The only witness is disabled vet Adam Lee—wounded in a Special Forces mission to Cuba to destroy Fidel Castro's secret Brilliant academy. Though wheelchair-bound and trapped in his seventh-story apartment, Adam Lee has a special skill, his ability as a Brilliant, that allows him to use hints and reflections to see around corners and through the smallest cracks. If he pushes his ability, he may be able to identify the murderer...but that also makes him a target.

    Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town, and of the moldy, unhallowed garret gable where he wrote and studied and wrestled with figures and formulae when he was not tossing on the meager iron bed. His ears were growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree, and he had long ago stopped the cheap mantel clock whose ticking had come to seem like a thunder of artillery. At night the subtle stirring of the black city outside, the sinister scurrying of rats in the wormy partitions, and the creaking of hidden timbers in the centuried house, were enough to give him a sense of strident pandemonium. The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound—and yet he sometimes shook with fear lest the noises he heard should subside and allow him to hear certain other fainter noises which he suspected were lurking behind them.

    It is the elite team in New York’s police department, handling the cases involving the most important and high-profile individuals in the city. It’s Detective Zach Jordan’s dream job, but he’s about to step into a nightmare.In the middle of a New York film festival, a maniac begins a very public and very brutal killing spree targeting Hollywood’s biggest stars. Zach is assigned a new partner, Detective Kylie MacDonald, who is also his ex-girlfriend. But they’ll need to put their history aside to have a chance of stopping this homicidal psychopath before he brings New York City to its knees.NYPD Red 2A vigilante serial killer is on the loose in New York City, tracking down and murdering people whose crimes have not been punished. The number of victims grows, and many New Yorkers secretly applaud the idea of justice won at any price.NYPD Red Detective Zach Jordan and his partner Kylie MacDonald are put on the case when a woman of vast wealth and even greater connections disappears. Zach and Kylie have to find what's really behind this murderer's rampage while political and personal secrets of the highest order hang in the balance. But Kylie has been acting strange recently – and Zach knows whatever she's hiding could threaten the biggest case of their careers.NYPD Red 3Hunter Alden Jr. has it all: a beautiful wife, a brilliant son and billions in the bank. But when his son goes missing and he discovers the severed head of his chauffeur, it’s clear he’s in danger of losing it all.The kidnapper knows a horrific secret that could change the world as we know it. A secret worth killing for. A secret worth dying for.New York’s best detectives, Zach Jordan and Kylie MacDonald, are on the case. But by getting closer to the truth, Zach and Kylie are edging ever closer to the firing line…

    Even more exciting, each of these stories will spin off into a series of its own. Maggie Shayne’s CHRISTMAS BLUESA true believer returns the music to a lonesome drifter’s soul.Miranda’s Shayne’s FINDING CHRISTMASA small-town coffee shop owner melts a humbug hero’s wounded heart.River Shayne’s A HERO FOR HANNAHCan a woman in grave danger learn to trust one more time?Jessica Lewis’s THE SOLDIER’S CHRISTMAS BABYA lonely serviceman comes home for a holiday he’ll never forget.Grab a cup of eggnog, curl up near the tree, and fall in love with the holidays all over again!

    The horror of nature is dwarfed by the terror of a man who would toy with it.

     On the small island of Kalou, Fiji, a rash of disappearances has the local police stumped. Men, women and children seem to disappear without a trace. Mark Whittaker is the island's sole private investigator. A former LAPD detective who moved to the island to get away from the violence of the city, he's now thrust into the middle of the disappearances when he's hired to find the brother of a mysterious client. As Mark digs into the disappearances, he discovers that something sinister and ancient has been awakened on the island. Something that kills without pity or remorse. And he fears his once island dream is about to be turned into a nightmare.

    Can Archie balance his two-pronged love life and keep his grades up, all under the watchful eye of Principal Weatherbee? Will Reggie be able to continue his chaotic pranks without spending every day in detention? Can Jughead indulge his bottomless appetite when Ms. Beazley's cafeteria food is so...unique? It's high school fun in a great pocket-size edition!

    Her beautiful but leaky old house is in need of total restoration, then her relationship with lawyer Todd collapses and he moves out. As the owner of a struggling art gallery she can't possibly manage the mortgage alone, so she is forced to do the one thing she never imagined she would: she advertises for lodgers.And so Francesca finds that her house has become a whole new world - and as things begin to turn around, she realises that her accidental tenants might become the most important people in her life. Over their year together, the house at 44 Charles Street fills with laughter, hope and heartbreak and Francesca discovers that she might be able to open her heart again after all...MaliceOn the night of her mother's funeral, Grace Adams is attacked. A young woman with secrets too horrible to tell, Grace will not reveal the truth about what happened. After a lifetime of being a victim, she must now pay the price for other people's sins.From a small town in Illinois to the depths of a women's prison; from a Chicago modelling agency to a challenging career in New York, Grace carries the past with her wherever she goes. When Grace meets Charles Mackenzie, she finds a man who wants nothing from her - except to heal her and to give her the family she so desperately wants. But with happiness finally within her grasp, Grace is at her most vulnerable - in danger of losing everything to an enemy from her past, an enemy bent on malice...

    The ultimate science-fiction crossover pits the legendary lawman Judge Dredd against the universe's supreme hunters, the Predators, as they both try to survive an onslaught by the galaxy's ultimate killing machines, the Aliens! Written by Eisner Award-winning, NYT best-selling Chew creator John Layman! Covers by Eisner Award winner Glenn Fabry! A co-publication with IDW and 2000 AD!

    The second collection from Evan Dorkin's award-winning humor anthology Dork includes all the non-Eltingville material from issues #7-10, plus extras, with 16 pages in color! Highlighted by the acclaimed "Cluttered Like My Head" autobiographical tour de force.

     Yancy Lazarus—bluesman, gambler, mage, and professional fix-it man—has been working for the Guild of the Staff for over twenty-five years. Handling ugly problems no one else wants to touch. Mostly by breaking things, blowing ’em up, or otherwise meting out Guild-sanctioned justice, Rambo-style. His next assignment will be his last. A Guild operative, with a headful of dangerous secrets, has gone missing inside the court of the High Tuatha De Danann: ye olde Irish gods of badassery. Yancy—along with fellow wet-works man James Sullivan and Judge Ailia Levchenko—is dispatched to retrieve the missing operative or, barring that, make the perpetrators behind the operative’s disappearance pay a steep, bloody price for crossing the Guild. But with pissed-off godlings gunning for him on every side, a little kidnapping might be the least of Yancy’s worries. The Guild investigators are gonna have to navigate the murky waters of court politics, ferret out a traitor, and devise a way to put the kibosh on an inter-dimensional invasion if they want to avoid being murdered horribly. And even if they do get to the bottom of the diabolical mystery, nothing will ever be the same, because one of their number isn’t coming home …

    Military science-fiction adventure at its best!---GABRIEL'S REDEMPTION, Book OneNorth American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel was dishonorably discharged after losing his covert team on a far off world called Eden. Now, he’s being offered an opportunity to command a new team, on a new world, with a new mission, but the true motives behind the mission are unclear.From the decaying Caribbean to politically-charged South America, from the slums of Mars to a tiny colony on a planet six hundred light years from Earth, Gabriel's Redemption is a near-future military science fiction story of a personal journey seen from the perspective of a soldier who has lost everything; one who desperately needs to redeem himself not only in his government’s eyes, but also his own. Interstellar action and political intrigue mix with one-on-one battles on the surface of a frozen planet in this exciting tale of salvation.Approximately 66,000 words.GABRIEL’S RETURN, Book TwoOn the far-off icebound planet of Poliahu, North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel suffered the loss of several team members in order to free a native species and save his brother. Now he is being called away on a new mission by a friend in trouble, and by a name from his distant past. He and his surviving team must again travel across the galaxy to the planet where he lost his naval command, and his original team, so many years ago: Eden.Evan Gabriel must face three distinct threats on Eden: the well-armed terrorist group that has been raiding Eden City, the dangerous planet itself, and his own haunting memories of his past.Gabriel's Return continues the epic science fiction/adventure trilogy with characters new and old, devious political intrigue on the moon and Mars, and deadly jungle combat on Eden.Approximately 87,000 wordsGABRIEL’S REVENGE, Book ThreeA missile has no conscience. It is an inanimate steel object: cold, emotionless. But once ignited, it burns white hot inside, and cannot be shut off. Fired in combat, it has but one objective: the total destruction of its intended target. And it will only stop when its objective has been achieved, or it runs out of fuel.Not all missiles are made of steel.North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel thought it was over. Returning from a mission on the far-off world of Eden, he finds that Mars is in a state of political upheaval. Two major dome cities are now under the control of ambitious and ruthless men backed by the scheming South American Republic. Friends are in trouble, Renay Gesselli is missing, and the future of a world is in flux while rival governments bicker behind closed doors. From the ice-bound planet of Poliahu, to the dangerous jungle world of Eden, and back to his adopted home of Mars, Evan Gabriel has witnessed death follow him. Now, he's turning the tables, and no force would stand in his way.Approximately 80,000 wordsREVIEWS:“The action in this series rocks, complete with super-cool weapons and technology. Umstead takes a complex cast and gives them each a distinct personality that makes the team dynamic just great.” - L. Petersen“I am a huge fan of well-written science fiction, and the Evan Gabriel series hasn't disappointed... layered with dimension and feeling unlike quite a few other sci-fi titles out there.” - N. Holderby“Umstead has created what I can only describe as a Tom Clancy-esque world a few hundred years into the future.” - W.E. Linde

    Chapters: Harrison Bergeron, Epicac, 2br02b, Welcome to the Monkey House, Miss Temptation, Report on the Barnhouse Effect, All the King's Horses, Who Am I This Time?, Deer in the Works. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical, dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut and first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968. In the story, social equality has been achieved by handicapping the more intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society. For example, strength is handicapped by the requirement to carry weight, beauty by the requirement to wear a mask and so on. This is due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the United States Constitution. This process is central to the society, designed so that no one will feel inferior to anyone else. Handicapping is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon-Glampers. Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, strength, and beauty, and thus has to bear enormous handicaps. These include headphones that play distracting noises, three hundred pounds of weight strapped to his body, eyeglasses designed to give him headaches, a rubber ball on his nose, black caps on his teeth, and shaven eyebrows. Despite these societal handicaps, he is able to invade a TV station, declare himself Emperor, strip himself of his handicaps, then dance with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded. Both are shot dead by the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are w...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=18941

    This gargantuan helping of the human comedy relates how he is devoured by the masses of New York, a city boiling over with the itch to grab it now.

    then something went horribly wrong.Now, photographer Phil Sheldon searches for the elusive truth of a world that might have been. His quest will lead him through the flaming wreckage of the last Avenger's quinjet, past the horrors of America's Kree concentration camp, and over the corpse of a shining silver harbinger of the end of the world. And it will leave him with one question: where did it all go so wrong?Of a world of Marvels that might have been, all that remains is... RUINS.Part 1 of 2.