When a major drugs dealer seeks vengeance for the death of his family, policemen Harpur and Iles must do all they can to prevent a bloodbathFollowing the murder of his wife and son, tycoon drugs dealer Mansel Shale is determined to get vengeance – and he wants another drugs baron, Ralph Ember, to help him. Having heard of the movie Strangers on a Train, in which two men agree to undertake each other's murders as a way of preventing detection, Shale suggests he and Ralph should have a similar arrangement – and Ralph is in no position to refuse.When he learns of the plan, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles fears that if things go wrong, the hard-won peace he and Harpur have established in the city will be seriously threatened. The two top policemen find they have their work cut out to limit the damage and restore tranquillity.

About the AuthorTwo-time Nebula-award winner Catherine Asaro has an M.A. in physics and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard. A former ballet and jazz dancer, she founded the Mainly Jazz Dance program at Harvard and now teaches at the Caryl Maxwell Classical Ballet. She’s the creator of the popular Skolian Saga science fiction series with The Ruby Dice, Diamond Star and Carnelians as the latest entries.  Her other books include near-future technothrillers Alpha and Sunrise Alley._ _Asaro lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter.

Librarian's note: this bundle is not in chronological order. To avoid spoilers, the bundle should be read in this order: second book, third book, first bookEternal Flame Bundle Eternal Flame Cynthia Eden invites you into the world of the Others--supernatural creatures who are sexy, powerful, and more than human in every way. . . No one that deadly should look that good. Hybrid demon Zane Wynter specializes in tracking the most lethal criminals, whether human or Other. But Jana Carter is nothing like his previous targets. She's an Ignitor, able to conjure and control fire. She's also sexy beyond belief--and used to playing dirty. . . Jana knows she's being set up. She even knows who's responsible: Project Perseus, a secretive group that plans to rid the world of paranormals by any means necessary. From Louisiana's sultry swamps to its desolate cemeteries, Jana and Zane must race to destroy the mastermind behind Perseus before their world goes up in flames--and with it, a desire that burns too hot to resist. . . Eternal Hunter Cynthia Eden delves into the dark realms of the Others, where desires and dangerous games await the unsuspecting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. . . Assistant DA Erin Jerome has a secret. Make that two. One: She's not entirely human--she's Other, desperately trying to keep her supernatural strength under wraps. Two: she's got a killer stalking her--an Other rogue set on "gifting" her bloody corpses, not to mention nights lying awake in terror. Small wonder she's been having bad luck with men. But the bounty hunter on her new case isn't worried about any of that. Jude Donovan is a shapeshifter himself, and the new DA's midnight hair and addictive scent tell him all he thinks he needs to know: She's gorgeous, she's definitely not human, and she's bringing out the animal in him in a really good way. He might have to track a psychotic Other stalker through half of Louisiana. But he might also get the chance to watch Erin's wild side come out and play. . . "A fast-paced, sexy thrill ride you won't want to miss." --Christine Feehan "It hooked me from the first page." --Christine Feehan I'll Be Slaying You Cynthia Eden returns to the realm of the Other, where the supernatural bounty hunters of Night Watch work hard and play harder. . . Sandra "Dee" Daniels is a vampire's worst nightmare. Sure, she couldn't get up to five-six in the highest heels money can buy--not that she ever wears heels. But the monsters in her past and the stake in her boot are enough to keep most bloodsuckers interested in staying undead out of Baton Rouge. But there are changes afoot on her turf. Rumors of a Born Master in town--a vampire so powerful he can make the streets run with blood. And a new face in Dee's dive bars and alleyways--Simon Chase, a strong, sexy shadow with a haunted past of his own. Simon knows a lot about the dark side of Dee's work. He knows even more about how to make her body spark with desire. But the hot lust shimmering between them is only the beginning. Because Simon also knows a secret that will change Dee's life--if she can live long enough to uncover it.

A withdrawn architect revisits the darkest moment of his childhood Steve Farris was nine years old in 1959, the youngest child in a family that was about to be snuffed out. Around four o'clock on an ordinary November afternoon, Steve's father loaded his shotgun. With calm precision he killed his teenaged son and daughter, and then turned the weapon on his wife. For two hours he waited for his youngest son to come home from school. When Steve did not appear, his father drove away, disappearing for good.   Now a successful architect, Farris has spent his life avoiding the memories of that dark day. But questions from an author writing a book about the crime bring back impressions from the days leading up to the killing. For the first time he must confront his awful past, and the terrifying possibility that his father had a reason for what he did.

Review"Bear is one of our very best."--_New York Daily News_ Product DescriptionThe nuclear bomb is the only weapon so terrible that it destroys not only the human body, but the human soul. But what of those souls that were not destroyed, but maimed and ruptured by the blast at Hiroshima? They are coming, across the Pacific ocean, leaving blood and destruction in their wake, searching for revenge. They are the Psychlone! Larry Fowler is a scientist--he doesn't want to be frightened by things he doesn't understand. However, he can't stop asking questions--questions that will bring him face to face with psychlone.

Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant brings the peaceful sounds, sights, and characters of the coast vividly to life in the sixth book of the Lighthouse Family series, in which the family assists an otter in need.On a lovely summer day, the lighthouse family hears the bell on the fog buoy ringing. It is an otter, whose sister is trapped in an old fishing net! With the help of some friendly dolphins and sawfish, the lighthouse family devises a plan to free the trapped otter—and makes two new friends along the way.

Dr Alex Seymour seems to have it all - with a solid marriage of twenty years, two teenage children, a new baby and an unblemished career as a London GP, his life seems perfect - but then a simple trip to the local supermarket changes things irrevocably. As he witnesses a shoplifter foiled by a combination of the owner's beady eye and the surveillance camera under the counter, Alex Seymour starts thinking about the reality and the fragility of his own seemingly perfect domestic situation, and what he does not see. With a son he suspects is stealing, a daughter whose first boyfriend may be going too far, and a wife he thinks is being unfaithful, Alex needs something to help him find out the truth and put him back in control. Enter Sherry Thomas, the mysterious Managing Director of Cyclops, a surveillance shop, and the catalyst for Alex Seymour's descent into a world ruled by cameras, tapes, lies and deceit, with devastating consequences. A gripping story of suspense that mirrors modern preoccupations with surveillance, tabloid voyeurism and morality.

Brendan Behan's genius was to strike a chord between critic and common man. When he died, at the age of 41, he was arguably the most celebrated Irish writer of the twentieth century. After the Wake is a collection of seven prose works and a series of articles. It includes all that exists of an unfinished novel, 'The Caracombs', and pieces together items whose comic and fanciful accounts evoke Flann O'Brien. Also featured are works of acknowledged excellence, 'The Confirmation Suit' and 'A Woman of No Standing'. This writing bears all the hallmarks of the author's talent – an ability to bring characters to life quickly and unforgettably, a sharp ear for dialogue and dialect, and a natural vocation for story-telling. This diverse collection is a delightful and entertaining windfall from one of Ireland's most colourful writers. An essential complement to Behan's master works.

Get Goosebumps with the startling repackage of a best selling classic. Now with bonus materials!Two pink flamingos. A whole family of plaster skunks. Joe Burton's dad loves those tacky lawn ornaments. But then he brings home two ugly lawn gnomes. And that's when the trouble starts.Late at night, When everyone's asleep.Someone's creeping in the garden. Whispering nasty things. Smashing melons. Squashing tomatoes.No way two dumb old lawn ornaments could be causing all the trouble? Is there?

Welcome to the Hall of Horrors, HorrorLand's Hall of Fame for the truly terrifying.Lee Hargrove only wants one thing-to win a scholarship to Summer Sports Camp. His school is holding a competition and the winner gets to attend the camp for free. Lee is one of the favorites to win along with his friend, Cory "Lucky Duck" Duckworth and another athletic classmate, Laura Grodin. Laura is good...for a girl, but how can anyone compete with Cory's good luck streak? Lee has an idea and he's about to give Cory an unforgettable birthday present that will really get the party started.

This compelling satire details irresistible characteristics of social status in a small Midwestern town. Mr. and Mrs. Adams and their two children are members of the lower middle-class. Their daughter, Alice, wrestles with this economic classification and attempts to make the society folk of the town appreciate her. Because Alice has no social influence nor wealth and her presence is held in disregard by prospective suitors, Mrs. Adams tries to improve the situation by persuading her husband to leave a job he's held all his life and to establish a new career. After much apprehension and in possession of a glue formula stolen from his previous employer, he resigns his mediocre but satisfying employment which puts him in a predicament that leads to his professional downfall. Tarkington's understanding of class rivalries, social condescension, and financial avarice is evident in this tale where his main point indicates that in every joyless moment hope, though unexpected, is attainable. He illustrates how the Adams' laborious efforts are ultimately unsuccessful. Any intrusion by Alice and her mother on the upper class is unlikely and Tarkington's depiction of such is secretly amusing.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Warning from publisher to reader: At HarperCollins, we are committed to customer satisfaction. Before proceeding with your purchase, please take the following questionnaire to determine your likelihood of enjoying this book: 1. Which of the following do you appreciate? (a) Women with somewhat horse-ish facial features. (b) Women who, while not super Jew-y, are more identifiably Jewish than, say, Natalie Portman. (c) Frequent discussion of unwanted body hair. 2. Are you offended by the following behavior? (a) Instructing one's grandmother to place baked goods in her rectal cavity. (b) Stripping naked in public—eleven times in a row. (c) Stabbing one's boss in the head with a writing implement. 3. The best way to treat an emotionally fragile young girl is: (a) Murder the main course of her Thanksgiving dinner before her very eyes. (b) Tell her that her older sister is prettier than she, and then immediately die. (c) Prevent her suicide by recommending she stay away from open windows. If you read the above questions without getting nauseous or forming a hate Web site, you are ready to buy this book! Please proceed to the cashier.

From Publishers WeeklyLike many a hip young literary antihero these days, the protagonist of this hilarious if aimless debut is sunk in slacker anomie. Shane has a monotonous temp job at an insurance agency, where he is supposed to alphabetize paperwork but instead spends his time sleeping on the toilet. After work, he is besieged by a gallery of grotesques: a vapid girlfriend who sexually brutalizes him; an absurdly macho neighbor with a leather-clad guinea pig for a sex slave; and his dentist's deaf assistant, who sings atonal karaoke, teaches him to sign obscenities and furnishes a wispy narrative thread by getting murdered. In a world both banal and assaultive, Shane can only drink, steal salt shakers and cultivate his sense of irony; "[t]here's only so much you can do," he shrugs, "and even that's not worth the trouble." Shane's malaise doesn't feel earned; job aside, there are just too many gonzo goings-on—the landlord, for instance, is paying him to have sex with his wife—for him to feel so listless. There's not much to Shane besides a defiant dejectedness, but from that Neilan spins many sparkling comic riffs on the tawdriness and sterility of American life. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FromShane's a numb loser in a city full of freaks. He learned to swear in sign language so he could converse with his dentist's deaf hygienist, but now she's dead, and the police want answers and fluid samples. When it's not sending up crime novels, the narrative satirizes soulless corporate life, but Shane is hard to take either way. In a rare moment of honest assessment, he notes, "I have always thought of people as punch lines." And that's what this book is: an onrushing series of twisted gags, some of them hilarious, others not so much. (Neilan would be funnier if he wasn't so smugly sure of how funny he is.) A highlight: "And then there was some sex . . . We were like two dead fish being slapped together by an off-duty clown." Remember those "Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey" throwaways that used to run between sketches on Saturday Night Live? This is a (barely) novel-length version of that kind of humor. In other words, juvenile fun for undiscerning lads with two hours to kill. A mystery for the Maxim generation. Frank SennettCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Once, in a cottage above the cliffs on the Dark Sea of Darkness, there lived three children and their trusty dog Nugget. Janner Igiby, his brother Tink, their crippled sister Leeli are gifted children as all children are, loved well by a noble mother and ex-pirate grandfather. But they will need all their gifts and all that love to survive the evil pursuit of the venomous Fangs of Dang who have crossed the dark sea to rule the land with malice and pursue the Igibys who hold the secret to the lost legend and jewels of good King Wingfeather of the Shining Isle of Anniera.Andrew Peterson spins a quirky and riveting tale of the Igibys' extraordinary journey from Glipwood's Dragon Day Festival and a secret hidden in the Books and Crannies Bookstore, past the terrifying Black Carriage, clutches of the horned hounds and loathsome toothy cows surrounding AnkleJelly Manor, through the Glipwood Forest and mysterious treehouse of Peet the Sock Man (known for a little softshoe and...

A beloved character brings the power of the press to 1920s Butte, Montana, in this latest from the best storyteller of the West In the winter of 1920, a quirky bequest draws Morrie Morgan back to Butte, Montana, from a year-long honeymoon with his bride, Grace. But the mansion bestowed by a former boss upon the itinerant charmer, who debuted in Doig's bestselling The Whistling Season, promises to be less windfall than money pit. And the town itself, with its polyglot army of miners struggling to extricate themselves from the stranglehold of the ruthless Anaconda Copper Mining Company, seems—like the couple's fast-diminishing finances—on the verge of implosion. These twin dilemmas catapult Morrie into his new career as editorialist for the Thunder, the fledgling union newspaper that dares to play David to Anaconda's Goliath. Amid the clatter of typewriters, the rumble of the printing presses, and a cast of unforgettable...