The stunning new thriller from the master of the genre. Nick Stone seems to be living his dream, not a care in the world as he steers his camper van round the surfing and parachuting centres of Australia, a board on the roof, freefall rig behind him, and a beautiful young backpacker at his side. But when he witnesses on TV the massacre of children in a terrorist siege on the other side of the world, long-suppressed memories are triggered and Nick finds himself catapulted once more into working for the American secret services — only this time, of his own free will. As events unfold in the bleak, medieval villages of Azerbajhan, and the teeming streets of modern Istanbul, it isn’t long before Nick discovers the true objective of the mission on which he has embarked. His talents are being misused by those who stalk the corridors of power, and he is determined to make a stand. Hurtled at breakneck pace through a deadly landscape of greed, violence and ever-shifting allegiances, the reader will be left in no doubt that McNab is the master of the genre — and Aggressor is McNab at his searing, blockbusting best. Views: 7
When Frances was twenty-two, she was drifting, scraping by giving English lessons in Mexico, when she met up with a glamorous group of vacationing Americans staying in a mansion on a private beach. Two decades later in rural England, she discovers a love letter from a younger woman addressed to her husband almost at the same time as she learns that she's facing a life-threatening illness. As her contented existence begins to unravel and she tries to decide how and if she will confront her husband about his infidelity, Frances finds herself haunted by the memory of her heady desert encounter with the charmed circle of the Severance family. That summer in 1976 seemed, until now, like another lifetime. As she recalls this long buried episode from her past, she is forced to face for the first time her own role in an illicit romance and the betrayal and tragedy that marked its ending. Views: 7
In the typical Urquhart mold, A Map of Glass is a novel about the past, the land, and art, subjects found in many of her previous novels. A young artist, Jerome, is alone on Timber Island to take photos of temporary art creations, or "absences," he has dug in the snow. While there, he finds the body of Andrew Woodman, an Alzheimer's sufferer, frozen in the ice of the river. Later, an older woman, Sylvia, searches out Jerome and his girlfriend in Toronto. Slightly autistic, she has fled her doctor husband in rural eastern Ontario because she wants to talk to Jerome about Andrew, her lover. The three sections of the book are intelligently constructed, with the two contemporary sections framing the central section, which recounts the history of the Woodman family, 19th-century shipbuilders and hotelkeepers on Lake Ontario. Urquhart's writing is extremely resonant and always echoes her larger themes: "How wonderful the snow was; every change of direction, each whim, even the compulsion of hunger was marked on its surface, like memory, for a brief season." Her writing is also highly cerebral--little happens in this novel but there is an enormous quantity of thoughtful reflection. The depiction of the Woodman past, with its near-mythical characters and its grand hotel invaded by sand, is so deeply realized that the present feels amorphous in contrast, its characters infused with the ambiguity of modernism. In the end, however, Urquhart shows how this makes perfect sense for, with profound subtlety, she raises a startling question: In the face of shocking change--in landscapes, in memories that fade to nothing, even in the complete dissolution of the human personality in Alzheimer's--what can still be called reality? Urquhart is a subtle master at work. --Mark Frutkin Views: 7
A gypsy orphan, Heath Galloway adores Cathy Earnshaw, his childhood sweetheart. He would do anything to protect her from her drunken, abusive father—even push the man down a flight of stairs to stop him hitting her. But with her father dead, Cathy’s older brother Matt runs the Earnshaw farm and both of their lives. And Matt despises Heath. Forced to drop out of school and work the fields, Heath is separated from Cathy and the two begin to drift apart. When Cathy meets the rich, blond, and suave Eli Linton, she finds herself torn between Eli’s charm and Heath’s brute potency. Fiercely proud and stubborn, Heath doesn’t take well to being brushed aside. He’ll get what he wants, or he’ll get revenge. No matter how long it takes. Views: 7
Reverie Reagan believes that she's just like everyone else. Little does she know of the mysticism of her birth - and the fantastical journey waiting for her. Views: 7
The critically acclaimed debut novel from pioneering actress and writer Denise Nicholas tells the story of one young woman’s coming of age via the political and social upheavals of the civil rights movement. Nineteen-year-old Celeste Tyree leaves Ann Arbor to go to Pineyville, Mississippi, in the summer of 1964 to help found a voter registration project as part of Freedom Summer. As the summer unfolds, she confronts not only the political realities of race and poverty in this tiny town, but also deep truths about her family and herself. Drawing on Nicholas’ own involvement in the movement, Freshwater Road was hailed by Newsday as “Perhaps the best work of fiction ever done about the civil rights movement.”From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. In her rich, absorbing debut, actress Nicholas (Room 222; In the Heat of the Night) follows a young woman South to "trench Mississippi, gutbucket Mississippi" during the summer of 1964. The daughter of a Detroit bar owner/numbers runner and his estranged, class-conscious ex-wife (whose light complexion enables her to pass as white), Celeste Tyree has enjoyed a comfortable, sheltered middle-class life for all of her nearly two decades. But when activists talking of nonviolent revolution visit her Ann Arbor college campus, she determines to go South to help register blacks to vote. It's a decision she shares with her stern father, Shuck, in a "By the time you read this" letter, and Shuck's self-identification as a race man wars with his concern for his daughter. Part of what drives wide-eyed Northerner Celeste is her sense that her life little matches common black experience; her work in Mississippi is an attempt to validate her identity as a black woman as much as it is a journey to help lift the veil of oppression. Nicholas tests her protagonist's mettle in multiple ways, and Celeste finds previously untapped reserves of strength, learning lessons about activism and secrets about her own family. Sometimes gorgeous, sometimes terrifying, this novel marks the debut of a talented writer. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn the summer of 1964, 19-year-old Celeste Tyree, straddling the strong race consciousness of her father and the race aversion of her estranged mother, takes time off from college and her white boyfriend, traveling from Michigan to Mississippi to lend her efforts to Freedom Summer. She ends up in the small town of Pineyville, helping to register voters and witnessing the kind of poverty and racism her father fought to leave behind. Her father, Shuck Tyree, owner of a successful bar in Detroit, is horrified at his daughter's recklessness and proud of her bravery as he wonders how responsible he might be for her decision. On the front line of issues regarding race, social change, and violence, Celeste is forced to confront all of her compartmentalized and comfortable notions about life. This debut novel by Nicholas, former star of the television series Room 222 and In the Heat of the Night, offers a sensitive and absorbing story of a young woman coming of age emotionally and racially. Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 7
A week in the lives of seven people - all on the same route to school: Harriet is waiting for her husband to tell her if their marriage is on - or off. Pippa is about to receive some potentially devastating hospital results. Evie has one week to save her career - and find her missing husband. Nick's wife died two years ago, leaving him with a troublesome teenage daughter. Martine, a French au pair, is about to run off with a married man. Kitty, a school teacher, accepts a bet to find a man in a week. And Betty watches by the roadside, looking for the driver who killed her son...Little do any of them know that by the end of the week the school run will have become a collision course, connecting their lives in more ways than one.Review'A lovely debut - warm and engaging' -- Catherine Alliott 'There is a lot for women to relate to here' -- Katie Fforde About the AuthorSophie King is a pseudonym for journalist Jane Bidder, who writes the regular Family Matters page in Woman magazine and contributes regularly to national newspapers and other women's magazines. She was runner-up in the Harry Bowling Award in 2002 and has just won the Elizabeth Goudge short story award. While she has had short stories and works of non-fiction published, this is her debut novel. Views: 7
*This book previously appeared as Color Me Bad.* It has been ten years since Hecuba Jones last burgled her way into a darkened house, but how else can she recover the lost paintings of her artist mother? She manages to find the Earl of Underwood's study and the four paintings she's searching for—but just when she is about to make off with her prizes, she is discovered by the earl's sardonic younger brother. John Rushmore has all but given up on his talents as a painter, unable to recapture the passion of earlier days. He is thrilled to have his boredom lightened by the appearance of a redheaded thief—and even more delighted to be introduced to her the following night in an elegant Society ballroom. Miss Hecuba Jones is prickly and suspicious and absolutely irresistible. She's also an inspiration. Before long John finds himself working deep into the night to try and capture the feverish, erotic visions she provokes. Soon, they reach an... Views: 7
Erotic romance. Screwdriver line Views: 7
Delilah Grace is crushed by the death of her mother. What she doesn’t know is that this tragedy will begin the unexplainable series of events of something right out of a storybook for her. Views: 7
A unique anthology for crime aficionados - six 'perfect murder' stories written by the most accomplished crime writers of the 1930s, designed to fox real-life Scotland Yard Superintendent Cornish, who comments on whether or not these crimes could have genuinely been solved. Is the 'perfect murder' possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable -- even to the most astute investigator? In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel... This clever literary battle of wits from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral and Ask a Policeman back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the experts from the... Views: 7
