The Games Men Play


Joe Schwartz - 2011
    In ‘The Games Men Play’ he has combined twenty-one short stories that will take the reader on a haunting journey through the darkest St. Louis streets to its most rural counties. A terrific, fast paced storytelling style that never wastes a word, his work constantly entertains and demands to be read.

The Yorkshire Dipper


Maria Frankland - 2021
    The local police are over-stretched and under-resourced.With each life that is pulled into the river’s depths, journalist Lauren Holmes becomes more suspicious and more determined to bring the truth to the surface.Her police sergeant fiancé is well-placed to help her. Yet he is committed to maintaining police reputation and is happy to accept each death recorded as ‘drunken misadventure.’Can Lauren get to the bottom of the deaths without risking her own ‘accident?’

Hullo Russia, Goodbye England


Derek Robinson - 2008
    and qualifies to fly the Vulcan bomber. Piloting a Vulcan is an unforgettable experience: no other aircraft comes close to matching its all-round performance. And as bombers go, it's drop-dead gorgeous.But there's a catch. The Vulcan has only one role: to make a second strike. To act in retaliation for a Russian nuclear attack. Silk knows that knows that if he ever flies his Vulcan in anger, he'll be flying from a smoking wasteland, a Britain obliterated. But in the mad world of Mutually Assured Destruction, the Vulcan is the last--the only--deterrent.Derek Robinson returns with another rip-roaring, gung-ho R.A.F. adventure, one that exposes and confronts the brinkmanship and saber-rattling of the Cold War Era.

Angles of Attack, An A-6 Intruder Pilot's War


Peter Hunt - 2002
    For the next six weeks, Hunt executed dozens of bombing missions into Kuwait and Iraq, including all-weather low-level attacks, A-6 Intruder missions so hazardous that they would never be flown in combat again. Whether Hunt was dropping laser-guided bombs on precision targets, supporting the Marines on the ground, or conducting attacks along the infamous “highway of death,” America’s mission was clear – to force the invading Iraqi army out of Kuwait.Operation Desert Storm - America’s first full-scale conflict since Vietnam - proved to the world that the U.S. military was still battle-ready after decades of Cold War and set the stage for military interventions for years to come. Hunt’s gripping depiction of A-6 Intruders in combat is a thought provoking account of what America asks of her military every day.This…Gulf War memoir is excellent; it really does put the reader in the cockpit...Peter Hunt’s enthusiastic account is one of the best of the type this reviewer has read in recent years. Peter Mersky, The Hook – Journal of Carrier Aviation Book Review, February 2003.

Enormity


Nick Milligan - 2013
    When a deep space mission goes awry, he crashes on an alien planet. Jack discovers that his new world is inhabited by a race of humans that have evolved in parallel to those on Earth. He picks up a guitar and performs the most wondrous rock songs of his home planet. The Beatles. Neil Young. Leonard Cohen. Bob Dylan. Superstardom beckons as audiences around the globe revere Jack and his apparent songwriting abilities. He basks in the boundless glow of a hedonistic dream world. But Jack soon learns that his lie will have sinister consequences.This remarkable debut novel, released in three parts by renowned Australian entertainment journalist Nick Milligan, is a thrilling ride through a nightmarish, darkly comical and highly original tale that combines elements of horror, science fiction, music industry satire and erotica. Enormity will weave a dark magic over you – even beyond its shocking conclusion.

Painted Lives


Charlotte Vale Allen - 1990
    Mattie Sylvester, a widow of one of America's most celebrated painters, reveals the sordid truth of the past, and of her husband, to her secretary.

Dead by Friday


Derek Pedley - 2012
    Two mothers talk murder outside a primary school and suddenly down-payments are being made on contracts to kill. From the Adelaide suburbs that spawned the Snowtown killers, enter the hitman, a man who eats speed for breakfast and murder contracts for lunch, on a sandwich. For the first time, the truth about the lovers who wanted their partners dead, but didn't count on shrewd detectives, a brave husband and a shattered family - all determined to bring three killers to justice.

Nobilis


R. Sean Borgstrom - 1999
    Once human, each character has been forever changed, imbued with awesome power and terrible responsibility. Heaven and Hell, angels and devils, the Giants and the Old Gods - in Nobilis, all are united in the Great War against the Excrucians, whose goal is to destroy all Creation - but all are divided by their own plots and ancient rivalries, as well.

A Mongrel's Curse


Paul C. Middleton - 2016
    Yeah, even the government comes crying. When those that hunt the thing that go bump in the night become the hunted, he's the one that bumps back.But nobody likes the guy because they don’t know what to expect. After all, he wakes up a new man every morning. Then there's the relatives. Being the grandson of a Fury wins him no popularity contests amongst those in the know. And the rest of his heritage being a big freaking blank isn't of help either.He takes no favorites. In the battles between the supernaturals, he’s neutral. Picking sides in a twenty or thirty-sided conflict is plain crap. Even his family pays for his help.When there’s a fuck-up that others won’t touch, you go to the Mongrel. And you’d better bring your life savings with you—he don’t work for short pay.So who’s this Mongrel, you ask? That'd be Me

Edible Arrangements


Cassandra B. - 2020
    With her vision in tow, things aren’t going as smoothly as she hoped. When a contractor pulls out of a job last minute Aria is forced to turn to the last person she wanted to call, William James Bernett.William is a local handyman that has made a comfortable life by staying in his hometown. William’s sweetness for Aria causes him to act on emotions he’s buried for years. Is this arrangement one that will finally push Aria and William together for good?

My Former Heart


Cressida Connolly - 2011
    She thought she could even pinpoint the exact moment at which Iris had made up her mind to go, leaving her only child behind. Neither of them could have guessed then that they would never live together again.Spanning the second half of the last century, ‘My Former Heart’, Cressida Connolly’s mesmerising first novel, charts the lives of three generations of Iris’s family. Ruth will be deserted again, many years later, by a husband she loves, but not before she has had two children by him. She leaves London to live with her uncle, where she creates a new life for herself with another woman. And we follow the lives of her two children, trying to make a place for themselves in the world in the shadow of the family that precedes them.With its large cast of fascinating characters, this is an outstanding novel about families and their ability to adapt. It surely marks the beginning of a long career as a novelist for Cressida Connolly.

The Escape


Matthew Slater - 2021
    As criminal kingpin of Sovereign City, Bryan Wattson has everything: money, power, and the sense of invincibility that goes with it. But after a botched drug deal leaves him betrayed by his former business partner, shot and left for dead, Bryan is sentenced to thirty years in prison, After breaking out ten years later, Bryan learns the hard way exactly how enormous square one really is. With this second chance, Bryan has only one thing on his mind: getting revenge on the man who betrayed him.

Forest of the Forsaken: The Witch's Snare


Joanne Brothwell - 2013
    Following her mother’s death to cancer, Meg’s world crashes in around her. Her father re-marries within weeks of their loss, her witch step-mother is cold and rejecting, and her new step-brother, Joey, has some rather unusual sexual preferences. Meg’s only hope is to move away and leave her father and the tainted memories behind. When her father forces her to attend his honeymoon with this new and unwanted blended family, Meg finds herself in the remote wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, miles from civilization. Meg begins to see things in the forbidding forest—strange, unexplainable things she believes are the result of compounding stress. But when her father and step-mother disappear, leaving Meg and Joey to fend for themselves, lost and without supplies, she realizes her paranormal visions are not merely her imagination after all. Meg’s knows of the dangerous and tortured demons of Joey’s past but her heart can’t resist him. Bound together in desperation and fear, their romance blooms bright and all-consuming despite the evil magic of the formidable forest. Will Meg and Joey find their way back to civilization? Or will their love wither in submission to the shadows within the Forest of the Forsaken?

Mums on Strike


Laura Kemp - 2014
    Perfect for fans of Pedigree Mum and The Mummyfesto.It was just a squashed grape on the kitchen floor. Hardly a reason to get upset, right? But six years of motherhood has left Lisa Stratton feeling like a skivvy. Every morning before she’s opened her eyes, she starts her mental inventory of jobs to do. And just like yesterday, the day before and every day since she became a mum, she’s woken up knackered. So when her husband deliberately steps over the grape because it’s ‘her responsibility’ to run the house, it tips her over the edge. He wasn’t always like this – they used to share everything. Then the kids came along and he saw it as an excuse to sit back. But this time things are going to change. Lisa has made a decision. She’s going on strike…

The Undead Mr. Tenpenny


Tammie Painter - 2021
    Until you accidentally start bringing the dead back to life."...a clever, hilarious romp through a new magical universe" --Sarah Angleton, author of Gentleman of MisfortuneCassie Black works at a funeral home. She's used to all manner of dead bodies. What she's not used to is them waking up. Which they seem to be doing on a disturbingly regular basis lately.Just when Cassie believes she has the problem under control, the recently-deceased Busby Tenpenny insists he's been murdered and claims Cassie might be responsible thanks to a wicked brand of magic she's been exposed to. The only way for Cassie to get her life back to normal is to tame her magic and uncover Mr. Tenpenny's true killer.Simple right? Of course not. Because while Cassie works on getting her newly-acquired magic sorted, she's blowing up kitchens, angering an entire magical community, and discovering her past is more closely tied to Busby Tenpenny than she could have ever imagined.If you like contemporary fantasy with snarky humor, unforgettable characters, and paranormal mystery such as Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, you'll find it hard to pry yourself away from this first book of the Cassie Black Trilogy.* Selected as one of Apple's Most Anticipated Books of 2021* Winner of the Novel Excerpt Prize from the League of American PEN Women* Finalist in the Yeah You Write! Novel ContestThe Cassie Black Trilogy is a fish-out-of-water tale that takes you from the streets of Portland to the Tower of London. It's got magic and mystery, pastries and zombies, sentient gnomes and an evil wizard...because there's always an evil wizard, isn't there?Note: While this book delivers plenty of wry giggles and a few hexes, it's fairly clean with only an itty-bitty bit of light cursing, one fight scene, and no hanky panky or sexual situations.