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The Bottle Factory Outing: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 1974
by Beryl BainbridgeShort-listed for the Booker Prize and named 'one of the greatest novels of all time' by The Observer, this riveting novel which was recently adapted on BBC Radio 4 shows Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best. Freda and Brenda spend their days working in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory. A work outing offers promise for Freda and terror from Brenda; passions run high on that chilly day of freedom, and life after the outing never returns to normal.Inspired by author Beryl Bainbridge's own experiences working at a London wine-factory in the 1970s, The Bottle Factory Outing examines issues of friendship and consent, making the novel timelier than ever. Readers will be dazzled by this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious Guardian fiction prize-winning novel.'An outrageously funny and horrifying story' Graham Greene (Observer)
The Continental Op: Short Story Collection (CRIME MASTERWORKS)
by Dashiell Hammett'He is master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer' Boston GlobeDashiell Hammett is the true inventor of modern detective fiction and the creator of the private eye, the isolated hero in a world where treachery is the norm. THE CONTINENTAL OP was his great first contribution to the genre and these seven stories, which first appeared in the magazine Black Mask, are the best examples of Hammett's early writing, in which his formidable literary and moral imagination is already operating at full strength. THE CONTINENAL OP is the dispassionate fat man working for the Continental Detective Agency, modelled on the Pinkerton Agency, whose only interest is in doing his job in a world of violence, passion, desperate action and great excitement.
The Cry of the Halidon: A Novel
by Robert LudlumAlex McAuliff has received an offer he can't refuse: two million dollars for a geological survey of Jamaica's dark interior. All Dunstone, Limited, requires is his time, his expertise, and his absolute secrecy. No one--not even McAuliff's handpicked team--can know of Dunstone's involvement.But British Intelligence is aware of the deal and they've let Alex in on a secret of their own: the last survey team Dunstone dispatched to Jamaica vanished without a trace. Now it's too late to turn back. Alex already knows about Dunstone...which means he knows too much.From the moment he lands in Jamaica, Alex is a marked man. But who wants him dead? Dunstone? A rival company? Or British Intelligence? Here in an island paradise where even a beautiful woman might be a spy, every move could be his last, and his only clue to survival is a single mysterious word: Halidon. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity.
The Deadly Pearl: Black Samurai, The Golden Kill, Killer Warrior, And The Deadly Pearl (Black Samurai #4)
by Marc OldenSand attacks the empire of New York&’s deadliest pimpHer name is Rochelle, and she is only fifteen when she disappears. Her father is a secret service agent assigned to ex-president William Baron Clarke, and when he asks for help, Clarke calls the most capable tracker he knows: Robert Sand, the only black man to ever attain the rank of samurai. Sand combs the tenements of New York&’s East Village in search of the girl, finally learning what no father ever wants to hear: Rochelle is in the clutches of Pearl, the meanest pimp in town.Called Pearl because of his exquisite taste in jewelry, he is no ordinary hustler. Kidnapping is his specialty, and the women he snatches for sale overseas are never older than eighteen. He is proud to call his business &“white slavery,&” but his latest victim may be his last. Robert Sand is coming for him, and all the guns in New York won&’t be enough to protect this Pearl from getting scuffed.
The Death List (The Narc Series #3)
by Marc OldenA kingpin loses his little black book, and every pusher in the city will kill to find itHis name is Mr. Church. He is a drug kingpin whose empire stretches across six cities in the Northeast. And he is about to die. A rival dealer hires a gang of corrupt cops to end Church&’s reign—not just to get him out of the way, but to get ahold of his list. This small notebook holds the names of the couriers, suppliers, and crooked politicians who make the international drug trade run smoothly. The hit comes off, but the list vanishes. Whoever finds it will become one of the richest criminals in the country—assuming he lives to collect his first payment.Refereeing the melee is John Bolt, a narcotics agent with a hair trigger and a moral compass that&’s pointing him right at the heart of this war. Finding the list could mean the biggest bust of his career, and he doesn&’t mind killing to get his hands on it.
The Death List: Narc, Death Of A Courier, And The Death List (The Narc Series #3)
by Marc OldenA kingpin loses his little black book, and every pusher in the city will kill to find itHis name is Mr. Church. He is a drug kingpin whose empire stretches across six cities in the Northeast. And he is about to die. A rival dealer hires a gang of corrupt cops to end Church&’s reign—not just to get him out of the way, but to get ahold of his list. This small notebook holds the names of the couriers, suppliers, and crooked politicians who make the international drug trade run smoothly. The hit comes off, but the list vanishes. Whoever finds it will become one of the richest criminals in the country—assuming he lives to collect his first payment.Refereeing the melee is John Bolt, a narcotics agent with a hair trigger and a moral compass that&’s pointing him right at the heart of this war. Finding the list could mean the biggest bust of his career, and he doesn&’t mind killing to get his hands on it.
The Deep Six (Kim Aldrich Mystery #3)
by Jinny McdonnellKIM ALDRICH once again proves that trouble and danger just naturally seek her out. This time, her concern for a tiny blind girl nearly costs her her life. To a missing will, add a ring of murderous car thieves, a night of terror in a raft on the open sea, and an attractive newspaper reporter, and you have another spine-tingling KiM adventure: THE DEEP SIX
The Delgado Killings (The Narc Series #4)
by Marc OldenTo escape jail, a pusher takes out a contract on everyone in Bolt&’s departmentThe Delgado cocaine operation is more than a business. It&’s an empire, supplied by a direct line to the coca plants of South America. Delgado&’s soldiers are not common hoods, but a cadre of teenage boys chosen for their loyalty—and beauty. But now one of his lovers has failed him, allowing crack narcotics agent John Bolt to build a case against the kingpin. Delgado will handle his legal defense the same way he rules his evil empire: with murder.There are nine names on the list Delgado gives the killer. Eight are witnesses against him, whose deaths will assure Delgado&’s freedom. The ninth is Bolt&’s, who will die for turning Delgado&’s boy. But Bolt serves justice as ruthlessly as Delgado serves evil, and the dealer will find this narc has a kill list of his own.
The Dogs Of War
by Frederick ForsythKnocking off a bank or an armored truck is merely crude. Knocking off an entire republic has, I feel, a certain style." So says mining magnate Sir James Manson, a shadowy titan of the City, London's financial district, who schemes a coup d'etat in Zangaro, a small West African dictatorship where a secret source of platinum lies waiting to be exploited. If the goal is clear, the means are not, for there are no up-to-date manuals on overthrowing governments by force. By the time he has set forth this sinister venture in all its ramifications, Frederick Forsytn Bas fashioned that manual and given us a new classic of terror and enthrallment. The man selected to plan and carry out the sack of Zangaro is Cat Shannon, an Anglo-Irishman, aged thirty-three, late of Nigeria and the Congo. There is a deadly parallel about the ways Sir James and Cat set about their tasks: one shuttling between London and Zurich, manipulating currencies and stocks and using all the shady ploys of international finance; the other ranging all over Europe, hiring his small force of fellow ex-mercs, buying and shipping arms under false colors, moving his mini-army south against a hundred-day deadline, and planning the final blow with a brilliant precision that does not allow for the tiniest slip of timing or tactics. The world as we know it goes into a kind of mad dissolve, and beyond it we see a chillingly ordered antiworld of conspiracy, greed, and ferocity. From first inkling to final (and shockingly surprising) climax, there is hot havoc indeed when these dogs of War,' slip.
The Dogs of War
by Frederick ForsythAn astonishing discovery is made in the remote African republic of Zangaro, one which could change the course of a nation's history forever. But such a discovery cannot be kept secret for long and Sir James Manson will stop at nothing to protect this find. A ruthless and bloody-minded tycoon, Manson immediately hires an army of mercenaries and with this deadly crew behind him he sets out to topple the government and replace its dictator with a puppet president. But news of the discovery has reached Russia - and suddenly Manson finds he no longer makes the rules in this power game. A game in which win or lose means life or death. In this masterful thriller of international intrigue, Frederick Forsyth delivers a tense, brutal and always believable tale that will satisfy die-hard fans and newcomers alike.
The Doom Campaign
by Mary McMullen“Hey, Red!” It was the sort of casual greeting someone might toss out a car window at a red-haired woman. But Letty Garth had been wearing a black bell of a hat pulled down over her lovely bronze mane. And Letty Garth was not just another red-haired woman. That voice floating across a wintry New York night was only the beginning. Whoever it belonged to was trying to destroy Garth Goss and Bord, the hot young agency that turned heads all the way down Madison Avenue. It was a one-man Doom Campaign with GGB as a test market and Letty Garth as the target. What was worse, Letty Garth had a pretty good idea of who was behind it. But she hadn’t got to the top by telling all she knew, and she certainly wasn’t going to start now, even when mysterious pranks began costing the agency millions in lost billings. This was her problem and like every other problem in her glamorous life, Letty Garth would find a way to deal with it. She always had. So far. There are two more mysteries by Mary McMullen in Bookshare's library. Look for: A Grave Without Flowers and The Other Shoe.
The Dreadful Lemon Sky (Travis McGee #16)
by John D. Macdonald"The professional's professional of suspense writers."THE NEW YORK TIMESTravis McGee has been offered easy money by a longtime lady friend. But when she gets killed, McGee's got a boatload of mystery. Navigating his boat into troubled waters, he heads for the seamier side of Florida--where drug dealing, twisted sex, and corruption are easy to find--but murderous riddles are hard to solve....
The Enemies Within: Ask The Right Question, The Way We Die Now, And The Enemies Within (The Albert Samson Mysteries #3)
by Michael Z. LewinA playwright needs PI Albert Samson to find a thieving Broadway producer in this &“fast, funny and brilliant series&” from the Shamus Award–winning author (The Wall Street Journal). After a Florida vacation spent at the horse races—turning a measly profit of eighty-two cents before expenses—private detective Albert Samson is back in slushy, freezing Indy, where, thankfully, it&’s a short walk from his living room to his office door. One night, he opens it to find a hesitant stranger in an overcoat. With some prodding from the PI, Bennett Willson admits he wants Samson to strong-arm the Broadway producer who stole his play. When it turns out that the cleverly crafted story is as bogus as the client himself, Samson blows the lid off a simmering brew of hatred and revenge—leaving his own life hanging in the balance. Written by a Shamus Award–winning author who &“has brains and style,&” this crime novel follows the beloved midwestern detective in his most bizarre case yet (Los Angeles Times). The Enemies Within is the 3rd book in the Albert Samson Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
The Face Of Trespass
by Ruth RendellTwo years ago he had been a promising young novelist. Now he survived - you could hardly call it living - in a near derelict cottage with only an unhooked telephone and his own obsessive thoughts for company. Two years of loving Drusilla - the bored, rich, unstable girl with everything she needed, and a husband she wanted dead. The affair was over. But the long slide into deception and violence had just begun. . .
The Fairly Innocent Little Man
by Laurence MeynellMajor Weller plays bridge and plays it very well. He isn't a major, and his name isn't Weller, but Hooky Hefferman doesn't know this. In fact, so impressed is he with the self-possessed major that he is completely unaware of the crime being committed under his nose.The potential victim is Hooky's formidable aunt, the Hon. Mrs Page-Foley, but she doesn't seem to be the 'victim' type, and from most people's point of view, including Hooky's, she appears more than capable of looking after herself.But the crime goes wrong, and Hooky soon finds himself in the midst of an impending disaster. A disaster he must prevent if anyone - including his aunt and his latest love interest - is to take him seriously as a private detective again.
The Ghost on Saturday Night
by Sid FleischmanThe big, ugly stranger gave Opie a ticket. It said Admit 2. Admit two to what? What kind of a show could it be? Opie went, and it turned out to be the scariest night of his life! This book is a funny and spooky mystery set in the old west when there was no electricity or cars so people travelled on horseback without street lights. With no TV or computers, find out how people had fun, got tricked, and worse. From his Aunt, Opie has learned to be hard working, clever and brave. He figures out a tricked that had the whole town running for their lives. Some pictures are described.
The Ghosts of Stone Hollow
by Zilpha Keatley SnyderAmy&’s new town holds a secret far more wondrous than she could ever imagineTaylor Springs is the place where Amy&’s family grew up, and it felt like her hometown even before she moved there. But there is one place that her family left out of their stories: the supposedly haunted Stone Hollow, a hidden valley with an old, deserted cottage. And though Amy is curious, she can&’t get a straight answer about it from anyone—well, anyone except Jason. Jason has explored Stone Hollow, and he doesn&’t think it&’s haunted. He has a different theory: He believes it&’s a place where time folds and moves over itself, replaying scenes and moments from the past. And sometimes, the past comes back in unexpected and unwanted ways. Amy doesn&’t believe Jason at first, but soon she realizes that things aren&’t always as they seem. Could Jason be right about the secret of Stone Hollow? This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
The Giant Kill
by Kin PlattMax Roper, durable investigator, is sapped, doped and imprisoned on a boat apparently used by a mysterious Oriental for business purposes. The point of this caper is to have Max carry a warning to basketball superstar Jo-Jo Gonzaga that he must throw the championship play-off. When Gonzaga is shot and killed in his own fabulous and eccentrically designed home after his team wins the second game of the series, Roper decides to find the hoods who had abducted him.Max discovers that a lot of people wanted Gonzaga dead and that there is more to this murder than the gangland routine of forcing a team win at any cost.For example:Jules Belmont, miserly millionaire who likes to bet and bet big. He also hates to lose—a bet or a dame.Sandy Shaw, a bright and sexy whiz kid who can beat the computer in her specialty of voice prints.Larry LaSalle, her boss, resident expert at UCLA, the man who had designed the computer which can identify any person from his speech patterns.Barbara Belmont, niece of Jules.A hippie girl who lives at sea and tries to keep Roper the same.Frankie Wu, a shadowy Oriental who may be part of an international heroin-smuggling ring.Then there are the other characters Roper knows only as The Rube, Gorilla and Wolfman. He trails this trio to Mexico, where more violence erupts. Then the trail leads back to a beautiful blonde singer in the Gaslight Club in Los Angeles, where there is more violence. There is Tom Power, the ex-basketballer, a man who remembers the favors Gonzaga had done for him.Not to be forgotten among this provocatively mixed cast, are the Great Danes who owned by Gonzaga. Roper has a feeling they will be in a the final kill and only hopes he can beat them to it when he brings down Gonzaga’s murderer.
The Glass Inferno
by Thomas N. Scortia Frank M. RobinsonIt burst into flame without warning. An incendiary deathtrap claiming victims as powerless against the blaze as the fire fighters sixty-six stories below. Their emotions laid bare, hundreds cringed or found new courage-millionaires, criminals, lovers, children-in a rain of raw panic from which few-or none-would escape.
The Godwulf Manuscript (Spenser Ser.)
by Robert B. ParkerThe first detective novel featuring Boston PI Spenser, in Robert B. Parker's acclaimed and bestselling Spenser SeriesThe first in the series featuring private detective Spenser sees Spenser hired to return a stolen fourteenth-century manuscript to its rightful owners, an investigation that soon leads him into a complex web of murder, radical politics, adultery, drugs and organised crime.'When it comes to detective novels, 90 per cent of us admit he's an influence, and the rest of us lie about it' HARLAN COBEN
The Golden Kill: Black Samurai, The Golden Kill, Killer Warrior, And The Deadly Pearl (Black Samurai #2)
by Marc OldenAlone and outgunned, Sand has two weeks to stop the largest gold heist in historyThe Chinese diplomat walks into the revolving door just a step ahead of the grenade. Samurai Robert Sand is too late to save him from the blast, but as the smoke clears he is hot on the grenade-tosser&’s heels. In Central Park, Sand disarms the killer and knocks him unconscious. His name is Ivan Vanich, and he is posing as a Soviet operative. His real employer is a power-mad millionaire, who arranged the hit as part of a plot to upend a Russo-Chinese trading contract and seize the profits for himself. The diplomat in the revolving door was only the first to die. On special orders from an ex-president, Sand races to avert catastrophe. His hunt for answers takes him to a sprawling English castle, where the samurai comes face to face with the man who would let millions die for the sake of gold.
The Gooseberry Fool
by James McclureHugo Swart, faithful churchgoer and respected citizen, is found stabbed to death on the floor of his kitchen just before Christmas, on the hottest night of the year. If Mr. Swart's Reverend is to be believed, no one in the world could have a reason to kill him; the murder was most likely a robbery gone ugly, and the chief suspect is Swart's black servant, Shabalala, who has fled to the countryside. But Lieutenant Kramer suspects that not everything is as it seems. While Zondi pursues Shabalala in what turns out to be a treacherous tour of miserable outlying Bantu villages, Kramer tries to wring the truth out of some of Swart's acquaintances in Trekkersburg and Cape Town-it seems not everyone liked the victim quite as much as the Reverend did. But danger lies at every turn-what will this investigation cost the duo? McClure's merciless depiction of 1970s South Africa, its many layers of racism, and the gaps between rich and poor make this perhaps the most devourable book in the Kramer and Zondi series yet.
The Grand Ole Opry Murders (The Hilary Quayle Mysteries #2)
by Marvin KayeIn a famous Nashville family, a deadly feud is as much a tradition as country music Hilary Quayle has never done public relations for a country-western client, but Amanda Boulder&’s songwriting is beautiful, her voice is pure, and her career is in bad need of a good publicist. But there&’s one thing standing in the way of a great solo career: the rest of the Boulder family. The Boulders have been touring for eight decades, ever since old Pappy Boulder first picked up a fiddle. Hilary sends her assistant, Gene, to join up with the traveling Boulder Clan bluegrass musicians as they make their way to Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry. But before Amanda&’s budding solo career can put an end to the family business, someone decides to put an end to her. She&’s onstage at the Opry when the poison hits. And when Hilary Quayle gets to Nashville, she&’ll learn that Southern hospitality and murder can go hand-in-hand.
The Hell with Elaine
by Van SillerElaine Parker was very spoiled and very beautiful, and maybe because of both, her love affair with Neil Stratton had ended on an ugly note. Neil simply could not keep up with her extravagant life split between a modeling career in New York and a beach house in Connecticut. When they'd finally parted, Elaine had gone around telling all their friends in town that Neil had tried to kill her. Of course the idea was ridiculous, or so it seemed until Elaine dropped out of sight after the break-up. That had been a year ago, and nobody had seen Elaine. Finally her father asked Elaine's cousin, Nancy, to try to find out what had happened, and naturally the place to start the search was with Neil. But as Nancy got to know Neil she discovered that her interest in him went far beyond, her curiosity about Elaine--a realization which made it doubly difficult for Nancy to face up to the growing evidence that Elaine had been murdered.
The Highbinders (The Philip St. Ives Mysteries #4)
by Ross ThomasSt. Ives goes to London on a job for the least trustworthy con artist he knowsPhilip St. Ives has only been in the pub a few minutes before he realizes his whiskey is drugged. Instantly sick, he&’s vomiting on the sidewalk when the muggers appear. He fights as best he can in his drugged state, and only when he feels the handcuffs does he realize his assailants aren&’t muggers—they&’re cops. He wakes in a dingy cell to the knowledge that English Eddie Apex has pulled a fast one on him. English Eddie is not English, but talks with a British accent that once made him New York&’s most refined con artist. In retirement and living in London, he had hired St. Ives—a professional mediator between crooks and their marks—to come to England to help him recover a stolen painting. The drugged whiskey won&’t be the last surprise St. Ives gets in Blighty, and the police won&’t be the only ones who try to cause him pain.