A chance meeting between a middle-aged woman, a widower, and a semi-orphaned child in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, brings together three people who grapple with a past of loss and betrayal. Six-year-old Karla, whose mother died in a car crash, has a hard time accepting the loss. Anna, her aunt and guardian, struggles with her former husband's deception and her shattered confidence in men, and Jonas, artist and teacher, mourns the death of his wife. While trying to help Karla, a talented but troubled child, Anna and Jonas develop feelings for each other that go beyond friendship. The budding romance, however, hits a snag when Anna discovers a sinister secret in Jonas's past. While the two adults have come to an impasse, young Karla takes matters into her own hands. Together with a friend, she develops a plan to bring the two uncooperative adults back together. The plan, however, creates havoc and as it begins to unravel, Karla is forced to learn some difficult lessons. An Uncommon Family is a story about loss, lies, and betrayal but also about the healing power of love and forgiveness. It takes place in Switzerland, New York City, and Guadalajara, Mexico.About the AuthorBorn and raised in Switzerland, Christa Polkinhorn has always had the desire to explore the world outside of her beautiful but tiny country. As a young woman, she traveled through Europe, came to the United States on an exchange program, and ended up staying. Her travels led her to China and Japan as well as South America. She studied literature and linguistics in Zurich and California. Now, she lives and works as writer and translator in southern California and divides her time between the United States and her native Switzerland. The tension and excitement this “double life” creates informs her literary work. Most of her novels take place in several countries. Aside from writing and traveling, Christa is an avid reader and a lover of the arts and dark chocolate. Christa has published three novels, AN UNCOMMON FAMILY (Family Portrait, Book 1), LOVE OF A STONEMASON (Family Portrait, Book 2), EMILIA, (Family Potrait, Book 3) as well as a collection of poems, PATH OF FIRE. AN UNCOMMON FAMILY is also available in German under the title EINE UNGEWÖHNLICHE FAMILIE. Views: 70
A long-dead climber who comes in from the cold brings murder to the mountain air. Mountaineer Reginald Kincaid was believed to have died during an expedition to climb Mount Everest. It comes as a shock to his fellow climbers when he turns up again 22 years later and the mystery is compounded by the death of Arthur Fleece, Kincaid's climbing partner on the Everest attempt. Fleece falls to his death on Mount Snowdon in an apparent accident, but the feud that had developed between Fleece and the resurrected Kincaid sparks a murder investigation for George Gently with a 'dead' man as the prime suspect. Views: 70
How on earth did you piece together all this?' he asked in wonder. Mr Reeder shook his head sadly.'I have that perversion,' he said. 'It is a terrible misfortune. I see evil in everything. I have the mind of a criminal.'Let us introduce you to the enigmatic J. G. Reeder, a timid, gentle middle-aged man who carries a furled up umbrella and wears an old-fashioned flat-topped bowler hat. He is one of the great unsung sleuths of mystery fiction, created by the prolific Edgar Wallace, the 'King of Thrillers'. Despite his insignificant appearance, Reeder is a cold and ruthless detective who credits his success to his 'criminal mind' which allows him to solve a series of complex and audacious crimes and outwit the most cunning of villainous masterminds.This volume is a rich feast for crime fiction fans, containing the first three volumes in the Reeder canon: two novels, Room 13 and Terror Keep; and the classic collection of short stories, The Mind of J. G. Reeder. Views: 70
Welcome to the unlit bleakness of grunge crime fiction. Nick Stefanos
(Nick's Trip) inhabits D.C.'s most squalid streets, tending bar, boozing
for free, wasting his 30s and dating a girl with a taste for the sauce
to rival his. One night, out on a bender and nearly passed out, he hears
a murder being committed and decides to find the killers (how a guy
this hammered can later remember so much is cheerfully glossed over).
Nick gets himself an alarmingly straight-arrow partner and dives
headlong into the underbelly of the porn trade. Two young black men have
been dealing drugs and selling their bodies; one is dead, and the other
is missing. Stefanos only pauses to drink, listen to music by bands
with whom only the hippest readers will be familiar and have a few bouts
of desperate sex. Although his innumerable descriptions of bars and
boozing might leave some bored (or queasy), Pelecanos joins company with
James Ellroy, Andrew Vachss and Jack O' Connell in extending the
noirest tones of crime fiction. Here, he unleashes a lacerating view of
urban angst and degradation. Views: 70
Rosamond Bernier has lived an unusually full life—remarkable for its vividness and diversity of experience—and she has known many (one is tempted to say all) of the greatest artists and composers of the twentieth century.In Some of My Lives, Bernier has made a kind of literary scrapbook from an extraordinary array of writings, ranging from diary entries to her many contributions to the art journal L’OEIL, which she cofounded in 1955. The result is a multifaceted self-portrait of a life informed and surrounded by the arts.Through the stories of her encounters with some of the twentieth century’s great artists and composers—including Pablo Picasso, Leonard Bernstein, Max Ernst, Aaron Copeland, Malcolm Lowry, and Karl Lagerfeld—we come to understand the sheer richness of Bernier’s experiences, interactions, and memories. The result is pithy, hilarious, and wise—a richly rewarding chronicle of... Views: 70
The North Atlantic, 1726Captain Fly is the greatest pirate to sail the seven seas - or so he says. But his captives Jed and Arthur think he's a bad-tempered bully. Now Captain Fly has ordered his prisoners to work for him as pirates, or he'll kill them! It's time to stop the cruel captain for good...A fantastic story blending pirate legend with historical fact and Terry Deary's vividly imagined characters! Views: 70
In the latest Novel of the Elder Races, a Queen on the brink of sanity has no one to rely on except the Wyr warrior whose conviction is every bit as strong as his passion. In order to save his friend's life, Wyr sentinel Rune Ainissesthai made a bargain with Vampyre Queen Carling—without knowing what she would ask from him in return. But when Rune attempts to make good on his debt, he finds a woman on the edge. Recently, Carling's Power has become erratic, forcing her followers to flee in fear. Despite the danger, Rune is drawn to the ailing Queen and decides to help her find a cure for the serpent's kiss—the vampyric disease that's killing her. With their desire for each other escalating just as quickly as Carling's instability spirals out of control, the sentinel and the Queen will have to rely on each other if they have any hope of surviving the serpent's kiss. Views: 70
A Terran Times Novella – Working in Mediation has been a challenge, but dealing with a temperamental dragon who claims her is a whole new job for Nya.
Nya has enjoyed her time on Arcros, mediating minor disputes and arranging marriages. She never expected that she had been offered the position based on her suitability to be a Draikyn mate, and that her soon to be lover was working his way through stone pathways to her side. Hyfor is not what she was expecting, but as she was expecting to work in obscurity, she wasn’t really prepared for anything. Mating with a dragon might be a good bar joke, but the reality far eclipsed the fantasy. Views: 70
