In one way or another, every “righteous” clandestine operative is sought out, enlisted, and trained for the difficult and often terrible work intended to ensure that the principles of freedom triumph over ideologies that seek to dominate and enslave. The year is 1977; the Cold War is intensifying. Helena Portland—Laynie to her family—is set to graduate from the University of Washington, when recruiters from Marstead International invite her to dinner and an informal employment interview. Laynie is flattered: Marstead International is a technology and aeronautics firm with a global presence and reputation. But behind their corporate image? Marstead is a front for joint U.S./NATO covert operations. Not far into the dinner conversation, the recruiters make their pitch: “We have offices around the world, Miss Portland, and we actively seek college graduates with the right mix of aptitude and skills to work and grow within our worldwide market. Actually, we have been observing you for some time. We feel that you have the potential to serve . . . the interests of your country.” Laynie catches their drift and confronts it. “Let me see if I understand you correctly. You are representatives of a U.S. intelligence agency, unnamed so far, and you are trying to recruit me. Do I have it right?” When Laynie accepts Marstead’s offer, she is sent through the Company’s rigorous tradecraft and tactical training program. Laynie soon discovers that the world of clandestine service is dirty business. To succeed, operatives must bend and twist the tenets of liberty. Along the way, noble objectives tarnish and corrode, hearts harden, and methods and means drag virtue into the gutter. Laynie perseveres at the work set before her; she enters into it because she holds a secret—a secret she has never shared with anyone, a view of herself that not only condones the awful choices she is asked to make, but justifies them. I am worthless; my life has no value. I am only useful when the work I do serves a greater purpose. Laynie PortlandBook 1: Laynie Portland, Spy Rising—The Prequel Book 2: Laynie Portland, Retired SpyBook 3: Laynie Portland, Renegade SpyBook 4: Laynie Portland, Spy Resurrected

    But what might happen if a large number of them refused to take no for an answer?One morning, Shepherdton College receives 437 envelopes from twenty-eight states. Each contains the same two-word message: Still coming.That’s just the beginning. The college president’s house burns down; the water in the country club swimming pool turns red; the ghost of a local war hero appears.Another message is received: We’re Here.Nerves fray, and if the “comers” aren’t trouble enough, a Peeping Tom turns into a home invader, and shows signs of becoming a full-blown sexual predator.The town fragments and people take up arms after one last message is received…Won’t Be Long Now.Still Coming is a psychological thriller for anyone, student or parent, who’s ever sweated a college admission decision.

     The short stories are: Rules of Engagement (where Spider Shepherd has to help a friend who is in serious trouble with the police), The Constituency Meeting (where a group of old folks decide to commit a murder), Ghost Kids (where a holidaymaker takes more home from Thailand than he expected) and Massage Therapy (where the massage skills of a Thai masseuse change a man's life forever). There are also tasters of five of his bestselling novels, including Hard Landing, The Stretch and The Tunnel Rats. Stephen Leather is one of the UK’s most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country’s most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. In 2011 alone he sold more than 500,000 eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world. Born in Manchester, he began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London’s Burning, The Knock and the BBC’s Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com and you can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenleather

    This left him unconscious on the floor of my home. Amazingly, this bullet did not kill him.Ten years ago I adopted Blue as a present to myself after I broke up with my boyfriend one hot, early summer night with the windows open and the neighborhood listening. The next morning I went straight to the pound in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Articles on buying your first dog tell you never to buy a dog on impulse. They want you to be prepared for this new member of your family, to understand the responsibilities and challenges of owning a dog. Going to the pound because you need something in your life that's worth holding onto is rarely, if ever, mentioned.I asked the man at the pound to show me the biggest dogs they had. He showed me some seven-week-old Rottweiler-German shepherd puppies that he said would grow to be quite large. Then he showed me a six-month-old shepherd that would get pretty big. Then he showed me Blue, the largest dog they had.The man called him a Collie mix and he was stuffed into the biggest cage they had, but he didn't fit. He was as tall as a Great Dane but much skinnier, with the snout of a collie, the markings of a Siberian husky, the ears and tail of a shepherd and the body of a wolf, with one blue eye and one brown. Crouched in a sitting position, unable to lie down, unable to sit all the way up, he looked at me from between the bars, and I fell in love."He's still underweight," the man in the blue scrubs told me as we looked at Blue. "I'll tell you, lady, he's pretty but he's skittish. He sheds, and I mean sheds. I don't think you want this dog." But I knew I wanted him. I knew I had to have him. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.Blue cost me $108. I brought him home, and we lived together for years. He was, for most of our relationship, my only companion. But when I first met Blue, a lifetime ago now, I had family and friends. I worked at a crappy coffeehouse. I was young and lost; I was normal.Back then, at the beginning of this story, before I'd ever seen a corpse, before Blue saved my life, before I felt what it was like to kill someone in cold blood, I was still Joy Humbolt.I'd never even heard the name Sydney Rye.P.S. The dog does not die.**Beware: If you can’t handle a few f-bombs, you can’t handle this series.**

    John Grisham offers readers a sort of slice-of-life view of Sebastian Rudd as he handles a few cases amid a long and not-always-pleasantly-storied career representing those whom the legal system will not otherwise touch. An enjoyable read, it takes an interesting narrative tack, and it comments on the state of the legal system in the United States – one in need of much reform. It offers an enjoyable read. Despite some critical panning, the text draws readers along through a part of the legal system not often explored in popular conceptions of lawyers, and the divergent viewpoint is refreshing. John Grisham’s novel follows Sebastian Rudd as he litigates a series of cases and attempts to navigate a personal life that suffers from his work. Ranging from small-town persecutions through suburban mischances to death-row work and bigger-city notoriety, the novel examines the less glamorized aspects of legal work as Rudd represents those whom other lawyers will not in situations where they dare not, as well as some of the less pleasant aspects of the legal system and broader society of the United States. The novel is set for the most part in an ambiguous city. It is large enough to host a lively fight scene, yet not so large as to have major landmarks identifying it. Unnamed, it allows for universalization of the narrative; readers across the United States can look on the setting and see something, perhaps many things, familiar to them, easing their access to the narrative. This companion includes the following: • Book Review • Story Setting Analysis • Story elements you may have missed as we decipher the novel • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • Thought Provoking /or Discussion Questions for both Readers & Book Clubs • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More! This Analysis fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

    Not flowers, not petrichor. Not liquid ink or pages of a new book. You. Just You. Filling all the spaces of my being.”For Miris, her keen sense of smell has always been a blessing and a bane. For years, she has wrapped herself in seclusion to escape the dark memories of her past. When the mysterious death of her best friend sends her world crashing down, she finds herself in a dangerous quagmire of nostalgia and temptation as terrifying secrets emerge.Then one day… she’s suddenly engulfed by his essence.Roy, who she’d promised to love forever.Roy, who was never supposed to come back.Plunged into cyclic nightmares, Miris will have to navigate the haunted realms of hallucination and reality as help and deception arrive in unexpected forms.Will Sam and Saira, her friendly neighbours become twin rays of the sunshine she craves or will they be consumed by her darkness?Is this insanity? Or a sinister presence?‘Linger, when you’re gone’, a unique psychological thriller packed with romance and suspense, will quicken your pulse and keep it racing!

    His face is smashed to an unrecognizable pulp.Most of the guests on that fatal evening are in costume, making the detectives’ task even more difficult.But the most baffling aspect for Detectives Harry Montague and Gavin Jones is that only one person staying in the new wing had registered under a genuine name and address.HOW CAN YOU CATCH A KILLER IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THE SUSPECTS REALLY ARE?Then another corpse is discovered.It will take some inspired sleuthing to catch the killer...WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT FRANCES LLOYD“There are some unexpected twists in the plot and a few laughs along the way and the reader is kept guessing until all is revealed in the end.” Annie“A great book that you won't want to put down.” Alan“This murder mystery is a real page turner, I was hooked from start to finish. The descriptions of the Greek island were so vibrant I felt I was actually there.” AngelaALSO BY FRANCES LLOYDTHE DETECTIVE INSPECTOR JACK DAWES SERIESBook 1: THE GREEK ISLAND KILLERBook 2: THE BLUEBELL KILLERBook 3: THE SHETLAND KILLERBook 4: THE GALLOWS GREEN KILLER

    Recently divorced without custody of her two young sons, Annie’s career is now stalling under the ambitions of her ruthless colleagues. John Taggart is a Scottish journalist looking to land the scoop that will secure his future. In Halifax to cover the Royal visit, John finally has a chance to understand his mother’s connection to the province, which she has always kept hidden.When two murders occur within 48 hours, they are both led to the small, picturesque town of Lunenburg and a 30-year-old murder case with a long-buried secret. The town’s dark past may hold the answers they both need, but digging it up could mean more danger than it’s worth.

    He’s had 12 years to prepare for his divorce and didn’t. He had his entire life to choose a career and hasn’t. Now time’s up, and he’s in a world of trouble. But all of that changes when Tony takes a first date to a drunken party and ends with him facing prison for the murder of a girl he hardly knew. To save himself, wise-cracking Tony must discover who the mysterious girl was, what she was involved in, and what the hell she saw in him in the first place.

    With everything poised to go pear-shaped, the embattled cop embarks on a path that could destroy his career, or save him from destruction. One thing you can be sure of, ex-boxer Lisbon never backs down from a fight!The twist at the end will leave you breathless!⭐ A story of evil and redemption⭐ The characters leap off the page⭐ Jack Lisbon is a kick-ass investigator who packs a punch⭐ An action-packed page-turnerFollow Jack Lisbon's journey in the upcoming series: "The Fighting Detective"

    Included are:Knitted & Knifed: I’m a former high school counsellor, middle-child peacemaker, and current curator of lots of squishy/fuzzy goodness at my granddad’s little yarn store. Temporary assistant. Until I decide what to do with the rest my life. There’s only one knotty problem to untangle first. The knife sticking out of the most unpopular man in town, and the police detective trying to pin the murder on the donkey—otherwise known as my younger brother. With a pair mischievous cats determined to be underfoot and a craft group of Serial Knitters and Happy Hookers wanting the inside scoop, a girl could lose her mind. And if the killer has their way, maybe even my life…Purled & Poisoned: The Serial Knitters and Happy Hookers in the store’s Craft for Calmness group have been busy creating booties and baby blankets for a christening fit for a prince. But when I stumble onto the little prince’s fatally poisoned mother, a right royal mess ensues. The kid’s paternity is in question and I’m tasked to sniff out the baby daddy as a favour for a frenemy—don’t ask. I did, and now the bodies are piling up and a killer just might use my cupcake addiction against me.Hanks & a Hitman: More exciting than a delivery of rainbow colored wool is the news of movie location scouts in the area, though not everyone believes all publicity is good publicity. Game on between landowners to secure such a lucrative deal. I can’t help being caught up in movie fever, until I stumble onto one of those landowners, face down in a kitty litter tray. Deader than dead thanks to an unknown assailant. With dating disasters aplenty both online and in-real-life and a hitman on the loose, things couldn’t get much more murderously crazy in Cape Discovery. If only that were true…

    Because of the depth and intense cold of the water, the body which was determined by medical examiners to have been submerged for over twenty years, was remarkably well-preserved. At the time, the authorities were unable to establish the identity of the woman but concluded that her death had been violent.

    Can you?'It's summer when Elm Hill lido opens, having stood empty for years. For Natalie Steele - wife, mother, teacher - it offers freedom from the tightly controlled routines of work and family. Especially when it leads her to Lara Channing, a charismatic former actress with a lavish bohemian lifestyle, who seems all too happy to invite Natalie into her elite circle.Soon Natalie is spending long days at the pool, socializing with new friends and basking in a popularity she didn't know she'd been missing. Real life, and the person she used to be, begins to feel very far away.But is such a change in fortunes too good to be true? Why are dark memories of a summer long ago now threatening to surface? And, without realizing, could Natalie have been swept dangerously out of her depth?

    Paralleling their quest is the story of the evangelist’s escape with the scroll from the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., his struggles to complete the manuscript and his journeys and efforts with the daughter of Peter the Apostle to protect and save it for the ages. For both couples, time is running out and enemies are closing in.Richly evocative and fiercely moving, this literary thriller explores the hard questions: Did Mark intentionally omit the resurrection story, leaving it shrouded in mystery? Or did it become detached and lost forever?Discover the answer in The Lost Page.

     A young computer hacker, Dylan Charles, is entrapped by CIA Agent John McGovern. Charles is forced to give up his expertise in order to secure the release of his brother from jail. Developing a sophisticated computer virus, to halt the Iranian Nuclear program, things get out of hand along with the virus. From Iran to Iraq to Wall Street, this action-packed story of two men who despise each other, but who must work together for the common good, has all the attributes of a modern-day espionage classic. CODE THIEF is a must read for all fiction/thriller fans.