Now, he’s returned to Kippen for the first time in twenty years because his cousin Tony has been found dead under the local bridge.The news that Tony has left him the entire family farm triggers James’s journalistic curiosity – and his anxiety – both of which cropped up during his turbulent journey to adulthood. But it is the unexpected homophobic attack he survives that draws James into a hunt for the reasons one lonely Kippen farm boy in every generation kills himself.Standing in the way is James’s father, the town’s recently retired top cop, who is not prepared to investigate crimes no-one reckons have taken place. James must use every newshound’s trick he ever learned in order to uncover the brutal truth.A coming-of-age story and crime thriller with a large and gentle heart.

    The Glanville clan includes Edwin, a retired bishop who has lost his faith; his wife Marta, a controversial anthropologist and child of the Warsaw Ghetto; their son, Clement, a celebrated gay painter traumatized by the death of his twin; and their daughter, Susannah, a music publicist recovering from an affair with a convicted murderer. Each of them must face down a personal demon--Clement's work and reputation are violently attacked and his privacy is shattered, Susannah's exploration of the kabbalah transports her into the closed world of Chassidic Jews and a seemingly impossible love, and Edwin's illness forces Marta to confront the horrors of her past. These memorable figures are portrayed with wit, wisdom, and shattering emotional power.

    Very few people suspected, and even fewer actually knew, that the Duchess cuckolded him—and almost gave him up—for a gay playboy twenty years her junior.Blond and slender, Jimmy Donahue was the archetypal post-war playboy. He could fly a plane, speak several languages, play the piano, and tell marvelous jokes. People loved him for his wit, charm and personality. The grandson of millionaire Frank W. Woolworth, Jimmy knew he would never need to work. Instead, he set about carving for himself a career of mischief. Some said evil. Gay at a time when the homosexual act was still illegal, Jimmy was notorious within America’s upper class, and loved to shock. Though press agents arranged for him to be seen with female escorts, his pursuits, until he met the Duchess of Windsor, were exclusively homosexual. He was thirty-five when he was befriended by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1950. The Duchess was fifty-four, and despite the difference in age, there was an instant attraction. A burgeoning sexual relationship – a perverse sort of love – was formed between Jimmy and the Duchess. Together with the Duke, they became an inseparable trio, the closest of friends. As Jimmy had planned, the royal couple became obsessed with him.With information from surviving contemporaries, Dancing with the Devil is the extraordinary tale of three remarkable people and their unique and twisted relationship.

    Sirius Black is an immature twenty-something, living with a couple of other immature twenty-somethings. Both are obsessed with the same obscure book, which becomes their coping mechanism for navigating their instant and torrid love affair. Life, they discover, is precarious at best, but from each other, they learn how to make it something that’s worth living.

    William Laird is her devoted father who has kept a secret from his fanatical daughter.

    S. Merwin. The book is an intriguing set of variations on the theme of identity. Arnold plays on the idea of the shell as both the dazzling surface of the self and a hard case that protects the self against the assaults of the world. His poems narrate amatory and culinary misadventures. “Friendships based on food,” Arnold writes, “are rarely stable”—this book is full of wildly unstable and bewitching friendships and other significant relations.

    Set in upstate New York, the novel follows these characters as they achieve their aims in lives redolent with loss and hope, humor and sadness, union and alienation. Russell picks up the thread of his critically acclaimed novel The Salt Point 20 years later and tracks the lives of these friends, some of whom not only lost touch with each other but have also lost their way. Moving, at times shocking, and always memorable, Immaculate Blue points to where the personal and the political come together and shape our lives in unexpected ways. With this newest novel, Paul Russell reminds us of why he is one of the most important voices on the literary scene.

    A band of swordsmen on a failed mission. The forbidden love of Zheng He, the great Chinese Admiral. A young daughter forming a strange bond with her deceased father’s cat. Presenting ten stories in his fifth collection, O Thiam Chin plumbs the joy and despair, hopes and fears of men and women caught up by their past and confounded by lost loves. Taut, dark and visceral, these stories reveal, once again, the mysteries that lie in the heart of man.

    Stoner and Peter A. Conway tell for the first time in full detail the twisted story of a pair of young, aspiring gay adult film producers whose quest for fame at any cost leads to the gruesome murder of the man who stands in their way, gay porn entrepreneur Bryan Kocis.News of the killing of the forty-four-year-old (stabbed twenty-eight times, his throat slashed to near decapitation) in his suburban home sends shock waves through the bucolic Pennsylvania town. Neighbors were horrified to hear about the murder but equally astonished to learn that Kocis ran a small but thriving online porn operation from his home.The murder investigation leads police and prosecutors to the far reaches of the country, from Virginia to New York City, to Las Vegas, and ultimately to a nude beach in San Diego, where investigators facilitate an incredible clandestine suspect surveillance. The manhunt nets Harlow Cuadra and his lover Joseph Kerekes, both former military men, turned male models, turned hustlers, turned porn producers, who finally land at the bottom of a deadly conspiracy.Cobra Killer takes readers into the sometimes alluring, sometimes dangerous and often surprising world of gay porn and the deceit, schemes, and ultimate betrayals lying underneath the fantasy.

    Although, I’m not the only one. My half-brothers are subjected to the same torment. We don’t know the reasoning, yet Lucifer ensured each of us is plagued with one of the seven deadly sins.We’ve all accepted our fates, and while we work to figure out a way to free ourselves of this mental prison we try to do the one thing we can do— live our lives.I live in a remote part of Russia, on the side of the Dykh-Tau Mountain, away from those who wouldn’t be able to understand us. While my home is private, it also grants me access to the border of Eastern Europe.You see, I’m a kill-for-hire assassin. I don’t care who you want dead, all I want is to make sure I’m being paid the right price.None of it mattered until a certain little thief became my target. Now, I’m only left wondering how I’ll finish this job, or if I’ll finish it.

    But his luck turns when he is asked to house-sit wannabe but talentless actress Fawn Farrar's $10 million Beverly Hills estate. Capitalizing on his new position, he is soon befriended by his all-time favorite star, Marina Stetson, a Janis Joplin-esque singer just out of rehab and trying to make a comeback -- and whose husband Jason secretly covets.Adding to the drama is Jason's ex-roommate, the incredibly pretentious Tricia Cox, whose struggles to make it as a talent agent take a wrong turn when she contracts her meal ticket, the talented and beautiful Violet Cyr, to a hip-hop sitcom called "Chillin' with Billy."When Billy turns out to be a talking goat, all hell breaks loose. The trashy, hip young heroes suffer through humiliations galore before they have a chance to make it -- but not before Christian McLaughlin has laid bare in hilarious detail all the foibles and fumbles of a group of happening young people in La La Land in their shameless pursuit of fame, fortune -- and sex.

    Sports writer and on-air personality Mark Spector pays tribute to the province's hockey heyday with a unique blend of humour and homage.     "I hated every single guy on the Oilers, 'cause they all hated me." --Tim Hunter, the Calgary Flames     In the 1980s, the province of Alberta was home to the two best hockey teams in the NHL. Aptly dubbed "Death Valley" due to the sheer talent and ability of its players, the province not only begat rivalry with other NHL teams, but also sparked fierce competition within its own borders. Thus began The Battle of Alberta, the historic struggle between the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames.     In The Battle of Alberta, veteran sports journalist Mark Spector presents homage to Albertan hockey, and the two teams that inspired one of the most bitter competitions in NHL history. Through exclusive interviews with coaches, trainers, and players, Spector provides an unbiased, often hilarious look at the brawls, the clashes, and the schemes.      A chronicle of an unforgettable time in hockey history (filled with never-before-seen photographs), The Battle of Alberta is guaranteed to entertain fans and educate newcomers alike.

    

    She just wants to be in love. Sound simple? Well, there's a catch. She wants to be deeply in love with someone who is also deeply in love with her. Jenny must face the past and the present when she discovers her lover's infidelity and her first love walks back into her life. Her life becomes even more complicated when old feelings surface for her first love -- the woman who broke her heart as a teenager, then entered the church and became "Sister Rachel". In her third published book, Mavis Applewater brings to the printed page a perfect combination of heat and romance, with just the right amount of adventure.

    I've had that lesson beaten into me ever since I was a child. Some people might think that's a tragedy, but not me. Because you know what's even better than love?Power.I clawed my way to the top of the food chain and became the leader of the Beaufort crime syndicate at only twenty years old. Now, nobody crosses me and lives to tell the tale. There's just one little problem:You don't build an empire without making a few enemies.My past is coming back to haunt me with a vengeance, but I have no intention of going down without a fight. Hiring a K-9 handler for added security was a simple business decision.But I wasn’t counting on Ayla. Aloof attitude, dark hair, tattoos--exactly my type. She’s far more than just a K-9 handler, and I want to peel back that carefully composed exterior and see what’s underneath.I know I'm bad for her, but sometimes, being bad feels too good to stop. I just hope we both make it out of this alive.AYLAI’ve always had three rules for how I handle my work: Get in. Get the job done. And don’t get invested.When a mysterious client offered me a fabulous sum of money to come work for them, I jumped at the opportunity. I thought it would be just another job.Turns out I probably should have asked a few more questions.Now I'm stuck working for a woman who is equal parts terrifying and gorgeous. My new employer has a reputation for being ruthless, and I've seen firsthand what she's capable of. She crushes hardened criminals beneath the point of her stiletto heels without breaking a sweat.I should be running away from her as fast as I can.So why can't I get her out of my head?