Office of Innocence

Marshalling the vast powers of narrative and historical re-creation that he brought to his international bestseller Schindler’s List, Thomas Keneally has created a moving and provocative novel about a headstrong young Catholic priest in World War II Australia. As Sydney braces itself for a Japanese invasion, Father Frank Darragh finds his pastoral duties becoming increasingly challenging. How should he counsel an AWOL black American soldier who may face death for his involvement with a white woman? And what should he say to another woman—the distressingly beguiling Kate Heggarty—who impresses him with her virtue even as she edges toward sin? When Kate is found murdered, Darragh falls under suspicion. And even if the police clear him, his superiors—and his own conscience—may not. Office of Innocence is a book that’s impossible to put down, dense with moral complexity and alive with period detail.
Views: 660

Hatter's Castle

Hatter's Castle (1931) is the first novel of author A. J. Cronin. The story is set in 1879, in the fictional town of Levenford, on the Firth of Clyde. The plot revolves around many characters and has many subplots, all of which relate to the life of the hatter, James Brodie, whose narcissism and cruelty gradually destroy his family and life.
Views: 659

A Version Between

How many versions of you are there? If you had the chance to meet them, would you want to? What if you could see the results of all the decisions you made in life - the right calls, the wrong ones, the hard ones and the easy ones? Would you really want to? Well, would you?Paul Fields has had a rough few years: elfin mother assaulted, well-known father arrested, and unfairly turned away from his rugby club. Now, the weight of the clouds is upon him. And as Paul sits unwillingly through his younger brother’s school play, intrusive thoughts of violence assail him, demanding he act. His brother in his arms, will Paul break him to ease the suffering of all?
Views: 658

Still Water

Every summer Gil Hunt escapes to the same small town on the Cornish coast.   He rents a studio overlooking the bay from Cecily, who owns the café below, and spends his evenings at the bar on the pier or at beach parties with his surf dude friends.  Every summer is relaxed and hedonistic and exactly the same - which is just the way Gil likes it. Except this year, Cecily seems subdued and hankering after change for reasons she cannot or will not explain.  Gil, mindful of her restlessness, is distracted by a series of chance encounters with Jemima Gregory, daughter of a local artist.  As Cecily spirals away from him and Jem draws him ever closer, Gil’s own actions tie him into a web of other people’s secrets from which there is only the most violent and shocking escape.
Views: 658

Worth More Dead and Other True Cases

Why would a man kill his lover's husband and then his wife, the woman who fought successfully to have him paroled from prison? Why would he risk arrest by kidnapping the child of another woman who adored him? Because they were... Worth More Dead A cold case reopened -- and solved -- with dogged police work and new evidence. One of the shocking true crimes of passion and greed from Ann Rule's Crime Files. Former Marine sergeant and judo instructor Roland Pitre Jr. claimed it was all an elaborate plan to win back his wife's love -- it wasn't supposed to end with her dead body in the trunk of a car. Nearly twenty years later, he acknowledged that he had hired someone to kill his estranged wife in 1988, though his alleged excuse for why a monstrous "mistake" happened is as shocking and convoluted as the crime itself. Eventually, he was charged with first-degree murder in the long-unsolved death of Cheryl Pitre, after a mysterious witness betrayed Pitre to save his own skin. Tracing back the dark and bloody path of Pitre's life, two generations of detectives found a chain of brutal and terrifying crimes by a man who manipulated the courts and prisons to walk free.
Views: 658

Dee Brown on the Civil War

Three true tales of Civil War combat, as recounted by a #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. The acclaimed historian of the American West turns his attention to the country’s bloody civil conflict, chronicling the exploits of extraordinary soldiers who served in unexpected ways at a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. Grierson’s Raid: The definitive work on one of the most astonishing missions of the Civil War’s early days. For two weeks in the spring of 1862, Col. Benjamin Grierson, a former music teacher, led 1,700 Union cavalry troops on a raid from Tennessee to Louisiana. The improbably successful mission diverted Confederate attention from Grant’s crossing of the Mississippi and set the stage for the Siege of Vicksburg. General Sherman called it “the most brilliant expedition of the war.” The Bold Cavaliers: In 1861, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan and his brother-in-law Basil Duke put together a group of formidable horsemen, and set to violent work. Morgan’s Raiders began in their home state, staging attacks, recruiting new soldiers, and intercepting Union telegraphs. Most were imprisoned after unsuccessful incursions into Ohio and Indiana years later, but some Raiders would escape, regroup, and fight again in different conflicts. “Accurate and frequently exciting” (Kirkus Reviews). The Galvanized Yankees: The little-known and awe-inspiring true story of a group of captured Confederate soldiers who chose to serve in the Union Army rather than endure the grim conditions of prisoner of war camps. “An accurate, interesting, and sometimes thrilling account of an unusual group of men who rendered a valuable service to the nation in a time of great need” (The New York Times Book Review).
Views: 657

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet

How on earth did James Herriot come to be sitting on a high Yorkshire moor, smelling vaguely of cows? James isn't sure, but he knows that he loves it. This second hilarious volume of memoirs contains more tales of James' unpredictable boss Siegfried Farnon, his charming student brother Tristan, animal mayhem galore and his first encounters with a beautiful girl called Helen. 'He can tell a good story against himself, and his pleasure in the beauty of the countryside in which he works is infectious' - "Daily Telegraph". 'Full of warmth, wisdom and wit' - "The Field". 'It is a pleasure to be in James Herriot's company' - "Observer".
Views: 657

Mulgara

When the notorious necromancer, Maecidion, dies, the reading of his will goes awry. Powerful heirlooms are given to rivals of the deceased's kin, Irion, who are no strangers to black magic. Soon, Irion embarks on a bitter quest to retrieve what should rightfully be his.Tinged with traces of horror and humor, erotica and satire, the world of Mulgara plays host to an ensemble of dark characters. Not only necromancers, but grave robbers, thieves, and a bubbly witch, all caught in a web of friend or foe, and through their tales, Maecidion's plan is ultimately revealed.
Views: 657

Travels with George

Does George Washington still matter? Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick argues for Washington's unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new president through all thirteen former colonies, which were now an unsure nation. Travels with George marks a new first-person voice for Philbrick, weaving history and personal reflection into a single narrative.When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans.In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called "the infant woody country" to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures...
Views: 657

Splitsville

A struggling lawyer. A bitter custody battle. A deadly fire. This case could cost Kenzi her career-and her life. Kenzi Rivera is furious. Passed over for promotion at her own father's firm, the talented divorce lawyer is tired of fighting chauvinism every single day. When a desperate scientist begs for help getting her daughter back, Kenzi can't resist... even though this client is involved in Hexitel, a group she calls her religion but others call a cult. Kenzi uncovers evidence of disturbing practices at Hexitel involving large sums of money, servitude, and sex. She also learns her client's lab has been plagued by death threats and cutthroat competition. After the workplace burns to the ground and her client is charged with murder, the ambitious attorney knows there is much more at stake than a simple custody dispute. Can Kenzi find a path to the truth before she's trapped in a maze of death? Splitsville...
Views: 656

Empty Promises: And Other True Cases

Ann Rule dissects the convoluted love affairs that all too often end in violence in this unnerving collection drawn from her personal crime files. From traditional courtships to Internet relationships, the passions that rule the heart can also fuel the destructive fires of rage, jealousy and murder. There are stalkers driven by obsession, gay lovers who learn too late that things are not as they appear, and conjugal visits in the shadow of prison walls. Ann Rule goes beyond the headlines made by these unusual stories to chronicle the downward spiral that begins when promises are broken.
Views: 656

Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers

Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers is classic Wolfe, a funny, irreverent, and "delicious" (The Wall Street Journal) dissection of class and status by the master of New Journalism "On the night of January 4, 1970, Maestro and Mrs. Leonard Bernstein threw a bash in their thirteen-room park Avenue pad to raise money for the Black Panthers Defense Fund. New York society will probably never play Lady Bountiful in quite the same way again, because among the Beautiful People present was Tom Wolfe, pop sociologist and parajournalist supreme."--Book World
Views: 655

Burning for Revenge

The action doesn't let up in the most explosive Tomorrow book yet -- another international bestseller from John Marsden. The journey to Stratton isn't an easy trip, especially when the enemy's headquarters lie somewhere along the way. And that's exactly where Ellie and her friends unwittingly find themselves. With only five of them against hundreds of armed soldiers, escape seems like a suicide mission. But Stratton is where Ellie's grandmother lives, so the journey must be made -- even though the odds aren't good. Ellie must summon all of her courage and guerrilla instincts to survive the latest high-stakes installment of the action-packed Tomorrow series.
Views: 655

Indian Killer

A gritty, smart thriller from a literary superstar A killer has Seattle on edge. The serial murderer has been dubbed “the Indian Killer” because he scalps his victims and adorns their bodies with owl feathers. As the city consumes itself in a nightmare frenzy of racial tension, a possible suspect emerges: John Smith. An Indian raised by whites, John is lost between cultures. He fights for a sense of belonging that may never be his—but has his alienation made him angry enough to kill? Alexie traces John Smith’s rage with scathing wit and masterly suspense. In the electrifying Indian Killer, a national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book, Sherman Alexie delivers both a scintillating thriller and a searing parable of race, identity, and violence.
Views: 655

Last Chance for Justice

Welcome to Bloomfield, where life is simple, love is real, and stories are shared.Lynn Myers is still reeling from losing her husband of thirty-five years when word comes that her only sibling, an older brother, has also died. With no one else to settle the estate, she must return to her small hometown of Bloomfield, however briefly, to settle his affairs.Lynn's daughter, Rachel, has just graduated from Bible college and with no other commitments comes along to sort through her uncle's huge old home, right next to the local cemetery.It isn't long before Rachel has two men — a handsome CPA and the youth pastor — seriously vying for her attention. At the same time, Lynn's attention is drawn to a set of journals her brother has left behind detailing a long-standing Bloomfield mystery.As they pursue solving this mystery, Rachel must make some personal decisions about her future, while Lynn is forced to face unexpected issues from her own past.
Views: 655