The Old Man was dead. That's what the coroner said. So why was he walking down A1A? How could he speak to T. K. and Sunny? The Ghostcatcher has to find out. In the meantime, secrets from a dark and violent past are about to be revealed. Will it happen in time to save an innocent girl? No one knows.Death of The Old Man is the third book in the Ghostcatcher series. T.K. Fleming is the retired English professor who just can't seem to avoid getting mixed up in murder. His girlfriend Sunny is at his side again along with all of the colorful cast of characters that haunt Key West. Who is the Obi Man and how can the dead speak? Maybe T.K. can find out before an innocent girl dies and they 'steal his shadow' and his life. The mysteries defy conventional logic and the dangers are very real. Its a fast paced read chocked full of adrenalin and a series of baffling events.

Jon Randon recounts the life and death of his best friend. After a brutal injury leaves Jon trapped in a nearly decommissioned medical hospital, he tries to find the man he used to be by exploring the closed down sections of the military base. When a secret room dating back to the civil war is uncovered, Jon learns that some discoveries can't be forgotten. Part One of the Jon Randon Series.Dedicated to memory of Major Jesse Taylor.We made a pact. He lived up to his end by dying. I tried to live up to my end by following The Death Agreement.What you will find within these pages is a true recounting of a man's life as seen through my eyes. It's almost an impossible task when some of what you see can't be real and what is real you may refuse to see.Human beings have a capacity to dread the truth, to distort facts when they don't fit our predefined notions of how the world should work. We forget that reality isn't what we want it to be. We ignore the signs that our universe doesn't care about us. It constantly changes to suit its own needs. Nothing is perfect. This includes the focus of my story. People come and go. Pieces don't fit neatly together. Doubt clouds judgment. Mistakes are made. All hell breaks loose when no one is looking. I guess that's how life is supposed to be.For me, it doesn't matter anymore. What happened, happened, and I'm still bound by the terms set.Please consider this dedication a warning sticker. Come in if you dare, leave if you don't. Some might call this experience horror. It is that, no doubt, but at the root I suppose it's a tale of transformation.Speaking of transforming: Have you ever stood in a dim bathroom and stared at a mirror? For the past 18 months, I've done that every day. What I see in the glass consumes me. My silhouette fades into a thousand different terrifying faces; each sharpens to crystal clarity before morphing into someone else. I don't know who these people are, but I recognize them all. I've learned that what we see isn't a reflection. We are the reflection.My name is Jon Randon and I'm going to tell you a story.

To Ethan Cook, a college student studying programming, stasis gaming was a part of his life as much as eating lunch. Stasis froze the body in time and with a proper interface, he could accomplish almost anything in his fantasy world. It was better than real life. However, stasis came with a cost. A body tuned to that physiological state could sometimes relapse, a condition called stasis shock.A cursed prince. A vain beauty. Glory is the seventh daughter of Balthazar, High King of the Twelve Kingdoms. Glory hopes that - of all her sisters - she can escape the fate of a loveless marriage. But on the night she plans to elope with the royal falconer, her world comes crashing down: Her father announces Glory's betrothal to Eoghan of the Blood Realm - a prince no one has ever seen. The prince is said to be a recluse, cursed and deformed by the gods for the sins of his power-hungry father. Yet when Glory is trapped in Blackthorn Keep she discovers that not everything is what she expected. An insulting gryphon, a persistent ghost, and a secret plan to usurp the prince keep Glory reeling. Can she overcome her vanity to learn that what you want isn’t necessarily what you need—and save the cursed prince?

A gate towards a totally new world. Walkers, Jumpers, super powers, anti-aliens wars...... Mixed wonders from Chinese fantasy novels and comics, this book is going to share a story about how human beings fighting against infectees, mutants and aliens.When everyone was telling about their own heroic stories, however, what does it mean? I have got nothing to say, this world exists as it is supposed to be, my story won’t end so far.I used to dream about such a world, totally free, no limitation, excited and exhilarated. Now look at it, I have lost everything...

NYPD criminalist Lincoln Rhyme joins his beautiful protege, Amelia Sachs, in the hunt for the Coffin Dancer--an ingenious killer who changes appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims. They have only one clue: the madman has a tattoo of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman. Rhyme must rely on his wits and intuition to track the elusive murderer through New York City--knowing they have only forty-eight hours before the Coffin Dancer strikes again.

Finalist for the National Book Award 2002 Look out for Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, on sale now! In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel how our men should be, but rarely are.

New York Times bestselling author Amanda Quick returns with a thrilling new venture into romance and mystery, featuring the most unusual, highly compatible--undeniably combustible--pairing of Tobias March and his mesmerizing partner, Lavinia Lake. An invitation to a country house party at Beaumont Castle provides a perfect solution to Tobias and Lavinia’s most exasperating challenge: how to escape the chaos of London for a remote, relaxing--and above all romantic--retreat from prying eyes and wagging tongues. But the lovers’ plans are foiled when their first cozy interlude of the weekend is disrupted by the appearance of a stunning woman from Tobias’s past. Aspasia Gray’s beauty is as haunting as her connection to Tobias. Her long-deceased fiancé was a friend of his--in addition to being an eccentric assassin. The mysterious nature of the bond between Tobias and Aspasia makes Lavinia more than a little uncomfortable. Especially as her first encounter with Aspasia occurs when she finds her in Tobias’s bedchamber... It seems Aspasia is seeking protection--and solace--after receiving an ominous message that eerily recalls the past. Suddenly the obstacles standing betweenTobias and Lavinia appear greater than just a little London gossip--and far more deadly.When events at the castle suggest someone is imitating the dead killer’s methods, the team of Lake and March fervently pursue the investigation--and each other--as their leads take them from Society’s most elegant haunts--and most discreet hideaways--to London’s shadiest backstreets. As their relationship heats up, so does the intrigue. Soon Lavinia will have to employ all her talents to flummox the scoundrel who so rudely interrupted her rendezvous. And then she and Tobias can get back to more pleasurable affairs. From the Hardcover edition.

What if you were told that you could make a fortune just by pushing a button on a box? But pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world . . . someone you don't know. Would you still push the button? "Button, Button," Richard Matheson's chilling tale of greed and temptation, is now the basis of The Box, the new film from the director of Donnie Darko. In addition, this outstanding collection also contains many other unforgettable stories by Matheson, the award-winning author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come. "The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of ordinary men and women caught up in forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence." --Publishers Weekly

A ferocious new novel from the master: when a man's good heart is his worst enemy ... By chance and not by choice, Ted Mundy, eternal striver, failed writer, and expatriate son of a British Army officer, used to be a spy. But that was in the good old Cold War days, when a cinder-block wall divided Berlin and the enemy was easy to recognize. Today, Mundy is a down-at-the-heels tour guide in southern Germany, dodging creditors, supporting a new family, and keeping an eye out for trouble while in spare moments vigorously questioning the actions of the country he once bravely served. And trouble finds him, as it has before, in the shape of an old German student friend, radical, and onetime fellow spy, the crippled Sasha, seeker after absolutes, dreamer, and chaos addict. After years of trawling the Middle East and Asia as an itinerant university lecturer, Sasha has yet again discovered the true, the only, answer to life-this time in the form of a mysterious billionaire philanthropist named Dimitri. Thanks to Dimitri, both Mundy and Sasha will find a path out of poverty, and with it their chance to change a world that both believe is going to the devil. Or will they? Who is Dimitri? Why does Dimitri's gold pour in from mysterious Middle Eastern bank accounts? And why does his apparently noble venture reek less of starry idealism than of treachery and fear? Some gifts are too expensive to accept. Could this be one of them? With a cooler head than Sasha's, Mundy is inclined to think it could. In Absolute Friends, John le Carre delivers the masterpiece he has been building to since the fall of communism: an epic tale of loyalty and betrayal that spans the lives of two friends from the riot-torn West Berlin of the 1960s to the grimy looking-glass of Cold War Europe to the present day of terrorism and new alliances. This is the novel le Carre fans have been waiting for, a brilliant, ferocious, heartbreaking work for the ages.

Evil will not give up without a fight. . . . Without the Sword of Shannara, the evil Warlock Lord cannot be defeated. Yet the quest for the mysterious talisman lies in ruins. The intrepid company of warriors assembled by the Druid Allanon to recover the magic Sword has been shattered, dispersed by the Dark Lord’s power. And young half-elf Shea Ohmsford, the last, best hope of all the races, is missing, perhaps captured . . . or worse. The Warlock’s fearsome armies are on the march. Tens of thousands of bloodthirsty Gnomes and Trolls are poised to sweep down upon the border kingdom of Callahorn, gateway to the peaceful Southland. In mankind’s darkest hour, as Allanon desperately scours the war-ravaged countryside for a sign of the missing Shea, an extraordinary drama of hardship and courage unfolds on the desolate Streleheim Plains. There, his only companions a brash highwayman and a renegade Troll, Shea will find the Sword of Shannara tantalizingly close–and death terrifyingly near. . . . The Sword of Shannara Part 2: The Druids’ Keep is the newest addition to the Del Rey Imagine program, which offers the best in classic fantasy and science fiction for readers 12 and up. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Before tonight Cassie Tate’s biggest concerns were whether she could pass Algebra and how she was going to keep Elora, her best friend, from dressing her in a skimpy fairy costume for Halloween. Her feet were firmly planted in suburban reality and she had no reason to believe her life would be anything but that of a typical teenager. That is until tonight, when Cassie saw something that no human was ever supposed to see; in the blink of an eye she was thrown into the world of the Light and Dark Elves. He comes from a realm where light and dark have fought for millennia. He is of a race known to humans only in myths and legends. The darkness that lives inside him is a part of both who and what he is and it makes him the most gifted spy and assassin in the history of his time. His life is not his own; he lives in the service of the Dark Elf King. He slays who he must, has mercy on no one, is relentless in his hunt, and never tires of seeing his prey fall. He is Triktapic, assassin, spy, most feared of the Dark Elves. Now, in the midst of his King’s complicated plans to expand the Dark Elves’ holdings into the mortal realm, for the first time, Trik finds his loyalties divided. For no Elf, Dark or Light, can turn away from their Chosen. Unbeknownst to the mortal realm, the battle between Light and Dark is being brought to their doorstep. The only one who can keep it at bay holds darkness in his heart like a lover, and the one who can sway that heart must decide if she can look beyond his black past, beyond his evil nature and see the man he is destined to be. The question must be asked, does love really cover a multitude of sins? Can true love actually conquer all or will his darkness consume those around him until all that stands is an assassin with the blood of the mortal realm on his hands?

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre formed one of the most famous literary couples of the twentieth century. Their relationship took on the quality of legend and served as a model of openness and honesty for countless men and women. Sartre was revered during his lifetime as a paradigm of the modern philosophe and intellectual, but since de Beauvoir’s death in 1986, her literary reputation has threatened to eclipse Sartre’s. Her work The Second Sex is, by any standard, one of the most important and influential books of the twentieth century. When these private and revealing letters were published in France in 1990, they caused a storm of controversy. Here de Beauvoir tells Sartre everything, tracing the extraordinary complications of their triangular love life. These letters reveal de Beauvoir not only as manipulative and dependent, but also as vulnerable, passionate, jealous, and committed. This reissue of a New York Times Notable Book will inspire philosophers, writers, and lovers of literature for decades to come.

The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz, American Tabloid... James Ellroy's high-velocity, best-selling novels have redefined noir for our age, propelling us within inches of the dark realities of America's recent history. Now, in The Cold Six Thousand, his most ambitious and explosive novel yet, he puts the whole of the 1960s under his blistering lens. The result is a work of fierce, epic fiction, a speedball through our most tumultuous time. It begins in Dallas. November 22, 1963. The heart of the American Dream detonated. Wayne Tedrow Jr., a young Vegas cop, arrives with a loathsome job to do. He's got $6,000 in cash and no idea that he is about to plunge into the cover-up conspiracy already brewing around Kennedy's assassination, no idea that this will mark the beginning of a hellish five-year ride through the private underbelly of public policy. Ellroy's furiously paced narrative tracks Tedrow's ride: Dallas back to Vegas, with the Mob and Howard Hughes, south with the Klan and J. Edgar Hoover, shipping out to Vietnam and returning home, the bearer of white powder, plotting new deaths as 1968 approaches ... Tedrow stands witness, as the icons of an iconic era mingle with cops, killers, hoods, and provocateurs. His story is ground zero in Ellroy's stunning vision: historical confluence as American Nightmare. The Cold Six Thousand is a masterpiece.

Four novellas in one volume—the thrilling science fiction saga of a female robot who becomes sentient and fights to save humanity from destruction. With nearly two hundred published works and more than twenty New York Times bestsellers to his credit, Piers Anthony is without a doubt one of the most prolific and creative authors in science fiction and fantasy. Among his most ingenious literary creations are the four books of his remarkable Metal Maiden saga, collected here in one volume: the breathtaking tale of Elasa, the fembot who desires nothing more than to be human. In “To Be a Woman” we meet Elasa, who is perfect in every way—a female machine created for pleasure, whose newborn consciousness makes her strive for more. The story moves to a distant colony planet in “Shepherd,” in which a young man participating in a student exchange program finds himself in another body and suddenly the caretaker of a herd of telepathic and eminently wise sheep. “Flytrap” brings Elasa’s friend Mona to the colony in the body of a pregnant woman, through which she learns that her work with a young precognitive lamb could have a major impact on more than one existence and more than one world. Finally, in “Awares,” Elasa must work closely with a unique group of environmentally attuned beings in order to protect the earth from an onslaught of gigantic, world-devouring extraterrestrial maggots.

"Reading is a many-layered process — like writing," observes Samuel R. Delany, a Nebula and Hugo award-winning author and a major commentator on American literature and culture. In this collection of six extended essays, Delany challenges what he calls "the hard-edged boundaries of meaning" by going beyond the customary limits of the genre in which he's writing. By radically reworking the essay form, Delany can explore and express the many layers of his thinking about the nature of art, the workings of language, and the injustices and ironies of social, political, and sexual marginalization. Thus Delany connects, in sometimes unexpected ways, topics as diverse as the origins of modern theater, the context of lesbian and gay scholarship, the theories of cyborgs, how metaphors mean, and the narrative structures in the Star Wars trilogy. "Over the course of his career," Kenneth James writes in his extensive introduction, "Delany has again and again thrown into question the world-models that all too many of us unknowingly live by." Indeed, Delany challenges an impressive list of world-models here, including High and Low Art, sanity and madness, mathematical logic and the mechanics of mythmaking, the distribution of wealth in our society, and the limitations of our sexual vocabulary. Also included are two essays that illustrate Delany's unique chrestomathic technique, the grouping of textual fragments whose associative interrelationships a reader must actively trace to read them as a resonant argument. Whether writing about Wagner or Hart Crane, Foucault or Robert Mapplethorpe, Delany combines a fierce and often piercing vision with a powerful honesty that beckons us to share in the perspective of these Longer Views.

He Might Save Her Former police psychologist Ronni Alexander had it all before a poison attacked her heart and gave her a death sentence. Now, on her last leg, she has an opportunity to live if she mates a vampire. A real vampire. One night of sex and a good bite, and she’d live forever with no more weaknesses. Well, except for the vampire whose dominance is over the top, and who has no clue how to deal with a modern woman who can take care of herself. She Might Kill Him Jared Reese, who has no intention of ever mating for anything other than convenience, agrees to help out his new sister in law by saving her friend’s life with a quick tussle in bed. The plan seems so simple. They’d mate, and he move on with his life and take risks as a modern pirate should. Except after one night with Ronni, one moment of her sighing his name, and he wants more than a mating of convenience. Now all he has to do is convince Ronni she wants the same thing. Good thing he’s up for a good battle.

An apocalypse approaches, and only Matt Bannister and his mother, Bonnie, can stop it. Forced to participate in the demon Tamiel’s scheme, Matt, Bonnie, and Darcy, (Matt’s former foster sister) must travel to seven destinations. Behind each of the seven doors, they find a unique brand of evil that is designed to weaken Bonnie’s soul-healing song and bring about God’s wrath upon the Earth. In the meantime, Matt’s twin sister, Lauren, searches for their father, Billy Bannister, who has been captured by Tamiel’s soldiers. Lauren is accompanied by Walter, Ashley, and the dragoness Roxil in a desperate attempt to rescue Billy before his captors can carry out their plan to kill him. Since Sapphira Adi has also been abducted, Elam, Yereq, Makaidos, and Thigocia travel toward a stronghold designed to keep Sapphira’s fiery powers under control. Along the way, a great disaster strikes that threatens their journey as well as Matt’s and Lauren’s hopes to complete their missions. By the time Matt and his companions face the seventh door, ancient mysteries are solved, dark secrets come to light, and they learn that opening the door will bring doom upon the planet. Yet, a great tragedy befalls the company, and the only remedy is to seek the power that lies behind The Seventh Door.

When Londoner Alexander Tate is thrown from his horse, it is his vision that suffers most. After placing patches over his eyes in hopes that rest will restore his sight, the doctor recommends that Tate leave the city to convalesce in the fresh air of the country. Tate's aunt Harriet offers to go with him to Collingbourne, where she meets the Steele family. Warm and caring, the Steele siblings are surprisingly generous to the newcomers. Tate doesn't need his vision to know that when this family reaches out, the unexpected is bound to happen. And happen it does when Tate finds himself falling in love. Just one question remains. Will one of the beautiful Steele sisters love him in return?

Wayne G. Hammond (Editor) A classic children's story by the author of The Hobbit Rover should never have bitten the wizard's trousers. His punishment was to be transformed into a toy, and now he is forced to track down the magician so he can be returned to normal. His adventures will take him to the moon and under the sea, introducing him to many fabulous - and dangerous - creatures. Inspired by the loss of his own child's favourite toy, this charming tale was written by J. R. R. Tolkien long before The Hobbit, yet remained unpublished for more than 70 years. This new paperback edition includes a full introduction and detailed notes about the story. This is an old-fashioned story, yet it still speaks freshly today. . . would leap to life when read aloud to a child. - INDEPENDENT Lord of the Rings buffs will enjoy picking out bits of Nordic mythology and will relish Tolkien's fabulous sense of landscape - THE TIMES Cover illustration by J. R. R. Tolkien

Enter the world of the Dark Dynasties. . . For centuries, shapeshifting vampire Tynan MacGillivray has prowled the night as an outcast, valued only for his ferocious hunting skills. When a feud among the immortals escalates into all-out war, he is ordered by his ruthless queen to locate a Seer - a human woman with a special gift - who can secure victory for their clan. Ty's search leads him to a quiet New England town, but once he has the Seer in his grasp, her touch awakens within him a hunger like he's never known. . . Lily Quinn has always been different. Since childhood, she's had vivid nightmares and an eerie sixth sense. When a sexy, silver-eyed stranger demands her help, Lily plunges into a new world of danger and sensuality. With Ty, she discovers sizzling passions she cannot deny and powers she cannot control. Soon, it is clear that Lily is much more than a Seer - she holds the key to ancient secrets and unthinkable destruction. But will a vampire's vow of eternal protection stop these evil forces. . . or unleash her dark destiny?

The Story of Little Black Mingo and The Story of Little Black Sambo, by Helen Bannerman, tell of two children who overcome the odds. The Story of Little Black Mingo tells of a little orphaned black girl who is unfortunate enough to lived with a horrid abusive old woman named Black Noggy, who made her do impossible chores. In performing one of the chores, she was kidnapped by a mugger (crocodile), which brought her to a faraway island where her little eggs were. There Little Black Mingo met the Mongoose who drove the mugger mad in rage by eating its eggs. The Mugger tried a lot of ways to keep the mongoose away but he failed. It even chased them back to Little Black Mingo's home, but end up blown into bits with Black Noggy. The Story of Little Black Sambo was also written by Helen Bannerman, and first published by Grant Richards in October 1899 as one in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children. Sambo is a South Indian boy who encounters four hungry tigers, and surrenders his colourful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of melted butter; Sambo then recovers his clothes and his mother makes pancakes of the butter. The story was a children's favourite for half a century until the word sambo was deemed a racial slur in some countries, and the illustrations considered reminiscent of "darky iconography".