A young girl's body is fished out of the Thames. Very sad but not so extraordinary. That is, not until Special Branch discover two unusual items. The only telephone number in the late Emma Dupre's diary was Bond's; also a new kind of credit card. Apparently legitimate, but unknown. Emma, well-connected, ex-junkie, had also been involved with a new religious sect - The Society of the Meek Ones led by the charismatic Father Valentine. The Society upholds traditional moral values and is harmless. Or is it? Why does Father Valentine have links with Vladimir Scorpius, the vanished international arms dealer? James Bond is called in to unravel the threads with the help of the beautiful Harriett Horner, in a labyrinthine tale which brings him face to face with the most sadistic and evil opponent of his career.

A top secret catalogue of names held at the highest level of the US government. On it, those men and women who would threaten the world's security. And at the top of it, The Preacher, a radical Islamic cleric whose sermons inspire his followers to kill high profile Western targets in the name of God. As the bodies begin to pile up in America, Great Britain and across Europe, the message goes out: discover this man's identity, locate him and take him out. Tasked with what seems like an impossible job is an ex-US marine who has risen through the ranks to become one of America's most effective intelligence chiefs. Now known only as The Tracker, he must gather what scant evidence there is, collate it and unmask The Preacher if he is to prevent the next spate of violent deaths. Aided only by a brilliant teenaged hacker, he must throw out the bait and see whether his deadly target can be drawn from his lair...

Rob Cooper, self-confessed football fanatic and editor of the United FC fanzine, Wings Of A Sparrow, returns from watching his team succumb to yet another defeat to discover that not only has he inherited an estate worth in excess of six million pounds, but that it has been left to him by an uncle he never knew he had. However, even as Rob is struggling to come to terms with these two bombshells, he is hit with another. For the estate contains ownership of an almost bankrupt professional football club. And the terms of the will are such that Rob will only receive his inheritance if he takes over the running of the club and manages to keep them going for the coming season. The problem is, the club concerned are the local and very bitter rivals of the club Rob and his family have passionately supported all their lives. But after wrestling with his conscience, and driven by his wife’s desire for instant wealth, he accepts the challenge with a promise to the United faithful that he will do whatever he can to ensure that whilst his new club might survive, its supporters are about to experience the most depressing season in their history! And so, in the full glare of the media spotlight, he sets out to do what most football fans could only ever dream about; humiliate their local rivals. The trouble is, it just doesn’t work out like that!

Who do you trust when everyone around you has secrets? Stephanie Cooper's fateful meeting with James Knox, guitarist for indie band The Fury, in Carlswick village sets off an unforeseen chain of events. A family feud dating back to World War II threatens to keep them apart, but however great the danger Stephanie knows she must uncover the secrets hidden beneath the ancient roof of Knox ManorHonorable Mention San Francisco Book Festival 2014“Move over Nancy Drew. There’s a new teenage heroine in town, and her name is Stephanie Cooper…This page-turning novel will be devoured by young adults and mystery lovers.”Stephanie Cooper is visiting her grandmother in the English village of Carlswick before starting her university studies. Her new relationship with the charismatic guitarist for local indie band The Fury looks promising, but an unexplained death and a family feud dating back to World War II threatens to keep them apart. As Stephanie delves into the mysterious circumstances surrounding her great-aunt’s death, she begins to uncover the secrets and deceptions of a previous generation. Village gossip about a tragic wartime romance is mingled with whispers of clandestine visitors, art smuggling and perhaps, collaboration with the Nazis.Someone does not want Stephanie to discover the truth about her family's past. That someone may kill to stop her.

A Selection of Barnes & Noble Recommends A gripping novel about one man's dogged pursuit of a serial killer against the opposition of Stalinist state security forces, Child 44 is at once suspenseful and provocative. Tom Rob Smith's remarkable debut thriller powerfully dramatizes the human cost of loyalty, integrity, and love in the face of totalitarian terror. A decorated war hero driven by dedication to his country and faith in the superiority of Communist ideals, Leo Demidov has built a successful career in the Soviet security network, suppressing ideological crimes and threats against the state with unquestioning efficiency. When a fellow officer's son is killed, Leo is ordered to stop the family from spreading the notion that their child was murdered. For in the official version of Stalin's worker's paradise, such a senseless crime is impossible an affront to the Revolution. But Leo knows better: a murderer is at large, cruelly targeting children, and the collective power of the Soviet government is denying his existence. Leo's doubt sets in motion a chain of events that changes his understanding of everything he had previously believed. Smith's deftly crafted plot delivers twist after chilling twist, as it lays bare the deceit of the regime that enveloped an impoverished people in paranoia. In a shocking effort to test Leo's loyalty, his wife, Raisa, is accused of being a spy. Leo's refusal to denounce her costs him his rank, and the couple is banished from Moscow. Humiliated, renounced by his enemies, and deserted by everyone save Raisa, Leo realizes that his redemption rests on finding the vicious serial killer who is eviscerating innocent children and leaving them to die in the bleak Russian woods. The narrative unfolds at a breathless pace, exposing the culture of fear that turns friends into foes and forces families to hide devastating secrets. As Leo and Raisa close in on the serial killer, desperately trying to stay a step ahead of the government's relentless operatives, the reader races with them through a web of intrigue to the novel's heart-stopping conclusion. About the Author The serial killer in Child 44, Tom Rob Smith's first novel, was suggested by the true story of Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered over 50 women and children in Russia during the 1980s. By setting his fiction three decades before Chikatilo's crimes, the author has added powerful elements of political suspense to his page-turning tale. "I moved it to the 1950s," Smith explains, "because that's when opposing the state was most dangerous. You'd lose your life in the '50s; if you did it in the '80s you'd lose your apartment." His considerable research into Stalin's Soviet Union supports the powerful human drama at his story's heart. Though Child 44 is Smith's first novel, his skill as a storyteller and his experience as a screenwriter are apparent in the book's absorbing plot and suspenseful pacing. He points to his days on commuter trains as another influence. "There was no way to do that journey without a book: a book you could get wrapped up in, a book you could read standing up, a book you'd miss your tube stop for. That was the kind of book I wanted to write." Originally from Norbury in South London, the 28-year-old Smith started writing plays in school and continued while he attended Cambridge, from which he graduated in 2001. After spending a year in Italy on a creative writing scholarship, he became assistant story editor for a British soap opera, then moved to Phnom Penh with the BBC to be the story consultant for Cambodia's first soap opera. He currently lives in London. From Our Booksellers A pulse-raising, edge-of-your-seat thriller! --Laura Brauman, Bourbonnais, IL Expertly atmospheric and brilliantly quease-inducing. --Seth Christenfeld, White Plains, NY If Thomas Harris had set a story in the Gulag, this would have been it. --Melissa Willits, Carmel, IN A fascinating look into Stalinist Russia. --Michele Williams, Long Beach, CA A brilliant debut thriller that fans of Gorky Park will devour. --Margie Turkett, Annapolis, MD

"A well-crafted tale of murder begotten by the collision of two incompatible worlds."-Kirkus Reviews The death of a teenage Amish girl in a cornfield looks like an accident, but sheriff Serenity Adams suspects foul play. To solve the murder, she must investigate the nearby Amish community with the help of a man who was shunned years ago. Lamb to the Slaughter is a story about the intertwining lives of three unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results when a rebellious teenage girl is found shot to death in a corn field during the harvest. Serenity Adams is the newly elected young sheriff in the country town of Blood Rock and besides dealing with the threatening behavior of her predecessor, she now has a dead Amish girl on her plate. At first glance, the case seems obvious. The poor girl was probably accidentally shot during hunting season, but when the elders of the Amish community and even the girl’s parents react with uncaring subdued behavior, Serenity becomes suspicious. As she delves deeper into the secretive community that she grew up beside, she discovers a gruesome crime from the past that may very well be related to the Amish girl’s shooting. Serenity enlists the help of the handsome bad-boy building contractor, Daniel Bachman, who left the Amish when he was nineteen and has his own dark reasons to help the spunky sheriff solve the crime that the family and friends who shunned him are trying desperately to cover up. Serenity’s persistence leads her to a stunning discovery that not only threatens to destroy her blossoming romance with Daniel, but may even take her life in the end.

Letty Dobesh, a gorgeous, degenerate thief, is fresh out of the clink and back to her old tricks—in this case, burglarizing suites at a luxury hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. But when she’s surprised by returning guests on her last room of the day, she’s forced to hide in the closet to avoid getting caught, and inadvertently overhears a hitman being contracted to murder the wife of a wealthy lawyer. Letty is hardly a heroine, but this puts even her threadbare morality to the test. Only in hindsight will she see her choice to intervene for what it is…a dramatic fork in the trajectory of her life, propelling her toward a terrifying shocker of an ending that neither she (or you) ever saw coming. From the author of Desert Places, Abandon, and Serial Uncut comes this 10,000-word thriller novella, which also contains an interview with Blake, excerpts from all four of his novels, and two bonus excerpts.

Missing out on a coveted promotion, Henry Peters has little to boast about and he feels his wife’s disappointment in him. One cool September morning in Christchurch, a 7.1 earthquake strikes Henry’s city, damaging his old work premises and trapping a young woman inside a basement. If he does the right thing, it’s a chance for Henry to shine. Or is it? Perfect Cover is a short story with a twist.Henry Peters hasn’t got much to boast about. He’s not showy, has average smarts, and he's definitely not a big-noter. Living in Christchurch suburbia with his wife, teaching overseas students in a private training establishment, he used to head the science department. Not now. He sought and missed out on a promotion to deputy CEO. He feels his wife’s disappointment in him. Then a 7.1 earthquake strikes the city damaging his old work premises. Suddenly, Henry’s in the light and people need his help. But no one knows his secret and, more importantly, he needs to make sure they stay in the dark.

Unlocking a cold case with explosive implications for the future of civil rights, forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme and his protégé, Amelia Sachs, must outguess a killer who has targeted a high school girl from Harlem who is digging into the past of one of her ancestors, a former slave. What buried secrets from 140 years ago could have an assassin out for innocent blood? And what chilling message is hidden in his calling card, the hanged man of the tarot deck? Rhyme must anticipate the next strike or become history -- in the bestseller that proves "there is no thriller writer today like Jeffery Deaver" (*San Jose Mercury News*).

A lawyer from the London finance house of Single & Single is shot dead on a Turkish hillside by people with whom he thought he was in business. A children's magician in the English countryside is asked by his bank to explain the unsolicited arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust. A freighter bound for Liverpool is boarded by Russian coast guards in the Black Sea. The celebrated London merchant venturer "Tiger"Single disappears into thin air. In Single & Single the writer who both epitomizes and transcends the novel of espionage opens with a haunting set piece, then establishes a sequence of events whose connections are mysterious, complex and compelling. This is a story of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in the West. Le Carré's finest novel in years, it is also an intimate portrait of two families: one Russian, the other English; one trading illicit goods, the other laundering the profits; one betrayed by a son-in-law, the other betrayed, and redeemed, by a son. This is territory le Carré knows better than anyone. Masterful and prescient, he is writing at the height of his creative powers, and Oliver Single, the central protagonist, is one of his most fascinating characters.

An explosive novel set in 1974 Belfast! In 1974 Belfast, the official Irish Republican Army has lost its influence, and a more violent offshoot of it -- the Provisional IRA, or Provos -- has begun a campaign of terror, bombing indiscriminately and remorselessly with the sole purpose of making Ulster ungovernable. British army explosives expert Lieutenant Marcus Richardson is confident in his ability to prevent the Provos' damage until a home-made car bomb nearly takes his life. Recuperating in hospital, Richardson wonders how to get himself out of explosives work with his dignity intact. Major John Smith appears with the answer: one last mission, then an appointment to an elite branch of the armed services. The only catch is that the mission is far more dangerous than defusing ticking bombs. Richardson must assume the identity of a working-class Catholic, infiltrate the Belfast Provos and identify their top men. If the Provos have the slightest suspicion his story is false, he can be sure they'll dispose of him without a second thought. Richardson agrees and goes in -- but as he gets to know the killers he's meant to expose, he finds that the conflict over Ulster may not be as blac

The world of Colonial America comes vibrantly to life in this masterful new historical thriller by Robert McCammon. The latest entry in the popular Matthew Corbett series, which began with Speaks the Nightbird and continued in The Queen of Bedlam, Mister Slaughter opens in the emerging metropolis of New York City in 1702, and proceeds to take both Matthew and the reader on an unforgettable journey of horror, violence, and personal discovery. The journey begins when Matthew, now an apprentice "problem solver" for the London-based Herrald Agency, accepts an unusual and hazardous commission. Together with his colleague, Hudson Greathouse, he agrees to escort the notorious mass murderer Tyranthus Slaughter from an asylum outside Philadelphia to the docks of New York. Along the way, Slaughter makes his captors a surprising - and extremely tempting - offer. Mister Slaughter is at once a classic portrait of an archetypal serial killer and an exquisitely detailed account of a fledgling nation still in the process of inventing itself.

After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the man's death, he begins his own investigation, meeting with Fennan's widow to find out what could have led him to such desperation. But on the very day that Smiley is ordered off the enquiry he receives an urgent letter from the dead man. Do the East Germans - and their agents - know more about this man's death than the Circus previously imagined?Le Carré's debut novel, Call for the Dead, introduced the tenacious and retiring George Smiley in a gripping tale of espionage and deceit.

Making a Murderer meets Scandal in this story of police corruption, family secrets, and illicit affairs from bestselling author K.A. Tucker, celebrated for her “propulsive plot twists and searing seduction” (USA TODAY). Noah Marshall has known a privileged and comfortable life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But all that changes the night she reveals a skeleton that's been rattling in her closet for years, and succumbs to the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Reeling with grief, Noah is forced to carry the burden of this shocking secret. Gracie Richards wasn't born in a trailer park, but after fourteen years of learning how to survive in The Hollow, it's all she knows anymore. At least here people don't care that her dad was a corrupt Austin cop, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Here, she and her mother are just another family struggling to survive...until a man who clearly doesn't belong shows up on her doorstep. Despite their differences, Noah and Gracie are searching for answers to the same questions, and together, they set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department's dark and messy past. But the scandal that emerges is bigger than they bargained for, and goes far higher up than they ever imagined. Complex, gritty, sexy, and thrilling, Keep Her Safe solidifies K.A. Tucker's reputation as one of today's most talented new voices in romantic suspense.