Dan Brown’s new novel, the eagerly awaited follow-up to his #1 international phenomenon, The Da Vinci Code , which was the bestselling hardcover adult novel of all time, will be published on September 15, 2009. The Lost Symbol will once again feature Dan Brown’s unforgettable protagonist, Robert Langdon. “ The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait,” said Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Brown’s longtime editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday said, “Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises.” "This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," said Brown. "Weaving five years of research into the story's twelve-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine." Views: 20
Modesitt (The Lord Protector's Daughter) launches a trilogy set in a brand new world with this straightforward, exposition-heavy story. Apprentice portraitist Rhennthyl finds out the hard way that he has the magical ability called Imaging: an explosion kills his master right after Rhenn wishes for just such an event. Rhenn's ability, which allows him to form objects from thin air and slay with a glance, appears to be quite strong, and he begins training as a covert operative. Just when he starts to relax into his new career, an unknown assassin tries to kill him. This uncomplicated narrative feels like a prequel, with plenty of setup but not much action. Readers will look to future installments for the derring-do promised by Rhenn's martial studies and frequent mentions of stormy international politics. Views: 20
Wendy Darling learns. What appears to be good may prove otherwise, and what seems to be evil....is irresistible.In this startling new vision of a cultural classic, Wendy intends to live happily ever after with Peter Pan. But Time, like this tale, behaves in a most unsettling way.As Wendy mothers the Lost Boys in Neverland, they thrive on adventure. She struggles to keep her boys safe from the Island's many hazards, but she finds a more subtle threat encroaching from an unexpected quarter... The children are growing up, and only Peter knows the punishment.Yet in the inky edges of the Island, the tales Wendy tells to the Lost Boys come true. Captain Hook is real, and even the Wonderful Boy can't defend his Wendy against this menace. Hook is a master manipulator, devising vengeance for his maiming. Insidious and seductive, Hook has his reasons for tempting Wendy to grow up.Revenge is only the first. Deepening the characters so artfully sketched by J.M. Barrie, Hook & Jill reveals the dark side of innocence at which Barrie hinted in the figure of Peter Pan. It brings alive a daring Wendy who asks questions and seeks truth; it delves into the man, Hook, the iconic villain. Striding from fairy-tale and thrusting into reality, Captain Hook becomes a frightening force indeed. Views: 20
If you loved Luckiest Girl Alive, Reconstructing Amelia, and The Good Girl, you'll devour this stunning debut novel about two college best friends, one of whom disappears during a trip abroad while the other survives to tell the tale of their twisted friendship.Glo never thought she'd become best friends with a girl like Cyn. Blonde, blue-eyed, and stunningly gorgeous, Cyn is the kind of girl other girls love to hate. Yet Cyn is the only person who embraces Glo when she transfers to their tiny liberal arts college in Florida, looking for a second chance to get things right after falling apart at her first-choice school. With her dark sense of humor and bad-girl ways, Cyn is captivating to a nice girl like Glo, and soon they're inseparable. Until they both fall for the same guy. It's Cyn who suggests they share Raj. Half the time he'll be Cyn's boyfriend, the other half he'll be Glo's. And for a while, everything goes smoothly. Until Glo... Views: 20
A dynamic and hilarious new hero for early middle-grade.Andrew "Danger" North is no ordinary third-grader. He, his brother, Jack, and his father are spies. That is what Jack has always told him, and everything Andrew has learned from his dad's favorite spy movies tells him it must be true. When Andrew comes across his brother's graphing calculator, he's sure it's a communication device that will put him in touch with the secret spy headquarters. But instead of punching in a greeting to the spy society, Andrew accidentally punches in a code that might blow up the world! And if that isn't bad enough, his math teacher then confiscates the top secret communication device and takes it to the mysterious Storage Room B. Now Andrew is on a spy mission to find his brother's communicator and save the world from mass destruction. Will he be able to save the world?From the Hardcover edition. Views: 20
A man with a prison lisp was overheard during lunch in the Savoy Hotel in London. He stated that The Toff (The Honourable Richard Rollison) was amongst those he would like to murder. No description is passed to The Toff, but he wonders if it was Charmion, who was released from Dartmoor prison two weeks before - a man who had vowed to carry out such a threat. However, there were many others who might seek revenge. It is a case of too many killers who might 'spoil the murder', but if The Toff is the next victim ...? Views: 20
Cait has led a simple, secluded life in the Scottish woods, but her world suddenly turns upside down when she learns she’s the unwanted daughter of the king. She’s forced to marry a forbidding stranger, Duncan, the Devil of Inverness, who has already buried one wife. But Cait and the Devil find they are more perfectly matched than either suspected. His deep desire to dominate and discipline his new wife is matched only by her bravery and willingness to submit to his perverse demands and desires. But a phantom threat stalks Cait, and Duncan is troubled by her secret and mysterious past. Can Duncan protect his vulnerable wife? Will their powerful and unusual brand of love prevail? This is a fantasy novel set in the Middle Ages and has a heavy domestic discipline theme within the confines of an affectionate marriage. It contains various spanking and discipline scenes, as well as oral and anal sex. It also contains some limited scenes of non-eroticized nonconsensuality. Views: 20
Donna Leon's eighteen novels have won her countless fans, heaps of critical acclaim, and a place among the top ranks of international crime writers. Through the warm-hearted, perceptive, and principled Commissario Guido Brunetti, Leon's best-selling books have explored Venice in all its aspects: history, tourism, high culture, food, family, but also violent crime and political corruption.
In About Face, Leon returns to one of her signature subjects: the environment, which has reached a crisis in Italy. Incinerators across the south of Italy are at full capacity, burning who-knows-what and releasing unacceptable levels of dangerous air pollutants, while in Naples, enormous garbage piles grow in the streets. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals and a major chemical complex across the lagoon, the issue is never far from the fore.
Environmental concerns become significant in Brunetti's work when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father-in-law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation into murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he's seen before. Views: 20
Part memoir, part comic monologue, this is an ensemble of mishaps and anecdotes that, taken together, reveals the ups and downs of one woman's life. Relentlessly self-deprecating, Sylvia Smith's diary at first seems to relay the humdrum, everydayness of living, yet it steadily gains momentum as a darker undertone gathers force. Interspersed between humorous tales of first-date disasters and "get-rich-quick" schemes gone awry, the reader is thrown off-balance by the loss of sexual innocence and a pervading sense of loneliness. As Sylvia stumbles from one temporary job to another, and through a variety of furnished flats, her deadpan delivery is shot through with moments of sandpaper-dry wit. Views: 20
The Modern World (aka Dangerous Offspring)
(The third book in the Fourlands series)
(2007)
"Steph Swainston's writing is as elegantly superior to most other fantasy as a samurai sword is to a flint dagger."
Richard Morgan
The third of the castle novels will take the reader ever deeper into a world of beauty and terror. A world led by an immortal emperor and the circle; his 50 immortal helpers. It is a world with an absentee god, a world that has been fighting a war against giant insects. A world like no other. There will be more insights into Jant, the emperors vain winged messenger, and the shift, the surreal other life Jant enters when he overdoses on his drug of choice and where he meets the dead in a land that defies logic. This is a fantasy series like no other - a literary fantasy with the verve and originality to stand alongside the best of Mervyn Peake, M. John Harrison and China Mieville. Views: 20
