An unidentified skull...
A trail of terrifying secrets...
And a woman whose talented hands could reveal the shocking truth...
As a forensic sculptor, Eve Duncan helps identify the dead from their skulls. Her own daughter murdered and her body never found, the job is Eve's way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts work from billionaire John Logan.
Beneath her gifted hands a face emerges from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a frightening web of murder and deceit. Powerful enemies are determined to cover up the truth, and they will make certain that truth goes to the grave...even if Eve gets buried with it. Views: 534
This short story is narrated by the antagonist of my novel Carpathian Vampire. It contains much of the mythology behind the race of vampires. The events of this story occurred within the same time frame as that of the novel.So it was that one day just after sundown she was in a meadow caring for a lost bunny rabbit, when a nasty old vampire happened upon her cooing to the cuddly creature. She was all bent over on the ground making over it when she looked up and saw me standing over her. Such a fright I've never before seen, and since I was still going through my cruel stage, this delighted me no end. I let her run, only getting close enough to encourage her panic so that she might renew her futile effort to outdistance me. I drew up behind her as she faltered from fatigue, and when she fell, I was upon her before she could resign herself to her fate and her panic was still in full bloom, her heart racing beyond itself. She was hot and sweaty, her neck salty and oily and smoother than a newborn's. I suckled her first, just to taste the deliciousness of her femininity, and then my teeth crashed through to the warm nectar, and all her life flowed from that gorgeous little body into old Alu, disgusting corruptor of all things fair. Views: 534
Take a man waiting - waiting between the two worlds of civilian life and the army, suspended between two identities - and you have a man who, perhaps for the first time in his life, is truly free. However, freedom can be a noose around a man's neck. Views: 534
Honor Harris is only eighteen when she first meets Richard Grenvile, proud, reckless - and utterly captivating. But following a riding accident, Honor must reconcile herself to a life alone. As the English Civil war is waged across the country, Richard rises through the ranks of the army, marries and makes enemies, and Honor remains true to him.
Decades later, an undaunted Sir Richard, now a general serving King Charles I, finds her. Finally they can share their passion in the ruins of her family's great estate on the storm-tossed Cornish coast-one last time before being torn apart, never to embrace again. Views: 534
In 1975 Annie Dillard took up residence on an island in Puget Sound in a wooded room furnished with "one enormous window, one cat, one spider and one person." For the next two years she asked herself questions about time, reality, sacrifice death, and the will of God. In Holy the Firm she writes about a moth consumed in a candle flame, about a seven-year-old girl burned in an airplane accident, about a baptism on a cold beach. But behind the moving curtain of what she calls "the hard things -- rock mountain and salt sea," she sees, sometimes far off and sometimes as close by as a veil or air, the power play of holy fire.
This is a profound book about the natural world -- both its beauty and its cruelty -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dillard knows so well. Views: 534
A young rider encounters well-known horses and new friends in the final installment of the Ellen and Ned trilogy by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley.Ellen's family has moved to a new town...but some things, like her love for horses, remain the same. Ellen is now the proud owner of her own horse, Tater. She's learning new skills and challenging herself as a rider...but she still can't stop thinking about Ned, the fiesty former racehorse she sees on the ranch during her lessons.In the meantime, Ellen's making new friends and encountering old ones. Most exciting of all is Da, a boy from a riding family who has a spirit of mischief and daring and knows his own mind.Ellen still has a lot to learn...about horses, friendship, and herself. And will she ever be able to get Ned off her mind? Views: 534
The sweeping new novel from the bestselling author of LADY OF HAY switches between Roman Britain and the present day where history dramatically impacts on the lives of three women. Two thousand years ago, as the Romans invade Britannia, the princess who will become the powerful queen of the great tribe of the Brigantes, watches the enemies of her people come ever closer. Cartimandua's world is, from the start, a maelstrom of love and conflict; revenge and retribution. In the present day, Edinburgh-based historian, Viv Lloyd Rees, has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen. She has written a book and is working on a dramatisation of the young queen's life with the help of actress, Pat Hebden. Cartimandua's life takes one unexpected turn after another as tragedy changes the course of her future. But the young queen has formidable enemies - among them Venutios, her childhood sparring partner, and Medb, a woman whose jealousy threatens not only her happiness but her life. Viv's Head of Department, Hugh Graham, hounds her as she struggles to hide her visions of Cartimandua and her conviction that they are real. Her obsession grows ever more persistent and threatening as she takes possession of an ancient brooch that carries a curse. Both Pat and Hugh are drawn into this dual existence of bitter rivalry and overwhelming love as past envelopes present and the trio find themselves facing the greatest danger of their lives. Views: 534
Special contribution by Nikola Danaylov - "Dreaming Immortality" stands out for the variety of the characters, the range of Transhumanist issues as well as for its articulated story involving humans, artificial intelligences and souls - these last obtained by digitizing the brain after death - that is marked by suspense, action, but also considered thoughts.Special contribution by Nikola Danaylov - This novel was published since 2007 in three different versions, all of them downloadable for free from the Author’s website. The first one – Dreaming Immortality – stands out for the variety of the characters, the range of Transhumanist issues as well as for its articulated story. Script available.24th century. Three races: humans, artificial intelligences and souls obtained by digitizing the brain. Deep differences, incompatible interests. An interstellar voyage to avoid a war, a sect determined to interfere. Suspense, action, but also considered thoughts. The main characters move in a context of epoch-making events, rising to leaders. Their world, alien at the beginning, becomes plausible from the continuous references to the present reality until it seems an inevitable evolution. From this, a powerful and disquieting comparison with our current civilization emerges; that stripping away layer after layer of conventions and prejudices, leaves us at last face to face with the basic values and the fragility of a human being. In the novel, these same factors will give Mankind the strength to take courageous decisions for its own destiny. Meanwhile, the artificial intelligence reveals itself as the means of evolutionary progress towards superior states of awareness and sharing… Views: 534
The Indian island of North Sentinel is home to the Sentinelese, one of the world's last uncontacted tribes. On an expedition to the island Dr. Zakir Khan is killed - not with spears and arrows - but with a gun. As investigators attempt to discover who - or what - is inhabiting the island, shocking secrets will be uncovered. Secrets that will rewrite history and endanger the lives of millions.From the deserts of Syria to the favelas of Brazil and the temples of India, an ancient evil is lurking. An evil that aims to alter the course of humanity... Although just thirty miles from the bustling Indian city of Port Blair, North Sentinel Island is one of the remotest places on Earth. Inhabited by the Sentinelese, a Stone-Age tribe that violently resists all outsiders, the island has never been explored.Dr. Zakir Khan hopes to become the first to peacefully contact the Sentinelese. Unsurprisingly, his expedition, like all others, ends in failure. However, instead of being driven off by spears and arrows, Zakir is gunned down.Admiral Vimal Chaudri of the Indian Navy is charged with leading the investigation. As he attempts to discover who - or what - is inhabiting the island, he will uncover shocking secrets. Secrets that may cost the admiral, and millions more, their lives. Views: 534
Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon return in the extraordinary new novel in the #1 New York Times–bestselling series by the grand master of adventure.
In 1902, the volcano Mt. Pelée erupts on the island of Martinique, wiping out an entire city of thirty thousand—and sinking a ship carrying a German scientist on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough. More than a century later, Juan Cabrillo will have to deal with that scientist’s legacy.
During a covert operation, Cabrillo and the crew meticulously fake the sinking of the Oregon—but when an unknown adversary tracks them down despite their planning and attempts to assassinate them, Cabrillo and his team struggle to fight back against an enemy who seems to be able to anticipate their every move. They discover that a traitorous American weapons designer has completed the German scientist’s work, and now wields extraordinary power, sending the Oregon on a race against time to stop an attack that could lead to one man ruling over the largest empire the world has ever known. Views: 534
*See me just as I see you . . .*
Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. With a history of violence and bad decisions behind him and the threat of prison dogging his every step, he's determined to walk a straight line. To Colin, that means applying himself single-mindedly toward his teaching degree and avoiding everything that proved destructive in his earlier life. Reminding himself daily of his hard-earned lessons, the last thing he is looking for is a serious relationship.
Maria Sanchez, the hardworking daughter of Mexican immigrants, is the picture of conventional success. With a degree from Duke Law School and a job at a prestigious firm in Wilmington, she is a dark-haired beauty with a seemingly flawless professional track record. And yet Maria has a traumatic history of her own, one that compelled her to return to her hometown and left her questioning so much of what she once believed.
A chance encounter on a rain-swept road will alter the course of both Colin and Maria's lives, challenging deeply held assumptions about each other and ultimately, themselves. As love unexpectedly takes hold between them, they dare to envision what a future together could possibly look like . . . until menacing reminders of events in Maria's past begin to surface.
Rich in emotion and fueled with suspense, SEE ME reminds us that love is sometimes forged in the crises that threaten to shatter us . . . and that those who see us for who we truly are may not always be the ones easiest to recognize.**
** Views: 534
