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The Transvection Machine (The Carl Crader Mysteries #1)
by Edward D. HochWhen a government official dies on the operating table, the president calls in the computer cops On Venus, a radical exile escapes from a maximum-security prison, pledging to return to Washington and assassinate the president. Transport between Earth and the solar colonies is tightly regulated, but the exile knows a shortcut: the top-secret transvection machine, an experimental device that could theoretically be used to teleport men from planet to planet. Vander Defoe, the tool&’s creator, is busy securing it when he feels a pain in his stomach: His appendix is about to explode. Defoe dies in the operating room during routine computerized surgery, and the case falls in the lap of the Computer Investigation Bureau, which has jurisdiction over all computer-related crimes. As the team tries to determine who corrupted the system that killed Defoe, it finds that in this case, all roads lead to Venus.The Transvectioon Machine is the first book in the Carl Crader Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
The Dead Seed: A Brock Callahan Mystery (The Brock Callahan Mysteries #11)
by William Campbell GaultBrock&’s boyhood idol moves in next door before vanishing and leaving a body in his wake In Hollywood&’s golden age, there was no finer swashbuckler than Fortney Grange. Decades after he last swung on a chandelier, Grange is nearly forgotten, his legacy surviving only in fuzzy black-and-white on the late-late movie channel. But to Brock Callahan, Grange remains a hero. When his idol shacks up with the aged widow next door, the ex-private investigator is starstruck. It takes a murder for the celluloid sheen to begin to fade. A strange pair of Arizona blackmailers takes up residence in a van outside Grange&’s house. Grange and his new lady friend disappear, and a few days later, his agent is found dead. Though it breaks his heart, Callahan is forced to investigate the man who has given him so much joy. And it will take more than swordplay for this aging daredevil to escape the chair. The Dead Seed is the 11th book in the Brock Callahan Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
The Melting Pot: Stories
by Lynne Sharon SchwartzA dynamic collection of stories that portrays different generations and explores various genres with compassion and dry witIn The Melting Pot, nothing is ever what it seems. In these short stories from critically acclaimed author Lynne Sharon Schwartz, characters grapple with the desires and needs of daily life, no matter how absurd or mundane. In the title story, a woman finally reveals her tangled family history to her widowed lover. In another tale, an ageing womanizer undergoes more than just a midlife crisis. In &“So You&’re Going to Have a New Body!&” a woman experiences a surreal surgical sterilization. The Melting Pot demonstrates Schwartz&’s many talents coalescing into a determined and striking whole.
Mother Earth, Father Sky: Mother Earth Father Sky, My Sister The Moon, And Brother Wind (The Ivory Carver Trilogy #1)
by Sue HarrisonA young woman comes of age in this epic saga. &“Harrison expertly frames dramatic events with depictions of prehistoric life in the Aleutian Islands&” (The New York Times Book Review). It&’s 7056 BC, a time before history. On the first day that Chagak&’s womanhood is acknowledged within her Aleut tribe, she unexpectedly finds herself betrothed to Seal Stalker, the most promising young hunter in the village. A bright future lies ahead of Chagak—but in one violent moment, she loses her entire way of life. Left with her infant brother, Pup, and only a birdskin parka for warmth, Chagak sets out across the icy waters on a quest for survival and revenge. Mother Earth, Father Sky is the first book of the Ivory Carver Trilogy, which also includes My Sister the Moon and Brother Wind.
Fata Morgana
by William KotzwinkleFrom the award-winning legend of speculative fiction, &“a witty sendup of the detective story&” with &“a richness of invention that doffs a hat to Dickens&” (Chicago Tribune). At a fashionable salon, Parisians line up to have their fortunes told by Ric Lazare&’s amazing machine. The predictions arrive with unerring accuracy, as if the invention were imbued with some sort of wondrous sorcery. The police, however, have a different opinion. They suspect that Lazare is a con man. Accordingly, they&’ve sent one of their own to investigate. Unfortunately, the man they send is Paul Picard. His methods are unconventional. His appetites—for lemon tarts, and for prostitutes—are legendary. And he is no stranger to the dark side of Paris. But Inspector Picard is entirely unprepared for the string of murders that pulls him across the continent. As the killer&’s seductive knot tightens around him, he learns once and for all that there&’s more to the glimmering world of high society than first appears. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for his novel Doctor Rat, William Kotzwinkle reaffirms his reputation as one of the most captivating and original American authors of the last half-century with this &“elegant entertainment&” of magic and mystery in Paris (The Washington Post). &“Gaudy, decadent, smoothly polished, this beguiling novel is . . . a feat of stage magic, well rehearsed and well performed by a fine craftsman.&” —The New Yorker &“Alternately dark and glittering . . . a first-rate vaudeville turn.&” —Chicago Tribune &“Pure magic.&” —Playboy
The Mommy Chronicles: Tales of a Slow-Track Mom in a Fast-Track Lane
by Leslie TonnerFollow the adventures of Charlie, an urban three-year-old on the fast track, and his slow-track mommy. In this hilarious volume, Charlie gets a haircut like Sting&’s, runs up a tab at a baseball game, and prefers the garlic press to any of his expensive &“educational&” toys. Charlie is a kid learning to be a consumer. His mommy reveals important secrets, like which stroller is &“in,&” which is the &“right&” playgroup, and how to throw a fabulous fourth birthday party. Moms and dads alike will find these anecdotes of parenting at the end of the century to be truly priceless.
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.
Powdered Eggs: A Novel
by Charles SimmonsA young writer-to-be embarks on a comic coming-of-age journey through the crushing mediocrity of work, the vagaries of fate, and the mysteries of sexA confused and conflicted but not altogether angry young man shares his observations, disappointments, rants, and sexual desires in a revealing series of letters to an unnamed friend. Our hero wants to be a writer, but is stuck doing mind-numbing work for an unscrupulous encyclopedia publisher. He muddles through two engagements, one to a bright-eyed Catholic virgin, the other to a woman pregnant with another man&’s child. And the Great American Novel he is writing—about a man named Austin who is becoming invisible—may be a bit too much for the reading public to handle. But as long as he&’s got his friends (like Jose, who is determined to bed and wed his cousin Rita the nun), his health (no thanks to the medical establishment that killed his father), and his libido, everything should turn out okay.Winner of the William Faulkner Foundation Award for notable first novel—more outrageous than Catcher in the Rye and more scandalous than Portnoy&’s Complaint—Charles Simmons&’s Powdered Eggs is an unforgettable view of young American life through an amusingly jaundiced eye.
Triangle
by Teri WhiteIn Vietnam, a loner meets a strange man with a knack for murder in this Edgar Award–winning thriller. Mac finds Johnny Griffith nearly comatose with shell shock, on the edge of a massacre. When the Vietnamese fighters attack, he just stands there waiting to die, until Mac tells him to run. Together they survive the war—Mac risking his life time and again for this strange, sweet kid who barely knows his own name. By the time they return stateside, they&’re inseparable, joined by a bond that no outsider could understand—and which can only end in tragedy. When Mac&’s gambling habit lands him in debt with the mob, he offers them Johnny, whose obedience makes him a perfect contract assassin. Mac plans the hits, and Johnny pulls the trigger, feeling nothing afterward besides an intense craving for strawberry ice cream. But when Mac loses control of his killing machine, Johnny&’s repressed fury will be unleashed on the world.
Mother of Pearl: A Novel
by Edward SwiftThe hilarious chronicle of the McAlister clan, a collection of bickering southern eccentrics whose family history is a parade of missteps, mishaps, and certifiable insanityIn the later years of her life, widow and grandmother Pearl decides to return to East Texas and move in with her sister, Wanda Gay—despite the fact that the two have never agreed on anything. (It is no wonder that brother Frank preferred the relative quiet of a prison cell.) A particular bone of contention seems to be the perceived saintliness or demonic nature of their late mother, Eugenia Fane. An unbending, overbearing, man-hating matriarch who not-so-stoically endured her own mother, Eugenia set a standard that the McAlister women would find nearly impossible—and quite mad—to try to live up to. Through the disputed remembrances, distortions, and wound saltings of Wanda Gay and Pearl, the twisted personal history of the McAlister dynasty comes to light, revealing what it is exactly that makes a family endure in spite of itself.Like Faulkner in a funhouse, in Mother of Pearl, acclaimed author Edward Swift (Splendora) gives readers an extraordinary Southern gothic tale filled with unbridled dark humor, outrageous incidents, and wildly unforgettable characters.
50: A Novel
by Avery CormanApproaching the very middle of middle age, Doug Gardner finds that life still holds plenty of surprises on the other side of the hillDoug Gardner isn&’t afraid of aging. In a way, he and his friends have been looking forward to fifty. It&’s a milestone from which they can look back and survey all their hard work and success. And Doug has been successful, with a career as a respected sports writer, nice children, and even a little time for fun in his hometown of New York City. But when his ex-wife marries a millionaire—just the first in a series of unexpected discoveries—the value of Doug&’s past decisions is called into question. Heartfelt, poignant, and witty, 50 celebrates middle age and life lived—and still to be lived—with no clear roadmap. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Avery Corman, including rare images from the author&’s personal collection.
The Rape Scandal that Puts You at Risk: From The Files Of Linda Fairstein (From the Files of Linda Fairstein #3)
by Linda FairsteinA harrowing investigation into law enforcement&’s failure to process hundreds of thousands of rape kits across America—allowing many rapists to walk free. In 2011, advocacy groups estimated that up to 250,000 rape kits sat untested in police storage across the country. These kits, some from crimes dating as far back as the mid-1990s, represent a disturbing breakdown in law enforcement that has allowed many violent criminals to remain on the streets. In some cases, rape victims are kept in the dark about the investigations into the crimes committed against them. Legal expert Linda Fairstein illustrates this injustice with the story of a Los Angeles woman whose experience, Fairstein writes, &“is a tragic example of the outrageous backlog of untested rape kits that has existed nationwide for more than a decade.&” In The Rape Scandal that Puts You at Risk, Fairstein lays bare these failures of law enforcement and issues a rallying cry for women everywhere to demand change. Originally published in Cosmopolitan, this essay is now available in digital format for the first time and features a new introduction by the author.
Kids' TV: The First Twenty-Five Years
by Stuart FischerIn a freshly revisited and important text, Stuart Fischer summarizes the golden age of Kids' TV with entries for every important children's television program which aired between 1947 and 1972. It's a nostalgic journey that highlights the programs of imagination and creativity which influenced the baby boom generation and their children, listing important factual information for everything from "Howdy Doody" to "Sealab 2020."
At the Sudden Death Café
by Jerome CharynWhen his father dies, a young bumper inherits the bloody family businessHolden is more than a bill collector. He&’s a killer. His father came to New York from Belgium to spend his life driving cars for the Aladdin Fur Company. But Holden has more ambition than his old man, and rises to the rank of bumper—a violent collector of debts that cannot be paid. But when his father dies, Holden departs for Europe, to live in seclusion until his money runs out. And it&’s then that his father&’s real business comes to call. The old man was a bumper too, but he killed for a slightly higher class of criminal. And now that he&’s gone, his employers want his son to take his place. Holden would like to to refuse, but murder is in his blood, and no man can resist his family legacy.
Werewolves in Their Youth: Stories
by Michael ChabonBy the New York Times–bestselling author of Moonglow: &“When you read these stories, it may strike you how seldom you come across really beautiful writing&” (USA Today). Cherished by readers and critics alike for such extraordinary novels as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon is at the height of his considerable powers in this striking and bittersweet collection of short stories. An anxious young misfit does nothing to protect his best friend from the scorn of their teachers and classmates. A kleptomaniac real estate agent leads an unhappy couple on a disastrous house tour. A heartbroken grifter finds his ex-girlfriend&’s grandmother to be an easy mark—and an unexpected source of redemption. Throughout these stories, Chabon&’s characters, suffused with yearning but crippled by broken love, often find themselves at a crossroads—and faced with sudden insight. Michael Chabon is &“Updike without the condescension,&” wrote James Hynes in the Washington Post Book World, &“Cheever without the self-pity, a young American Nabokov who writes with a rueful joie de vivre.&” In this darkly funny, achingly delicate collection, he renders the compromises of adulthood and the vivid fantasies of childhood with clarity and warmth.This ebook features a biography of the author.
Welcome to Carson Springs: Introducing the Delarosa Family
by Eileen GoudgeA Hollywood film crew upends life in an idyllic California village in this prequel to the Carson Springs trilogyIn the late 1950s, filmmakers descended on Carson Springs to shoot the movie that made this sleepy Spanish mission town famous. A plaque commemorates the filming of Stranger in Paradise, but nowhere does it mention Cora Delarosa, whose life changed forever when Hollywood arrived. Barely thirty, but married for over a decade, she does not realize that her marriage is falling apart until she meets the handsome and charming film director Hank Montgomery. In this novella, Eileen Goudge sets the stage for her Carson Springs trilogy, showing that in this small town, passion, heartache, and long-buried secrets have always been a way of life. This ebook features excerpts from two of the Carson Springs novels, favorite recipes from Eileen Goudge&’s own kitchen, and an illustrated biography of Goudge including rare photos from her personal collection.
Remaindered (Bibliomysteries #16)
by Peter LoveseyA puzzler of a tale about a dead bookshop owner, a priceless cache of first editions, and a deadly secret taken to the grave. It&’s no mystery who killed Robert Ripple, owner of Precious Finds Bookstore in Pokesville, Pennsylvania. It was Agatha Christie—or rather, a large carton of valuable Christie hardcovers that the not-so-young Ripple was attempting to lift when his heart gave out. The real question is why the so-called Friends of England, who meet regularly in the back room of Ripple&’s literary emporium, are so eager to keep the place open after its proprietor&’s death. Certainly it must have something to do with the Friends&’ past lives as the associates of a slain New York mobster. Whatever their plan is, they&’ll need the help of Tanya Tripp, Ripple&’s recently hired and completely unsuspecting assistant, if they want to pull it off. But despite her trustworthy appearance, Tanya may well be hatching a scheme of her own. For over four decades, Peter Lovesey has occupied an honored place as one of crime fiction&’s best and brightest. With Remaindered, he offers his readers a delectable tidbit about books and those who live—and die—for them.The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.
Slack Tide
by George Harmon CoxeA marina owner gets caught up in a murder investigationThe girl in the water is unfamiliar to Don MacLaren. This is odd since, as the owner of the island&’s only boat dock, he knows everyone who steps foot on the small spit of land. He hoists the young swimmer out, and is helping her get warm when Oliver Kingsley, the island&’s wealthiest citizen, comes to collect her, claiming he&’s her husband. The girl refuses to leave with Kingsley, resulting in a brawl between the two men. In the morning Kingsley is found dead, and after the cops learn about the fight, they peg MacLaren as their chief suspect. As MacLaren struggles to understand the mystery behind the rich man&’s death, he finds that even the smallest island can hold deep secrets.
The American Gun Mystery: The American Gun Mystery (The\complete Crime Novels Of Ellery Queen, Vol.6 Ser.)
by Ellery QueenWhen a Western movie star is gunned down at a rodeo, the legendary detective Ellery Queen saddles up to catch the killer. Buck Horne has roped thousands of cattle, slugged his way out of dozens of saloons, and shot plenty of men dead in the street—but always on the backlot. He is a celluloid cowboy, and his career is nearly kaput. The real box office draw is his daughter, Kit, a brawling beauty who can outshoot any rascal the studio has to offer. Desperate for a comeback, Buck joins Wild Bill Grant&’s traveling rodeo for a show in New York, hoping to impress Hollywood and land one last movie contract. But he has scarcely mounted his horse when he falls to the dirt. It wasn&’t age that made him slip—it was the bullet in his heart. Watching from the stands are Ellery Queen, debonair sleuth, and his police detective father. They are New Yorkers through and through, but to solve the rodeo killing, the Queens must learn to talk cowboy.
Goodbye Again
by Joseph HoneA discovery in his mother&’s attic leads a painter into the dark world of underground art dealingsSince childhood, Ben Contini has been enchanted by nudes. The first painting ever to move him was a Modigliani, a portrait of a naked and beautiful reclining woman. Though it scandalized his mother at the time, it inspired him to become an artist; he specializes in portraits but paints nudes whenever he can. Only when his mother dies does Ben realize why Modigliani upset her so much: She had one hidden in her attic. It is the most beautiful painting he has ever seen, but he has no idea how the widow of an Italian refugee could have come upon it. With the help of a mysterious Austrian woman who appears at his mother&’s funeral, Ben discovers the painting&’s connection to the art thieves of Nazi Germany. The beautiful nude has made a strange journey to the Contini attic, and there are men who would kill to cover her up.
Midnight Baby (The Maggie MacGowen Mysteries #2)
by Wendy HornsbyMaggie investigates the murder of a strange young streetwalkerIn Los Angeles making a documentary about upscale day cares, Maggie MacGowen visits MacArthur Park to get contrasting footage of the pubescent prostitutes that populate its dark corners. There she meets Pisces, a fourteen-year-old hooker with manners that don&’t match her profession. As they bond over a plate of pastrami, Maggie talks her into spending the night in a shelter. But Pisces comes with baggage: a nine-year-old hoodlum named Sly. Maggie takes them both to a convent, where they are fed, bathed, and tucked into bed, just like normal children. The next day, Pisces is dead, her throat slashed by an unknown hand. The Los Angeles Police Department has little time for murdered hookers, so it falls to Maggie to find the killer. The keys to the case are the young girl&’s manners, and the fact that she died with her virginity intact.
Age: A Love Story
by Hortense CalisherA novel that examines aging and marriage with sincerity and insightRupert and Gemma, an elderly couple still very much in love, know that death will inevitably come for one of them before taking the other, so they keep private journals to ensure that the survivor&’s mate will never truly be gone, living on instead through his or her words. Age is the narrative of Rupert and Gemma&’s lives: their similarities, their differences, and the ways in which the two are irreversibly entwined. Each writes of life&’s mundane events—social outings, errands, a quiet night at home—that assume wistful meaning when viewed through the lens of memory.
A Charmed Life: A Novel (The\library Of America Ser. #290)
by Mary McCarthyA writer&’s life is upended by her destructive ex-husband in this intensely personal novel by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Group. Former actress and budding playwright Martha Sinnott longs to recapture the &“charmed life&” she abandoned when she divorced her first husband. So she returns to her beloved New England artists&’ colony with her second husband—and discovers that little has changed. The same people make up the same tightly knit society. Nevertheless, her eagerly anticipated homecoming does include some rude awakenings. Martha&’s arrogant ex, Miles, is dangerously close by, living with his new wife. The people Martha once counted among her closest friends have become also-rans and never-weres, unhappy and often resentful. And in this pervasive atmosphere of falsehoods and self-delusions, the biggest lie of all is Martha&’s belief that her reunion with Miles won&’t somehow wreak terrible havoc on all she holds dear. A New York Times bestseller by an author with &“an icily honest eye and a glacial wit that make her portraits stingingly memorable,&” A Charmed Life is a smart, mesmerizing portrait of love, marriage, and deception (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary McCarthy including rare images from the author&’s estate.
The Chinese Orange Mystery: An Ellery Queen Mystery (An\ellery Queen Mystery Ser. #0)
by Ellery Queen&“One of the greatest riddles in Golden Age detective fiction . . . the unbridled ingenuity of its central puzzle has never been surpassed&” (Kirkus Reviews). Mandarin Press is a premier publishing house for foreign literature, but to those at the top of this enterprise, there is little more beautiful than a rare stamp. As Donald Kirk, publisher and philatelist, prepares his office for a banquet, an unfamiliar man comes to call. No one recognizes him, but Kirk&’s staff is used to strange characters visiting their boss, so Kirk&’s secretary asks him to wait in the anteroom. Within an hour, the mysterious visitor is dead on the floor, head bashed in with a fireplace poker, and everything in the anteroom has been quite literally turned upside down. The rug is backwards; the furniture is backwards; even the dead man&’s clothes have been put on front-to-back. As debonair detective Ellery Queen pries into the secrets of Mandarin Press, every clue he finds is topsy-turvy. The great sleuth must tread lightly, for walking backwards is a surefire way to step off a cliff.
Tales of the Village Rabbi: A Manhattan Chronicle
by Rabbi Harvey M. TattelbaumA warm, witty memoir of Greenwich Village in the late 1950s and &’60s by a young rabbi who led a local synagogue in the midst of it all. In the late fifties and sixties, Greenwich Village was the quirkiest, most charming, jazzy, eccentric, and urban of environments, the center of all that was both quaint and &“cool&”: brownstones and beatniks, coffeehouses and college students, folksingers and freethinkers, poets and &“prophets.&” Into this fascinating mix of cultural archetypes came a young rabbi, Harvey M. Tattelbaum, who became known as the Village Rabbi of the Village Temple. The spirit of Sholom Aleichem infuses his Tales of the Village Rabbi, a touching and laugh‑out‑loud-funny memoir of his tenure at a small synagogue in the heart of Greenwich Village. Though his years in this magical place were productive and soul‑filling, rabbinical training had not exactly prepared him for the bikers, thieves, ex‑cons, eccentric old ladies, drug users, cleavage‑baring brides, and other Village denizens he encountered while serving the congregants of his spirited little temple. Rabbi Tattelbaum shares his insider's tales—both downtown and uptown—of wayward weddings (and funerals), contentious Temple boards, irreverent interfaith shenanigans, heartaches, and triumphs. But the Tales also reveal a deep personal struggle with some of the most profound philosophical problems of ancient and modern religion, and are filled with a warm, humane, and rational approach to spirituality and religious meaning.