. . or when all else fails, try blackmail. In July of 1964, after marrying in Paris, Desirée and Scott Stoddard are honeymooning in the South of France when their idyll is interrupted by a notice from Scott’s draft board advising him that his status is being reviewed. Desirée, the former French countess who is already three months pregnant, doesn’t understand why her new husband, an American, must traipse off to some military base in Germany to be tested. Scott’s remarkable scores on the tests attract the attention of the CIA, and Scott, much to his dismay, becomes part of their world of intrigue and deceit. How can he get back to the life that he and Desirée had envisioned? When all else fails, blackmail is the answer.A Spy with Scruples plunges readers into the complicated political world of Cold War Europe. From neutral Switzerland to the aristocratic salons of Paris to bombed-out Berlin, Scott ingratiates some and offends more. But he has a plan.

    Dark Zader was one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, but when he threw his emperor down a shaft, he found himself without a job. Living with his kids and down on his luck, he finds that he only has one solution, beg for his old job back from the very emperor he thought he'd killed. Read as this family of rebel scum scrambles to prepare a dinner fit for an emperor in the most ridiculous culinary experience ever. Double the excitement. Triple the laughs. Paintbrush illustrations. This is... Family Wars Episode I: The Forced Dinner

    . . THE LEGEND BEGINS When the Ridgeway family staked their claim on more than 40,000 acres of land in northwest Texas, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Located on a sharp bend of the treacherous Red River, their new home—the Rocking R Ranch—was just a stone’s throw away from Indian territory. It was as lawless and wild as the West itself, crawling with unsavory characters, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, outlaws, robbers, and worse. But still, the Ridgeways were determined to make the Rocking R a success—and a home—for their four remarkable children: Percy, Eli, Abigail, and Rachel. This is their story. Together, the Ridgeways could endure anything. Floods, tornadoes, Commanche raids in the dead of night. But when one of their own is kidnapped . . . that’s when all hell breaks loose. This is their story. The story of the American West.

    No one can hear her, just us boys. We're the dead Finnegans – Ma, Thomas, Ben and me.Ten-year-old John Finnegan can't leave his garden. Ever since they were murdered he, his brothers and his ma have been stuck there, caught between the worlds of the living and the dead. Unseen and unnoticed, he watches the events after his life unfold – including the actions of his murderer.James Stack is born dirt-poor on an Irish tenant farm and the great famine shadows his childhood. But his clever sister's lace making may save the family – until Aileen is sent to the other side of the world on a convict ship. To save her, James joins the redcoats and follows her across dangerous waters to a hopeful new land. But can he ever leave the death and hunger of his homeland behind?Based on the 1865 Otahuhu murders, Purgatory is a startling, gripping novel from an immensely talented new author.

    P. Lovecraft, this stylish new collection of adventure stories fizzes with wit and invention. They can be enjoyed separately, but read them in one sitting and the pieces fit horribly together into a larger and more terrible nightmare. †These tales constitute David Hambling’s initial foray into the realm of Lovecraftian fiction. The fertility of imagination, the crisp character delineations, and the smooth-flowing prose that we find in these seven tales leave us wishing for more of the same, and Hambling will no doubt oblige in the coming years. For now, we can sit back and relish a brace of stories that not only evoke the shade of the dreamer from Providence, but which that dreamer himself would have enjoyed to the full. —S. T. Joshi(from his foreword)

     Two Lives… separated by millennia but nevertheless linked irrevocably. What possible link could Mark Hayek, an introverted twenty-first century research scientist, have to Raven, a young healer who lived during the late Pleistocene? It has everything to do with an injured Neanderthal man taken captive by Raven’s band while he and his brothers were hunting bison. After Raven heals the captive, he leaves for his tribe, and she tries to forget him as she struggles to remain within the band. But it’s not possible to stay when several band members make her life with the group untenable. Seeking the Neanderthal man she’d helped and facing her fear of being alone on the dangerous steppes, she begins crossing that grassy land—but a woman like Raven isn’t destined to be by herself for long. In the future, Mark Hayek is forced into making his own journey when his uncle dies in the Levant. His travels place him firmly in the footsteps of his Neanderthal and Early Modern Human ancestors, crossing the same ancient lands as he struggles against the fate a wayward kinsman has imposed. He’s been made a pawn in a cruel game, but when he encounters a woman being held prisoner in a cave, he seeks a way to save her. Help arrives for the pair, flowing from an unexpected, ancient source, igniting a struggle deep within Mark to accept that the illogical as well as the logical make up existence. Peoples come and go, one group replacing another over time, and echoes from ancient events have always affected the future, but Mark and Raven discover that in certain environments echoes are able to bounce back and forth, blurring their origins.

    When a jar containing the Universe's DNA falls from Eternity, bumbling backpackers Jason and Theo find their loyalties--and sanity!--put to the test. Unaware that a motley crew from another realm is chasing them across the globe to retrieve that radioactive vessel, these intrepid new friends are forced to contend with passion, responsibility, and their own mortality--and the fate of the Solar System, which hangs in the balance. Traversing Europe, New Zealand, and the backbone of Eternity, Finders Keepers: The Definitive Edition ultimately asks one simple question: Is the life you're living the life you actually want . . . or does the Universe have more to offer than you can possibly imagine?IMPORTANT NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: The Definitive Edition of Finders Keepers has undergone significant changes from the original version. Consider the original as the Raw & Uncensored version (rated 'R')--which is no longer available-- while this new updated and revised Definitive Edition is 'PG-13'. Goodreads will not allow the two version to be listed separately, so please keep in mind that older reviews do not necessarily reflect the updated narrative, characters, language, and tone of the Definitive Edition.For more on why I wrote the Definitive Edition, and how it differs from the original, check out my blog here: https://russcolchamiro.com/2018/11/bo...

    What starts out as a simple trip around India soon becomes a psychological journey into the darkness of Sam’s past. One he knows there's no running from. When Sam decides to give up his mundane life and travel to India he has no idea what he’ll do when he gets there and it isn’t long before his lack of preparation takes its toll. Vulnerable and alone, Sam is haunted by memories of his childhood and as he struggles to make sense of the pain he has suffered he follows a dangerous path that has devastating consequences.

    Vim is an energy resource that exists deep beneath the surface. A life force, it approximates the idea of a human soul. When the people of Pearl die, their vim is returned to the soil. And each new baby takes a little back out.The company of Megacorp wants to change this natural process forever. They’ve found a way to mine the vim and use it to power numerous gadgets and machines on the surface. While this industry has given the planet’s inhabitants a better quality of life, it threatens to shift the balance of their entire existence.Cirrus Stark is determined to stop them. When he is inducted into WAVE, a shadowy secret rebellion, he is determined to break Megacorp’s monopoly and destroy the company. As he grows closer to the other members of WAVE and nears the achievement of his main objective, Cirrus realizes some startling things about the planet—and his own place in the universe. He is just one piece of a larger cosmic puzzle.Will he ever comprehend the entire picture, or is he destined to simply perpetuate systems put in place millennia before?

    A set of runes inscribed on the box claims the map is a pathway to God.In an attempt to decipher the map, a wealthy New Orleans collector assembles an unlikely team: a specialist in cultural antiquities who dabbles in the occult; a jaded attorney searching for meaning; a brilliant linguist who loathes organized religion; and a Catholic historian with a reputation for acquiring pieces no one else can or will.Shackled by secrets and hidden motives, pursued by a sinister religious order, driven by an insatiable desire for answers, the four companions trek across Europe as they search for a connection among the ancient sites revealed by the map. As the hunt for truth takes them deeper into the unknown, their lives and perhaps their souls in peril, they must determine whether the letterbox is part of an elaborate, centuries-old deception--or the answer to mankind's ultimate questions.From critically acclaimed and bestselling author Layton Green, The Letterbox is a thrilling new mystery that weaves danger, exotic locales, breathless suspense, romance, and ancient secrets into the tapestry of an unforgettable novel.

    This rewritten, revised, expanded and updated edition is now part of a 3-book series entitled The Trouble with Miracles.Alex Farmer, M.D. is a former drug addict trying to put his tortured life behind him. Cyd Seeley is a brilliant botanist and rancher in dire financial straits. Inadvertently, they are thrown together when a mutual friend is murdered after developing an inexpensive, organically grown cure for viral diseases.The miracle plant is called Cannastar and it cures all manner of viruses from Coronavirus and cancer, to HIV and herpes. Cannastar costs next to nothing to grow, returns the hopelessly ill to good health, and threatens to bankrupt the pharmaceutical industry. Big Pharma will stop at nothing to keep it off the market.Aided by faithful Native Americans from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Cyd and Alex fight to grow Cannastar and bring it to a desperate world. Their harrowing and perilous journey ranges from the Rocky Mountain wilderness, to the political corruption of Washington D.C., to the jungles of Mexico, to the deserts of the Southwest.Filled with mystery and suspense, The Cannastar Factor is part adventure and part love story; a timely thriller that unfolds with endless surprises and heartwarming relationships; an epic novel about the resolute passions of two people who stand against a broken world.

    She isn't even human. Hunted by an alien race, can she discover the truth before it's too late?Valerie Carling's life is quite normal for a divorced, single mother. She misses her ex-husband, but her world now revolves around her young daughter. That is, until a band of strangers show up and turn everything upside down.It's Charlotte's sixth birthday, and she's loving it. Presents, games, and cake! For Valerie, it's not that simple. Being with her ex and his new wife is always a strain, but not as hard as finding out that you're not who you think you are.When a group of strangers unexpectedly shows up at the party, suddenly Valerie's whole life feels like a lie. Why do they look so familiar? Why do they act like they know her? Stranger yet, why do they have the same startling green eyes as Charlotte?Catapulted into a world she doesn't remember, Valerie needs to trust these strangers to help save her daughter and herself from a terrible fate. She and Charlotte are pure-bloods, the only chance for an alien race on the brink of extinction.On the run and hunted like animals, her enemies will not rest until they have them in their clutches. But as her memories return, can Valerie tap into the powers she didn't even know she possessed and save their lives?Make Me Exist is a heart-pounding sci-fi adventure that will keep you riveted to your seat in a journey of mind twisting awakenings.

    Seventeen years after Mitchell Norton, the devil, terrorized Algonquin, Illinois on a spree of kidnapping, torture and murder, the authorities release the butcher from psychiatric prison.Tony longs to charge across the street to destroy Norton--no remorse--as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents his doing so.The devil walks the world again. What shall Tony do about it? Aye, what indeed.After all, this is what Tony does. It's who he is. The devil himself long ago made Tony into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that he may still, finally, administer justice.Will FBI Special Agent Linda Monroe stop him? She owes him her life, so how can she possibly put an end to his?Tony Hooper and Mitchell Norton battle for supremacy, with law enforcement always a step away, in this story of justice and vengeance, evil and redemption, fear and courage, love and loss..

    Compassionate and conscientious, she excels as a post-op nurse, but her new supervisor doesn’t care how much she needs time off. Although she’s a selfless wife and mother, news of her husband’s promotion only fills her with anxiety. The country-club lifestyle he craves triggers memories of the dysfunctional family she came from, and of her own mother’s single-minded ambition to climb the social ladder.Laura has reached a breaking point. For her, there’s only one way to pull it all together, to balance the demands of her family and job, and to keep pleasing everyone she loves. But her little blue pills are pushing her closer to the edge…

    Freddy Ferguson, a troubled detective with a violent past, believes she's the only living witness to a crime that has captivated the nation.Sifting through the wreckage of her past, he begins to understand who she's running from, and why. Now he must track her down before her pursuers can silence her for good.