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Gods of Howl Mountain
Taylor Brown - 2018
Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner.In the mill town at the foot of the mountains - a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing - Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that "some things are best left buried." A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother - the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows...or protect her only grandson from the past.With gritty and atmospheric prose, Taylor Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it.
Solomon Kane
Ramsey Campbell - 2010
When Solomon Kane meets the Devil's Reaper, he postpones his fate by renouncing violence - a vow that is soon tested by the forces of evil. Compelled to once again strap on his weapons, he embarks on an epic journey of redemption.
The Road Show
Gary Jennings - 1999
In The Road Show we meet Zachary Edge, a Confederate soldier, on his way home at the war's close. He stumbles upon a traveling troupe, a chance encounter that is the start of an unforgettable odyssey. Edge hits the road with bawdy showgirls, roguish tricksters, and a host of colorful characters. He soon finds himself in the arms of Autumn Auburn, the lithesome artiste known for her breathtaking sensuality.
Rosette: A Novel of Pioneer Michigan
Cindy Rinaman Marsch - 2016
Her real-life journal recounts two years of homesteading, history hints at the next six decades, and the novel explores the truth. We meet Rosette in 1888 as she revises the wedding-day page of her journal. In lush detail, in the voices of Rosette and others, the novel traces how we both choose and suffer our destiny, how hopes come to naught and sometimes rise from the wreckage. In a style reminiscent of Willa Cather, in a family saga that recalls the work of Marilynne Robinson, this novel brings us enduring themes of human life as Rosette and her friends and family make the most of the American pioneer life first detailed for most of us by Laura Ingalls Wilder. One reviewer says this story "makes an anonymous woman equal to the most celebrated hero of legend." Note that the Kindle version includes only the text of the novel. The paperback version includes 24 charcoal illustrations and highlights in a font created from Rosette's own handwriting. Now available: a companion short story - "Blizzard: A Story of Dakota Territory."
Crusher
Niall Leonard - 2012
Prime suspect in the murder, Finn must race against time to clear his name and find out who hated his dad enough to kill him.Trawling the sordid, brutal London underworld for answers, Finn exposes dark family secrets and faces danger at every turn. But he's about to learn that it's the people you trust who can hit you the hardest..."'A fast-paced thriller with real heart’Simon Kernick
Death Below Stairs
Jennifer Ashley - 2018
Kat is unbothered by the family’s eccentricities as long as they stay away from her kitchen, but trouble finds its way below stairs when her young Irish assistant is murdered. Intent on discovering who killed the helpless kitchen maid, Kat turns to the ever-capable Daniel McAdam, who is certainly much more than the charming delivery man he pretends to be. Along with the assistance of Lord Rankin’s unconventional sister-in-law and a mathematical genius, Kat and Daniel discover that the household murder was the barest tip of a plot rife with danger and treason—one that’s a threat to Queen Victoria herself.
The Kestrel Waters
Randy Thornhorn - 2013
“An extraordinary work...” ~ William Peter Blatty “Captures the tragedy of romantic and familial love better than any story I have ever read.” ~ Janeiro Bento Hear the twilight song of Kestrel. He has not always been this night-winged angel. He was once a star, a guitar star so righteous. He was once a lost boy in love.In The Beginning were two grassroots singers, The Brothers Brass. In The End there is no end to what one wounded girl's heart will give. And no end to what one brother will give for the other.Raised in Savannah by the sea, together, The Brothers Brass voices chime like heavenly bells. The oldest brother Kestrel falls in love with a girl named Bettilia, a wild child who hides in the treetops—hiding from her bad daddy on a ghostly mountain called Riddle Top.Soon all the Family Brass falls for Bettilia. She touches Kestrel, she touches everyone. And they touch sweet Bettilia, forever. Then comes that fateful day when Kestrel says "I do" to his dance with the devil—his devil within and without. The Kestrel Waters is an eerie, heroic, and beautiful Southern Gothic tale of human love, like none you’ve ever known. An epic fable of an epic family whose hearts are comic, profane, and profoundly true.“One of the South's wildest new voices.” ~ The Oxford American Magazine
Sloughing Off the Rot
Lance Carbuncle - 2012
Guided along El Camino de la Muerte by a demented madman and a philosophical giant, John sets out on a quest to fill in his blank slate and slough off the rot of his soul. Part dark comedy road trip, part spiritual quest, and part horror story, Sloughing Off the Rot is literary alchemy about John's transformation from repugnant wretch to reluctant hero.
The Dying Crapshooter's Blues
David Fulmer - 2007
Joe Rose—rambler, gambler, and professional thief—has just hit the city. He soon finds himself caught in a three-sided puzzle that involves a black-hearted police officer called “the Captain,” the pimp and crapshooter Little Jesse Williams, and a wicked beauty named Pearl Spencer. Behind it all is Atlanta, the city once nothing but dust and ashes, now the richest, busiest metropolis in the South, mixing sin with success and vibrating with mayhem and music. In his acclaimed Storyville series, David Fulmer brought the jazz-soaked streets of New Orleans to life. Now he brings us another absorbing mystery in a new setting raucous with music and rich with history.
The Best of Damon Runyon
Damon Runyon - 1945
Stokes Company, February 24, 1938.
The Barry Island Murders
Andrew Peters - 2013
Will Williams' budding detective skills be equal to the task of catching any of the murderers? Will his current gin intake permit him to remember any of the details?Transcribed from the original interviews, the only changes made have been to names, places, dates and facts. Oh, and cutting out all the heavy swearing.
Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective
Garrett Cook - 2011
My name is Jimmy Plush. I'm a private detective. I'm also a teddy bear. It all started when the original Jimmy Plush entered my life, offering to take my gambling debts away if I agreed to switch bodies with him. But I didn't know that being a three-foot-high plush toy would be such a living hell, especially now that everyone in town wants a piece of me. All I've gotten out of this deal is a faithful Chinese chauffeur, a custom teddybear .45, and a girlfriend who won't take off the fox suit she turns tricks in. Now I've got to keep this town clean and try to track down the real Jimmy Plush without losing my stuffing for good. Only one thing is for sure: Life is hard when you're soft. Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective is a high octane pulp satire. In the tradition of Sam Spade, The Shadow, Dick Tracy, Hellboy and Howard the Duck comes a new kind of hero, a hero that reminds us that the measure of a man is in his guts and his gun.
Untraceable
Shelli R. Johannes - 2011
When her dad goes missing on a routine patrol, Grace refuses to believe he’s dead and fights the town authorities, tribal officials, and nature to find him.One day, while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent and a secret. As her feelings between him and her ex-boyfriend get muddled, Grace travels deep into the wilderness to escape and find her father. Along the way, Grace learns terrible secrets that sever relationships and lives. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kick-butting heroine to save everything she loves.
The Memory of Love
Jim Fergus - 2013
Precocious, passionate, talented, the free-spirited Chrysis rebels against a society and an art world in which men have all the privilege and women none. By day, a serious student at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, at night Chrysis loses herself to the sensual pleasures of the Montparnasse nightlife, where all seems permissible. There, she and the American cowboy will live the love of a lifetime."
Next Christmas in Girouette (Adventures in Girouette Book 1)
Michael Welch - 2011
This book will appeal to people of all ages—nine to ninety-nine—who want to share a classic, heart-warming literary adventure at Christmastime. Next Christmas in Girouette is the story of a brother and sister—Autry and Oxana Quinn—who find themselves stranded in a Girouette, a virtual ghost town, from Thanksgiving through Christmas when their father is taken seriously ill. Their grandfather, a Marine Captain long retired, plus an eccentric old café proprietress, a Blackfeet Indian horse trader who once served as the town’s mayor, a couple who published the local newspaper and an ancient deaf-mute trapper are the only remaining inhabitants of Girouette. These self-styled, “diehards” all seem to have one thing in common. Thanks to a mysterious event 60 years earlier, they still believe in Santa Claus. Girouette features something for everyone: carefree cowboys who race their horses over snow covered country road, a team of wolves trained to pull a dogsled, a stroll that nearly turns tragic on a buffalo jump, a serialized newspaper story titled “The Adventures of Rocky Mountain Santa,” a desperate attempt to escape from an abandoned copper mine, a night-time journey through the mountains on a frozen river and the miracle that delivers wayfaring strangers to Girouette during a storm on Christmas Eve. The book revels in the solitary beauty of winter in Big Sky Country, the enduring wisdom of the elderly citizens of Girouette, the excitement of frontier history coming to life, the inspiration of a family healing itself and the magic of an old-fashioned western Christmas. Read Next Christmas in Girouette with your family this year, and you’ll want to revisit it for years to come at holiday time.