This is going to be a little uncomfortable... Midday, 13th May, 1784: An earthquake in Peru tears up the white streets of Arequipa. As the dust settles, a young girl with fanaticism already branded on her face arrives at the devastated convent of Santa Catalina. At the same moment, oceans away in Venice, the infant Minguillo Fasan tears his way out of his mother-s womb. The great Palazzo Espagnol, built on Peruvian silver and New World drugs, has an heir. Twelve years later, Venice is in Napoleon-s sights and Minguillo, who has already contrived to lose one sibling, is listening to the birth-cries of his new sister Marcella, a delicate, soft-skinned threat to his inheritance. Meanwhile, at Santa Catalina, the scarred young girl has become Sor Loreta, whose craving for sainthood is taking a decidedly sinister turn. Minguillo-s livid jealousy will condemn his sister to a series of fates as a cripple, a madwoman and a nun. But Marcella Fasan is not quite the soft target Minguillo imagines. Aided by a loyal servant, an irascible portrait-painter, a young doctor obsessed with skin, a warhorse of a Scottish merchant and a cigar-smoking pornographer nun, Marcella pits her sense of humour, her clever pencil and her fierce heart against Minguillo-s pitiless machinations. Her journey takes her from Napoleon-s shamed Venice to the last picaresque days of colonial Peru - where the fanatical Sor Loreta has plans of her own for the young girl from Venice. Bewitching, daring, darkly humorous and alive with historical detail, The Book of Human Skin is a breathtaking story of unmitigated villainy, Holy Anorexia, quack medicine, murder, love and a very unusual form of bibliomania. Views: 29
The Monster War is the third book in the action-packed, steampunk League of Seven series by acclaimed author Alan Gratz. Having discovered the monstrous secret of his origins, Archie Dent is no longer certain that he is worthy to be a member of the League of Seven. But with new enemies to face, he realizes that he may not have the luxury of questioning his destiny.Wielding the Dragon Lantern, the maniacal Philomena Moffett has turned her back on the Septemberist Society, creating her own Shadow League and unleashing a monster army on the American continent. Archie and his friends must race to find the last two members of their league in time to thwart Moffett's plan and rescue humanity once more. Views: 29
Ivan Doig is the author of ten previous books, including the novels Prairie Nocturne and Dancing at the Rascal Fair. A former ranch hand, newspaperman, and magazine editor, Doig holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle. Views: 29
If love can't save them, there will be hell to pay.The Heckmasters, Book 2Grateful for his mother's human blood that cools the dark fire of his demon father, Eban Heckmaster has set up a medical practice in New Mexico territory. But there's no hope of living a normal life until he rids himself of a seductive demon that's been pursuing him.Vanquishing it won't be as simple as sharpening his demon-hunting sword. The clever creature is hiding inside his best friend's head, and she has no idea of the havoc she's been wreaking, especially with his body.Beryl suspects Eban knows why she's been waking up with no memory of where she's been or what she's done, but he's not talking. But when she inevitably learns what he's hiding—or rather, what's hiding inside her—she wonders if her love for him is real, or an illusion created by the demon's lust.Eban is losing the battle to hold his rising desire in check. There may be... Views: 29
Review"Once again, Ron Hansen has proved that he has no peer in the writing of fiction about biographical characters. No one writing today is better at re-creating the past than Hansen, and no one gives better insight into his characters. In this instance, Ron Hansen re-creates the Roaring Twenties with a sense of immediacy and authenticity that I haven't seen since the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and John O'Hara. James M. Cain once said that the greatest of human tragedies usually takes place when people get what they want. That's the story we find in A WILD SURGE OF GUILTY PASSION. Could this happen to us, we ask ourselves. The question is a haunting one. Ron Hansen takes us into the heart of America, and the journey never allows us to stop turning the page." —James Lee Burke“A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion is by turns blackly comic, irresistibly seductive, and implacably devastating. As a tour of the Seven Deadly Sins, it’s pretty much unsurpassed in recent literature.” —Jim Shepard, whose most recent story collection is You Think That's BadAbout the AuthorRon Hansen is the author of eight novels and three collections, the most recent of which is She Loves Me Not (Scribner July 2012). He graduated from Creighton University in Omaha, and went on to the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop where he studied with John Irving. He is now Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., Professor in Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University in northern California. Views: 29
The angel book gets a Texas makeover from the author of the Dreaming Anastasia series."I found out two things today: One, I think I'm dying. And two, my brother is a perv." So begins the diary of Jenna Samuels, who is having a very bad year. Her mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her older brother, Casey, tries to hold together what's left of the family by working two after-school jobs--difficult, as he's stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. Really sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead. Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her, looking pretty good. Better than ever, in fact. Downright... angelic. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that her brother didn't survive the accident at all, and she isn't just sick; she's being poisoned. Casey has been sent back to help Jenna find... Views: 29
#1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George offers the latest in her Inspector Lynley series: a gripping child-in-danger story featuring fan favorite Barbara Havers. Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is at a loss: The daughter of her friend Taymullah Azhar has been taken by her mother, and Barbara can't really help—Azhar had never married Angelina, and his name isn't on Hadiyyah's, their daughter's, birth certificate. He has no legal claim. Azhar and Barbara hire a private detective, but the trail goes cold. Azhar is just beginning to accept his soul-crushing loss when Angelina reappears with shocking news: Hadiyyah is missing, kidnapped from an Italian marketplace. The Italian police are investigating, and the Yard won't get involved, until Barbara takes matters into her own hands. As she attempts to navigate the complicated waters of doing anything for the case against her superior's orders, her partner, Inspector Thomas Lynley, is dispatched to Italy as the liaison between the Italian police and Hadiyyah's distraught parents. In time, both Barbara and Lynley discover that the case is far more complex than just a kidnapping, revealing secrets about Angelina; her new lover, Lorenzo; and even Azhar—secrets Barbara may not be willing to accept. With both her job and the life of a little girl on the line, Barbara must decide what matters most and how far she's willing to go to protect it. Views: 29
The winter around Cheyenne, Wyoming, is devastating, killing both people and livestock. John Henry Cole lives three miles out of town on his small ranch, where he waits out the storm that is quickly killing his cattle and horses. Everything he owns is dying before his eyes, and there isn't anything he can do about it. His dreams of a settled life are as dead as everything else. He knows it's time to move on, and move on he does—but not in the direction he expected.Teddy Green, a Texas ranger, arrives in Cheyenne and seeks Cole's help in locating Ella Mims, a woman who once lived in Cheyenne and with whom Cole had once been intimate. Green wants to question Mims concerning her involvement in a Denver City murder ... but he's not the only one searching for her. Views: 28
A funny, sweet trilogy about three girls and the friendship and romance they find working summer jobs at a water park!Now that Robyn is dating her older brother (ew!) Caitlin is feeling distinctly boyfriend-less in her lifeguard chair. But that's where she meets Jason, the water park's resident hottie... Views: 28
Branching off from his widely acclaimed Inspector Troy novels, John Lawton delivers The Unfortunate Englishman, a captivating, meticulously researched, and richly detailed historical thriller set during the height of the Cold War, starring East End Londoner turned spy Joe Wilderness.Having shot someone in what he believed was self-defense in the fog of 1963 Berlin, Wilderness finds himself locked up with little chance to escape. But an official pardon from Burne-Jones, a senior agent at MI6, means he is free to go—although forever in Burne-Jones's debt. His return to London is brief, when another assignment from Burne-Jones puts him into the line of danger again. His newest operation will take him back to Berlin, where he spent several years working the black market while employed by MI6 after the war, and which is now the dividing line between the West and the Soviets. Khrushchev and Kennedy are playing a game of chicken, gambling with the fate of millions of... Views: 28
Decades of Loss, an Unsolved Mystery, and a Rift Spanning Three GenerationsHazel DeFord is a woman haunted by her past. While berry picking in a blackberry thicket in 1943, ten-year old Hazel momentarily turns her back on her three-year old sister Maggie and the young girl disappears. Almost seventy years later, the mystery remains unsolved and the secret guilt Hazel carries has alienated her from her daughter Diane, who can't understand her mother's overprotectiveness and near paranoia. While Diane resents her mother's inexplicable eccentricities, her daughter Meghan—a cold case agent—cherishes her grandmother's lavish attention and affection. When a traffic accident forces Meghan to take a six-week leave-of-absence to recover, all three generations of DeFord women find themselves unexpectedly under the same roof. Meghan knows she will have to act as a mediator between the two headstrong and contentious women. But when they uncover Hazel's... Views: 28
