First published in 1971 as Ground Zero Man, this novel was revies by the author and published in 1985 as The Peace Machine. It is 1988, and an obscure scientist, Lucas Hutchman, has made a momentous discovery. He can build a neutron resonator: a device which, once triggered, will detonate every nuclear warhead in the planet. In a future on the brink of nuclear suicide (Damascus has just been wiped out by a terrorist nuclear bomb), the temptation is irresistible to use his invention as a gun held against the heads of the world’s leaders. Lucas constructs the machine, and then sends plans to prominent scientists and politicians everywhere, giving a deadline on which he will activate it. They will be forced to dismantle their weapons, and the world will breathe again. Very quickly, Lucas discovers that he has pitched himself into a world with which he is ill-equipped to cope: the world of secret agents, espionage, kidnapping and murder. His problem is to stay under cover and survive long enough to implement his plan

The legends of Jaq Merril are legion—but legends. Hark, ye, then to the true story of the pirate benefactor of Mankind!

The twin specters of starvation and genocide stalk the southern Sudan when the tyrannical regime in Khartoum unleashes the Janjaweed, horseback-mounted Baggara tribesmen, on the defenseless Dinka and Nuer tribes. The prize is control of the oil reserves lying beneath tribal lands, and a weary United Nations responds with a half-hearted attempt riddled with corruption to rescue a beleaguered people. The United States sends six aging Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft and 165 personnel to support the UN peacekeepers and fly relief into the heart of the war-torn land. But age-old hatreds cannot be suppressed and the Janjaweed cause one of the C-130s to crash, killing the crew and commander of the US detachment. The UN peacekeepers are withdrawing when the newly appointed commander of the C-130 unit arrives. His unit’s morale is in the dirt and the situation chaotic. Appalled by the slaughter he witnesses, he becomes a driven man, determined to save the Nuer and Dinka tribesmen. He makes an unlikely ally, the French commander of the peacekeeping force who was born Senegalese. The two men are military anachronisms, throwbacks to an earlier age. But both know how to fight — one in the air, the other on the ground — and fight they will. The situation spins out of control and becomes a battle of personal survival where defeat will result in genocide

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See. In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters. But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-aunt, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way. Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?

Рассказ вошёл в сборники: The Golden Apples of the Sun (Золотые яблоки солнца) S Is For Space (К значит Космос) Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (Сборник ста лучших рассказов)

Shortly after ex-spy Lang Reilly's sister dies in an explosion in her Paris home, a reproduction of a painting by the 17th-century artist Poussin, which his sister bought the day before she died and which includes an odd Latin inscription, disappears from Lang's home. With police and killers on his trail, Lang embarks on a journey to Italy to uncover the painting's secrets as well as its connection to his sister, enlisting the help of a former co-worker, the German killing-machine Gurt Fuchs. Somewhat dry excerpts from a medieval account of the Knights of the Temple punctuate the action, hinting that the mystery is more complex than Lang can imagine. The international setting and fast-paced action grip, and fortunately, Loomis's convincing protagonist possesses the intelligence and emotional depth to carry the reader through some unlikely scenarios (e.g., in an airport bathroom stall, Lang constructs a fake gun out of candy). Though the momentum sometimes lags, each scene is vivid enough to keep the reader engaged. Some may find the book's secret societies and art history themes a trifle unoriginal, but others looking to repeat The Da Vinci Code experience will be satisfied

In these dazzling stories, Mavis Gallant immerses us in the lives of ordinary people swept up in the upheaval and displacement that followed in the wake of the Second World War. A bitter yet stubbornly pragmatic woman prepares for what promises to be another disastrous Christmas with her mother, her aunt, and her would-be-war-hero uncle. Engaged to another man, a woman travels to Paris with her older lover and his young son. A wife recollects her complicated relationship with the refugee woman who had a brief affair with her husband. Small mercies form the backbone of a friendship between an actress and a police commissioner. A career soldier, now discharged and stranded in France, makes his first adjustments to life as a civilian. In elegant, diamond-sharp prose, Gallant distills the vanities, absurdities, and contradictions that lie at the heart of human behavior and fashions stories of rare power and insight

In Peking ("Pekin" in British usage) the crowds gather for the funeral of the Chinese Premier. Quiller reports it: "The British delegates formed a short line along the side of the catafalque as their leader placed the Queen's wreath carefully against it; then suddenly the sky was filled with flowers and the bloodied body of the Secretary of State was hurled against me by the blast as the coffin exploded." "Quiller takes over where Bond left off." (Bookseller)

John Grisham’s 1991 novel The Firm drew unprecedented praise from reviewers, booksellers, and readers across America, and it quickly became the top bestseller of the year. Now Grisham is back with The Pelican Brief, an irresistible story that begins with the simultaneous assassinations of two Supreme Court Justices... Late one October night Justice Abe Rosenberg, at ninety-one the Supreme Court’s liberal legend, is shot in the head while sleeping in his Georgetown home. Two hours later Glenn Jensen, the Court’s youngest and most conservative justice, is strangled, possibly by the same assassin. The country is stunned and baffled; the FBI has no clues. But Darby Shaw, a brilliant law student at Tulane, thinks she has the answer. Days of digging in the law library’s computers have led her to an obscure connection between the two justices. She fleshes out her beliefs in a meticulous though wildly speculative brief that builds a strong case against a most unlikely suspect. Her suspect has powerful friends. One evening, outside a New Orleans restaurant, she narrowly escapes an assassin’s car bomb. Someone has read her brief. Someone who wants her dead. Alone and frightened, Darby disappears into the anonymous shadows of the French Quarter. After reading an alarming story about the assassinations in the Washington Post, she contacts investigative reporter Gray Grantham and convinces him that Washington’s position on the killings amounts to the biggest cover-up since Watergate. Together they go underground, on the run, trying to stay alive long enough to expose the real truth in The Pelican Brief. Featuring the unique mix of legal intrigue and page-turning suspense that drove The Firm to the top of the bestseller lists, The Pelican Brief is sure to be one of the most popular and satisfying novels of the year

More than twenty years after the end of their love affair, Gabriel receives a series of cryptic postcards from his old flame. Inspired to write his own letter, Gabriel dwells in sensuous detail on perfumes, clothes, and conversations as he tries to recapture the spirit of their romance in 1980s Belfast. As Gabriel teases out the significance of the postcards, the layers of meaning in the images and messages, his reveries develop into richly textured meditations on writing, memory, spiritualism, and surveillance. The result is an elaborate and intricate web of fact and fiction, a narrative that marries sharp historical insights with imaginative exuberance, a strange and wonderful novel confirming Ciaran Carson as one of Ireland's most exciting writers

A great invention — it enabled a man to think with perfect clarity, his thoughts unclouded by emotions. And did that make trouble!

At an end-of-London-season soirée, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Bátky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumors. Invited to the family seat — Pendragon Castle in North Wales — Bátky receives a mysterious phone call warning him not to go; but he does and finds himself in a bizarre world of mysticism and romance, animal experimentation, and planned murder. His quest to solve the central mystery takes him down strange byways — old libraries and warehouse cellars, Welsh mountains and underground tombs

Merlin investigates a royal mystery at Stonehenge. A baron and his sons are found dead at Stonehenge. King Arthur's potential heirs start to mysteriously die. And only Merlin can prove that the murders are not the work of the plague, but something much more sinister

In Homer’s account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan war after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumours, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged Maids, asking: ‘What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?’ In Atwood’s dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing With wit and verve, drawing on the storytelling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery

Russia’s recent past has encompassed revolution, civil war, mass terror and two world wars, and the country is still undergoing huge change. In his acclaimed history, now updated to 2009, Robert Service provides a superb panoramic viewpoint on Russia, exploring the complex, changing interaction between rulers and ruled from Nicholas II, Lenin and Stalin through to Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin and beyond. This new edition also discusses Russia’s unresolved economic and social difficulties and its determination to regain its leading role on the world stage and explains how, despite the recent years of de-communization, the seven decades of communist rule which penetrated every aspect of life still continue to influence Russia today

"You're not children anymore," a desperate Kit Snicket tells Violet, Klaus and Sunny in the opening pages of Lemony Snicket's THE PENULTIMATE PERIL. "You're volunteers, ready to face the challenges of a desperate and perplexing world." Indeed, in this adventure the profoundly unlucky Baudelaire orphans face dilemmas more perplexing and desperate than any they've faced in the previous eleven books in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Now that they've reached the Hotel Denouement, the hapless siblings must pose as concierges, heavily disguised to protect their identities, and discern the true motives and identities of the hotel's many mysterious guests. Indeed, during their explorations of the massive hotel, the Baudelaires encounter characters from nearly every one of their previous misadventures (including that cakesniffer Carmelita and the always "in" Esme Squalor). The Hotel Denouement is full of secrets, able to be unlocked only by those who really understand the Dewey Decimal System. From the rooftop sunbathing deck to the laundry room, the Baudelaires try to sort out the volunteers from the villains, hoping against hope that they're not "wrong, wrong, wrong." Lemony Snicket's twelfth book lacks none of the verbal wit and clever snarkiness that have made this series so popular. Indeed, now that youngest sibling Sunny is speaking more clearly, her dialogue contributes even more to the clever wordplay at which these books excel. Some surprising secrets are in store, as well as a real cliffhanger of an ending, which promises to make the series much more complex than anyone would have imagined. Even though Lemony Snicket would tell you to toss THE PENULTIMATE PERIL into the nearest puddle or pond, it's definitely worth keeping up with the ongoing saga of the world's most trouble-prone siblings. The only unfortunate thing will be the wait for the series's final installment!

In 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu'ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub "The Dreamers," who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He scientifically proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating personal consequences

A profound and moving piece of investigative journalism, Jack London’s study of the London underworld remains, a century after it was written, a timely tale of poverty and injustice. In 1902, Jack London purchased some second-hand clothes, rented a room in the East End, and set out to discover how the London poor lived. His research makes shocking reading. Moving through the slums as one of the poor; eating, drinking and socialising with the underclass; queuing to get into a doss-house, London was scandalised and brutalised by the experience of living rough in Britain’s capital. His clear-eyed reflections on the iniquities of class are a shaming testament to the persistence of social inequality in modern Britain

Leonard Outram, a young Englishman who’s just lost his fortune along with and his fiancee’s hand, makes an oath: he’ll win back his home and live happily ever after. Really! Well, sort of. Leonard ends up in Africa, which, at that point in history, was the place to win your fortune back for the gods of fate. Leonard rescues a maid from a slave-dealer – for a fee, of course! – and then falls in love with her, complicating the heck out of his situation. Oh well: a great adventure ensues, taking them to places no one has ever heard of, then or now – leading to narrow escapes, love, intrigue, and of course, high adventure

Like two giants the old enemies faced each other across the reaches of the galaxy — the Terran Empire and the Ythrian Domain. Terra was a Leviathan, encroaching ever further among the stars, promising peace and prosperity — but at the price of freedom. Ythri was smaller, but an empire in its own right, peopled by birdlike beings with a civilization and intellect that easily matched Terra’s own. Nominated for Nebula Award in 1973, Hugo and Locus awards in 1974

Detective Alex Cross has never been on the wrong side of the law. Until now. Charged with murdering followers of his old nemesis Gary Soneji, Alex Cross becomes the poster child for trigger-happy cops. He knows it was self-defence. Will the jury agree? Suspended from the police and fighting for his freedom, even Cross’s own family begin to doubt his innocence as shocking evidence mounts. With everything on the line, Cross must go it alone. He’s the only one who knows that there’s a real murderer watching from the shadows, one Cross must stop — even if it means he can’t save himself

Those who know little to nothing about Chinese culture will receive an eye-opening experience of how China was and how China is now through Annie Wang’s novel The People’s Republic of Desire. Wang takes readers on a journey with four cosmopolitan women learning to live life in the new China. Niuniu, the book’s narrator, is a Chinese American woman, who spent seven years living in the States obtaining her degree in journalism. In the book, Niuniu is now considered a “returnee” when she goes back to China to get over a broken heart. What she meets upon return to her homeland is not the traditional Confucian values she left, but a new modern China where Western culture seems to have taken over – to an extreme. Niuniu, the narrator of the book, is called a “Jia Yangguiz” which means a “fake foreign devil” because of her Westernized values. Her friend Beibei is the owner of her own entertainment company and is married to a man who cheats, so Beibei deals with his infidelity by finding her own young lovers. Lulu is a fashion magazine editor who has been having a long-term affair with a married man, and thinks nothing of having several abortions to show her devotion to him. CC, also a returnee, struggles with her identity between Chinese and English. In The People’s Republic of Desire the days of the 1989 idealism and the Tiananamen Sqaure protests seem forgotten to this new world when making a fast yuan, looking younger, more beautiful, and acting important seems to be of the most concern to this generation. Wang uses these four woman to make humorous and sometimes sarcastic observations of the new China and accurately describes how Western culture has not only infiltrated China, but is taken to the extreme by those who have experienced a world outside the Confucian values. What was once a China consumed with political passions, nepotism, unspoken occurrences, and taboos is now a world filled with all those things once discouraged – sex, divorce, pornography, and desire for material goods. It’s taken the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” to an all-time high. Wang offers a glimpse of modern day Beijing and what it would take for any woman – returnee or otherwise – to move forward and conquer dilemmas in the fast-moving Chinese culture. The characters joke that “nowadays, the world is for bad girls” and all the values of their youth have been lost to this new modern generation of faking their identity, origin, and accent. It seems that such a cultural shock would be displeasing to those who knew the old China, but instead these young women seem to be enjoying the newfound liberties. If you’re looking for a quick read with a plot, you won’t find it in The People’s Republic of Desire. Each of the 101 chapters read like individual short stories, separate stories about friends, family, and other individuals who Niuniu is acquainted with or meets and through which Wang weaves a humorous and often sarcastic trip into Beijing, China. The book is filled with topics of family, friends, Internet dating, infidelity, rich, poor, and many of the same ideals most cultures worry themselves about. Many of the chapters end with popular phrases that give the reader an insight into Chinese culture and language. Wang does seem to use Niuniu’s journalistic background to intertwine the other characters and come to a somewhat significant conclusion. As the press release states, “Wang paints an arresting portrait of a generation suffocating in desire. For love. For success. For security. For self actualization. And for the most elusive aspiration of all: happiness.” With The People’s Republic of Desire, Wang does just that. She speaks not only of the new culture but also of the old ways and how China used to be. She may have educated readers about the new China with her knowledge of the Western and Chinese culture, but also Wang hits the nail on the head when it comes to showing most people’s needs. After all, aren’t most human beings striving for many of these same elusive dreams? Joanne D. Kiggins *** From Publishers Weekly As Wang reveals in intimate detail, today's affluent Beijing women – educated, ambitious, coddled only children enamored of all things Western – are a generation unto themselves. The hyperobservant narrator of this fascinating novel (after Lili: A Novel of Tiananmen) is 20-something Niuniu, a journalist who was born in the United States but grew up in China and returned to America for college and graduate school. Now she's back in Beijing nursing a broken heart and discovering "what it means to be Chinese" in a money- and status-obsessed city altered by economic and sexual liberalization. Supporting Niuniu – and downing a few drinks with her – are her best buddies: entrepreneurial entertainment agent Beibei, sexy fashion mag editor Lulu and Oxford-educated CC. Sounds like the cast of Sex in the Forbidden City, but the thick cultural descriptions distinguish the novel from commercial women's fiction. A nonnative English speaker, Wang observes gender politics among the nouveau riche in careful, reportorial prose. Though Niuniu's romantic backstory forms a tenuous thread between the chapters, and the novel – based on Wang's newspaper column of the same title – doesn't finally hold together, this is a trenchant, readable account of a society in flux

A smart, kick-arse urban fantasy from a new master of the genre. The Perdition Score is the eighth book in the fantastic Sandman Slim series. Sandman Slim returns in a stunning, high-octane thriller filled with the intense kick-ass action and inventive fantasy that are the hallmarks of New York Times best-selling author Richard Kadrey. The request from Thomas Abbot, the Augur of the Sub Rosa council, couldn't come at a better time for James Stark, aka Sandman Slim. For a man who's most recently met Death — and death's killer — a few months of normal life is more than he can handle. He needs a little action, and now Abbott wants Stark and Candy to investigate the disappearance of a young boy — and help uncover council members who might be tied to Wormwood's power brokers. Stark's plans change when he meets a dying angel who gives him a vial of a mysterious black liquid that could be a secret weapon in the ongoing war between angels who want to allow human souls into heaven and rebel angels willing to die to keep them out. When one of Stark's closest friends is poisoned with the black liquid, Stark and Candy have to go to the only place where they might find a cure: hell. But standing in their way are the damned souls who, even after death, still work for Wormwood. The secret deal they've struck with the rebel angels is darker than anything Stark has encountered. Not only does the fate of the world hang in the balance but also the souls of everyone in it. Stark has to find a way to break the stalemate in the angel war, score the Perdition cure for the black poison, and make it back to LA in one piece — where an old enemy waits to finish him once and for all. 

The “master of heart-pounding suspense”—New York Times bestseller Phillip Margolin—returns with a new legal thriller starring Robin Lockwood. A young woman accuses a prominent local college athlete of rape. Convicted with the help of undisputable DNA evidence, the athlete swears his innocence and threatens both his lawyer and his accuser as he’s sent to prison. Not long after, there’s another rape and the DNA test shows that the same person committed both rapes—which is seemingly impossible since the man convicted of the first rape was in prison at the time of the second one. Now, the convicted athlete, joined by a new lawyer, is granted a new trial and bail. Shortly thereafter, his original lawyer disappears and his law partner is murdered. Robin Lockwood is a young lawyer with a prestigious small law firm and a former MMA fighter who helped pay for Yale Law School with her bouts. She is representing the victim of the first rape for her civil lawsuit against her rapist, who is now convinced the rapist is stalking her and trying to intimidate her. At the same time, another client is up on a murder charge—one that should be dismissed as self-defense—but the D.A. trying the case is determined to bring it to trial. Now she has to mastermind two impossible cases, trying to find the hidden truth that links the two of them

After a series of mishaps, Mr. Darcy is in a foul mood when he arrives at the estate his friend, Charles Bingley, rented in Hertfordshire. His mood persists at the assembly he is forced to attend, accounting for his diatribe about country life and even the lovely Elizabeth Bennet, who hears his disparaging remarks. When the two meet again at Rosings, Darcy is totally smitten by Elizabeth, while she still holds a grudge, causing another clash when he proposes. Darcy holds no hope until his cousin, Anne de Bourgh, steps in to play matchmaker to the reluctant pair with the help of Darcy’s all-too observant sister, Georgiana. Using her creative license, Simonsen offers her insights into Austen’s beloved characters in this retelling of Pride and Prejudice, giving prominence to minor characters’ influence over the mismatched couple so that true love will prevail. For instance, Anne de Bourgh is not her overbearing mother’s puppet but rather a much beloved cousin who chooses her battles, giving the story a unique spin

Science can create many things, but only a troublemaking Mardu can introduce Erin to the wonders of love. Rafe of Mardu has a problem. He's sent to baby-sit his troublesome older brother, and in the process finds himself kidnapped by a woman too perfect to be real, with the strength of an inhumanly powerful being. To make matters worse, he's mistaken for his old alter-ego, Cheltam—a criminal mastermind who actually serves as a cover for Rafe's real work as a lawman. But Erin, his kidnapper, needs his help, and Rafe is unable to deny the protective instincts, as well as the lust, he feels in her presence. He agrees to help her, posing as Cheltam. And they seal the deal with more than a kiss, in an act that changes Rafe's world forever. When he learns that this special woman is a Creation, an 'abomination' in the eyes of the System and one that is to be terminated on sight, Rafe doesn't just bend the rules, he breaks them. Together, he and Erin will take on the laboratory that created her. The odds are against them, but if they're successful, Rafe plans on a future with the woman he considers his mate...if only he can convince her that his love is real

The New York Times bestselling author returns with her second international bestseller – an electrifying new novel about how the past will always find us, for fans of The Girl on the Train and I Let You Go. 'A wonderfully addictive book with virtuoso plotting and characters – for anyone who loved The Girl on the Train, it's a must read' Rosamund Lupton, bestselling author of Sister 'Literary suspense at its finest' Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Baby To everyone who knows her now, Zoe Maisey – child genius, musical sensation – is perfect. Yet several years ago Zoe caused the death of three teenagers. She served her time, and now she's free. Her story begins with her giving the performance of her life. By midnight, her mother is dead. The Perfect Girl is an intricate exploration into the mind of a teenager burdened by brilliance, and a past that she cannot leave behind. More praise for The Perfect Girl: 'The Perfect Girl mesmerizes from first to last. Highly original and prickling with tension – I could not stop turning the pages!' Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door 'Intense, electrifying…grips like a python from the first page' Daily Mail 'An intense, unpredictable page turner' Good Housekeeping 'An unusual plot is accompanied by sharp characters and a thought-provoking denouement' Times 'Masterfully drawn characters and intricate plotting make this a stunning piece of crime fiction' Booklist 'A suspenseful, serpentine tale…[with a] perfectly executed final twist' Publishers Weekly 'With lovely prose, depth of character and an intelligent narrative, Macmillan lifts the level of suspense with stiletto-like precision: a tiny graze here, a shallow cut there and, eventually, a thrust into the heart. Profoundly unsettling and richly rewarding' Richmond Times 'This taut, well-written thriller explores domestic violence and family bonds…and the conclusion is shocking and wonderfully satisfying

Abi has always wanted a kitten of her own, but when her family contact the local animal shelter to enquire about adopting one, she’s devastated to find out that the busy road they live on would make it too dangerous. Then the shelter rescues a deaf white kitten that needs to be kept inside. She’s the perfect kitten for Abi’s family! But how will they adapt to looking after an indoor kitten? And what will happen when the kitten gets bored of staying inside?

The Barnes Noble Review In this captivating historical romance about Stephanie Laurens's intriguing Cynster family, an unexpectedly perilous house party is the setting for an equally unexpected love match between Simon Cynster and Portia Ashford. Simon has known Portia for ages, and his natural protectiveness toward her has always encouraged her defiance. Their clashes have only gotten worse since his sister wed her brother (in On a Wicked Dawn). But, when Portia decides it's time for her to explore the passions that inspire men and women to marry, she needs a tutor who is both discreet and accomplished. Despite Simon's rakish reputation, she knows she can trust him absolutely…if she can persuade him to go along with her wild plan. What she doesn't know is that Simon has also decided it's time to marry, and he's prepared to employ all his seductive wiles to persuade Portia to become not just his paramour but also his wife. In a family known for bold warriors and passionate lovers, Simon Cynster is about to prove himself The Perfect Lover. This volume also includes a teaser chapter for Laurens's exciting Bastion Club series, scheduled to debut in the fall of 2003. Sue Stone

For more than a year, Sebastian Costas has been trying to unravel the truth behind the murder of his ex-wife and son. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he's convinced that her second husband – a cop – committed both murders, then faked his own death. Now Sebastian has followed the slimmest of leads to Sacramento.and that's where he finally gets the break he needs. Jane Burke, an investigator with The Last Stand, calls him in connection with a separate crime – a crime that could lead him straight to the man he's been looking for. Once married to a serial killer, Jane has spent the past five years rebuilding her life. And with Sebastian she finally has a chance at happiness. But the man they're after is after them, too. For him this has become a personal battle, one he's determined to win. Whatever it takes

October 1991. It was “the perfect storm”—a tempest that may happen only once in a century—a nor’easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards its hellish center

A masterful follow-up to the New York Times bestseller All the Missing Girls – the gripping story of a journalist who sets out to find her missing friend, a woman who may never have existed at all. “Think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl” (TheSkimm). When Leah Stevens’ career implodes, a chance meeting with her old friend Emmy Grey offers her the perfect opportunity to start over. Emmy, just out of a bad relationship, convinces Leah to come live with her in rural Pennsylvania, where there are teaching positions available and no one knows Leah’s past. Or Emmy’s. Then there’s a wave of vicious crimes in the community and Emmy Grey disappears, and Leah realizes how very little she knows about her friend and roommate. Unable to find friends, family, a paper trail or a digital footprint, the police question whether Emmy Grey existed at all. And mark Leah as a prime suspect. Fighting the doubts of the police and her own sanity, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey – and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name. Deep, dark, and irresistibly twisty, “Megan Miranda’s eerie suspense thriller…smartly examines the slippery theme of personal identity” (The New York Times Book Review)