A halál eltűnt! Állítólag… ööö… eltávozott. És ez olyasfajta káoszhoz vezet, amilyenek mindig is keletkeznek, amikor egy létfontosságú közszolgáltatás megszűnik. Időközben egy messzi, messzi kis farmon feltűnik egy magas, sötét idegen, aki meglehetősen jól bánik a kaszával. És mivel épp aratómunkásokat keresnek…

In this swift and striking novel, John D. MacDonald examines the ferment of a big-time convention — the plots, the savage maneuverings, the dreadful ease with which a man or a dream can be destroyed

When puzzle columnist Savannah Stone's editor is found stabbed to death, the police look at her as the prime suspect. But Savannah knows she wasn't the only puzzle-maker to cross words with him

The Ninth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. Christmas 1354, and in Cambridge the winter is as severe as anyone can remember. But however cold the weather gets, for two individuals it is about to get even colder. A drunken attempt at blackmail by Norbert Tulyet, an errant scholar who has enrolled in the Franciscan Hostel of Ovyng Hall, leaves him dead on that foundation’s doorstep. And in St Michael’s church, a second unidentified body holds an even greater mystery. For Matthew Bartholomew, the murders would be difficult to solve at a normal time of year, but now he has a further serious distraction to deal with. Philippa Abigny, to whom he was once betrothed, has returned to Cambridge with the man she left him for, the merchant Sir Walter Turke. Bartholomew hopes that the couple’s stay will be brief, but he is about to be sorely disappointed…

As the townsfolk of the Welsh valley town of Llanelen settle in for the snowiest winter in twenty-five years, an American stranger arrives. Harry Saunders charms the ladies, one of them in particular: Evelyn Lloyd, the town's former postmistress, who was left comfortably off after the death of her husband. After Mrs. Lloyd invests a good deal of money with him, Harry goes missing, as does her money. His body is soon discovered outside the walls of Conwy Castle, and Mrs. Lloyd is implicated in the murder. Although Penny Brannigan and her business partner, Victoria Hopkirk, are busy overseeing the grand opening of their new spa, that doesn't stop Mrs. Lloyd from desperately seeking Penny's help to prove her innocence. It's quite possible that Harry made other enemies while in Llanelen and Penny's investigation unfolds while she juggles her work at the spa, her growing relationship with Detective Inspector Davies, and the Christmas window competition that she signed up to judge. With A Killer's Christmas in Wales, Elizabeth J. Duncan delivers a delightful holiday-themed mystery

There’s nothing easier than falling in love with an old girlfriend. That’s what Philly lawyer Victor Carl finds out when he hooks up again with a femme fatale who’s definitely bad for his health. In the middle of the night, a knock on Victor’s door can only mean trouble. Two cops invite themselves in, asking where Victor has been. They also ask him about a doctor named Wren Davis. Victor sends them packing. As soon as they leave, a beautiful woman steps out of Victor’s bedroom, a towel around her naked body. “Who was that?” she asks. “The cops,” says Victor. “What did they want?” she asks. “To tell me that your husband is dead.” Her name is Julia. She's ridiculously lovely. Women like her date athletes and marry tycoons. They don’t hang out with second-rate lawyers on the edge of insolvency. But back in the day, Julia had agreed to marry Victor Carl. Then she deserted him, running off to marry a doctor. Now she’s back and she’s trouble with a capital T. Her husband has been murdered, Julia’s incriminated, and there are big bucks at stake. Naturally, Victor is on the case

A terrible secret haunts Dr. Jama Keith. But she must return to her past – her hometown of River Dance, Missouri – and risk exposure. She owes a debt to the town for financing her dreams. If only she can avoid ex-fiancé Terell Mercer – but River Dance is too small for that. When Terell's niece is abducted by two of the FBI's most wanted, Jama can't refuse to help – Terell's family were like kin to her for many years. The search for young Doriann could cost Terell and Jama their lives. But revealing her secret shame to the man she loves scares Jama more than the approaching danger…

The Barnes Noble Review This novel featuring Asian-American detective April Woo is a powerful blend of police procedural and thriller. When the guest of honor, Lieutenant Alfredo Bernardino, leaves before his retirement party's over, he neglects to take the gifts he's been given in honor of his 38 years with the New York City Police Department. His famous protégé, April Woo, follows him with his property, planning to say a last goodbye, but it's already too late. She comes across her mentor's still-warm body in the fog, his neck broken by an unknown assailant. April gives chase and comes close to sharing Bernardino's fate at the hands of a killer whose skills at unarmed combat challenge her own. Bernardino had plenty of friends and more than a few enemies, and the investigation into his murder is filled with complications involving high-ranking detectives, an internal affairs investigation, input from the dead detective's children (a son who works in the D.A.'s office and an FBI agent daughter), plus a hunt for millions of dollars missing from Bernardino's recent lottery winnings – not to mention the search for the source of a series of cryptic threatening phone calls to Bernardino and the killer's other victims. Because of her injuries – and the department's policy against cops who are crime victims investigating their own cases – April's involvement has to be unofficial. At times she must even hide it from her fiancé, Lieutenant Mike Sanchez of the NYPD Homicide Task Force. But still she hunts relentlessly for the cop-killer who is bold enough to seek out new victims amid the ever-expanding manhunt. Sue Stone

When Kaz Jorgensen returns to Astoria, fire breaks out on her brother's fishing trawler, implicating him in arson and murder. Complicating Kaz's investigation is the handsome, enigmatic fire chief, Michael Chapman, who can destroy the last remnants of the family she’s struggling to hold together. As the real killer stalks Kaz, she and Michael must learn to work together to uncover the truth

‘The Kyrgyz winter reminds us that the past is never dead, simply waiting to ambush us around the next corner’. When Inspector Akyl Borubaev of Bishkek Murder Squad arrives at the brutal murder scene of a young woman, all evidence hints at a sadistic serial killer on the hunt for more prey. But when the young woman’s father turns out to be a leading government minister, the pressure is on Borubaev to solve the case not only quickly but also quietly, by any means possible. Until more bodies are found… Still in mourning after his wife’s recent death, Borubaev descends into Bishkek’s brutal underworld, a place where no-one and nothing is as it seems, where everyone is playing for the highest stakes, and where violence is the only solution

A KIMA ASARAS Džeks Londons X sej. UZ MAKALOA PAKLĀJA

Evelyn is a Creole woman who comes of age in New Orleans at the height of World War II. Her family inhabits the upper echelon of Black society and when she falls for Renard, she is forced to choose between her life of privilege and the man she loves. In 1982, Evelyn’s daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband’s drug addiction. Just as she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life. Jackie must decide if the promise of her husband is worth the near certainty he’ll leave again. Jackie’s son, T.C., loves the creative process of growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He finds something hypnotic about training the seedlings, testing the levels, trimming the leaves, drying the buds. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn’t survive the storm. But fresh out of a four-month stint for drug charges, T.C. decides to start over—until an old friend convinces him to stake his new beginning on one last deal. For Evelyn, Jim Crow is an ongoing reality, and in its wake new threats spring up to haunt her descendants.A Kind of Freedomis an urgent novel that explores the legacy of racial disparity in the South through a poignant and redemptive family history

WINNER OF THE PEOPLE’S BOOK PRIZE 2010 A spellbinding mystery of obsession and guilt, this is also the poignant story of what happens to those left behind when a child vanishes without trace. It is the summer of 1968, the day Senator Robert Kennedy is shot. Two nine-year-old girls are playing hide and seek in the ruins of a deserted village. Alice has discovered a secret about Eleanor Ramsay’s mother, and is taunting the other girl. When it is Eleanor’s turn to hide, Alice disappears. Years later, an extraordinary turn of events opens up shocking truths for the Ramsay family and all who knew the missing girl

He’s a barbaric killer, guilty of the most terrible crime. He abducted and tortured an innocent 17-year-old girl, brutally raped her, then left her to die. Yet when James Martin O’Donnell stood trial at Exeter Crown Court he was acquitted. Twenty years later a chance DNA test makes it tragically dear that there has been a shocking miscarriage of justice. But the law of double jeopardy means O’Donnell cannot be tried again — with haunting consequences for all those determined that this evil monster will pay for his depravity. And when Joanna Bartlett, the once brilliant but now jaded crime correspondent who covered the case two decades ago, starts to delve into the past, she is forced to revisit not only the crime she can’t bear to remember but also the maverick police detective she has forced herself to forget

The second book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series. Midshipman Drinkwater is back in the Navy in 1792, appointed to the 12-gun cutter Kestral. Off the French coast, the Kestral becomes involved in the secret and dangerous adventures linked with the rescuing of emigres. Drinkwater plays a vital role in the landing of agents

THE WOLF'S BARGAIN… "You said I am too proud and I-I am," Jennifer said, laying her hand on Royce's chest in desperate supplication. "If you will let my sister go, I'll do any humble task you give me. I'll scrub the floors. I'll wait upon you at table. I swear I'll repay you in a hundred ways." Royce glanced down at the small, delicate hand laid upon his chest; heat was seeping through his tunic, desire already tightening his loins. "Please," Jenny whispered, "I'll do anything . You have only to tell me what you want." "I want you in my bed." Jennifer's hand fell away from his tunic. Behind them her sister's coughing rose to a terrible crescendo and Jenny shuddered with alarm. "Do we have a bargain?" he asked, and when she hesitated, he stated calmly, "In truth, I have no need to bargain with you at all, Jennifer, and you know it. I want you, and if that makes me a barbarian in your eyes, then so be it, but it doesn't have to be that way. There'll be no shame nor pain for you in my bed. There will be only pleasure." Jenny remembered the previous occasions when he had embraced her, had kissed her-and her own surprising response. Blood rushed to her face. "Do we have a bargain?" Royce asked, his long fingers sliding up and down her arms in an unconscious caress…

THE WOLF'S BARGAIN… "You said I am too proud and I-I am," Jennifer said, laying her hand on Royce's chest in desperate supplication. "If you will let my sister go, I'll do any humble task you give me. I'll scrub the floors. I'll wait upon you at table. I swear I'll repay you in a hundred ways." Royce glanced down at the small, delicate hand laid upon his chest; heat was seeping through his tunic, desire already tightening his loins. "Please," Jenny whispered, "I'll do anything . You have only to tell me what you want." "I want you in my bed." Jennifer's hand fell away from his tunic. Behind them her sister's coughing rose to a terrible crescendo and Jenny shuddered with alarm. "Do we have a bargain?" he asked, and when she hesitated, he stated calmly, "In truth, I have no need to bargain with you at all, Jennifer, and you know it. I want you, and if that makes me a barbarian in your eyes, then so be it, but it doesn't have to be that way. There'll be no shame nor pain for you in my bed. There will be only pleasure." Jenny remembered the previous occasions when he had embraced her, had kissed her-and her own surprising response. Blood rushed to her face. "Do we have a bargain?" Royce asked, his long fingers sliding up and down her arms in an unconscious caress…

Alan Lewrie is now commander of HMS Jester, an 18-gun sloop. Lewrie sails into Corsica only to receive astonishing orders: he must lure his archenemy, French commander Guillaume Choundas, into battle and personally strike the malevolent spymaster dead. With Horatio Nelson as his squadron commander on one hand and a luscious courtesan who spies for the French on the other, Lewrie must pull out all the stops if he's going to live up to his own reputation and bring glory to the British Royal Navy

After Yellow Fever decimated the crew of Alan Lewrie’s HMS Proteus, it had seemed like a knacky idea to abscond with a dozen slaves from a Jamaican plantation to help man his frigate. But two years later, Lewrie is now suspected of the deed. Slave-stealing is a hanging offense, and suddenly his neck is at risk of a fatal stretching.Once Lewrie has escaped, the master Foreign Office spy, Zachariah Twigg, arranges for a long voyage even further out of the law’s reach, to Cape Town and India, as escort to an East India Company convoy. At the Cape of Good Hope a British circus and theatrical troupe also joins the party, teeming with tempting female acrobats, nubile bareback riders, and alluring “actresses” like the seductive but deadly archer, Eudoxia Durschenko!

A Kiss Before Dying not only debuted the talent of best-selling novelist Ira Levin to rave reviews, it also set a new standard in the art of mystery and suspense. Now a modern classic, as gripping in its tautly plotted action as it is penetrating in its exploration of a criminal mind, it tells the shocking tale of a young man who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get where he wants to go. For he has dreams; plans. He also has charm, good looks, sex appeal, intelligence. And he has a problem. Her name is Dorothy; she loves him, and she’s pregnant. The solution may demand desperate measures. But, then, he looks like the kind of guy who could get away with murder. Compellingly, step by determined step, the novel follows this young man in his execution of one plan he had neither dreamed nor foreseen. Nor does he foresee how inexorably he will be enmeshed in the consequences of his own extreme deed

Meredith, a runaway Elven princess posing as a human private detective with a specialty in supernatural crime, is confronted by a dangerous new adversary, Doyle, the chief bodyguard and assassin of Meredith's aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, as Meredith becomes caught up in one of her dreaded aunt's evil schemes

Ava's new kitten, Tiger, may be small but he makes up for it with his big personality and sense of adventure. As Tiger gets up to various escapades Ava finds herself coming to the rescue, even having to save the kitten from next-door's dogs when Tiger climbs over the garden wall. But when the kitten disappears one night Ava has no idea where he could be. Meanwhile, Tiger is stuck up in a tall tree, cold and alone. The next day Ava is walking home from school with her friend Jess, about to put up missing posters, when she hears a meow and spots Tiger. The girls go to get Jess's dad, who has a tall ladder, but the terrified kitten only retreats further into the tree as he sees this strange man approach. Ava bravely climbs up with some cat treats, and she and her beloved kitten are reunited

Suburban single mom Jane Jeffry is thrilled when an on-location movie sets up in her own backyard. But in no time she's regretting the intrusion with all its clamorous ego-clashing. There's trouble brewing with the film's fading sex goddess star, her shady leading man and her pseudo-continental director — both of whom have shared more than billing with the demanding diva in the past. But when a blackmailing prop man turns up dead, it appears that someone has miscast Jane as the killer — a scenario she's determined to rewrite by conducting her own private auditions to recast the culprit in the role of real-life murderer

Dominic Flandry, troubleshooter for the decaying Terran Empire, returns to the spaceways and becomes tangled up in the well-laid plans of his lifelong enemy, Aycharaych

Gervaise Tresham, the hero of this story, joins the Order of the Knights of St. John, and leaving England he proceeds to the stronghold of Rhodes. Subsequently, Gervaise is made a Knight of the White Cross for valor, while soon after he is appointed commander of a war-galley, and in his first voyage destroys a fleet of Moorish corsairs. During one of his cruises the young knight is attacked on shore, captured after a desperate struggle, and sold into slavery in Tripoli. He succeeds in escaping, however, and returns to Rhodes in time to take part in the splendid defense of that fortress. Altogether a fine chivalrous tale of varied interest and full of noble daring

Eight centuries ago the first Knight of the Word was commissioned to combat the demonic evil of the Void. Now that daunting legacy has passed to John Ross—along with powerful magic and the knowledge that his actions are all that stand between a living hell and humanity’s future. Then, after decades of service to the Word, an unspeakable act of violence shatters John Ross’s weary faith. Haunted by guilt, he turns his back on his dread gift, settling down to build a normal life, untroubled by demons and nightmares. But a fallen Knight makes a tempting prize for the Void, which could bend the Knight’s magic to its own evil ends. And once the demons on Ross’s trail track him to Seattle, neither he nor anyone close to him will be safe. His only hope is Nest Freemark, a college student who wields an extraordinary magic all her own. Five years earlier, Ross had aided Nest when the future of humanity rested upon her choice between Word and Void. Now Nest must return the favor. She must restore Ross’s faith, or his life—and hers—will be forfeit…

JUST A ROUTINE CASE OF MURDER. A clumsy hatchet job by an enraged husband on his slatternly, nagging wife. Followed by the desperate flight of the culprit with the FBI in methodical, well organized pursuit. Until… a check revealed that the murderer worked for AXE, with easy access to explosively dangerous military information. Until… investigation showed that for thirty years the guilty man had been an incredibly clever enemy agent. Until… AXE discovered that the Russians and the Chinese were both determined to grab the man in possession of America's atomic secrets, and would stop at nothing to get him and eliminate each other. Clearly, it was a job for Nick Carter. His orders: Find the missing man. Kill him. Fast. Before the Reds close in. The hunt led Killmaster through the dark underbelly of Asia — from the exotic house of pleasure that served as an espionage hideout, to the guerrilla band's mountain stronghold with its grisly, skeleton-filled torture chamber. It was a terrifying assignment. America's very existence depended on Nick Carter's success

Miután az emberiségnek sikerült végrehajtania a távoli naprendszerekbe való galaktikus ugrást, expedíció indul az öt fényévnyire lévő Quintára annak kipuhatolására, hogy létezik-e élet és másik értelem ezen a különös, baljós bolygón…

A Város az égbe nyúló, megmászhatatlan sima Fal és feneketlen Szakadék közé szorítva éli mindennapinak igazán nem mondható mindennapjait. Lakói — németek, amerikaiak, oroszok, japánok, kínaiak, svédek és még ki tudja, hányféle náció fiai-lányai — sokat vitatkoznak arról, vajon a Földön vagy egy másik bolygón, esetleg egy másik galaxisban vannak-e. Csak azt tudják, hogy valamennyien önként vállalták, hogy részt vesznek a Kísérletben. Csakhogy a Kísérletről sem tudnak, nem is tudhatnak semmit, hiszen ha tudnák miről van szó, az befolyásolhatná viselkedésüket, cselekedeteiket…

Jefremov az 1958-ban írott A Kígyó szíve című kisregényével folytatja ugyanezt az utópikus vonalat. A mű, amely nem tartozik szervesen az Androméda-ködhöz, lényegében válasz Murray Leinster First Contactjára. Mindkét írásban két úrhajó találkozik a Galaxis egyik csücskében; az egyik földi űrhajó, a másik idegen. Csakhogy amíg az amerikai író történetében {úgymond: érthető módon} a két csapat ellenségesen méregeti egymást, addig A Kígyó szívében barátként közelednek egymáshoz. Az író visszanyúl egy korábbi kisregényéhez, a Csillaghajókhoz, amikor azt fejtegeti, hogy a fejlett lényeknek hasonló testi adottsággal kell, hogy legyenek megáldva — tehát szépnek (más szóval célszerű, tehát harmonikus felépítésűnek) kell lenniük. Jefremov ugyanis nem tartja hihetőnek, hogy ‘szarvval és farokkal ellátott szörnyetegek’ vagy ‘gondolkodó penészgombák’ népesítsék be a Világegyetemet. Nem valami szűklátókörű antropocentrikus meggyőződés viszi erre az eredményre, hanem a művészeti érzékkel megáldott tudós filozófus tudományon alapuló okfejtése. (Bár a kisregényben az idegen lények fluorint lélegeznek be oxigén helyett, külső megjelenésben hasonlóan szépek a földi emberekhez.) Úgyszintén, A Kígyó szívében az író megerősíti azt a nézetet, hogy csak egy osztálynélküli társadalom képes olyan magaslatra jutni, ahonnan elrugaszkodva a csillagokhoz képes szárnyalni. Ebből következően, vonja le az író, bármely két civilizáció is találkozik az Univerzumban, azok feltétlenül békések kell, hogy legyenek