Race and civil rights in 1963 Los Angeles provide a powerful backdrop in Gary Phillips’s riveting historical crime novel about an African American forensic photographer seeking justice for a friend—perfect for fans of Walter Mosley, James Ellroy, and George Pelecanos.LOS ANGELES, 1963: African American Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on the eve of Martin Luther King’s Freedom Rally, Ingram risks becoming a victim at every crime scene he photographs.When Ingram hears about a deadly automobile accident on his police scanner, he recognizes the vehicle described as belonging to his good friend and old army buddy, a white jazz trumpeter. The LAPD declares the car crash an accident, but when Ingram develops his photos, he sees signs of foul play. Ingram feels compelled to play... Views: 55
No one writes about friends, family and home better than Sherryl Woods. Told with warmth and humor, Lilac Lane is a brand-new story in her beloved Chesapeake Shores series, one readers all over the world have waited two years to read!At the heart of Lilac Lane is Keira Malone, who raised her three children alone after her first marriage broke apart, and who, after years of guarding her heart, finally finds love again. But that love is short-lived when her fiancé suffers a fatal heart attack. Grieving and unsure of what's next, Keira agrees to move from Dublin to Chesapeake Shores, Maryland, to spend time with her daughter, Moira, and her new granddaughter, Kate, as well as to help her son-in-law, Luke, with his Irish pub, O'Briens. Not wanting to live underfoot, she rents a charming cottage on Lilac Lane, replete with views of the ocean and her neighbor's thriving garden—not to mention views of the neighbor... Views: 55
Tucked into the mountains and valleys of northern New Mexico are the hidden towns, little enclaves of history and tradition--and secrets. Charlie and her office assistant Sally Bertrand decide to visit Sally's hometown of Valle Escondido over the July 4th weekend, and when they drop in on a friend they learn that Cynthia Martinez suddenly suffered a miscarriage and died. Privately, friends wonder if spousal abuse caused her death. Charlie agrees to ask a few questions and see what she can find out. Meanwhile, Charlie and her brother Ron have an ongoing dispute over gun control. Since the two of them were trapped by a killer only a month earlier, he's insisting that she learn to defend herself. And Drake Langston, the helicopter pilot she met in Hawaii, is coming to visit and the romance is heating up. The three plots intertwine and Charlie discovers awful secrets buried deep in the small town. Views: 55
No one in Denver knows how close Callie Mitchell once came to
ruin. Dowdy dresses and severe hairstyles hide evidence of the pretty, trusting
girl she used to be. Now her matchmaking employer wants Callie to help find a
wife for the one man who sees through her careful facade. For his business’s sake, Reese Bennett Jr. plans on making a
sensible marriage. Preferably one without the unpredictable emotions that spring
to life around Callie. Yet no matter how many candidates she presents to Reese,
none compare with the vibrant, intelligent woman who is right under his nose—and
quickly invading his heart. Views: 55
"It was a man, standing quite motionless and staring down. He wore a broad-brimmed hat and was otherwise wrapped in a flowing cloak that flapped about him in the wind." Making a departure from his bestselling political thrillers, Fredrick Forsyth takes a literary leap in The Phantom of Manahattan, the sequel to Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.
Inspired by a meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who longed for a sequel to his world-renowned musical, Forsyth decided after extensively researching the subject to rekindle the legend. The story opens in 1906, 12 years after the Phantom escapes a bloodthirsty mob at L'Opera in Paris and mysteriously vanishes without a trace. On her death bed, the Mistress of the Chorus, Madame Anionette Giry, confesses that she plucked a horrifically deformed boy from a carnival prison and spirited him away to live in recesses of L'Opera: "[His] face was distorted down one side as if struck long ago by monstrous hammer and the flesh of this visage was raw and shapeless like molten candle wax. The eyes were deep-set in sockets puckered and misshapen." Keeping to the shadowy nooks of the opera house, Erik Mulhiem, became known as the Phantom, living a mysterious, solitary existence. However, that abruptly ended when he fell in love with a beautiful diva, Christine Daae. Unable to control his obsession, he flees to America with the help of Madame Giry. There, after years of destitution and misery, he builds a vast empire and devises a plan to ensnare his beloved Christine.
Along with the legendary staples, the delightful cast of supporting characters--from the refined, French lawyer with a pinched disposition, to Cholly Bloom, a street-wise New York hack--appears in chapter vignettes enriching the plot and propelling the scenes, so that it reads in documentary form. And preface-skippers be warned: The introduction gives essential background to the sequel, as well as interesting tidbits about the architecture and history of L'Opera. For example, did you know there is buried lake underneath that is biannually maintained? Or that almost half of its 17 floors are subterranean and were once used for grisly tortures and imprisonment during a military coup in the early 1870s? In fact, that, coupled with reports of ghostly sightings and unexplained accidents fed Leroux's imagination and led to his classic creation. Views: 55
DEADLY PURSUIT When aid worker Lexi Shannon is abducted at gunpoint in Mali, she quickly learns her kidnappers are really after her brother—and the money he's stolen. Landing at the secluded desert compound, ex-military pilot Colton Landry has a clear mission: rescue his brother, who's being held for ransom. But after discovering the kidnappers also have Lexi, there's no way he's leaving her behind. Their daring escape soon turns into a deadly chase when their plane is shot down, stranding them in the desert. Making a desperate run for the Moroccan border, Lexi and Colton must trust each other and rely on their strength and ingenuity to survive. But it may not be enough to outrun and outsmart their relentless pursuers... Views: 55
Beyond the wrought-iron gates and behind the stuccoed facades of the Spanish-style houses in the affluent California community of Greenwood, a murderous maze of deceit, adultery, fraud, and betrayal awaits the private eye hailed by the Chicago Sun-Times as “the thinking man’s detective” in this ingeniously contrived mystery novel by two-time Shamus award-winner Bill Pronzini.
Not that larceny among the rich comes as a surprise to “Nameless.” Indeed, even before he visits the handsomely appointed offices of the blond, tanned insurance agent Rich Twining and the estate where the recently widowed Sheila Hunter lives uneasily with her wary ten-year-old daughter, the private investigator’s darker suspicions have been aroused. For why would anyone, no matter how moneyed and beautiful and bereaved, refuse to claim fifty thousand dollars due to her in life insurance?
The question is simple enough. The answer, though, lies several murders, many miles, ten years, a deviously contrived name game, and one baffling word clue — crazybone — away. Views: 55
WALK. DON'T RUN....Whatever was going to happen, Aidan Kendall had decided to stay and ride it out. The truth was, he was tired of running. Tired of packing up his suitcase and hitting the road to nowhere. Tired of being alone, keeping people at arm's length and waiting for the shadow following on his heels to catch up with him and destroy him. Maybe that was the reason he'd stayed in Old Orchard. Perhaps subconsciously he'd known that this was where his running would end.So, he would stop running. And that included from the mysterious and unique Penelope Moon...and whatever bonds were developing between them. But would their love be strong enough to survive the truth? Views: 55
In the Nevada desert, the high-tech future of warfare is being conceived and constructed at a top-secret military facility called Dreamland Strike Zone.An Asian war that would have escalated into a nuclear nightmare has been halted, thanks to the raw courage, unparalleled skill, and total commitment of the Dreamland force. But an analysis of radar data has revealed the presence of an unknown super-weapon in the area: a robot warplane with terrifying capabilities, dubbed the "ghost clone." Though strikingly similar to Dreamland's own U/MF Flighthawk, no one knows where this fearsome instrument of destruction originated, but a rogue nation possessing a squadron of them could wreak unimaginable havoc on an unsuspecting free world. Now nothing less than a brazen, brilliantly conceived deception will lure the ghost clone out of hiding--and only a daring strike on enemy soil can avert a tomorrow too terrible to consider . . . if it isn't already too late. Views: 55
