue. Kerley jacks up the tension effectively with nicely placed jumps between Carson's narration and the tortured thoughts of the killer, building to an all-stops-out climax involving a raging river and a supremely horrific home movie. There are moments where the book nearly zooms out of control--especially during the over-the-top climax--but, finally, the powerful forward motion of the narrative and the compelling forensic and psychological detail more than compensate for the heroine-tied-to-the-tracks melodrama. The finale aside, Kerley's plot is a treasure chest of interlocked pieces, each holding a secret, a link in the chain connecting the novel's characters to the demons in their various closets. Kerley isn't the new Ridley Pearson quite yet, but don't bet against him. Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 42
Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the greatest modern writers presented in attractive, accessible paperback editions. "Didion has the instincts of an exceptional reporter and the focus of a historian . . . a novelist's appreciation of the surreal." --Los Angeles Times Book ReviewWhether she's writing about civil war in Central America, political scurrility in Washington, or the tightl -braided myths and realities of her native California, Joan Didion expresses an unblinking vision of the truth. Vintage Didion includes three chapters from Miami; an excerpt from Salvador; and three separate essays from After Henry that cover topics from Ronald Reagan to the Central Park jogger case. Also included is "Clinton Agonistes" from Political Fictions, and "Fixed Opinions, or the Hinge of History," a scathing analysis of the ongoing war on terror.From the Trade... Views: 42
An "almost flawless novel" (People) about a quiet scholar who is convinced that her life has been ruined by literature and that she must make a new start in life.Since childhood, Ruth Weiss had been escaping from life into books, and from the attentions of her eccentric parents into the gentler warmth and company of friends and lovers. Now at forty years old, an academic devoted to the study of Balzac, she believes that literature has ruined her life and that she must once again, make a fresh start. "Lively, filled with gentle humor" (Miami Herald) this is an elegant and wry novel that will stay with you long after the final page is turned. Views: 42
Nick Pafko knows he can't be a professional boxer forever. But he never guessed it would end so quickly, and so wrong. Broke and unemployed, Nick has little choice but to call a number given to him by a friend. On the other end? Scott, a washed-up B-movie actor who runs a so-called massage parlor looking for somebody desperate enough to work security.Jenny Yee doesn't really mind massage, until the day she finds her coworkers robbed and assaulted. Fearing for her safety, she resolves to never work without security again. With mounting expenses, she knows massage is the fastest way to get paid. When an old massage acquaintance calls Jenny to ask her to work for Scott, she agrees—and before long, she's the top earner.Scott is an arrogant moron, but he's harmless compared to the thug he calls "friend"—Onus Dupree. When DuPree decides to rob Scott's massage joint, it's the perfect opportunity to beat up Nick and take advantage of Jenny. Can Nick stay true... Views: 42
The deeply prolific and widely celebrated author of such books as Segu and Tales from the Heart, Maryse Condé returns with an unforgettable new novel, Who Slashed Celanire's Throat? Inspired by a tragedy in the late twentieth century, Condé sets this fiction in the late nineteenth century with her characteristic blend of magical realism and fantasy. Condé lyrically, hauntingly imagines Celanire: a woman who was mutilated at birth and left for dead. Mysterious, seductive, and disarming, she is driven to uncover the truth of her past at any cost. On one hand, Celanire appears to be a saint; she is a tireless worker who has turned numerous neglected institutions into vibrant schools for motherless children. But she is also a woman apprehended by demons, as death and misfortune seem to follow in her wake. Who Slashed Celanire's Throat? follows both her triumphs and her trials as this survivor becomes a beautiful and powerful woman who tra... Views: 42
1987, the height of the Cold War. For Captain Vadim Scorlenski and the rest of the 15th Spetsnaz Brigade, being scrambled to unfamiliar territory at no notice, without a brief or proper equipment, is more or less expected; but even by his standards, their mission to one of the United States' busiest cities stinks...World War III was over in a matter of hours, and Vadim and most of his squad are dead, but not done. What's happened to them, and to millions of civilians around the world, goes beyond any war crime; and Vadim and his team—Skull, Mongol, Farm Boy, Princess, Gulag, the Fräulein and New Boy—won't rest until they've seen justice done. Views: 42
