Summer, 1934. Two boys, searching for a local legend, stumble upon the Underground, a network of uncharted caverns. Time holds no sway there; people no longer age and their wounds heal as if by magic. By morning, one boy is murdered, while the other never returns. Below a town ravaged by the Great Depression, an immortal society thrives, built on the backs of slavery and pervasive immorality. Views: 67
SEATTLE, 2040. The Space Needle lies crumpled. Veiled women hurry through the busy streets. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. Phoenix is abandoned, Chicago the site of a civil war battle. At the edges of the empire, Islamic and Christian forces fight for control of a very different United States.
Enormous in scope and brilliantly imagined, Prayers for the Assassin promises to be the powerhouse read of the year. Burning with cinematic violence, fiendish betrayal, and global intrigue, Robert Ferrigno's sensational thriller asks: What would happen to America if the terrorists won?
After simultaneous suitcase-nuke attacks destroy New York, Washington, D.C., and Mecca -- attacks blamed on Israel -- a civil war breaks out. An uneasy truce leaves the nation divided between an Islamic republic with its capital in Seattle, and the Christian Bible Belt in the old South. In this frightening future there are still Super Bowls and Academy Awards, but calls to Muslim prayer echo in the streets and terror is everywhere. Freedom is controlled by the state, paranoia rules, and rebels plot to regain free will...
One of the most courageous is the beautiful young historian Sarah Dougan, who uncovers shocking evidence that the nuclear attacks might not have been planned by Israel, evidence that, if true, will destabilize the nation. When Sarah suddenly goes missing, the security chief of the Islamic republic calls upon Rakkim Epps, her secret lover and a former elite warrior, to find her -- no matter what the risk.
But as Rakkim searches for Sarah, he is tracked by Darwin, a brilliant psychopathic killer trained in the same secretive unit as Rakkim. To survive, Rakkim must become Darwin's assassin -- a most forbidding challenge. A bloody, nerve-racking chase takes them through the looking-glass world of the Islamic States of America, and culminates dramatically as Rakkim and Sarah battle to expose the truth to the entire world.
Can the couple outrun Darwin? Who is really behind the nuke attacks? Will Sarah and Rakkim stay alive long enough to deliver the truth? Does a nation divided have a prayer? Views: 67
Magdalena is a woman from DI Charlie Priest's past, who comes very much to the forefront of his present when her lifeless, broken and battered body is found. The one identifying feature is the tattoo on her buttock; Property of the Pope. But who is this Pope and did he want to make Magdalena his possession even in death? And what about the recent spate of incidents that have left several influential members of the community with tarnished reputations and, in one case, dead? Were they just heading for a fall, or is there a vendetta, a nasty game, afoot? Whatever is going on, Charlie is right in the middle of it as usual... Views: 67
Philip Morahan is a great pianist who can no longer play the piano. At fifty-two he is childless, single, and utterly used up by music. His desperate attempt to retrieve a lost personal life at the expense of his career leads to a roller-coaster of crises and confrontations - with ex-girlfriends, ironic protégés, record magnates and his exquisitely sympathetic new agent. For if Philip is to recover his talent and the power to love he must face his own nature dead on, and then the tragedy that haunts him. Views: 67
Four friends. One secret. And a killer protected by a vow of silence... Lacy, Cassidy, Kira and Melinda are friends bound by a deadly secret. One of them is a killer. At least that's what each one suspects. Ten years ago, Melinda's abusive husband, Charles Ashland, was murdered. The gun was Lacy's. But it didn't matter. Together, the women disposed of the body, which has never been found...until now. The powerful Ashland family, whose patriarch is poised for the vice presidency, wants justice. Cassidy, an attorney, insists the women have nothing to fear. Then she is killed. A midnight caller is stalking the remaining friends, taunting them that he knows the truth. And the truth is something police chief Rick Summers is quite interested in learning from Lacy, despite the wild chemistry that's causing havoc with his judgment. Another death delivers a chilling new warning, for the price they've paid for their vow of silence has been murder. Views: 67
"Salter writes with engaging affection, good humour and knowledge. Nobody tells a yachting yarn better' - Sir James Hardy OBE This is a book about the excitement of sailing. The characters, the adventures, the disasters - and the quiet little drink afterwards. No sport generates more anecdotes than ocean racing. It's a world rich in bizarre incidents, outrageous behaviour, intense camaraderie and engaging humour Yachting yarns are the wellspring of a unique folklore that stretches back more than a century. All Piss and Wind celebrates that free-wheeling, larrikin spirit. The author, David Salter, is Australia's leading columnist and feature writer on the sport of offshore sailing. Salter draws on a treasure-trove of stories and lifetime of personal involvement. He provides a first hand, deck-eye view of a world where the line between fun and survival can be perilously thin. All Piss and Wind carries the conviction of experience and the authority of knowledge - all... Views: 67
The Lady had a lot to learn and he was just the gentleman to teach her!Kitty was a high-spirited country girl with no pretensions. She would conceal her long fair hair beneath a peaked cap and ride the open fields in britches and high boots.She didn't care a fig about the beau monde...until an arrogant, impossibly handsome nobleman decided it was time for her to become a lady.By the terms of his uncle's will, the Earl of Halloway had to find Kitty a husband, or he wouldn't receive a farthing. What started as a daunting challenge for the confirmed bachelor became an intriguing dance. Would time run out before this mismatched pair discovered the truth—that they were falling in love? Views: 67
Stuck
in a job with no future, Abby Willis finds herself becoming increasingly bitter
at her inability to fit in with those around her. It doesn't help that her
mother is always ready to disapprove of everything about her—from the car she
drives to the clothes she wears—constantly insisting that if only Abby would
grow up and be normal, life would be better for her.
Abby
has a secret: she doesn't want to be grown-up. Thus, when a chance encounter
leads her to Mr. Green, a mysterious man who specializes in a unique form of
matchmaking, she agrees to let him pair her with a daddy—someone to love and
cherish her just as she is even while he teaches her discipline and
self-control with a firm hand applied to her bare bottom.
Chris
Antonopoulos is Abby’s bad-boy fantasy come to life. The Greek god that
delivers balloons to her at work takes her breath away, but only later does she
learn that he’s the daddy she’s been promised. He delights her with rock
concerts, motorcycle rides, cute pajamas, bath crayons, and more, but Abby
lives to push buttons. It isn’t long before she puts herself in real danger,
and when she does, Abby learns that a naughty girl who disobeys her daddy can
expect to be punished with much more than just a spanking.
As
Abby begins to accept who she is, she sheds the insecurities and defenses that
held her back for so long. Chris has a secret of his own, though, and he
worries how Abby will react when she finds out about it. Can Abby bring herself
to trust her newfound daddy no matter what, or will he lose her for good?
Publisher’s
Note: Disciplining Little Abby is a
stand-alone sequel to Disciplining Little
Josey. It is an erotic novel that includes spankings, anal play, sexual
scenes, exhibitionism, age play, medical play, and more. If such material
offends you, please don’t buy this book.
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In this masterful debut by a major new voice in fiction, Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literature’s most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finn’s father. The result is a deeply original tour de force that springs from Twain’s classic novel but takes on a fully realized life of its own.Finn sets a tragic figure loose in a landscape at once familiar and mythic. It begins and ends with a lifeless body–flayed and stripped of all identifying marks–drifting down the Mississippi. The circumstances of the murder, and the secret of the victim’s identity, shape Finn’s story as they will shape his life and his death.Along the way Clinch introduces a cast of unforgettable characters: Finn’s terrifying father, known only as the Judge; his sickly, sycophantic brother, Will; blind Bliss, a secretive moonshiner; the strong and quick-witted Mary, a stolen slave who becomes Finn’s mistress; and of course young Huck himself. In daring to re-create Huck for a new generation, Clinch gives us a living boy in all his human complexity–not an icon, not a myth, but a real child facing vast possibilities in a world alternately dangerous and bright.Finn is a novel about race; about paternity in its many guises; about the shame of a nation recapitulated by the shame of one absolutely unforgettable family. Above all, Finn reaches back into the darkest waters of America’s past to fashion something compelling, fearless, and new. Praise for Finn“A brave and ambitious debut novel... It stands on its own while giving new life and meaning to Twain’s novel, which has been stirring passions and debates since 1885... triumph of imagination and graceful writing.... Bookstores and libraries shelve novels alphabetically by authors’ names. That leaves Clinch a long way from Twain. But on my bookshelves, they'll lean against each other. I’d like to think that the cantankerous Twain would welcome the company.”–_USA TODAY_“Ravishing...In the saga of this tormented human being, Clinch brings us a radical (and endlessly debatable) new take on Twain’s classic, and a stand-alone marvel of a novel. Grade: A.”–_ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY_“A fascinating, original read.”–_people_“Haunting...Clinch reimagines Finn in a strikingly original way, replacing Huck’s voice with his own magisterial vision–one that’s nothing short of revelatory...Spellbinding.”–_WASHINGTON POST_“Meticulously crafted...Marvelous imagination...The Finn of Clinch’s novel is certainly a racist villain but also psychologically disturbed and disconcertingly compelling.”–_SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE_“From the barest of hints in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Clinch has created a fully believable world inhabited by fully realized characters. Clinch treads dangerous ground in making one of America’s greatest novels his jumping-off point, but he brings it off magnificently...The language of this book is one of its great beauties..._Finn_ is far from one-dimensional, and that is another beauty of the book. Clinch has a knack for putting us squarely inside the heads of his characters....Clinch draws as compelling and realistic a picture as any we’re likely to find..._Finn_ stands on its own. The richness of its language, the depth of its characters, the emotional and societal tangles through which they struggle to navigate add up to a portrait of life on the Mississippi as we’ve never before experienced it.”–_dallas morning news_“His models may include Cormac McCarthy, and Charles Frazier, whose Cold Mountain also has a voice that sounds like 19th-century American (both formal and colloquial) but has a contemporary terseness and spikiness. This voice couldn’t be better suited to a historical novel with a modernist sensibility: Clinch’s riverbank Missouri feels postapocalyptic, and his Pap Finn is a crazed yet wily survivor in a polluted landscape...Clinch’s Pap is a convincingly nightmarish extrapolation of Twain’s. He’s the mad, lost and dangerous center of a world we’d hate to live in–or do we still live there?–and crave to revisit as soon as we close the book.”–_newsweek_“I haven’t been swallowed whole by a work of fiction in some time. Jon Clinch’s first novel has done it: sucked me under like I was a rag doll thrown into the wake of a Mississippi steamboat...Jon Clinch has turned in a nearly perfect first book, a creative response that matches The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in intensity and tenacious soul-searching about racism. I wish I could write well enough to construct a dramatic, subtle and mysterious story out of careful, plodding and unromantic prose, but for now I’m just happy to have an alchemist like Jon Clinch do it for me.”–_BOOKSLUT_“_Finn_ strikes its most original chords in its bold imagining of possibilities left unexplored by Huckleberry Finn.”–_austin american-statesman_“An inspired riff on one of literature’s all-time great villains...This tale of fathers and sons, slavery and freedom, better angels at war with dark demons, is filled with passages of brilliant description, violence that is close-up and terrifying...Everything in this novel could have happened, and we believe it... so the great river of stories is too, twisting and turning, inspiring such surprising and inspired riffs and tributes as Finn.”–_new orleans times-picayune_“A triumph of succesful plotting, convincing characterization and lyrical prose.”–_ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS_“Shocking and charming. Clinch creates a folk-art masterpiece that will delight, beguile and entertain as it does justice to its predecessor...In Finn, Clinch expands the bloodlines and scope of the original story and casts new light on the troubled legacy of our country’s infamous past.”–_new york post_“In Clinch’s retelling, Pap Finn comes vibrantly to life as a complex, mysterious, strangely likable figure...Clinch includes many sharply realized, sometimes harrowing, even gruesome scenes..._Finn_ should appeal not only to scholars of 19th century literature but to anyone who cares to sample a forceful debut novel inspired by a now-mythic American story.”–_atlanta journal-consitution_“What makes bearable this river voyage that never ventures far beyond the banks is the compelling narrative Clinch has created. He writes exceedingly well, not with the immediacy Twain imbued to Huck's voice, but with an impersonal narrator’s voice that almost perversely refuses to take sides. And the plot is masterful.”–_fredericksburg freelance-star_“Disturbing and darkly compelling...Clinch displays impressive imagination and descriptiveness...anyone who encounters Finn will long be hautned by this dark and bloody tale.”–_hartford courant_“Jon Clinch pulls off the near impossible in his new novel, Finn, which brings Huck's dad to life in all his terrible humanness...Clinch vividly paints the origins of the amazing Huck...powerfully told.”–_winston-salem journal_“Gripping...he inventively remaps known literary territory...the descriptive riffs are lucent.”–_chicago tribune_“The best debut so far of 2007.”–_men’s journal_“Inventing Huckleberry Finn’s father using only the thin scraps of information that Mark Twain provided is a pretty admirable feat, and reading Jon Clinch’s first novel provides an almost tactile pleasure...Clinch clearly respects Twain, but he doesn’t feel especially cowed by his inspiration, and some of his inventions qualify as genuine improvements on the original text.”–_washington city paper_“In this darkly luminous debut...Clinch lyrically renders the Mississippi River’s ceaseless flow, while revealing Finn’s brutal contradictions, his violence, arrogance and self-reproach.”–_Publishers Weekly_, STARRED review “Bold and deeply disturbing. . . A few incidents duplicate those in Twain, but the novels could not be more different; instead of Huck’s unlettered child’s voice, we have an omniscient narrative, grave, erudite and rich in the secretions of adult knowledge; terse dialogue acts as an effective counterpoint. All along, Clinch’s intent is to probe the nature of evil . . . a memorable debut, likely to make waves.”–_KIRKUS REVIEWS_, STARRED review “Every fan of Twain’s masterpiece will want to read this inspired spin-off, which could become an unofficial companion volume.”–_LIBRARY JOURNAL_, STARRED review “This is a bold debut that takes a few tentative steps in tandem with the familiar Twain, but then veers off dexterously down a much more insidious, harrowing path.”–_BOOKLIST_“Jon Clinch’s first novel Finn...succeeds wonderfully because its gritty lyricism is at once authentic and original...reminiscent at times of Cormac McCarthy...the eloquence of the telling will never make the courageous reader wish for a gentler touch. Like any appealing novel, Finn achieves the force of a dream with fascinating actions, indelible characters and spellbinding language. Its author is wily, astute and wise... Finn is a challenging and rewarding exploration of the suffering human heart. From the ominous shadow that was Pap Finn, Clinch has fashioned an unforgettable, twisted man and a marvelous novel.”–_ROANOKE TIMES_“Next month Clinch makes his publishing debut with Finn, taking up where Mark Twain left Mr. Finn 120 years ago: dead in a room surrounded by such mysterious oddities as a wooden leg, women's underclothing, and two black cloth masks. It’s a great read.” _–Knoxville News Sentinel_From the Hardcover edition. Views: 67
The box kite began to move, slowly at first, bumping over the uneven turf then gathering speed. The twin propellers whirred, the ground raced by beneath his wheels. He was taxiing now as fast as was safe. There was nothing between him and disaster except . . . flight!Two women watched as Adam Bailey made that first momentous attempt to take the first prototype box kite into the air, two women whom fate had already thrown together yet who were already sworn enemies.Alicia Morse, beautiful, spoiled and ruthless, was the daughter of Gilbert Morse, land owner and head of the family engineering firm. She had lived her life taking what she wanted - and now more than anything she wanted Adam.Sarah Thomas was the orphaned daughter of a village seamstress. She had been raised alongside Alicia, for Gilbert had taken pity on the child who had been destined for the workhouse. That was long ago now - at seventeen she was as daring as... Views: 67
The last book, chronologically, in the Sharpe series is set four years after the events of Sharpe's Waterloo . Richard Sharpe has retired to live on the farm in Normandy with his common-law wife Lucille Castineau. Patrick Harper has a bar in Dublin with Isabella and has put on a great deal of weight. The two are called out of retirement by an old friend who sends them on a mission to South America. Views: 67
1880: Hauntingly beautiful Rebecca Norman is condemned to die. As she awaits the hangman, she fashions two crude dolls from candle tallow.Over a century later, one of the dolls falls into the hands of young, newly married Cathy Slater. Under its malign influence, Cathy beings to change, tormented by emotions she does not understand and cannot control.Only one person can help her - a frail old woman who has waited with dread for an ancient evil to surface... Views: 67
