An old man is dying. When the old man is dead they will come for him. And they will come for her, to make him hurt.   HE WOULD GO TO HELL At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn...  more

An old man is dying. When the old man is dead they will come for him. And they will come for her, to make him hurt.   HE WOULD GO TO HELL At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn’t won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.   TO KEEP HER SAFE For two decades, Michael has been an enforcer in New York’s world of organized crime, a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore. But the life he’s fought to build unravels when he meets Elena, a beautiful innocent who teaches him the meaning and power of love. He wants a fresh start with her, the chance to start a family like the one he and Julian never had. But someone else is holding the strings. And escape is not that easy. . . .   GO TO HELL, AND COME BACK BURNING The mob boss who gave Michael his blessing to begin anew is dying, and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Determined to protect the ones he loves, Michael spirits Elena—who knows nothing of his past crimes, or the peril he’s laid at her door— back to North Carolina, to the place he was born and the brother he lost so long ago. There, he will encounter a whole new level of danger, a thicket of deceit and violence that leads inexorably to the one place he’s been running from his whole life: Iron House. 

After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her checkbook back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling millions from Trenton’s premier assisted-living facility,...  more

After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her checkbook back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling millions from Trenton’s premier assisted-living facility, has mysteriously vanished from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy. Now it’s on Stephanie to track down the con man. Unfortunately, Cubbin has disappeared without a trace, a witness, or his money-hungry wife. Rumors are stirring that he must have had help with the daring escape...or that maybe he never made it out of his room alive. Since the hospital staff’s lips seem to be tighter than the security, and it’s hard for Stephanie to blend in to assisted living, Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur goes in undercover. But when a second felon goes missing from the same hospital, Stephanie is forced into working side by side with Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, in order to crack the case.   The real problem is, no Cubbin also means no way to pay the rent. Desperate for money -- or maybe just desperate -- Stephanie accepts a secondary job guarding her secretive and mouthwatering mentor Ranger from a deadly Special Forces adversary. While Stephanie is notorious for finding trouble, she may have found a little more than she bargained for this time around. Then again -- a little food poisoning, some threatening notes, and a bridesmaid’s dress with an excess of taffeta never killed anyone... or did they? If Stephanie Plum wants to bring in a paycheck, she’ll have to remember: No guts, no glory. . . .

When the townspeople of Lochdubh begin receiving poison pen letters, no one takes them very seriously, even if they are full of wild accusations. But Hamish fears that they might lead to something deadly. His instincts prove correct when the town's postmistress is found hanging from a rope with...  more

When the townspeople of Lochdubh begin receiving poison pen letters, no one takes them very seriously, even if they are full of wild accusations. But Hamish fears that they might lead to something deadly. His instincts prove correct when the town's postmistress is found hanging from a rope with a poison pen letter at her feet. Though it appears to be a suicide, Hamish suspects something more sinister. Attempting to trace the letters, the last thing Hamish needs is any distractions, but soon Jenny Ogilvie arrives in Lochdubh determined to seduce him. Realizing that she is unable to take Hamish's mind off his case, Jenny decides to do a little investigating of her own. Now, Hamish finds himself in a race to solve the mystery of the poison pen letters before someone else dies, including one likely target-Jenny.

Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of Nick. That she kept secrets from...  more

Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of Nick. That she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is...  more

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand. Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs -- and wants -- to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Pat Conroy has created a huge, brash thunderstorm  of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding  with drama. Spanning forty years, this is  the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted ad  troubled twin sister, Savannah, and the dark...  more

Pat Conroy has created a huge, brash thunderstorm  of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding  with drama. Spanning forty years, this is  the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted ad  troubled twin sister, Savannah, and the dark and  violent past of the extraordinary family to which  they were born. Filled with the vanishing  beauty of the South Carolina lowcountry as well as  the dusty glitter of New York City, The  Prince Of Tides is Pat Conroy's most  magnificent novel yet.

The house was deathly quiet. That was the first sign that something was terribly wrong. Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke that morning to find herself alone. Her family - mother, father, and brother - had vanished without a word, without a note, without a trace. Twenty-five years later,...  more

The house was deathly quiet. That was the first sign that something was terribly wrong. Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke that morning to find herself alone. Her family - mother, father, and brother - had vanished without a word, without a note, without a trace. Twenty-five years later, Cynthia is still looking for answers. Now she is about to learn the devastating truth.Cynthia and Terry Archer still live in Milford, Connecticut, not far from the old Bigge house on Hickory Street. With a solid marriage and a young daughter, the Archers seem on track for a successful future. But the questions raised by Cynthia?s past still haunt her, and her obsession to find the answers threatens to destroy everything they?ve worked for. For Cynthia, there can be no closure until she finds out why her family disappeared - and how they could have left her behind. Terry thinks the segment on the popular TV crime-stopper program Deadline is a mistake. But his wife hopes that someone watching will have a lead to her missing family. Sure enough, it?s Cynthia who spots the strange car cruising the neighborhood, hears the untraceable phone calls, and discovers the ominous ?gifts.? And as Cynthia?s nerves begin to unravel, no one?s innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time the first body is found, it?s clear that her past is more of a mystery than she ever imagined - or may ever survive.Someone has returned to this Connecticut town to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And by the time Terry and Cynthia discover the killer?s shocking identity, it will be too late even for goodbye.

Jim Qwilleran, is a prizewinning reporter who's been on the skids but is now coming back with a job as feature writer (mostly on the art scene) for the Daily Fluxion. George Bonifield Mountclemens, the paper's credentialed art critic, writes almost invariably scathing, hurtful reviews of...  more

Jim Qwilleran, is a prizewinning reporter who's been on the skids but is now coming back with a job as feature writer (mostly on the art scene) for the Daily Fluxion. George Bonifield Mountclemens, the paper's credentialed art critic, writes almost invariably scathing, hurtful reviews of local shows; delivers his pieces by messenger; lives with his all-knowing cat Koko in a lushly furnished house in a moldering neighborhood, and has a raft of enemies all over town. He offers the newcomer a tiny apartment in his building at a nominal rent, and Qwilleran grabs it, surmising the deal will involve lots of cat-sitting. Meanwhile, a gallery whose artists get happier treatment from Mountclemens is owned by Earl Lambreth. The acerbic critic has praised paintings there by a reclusive Italian named Scrano; the junk assemblages of Nino, who calls himself a "Thingist," as well as works by Lambreth's attractive wife Zoe. It's Zoe who, one night past closing, finds her husband stabbed to death in the vandalized gallery. Days later, Qwilleran, guided by an insistent Koko, finds Mountclemens's knifed corpse on the patio behind his house. It takes a while to put the meandering pieces together and to uncover an overriding motive behind the mayhem.

Stained glass restoration artist Mira Gallier is on the verge of having it all -- again. The love of a good man. Professional success. And finally, after years of pain at the loss of her husband to Hurricane Katrina, peace and emotional stability. But a new nightmare begins when a strange man...  more

Stained glass restoration artist Mira Gallier is on the verge of having it all -- again. The love of a good man. Professional success. And finally, after years of pain at the loss of her husband to Hurricane Katrina, peace and emotional stability. But a new nightmare begins when a strange man called “The Preacher” attacks her, and a terrifying chain of events is set in motion: the Preacher is found dead, the first of seven windows Mira restored after Katrina is vandalized, and her house is broken into. As Mira’s windows are targeted one-by-one, her personal life begins to shatter as well. She catches a glimpse of her dead husband in a crowd, then he’s gone. She hears his voice on the phone, telling her something only he could know. She begins to doubt herself -- and the man she’s falling in love with. When Mira’s assistant is brutally murdered, her nude body found posed in the dappled colored light of Mira’s prize restoration, she becomes the focus of the police’s investigation. As “evidence” against her mounts and with no one to turn to, Mira races to prove she’s neither a murderer nor losing her grip on sanity. 

Just five days after they meet, Julie Hanrahan and Dr. Thomas Larkin exchange vows on a moonlit Caribbean beach, the whirlwind conclusion to a romance that's swept her off her feet. Tom is sexy, witty and charming and Julie's sure she's found her Prince Charming. But not every fairy tale ends...  more

Just five days after they meet, Julie Hanrahan and Dr. Thomas Larkin exchange vows on a moonlit Caribbean beach, the whirlwind conclusion to a romance that's swept her off her feet. Tom is sexy, witty and charming and Julie's sure she's found her Prince Charming. But not every fairy tale ends happily ever after. With a workaholic husband, a hostile mother-in-law and a resentful stepdaughter, the honeymoon doesn't last long. Especially after Julie finds out that Tom's first wife didn't die in an accident after all. The cops called her death a suicide, but Julie is convinced that somebody helped Beth over the side of the Swift River Bridge. Every marriage has its secrets. Julie is starting to wonder if she'll survive discovering the truth about hers - …or die before she wakes.

Ben Kincaid wanted to be a lawyer to do the right thing. But when he takes a hot-shot spot in Tulsa's most prestigious law firm, Ben discovers that doing the right thing and representing his clients' interests can be mutually exclusive -- in this explosive legal thriller that brings...  more

Ben Kincaid wanted to be a lawyer to do the right thing. But when he takes a hot-shot spot in Tulsa's most prestigious law firm, Ben discovers that doing the right thing and representing his clients' interests can be mutually exclusive -- in this explosive legal thriller that brings morality and temptation together in one dangerous motion.

It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying...  more

It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have -- and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.  Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecuter who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.

False Accusations is a twisting psychological thriller, a tale of deadly revenge where the assurance of "innocent until proven guilty" is not what it seems. In the predawn hours of a quiet Sacramento suburb, respected orthopedic surgeon Phillip Madison is charged with double homicide -- a...  more

False Accusations is a twisting psychological thriller, a tale of deadly revenge where the assurance of "innocent until proven guilty" is not what it seems. In the predawn hours of a quiet Sacramento suburb, respected orthopedic surgeon Phillip Madison is charged with double homicide -- a cold-blooded hit-and-run that has left a young couple dead. Blood evidence has brought the authorities to his door. An eyewitness has placed him at the scene of the crime. And Madison has no alibi. As his privileged world is brought crashing down by a psychotic seductress, as family and friends abandon him, Madison's only hope for vindication rests in revealing a truth at the heart of a lie. It's a disclosure that could cost him more than he ever imagined.

It is 1540, and Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," is pressed to help a friend’s young niece who is charged with murder. Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about...  more

It is 1540, and Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," is pressed to help a friend’s young niece who is charged with murder. Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about to lose her case when he is suddenly granted a reprieve--one that will ensnare him in the dangerous schemes of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s feared vicar-general. In exchange for two more weeks to investigate the murder, Shardlake accepts Cromwell’s dangerous assignment to find a lost cache of "dark fire," a legendary weapon of mass destruction. Cromwell, out of favor since Henry’s disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, is relying on Shardlake to save his position at court, which is rife with treasonous conspiracies.  

Set in the coal-mining country of western Pennsylvania, in Coal Run, a community of ghosts and legends , a town ravaged and haunted by a mine explosion that took the lives of 96 men , local deputy Ivan Zoschenko, his pro career sidelined by a knee injury, spends a week preparing for an...  more

Set in the coal-mining country of western Pennsylvania, in Coal Run, a community of ghosts and legends , a town ravaged and haunted by a mine explosion that took the lives of 96 men , local deputy Ivan Zoschenko, his pro career sidelined by a knee injury, spends a week preparing for an old teammate's release from prison. During the events of the week, Ivan reveals himself to be a man whose conscience is burdened by a secret with which he must reckon.  10 CDs, 12 hrs.  Daniel Passer, narrator.

Scott Freeman is a man of reason?a college professor grounded in the rational and practical. But he becomes uneasy after finding an anonymous love letter hidden in his daughter?s room: ?No one could ever love you like I do. No one ever will. We will be together forever. One way or another.? But...  more

Scott Freeman is a man of reason?a college professor grounded in the rational and practical. But he becomes uneasy after finding an anonymous love letter hidden in his daughter?s room: ?No one could ever love you like I do. No one ever will. We will be together forever. One way or another.? But the reality of Ashley?s plight far exceeds Scott?s worst suspicions. One drink too many had led Ashley, a beautiful, bright art student, into what she thought was just a fling with a blue-collar bad boy. But now, no amount of pleading or reasoning can discourage his phone calls, ardent e-mails, and constant, watchful gaze. Michael O?Connell is but a malignant shadow of a man. His brash, handsome features conceal a black and empty soul. Control is his religion. Cunning and criminal skill are his stock-in-trade. Rage is his language. The harder Ashley tries to break free, the deeper Michael burrows into every aspect of her life, so she turns in desperation to her divorced parents and her mother?s new partner?three people still locked in a coldly civilized triangle of resentment. But their fierce devotion to Ashley is the common bond that will draw them together to face down a predator. For Ashley?s family, it is a test of primal love that will drive them to the extreme edge?and beyond?in a battle of wills that escalates into a life-or-death war to protect their own. From the bestselling master of suspense, John Katzenbach, The Wrong Man is an elegantly crafted and breathtakingly intense read that asks the question, ?How far would you go to save the child you love??

Meet Mike Hammer, the toughest private eye in New York City. When his best friend gets the business end of a sawed-off forty-five in the gut, Hammer sets out to nail the killer. The suspects include an ex-bootlegger, the dead man's drug-addicted fiancee, and a voluptuous blonde psychiatrist,...  more

Meet Mike Hammer, the toughest private eye in New York City. When his best friend gets the business end of a sawed-off forty-five in the gut, Hammer sets out to nail the killer. The suspects include an ex-bootlegger, the dead man's drug-addicted fiancee, and a voluptuous blonde psychiatrist, to name a few. Hammer, alone on his one-man mission of vengeance, does solo duty as judge, jury, and executioner.

Enter apathy. Travis is back from college for the summer, and he's just starting to settle in to the usual pattern at home: drinking, drugging, watching porn, and hooking up. But Travis isn't settling in like he used to; something isn't right. Maybe it's that deadly...  more

Enter apathy. Travis is back from college for the summer, and he's just starting to settle in to the usual pattern at home: drinking, drugging, watching porn, and hooking up. But Travis isn't settling in like he used to; something isn't right. Maybe it's that deadly debauch in Hawaii, the memories of which Travis can't quite shake. Maybe it's Laura, Travis's ex, who reappears on the scene after a messy breakup and seems to want to get together -- or not. Or maybe it's his suddenly sensing how empty and messed up his life is, and wanting out. But once you're at the party, it's tough to leave...

Haunted by the unsolved slayings of his wife and daughter, former New York City detective Charlie Parker is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his search for a missing woman leads him to the killer who destroyed his family, Parker knows payback time has come at...  more

Haunted by the unsolved slayings of his wife and daughter, former New York City detective Charlie Parker is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his search for a missing woman leads him to the killer who destroyed his family, Parker knows payback time has come at last. Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and two career criminals, Parker soon becomes the bait in a trap set in the balmy bayous of Louisiana to catch a murderer unlike any other—a monster who believes himself to be an artist and uses the human body as his canvas. Driven by his visions of the dead and the voice of an old Creole psychic, Parker must seek—and win—a final brutal confrontation with the serial killer known as the Traveling Man. Every Dead Thing is a richly textured, intricately plotted novel that probes the mind of a tormented man whose buried instincts—for love, survival, and even killing—awaken as he confronts a monster beyond imagining and relentlessly pursues justice for the murder of his family.

Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. At least, that's what she passes herself off as. The truth is, Keisha's real powers have more to do with separating troubled families from their money than actually seeing into the netherworld. Keisha watches the news for stories of missing family members. She...  more

Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. At least, that's what she passes herself off as. The truth is, Keisha's real powers have more to do with separating troubled families from their money than actually seeing into the netherworld. Keisha watches the news for stories of missing family members. She gives it a few days, then moves in, tells these families she's had a vision, that she may have some clue to where these missing people are. And by the way, she charges for this service, and likes to see the money up front. Keisha's latest mark is a man whose wife disappeared a week ago. She's seen him on TV, pleading for his wife to come home, or, if she's been abducted, pleading with whoever took her to let her go. Keisha knows a payoff when she sees one. So she pays a visit to our troubled husband, tells him her vision. Trouble is, her vision just happens to be close enough to the truth that it leaves this man rattled. And it may very well leave Keisha dead.

In the too-quiet town of Oakwood, only the lucky die of boredom…... and new homeowner Zack Walker isn’'t feeling lucky. Whoever said the burbs were boring will think twice after reading Linwood Barclay’s hilarious debut mystery, in which Dad learns the hard way that he...  more

In the too-quiet town of Oakwood, only the lucky die of boredom…... and new homeowner Zack Walker isn’'t feeling lucky. Whoever said the burbs were boring will think twice after reading Linwood Barclay’s hilarious debut mystery, in which Dad learns the hard way that he doesn’'t always know best. Zack wouldn'’t blame you for thinking he’s safety-obsessed. True, he masterminded a plot to trade his family’'s exciting city lifestyle for one of suburban tranquillity. True, even after this strategic move, Zack still has issues with family members who forget their keys in the front door, leave their cars unlocked, or park their backpacks at the top of the stairs— -- where you could kill yourself tripping over them. Just ask his wife, Sarah, or his teenage kids, Paul and Angie, who endure their share of lectures. Zack knows that he needs to chill out and assume the best for once -- —but we know what happens to those who assume. When Zack realizes their two-faced developer sent a petty thief to fix their leaky shower, he starts fighting hard to ignore the fact that Oakwood isn’'t the crime-free paradise he was hoping for. But his brief state of denial comes to an abrupt end when, during a walk by the creek, he stumbles across a dead body. Even more shocking, Zack actually knows who the victim is -- —and who might want him dead. With a killer roaming around their neighborhood and Zack’s overactive imagination in overdrive, he’'s sure things can’t get any worse. But then another local is murdered— -- and Zack’s paranoid tendencies get him implicated in the crime. While his wife is trying to remember why she married him in the first place, and his kids are considering whether it’'s time to have him committed, Zack decides there’'s only one thing he can do. To protect his family— -- and avoid being busted for a crime he didn’'t commit -- —he’'s going to have to override his safety-first instincts, tap into his delusions of machismo, and track down the killer himself.

"Fans of the crime caper will rejoice" that Linwood Barclay is back with the hilarious follow-up to his "riotously funny and irreverent" debut, in which paranoid pop Zack Walker plotted to transplant his city-savvy wife and two teenage kids to the tranquility of the burbs -- where planned...  more

"Fans of the crime caper will rejoice" that Linwood Barclay is back with the hilarious follow-up to his "riotously funny and irreverent" debut, in which paranoid pop Zack Walker plotted to transplant his city-savvy wife and two teenage kids to the tranquility of the burbs -- where planned communities prevail and fathers rest easy. Well, not quite... …and now the Walkers have moved home only to find themselves living in the precarious crosshairs of urban sprawl once again, and Zack can't help but be worried -- really worried -- that just around the corner lurks the presence of some really bad guys. Zack is back, and much to his family's relief, the work-at-home science-fiction writer has left the house to take a job as a features writer for the city paper. But now that Zack's incessant plotting can no longer be hatched from the comforts of his own home, he must be ever more vigilant to outwit the evil at large, whether in the suburbs, the city, or his own imagination. Zack is ready... …or so he thinks. While researching his first feature article, Zack stumbles upon a real-life crime scene, but what seems like an ordinary hit-and-run may actually be a homicide linked to a gang that's been burglarizing Crandall's high-end shops. Suddenly Zack finds himself at the center of a violent crime wave and destined for a confrontation with Barbie Bullock, an unsettling figure infamous in the crime syndicate for his ruthless business tactics and peculiar proclivity for collecting dolls. And all is not quiet on the home front either. Zack's protective instincts launch into overdrive when he discovers that his daughter's rejected suitor has been tracing her every step and may harbor a much more ominous motivation than winning a Saturday night date. Nor does his son's strange behavior and recent friendship with a creepy computer recluse inspire joy in a father's heart. As worlds begin to collide and boundaries between family and foe blur, Zack goes on the attack, and heaven help the bad guys when this resourceful father comes to make good on a deal gone bad.

Newspaper writer, family man, and reluctant hero Zack Walker has stumbled onto some dicey stories before, but nothing like what he's about to uncover when a mutilated corpse is found at his father's lakeside fishing camp. As always, Zack fears the worst. And this time, his paranoid worldview is...  more

Newspaper writer, family man, and reluctant hero Zack Walker has stumbled onto some dicey stories before, but nothing like what he's about to uncover when a mutilated corpse is found at his father's lakeside fishing camp. As always, Zack fears the worst. And this time, his paranoid worldview is dead-on. While the locals attribute the death to a bear attack, Zack suspects something far more ominous -- a predator whose weapons include arson, assault, and enough wacko beliefs to fuel a dozen hate groups. Then another body is discovered and a large supply of fertilizer goes missing, evoking memories of the Oklahoma City bombing. But it's when he learns that his neighbor is a classic Lone Wolf -- FBI parlance for a solo fanatic hell-bent on using high body counts to make political statements -- that Zack realizes the idyllic town of his childhood is under siege. The fuse is lit to a catastrophe of unimaginable terror. And with time running out, Zack must face off with a madman.

THE DEAD WOMAN WORE RED... Gossip columnist Ethel Lambston knew everything about everybody who was somebody---so there were more than enough suspects in her murder. But for Neeve Kearny, owner of an expensive Madison Avenue boutique, the killing of one of her best customers had eerie echoes of...  more

THE DEAD WOMAN WORE RED... Gossip columnist Ethel Lambston knew everything about everybody who was somebody---so there were more than enough suspects in her murder. But for Neeve Kearny, owner of an expensive Madison Avenue boutique, the killing of one of her best customers had eerie echoes of another death that occurred many years earlier---the murder of her own mother. Suddenly, Neeve is plunged into the mystery of Ethel Lambston's murder, following a trail that leads from the glittering pleasure palaces of New York's rich and beautiful to the Mafia underworld. In the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark's staggering bestsellers, Neeve Kearny is a woman determined to find the truth, caught in a swirl of money and romance---and stalked by a killer who's closer than she could ever dream... Read by Jessica Walter Abridged, 2 cassettes, 3 hours

Born with no air in his lungs, it was only when Reuben Land's father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that Reuben's lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that...  more

Born with no air in his lungs, it was only when Reuben Land's father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that Reuben's lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature. The quiet 1960's midwestern life of the Lands is upended when Reuben's brother Davy kills to marauders who have come to harm the family. The morning of his sentencing, Davy -- a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others -- escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, and they cover territory far more extraordinary than even the Badlands where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. Sprinkled with playful nods to Biblical tales, beloved classics such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like A River is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world. Unabridged: 10 Compact Discs, Running Time: 11 hours 30 minutes, Narrator: Chad Lowe

Metropolitan newspaper writer Zack Walker has a knack for stumbling onto deadly stories. But it's one that his good friend Trixie Snelling doesn't want told that's about to unleash a storm of trouble. As a professional dominatrix in the suburbs, Trixie has her share of secrets, but Zack has no...  more

Metropolitan newspaper writer Zack Walker has a knack for stumbling onto deadly stories. But it's one that his good friend Trixie Snelling doesn't want told that's about to unleash a storm of trouble. As a professional dominatrix in the suburbs, Trixie has her share of secrets, but Zack has no idea what she's really hiding when a local newspaperman threatens to do an expose on her -- …not until Zack finds a dead body strapped to the bondage cross in her basement dungeon. Now Zack is implicated in a murder, Trixie is missing, and everything he thought he knew about his friend, his town, even his own marriage, reveals a darker side. Zack's twisted trail to the truth will lead to a long-unsolved triple homicide, bikers, drug wars, and a stone-cold killer hell-bent on revenge. It's a story that's already cost him his job and possibly his wife, and, if Zack's not very lucky, it will cost him his life.

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek . . . Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and...  more

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek . . . Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancée, Jennifer. Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own. Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies.   What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated. She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion would become an all-out struggle for survival.

Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life...  more

Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd. But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for … but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life -- a time he has never gotten over -- is turned completely inside out. As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found, or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.   

On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues. But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn...  more

On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues. But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...? No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself... Unabridged on 4 CDs, run time 4 hours, read by Jeffrey DeMunn

When Tess DeGraff was nine years old and on a camping trip in New Hampshire with her family, a stranger kidnapped and killed her sister Phoebe. Thanks to Tess's eyewitness testimony, a man named Lazarus Abbott was arrested and convicted for the heinous crime. But twenty years later, a test...  more

When Tess DeGraff was nine years old and on a camping trip in New Hampshire with her family, a stranger kidnapped and killed her sister Phoebe. Thanks to Tess's eyewitness testimony, a man named Lazarus Abbott was arrested and convicted for the heinous crime. But twenty years later, a test reveals that Abbott's DNA does not match that of Phoebe's murderer. Driven by her fear that she may have sent an innocent man to his death, Tess and her adopted son, Erny, return to the New Hampshire town in which it all happened years ago. Stone Hill, New Hampshire, is still an idyllic New England town. Tess's courageous mother, Dawn, who suffered the violent loss of her daughter and the early death of her heartbroken husband, now runs the charming Stone Hill Inn. Tess's older brother, Jake, lives nearby with his wife, a local girl he fell in love with during the trial of his sister's killer. While Tess's family stands by her account of the crime, nerves are frayed throughout Stone Hill, and others in town accuse her of lying and view her as a murderer. In a race against time to untangle the truth about her sister's murder, Tess encounters an anti-death penalty lawyer, Ben Webster, who infuriates her but who also might open her eyes and her heart; a biased police chief related to the Abbotts; and an unknown killer who has Tess and Erny in his sights.

McKenna is a good man who takes a new crewman onto his boat in Bermuda to sail back to Boston, handsome young Tom Cain. When Cain is about to be caught smuggling diamonds by the Coast Guard, he convinces McKenna to lie to save him . . . for a share. McKenna does this one bad thing, and finds...  more

McKenna is a good man who takes a new crewman onto his boat in Bermuda to sail back to Boston, handsome young Tom Cain. When Cain is about to be caught smuggling diamonds by the Coast Guard, he convinces McKenna to lie to save him . . . for a share. McKenna does this one bad thing, and finds himself bound by chains of murder. That one lie puts his life, and the life of his wife, in danger; forces him to murder, and enmeshes him in a web of international crime and evil. The dark romance of the thriller has never been more potent than in One Bad Thing.

A cold-blooded murder.  A beautiful suspect.  An honest judge forced to do the unthinkable.New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is a master of legal suspense.  In this explosive novel, a simple case of self-defense becomes a nightmare in which justice...  more

A cold-blooded murder.  A beautiful suspect.  An honest judge forced to do the unthinkable.New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is a master of legal suspense.  In this explosive novel, a simple case of self-defense becomes a nightmare in which justice itself is held hostage.Judge Richard Quinn is young, idealistic, and honest to a fault.  That's why he's handed the most sensational homicide case in Oregon history.  Locked in a race for the U.S.  Senate, Ellen Crease gunned down the intruder who murdered her wealthy husband.  In a single, brutal instant she became a widow, a victim, and a hero.  Yet disturbing questions remain.  What secrets did the man who started his fortune running mortuaries keep that might have cost him his life? What about the son frozen out of his will? Or his wife's political enemies? And what about Ellen Crease herself?Soon it becomes clear that a deadly plot of murder, blackmail, passion, and double cross is unfolding around Judge Richard Quinn.  And unless he breaks the rules, justice will not only be blind, it will be the final victim.

Animal Farm begins on an evening where Mr. Jones -- owner of Manor Farm -- is heading to bed. As the lights go off in Mr. Jones' farmhouse, animals gather in the barn to listen to the musings of Old Major, the revered old pig. Old Major reveals to the animals that they have lived under...  more

Animal Farm begins on an evening where Mr. Jones -- owner of Manor Farm -- is heading to bed. As the lights go off in Mr. Jones' farmhouse, animals gather in the barn to listen to the musings of Old Major, the revered old pig. Old Major reveals to the animals that they have lived under oppression for too long and need to rebel against the rule of men. He teaches them the song "Beasts of England", which will become the revolutionary anthem. Old Major dies soon after, leaving other pigs to prepare the animals for rebellion. Of the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball emerge as the two leading figures. They develop a system by which animal should live, appropriately called Animalism. The revolution occurs unexpectedly, but is successful. Mr. Jones and his family are driven from Manor Farm. Napoleon and Snowball alter the name of Manor Farm to Animal Farm and post the seven commandments of Animalism on the barn wall. Everything seems to be working well on Animal Farm for a while. The animals attend weekly meetings, during which future plans for the farm are discussed. The pigs' power and influence grow due to the illiteracy of the animals. Snowball attempts to simplify the tenets of Animalism into one maxim: "Four legs good, two legs bad". Signs of cronyism start to emerge in the plot at this point. Led by Snowball, the animals fend off an attack by other farmers in what came to be known as the Battle of the Cowshed. The farmers were concerned about the situation at Animal Farm and the militating effect it was having on their animals. Snowball is highly revered and decorated after this event. Napoleon becomes wary of Snowball's influence and picks his battles with Snowball over farm decisions. Unknown to Snowball, Napoleon raises nine pups to become guard dogs. At the height of the controversy over a windmill, the dogs chase Snowball off the farm. Squealer becomes the spin doctor and mouthpiece for the pigs on the farm. He spreads false information about Snowball to justify his exile. Napoleon adopts Snowball's idea to construct the windmill, but claims it as his own -- with Squealer's help. Napoleon pronounces the death sentence on the exiled Snowball after falsely declaring him responsible for the ruin of the windmill after a storm. Snowball is held accountable for all that goes wrong on the farm. Napoleon calls a meeting to identify Snowball's alleged cohorts. The animals that are made to confess are killed by Napoleon's dogs, even though Animalism forbade this.

Nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, and Gumshoe Awards! Winner of the Shamus, Barry, and Anthony Awards! Still reeling from his wife's recent miscarriage, Moe Prager is bullied into taking the case of an up-and-coming politico whose career has stalled over the suspicious disappearance of a young...  more

Nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, and Gumshoe Awards! Winner of the Shamus, Barry, and Anthony Awards! Still reeling from his wife's recent miscarriage, Moe Prager is bullied into taking the case of an up-and-coming politico whose career has stalled over the suspicious disappearance of a young woman. It's been almost two years since Moira Heaton, State Senator Steven Brightman's intern, vanished on Thanksgiving Eve 1981. In spite of Brightman's best efforts to clear his name, he has been tried and convicted in the press. As a reluctant Moe peels away the layers of the case, he discovers the tragic circumstances of Moira Heaton's disappearance are buried deep in the past and that there is another more heinous crime at the heart of it all. Will the ugly truth set Brightman free or will it bury all the players beneath the crumbling artiface of corruption, murder, and hate?

Alexandra Rafferty works nights for the Miami PD, capturing all the grisly details of crimes scenes on film. She lives with her father, an ex-cop who is slipping into senility, and her louse of a husband, who spends his days dreaming about the perfect crime, and his nights with his mistress. A...  more

Alexandra Rafferty works nights for the Miami PD, capturing all the grisly details of crimes scenes on film. She lives with her father, an ex-cop who is slipping into senility, and her louse of a husband, who spends his days dreaming about the perfect crime, and his nights with his mistress. A serial killer is leaving the bodies of young women twisted into strange symbols. Juggling crime photos, Alexandra realizes that the symbols are, in reality, letters of the alphabet -- and that they spell out her name. She suddenly finds herself dealing with her chaotic present and coming to terms with her long-buried past in a dangerous roller coaster ride that takes her from the mean streets of Miami to the Florida panhandle -- and straight into the hands of a killer.

Bo Tully is the sheriff of Blight County, Idaho, a place where “law enforcement” is mostly picking up country boys who’ve downed a few too many beers. But he gets a call for a different kind of pick-up: an ex-con phones with the news that there’s a corpse draped over his...  more

Bo Tully is the sheriff of Blight County, Idaho, a place where “law enforcement” is mostly picking up country boys who’ve downed a few too many beers. But he gets a call for a different kind of pick-up: an ex-con phones with the news that there’s a corpse draped over his fence. Soon Tully’s caught up in a mess, with dead L.A. drug dealers turning up and local folks disappearing. When bullets start flying, Tully has to brush off his sheriff’s hat and do some real investigating — fast.

From the author of the popular Million Dollar Mysteries and Smart Chick Mysteries comes a new stand-alone novel full of hidden staircases, buried secrets, and the promise of hope found in knowing God. Miranda Miller wasn’t looking for the news the day the letter came. But, trying to...  more

From the author of the popular Million Dollar Mysteries and Smart Chick Mysteries comes a new stand-alone novel full of hidden staircases, buried secrets, and the promise of hope found in knowing God. Miranda Miller wasn’t looking for the news the day the letter came. But, trying to survive in troubled circumstances, she welcomes the chance to change her location for a period of time. The letter informs her that her grandparents’ estate is finally about to become hers. She immediately heads down to Louisiana and the old house by the bayou. There Miranda finds secrets that lead to life-changing revelations. This suspenseful story reminiscent of old Gothic tales has a complex mystery and a vivid sense of the Deep South. It shows how God can take the darkest circumstances and use them to light a bright path leading to the future.

Teddy was born in squalor. Now he is a craftsman determined to banish ugliness from his life. Harriet is a beautiful, bored trophy wife who employs a series of repairmen for her sexual satisfaction. And Francine is a college student who witnessed her mother's murder and now must free herself...  more

Teddy was born in squalor. Now he is a craftsman determined to banish ugliness from his life. Harriet is a beautiful, bored trophy wife who employs a series of repairmen for her sexual satisfaction. And Francine is a college student who witnessed her mother's murder and now must free herself from her father's manipulative second wife. Connected by strands of chance, their lives intersecting in the strangest of ways, these three people are on a journey that will bring them to each other--and to a beautiful ivy-covered home with at least one dead body in the basement....

In the stunning climax to Rendell’s classic A Sight for Sore Eyes, three bodies -- two dead, one living -- are entombed in an underground chamber beneath a picturesque London house. Twelve years later, when a manhole cover is pulled back, the house's new owner makes a grisly discovery....  more

In the stunning climax to Rendell’s classic A Sight for Sore Eyes, three bodies -- two dead, one living -- are entombed in an underground chamber beneath a picturesque London house. Twelve years later, when a manhole cover is pulled back, the house's new owner makes a grisly discovery. Only now, the number of bodies is four. How did somebody else end up in the chamber? And who knew of its existence? With their own detectives at an impasse, police call on former Chief Inspector Wexford, now retired and living with his wife in London, to advise them on the unsolved murders. Wexford, missing the thrill of a good case, jumps at the chance to sleuth again. His dogged detective skills and knack for figuring out the criminal mind take him to London neighborhoods, posh and poor, as he follows a complex criminal trail back to the original murders.

Arriving home disillusioned from the Crusades, Hugh discovers that his village has been ransacked and his wife abducted by knights in search of a relic worth more than any throne in Europe. Only by taking on the role of a jester is he able to infiltrate his enemy's castle, where he thinks his...  more

Arriving home disillusioned from the Crusades, Hugh discovers that his village has been ransacked and his wife abducted by knights in search of a relic worth more than any throne in Europe. Only by taking on the role of a jester is he able to infiltrate his enemy's castle, where he thinks his wife is captive. With the unstoppable pace and plot of a page-turning Alex Cross novel, THE JESTER is a breathtakingly romantic, pulse-pounding adventure-one that could only be conjured by the mind of James Patterson. Everyone who has ever hoped for good to defeat evil or for love to conquer all will not be able to stop turning the pages of this masterful novel of virtue, laughter-yes, laughter-and suspense.

Who is more dangerous? An enemy? A friend? Or a lover? Bonnie Graham is standing in her friend's flat. She is alone, except for the dead body lying in a pool of blood on the floor. What happened? What will she do? And what role has she played in the murderous events? Bonnie is a music...  more

Who is more dangerous? An enemy? A friend? Or a lover? Bonnie Graham is standing in her friend's flat. She is alone, except for the dead body lying in a pool of blood on the floor. What happened? What will she do? And what role has she played in the murderous events? Bonnie is a music teacher who has spent a long, hot summer in London rehearsing with a band to play at a wedding. It was supposed to be fun, but the band members find the complicated knots of their friendships unravelling as the days themselves unwind. What was meant to be a summer of happiness, love and music turns deadly as lovers betray one another, passions turn murderous and friendship itself becomes a crime. Everyone tells lies. But is anyone prepared to tell the truth to uncover a murderer?

It was the perfect retreat for a troubled company. No cell phones. No BlackBerrys. No cars. Just a deluxe lodge surrounded by thousands of miles of wilderness and a desolate seacoast. Jake Landry is a junior executive at the Hammond Aerospace Corporation, a steady, modest, and taciturn guy...  more

It was the perfect retreat for a troubled company. No cell phones. No BlackBerrys. No cars. Just a deluxe lodge surrounded by thousands of miles of wilderness and a desolate seacoast. Jake Landry is a junior executive at the Hammond Aerospace Corporation, a steady, modest, and taciturn guy with a gift for keeping his head down -- and a turbulent past he prays he’s put behind him. Ordered to fill in for his boss at the annual offsite, he’s out of his element. He’s uncomfortable with the lavish accommodations and especially with the arrogant, swaggering men who run the company and the only person he knows there is the new special assistant to the CEO -- who happens to be Jake’s ex. Then a band of hunters, apparently lost in the woods, crash the opening-night festivities. Soon the execs of a billion-dollar company, cut off from the rest of the world, find themselves at the mercy of a group of men with guns ... and a cunning plan to take Hammond Aerospace for all it’s worth. But the hostage takers aren’t who they appear to be and neither is Jake Landry. The high flyers hadn’t wanted Jake to come along. Now he’s the only one who can save them. Read by Dennis Boutsikaris.  7 Cds (8 hr., 30 min.)

On a cold night in the small town of Paradise, Michigan, the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex McKnight would ever expect to see comes walking in to ask for his help. What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers to a suicide will turn into a nightmare of sudden...  more

On a cold night in the small town of Paradise, Michigan, the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex McKnight would ever expect to see comes walking in to ask for his help. What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers to a suicide will turn into a nightmare of sudden violence and bloody revenge and a race against time to catch a ruthless killer. McKnight knows all about evil, of course, having faced down a madman who killed his partner and left a bullet next to his heart. Mobsters, drug dealers, hit men - he’s seen them all, and they’ve taken away almost everything he’s ever loved. But none of them could have prepared him for the darkness he’s about to face.

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered -- not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives ... this is no ordinary novel. The establishment has chosen to ignore it, but even the...  more

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered -- not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives ... this is no ordinary novel. The establishment has chosen to ignore it, but even the establishment could not prevent it from becoming the great American "underground" classic. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome ... but so is war ... johnny got his gun

St. Paul's Hospital. Buffalo, New York. Scandal rocks the medical community when someone murders the chief administrator, plunging a long thin cardiac needle into his heart with deadly precision. Top ER physician Earl Garnet is one of the few doctors who knows how to insert a cardiac needle....  more

St. Paul's Hospital. Buffalo, New York. Scandal rocks the medical community when someone murders the chief administrator, plunging a long thin cardiac needle into his heart with deadly precision. Top ER physician Earl Garnet is one of the few doctors who knows how to insert a cardiac needle. Now a suspect, Garnet races to uncover the truth, even as he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy far bigger and more sinister than he could ever imagine...a secret that could blow apart the very medical establishment Garnet has sworn to serve...

A banker with a devil-may-care attitude--and a smile that conceals a devilish impulse. A literary agent who is quick to anger--and much too easy to manipulate. A mechanic with a desperate need to be liked by everyone--no matter the cost. And a psychologist who keeps all their secrets--especially...  more

A banker with a devil-may-care attitude--and a smile that conceals a devilish impulse. A literary agent who is quick to anger--and much too easy to manipulate. A mechanic with a desperate need to be liked by everyone--no matter the cost. And a psychologist who keeps all their secrets--especially his own . . . They meet every week in the dingy back room of Mackey's Steak and Ale Tavern in New York City. An informal group of men with one thing in common: They all suffer the sting of a broken heart. But soon the anger turns to hate. The rejection turns to rage. And the Broken Hearts Club spins violently out of control--exploding into murderous acts of vengeance. Named "the richest cop in New York" by the Daily News, a man both intense and chivalrous, Detective Voort is assigned the case, determined to catch an elusive killer who is always one death ahead . . . who appears to switch identities with each new victim . . . and who knows how to cover his tracks with cold efficiency. Then Voort falls victim to his own broken heart, his growing anguish threatening to compromise the investigation--as his ex-girlfriend unknowingly becomes the target of a frightening new breed of serial terror. In this sleek, stylish, sexy thriller, Ethan Black gives us a chilling novel of psychological suspense that races like an adrenaline rush through surprising twists of plot--and ends with a shattering, shocking climax. Breaking up may be hard to do. With The Broken Hearts Club it's fatal.

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl -- only to orchestrate her return to a...  more

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl -- only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home. — Now Amanda is...  more » sixteen -- and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once more knocking on Patrick Kenzie's door, fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman -- a woman who hasn't been seen in weeks. Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It's a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal. In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today could end their lives. 

Nora Clay knows your secrets. She knows everything about you-- your cravings, your indiscretions, your crimes. She knows what terrifies you. Devastatingly sexy and deceptively lethal, Nora Clay can expose the liars, phonies, tricksters, and fools. And she will make them pay. . . . But...  more

Nora Clay knows your secrets. She knows everything about you-- your cravings, your indiscretions, your crimes. She knows what terrifies you. Devastatingly sexy and deceptively lethal, Nora Clay can expose the liars, phonies, tricksters, and fools. And she will make them pay. . . . But nobody knows Nora Clay, who moves undetected through New York City, shadowing her unsuspecting prey like an avenger. Once she has seduced her victim, she will leave him sweating, hungry for more. Until she stabs out his life in a flash of fury and steel. That is how TV producer Paul Anderson meets his grisly end. In the middle of Manhattan's worst heat wave in twelve years, sex crimes detective Conrad Voort is assigned the disturbing case. Though distracted by the two women in his own life, and facing a shocking personal revelation, Voort presses on. At the murder scene he finds a taunting message scrawled on the wall with angry stems and slashes: I KNOW YOU. And the killing is far from over. For Nora Clay "knows" other men. Including Conrad Voort. Now, as he pursues one of the most elusive and brilliant killers he has ever confronted, the hunter becomes the hunted. As the mercury climbs, so does the tension in Ethan Black's gripping new novel of psychological suspense. Featuring a serial seductress as venomous as she is irresistible, this flashy, erotic thriller pulsates with desire and menace.

They looked like isolated cases: a hit-and-run and a celebrity murdered during a fling with a prostitute. No one could ever imagine they’d be linked to a brutal crime in the city’s steamy past…and that the race to corner a determined serial killer would stir up secrets long...  more

They looked like isolated cases: a hit-and-run and a celebrity murdered during a fling with a prostitute. No one could ever imagine they’d be linked to a brutal crime in the city’s steamy past…and that the race to corner a determined serial killer would stir up secrets long thought buried with the dead. When detectives—and lovers—Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial are called to investigate, they have no idea that they’re stepping into a world of sex and money, glamour and vice—where desperate ambition rules and loyalties know no bounds…

As helicopters search Northern England's Peak District for fifteen year-old Laura Vernon, Detective Constable Ben Cooper quietly dreads the worst. And when her body is found in the woods, Cooper's investigation begins with a short list of markedly uncooperative suspects: retired miner...  more

As helicopters search Northern England's Peak District for fifteen year-old Laura Vernon, Detective Constable Ben Cooper quietly dreads the worst. And when her body is found in the woods, Cooper's investigation begins with a short list of markedly uncooperative suspects: retired miner Harry Dickinson, whose black Labrador discovered Laura's body, and Laura's wealthy parents. Uneasily teamed with ambitious newcomer Detective Constable Diane Fry, Cooper tests a town's family ties, friendships, and loyaties -- and finds that in order to understand the present, they must unearth the past.

I've seen pictures of guys like this, snipers or SWAT guys or whatever. Never expected to see one of them in my own house, a living nightmare perched on my favorite chair. No parent believes it can happen to them -- their child taken from a suburban schoolyard in the gentle hours of...  more

I've seen pictures of guys like this, snipers or SWAT guys or whatever. Never expected to see one of them in my own house, a living nightmare perched on my favorite chair. No parent believes it can happen to them -- their child taken from a suburban schoolyard in the gentle hours of dusk. But as widowed mother Kate Bickford discovers, everything can change in the blink of an eye. One minute her lanky, amazing, maddening Tommy is begging for ice cream. Then in a terrible instant, he's gone. Opening the door to her Connecticut home, hoping to find her son, Kate comes face-to-face with her son's abductor. He wants money. All she has. And if she doesn't follow something he calls The Method, the consequences will be gruesome. Her comfortable life collapses as precious seconds tick by, and Kate is horrified to uncover the terrible, world-shattering secret she and her son share with a killer who will stop at nothing ...

For Charlie, the basement is home. He's being punished. He doesn't mean to leave--Father wouldn't allow it--but when Charlie is accidentally thrust outside, he awakens to the alien surroundings of a world to which he's never been exposed. Though haunted by fear of the basement and his...  more

For Charlie, the basement is home. He's being punished. He doesn't mean to leave--Father wouldn't allow it--but when Charlie is accidentally thrust outside, he awakens to the alien surroundings of a world to which he's never been exposed. Though haunted by fear of the basement and his father's rage, Charlie embarks on a journey toward healing and blossoms when he becomes an unconditionally loved and loving member of the right foster family. This carefully crafted and authentic portrayal of Charlie's emotional and physical abuse is gracefully matched by Susan Shaw's inspiring and deeply moving story of recovery.

In this novel of mounting suspense from award-winning author Herbert Lieberman, a terrifying surprise waits beneath a couple’s New England home Albert and Alice Graves live a normal, if monotonous, domestic life. They’ve never had children; they spend their days tending to their...  more

In this novel of mounting suspense from award-winning author Herbert Lieberman, a terrifying surprise waits beneath a couple’s New England home Albert and Alice Graves live a normal, if monotonous, domestic life. They’ve never had children; they spend their days tending to their home and enjoying their time together. One day, when the oil man, Richard, is refilling their furnace, Alice invites him to dinner, never suspecting that a casual act of charity will lead to a horrifying, morbid discovery in the crawlspace underneath their beloved house. The Graves take Richard into their lives, becoming attached to his presence as though to the son they never had. Their town, though, is not nearly so welcoming. When the locals lash out against the Graves and their strange houseguest, the contented household is irrevocably drawn into a darkness they could not have imagined.

In his pulse-pounding thrillers, Earl Emerson takes readers into the heart of the world’s most dangerous profession, where the next alarm might bring sudden death. Based on stunning, actual events in the author’s life, this electrifying new novel is a frightening duel between a...  more

In his pulse-pounding thrillers, Earl Emerson takes readers into the heart of the world’s most dangerous profession, where the next alarm might bring sudden death. Based on stunning, actual events in the author’s life, this electrifying new novel is a frightening duel between a Seattle firefighter and a man who wants to burn him down. . . . To a firefighter, there’s nothing worse than a nuisance arsonist. His multiple fires keep a station up at night, running in circles, and more vulnerable at the next “real” call. And in Seattle, Lt. Paul Wollf of the Station Six’s ladder truck hates a pyro more than most. Two decades before, an arsonist’s fire killed Wolff’s firefighter father, sending his mother into a spiral of depression and triggering a chain of events that left his brother in jail for murder and Wollf alone, seething in anger and isolation. Already disciplined for punching out a superior officer, Wollf is now taking a young female firefighter under his wing. Despite the station house leers and jokes, Wollf is only doing what comes naturally, helping out an underdog and bucking the system. But soon he and Cindy Rideout find themselves in a fierce political battle inside the department, just as a pyro starts to turn Seattle into his private little hell. With fires springing up across the city, Wollf begins to see a pattern. The fires being set are coming closer and closer to Station Six. And when a crucial piece of evidence turns up, Wollf suspects the unthinkable: this pyro has turned him into a fiery target. In Paul Wollf, Earl Emerson has created a hero on the brink. For when the pyro’s rampage puts Wollf in the public limelight, Wollf must choose between his burning rage and the chance to step back–for once–and see a shocking truth hidden beyond the heat. Emerson is a lieutenant in the Seattle Fire Department and a Shamus Award–winning author. From the Hardcover edition.

In the final days of World War II, Dieter Kallick, one of 200 German prisoners of war pressed into service at a Maine logging village, escaped into the woods. His body would later be found washed up on the shore of Moosehead Lake. Decades later, Wolfgang Kallick arrives in this same rural...  more

In the final days of World War II, Dieter Kallick, one of 200 German prisoners of war pressed into service at a Maine logging village, escaped into the woods. His body would later be found washed up on the shore of Moosehead Lake. Decades later, Wolfgang Kallick arrives in this same rural town, hoping to unravel the mystery of his brother's death. His questions trigger disturbing, long-dormant memories in Libby, a flinty Yankee store owner, and she is drawn inexorably into the drama when she realizes that her own family is involved in the case. Then Libby's own brother is killed. Suspecting that the two deaths, though nearly a half-century apart, are somehow linked, she undertakes her own investigation, not realizing that behind the sullen silence of her close-knit town lies a festering secret darker than she ever imagined.

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman"...  more

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt--a passionate man with his own dark secrets--has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways. With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

The Irish famine of 1845-49 took such a toll in human misery and wholesale death that an entire people faced extinction. Engalnd's celebrated historian tells the near-incredible story of one of the great human disasters of modern times.

After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He’s in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays...  more

After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He’s in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire. Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing. Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce.  Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away -- a predilection that might lead her to dark places. Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. 

Robert Whitney couldn't imagine anything worse than what he'd just experienced: seeing his wife and daughter killed when their car collided with a transfer truck. But Robert Whitney was wrong. With the help of a clever insurance scheme and a tainted witness, the wreck is called an accident....  more

Robert Whitney couldn't imagine anything worse than what he'd just experienced: seeing his wife and daughter killed when their car collided with a transfer truck. But Robert Whitney was wrong. With the help of a clever insurance scheme and a tainted witness, the wreck is called an accident. Fueled by his loss and driven by the pain of injustice, Robert is determined to wreck the lives of those involved by stealing the identities of the trucker, his company, as well as his witness. All goes well until Robert encounters another witness. Deceit, anger, revenge, and forgiveness are intricately woven into a fast-paced page-turner that every suspense fan will love. Features and BenefitsReaders will get a clear picture of vengeance and how it can destroy the avenger as well as his target.The novel centers around the theme of identity theft a topic right out of today's headlines.The redemptive storyline inspires forgiveness.

Single mother Jane Hartley is frantic when her 16-year-old daughter Kelly disappears from her bedroom one night. To Jane's frustration, the police believe that Kelly ran off willingly with her boyfriend. Unaware that her daughter even had a boyfriend, Jane soon discovers that her little girl...  more

Single mother Jane Hartley is frantic when her 16-year-old daughter Kelly disappears from her bedroom one night. To Jane's frustration, the police believe that Kelly ran off willingly with her boyfriend. Unaware that her daughter even had a boyfriend, Jane soon discovers that her little girl has been hiding dangerous secrets .. .just like her mother. Adamant that Kelly is not a runaway, Jane hires ex-FBI agent Randall Shane to follow the trail of her missing child. But every step brings them closer to a cold-blooded predator lurking in the shadows ... waiting to strike.

When Marnie receives a phone call that summons her to the side of a once-beloved friend, she is wrenched from her orderly London life and sent back into a past from which she has fled but never escaped. Ralph, Marnie and Oliver once knew each other well and are still inextricably bound by ties...  more

When Marnie receives a phone call that summons her to the side of a once-beloved friend, she is wrenched from her orderly London life and sent back into a past from which she has fled but never escaped. Ralph, Marnie and Oliver once knew each other well and are still inextricably bound by ties of love and betrayal. Now they meet again in Ralph's secluded cottage in the Scottish highlands, to spend the precious days that Ralph has left with each other. As they reminisce, Marnie is taken back to the summer years ago when everything changed between them and heartbreak and desire broke up their little group. Will Ralph have the chance to say what needs to be said before it's too late? And can they put the devastating events of twenty years ago to rest and rekindle the intimacy they once shared?

When a skeleton is unearthed in the Martellos' garden, others rattle ominously in their cupboards. For the bones belong to their teenage daughter Natalie, who went missing twenty-five years ago, and the murderer must be very close to home... Does Natalie's childhood friend Jane - now...  more

When a skeleton is unearthed in the Martellos' garden, others rattle ominously in their cupboards. For the bones belong to their teenage daughter Natalie, who went missing twenty-five years ago, and the murderer must be very close to home... Does Natalie's childhood friend Jane - now divorcing her brother - hold the key to the mystery? And are all their memories of a golden girl at the heart of an idyllic extended family false?

Beware of Helen...Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new...  more

Beware of Helen...Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home -- a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather...

An ancient secret brotherhood. A devastating new weapon of destruction. An unthinkable target. World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is...  more

An ancient secret brotherhood. A devastating new weapon of destruction. An unthinkable target. World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth -- the long-forgotten Illuminati lair. Read by: Richard Poe Abridged, 6 CDs, 7 Hrs.

Natasha Blake is a detective with a difference. She's an ancestor detective, an ambitious young genealogist with a passion for history, whose choice of career is partly driven by the mystery of her own roots. Natasha's investigations are a matter of life and death, involving secrets, scandals...  more

Natasha Blake is a detective with a difference. She's an ancestor detective, an ambitious young genealogist with a passion for history, whose choice of career is partly driven by the mystery of her own roots. Natasha's investigations are a matter of life and death, involving secrets, scandals and supernatural happenings; forgotten tragedies and buried crimes. The trails she must follow lead her from her Cotswold home to ancient houses, deserted chapels, overgrown graveyards and into cyberspace. Her clients could be anyone for whom the past affects the present - the haunted, the hopeful, or the just plain curious. The disappearance of a young girl, Bethany, appears to be linked in some way to Lizzie Siddall, the haunting, ethereal Pre-Raphaelite model and artist, wife of painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Lizzie's tragic life was cut short by an overdose of laudanum. Was it accident or suicide? Why is Bethany so obsessed with her, and at the same time so determined to put herself beyond the reach of her lover, Adam?

Winner of the National Book Award, Paris Trout is the mesmerizing story of a shocking crime that eats away at the fabric of a small Southern town, exposing its hypocrisies and shattering the lives of its citizens. The crime is the murder of a 14-year-old black girl, and the killer is Paris...  more

Winner of the National Book Award, Paris Trout is the mesmerizing story of a shocking crime that eats away at the fabric of a small Southern town, exposing its hypocrisies and shattering the lives of its citizens. The crime is the murder of a 14-year-old black girl, and the killer is Paris Trout, a respected white citizen of Cotton Point, Georgia--a man without guilt. His crime haunts the men and women of the town. Harry Seagraves, Trout's attorney, has nightmares about it. Trout's wife, Hanna, bears his abusive paranoia, which grows as the town reacts to the crime and puts Trout on trial. As he becomes more obsessed with his cause and his vendettas against those who have betrayed him, Trout moves closer to madness, finally exploding with yet more violence and rage.

With a blizzard closing in, Mike Sullivan defies his wife's anxious warnings and takes their six-year-old daughter Sarah sledding. Mike waits at the bottom of a precariously steep hill as stubbornly independent Sarah races up the slope with a friend. But she never comes back down. Mike now...  more

With a blizzard closing in, Mike Sullivan defies his wife's anxious warnings and takes their six-year-old daughter Sarah sledding. Mike waits at the bottom of a precariously steep hill as stubbornly independent Sarah races up the slope with a friend. But she never comes back down. Mike now lives out every parent's worst nightmare. His daughter has vanished. His marriage is falling apart. And investigators are unable to pin their only suspect, a local defrocked priest, with any crime. But is the key to Sarah's disappearance hidden in the turmoil and despair that is burying Mike alive? Or is it in his family's troubled past? One person holds the terrifying secret....

**DEBUT FICTION** "Admit how your pulse quickens when you see those headlines: murder spree of schoolgirl loner; boy, 13, rapes classmate; child, 10, stabs pensioner." So says narrator Anita Naidu, and she should know. At thirteen, Anita was the sole witness to London’s notorious cave...  more

**DEBUT FICTION** "Admit how your pulse quickens when you see those headlines: murder spree of schoolgirl loner; boy, 13, rapes classmate; child, 10, stabs pensioner." So says narrator Anita Naidu, and she should know. At thirteen, Anita was the sole witness to London’s notorious cave murders of 1986, which left three children dead. Told seven years later to the police psychologist who interviewed her at the time of the killings, Anita’s story reveals the savagery of the schoolyard one chilling detail at a time until the truth of what actually happened reveals itself with startling ferocity. Set against the bustling, tourist-packed streets of historic Greenwich, this novel examines sinister events that happen, quite literally, right below the surface. An audacious debut, The Dead of Summer is written in spare, evocative prose with remarkable psychological acuity and the daring to examine the dark, intensely fragile point between childhood and adolescence, and the morbid impulses of those mutable years.

On a rainy Southern night, Jade Sperry endured a woman's worst nightmare at the hands of three local hell-raisers. Robbed of her youthful ideals, and at the center of scandal, she ran as far away as she could. But now she has returned to exact a just revenge and perhaps fulfill a lost promise...  more

On a rainy Southern night, Jade Sperry endured a woman's worst nightmare at the hands of three local hell-raisers. Robbed of her youthful ideals, and at the center of scandal, she ran as far away as she could. But now she has returned to exact a just revenge and perhaps fulfill a lost promise of love.

The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Adler- Olsen's Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't...  more

The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Adler- Olsen's Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects. But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl's been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigations division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases to keep him company, Carl's been put out to pasture. So he's as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A missing politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she's dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he's wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh, and redeem himself in the process. Because she isn't dead . . . yet. 

14yo Manny is an orphan in Juarez, Mexico. He competes with his bigger, meaner rivals for the coins American tourists throw off the bridge between Texas and his town. Across that heavily guarded bridge await a different world and a better existence.On the night when Manny dares the...  more

14yo Manny is an orphan in Juarez, Mexico. He competes with his bigger, meaner rivals for the coins American tourists throw off the bridge between Texas and his town. Across that heavily guarded bridge await a different world and a better existence.On the night when Manny dares the crossing--through the muddy shallows of the Rio Grande, past the searchlights and the border patrol--the young man encounters an old stranger who could prove to be an ally or an enemy. Manny can't tell for certain. But if he is to achieve his dream, then he must be willing to risk everything--even his life.

From the author of End in Tears comes a chilling thriller for “Quick Reads” — books for emergent readers, published as part of the UK’s World Book Day Adult Literacy Initiative 2006.What you do in childhood may come back to haunt you. Stealing things from people who had...  more

From the author of End in Tears comes a chilling thriller for “Quick Reads” — books for emergent readers, published as part of the UK’s World Book Day Adult Literacy Initiative 2006.What you do in childhood may come back to haunt you. Stealing things from people who had upset her was something Polly did quite a lot. There was her Aunt Pauline; a girl at school; a boyfriend who left. And there was the man on the plane… Humiliated and scared by a total stranger Polly does what she always does. She steals something. But she never could have imagined that her desire for revenge would have such terrifying results.

Jersey Hatch can’t remember if he rammed the car into his parents’ house. He can’t remember why his best friend won’t speak to him. He can’t remember the right words to have a real conversation. And he can’t remember why he tried to shoot his own...  more

Jersey Hatch can’t remember if he rammed the car into his parents’ house. He can’t remember why his best friend won’t speak to him. He can’t remember the right words to have a real conversation. And he can’t remember why he tried to shoot his own head off. Broken in both mind and body, Jersey must piece his life back together, step by painful step. He must re-learn to tie his own shoelaces. He must somehow pass Algebra and graduate high school. And he must try to repair old friendships as severed as the connection between his brain and his once-athletic body. With a compelling and unique literary voice Susan Vaught thrusts readers directly into the bitterly funny head of Jersey Hatch as he navigates his own damaged existence, and as he tries to answer the question not just why he wanted to end his very good life, but whether he can stop himself from trying to end it again. An eye-opening story that expertly navigates the triumph of family, the depths of despair, and the humor of the most mundane details of life.

Dear Readers: Although I've now spent several years writing humor, Night Kills, first released by Avon Books in 1998, is sure to send chills up your spine. It certainly gave me a bad case of the heebie-jeebies as I wrote the book in the loft of our house; my children thought it was great fun to...  more

Dear Readers: Although I've now spent several years writing humor, Night Kills, first released by Avon Books in 1998, is sure to send chills up your spine. It certainly gave me a bad case of the heebie-jeebies as I wrote the book in the loft of our house; my children thought it was great fun to slip into the room while I was deeply involved in a particularly scary scene and tap me on the shoulder. When Lee Cates's sister is brutally murdered, all evidence points to the woman's adoptive son, a troubled seventeen-year-old. That is, until a handsome outsider, who'd spent that fatal night with the good-time girl, is arrested. Lee is determined to prove her nephew's innocence, even though she finds herself wildly attracted to the handsome suspect who seems bent on buying the town's loyalty. Rashly probing into the murder, the blindly loyal Lee learns that not everybody in small-town Comfrey, South Carolina, loved her fast-living sister. As Lee continues to probe she realizes -- maybe too late -- that her sister's secret may lead to her own death. So sit back and enjoy the spine-tingling story. I hope you'll write and let me know what you think. Charlotte Hughes

Izzy McNeil, a sassy and successful redheaded lawyer from Chicago, is alarmed when her fiance vanishes. If that's not enough, Izzy learns the police are interested in the $30 million in land bonds apparently stolen by her missing fiance. Publishers Weekly Former trial lawyer Caldwell...  more

Izzy McNeil, a sassy and successful redheaded lawyer from Chicago, is alarmed when her fiance vanishes. If that's not enough, Izzy learns the police are interested in the $30 million in land bonds apparently stolen by her missing fiance. Publishers Weekly Former trial lawyer Caldwell launches a mystery series that weaves the emotional appeal of her chick lit titles (The Night I Got Lucky) with the blinding speed of her thrillers (The Good Liar). Young, sassy Izzy McNeil, lead entertainment lawyer at Pickett Enterprises, has earned envy for her success (much of which she owes to the patronage of CEO Forester Pickett) and cheeky manner, but she's starting to panic about her upcoming wedding to charming Sam Hollings. Then Pickett is killed and Sam vanishes, as do $30 million worth of Panamanian real estate bonds. Suspecting Sam, Izzy and the FBI promptly take up parallel and sometimes contradictory investigations. The somber ending is something of a letdown after the headlong chase, but readers will be left looking forward to another heart-pounding ride on Izzy's silver Vespa. (June) Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chicago is the Windy City, and these days the winds of change are whipping Izzy McNeil's life all over the map. A high-profile job on Trial TV lands her in the hot seat. After a shocking end to her engagement, she finds herself juggling not only her ex-fiance, but a guy she never expected. And a...  more

Chicago is the Windy City, and these days the winds of change are whipping Izzy McNeil's life all over the map. A high-profile job on Trial TV lands her in the hot seat. After a shocking end to her engagement, she finds herself juggling not only her ex-fiance, but a guy she never expected. And a moonlighting undercover gig has her digging deep into worlds she barely knew existed. But all of this takes a backseat when Izzy's friend winds up brutally murdered. Suddenly, Izzy must balance the demands of a voracious media and the knowledge that she didn't know her friend as well as she thought.

When Koty Fowler's husband volunteers her to visit Jamie, a quadruple amputee who lost his limbs in Iraq, neither Koty nor Jamie is happy. Jamie resents being ?babysat? every day. Koty resents her lot in life: almost 30, mother of three, and trapped in an unhappy marriage in Granite Creek, a...  more

When Koty Fowler's husband volunteers her to visit Jamie, a quadruple amputee who lost his limbs in Iraq, neither Koty nor Jamie is happy. Jamie resents being ?babysat? every day. Koty resents her lot in life: almost 30, mother of three, and trapped in an unhappy marriage in Granite Creek, a small New Hampshire town. But when Koty and Jamie come together in a sexually-charged situation, everything changes. While Koty continues to explore her relationship with Jamie, her life at home spirals out of control: her sometimes-abusive husband drinks too much, and her middle daughter is on a destructive path, skipping school and getting into fights, while Koty's other two girls are left to watch. What happens next, however, leaves everyone reeling, and the Fowler family must learn how to move forward, even as they struggle to understand what happened in their own backyard. Told in multiple viewpoints and spanning across nearly two decades, "What Happened in Granite Creek" brings readers on a journey of intrigue and unexpected twists while reminding us that nothing is ever what it seems.

After a mysterious fall from his New York City apartment, Philip Chase has moved back home with his mother, Charlene, a bitter woman who has never fully accepted the death of her younger son, Ronnie, five years earlier. Numb from watching too much television, rereading a tragic biography, and...  more

After a mysterious fall from his New York City apartment, Philip Chase has moved back home with his mother, Charlene, a bitter woman who has never fully accepted the death of her younger son, Ronnie, five years earlier. Numb from watching too much television, rereading a tragic biography, and trading snipes with his mother, Philip is in stasis. But everything changes late one windy February night when Ronnie's high school girlfriend shows up on their doorstep. A sad young woman who still bears the scars of the accident that took Ronnie's life on the night of their prom, Melissa has unexpectedly found hope. She is nine months pregnant. And the father, she claims, is Ronnie. So begins this startling tale, which moves from one breathless surprise to another as Philip and his mother confront not only Melissa's past but their own. Their desperate search for answers takes them on a poignant and emotional journey, ultimately placing them in the path of murder and revenge. At once a moving story of redemption and a heart-stopping work of suspense, Strange but True confirms John Searles's place among the most gifted voices of his generation. Beautifully written and charged with a sublime wit, the novel brings to vibrant life a cast of characters that no reader will forget.

Set in Victorian England, Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor in London, is summoned to Crythin Gifford to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, and to sort through her papers before returning to London. It is here that Kipps first sees the woman in black and begins to gain an impression of the...  more

Set in Victorian England, Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor in London, is summoned to Crythin Gifford to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, and to sort through her papers before returning to London. It is here that Kipps first sees the woman in black and begins to gain an impression of the mystery surrounding her. From the funeral he travels to Eel Marsh House and sees the woman again, plus he also hears the terrifying sounds of adult and child passengers sinking into the quicksand on a pony and trap. Despite Kipps’s experiences he resolves to spend the night at the house and fulfill his professional duty.It is this night at Eel Marsh House that contains the greatest horror for Kipps. Rescued by Mr Daily, a friend he met on the train, Kipps discovers the reasons behind the hauntings at Eel Marsh House. The book ends with tragedy, with the woman in black exacting a final, terrible revenge.

His code name is Phate -- a sadistic computer hacker who infiltrates people's computers, invades their lives, and with chilling precision lures them to their deaths. To stop him, the authorities free imprisoned former hacker Wyatt Gillette to aid the investigation. Teamed with old-school...  more

His code name is Phate -- a sadistic computer hacker who infiltrates people's computers, invades their lives, and with chilling precision lures them to their deaths. To stop him, the authorities free imprisoned former hacker Wyatt Gillette to aid the investigation. Teamed with old-school homicide detective Frank Bishop, Gillette must combine their disparate talents to catch a brilliant and merciless killer. Read by Dennis Boutsikaris; Abridged on 4 cassettes, 6 hours  

First published in 1973, this remarkable book about life in a small turn-of-the-century Wisconsin town has become a cult classic. Lesy has collected and arranged photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 by a Black River Falls photographer, Charles Van Schaik.

From the back cover. The nightmare of 9/11 left New York City medical examiner Edward Jenner shattered and emotionally scarred. He thought he'd turned away from forensics--and life--for good, but the mutilation murder of a college student is pulling him back. The body of a young woman, nailed...  more

From the back cover. The nightmare of 9/11 left New York City medical examiner Edward Jenner shattered and emotionally scarred. He thought he'd turned away from forensics--and life--for good, but the mutilation murder of a college student is pulling him back. The body of a young woman, nailed to the wall of her East Village apartment, has Jenner convinced that there's a serial killer prowling the city--and a second horrific murder only confirms his most terrible fears. The desperate hunt for a psychopath--and Jenner's troubling obsession with a beautiful, frightened woman who could be the maniac's next victim--is pushing the forensic expert to the limits of his physical and mental endurance. But as the shadows deepen it gets harder to tell who is the hunter and who is the prey. And which one will live...and who will die.

Forensic pathologist Edward Jenner survived the horrific ordeal of the Inquisitor serial slayings in New York, but not the political fallout. With his state medical license suspended, he hopes to repair his shattered life while working as a medical examiner in Douglas County, Florida. But evil...  more

Forensic pathologist Edward Jenner survived the horrific ordeal of the Inquisitor serial slayings in New York, but not the political fallout. With his state medical license suspended, he hopes to repair his shattered life while working as a medical examiner in Douglas County, Florida. But evil is not confined to big cities alone. Two corpses pulled from a sunken car -- followed by the grisly discovery of four more bodies hanging in the Everglades -- are evidence of an insidious rot infecting this quiet coastal resort community. Suddenly Jenner's investigation is turning up grim traces of a nightmarish conspiracy -- and with no one to trust and nowhere to turn, his only hope of survival is to walk away . . . something Jenner could never do.

EVENTUALLY, EVERYONE HAS TO PAY FOR THE PAST. Laura Barrett is the rising star of television's top-rated news show. With a devoted husband and a lovely baby girl, she's finally taking charge of her life. But suddenly, there are things Laura can't control... The anonymous...  more

EVENTUALLY, EVERYONE HAS TO PAY FOR THE PAST. Laura Barrett is the rising star of television's top-rated news show. With a devoted husband and a lovely baby girl, she's finally taking charge of her life. But suddenly, there are things Laura can't control... The anonymous phone calls in the dead of night...the threatening letters as intimate as a nightmare...and the taunting, seductive whisper emanating from the shadows: Did you really think you could get away with it, Laura? A vengeful admirer has returned to bring Laura's past to life, piece by shattering piece. To twist her buried secrets into a cunning weapon that will destroy her peace of mind before destroying her. Tonight, Laura's judgment day has arrived. And death may be her only escape.

Once upon a time I had the perfect family. I had the perfect husband. I had the perfect children. I had the perfect life in the perfect home. And then, as in all fairy tales, evil came into our lives and destroyed us. Four years after the unsolved disappearance of her sixteen-year-old...  more

Once upon a time I had the perfect family. I had the perfect husband. I had the perfect children. I had the perfect life in the perfect home. And then, as in all fairy tales, evil came into our lives and destroyed us. Four years after the unsolved disappearance of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lauren Lawton is the only one still chasing the ghosts of her perfect Santa Barbara life. The world has given her daughter up for dead. Her husband ended his own life in the aftermath. Even Lauren’s younger daughter is desperate to find what’s left of the childhood she hasn’t been allowed to have. Lauren knows exactly who took her oldest child, but there is not a shred of evidence against the man. Even as he stalks her family, Lauren is powerless to stop him. The Santa Barbara police are handcuffed by the very laws they are sworn to uphold. Looking for a fresh start in a town with no memories, Lauren and her younger daughter Leah move to idyllic Oak Knoll. But when Lauren’s suspect turns up in the same city, it feels to all the world that history is about to repeat itself. Leah Lawton will soon turn sixteen, and Oak Knoll has a cunning predator on the hunt. Sheriff’s detective Tony Mendez and his team begin to close in on the suspected killer, desperate to keep the young women of their picturesque town safe. But as the investigators sift through the murky circumstances of an increasingly disturbing case, a stunning question changes everything they thought they knew.

Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. At least, that's what she tells people. She watches the news for stories of missing people, then waits a few days and goes to see the family. She tells them she’s had a vision and that she may know where their missing loved one is -- for a price, of...  more

Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. At least, that's what she tells people. She watches the news for stories of missing people, then waits a few days and goes to see the family. She tells them she’s had a vision and that she may know where their missing loved one is -- for a price, of course. Keisha's latest mark is Wendell Garfield, whose wife disappeared a week ago. She's seen him on TV, pleading for his wife to come home, or for whoever took her to let her go. Keisha tells Wendell her vision of what might have happened. Unluckily for Keisha, her vision turns out to be alarmingly close to the truth. As she wades deeper into the mystery, Keisha inadvertently finds herself caught in a web of suspicion and violence that’s much more complicated than she first thought -- and which may end up with her own disappearance…

Psychotherapist Katherine DeQuincey-Joy is torn between two brothers: handsome, sucessful Eric Airie and Pilot, her haunted, schizophrenic patient. Especially when Pilot begins telling her secrets only he knows and only she can share... Allowing herself to fall in love with Eric and trying to...  more

Psychotherapist Katherine DeQuincey-Joy is torn between two brothers: handsome, sucessful Eric Airie and Pilot, her haunted, schizophrenic patient. Especially when Pilot begins telling her secrets only he knows and only she can share... Allowing herself to fall in love with Eric and trying to save Pilot, Katherine grapples with the mystery the two brothers have in common: the agonizing disappearance of their younger sister twenty years ago. A woman whose own life has unraveled, Katherine is venturing into the mind of a schizophrenic, and a maze of deception, betrayal and danger. For what tragedy tore apart two decades ago, blood still holds together: Someone in this family murdered one of his or her own -- and will kill again.

They're watching.They've wiretapped the apartment.They've got their daughter.They told them they'd hurt her if they spoke about it.They told them, "Don't say a word . . ."Or else . . .

Luke Carr awakens in a mental institution as a convicted murderer. How did he get there? The answer has the critics raving:

In the Company of Liars is a truly original thriller, strikingly fresh and unpredictable. Told in chronological reverse, from its enigmatic end to its brilliant beginning, the novel is centered on a woman who is on trial for murder-Allison Pagone, a mother caught between competing forces, each...  more

In the Company of Liars is a truly original thriller, strikingly fresh and unpredictable. Told in chronological reverse, from its enigmatic end to its brilliant beginning, the novel is centered on a woman who is on trial for murder-Allison Pagone, a mother caught between competing forces, each represented by someone who may not care if the pressure kills her in the end. A prosecutor wants Allison convicted and put on death row. An FBI agent believes she can squeeze her into ratting on her family. A daughter and an ex-husband need to save their own skins. And circling them all: a group who would prefer to eliminate her quietly and anonymously, but who also are not what they seem. Our first picture of Allison is in the moments following her death. The story then moves backward in time like the cult film Memento: an hour earlier, then the day before, back and back to the beginning, until we can see what's really happened-and, most shocking, what hasn't. At every turn, Allison Pagone knows that what she sees may not be what's real. The only sure thing is her place in a vortex of half-truths, threats, and suspicion. When her nightmare is over, will she awake in the company of friends -or in the company of liars?

Read by Dylan Baker5 CDs, 5 hrs. 15 min.Harlan Coben earned the raves of critics everywhere for his New York Times bestselling thriller, Tell No One, hailed as “pulse-pounding” (People), “compelling and original” (Los Angeles Times), and “a thriller of runaway...  more

Read by Dylan Baker5 CDs, 5 hrs. 15 min.Harlan Coben earned the raves of critics everywhere for his New York Times bestselling thriller, Tell No One, hailed as “pulse-pounding” (People), “compelling and original” (Los Angeles Times), and “a thriller of runaway tension” (Iris Johansen). Now, in a bold new novel, Coben continues to stake out new ground in suspense, unleashing a haunting tale of secrets and betrayal...and of one man’s search for his missing brother that spirals into a breakneck hunt for a killer, a victim, and the truth.As a boy, Will Klein had a hero: his older brother, Ken. Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins’ affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman--a girl Will had once loved--was found raped and murdered in her family’s basement. The prime suspect: Ken Klein. With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished, spending the next decade as the elusive subject of rumors, speculation, and an international manhunt. When his shattered family never heard from Ken again, they were sure he was gone for good.Now eleven years have passed. And Will, who always believed in his brother’s innocence, has found evidence that Ken is alive--even as he is struck by another act of betrayal. His girlfriend suddenly disappears, leaving behind compelling evidence that she was not the person Will thought she was. As two dark dramas unwind around him, Will is pulled into a violent mystery, haunted by signs that Ken is trying to contact him after all these years. Will can feel himself coming closer and closer to his brother . . . and to a terrible secret that someone will kill to keep buried. And as the lies begin to unravel, Will is uncovering startling truths about his lover, his brother, and even himself. He knows he must press his search all the way to the end. Because the most powerful revelations are yet to come....Gone for Good is at once a powerhouse of suspense and a haunting tale of love--the love between brothers, between lovers, between family members. It is one of those rare thrillers that not only make the pulse pound, but stir the heart as well.

Strapped by a chauffeur's wages, Michael Rogers' want of a better life seems out of reach. Especially elusive is a magnificent piece of property in Kingston Bishop--unil a chance meeting with a beautiful heiress makes his dreams possible. Marrying her is the first step. Building the perfect home...  more

Strapped by a chauffeur's wages, Michael Rogers' want of a better life seems out of reach. Especially elusive is a magnificent piece of property in Kingston Bishop--unil a chance meeting with a beautiful heiress makes his dreams possible. Marrying her is the first step. Building the perfect home is the next. Unfortunately, Michael ignored the local warnings about the deadly curse buried in the tract of land, and living out his dreams may exact a higher price than he ever imagined. Praised as one of Agatha Christie's most unusual forays into gothic, psychological suspense, this novel of fate, chance, and the nature of evil was a personal favorite of the author's as well.

In the aftermath of investigating the D.C. sniper case, police detective Vance Graegan is burned out on life and love. Hoping to save his marriage, he quits the force and moves his wife and son to the other side of the country. But when the movers decide to hold his belongings for ransom, Vance...  more

In the aftermath of investigating the D.C. sniper case, police detective Vance Graegan is burned out on life and love. Hoping to save his marriage, he quits the force and moves his wife and son to the other side of the country. But when the movers decide to hold his belongings for ransom, Vance is determined to ensure that his family's new beginning is not ruined. Soon, though, losing his possessions becomes the least of his problems as everything they are fighting for begins to unravel in the hands of Vance's past. In an unforgettable climax, a little boy's innocent faith brings a group of desperate people to their knees. What is at stake counts for everything, but nothing can prepare Vance for who is behind it.

Sixteen-year-old Elvira's mother is dead. Elvira is sad, of course, but not so sad as her younger sister Spinny. Spinny is afraid their father, Luke, will be heartbroken, but Elvira knows better -- after all, Luke has her to take her mother's place. But then Luke brings home a pretty young woman...  more

Sixteen-year-old Elvira's mother is dead. Elvira is sad, of course, but not so sad as her younger sister Spinny. Spinny is afraid their father, Luke, will be heartbroken, but Elvira knows better -- after all, Luke has her to take her mother's place. But then Luke brings home a pretty young woman and introduces her as his fiancee, and Elvira decides that she will stop at nothing to stop her father's marriage . . .

Some secrets are too terrible to reveal ...Some crimes are too unspeakable to solve ...Painter's Creek, Ohio may be a sleepy, rural town with both Amish and 'English' residents, but it's also the place where a series of brutal murders shattered the lives of an entire community over a decade ago....  more

Some secrets are too terrible to reveal ...Some crimes are too unspeakable to solve ...Painter's Creek, Ohio may be a sleepy, rural town with both Amish and 'English' residents, but it's also the place where a series of brutal murders shattered the lives of an entire community over a decade ago. When the killing stopped, it left in its aftermath a sense of fragility, and for the young Amish girl, Katie Burkholder, a realization that she didn't belong. Now, 15 years, two dead parents and a wealth of experience later, Katie has been asked to return as Chief of Police. Her Amish background combined with her big-city law enforcement expertise make her the perfect candidate. Katie is certain she has come to terms with the past. Until the first body of a slaughtered young woman is found in a pristine, snowy field...

Of all the criminals that Lucas Davenport has hunted, none has been as frighteningly intelligent as the woman who's hunting him now. Attorney Carmel Loan is preternaturally beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious. When she becomes infatuated with fellow barrister Hale Allen, she isn't...  more

Of all the criminals that Lucas Davenport has hunted, none has been as frighteningly intelligent as the woman who's hunting him now. Attorney Carmel Loan is preternaturally beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious. When she becomes infatuated with fellow barrister Hale Allen, she isn't going to let a little thing like his being married get in her way. A quick meeting with an ex-client sets up the hit on Hale's wife, Barbara. The professional killer, Clara Rinker, is one of the best in the business. Smart, attractive, with a gentle Southern drawl, no one would suspect her of being a top Mafia hit man... er, hit person. When she takes the Allen assignment, she figures it will be easy money for a day's work. But things go wrong from the beginning. Loan's ex-client made a tape of the meeting, and is shaking her down for money. Worse, the shooting of a witness -- a cop -- brings deputy inspector Lucas Davenport into the case. Somehow Davenport has not only linked Loan to the killing, but seems to have a lead on Rinker as well. Carmel and Clara team up to clean up the loose ends, which includes getting Davenport off their back by whatever means necessary.

It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. Fire Department personnel rush to evacuate the inhabitants, and find the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Clutched in his lap is a photo album containing photographs of seven young women who...  more

It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. Fire Department personnel rush to evacuate the inhabitants, and find the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide. Clutched in his lap is a photo album containing photographs of seven young women who have been murdered, each photograph was taken only moments after the women were killed. One murder per year for seven years, their bodies found in different parts of the city. LAPD homicide detectives had never connected the seven murders. But now with the discovery of the "death album" these seven murders have been linked, and the news for Elvis Cole is bad... Only one suspect had been charged in any of those cases, that being for the murder of victim #4. LAPD and the LA County District Attorney had a recorded confession by the suspect and believed him to be the murderer. But with evidence supplied by Elvis Cole, in the end, he walked free. That suspect was the suicide now discovered in the fire, Elliot Martin. Did Cole's action three years ago free a killer to commit more murders? Did Elvis cost three young women their lives?

A chilling tale of prejudice, ambition and cunning in which villagers react to a brutal double murderIn the small Hampshire village of Sowerbridge, Irish labourer Patrick ORiordan has been arrested for the brutal murder of elderly Lavinia Fanshaw and her live-in nurse, Dorothy Jenkins. As shock...  more

A chilling tale of prejudice, ambition and cunning in which villagers react to a brutal double murderIn the small Hampshire village of Sowerbridge, Irish labourer Patrick ORiordan has been arrested for the brutal murder of elderly Lavinia Fanshaw and her live-in nurse, Dorothy Jenkins. As shock turns to fury, the village residents form a united front against Patricks parents and cousin, who report incidents of vicious threats and violence. But friend and neighbour Siobhan Lavenham remains convinced that Patrick has fallen victim to a prejudiced investigation and, putting her own position within the bigoted community in serious jeopardy, stands firmly by his family in defence of the ORiordan name. Days before the trial, terrible secrets about the ORiordans past are revealed to Siobhan, and the familys only supporter is forced to question her loyalties. Could Patrick be capable of murder after all? Could his parents tales of attacks be devious fabrications? And if so, what other lies lurk beneath the surface of their world? As the truth rapidly unfurls, it seems that Sowerbridge residents need to be very afraid. For beneath a cunning faade, someones chilling ambition is about to ignite

Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path -- home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a...  more

Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path -- home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing professor, she wonders if she can finish the house -- without getting finished off in the process.

College professor Paul Calloway and his pregnant wife Sara believe their move to Iowa holds promise of a good life. The families in their cul de sac couldn’t be nicer, which is one reason Paul is quick to oblige when Roger Mallory, a widower whose young son was murdered years ago, asks him...  more

College professor Paul Calloway and his pregnant wife Sara believe their move to Iowa holds promise of a good life. The families in their cul de sac couldn’t be nicer, which is one reason Paul is quick to oblige when Roger Mallory, a widower whose young son was murdered years ago, asks him to join the neighborhood watch group. But the happy life they imagined begins to spiral downward when first Sara is accosted—in their home—and then Paul is accused of sexual misconduct with a neighborhood teenager. In Safer, Sean Doolittle masterfully manipulates the tension as Paul, desperate to clear his name, comes to the realization that the friendly veneer of this cozy little community is cracking under the weight of unimaginable evil.

Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone's needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes...  more

Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone's needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia's best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable. But senior year of high school brings unexpected dangers and one night, Jude's worst fears are confirmed: there is an accident. In an instant, her idyllic life is shattered and her close-knit community is torn apart. People -- and Jude -- demand justice, and when the finger of blame is pointed, it lands solely on eighteen-year-old Lexi Baill. In a heartbeat, their love for each other will be shattered, the family broken. Lexi gives up everything that matters to her -- the boy she loves, her place in the family, the best friend she ever had -- while Jude loses even more. When Lexi returns, older and wiser, she demands a reckoning. Long buried feelings will rise again, and Jude will finally have to face the woman she has become. She must decide whether to remain broken or try to forgive both Lexi and herself.

In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One...  more

In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents. Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives in an upheaval, including Alex Cormier. The superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case, Alex--whose daughter, Josie, witnessed the events that unfolded--must decide whether or not to step down. She’s torn between presiding over the biggest case of her career and knowing that doing so will cause an even wider chasm in her relationship with her emotionally fragile daughter. Josie, meanwhile, claims she can’t remember what happened in the last fatal minutes of Peter’s rampage. Or can she? And Peter’s parents, Lacy and Lewis Houghton, ceaselessly examine the past to see what they might have said or done to compel their son to such extremes. Nineteen Minutes also features the return of two of Jodi Picoult’s characters--defense attorney Jordan McAfee from The Pact and Salem Falls, and Patrick DuCharme, the intrepid detective introduced in Perfect Match.

Linwood Barclay reveals the dark side of a small town -- and the even darker secrets that hide there... It’s been two months since private investigator Cal Weaver’s teenage son Scott died in a tragic accident. Ever since, he and his wife have drifted apart, fracturing a once...  more

Linwood Barclay reveals the dark side of a small town -- and the even darker secrets that hide there... It’s been two months since private investigator Cal Weaver’s teenage son Scott died in a tragic accident. Ever since, he and his wife have drifted apart, fracturing a once normal life. Cal is mired in grief, a grief he can’t move past. And maybe his grief has clouded his judgment. Because driving home one night, he makes his first big mistake. A girl drenched in rain taps on his car window and asks for a ride as he sits at a stoplight. Even though he knows a fortysomething man picking up a teenage hitchhiker is a fool, he lets her in. She’s the same age as Scott, and maybe she can help Cal find the dealer who sold his son the drugs that killed him. After a brief stop at a roadside diner, Cal senses that something’s not right with the girl or the situation. But it’s too late. He’s already involved. Now Cal is drawn into a nightmare of pain and suspicion. Something is horribly wrong in the small town of Griffon in upstate New York. There are too many secrets there, too many lies and cover-ups. And Cal has decided to expose those secrets one by one. That’s his second big mistake.

When the students in Winchester University's Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of...  more

When the students in Winchester University's Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term in six weeks, she will be murdered. At first the students are as intrigued by the premise of their puzzle as they are wary of the strange and slightly creepy Professor Williams. But as they delve deeper into the mystery, they begin to wonder: Is the Polly story simply a logic exercise, designed to teach them rational thinking skills, or could it be something more sinister and dangerous? The mystery soon takes over the lives of three students as they find disturbing connections between Polly and themselves. Characters that were supposedly fictitious begin to emerge in reality. Soon, the boundary between the classroom assignment and the real world becomes blurred--and the students wonder if it is their own lives they are being asked to save.

Was she still dreaming? That was her first thought. That she was still lying on her bed, having a nightmare. Any moment now, she would wake up. She had to. She stared at her trembling hands. No, it wasn't a dream or a nightmare. She was standing here on the upstairs landing, and Derek had...  more

Was she still dreaming? That was her first thought. That she was still lying on her bed, having a nightmare. Any moment now, she would wake up. She had to. She stared at her trembling hands. No, it wasn't a dream or a nightmare. She was standing here on the upstairs landing, and Derek had just phoned her. NO! NO! NO! That couldn't be. Derek was dead.

There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead...  more

There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead sailors' tools and trinkets became decorations for their homes. Most never questioned their murderous way of life. Then, upon that pirates' shore crashed the ship The Isle of Skye. And the youngest of its crew members, 14-year-old John Spencer, survived the wreck. But would he escape the wreckers? This is his harrowing tale.

A walk down the aisle, a resort hotel, a drink on the beach ... for these unlucky couples, the honeymoon's over. A newlywed couple steps into the sauna in their deluxe honeymoon suite -- and never steps out again. When another couple is killed while boarding their honeymoon flight to...  more

A walk down the aisle, a resort hotel, a drink on the beach ... for these unlucky couples, the honeymoon's over. A newlywed couple steps into the sauna in their deluxe honeymoon suite -- and never steps out again. When another couple is killed while boarding their honeymoon flight to Rome, it becomes clear that someone is targeting honeymooners, and it's anyone's guess which happy couple is next on the list. FBI Agent John O'Hara is deep into solving the case, while Special Agent Sarah Brubaker is hunting another ingenious serial killer, whose victims all have one chilling thing in common. As wedding hysteria rises to a frightening new level, John and Sarah work ever more closely together in a frantic attempt to decipher the logic behind two rampages.

Dean Koontz’s unique talent for writing terrifying thrillers with a heart and soul is nowhere more evident than in this latest suspense masterpiece that pits one man against the ultimate deadline. If there were speed limits for the sheer pulse-racing excitement allowed in one novel,...  more

Dean Koontz’s unique talent for writing terrifying thrillers with a heart and soul is nowhere more evident than in this latest suspense masterpiece that pits one man against the ultimate deadline. If there were speed limits for the sheer pulse-racing excitement allowed in one novel, Velocity would break them all. Get ready for the ride of your life.…VELOCITYBill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. If you don’t take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have four hours to decide. The choice is yours.It seems like a sick joke, and Bill’s friend on the police force, Lanny Olson, thinks so too. His advice to Bill is to go home and forget about it. Besides, what could they do even if they took the note seriously? No crime has actually been committed. But less than twenty-four hours later, a young blond schoolteacher is found murdered, and it’s Bill’s fault: he didn’t convince the police to get involved. Now he’s got another note, another deadline, another ultimatum…and two new lives hanging in the balance.Suddenly Bill’s average, seemingly innocuous life takes on the dimensions and speed of an accelerating nightmare. Because the notes are coming faster, the deadlines growing tighter, and the killer becoming bolder and crueler with every communication–until Bill is isolated with the terrifying knowledge that he alone has the power of life and death over a psychopath’s innocent victims. Until the struggle between good and evil is intensely personal. Until the most chilling words of all are: The choice is yours.From the Hardcover edition.

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the...  more

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of—or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists—who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts. Like all of Roach’s books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.

Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again. In the small California town of Serena Station, tongues wagged. Some said she'd run off with a lover. Some said she was murdered by her husband. But...  more

Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again. In the small California town of Serena Station, tongues wagged. Some said she'd run off with a lover. Some said she was murdered by her husband. But for the not-quite-seven-year-old daughter Daisy she left behind, Violet's absence has never been explained or forgotten. Now, thirty-four years later, she wants the solace of closure. In S Is for Silence, Kinsey Millhone's nineteenth excursion into the world of suspense and misadventure, S is for surprises as Sue Grafton takes a whole new approach to telling the tale. And S is for superb: Kinsey and Grafton at their best. Read by Judy Kaye, abridged, 5 cds, running time 6 hours

Catherine Cardinal, wife of Sergeant John Cardinal, is dead. Ruled a suicide, it comes as no real surprise to those who knew her. Catherine had suffered from manic depression for over twenty years. Long stints of hospitalization were followed by healthy periods permeated by worry and anxiousness...  more

Catherine Cardinal, wife of Sergeant John Cardinal, is dead. Ruled a suicide, it comes as no real surprise to those who knew her. Catherine had suffered from manic depression for over twenty years. Long stints of hospitalization were followed by healthy periods permeated by worry and anxiousness that everything would once again disintegrate. Her last hospital stay had been over a year ago. Catherine had been finding peace and fulfillment in her photography and taking her medication regularly. From years of experience, Cardinal had taken all of these signs to be positive and hopeful. The Planet Grief. An incalculable number of light years from the warmth of the sun. When the rain falls, it falls in droplets of grief, and when the light shines, it is in waves and particles of grief. From whatever direction the wind blows -- south, east, north or west -- it blows cinders of grief before it. Grief stings your eyes and sucks the breath from your lungs. No oxygen on this planet, no nitrogen; the atmosphere is composed entirely of grief.  [By the Time You Read This] So along with coping with devastating grief, Cardinal is confused. Although a suicide note in Catherine's handwriting was found at the scene, Cardinal isn't convinced that his wife was responsible for her own death. She was distracted when she left to take pictures the night she died, but she was nowhere near the despondent state she attained when she was ill. It wasn’t adding up.  Everyone in the department, even his partner, Lise Delorme, believes Cardinal's refusal to accept his wife’s suicide is only the denial that comes with the agony of his loss. Even his daughter, Kelly, has accepted her mother’s fate. But when Cardinal receives a card with a typewritten note inside taunting him about his wife’s death, he is resolute that someone has murdered Catherine. In Cardinal’s line of work, a man can pile up a lot of enemies. The first likely suspect that comes to his mind is Kiki B., an "associate" of a drug dealer, Rick Bouchard, who he had sent to prison. Kiki B. knew where Cardinal lived and he had an axe to grind -- Bouchard had been killed while serving his sentence.  With Delorme wrapped up in a nasty sex crimes case, Cardinal goes it alone. When Kiki B. turns out to have made a career change, Cardinal moves on to other members of the criminal element he’d had the pleasure to put away. As he moves through a long line of suspects, Cardinal finds himself settling on perhaps the most unlikely suspect of all.

The triple-crown winner of mystery’s most prestigious awards -- the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus -- Rick Riordan blasted onto the crime scene with one of its freshest and most intriguing protagonists, Tres Navarre. In Mission Road, Navarre returns in a wrenching crime drama in which...  more

The triple-crown winner of mystery’s most prestigious awards -- the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus -- Rick Riordan blasted onto the crime scene with one of its freshest and most intriguing protagonists, Tres Navarre. In Mission Road, Navarre returns in a wrenching crime drama in which he must revisit the sins of the past to catch a killer about to get away with murder…again. San Antonio private investigator Tres Navarre is used to working on the edge -- that razor-sharp line between legal and life sentence. But this time he’s stepped straight into a no-man’s-land. When an old friend appears at his door spattered with blood and wanted for attempted homicide, Tres doesn’t have to think twice about where his loyalty lies -- or the consequences. Ralph Arguello is a criminal who put the street life behind him when he married SAPD detective Ana DeLeon. Now Ana’s been gunned down and her fellow cops don’t need to look far to find a prime suspect. For Ana recently reopened the most infamous cold case in SAPD history -- the unsolved murder on notorious Mission Road eighteen years before that threw the San Antonio underworld into bloody chaos. Ana was about to bring charges against the suspected killer: her husband, Ralph Arguello.Tres is sure that Ralph didn’t do it -- and that he didn’t shoot his wife. But with the police and the Mafia both out for revenge, there’s no one to turn to for help. Now, armed and dangerous, the targets of a citywide manhunt, Tres and Ralph have just hours to discover what really happened on Mission Road almost two decades ago. To find the truth, they must set a collision course with the past -- and with a secret that will tear their lives apart.  

When the badly decomposed body of thirteen-year-old Katie Pine is found in an abandoned mine shaft, John Cardinal is vindicated. It was Cardinal who'd kept the Pine case open - insisting she was no mere runaway -- and Cardinal had been demoted to the burglary squad for his excessive zeal....  more

When the badly decomposed body of thirteen-year-old Katie Pine is found in an abandoned mine shaft, John Cardinal is vindicated. It was Cardinal who'd kept the Pine case open - insisting she was no mere runaway -- and Cardinal had been demoted to the burglary squad for his excessive zeal. But Katie Pine isn't the only youngster to have gone missing in the rural town of Algonquin Bay, and Cardinal is now given the go-ahead to reopen the files on three other lost kids. When another youth is reported missing, he begins to see a pattern that screams "serial killer." Meanwhile, the brass have partnered him with Lisa Delorme, newly shifted to homicide from the Office of Special Investigations, and Cardinal can't help but wonder if she's been sent to keep tabs on him. A guilty conscience makes him think so. Read by James Daniel Abridged:  4 Cassettes, 6 hrs.

Nate and Sara, on the run from their past, are driving to Reno.  When they're approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride into Omaha, they can't help but see it as a sign of blessings to come.But in a few hours, that man is dead in their back seat . . . and he?s got a bag of...  more

Nate and Sara, on the run from their past, are driving to Reno.  When they're approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride into Omaha, they can't help but see it as a sign of blessings to come.But in a few hours, that man is dead in their back seat . . . and he?s got a bag of money . . . more than either one of them know what to do with. Forced off the road by a blizzard and trapped in a run-down motel, Nate and Sara make a life-altering decision that unleashes a nightmare.  Before they know it, Nate and Sara are fighting for their lives and forced to confront every bad decision they?ve made along the way. For two young lovers who may have used up all their chances, this is a final trip down a dark tunnel that might lead them to heaven, but drags them through hell. 

Tia and Mike Baye never imagined they’d become spying, overprotective parents. But their sixteen-year-old son Adam has been unusually distant and aloof lately, and after the recent suicide of his classmate, Spencer Hill, they can’t help but worry. They install a spy program on...  more

Tia and Mike Baye never imagined they’d become spying, overprotective parents. But their sixteen-year-old son Adam has been unusually distant and aloof lately, and after the recent suicide of his classmate, Spencer Hill, they can’t help but worry. They install a spy program on Adam’s computer and within days they are jolted by a strange message to their son from an unknown correspondent: “Just stay quiet and all safe.” Meanwhile, browsing through an online memorial for her son, Betsy Hill is struck by one photo in particular – it appears to have been taken on the night of Spencer’s death…and he wasn’t alone. She thinks it’s Adam Baye standing just outside the camera’s range, and when Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community. Uncovering the secrets and lies at the heart of Spencer’s death may be the only thing that can help Betsy move on – and perhaps save Adam’s life. Read by Scott Brick. Unabridged: 10 sound discs (ca. 12 hr.)

tres-pass \'tresp-s\ n: a transgression of law involving one's obligations to God or to one's neighbor; a violation of moral law; an offense; a sin --Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, Unabridged In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's T is for...  more

tres-pass \'tresp-s\ n: a transgression of law involving one's obligations to God or to one's neighbor; a violation of moral law; an offense; a sin --Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, Unabridged In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's T is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Beginning slowly with the day-to-day life of a private eye, Grafton suddenly shifts from the voice of Kinsey Millhone to that of Solana Rojas, introducing readers to a chilling sociopath. Rojas is not her birth name. It is an identity she cunningly stole, an identity that gives her access to private caregiving jobs. The true horror of the novel builds with excruciating tension as the reader foresees the awfulness that lies ahead. The suspense lies in whether Millhone will realize what is happening in time to intervene. Though set in the late eighties, T is for Trespass could not be more topical: identity theft; elder abuse; betrayal of trust; the breakdown in the institutions charged with caring for the weak and the dependent. It reveals a terrifying but all-too-real rip in the social fabric.

Lisa Kallisto—overwhelmed working mother—is the not-so-perfect model of the modern woman. She holds down a busy job running an animal shelter, she cares for three demanding children, and she worries that her marriage isn’t getting enough attention. During an impossibly hectic...  more

Lisa Kallisto—overwhelmed working mother—is the not-so-perfect model of the modern woman. She holds down a busy job running an animal shelter, she cares for three demanding children, and she worries that her marriage isn’t getting enough attention. During an impossibly hectic week, Lisa takes her eye off the ball for a moment and her world descends into a living nightmare. Not only is her best friend’s thirteen-year-old daughter missing, but it’s Lisa’s fault. To make matters worse, Lucinda is the second teenage girl to disappear within the past two weeks. The first one turned up stripped bare and abandoned on the main street after a horrible ordeal. Wracked with guilt over her mistake, and after having been publicly blamed by Lucinda’s family, Lisa sets out to right the wrong. As she begins digging under the surface, Lisa learns that everything is not quite what it first appears to be.

When tragedy strikes close to home, Mickey Bolitar and his loyal new friends -- sharp-witted Ema and the adorably charming Spoon -- find themselves at the center of a terrifying mystery involving the shooting of their friend Rachel. Now, not only does Mickey have to continue his quest to uncover...  more

When tragedy strikes close to home, Mickey Bolitar and his loyal new friends -- sharp-witted Ema and the adorably charming Spoon -- find themselves at the center of a terrifying mystery involving the shooting of their friend Rachel. Now, not only does Mickey have to continue his quest to uncover the truth about the Abeona Shelter, the Butcher of Lodz and the mysterious death of his father, he needs to figure out who shot Rachel -- no matter what it takes.   Mickey has always been ready to sacrifice everything to help the people he loves. But with danger just seconds away, how can he protect them when he’s not even sure who -- or what -- he’s protecting them from? 

Stephanie Plum is back "between-the-numbers" and she's looking to get lucky in an Atlantic City hotel room, in a Winnebago and with a brown-eyed stud who has stolen her heart. Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck ... and mystery men. And no...  more

Stephanie Plum is back "between-the-numbers" and she's looking to get lucky in an Atlantic City hotel room, in a Winnebago and with a brown-eyed stud who has stolen her heart. Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck ... and mystery men. And no one is more mysterious than the unmentionable Diesel. He's back and hot on the trail of a little man in green pants who's lost a giant bag of money. Problem is the money isn't exactly lost. Stephanie's Grandma Mazur has found it, and like any good Jersey senior citizen she's high-tailed it in a Winnebago to Atlantic City and hit the slots. With Lula and Connie in tow, Stephanie attempts to bring Grandma home. But the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on everyone. Lula's found a job modeling plus size lingerie. Connie's found a guy. Diesel's found Stephanie. And Stephanie has found herself in over her head with a caper involving thrice stolen money, a racehorse, a car chase and a bad case of hives. Unabridged: 3 Compact Discs, Running Time: 3.5 hours Narrator: Lorelei King

Charlie Rizzo has his family at gunpoint and when Darby arrives to defuse the scene, she finds him horrifically mutilated, with a mask of human skin sewn in place over his own face. Within minutes, a group of men disguised as SWAT officers bursts in and releases deadly Sarin gas, killing the...  more

Charlie Rizzo has his family at gunpoint and when Darby arrives to defuse the scene, she finds him horrifically mutilated, with a mask of human skin sewn in place over his own face. Within minutes, a group of men disguised as SWAT officers bursts in and releases deadly Sarin gas, killing the Rizzo family outright and leaving Darby herself barely alive.  Where has Charlie Rizzo been held all these years? Who are The Twelve who have been executing this gruesome torture? And why are the FBI running scared in the face of this particular, chilling episode? Darby is facing the toughest case of her career...and, as the body count rises, one that will bring her into great personal danger and leave her in fear of losing her mind, if not her soul.

A daring novella about the loss of innocence in pre-war Germany. Reunion is the story of intense and innocent devotion between two young men growing up in "the soft, serene, bluish hills of Swabia," and the sinister (but all too mundane) forces that end both their friendship and...  more

A daring novella about the loss of innocence in pre-war Germany. Reunion is the story of intense and innocent devotion between two young men growing up in "the soft, serene, bluish hills of Swabia," and the sinister (but all too mundane) forces that end both their friendship and their childhood. The year is 1932. Hans Schwartz is Jewish, the son of a Stuttgart doctor who asserts that the rise of the Nazis is "a temporary illness, something like measles which will pass off as soon as the economic situation improves." The Holocaust would be unthinkable for these characters, but of course it looms over the story: Hans's friend, the young Count Konradin von Hohenfels, has a mother who keeps a portrait of Hitler on her dresser. The two boys share their most private thoughts and trips to the countryside of southwest Germany, discuss poetry and the past and present of their country, and argue the existence of a benevolent God. The eventual disintegration of this cherished relationship foreshadows the fate of Europe's Jews -- but Uhlman doesn't end his story with neat polarities. Years later, exiled in America, Hans comes upon a revelation about von Hohenfels which provides a stunning denouement and leaves the reader recalling Uhlman's haunting, lyrical descriptions of the vineyards, opera houses, and dark forests of Württemberg. With an introduction by Arthur Koestler.

New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo delivers an electrifying thriller in which Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must confront a dark evil to solve the mysterious murders of an entire Amish family. The Plank family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to join the small Amish...  more

New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo delivers an electrifying thriller in which Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must confront a dark evil to solve the mysterious murders of an entire Amish family. The Plank family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to join the small Amish community of Painters Mill less than a year ago and seemed the model of the Plain Life -- until on a cold October night, the entire family of seven was found slaughtered on their farm. Police Chief Kate Burkholder and her small force have few clues, no motive, and no suspect. Formerly Amish herself, Kate is no stranger to the secrets the Amish keep from the English -- and each other -- but this crime is horribly out of the ordinary. State agent John Tomasetti arrives on the scene to assist. He and Kate worked together on a previous case during which they began a volatile relationship. They soon realize the disturbing details of this case will test their emotional limits and force them to face demons from their own troubled pasts -- and for Kate, a personal connection that is particularly hard to bear. When she discovers a diary that belonged to one of the teenaged daughters, Kate is shocked to learn the girl kept some very dark secrets and may have been living a lurid double life. Who is the charismatic stranger who stole the young Amish girl's heart? Could the brother -- a man with a violent past, rejected and shunned by his family and the Amish community, have come to seek out revenge? As Kate's outrage grows so does her resolve to find the killer and bring him to justice -- even if it means putting herself in the line of fire. Topping her own bestselling debut, Linda Castillo once again immerses us in the world of the Amish with a chilling story that is both a fast-paced thriller and intriguing psychological puzzle.

The Slabaugh family are model Amish farmers, prosperous and hardworking, with four children and a happy extended family. When the parents and an uncle are found dead in their barn, it appears to be a gruesome accident: methane gas asphyxiation caused by a poorly ventilated cesspit. But in the...  more

The Slabaugh family are model Amish farmers, prosperous and hardworking, with four children and a happy extended family. When the parents and an uncle are found dead in their barn, it appears to be a gruesome accident: methane gas asphyxiation caused by a poorly ventilated cesspit. But in the course of a routine autopsy, the coroner discovers that one of the victims suffered a head wound before death -- clearly, foul play was involved. But who would want to make orphans of the Slabaughs' children? And is this murder somehow related to a recent string of shocking hate crimes against the Amish? Having grown up Amish, Kate is determined to bring the killer to justice. Because the other series of attacks are designated hate crimes, the state sends in agent John Tomasetti, with whom Kate has a long and complex relationship. Together, they search for the link between the crimes -- and uncover a dark secret at work beneath the placid surface of this idyllic Amish community.  

A deeply chilling novel about a rite of passage gone horribly wrong. Rumspringa is the time when Amish teens are allowed to experience life without the rules. It’s an exciting time of personal discovery and growth before committing to the church. But when a young teen disappears...  more

A deeply chilling novel about a rite of passage gone horribly wrong. Rumspringa is the time when Amish teens are allowed to experience life without the rules. It’s an exciting time of personal discovery and growth before committing to the church. But when a young teen disappears without a trace, the carefree fun comes to an abrupt and sinister end, and fear spreads through the community like a contagion. A missing child is a nightmare to all parents, and never more so than in the Amish community, where family ties run deep. When the search for the presumed runaway turns up a dead body, the case quickly becomes a murder investigation. And chief of Police Kate Burkholder knows that in order to solve this case she will have to call upon everything she has to give not only as a cop, but as a woman whose own Amish roots run deep. Kate and state agent, John Tomasetti, delve into the lives of the missing teen and discover links to cold cases that may go back years. But will Kate piece together all the parts of this sinister puzzle in time to save the missing teen and the Amish community from a devastating fate? Or will she find herself locked in a fight to the death with a merciless killer?

A rainy night, an Amish father returning home with his three children, a speeding car hurtling toward them out of nowhere. What at first seems like a tragic, but routine car accident suddenly takes on a more sinister cast as evidence emerges that nothing about the crash is accidental. But...  more

A rainy night, an Amish father returning home with his three children, a speeding car hurtling toward them out of nowhere. What at first seems like a tragic, but routine car accident suddenly takes on a more sinister cast as evidence emerges that nothing about the crash is accidental. But who would want to kill an Amish deacon and two of his children? He leaves behind a grieving widow and a young boy who clings to life in the intensive care wing of a hospital, unable to communicate. He may be the only one who knows what happened that night. Desperate to find out who killed her best friend’s husband and why, Kate begins to suspect she is not looking for a reckless drunk, but instead is on the trail of a cold blooded killer amid the residents of Painter’s Mill. It is a search that takes her on a chilling journey into the darkest reaches of the human heart and makes her question everything she has ever believed about the Amish culture into which she was born.

Plot Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he...  more

Plot Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two...  more

Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles's crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.

Spencer Morgan and Dieter Hedrick, one American, one German, are both young and eager to get into action in the war. Dieter, a shining member of the Hitler Youth movement, has actually met the Führer himself and was praised for his hard work. Now he is determined to make it to the...  more

Spencer Morgan and Dieter Hedrick, one American, one German, are both young and eager to get into action in the war. Dieter, a shining member of the Hitler Youth movement, has actually met the Führer himself and was praised for his hard work. Now he is determined to make it to the front lines, to push back the enemy and defend the honor of the Fatherland. Spencer, just sixteen, must convince his father to sign his induction papers. He is bent on becoming a paratrooper -- the toughest soldiers in the world. He will prove to his family and hometown friends that he is more than the little guy with crooked teeth. He'll prove to his father that he can amount to something and keep his promises. Everyone will look at him differently when he returns home in his uniform, trousers tucked into his boots in the paratrooper style. Both boys get their wishes when they are tossed into intense conflict during the Battle of the Bulge. And both soon learn that war is about a lot more than proving oneself and one?s bravery. Dean Hughes offers young readers a wrenching look at parallel lives and how innocence must eventually be shed.

Here together for the first time on CD are the three mysteries that started it all, introducing sexy, savvy ex-cop turned P.I. Kinsey Millhone to listeners everywhere…“A” Is for AlibiNikki Fife, convicted of murdering her husband Laurence, is out on parole after eight years of...  more

Here together for the first time on CD are the three mysteries that started it all, introducing sexy, savvy ex-cop turned P.I. Kinsey Millhone to listeners everywhere…“A” Is for AlibiNikki Fife, convicted of murdering her husband Laurence, is out on parole after eight years of prison. Now, she hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killed Laurence. The trail will twist and turn until finally turning back on itself, bringing Kinsey face-to-face with a killer cunning enough to get away with murder.“B” Is for BurglarElaine Boldt is missing, and her sister wants Kinsey Millhone to find her. It seems to be a routine job–until Kinsey is ordered to drop the investigation just as she discovers that days before Elaine’s disappearance, her next-door neighbor and bridge partner had been murdered. Now, the killer is still at large . . . and looking for Kinsey.“C” Is for CorpseKinsey Millhone is recruited to help Bobby Callahan, a young man struggling back to life after his Porsche was forced to take a near-fatal nose dive over the edge of a canyon. Three days later Bobby is dead and Kinsey must capture a cold-blooded killer before he strikes again.