This is the first comics adaptation of his popular story "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch," which saw print only in the U.K. edition of Gaiman's award-winning work Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions and was recently interpreted for his Speaking in Tongues CD. The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch is a "mostly true story" that combines the author's trademark magic realism with Zulli's sumptuous paintings, and has been newly rewritten for this hardcover. Join a group of friends, with the stern Miss Finch in tow, as they enter musty caverns for a subterranean circus spectacle called "The Theatre of Night's Dreaming." Come inside, get out of the pounding rain, and witness this strange world of vampires, ringmasters, illusions and the Cabinet of Wishes Fulfill'd.

    In the face of his impending institutionalization, he continually reinvents himself to escape the legal and mental health authorities and to save himself from a life of incarceration. But running turns out to be costly. Vincent's clients in the L.A. underworld lose patience, the hospital evaluator may not be fooled by his story, and the only person in as much danger as himself is the woman who knows his real name.

    And he takes it. Banks knows what he did was wrong, but he did it for all the right reasons. At least, he thinks so. But for every wrong, there is a consequence.Jerry Dean can’t afford to lose that $52,000—he owes it to his partners, a crooked cop, and the fearsome Reverend Butch Pogue, who controls the town’s meth production with an iron fist. With the looming threat of prison or death—depending on who catches him first—Jerry Dean makes a final attempt to save himself, setting into a motion a series events that shake even Gasconade Country’s most degenerate citizens.

    Red dress, black hair, body like a knife. He takes her back to his room and wakes the next morning in a bathtub full of blood and ice, missing a kidney.Dragging himself from a hospital bed, Phineas discovers he wants to be with Jude like a hunger -- and he wants to find her and kill her. Falling for her is the start of a twisted love story that takes him from the snowy streets of Denver to the high plains of Texas where the boundaries between torturer and victim, killer and accomplice, become nightmarishly distorted.

    In "Cielo Azul," Bosch is haunted by a long-ago closed case -- the murder of a teenage girl who was never identified. As her killer sits on death row, Bosch tries one last time to get the answers he has sought for years. In "One Dollar Jackpot," Bosch works the murder of a professional poker player whose skills have made her more than one enemy. Whether investigating a cold case or fresh blood, Bosch relentlessly pursues his quarry, always on the lookout for the "tell." In this first collection of Harry Bosch stories, Michael Connelly once again demonstrates that he is the master of "fast-paced, brilliantly plotted crime fiction.... Harry Bosch is back on the case, and not a moment too soon" (Chicago Sun Times).

    Higgins's final novel, was completed in the fall of 1999, just weeks before the author's death at the age of 59. It seems unlikely that the coming year will bring us a novel with a sadder, more appropriate title. Like Higgins's famous first novel, iThe Friends of Eddie Coyle/i, iAt End of Day/i is an authoritative and decidedly unromantic portrait of life as it is really lived in the criminal underworld of Boston. Like iEddie Coyle/i, it is the clear product of a genuine American master.pTwo figures dominate the crowded narrative: Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro, career criminals who have clawed their way to the top of the food chain by ruthlessly eliminating all competitors and who have remained at the top -- unchallenged and unindicted -- for an unnaturally long time. Together, McKeach and Cistaro have successfully opposed the traditional center of organized crime -- the Cosa Nostra -- and have established an empire based on extortion, gambling, drug dealing, loan sharking, and the rigorous application of terrorist tactics. They rule by fear and will do whatever is necessary to preserve what they have built.piAt End of Day/i is the story of the violent world of McKeach and Cistaro, and of the secret "arrangement" that has kept them in power -- and out of jail -- for decades. More than 30 years before the primary narrative begins, McKeach and his partner established a symbiotic relationship with the FBI's resident expert on organized crime. In exchange for information to be used against their common enemy -- the Boston Mafia -- the two received a degree of protection from the inconvenient investigations of local law enforcement agencies. This immensely profitable arrangement, which was passed along like a family legacy from one FBI agent to the next, has persisted into the present day and has contributed enormously to the durability of the McKeach/Cistaro empire.pThis devious, mutually corrupting relationship stands at the heart of this painstaking portrait of the Boston criminal milieu. As always, Higgins fleshes out the portrait with a varied, credible gallery of characters on both sides of the law. As always, he brings these characters to immediate life through his uncanny ear for dialogue and his matchless ability to create the sustained, rambling dramatic monologues that are so much a part of his narrative technique. In iAt End of Day/i, as in all of Higgins's novels, a succession of characters step into the spotlight and proceed to talk, gradually revealing their histories and circumstances, their essential natures, and the shape and direction of their circumscribed lives. pMonologue follows monologue, each one amplifying, illuminating -- sometimes even contradicting -- the ones that have come before. Together, they create a coherent picture of the predatory universe that most of Higgins's characters call home.pThe inhabitants of this universe include FBI agents Jack Farrier and Darren Stoat, the latest inheritors of the McKeach/Cistaro relationship; Jim Dowd and Emmett Naughton, Boston policemen who are ignorant of the relationship and have their own independent agendas to pursue; Todd Naughton, Emmett's son, who is drawn simultaneously to the world of the cop and the world of the criminal; Tim Sexton, a paraplegic Vietnam vet who conceives an astonishing plan for accumulating and distributing prescription medications; and Max Rascob, a former public accountant who is forced -- as a result of a single, irrevocable mistake -- to throw in his lot with Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro. These and other equally vital characters -- all of them bound together by blood, circumstances, or a sense of common cause -- light up the novel, and are as effortlessly, seamlessly real as an overheard conversation in a corner bar.piAt End of Day/i is George V. Higgins at the top of his form and may be his most successful novel since his 1987 masterpiece, iOutlaws/i. No one understood the world of modern urban hoodlums better than Higgins. No one reproduced the scatological rhythms of their everyday speech with the same reportorial accuracy. George V. Higgins died much too soon, and he will be greatly missed. Fortunately for all of us, he left behind a varied, voluminous body of work that includes two dozen novels, a collection of short stories, and several volumes of cogent nonfiction. These 30 books, though not all uniformly excellent, constitute a large and singular accomplishment. The best of them -- such as iOutlaws/i, iThe Friends of Eddie Coyle/i, iCogan's Trade/i, iThe Digger's Game/i, and, of course, his swan song, iAt End of Day/i -- will be read, admired, and remembered for a very long time to come.P#151;Bill Sheehan

    At The Seattle Mirror, he is competing for the single full-time job being offered through the paper's intense intern program. But unlike the program's other young reporters, who attended big name schools and worked at other big metro dailies, Wade put himself through community college, and lacked the same experience. Wade struggles with his haunting past as he pursues the story of Karen Harding, a college student whose car was found abandoned on a lonely stretch of highway in the Pacific Northwest. How could this beloved young woman with the altruistic nature simply vanish? Wade battles mounting odds and cut-throat competition to unearth the truth behind Karen Harding's disturbing case. Her disappearance is a story he cannot give up, never realizing the toll it could exact from him. The Dying Hour is a bone-chilling, mesmerizing page-turner that introduces readers to an all-too-human young hero who journeys into the darkest regions of the human heart to confront a nightmare. The International Thriller Writers (ITW), selected The Dying Hour as a finalist for a Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original, 2006. Rick Mofina is a former journalist who has interviewed murderers on death row, flown over L.A. with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He's also reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait's border with Iraq. His books have been published in nearly 30 countries, including an illegal translation produced in Iran. His work has been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper. The Crime Writers of Canada, The International Thriller Writers and The Private Eye Writers of America have listed his titles among the best in crime fiction. As a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a three-time Thriller Award finalist and a two-time Shamus Award finalist, the Library Journal calls him, “One of the best thriller writers in the business."

    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.

    The lawyer has not only gotten the convicted inmate released from death row at Connecticut State Prison, but also procured an artist’s residency in Mount Orion, New Jersey, for the rehabilitated Vietnam vet upon his parole.   Sears is adapting nicely. He’s selling his sculptures. He’s eating well. He has ingratiated himself into Michael’s home; is eternally grateful for Michael’s benevolent motives, however mysterious their origin; and is thriving on the town’s liberal patronage and attention—especially that of Michael’s adulterous wife, Gina.   But as Michael’s picture-perfect family begins to show signs of cracking, his suspicions about Sears become violent obsessions. Now, the dreams and secrets of two men are about to collide in a nightmare. And before long, the lines between guilt and innocence, lies and truth, trust and betrayal are bound to go up in flames.  Snake Eyes is in an astute and suspenseful story by the National Book Award–winning author of them, We Were the Mulvaneys, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, and many other acclaimed novels.

    Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery.Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it.So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer . . .

    Akin to the trade in rhino horns or tigers' bones, this group trafficks in mummified satyrs, gryphons' claws, and more. When Angela Gough's lover Vince goes missing, she sets out to find him whatever the risk. She learns that he was employed by the infamous London crime lord Frederick Meloy, providing bizarre objects beyond imagining. Descending into the city's underbelly, she uncovers a deadly side to the black market. It might have claimed Vince, and Angela may be next. Gripping supernatural terror launching a new trilogy by the acclaimed author of Coldbrook (distinct, unique, and absorbing), The Silence (truly addictive), and the Alien-Predator Rage War. Tim Lebbon's RELICS opens a darkly beautiful glimpse into another world, one lurking in the shadows, hovering at the corner of the eye. If Anne Rice and Clive Barker had written a story together, it might have looked something like this novel: richly imagined, fantastical, yet grounded in the grit and reality of modern-day London. I look forward to the wonders and terrors yet to come. --JAMES ROLLINS, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Labyrinth A magical, perilous drama full of characters who live and breathe, darkness you can feel... --Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Ararat "Tim Lebbon is an immense talent."--Joe R. Lansdale, creator of Hap and Leonard

    It’s bright, cozy, and packed with the kinds of books that she is dying for her daughter to fall in love with. But no matter how badly she wants to support this adorable local business, the owner’s attitude stops her in her tracks. What kind of children’s bookseller hates children? What’s eating Octavia, the grouchy owner, is more than the pressures of running a small business. Each Saturday, someone steals a stack of her priciest, most beautiful children’s books, and the expense threatens to force her fledgling store out of business. Luckily, Tess is more than a book lover—she’s a private investigator who doesn’t mind working pro bono to help out an independent bookshop. Her simple act of kindness will make Octavia smile for the first time in months—and uncover a crime more suitable for the mystery aisle than the children’s section.

    Now he bangs out honky-tonk for drunks in a dive in Philadelphia. But then two people walk into Eddie's life--the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past.Shoot the Piano Player is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty: the kind a man owes his family, no matter how bad that family is; the kind a man owes a woman; and, ultimately, the loyalty he owes himself. The result is a moody thriller that, like the best hard-boiled fiction, carries a moral depth charge.

    . . . Just scream.The murder of eighteen-year-old Angie Vance was exceptionally vile–her mouth was sealed with glue, an obscenity was scrawled across her skin, and she was suffocated in a garbage bag. The killing seems personal, so police detective Carina Kincaid focuses her efforts on the victim’s much older ex-boyfriend, Steve Thomas. But without physical evidence, Carina can’t make a collar or a case. She also can’t stop Sheriff Nick Thomas, the prime suspect’s brother, from conducting his own unwelcome investigation. Though Nick is still scarred and unsteady from a recent confrontation with a serial killer, he’s determined to prove his brother’s innocence. But his confidence is shaken when he learns of Steve’s dark side, and when a friend of the murdered girl meets a similarly gruesome fate. With no time to lose, Carina and Nick work together to trap a psychopath, before another unlucky woman faces an unspeakable end.

    Long-smouldering feelings come to a head in a burst of shocking violence. A young Muslim man is brutally murdered by a masked gang.There is just one witness to the horrific crime: DC Lacey Flint. Or at least that's what she thinks...