The author discusses the inspiration for his phenomenally successful book, a touching story of a widow and the young family who moves in with her, and their discovery of the first gift of Christmas and what Christmas is really about.

    Uno dei migliori noir mai scritti.

    But before he can dig into this latest case, he comes face to face again with Arrington Calder, the one woman who still holds a key to his affections. Stone and his partner, Dino, comb the glittering streets of Palm Beach and begin to suspect that more than one person might be after Allison: one so clever he manages never to show his face, but even more frightening, another man everybody has long forgotten. The Short Forever: Stone's new client, John Bartholomew, asks Stone to fly to London in search of a young woman whom he suspects has taken up with a mysterious character. Bartholomew asks Stone to see what he can find to discredit the man, Cabot. What Stone finds is more bizarre than he had expected. The woman in question isn't related to Bartholomew in quite the way he had implied. And it appears that Bartholomew and Cabot, who once worked together on a secretive assignment, now have very different versions of what went wrong. When Stone himself is implicated in a shocking double murder, he and his partner, Dino, know they have stepped into a strange case unlike any other.

    Meet Nilah Stefanik. She’s sassy, smart and fresh out of grad school. With a ton of student debt, she’s taken a “dead-end” office job at the Fogg Funeral Home in Danvers, Massachusetts. It’s a toss-up as to what her family disapproves of more...her current place of employment, or that she has no discernible psychic or magickal talents of any kind. Nilah comes from a long line of Polska Roma fortune tellers, mystics, and psychics. Her grandmother, the incomparable Madame Sabina, is an institution in Danvers. Unfortunately, that talent skipped Nilah...or so the family always believed. Now, paranormal predicaments confound Nilah and draw her into a mystery just in time for Halloween. Deep down, Nilah is a Gypsy at heart, and with a little help from her grandmother and a trouble-making ghost, Nilah may at last uncover the truth about herself and her destiny. *** Previously released in the Welcome to Haven Harbor anthology***

    

    Here, Uncle Oswald gets more than he bargained for in Arabia . . . The Visitor is taken from the short story collection Switch Bitch, which includes three other black comedies which capture the ins and outs, highs and lows of sex (including another Uncle Oswald story, Bitch). 'One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation.' (The Times ) This story is also available as a Penguin digital audio download read by Richard E. Grant and Derek Jacobi. Roald 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.

    Characteristically dark and strange, these four stories were originally published in Gaiman's popular short-story collections, Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors. 'Gaiman is... a treasure-house of story' - Stephen King.'Let me tell you a story. No, wait, one's not enough. I'll begin again...''Foreign Parts', a story of loneliness and identity, and, perhaps, the joys of making your own way in the world.'Feeders & Eaters', an eerie tale drawn from a nightmare the author had in his twenties.'Closing Time', a ghostly story within a story, whispered in the quiet of the night.'Looking For The Girl', a tale that spans a lifetime, originally commissioned by Penthouse for their 20th anniversary issue.

    To help teachers decide if Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is right for their students, we’ve created this free e-book that features sample chapters from the book and a teaching guide.

    Dominoes, New Edition: Level 3: 1,000-Word Vocabulary

    But undercover FBI agent Roman DeWinter knows something ugly is going on beneath the cozy surface. He believes there is an insidious criminal gang operating out of the inn, and all the evidence points to Charity Ford, the owner. When a hit-and-run attack leaves Charity shaken and bruised, Roman is left questioning if he should trust his heart or his head.THE ART OF DECEPTIONWhen the handsome Adam Haines shows up at Kirby Fairchild’s ancestral home looking for a quiet place to paint, she’s more than skeptical. Yet the attraction she feels for him builds, whether she wants it to or not. But when Adam begins to act suspiciously, Kirby must uncover his real purpose at her father’s home before it’s too late. Otherwise Kirby might be in danger—of falling hard for a stranger who is even more practiced in the art of deception than she is.Previously published.

    He's just arrived in the middle of nowhere—Hokie, Kansas—for the same purpose, but when he meets a waitress named Melanie, another sufferer, he's faced not only with his first real human contact in years, but perhaps someone who can save him.From the author of DESERT PLACES, ABANDON, and SERIAL UNCUT comes this 7,000-word short story. Additional material includes an interview with Blake, excerpts from all four of his novels, and two bonus excerpts.

    As a Houston prosecutor he sent sixteen men to death row, and watched seven of them die. But now, in the aftermath of his wife's death, the grief-stricken father packs up his four-year-old daughter, Annie, and returns to his hometown in search of healing. But peace is not what he finds there.Natchez, Mississippi, is the jewel of the antebellum South, a city of old money and older sins, where passion, power, and racial tensions seethe beneath its elegant façade. After twenty years away, Penn is stunned to find his own family trapped in a web of intrigue and danger. Determined to save his father from a ruthless blackmailer, Penn stumbles over a link to the town's darkest secret: the thirty-year-old unsolved murder of a black Korean War veteran. But what drives him to act is the revelation that this haunting mystery is inextricably bound up in his own past.24 HoursRead by Dick Hill (Ruth Bloomquist, Russell Byers)24 Hours begins with the perfect family. On the perfect day. About to become trapped in the perfect crime. Will Jennings is a successful young doctor in Jackson, Mississippi, with his whole life ahead of him. He has a thriving practice, a beautiful wife, and a young daughter he loves beyond measure. But Will and his family are being watched by a con man and psychopath. A man who has crafted the unbeatable crime. A man who has never been caught, and whose victims have never talked to the police. A man whose life's work strikes at the heart of every family's nightmare: the unstoppable kidnapping. But this man has never met Will and Karen Jennings.Dead SleepRead by Susie Breck (Dick Hill)Jordan Glass, a photojournalist on a well-earned vacation, wanders into a Hong Kong art museum and is puzzled to find fellow patrons eying her with curiosity. Minutes later, she stumbles upon a gallery containing a one-artist exhibition called "The Sleeping Women," a mysterious series of paintings that has caused a sensation in the world of modern art. Collectors have come to believe that the canvases depict female nudes not in sleep but in death, and they command millions at auction. When Jordan approaches the last work in the series, she freezes. The face in the painting seems to be her own. This unsettling event hurls her back into a nightmare she has fought desperately to put behind her - for, in fact, the face in the painting belongs not to Jordan but to her twin sister, murdered one year ago. At the urging of the FBI, Jordan becomes both hunter and hunted in a duel with the anonymous artist, a gifted murderer who knows the secret history of Jordan's family, and truths that even she has never had the courage to face.

    They were dead wrong...Alex is failing as a father. Ian keeps dangerous secrets. Jenn wants adventure. Mitch wants Jenn.Four friends just scraping by, finding comfort in each other and the hope that things will get better. But as their twenties fade in the rear-view mirror, none of them are turning out to be who - or where - they hoped.At a time when CEOs steal millions while their employees watch savings dwindle, these four are tired of the honest approach. They're going to stop waiting and start taking.They have a failsafe, victimless plan that will change their lives for ever.What could possibly go wrong...Marcus Sakey is an award-winning thriller writer. He has also contributed to a number of short story anthologies in the thriller genre. He lives in Chicago with his wife. www.marcussakey.com

    Includes:FIREFLY LANETo the people around them they were known as KateandTully or the Firefly Lane Girls. A single, inseparable unit. Best friends forever. On the surface they were as opposite as two people could be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret home life that is destroying her. Yet they are best friends who swear they'll be there for each other, and for thirty years that promise holds strong—until events and choices in their lives make that promise impossible. More than a coming-of-age novel, this is the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you—and knows what has the power to hurt you and heal you.FLY AWAYKristin Hannah returns to the world of the unforgettable characters from FIREFLY LANE and asks the question: How do you hold yourself together when your world has fallen apart? This is the story of three women who have lost their way and need each other—plus a miracle—to transform their lives. An emotionally complex, heartwrenching novel about love, family, motherhood, loss, and redemption, it reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness. Told with her trademark visceral storytelling and illuminating prose, Kristin Hannah reveals why she is one of the most beloved writers of our day.TRUE COLORSThe Grey sisters had only each other when their mother died years ago. Their stern, unyielding father gave them almost no attention. Winona, the oldest, needs her father's approval most of all. An overweight dreamer, she never felt at home on the sprawling horse ranch that had been in her family for three generations. Aurora, the middle, is the peacemaker. Vivi Ann, the youngest, is the undisputed star of the family. Everything comes easily to Vivi Ann, her father's love most of all. But when Vivi Ann makes a fateful decision to follow her heart, rather than take the route of a dutiful daughter, events are set in motion that will test the love and loyalties of the Grey sisters. They will be pitted against each other in ways none could have imagined. Secrets will be revealed, and a terrible, shocking crime will shatter both the family and their beloved town. With breathtaking pace and penetrating insight, Kristin Hannah's has written a novel that's about sisters, vengeance, jealousy, betrayal—and ultimately, what it truly means to be a family.

    He has brought his expertise as a child psychologist to numerous tales of suspense, including fourteen critically acclaimed and bestselling novels featuring child psychologist sleuth Alex Delaware. Now, for the first time, here are two of his popular Alex Delaware books in one volume. Taunt, penetrating, terrifying, Devil's Waltz and Bad Love are Kellerman at his best. From the hospital to the street, Delaware follows mysterious killers in two of the most suspenseful works ever, tracking them down through a combination of keen perception and psychological expertise. In Devil's Waltz, Delaware explores a dark side of parental love. In Bad Love, Delaware follows the twisted logic of a stalker's mind games, aware that next the stalker may be coming for him. In both, weaving a web of disturbing events that will thrill and captivate as he reveals their stunning conclusions.