When a beautiful college student is found murdered in the catacombs beneath a monastary, Captain Natalia Monte of the Carabinieri is assigned to investigate. Could the killer be a professor the student had been sleeping with? A blind monk who loved her? Or perhaps a member of the brutal Napali criminal organization, the Camorra? As Natalia pursues her investigation, the crime families of Naples go to war over garbage-hauling contracts; and all across the city heaps of trash pile up, uncollected. When one of Natalia's childhood friends is caught up in the violence, her loyalties are tested, and each move she makes threatens her own life and the lives of those she loves.“When Jan Merete Weiss's Captain Natalia Monte investigates the murder of a beautiful young university student, she must thread an uneasy path between childhood loyalties, religious superstition, corrupt officials, growing piles of garbage, and warring factions of an entrenched Camorra. Weiss has done her homework, walked the pestilent streets, prowled the catacombs below the city, and created a thoroughly human woman who will do what she must to protect her part of a city that both enchants and infuriates her.” —Margaret Maron, author of the Judge Deborah Knott seriesReview“Where better to set a noir police procedural than in streets awash in uncollected trash, against a backdrop of smoke rising from Vesuvius? ... Donna Leon owns Venice, and David Hewson rules Rome. With this formidable debut novel, Weiss lays claim to Naples.”—*Boston Globe*“When Jan Merete Weiss's Captain Natalia Monte investigates the murder of a beautiful young university student, she must thread an uneasy path between childhood loyalties, religious superstition, corrupt officials, growing piles of garbage, and warring factions of an entrenched Camorra, a criminal organization that predates the better-known Mafia. Weiss has done her homework, walked the pestilent streets, prowled the catacombs below the city, and created a thoroughly human woman who will do what she must to protect her part of a city that both enchants and infuriates her.”—Margaret Maron, author of The Deborah Knott Series“Naples may be a city of charm and history, but it festers with crime, whether individual or organized. And it forms the backdrop for Jan Merete Weiss' absorbing debut novel.... Weiss invests her debut with a plot replete with shocks, her characters—even the minor ones—are drawn with care and come alive as complete beings on the page, and her vivid portrayal of Naples, in its glory and its gloom, is unforgettable.... These Dark Things tells a dark story and marks the beginning of what promises to be a bright series.”—*Richmond Times-Dispatch“[F]ull of intriguing contradictions and cultural clashes between modern Naples and its past, and Merete Weiss confidently weaves them into this distinctive mystery.”—Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel“Captain Natalia Monte, of the Carabinieri, and her Buddhist partner are intriguing opposites in their temperaments and their approaches to an investigation.” —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, picked up by: Star-Ledger, Grand Forks Herald, Kansas City Star*“The most intriguing aspect of this appealing debut is the female perspective it offers on the Neapolitan criminal underworld, both from Natalia’s side as a Carabinieri officer and from the points of view of the women who work for the Camorra. Full of vibrant descriptions of Naples and boasting a solid mystery plot, These Dark Things heralds the arrival of a most promising series. Recommend it, in particular, to fans of Michael Genelin’s Jana Matinova series.”—Booklist“Just when we thought all the possible plots had been taken, Weiss brings us a new police procedural set in Naples, Italy, that taxes the brain and gives us pause for the future of society... Natalia’s a favorite type of heroine because she’s no saint herself, so dig in and prepare to be riveted by this intense and violent read. VERDICT: Natalia represents a new era in Italian culture in which women can operate effectively as authority figures. For all readers who love a complex story fraught with tough decisions about friendship, family loyalties, and justice.”—*Library Journal“Absorbing. . . . The corruption of the Neapolitan bureaucracy, mirrored by the stench from uncollected garbage in the streets, taints but cannot overcome the vitality of the city. Weiss renders its bustling trattorias and colorful neighborhoods with flair.”—Publishers Weekly*About the AuthorJan Merete Weiss grew up in Puerto Rico. She studied poetry and painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and received a Master's degree from NYU. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines. She lives in New York and lectures at Lehman College. Views: 68
Can she give her baby a better life?After the tragic death of her parents, Caroline Shrigley is left with the responsibility of bringing up her younger sister, Jane, as well as running the family business at the Temperance Hotel. Carrie is beginning to think her care-free days are gone forever when Patrick Kennedy, a wild, handsome and passionate Irishman, turns her world upside down. The life she's dreamed of is finally within reach – until a devastating betrayal changes everything. Left with a newborn baby to care for, Carrie has some difficult choices to make. What must she sacrifice to protect her baby? Views: 68
A compulsively readable debut crime novel inspired by the legendary real-life murder of Kitty Genovese. At 4:00 A.M. on March 13, 1964, a young woman returning home from her shift at a local bar is attacked in the courtyard of her Queens apartment building. Her neighbors hear her cries; no one calls for help.Unfolding over the course of two hours, Good Neighbors is the story of the woman's last night. It is also the story of her neighbors, the bystanders who kept to themselves: the anxious Vietnam draftee; the former soldier planning suicide; the woman who thinks she's killed a child and her husband, who will risk everything for her. Revealing a fascinating cross-section of American society in expertly interlocking plotlines, Good Neighbors calls to mind the Oscar-winning movie Crash, and its suspense and profound sense of urban menace rank it with Hitchcock's Rear Window and the gritty crime novels of Dennis Lehane, Richard Price, and James Ellroy. Views: 68
Karl Patterson, sometime baseball card dealer and gambler, is recruited by his father, CEO of a dot-com, to check out the gambling habits of Ned, a key employee. Ned is found dead and Karl finds himself trying to solve the murder and save his father's company from takeover with the help of Arrow, his dad's exec assistant who has a mind and body of her own--both magnificent. Views: 68
The Seven Deadly Sins have sliced up the dictionary and taken what's theirs. No one vice is too greedy as each volume prides itself on having more than 500 entries. Word lovers will lust after these richly packaged volumes—and once you've collected all seven, you'll be the envy of all your friends.
Lust: A Dictionary for the Insatiable
Once just isn't enough. You'll want to ogle these entries multiple times, all night long. Nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, whatever their particular pleasure—or pleasures—they'll find 'em inside. Views: 68
This is the moving and powerful account of two remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 68
FBI Agent Thomas Bristol has wanted Cassi Nolan since he was a kid. Now Cassi is wanted by the law and he's tracking the little thief down. The former prom queen was always wild, even when she was befriending poor foster child Tommy. But he never thought she could turn this bad: swindling destitute old ladies out of thousands, jilting men after stealing their cash.Cassi has changed—no doubt about it. So he can't let those guileless blue eyes trick him into letting her go. Even if she does profess her innocence...and her story is starting to make sense. He made vows to follow the law to the letter. And he won't let a word like love get in the way. Views: 68
Noir has always been one of the most popular—and darkest—sub-genres of the mystery field. Following in the footsteps of such masters of the form as James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, some of the top writers of gay mystery explore this territory of amoral tough guys with a cynical view of the world by giving classic noir a gay twist. Edited by award winning author/editors Greg Herren and J.M. Redmann, Men of the Mean Streets changes the face of gay mystery—and the reader may never look at gay life and culture in the same way again. Views: 68
