Aging Mafia Don Salvatore Padronelli, a.k.a. the Padre, is furious when fanatical terrorists capture his beloved daughter and grandson on a trip to Egypt. Fed up with diplomatic caution that prolongs their captivity, the Padre and his loyal henchman cleverly insinuate themselves into the White House and hold the President and his wife hostage. Now the Padre calls the shots on getting the President to take steps to release his family. This classic confrontation between two men on utterly opposite sides of the law is laced with humor and illustrates how fierce paternal love can motivate even the most ruthless of gangsters into reckless acts of courage and bravery.

When Frank Behr’s friend and mentor is murdered without any apparent motive, he thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end investigation, a private firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and the firm wants Behr to find out what happened to them. The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis’s underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice where Behr uncovers a shocking thread connecting the missing detectives to his friend’s brutal murder, and, in the process, an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family.

When any biological matter can be used to create life, stolen celebrity DNA sells to the highest bidder–or the craziest stalker–in this propulsive thriller. With a vivid imagining of the future, Gattaca meets Black Mirror in Kira Peikoff’s Baby X . In the near-future United States, where advanced technology can create egg or sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities face the alarming potential of meeting biological children they never conceived. Famous singer Trace Thorne is tired of being targeted by the Vault, a black market site devoted to stealing DNA. Sick of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to ensure his biological safety. Ember will do anything she can to protect her clients. She knows all the Vault’s tricks–discarded tissues, used straws, lipstick tubes—and has prevented countless DNA thefts. Working for Thorne, her focus becomes split when she begins to fall for him, but she knows she hasn’t let anything slip–love or not, his DNA is safe. But then she and Thorne are confronted by a pregnant woman, Quinn, who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, and all bets are off. Brilliantly plotted and terrifyingly prescient, Baby X is an unpredictable and relentless speculative thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and John Marrs.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 7 -Fitness = Death when Nick Hoffman heads back to the gym right after a vacation, finding himself caught in a Desperate Housewives-type mystery. Michigan Muscle is a state-of-the-art health club adjacent to the State University of Michigan. Boasting luxurious facilities, the latest equipment, and topnotch personal trainers, it's a palatial complex for fitness. But every palace has its intrigue, and when Nick stumbles across a dead trainer, he's drawn into a web of passion and privilege unlike anything he's ever experienced before. The prime suspect because he's the one who discovered the body, Nick has to work this mystery out to its bitter end. In this seventh novel in the series, Lev Raphael, Lambda Award winner, takes us on another voyage with one of the mystery world's funniest - and best-read - amateur sleuths. Included in this new edition, a foreword by R E Bradshaw (Rainey Bell Thriller series). "Raphael's latest smoothly delivers a satisfying mystery while providing insight into the middle-aging of America, gay marriage, the excitement of sleuthing as a means of exercising control over our lives, the 'Orwellian' Patriot Act, and more." - Booklist "Hot Rocks is a comic mystery of bad manners, written with the suspenseful touch of Alfred Hitchcock bred to the epigrammatic wit of Oscar Wilde. The hero of the tale, assistant professor Nick Hoffman, is among the most lovably erudite characters in all of mystery fiction." - Robert Eversz, Zero to the Bone "If you like your mysteries smart, witty, and steaming with suspense, you won't find a better read than Lev Raphael's Hot Rocks. The new spa in town is proving hazardous to Nick's health, and it's great to be back at his side while he sleuths in the sauna. Lev's turned up the heat in one of my favorite series in crime fiction." - Linda Fairstein, Bad Blood

From legendary cult writer Jerry Stahl comes Plainclothes Naked, a breakout novel that jacks up crime fiction to new heights of twisted, sexy, mind-blowing brilliance. With searing wit and devastating detail, Stahl -- whose work, Jim Carroll has written, "fills the gap in American literature left void since the death of the late, great Terry Southern " -- takes us deep into the minds of addicts and detectives, fetishists and killers. It's a vision of American misfits in a world of violent crime, official corruption, drug-addled scheming, and -- perhaps strangest of all -- genuine, up-from-the-toes true love. In a wildly careening plot that can only be described as crack noir, two pipe-heads accidentally steal a photo of George W. Bush's presidential package with a happy face tattooed on it and decide to blackmail the Republican Party. Before the crack-crazed thieves can follow through, however, a gorgeous, whip-smart young nurse absconds with the goods. But Nurse Tina's got her own problems -- she's just offed her online "money swami" husband with a bowl of Drano-laced Lucky Charms. When Manny Rubert, a scarred ex-junkie turned codeine-popping detective, is called in to investigate the "foamer" hubby's untimely demise, love hits him like a wrench to the head. Soon Manny and Tina are making plans of their own for the presidential pic -- and for their future together. But the meddling police chiefs and motel room sex-change surgeons of the world just won't leave them alone. And then there are those killer crackheads, still out there and closing in... At once a scathing tale of contemporary insanity and a no-holds-barred, tour de force thriller, Plainclothes Naked forges violence and comedy into a criminal love story as shocking as it is transcendent.

When the daughter of prominent human rights activist, Sarah Raab, is kidnapped by what may be a terrorist organization, her life is put into turmoil. Told not to seek out the police, she turns to a former high-level CIA operative, Carl Helman: an anti-terrorist expert she has only recently met. She must battle with her conscience and her strongly held beliefs while working with a man who embodies everything she despises. When she discovers that a member of her own inner circle could be involved, Sarah must make the horrific choice of allowing Helman to use his "advanced interrogation techniques" on them or risk losing her daughter. How could this happen? Why would a terrorist group target her family? And how far against her own values is Sarah willing to go when the threat of loss becomes devastatingly personal?

From the carcass of a Washington, D.C. car bomb explosion, the CIA launches an investigation into the mysterious events leading to the assassination of Chilean dissident and infamous casanova, Eduardo Allesandro Palmero. As CIA investigator Alfred Dobbs rummages through the evidence, Palmero's mysterious life, from heir to the Chilean oligarchy to a fist-raising Marxist and trickster in disguise, comes to light. But what Dobbs soon discovers soars beyond his wildest imagination. At the height of international terrorism, Eduardo fights his war with an unlikely weapon-seduction. From Marie DeFarge to Frederika Millspaugh to Penny Anne McCarthy, Eduardo orders his sex-craving subjects into battle, tearing them from a life of tranquility and into the passionate caress of a man who will stop at nothing for a cause, his cause. Soon enough, Marie, Frederika and Anne are making headline news as part of a South American terror squad. But when Eduardo's carpet of lies begins to unravel, thread by thread, and his obsession-inducing sexual offensive comes to a slow and subtle halt, his very fate is at stake. Will the feared Chilean Intelligence Agency finally get him? Will lust intoxicate the minds of three women descending beyond reason? Or will the conned women become the conwomen?

In post-World War II England, former Secret Service operative Mirabelle Bevan takes a job at a debt collection agency, but when she discovers that a pregnant Hungarian refugee who had taken out a routine loan has been reported dead, she decides to investigate--

Old-school sleuth Moses Wine--dubbed today's Sam Spade by The Washington Post--tackles movie industry corruption and wages war on terrorism in a sharply satiric new novel from the award-winning mystery author.

A serial killer turns Los Angeles into his own personal Monopoly board as he taunts the media and police with a trail of cash, deposit slips and bodies that randomly follow the game. When newly-promoted Detective Jessie Drake is appointed media spokesperson for the police, the killer plans his next move--against her.

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A high-caliber psychological thriller from the eclectic, critically-acclaimed author Warren Adler, well-known for the iconic novel turned international box-office hit "The War of the Roses." A commercial artist, her stockbroker husband, and their twin daughters move to Los Angeles. Unwittingly, they fall prey to a woman who convinces them that she is a psychic and can foresee their future. They believe that she holds the key to their success and can protect them from life's dangers. Gradually, she takes complete control over their careers, parenting, even their sex lives until they become her willing accomplices. This chilling tale rises to a tense crescendo as the psychic dissects and manipulates the family's beliefs and paralyzes their will to protect themselves. Madeline's Miracles is a classic brainwashing story that offers a cautionary tale for anyone who has lost the ability to question an illogical certainty.

"Warren Adler writes with skill and a sense of scene." -The New York Times Book ReviewA new thriller from the critically acclaimed novelist Warren Adler, well known for his iconic novel turned box office hit, The War of the Roses, and many more notable titles including Random Hearts, Target Churchill and Trans-Siberian Express... Milton Gold is a fringe operating "hustling lawyer," barely making it in the cutthroat chaos of 1970s New York City. His world is suddenly turned inside out when he meets the mysterious and beautiful Karla Smith, a Polish-American woman, who approaches him with an assignment that will test his skills beyond anything he has ever experienced. Karla hires him to find what he thinks will lead to his biggest payout yet: her inheritance of one-hundred million dollars in gold coins hidden by her banker father from the Nazis during World War II. Despite his skepticism he joins Karla in a fantastic, dangerous and adventurous trek through communist dominated Europe to Auschwitz where the treasure has been hidden in an unsuspecting place. Milton and Karla discover things along the way that profoundly change their relationship and ultimately test their moral view of the world and society. Balanced with humor and tragedy, Heart of Gold explores the brutality of life behind the iron curtain and the boundaries of morality during the darkest days of the Cold War.

Glorious 39 is the screenplay of the new blockbuster film by award-winning writer/director Stephen Poliakoff released in cinemas in November 2009. In this tense psychological thriller set on the eve of WWII, a young woman stumbles across evidence of a sinister Nazi appeasement plot that will stop at nothing to achieve its aims. As close friends die in suspicious circumstances, she finds herself in extreme danger from an increasingly menacing and powerful enemy. Besides the screenplay the book features an exclusive Q&A with writer/director Stephen Polikoff, a colour photo section and full cast and production credits. The film features a stellar cast of leading British actors: award-winning British actress Romola Garai ( Atonement ), alongside BAFTA-winning actor Bill Nighy ( Love Actually ). They are joined by Oscar-winning actress Julie Christie ( Finding Neverland ), Eddie Redmayne ( The Other Boleyn Girl ), David Tennant, Charlie Cox ( Stardust ), Jeremy Northam ( Gosford Park ) and the legendary Christopher Lee ( Lord of The Rings ) as Walter. Glorious 39 is writer/director Stephen Poliakoff's return to the cinema after an absence of a decade since his previous feature films which include the multi-award winning Close My Eyes .

Ambition, lust, assassinations, rebellions and political intrigue are the ingredients that make the book of Samuel as gripping a tale as any modern thriller. This new translation by Sidney Brichto examines Samuel's rejection by the Israelites.

"An explosive story of friendship and sacrifice in the depths of the Cold War era. Connoisseurs of the literary spy thriller rank Robert Littell with John le Carre, Graham Greene, and Alan Furst in the first tier of the genre's pantheon. Set against the backdrop of the 1968 Russian invasion of Prague, The October Circle is one of Littell's most riveting early works. Seven of Bulgaria's cultural elite -- close friends and all true communists -- find their beliefs shattered by the roar of Russian tanks thundering toward the defenseless Czechoslovakian capital. Driven by conscience, the group -- 'The October Circle' -- join forces with an American drifter to stage an extremely dangerous protest that will set off a wave of repression and threatens to repay their heroism with death"--P. [4] of cover.

At a time when Charlemagne ruled, the Byzantines were encroaching upon Russia, and the faith of Allah was flourishing in Baghdad, there existed a kingdom with a tolerant, advanced civilization: somewhere between the Caucasus mountains and the Volga, the Khazar kingdom grew and flourished, and in one of the oddest choices ever made, converted itself to Judaism. A thousand years later, when the writer Marc Sofer is given an ancient Khazarian coin by a mysterious visitor, he is drawn into investigating the fascinating enigma of the Khazars. Why did these Steppe warriors decide to become Jews? Why, after centuries of power and prosperity, were they effaced from history? What is the connection between this ancient, vanished people, and the terrorist group calling themselves the New Khazars, who have begun attacking oil plants on the Caspian sea? Taking place both in the 10th century and the 21st, this absorbing, dramatic tale is part historical novel, part thriller. The story of the Khazars is interwoven with a contemporary political conspiracy in an unusual blend of reality and fiction that explores the ever important themes of history and identity.

"For fans of Black Mirror and True Detective, a visceral high-concept thriller about a psychologist who must protect the life of an eleven-year-old girl whose ability to remember past lives makes them both targets of a merciless killer. Dr. Matilda Deacon is a psychologist researching how memories are made and stored when she meets a strange eleven-year-old girl named Ashanique. Ashanique claims to harbor the memories of the last soldier killed in World War I and Matilda is at first very interested but skeptical. However, when Ashanique starts talking about being chased by the Night Doctors--a term also used by an unstable patient who was later found dead--Matilda can't deny that the girl might be telling the truth. Matilda learns that Ashanique and her mother have been on the run their whole lives from a monstrous assassin named Rade. Rade is after a secret contained solely in memories and has left a bloody trail throughout the world in search of it. Matilda soon realizes Ashanique is in unimaginable danger and that her unique ability comes with a deadly price. Fast-paced, suspenseful, and a chilling blend of science and danger, The Clarity is a compelling take on the possibilities of reincarnation and life after death"--