"An intricately plotted story with red herrings galore. The corking-good plot will keep you turning the pages until the very end. An outstanding addition to a wonderful series." --BooklistBlowing SmokeGetting involved with the rich and their problems is never a good idea, as far as amateur P.I. Robin Light is concerned. But when the mercury is rising to a steamy level, the bills are unpaid, and the investigation promises real money, the only answer is yes.Robin figures the case to be a no-brainer: the three adult children of an eccentric heiress, Rose Taylor, are convinced their mother is the victim of a scam operated by a psychic named Pat Humphrey, who has just earned a large place in Rose's will. Assuming the woman is a fraud, Robin pays her a visit and is startled to discover that Pat could be the real thing--and that she knows far more about the Taylor family than she admits. . .enough to get her killed.As the air grows thick with the promise of rain, the case takes one shocking turn after another, plunging Robin into the dark secrets and twisted loyalties of a troubled family, where money may not buy happiness, but it can be a powerful motive for murder. Now, Robin's own premonition about the rich is coming true, because a cold-blooded killer is about to turn the dog days of summer into the most dangerous season of Robin's life."Interlocking mysteries and layered family secrets nudge Block's seventh toward Ross MacDonald territory." --Kirkus Reviews"This female PI ranks right up there with the tough-guy detectives in taking her lumps and dishing them out as well." --Library JournalFrom Publishers WeeklyEstablished fans should welcome this seventh mystery (after 1999's Endangered Species) featuring Robin Light, the hard-drinking, sloppily dressed, heavy-smoking amateur sleuth and exotic pet-store owner from Syracuse, N.Y., but the uninitiated may find the plot tortuous and the plethora of characters too hard to keep track of. Robin faces a double challenge: locating a teenage runaway in nearby Cazenovia; and investigating an animal psychic, Pat Humphrey, whom three siblings suspect of defrauding their elderly heiress mother, Rose Taylor. Humphrey has won a place in Rose's heart (and will) by locating Rose's "kidnapped" cat; now Rose's much-younger husband and her lawyer hover over the old lady protectively. In the process of discovering that just about all the principals harbor secrets (one of Rose's children is a heroin addict, another a thief and transvestite), Robin is punched into unconsciousness, shot at several times with a rifle and held at knife-point. She also travels between New York and Wolfe Island, Ont., with no mention of Canadian or U.S. immigration or customs. On one page an automatic pistol turns into a revolver, while elsewhere a string of pearls, later described as knotted and hand-strung, breaks and cascades to the floor. Such careless slips won't bother most readers, but they do suggest why Block has yet to join the first rank of authors writing about contemporary female detectives. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalIn her seventh installment, exotic pet store owner and part-time sleuth Robin Light (Vanishing Act) meets a real challenge when the three children of an aging wealthy woman ask for help. They fear that their mother is being duped by a psychic and/or her much-younger husband, but then the psychic goes missing, and a body is found in the pool. A pleasing page-turner. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 26
An irresistible bind-up edition of two fabulously fun, wonderfully witty adventure mysteries, from the bestselling author of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith, and with amazing illustrations by Kate Hindley throughout. Popcorn PiratesThe greediest gang of grub-guzzling pirates ever to sail the high seas is after the Popcorn Islands' harvest. Can Lucy, Hermione and Sam stop them? The Bubblegum TreeThe secret ingredient for Gopal's Best Pink Bubblegum has not been delivered for two months. Billy, Nicola and Mr Gopal are off to the jungle in a flying boat to solve the baffling mystery ... Views: 26
In a thriller of astounding menace and power, the acclaimed author of A Season for the Dead returns to the landscape he has made his own–the seething landscape of modern-day Rome–where ancient crimes lie hidden beneath colorful, bustling avenues. Here a teenage girl has disappeared, a detective is exploring a 2000-year-old ritual–and an astonishing mystery is about to unravel in a city of secrets and rage….
The Villa of Mysteries
In Rome’s crowded Campo dei Fiori, a woman rushes up to two carabinieri lounging in their sunglasses and uniforms, insisting that her sixteen-year-old daughter has just been abducted. Detective Nic Costa sees the scene unfold and intervenes. Because Costa knows what the two officers don’t: that in the morgue at Rome’s police headquarters, a forensic pathologist is examining the strange, mummified corpse of another girl, whose disappearance and death bear haunting similarities…. Police pathologist Teresa Lupo is Nic’s colleague, friend, and his only equal when it comes to breaking the rules to get results, whatever the cost. Now, after years of living with the dead, Teresa insists that her superiors move quickly to save a life. Poring over the body of the girl in the morgue, she has found too many similarities between the girls, including a unique, leering tattoo. Lupo is sure that the vanished girl is headed for a bizarre ancient Bacchanalia involving virgins and sacrificial murder–a ritual that is only days away. As Nic and Teresa claw at the case from two sides–and as Nic finds himself at once puzzled and beguiled by the missing girl’s seductive mother–a chilling picture is beginning to emerge…of secret relationships and sexual depravity, organized crime and unimaginable corruption. With the clock ticking down on a young girl’s life, Nic and Teresa are about to make the most horrifying discovery of all–in a pit of human darkness, where an age-old malevolence still endures, evil has consumed innocence…and a very modern vengeance has begun. A spellbinding mix of suspense, forensic science, and human drama, The Villa of Mysteries will catch you off guard at every turn–a novel that is at once heartbreaking and impossible to put down. Views: 26
Ah, love. A many splendored thing. Here is a rather unusual love story, sweet and strange as could only happen in the post-magical reality of the Indigo Springs "event." The sequel to Indigo Springs was published in April. Here's a tasty tale to tickle a reader's fancy. Author A. M. Dellamonica is writing lots more terrific new fantasy, having just agreed to write three novels set in the world of "Among the Silvering Herd."We're thrilled! At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied. Views: 26
In Jack Nightingale's world - where reality and the occult collide - sometimes the only way to fight evil is with evil. A farmer walks into a school and shoots eight children dead before turning the gun on himself. It's a harrowing but straightforward case - until police search the man's farm and unearth evidence of dark Satanic practices. When the perpetrator's brother approaches Nightingale, adamant that his brother was set up, it's clear that something even more sinister lurks at the heart of the case. And there are dark forces elsewhere. A young girl miraculously returns to life, claiming she's spoken to those from beyond the grave. Those in contact with her are dying hideous deaths . . . forcing Jack Nightingale to make the hardest decision he's ever faced.Review'Written with panache, and a fine ear for dialogue, Leather manages the collision between the real and the occult with exceptional skill, adding a superb time-shift twist at the end.' -- Daily Mail on NIGHTMARE 'Another great thriller from Stephen Leather but this time with a devilish twist!' -- James Herbert on NIGHTFALL 'Suffused with mysterious pentagrams, not to mention a creeping sense of evil, I suspect that down-to-earth Nightingale is a man we'll hear more of' -- Daily Mail on NIGHTFALL About the AuthorStephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers and a top ebook bestselling author. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post. He has also written for television and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from www.stephenleather.com; Stephen's blog, www.stephenleather.blogspot.co.uk; and Twitter at twitter.com/stephenleather. Stephen also has a website for his Jack Nightingale series, www.jacknightingale.com. Views: 26
The first corpse was found hooded, bound, and naked, kneeling on a bare mattress in a seedy hotel room. This was no ordinary murder but rather the work of a killer driven by something special, something spectacular. The fact that the dead man was a convicted rapist recently released from prison only increases the bizarre nature of the gruesome crime... and the police's reluctance to apprehend the perpetrator. It's the body count that troubles Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, as brutal slaying follows brutal slaying, each victim more deserving than the last. Though he has no sympathy for the dead, Thorne knows he must put an end to a cruelly calculating vigilante's bloody justice before time runs out — and a horrifically efficient serial killer targets a life worth fighting for. Views: 26
James Carlos Blake is a masterful chronicler of the restless, outcast, the lawless, and the lonelyheart. His previous novel, In the Rogue Blood, was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Now he has written a powerful and rousing historical saga of family loyalties, blood feuds, and betrayed friendships; of bank robberies and bootlegging; and of a passionate love as wild at heart as the Everglades. It is the story of sworn enemies: John Ashley, a criminal and folk hero, the brightest star in a family destined to become the most notorious in south Florida; and Bobby Baker, a lawman born of lawmen, a violent, hard-hearted man driven by the searing memory of past affronts and the enduring hatreds the engendered. Ashley and Maker will clash many times over many decades. And as the twentieth century encroaches on their world—and the wildlands give grudging way to the rising boomtown of Miami—a feral, sensual mating will place one man in gravest peril... Views: 26
#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods reunites a mother and daughter and demonstrates that real love knows no limits Callie Smith's quest for success far from her Iowa roots has caused a rift with her hardworking family. And with neither her Wall Street career nor her marriage going as planned, she starts to question the choices she's made. But when charismatic network president Jason Kane pursues her to save a failing soap opera, her life is soon full of more twists than a TV story line. Suddenly she gets to know a whole new side to her mother, and also has the opportunity to save a friend's life. Most unexpected of all, she leaves heartache behind and tunes in to the love of a lifetime."Sherryl Woods gives her characters depth, intensity and the right amount of humor." --RT Book Reviewswww.SherrylWoods.com Views: 26
A local scientist misses his son's birthday party and turns up dead in Lake Superior. A radical environmental group blames a mysterious lab for the dead fish found in a remote stream. Then an Alzheimer's patient goes missing and his home is ransacked.Into the Deep is third in the acclaimed romantic suspense series from best-selling author Colleen Coble. Set in the untamed beauty of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, The Rock Harbor novels deftly pull readers into the life and operation of a canine search-and-rescue team as it helps unravel the screts of an enchanting wilderness. Views: 26
