In his second collection of short stories, Mike McCormack joins head and heart in a series of tales that weave a fluid vision of a world morphing between the real and the hyperreal. Amid hollow laughter a prisoner is drawn from his cell in the middle of the night to play a video game; two rural guards ponder the security threat posed by the only man in Ireland not to have written his memoirs; a child tries to offset his destiny as a serial killer by petitioning his father for a beating; a late-night American cop show becomes a savage analysis of a faltering marriage; two men turn up at the door of a slacker to give him news of his death and recruit him to some mysterious surveillance mission; an older brother worries about the health of his younger sibling; the prodigal son returns to reveal the fear and hypocrisy that lie at the heart of his brother’s life. In Forensic Songs McCormack’s characters find themselves wrestling with their identities in a terrain where love... Views: 68
A welcome return to the vividly realized city of Astreiant with its intricate magics and deadly politics, Point of Knives takes place in the interval between the widely praised earlier novels Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams. A fantastical mystery and a rousing adventure, Point of Knives also reveals for the first time the beginning of the romance between Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and the Leaguer Philip Eslingen. The events of Midsummer have not been forgotten by the Fall Balance, and Nicolas Rathe can hardly complain that they've done any harm to his reputation, or to the reputation of the Points in general. However, newfound fame has meant that he's more in demand as an investigator, and the increased recognition and workload make it difficult to pursue friendship, or anything more, with the handsome former soldier Philip Eslingen, his comrade in the rescue of the stolen children. Eslingen's employer Hanselin Caiazzo is still deeply involved in any number of questionably legal ventures. Any association between Rathe, a representative of Astreiant's queen, and Caiazzo's bodyguard Eslingen is regarded with suspicion from both sides of the law. When a father and son rumored to be "summer-sailors," or pirates, are murdered on the same night and Rathe finds Eslingen standing over the son's body, Eslingen proves his innocence easily enough, despite loyally refusing to say exactly what errand he's running for Caiazzo at that untimely hour of the morning. But when the old man's grandson and the son's self-proclaimed wife quarrel over the son's meager belongings, and Caiazzo dispatches Eslingen to represent his interests in the investigation, Rathe begins to wonder if their friendship is going to survive. Or whether he and Eslingen will survive at all. Views: 68
Matchmaking Case File #114Requested Match: Kyle Murphy, pro hockey player. (This guy can score.)Challenge: Not looking for anything serious (yet).Notes: Ridiculously attractive, sexy, irresistible...and I want him for myself!Matchmaker Marissa Collins is looking for a man. A hot, successful man. But the man she's considering--hockey player Kyle Murphy--is for a prospective client. Marissa's matchmaking professionalism goes MIA, though, when she meets Kyle...who's not coming along quietly.Kyle isn't looking for a match. He has his eye on the prize--the Stanley Cup--or at least he did before Marissa dropped into his life. Now he's playing a new game, one where getting Marissa in bed is the goal. And if he has to play dirty...that's even better. Views: 68
(Ulfrik Ormsson's Saga)"No land. No father. No brother. No
son." When his father is murdered and his brother
betrays him to steal his birthright as Jarl of Grenner, Ulfrik Ormsson finds himself
adrift on a sea of vengeance and corruption. Aided only by a beautiful slave, a
smiling warrior, and a group of blood-lusting berserkers, he must wrest back
his homelands by force and face the most difficult decision of all to even the
scales of justice and honor.
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One of our most indispensable writers . . . on everything that matters Views: 68
Kat Richardson never forgot sexy Spanish surgeon Miguel Vasquez, or the night they had four years ago, after which he left without a trace. How could she, when their little son is his mirror image? Now, in Seville, they meet again. Passion simmers...but Kat has news for Miguel that will shift their relationship to a whole new level! Views: 68
A Catholic cop tracks a killer operating amidst the sectarian violence of the conflict in Northern Ireland.Spring 1981. Northern Ireland. Belfast on the verge of outright civil war. The Thatcher government has flooded the area with soldiers, but nightly there are riots, bombings, and sectarian attacks.In the midst of the chaos, Sean Duffy, a young, witty, Catholic detective in the almost entirely Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, is trying to track down a serial killer who is targeting gay men. As a Catholic policeman, Duffy is suspected by both sides and there are layers of complications. For one thing, homosexuality is illegal in Northern Ireland in 1981. Then he discovers that one of the victims was involved in the IRA, but was last seen discussing business with someone from the Protestant UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force).Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles and a cop caught in the cross fire.From BooklistStarred Review Irish novelist McKinty returns to his roots with the first book of the Troubles Trilogy, set in his hometown during the time he grew up. At the height of conflict between the Catholic IRA and Protestant paramilitary factions in 1981, Sean Duffy, a Catholic police sergeant in the Protestant town of Carrickfergus, near Belfast, gets an unusual case. Two gay men have been murdered, their right hands severed (the classic modus for killing an informant) and switched between the two bodies. Duffy initially suspects a serial killer, but when no more gay men are targeted, he comes to believe that the second killing was done simply to cover up the first, in which the head of the IRA’s feared internal security force was the victim. Even after the case is reassigned, Duffy defies orders and keeps digging, coming up against corruption and collusion. Everything in this novel hits all the right notes, from its brilliant evocation of time and place to razor-sharp dialogue to detailed police procedures. McKinty, author of the Forsythe and Lighthouse Trilogies, has another expertly crafted crime trilogy going here, and readers will want to see what he does in the concluding two books. --Michele Leber Review"If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland, The Cold Cold Ground is what he would have written." --Times of London"Set against a backdrop of riots in the middle of the 1981 hunger strikes and the death of Bobby Sands, McKinty creates a marvelous sense of time and place; an evocation of darkness and horror, of corruption and collusion,... the immediacy of death and the cheapness of life... . There will be many readers waiting for the next adventure of the dashing and intrepid Sergeant Duffy." --Irish Independent"A literary thriller that is as concerned with exploring the poisonously claustrophobic demimonde of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and the self-sabotaging contradictions of its place and time, as it is with providing the genre's conventional thrills and spills. The result is a masterpiece of Troubles crime fiction: had David Peace, Eoin McNamee, and Brian Moore sat down to brew up the great Troubles novel, they would have been very pleased indeed to have written The Cold Cold Ground. --Irish Times"McKinty kicks off a trilogy with this 1981 Belfast-set tale that provides a fascinating look at everyday life in Northern Ireland during 'the Troubles.' The protagonist is clever and funny, the interaction of the police and various factions is eye-opening and the mystery is intriguing, with an unexpected twist at the end." --RT Book Reviews, Four Stars"VERDICT: For fans of Stewart Neville's crime novels, a new and harrowing Irish trilogy is underway. At turns violent and labyrinthine, McKinty's (Dead I Well May Be) fine police procedural is also the ultimate page-turner. I cannot wait for Book Two!" --Library Jouirnal, Starred Review Views: 68
