Something terrifying is happening all over Oslo: celebrities are turning up dead in the most macabre of situations. A talk show host is found with her tongue cut out, a politician crucified with a copy of the Koran stuffed inside of her, a literary critic stabbed in the eye. It's clear that the killer is sending some sort of message-but what is he trying to say? Police Commissioner Adam Stubo and his wife, profiler Johanne Vik, both exhausted by the arrival of their new baby, are reluctant to join the investigation until it becomes totally necessary. As Stubo leads the inquiry, Johanne stays at home with the child, finding herself haunted by a pattern she remembers from her FBI stint years before, a time she's tried hard to put out of her mind. But as time seems to be running out, she must confront the demons of her past in order to stop the killer from completing this twisted series of murders.From Publishers WeeklyIn this complex, at times slow-moving crime thriller from Norwegian author Holt, her second to appear in the U.S. (after What Is Mine), Oslo husband-and-wife detectives Adam Stubo and Johanne Vik go up against an ingenious serial killer whose first victims are a talk show host whose tongue is cut out and a female politician crucified with a copy of the Koran placed in a delicate position. Despite the dramatic nature of the murders, Stubo finds few leads. It's not until Vik, trained as a profiler, uncovers a vital piece of information about the children of the talk show host that Stubo can begin to make headway. Are the killings random, part of a pattern or personal? As Stubo and Vik painstakingly work to uncover the truth, the author intersperses scenes from the viewpoints of the killer and potential victims. While this approach dilutes some of the suspense, it does mean readers get a rich picture of Norway's politics and culture on their way to a somewhat anticlimactic resolution. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review'This follow-up to Holt's PUNISHMENT shows she really knows her stuff' - Daily Sport Views: 31
A Monumental International Crime Thriller That Brad Thor Calls "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets The Sopranos."Enemies Are Everywhere When Sophie Brinkmann—nurse, widow, single mother—meets Hector Guzman, her life is uneventful. She likes his quiet charm and easy smile; she likes the way he welcomes her into his family. She quickly learns, though, that his smooth façade masks something much more sinister. Guzman is the head of a powerful international crime ring with a reach into drugs and weapons that extends from Europe to South America. His interests are under siege by a ruthless German syndicate who will stop at nothing to stake their claim. But the Guzmans are fighters and will go to war to protect what’s rightfully theirs. The conflict quickly escalates to become a deadly turf war between the rival organizations that includes an itinerant arms dealer, a deeply disturbed detective, a vicious hit man, and a wily police chief. Sophie, too, is unwittingly caught in the middle. She must summon everything within her to navigate this intricate web of moral ambiguity, deadly obsession, and craven gamesmanship. The Andalucian Friend is a powerhouse of a novel—turbo-charged, action-packed, highly sophisticated, and epic in scope—and announces Alexander Söderberg as the most exciting new voice in thrillers in a generation.Review“[With a] sprawling cast and slow-burn plotting . . . Söderberg rewards patience with subtler thrills — and an excellent vicarious passport. A-” —*Entertainment Weekly*“An enjoyably offbeat thriller about rival gangs fighting over an international drug-smuggling route. . . . [Söderberg] writes with feeling about the crushing psychological stress felt by both cops and criminals.”—The New York Times Book Review“A timely thriller [that] adds some gritty saturated color to the minimal black-and-white palette of Nordic noir. . . . Intriguing.” —*Mystery Scene“Imagine The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets The Sopranos, then crank up the intrigue and rip off the knob. Alexander Söderberg has penned an awesome thriller you won't want to miss.” —Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of *Black List*“One of the many wonderful things about Alexander Söderberg's novel, The Andalucian Friend, is how it upsets our expectations. His cops act like gangsters, while his gangsters (some of them) attain a startling sort of nobility. Söderberg has created an entertaining, engaging, and wonderfully bloody-minded world. He’s a great storyteller. It’s that simple.” —Scott Smith, author of *The Ruins*“The international cast is packed with compelling bad guys, the plot is intricate and urgent, and the dialogue is tense and true and sometimes even funny. A joy-ride of a read.” —Chris Pavone, author of *The Expats* "Get ready for another round of hype in which one more heavily promoted Scandinavian thriller will be touted as 'the next Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.' It’s a shame, really, because this gripping crime novel, the first in a trilogy, deserves to stand completely on its own. Yes, it’s set largely in Stockholm, and, yes, it stars a woman of remarkable strength and resiliency, but Soderberg, a veteran screenwriter, is a very different kind of writer than investigative journalist Larsson; this novel is much faster paced than Dragon Tattoo, and while the multiple characters are richly complex, the narrative rumbles ever forward without Larsson’s emphasis on backstory and research techniques. When we first meet Sophie Brinkman, an unassuming nurse and single mother, she seems the polar opposite of Lisbeth Salander. That changes slowly but inexorably after Sophie gets to know one of her patients, the suave Hector Guzman, a charming family man but also—as Sophie eventually discovers—the head of an international crime ring. (Comparisons to the Corleone family are also inevitable and not entirely unjustified.) Soon enough, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a gang war as Guzman’s family battles a rival Russian contingent. Throw in a gaggle of rogue cops and Sophie’s old boyfriend, who turns up out of nowhere with a history of his own, and you have a multistranded plot that holds together as exquisitely as finely wound silk. But, as with the Larsson trilogy, it’s the woman at the center who sparks the engine. By novel’s end, Sophie has realized that 'she was bigger than she had dared to see.' We see it, too, and are ready to follow her anywhere." —Booklist (starred review)“A tale of cutthroat mob bosses. . . . Söderberg writes exceptionally well-drawn and sympathetic characters . . . and has the chops to move a story along with the best of them.”—BookPage “Excellent. . . . [A] jam-packed plot.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Söderberg is masterful.” —Kirkus ReviewsFrom the Hardcover edition.About the AuthorALEXANDER SÖDERBERG has worked as a screenwriter for Swedish television. His work includes the TV adaptations of Camilla Läckberg's and Åke Edwardsson's novels. He lives in the countryside in the south of Sweden with his wife and children. THE ANDALUCIAN FRIEND is his first novel. Views: 31
It is 1792, over ten years since Britain's defeat by the American colonies, and the bitter humiliation still sticks in the Admiralty's craw. Now brutal smugglers, many of them naval deserters, occupy the Channel, plying their trade between England and France. Richard Bolitho's mission: to take three speedy topsail cutters and fight the treacherous raiders off the coast of Kent. Views: 31
On the dark waterside docks of Shanghai, a photographer is recording cargo being secretly loaded when he’s brutally killed and his camera destroyed. Two weeks later, on the dangerous high seas, the U.S. Navy covertly tracks a Chinese cargo ship rumored to carry tons of chemicals for Saddam Hussein to create new biological weapons. The president cannot let the ship reach Iraq. At the same time, he doesn’t want the navy to attack and board it either, because decades of negotiations with China have at long last yielded a landmark human rights agreement that China is willing to sign. Fighting to keep the agreement on track, the president orders the head of Covert-One to find proof of what the Chinese ship is ferrying. Under cover of a medical conference, operative Col. Jon Smith is sent to Taiwan to rendezvous with another agent who has acquired the ship’s true manifest. But the second agent is murdered, the proof is destroyed, and Smith is left only with a verbal message-the president’s biological father is still alive, held prisoner by the Chinese for fifty years. Racing against the clock, Smith uncovers the truth about the ship, a truth that probes the deepest secrets of the Chinese ruling party and reveals a terrifying cabal whose diabolical plan thrusts the world to the very brink of war. Views: 31
Product DescriptionTwenty-five years ago, in the deep south, a small airplane mysteriously disappears in the dense piney woods of Mississippi. The pilot, a young widow named Hadley Welch, who owns and runs a worldwide privately held pharmaceutical company is the lone occupant. Now, her daughter, after receiving an anonymous tip about her mother's disappearance, hires Aviation Consultant, Jay Leicester, to investigate. Agreeing only after learning that not only did the missing woman used to own the land where his cottage now sits, but that she took off from a grass runway now part of his farm and, may in fact, have crashed on his land. Soon after making inquiries into the missing aircraft and pilot, Jay Leicester's life is threatened, his neighbor's are threatened, and the missing woman's daughter is threatened. Jealously, revenge, and murder set in rural Mississippi with colorful characters, and deadly characters, all heading toward one climatic question: What happened to Hadley Welch and her airplane twenty-five years ago make this a must-read for any aficionado of the Mystery/Thriller genre.There are 10 ebooks in the Jay Leicester Mysteries Series by JC Simmons:Blood on the VineSome People Die QuickBlind OverlookIcy Blue DescentThe Electra FilePopping the ShineFour Nines FineThe Underground LadyAkel DamaThe Candela of CancriAbout the AuthorJC Simmons is the author of an Ernest Hemingway biography, several short stories and ten critically acclaimed serial mystery novels, known as the "Jay Leicester Mysteries Series". Included in the series are: Blood On The Vine, Some People Die Quick, Blind Overlook, Icy Blue Descent, The Electra File, Popping the Shine, Four Nines Fine, The Underground Lady, Akel Dama, and The Candela of Cancri, all of which have been recently re-released as ebooks by Nighttime Press LLC.The author was born, raised, educated, and stayed in the great State of Mississippi. He is a retired Airline/Corporate pilot and lives with his wife on the family farm in Union, Mississippi where he is working on an aviation book dealing with his flying experiences. Views: 31
The brutal secret war to win Kosovo's freedom from Serbia is in full swing when The Rendition takes readers behind the headlines for an inside look at the United States' involvement. Alex Klear, a veteran intelligence officer, is sent to the Balkans on a hastily planned rendition which goes terribly bad. Alex decides it's time to retire. However, when he is persuaded to go to Germany as part of an operation connected to the rendition, he finds himself caught between two dynamic women, an old girlfriend and the female colonel running the 'op.' While there, he becomes a target of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a murder suspect to the German police, and for his superiors the perfect fall guy to take the heat for a badly botched secret operation. With Kosovo's independence declaration coming closer by the day, the secret war heats up and Alex comes to realize that he is at the center of a murky conspiracy aimed at making the United States an international pariah.** Views: 31
When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change. She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia ...She doesn't expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: 'Kind, cruel, kind of cruel' - words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where ...She doesn't expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she's never heard of ...Review'A writer of prodigious talent ... This is a jaw-droppingly assured book which sometimes feels as if there's a plot twist on every page ... This reader was left speechless with admiration ... a truly sensational book.' -- Daily Express on LASTING DAMAGE 'A remarkable novel, and an adventure to read ... A first-class whodunit that will keep you reading long into the night.' -- Scotsman on A ROOM SWEPT WHITE 'For those who demand emotional intelligence and literary verve from their thrillers, Sophie Hannah is the writer of choice.' -- Guardian 'One of the great unmissables of this genre - intelligent, classy and with a wonderfully Gothic imagination.' -- The Times 'Like Hannah's previous multilayered thrillers, her seventh offers the unravelling of several mysteries at once, a rich mix of the dark and diverting, and astute portraits of women falling apart' -- The Sunday Times Review About the AuthorSophie Hannah is a bestselling crime fiction writer and poet. Her psychological thrillers LITTLE FACE, HURTING DISTANCE, THE POINT OF RESCUE, THE OTHER HALF LIVES, A ROOM SWEPT WHITE and LASTING DAMAGE have received critical acclaim and have been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children. Visit Sophie's website, www.sophiehannah.com, and follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/sophiehannahCB1. Views: 31
Heather has completed her rather extended gap year and decided it's time to settle down and start a career. Being an intelligent, highly qualified girl, the world of high finance seems like a sensible option. Determined to be as successful as always, she even decides to avoid workplace relationships. That should be easy for a strong-minded young lady, shouldn't it . . . Views: 31
