Abducted by a shadowy figure he never sees, chloroformed and taken to a remote mountain cabin, the Nameless Detective is told by that figure before he is deserted, that the mission is one of revenge. Nameless has destroyed his mysterious abductor’s life and now his life in turn will be destroyed. Chained with a limited supply of food and water and just enough room in the shackles to allow him to feed himself, Nameless knows that the abductor must be a component of one of his old cases… someone who he has tracked and caught for the police, someone who has served prison time and, released, wants Nameless to suffer in turn. But the detective cannot deduce who that abductor may be and, as his ordeal begins, he understands that his efforts must be more directed toward survival and escape; if he does not find a way free of the shackles he will die. Freeing himself of the shackles will involve more than an act of physical escape; Nameless must come to understand the entirety of his own life and the nature of a profession which has caused him and those he loves risk at the highest level. Through the Walpurgisnacht of that confinement and escape, Nameless does indeed come to understand himself and in a shocking, complex, surprising but inevitable ending, Nameless comes to understand as well the nature of entrapment and purgation, and how a rite of passage must crucially take place internally as well as externally. The denouement of the novel is resonant and shattering: it is unforgettable

The eagerly awaited addition to the series begun with the New York Times best-seller Life As We Knew It, in which a meteor knocks the moon off its orbit and the world changes forever. It’s been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

From Geoff Cooper and Brian Keene comes a dark coming-of-age tale. When 11-year-old Danny skips school to go hunting for crabs near the Haverstraw Marina, he finds a dead body instead-and stumbles across one of the darkest and deadliest secrets in Brackard’s Point. A secret that threatens the lives of Danny, his friends, and the mysterious old Russian known as Gustav… “…and Land rose from the waters, and Lo! there was Life. He looked down upon His creation and said, ‘Well fuck me running. I really screwed up here, didn’t I?’ This blight upon the Land became known as Geoff Cooper.” “…and on the eighth day, He created Brian Keene, and then decided that was a mistake, so He fucked off to the other end of the universe and left Keene in charge.”

TV Series Placement: Summer 2001 – Post-Season 2Ghost StoryNow that their best chance for returning to the home planet has left without them, the "Czechoslovakian" residents of Roswell (code for aliens) must adjust to a more permanent existence on earth than they were expecting. Seeing a possible future for the two of them, Maria nags Michael about money, sending him packing on a salaried weekend trip to help a geologist study a proposed chemical company site. As the group camps out under the stars, a round of spooky ghost stories provides entertainment -- until one of the guys sees a real ghost. The kicker? Michael can see it too. River Dog has also been plagued by the shades of the past in recent days, and he brings Max out to the desert to bear witness as the apparition threatens him. He tells Max of an ancient Mesaliko prophecy that tells of vengeance being exacted by the tribe's ancestors if Visitors are allowed to remain among them -- Visitors like Max, Michael, and Isabel. As the hauntings increase in both frequency and violence, the alien teens and their friends know they must uncover the true origin of the phantoms -- whether physical, mystical, or alien -- before the ghosts follow through on their deadly threats

Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is finally invited to a social event that she doesn't have to cater-but trouble is brewing at the engagement soiree of the season

Rachel Kelly has traveled a long, hard road in her journey back to her husband, Ethan, and the Kelly family. Now, as she and Ethan are poised to move into their new home, safe behind the walls of the Kelly compound, Rachel wonders if she’ll finally be free of the ghosts that have haunted her for so long and if she’ll step into the sun after a past steeped in darkness

This inventive fantasy from bestseller Fforde (The Eyre Affair) imagines a screwball future in which social castes and protocols are rigidly defined by acuteness of personal color perception. Centuries after the cryptically cataclysmic Something That Happened, a Colortocracy, founded on the inflexible absolutes of the chromatic scale, rules the world. Amiable Eddie Russett, a young Red, is looking forward to marrying a notch up on the palette and settling down to a complacent bourgeois life. But after meeting Jane G-23, a rebellious working-class Grey, and a discredited, invisible historian known as the Apocryphal man, Eddie finds himself questioning the hitherto sacred foundations of the status quo. En route to finding out what turned things topsy-turvy, Eddie navigates a vividly imagined landscape whose every facet is steeped in the author's remarkably detailed color scheme. Sometimes, though, it's hard to see the story for the chromotechnics

Wolf shifter Race Aragon knows Mara Marrucini is meant to be his, in bed and out. And he’s not about to let anyone or anything get in his way of protecting her and her baby. She’d been the prisoner of a madman and has the emotional scars to prove it. Now that she’s free, he’s going to make damn sure she gets to live her life—with him at her side. Mara adores Race. He’s the first man to make her feel like a woman. To make her feel protected. His touch ignites her desire but she fears for his safety. Her presence in his life puts him in the crosshairs. But with her son’s life on the line, Mara trusts no one but Race to keep them both safe. And to care for her heart—always

Katie Greene’s worst nightmare comes true when her mother dies, and she’s devastated to learn that she will have to leave the only home she’s ever known. Desperate to find where she belongs, she must decide if she has what it takes to start a new life across the ocean. For Yuu Tomohiro, every day is a nightmare. He struggles to control his strange ability, and keeps everyone at a distance so they won’t get hurt—even his girlfriend, Myu. At night, a shadow haunts his dreams, and a mysterious woman torments him with omens of death and destruction. But these haunting premonitions are only the beginning…

In a nondescript apartment block in Stockholm, most of the residents are elderly. Usually a death is a sad but straightforward event. But sometimes a resident will die and there are no friends or family to contact. This is when Marianne Folkesson arrives, employed by the state to close up a life with dignity and respect. Gerda Persson has lain dead in her apartment for three days before Marianne is called. When she arrives, she finds the apartment tidy and ordered. Gerda's life seems to have been quite ordinary. Until Marianne opens the freezer and finds it full of books, neatly stacked and wrapped in clingfilm, a thick layer of ice covering them.They are all by Axel Ragnerfeldt, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, with handwritten dedications to Gerda from the author. What story do these books have to tell, about Gerda, and more importantly about Ragnerfeldt, a man whose fame is without precedent in the nation's cultural life, but seldom gives interviews? "Shadow" is an utterly compelling novel about the lengths and depths people can be driven in order to achieve fame and acclaim, and the effect that this has on those closest to them. It is a story of dark family secrets, and the power of writing, involving murder, betrayal and the holocaust, which will keep readers gripped until its final thrilling revelations

“Shadow Album” was first published in Amazing Stories, Vol. 66, #3, No. 560, July 1991

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha… and the secrets of her heart. http://youtu.be/exhdELDNZT8

Shadow Blizzard is the third book by the international bestselling fantasy author Alexey Pehov. Like Shadow Prowler and Shadow Chaser, Shadow Blizzard is epic fantasy at its best; this is the third book in a trilogy that follows Shadow Harold, Siala's master thief, on his quest for the magic Horn that will restore peace to his world. After the loss of friends and comrades, after betrayal and battle, after capture by fearsome orcs, Harold finally reaches the dreaded Hrad Spein. But before he can complete his quest by stealing the magic horn, he will have to brave the most fearsome obstacles yet—obstacles that have destroyed everyone before him...and Harold must do so alone

Death... Some people will do anything to avoid it. Even trade their immortal souls for endless existence. Wraiths... Secretly, inexorably, they are infiltrating our world, sucking the essence out of unsuspecting victims with their hideous parody of a kiss. Segue... Adam Thorne founded the Institute to study and destroy his monster of a brother, but the key to its success is held in the pale, slender hand of a woman on the run. There is something hauntingly different about Talia O’Brien, her unknowing sensuality, her uncanny way of slipping into Shadow. Twilight... This is the place between life and what comes after—a dark forest of fantasy, filled with beauty, peril, mystery. And Talia is about to open the door

Saddened because they have left one of their number in a grave in the wilderness, Harold and his companions continue their journey to the dreaded underground palace of Hrad Spein. There, knowing that armies of warriors and wizards before them have failed, they must fight legions of untold, mysterious powers before they can complete their quest for the magic horn that will save their beloved land from The Nameless One. But before they can even reach their goal, they must overcome all manner of obstacles, fight many battles…and evade the frightful enemies on their trail. Shadow Chaser is a novel of intricate plots, surprising twists and finely drawn characters that will not leave you when you put the book down. Shadow Chaser is truly something different in the world of fantasy, something special; it is something truly Russian, a fantasy that is gripping and haunting, fascinating and imaginative

2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER Peter Matthiessen's great American epic-Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man's River, and Bone by Bone-was conceived as one vast mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken up into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has cut nearly a third of the overall text and collapsed the time frame while deepening the insights and motivations of his characters with brilliant rewriting throughout. In Shadow Country, he has marvelously distilled a monumental work, realizing his original vision. Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son. Shadow Country traverses strange landscapes and frontier hinterlands inhabited by Americans of every provenance and color, including the black and Indian inheritors of the archaic racism that, as Watson's wife observed, "still casts its shadow over the nation." Peter Matthiessen's lyrical and illuminating work in the Watson narrative has been praised highly by such contemporaries as Saul Bellow, William Styron, and W. S. Merwin. Joseph Heller said "I read it in great gulps, up each night later than I wanted to be, in my hungry impatience to find out more and more."

It can feel like we're swimming in a sea of corruption, confused by who exactly is in charge and what role they play. The same influential people reappear time after time in different professional guises, pressing their own agendas in one venue after another. These are the powerful "shadow elite," the main players in a vexing new system of power and influence. In her profoundly original Shadow Elite, award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine R. Wedel gives us the tools we need to recognize these powerful yet elusive figures and to comprehend the new system. Nothing less than our freedom and our ability to self-govern is at stake

Sacrifice Custo Santovari accepted pain, blood, even death, to save his best friend. But a man with all his sins just isn't cut out to be an angel. Mystery One moment he's fleeing Heaven; the next, he's waking up stark naked in Manhattan. In the middle of a war. Called there by a woman who's desperately afraid of the dark. Shadow It gathers around Annabella as she performs, filled with fantastic images of another world, bringing both a golden hero and a nightmare lover. Wolf He pursues her relentlessly, twisting her desires even as she gives herself to the man she loves. Because each of us has a wild side, and Annabella is about to unleash the beast

When his latest mission turns into a bloodbath, ATF officer JT Hawk realizes he's been set up by someone at the top. Wounded and on the run, he has no choice but to take beautiful Abby Wells hostage. After all, she's in danger, too. And if the only way to keep the fiercely independent communications expert safe is to cuff her and bring her along for the ride, he'll do it. With pleasure, even. Only, given their close contact, it's not long before Hawk's thinking about a totally different kind of pleasure…

1 New York Times bestselling author Richelle Mead returns to the Otherworld, a mystic land inextricably linked to our own—and balanced precariously on one woman's desperate courage . . . Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham strives to keep the mortal realm safe from trespassing entities. But as the Thorn Land's prophecy-haunted queen, there's no refuge for her and her soon-to-be-born-children when a mysterious blight begins to devastate the Otherworld. . .  The spell-driven source of the blight isn't the only challenge to Eugenie's instincts. Fairy king Dorian is sacrificing everything to help, but Eugenie can't trust the synergy drawing them back together. The uneasy truce between her and her shape shifter ex-lover Kiyo is endangered by secrets he can't—or won't—reveal. And as a formidable force rises to also threaten the human world, Eugenie must use her own cursed fate as a weapon—and risk the ultimate sacrifice

Sent on a dangerous mission into the shadowy world of the Druids, Galen must find a powerful ancient relic to defeat the enemies of Castle MacLeod. But what he discovers is far more powerful — and far more dangerous. A Druid lass whose beauty is as spellbinding as any magic… Reaghan is the most enchanting woman Galen has even met — and the most enigmatic. She alone is immune to his mind-reading gifts. He alone makes her feel safe and secure. But Reaghan holds a secret power deep inside her that could destroy them both. And if Galen hopes to hold this captivating woman in his arms every night, he must defeat the darkness that draws closer around her every day…

Is Rose's fate to kill the person she loves most? It's springtime at St. Vladimir's Academy, and Rose Hathaway is this close to graduation. Since Mason's death, Rose hasn't been feeling quite right. She has dark flashbacks in the middle of practice, can't concentrate in class, and has terrifying dreams about Lissa. But Rose has an even bigger secret…. She's in love with Dimitri. And this time, it-s way more than a crush. Then Strigoi target the academy in the deadliest attack in Moroi history, and Dimitri is taken. Rose must protect Lissa at all costs, but keeping her best friend safe could mean losing Dimitri forever…

In the far future, human culture has developed five distinctive genders due to the effects of a drug easing sickness from faster-than-light travel. But on the planet Hara, where society is increasingly instability, caught between hard-liner traditions and the realities of life, only male and female genders are legal, and the “odd-bodied” population are forced to pass as one or the other. Warreven Stiller, a lawyer and an intersexed person, is an advocate for those who have violated Haran taboos. When Hara regains contact with the Concord worlds, Warreven finds a larger role in breaking the long-standing role society has forced on “him,” but the search for personal identity becomes a battleground of political intrigue and cultural clash. Winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay/Lesbian Science Fiction, Shadow Man remains one of the more important modern, speculative novels ever published in the field of gender- and sexual identity

Once, Special Agent Smoky Barrett hunted serial killers for the FBI. She was one of the best–until a madman terrorized her family, killed her husband and daughter, and left her face scarred and her soul brutalized. Turning the tables on the killer, Smoky shot him dead–but her life was shattered forever.  Now Smoky dreams about picking up her weapon again. She dreams about placing the cold steel between her lips and pulling the trigger one last time. Because for a woman who’s lost everything, what is there left to lose? She’s about to find out. In all her years at the Bureau, Smoky has never encountered anyone like him–a new and fascinating kind of monster, a twisted genius who defies profilers’ attempts to understand him. And he’s issued Smoky a direct challenge, coaxing her back from the brink with the only thing that could convince her to live. The killer videotaped his latest crime–an act of horror that left a child motherless–then sent a message addressed to Agent Smoky Barrett. The message is enough to shock Smoky back to work, back to her FBI team. And that child awakens something in Smoky she thought was gone forever. Suddenly the stakes are raised. The game has changed. For as this deranged monster embarks on an unspeakable spree of perversion and murder, Smoky is coming alive again–and she’s about to face her greatest fears as a cop, a woman, a mother…and a merciless killer’s next victim

A cardinal is brutally murdered in his own church. Another is slain in the Vatican. A clue - the black imprint of a clenched fist - is left at the scene of each crime. Who's behind these sinister attacks? And is the ultimate target the Holy Office of the Pope himself? On a detective's trail from Detroit to Dublin to Rome. Father Koesler, the sleuthing priest, plunges back into his own haunted past - and becomes an unholy candidate for assassination

Время меняет людей и их чувства… Они не хотят любви, каждый по своей причине. Он живет новой жизнью, пытаясь забыть ее, она боится снова пережить предательство. Но можно ли забыть настоящую любовь? Он ушел, пережив страх, боль и отчаяние, пытаясь похоронить свою жестокость и опасаясь стать бездушной машиной для убийства. Он боялся себя, боялся ее, он был уверен, что эта девушка его погубит… Но судьба приготовила для них очередное испытание, и оно будет более серьезным, чем их былые страхи. Они снова встретятся. Он был уверен, что забыл ее, но новая опасность возникает в ее жизни и он готов бросить все, сам не понимая того и примчаться к ней. Увидев ее вновь, он снова ее хочет, он готов на многое ради нее, но не только он один… Теперь за любовь нужно бороться, и неизвестно к чему приведет эта борьба. Любовь жестока…  Раненое сердце не знает пощады. И он теперь только ее телохранитель, ее тень. Она не верит никому. И не может ему простить, слишком глубока рана в сердце. А новые переживания еще тяжелее старых. В ее жизни много мужчин, но с ними она чувствует себя всего лишь марионеткой, красивой куклой в дорогой обертке. Она в центре внимания, но внутри себя она одна. И все же ей нужно сделать свой выбор, и никто не знает, каким он будет, только ей решать…

Время меняет людей и их чувства… Они не хотят любви, каждый по своей причине. Он живет новой жизнью, пытаясь забыть ее, она боится снова пережить предательство. Но можно ли забыть настоящую любовь? Он ушел, пережив страх, боль и отчаяние, пытаясь похоронить свою жестокость и опасаясь стать бездушной машиной для убийства. Он боялся себя, боялся ее, он был уверен, что эта девушка его погубит… Но судьба приготовила для них очередное испытание, и оно будет более серьезным, чем их былые страхи. Они снова встретятся. Он был уверен, что забыл ее, но новая опасность возникает в ее жизни и он готов бросить все, сам не понимая того и примчаться к ней. Увидев ее вновь, он снова ее хочет, он готов на многое ради нее, но не только он один… Теперь за любовь нужно бороться, и неизвестно к чему приведет эта борьба. Любовь жестока… Раненное сердце не знает пощады. И он теперь только ее телохранитель, ее тень. Она не верит никому. И не может ему простить, слишком глубока рана в сердце. А новые переживания еще тяжелее старых. В ее жизни много мужчин, но с ними она чувствует себя всего лишь марионеткой, красивой куклой в дорогой обертке. Она в центре внимания, но внутри себя она одна. И все же ей нужно сделать свой выбор, и никто не знает, каким он будет, только ей решать…

The Ghost had a function. The Preachers had a function. And each served a race that had vanished, hidden away somewhere in fear of the evil life of the Galaxy. That, they said, was the only way—

 Третья книга серии. Еще одна превосходная история. Жизнь обитателей Pride Lands показана нам теперь под другим углом. Отрицательные герои выглядят уже не столь плохими

Historian Diana Bishop, descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library,she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans is dangerously threatened. Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for Queen Elizabeth, the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons, the creative minds of the age, including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot. Together Matthew and Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782, and search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers

The Supreme Court is one of our most sacred – and secretive – public institutions. But sometimes secrets can lead to cover-ups with very deadly consequences. Terry Scarborough is a legal scholar and provocateur who craves headline-making celebrity, but with his latest book he may have gone too far. In it he resurrects forgotten language in the U.S. Constitution – and hints at a missing letter of Thomas Jefferson's – that threatens to divide the nation. Then, during a publicity tour, Scarborough is brutally murdered in a San Diego hotel room, and a young man with dark connections is charged. What looks like an open-and-shut case to most people doesn't to defense attorney Paul Madriani. He believes that there is much more to the case and that the defendant is a pawn caught in the middle, being scapegoated by circumstance. As the trial spirals toward its conclusion, Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds, race to find the missing Jefferson letter – and the secrets it holds about slavery and scandal at the time of our nation's founding and the very reason Scarborough was killed. Madriani's chase takes him from the tension-filled courtroom in California to the trail of a high court justice now suddenly in hiding and lays bare the soaring political stakes for a seat on the highest court, in a country divided, and under the shadow of power

Lackey, Flint and Freer whip up a luscious bouillabaisse of politics, intrigue, love and black magic set in an "Other-worldly, New-Age Venice." Like the actual 16th-century city-state, the authors' Venice of the 1530s is a dangerous place, filled with as many illicit love affairs as murders. Garbage and occasional dead bodies float in the stinking canals. The city is also a target for would-be foreign conquerors: the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, and the small city-state of Ferrara, ruled by Enrico Dell'este, who surreptitiously watches his grandsons, Marco and Benito, the story's water-rat heroes. Around Benito, a thief, and Marco, a canal doctor, swirl a host of characters, major and minor: the men and women who ply the gondolas and rafts; the spy Caesare Aldanto, the boys' supporter; plus courtesans, whores, monks, priests, knights, shamans, undines and the demon Chernobog. Meanwhile, the winged lion of St. Mark's, symbol of Venice, is stirring, and its shadow falls on Marco as the city's future ruler