The Lusty City Chronicles

      Romeo D. Matshaba
     The Lusty City Chronicles

When decay and sweet lust infects an entire city, and worse still, a serial killer lurks in the dark - preying on beautiful women. It is up to Robert Frost to bring an end to this nightmare... but could the killer be his eccentric girlfriend?After moving to her eighth school because her brother got them expelled, again, Kaila Jenson makes a decision to enjoy her time in high school. Kaila meets an incredible guy, Josh, who she’s instantly drawn to. There’s only one problem, he has a girlfriend and she’s the captain of the cheerleading squad. With the aid of her new group of friends Kaila faces the challenges of falling for someone else’s boyfriend, while dealing with a mother who ran off with a younger man and a father who has no idea what to do with his children. Written in a way which is realistic, with the hilarity of high school situations everyone can relate to; and a dysfunctional family, which is seriously trying to look normal.

Read online

  • 1 185

    The Bone Garden

      Tess Gerritsen
     The Bone Garden

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Tess Gerritsen's The Silent Girl. Unknown bones, untold secrets, and unsolved crimes from the distant past cast ominous shadows on the present in the dazzling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . . Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect. To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city–from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power–on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity. With unflagging suspense and pitch-perfect period detail, The Bone Garden deftly interweaves the thrilling narratives of its nineteenth- and twenty-first century protagonists, tracing the dark mystery at its heart across time and place to a finale as ingeniously conceived as it is shocking. Bold, bloody, and brilliant, this is Tess Gerritsen’s finest achievement to date. "An old mystery is crossed with a modern story in the latest from Gerritsen (The Mephisto Club, 2006, etc.).Julia Hamill, newly divorced and still smarting, purchases an old house outside Boston. Determined to dig a garden, she instead finds the bones of a long-dead woman–the apparent victim of murder–which starts her on a journey to ferret out the story behind her death. Julia connects with Henry, a no-nonsense 89-year-old with boxes of documents that once belonged to the now-deceased previous owner of Julia’s home. The two discover a mystery dating back to the 1830s. At the heart of it is a baby named Meggie, born to the beautiful but doomed Irish chambermaid, Aurnia. Married to a man who cares nothing for her, Aurnia lays dying in a maternity ward with her sister, Rose, at her side. Rose, a spirited 17-year-old, takes Meggie to protect her from Aurnia’s husband, but soon finds herself the target of a bizarre manhunt. Someone is after the child–and Rose, as well, because she witnessed a horrifying murder. The body count piles up as Rose struggles to remain free of those who would take Meggie from her. Meanwhile, a young medical student becomes the chief suspect of the West End Reaper killings when he stumbles onto another terrible homicide. Although he fights the prospect, eventually he and Rose join forces to solve the murders and protect the baby at the heart of the mysterious deaths. Readers with delicate stomachs may find Gerritsen’s graphic descriptions of corpse dissection hard to take, but the story, which digs up a dark Boston of times long past, entices readers to keep turning pages long after their bedtimes." - Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Read online

  • 1 185

    No Time for Goodbye

      Linwood Barclay
     No Time for Goodbye

Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truth *Sometimes better not to know. . . * Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous gifts, someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one's innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer's shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.

Read online

  • 1 185

    The Seville Communion

      Arturo Pérez-Reverte
     The Seville Communion

Her name is Our Lady of the Tears. She's a small, crumbling Baroque church in the heart of Seville, Spain. And at least one person -- a computer hacker nicknamed Vespers -- believes that she kills to defend herself. In Arturo Perez-Reverte's stylish and entertaining The Seville Communion, Rome sends handsome Father Lorenzo Quart to investigate. He meets a feisty parish priest, a beautiful aristocrat, an ambitious banker, and three of the most touching, wonderfully ineffectual crooks to ever dabble in a life of crime. There are mysteries as well, from another death at the church to the secrets of the human heart. -- Nancy Pate

Read online

  • 1 184

    The Highway

      C. J. Box
     The Highway

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the New York Times bestselling author of Back of Beyond and Breaking Point and the creator of the Joe Pickett series is back. "If CJ Box isn't already on your list, put him there." - USA Today When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might ever hear from them again. The girls--and their car--simply vanish. Former police investigator Cody Hoyt has just lost his job and has fallen off the wagon after a long stretch of sobriety. Convinced by his son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, he begins the drive south to the girls' last known location. As Cody makes his way to the lonely stretch of Montana highway where they went missing, Cassie discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren't the first girls who have disappeared in this area. This majestic landscape is the hunting ground for a killer whose viciousness is outmatched only by his intelligence. And he might not be working alone. Time is running out for Gracie and Danielle…Can Cassie overcome her doubts and lack of experience and use her innate skill? Can Cody Hoyt battle his own demons and find this killer before another victim vanishes on the highway?

Read online

  • 1 184

    Old Mr Bitterman: Criminally Insane

      Max Frick
     Old Mr Bitterman: Criminally Insane

A day in the life of a septuagenarian serial killer at odds with the modern world. If you like your psychopathic murderers a little long in the tooth this could be right up your street.Proverbs are a huge part of our oral tradition. In fact, whole sections of our traditional history are understood and transmitted through this method. Unfortunately, it is underappreciated like many other aspects of Liberian literature, culture or history. Our elders are known for dispensing their wisdom in these wise sayings. They believe that the young should take some responsibility in searching to find answers to life. This personal journey only served to make a person better fit for life and its challenges.This book collects 460 proverbs; it is a must-have for those wishing to connect to their ancestry. As for the lover of wise sayings, it is an adventure for a treasure chest. Most importantly, it is suitable for readers of all ages.

Read online

  • 1 183

    Stalemate

      Iris Johansen
     Stalemate

Eve Duncan has turned down the job twice already. Her skill and devotion in identifying murder victims and helping bring their killers to justice may be world-renowned. But Eve works exclusively for law enforcement and the families of the innocent, and the man on the other end of the phone is many things—none of them law-abiding or innocent. One of the world’s most wanted men, little is really known about Luis Montalvo except that he is extraordinarily dangerous and that he never takes no for an answer. Now he wants Eve’s help in the worst way. For he believes they have something in common—and he’s about to prove it with a grisly warning. Eve will leave everything and everyone behind, even the man she trusts and loves the most, Atlanta detective Joe Quinn, to travel to Montalvo’s luxurious armed compound in the Colombian jungle to identify the skull he has recovered. She has agreed to this devil’s bargain to save an innocent family, but also for a reason she can’t admit to Joe, to the CIA, to anyone. For the man in the jungle has promised to be able to give Eve what she wants most of all—the key to unlocking the darkest and most painful mystery of her past. But Eve is in more danger than she can imagine. As she gets closer to identifying the skull, she finds herself caught between two ruthless killers with no way out. Now, with everything on the line, Eve Duncan must make the most chilling choice of all. And if she’s wrong…she’s dead.

Read online

  • 1 183

    Death and the Devil

      Frank Schätzing
     Death and the Devil

In the year 1260, under the supervision of the architect Gerhard Morart, the most ambitious ecclesiastical building in all of Christendom is rising above the merchant city of Cologne: the great cathedral. Far below the soaring spires and flying buttresses, a bitter struggle is underway between the archbishop of Cologne and the ruling merchant families to control the enormous wealth of this prosperous commercial center—a struggle that quickly becomes deadly. Morart is the first of many victims, pushed to his death from the cathedral's scaffolding by a huge man with long hair, clad all in black. But hiding in the branches of the archbishop's apple orchard is a witness: a red-haired petty thief called Jacob the Fox, street-smart, cunning, and yet naive in the ways of the political world. Out of his depth and running for his life, he soon finds himself engaged in a desperate battle with some very powerful forces. Most dangerous of all is the killer himself—a mysterious man with remarkable speed, strength, and intelligence, hiding dark secrets that have stripped away his humanity and turned him into a cruel, efficient hired assassin who favors a miniature crossbow as his weapon of choice. But who is he killing for? Jacob the Fox—uneducated and superstitious—fears the killer is the Angel of Death himself. But the wily Fox makes an alliance with some of the strangest of bedfellows: a beautiful clothes dyer, her drunken rascal of a father, and her learned uncle, who loves a good debate almost as much as he loves a bottle of wine. Can this unlikely foursome triumph against the odds and learn the truth of the evil conspiracy before their quest leads to their death at the end of a crossbow arrow? Readers who loved the richly textured setting and historical accuracy of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose will thrill to discover a new novel through which they can vicariously enter the medieval world. With its vivid evocation of both the rich and powerful and those struggling to survive another day at the bottom of society's rungs in the Cologne of 1260, Death and the Devil, the first novel by Frank Schatzing, sends a clear announcement to the literary world that an important new voice in fiction is here.

Read online

  • 1 182

    Evan Burl and the Falling, Vol. 1-2

      Justin Blaney
     Evan Burl and the Falling, Vol. 1-2

Discover #1 bestselling novel, Evan Burl and the FallingMy father abandoned me when I was an infant.My friends have turned against me. My uncle beats me.The most powerful sapients in the world want me dead.They all have one thing in common.They think I'm turning into a monster.I'm starting to worry they're right.Discover #1 bestselling novel, Evan Burl and the FallingA monster lives in all of us.My father abandoned me when I was an infant.My friends have turned against me.My uncle hates me.The most powerful sapients in the world want me dead.They all have one thing in common.They think I'm turning into a monster.I'm starting to worry they're right.Over a thousand years, one man unlocks sapience—the ability to transform the imagined into reality. But not everyone believes sapience is a gift because this power blurs the lines between dreaming and waking, making it impossible to divide real life from nightmare and friend from enemy.The most powerful of these sapients rule the world, sharing little in common save their venom for each other and lurid horror for Evan Burl—a sixteen-year-old imprisoned with twelve immortal orphans in a haunted castle surrounded by the bones of a forgotten city. Evan finds a letter that orders his execution—signed by his own father—that reveals Evan's latent supernatural talents. As Evan makes use of his new abilities, he loses his grasp on the physical world and fears he might be responsible for the string of gruesome deaths that have begun to plague the orphans. With each passing day, Evan's waking world is fading into a mist of dreams, replaced by starless nightmares that just might be real. The fates of those who remain alive rest on whether Evan can regain his ability to tell dream from reality and save his friends from the sapients who would rather the world forget that these twelve orphans ever lived. PRAISE FOR EVAN BURL AND THE FALLING“Justin Blaney’s descriptive, yet punchy writing style is just one way Evan Burl and the Falling separates itself from the vast majority of young adult and fantasy writing being published today. With its intelligent and gripping storyline, relatable heroes, and highly-imagined villains this book captured my attention from the start. I can’t wait to read what happens next.”—Freya Hind"The best fantasy book I've ever read" —Mitsy Princell“Brilliant. I am recommending this book to all my friends”—Julia (from Amazon.com) “Evan Burl is one of the most imaginative and creative (novels) I’ve read in a long time. Fans of fast-paced, action-packed fantasy will find a lot to love...”—Alyce Reese“Well-crafted. Mysterious. Intriguing.”—H.J. van der Klis “I usually don’t enjoy books of this genre... I’m really glad I took a chance. The characters were rich as was the story line. I couldn’t put it down!!!” —Julie Weber“Reading Evan Burl reminded me of how I felt when I read great books like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games for the first time.”—Katie Zinda

Read online

  • 1 181

    Once Gone (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #1)

      Blake Pierce
     Once Gone (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #1)

A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, ONCE GONE marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.”--Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone)“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery! The author did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side that is so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)Women are turning up dead in the rural outskirts of Virginia, killed in grotesque ways, and when the FBI is called in, they are stumped. A serial killer is out there, his frequency increasing, and they know there is only one agent good enough to crack this case: Special Agent Riley Paige.Riley is on paid leave herself, recovering from her encounter with her last serial killer, and, fragile as she is, the FBI is reluctant to tap her brilliant mind. Yet Riley, needing to battle her own demons, comes on board, and her hunt leads her through the disturbing subculture of doll collectors, into the homes of broken families, and into the darkest canals of the killer’s mind. As Riley peels back the layers, she realizes she is up against a killer more twisted than she could have imagined. In a frantic race against time, she finds herself pushed to her limit, her job on the line, her own family in danger, and her fragile psyche collapsing.Yet once Riley Paige takes on a case, she will not quit. It obsesses her, leading her to the darkest corners of her own mind, blurring the lines between hunter and hunted. After a series of unexpected twists, her instincts lead her to a shocking climax that even Riley could not have imagined.A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, ONCE GONE marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.Book #2 in the Riley Paige series will be available soon.

Read online

  • 1 181

    Dead Men Kill

      L. Ron Hubbard
     Dead Men Kill

Detective Terry Lane is a standout homicide cop who thought he’d seen it all . . . until now.  As tough as Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness of The Untouchables—and just as incorruptible—Lane has seen the darkest side of human behavior.  But he’s never seen a murder spree like this, targeting the wealthy, the powerful and the privileged.  For the evidence is clear: the killers have not emerged from the seamy underside of the city . . . but from six feet under it.  They are the walking dead, spreading terror and showing no mercy. Following a trail of drugs, blackmail, and the twisted clues of a seductive nightclub singer, Detective Lane will have to think outside the box…or he could end up inside one, buried alive. In 1934, while living in New York, the heart of the publishing industry, Hubbard struck up a friendship with the city’s medical examiner—a relationship that started his education in undetectable crime and provided him with authoritative clinical background for his detective stories. “A rollicking horror yarn [that] taps into the current craze for zombies. . . . heart-pounding.” * —Publishers Weekly *An International Book Awards Winner

Read online

  • 1 181

    After the Storm

      Linda Castillo
     After the Storm

In this electrifying thriller by New York Times bestseller Linda Castillo, Kate Burkholder must uncover a family's long-hidden past to solve a brutal murder When a tornado tears through Painters Mill and unearths human remains, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder finds herself tasked with the responsibility of identifying the bones—and notifying the family. Evidence quickly emerges that the death was no accident and Kate finds herself plunged into a thirty year old case that takes her deep into the Amish community to which she once belonged. Meanwhile, turmoil of an emotional and personal nature strikes at the very heart of Kate's budding relationship with state agent John Tomasetti. A reality that strains their fragile new love to the breaking point and threatens the refuge they've built for themselves—and their future. Under siege from an unknown assailant—and her own personal demons—Kate digs deep into the case only to discover proof of an unimaginable atrocity, a plethora of family secrets and the lengths to which people will go to protect their own.

Read online

  • 1 181

    Never Knowing

      Chevy Stevens
     Never Knowing

At thirty-three Sara Gallagher is finally happy. Her antique furniture restoration business is taking off and she’s engaged to a wonderful man. But there’s one big question that still haunts her — who are her birth parents? Sara is finally ready to find out. Sara’s birth mother rejects her—again. Then she discovers her biological father is an infamous killer who’s been hunting women every summer for almost forty years. Sara tries to come to terms with her horrifying parentage — and her fears that she’s inherited more than his looks — with her therapist, Nadine, who we first met in "Still Missing." But soon Sara realizes the only thing worse than finding out your father is a killer is him finding out about you. Some questions are better left unanswered.

Read online

  • 1 180