Set during Inspector Rutledge's time in the Great War, Charles Todd's short story introduces a born killer.It's World War I, and young Glaswegian Dougal Kerr is a new recruit in the British army. Dougal has no family and no past, but his easygoing demeanor belies his cheerless upbringing. There's only one thing that gives Ian Rutledge pause: Dougal is very good at killing, and he doesn't seem to mind it at all—in fact, he seems to relish it. In wartime, how does one tell the difference between a remorseless killer and "a guid soldier"? "A Guid Soldier" by Charles Todd is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and read them all! Views: 19
Uploaded by toocool81YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE . . . After scattering her mother’s ashes in Vietnam, photojournalist Xandra Carrick comes home to New York to rebuild her life and career. When she experiences, in her darkroom, supernatural visions that reveal atrocities perpetrated by American soldiers during the Vietnam War, she finds herself entangled in a forty-year-old conspiracy that could bring the nation into political turmoil. Launching headlong into a quest to learn the truth from her father, Peter Carrick, a Pulitzer Prize laureate who served as an embedded photographer during the war, she confronts him about a dark secret he has kept—a secret that has devastated their family. Her investigations lead her to her departed mother’s journal, which tells of love, spiritual awakening, and surviving the fall of Saigon. Pursued across the continent, Xandra comes face-to-face with powerful forces that will stop at nothing to prevent her from revealing the truth. But not before government agencies arrest her for murder, domestic terrorism, and an assassination attempt on the newly elected president of the United States. Darkroom is a riveting tale of suspense that tears the cover off the human struggle for truth in a world imprisoned by lies. Views: 19
From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Fans of bestseller Smith's two mystery series set in Botswana and Edinburgh will find the same understanding, affectionate look at human frailties and foibles in this sunny series about the adventures and misadventures of a precocious six-year-old, Bertie Pollock, and a host of other folks in contemporary Edinburgh. In the superlative fifth entry (after The World According to Bertie), Bertie's parents engage in a Wodehousian power struggle about how their young child should be raised, wondering whether his desire to become a scout is a good thing. The neatly interwoven story lines include the travails of a young, newly married couple and an artist who finds himself saddled with too many dogs. One character's scheme to recover a Spode tea cup that her neighbor has permanently appropriated is particularly evocative of P.G. Wodehouse, though Smith's characters are less broadly drawn and more multidimensional than, say, Jeeves and Wooster. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review There’s much ado at Edinburgh’s 44 Scotland Street, the fictional residence in McCall Smith’s whimsical series. This fifth installment (after The World according to Bertie, 2008) finds more angst for six-year-old genius Bertie, who desperately wants to join the Cub Scouts. Irene, his excruciatingly overbearing mother, dismisses such desires as uncivilized. (Aren’t the young lad’s yoga and Italian lessons stimulating enough?) Meanwhile, milquetoast gallery-owner Matthew brushes with death while on honeymoon in Australia, vain and vacuous Bruce ponders a plum modeling assignment, and lonely intellectual Domenica suspects her neighbor Antonia of dealing drugs. (The woman did steal a blue Spode teacup after all; could more dire crimes be far behind?) Domenica and portrait painter Angus Lordie consider ways to expose Antonia’s illegal activities, while Angus’ perceptive canine Cyril looks on. (Cyril has been engaged in some roguish behavior of his own, fathering a litter of six playful pups.) In the book’s preface, McCall Smith wryly insists that his tale is “entirely true, or almost.” While the actual Scotland Street doesn’t quite reach 44, one can easily imagine the likes of Bertie wearily marching off to the psychiatrist, Bruce preening before every available mirror, and Cyril epitomizing the old adage about man’s best friend. Who wouldn’t want to live among this endlessly lively crew? --Allison Block Views: 19
When Frank and Joe find a young woman washed up on the beach of the Caribbean's St. Lucia Island, they realize there's trouble in paradise. Who is the mystery woman? What is she hiding? The answers lie offshore, where a ship's crew scavenges for pirate gold. But in the face of spearguns and man-eating sharks, the Hardys discover that the sea hides more than gold. Views: 19
In his classic caper novels, Donald E. Westlake turns the world of crime and criminals upside down. The bad get better, the good slide a bit, and Lord help anyone caught between a thief named John Dortmunder and the current object of his intentions. Now Westlake's seasoned but often scoreless crook must take on an impossible crime, one he doesn't want and doesn't believe in. But a little blackmail goes a long way in... WHAT'S SO FUNNY? All it takes is a few underhanded moves by a tough ex-cop named Eppick to pull Dortmunder into a game he never wanted to play. With no choice, he musters his always-game gang and they set out on a perilous treasure hunt for a long-lost gold and jewel-studded chess set once intended as a birthday gift for the last Romanov czar, which unfortunately reached Russia after that party was over. From the moment Dortmunder reaches for his first pawn, he faces insurmountable odds. The purloined past of this precious set is desti... Views: 19
In Bad Business, the fourth book in the Gibbons and Tozzi thriller series, FBI Special Agents Cuthbert Gibbons and Mike Tozzi get into hot water when the turncoat mobster they were assigned to protect is found murdered and Tozzi is the prime suspect. A dirty Assistant United States Attorney has been ordered to throw a major drug case to pay off a debt to a Sicilian gangster, but Gibbons and Tozzi are determined to bring order to the court. Enough lethally wacky characters to fill a courtroom."The best fictional cop duo around. Bruno's novels have been total pleasure." People"A cross, double-cross, cross-again thriller…intricately plotted and written with hard-edged violence." Houston Chronicle Views: 19
THE BOUNTY HUNTER'S BABY Chad Hogan's tempestuous romance with Hannah McGee flatlined when he gave her a sports car instead of an engagement ring. The last thing the rough-edged loner wanted was to lose the only woman who made him feel alive again. But he hadn't been ready for marriage.... Well, he'd better get ready now. Because Hannah was back--and their passion burned brighter than ever. But time hadn't stood still. For she had a babbling eight-month-old baby--Chad's baby girl--attached to her hip. Was the brooding bounty hunter finally ready to relinquish his solitary ways and be a full-time family man? Views: 19
Arm yourself… for the wedding of the sixteenth century!Forget the English. Forget the Reformation. Forget your sanity…Try getting married when your betrothed can wield an iron pot with deadly accuracy, her mad uncle thinks he’s William Wallace, and her two maiden aunts can’t finish a sentence—or a thought—on their own…Such are Sir Iain Armstrong’s travails when he sets out to wed Lady Marion, a convent-raised spitfire. All Iain wants to do is fulfill their fathers’ wishes, appease two royal courts, and do what is best for the future of Scotland by putting an end to all the troubles in his part of the Borders. All Lady Marion has to do is agree to marry him, which is the last thing on her mind when Iain arrives at the convent. She won’t be taken without a fight. And even when she realizes that Iain is a man of courage, intelligence, and seductively powerful shoulders, will her eccentric family do what her temper tantrums, willful ways, and pride have so far failed to do—and drive him away forever? Join in on this medieval Highland spoof of Arsenic and Old Lace…CHARGE!! Views: 19
