My name is Slade Merrick and I’m a f*cking sex addict . . . I’ve been told it’s a problem. But I see it as a passion; something that I’m good at. And who the f*ck stops something that they’re good at? They want me to seek help; get my c*ck in check. Don't judge my lifestyle. You’re no better than me. Just admit it, you like to f*ck too. Sex is what I do best; my own personal high, so I embrace it instead of being ashamed. When I'm not f*cking, I'm slinging drinks at Walk Of Shame or stripping my way into your bed; another thing I'm good at. Every woman’s darkest fantasy brought to life. So, am I stopping? F*ck no. Sex is beautiful, raw and erotic and I get off knowing I can have it with anyone I want . . . with the exception of her. Aspen. She walks into the club swaying those hips, instantly drawing my c*ck to attention. She’s pure perfection. That is, until she opens that mouth, drawing me in and for the first time in forever I want something more than sex. I want her and she hates it. Things get dirty. Dirty is what I like; it’s how I live. But . . . she’s playing a game she can never win

From “one of the most electric writers alive” (The Boston Globe) comes a taut, intricately woven, spine-chilling, reality-warping short novel. Set across five decades, beginning in 1979 and coming to its electrifying conclusion on October 31, 2015, Slade House is the perfect book to curl up with on a dark and stormy night

Beneath the relaxed exterior of their lush beach life — the year-round sun tans, the unmeasured cocktails, the casual embraces — there pulses an insistent, blood-warm note of violence, of unspeakable desire... Before the story is done, the pulse has run wild

Recommended by Paul Cook as one of the most important SF novels. Jommy Cross is a slan, a genetically bred superhuman whose race was created to aid humanity but is now despised by "normal" humans. Slans are usually shot on sight, but that doesn't stop Jommy's mother from bringing him to see the world capital of Centropolis, the seat of power for Earth's dictator, Kier Gray. But on their latest trip to Centropolis, the two slans are discovered, and Jommy's mother is killed. Jommy, only 9 years old, unwittingly becomes caught up in a plot to undermine Gray, who may be more sympathetic to slans than the public suspects. The nonstop action and root-for-the-underdog plot has made Slan a science fiction favorite

Twelve original and interconnected stories in the traditions of Junot Díaz and Sherman Alexie. Victor D. LaValle's astonishing, violent, and funny debut offers harrowing glimpses at the vulnerable lives of young people who struggle not only to come of age, but to survive the city streets. In "ancient history," two best friends graduating from high school fight to be the one to leave first for a better world; each one wants to be the fortunate son. In "pops," an African-American boy meets his father, a white cop from Connecticut, and tries not to care. And in "kids on colden street," a boy is momentarily uplifted by the arrival of a younger sister only to discover that brutality leads only to brutality in the natural order of things. Written with raw candor, grit, and a cautious heart, slapboxing with jesus introduces an exciting and bold new craftsman of contemporary fiction. LaValle's voices echo long after their stories are told

Liz Gillibrand wants a man she can submit to in the bedroom but still keep her sex life a secret from the conservative ranching community. When she discovers her neighbor owns Rawhide, a private bondage club, she might have found the answer. But the first Dom she meets is Alex Wright, a man she's already connected with physically and emotionally. Once before she tried to merge her private life with the lifestyle but with disastrous results. Can Alex be the one to finally free her from the past and give her the life she longs for?

Rebeka Blumvud – žurnalistė, mokanti kitus, kaip reikia elgtis su pinigais. Deja, ją pačią kamuoja pirkimo aistra ir jos pasekmės – nuolatinis pinigų stygius ir amžinai persekiojančios skolos. Rebeka desperatiškai stengiasi didžiąją savo gyvenimo problemą išspręsti mėginimais taupyti, paskui – paskui susirasti pelningesnį darbą, bet visos pastangos eina perniek ir dar labiau komplikuoja padėtį... Sofi Kinselos romano pagrindinės veikėjos Rebekos lūpomis perteiktas pasakojimas trykšte trykšta gyvybingu temperamentu ir skatina žvelgti į pasaulį sklidinos humoro nepataisomos optimistės akimis. Be galo nuotaikingas šiuolaikinės emancipuotos merginos pasakojimas, komiškos situacijos, žaisminga moteriškos psichologijos įtaiga

Čikagos spauda mirga nuo antraščių: „Gerbiamo senatoriaus dukra pabėgo iš savo vestuvių, palikusi prie altoriaus perspektyvų jauną politiką.“ Džuljeta ieško nuošalios vietos, kur galėtų pasislėpti nuo persekiojančių žurnalistų ir išsigydyti širdies žaizdas. Ji atsiduria privačioje saloje, kurios savininkės tikslas – išpildyti slapčiausias čia atvykusiųjų fantazijas. Nusivylusi meile Džuljeta svajoja tik apie viena: susipažinti su nuoširdžiu vyru ir nors trumpam pasijusti geidžiama. Jau pirmąją viešnagės dieną ji susižavi aukštu tamsiaplaukiu. Bet ar šis vyras – tikrai tas, kuo dedasi? Iš anglų kalbos vertė Margarita Railienė

“Wonderfully frank.” “Entertaining and educational… a crash course for aspiring rock gods.” From one of the greatest rock guitarists of our era comes a memoir that redefines sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll He was born in England but reared in L.A., surrounded by the leading artists of the day amidst the vibrant hotbed of music and culture that was the early seventies. Slash spent his adolescence on the streets of Hollywood, discovering drugs, drinking, rock music, and girls, all while achieving notable status as a BMX rider. But everything changed in his world the day he first held the beat-up one-string guitar his grandmother had discarded in a closet. The instrument became his voice and it triggered a lifelong passion that made everything else irrelevant. As soon as he could string chords and a solo together, Slash wanted to be in a band and sought out friends with similar interests. His closest friend, Steven Adler, proved to be a conspirator for the long haul. As hairmetal bands exploded onto the L.A. scene and topped the charts, Slash sought his niche and a band that suited his raw and gritty sensibility. He found salvation in the form of four young men of equal mind: Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler, and Duff McKagan. Together they became Guns N’ Roses, one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll bands of all time. Dirty, volatile, and as authentic as the streets that weaned them, they fought their way to the top with groundbreaking albums such as the iconic Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II. Here, for the first time ever, Slash tells the tale that has yet to be told from the inside: how the band came together, how they wrote the music that defined an era, how they survived insane, never-ending tours, how they survived themselves, and, ultimately, how it all fell apart. This is a window onto the world of the notoriously private guitarist and a seat on the roller-coaster ride that was one of history’s greatest rock ’n’ roll machines, always on the edge of self-destruction, even at the pinnacle of its success. This is a candid recollection and reflection of Slash’s friendships past and present, from easygoing Izzy to ever-steady Duff to wild-child Steven and complicated Axl. It is also an intensely personal account of struggle and triumph: as Guns N’ Roses journeyed to the top, Slash battled his demons, escaping the overwhelming reality with women, heroin, coke, crack, vodka, and whatever else came along. He survived it all: lawsuits, rehab, riots, notoriety, debauchery, and destruction, and ultimately found his creative evolution. From Slash’s Snakepit to his current band, the massively successful Velvet Revolver, Slash found an even keel by sticking to his guns. Slash is everything the man, the myth, the legend, inspires: it’s funny, honest, inspiring, jaw-dropping… and, in a word, excessive

Обладатель премии Guitar International Magazine, человек, вошедший в Топ-100 величайших гитаристов всех времен по версии журнала Rolling Stone… Он свел с ума миллионы, щеголяя по сцене в черном цилиндре и солнцезащитных очках. Он стал живой легендой и самим олицетворением рок-музыки. Но его творческий путь был отнюдь не простым. Окунувшись в честную и безумную историю Слэша, вы узнаете: Как пятеро парней сколотили легендарную группу Guns N’ Roses? Как «ганзы» стали легендами рока, которые до сих пор собирают целые стадионы? Почему в одночасье рухнуло все: слава, деньги и карьера? Как живется самому отвязному рок-музыканту с кардиостимулятором в груди? Станьте свидетелями рождения легенды хард-рока!В формате PDF A4 сохранен издательский макет

Operation Berlin, the Soviet offensive launched on 16 April, 1945, by Marshals Zhukov and Koniev, isolated the German Ninth Army and tens of thousands of refugees in the Spreewald ‘pocket’, south-east of Berlin. Stalin ordered its encirclement and destruction and his subordinates, eager to win the race to the Reichstag, pushed General Busse’s 9th Army into a tiny area east of the village of Halbe. To escape the Spreewald pocket, the remains of 9th Army had to pass through Halbe, where barricades constructed by both sides formed formidable obstacles and the converging Soviet forces subjected the area to heavy artillery fire. By the time 9th Army eventually escaped the Soviet pincers, it had suffered 40,000 killed and 60,000 taken prisoner. Teenaged refugees recount their experiences alongside Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS veterans attempting to maintain military discipline amid the chaos and carnage of headlong retreat. While army commanders strive to extricate their decimated units, demoralised soldiers change into civilian clothing and take to the woods. Relating the story day by day, Tony Le Tissier shows the impact of total war upon soldier and civilian alike, illuminating the unfolding of great and terrible events with the recollections of participants. [Contain tables.]

Episode Two of the highly acclaimed THE RETREAT series, from three of zombie fiction’s most popular authors! With Laughter, Comes Death… Emerging from the smoking ruins of Boston, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lee leads the First Battalion, 55th Infantry Regiment on a perilous trek to its besieged home post of Fort Drum. Along the way, the unit must battle through the legions of diseased killers lying in wait, evading clever ambushes and fighting through terrifying attacks. Lee struggles to hold the battalion together while epitomizing its motto, “Bounding Forward.”

It’s prom night in the Demented States of America. A place where schools are built with secret passageways, rebellious teens get zippers installed in their mouths and genitals, and once a year, on that special night, one couple is slaughtered and the bits of their bodies are kept as souvenirs. But something’s gone terribly wrong at Corundum High, where the secret killer is claiming a far higher body count than usual… Slaughterhouse High is Robert Devereaux’s slicing satire of sex, death, and public education

“Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time.” So begins Vonnegut’s absurdist 1969 classic. Hawke rises to the occasion of performing this sliced-and-diced narrative, which is part sci-fi and partially based on Vonnegut’s experience as a American prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany during the firebombing of 1945 that killed thousands of civilians. Billy travels in time and space, stopping here and there throughout his life, including his long visit to the planet Tralfamador, where he is mated with a porn star. Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1969. Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1970

The Eleventh book of the saga of Tarl Cabot.Tarl Cabot had resumed his allegiance to the Priest-Kings, the non-human but benevolent rulers of Gor. And accordingly Tarl knew that the battle fo the possession of the planet was under way — the Kurli, the beastlike invaders, had made their plans

It is the fourth book in the Richard Blade series. __________________________________________ Blade's newest mission: Projection by computer to Dimension X, to track down and kill the russian agent posing as his double.In Sarma, land of weird customs and barbaric punishments, he could survive only by satisfying the cravings of the royal women. Failure ment live burial, or being hurled into the flaming jaws of Bek-Tor. And always the danger from the man who was his double...and might prove to be his final destruction

When five female astronauts were named to pilot the latest interstellar scout ship, the U.S.S. Letanya, it didn't take long for the wags to dub it, the "Lesbanya." Even in 2075, an all-woman crew was met with snickers and jokes by late-night comedians. Capt. Kathryn Dyson was out to prove them wrong. When they discovered a strange new world with humanoid life long before any male explorers did, it seemed NASA's shaky faith in the mission would be justified. Unfortunately, some of the crew got themselves captured by the huge man-like beings on the planet and turned into slaves. Now it's up to Kate Dyson to rescue her crew or die trying, because she's not going back without them, despite NASA's orders. Can she avoid becoming just another sex object on...Slave Planet

Chiun knows a secret and he isn't even telling Remo, the Destroyer, whom he has taught all his skills and loves as a son, because America has committed a sin against him he cannot pardon. They are in Africa, where feuds that have smoldered over centuries are being resolved by death and massacre. But how many deaths? And why? The facts are bizarre. In a Baltimore cemetery a white woman of aristocratic birth, who had died as a slave in Africa many years ago, is supposed to lie buried. But it is not her body in the coffin - and that can spark an international incident. It's going to get hotter in Africa. America's future seems dark indeed - and only Remo, the Destroyer, can bring back the light

Kill them all… Enslaved by his enemies and forced to fight in the pits of Jahannam for their depraved entertainment, Nasir, the once-proud Marid warrior and djinn prince, has become a killer. One celebrated and feared at the same time. Even he doesn’t remember who he used to be, nor does he care, until hope enters his cell in the form of an alluring woman who may be the key to his salvation. This is not my life… Sold into slavery, Kavin must prove her worth. If she can survive one night in the arms of a killer, her life will be one of luxury—albeit as a concubine, forced to serve her lascivious master. Sickened by the thought, she knows it’s better than death, and where she once dreamed of freedom, now all she wants is to stay alive. But when the gladiator refuses to touch her, her only hope for survival is seduction

THE HOT NEW NAME IN PARANORMAL ROMANCE. Nalini Singh dives into a world torn apart by a powerful race with phenomenal powers of the mind-and none of the heart. Born a Psy, Sascha Duncan must hide the emotions which mark her as flawed. But a passionate Changeling will tempt her to reveal everything-and risk her very soul

Slaves of The Klau by Jack Vance is a short but very intense novel. A lowly, though rebellious human servant to an advanced alien is seized and taken into the most desperate slavery under utterly ruthless masters. His initial attempts at escape turn into an ongoing journey of personal development as his mental strength and power grow to enable him to take command of increasingly complex and hazardous situations. The story is completely believable and consistent, as the hero fights to overcome setback after setback. It is wonderfully woven between the different personalities of a number of alien races, a highly technological future, and intergalactic war. Very clever ideas, very visual, delightfully written. This is a timeless piece. It has been on my bookshelf for nearly thirty years and has been read many times

Grubbs Grady and his half-brother Bill-E are thrilled to join their uncle Dervish as onset consultants for the newest movie by cult horror producer David A Hayms. Shot in a deserted town renamed Slawter, the demon-themed movie is to be Hayms's masterpiece. But as strange incidents disrupt the set, Grubbs begins to wonder whether more than filming is afoot

David Cleveland, investigator for the Jockey Club, goes to Norway in response to an appeal from Oslo racecourse. A British jockey, riding in Norway, has disappeared, and with him has gone a day’s takings from the turnstiles. The Norwegian police have found no trace of him, nor have the British, and the case is being filed as just one more unsolved theft. David Cleveland is a last resort. He goes without much expectation — and finds himself in waters as dark and deep as the fjords. Dick Francis’s new novel has all the excitement and mastery of his genre which has made him a worldwide bestseller

In a desolate, primitive future, strangers join forces to escape to a utopia

For years Ketchum (Peaceable Kingdom) and Lee (City Infernal) have written taboo-breaking horror fiction that's invariably provocative and sometimes good taste-challenged. This collection of their five collaborative stories is the literary equivalent of a frat-house Halloween party, full of cheesy shocks, raunchy sex and gross-out humor. "I'd Give Anything for You" and "Love Letters from the Rain Forest" have carbon copy plots involving nymphomaniacal young women who spurn wimpy suitors for studly hunks and pay for their choice with grisly fates. "Eyes Left" delivers more of the same, offering its account of an alluring female zombie who turns tables on a group of drooling barflies as a morality tale on the wrongness of sexual objectification. The title story, about a man unhinged in waking life by a secret existence lived in his slumbers, relies on a trite narrative shortcut-a tape recorder that catches the truth while he sleeps-to unravel its mystery. Only "Masks," about magically endowed masks that bring out the subconscious impulses of an intimate couple, succeeds in conveying the strangeness of uncanny experience. The book also includes first drafts of two stories, one by each of the authors, that show Lee to be the more prone of the pair to inventive descriptions of bodily functions. This book is unlikely to earn either author new readers, but neither is it likely to deter the hardcore fans at whom it clearly is aimed

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Swamplandia!, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, an imaginative and haunting novella about an insomnia epidemic set in the near future. A crisis has swept America. Hundreds of thousands have lost the ability to sleep. Enter the Slumber Corps, an organization that urges healthy dreamers to donate sleep to an insomniac. Under the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers the Corps' reach has grown, with outposts in every major US city. Trish Edgewater, whose sister Dori was one of the first victims of the lethal insomnia, has spent the past seven years recruiting for the Corps. But Trish’s faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter when she is confronted by “Baby A,” the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y." Sleep Donation explores a world facing the end of sleep as we know it, where “Night Worlds” offer black market remedies to the desperate and sleep deprived, and where even the act of making a gift is not as simple as it appears

A classic later novel by Anna Kavan. A largely autobiographical account of an unhappy childhood, this daring synthesis of memoir and surrealist experimentation chronicles the subject's gradual withdrawal from the daylight world of received reality. Brief flashes of daily experience from childhood, adolescence, and youth are described in what is defined as "nighttime language" — a heightened, decorative prose that frees these events from their gloomy associations. The novel suggests we have all spoken this dialect in childhood and in our dreams, but these thoughts can only be sharpened or decoded by contemplation in the dark. Revealing that side of life which is never seen by the waking eye but which dreams and drugs can suddenly emphasize, this startling discovery illustrates how these nighttime illuminations reveal the narrator's joy for the living world

The blockbuster film Inception meets Lisa McMann's Wake trilogy in this dark paranormal thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike. This novel is also perfect for fans of Kelley Armstrong, Alyson Noel, and Kimberly Derting. Charlotte Westing has a gift. She is an Oracle and has the ability to tell the future. But it doesn't do her much good. Instead of using their miraculous power, modern-day Oracles are told to fight their visions—to refrain from interfering. And Charlotte knows the price of breaking the rules. She sees it every day in her wheelchair-bound mother and the absence of her father. But when a premonition of a classmate's death is too strong for her to ignore, Charlotte is forced to make an impossible decision: continue following the rules or risk everything—even her sanity—to stop the serial killer who is stalking her town

They hide in mattresses. They wait till you're asleep. They rise in the dead of night to feast on your blood. They can multiply by the hundreds in less than a week. They are one of the most loathsome, hellish species to ever grace God's green earth. Thought to be eradicated decades ago, thanks to global travel they're back. And with them comes a nightmare beyond imagining.   Bed bugs. Infected with a plague virus so deadly it makes Ebola look like a summer cold. One bite turns people into homicidal maniacs.   Now they're in Chicago. And migrating to all points north, south, east, and west. The rest of the world is already itching. The U.S. government and the CDC are helpless to stop it. Only one man knows what's causing the epidemic. And the powers-that-be want him dead.   "A fresh new talent with an amazing ability to astonish." --David Morrell, bestselling author of First Blood

From Publishers Weekly Women who dye their hair blonde may think twice before heading to the salon after reading Frasier's (Hush) enthralling thriller about a serial killer who plucks the eyes out of his young blonde victims and grafts rose stems onto their fingers-all in an effort to create the perfect woman. Minneapolis FBI agent Mary Cantrell has a personal interest in the latest string of murders taking place in her hometown. The killer may very well be an old high school classmate named Gavin Hitchcock, who was convicted of raping and murdering her best friend and then released after serving nine years in prison. But when the abductions persist even after Gavin is returned to custody, Mary's sister, Gillian, a local cop who's befriended Gavin and believes him to be innocent, goes undercover to trap the real killer. Some vivid autopsy scenes may turn the stomachs of the squeamish, but there's a lot more to this clever intrigue than graphic police procedures. Indeed, one of Frasier's many strengths is her ability create characters and relationships that are as compelling as the mystery itself. From the estranged Cantrell sisters and their broad-minded mother to Mary's handsome partner and the troubled Gavin, Frasier's well-rounded characters will linger with readers long after the killer is caught

A gothic tale set in 19th-century London, by the author of "The Evil Seed". A domineering and puritanical artist finds, in nine-year-old Effie, the perfect model he has been seeking, and she later becomes his wife. But Effie is drawn into a dangerous underworld of vice, blackmail and murder

The thirteenth unputdownable thriller in the million selling John Milton series When a Russian defector is assassinated in a sleepy English seaside town, Group Fifteen agents John Milton and Michael Pope find themselves in a rush to uncover the culprits and bring them to justice. Their investigation leads them to Moscow and a confrontation with Directorate S, the agency responsible for seeding Russian sleeper agents around the world. When lies and double crossing mean that no-one is what they seem, the two agents – alone and without backup – struggle to achieve their goals under the most dangerous of circumstances. Set one week before the opening of The Cleaner, this compulsive thriller turns back the clock to Milton as a barely functioning alcoholic, still tormented by the ghosts of the men and women he has killed in the service of his country. Milton must fight his own demons as well as the Russian assassin sent to eliminate him. Will he be able to complete his mission and escape with his life?

A book with a punch equal to its publicity hype! Journalist Carcaterra tells with gripping force of his days growing up in the tough New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s (the names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty). He and his three closest buddies engaged in petty crime until the day their tricks got out of hand and escalated into a major offense, for which they were sent to a juvenile home in upstate New York. They were tormented during their months there, not by other young inmates but by their adult guards, who brutalized them relentlessly in a program of horror and torture that included rape. Once out, once grown up, one of the boys became a lawyer, and through a bizarre twist of events worthy of being turned into a movie (in fact, the movie rights have been sold, with Barry Levinson lined up as director), he, Carcaterra, and the other two friends expose the horrible wrongs they suffered in that detention home. Both difficult to read and difficult to put down, this book will garner lots of attention, and as a result, readership demand will be high

Только он один. Один, по-настоящему живой человек на планете, погруженной в глубокий сон. Окружающий мир широк и многогранен, происходящие в нем изменения характеризуются поистине гигантскими масштабами. Но много ли можно увидеть и понять, в ситуации полнейшего информационного вакуума, человеку, всегда находящемуся только в одной точке пространства? В точке, с которой он видит только то, что попадает в поле его зрения? Он может только догадываться, что происходит в других местах, но догадки остаются только догадками

In this spectacular father/son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men? In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious “Eve Black,” is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned, left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions, some wanting to kill Eve, some to save her. Others exploit the chaos to wreak their own vengeance on new enemies. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world. Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously dramatic father-son collaboration that feels particularly urgent and relevant today. “This delicious first collaboration between Stephen King and his son Owen is a horror-tinged realistic fantasy that imagines what could happen if most of the women of the world fall asleep, leaving men on their own. The authors’ writing is seamless and naturally flowing. Once the action begins, [SLEEPING BEAUTIES] barrels along like a freight train.” (Publishers Weekly) “Another horror blockbuster, Mercedes and all, from maestro King and his heir apparent… In a kind of untold Greek tragedy meets Deliverance meets—well, bits of Mr. Mercedes and The Shawshank Redemption, perhaps—King and King, father and son, take their time putting all the pieces into play: brutish men, resourceful women who've had quite enough, alcohol, and always a subtle sociological subtext, in this case of rural poverty and dreams sure to be dashed… A blood-splattered pleasure.” (Kirkus (starred review)) “Following the renewed interest in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and an increasing climate of wolf-whistle politics, this examination of gender stereotypes, systems of oppression, and pervasive misogyny within American culture feels especially timely… The large cast of characters allows for a multitude of narrative perspectives—from both the affected women and the men they’ve left behind. Violent, subversive, and compulsively readable. The true horror of this father-son-penned novel derives more from its unflinchingly realistic depiction of hatred and violence against women than from the supernatural elements.” (Library Journal)

Lew Archer #17 In Sleeping Beauty, Lew Archer finds himself the confidant of a wealthy, violent family with a load of trouble on their hands – including an oil spill, a missing girl, a lethal dose of Nembutal, a six-figure ransom, and a stranger afloat, face down, off a private beach. Here is Ross Macdonald's masterful tale of buried memories, the consequences of arrogance, and the anguished relations between parents and their children. Riveting, gritty, tautly written, Sleeping Beauty is crime fiction at its best. If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it is Ross Macdonald. Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his pre-decessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin