"An outstanding historical mystery. Well-researched, well-plotted, well-paced and above all well written." – Mike RipleyAriana Franklin combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the drama of historical fiction in the enthralling second novel in the Mistress of the Art of Death series, featuring medieval heroine Adelia Aguilar.Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II, has died an agonizing death by poison-and the king's estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is the prime suspect. Henry suspects that Rosamund's murder is probably the first move in Eleanor's long-simmering plot to overthrow him. If Eleanor is guilty, the result ...
It's Father's Day weekend-a tough time for Charlie D, host of a late-night radio call-in show that offers supportive advice to troubled listeners. For years Charlie has been alienated from his father-a retired politician who was always too busy for his son when Charlie was growing up. The trouble is, his dad has chosen this weekend to attempt to reconcile with his son. Charlie is not keen to forgive. But Charlie's personal issues suddenly seem mundane when an email arrives from a young listener that outlines his very specific plans to kill not just his father but his entire family. The deeply troubled boy could be anywhere, and Charlie has just two hours to discover his identity and stop him from murder.
Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time after and , Gene Wolfe’s is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wonderful ways. Severian is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and now journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est.Won BSFA Award and World Fantasy Award in 1981.Nominated for Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1981.
At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow knows she has little time left. The last of her line, she faces a momentous choice: expose a long-held family secret, or take it with her to her grave.Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church-the final step before sainthood. In her lifetime, Sister Catherine had founded seven hospitals for disabled children. Now the cure of a four-year-old boy dying of brain cancer is being attributed to her. After his case was pronounced medically ...
John Wells returns to Afghanistan to hunt a possible leak in the agency’s station in Kabul, but finds himself facing deadly drug smuggling ring of US soldiers working with the Taliban.
“A dramatic crime chase in Gothenburg, intelligently and excitingly told.” – Der Spiegel (Germany)“[Here is] the opportunity to discover a Swede well removed from the ‘Swedish model’ and enter into the world of ?ke Edwardson. Try this voyage, and you will return to it.” – Marianne (France)“An extremely accomplished cross between crime fiction and psychological thriller… on par with P. D. James.” – Helsingborgs Dagblad (Sweden)“Masterful… While ?ke Edwardson possesses an undertone of humor, his work is full of darkness… With The Shadow Woman [he] establishes himself among the most exciting crime thriller writers in the ...
An agent like Matt Helm might be a nice man to live with, for a while -- but he's not the kind a woman would want to marry. Unless, perhaps, the marriage was part of an ingenious cover. Here the man whose daily bread is violence takes himself the most unlikely bride in the world -- just to make sure that death doesn't part them.
New York Times bestselling novelist Anne Perry, the undisputed Queen of Victorian mysteries and the author of an acclaimed series set during World War I, now broadens her canvas with her first major stand-alone book – an epic historical novel set in thirteenth-century Constantinople, where a woman must live a lie in her quest to uncover the truth.Arriving in the ancient Byzantine city in the year 1273, Anna Zarides has only one mission: to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill Bessarion, a nobleman.Disguising herself ...
The Sherlockian begins with Arthur Conan Doyle pondering the best way to kill off the character that brought him fame, fortune, and the angst of a writer desperate to be remembered for more than "a few morbid yarns." We then skip more than a hundred years into the future, to meet Harold White, a Sherlock Holmes devotee attending an annual celebration of hundreds of Sherlockian societies. When both Conan Doyle and White face grisly murders, Graham Moore's delightful debut novel really takes off, bouncing merrily between these two characters and time periods. Replete with winking cameos and Holmes-worthy twists, The Sherlockian is an inspired historical suspense novel that will captivate Holmes fans and anyone who loves a good twisty, clever mystery.
When a high-speed chase goes terribly wrong, Santa Fe police officer Dan Page watches in horror as a car and gas tanker explode into flames. Torn with guilt that he may be responsible, Page returns home to discover that his wife, Tori, has disappeared.Frantic, Page follows her trail to Rostov, a remote town in Texas famous for a massive astronomical observatory, a long-abandoned military base, and unexplained nighttime phenomena that drew onlookers from every corner of the globe. Many of these gawkers – Tori among them – are compelled to visit this tiny community to witness the mysterious Rostov ...
Professor Hilary Tamar's young Chancery barrister friends have finished an inheritance case when one of the minor beneficiaries turns up dead. It's assumed to be suicide, and as she wasn't the heiress nobody cares, but when the heiress is involved in an sailing accident in Greece, Hilary realises these were not accidents. In the course of investigation Selena and Julia are being invited upon false pretences to what turns out to be an orgy… But the combined wits and wit of our little group carry the day.
The first stand-alone thriller by critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston, The Shotgun Rule is a raw tale of four teenage friends who go looking for a little trouble - and find it. Blood spilled on the asphalt of this town long years gone has left a stain, and it's spreading.Not that a thing like that matters to teenagers like George, Hector, Paul, and Andy. It's summer 1983 in a northern California suburb, and these working-class kids have been killing time the usual ways: ducking their parents, tinkering with their bikes, and racing around town getting high and ...
This is the 4th and last Hilary Tamar mystery novel by Sarah Caudwell, who died in 2000. Written in first person by Professor Tamar and including a series of letters by different characters, the story is told of a financial tax mess and a series of strange deaths. Professor Tamar seems to think there is a connection, but is there?Even though she wrote only four novels, her death was a profound loss, not only in itself but also in that it deprives us forever of learning more of Julia, Selina, Ragwort, Cantrip, Timothy and the eternally mysterious and genderless Professor Hilary Tamar. The book itself? Lovely, cosy, funny, clever, erudite, and ultimately deeply satisfying.
Michael Corleone stands on the dock at Palermo. His two-year exile in Sicily is over, but the Godfather has charged him with a mission: do not return to America until he can bring with him the man named Salvatore Guilano. Giuliano – a legend, the bandit ruler of Western Sicily, a vicious leader fighting for his peasant countrymen against the corrupt government of Rome. But Guiliano's deadliest battle is not with the police or the armies of Rome, but with Don Croce malo, the ruthless Capo di Capi of the Mafia. By challenging the Don's iron-clad control, Guiliano sets in motion a feverish war in which the loser must surely die. Enter Michael Corleone, at sea amid a flood of treachery, passion, and deceit. The secret is that he soon discovers promises greater success than Michael hoped for – and the cruelest threat he has ever faced. Once again, Mario Puzo has created a masterful story of evil on an epic scale, mesmerizing us with the terrible magic of the Mafia.
Amazon.com ReviewThe Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here-driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, ...
