From the bestselling author of the landmark work Rubyfruit Jungle comes an engaging, original new novel that only Rita Mae Brown could have written. In the pristine world of Virginia foxhunting, hunters, horses, hounds, and foxes form a lively community of conflicting loyalties, where the thrill of the chase and the intricacies of human-animal relationships are experienced firsthand--and murder exposes a proud Southern community's unsavory secrets. . . . As Master of the prestigious Jefferson Hunt Club, Jane Arnold, known as Sister, is the most revered citizen in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountain town where a rigid code of social conduct and deep-seated tradition carry more weight than money. Nearing seventy, Sister now must select a joint master to ensure a smooth transition of leadership after her death. It is an honor of the highest order--and one that any serious social climber would covet like the Holy Grail.Virginian to the bone with a solid foxhunting... Views: 51
Australia's favourite PI, Cliff Hardy is back in a story set against the backdrop of a Federal election campaign.When journalist Louise Kramer hires Cliff Hardy to find Billie Marchant, Hardy heads for unfamiliar territory of the far south-western suburbs of Sydney. Billie claims to have information about media big-wheel Jonas Clement - the subject of an incriminating expose by Kramer. Clement doesn't want Billie found and Clement's enemies want to find her first. Hardy tracks Billie down, but saving Billie' means not only rescuing her, it means saving her from herself. Billie, ex-stripper, sometime hooker and druggie, is a handful. Hardy gets help from members of the Pacific Islander community and others, but the enemies close in and he is soon fighting on several different fronts. Clement and his chief rival, Barclay Greaves, have heavies in the field, and Hardy has to negotiate his way through their divided loyalties. Some negotiations involve cunning but... Views: 51
SUMMARY: The Camel Club is a four-man group of Washington, D.C. misfits, that meet weekly to discuss political conspiracies they believe exist and what actions they might take. One night club members witness the murder of Secret Service employee Patrick Johnson, thus thrusting the wacky crew into the middle of a bigger conspiracy than they could ever have imagined. Views: 51
An acclaimed legend in the field of fantasy and science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold returns to the vivid and perilous world of her previous masterworks, the Hugo Award-winning “Paladin of Souls” and Hugo and World Fantasy Award-nominated “The Curse of Chalion,” with an epic tale of devotion and strange destiny. Prince Boleso is dead—slain by a noblewoman he had intended to defile. Lord Ingrey kin Wolfcliff has been dispatched to the remote castle of the late, exiled, half-mad royal to transport the body to its burial place and the accused killer, the Lady Ijada, to judgment. Ingrey’s mission is an ugly and delicate one, for the imminent death of the old Hallow King has placed the crown in play, and the murder of his youngest son threatens to further roil already treacherous political waters. But there is more here than a prince’s degenerate lusts and the fatal retribution it engendered. Boleso’s dark act, though unfinished, inadvertently bestowed an unwanted mystical “gift” upon proud, brave Ijada that must ultimately mean her doom—a curse similar to one with which Ingrey himself has been burdened since boyhood. A forbidden spirit now inhabits the soul of Ijada, giving her senses she never wished for and an obligation no one sane would desire. At once psychically linked to the remarkable lady and repelled by what she carries within, Ingrey fears the havoc his own inner beast could wreak while on their journey, as he fights a powerful growing attraction… and an equally powerful compulsion to kill. The road they travel together is beset with dangers—and though duty-bound to deliver Ijada to an almost certain execution, Ingrey soon realizes that she is the only one hedares trust. For a malevolent enemy with designs on a troubled kingdom holds Ingrey in his sway—and without Ijada’s aid and love, the haunted lord will never be able to break free and realize the great and terrible destiny bestowed upon him by the gods, the damned, and the dead. Views: 51
This first collection of Pet Tales, compiled by Life editor Anne Cuthbertson, features a talking dog and a surfboarding cat, a chicken that thinks it's human, a foul-tempered duck called Mussolini, a bear called Tina, and an escaped cornsnake who may still be at large under the floorboards.Readers will adore the cast of quirky, sympathetic, heroic and adorable characters, including Lovable Rogues, Timid Souls, Hunters and Gatherers, Escape Artists, Givers of Joy and Dearly Departed.With a foreword by the dog-lover, television presenter and adventurer Ben Fogle, this heart-warming, hilarious and at times heart-breaking book is a must for anyone who has ever loved a pet.The Pet Tales column of the Sunday Telegraph launched in 2010, giving readers the opportunity to send in their own stories and pictures. It quickly developed a devoted following with close to a thousand submissions to date. Views: 51
From Publishers WeeklyA young Iraqi refugee named Laila provides both the heart and the McGuffin in Hewson's elegant new thriller, the third featuring tough Roman detectives Gianni Peroni and Nic Costa (A Season for the Dead and The Villa of Mysteries). Laila inadvertently witnesses a brutal murder in Rome's Pantheon and earns the guardianship of the top cops. Childless pathologist Teresa Lupo becomes a surrogate mother to the waif as the team slowly closes in on the killer. The position of the naked corpse suggests Leonardo da Vinci's The Vitruvian Man, and carvings on the victim's flesh depict the mystical symbol of the novel's title. The novel seems headed for Dan Brown territory, but Hewson's clever puzzle remains just that, a tantalizing challenge to the detectives and to the encroaching FBI, led by abrasive agents Joel Leapman and Emily Deacon. The perp, it seems, is a serial killer who has similarly carved several victims around the world. Though the novel unfolds via familiar genre conventions—creepy passages from the killer's perspective revealing equal parts of evil and genius, turf skirmishes between our Roman heroes and the FBI suits, imperiled female victims—Hewson's solid writing and multidimensional characters command attention from start to finish of this smart, literate thriller. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review This third Nic Costa mystery brings back Roman police detective Costa and his partner, loose-cannon Gianni Peroni, in another case with tentacles reaching back to the Eternal City's ancient history. We begin with a stunning set piece: it's Christmas Eve, and the city is being blanketed by a freakish snowstorm, providing an appropriately eerie landscape for the ritualistic murder of an American woman under the dome in Hadrian's Pantheon. Costa, Peroni, and their boss, Leo Falcone, a bit of a maverick himself, fume as the investigation is snatched away by the FBI. Jockeying between the locals and the ugly Americans sets the acrimonious tone until one of the FBI agents, sympathetic to the Italians, turns out to have a connection to the killer. As he's done in the past (Villa of Mysteries, 2004), Hewson expertly blends historical material into the text. This time the key that unlocks the killer's psyche lies in Roman architecture--specifically, Vitruvius' "sacred cut," the idea that the perfect building uses as its starting point the proportions of the human body. Except our killer is carving his sacred cuts into the backs of his victims. All this historical detail gives the proceedings a tasty complexity comparable to Perez-Reverte, but what really makes the novel work is the interplay between the trio of antiestablishment Roman cops--all no-nonsense guys who find ways around whatever obstacles confront them. A masterful mix of the high-concept historical thriller and the cynical contemporary Italian procedural. Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 51
When she was good, she was very, very good...When Emma Frasier returns home to Joyful, Georgia, she's greeted with the kinds of winks and lusty grins one might offer...an adult film star?But when she was bad...Thanks to small-town gossip and citizens who clearly need to get a life, Joyful's residents think Emma Jean is the "famous star" building a strip club in town. And that her barely concealed...uh, attributes are the ones gracing the new interstate billboard.She was better.As if being taken for a blue movie queen isn't rattling enough, there's Johnny Walker, the local bad boy turned good--a man who tempts Emma to be just as wild and wicked as Joyful thinks she is. Views: 51
As touching as it is humorous, The Garden of Eden is a parable for our time with a powerful and ultimately redemptive ending that speaks to oft underappreciated virtues such as loyalty (sticking with those you love even when they screw up royally), tolerance, and forgiveness. It's also about the values that keep America together---the simple solutions ordinary people find to keep their small communities strong.Trooper Sam Neely is fresh out of the State Police academy and finds himself assigned to the dullest backwater town he's never heard of. Things heat up quickly in Eden, U.S.A., however, when Ed Harris, the banker, finds his wife in bed with his best friend, Hayden Elkins. Ed picks up a shotgun, escorts them both to the door, and tells friend Hayden, "Guess what? She's yours!""I've got a wife, Ed," says Hayden."Now you have two. . . ."Forced to take his paramour to live under his own roof (after all, they had only intended to share an afternoon of... Views: 51
