Ayesha is She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, a 2,000-year-old queen who rules a fabled lost city deep in a maze of African caverns. She has the occult wisdom of Isis, the eternal youth and beauty of Aphrodite, and the violent appetite of a lamia. Like A. Conan Doyle’s Lost World, She is one of those magnificent Victorian yarns about an expedition to a far-off locale shadowed by magic, mystery, and death

She is the story of Cambridge professor Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey, and their journey to a lost kingdom in the African interior. The journey is triggered by a mysterious package left to Leo by his father, to be opened on his 25th birthday; the package contains an ancient shard of pottery and several documents, suggesting an ancient mystery about the Vincey family

Allan Quartermain – our hero – and Ayesha (that is, She Who Must Be Obeyed) share the limelight in this great adventure, but oddly enough considering the stars on stage, it’s Umslopogaas the Zulu who steals the show. A supernatural fantasy thriller featuring a magic token, telepathy, powers of the occult, and a people lost to time in the depths of ancient Africa

Assumed dead, Lady Anne Jocelyn meets varying degrees of welcome when she returns from Occupied France to her old life in England. Though her husband Sir Philip is not overjoyed to see her, he agrees to a trial reunion. But a murder raises his doubts, and then a second and third send Miss Silver to a curious consideration of life after death

A short story set in the world of Ancillary Justice, published by Strange Horizons as part of their annual funding drive

There's been rising concern in Moscow over a wave of suicides among the city's young bohemians. An intrepid newspaper reporter, Zhemailo, begins to uncover the truth behind the phenomenon - that the victims are linked by a secret society, the Lovers of Death. But Zhemailo is not the only investigator hot on the heels of these disciples of the occult. Little do they realise that the latest 'convert' to their secret society, assuming the alias of a Japanese prince, is none other than Erast Fandorin. But when a young and naïve provincial woman, Masha Mironova, becomes embroiled in the society, and Zhemalio dies a mysterious death, Fandorin must do more than merely infiltrate and observe. Especially when the spin of the Russian roulette wheel decrees that our dashing hero be the next to die by his own hand. Can Fandorin fake his own demise, all while outwitting the cult's dastardly leader?

On a dark and foggy night, charming amateur sleuth Ellie Haskell, her husband Ben, and her plucky sidekick Mrs. Malloy find themselves stranded at a grand estate on the Yorkshire moors. Lord Belfrey of Mucklesfeld Manor has decided to save his crumbling establishment by offering himself as the prize on a TV reality show titled 'Here Comes the Bride.' Thrilled at the prospect of marrying a lord, Mrs. Malloy eagerly joins the competition. After one of the potential brides is shot during an archery contest, Ellie begins to explore the dark passageways and hidden nooks of the delightfully Gothic estate – but she may not be prepared for the secrets lurking behind closed doors

You all know how husbands act at stand-up suppers. That’s why

A luminous fiction debut: the tumultuous history of modern Vietnam as experienced by a young girl born under mysterious circumstances a few years before reunification — and with the otherworldly ability to hear the voices of the dead. At the peak of the war in Vietnam, a baby girl is born on the night of the full moon along the Song Ma River. This is Rabbit, who will journey away from her destroyed village with a makeshift family thrown together by war. Here is a Vietnam we've never encountered before: through Rabbit's inexplicable but radiant intuition, we are privy to an intimate version of history, from the days of French Indochina and the World War II rubber plantations through the chaos of postwar reunification. With its use of magical realism — Rabbit's ability to "hear" the dead — the novel reconstructs a turbulent historical period through a painterly human lens. This is the moving story of one woman's struggle to unearth the true history of Vietnam while simultaneously carving out a place for herself within it

The story begins by introducing Paks as a headstrong girl of 18, who leaves her home in Three Firs (fleeing a marriage arranged by her father) to join a mercenary company and through her journeys and hardships comes to realize that she has been gifted as a paladin, if in a rather non-traditional way

Parental Discretion is Advised. Annie Logan and her band, White Rush, have been waiting years for their big break. Taking a last chance at stardom, Annie enters them into a 'battle of the bands contest' and wins an opportunity to perform with the legendary rock band, Thrust. This twist of fate puts Annie on a collision course with her larger-than-life rock hero, the infamous guitar God, Michael Wade. Annie's model good looks and Michael's dangerously raw rock 'n' roll swagger are like a burning fuse on a stick of dynamite. Would she be the woman to finally tame Michael's wild ways and show him the true meaning of love or would the gritty reality of the music industry prove to be more than she could handle? Sheet Music will give you a backstage pass into the rock 'n' roll lifestyle full of egos, excess and extremes; where sometimes even true soul mates aren't strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight

Shelesia — маленькая желтая планета в нейтральной полосе пространства. Пустыня, оказавшаяся на пике экспансии и… остановившая «всю королевскую конницу и всю королевскую рать». Далекое будущее. Покоренный космос. Люди и планеты. И метрическая система как победившая иные прочие

In Shell Game, O’Connell raises the standard once again. It is fall in New York City. On live television, the re-creation of a legendary magic trick goes horribly awry – a terrible accident, everyone agrees. But two people know it is not. One is an aged magician in a private hospital in the northern corner of New York state. What a worthy performance, he thinks, murdering a man while a million people watch. The other is Kathleen Mallory. Once a feral child, loose on the city streets, she is now a New York City policewoman, and not much changed: a tall young woman with green gunslinger eyes and a ferocious inner compass of right and wrong. For her, the death is too dramatic, too showy, and she is convinced that there will be another one – this perp loves spectacle. But even she cannot predict the spectacular chain of events that has already been set in motion, or the profoundly disturbing consequences it will have for those she holds most dear. For misdirection is the heart of magic. The lady never really gets sawed in half, does she? So why is there so much blood? Filled with the rich prose, resonant characters, and knife-edge suspense that have won her so many admirers, Shell Game is Carol O’Connell’s most remarkable novel yet

Более ста лет Shell считалась мировым лидером, обладавшим большим влиянием, чем некоторые европейские государства. Как гласил слоган компании: Shell можно доверять. Так было до января 2004 года, когда компания сообщила, что данные о ее нефтяных запасах были завышены на 3,9 млрд баррелей! Эта книга уникальна, так как столь подробный и достоверный материал о нефтяном бизнесе Shell публикуется впервые. Авторы предлагают детальное описание финансовых махинаций компании, ее планов по добыче нефти на Сахалине и ужасающего воздействия на экологию стран – от разорения земель в Нигерии до уничтожения целых сообществ в США. Вы узнаете, как бывший торговец ракушками создал крупнейшее предприятие в мире, чье доброе имя было запятнано внутренними раздорами, ложью и стремлением превзойти конкурентов любой ценой

Neecy Lawrence, winged warrior for a Viking goddess and second-in-command of the fierce Crows, doesn't know what to do with a nice guy. As it is, making up for a past she'd sooner forget leaves her barely polite most days. But Raven leader and loyal Odin warrior, Will Yager, isn't just nice. He's gorgeous, hot, and a distraction she simply can't afford. Yager has wanted Neecy in his life--and in his bed--for a long time. Not just for a night, but forever. And, like any self-respecting Viking, he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. So what if she's the most difficult, complex, never-gives-him-a-break woman he's ever known? She's more than worth the effort. In fact, she's worth everything. And if it turns out that twenty-four hours of non-stop, any-way-she-wants-it sex doesn't work with Neecy? Then it looks like he'll just have to get a little more creative

Why should a man care for his parents when they failed to take care of him as a child? One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of the Year (Selected by Edan Lepucki) Kyung Cho is a young father burdened by a house he can’t afford. For years, he and his wife, Gillian, have lived beyond their means. Now their debts and bad decisions are catching up with them, and Kyung is anxious for his family’s future. A few miles away, his parents, Jin and Mae, live in the town’s most exclusive neighborhood, surrounded by the material comforts that Kyung desires for his wife and son. Growing up, they gave him every possible advantage — private tutors, expensive hobbies — but they never showed him kindness. Kyung can hardly bear to see them now, much less ask for their help. Yet when an act of violence leaves Jin and Mae unable to live on their own, the dynamic suddenly changes, and he’s compelled to take them in. For the first time in years, the Chos find themselves living under the same roof. Tensions quickly mount as Kyung’s proximity to his parents forces old feelings of guilt and anger to the surface, along with a terrible and persistent question: how can he ever be a good husband, father, and son when he never knew affection as a child? As Shelter veers swiftly toward its startling conclusion, Jung Yun leads us through dark and violent territory, where, unexpectedly, the Chos discover hope. Shelter is a masterfully crafted debut novel that asks what it means to provide for one's family and, in answer, delivers a story as riveting as it is profound

Mickey Bolitar's year can't get much worse. After witnessing his father's death and sending his mom to rehab, he's forced to live with his estranged Uncle Myron and switch high schools. A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For awhile, it seems like Mickey's train-wreck of a life is finally improving – until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley's trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn't who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey's father. Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury – and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew. First introduced to listeners in Harlan Coben's latest adult novel, Live Wire, Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his Uncle Myron, and eager to go to any length to save the people he cares about. With this new series, Coben introduces an entirely new generation of fans to the masterful plotting and wry humor that have made him an award-winning, internationally bestselling, and beloved author

When Jeff Ritter offered Ashley Churchill shelter, the struggling single mom longed to lean on his broad shoulders. And though she accepted a job as his housekeeper, Ashley was determined to make her own happiness, without the heartbreak of loving a man. No matter how tempting that man was… It was Jeff's nature to protect, but his heart was off-limits-even to the woman and child he came home to each night. For life had made Jeff a hardened soldier, not a man to love. And despite the hope he saw shining in Ashley's eyes, Jeff didn't dare dream she could truly be his…

Explorer Gowan Mitchell battles to conquer the challenge of the strange mountain — and make it reveal its secrets!

When the family ghost, the Virgin Bride, warns Alexandra Sherbrooke that her husband is in danger, Douglas takes the prediction with a grain of salt. But when he is shot and wounded and then is warned by the Duke of Wellington himself that someone from his past is bent on revenge, everyone, including twin sons James and Jason, gets into the act. A pair of identical twins worthy of the Sherbrooke legacy (The Bride of Sherbrooke); a plucky, outspoken, but charmingly na ve heroine who leads James on a merry chase; and a plot with more than one unexpected twist result in the kind of lively, sensual, danger-filled adventure that fans of Coulter's historicals have come to expect. The best-selling author of both historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense, Coulter lives in the San Francisco area

Pregnant and on the run, Rachel Malone Delcorte is the only witness to the murder of two federal agents. Mob boss Carlos Delcorte wants her baby – his grandson – and he wants Rachel dead. But as fate would have it, sheriff's deputy Jethro "J.J." Fox gets to Rachel first. After delivering her baby and seeing her safely to her billionaire grandfather's estate, he's sworn to protect the beautiful widow. Keeping mother and son safe isn't the problem for J.J. – he's used to handling the bad guys. Matters of the heart – that's a whole different story. He's always had his own agenda. One he's not sure Rachel can accept…

Europe 1911. The Great Powers vie for influence and are divided by political quarrels. War is in the air. For retired detective Sherlock Holmes, who has just suffered a coronary, these distant matters are of little concern. But politics are about to turn his quiet country life upside down. Mycroft, the detective's politician brother, has asked Holmes to investigate the murder of a powerful industrialist and the mysterious kidnapping of the King's nephew. Could these two cases be connected? Thus the legendary detective and his old friend Watson set out on an all-new adventure, one that will take them from the canals of Venice to an ancient castle in the Scottish plains. It's an adventure they could hardly have expected as they near the ripe old age of sixty. Will Holmes lose a lifelong friend? And which villain from Holmes's past might want to start a world war...?

Investigating a crooked tabloid magnate, Sherlock Holmes is drawn across the continent Dr. Watson has never been much of an angler, and he is perplexed when Sherlock Holmes invites him on a Scottish fishing expedition. “Come if convenient,” reads the telegram. “If not, come anyway.” A few years after his near-death experience at the hands of Moriarty, the great detective is restless. If any man needs a vacation, it is Sherlock Holmes. But Watson knows better than to expect a peaceful fishing trip. As it happens, Holmes has dragged Watson to Scotland not for the fishing — but for a party. The celebration is hosted by John Moxton, an American muckraker who has recently expanded his tabloid empire across the pond. When his paper, the Clarion, turns out to be one step ahead of Holmes in investigating a baffling series of crimes, the detective suspects that Moxton isn’t just breaking the news — he’s making it

This most curious and unusual case displays Sherlock Holmes's astonishing abilities of observation, logical reasoning and detection to the full, but nevertheless the case did not meet with his personal satisfaction, he felt it did not merit publication, and therefore it was never published. Until now. If you like reading Sherlock Holmes crime mysteries, set in Victorian England, and written in the authentic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Style, you will enjoy reading this book

It's the year 1900. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson receive an urgent commission from the Prince Regnant of Bulgaria to come to Sofia. The Codex Zographensis, the most ancient and most sacred manuscript in the Old Bulgarian language has been stolen. Its disappearance could lead to the outbreak of war between Russia, Austro-Hungary and the Ottomans, three ageing empires disintegrating like great suns on every side of the Balkans. What follows is an extraordinary story of duplicity, murder, vampires and greed for vast estates in Bulgaria and Hungary, with the fate of millions in Sherlock Holmes' hands

In Sherlock Holmes and The Dead Boer at Scotney Castle the great consulting detective comes up against the rich and powerful Kipling League. Dr Watson recounts the extraordinary events which took place on a spacious early summer day in the Sussex and Kent countryside in 1904. None of the earlier stories chronicling the adventures of Sherlock Holmes compares to the strange circumstances which determined Watson to take up his pen to relate this extraordinary adventure against Holmes express wishes

While not up to the high standard of Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt (2002), Thomas's fourth pastiche collection conveys the tone and spirit of Conan Doyle's original tales with nary a false note. In the clever The Case of the Tell-Tale Hands, an aristocrat hires Holmes to look into his cousin's eccentric behavior, which includes wearing gloves at odd times. A school teacher who fears her brothers, both lighthouse keepers, have met with foul play retains Dr. Watson as the investigator in the richly atmospheric title story. Less successful are two tales rooted in history: The Case of Peter the Painter, in which Holmes battles anarchists in London alongside Winston Churchill in 1911, and The Case of the Zimmermann Telegram, in which the sleuth serves as director of Admiralty Signals Intelligence during WWI. This volume reinforces Thomas's place in the front rank of Doyle imitators

The Dean of a Swiss university persuades Sherlock Holmes to investigate the background of a would-be lecturer. To Dr. Watson it seems a very humdrum commission - but who is the mysterious 'Lieserl'? How does her existence threaten the ambitions of the technical assistant level III in Room 86 at the Federal Patents Office in Berne by the name of Albert Einstein? The assignment plunges Holmes and Watson into unfathomable Serbia to solve one of the intractable mysteries of the 20th Century. In Tim Symonds' previous detective novels, Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer At Scotney Castle and Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Bulgarian Codex the author based pivotal historic facts and a principal character on real life. So too in this new mystery

It's the year 1906. Rumours abound that a deadly plot is hatching -- not in the fog-ridden back-alleys of London's Limehouse district or the sinister Devon moors of the Hound of the Baskervilles but in faraway Peking. Holmes's task -- discover whether such a plot exists and if so, foil it. But are the assassins targeting the young and progressive Ch'ing Emperor or his imperious aunt, the fearsome Empress Dowager Cixi? The murder of either could spark a civil war. The fate of China and the interests of Britain's vast Empire in the Orient could be at stake. Holmes and Watson take up the mission with their customary confidence -- until they find they are no longer in the familiar landscapes of Edwardian England. Instead, they tumble into the Alice In Wonderland world of the Forbidden City

It's 1906. Far from England, the Ottoman Empire ruled by the despotic Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid 11 is on the verge of imploding. Rival Great Powers, especially Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, sit watching like crows on a fence, ready to rush in to carve up the vast territories, menacing England's vital overland routes to her Indian possessions. At his medical practice in London's Marylebone Watson receives a mystifying telegram. It's from Holmes

A half million pounds in gold has disappeared from an armored train outside London. The railroad and the banks are in an uproar, and finally they must turn to Sherlock Holmes for help. What begins as a deceptively simple case transforms into a puzzle unlike any Dr. Watson has ever seen, as Holmes works brilliantly to unravel an international tangle of high finance, low cunning, and cold-blooded murder. The clues are slim, the work is deadly dangerous, the game's afoot--and the great sleuth is giving chase!

An anthology of stories Holmes and Watson in America. Original short stories. A literary gem? Elementary, of course! Sherlock Holmes makes his American debut in this fascinating and extraordinary collection of never-before-published crime and mystery stories by bestselling American writers. The world's greatest detective and his famous sidekick Watson are on their first trip across the Atlantic as they fight crime all over nineteenth-century North America. From the bustling neighborhoods of New York City and Washington, D.C., to sunny yet sinister cities like San Francisco on the West Coast, the world's best-loved British sleuth will face some of the most cunning criminals America has to offer, and meet some of America's most famous figures along the way. Each original story is written in the extraordinary tradition of Doyle's best work, yet each comes with a unique American twist that is sure to satisfy and exhilarate both Sherlock Holmes purists and those who always wished that Holmes could nab the nefarious closer to home. This is a must-read for any mystery fan and for those who have followed Holmes' illustrious career over the waterfall and back again. 12 b/w illustrations