Living in South Central
L.A., Socrates Fortlow is a sixty-year-old ex-convict, still strong
enough to kill men with his bare hands. Now freed after serving
twenty-seven years in prison, he is filled with profound guilt about his
own crimes and disheartened by the chaos of the streets. Along with his
gambler friend Billy Psalms, Socrates calls together local people of
all races from their different social stations—lawyers, gangsters,
preachers, Buddhists, businessmen—to conduct meetings of a Thinkers’
Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in life. The
street philosopher enjoins his friends to explore—even in the knowledge
that there’s nothing that they personally can do to change the ways of
the world—what might be done anyway, what it would take to change
themselves. Infiltrated by undercover cops, and threatened by strain
from within, tensions rise as hot-blooded gangsters and respectable
deacons fight over issues of personal and social responsibility. But
simply by asking questions about racial authenticity, street justice,
infidelity, poverty, and the possibility of mutual understanding,
Socrates and his unlikely crew actually begin to make a difference. In turns outraged and affectionate, The Right Mistake
offers a profoundly literary and ultimately redemptive exploration of
the possibility of moral action in a violent and fallen world. Views: 16
BUSINESS
OR PLEASURE?
Public relations whiz, Kit Saunders, was looking forward to a challenge—if not
exactly the kind of challenge posed by Greyson Corey, the small-town
Pennsylvania entrepreneur who hired her to spruce up his image. One look at the
drop-dead gorgeous client and Kit concluded that his image was already perfect.
Never before had Greyson taken such a personal interest in public relations as
he did when he met Kit. Unfortunately, he was a man who honored his own vow:
never mix business with pleasure. Until Kit made it clear that taking care of
business was a pleasure, and love could be the most satisfying enterprise of
their careers.
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Every now and then, the Devil likes to pop up into the world for an adventure. He's a trickster and a mischief-maker, and just as full of vanity and other human failings. But he's also a gifted storyteller. The Devil's antics are presented in these two collections of stories, The Devil's Storybook and The Devil's Other Storybook, together in one volume. They make for delightfully wicked reading and are accompanied by charming illustrations by Natalie Babbitt. Views: 16
In an apocalyptic world where the dead roam the earth, Carl Teegarden lays dying. Fatally wounded by the undead, he watches his lifeblood drain from his ravaged body and struggles to come to terms with his inevitable fate. Knowing that this fate will not necessarily end with his final breath, he fights through the pain and looks back upon his life, remembering the events which have led to his lonely demise. Only he isn't alone. The spirit of a woman with whom he'd found love in a ruined world stands by his side, her loyalty transcending the barriers of life and death. Smoldering across the room is the ghost of a small child whose hatred of this man burns with such intensity that no amount of suffering can sate his thirst for revenge. All the while, legions of the walking dead scour the countryside for the slightest sign of life. As their destinies intertwine, stories of love and devotion intertwine with failing and regret across a timeline marked by the grim struggle for survival. And in this nightmare world, each will come to understand, in their own way, exactly what it means to be numbered among the dead and dying.... Views: 16
This is no fairy tale... Haunted by nightmares of a black dog, sick to death of my mind-numbing career and heart-numbing fiancé, I impulsively walked out of my life - and fell into Faerie. Terrified, fascinated, I discover I possess a power I can't control: my wishes come true. After an all-too-real attack by the animal from my dreams, I wake to find myself the captive of the seductive and ruthless fae lord Rogue. In return for my rescue, he demands an extravagant price - my firstborn child, which he intends to sire himself... With no hope of escaping this world, I must learn to harness my magic and build a new life despite the perils - including my own inexplicable and debilitating desire for Rogue. I swear I will never submit to his demands, no matter what erotic torment he subjects me to... 92,000 words Views: 16
Imagine a film made in black-and-white. Now imagine a novel written in black-and-white. The Rat And The Serpent is a gothic tale relating the extraordinary fate of Ügliy the cripple. Raised as a beggar in the soot-shrouded Mavrosopolis, Ügliy has to scramble for scraps of food in the gutter if he is to survive. But one day his desperation and humiliation is noticed by the mysterious Zveratu, and soon he is taking his first faltering steps into the world of the citidenizens. He meets the seductive Raknia and the arrogant Atavalens; one destined to be his lover, the other his mortal enemy. But as Ügliy ascends he becomes aware of a darkness at the heart of the city in which he lives. Slowly, he realises that the Mavrosopolis exists gloomy and forbidding around a terrible secret… The Rat And The Serpent is a dark phantasmagoria related entirely in monochrome. Read this and enter a world portrayed as never before in the field of fantastic literature. “… the vividly depicted grim urban setting and numerous absorbing secondary characters keep the pages turning.” (Publishers Weekly) “… some interesting ideas, a new take on the cityscape, and some lovely imagery. And any book that causes me to think so much about its intentions has to be worth a read.” (Emerald City) “… a novel written in black and white in the same way that a movie is filmed in black-and-white, and that indeed is both uncommon and borne out by the crisp prose.” (Trashotron) “… what we're being invited to read here is a sort of livre noir, black-and-white in the cinematic sense. A novel literally without colour. And [Palmer] has been thorough about this -- not only is no colour beyond the monochrome named, all things and substances in the book (most notably food) have been carefully chosen for their blackness, whiteness or greyness. Characters dine on "goat's cheese, olives and rice, mushrooms fried in squid ink," for example. It's an original reading experience, a rich and velvety kind of monochrome.” (Infinity Plus) Views: 16
Jane Weld was eleven years old when her father, Luce, disappeared in 1957. His skiff was found drifting near a marsh, empty except for his hunting coat and a box of shotgun shells. No one in their small New England town knew for sure what happened until, three years later, Luce's skull rolled out of a gravel pit, a bullet hole in the temple. Rumors sprang up that he had been murdered by the jealous husband of his mistress, Ada Varick. Now, half a century later, Jane is still searching for the truth of her father's death, a mystery made more urgent by the unexpected romance that her willful daughter, Marne, has struck up with one of Ada's sons. As the love affair intensifies, Jane and Ada meet for their weekly Friday game of Scrabble, a pastime that soon transforms into a cat-and-mouse game of words long left unspoken, and dark secrets best left untold. A Boston Globe bestseller Look for special features inside. Join the... Views: 16
Short-listed for the 2013 Bony Blithe Award It is late March 1868. In Munich, composer Richard Wagner is completing his new opera Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg. It has been a difficult few years for him, and much depends upon the success of this new work. Following the tense auditions, an anonymous note warns Wagner that the premiere will be the date of his ruination. Enter Inspector Hermann Preiss, who discovers a complication. Her name is Cornelia Vanderhoute, and she claims to have been made pregnant after a typical brief Wagner fling.A series of murders of people involved in the new production suggests Cornelia is carrying out a deadly program of revenge. Even Wagner and his wife are threatened. Will Preiss succeed in discovering the writer of the note? Will he manage to prevent the murder of Wagner, and what will happen on the night of the premiere? Views: 16
Dave Frome is a man with a secret past, which only a few friends know. Holding himself responsible for the death of his family, he has vowed never to carry a gun again. All he wants is to be left alone to raise cattle on his Broken Arrow spread, but the mining interests in the hills contaminate the water which brought life to Frome's cattle. Hesta Le Roy, daughter of a neighboring rancher, is horrified when Frome refuses to carry a gun against the miners who have, she thought, killed her own brother. It is not until he sees an innocent man brutally lynched that Frome buckles on his gun to battle with the bad men of both factions and eventually win the hand of the girl he loves. Views: 16
