A stuffed bear, a pet mouse, fraud and felony on the streets of London, and strange goings-on in the fens... Full of suspense and teeming with life, Kept is a Victorian mystery about the curious things men do to get - and keep - what they want. August 1863. Henry Ireland, a failed landowner, dies unexpectedly in a riding accident, and his young widow disappears. Three years later his friend James Dixey, a celebrated naturalist, is found dead on his grounds with his throat torn out. Are these deaths connected? What has happened to Mrs Ireland? And what are the sinister bonds that link these men to the poaching of osprey eggs in Scotland, the doomned romance of Dixey's kitchen maid and the first Great Train Robbery?
1945: a lost German bomber crashes on the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland.Inexplicably, in the midst of World War Two, there are both German and American officers on board. One of the senior German officers sets off, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, never to be seen again.1999, the US Army is secretively trying to remove an aeroplane from the Vatnajökull glacier. Two young Icelanders become involved but end up paying with their lives. Before they are captured, one of the two contacts his sister, Kristin. Her quest to discover his fate takes her on a long and hazardous journey in search of the key to the riddle about Operation Napoleon.WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION GOLD DAGGER.
What you do in childhood may come back to haunt you.Stealing things from people who had upset her was something Polly did quite a lot. There was her Aunt Pauline; a girl at school; a boyfriend who left her. And there was the man on the plane . . . Humiliated and scared by a total stranger Polly does what she always does. She steals something. But she never could have imagined that her desire for revenge would have such terrifying results.
When you're a cop in Marseilles, threats of violence and revenge go with the territory. Usually they come to nothing, but when friends and colleagues start turning up dead it soon becomes clear that someone from Jacquot's past has a score to settle and intends to see it through.But this killer is different. To sweeten the revenge, and cause the greatest pain, it's always the target's nearest and dearest who die. When Jacquot discovers that he's in the firing line, he knows that unless he can track down the killer then someone he loves will pay the ultimate price.
Ten Stories from Frederick Forsyth with the Master's touch.Deception, blackmail, murder, revenge - these are the themes of stories that move from London to the coast of Spain, from Mauritius to Dublin to Dordogne. Whether his subject is assassination by stealth, the cruel confidence trick or the cold shock of coincidence, Frederick Forsyth is never less than compulsive, the detail always authentic.Ten stories with the master's touch - a brilliantly readable first collection by an incomparable craftsman of suspense.
A hard-hitting thriller set in the London office of the world's most exclusive detective agency.Sometimes when the nightmare ends - the terror is just beginning...For Hannah Shapiro, a beautiful young American student, this particular nightmare began eight years ago in Los Angeles, when Jack Morgan, owner of Private - the world's most exclusive detective agency - saved her from a horrific death. She has fled her country, but can't flee her past. The terror has followed her to London, and now it is down to former Royal Military Police Sergeant Dan Carter, head of Private London, to save her all over again.Carter draws on the global resources of Private in a desperate race against the odds. But the clock is ticking... Private may be the largest and most advanced detection agency in the world, but the only thing they don't have is the one thing they need - time.
Alex Cross's ultimate case, and his deadliest enemy...Detective Alex Cross is planning his wedding to the woman he loves, Brianna Stone. But this blissful existence begins to unravel when Cross is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington DC's most corrupt and publically hated political figures. As more crooked politicians are picked off with similar long-range shots, public opinion is divided - is the marksman a vigilante or a hero?Media coverage of the case explodes, and the FBI assigns agent Max Siegel to the investigation. As Cross and Siegel battle over jurisdiction, Alex receives a call from his deadliest adversary, Kyle Craig. The Mastermind is in DC and will not stop until he has eliminated Cross, and his family, for good.
A magisterial anthology of American noir writing in the 20th century by the best-selling author of the LA Quartet: The Black Dahlia. The Big Nowhere , LA Confidential and White Jazz. In his intoduction to The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, "noir is the most scrutinised offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It's the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad." Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction. James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of writing - 1910-2010 - to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir's twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain's "Pastorale," and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Patricia Highsmith and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing in the last decade.
In 1992, in peaceful Southern Sweden, Louise Akerblom, an estate agent, pillar of the Methodist church, wife and mother, disappears. There is no explanation and no motive. Inspector Wallander and his team are called in to investigate. As Inspector Wallander is introduced to this missing person's case he has a gut feeling that the victim will never be found alive, but he has no idea how far he will have to go in search of the killer. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela has made his long walk to freedom, setting in train the country's painful journey towards the end of the apartheid. Wallander and his colleagues find themselves caught up in a complex web involving renegade members of South Africa's secret service and a former KGB agent, all of whom are set upon halting Mandela's rise to power.Faced with an increasingly globalised world in which international terrorism knows no national borders, Wallander must prevent a hideous crime that means to dam the tide of history.
From Moses Naim, the author of The End of Power, which was Mark Zuckerberg's first ever Facebook book club selection. Any newspaper anywhere in the world, any day, carries news about illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods The intense media coverage devoted to the war on terrorism has helped to obscure the other new wars of globalisation.Illicit international trade pits governments against agile, well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. Religious zeal or political goals drive terrorists, but profit is no less a motivator for murder, mayhem, and global insecurity than religious fanaticism. Illicit is the first book to reveal the full scale of this dark underground. It uncovers the connections between illegal industries and shows how they join forces to breed new lines of business, feed off political instability, foster violence and enable terrorism. How do pirated movies or CD's find their way to illegal markets worldwide even before they are released? And how, in our free, modern world, have over 30 million women and children - in South East Asia alone - been trafficked in the past ten years?
He's watching. He's waiting. He'll stop at nothing. The second Jack Paris thriller from the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Byrne and Balzano series.Christmas is just around the corner; the season of peace and goodwill.But this year, for Detective Jack Paris, the Christmas spirit is eclipsed by the hunt for a sadistic and twisted serial killer...When an accused murderer is acquitted on a technicality then found dead of an apparent suicide, a spree of brutal murders terrorizes the citizens of Cleveland.This vicious and vengeful killer tortures his seemingly unrelated victims in unimaginably violent ways, leaving them all with a strange symbol carved into their flesh.When Detective Paris discovers that these murders are the grim handiwork of one maniac obsessed with the dark side of the ancient religion, Santeria, he's pulled into a web of danger and sexual deviance.Jack must catch the killer before he kills again.But on Christmas Eve, Jack finds himself right where the homicidal maniac wants him: questioning his loyalties, facing an impossible choice, with the barrel of a gun pointing at his temple and the whole world watching...
At a dinner party given by his parents-in-law, Commissario Brunetti meets Franca Marinello, the wife of a prosperous Venetian businessman. He's charmed - perhaps too charmed, suggests his wife Paola - by her love of Virgil and Cicero, but shocked by her appearance. A few days later, Brunetti is visited by Carabinieri Maggior Filippo Guarino from the nearby city of Marghera. As part of a wider investigation into Mafia takeovers of businesses in the region, Guarino wants information about the owner of a trucking company who was found murdered in his office. He believes the man's death is connected to the illegal transportation of refuse - and more sinister material - in his company's trucks. No stranger to mutual suspicion and competition between rival Italian police departments, Brunetti is nevertheless puzzled by the younger man's behaviour.Eventually Guarino agrees to email a photo of his suspect, but by the time the photograph arrives, he himself is dead. Was he killed because he got too close? And how is it that Franca Marinello is involved?
The twenty-second book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.Wexford had almost made up his mind that he would never again set eyes on Eric Targo's short, muscular figure. And yet there he was, back in Kingsmarkham, still with that cocky, strutting walk.Years earlier, when Wexford was a young police officer, a woman called Elsie Carroll had been found strangled in her bedroom. Although many still had their suspicions that her husband was guilty of her violent murder, no one was convicted.Another woman was strangled shortly afterwards, and every personal and professional instinct told Wexford that the killer was still at large. And that it was Eric Targo. A psychopathic murderer who would kill again...As the Chief Inspector investigates a new case, Ruth Rendell looks back to the beginning of Wexford's career as a detective, even to his courtship of the woman who would become his wife. The villainous Targo is not the only ghost from Wexford's past who has re-emerged to haunt him in the here and now...
After two high-risk missions, CIA special agent John Wells is living on the edge, his nights filled with disturbing dreams. He knows he has no time for rest - and he has made many enemies.But what happens next shocks him to the core. First, he is targeted by assassins sent by a psychotic arms dealer out for revenge. His girlfriend is left for dead. Then, in vengeful pursuit of his assailants in Moscow, he stumbles on a terrifying plot. Terrorists have successfully targeted Russia's nuclear complex and are planning an attack on America's shores. With the clock ticking, Wells realises that to stand a chance of preventing it, he mustn't let a personal vendetta get in his way - the future of the West depends upon him.
In a smart New York apartment, Isabel Raine is having breakfast with her husband. After her tragic childhood she has only ever wanted to be loved. And in Marcus Raine she thought she'd found the man she would be with for ever. But when she says goodbye to him that morning, little does she know that within twenty-four hours he'll have gone missing and life as she has known it for the past five years will be fractured beyond repair. But Isabel's nightmare has only just begun. Desperate to unravel the truth behind the lies, she finds herself thrown into the centre of a violent underworld - one driven by betrayal, corruption, deceit and murder. And it seems no one is safe from those who are determined to make sure that the truth never comes to light...
One cold autumn night, a woman is found hanging from a beam at her holiday cottage. At first sight, it appears like a straightforward case of suicide; María had never recovered from the death of her mother two years previously and she had a history of depression. But then the friend who found her body approaches Detective Erlendur with a tape of a séance that María attended before her death and his curiosity is aroused.Driven by a need to find answers, Erlendur begins an unofficial investigation into María's death. But he is also haunted by another unsolved mystery - the disappearance of two young people thirty years ago - and by his own quest to find the body of his brother, who died in a blizzard when he was a boy. Hypothermia is Indridason's most compelling novel yet.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARK BILLINGHAMWhen Dr Watson ends up renting rooms in Baker Street with the eccentric Sherlock Holmes he finds that he has let himself in for a great deal more than he imagined. He is called upon to help the budding detective solve a perplexing mystery, involving a dead body found in a locked room. Although the body shows no signs of having been attacked Holmes is convinced that a murder has been committed. As Watson looks on, he uses his exceptional powers of deduction to unravel a case that involves both kidnapping and thwarted love.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.
Fear, compassion, evil, courage, hope, wonder, the exquisite terror of not knowing what will happen on the next page to characters you care about deeply--these are the marvels that Dean Koontz weaves into the unique tapestry of every novel. His storytelling talents have earned him the devotion of fans around the world, making him one of the most popular authors of our time, with more than 200 million copies of his books sold worldwide.
If you are already a fan, prepare yourself to settle into a novel Dean Koontz considers perhaps his best work to date. If you are a brand-new Dean Koontz reader, buckle up for what will be a most breathtaking ride through the long, enthralling night of...
Christopher Snow is different from all the other residents of Moonlight Bay, different from anyone you've ever met. For Christopher Snow has made his peace with a very rare genetic disorder shared by only one thousand other Americans, a disorder that leaves him dangerously vulnerable to light. His life is filled with the fascinating rituals of one who must embrace the dark. He knows the night as no one else ever will, ever can--the mystery, the beauty, the many terrors, and the eerie, silken rhythms of the night--for it is only at night that he is free.
Until the night he witnesses a series of disturbing incidents that sweep him into a violent mystery only he can solve, a mystery that will force him to rise above all fears and confront the many-layered strangeness of Moonlight Bay and its residents.
Once again drawing daringly from several genres, Dean Koontz has created a narrative that is a thriller, a mystery, a wild adventure, a novel of friendship, a rousing story of triumph over severe physical limitations, and a haunting cautionary tale.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.
A catastrophic, unexplainable plane crash leaves three hundred and thirty dead -- no survivors. Among the victims are the wife and two daughters of Joe Carpenter, a Los Angeles Post crime reporter.
A year after the crash, still gripped by an almost paralyzing grief, Joe encounters a woman named Rose, who claims to have survived the crash. She holds out the possibility of a secret that will bring Joe peace of mind. But before he can ask any questions, she slips away.
Driven now by rage (have the authorities withheld information?) and a hope almost as unbearable as his grief (if there is one survivor, are there others?), Joe sets out to find the mysterious woman. His search immediately leads him into the path of a powerful and shadowy organization hell-bent on stopping Rose before she can reveal what she knows about the crash.
Sole Survivor unfolds at a heart-stopping pace, as a desperate chase and a shattering emotional odyssey lead Joe to a truth that will force him to reassess everything he thought he knew about life and death -- a truth that, given the chance, will rock the world and redefine the destiny of humanity.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Loop me in, odd one. The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature.
As he steadfastly journeys toward his mysterious destiny, Odd Thomas has established himself as one of the most beloved and unique fictional heroes of our time. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning--but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself.
36 MILLION BOOKS SOLD WORLDWIDE'Nesbo sets a cracking pace... A series of spectacular plot twists leads to a thrilling finale'
Guardian THE MARK OF THE DEVIL, THE SIGN OF A KILLER... A young woman is murdered in her flat and a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star is found behind her eyelid. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case, alongside his long-time adversary Tom Waaler, and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on his final warning and has little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor when it becomes apparent that Oslo has a serial killer on its hands.'Shocking and surprising...expertly paced'
The Times'Terrific... A stunning twist turns this into a first-rate thriller'
Daily Telegraph
To save her own life, Nina Bloom vanished. Now, to rescue an innocent man, she confronts the killer she thought she had escaped forever.A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York - including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past.Nina's secret life began eighteen years ago. She had a carefree existence in Key West, a handsome police-officer husband, and a baby on the way. But Nina's world is shattered when she unearths a terrible secret that causes her to run for her life and change her identity.Now, years later, when an innocent man is framed for murder, Nina knows she must return to Florida and confront the murderous evil she fled.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
If you don’t take this note to the police . . . I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. . . . If you do . . . I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours.
The typewritten note under his windshield seems like just a sick joke. But in less than twenty-four hours, Billy Wiles, an ordinary, hardworking guy, is about to see his life take on the speed of a nightmare. Because a young blond schoolteacher is murdered--and now Billy has another note. And another deadline. This time he knows it’s no joke. He’s racing a killer faster than evil itself. And Billy must accept his terrifying challenge: The choice is yours.
Think fast. Fear never slows down. . . .
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
I see dead people. But then, by God, I do something about it. Odd Thomas never asked for his special ability. He’s just an ordinary guy trying to live a quiet life in the small desert town of Pico Mundo. Yet he feels an obligation to do right by his otherworldly confidants, and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death. But when a childhood friend disappears, Odd discovers something worse than a dead body and embarks on a heart-stopping battle of will and wits with an enemy of exceptional cunning. In the hours to come there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope.
You’re invited on an unforgettable journey through a world of terror and transcendence to wonders beyond imagining. And you can have no better guide than Odd Thomas.
