From “one of the master storytellers of this or any age” (The Tampa Tribune) comes the stunning final adventure of “one of the most remarkable and appealing characters in current fiction”(The Virginian-Pilot)—as #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz brings the unforgettable odyssey of Odd Thomas to its dazzling conclusion.
Odd Thomas is back where it all started . . . because the time has come to finish it. Since he left his simple life in the small town of Pico Mundo, California, his journey has taken him to places strange and wonderful, mysterious and terrifying. Across the land, in the company of mortals and spirits alike, he has known kindness and cruelty, felt love and loss, saved lives and taken them—as he’s borne witness to the greatest good and darkest evil humanity is capable of. Again and again, he has gone where he must and done what he had to do—for better or worse—with his courage and devotion sorely tested, and his soul forever changed. Every triumph has been hard won. Each sacrifice has taken its toll.
Now, whatever destiny drives him has finally steered his steps home, where those he cares for most surround him, the memory of his tragically lost true love haunts him, and one last challenge—vast and dreadful—awaits him. For Odd Thomas, born to serve a purpose far greater than himself, the wandering is done. Only the reckoning remains.
Acclaim for Dean Koontz and his Odd Thomas novels
“Odd’s strange gifts, coupled with his intelligence and self-effacing humor, make him one of the most quietly authoritative characters in recent popular fiction.”—Publishers Weekly
“Koontz gives his character wit, good humor, a familiarity with the dark side of humanity—and moral outrage.” —USA Today*
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“The ultimate Everyman . . . an avatar of hope and honor and courage for all of us—the linchpin of a rollicking good tale. . . . Odd evokes the homespun wisdom of Forrest Gump amid the mind-spinning adventures of a Jack Bauer.” —BookPage
“There’s never anything predictable about an Odd Thomas adventure.”—Booklist
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“The nice young fry cook with the occult powers is [Koontz’s] most likable creation . . . candid, upright, amusing and sometimes withering.” —The New York Times
“An inventive . . . mix of suspense, whimsy and uplift.”—The Washington Post
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“Heartfelt and provocative . . . a wonderfully rich and entertaining story.” —Chicago Sun-Times **
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 1 258
In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs Jacobs; the women and girls – including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister – feel the same about Reverend Jacobs. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.
Then tragedy strikes the Jacobs family; the preacher curses God, mocking all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. In his mid-thirties, he is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate, he sees Jacobs again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that *revival* has many meanings. Because for every cure there is a price…
This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Views: 1 255
The unabridged tales in this Mystery Masters audiobook include all the ones in the print book first published in 1974. With each case, Poirot further proves his reputation as the greatest mind in detective fiction. In "The Plymouth Express," the body of the daughter of a wealthy American industrialist is found stuffed under a train seat. "Problem at Sea" finds a disliked rich woman murdered in a locked room on a ship. "The King of Clubs" involves a prince, his dancer fiancée, and a fiendish bit of blackmail. These gems are alternately read by David Suchet and Hugh Fraser, whose roles as, respectively, Poirot and his sidekick, Captain Hugh Hastings, in PBS's Mystery! series and the Arts and Entertainment's Poirot series are considered definitive.
This collection contains the following stories:
"The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly,"
"The Adventure of the Clapham Cook,"
"The Affair of the Victory Ball,"
"The Chocolate Box,"
"The Cornish Mystery,"
"The Double Clue,"
"Double Sin,"
"How Does Your Garden Grow?,"
"The King of Clubs,"
"The Lemesurier Inheritance,"
"Lost Mine,"
"Market Basing Mystery,"
"The Plymouth Express,"
"Problem at Sea,"
"The Submarine Plans,"
"The Third-Floor Flat,"
"The Veiled Lady,"
and "Wasps' Nest." Views: 1 251
An elderly lady is on her way to Scotland Yard to report several murders in her village. "It is very easy to kill, so long as no one suspects you," she tells the man she meets on the London train, retired policeman Luke Fitzwilliam. He ascribes it all to a vivid imagination and hopes they'll let the old dear down lightly. That is, until he learns about two more suspicious deaths - one of which is the old lady's. Views: 1 249
Paul Schumann is a contract hitman for the mob in 1936. But with Prohibition over and the gang wars associated with it coming to an end, Schumann is finding less and less work. He is contracted for a hit. But this time, he's caught - and finds that he's been set up. He's taken to meet an official in Army Intelligence and given a choice: he can spend the rest of his life in jail, or he can help his country. He is to pose as a member of the 1936 Olympic team, travel to Berlin, and kill a high-ranking Nazi close to Hitler. Schumann has been picked because he's a second generation German-American and can speak the language fluently. Or at least that's what they lead him to believe... Views: 1 247
A posthumous collection of essays about the modern world from one of Europe’s greatest, and best-selling, literary figures
Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and profound wisdom. He sees with fresh eyes the upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives—a “liquid” society in which it’s not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets abound.
In these pieces, written for his regular column in L’Espresso magazine, Eco brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as popular culture and politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, new technologies, mass media, racism, and good manners. It is a final gift to his reader—astute, witty, and illuminating. Views: 1 233
An explosive novel about the love of a father, set against a story where nothing is what it seems and where hope and fear collide in the most surprising ways. Views: 1 222
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids Rachel and Blake Lussier and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon... Views: 1 221
Harry Lyon was a rational man, a cop who refused to let his job harden his soul. Then one fateful day, he was forced to shoot a man--and a homeless stranger with bloodshot eyes uttered the haunting words that challenged Harry Lyon's sanity: "Ticktock, ticktock. You'll be dead in sixteen hours. . . Dead by dawn. . . Dead by dawn. . . Dead by dawn. . . " Views: 1 218
With each and every new novel, Dean Koontz raises the stakes--and the pulse rate--higher than any other author. Now, in what may be his most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever, he brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itself--and to a showdown with the darkness that would destroy it forever. What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill? We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he's standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare. Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch's wife and he's named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn't care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He's confident that Mitch will find a way. If he loves his wife enough. . . Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He's got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he'll pay a lot more. He'll pay anything. From its tense opening to its shattering climax, The Husband is a thriller that will hold you in its relentless grip for every twist, every shock, every revelation. . . until it lets you go, unmistakably changed. This is a Dean Koontz novel, after all. And there's no other experience quite like it. Views: 1 216
# 1 *New York Times* bestselling author Harlan Coben’s blistering new Myron Bolitar thriller takes Myron—and his millions of fans—where they have never gone before
Myron Bolitar hasn’t heard from Terese Collins since their torrid affair ended ten years ago, so her desperate phone call from Paris catches him completely off guard. In a shattering admission, Terese reveals the tragic story behind her disappearance—her struggles to get pregnant, the greatest moment of her life when her baby was born…and the fatal accident that robbed her of it all: her marriage, her happiness and her beloved only daughter.
Now a suspect in the murder of her ex-husband in Paris, Terese has nowhere else to turn for help. Myron heeds the call. But then a startling piece of evidence turns the entire case upside down, laying bare Terese’s long-buried family secrets…and the very real possibility that her daughter may still be alive.
In grave danger from unknown assailants in a country where nothing is as it seems, Myron and Terese race to stay a step ahead of Homeland Security, Interpol, and Mossad. Soon they are working at breakneck pace, not only to learn what really happened to Terese’s long-lost little girl— but to uncover a sinister plot with shocking global implications. Views: 1 215
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Following Last Light comes Final Hour, the second of two standalone eBook original novellas leading in to Ashley Bell, the highly anticipated new novel of suspense from Dean Koontz!
Just by touching others, Makani Hisoka-O’Brien can see the darkest secrets they keep. The troubling talent has made the Southern California surfer wary of casual contact. But while impulsively saving a stranger from an accident, she experiences her most disturbing vision.
With only a good friend to help her, and mere traces of information to guide her, Makani must track down two mysterious women—one of them innocent, one not.
But Makani is stepping into the path of an adversary more dangerous than she can imagine: a brutal predator behind a pretty face, who won’t go down without drawing blood.
Acclaim for Dean Koontz
“Dean Koontz is a prose stylist whose lyricism heightens malevolence and tension. [He creates] characters of unusual richness and depth . . . with a level of perception and sensitivity that is not merely convincing; it’s astonishing.” —The Seattle Times
“Demanding much of itself, Koontz’s style bleaches out clichés while showing a genius for details. He leaves his competitors buried in the dust.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A rarity among bestselling writers, Koontz continues to pursue new ways of telling stories, never content with repeating himself.”—*Chicago Sun-Times
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“Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. ‘Serious’ writers . . . might do well to examine his technique.”—The New York Times Book Review
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“[Koontz] has always had near-Dickensian powers of description, and an ability to yank us from one page to the next that few novelists can match.” —Los Angeles Times
“Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.”—*USA Today
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“Characters and the search for meaning, exquisitely crafted, are the soul of [Koontz’s] work. . . . One of the master storytellers of this or any age.”—The Tampa Tribune
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“A literary juggler.”—The Times (London) Views: 1 214
Susan Harris lived in self-imposed seclusion, in a mansion featuring numerous automated systems controlled by a state-of-the-art computer. Every comfort was provided, and in this often unsafe world of ours, her security was absolute. But now her security system has been breached, her sanctuary from the outside world violated by an insidious artificial intelligence, which has taken control of her house. In the privacy of her own home, and against her will, Susan will experience an inconceivable act of terror. She will become the object of the ultimate computer's consuming obsession: to learn everything there is to know about the flesh. . . Views: 1 213
From Jeffery Deaver--the *New York Times* bestselling author of the upcoming Lincoln Rhyme novel THE KILL ROOM (on sale June 4, 2013)--come three powerful new short stories.
In "Fast", Kathryn Dance races against the clock to track down the members of a domestic terrorist cell--with the lives of 200 people hanging in the balance. In "Game," a housekeeper looks for her murdered employer's missing body-and uncovers a shocking truth that hits too close to home. In "Paradice", a car brake failure leaves John Pellam stranded in a remote Colorado mountain town, where he suddenly finds himself accused of murder.
With this trio of brilliantly written, utterly gripping stories, Deaver proves once again that he's the "grand master of the plot twist" (*Booklist).* Views: 1 213
Three years ago, Darla Rogers's ex, Jacob Remington, left on a top secret Special Forces mission and didn't return--at least, not to her. They had broken up after he pushed her to the erotic edge, asking her to trust him completely...and she pushed him away.Now Jacob is back, revealing his membership in a secret society that enjoys games of dominance and submission. This time, Darla is determined prove she belongs in his world. Even if that means embracing her darkest desires with Jacob and the society's leader....
"Book two of The Masters series." Views: 1 209
