A high-caliber police procedural mystery from the acclaimed author Warren Adler, well-known for his iconic novel turned international box-office hit "The War of the Roses." Old money, old secrets. The elderly mother of the Governor of Virginia, an icon of Washington society, is found dead and sexually assaulted in her posh Washington, DC, residence. Metropolitan Police detective Fiona Fitzgerald investigates the horrifying crime. As a senator's daughter, she has the advantage of knowing the world of Washington's privileged. Young Martine, the accused, has no advantages. He was not raised in a family with political leverage and did not understand Washington's politicians' inner workings and secrets. Then there is the devoted servant, the status-hungry daughter-in-law, the drugs, power, and money-but where does the truth lie within this complicated family drama? Through it all, Fiona wrestles with her feelings about marriage as she considers marriage to a former general, who is now mounting a massive offensive for her hand. Will an inside look at one Washington marriage-and all of its dirty little secrets-help her choose? Fiona must battle both privilege and prejudice as she uncovers the inevitable truth behind the political facade. Death of a Washington Madame is the third book in the Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery series.

Warren Adler is the acclaimed author of 25 novels, published in 30 languages. Two of his books, "The War of the Roses" and "Random Hearts" were made into major motion pictures. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and New York City. During a reunion at their ancestral castle, the famed Von Kassel family - arm dealers for over a hundred years - suddenly find themselves in possession of stolen plutonium capable of creating the most destructive weapon on earth. The family is soon torn apart by the deadly potential of their recent acquisition. Through fascinating and brilliantly explored familial relationships, this penetrating novel draws the reader into the frightening web of power and intrigue that motivates people who believe they are above moral or ethical considerations. "A truly riveting tale of suspense and intrigue." .King Features Syndicate "Another superb mystery by author Warren Adler." .Virginia Daily Press

In spite of remarkable differences, Eric and Tommy are as close as brothers. Eric, a Nordic Adonis, is graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune, Tommy is a sickly black boy, cursed with health problems, who yet remains optimistic and strong. After tragedy rips this makeshift family apart, the lives of these boys diverge astonishingly: Eric, the golden youth, is given everything but trusts nothing; Tommy, motherless and impoverished, has nothing, but feels lucky every day of his life. In a riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, the two confront separate challenges, and when circumstances reunite them years later, they draw on their extraordinary natures to confront a common enemy and, ultimately, save lives. Fortunate Son has the same brilliant observations of the hidden currents of modern life that won great praise for The Man in My Basement. It is a gripping literary novel that puts complex ideas and forces in play with irresistible drama.

Following his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel , award-winning author Walter Mosley delivers an eloquent treatise on the craft of fiction writing--part writing guide, part study of the mechanics of the genre. In his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel , Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools to write a novel in one year. In this complementary follow up, Mosley guides the writer through the elements of not just any fiction writing, but the kind of writing that transcends convention and truly stands out. How does one approach the genius of writers like Melville, Dickens, or Twain? In The Elements of Fiction , Walter Mosley contemplates the answer. In a series of instructive and conversational chapters, Mosley demonstrates how to master fiction's most essential elements: character and char-acter development, plot and story, voice and narrative, context and description, and more. The result is a vivid depiction of the writing process, from the blank page to the first draft to rewriting, and rewriting again. Throughout, The Elements of Fiction is enriched by brilliant demonstrative examples that Mosley himself has written here for the first time. Inspiring, accessible, and told in a voice both trustworthy and wise, The Elements of Fiction writing will intrigue and encourage writers and readers alike.

It seems like, more than ever, factions of "progressive Catholicism" are rising in influence, and even insisting that their (often quite novel) beliefs are actually non-negotiable Catholic teaching. Trent Horn looks at those factions and their beliefs, shows why they are not representative of Catholic orthodoxy, and exposes some of the harms and confusion they have caused the Church in areas of doctrine and morals.

Tzippy Goldman's mother has been planning her wedding since before she was born. Her four younger sisters want her to marry the fairy tale Jewish prince of their mother's stories. But Tzippy, approaching spinsterhood at the age of twenty-two, has other ideas. She is hungry for experience and longs to escape the suffocating expectations of religious stricture and romantic obligation. But when she falls in love with Bryan Miller she surprises everyone. Bryan comes from a different kind of family. Like Orthodox Jews anywhere in the world, they spend Saturdays in synagogue, and the rest of the week like suburbanites everywhere. But to Bryan, this middle road looks more and more like hypocrisy. He longs for conviction, for the relief of absolutes. To his parents' bewilderment, Bryan decides to embrace a very different kind of lifestyle, swapping his beloved Yankees cap for something else entirely. In the courtship and marriage of Bryan and Tzippy, Tova Mirvis illuminates an insular world, where ancient and modern collide in a warm and hilarious novel about two very different families brought together by the marriage of their children.

I have always lusted after the Wild Man of Borneo. Tobias Schneebaum relates his insights on culture, society and relationships between men in the far reaches of the Westerner's notion of the world, while simultaneously relating a journey into the self. An enlightened trail for anyone to explore. Wild Man by Tobias Schneebaum, part autobiographical journal, part social-historical novel, tracks Schneebaum's fascinating and almost epic life story from his earliest contemplations of homoerotic desire and his first exposure to what he would later term The Wild Man of Borneo to his travels through Borneo, Southeast Asia and beyond. The author offers his first hand experiences in an exposed and often almost awkwardly honest recounting of his travels, insights and relationships in the cultures and communities that he became so immediately a part of.

From the pages of Love & Rockets, an intimate epic from south of the border. For the first time ever, Fantagraphics is proud to present a single-volume collection of Gilbert Hernandez's "Heartbreak Soup" stories from Love & Rockets, which along with RAW magazine defined the modern literary comics movement of the post-underground generation. This massive volume collects every "Heartbreak Soup" story from 1993 to 2002 in one 500-page deluxe hardcover edition, presenting the epic for the first time as the single novel it was always intended to be. Palomar is the mythical Central American town where the "Heartbreak Soup" stories take place. The stories weave in and out of the town's entire population, crafting an intricate tapestry of Latin American experience. Hernandez's densely plotted and deeply imagined tales are often compared with magic realist authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende (House of the Spirits). His depictions of women and Mexican-American experience have been universally lauded as the best examples the artform has to offer. Luba, the guiding spirit of Palomar since the outset, has been hailed by The Nation, Rolling Stone, and Time magazine as one of the great characters of contemporary American fiction. Hernandez's work, in addition to the obvious magic realist comparisons, shares an affinity with other Latin American and Spanish writer/artists, like Frida Kahlo, Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Picasso, all of whom applied a surrealist eye to what they saw and experienced. Palomar follows the lives of its residents from Luba's arrival in the town to her exit, twenty years later. Included are such classic tales as "Sopa de Gran Pena," "Ecce Homo," "An American in Palomar," "Human Diastrophism," and "Farewell, Mi Palomar." Palomar presents one of the richest accomplishments in the history of the artform in its ideal format for the first time, making it a must-have for longtime Love & Rockets fans and new readers alike. 500 pages b/w illustrations

"A narrative which reads as easily as an historical novel, but is faithful to facts." Daily Telegraph "The story is worked out like a film scenario, with cameras switching from court to street, from street to battlefield in a dramatic series. Mr. Aronson knows how to appeal to our visual imagination." Spectator "One can only greet with pleasure a book on a historically most fertile theme that may be called a popular work of considerable appeal and relevance." History Today "Mr. Aronson's style is clear and effective and not unduly overcoloured; while the portraits he draws of his unlucky protagonists are both sensible and sympathetic." Financial Times "We shall have a lot of 1870 this year but I shall be surprised if anything is written which is much better than this." Books and Bookmen The year 1970 marks the centenary of one of the great turning-points in world history: the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war and the resulting downfall of the French Second Empire. For centuries, until the debacle of 1870, France had been mistress of Europe and Paris the capital of the civilized world. Then suddenly, in a matter of weeks, culminating in the Prussian victory at Sedan, the centre of European gravity swung from Paris to Berlin; Germany became the dominant country on the Continent and it took two of the greatest wars mankind has ever known to oust her from this position. Under its creator, the romantic, inscrutable Napoleon III (‘a sphinx without a riddle', said Bismarck), and his beautiful Empress, Eugenie, the Empire had known 'eighteen years of luxury, pleasure, recklessness and gaiety, of gallantry and incomparable elegance'. In the spring of 1870 a massive vote of confidence in the so-called Liberal Empire had seemed to assure the future of the regime; yet, by the end of the summer, the French armies had suffered ignominious defeat; the Emperor himself had been taken prisoner at Sedan, and the bewildered young Prince Imperial, robbed of his hopes of military glory, had made his escape to England. Eugenie, who had revelled in her dramatic role as Regent, could hardly bring herself to accept that total disaster had overtaken France. But, after one terrible outburst against the Emperor, she rallied with a courage that survived her escape from Paris, the proclamation of a Republic, the twilight years of exile in England, and the death of the Emperor. The Prince Imperial was never to forget the shame of Sedan; anxious to prove himself worthy of his destiny, he met his death fighting with the British army in the Zulu War when he was twenty-three. The seventeen assegai wounds which killed him were all in the front of his body; and in his wallet was found a vicious French newspaper article raking up yet again the charge of Bonaparte cowardice. The Fall of the Third Napoleon gives both a splendidly clear-cut analysis of the reasons for the collapse of the Empire, and a sympathetic, freshly angled presentation of the two main characters—of Napoleon, hardly the 'coward of Sedan' of his enemies' imaginings, and Eugenie who, though highhanded and impetuous, was far from the war-mongering virago of popular legend. The action takes place against a changing and colourful backdrop: Haussmann's grandiose Paris, the Taderies and Saint Cloud, the sodden roads and bloody battlefields of north-eastern France, a country house in Kent, a lonely hollow in the South African veld.. . `It is all very beautiful—for the moment,' said Alfred de Musset at a ball at the Tuileries during the Second Empire, but I would not give two sous for the last act!' This book is the story of that last act—a gaslit tragedy, both brilliant and sombre.

The Kaiser's Germany is the setting of Sybille Bedford's first and best-known novel, in which two families -- one from solid, upholstered Jewish Berlin, the other from the somnolent, agrarian Catholic South -- become comically, tragically, irrevocably intertwined. "Each family," writes the author, "stood confident of being able to go on with what was theirs, while in fact they were playthings, often victims, of the now united Germany and what was brewing therein." Did the monstrous thing that followed have its foundation in families such as these? "Writing about them made me think so. Hence the title."

From the author of Anya and Buffalo Afternoon comes a haunting novel of twin sisters. At the height of her fame, 27-year old Florence Meek disappears. Years later, driven by new information, her twin Doris begins to hunt for her. But Doris's search for her sister soon becomes secondary to her search through the past for the truth about their complex relationship.

"This is a terrifying, yet inspiring novel. As the nine fateful hours pass & the brutal, ruthless moment of the cataclysm draws nearer, the reader cannot help but associate himself with each character in turn. He knows what the end will be, but is still a profound & searing shock when these tragically ironic events reach their historic climax."--back flap

A heart-stopping novel of psychological suspense from the internationally bestselling author of The Wrong Mother and The Other Woman’s House Ruth Bussey once did something wrong – horribly wrong – and was nearly destroyed by her punishment. Now, she has tentatively rebuilt her life and unexpectedly found love with a man named Aidan Seed. But Aidan also has a secret, and one day he confides in Ruth: years ago, he killed a woman named Mary Trelease. Ruth's initial horror turns to confusion when she realizes that she knows Mary Trelease, and Mary is very much alive. So why does Aidan insist that she’s dead? The fourth book in Sophie Hannah’s beloved Zailer and Waterhouse series, The Dead Lie Down is a sophisticated, addictive page-turner that will appeal to fans of Laura Lippman and Tana French.

When a great drought on the prairie causes cows to give powdered milk and mosquitoes to grow almost as large as small cowsheds, McBroom comes up with a novel idea for producing rain.

An intelligent erotic novel that explores intimacy outside the gender binary. "Underneath all the androgyny and fluctuation, the book's about human connection. Rosenthal's use of sex and gender identities to illustrate how we reach toward and away from relationships is merely a new approach to an old idea: We all need intimacy with others to deepen our understanding of ourselves."- Time Out Chicago. Matt is dating Rye, a willfully free androgynous school teacher. Attracted to Matt's kinkiness and groundedness, Rye develops a taste for his masculinity and their top-bottom dynamic. At a weekend SexxCamp retreat, Matt meets Rain, a charming and snarky twenty-something GenderQueer woman. An unconventional three-way relationship develops, expanding their understanding of polyamory, gender identity, love and connection. "I spent some time devouring Rye and really really enjoyed not only the story and the characters and the death snark, but also the way that Sam tackled the new thing about relationships. It's the same as it ever was, and it's not the same as it ever was. And that melds so beautifully in Rye. Thanks for the good read "- Carol Queen, The Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco. Read the first few chapters of Rye by clicking on the book cover above, to 'Look Inside.' In Rye, Brooklyn-based musician Sam Rosenthal expands his horizons beyond Black Tape For A Blue Girl, with a novel that takes the reader on a steamy, snarky and erotic walk on the wild side. "Rye is as intellectually stimulating as erotically charged. As for the erotic content, I can't hope to list of all that is covered, toys, BDSM, roleplay, gender fluidity in sex... the list goes on. A sense of realism triumphs; don't expect to read erotica with paper-thin characters you are only meant to overlay with your own fantasies (although if some of the book's scenes push your fantasy buttons in a good way, that's great too ). With fully developed characters who struggle through relationships, gender, and sexuality in an erotic context, Rye, is a unique work; quite the refreshing read " - Marilyn Roxie, genderqueerid.com ryethenovel.com

What is the difference between writing a novel about the Holocaust and fabricating a memoir? Do narratives about the Holocaust have a special obligation to be "truthful" - i.e., faithful to the facts of history? Or, in other words, when is it okay to lie about the Holocaust? In her provocative study A Thousand Darknesses: Truth and Lies In Holocaust Fiction , Ruth Franklin investigates these questions as they arise in the most significant works of fiction about the Holocaust, from Tadeusz Borowski's Auschwitz stories to Jonathan Safran Foer's postmodernist family history. Franklin argues that the memory-obsessed culture of the last few decades has led to a mistaken focus on testimony as the primary form of writing about the Holocaust. As even the most canonical Holocaust texts have come under scrutiny for their fidelity to the facts, we have lost sight of the essential role that imagination plays in the creation of any literary work, including - perhaps especially — the memoir. Taking a fresh look at memoirs by Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi, and examining novels by writers such as Piotr Rawicz, Jerzy Kosinski, W.G. Sebald, and Wolfgang Koeppen, Franklin makes a persuasive case for literature as an equally vital vehicle for understanding the Holocaust. The result is a study of immense depth and range that offers a lucid view of an often cloudy field.

Author Robert Westbrook is the pampered son of the late Sheilah Graham, the former famous columnist and confidante of the stars. Now he has written Rich Kids, a novel about the fascinating and bizarre world he knows all too well--the sons and daughters of the stars, in the skies over Sunset Boulevard and on the skids beneath it.

First published in 1969, this novel by one of the most prolific authors in the history of science fiction explores an idea that is truly "far out." Imagine a future world where death is not exactly the end. You can record everything about you that ever made you a distinct human being and then be implanted in the mind of someone living.

small format minibook paperback. 4.5" x3" 1990 number 1 on spine brand new hole punch in rear wrapper. science fiction novel by robert sheckley. rare collectible book.

By national best-selling author, Robert Littell, whose most recent novel The Company received rave reviews across the nation, The Once and Future Spy is finally back in print. This is Littell at the top of his form, constructing a tale of espionage and counterespionage revealing the dirty tricks and dangerous secrets about the subjects he knows intimately the CIA and American history, past and present. Littell proves beyond all doubt that he is a storyteller of inimitable caliber. As Stephen Coonts put it, “Eric Ambler invented the modern spy novel. Robert Littell perfected it. The Once and Future Spy is a classic spy story.” At the center of Littell’s plot is an elite plan, so secret and so dangerous that its existence is known only to a tiny group of specialists within CIA headquarters. There is virtually no paper trail but, somehow, the plan has sprung a leak. The plotters must urgently trace it or face deadly consequences. Meanwhile, at work elsewhere on another highly sensitive project for "the Company" is an operative known as “the Weeder” a man obsessed with American history and one of its heroes. When the Weeder's and Washington's clandestine worlds collide, the present faces the past and disturbing moral choices are weighed against a shining patriotic dream. What is the truth? Whose truth should be believed?