Mob boss Enzio Bassalino doesn't like anyone cutting into his profits. So when beautiful crusader Margaret Brown persuades too many hookers to leave the ranks, she's blown away.Three extraordinary women vow to bring down Bassalino—by destroying his three sons. Innocent-seeming, fragile Beth will go after Frank in New York; kinky underground film star Rio will seduce Angelo in London; slick, gorgeous jet-setter Lara will ensnare Nick in Los Angeles.But it's a dangerous game, heating up to a spellbinding blend of dazzling intrigue and murderous suspense, of raw eroticism, and sudden, forbidden passion, as three sensational women use the only weapon Bassalino's sons can't resist...

Before there was money, there was debt Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems--to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There's not a shred of evidence to support it.Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods--that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient...

ZACK, HIS DAD, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father's hometown, not knowing that their new house has a dark history. Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took 40 innocent lives. He died when his car hit a tree in a fiery crash, and his malevolent spirit has inhabited the tree ever since. During a huge storm, lightning hits the tree, releasing the spirit, who decides his evil spree isn't over . . . and Zack is directly in his sights.Award-winning thriller author Chris Grabenstein fills his first book for younger readers with the same humorous and spine-tingling storytelling that has made him a fast favorite with adults.From the Hardcover edition.

Think you're having a rough week? Bella's stepdad, a semi-pro wrestler, just signed the entire family up for a reality TV show. Bella's first thought: Kill. Me. Now.Living in Truman, Oklahoma wasn't 100% miserable for Bella. Sure, she misses Manhattan, couture clothes, and her dad. But she was making new friends at Truman High and almost enjoying her work at the school newspaper. Then the whole stepdad-wrestler-reality-show issue hit and her life is now being splashed across weekly tabloids and broadcast news.As if having a camera crew following her around isn't bad enough, Bella soon discovers a conspiracy against the Truman High prom queen candidates. And the closer she gets to the answer, the more danger she's in.As her relationship with Luke teeters between friendship and romance, Bella's ex-boyfriend Hunter reappears and vies for Bella's attention. Denying allegations of a love triangle, working to solve the prom queen mystery, and trying to keep her cool on national television finally motivate Bella to start talking--and listening--to God more.But what comes next has Bella once again screaming: I'M. SO. SURE.About the AuthorJenny B. Jones writes Christian Fiction with equal parts wit, sass, and untamed hilarity. When she’s not writing, she’s living it up as a high school teacher in Arkansas. Since she has very little free time, she believes in spending her spare hours in meaningful, intellectual pursuit such as watching E!, going to the movies and inhaling large buckets of popcorn, and writing her name in the dust on her furniture.

A welcome surprise: more than fifty prose pieces, gathered together for the first time, by one of America's most revered and admired novelists and short-story writers, whose articles, essays, and cultural commentary—appearing in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, and elsewhere—have been parsing the political, artistic, and media idiom for the last three decades.From Lorrie Moore's earliest reviews of novels by Margaret Atwood and Nora Ephron, to an essay on Ezra Edelman's 2016 O.J. Simpson documentary, and in between: Moore on the writing of fiction (the work of V. S. Pritchett, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Stanley Elkin, Dawn Powell, Nicholson Baker, et al.) . . . on the continuing unequal state of race in America . . . on the shock of the shocking GOP . . . on the dangers (and cruel truths) of celebrity marriages and love...

A National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistA N*ew York Times* Editors' ChoiceA Pulishers Weekly Best Book of the YearBirds of America is a stunning collection of twelve stories by Lorrie Moore, one of our finest authors at work today. With her characteristic wit and piercing intelligence she unfolds a series of portraits of the lost and unsettled of America, and with a trademark humor that fuels each story with pathos and understanding.

George Gates used to be a travel writer who specialized in places where people disappeared—Judge Crater, the Lost Colony.Then his eight-year-old son was murdered, the killer never found, and Gates gave up disappearance. Now he writes stories of redemptive triviality about flower festivals and local celebrities for the town paper, and spends his evenings haunted by the image of his son’s last day. Enter Arlo MacBride, a retired missing-persons detective still obsessed with the unsolved case of Katherine Carr. When he gives Gates the story she left behind—a story of a man stalking a woman named Katherine Carr—Gates too is drawn inexorably into a search for the missing author’s brief life and uncertain fate. And as he goes deeper, he begins to suspect that her tale holds the key not only to her fate, but to his own. From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. George Gates, who once toured the world as a travel writer, churns out fluff pieces for his local paper and spends his nights alone, imagining what he'd do to the person who murdered his eight-year-old son seven years before and is still at large in Cook's eerily poignant novel. When Arlo McBride, a retired missing persons detective, tells Gates about the unsolved disappearance of reclusive poet Katherine Carr 20 years earlier, Gates is intrigued. Cook (Master of the Delta) seamlessly intertwines the short story Carr left behind—about a woman also named Katherine Carr—with Gates's growing obsession with Carr's fate. When his editor suggests that Gates write a profile of Alice Barrows, an orphan girl dying of progeria (premature aging), he discovers that Alice is an avid detective fan, and together they form an unlikely partnership. Adept at merging past and present plot lines, Cook eloquently examines the often cathartic act of storytelling. Author tour. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistCook, the author of 21 novels, has been nominated for the Edgar seven times and won once (for The Chatham School Affair, 1996). His latest is as much an investigation into character as it is a cold-case mystery. Hero George Gates has been completely broken by the kidnapping and murder of his eight-year-old son seven years ago. Gates is a former travel writer, much given to writing about places where people disappeared. Now he salves his psyche by writing totally innocuous small features for the local paper. A chance meeting at a bar with the detective who organized the search parties when Gates’ son went missing leads Gates into a new interest, a cold case that has obsessed the detective for two decades. Retired missing-persons detective Arlo McBride shows Gates the poems and journal that the 31-year-old missing woman left behind, and both men are pulled into reopening the case. The action tends to crawl, but the characters are rich and fascinating. Give this one to fans of Kate Atkinson’s acclaimed When Will There Be Good News? (2008). --Connie Fletcher

Why are the Rotten School kids screaming in terror?Maybe it's because everyone on campus is making a horror movie!Bernie Bridges wants to make the most terrifying film of all. If he does, he'll win a part in the famous director B.A. Gool's next film: EEK III: Revenge of the Warts.Bernie thinks he's got some great creepy ideas. But he's better watch out on Halloween night—it's going to be a real scream!

The King is dead...Long live the King.Nye Saer is four hundred year old vampire. Bad guy, one time leader of the notorious Six who's trying to turn over a new leaf and grow a heart.With all six Roman founders dead and gone, it's up to him to bring order back to the London underworld, but there's one problem. They don't fear him as much as they should.Isobel is the human sister of the newborn founder Alex...and you never want to mess with a founding vampire, no matter how good they claim to be. When she turns up on his doorstep, Nye has to go against everything he is in order to protect her from his enemies. But when strange markings begin to appear all over London, unrest amongst the vampires and his conflicting concern over Isobel will be the least of Nye's problems. He's seen the symbols before and there's only one thing it could mean.The Unhallowed are back...and they're not happy.

For millennia, the shape-shifting dragon warriors known as the Pyr have commanded the four elements and guarded the earth's treasures. But now the final reckoning between the Pyr and the dreaded Slayers is about to begin... Niall Talbot has volunteered to hunt down and destroy all the remaining shadow dragons before they can wreak more havoc. But fate has placed him in the hands of Rox, an unconventional tattoo artist who doesn't even flinch when a shape-shifting dragon warrior suddenly appears on her doorstep. And as a woman who follows her heart in matters of passion, she makes the perfect mate for a firestorm with Niall...

The E.F. Benson Megapack collects 36 of Benson's horror stories, including such classics as The Bus-Conductor, The Room in the Tower, and The Thing in the Hall.Included are:AT ABDUL ALI'S GRAVETHE MAN WHO WENT TOO FARTHE CATGAVON'S EVETHE DUST-CLOUDTHE SHOOTINGS AT ACHNALEISHTHE BUS-CONDUCTORTHE HOUSE WITH THE BRICK-KILNOUTSIDE THE DOORHOW FEAR DEPARTED FROM THE LONG GALLERYTHE CONFESSION OF CHARLES LINKWORTHTHE ROOM IN THE TOWERCATERPILLARSBETWEEN THE LIGHTSTHE TERROR BY NIGHTTHE OTHER BEDTHE CHINA BOWLTHE PASSENGERTHE APETHROUGHTHURSDAY EVENINGSTHE PSYCHICAL MALLARDSMRS AMWORTHTHE GARDENERTHE HORROR-HORN"AND THE DEAD SPAKE..."NEGOTIUM PERAMBULANSIN THE TUBEMR. TILLY'S SEANCETHE CASE OF FRANK HAMPDENMRS. ANDREWS'S CONTROLTHE DEATH WARRANTMACHAONAT THE FARMHOUSEINSCRUTABLE DECREESTHE THING IN THE HALLAnd don't forget to search your favorite...

Even where oceans are warm, dark secrets lurk below the surface. Even where breezes are fragrant, trouble floats in the air. Even in the land of aloha, peace can be destroyed.When a missile plows into a tourist boat, dolphin researcher Kaia Oana is one of the first into the water, risking her own life to help others. When called upon to investigate the incident, Lieutenant Commander Jesse Matthews enlists Kaia and her specially trained dolphins to help––and romantic sparks fly.As Kaia and Jesse edge closer to the truth about the accident, their own lives are threatened. Will they be able to stop a killer before more lives are lost?