However, it also manages to capture the brink-of-the-abyss finality of falling in love along the way very well, with lots of black humour and quirky, loveable characters thrown into the mix. There's Karen, a ballsy plastic surgeon's receptionist, who pulls stick-ups on garages in her down-time; her boss, Frank, who's getting his ex-wife Madge kidnapped in order to collect on the insurance; Karen's psycho ex Rossi, who's just out of prison; and her new love interest Ray, who's a painter/decorator cum 'babysitter'. A multi-layered novel that zips along at a rate of knots, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments

    But that’s only part of the challenge – one that many trained agents could handle effectively. They’ve called upon Monarch because, after the interrogation, he must return the scientist without the Russians, the Iranians, or the scientist himself ever knowing he’s been grabbed.

    In response, the United States sends one of its deadliest agents to take the killers down.But when the agent is delayed in transit, lawyer Roger Carr gets mistaken for him. Now, with some of the world's deadliest men after him, will he survive long enough to prove his identity?

    In the middle, meanwhile, are The Great Switcheroo and The Last Act, two stories exploring a darker side of desire and pleasure.In the black comedies of Switch Bitch Roald Dahl brilliantly captures the ins and outs, highs and lows of sex.'Dahl is too good a storyteller to become predictable' Daily TelegraphRoald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.

    We follow former rule-breaker Leonid McGill as he's buffeted between the overlords of New York's underbelly, desperate to turn straight, but unable to say no to a nicely paid job. When we're introduced, he's calling in old favours and greasing NYPD palms to uncover seemingly harmless information for a high-paying client. But when the former schoolmates on his list are bludgeoned to death one by one, McGill realises that a friendly reunion wasn't quite what his taskmaster had in mind. And the awkward questions that follow seem almost welcome in comparison to a visit from Willie Sanderson, a trained killer and 'modern-day Frankenstein', now primed to ensure that McGill breathes his last. THE LONG FALL shows Walter Mosley at the height of his powers, breathing new life into American crime writing with sassy dialogue and unflinching social truths. Vividly capturing a city not nearly as cleaned up as its politicians would have us believe, this is new Mosley - and it's just as good as the vintage kind.

    A very fine read.

    But times are tough, so he decides to step up to the big money with a drug deal. Everything that can go wrong, does. The deal goes bad, a vengeful detective sets his sights on Jake, one of his crew might be a turncoat, and a woman from a long past affair suddenly reappears. All of this would be complicated enough on its own, but for Jake, it's even worse.The woman is the detective's ex-wife.And Jake Stankovic used to be a cop.Now Jake must face new problems and old vendettas in an all-in proposition with lives on the line. He has to find a way to get his money back, keep the girl, and beat everyone involved...At Their Own Game.

    In both their cases, it was to be rock stars. Fifteen years later, their mid-thirties are bearing down fast, and just like everybody else, they're having to accept the less glamorous hands reality has dealt them. Nervous new father Ray takes refuge from his responsibilities by living a virtual existence in online games. People say he needs to grow up, but everybody has to find their own way of coping. For some it's affairs, for others it's the bottle, and for Simon it's serial murder, mass slaughter and professional assassination.

    Alone except for his beloved bulldog, Churchill, a despondent man who's failed at his career, his marriage, and his own simple hopes makes his way across the fierce American landscape and the spectacle of his own bitter past.

    He's not one to pass up a drink - or too many - and he prides himself on being stylishly dressed for whatever occasion may present itself, no matter how debauched. Don't miss this brilliant mixture of comedy, crime, and suspense.

    If you're looking for a thrill ride, hang on for a double dose of daring from Fern Michaels in this exclusive edition of Weekend Warriors and Payback!

    Marcantonio is one of the new generation in the 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria, Southern Italy. He is in Germany to learn how to channel their illicit millions towards legitimate businesses all over Europe. When Jago witnesses Marcantonio commit a vicious assault and the police seem uninterested, the Englishman refuses to let the matter drop. But by pursuing the gangster to his grandfather's mountain lair, Jago is stepping into the middle of a delicate surveillance operation, which sets alarm bells ringing in Rome, London and Berlin. It also leads him to Consolata, a young woman who sees in Jago the chance to turn her non-violent protest campaign against the crime families into something altogether more lethal... NO MORTAL THING is novel of relentless power and mounting suspense, a brilliant portrayal of organised crime in Europe and the under-resourced men and women who fight it.

    In retaliation, the Libyans kidnap the U.S. President's brother. Enter the Mordida Man--an independent fixer and bribery expert who must find and free the President's brother . . . without causing an international incident.

    Morty Martinez is known in the industry of estate liquidation as a "feeler."  If you were to look him up in the Brooklyn yellow pages, he would be listed under "home content removal," but his real job is looking for stashes of cash crammed into tin cans that have been left out of wills, kept out of banks, and hidden away for decades by the frugal elderly suspicious of ATMs and the IRS.  When Morty hits upon the biggest score of his life, over $800,000.00, he knows that news travels fast and he must operate quickly and carefully to safeguard his booty, his life and his destiny as patrician of a seaside Mexican village.  But what he doesn't know is that there are others after the same buried treasure, including the recently paroled prison assassin Danny Kessel.

    Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room.Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person ...Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper.Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, BEAT THE REAPER is a debut thriller so utterly original you won't be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won't be able to put it down.