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A Column of Fire

**#1 *NEW YORK TIMES *BESTSELLER “Absorbing . . . impossible to resist.” *—The Washington Post*** **As Europe erupts, can one young spy protect his queen? International bestselling author Ken Follett takes us deep into the treacherous world of powerful monarchs, intrigue, murder, and treason with his magnificent new epic, *A Column of Fire*.** In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love.  Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious conflict dividing the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes queen, all Europe turns against England. The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country’s first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. Elizabeth clings to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents. The real enemies, then as now, are not the rival religions. The true battle pitches those who believe in tolerance and compromise against the tyrants who would impose their ideas on everyone else—no matter what the cost. Set during one of the most turbulent and revolutionary times in history, *A Column of Fire* is one of Follett’s most exciting and ambitious works yet. It will delight longtime fans of the Kingsbridge series and is the perfect introduction for readers new to Ken Follett.
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The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday

ISABEL DALHOUSIE - Book 5 Nothing captures the charm of Edinburgh like the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective.  Whether investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel Dalhousie, one of fiction’s most richly developed amateur detectives, is always ready to pursue the answers to all of life’s questions, large and small. In the delectable fifth installment of the bestselling adventures of Isabel Dalhousie, our cherished inquisitive heroine returns to investigate a medical mystery. A doctor's career has been ruined by allegations of medical fraud and Isabel cannot ignore what may be a miscarriage of justice. Besides, Isabel's insatiable interest is piqued and she finds herself asking questions. Would a respected doctor make such a grave mistake? If not, what explains the death of the patient? Clearly, an investigation is in order. Meanwhile, there is her baby Charlie, who needs looking after; her niece Cat who needs someone to mind her deli; and a mysterious composer who has latched on to Jamie, making Isabel decidedly uncomfortable. Whatever the problem, whatever the case, we know we can count on Isabel's instincts to help her find the right solution. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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The Rising Sea

** Everywhere, the waters are rising--and that is just the beginning of the world's peril, unless the NUMA crew can beat the clock. The thrilling new NUMA Files novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling grand master of adventure. **An alarming rise in the world's sea levels--much larger than could be accounted for by glacier melt--sends Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala, and the rest of the NUMA scientific team rocketing around the globe in search of answers. What they find at the bottom of the East China Sea, however, is even worse than they imagined: a diabolical plan to upset the Pacific balance of power--and in the process displace as many as a billion people. A rare alloy unlike anything else on earth, a pair of 500-year-old Japanese talismans, an assassin so violent even the Yakuza has disowned him, an audacious technological breakthrough that will become a very personal nightmare for Kurt Austin - from the shark-filled waters of Asia to the high-tech streets of Tokyo to a forbidden secret island, the NUMA team must risk everything to head off the coming catastrophe.
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He

An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation; who loved, and was loved in turn; who betrayed, and was betrayed; who never sought to cause pain to others, yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake . . . And whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with the man he knew as Babe. he is Stan Laurel. But he did not really exist. Stan Laurel was a fiction. With he, John Connolly recreates the golden age of Hollywood for an intensely compassionate study of the tension between commercial demands and artistic integrity, the human frailties behind even the greatest of artists, and one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history: Laurel &Hardy.
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The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

A landmark collection that brings together Truman Capote’s life’s work in the form he called his “great love,” The Complete Stories confirms Capote’s status as a master of the short story. Ranging from the gothic South to the chic East Coast, from rural children to aging urban sophisticates, all the unforgettable places and people of Capote’s oeuvre are here, in stories as elegant as they are heartfelt, as haunting as they are compassionate. Reading them reminds us of the miraculous gifts of a beloved American original.
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Barbotte

Montreal 1946. Jackie Robinson is playing for the Royals, the jazz clubs are hopping and the backrooms are full of people losing money at the barbotte tables.Nat Lawson is home from the war working for the phone company and moonlighting running 'silent' lines for bookies when Leah Aidelbaum asks him to play private eye.Vincent Valentine. A Turk for Shinra Corporation. Genetically engineered horror.Professor Natalie Long has fantasized the day she would find his resting place. A scientist who studied under Professor Gast, she believes she has found the means to cure him of the darker side to his nature.But when the cure could lead to his death, she isn't so certain she can live without him.*(this is a work of fan-fiction; events take place after those of Final Fantasy VII)
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Inside the O'Briens

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease. Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing? As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.
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Switchblade

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch seeks justice for the forgotten in this original short story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly **An anonymous tip puts Bosch on a case that has remained unsolved for decades, the vicious stabbing of a teenage boy whose body was found in an abandoned Old Hollywood restaurant. Cold cases are often the toughest: With no body, no murder scene, and no fingerprints, Bosch nevertheless gets lucky when DNA evidence from the murder weapon points to a known killer. But the DA insists that science alone is not enough - he needs the case to be bulletproof before he'll take it to court. Determined to speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves, Bosch has one chance to wrench a confession out of a cold-blooded killer, or risk letting him walk free for good. In this gripping, never-before-published story by "master of the crime thriller" (Huffington Post) Michael Connelly, Detective Harry Bosch quenches his thirst for justice and shows why he is "one of the most popular and enduring figures in American crime fiction" (Chicago Tribune). NOTE: This file includes a preview of Michael Connelly's new novel, The Gods of Guilt.
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Raintree County

Throughout a single day in 1892, John Shawnessy recalls the great moments of his life—from the love affairs of his youth in Indiana, to the battles of the Civil War, to the politics of the Gilded Age, to his homecoming as schoolteacher, husband, and father. Shawnessy is the epitome of the place and period in which he lives, a rural land of springlike women, shady gamblers, wandering vagabonds, and soapbox orators. Yet here on the banks of the Shawmucky River, which weaves its primitive course through Raintree County, Indiana, he also feels and obeys ancient rhythms. A number-one bestseller when it was first published in 1948, this powerful novel is a compelling vision of 19th-century America with timeless resonance.
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Honeymoon

How does it feel to be desired by every man and envied by every woman? Wonderful. This is the life Nora Sinclair has dreamed about, the life she's worked hard for, the life she will never give up. Meet Nora Sinclair. When FBI agent John O'Hara first sees her, she seems perfect. She has the looks. The career. The clothes. The wit. The sophistication. The tantalizing sex appeal. The whole extraordinary package - and men fall in line to court her. She doesn't just attract men, she enthralls them. If you dare. So why is the FBI so interested in Nora Sinclair? Mysterious things keep happening to people around her, especially the men. And there is something dangerous about Nora when Agent O'Hara looks closer - something that lures him at the same time that it fills him with fear. Is there something dark hidden among the unexplained gaps in her past? And as he spends more and more time getting to know her, is he pursuing justice? Or his own fatal obsession? With the irresistible attraction of the greatest Hitchcock thrillers, Honeymoon is a sizzling, twisting tale of a woman with a deadly appetite and the men who dare to fall for her. In his sexiest, scariest novel yet, James Patterson deftly confirms that he always "takes thrills to the next level" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
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What Are You Afraid Of?

SHE’S LEARNED ALL ABOUT KILLERS They aren’t the kind of women anyone misses. Truck-stop hookers, runaways . . . no one would even notice they’d disappeared if the killer didn’t photograph their lifeless bodies, posed in the back of a semi-trailer. Exactly like the infamous Trucker murders. But this isn’t just a copycat. It’s a vendetta. NOW HE’LL TEACH HER Carmen Jacobs interviewed the world’s most terrifying serial killers for her bestselling book, The Heart of a Predator. The police might not believe her, but she knows there’s a monster out there, paying homage to other murderers. The only person who can predict where he’ll strike next is Griffin Archer—a reclusive software millionaire with ample reason not to help her. HOW TO DIE . . . Carmen has charmed her way past Griffin’s defenses before. He didn’t intend to let it happen again. But with a psycho sending her trophies of his kills, he has no choice but to get involved. The clues point to a killer obsessed with Carmen—someone who knows her work, her past, her secrets. Someone who won’t be satisfied until he has made all her deepest fears come true . . .
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The Samurai Strategy

(Bantam 1988)”A financial thriller right out of the headlines.” Adam SmithWall Street, murder, currency manipulation. A mysterious Japanese industrialist begins a massive \'hedging\' in the US markets. Two weeks later, in Japan’s Inland Sea, divers working for him recover the Imperial Sword, given to Japan\'s first Emperor by the Sun Goddess. Can a lone American lawyer stop him from bringing down the US?A high-finance, high-tech thriller that correctly predicted the 1987 stock market crash. It was the first fictional treatment of a major international concern of the Eighties. Set in locales as diverse as Wall Street and the offices of Japan\'s powerful Trade Ministry, THE SAMURAI STRATEGY describes a scenario of murder, worldwide currency manipulation, a revival of Japan\'s smoldering nationalism, and is set against a background of a new high-tech computer milieu. Matthew Walton, a freelance corporate \'takeover\' lawyer is hired by a mysterious Japanese industrialist to purchase a New York office building and begin a massive \'hedging\' in the financial markets. Two weeks later, off an island in the Inland Sea, divers working for the industrialist\'s organization, recover the original Imperial Sword, given to Japan\'s first Emperor by the Sun Goddess, Japan\'s \'Excalibur\', and lost in a sea battle in 1185. He forms an \'800-Year Fund\' and billions of yen flow to his fingertips. He then dumps all the Treasuries Japan had acquired and devastates the American economy.As the story rushes to its stunning conclusion, Matt Walton goes to Japan and determines that the \'Imperial Sword\' is, in fact an unusual antique he once owned himself.Tags: Wall Street, Japanese Stock Market, Treasury Bonds, Stock Market, Imperial Sword, Emperor of Japan, Japanese History, Supercomputer, MITI
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The Artemis Fowl Files

Artemis Fowl’s confidential files have been discovered in his safe at Fowl Manor. Now you too can share the secrets! The Artemis Fowl Files will delight Eoin Colfer’s legions of fans with its behind-the-scenes interviews with the much-loved characters including: Holly Short, Mulch Diggums, and Artemis Fowl. Two brand-new Artemis Fowl short stories including: “LEPrecon,” the story of Fairy Police Captain Holly Short's move from Traffic to Recon following her initiation into the Fairy Police, and “The Seventh Dwarf,” featuring the flatulent dwarf Mulch Diggums, Butler, and Artemis himself. Plus: Special coded messages from the Fairy Book for fans to translate A “Fairy Spotter” Guide detailing the fairy world. Learn all about the physical characteristics and countless personality traits of the various fairy categories including: elves, trolls, sprites, pixies, goblins, and more. Cool descriptions and diagrams of Foaly’s greatest gadgets.
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