‘We have the body of a male, I’d guess aged between late forties and sixty, who has suffered fatal trauma as a result of being beaten with a blunt object. I’ll be able to tell you more when we get him onto the slab.’ Looking at the bloody, pulpy mess of skin, hair and threadbare clothes, I’m frankly amazed that she can tell us anything at all about the victim. It’s July 2016 and Tyneside is basking in glorious summer weather. Recently divorced Olivia flies back to her home town for a much needed holiday and to attend Opera North’s acclaimed production of all four of Richard Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle’ of operas, which are to be performed over six days at The Sage in Gateshead. But, just as the international audience has arrived and the music festival is gathering momentum, the city is shocked by a brutal murder. Keen to close the investigation as quickly and quietly as possible, senior police officers convince themselves that they have their man. But ambitious, ex-Met Detective Sergeant Sam Snow is far from convinced. When a second violent death occurs, the police investigation runs into a brick wall, until Olivia suggests a bizarre and disturbing theory. As the killings continue, it falls to Sam and Olivia to risk everything, in a desperate race to uncover the truth and to prevent further loss of life. ‘Sentence of Death’ is the first of a new, Tyneside based series of thrillers featuring Detective Sam Snow and psychologist Olivia Clavel.

    So is Earl V. Pike. So is a smart, beautiful NYC detective named Casey Spandau. For Jack, it began when Earl asked for a little favor--one former soldier to another. With Jack’s son in serious trouble with the law and his shipping company, Black Water Transit, about to hit the big time, Jack saw a chance to be a good father, a good citizen, and a good CEO--by ratting out Earl V. Pike to the feds. It was a monumental mistake.Now Pike is mad. Bodies are piling up. And all the backstabbers are coming out of the woodwork in Jack’s rattled world. Jack’s only hope: detective Casey Spandau, who began her week hunting for a sex criminal and ended up with Earl V. Pike--a man using guile, skill, and one astounding long-range weapon to kill everyone who gets in his way. For Casey and Jack Vermillion, making Earl V. Pike angry has turned into a cross-country nightmare. But taking him down will be even worse.

    The terrifying truth about her parents and a long-ago murder is only the first in a series of shocking betrayals. Philippa quickly learns that those who delve into the secrets of the past must be on guard when long-buried horrors begin to stir.

    Phillips followed with the acclaimed sequel, "The Walkaway," showing how a seeming windfall can wreak wicked havoc on the lives of its recipients. Now this award-winning author broadens his canvas, writing his most accomplished novel yet-one that is rich in suspense, drama, historical sweep, and Phillips's unique blend of unforgettable characters. In 1872, Cottonwood, Kansas, is a one-horse speck on the map; a community of run-down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Self-educated saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden looks on his adopted town with an eye to making a profit or getting out. His brains and ambition bring him to the attention of one Marc Leval, a wealthy Chicago developer with big plans for the small town. The advent of the railroad and rumors of a cattle trail turn Cottonwood into a wild and wooly boomtown-and with Leval as a partner, Ogden dreams of bringing civilization to the prairie. But civilizing the Great Plains was never that simple. While many in Cottonwood distrust Leval's motives, and mob violence threatens to derail the town’s dreams of greatness, Ogden finds himself dangerously obsessed with Leval's stunningly beautiful wife. Meanwhile, plying its sinister trade unnoticed, an apparently ordinary local farm family quietly butchers traveling salesmen, weary travelers, and other unsuspecting wanderers. In his own inimitable brand of narrative wizardry, Scott Phillips traces the metamorphosis of a frontier town that becomes a lightning rod for sin, corruption, and murder. He also brings to life actual crimes that befell Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s, carried out by a strange clan who popularly became known as The Bloody Benders. Brilliantly written, maliciously fun, and full of many surprises, "Cottonwood" is historical fiction at its finest. "From the Hardcover edition."

    No ISBN.A selection of Mortimer's 'Rumpole' stories:“Rumpole and the Younger Generation” (1978).“Rumpole and the Showfolk” (1979).“Rumpole and the Old Boy Net” (1983).“Rumpole and the Bright Seraphim” (1987).“Rumpole and the Tap End” (1988).“Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation” (1988).“Rumpole à la Carte” (1990).“Rumpole and the Children of the Devil” (1992).“Rumpole and the Family Pride” (1992).“Rumpole on Trial” (1992).

    A further probe into the matter only pushes Hugh into dangerous corners, as he finds that the ranch's slick new owner, his beautiful wife, and even old Mr. Pettyjohn have terrible secrets to keep.

    He lives in a cheap hotel just within his pay bracket. He goes to work every day. He has hundreds of friends and associates who could attest to his good character.Yet, hidden behind three gaudy clown paintings in Roy's pallid hotel room, sits fifty-two thousand dollars--the money Roy makes from his short cons, his "grifting." For years, Roy has effortlessly maintained control over his house-of-cards life--until the simplest con goes wrong, and he finds himself critically injured and at the mercy of the most dangerous woman he ever met: his own mother.THE GRIFTERS, one of the best novels ever written about the art of the con, is an ingeniously crafted story of deception and betrayal that was the basis for Stephen Frears' and Martin Scorsese's 1990 critically-acclaimed film of the same name.

    . .WHITE FIRESpecial Agent Pendergast arrives at an exclusive Colorado ski resort to rescue his protégée, Corrie Swanson, from serious trouble with the law. His sudden appearance coincides with the first attack of a murderous arsonist who--with brutal precision--begins burning down multimillion-dollar mansions with the families locked inside. After springing Corrie from jail, Pendergast learns she made a discovery while examining the bones of several miners who were killed 150 years earlier by a rogue grizzly bear. Her finding is so astonishing that it, even more than the arsonist, threatens the resort's very existence.Drawn deeper into the investigation, Pendergast uncovers a mysterious connection between the dead miners and a fabled, long-lost Sherlock Holmes story--one that might just offer the key to the modern day killings as well.Now, with the ski resort snowed in and under savage attack--and Corrie's life suddenly in grave danger--Pendergast must solve the enigma of the past before the town of the present goes up in flames.

    Then one afternoon, Evie disappears, and as a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the balmy suburban community, everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, or upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger?Compelled by curiosity, Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power as the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secret after secret and begins to wonder if she knew anything at all about her best friend.

    The thriller that introduces Parker. “A brilliant invention”. Played by Lee Marvin in the John Boorman movie. “The funnies call it the syndicate. The goons and hustlers call it the Outfit. You call it the Organization. But I don’t care if you call yourselves the Red Cross, you owe me forty-five thousand dollars and you’ll pay me back whether you like it or not.”This novel was originally titled The Hunter, later retitled Point Blank because of the movie, later retitled Payback because of the other movie.

    He relates his story via flashbacks to a reporter visiting him on death row. Based on the original screenplay for the upcoming Universal Studios film, starring Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney, and Kate Winslet, set for release in December. Original.

    

    But Mike wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces.Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused.But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again become his prey…

    Megan Abbott’s “Policy” was nominated for the Anthony Award and became the basis for her novel Queenpin, which won the 2008 Edgar Award.

    One morning at a museum, she meets a worldly man twenty years her senior, with access to the upper crust of New England society. Bennett is dashing, knows that “polo” refers only to ponies, teaches her which direction to spoon soup, and tells of exotic escapades with Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson. Soon, Rosie is living with him on a swanky estate on Connecticut’s Gold Coast, naively in sway to his moral ambivalence. A daughter—Miranda—is born, just as his current con goes awry forcing them to abscond in the middle of the night to the untamed wilderness of northern Vermont.Almost immediately, Bennett abandons them in an uninsulated cabin without a car or cash for weeks at a time so he can work a teaching job, that may or may not exist, at an elite college. Rosie is forced to care for her young daughter alone and to tackle the stubborn intricacies of the wood stove, snowshoe into town, hunt for wild game, and forage in the forest. As Rosie and Miranda’s life gradually begins to normalize, Bennett’s schemes turn malevolent, and Rosie must at last confront his twisted deceptions.