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Foursome (The John Cuddy Mysteries #8)
by Jeremiah HealyCuddy travels to Maine to investigate a gruesome lakeside murderSteve always forgets to buy groceries on the way to the lake house. Every time he and his wife make a pilgrimage to Maine, his first task is to drive into town and pick up essentials. Today he leaves his wife at home with their two friends and returns from the store to find a crossbow on the lawn and arrows embedded in the chests of the three people he loves most. During a twenty-minute shopping trip, he has become the chief suspect in a triple murder. The case against him is airtight—fingerprints on the weapon, blood on his shoes—so Steve&’s lawyer hires Boston PI John Francis Cuddy to crack it. Steve&’s lakeside neighbors had no love for his yuppie pals, but did they hate the city slickers enough to frame him for murder? Cuddy learns quickly that in Maine, even the killers are awfully polite.
On Becoming a Novelist: On Becoming A Novelist, On Writers And Writing, And On Moral Fiction
by John GardnerThe classic for serious fiction writers: &“The book is the result of John Gardner&’s twenty-odd years of teaching experience, and it shows&” (Anne Tyler). In this essential guide, John Gardner advises the aspiring fiction author on such topics as the value of creative writing workshops, the developmental stages of literary growth, and the inevitable experience of writer&’s block. Drawn from his two decades of experience in creative writing, Gardner balances his compassion for his students with his knowledge of the publishing industry, and truthfully relates his experiences of the hardships that lie ahead for aspiring authors. On Becoming a Novelist is a must-read for those dedicated to the craft and profession of fiction writing. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.
The Case of the Murdered Mackenzie (The Masao Masuto Mysteries #7)
by Howard FastDetective Masuto reopens an investigation into a murderous film star—with deadly consequencesOn the day that Eve Mackenzie murders her husband, Masao Masuto is on a plane to Japan. For years he and his wife, both American-born Japanese, have dreamed of visiting their homeland, and though the trip is a delight, the Zen Buddhist detective cannot help but check the international papers for news of murder on his home turf of Beverly Hills. Part of him regrets missing the sensational Mackenzie killing. Once a high-profile film star, Eve faded from the public eye after wedding a wealthy Scotsman—an unhappy marriage that ended in bloodshed. When Masuto returns home, Eve is headed toward an inevitable conviction. Why, then, does he reopen the case? The evidence against the Hollywood starlet is so airtight that Masuto suspects a frame-up. As he pries into the closed case, more blood spills. Eve Mackenzie may not have murdered her husband, but she is far from innocent. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Avenging Angel (The Gabe Wager Novels #5)
by Rex BurnsAn unidentified body points Wager to a radical religious sectA year ago, homicide detective Gabe Wager had a man killed. Though Wager feels no guilt at doing away with an evil man, his partner, Max Axton, is disgusted, and has hardly spoken to him for a year. Now Wager and Axton have to work together to solve a baffling crime that takes them to the border of Colorado—and the limits of human faith. They find the body on Denver&’s outskirts, stripped of identifying marks and clutching a drawing of a sword-bearing angel. The picture is a clue: the calling card of a boastful killer. It leads Wager and Axton to the state&’s desolate fringe, where a radical Mormon group refuses to follow its church into the modern world, killing to protect their way of life.
Recycling in the Garden: Reusing Everyday Items
by Angela YoungmanPeople are becoming more aware of the environment and their impact on it. Over the past decades we have become an increasingly consumerist based society. From a world in which recycling was common, single use became the norm. This throwaway society is unsustainable. Sustainable gardening results in the creation of an environmentally friendly area in which natural predators thrive and soils are naturally replenished. Discover innovative and simple ways of recycling everything from water to materials in the garden. Practical examples show recycling in action turning unwanted items into useful features such as bottle edging, footpaths made from tyres, garden forks into table lamps, broken pottery to mosaics and tree roots into lush garden stumperies. Recycling, reusing and upcycling in the garden can make a difference helping you save money by using less water, making your own compost, choosing energy efficient equipment and by giving everyday items a totally new function. Instead of a throwaway society, we are increasingly looking at ways of reducing our use of increasingly scarce resources, turning plastic into paths, using solar energy and conserving water. Natural recycling of plant material and sustainable gardening is increasingly popular. This book helps search for creative ideas that can conserve resources, and save you money. Water is no longer cheap, so the book suggests many ways that you can re-use water and get free rainwater. The book helps you with places you may not think of looking for free and cheap material, such as reclamation yards, factories, restaurants and hospitals. Let your imagination run free without needing much skill and without breaking the bank.
The Magic Christian
by Terry SouthernThe New York Times–bestselling author&’s cult classic skewers America&’s obsession with money, fame, guns, and sex—&“A satirical gem&” (John Berendt). Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire prankster, is rich enough to do whatever he likes. And what he likes is to carefully execute projects where he can cauterize by ridicule what the rest of the world ignores: complacency, greed, corruption, and idiocy. Determined to &“make it hot for people,&” Grand spends his billions staging a series of hilarious, sometimes bewildering stunts, lampooning along the way the American holy cows of money, status, power, beauty, media, and stardom. Concocting deliciously perverse mayhem, he throws a million one-hundred-dollar bills into an enormous vat of steaming offal, proving just what people will do for money, and he promotes a new silky shampoo that turns hair to wire and a deodorant that becomes a time-released stench-bomb. He inserts subliminally suggestive and perverse images into well-loved classic films, takes a howitzer on safari, and brings a panther to a kennel club dog show. His most elaborate adventure is an ultra-exclusive cruise aboard the S.S. Magic Christian, where elite passengers are treated to a series of madcap indignities. The Magic Christian is a hilarious and savagely satiric view of American commercialism, rich in Southern&’s deft handling of detail, dialogue, and delightful deviancy. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Terry Southern including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s estate.
Tender Is LeVine: A Jack Levine Mystery (The Jack LeVine Mysteries #3)
by Andrew BergmanWhen their maestro is kidnapped, an orchestra hires Jack LeVine to find himJack LeVine has been in a vicious funk since his father died in 1948. But after more than a year sulking in his apartment, joylessly listening to ball games, news reports, and classical music programs on the radio, the private detective has gone back to work in his freshly renovated office. His depression has passed, but those months glued to the radio are about to come in handy. His first client is a German violinist, who visits LeVine out of concern for his maestro, Toscanini, the famous conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The maestro&’s memory is slipping, his conducting style has changed, and his eyesight is suddenly better than it used to be. The violinist suspects that the conductor has disappeared and been replaced by a double. It&’s an outlandish suspicion, but LeVine takes the case. After all, somebody has to pay for his new office. Soon enough, LeVine finds out that organized crime is playing the tune . . .
They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, December 15–16, 1864 (Emerging Civil War Series)
by Sean Michael ChickThe November 1864 battle of Franklin left the Army of Tennessee stunned. In only a few hours, the army lost 6,000 men and a score of generals. Rather than pause, John Bell Hood marched his army north to Nashville. He had risked everything on a successful campaign and saw his offensive as the Confederacy’s last hope. There was no time to mourn. There was no question of attacking Nashville. Too many Federals occupied too many strong positions. But Hood knew he could force them to attack him and, in doing so, he could win a defensive victory that might rescue the Confederacy from the chasm of collapse. Unfortunately for Hood, he faced George Thomas. He was one of the Union’s best commanders, and he had planned and prepared his forces. But with battle imminent, the ground iced over, Thomas had to wait. An impatient Ulysses S. Grant nearly sacked him, but on December 15-16, Thomas struck and routed Hood’s army. He then chased him out of Tennessee and into Mississippi in a grueling winter campaign. After Nashville, the Army of Tennessee was never again a major fighting force. Combined with William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas and Grant’s capture of Petersburg and Richmond, Nashville was the first peal in the long death knell of the Confederate States of America. In They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, historian Sean Michael Chick offers a fast-paced, well analyzed narrative of John Bell Hood’s final campaign, complete with the most accurate maps yet made of this crucial battle.
The Stick Game (The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du Pré #7)
by Peter BowenA Montana deputy takes on a mining company that&’s poisoning reservation children in a novel the Washington Post calls &“wonderful [and] wise.&” Something is rotten in the Fort Belknap Reservation. Life has always been tough on this barren stretch just south of the Canadian border, but now the children are getting sick. While playing his fiddle in a reservation bar, part-time deputy Gabriel Du Pré meets an accordionist who suspects the children&’s health defects and low test scores are connected to pollution from the nearby Persephone gold mine. Meanwhile, Du Pré investigates the disappearance of one of the afflicted children. When the boy turns up dead, the accordionist&’s theory gains credence. It wouldn&’t be the first time the rich men of Montana found wealth at the expense of the reservation&’s kids. But is there something more than greed and indifference at work? Something even more sinister? Du Pré will make it his business to find out. &“In other hands, melodrama could easily rear its head and trample the scenery, but Bowen has a firm grip on his large cast of interesting players . . . [in this] tale of grace vs. greed&” (Publishers Weekly).The Stick Game is the 7th book in The Montana Mysteries Featuring Gabriel Du Pré series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Penelope
by Howard FastDissatisfied with life on the Upper East Side, a socialite finds a new favorite pastime: robbing banksWhen James R. Hastings, president of the City Federal Bank, began construction of a new branch on Madison Avenue, he vowed to make it burglar proof. Vaults set forty feet below ground, an array of cameras, and a quartet of burly guards were intended to deter any bandit. But James Hastings did not count on being robbed by his wife. Three weeks after the bank opens, a demure old woman removes a Luger from her handbag and asks a clerk to empty her register, then disappears into the bathroom with a haul of over $50,000. When the guards arrive, a scared young woman flees the bathroom and points them to the stalls. Inside, they find nothing but a discarded disguise, while the young woman walks calmly out the front door. This is Penelope Hastings—a bored banker&’s wife who, now that she has taken up crime, will never be bored again. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Temple of My Familiar (The Color Purple Collection #2)
by Alice WalkerThe Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple weaves a &“glorious and iridescent&” tapestry of interrelated lives in this New York Times bestseller (Library Journal).Includes a new letter written by the author In The Temple of My Familiar, Celie and Shug from The Color Purple subtly shadow the lives of dozens of characters, all dealing in some way with the legacy of the African experience in America. From recent African immigrants, to a woman who grew up in the mixed-race rainforest communities of South America, to Celie&’s own granddaughter living in modern-day San Francisco, all must come to understand the brutal stories of their ancestors to come to terms with their own troubled lives. As Walker follows these astonishing characters, she weaves a new mythology from old fables and history, a profoundly spiritual explanation for centuries of shared African American experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alice Walker including rare photos from the author&’s personal collection. The Temple of My Familiar is the 2nd book in the Color Purple Collection, which also includes The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy.
An Unkindness of Ravens (The Inspector Wexford Mysteries #1)
by Ruth RendellThis Edgar Award finalist from the New York Times–bestselling author is a &“suspense mystery of the highest order&” (The New Yorker). For London&’s Chief Inspector Reg Wexford, it wasn&’t an official call. He was just being neighborly when he agreed to talk to Joy Williams about her missing husband, Rodney. Apparently, he went to Ipswich on business and never came home. Wexford has an idea what happened: He most likely ran off with one of his girlfriends. However, there are a few nagging concerns, like Rodney&’s suspicious letter of resignation and his abandoned car. And is it just a fluke that his disappearance coincides with a rash of stabbings—all straight through the heart, all with male victims. Wexford&’s detective instincts must take flight in order to bring down a murderer. Or two. Or three. Because, behind the seemingly placid domesticity of his Sussex neighbors, there is a growing web of tangling secrets, double lives, and triple-crosses. &“Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America&’s prestigious Edgar Award, is regarded as one of the top mystery writers working today. With An Unkindness of Ravens, she shows, once again, that reputation is well-deserved&” (Los Angeles Times).
Ladies' Bane: A Miss Silver Mystery (The Miss Silver Mysteries #22)
by Patricia WentworthGoverness-turned-sleuth Miss Silver unravels a tangled web of marriage, mystery, and murder in the English countryside No one has seen Allegra Trent since she got married. Her husband, Geoffrey, swept her off her feet and out of London to a faraway town called Bleake, consumed with the dream of owning a ramshackle medieval estate known as &“Ladies&’ Bane.&” Why he&’s so determined to live there no one knows, but Allegra postpones visits from family again and again, and then stops writing letters at all. Her family has begun to worry when suddenly her sister, Ione, finds herself not merely invited but positively urged to come. At first, Ione is puzzled, but upon her arrival she suspects that ominous forces are at work in the house. Then an unexpected death occurs, and her worst suspicions are confirmed. Miss Silver might appear harmless, but the former governess knows her way around a murder. As a private investigator, she&’s solved many cases among London&’s upper class and has earned &“her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot&” (Manchester Evening News).
The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom
by Alfred L. Martin Jr.Even after a rise in gay and Black representation and production on TV in the 1990s, the sitcom became a "generic closet," restricting Black gay characters with narrative tropes.Drawing from 20 interviews with credited episode writers, key show-runners, and Black gay men, The Generic Closet situates Black-cast sitcoms as a unique genre that uses Black gay characters in service of the series' heterosexual main cast. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., argues that the Black community is considered to be antigay due to misrepresentation by shows that aired during the family viewing hour and that were written for the imagined, "traditional" Black family. Martin considers audience reception, industrial production practices, and authorship to unpack the claim that Black gay characters are written into Black-cast sitcoms such as Moesha, Good News, and Let's Stay Together in order to closet Black gayness.By exploring how systems of power produce ideologies about Black gayness, The Generic Closet deconstructs the concept of a monolithic Black audience and investigates whether this generic closet still exists.
Bloody Passage (Classic Jack Higgins Collection)
by Jack HigginsAn intelligence officer fights to save his sister from the mob in this thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Midnight Bell. Oliver Grant is an American intelligence officer, a hero of the Vietnam War. But when the Mafia kidnaps his sister, his life is turned upside down and he agrees to complete a dangerous assignment for the powerful mob boss Dimitri Stavrou in order to gain her freedom: Grant must save Stavrou&’s son from a secret cliff-top prison in Libya. To accomplish this mission, he must scale the rocky crag and somehow get Stavrou&’s son out alive. His sister&’s life—and his own—hang in the balance in a nerve-racking tale of action and suspense from the author Tom Clancy called &“the master,&” with more than a quarter of a billion copies of his thrillers sold around the world.
King of the Corner (The Detroit Novels #3)
by Loren D. EstlemanFresh out of jail, an ex-ballplayer stumbles into the world of bounty hunting and murder in urban DetroitEven prison couldn&’t stop former big-league pitcher Doc Miller from playing baseball. Jailed after a teenage girl overdosed on cocaine at one of his house parties, the former Detroit Tigers ace became a star at the Michigan State Prison, bringing home the institution&’s first Midwestern Penal System championship. Now out on parole, his days of ballpark heroics are over for good. Miller&’s brother gets him a job selling tractor parts for John Deere, work Doc finds even duller than life in the joint. While moonlighting as a cab driver, he meets a bail bondsman who offers work as a bounty hunter. On their first job together, they find their target savagely murdered. His name was Ambrose X. Dryce, formerly Wilson McCoy, a Black Panther turned drug lord. Sucked back into the criminal underworld, Doc will need to make his best plays to stay alive without violating his parole. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author&’s personal collection.
Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy (Virago Modern Classics Ser. #585)
by Rebecca WestIn this modern fairy tale, Rebecca West transports her reader with a tale of the polar opposites of mind and spirit, love and power Harriet Hume&’s unchanging beauty and commitment to her art stand in stark contrast to Arnold Condorex&’s more worldly goals. After a romantic tryst, she discovers that she can read his mind, but Arnold, with his sights set on moving up in the world, quickly parts from the mysterious lady. As they encounter each other over the years, Harriet&’s intuitive powers continue to unsettle Arnold, opening his eyes to the darker elements of his political and financial aspirations, even as he remains drawn to her. Beautifully drawn and filled with magical touches, West&’s fantasy explores innate and learned gender roles, as her characters uncover the mystery surrounding their otherworldly connection.
The Fala Factor (The Toby Peters Mysteries)
by Stuart M. KaminskyWith &“shades of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett,&” a 1940s Los Angeles private eye must recover FDR&’s kidnapped dog (The San Diego Union-Tribune). Working in Hollywood, private eye Toby Peters has met a lot of phonies. But his newest case concerns a four-legged faker who threatens the fate of the free world. A few classy dames have crossed the detective&’s doorstep, but none can touch the hem of the dress of the First Lady herself, Eleanor Roosevelt, who&’s come to him on a matter of top-secret national security. Six months after Pearl Harbor, Mrs. Roosevelt has developed a terrible suspicion. She thinks the president&’s sprightly Scottish terrier, Fala, has been kidnapped and replaced by an imposter, and she wants Peters to find the real rover—for without him, all may be lost. As usual, the First Lady is right. Peters learns that the presidential pooch is the linchpin in a fiendish plot against the White House. Fortunately, this old detective has learned some new tricks, and he has no intention of rolling over and playing dead. Featuring a cameo by Buster Keaton, this Toby Peters mystery is further proof that Edgar Award–winning author Stuart M. Kaminsky &“has a delightfully original mind enriching—rather than borrowing from—an old literary form&” (Los Angeles Times).
Something Warm from the Oven: Baking Memories, Making Memories
by Eileen GoudgeA trove of classic recipes from the New York Times bestselling novelist Eileen Goudge One of six children, Eileen Goudge learned to bake at an early age, inspired by her mother, who made everything from scratch and baked all her own bread. She has fond memories of the banana cake, apple crisp, and baked Alaska she loved as a child, and many of her novels feature temptations in the form of sweets, from the fine chocolates of Such Devoted Sisters to the icebox cookies of One Last Dance. In this volume, Goudge collects the best of her mother&’s recipes, adds some of her own, and includes a few from friends and readers. She tells the story of each dish in mouthwatering detail, giving glimpses of her childhood and noting which treats are best for picnics, parties, and other special occasions. These are not difficult recipes, but they are brilliant, and each one is designed to soothe the soul as well as please the palate. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Eileen Goudge including rare photos from the author&’s personal collection.
Death Row Breakout: And Other Stories
by Edward BunkerSix stories from the papers of one of America&’s finest crime authorsRoger doesn&’t mean for the preacher and his wife to die. Released less than a year earlier from San Quentin, he&’s trying to make a living the only way he knows how: theft. His latest heist goes perfectly until his car breaks down. Sirens are closing in when an old black preacher stops to give him a lift. The police at the roadblock kill the elderly couple, but in the eyes of the law it&’s Roger&’s fault. And he will die in the gas chamber at San Quentin—unless he can break out first. Roger&’s incredible story anchors this collection of short fiction by Edward Bunker, who knew better than anyone what it means to be a criminal, inside and outside of prison. In these stories, which were unpublished at the time of his death in 2005, he shows again the talent that made him such a remarkable writer.
Fog of Doubt (The Inspector Cockrill Mysteries #5)
by Christianna BrandThe Golden Age author of Green for Danger delivers &“a mystery in the classic Christie-Carr-Queen manner . . . An outstanding tour de force&” (The New York Times). Few were disappointed when Raoul Vernet was found with his head bashed in, dead in a pool of his own blood. On vacation in England, the Belgian seducer comes to visit Matilda, an old flame from a few years before. She agrees despite suspicions that Vernet has been deploying his legendary charm on another member of the family: young Rosie, who has returned from her Swiss boarding school carrying a child. None of the family members were in the house when Raoul was killed, but all were within a fog-choked London mile. Rosie calls in the brilliant Inspector Cockrill to clear the family&’s name, but what he finds is a twisted clan of seven people, each as likely to laugh at a murder as commit one.
Cast a Yellow Shadow (Mysterious Press-highbridge Audio Classics Ser.)
by Ross ThomasAn old CIA connection brings trouble for a Washington, DC, barman in this thriller from &“America&’s best storyteller&” (The New York Times Book Review). As the saying goes, you can&’t pick your friends. If you could, Mac McCorkle would disown Padilla. They owned a bar together in Bonn, the West German capital, and stayed partners even after Padilla&’s sideline as a CIA operative got the bar blown up. Padilla was thought to be dead and erased from the CIA&’s files—but now he&’s back on the agency&’s turf. Mac moved to Washington, DC, after the trouble in Bonn to get married and open his bar anew. His new bride is beautiful, the bar is a success, and Padilla&’s reappearance threatens everything. A group of African terrorists want Padilla to assassinate the prime minister of their small sub-Saharan republic—and they&’ve kidnapped Mac&’s wife to use as leverage.
Gresley's Silver Link: The Evolution of the A4 Pacifics 1911–1941 (Locomotive Portfolios)
by Tim Hillier-Graves Ronald HillierGresley’s A4 Pacifics are arguably the most famous locomotives ever built, a status cemented by Mallard’s record breaking run on the 3rd July ‘38. And yet only a year later the glamorous ‘streaks’ seemed likely to be cast into obscurity by the coming of another world war. So, for only four exhilarating years they were allowed to flourish as their creator had intended and in that time captured the imagination of railwaymen and public alike. With the help of previously unpublished material the author analyses the complex evolution of the A4s - a project that began in 1911 when Gresley was appointed as Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway. It is a story with many strands to consider – war, peace and war again, engineering and art, politics and business, recession and social change, the growth of the media and consumerism, the struggle for professional reputations and a growing, deeply damaging international rivalry. All these elements are captured in the story of the A4s in the heady days before conflict ended their brief golden age and Gresley’s life came to an end.
The Eagle Has Landed (The Liam Devlin Novels #Bk. 1)
by Jack HigginsNew York Times Bestseller: An audacious Nazi plan to kidnap Winston Churchill threatens to tip the scales of World War II.In November of 1943, an elite team of Nazi paratroopers descends on British soil with a diabolical goal: to abduct Winston Churchill and cripple the Allied war effort. The mission, ordered by Hitler himself and planned by Heinrich Himmler, is led by ace agent Kurt Steiner and aided on the ground by IRA gunman Liam Devlin. As the deadly duo executes Hitler&’s harrowing plot, only the quiet town of Studley Constable stands in their way. Its residents are the lone souls aware of the impending Nazi plan, and they must become the most unlikely of heroes as the fate of the war hangs in the balance.
Sunny Jim: The Life of America's Most Beloved Horseman, James Fitzsimmons
by Jimmy BreslinAn evocative portrait of the Triple Crown–winning racehorse trainer: &“sportswriting as good as it could ever possibly be&” (New York Daily News). At seventy-seven, James &“Sunny Jim&” Fitzsimmons should have been considering retirement. His six-decade career stretched back to 1885, when, as an eleven year-old, he began working as a stable boy. After failing as a jockey, Fitzsimmons—or Mr. Fitz to those in the know—started training horses, eventually winning three Kentucky Derbys, two Triple Crowns, and more than two thousand races. But by 1951, glory seemed to be behind him. His wife&’s sudden death took the light from his eyes, and retirement loomed. And then he met Nashua. She was the kind of horse trainers dream of. Big, powerful, with a windpipe that could suck down enough air to keep her running for weeks. Mr. Fitz knew he had a winner. It was only a matter of time before he realized that he had also just met the most remarkable horse of his long, storied career. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s personal collection.