A man desperately seeks answers to an all-consuming question. Estimated reading time - ten minutes.Bob has led a structured, exemplary life…until his hidden obsession finally boils over, forcing him to find the answer no matter where the ultimate truth leads. Estimated reading time - ten minutes.

A Spy in Berlin is a preview of The Professional Friend, the tale of an NSA director who unwittingly helps an organized crime gang to infiltrate the world of legitimate business and the former NSA analyst who tries to stop him.A Spy in Berlin is a preview of the first 20 chapters of The Professional Friend, the brilliantly conceived novel from renowned writer Astrid Julian... "...an adrenaline-charged international thriller... dark, complex characters with the sophistication of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... an epic saga of how globalization is changing our world..." IN BERLIN... EUROPE'S MOST FAST FORWARD CITY...No one suspects that American Fritzi Jordan once worked for the super secret National Security Agency, and Fritzi, the white hat hacker analyst, wants to keep it that way. She is done with spies and their lies. Then a train with recycled plutonium disappears, and a CIA officer talks the shy analyst into becoming a field operative. AN EX-NSA SPY IS FORCED OUT OF HIDING...Ray Bliss hates running agents, especially naïve young kids like Fritzi. But no one else can get close to her ex-boyfriend. Since leaving the US, he has become an underworld kingpin who is unleashing a wave of terror attacks across Europe. First the hijacking of the train, then dirty bombings of EU cities, and Fritzi is the only one who can stop it. REGAINING HER LOST REPUTATION IS NO LONGER ENOUGH... NOW SHE WANTS REVENGE...Fritzi can't believe that her ex has done everything he is being accused of. Sure, he was a bad boy. Sure, her involvement with him led to her being read out of the NSA under a cloud. But a terrorist? Never! She will prove the spies wrong... Then the Washington defense contractor who fired her shows up in Berlin to train her for the mission... Fritzi seizes her opportunity for revenge not realizing that she poses such a threat that this time the contractor won't be satisfied with ruining her reputation. This time he wants her dead.

Disclosure by Nancy Holder released on Jul 08, 2008 is available now for purchase.

Elliot Cross is the Butterfly Killer. He targets anyone with dreams and aspirations. In this short story we see his cunning ways. He stops at nothing to gain his victims confidence. If you have a dream, he's ready to make sure you don't live to achieve it.Elliot Cross is the Butterfly Killer. He targets anyone with dreams and aspirations. In this short story we are introduced to his cunning ways. He stops at nothing to gain his victim's confidence. If you have a dream, he's ready to make sure you don't live to achieve it. It doesn't matter how simple or elaborate. As you see in this introductory short subtitled The Driving Lesson, the dream can be as simple as a teen boy anticipating passing his driver's test. It can be as large and complex as a Mother about to give birth to a baby after many failed attempts. Whatever your hope or ambition, Elliot waits until you're at the threshold and snuffs the dream. He invokes God as the justification for his crime. In his mind, he says he is doing the work of the Lord. God is jealous because the victims care more about their aspirations than they care about him. God is using him enforce his first commandment: "Thou shall have no other Gods before me" to show his power and how little he cares about people's "foolish follies."Included is an excerpt from a scene deep into the novel. Relax and enjoy this short story. Don't let murderous Elliot stop you.ExcerptTimmy thought it was odd that Carrie’s Father didn’t want anyone to know about the Sunday driving lesson. He churned it over and over in his head, Mister. Cross’s reasoning for the secrecy. “Your friends will be as mad as wet hens if they fail to pass and they find out you passed because you had an extra lesson. I can just hear my Carrie, ‘But Dad, you gave Timmy private lessons, but not your own Daughter?’ Whoo! That gal can be jealous. But you know her. You and her are tight like a drum aren’t you?”That explanation sounded reasonable to Timmy. Kids at South High tended to act like crabs in a barrel. If half of Mister Smith’s Trig Class was failing, they all had to fail. Shining stars weren’t tolerated. And Mister Cross was right about his daughter Carrie. Most kids shied away from Carrie, partly because of him and his crazy love for chasing butterflies all over the neighborhood. But she also had a jealous streak that was about as green as her hair. Girls didn’t stay friends with her very long. Even other lesbian girls fell victim to her rants and arm twisting because she had caught them talking to boys or other girls. But Mr. Cross had put his hand on his shoulder in a most fatherly way. Or was that creepy, Timmy wondered? The hand lingered a moment longer than it should and squeezed harder than it should have, as if it was a massage.

A man wakes up to find himself lying on the ground in a railway station, his mind stripped bare of all recollection. He has no idea how he got there; he does not even know his own name. Convinced he is a drunken down and out, it isn’t until a newspaper report about a satellite launch catches his eye that he suspects all is not what it seems… The year is 1958, and America is about to launch its first satellite in a desperate attempt to match the Soviet Sputnik and regain the lead in the space race. As Luke Lucas gradually unravels the mystery of his amnesia, he realizes that his fate is bound up with that of the rocket that stands ready on launch pad 26B at Cape Canaveral. And as he relearns the story of his life, he uncovers long-kept secrets about his wife, his best friend and the woman he once loved more than life itself… Code to Zero deals with one of the most ruthlessly contested arenas of the Cold War. Deceit and betrayal, love and trust interweave at the most political and personal levels, while the spectre of mind-control hovers constantly above. Each second brings destruction closer…

The long-awaited final installment of the #1 *New York Times* bestselling author’s Nadia Stafford series Since Kelley Armstrong wrapped up book two of the Nadia Stafford series, fans have been eager to know what happens to the tough-as-nails contract killer. At last, *Wild Justice* brings Nadia back for the series’ thrilling conclusion—an action-packed tale that will dazzle fans of the series as well as those who are only familiar with Armstrong’s bestselling paranormal books. In *Wild Justice*, Nadia is confronted with her most difficult task to date: going after the man who killed her cousin Amy twenty years prior. But when it turns out that someone else has already taken justice into their own hands, she is drawn into a complex situation where everything she knows and loves is thrown into the path of danger. Nadia is forced to take matters into her own hands, ultimately requiring her to confront her darkest secrets—and her deepest desires—in a way that she never thought possible.

In this electrifying new thriller in the New York Times bestselling series, a convicted murderer is on the run and Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must catch him before he strikes again."Murder in Amish country has a certain added frisson, and Castillo's the master of the genre." —People magazine"Castillo weaves the particularities of the Amish mindset into a complex mystery that will leave you crying with pity or seething with rage." —Kirkus Reviews (starred) Two years ago, Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. Now King, a "fallen" Amish man known as a drug user with a violent temper, has escaped, and he's headed for Painters Mill. News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire, putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. But this is personal for Kate. She grew up with Joseph King. As a thirteen year...

The year is 1906, and America is segregated. Hatred and discrimination plague the streets, the classroom, and the courts. But in Washington D.C, Ben Corbett, a smart and courageous lawyer, makes it his mission to confront injustice at every turn. He represents those who nobody else dares defend, merely because of the color of their skin. When President Roosevelt, under whom Ben served in the Spanish-American war, asks Ben to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in his home town in Mississippi, he cannot refuse. The details of Ben's harrowing story--and his experiences with a remarkable man named Abraham Cross--were passed from generation to generation, until they were finally recounted to Alex Cross by his grandmother, Nana Mama. From the first time hear heard the story, Alex was unable to forget the unimaginable events Ben witnessed in Eudora and pledged to tell it to the world. Alex Cross's Trial is unlike any story Patterson has ever told, but offers the astounding action and breakneck speed of any Alex Cross novel.

Caleb Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness, returns with a contemporary, edge-of-your-seat thriller featuring Dr. Trajan Jones, a criminal psychologist—and the world’s leading expert on the life and work of one Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the hero of The Alienist, in whose brilliant but unconventional footsteps he follows. In the small town of Surrender in upstate New York, Trajan Jones, a psychological profiler, and Dr. Michael Li, a trace evidence expert, teach online courses in profiling and forensic science from Jones’s family farm. Once famed advisors to the New York City Police Department, Trajan and Li now work in exile, having made enemies of those in power. Protected only by farmhands and Jones’s unusual pet cheetah, the outcast pair is unexpectedly called in to consult on a disturbing case. In rural Burgoyne County, a pattern of strange deaths has emerged: adolescent boys and girls are found murdered in gruesome fashion. Senior law enforcement officials are quick to blame a serial killer, yet their efforts to apprehend this criminal are peculiarly ineffective. Jones and Li soon discover that the victims are all “throwaway children,” a new state classification of young people who are neither orphans, runaways, nor homeless, but who are abandoned by their families and left to fend for themselves. Two of these throwaways, Lucas Kurtz and his older sister, cross paths with Jones and Li, offering information that could blow the case wide open. As the stakes grow higher, Jones and Li must not only unravel the mystery of how the throwaways died, but also defend themselves and the Kurtz siblings against shadowy agents who don’t want them to uncover the truth. Jones believes the real story leads back to the city where both he and Dr. Kreizler did their greatest work. But will they be able to trace the case to New York before they fall victim to the murderous forces that stalk them? Tautly paced and richly researched, Surrender, New York brings to life the grim underbelly of a prosperous nation—and those most vulnerable to its failings. This brilliant novel marks another milestone in Caleb Carr’s triumphant literary suspense career.

What waits Beneath? Pat O'Toole has always idolized his older brother, Coop. He's even helped Coop with some of his crazier plans -- such as risking his life to help his big brother dig a tunnel underneath their neighborhood in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Coop is . . . different. He doesn't talk on the phone, doesn't use email, and doesn't have friends. He's never really cared for anything but the thrill of being underground and Pat. So it's no surprise to anyone -- even Pat -- that after a huge fight with their parents, Coop runs away. Exactly one year later, Pat receives a package containing a digital voice recorder and a cryptic message from his brother. He follows the clues to New York City, and soon discovers that Coop has joined the Community, a self-sufficient society living beneath the streets. Now it's up to Pat to find his brother -- and bring him home.

On the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis, American and French intelligence agents are plunged into a maze of Cold War intrigue In Paris, 1962, French intelligence chief André Devereaux and NATO intelligence chief Michael Nordstrom have uncovered Soviet plans to ship nuclear arms to Cuba. But when Devereaux reports his findings and nobody acts—and he is targeted in an assassination attempt—he soon realizes he’s tangled in a plot far greater than he first understood.

In post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, where the ghosts of the past are far from buried and forgotten, one man will battle his inner-demons to save his wife and help destroy a monster spawned in the blood-soaked grounds of the infamous Killing Fields.In post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia there are many wounds still open and the ghosts of the past are far from forgotten. Into this world stumble Scott and Nancy Morris, on a holiday of healing following a deadly helicopter crash that leaves Scott psychologically scarred and addicted to his medication. Their peaceful voyage down the Mekong River aboard the Mekong Dawn becomes a living nightmare when terrorists, led by a brutal Khmer Rouge executioner, board the boat, kill the officers and ransom the passengers’ lives.Hidden away in the remote swamps of Boeng Tonle Chhma the passengers learn that their governments have refused to negotiate with the terrorists. Their only hope lies with the tenacity of Sinh Ang, a Cambodian police officer who works tirelessly to unravel the flimsy thread of clues that will lead him to the Mekong Dawn.As the trail unfolds, the passengers have only each other to turn to in a desperate race to ensure their survival, a race in which Scott must face the demons of his past if he is to save Nancy and give Ang a chance to settle a score originating in the Killing Fields of Cambodia’s bloody past.

Boston, 1963. A city on edge. On street corners, newsboys hawk the shocking headline: Kennedy is Dead . In the city' s underworld, a mob war rages. But what terrifies Bostonians most is the mysterious killer who has already claimed a dozen victims, a murderer whose name is indelibly linked to their city: the Boston Strangler. For the three Daley brothers, sons of a Boston cop, crime is the family business. They are simply on different sides of it. Joe is the eldest, a tough-talking cop whose gambling habits - fast women, slow horses - drag him down into the city's gangland. Michael is the middle son; a Harvard-educated lawyer working for an ambitious attorney general, he finds himself assigned to the embattled Strangler task force. And Ricky, the devil-may-care youngest son, floats above the fray as an expert burglar - until the Strangler strikes too close to home. As Joe' s mob debts close in around him...and Michael becomes snarled in a murder investigation gone very wrong...and Ricky is hunted by both sides of the law, the three brothers - and the women who love them - are forced to make difficult choices. Now each must look deeper into a killer's murderous rage, into their family's own lethal secrets, and into the one death that has changed them forever. As William Landay's complex, compassionate, and terrifying novel builds to a climax, two mysteries will collide - and a shattering truth will be revealed.

Dirk Pitt returns, in the thrilling new novel from the grand master of adventure and #1 New York Times–bestselling author. While investigating a toxic outbreak in the Caribbean Sea that may ultimately threaten the United States, Pitt unwittingly becomes involved in something even more dangerous—a post-Castro power struggle for the control of Cuba. Meanwhile, Pitt’s children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, are on an investigation of their own, chasing an Aztec stone that may reveal the whereabouts of a vast historical Aztec treasure. The problem is, that stone was believed to have been destroyed on the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, which brings them both to Cuba as well—and squarely into harm’s way. The three of them have been in desperate situations before . . . but perhaps never quite as dire as the one facing them now.

An adventure that will take you on a journey where your values of love, friendship, compassion and forgiveness will be challenged.Expecting an experience of a lifetime Gunter gets more than he ever imagined when he arrives in South Africa as an exchange student. Being badly injured in the crossfire of a hijacking, considering the circumstances he decides to stay against his parents' wishes. Creating a perfect life there, a tight bond with his host family, new friendships and falling in love with a girl. All of a sudden his perfect life takes a new direction, where those tight bonds will be pushed to the limits. An adventure that will take you on a journey where your values of love, friendship, compassion and forgiveness will be challenged.