Former SAS Trooper turned MI6 Operative Aidan Snow returns in a short story preceding the release of the third Aidan Snow thriller ‘The Dangerous Deadly Elite’.

As an ex-pat Brian Webb has a great life, a sexy wife and a perfect daughter. But all this is put in jeopardy when on his way home from a night of heavy drinking he is chased by a group of armed assailants. Who are his pursuers, what do they want from him and why are they shooting? Webb would rather not hang around to find out. Crashing a stolen car in an attempt to escape Webb is blooded, cornered and out of options… left with no other choice he calls the only person who would never let him down. He calls Aidan Snow.

Arriving in Kyiv, Snow takes the law into his own hands in an attempt to find and rescue one of his oldest friends. With the ghosts of the past on his shoulders Snow must again rely on his SAS training and will not stop until he discovers the truth.

Denver, Colorado: a pretty, clever young girl working for an environmental charity, Victoria Patawasti is sleeping peacefully, unaware that she has barely an hour to live. As her killer slips into her apartment and draws a revolver in the darkness, Alex Lawson wakes up in Belfast. Twenty-four, sickly, and struggling to kick his heroin habit after a disastrous six-month stint in the drug squad of the Northern Ireland police force, Alex badly needs a chance to get back on track. Victoria was his high school love, and when he finds out she has been murdered, he volunteers to help Victoria?s family hunt down the killer. But once in Colorado, Alex has a fight on his hands: wanted by both the Colorado cops and the Ulster police, and uncovering corruption at the highest levels of government, he can solve the case only if he manages to stay alive.

In bestseller Gardner 's first-rate follow-up to Alone (2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified female bodies in clear garbage bags. A silver locket with one of the corpses, which may be decades old, bears the name Annabelle Granger. Later, a woman shows up at the Boston Homicide offices claiming to be Annabelle Granger. Her resemblance to Catherine Gagnon (whose life Bobby saved in Alone) helps stoke a romance between her and Bobby both subtle and sizzling. The suspense builds as the police uncover links between patients at the hospital and long-ago criminal activities. Through expert use of red herrings, Gardner takes the reader on a nail-biting ride to the thrilling climax.

***

'I can't afford to come back from the dead.' Annabelle has had many names in her life – Sally, Cindy, Lucille. Though her father moved her from city to city from the age of ten, changing names, houses, careers and histories every few months, Annabelle never knew what they were running from. Now in her thirties, with both parents dead, she's settled in Boston. But old habits die hard and she still looks over her shoulder when she leaves her apartment, still blends in with the crowd on the subway. Then at the Boston State Mental Hospital a multiple grave is discovered. Six young girls left to die in an underground chamber decades ago, while their captor looked on. When her original name appears in the paper, wrongly identifying her as one of the dead girls, Annabelle finally knows. This was the work of the monster her father fled from. But the killer is still on the loose. And he's looked for her for a very long time. Bobby Dodge has been haunted by the Catherine Gagnon case for years. It nearly cost him his job and his sanity. As a child, Catherine was also held prisoner underground, like the victims in this latest case. But Catherine's captor was in prison when these girls were taken. Yet the similarities are too numerous to be just coincidence…

Winter, 1862. A malevolent spirit roams the cold and gloomy streets of Victorian London, the vampiric ghost of John Polidori, the onetime physician of the mad, bad and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron. Polidori is also the supernatural muse to his niece and nephew, poet Christina Rossetti and her artist brother Dante Gabriel.

But Polidori's taste for debauchery has grown excessive. He is determined to possess the life and soul of an innocent young girl, the daughter of a veterinarian and a reformed prostitute he once haunted. And he has resurrected Dante's dead wife, transforming her into a horrifying vampire. The Rossettis know the time has come — Polidori must be stopped. Joining forces with the girl's unlikely parents, they are plunged into a supernatural London underworld whose existence they never suspected.

These wildly mismatched allies — a strait-laced animal doctor, and ex-prostitute, a poet, a painter, and even the Artful Dodger-like young daughter — must ultimately choose between the banality and constraints of human life and the unholy immortality that Polidori offers. Sweeping from high society to grimy slums, elegant West End salons to pre-Roman catacombs beneath St. Paul's cathedral, Hide Me Among The Graves blends the historical and the supernatural in a dazzling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride.

Accident victim Faith Parker has done what her doctors feared she never would: awakened from the coma that held her prisoner for weeks.  But she has no memory of the crash that nearly killed her or the life that led up to it.  Nor does she remember journalist Dinah Leighton, the stedfast friend who visited her in the hospital... until she disappeared without a trace.  Now as Faith begins to regain her strength, she is shocked by intimate dreams of the man she doesn't recognize and tortured by visions of violence that feel painfully real. Something inexplicable ties her lost memories to Dinah's chilling fate.  But even as fate tries to understand the connection and reach out to save Dinah, death is stalking both women.  And one of them will not escape its lethal grasp.

Cal Moore, del departamento de narcóticos, fue encontrado en un motel con un tiro en la cabeza cuando estaba investigando sobre una nueva droga de diseño llamada “hielo negro”. Para el detective Harry Bosch, lo importante no son los hechos aislados, sino el hilo conductor que los mantiene unidos. Y sus averiguaciones sobre el sospechoso suicidio de Moore parecen trazar una línea recta entre los traficantes que merodean por Hollywood Boulevard y los callejones más turbios de la frontera de México.

When an American missile submarine is sunk in the Sea of Japan, it's the opening move in a madman's plan to plunge the world into war. A day later the Chinese ambassador to Washington is assassinated. Meanwhile, the unstable leader of North Korea prepares to attack America with a terrible weapon.

The U.S. President calls in the Project, a deep black ops unit that goes places and does things others can't or won't do. They've had tough assignments before: but this time they're up against an unknown enemy, a man bent on vengeance against all of humanity. He won't rest until the world is turned into a radioactive hell… and when it comes to the Project, it's personal.

Can the Project team find him before he unleashes nuclear Armageddon?

Twenty-one stories for mature audiences only!

This collection of Joe R. Lansdale stories represents the best of the “Lansdale” genre—a strange mixture of dark crime, even darker humor, and adventure tales. Though varied in setting and theme, all the stories are pure Lansdale—eerie, amusing, and occasionally horrific. In “The Pit,” modern gladiators square off against one another using Roman methods. An alternate-history tale called “Trains Not Taken” shows Buffalo Bill as an ambassador and Wild Bill Hickok as a clerk. Lansdale’s love of large lizards and humor are evident in the stories “Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program” and “Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland.”

The career of Joe R. Lansdale has spanned more than twenty-seven years, in which period he has written over two hundred short stories. This collection is the best of these. As Lansdale states in his Introduction, ". these stories are the ones I think best reflect my work." Some of these are obviously horrific ab initio: others, the realization will slowly, surely creep upon one. Others will visit alternate history, humor, or dark crime. Mixing the impossible, the improbable, and the never-before-thought-of, Lansdale uses his innate East Texas storytelling abilities to perfection. As an added bonus, each story starts with an introduction by Lansdale, describing the story-behind-the-story.

Claire Chapman has it all. A celebrity professor at Harvard Law School and high-powered criminal defence attorney, she has recently successfully defended a movie star in a rape trial. And she has a loving husband, Tom, and a cute six year old daughter. But this is all about to change. A random burglary sets off a terrifying chain of events. Tom is arrested and put on trial for a thirteen year old mass murder, and Claire puts her reputation on the line to defend him. But as the trial progresses, it becomes apparent that the Pentagon will let nothing stand in the way of Tom's conviction and Claire's faith in her husband is tested to the limit.

Fiona Marlowe, designer detective, and Jake Manyhorses, cowboy buckaroo, meet up once again out west in the high desert under big skies and star-filled nights. This time they find themselves in pursuit of cattle rustlers and mysterious bones. But they must decide if there is a future for them in fields of alfalfa, a herd of cattle, and a big ranch house. What an enjoyable read. I want to be Fiona Marlowe — savvy, tasteful, a handsome cowboy on my arm. Jennifer Fulford, author of Blood, Love and Steel.

Police Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara found her calling at an early age when an unstable man broke into her family's home, trapping and terrorizing them for hours. Now she's Savannah 's top hostage negotiator, defusing powderkeg situations with a talent for knowing when to give in-and when to jump in and take action. It's satisfying work-and sometimes those skills come in handy at home dealing with her agoraphobic mother, still traumatized by the break-in after all these years, and her precocious seven-year-old, Carly.

It's exactly that heady combination of steely courage and sensitivity that first attracts Duncan Swift to Phoebe. After observing her coax one of his employees down from a roof ledge, he is committed to keeping this intriguing, take-charge woman in his life. She's used to working solo, but Phoebe's discovering that no amount of negotiation can keep Duncan at arm's length.

And when she's grabbed by a man who throws a hood over her head and brutally assaults her-in her own precinct house-Phoebe can't help but be deeply shaken. Then threatening messages show up on her doorstep, and she's not just alarmed but frustrated. How do you go face-to-face with an opponent who refuses to look you in the eye?

Now, with Duncan backing her up every step of the way, she must establish contact with the faceless tormentor who is determined to make her a hostage to fear… before she becomes the final showdown.

Tyler Locke has traveled the world investigating mysteries and preventing catastrophes, but this time trouble finds him much closer to home.

"A Dan Brown read-alike tailor-made for an election year." -Booklist

A President is murdered.

A First Lady demands answers.

And a young Senator will uncover a conspiracy that threatens the world as we know it.

When Robert Constable, President of the United States, dies in bed with a woman in a New York hotel room, the public is told that he died suddenly and peacefully of natural causes-and alone. The truth, however, is anything but that. The President's wife, Hillary Constable asks young senator Bobby Hart, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, to find out who had her husband murdered and why.

As Hart begins to learn more about the President's shady dealings, he uncovers a massive global criminal and financial conspiracy, headed by a secret underground organization nicknamed The Four Sisters. Yet the closer Hart gets to the truth, the more shocking secrets are revealed that could threaten his life, American Democracy, and the future of the nation.

A riveting a timely political thriller from acclaimed, bestselling Edgar nominee D.W. Buffa, HILLARY is a novel that will appeal to fans of David Baldacci, Brad Meltzer, Brad Thor, and Vince Flynn.

El descubrimiento del cadáver de una niña, hija adoptiva de una rica familia, llevará al inspector Méndez a husmear por las viejas calles de Barcelona, una ciudad en continua reconstrucción, y por las ruinas eternas de Egipto.

“Plinio” no es miembro de la Benemérita, sino jefe de la policía local de Tomelloso. Los casos que resuelve casi siempre tienen una componente escandalosa: crímenes de criadas que aspiran a ocupar el lugar del ama, de padres que vengan el honor mancillado de sus hijas. Pero el talante y la técnica de “Plinio” son los de Sherlock Holmes o el padre Brown (más el segundo, a mi entender, que el primero).

Las dos historias que ocupan este librito ocurren, respectivamente, en carnaval y durante la vendimia, dando ocasión al autor para describir estos dos eventos, según transcurren en el Tomelloso de los años veinte. Pero las descripciones están magistralmente engarzadas a la narración, sin estorbarla. Queda por debajo, en cambio, la impresión de que el verdadero asunto de estas novelettes tan bien trabadas es la monotonía de la vida en los pueblos pequeños. Y una incurable nostalgia soterrada, esa “íntima tristeza reaccionaria” de la que hablaba el mejicano López Velarde en un memorable poema. En ese sentido, estas historias pertenecen al mismo género que La calle estrecha de Pla.

Kiedy młoda Amerykanka żyjąca w Europie znajduje średniowieczną książkę i plik listów złowrogo zaadresowanych do "Mojego Drogiego i Nieszczęsnego Następcy", jej życie odmienia się na zawsze. Ruszając śladami najsłynniejszego demona w historii – Draculi, odbywa podróż, która doprowadza ją do odkrycia wstrząsającej prawdy o jej ojcu, zaginionej matce i dziadku, przepadłym bez wieści. Tajemnice kryjące się w bibliotekach, archiwach i monasterach, od Stambułu po południe Francji, wiodą ją w sam środek niewyobrażalnego zła ukrytego w czeluściach historii. By je pokonać, całe generacje naukowców traciły reputację, zdrowie psychiczne, a nawet życie… Zbrodnie, spisek, wielka przygoda i nieprzewidywalne zakończenie w jednej z najbardziej niezwykłych powieści ostatnich lat, brawurowo łączącej współczesność, przeszłość i fantazję.

Keller is a regular guy, a solid citizen. He goes to the movies, watches the tube, browses the art galleries, and works diligently on his stamp collection. But every now and then a call from the breezily efficient Dot sends him off to kill a total stranger. He takes a plane, rents a car, finds a hotel room, and gets back before the body is cold.

He's a real pro, cool and dispassionate and very good at what he does. Until one day when Dot breaks her own rule and books him for a hit in New York, his home base. She sends him to an art gallery opening, and the girl he gets lucky with steers him to an astrologer.

Then the jobs start to go wrong. Targets die before he can draw a bead on them. The realization is slow in coming, but there's no getting around it: Somebody out there is trying to hit the hit man. Keller, God help him has found his way onto somebody else's hit list.

Amazon.com Review

A man known only as Keller is thinking about Samuel Johnson's famous quote that "'patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'… If you looked at it objectively, he had to admit, then he was probably a scoundrel himself. He didn't feel much like a scoundrel. He felt like your basic New York single guy, living alone, eating out or bringing home takeout, schlepping his wash to the Laundromat, doing the Times crossword with his morning coffee… There were eight million stories in the naked city, most of them not very interesting, and his was one of them. Except that every once in a while he got a phone call from a man in White Plains. And packed a bag and caught a plane and killed somebody. Hard to argue the point. Man behaves like that, he's a scoundrel. Case closed." But Lawrence Block is such a delightfully subtle writer, one of the true masters of the mystery genre, that the case is far from closed. In this beautifully linked collection of short stories, we gradually put together such a complete picture of Keller that we don't so much forgive him his occupation as consider it just one more part of his humanity. After watching Keller take on cases that baffle and anger him into actions that fellow members of his hit-man union might well call unprofessional, we're eager to join him as he goes through a spectacularly unsuccessful analysis and gets fooled by a devious intelligence agent. We miss the dog he acquires and loses, along with its attractive walker. Like Richard Stark's Parker, Keller makes us think the unthinkable about criminals: that they might be the guys next door-or even us, under different pressures.

The New York Times bestselling author and master of the modern mystery returns with a fierce and poignant new novel featuring his acclaimed killer-for-hire, Keller

John Keller is everyone's favorite hit man: a new kind of hero for a new, uncertain age. He's cool. Reliable. A real pro: the hit man's hit man. The inconvenient wife, the aging sports star, the business partner, the retiree with a substantial legacy. He's taken care of them all, quietly and efficiently.

Keller's got a code of honor, though he'd never call it that. And he keeps the job strictly business. "What happens is you wind up thinking of each subject not as a person to be killed but as a problem to be solved. Now there are guys doing this who cope with it by making it personal. They find a reason to hate the guy they have to kill. I don't know what's a sin and what isn't, or if one person deserves to go on living and another deserves to have his life ended. Sometimes I think about stuff like that, but as far as working it all out in my mind, well, I never seem to get anywhere."

But while Keller might be a pragmatic and crack assassin, he's also prone to doubts and loneliness just like everybody else. There was a psychotherapist once. A dog. Even a woman. And though he's got Dot, his wisecracking contact and sometimes confidante, and his precious stamp collection, these days, it doesn't seem to be enough.

Keller's been at this business a long while. Just maybe it's time to pack it in and find a nice little house in the desert. Only problem is, retirement takes money. And to get money, he's got to go to work…

Hit Parade, the third novel featuring the fascinating Keller, displays the hallmarks that distinguish Lawrence Block's award-winning fiction: the intelligence, the clever plotting, the humor, the tricky twists and ironic turns, the darkness and emotional complexity – and, above all else, the humanity.