Flight or Fright

Stephen King hates to fly. Now he and co-editor Bev Vincent would like to share this fear of flying with you. Welcome to Flight or Fright, an anthology about all the things that can go horribly wrong when you're suspended six miles in the air, hurtling through space at more than 500 mph and sealed up in a metal tube (like gulp! a coffin) with hundreds of strangers. All the ways your trip into the friendly skies can turn into a nightmare, including some we'll bet you've never thought of before... but now you will the next time you walk down the jetway and place your fate in the hands of a total stranger. Featuring brand new stories by Joe Hill and Stephen King, as well as fourteen classic tales and one poem from the likes of Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Dan Simmons, and many others, Flight or Fright is, as King says, "ideal airplane reading, especially on stormy descents... Even if you are safe on the ground, you...
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The Seagull

From CWA Diamond Dagger winner Ann Cleeves comes The Seagull, the eighth installment in the Vera Stanhope series.A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper – and Vera played a key part in his downfall.Now, Brace promises Vera information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who disappeared in the mid-nineties, if she will look out for his daughter and grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is buried close to St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search team investigates, officers find not one skeleton, but two.This cold case case takes Vera back in time, and very close to home, as Brace and Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as 'the Prof', were close friends of...
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Higher Hope

The Tides of Truth series follows one lawyer's passionate pursuit of truth—in matters of life and the law.Competition is tough at the Savannah law firm where Tami Taylor serves as a law clerk. But Tami's work sets her apart—and the firm's partners see something special in her. So they assign her to a libel case against an abrasive, outspoken preacher who is either a prophet or a lunatic.On the surface it appears to be an open and shut case; the preacher seems fully outside the bounds of law. And Tami's strict religious upbringing could be the firm's ace-in-the-hole. But as the investigation continues, Tami is troubled by the preacher's uncanny prophetic abilities. And their client seems to be hiding something.Tami returns to her hometown, struggling with several critical choices—as two very different men from the firm vie for her heart. Just when the challenges seem insurmountable, hope for Tami arrives from a surprising place. And...
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In the Night of the Heat

AWARD-WINNING ACTOR AND AUTHOR BLAIR UNDERWOOD JOINS FORCES WITH TWO AMAZING AND AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS TANANARIVE DUE AND STEVEN BARNES TO DELIVER THE SECOND INSTALLATION IN THE STUNNING AND PROVOCATIVE TENNYSON HARDWICK NOVEL IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT. Threatened with death after acquittal for murder, football superstar T. D. Jackson asks struggling actor and former gigolo Tennyson Hardwick for protection. Tennyson has a reputation in Hollywood after solving the murder of rapper Afrodite, but politely turns Jackson down: His acting career is taking off with a new series, and he's trying to work out his personal life after a series of wrong turns. But Tennyson's life is upturned when his seedy past catches up to him on the set of his TV series. Then T. D. Jackson is found dead in his home, the victim of an apparent suicide. T.D.'s gorgeous cousin, Melanie, is sure the superstar was murdered, and Jackson's family offers Tennyson an irresistible fee to discover the...
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Star Struck kb-6

Bodyguarding had never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan’s wish list. But somebody’s got to pay the bills at Brannigan & Co, and if the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, the fast-talking computer-loving white-collar crime expert has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai boxing kit. Soon, however, offstage dramas overshadow the fictional storylines, culminating in the unscripted murder of the self-styled ‘Seer to the Stars’, and Kate finds herself with more questions than answers. What’s more, her tame hacker has found virtual love, her process server keeps getting arrested, and the ever-reliable Dennis has had the temerity to get himself charged with murder. Nobody told her there’d be days like these…
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Best Food Writing 2010

From Publishers WeeklyMourning the demise of Gourmet magazine, series editor Hughes asks "is food writing a dying art?" Readers of this year's anthology will offer a resounding "nowhere close." Ethical concerns of organic and locavore movements and free range meats are tidily summed up by now-famous vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer. Whereas MIT grad J. Kenji Lopez-Alt shares a recipe for making French fries as good as what McDonalds makes: "salty, crisp, light, and not greasy." At the other end of the spectrum, New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton offers a version of Nora Ephron's meat loaf recipe to die for. Pulitzer prize winner Jonathan Gold tracks the shifting locations of Los Angeles' street vendors and Tod Kliman hunts down Peter Chang, the elusive "perfect chef" who moves between Chinese restaurants, from D.C. to Atlanta, to avoid celebrity. Along the way Kliman learns that innocuous Chinese restaurants can have secret menus for the cognoscenti and experiences the exquisite pleasure of hot peppers that scorch and even numb. And travelling to Tokyo, Kevin Pang discovered to his great surprise that eating a bowl of ramen "satisfied every taste sense man is blessed to experience." A sparkling collection. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. FromIn a time where the most elemental of activities—consuming sustenance—is an increasingly political act, it’s not surprising that there might be more attention paid to talking about eating food than there is in actually eating food. Series editor Hughes sheds a tear for the shuttering of the venerable Gourmet, but maintains that “the rumors of food writing’s death have been greatly exaggerated.” Big changes in the culinary world are visible here, from Michael Steinberger’s lament over the passing of France’s reign of culinary mastery (all hail Spain) to Tim Carman’s plea to put Zagat out of its misery. But the trend du jour continues to be locavorism, evidenced by Carla Capalbo’s take on the epicenter of molecular gastronomy, El Bulli, getting dethroned as best restaurant in the world by a small Copenhagen joint that focuses on seasonal, place-specific ingredients. Despite all the delicious food fussiness on parade, though, the best of the best might just be Jason Sheehan’s hilarious (if you’re an industry insider) or terrifying (if you’re an unsuspecting patron) account of flash-defrosting 80-pound blocks of haddock on a frantic fish-fry Friday. --Ian Chipman
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Bear Witness to Murder

"Cute and cuddly on the outside, murder and mayhem on the inside . . . Totally adorable." —Duffy Brown on Bearly Departed As autumn air settles into the quaint small town of Silver Hollow, there's nothing more popular than Sasha's teddy bears—and murder in cold blood . . . Silver Bear Shop and Factory manager Sasha Silverman is cozying up to the fall season by hosting Silver Hollow's Cranbeary Tea Party, the opening event of the village's Oktobear Fest—a too-cute celebration themed around teddy bears. She barely has a moment to agonize over the return of her former high school rival, Holly Parker, whose new toy and bookstore in town could spell big trouble for the Silver Bear Shop and her cousin's small bookstore . . . But when Sasha discovers Holly's shop assistant dead with a knife plunged in her body, the unpleasant woman suddenly looks like a real backstabber. So does Sasha's ex-husband,...
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