The best and most interesting stories by Robert Aickman, a master of the supernatural tale, the uncanny, and the truly weird.Robert Aickman's self-described "strange stories" are confoundingly and uniquely his own. These superbly written tales terrify not with standard thrills and gore but through a radical overturning of the laws of nature and everyday life. His territory of the strange, of the "void behind the face of order," is a surreal region that grotesquely mimics the quotidian: Is that river the Thames, or is it even a river? What does it mean when a prospective lover removes one dress, and then another—and then another? Does a herd of cows in a peaceful churchyard contain the souls of jilted women preparing to trample a cruel lover to death? Published for the first time under one cover, the stories in this collection offer an unequaled introduction to a profoundly original modern master of the uncanny. Views: 281
A collection of darkly compelling tales from the unique imagination of Joyce Carol Oates.
A young professor is convinced she's being followed, but when she confronts her shadow events take an unexpected turn...
A promising student attempts to save her brother from his descent into madness, but she soon finds out there may be more to his world than to hers...
A renowned author embarks on a grand tour of Europe, but soon his bad manners threaten to cost him more than he has to give...
These biting and beautiful stories force us to confront, one by one, the demons within. Views: 281
An existential detective story by one of France's most popular modern writers, set in a mid-nineteenth century mountain village, available in English for the first timeA King Alone is set in a remote Alpine village that is cut off from the world by rugged mountains and by long months when the ground is covered with snow and the heavens with cloud. One such winter, villagers begin mysteriously to disappear. Soon the village is paralyzed by terror, which gives way to relief and eager anticipation when the outsider Langlois arrives to investigate. What he discovers, however, will leave no one reassured, and his reappearance in the village a few years later, now assigned the task of guarding it from wolves, awakens those troubling memories. A man of few words, a regal manner, and military efficiency, Langlois baffles and fascinates the villagers, whose different responses to him shape Jean Giono's increasingly charged narrative. This novel about a tiny community at... Views: 280
*We met on a Tuesday.
Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday.
And everything fell apart on a Tuesday... *
Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I'm a "domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego." (I *do * have something huge. It's not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She's sexy as hell...And a virgin.
At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for.
Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set:
Professional football for me. Law school for her.
But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life.
Until tonight.
*We met on a Tuesday.
Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday.
And now it's seven years later, on a Tuesday... *
This is a full length second chance romance, inspired by Adele's "When We Were Young" Views: 280
For anyone who loves cats, dogs (or both!), James Patterson's most pawsome story ever is set in a society defined by the oldest rivalry in the world: katts versus doggs! Oscar is a happy dogg—-a rambunctious kid who loves being a Dogg Scout. Thanks to his family, he knows that snobby katts are good for nothing but chasing up trees. Molly is a clever katt who just knows she's destined for fame and fortune as an actress. She comes from a family of well-bred katts who despise drooly, disgusting doggs!For their whole lives, Oscar and Molly have been told that katts and dogs hate each other. One day, they each get hopelessly lost in the woods, but those lifelong prejudices flare up when they cross paths. Slowly, they realize that the only way to survive and find their way home is to...work together?!Yeah, that's not going to happen! Views: 280
Creative Education's short story collections are ideal introductions to some of the world's best-known authors. the short, timeless classics of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Ray Bradbury, and others are celebrated in these handsome volumes. Views: 280
Ray Bradbury's first short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!? Views: 280
Is there a family in history more dazzling, dangerous and notorious than the Borgias?
A powerhouse of the Italian Renaissance, their very name epitomizes the ruthless politics and sexual corruption of the Papacy.
The father, Pope Alexander VI, a consummate politician and a man with a voracious appetite both as Cardinal and Pope.
The younger Juan, womanizer and thug, and their lovely sister, Lucretia, whose very name has become a byword for poison, incest and intrigue.
But how much of the history about this remarkable family is actually true, and how much distorted, filtered through the age old mechanisms of political spin, propaganda and gossip?
What if the truth, the real history, is even more challenging? Views: 280
No one writes the old west like Seven-time Spur Award-winning author Elmer Kelton. In The Cowboy Way, Kelton captures the action, adventure, brotherhood and betrayal of the old west, chronicling the highs and lows of cowboy life in these sixteen stories, collected together for the first time.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Views: 280
“We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful.” — Unknown Soldier
Set in the South at the height of the Vietnam War,* * **The Unwilling combines crime, suspense and searing glimpses into the human mind and soul in* * New York Times bestselling author John Hart's singular style.**
Gibby's older brothers have already been to war. One died there. The other came back misunderstood and hard, a decorated killer now freshly released from a three-year stint in prison.
Jason won't speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn't known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake: long hours of sunshine and whisky and older women.
But the day turns ugly when the four encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. Beautiful but drunk, one of the women taunts the prisoners, leading to a riot on the bus. The woman finds it funny in the moment, but is savagely murdered soon after.
Given his violent history, suspicion turns first to Jason; but when the second woman is kidnapped, the police suspect Gibby, too. Determined to prove Jason innocent, Gibby must avoid the cops and dive deep into his brother's hidden life, a dark world of heroin, guns and outlaw motorcycle gangs.
What he discovers there is a truth more disturbing than he could have imagined: not just the identity of the killer and the reasons for Tyra's murder, but the forces that shaped his brother in Vietnam, the reason he was framed, and why the most dangerous man alive wants him back in prison.
This is crime fiction at its most raw, an exploration of family and the past, of prison and war and the indelible marks they leave. **
Review
"Unforgettable and propulsive ... extremely well-written suspense with emotional depth." ―AARP"Another scorcher from Hart ... [he] keeps us engaged ... subtly folding quiet, character-driven moments into the story while still powering the narrative toward an all-stops-out ending―and a chilling coda. Remember to breathe after you turn the last page." ―Booklist (starred review)“John Hart creates novels that are somehow raw, tender, brutal, and exquisite―all at the same time. Exceptional.” ―C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author"The Unwilling is crime fiction at its absolute best. An impeccable story teller, John Hart weaves an intricate tale of family, war, prison, and murder into a thoroughly thought provoking and enjoyable read that I absolutely could not put down." ―Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Minute Out“John Hart writes about violence with frightening passion and vivid description. At the same time he masterfully lets you see inside a powerful family dynamic. His villain will be in anyone’s top 2.” ―John Sandford, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Prey Series"Richly complex, as intricately woven as a fine tapestry, soul-piercingly emotional, this is John Hart at his lyrical, atmospheric best. He builds a world and draws you in, and there you remain, a willing captive." ―Tami Hoag, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The BoyPraise for New York Times bestselling author John Hart: "John Hart can flat-out write." ―David Baldacci"A master storyteller." ―Harlan Coben"This generation's Pat Conroy." ―The Providence Journal"Hart's writing soars off the page with a lyricism that probably only James Lee Burke can match." ―Daily Mail (UK)"If you crave thrillers that are vividly beautiful, graphic, will make you bleed, try John Hart." ―Patricia Cornwell"Hart writes as if he is channeling William Faulkner, or perhaps collaborating with the Cormac McCarthy of the Blood Meridian era." ―Book Reporter
About the Author
John Hart is the New York Times bestselling author of The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child, Iron House, Redemption Road, and The Hush. The only author in history to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel consecutively, John has also won the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Bookseller’s Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into thirty languages and can be found in more than seventy countries. Views: 280
A potential breakthrough discovery to reverse global warming... a series of unexplained sudden deaths in British Columbia... a rash of international incidents between the United States and one of its closest allies that threatens to erupt into an actual shooting war... NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his children, Dirk Jr. and Summer, have reason to believe there's a connection here somewhere, but they also know they have very little time to find it before events escalate out of control. Their only real clue might just be a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. But no one survived from that doomed mission, captain and crew perished to a man?and if Pitt and his colleague Al Giordino aren't careful, the very same fate may await them. Views: 280
In this collection of twenty-one unforgettable stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores the mysterious private lives of men and women with vivid, unsparing precision and sympathy. By turns interlocutor and interpreter, magician and realist, she dissects the psyches of ordinary people and their potential for good and evil with chilling understatement and lasting power. Views: 280
William Cody grows up surrounded by his father's tales of Buffalo Bill, to whom he is distantly related, and his fantasies of the Wild West.
Though he escapes his heritage by fleeing abroad and starting a new life for himself, he finds that he is always drawn back to England and to his ancestry.
When his father proposes that together they should recreate Buffalo Bill's stage show, "The Congress of Rough Riders of the World" for a contemporary audience, William refuses to have any part of it. When tragedy strikes, however, it is to his father that he must eventually return. Views: 280
The complete I Spy series collected digitally for the first time.I Spy Something BloodyEspionage was always a game, but now British spy Mark Hardwicke wants to retire and settle down with ex-lover Dr. Stephen Thorpe—if Stephen will have him. Unfortunately, Stephen has other plans—and so do the terrorists who want Mark dead.I Spy Something WickedIt's All Hallow's Eve and Mark Hardwicke's past has come back to haunt him. The Old Man needs Mark to go on one last mission to the wild, lonely hills of Afghanistan—a mission Mark knows he can't survive. Even if he does make it back, Stephen has made it very clear Mark is out of second chances. Should Mark place his lover and his own happiness before duty?I Spy Something ChristmasNothing says Christmas like a bullet with your name on it. Mark is used to death and danger. Stephen will never be okay with violence—or... Views: 279
