For Matthew Swift, today is not like any other day. It is the day on which he returns to life. Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home. Except that it's no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable...despite his body never being found. He doesn't have long to mull over his resurrection though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him. His only concern now is vengeance. Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back

From Publishers Weekly It's said that great minds think alike; apparently great thriller writers do too. Here's the second outstanding novel in as many months to see a busload of schoolchildren kidnapped by maniacs. The first was Mary Willis Walker's Under the Beetle's Cellar (Forecasts, June 12); Deaver's is equally gripping, with the added twist that these kids are deaf. In rural Kansas, an act of kindness launches a nightmare when Mrs. Harstrawn, along with hearing-impaired apprentice teacher Melanie Charrol, stops her busload of deaf schoolgirls at a car wreck, only to be taken hostage by Lou Handy and two other stone-cold killers who've just escaped from prison. Pursued by a state trooper, the captors race with their prey to an abandoned slaughterhouse. There, Arthur Potter, the FBI's foremost hostage negotiator, sets up a command post?but the nightmare intensifies when Handy releases one girl, then shoots her in the back just as she reaches the agent. After further brutalities, Melanie decides to rescue her students herself, tricking the killers with sign language games to convey her plan to her charges. Meanwhile, pressure mounts on Potter as the media get pushy, the local FBI stonewalls, Kansas State hostage rescue units try an end run to grab the glory and an assistant attorney general butts in. Deaver (Praying for Sleep) brilliantly conveys the tensions and deceit of hostage negotiations; he also proves a champion of the deaf, offering poetic insight into their world. Throughout, heartbreakingly real characters keep the wildly swerving plot from going off-track, even during the multiple-whammy twists that bring the novel, Deaver's best to date, to its spectacular finish. 200,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; film rights to Interscope Communications; simultaneous Penguin Audiobook; author tour. From Library Journal A bus carrying eight deaf children and their teachers stops in the middle of the Kansas countryside, a car wreck directly ahead. Soon, three escaped killers rise out of the nearby cornfields and take children and teachers hostage. Pursued by the police, the convicts are forced to hole up in an abandoned slaughterhouse. There they threaten to shoot a child every hour until their demands are met. A 12-hour war of wits begins between FBI hostage expert Arthur Potter and the escapees' leader, Louis Jeremiah Handy. "I aim to get outta here…If it means I gotta shoot 'em dead as posts then that's the way it's gonna be," Handy boasts. Potter finds himself "in the middle of the week's media big bang," battling publicity-hungry politicians, trigger-happy cops, and the press as well as the unpredictable killers. This book by the best-selling author of Praying for Sleep (Viking, 1994) starts with a bang, and the tension never lets up. A topnotch thriller with an unexpected kicker at the end

THE STORY OF A GREAT AMERICAN BUILDER At the peak of his power, in the 1940s and 1950s, William Francis Gibbs was considered America’s best naval architect. His quest to build the finest, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the S.S. United States, was a topic of national fascination. When completed in 1952, the ship was hailed as a technological masterpiece at a time when “made in America” meant the best. Gibbs was an American original, on par with John Roebling of the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Lloyd Wright of Fallingwater. Forced to drop out of Harvard following his family’s sudden financial ruin, he overcame debilitating shyness and lack of formal training to become the visionary creator of some of the finest ships in history. He spent forty years dreaming of the ship that became the S.S. United States. William Francis Gibbs was driven, relentless, and committed to excellence. He loved his ship, the idea of it, and the realization of it, and he devoted himself to making it the epitome of luxury travel during the triumphant post–World War II era. Biographer Steven Ujifusa brilliantly describes the way Gibbs worked and how his vision transformed an industry. A Man and His Ship is a tale of ingenuity and enterprise, a truly remarkable journey on land and sea

Justin Grainger lived life by his own rules and they did not include settling down. So while at his brother's wedding, when he met the sexy maid of honor, he had only seduction on his mind. Laying on his notorious charm, he soon had a perfect bed partner for a week of unbridled passion. So why, when their rendezvous came to an end, did Justin suddenly feel he was missing more than a lover? Hannah Deturk was no match for Justin's rakish ways. She succumbed to temptation and followed him on a whirlwind tour of sensual delights, knowing it was only temporary wishing it could be so much more. But she played by Justin's rules to the end, never dreaming he'd want to take it further or that she'd be expecting his baby!

In rural Idaho a man with amnesia is missing. He had a picture taken of himself in front of a cabin he built and sent it to his wife. He said he had bouts of amnesia following a car accident. A detective from the big city is on his way out to solve the case. Local sheriff Bill Catlin shows him country sheriffs know a thing or two

Some distinguished guests at Sir Hubert Handesley’s country estate decide to play exotic games. But when a corpse turns out to be it, the game gets vicious. In steps the renowned Inspector Alleyn, who moves coolly through this world of butlers and Bentleys to unravel a coil of scandal, conspiracy, and murder most foul…

Alternative title: “The Man with Talent”

"I have always had faith that the best writers will rise to the top, like cream, sooner or later, and will become exactly as well-known as they should be-their work talked about, quoted, taught, performed, filmed, set to music, anthologized. Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves." — Lydia Davis A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place

It’s the late sixties, the last dark years of Franco’s dictatorship: Minaya, a university student in Madrid, is caught up in the student protests and the police are after him. He moves to his uncle Manuel’s country estate in the small town of Mágina to write his thesis on an old friend of Manuel’s, an obscure republican poet named Jacinto Solana. The country house is full of traces of the poet — notes, photographs, journals — and Minaya soon discovers that, thirty years earlier, during the Spanish Civil War, both his uncle and Solana were in love with the same woman, the beautiful, unsettling Mariana. Engaged to Manuel, she was shot in the attic of the house on her wedding night. With the aid of Inés, a maid, Minaya begins to search for Solana’s lost masterpiece, a novel called Beatus Ille. Looking for a book, he unravels a crime

From the award-winning author of Waiting: a spare, haunting tale of espionage and conflicted loyalties that spans half a century in the entwined histories of two countries — China and the United States — and two families as it explores the complicated terrain of love and honor. When Lilian Shang, born and raised in America, discovers her father’s diary after the death of her parents, she is shocked by the secrets it contains. She knew that her father, Gary, convicted decades ago of being a mole in the CIA, was the most important Chinese spy ever caught. But his diary — an astonishing chronicle of his journey from 1949 Shanghai to Okinawa to Langley, Virginia — reveals the pain and longing that his double life entailed. The trail leads Lilian to China, to her father’s long-abandoned other family, whose existence she and her Irish American mother never suspected. As Lilian begins to fathom her father’s dilemma — torn between loyalty to his motherland and the love he came to feel for his adopted country — she sees how his sense of duty distorted his life. But as she starts to understand that Gary, too, had been betrayed, she finds that it is up to her to prevent his tragedy from damaging yet another generation of her family

The king is going to mass at Westminster, the knight said, and after that he will ride round the city. I shall go myself to Westminster with him, and you can both ride with me, for it may be that the king on his way may be met by the rabble, which is composed of the worst and most dangerous of all who have been out, for in addition to Tyler's own following, there will be the prisoners released from all of the jails and the scum of the city. We will ride in our armour. They say there are still 20,000 of them, but even if the worst happens we may be able to carry the king safely through them. __________________ About the Author G. A. Henty (1832-1902), was known as The Boy's Own Historian. His life was filled with exciting adventure. Completing Westminster School, he attended Cambridge University. Along with a rigorous course of study, Henty participated in boxing, wrestling, and rowing. The strenuous study and healthy, competitive participation in sports prepared Henty to be with the British army in Crimea. Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their Special Correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was present in Paris during the Franco-Prussian war, in Spain with the Carlists, at the opening of the Suez Canal, toured India with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and took a trip to the California gold fields.  G. A. Henty's storytelling skills grew out of tales told to his own children. After dinner, he would spend an hour or two in telling them a story that would continue the next day. Some stories went on for weeks! A friend who was present one day suggested that he write down his stories so others could enjoy them. He wrote his first children's book, Out on the Pampas in 1868, naming the book's main characters after his children. Henty wrote approx. 144 books plus stories for magazines and was dubbed as The Prince of Story-Tellers and The Boy's Own Historian.  On November 16th, 1902, Henty died aboard his yacht in Weymouth Harbour shortly before he finished his last novel, By Conduct and Courage, which was completed by his son Captain C. G. Henty. 

"Mr. Irresistible…!" Steve Warwick makes it clear to Davina from theirfirst meeting that he wants her in his bed! Davina has other ideas… Thelast thing she needs right now is a tough, masterful man who thinks he canorganize her life for her… But Steve has never met a woman yet who isimmune to his charm, and he's decided that Davina will be no exception. Sowhen Steve gets that determined glint in his glittering hazel eyes, Davinaknows she's in for trouble!

The Sixth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. Cambridge 1353. It is a damp, gloomy November day, and the body by the River Cam is just the beginning of the intrigue in store for Michaelhouse. Physician Matthew Bartholomew recognises the deceased as the book-bearer of the Michaelhouse Fellow John Runham. The death looks like suicide – and Runham’s servant was well known for his black moods – but before Bartholomew can reach a definite conclusion, a second tragic incident occurs. Meanwhile, at Michaelhouse, the Master announces his retirement. Everyone is astonished and dismayed – everyone, that is, except the ruthless Runham. Once he has contrived to have himself elected to the post, he moves to make his mark on the College: sacking the choir, building a courtyard the College cannot afford, and demanding that Bartholomew choose between his teaching and his medical work. But just as Bartholomew is agonising over such an impossible decision, the new Master is discovered dead …

With the human population ravaged by a series of devastating plagues, the alien Chtorr arrive to begin the final phase of their invasion. Even as many on Earth deny their existence, the giant wormlike carnivores prepare the world for the ultimate violation--the enslavement of humanity for food!

Evan Hunter’s new novel is a fresh and powerful demonstration of the narrative gifts, the instinct for themes that concern us, the exuberant flow of invention that were responsible for the nation-wide impact of his best-selling Strangers When We Meet and The Blackboard Jungle. A Matter of Conviction is the story — told dramatically and in depth — of a sensational murder, the passions it arouses in a community, the people caught up in its tangled after-math. Above all, it is the story of the ethical dilemma imposed on the young prosecutor who values justice above the triumph of a conviction. The prosecutor, Henry Bell, is dedicated to his profession. He demands of himself an almost inhuman objectivity. He is intensely disturbed when the murder forces him to revisit the crime-breeding slum in which he himself was born, from which he escaped by his ambition and his integrity, and which he has almost, but not quite, managed to forget. How can he serve blind justice when the boys he must prosecute are an image — impossible to shut out — of what he might have been, when the newspapers scream for their blood and their neighbors stop at nothing to protect them, when his superiors insist on chalking up a conviction, and when — the final blow — his investigations bring him face to face with a woman who once had his happiness, as she now has his reputation, at her mercy. Henry Bell’s ordeal is superbly told in a novel that plunges the reader into a world of law and disorder, of crime and vengeance, of turmoil — emotional and political — of cold panic. In Henry Bell, Evan Hunter has created a memorable hero — a man of conscience and heart. When you finish his story you know that you would trust him with your life

When Mark Weir, a Chicago homicide lieutenant, starts investigating a series of murders of army servicemen, he comes on a smuggling “loop” set up by two army sergeants between Frankfurt, Germany, and Chicago. With the help of a striking Chicago newspaperwoman, his ex-wife, Lieutenant Weir begins to fit the pieces together... when he is suddenly gunned down. It is his father, a retired general who wants to assuage the bitterness that divided father and son during the Vietnam years, who decides to avenge his death — by taking on the son’s mission himself, as a matter of honor. Set against the backdrops of Chicago, Washington and NATO Europe, A Matter of Honor races with edge-of-the-seat excitement to a climax as startling as it is original

A MATTER OF HONOUR shows world best-selling author, Jeffrey Archer, writing at the very height of his compelling powers. Not since John Buchan’s THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS has a novel of pursuit and suspense unravelled with such breathtaking pace. Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father’s will, aware that the financial benefit can only be pitiful. The colonel, after all, had nothing to leave — except a letter he had never opened himself, a letter, Adam fears, which can only bring further dishonour to the family name. Should Adam open the letter and discover what had caused his father to leave the regiment in disgrace and force him to resign his commission? His mother begs him not to, but the moment he does so he realises his life can never be the same again. The contents leave him no choice but to follow a course that his father would have described as “A MATTER OF HONOUR” Colonel Scott’s bequest leads Adam first to a Russian icon of Saint George and the Dragon that had once belonged to the last Tsar, before being left to Colonel Scott himself. Now the Russians want it back, having discovered its secret which could change the balance of world power. Thus begins a story that no reader will be able to put down until the final page. Jeffrey Archer, author of KANE AND ABEL and FIRST AMONG EQUALS, has achieved his greatest triumph to date

What would you do about a beloved pet who had lived too long? This family faced a crisis which could happen in any household

Dean Chastell has a reputation for being a troublemaker and something of a lady's man. It's not his fault he's attractive, funny and hell on wheels between the sheets...or that his pranks often leave his victims smarting. But not even he deserves to get saddled with Stacey Bermin for his sins. There's no denying the woman is gorgeous. She's sexy as hell and aggravating in the extreme. She's also prideful, pampered, calls him "hillbilly" and needs a swift kiss...err, "kick," in the pants. And she's in grave danger. He never thought they'd manage to spend a few hours, much less a few days, alone without going for each other's throats, but when trouble comes calling, Dean finds he'll do anything to keep her safe. She's not nearly as cold as she seems. In fact, the princess brings out the prince in him he never knew existed. And he'll move heaven and earth to keep her safe, out of danger...and in his arms, no matter the cost. Warning: A trickster cat finally meets his match in a proud feline used to getting her way. Hunters, hijinks and danger abound as the pride comes together for one heck of a battle

He faced the harshest accusation that any husband can face. And no one in town believed he could be innocent — except his wife, who would have to prove it

Fourteen strangers came to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the usual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that planet whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers found that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent on destroying His creations

One morning, in the dead of winter, three German soldiers are dispatched into the frozen Polish countryside. They have been charged by their commanders to track down and bring back for execution 'one of them' — a Jew. Having flushed out the young man hiding in the woods, they decide to rest in an abandoned house before continuing their journey back to the camp. As they prepare food, they are joined by a passing Pole whose outspoken anti-Semitism adds tension to an already charged atmosphere. Before long, the group's sympathies have splintered as they consider the moral implications of their murderous mission and confront their own consciences to ask themselves: should the Jew be offered food? And, having shared their meal, should he be taken back, or set free?

Won the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1973. Nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1972

This book is both a work of memory and a work about memory. Miron Bialoszewski (1922-83), the great avant-garde Polish poet, memorializes the doomed uprising of the Polish population against their Nazi masters which began on August 1, 1944, and was eventually abandoned on October 2, 1944, with the physical destruction of Warsaw, street by street and house by house, and the slaughter of 200,000 civilians

Since 1990, when Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time® burst on the world with its first book, The Eye of the World, readers have been anticipating the final scenes of this extraordinary saga, which has sold over forty million copies in over thirty languages. When Robert Jordan died in 2007, all feared that these concluding scenes would never be written. But working from notes and partials left by Jordan, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson stepped in to complete the masterwork. With The Gathering Storm (Book 12) and Towers of Midnight (Book 13) behind him, both of which were # 1 New York Times hardcover bestsellers, Sanderson now re-creates the vision that Robert Jordan left behind. Edited by Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, A Memory of Light will delight, enthrall, and deeply satisfy all of Jordan’s legions of readers. The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time

Rhonwyn, a passionate woman who uses weapons as skillfully as any man, accompanies her husband on the Crusades, where, captured by the Emir of Cinnebar, she learns erotic skills that she utilizes on her return to England to win back her beloved

The heroes are eager to sail to Troy for war, but the wind is still. To fill their sails and set out, they must sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia-and how does a human girl become the wind? The starkness and psychological insight of Rachel Swirsky's Tor.com story earned it a place among the finalists for the 2010 Nebula Award. Rachel Swirsky's short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Subterranean Magazine, among others, and has been collected in Year's Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, and the VanderMeers. She is also the submissions editor of Podcastle, an audio fantasy magazine

It's summer in the Chicago suburbs, and Jane Jeffry and her best friend, Shelley, are testing caterers on a local theater group, now ensconced in a building Shelley's husband donated to the community college. An enchanting and famous elderly actress is taking part, along with her far less pleasant actor husband. When one of the most irritating of the younger actors is found murdered, Jane, Shelley, and Jane's detective sweetie, Mel, are all swept up in the search for whodunit. What usually charms about this series is the genuine warmth between Jane and Shelley, Jane and Mel, and Jane's three adolescent children. This time there's a little too much teaching in the wobbly plot, however, as Churchill ladles on the details about local theater production and Jane's needlepoint classes