Dive into the heart-pounding mystery by the renowned and provocative writer Warren Adler, famed for his blockbuster "The War of the Roses." In the shadowy corners of upper Michigan, Josh and Emily Flanagan, escapees from the high-pressure world of Manhattan's elite, launch an eccentric antique store. Emily, with her keen eye honed in the cutthroat antique appraisal scene, and Josh, a shrewd art and antique insurance adjuster, find their quiet life shattered when a mysterious man arrives, desperate for an antique doll for his sick grandchild. This innocuous request spirals into a whirlwind of dark family secrets, betrayal, and a chilling murder. The Flanagans are thrust into a perilous game of cat and mouse, using their astute investigative skills and creative thinking to uncover clues and untangle a web of deception. At the heart of this suspenseful novel lies a profound mystery. It promises to keep readers on the edge of their seats until the shocking truth is revealed. Readers are hooked on Flanagan's Dolls: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "This story has a bit of Holmes, Christie and Fletcher. Loads of characters to choose from." - Goodreads Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "This is a book of luxurious enjoyment for anyone who loves a good mystery, or comedy, or sparkling good characterization. It has all three and much more." - Goodreads Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Quite different from most of Adler's books, but still a great cozy!" - Goodreads Review

"Friday, October 31, 9:37 p.m., 100 block of South Martel. A vandal threw a pumpkin through the front window of a house and several eggs at the front door." "The police report read like just another Halloween prank - a nasty, petty act. But the attack is one in a recent spate of increasingly violent vandalisms targeting residents who have paid millions of dollars for their dream homes in the ritziest enclaves of Los Angeles." "Residents are already seething, hotly divided about the growing number of Historical Architectural Restoration and Preservation (HARP) boards that prevent homeowners from remodeling their expensive real estate, forcing them to preserve the traditional integrity of neighborhoods where Hollywood legends once lived. So impassioned are pro- and anti-HARP forces that Crime Sheet columnist Molly Blume suspects that members from both sides of the debate may be perpetrating the vandalism that claims new victims almost daily." "But the arson that destroys a house on Fuller Street doesn't fit the pattern. This beautiful property belongs to Margaret Reston and her husband, Hank; and the sick old man who dies when it burns is Margaret's father. Margaret herself has disappeared. She was last seen working in her garden five months ago - and although traces of her blood were found in her car, the police have no idea what has happened to the missing woman." "This intrigue all makes good copy for hard-hitting newshound Molly. Almost in love again with the high-school sweetheart who dumped her and is now a rabbi, Molly can't stop thinking about Margaret and Hank Reston and the old man whose life was tragically, though accidently, cut short. But was it an accident? What has happened to Margaret Reston? Where does malice end and evil begin?"--BOOK JACKET.

Written in the tradition of the classic American noir of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, In Praise of Lies is a brilliantly clever, fiendishly funny crime novel about a woman who raises poisonous snakes and the man who loves her enough to attempt murder.... Jose Guber is in love with a deadly woman. While writing his next crime novel, he is in search of a unique murder weapon, which is how he meets Melissa, a serologist who specializes in venomous snakes. Melissa becomes rather too interested in Jose's dastardly plots--unashamedly plagiarized from the classics: Chesterton, Poe, Dostoevsky, his editor none the wiser--and she especially likes the ones where diabolical women seduce and corrupt weak men. Melissa makes it clear that she would like to adapt one of the plots to dispose of her present husband, enabling Jose and Melissa to be together. But the course of true love and homicide does not always run smoothly, certainly not when the accomplice rattlesnake gets depressed and everything that can go wrong does go hilariously haywire. With sharp wit and impressive agility, Patricia Melo leads the reader into a teasing world of deviousness. Literary puzzles and comic swipes at book publishing trends are added pleasures in what is, above all, a glorious page-turner.

In this sensational collection of supernatural short stories, Sophie Hannah takes the comforting scenes of everyday life and imbues them with a frisson of fear, then a gust of terror. Why is a young woman so unnerved by the presence of a visitors book in her boyfriend’s inner-city home? And whose spidery handwriting is it that fills the pages? Who is the strangely courteous boy still lingering at a child’s tenth birthday party when all the parents have gathered their children and left? And why does the presence of a perfectly ordinary woman in a post office line leave another customer sweating with fear? Read on to find out—but beware . . .

With the legal-behind-the-scenes finesse and courtroom drama of Presumed Inocent, Trial is a taut and exciting novel of a lawyer caught between two clients. He struggles to wrest justice from the complexity, subtlety and bald simplicity of the law, but gripping and surprising events will throw him more than a curve or two. Condensed in Reader's Digest.

Sometime in the twenty-third century, humanity went extinct, leaving only androids behind to fulfill humanity’s dreams. And, having learned well from their long-dead masters, they’ve established a hierarchical society—one with humanoid aristo rulers at the top and slave-chipped workers at the bottom, performing the lowly tasks all androids were originally created to do. Designed as a concubine for a species that hasn’t existed for two hundred years, femmebot Freya Nakamichi-47—one of the last of her kind still functioning—accepts a job from a stranger to deliver a package from mercury to Mars. Unfortunately, she’s just made herself a moving target for some very powerful, very determined humanoids desperate to retrieve the package’s contents…

"This novel should come with a warning: addictive reading ahead. It's as good a legal thriller as I've read this year." - John Lescroart, author of a dozen New York Times bestselling novels " THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a high-speed, tense political thriller about one of today's most fundamental issues, the integrity of our Supreme Court." - Andrew Gross, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The One Man " Ron Barak is a writer to watch." - Anthony Franze, author of The Outsider "Barak matches Grisham step for step. He had me turning the pages of THE AMENDMENT KILLER from the first page to the last. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride." -Dennis DeConcini, United States Senator, Ret "A legal thriller with a tense drama where the stability of the government hangs in the balance. It's timely, tense, and a perfect read in these uncertain times." -John M. Murray (Foreword Reviews) "WE HAVE YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER. HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO." That's the text message Supreme Court Justice Arnold Hirschfeld receives as hearings commence in the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the fate of the 28th Amendment - enacted to criminalize abuse of power on the part of our political representatives. In court to defend the amendment, retired U.S. District Court Judge Cyrus Brooks observes his old friend and law school classmate Hirschfeld acting strangely and dispatches veteran D.C. homicide detective Frank Lotello to find out why. In the meantime, Hirschfeld's precocious and feisty 11-year-old diabetic granddaughter Cassie, brutally kidnapped to control her grandfather's swing vote upholding or invalidating the amendment, watches her insulin pump running dry and wonders which poses her greatest threat, the kidnappers or the clock. As Brooks is forced to choose between saving our nation or saving the girl.

'Beautiful, lyrical, sensitive and meaningful . . . It deserves to be read and re-read.' "Los Angeles Times" Two deadly enemies - a young Arab rebel and a Jewish runaway - meet in a remote valley to begin a quest. Both have been taught since infancy to hate; to attack for self-defence. But something incredible is happening to them, something that not even the fierce shelling of the Six-Day War can intrude upon. For they are on a fantastic mission, a mission both believe has been set for them by God . . . Gripping, exciting and incredibly poignant, Smith's Gazelle is an intriguing thriller from a master of the genre.

Surrender is in the tradition of best-selling psychological thrillers and cozy novels. It promises to engage your mind with its plot twists and turns; ignite your sense of humor with the realities of life that make you laugh; and tug at your heart with a hope filled spiritual thread. Psychiatrist Morgan Jane Winters moved back south to her beloved hometown of New Orleans to help those in need of mental and emotional care. Never in Morgan's wildest dreams could she have imagined that helping those in need would lead to being asked to aid in solving crimes with the New Orleans Police Department, but it did. When Commander Jackson Slade, Head of Special Investigations, calls on Morgan to lend a hand in solving the murders of four people, the darkest and deadliest of secrets within the political elite of New Orleans become unearthed. As they sift through what seems to be a massive cover up, they are led down a complex and dangerously lurid path of deception, intrigue, passion, murder, and redemption.

Presents a classic example of the traditional detective story

A sleeper spy, a Soviet agent planted in America, has made a multibillion dollar fortune with KGB funds. Now he has been activated. An anonymous tip puts news reporter Irving Fein in pursuit of the story. Now, all Fein has to do is flush out the spy, and fight the urge to kill Viveca Farr, the popular TV anchorwoman forced upon him by his literary agent as a saleable co-writer.

In The Angle Quickest for Flight, a quintet of eccentric metaphysicians searches for a sacred book looted during the Spanish Inquisition and tithed to the Vatican. Steven Kotler’s first novel, which received acclaim from masters such as John Barth, moves with dizzying power across continents and epochs, weaving a multilayered narrative around secret societies, mad magicians, and a runaway boy named Angel.

Everybody has their secrets. Who, for instance, is the hooded figure hiding in the bushes outside a young man’s house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerized by two children in a school playground, children she’s never met but whose names she knows well? All will be revealed . . . but at a cost. As Sophie Hannah uncovers the dark obsessions and strange longings behind the most ordinary relationships, life will never seem quite the same again.

What if Americans were the terrorists, and a more civilized superpower found it necessary to put us down? What if contemporary Christian ministers preached salvation through murder of non-believing foreigners, and the US government recruited child suicide-assassins for this purpose? If you were an American living in such a crazed society, what would you do? If you were a civilized outsider, how would you deal with these insane savages? The Holy Land poses such predicaments, and more. In an attempt to save the Minervans from oppression in the central galaxy, the liberal Western Galactic Empire has relocated the sect to their ancient homeland of Kennewick, Washington. The fundamentalist fanatics ruling the USA find the presence of pagans in the holy city intolerable, however, and they launch an interstellar campaign of mass destruction in protest. Now, cast in a universe gone mad, the primitive Earthling POW Sergeant Hamilton and his case officer, the sophisticated Minervan priestess (3rd class) Aurora, must find the way out, or neither side will survive. In this madcap role-reversed science-fiction satire on the Mideast crisis and the War on Terrorism, the gloves come off. Written with wit and verve by Heinlein Award winner Robert Zubrin, the author of The Case for Mars, Entering Space, and First Landing, The Holy Land takes science fiction back to its Swiftian roots. Rarely since Czech humanist Karel Capek aimed his 1936 War with the Newts at fascism and appeasement has the medium been mobilized to such pointed effect. "A satiric tour de force" - School Library Journal "The duplicity, mendacity, and hypocrisy that characterize the present predicament in the Middle East are laid bare in Zubrin's engaing romp, with verve and biting wit." - National Review Online "Nothing is spared from Zubrin's satiric pen: religion, politics, economics, sex, war, psychology, philosophy - all are the objects of his barbs....The Holy Land is a surprisingly fine follow-up to Zubrin's other fictional and non-fiction works." - The Rocky Mountain News "It's a hoot." - The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Nathan Stein -- once an attractive, cultured lawyer -- has stipped into the dark world of his powerful father's corrupt practice. After one too many shady deals, he finds himself alone, sick in body and spirit. His career and life are careening out of control, and he's about to become the prime suspect in the murder of a young woman. As we follow him over a long day and night, Nathan encounters the friends, lovers, and family members he has betrayed. Lurching toward redemption, he must answer for his actions. Is he a murderer or the victim of an elaborate frame-up? Or do his sins go even deeper? A tale of chilling suspense that belies the elegance of its prose, Blood Acre is a compelling story of one man's harrowing search through the dark streets of the soul.

In 1941, after discovering tuberculosis, Liese, is taken to a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland by her aunt. The book traces Liese¿s incarceration in the sanatorium where she meets various characters, including her Greek-Jewish friend, Antigone. Upon Nazi orders in 1942 the sanatorium expels all the Jewish patients including Liese and Antigone under the pretext to have their papers checked. However, once they arrive at a small train station in Italy, they are surrounded by German SS troops with whips and vicious dogs. An old family friend from Vienna rescues Liese by pushing her under a train. He finds shelter for Liese in an Italian village church where she encounters a dangerous sexton. She is quickly transported to a forest underground bunker where she meets a number of compelling characters and remains there until liberation by a friendly U.S. Army.

Praise for Keith Thomas' work: "Keith Thomas has a handle on the mechanisms of fear and the tradition of the terror tale that makes him a salient voice in the genre today." - Guillermo del Toro, filmmaker "Taut, riveting... I wanted to read it all over again once I turned the last page." - James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of Kingdom of Bones "Truly unforgettable..." - Suspense Magazine "Thomas maintains the believability of his tightly coiled plot throughout." - Publishers Weekly _______________________________________ From the writer/director of the critically acclaimed film THE VIGIL and director of the "Pickman's Model" episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (now on Netflix) comes a terrifying debut novella. _______________________________________ Over a long fall weekend, Asher, twelve, travels with his mother, Beth, to his beloved grandfather (Pa)'s house-a wild place stuffed with rare books, strange art, and collected curiosities. With Pa's dementia worsening, Beth and her sister, Zoe, plan to move him into a nursing home-this visit is to break the news and pack the house up. While Asher adores his doting grandfather, Beth recalls her dad as a very different person: a belittling man with a hair-trigger temper. Though Beth had been frightened of her father her whole childhood, he changed, seemingly overnight, ten years earlier into the affable man Asher now loves spending time with. But Pa's increasing forgetfulness masks a much more unsettling reality: his anger didn't just vanish; it was "excised" in an arcane ritual that birthed the horrifying creature he's locked away in the depths of his home- the Dunnie . And now, with Pa's memory failing, the Dunnie won't remain contained . . .

Once an accomplished plastic surgeon, Trevor Lucas started using his scalpel to do very bad things... Locked in a Boston psychiatric hospital, Lucas is holding the ward hostage-and performing grisly "operations" on his prisoners... Lucas, calling for forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger, is willing to strike a deal... What Lucas knows about Clevenger could ruin the psychiatrist. What Clevenger can find out about Lucas could save the hostages. And he's got 24 hours to do it... As Clevenger feverishly delves into Lucas' past, what he discovers is chilling, disturbing, and all too familiar. For Clevenger can't help but wonder if his proximity to killers and madmen in coincidence, or something much more complex: Projection.

A decent, ordinary life jeopardized by a catastrophically extraordinary event: this is the story, mythic in its outline and substance, that Judy Troy--author of two New York Times Notable Books and Whiting award winner--tells in From the Black Hills. In Wheatley, South Dakota, during the summer before Mike Newlin is to begin college, his father, an insurance salesman, shoots and kills the young woman who works for him as his receptionist. He disappears, and Mike is left behind in shock and grief. With his future suddenly obscured, Mike finds himself nearly overwhelmed by his present circumstances--not only the emotional damage inflicted by his father's awful crime but also his mother's dismay, the insinuating methods of a criminal investigator named Tom DeWitt, his girlfriend's anxieties, and his longing for an older woman who lives nearby--and the question of whether he will ever see his father again and what will happen if he does. As imposing as the landscape that forms its setting, From the Black Hills conveys with compassionate power the drama of a young man who must try to overcome his father's dark legacy. "From the Hardcover edition.

What if Kissinger's and Nixon's opening of relations between China and the U.S. was the result of a plot by the Red Chinese? That's the premise of The China Card, which takes a young lawyer, a spy for Chou En-lai, through Nixon's inner circle to guide him toward rapprochement.