Venice, 1745—an age of reckless pleasures, playful artifice, and baroque excess. An accident has reduced Tito Amato’s glorious singing voice to a husky croak. A tragedy— but also an opportunity. The once celebrated male soprano is now determined to prove himself as a director. With the theater losing subscribers to a rival company headed by an unscrupulous impresario, San Marco’s Maestro Torani charges Tito with locating the perfect opera to fill the seats in time for the opening of Carnival.Surprisingly, a second-rate composer provides the very thing—an opera so replete with gorgeous melodies the public speculates it was written by the late Antonio Vivaldi. Even more disconcerting are the rumors swirling around Angeletto, a male soprano imported from Naples to sing the lead. Is the singer truly a castrato or a female soprano engaging in a daring but lucrative masquerade?Both matters lead the perplexed Tito into dangerous waters that turn murderous when Maestro Torani undergoes a series of increasingly vicious attacks ending in his death. And Tito is the prime suspect. His own life as well as the future of Teatro San Marco now depend on his skills as a sleuth…. ** Views: 5
Winner of the 2014 Duff Cooper Prize. Winner of the 2015 Welsh Book of the Year Award. Shortlisted for the 2015 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Shortlisted for the 2015 PEN Ackerley prize. Longlisted for the 2014 Thwaites Wainwright Prize. Disarming, eloquent and illuminating, this meditation on place, time and memory, could only have been written by a poet, or a novelist, or a professor. Happily, Patrick McGuinness is all three, and Other People's Countries is a marvel: a stunning piece of lyrical writing, rich in narrative and character - full of fresh ways of looking at how we grow up, how we start to make sense of the world. This book evolved out of stories the author told his children: stories about the Belgian border town of Bouillon, where his mother came from, and where he has been going three times a year since he was a child - first with his parents and now with his son and daughter. This town of eccentrics, of charm, menace and wonder, is re-created beautifully - 'Most of my childhood,' he says, 'feels more real to me now than it did then'. For all its sharp specifics, though, this is a book about the common, universal concerns of childhood and the slowly developing deep sense of place that is the bedrock for our memories. Alert and affectionate, full of great curiosity and humour, Other People's Countries has all the depth and complexity of its own subject - memory - and is an unfashionably distilled, resonant book: unusual and exquisite.** Views: 5
THE FIRST BOOK IN A HISTORICAL SERIES THAT'S PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE BOXCAR CHILDREN! Jack, Frances, and Frances's younger brother Harold have been ripped from the world they knew in New York and sent to Kansas on an orphan train at the turn of the century. As the train chugs closer and closer to its destination, the children begin to hear terrible rumors about the lives that await them. And so they decide to change their fate the only way they know how. . . . They jump off the train. There, in the middle of the woods, they meet a boy who will transform their lives forever. His name is Alexander, and he tells them they've come to a place nobody knows about—especially not adults—and "where all children in need of freedom are accepted." It's a place called Wanderville, Alexander says, and now Jack, Frances, and Harold are its very first citizens. Views: 5
Camp Bastion: SAS trooper Tom Buckingham finds himself in deep trouble for taking down a renegade Afghan soldier. Instead of being proclaimed a hero, he's made a scapegoat for the incident and drummed out of the regiment. On his return to Britain, disillusioned and embittered, Tom's unique services are quickly snapped up by charismatic entrepreneur, Vernon Rolt, a powerful billionaire with political ambitions, very few scruples and a questionable agenda. With riot on the country's streets, a government in disarray and a visit from the American president imminent, there has never been a better time to make a play for power. But, as Tom will soon discover, in the affairs of state, hidden forces are always at work and he is quickly drawn back into the covert world of intelligence and special forces which he knows so well. He will have to decide where his loyalties lie and who his real friends are, if he is to intervene in a spiralling sequence of events which involve terrorism, insurgency and, ultimately, assassination... Fortress is Andy McNab's most topical, hard-hitting and viscerally exciting novel to date. One man is willing the world into chaos. One man has the power to stop him and change the fate of nations. Views: 5
It is over a century since Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance, and readers throughout the world still clamour for more of his exciting adventures. We are happy to announce that seven stories from the despatch-box of John Watson, M. D. have recently come to light. In them you will meet such characters as the Reverend Nathaniel Flowerdew, vicar of Great Mowl; Professor Hendricks and his aquarium; the Right Honourable Robert Bonnington Smythe, once expected to become Premier of England; and the man in the red flannel waistcoat who was at both ends of the street at the same time. 'My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built,' Holmes said of himself in his darker moments. In these stories the engine is fully engaged and at full throttle as Holmes brings all his daring and intelligence to bear on the puzzle of the Quiet Crescent, the case of the Apprentice's Notebook, and other mysteries in this... Views: 5
HOSTAGE SITUATION When armed robbers strike her bank, hostage negotiator Skyler Brennan's life is on the line. Rescue comes from the last person she thought she could count on--the ex-boyfriend who chose his job over their relationship. FBI agent Logan Hunter knows how much is resting on this case. The promotion of his dreams...and the safety of the woman he's never been able to forget. But when an unexpected twist in the case pulls Logan in two separate directions, he'll have to make an impossible choice. Will he manage to have it all by Christmas--a career and love--or will he lose them both? First Responders: Brave men and women alert and ready for danger and love. Views: 5
The day I found my mother dead was the day I was set free. That might sound harsh but my mother was a drug addict. Had been since I was a baby. Pills were her salvation. Crack was her demise. I should have known though, even dead, my mother’s demons wouldn’t stop chasing me. To the outside world I’m a normal twenty-four three old woman - brown hair with caramel colored highlights, gray blue eyes and French manicured tips. What they don’t see are the map of scars etched into my skin or the barb wired wrapped around my heart. As the saying goes, it only takes one person to change your life. That person for me was Andrew. From the moment we locked eyes I was hooked. He was intriguing, a word that doesn’t get used lightly. Men were a dime a dozen, but Andrew was special. I could tell in the way he spoke, passionately and without reservation. As our fates collide, he begins show me the light amongst the darkness. However, when a secret from Andrew’s past emerges, the fragile foundation of trust we built becomes threatened. Our story is a jagged piece of glass, beautifully imperfect. Will it survive the fall or will blood be drawn? Views: 5
Books #6 in the popular Carrera military science fiction series. Tarawa. Iwo. Normandy. Names that shine in the military history of two worlds, places where brave men stormed ashore and fought their way to victory no matter the odds. But then there are other names: Marathon. Malta. Gallipoli.Balboa’s Patricio Carrera has driven the Tauran Union from his adopted country, driven them out with appalling loss and worse humiliation. That’s not enough though. To finally finish his enemies, Carrera needs to draw them back for a more telling defeat. He cannot take the battle to them because, beyond some long range bombardment capability, he cannot reach them. But when they return, they don’t plan to come alone; they insist on having someone else do most of the bleeding for them.Carrera understands this. And that’s why he’s provoked the Zhong Guo mercilessly, infuriating their ruling Empress. He needs the Zhong in the war, to buck up the Taurans to continue the war to its bitterest end.But to get to Carrera, the Zhong must take the Isla Real, the strongest island fortress on two worlds. In the process, they’ll learn why Marines never forget those other names. . . .Gallipoli…Malta…Marathon. Carrera’s enemies are about to learn why the expression "blood-stained water" is not just a literary allusion. About Tom Kratman’s Carrera series: “[I]nterplanetary warfare with. . .[a] visceral story of bravery and sacrifice . . . fans of the military SF of John Ringo and David Webershould enjoy this SF action adventure.”–Library Journal “Kratman's dystopia is a brisk page turner full of startling twists … [Kratman is] a professional military man … up to speed on military and geopolitical conceits.” –Best-selling author of America Alone Mark Steyn on Tom Kratman’s uncompromising military SF thriller, Califate “Kratman raises disquieting questions on what it might take to win the war on terror…realistic action sequences, strong characterizations and thoughts on the philosophy of war.” – *Publishers Weekly Carerra Series:*A Desert Called Peace Carnifex The Lotus Eaters The Amazon Legion Come and Take ThemRods and the Axe *** Views: 5
Rushmore McKenzie agrees to go undercover to help the ATF track a cache of stolen guns—after all, what could possible go wrong?Rushmore McKenzie is both a millionaire and an unlicensed PI, which means he can afford to do the occasional favor and, as a former detective for the St. Paul (Minnesota) Police Department, he's got the necessary skills and connections to do them right. But this time, he's really stepped in it. When the ATF gets a lead on a much sought-after cache of illegal guns near the Canadian border, they call McKenzie in to help them track down the elusive gunrunners. Their only lead is a guy who is part of a small-time gang of armed robbers working north of the Twin Cities. Their idea is for McKenzie to infiltrate the group and wait for them to lead him to the guns. Their plan is to fix McKenzie with a false identity as a serious bad guy and then fake an escape with the captured gang member. Which seemed like a bad idea to McKenzie at the time,... Views: 5
