Science Fiction. 111287 words long. First published via Abintra Press Views: 7
Kimmie's home is on the streets of Copenhagen. To live she must steal. She has learned to avoid the police and never to stay in one place for long. But now others are trying to find her. And they won't rest until she has stopped moving - for good.Detective Carl Mørck of Department Q, the cold cases division, has received a file concerning the brutal murder of a brother and sister twenty years earlier. A group of boarding school students were the suspects at the time - until one of their number confessed and was convicted. So why is the file of a closed case on Carl's desk? Who put it there? Who believes the case is not solved?A police detective wants to talk to Kimmie and someone else is asking questions about her. They know she carries secrets certain powerful people want to stay buried deep. But Kimmie has one of her own. It's the biggest secret of them all. And she can't wait to share it with them . . . Views: 7
Journalist Grace loves her son Jack with all her heart but she can't quite understand why, since his birth, she has felt at odds with herself. And – to add to her worries – she is still as heavy as she was at nine months pregnant and can't remember the last time she put on make up without leaving streaks across her face or smudging her mascara. This is a far cry from the glamorous Health and Beauty Editor she used to be but when the office bimbo reveals that all her colleagues have been talking about her about her back, things come to a head. The magazine Grace works for wants her to be a guinea pig, someone who will be the subject of their little experiment to have someone's life transformed. Yes, this may involve taking some happy pills. It may involve crying like an eejit in front of her hard-nosed editor Sinead, being weighed in public, and wondering whether or not she wants to stay married…but happiness always has some sort of price. Doesn’t it? Views: 7
Something is about to go wrong. Very wrong. What do you expect if the Supreme Being decides to get away from it all for a few days, leaving his naturally inquisitive son to look after the cosmic balance of things? A minor hiccup with a human soul and a welding machine soon leads to a violent belch, and before you know it the human condition-not to mention the lemming condition-is tumbling down the slippery slope to chaos. Views: 7
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times—modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society—and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment. With The First World War, John Keegan, one of our most eminent military historians, fulfills a lifelong ambition to write the definitive account of the Great War for our generation.Probing the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict, Keegan takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's crowned heads (all of them related to one another by... Views: 7
Book 31 of House of Winslow. Jennifer Winslow had known only the finest life had to offer—until her family lost everything in the crash of '29. Moving from New York to a small farm in Georgia, Jenny struggles to adapt to her tough new life. Then, through a startling series of events, she finds herself running for County Sheriff. Jenny soon discovers she has fierce enemies among the local moonshiners, gangsters, and even the citizens themselves, who scoff at the idea of a female sheriff. Only two men support her: an idealistic young lawyer and a reluctant deputy. She finds herself drawn to both men and struggles to ferret out God's choice for her. In a blazing shoot-out, Jennifer Winslow finds her way, but not without cost. Views: 7
"Joan Wickersham's brilliant The News From Spain shows, in all its twisty beauty, what a short story collection can do. The stories are gorgeous in themselves, but the way they speak to each other is truly extraordinary."--Elizabeth McCracken, author of An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination From the author of the acclaimed memoir The Suicide Index, a virtuosic collection of stories, each a stirring parable of the power of love and the impossibility of understanding, much less controlling, it. In these seven beautifully wrought variations on a theme, a series of characters trace and retrace eternal yet ever-changing patterns of love and longing, connection and loss. The stories range over centuries and continents--from eighteenth-century Vienna, where Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte are collaborating on their operas, to America in the 1940s, where a love triangle unfolds among a doctor, a journalist, and the president's... Views: 7
Finn McCool was born a giant with the gift of Celtic wit but—at least in his youth—is prone to bad luck. One day McCool will become the chieftain of Fianna hunter-warriors, and the greatest Irish folk hero of all time. But until then, he has some growing up to do.In The Green Hero, renowned mythologist Bernard Evslin recounts the tales of Finn McCool's early years: his attempts to woo Murtha, the girl he fell in love with when he was just three days old; his torment by the Fish-hag; his struggles with the whims of the goddess Amara; and more. This amusing collection retells the early exploits of a man who became a legend. Views: 7
The dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a 'suspect' who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game - and quickly. More than their lives will depend on it. ‘He's gone and written a novel too! I suspect it will be just as good as everything else he's written, and that's not fair at all’ George R R Martin Views: 7
Deidre Aponte is a beautiful, young, and sexy FBI Special Agent assigned to the Washington, D.C. field office. Between a complicated affair and problems with her alcoholic mother, she thinks life can't get any more difficult—until the daughter of a New York Senator is kidnapped and Deidre is assigned to the case. She goes undercover in New York City and quickly associates herself with three of the city's most notorious female drug dealers, who call themselves the F.A.B.Undercover and alone, Special Agent Aponte finds her strong allegiance to the FBI and the United States government fading fast. With the lines between good and evil blurring, she uncovers facts that thrust her into a race to save her own life. She soon finds out that she, and all the members of the F.A.B, may be bound by tragedy and brought together by fate. Deidre will have to pull out all the stops to prevent herself from getting in too deep. Views: 7
Puppy Girls is an anthology of three novellas. In each story, a young woman is trained as an obedient puppy girl. The collection starts with Learning Her Place. Unlike many other business owners, Jane has no problem firing employees. So when Nick skips his assigned projects and seems to shirk is duties, Jane heads straight to his office, ready to terminate his contract.It should be easy, except Nick has a plan. He lets her saunter into his office, all high and mighty and very much convinced of her own superiority. But the second she turns her back on him, Nick leaps up and wraps something about her neck. It fastens with a beep. Thinking this is some sort of prank, Jane tries to pull it off. The second her fingers touch the collar, it shocks her.From now on, Jane is going to be his puppy dog, except Jane won’t be broken so easily. She thinks she can outwit Nick except for one thing. The collar responds to his commands and can control her actions. Little by little, he’ll have to use the collar less and less because Jane will become his obedient little doggie girl.The next story, Puppy Girl, is about how Cale Smith trains Alyssa. After years of studying psychology and conditioning, he has learned how to instill obedience in the most resistant of subjects. With his techniques, he is convinced he can train any human to obey his every command. Now all he needs is a new test subject. So when Alyssa returns to her dorm room, she is grabbed from behind. Someone takes her hands and binds them behind her back. Alyssa tries to cry out for help, but a damp cloth is slipped over her mouth, she inhales again, and soon passes out. Feeling groggy and disoriented, Alyssa wakes up to her new life. Cale has her strapped down as he tells her all about what’s going to happen. First, he’s going to strip her of her clothes, then he’s going to collar and leash her. She is going to be his puppy from now on. Over the next few days, she is forced to eat and drink from doggie bowls, she crawls at his feet, and he teaches her tricks, each one more demeaning than the last. It won’t be long before Cale’s puppy girl is brought to heel. Finally, An Obedient Puppy is about Marie, a smart, beautiful woman who is absolutely convinced no one knows her true purpose at Garret Richardson’s office. Her task is simple: use a flash drive to download his hard drive. On her chosen night, she makes it all the way to his office and even gets the drive. Right as she’s coming out, he’s waiting for her. Garret knew full well why she tried so hard to get this position. Now that she has committed a major felony, he has an offer for her. One of his clients is a technology company which works in behavioral modification. They have a new collar; if Marie agrees to test it, he won’t go to the police. Garret has plans for his new acquisition. Before she realizes what’s happened, Marie is stripped, muzzled, leashed, and caged. She is hauled off and transported to one of Garret’s estates. There, he will teach her new tricks like rolling over, begging for food, and drinking from a bowl. If she doesn't find a way out, Marie might be forced to accept her new role as his slave, his pet, and his dog. Publisher's Note: This 73,000 book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable. BDSM themes include: puppy play, humiliation, light exhibitionism, spanking, orgasm denial, behavioral modification, teasing, and other forms of punishment. Views: 7
Nurse Cassidy Rae is a stickler for rules, but even she revels in the magic of Christmas--unlike new registrar Brad Donovan, who hates Christmas. With his surfer-boy looks and cocky charm, he's severely testing Cassidy's goodwill to all men. But in the festive season miracles can happen, and Brad's about to give Cassidy a yuletide to remember.... Views: 7
