- The Witches- George's Marvelous Medicine- The Twits- Esio Trot- Matilda- The BFG

    Robbins, bestselling author of The End of War and War of the Rats, comes a novel of searing intensity and uncompromising vision. Part mystery, part legal thriller, it is a story of crime and punishment set in a small southern town during one brutal, hot, and unforgiving summer that lays bare the potential of the human heart to hate–and, ultimately, to heal. The inhabitants of Good Hope, Virginia, haven’t felt the cooling effects of rain in weeks. The crops are withering. The ground is parched. There is no relief in sight. With the town a tinderbox waiting to explode, all it takes is a spark to ignite all the prejudice, the rage, and the secrets that are so carefully kept hidden. And then, in the midst of the terrible heat, a tragedy occurs. A baby is born and dies in her mother’s arms. The child, Nora Carol, is buried quickly and quietly the next day in a church graveyard. It should have ended right there–but it didn’t, for Nora Carol is of mixed race.The white deacons of Good Hope’s Victory Baptist Church, trying to protect the centuries-old traditions of their cemetery, have the body exhumed. That night the church is set ablaze, and the sole witness is the only suspect–Elijah Waddell, Nora Carol’s father.Nat Deeds, a former prosecutor and an exile of Good Hope, is pressed into service as Elijah’s attorney. With a politically savvy prosecutor and a vindictive sheriff aligned against him, Nat knows it will be nearly impossible to get Elijah acquitted. But Elijah refuses to accept a plea.As the evidence mounts, Nat begins to suspect there is something his client isn’t telling him, and the next revelation turns Good Hope into a powder keg: a body is found in the ashes of the church. Now Elijah is accused of murder, and the case is no longer a matter of winning or losing, but of life or death.The only way Nat can save his client is to scratch and claw for any shred of evidence, even if he has to bend the law to find it. As the summer heat intensifies and passions reach their boiling point, Nat must navigate through the incendiary secrets kept by friends and neighbors, by the guilty and the innocent, to an act of justice that has nothing to do with the law.

    101 hilarious and dirty jokes for adults.

    When DCI Max Thatcher and his new DS Isaac Mills are called in to investigate, they discover that there is a plethora of suspects and precious little evidence. But when the determined pair start digging into the unusual remains, they will discover not only a trail to the truth, but a pathway right into danger.

    Transmetropolitan combined black humor, political scandal, and moral ambiguity to look into the mind of gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem and The City he inhabits. Aided by his embattled Editor and his two Filthy Assistants, Jerusalem blazes a path through a futuristic world of skyscrapers and technological wonders, dark alleys, and unspeakable depravity.Transmetropolitan: All Around The World is a lovingly crafted and designed tribute to a seminal work. Contributors include: Aaron Alexovich, Stephanie Buscema, Jim Calafiore, Stefano Caselli, Cliff Chiang, Richard C. Clark, Kevin Colden, Molly Crabapple, Camilla d’Errico, Kristian Donaldson, Ryan Dunlavey, Gary Erskine, Richard Friend, Dan Goldman, Cully Hamner, Lea Hernandez, Phil Hester, Rantz Hoseley, Matt Howarth, K Thor Jensen, Seth Kushner, Jonathan Luna, Milo Manara, John McCrea, Moritat, Dean Motter, Darick Robertson, Jimmie Robinson, Stuart Sayger, Tim Seeley, Fiona Staples, Bryan Talbot, Pete Woods, and many, many others.[text from http://cbldf.org/homepage/transmetrop... ]

    The audacious scheme requires a marriage between Lisbeth's granddaughter and Hannah's widowed son. Desperate for her grandmother's attention and approval, Mila agrees to wed a man she doesn't know. She begins entertaining doubts when Hannah proves to be a loving mother-in-law instead of the monster her grandmother had described. Mila is thinking and acting independently for the first time, going as far as initiating an illicit affair. Her refusal to commit a heinous act at Lisbeth's insistence results in shocking consequences. With danger looming on the horizon, Mila discovers powers that have lain dormant beneath her grandmother's oppressive shadow. Now, she must learn to use her gift and salvage her only chance at happiness. Holland's Golden Age comes to life in this suspenseful historical novel with a touch of magical realism.

    Seconded to a Home Office Statistical Unit, for what he considers a minor violation of trust, Detective Constable John Gallagher is not well pleased. He knows nothing of statistics but the summer of 1966 reveals he doesn't have to.

    But his job in Homicide has served up a bad case of insomnia and hallucinations, and just as his body, mind, and spirit are about to break, he begins investigating an intriguing series of merciless murders. As his condition deteriorates, he refuses to turn the case over to his partner, knowing he couldn’t rest until justice is served. Unfortunately, justice is what the killers believe they’re delivering, and their next delivery comes a little too close for comfort.

    They were wrong. On October 15th, humanity went missing. A handful of scattered survivors wake to find the world empty of friends, family, and neighbors. Among them, a child searches for his family. A special agent turned enemy of the state survives a fiery plane crash with no way to reach his daughter. A serial killer discovers he’s no longer at the top of the food chain. Now these strangers must find the strength inside them to weather the new world. But they are not alone. In the absence of civilization, a new threat emerges. In the stillness, it waits and watches, preying on their weakness. Their only hope is to find more survivors, rise above their fear, and face the oncoming darkness.

     Yet in the wake of those final battles comes a reprieve, a new peace maintained by the knowledge that total war is too devastating to even contemplate, that the weapons employed--should they come into common use--would lay waste to the galaxy. Admiral Tanis Richards, the former Field Marshal, wishes nothing more than to retire to her lakehouse and stare out over the rippling waters for a year or two, but knows she cannot. For the greatest enemy that humanity and free AIs have ever faced waits for her at the galactic core. Epsilon, a powerful AI, his nodes filling an entire world, is has his mind bent on remaking the universe, and organic life is not in the blueprint. Though they yearn to enjoy the fruits of their labors, Tanis and her allies must prepare for one final battle against the scions of the human race. They must prepare to fight The Ascension War.

    But what emerges from the shadows of the town’s waste plant is beyond anything found in nature.Fist-sized cockroaches. Bird-sized wasps. Spiders, millipedes, ticks, all swollen to enormous bulk with vicious appetites to match. And other things, creatures that should never exist.Through the night they come, slithering, buzzing, scuttling, crawling over skin, burrowing into flesh, making the town their nest.Time is soon running out for Crease and the other survivors, as that hideous skittering noise closes in from all around…

    

    The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows.They are out there. She might let them in.The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall.Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them.Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.

    Meanwhile, Bill Butler is roused from his bed and, together with his Knock team, must try to outwit the devious smugglers. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection The Veteran.

     Set in 1971, Detective Sergeant Morse is confronted by two deaths along Dead Man’s Walk, which he’s sure are connected to the Oxford Martyrs of the 1550s. There are clues and red-herrings aplenty as Morse uses his detective skills to be metaphorically furlongs ahead of the field, albeit on the wrong racecourse. For Morse there is romance, an unpleasant academic with which to contend, beer in copious quantities, opera, a crossword-type clue, and even an appearance by a boy named Dexter, but above all there is a murder mystery puzzle, set against the backdrop of 1970s Oxford, which only he can solve. For those who love Oxford, the iconic Inspector Morse or even just a good old mystery, Dead Man’s Walk is a taut, entertaining tale of intrigue and delight. Antony James is a British author. A pseudonym for Antony Richards, he is the chairman of the Inspector Morse Society and was a close friend of the late Colin Dexter. He is also an actor with the Irregular Special Players, who regularly produce Sherlock Holmes-based plays.