Books

Moment of Truth

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:22:36 -0500

Moment of Truth is the story of a man who frames himself for murder. When attorney Jack Newin discovers his wife dead in their elegant home, he's convinced he knows who killed her -- and is equally determined to hide the truth. He decides to take the rap, and to seal his fate he hires the most inexperienced laywer he can find, a reluctant rookie by the name of Mary DiNunzio from the hot Philadelphia firm of Rosato & Associates. But hiring Mary may turn out to be his biggest mistake. Mary doubts Jack's confession, and her ethics and instincts tell her she can't defend a man who wants to convict himself. Smarter, gutsier, and more persistent than she has any right to be, Mary sets out to prove what really happened -- because as any laywer knows, a case is never as simple as it seems. And nothing is ever certain until the final moment of truth.

http://www.amazon.com/Moment-Truth-Lisa-Scottoline/dp/006...

Posted by Heather

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Son of a Witch: Volume Two in the Wicked Years

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:33:52 -0500

In this captivating New York Times bestseller, beloved author Gregory Maguire returns to the land of Oz and introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape—but what of her powers? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?

http://www.amazon.com/Son-Witch-Two-Wicked-Years/dp/00618...

Posted by Heather

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Scavenger Hunt

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:18:24 -0500

Philip Marlow and Lew Archer would recognize a kindred spirit in Jimmy Gage, reporter for SLAP magazine, troublemaker by trade and inclination, and the hero of Robert Ferrigno’s sinuous new crime novel. While taking part in a Hollywood scavenger hunt, Jimmy meets Garret Walsh, a bad-boy movie maker in the truest sense: He’s just been released from prison after serving seven years for the murder of a teenaged girl. But Walsh claims he was framed and is writing a screenplay to prove it. He wants Jimmy to help him peddle it, sight unseen.

The next time Jimmy sees the director, he’s floating face-down in a koi pond and “The Most Dangerous Screenplay in Hollywood” has disappeared. Is Walsh a casualty of bad habits or has somebody crossed him off a list? And is Jimmy next? Combining nerve-shredding suspense and heat-seeking satire, Scavenger Hunt is an addictive read.

http://www.amazon.com/Scavenger-Hunt-Robert-Ferrigno/dp/1...

Posted by Heather

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Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:17:10 -0500

What would happen to America if the extremists won?

SEATTLE, 2040. The Space Needle lies crumpled. Veiled women hurry through the streets. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. At the edges of the empire, Islamic and Christian forces fight for control, and rebels plot to regain free will.

Courageous rebel Sarah Dougan is a beautiful historian who uncovers information that will destabilize the nation. When she disappears, the security chief of the Islamic Republic of America calls upon Rakkim Epps, her secret lover and a former elite warrior, to find her. But Rakkim is being tracked by Darwin, a brilliant psychopath. To survive, he must become Darwin's assassin and embark upon a frenetic and bloody chase to find Sarah and helpher expose a shocking truth to the world.

http://www.amazon.com/Prayers-Assassin-Novel-Robert-Ferri...

Posted by Heather

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Shakespeare's Landlord (Lily Bard Mysteries, Book 1)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:14:22 -0500

When cleaning lady Lily Bard discovers the dead body of her nosy landlord, her plan of starting a quiet new life may end in her death.

http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Landlord-Lily-Bard-Mys...

Posted by Heather

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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:32:04 -0500

Is this new land a place where magics really happen?

From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.

In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....

We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes.But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?

Extreme beauty is an affliction

Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister.

Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale?

While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life.

God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes!

Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Ugly-Stepsister-Gregory...

Posted by Heather

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Sins of the Assassin: A Novel

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:17:44 -0500

Colossal in concept, dazzlingly plotted, filled with vivid, jaw-dropping violence, Sins of the Assassin confirms Robert Ferrigno as the modern master of the futuristic thriller.

In the second book of Ferrigno's spectacular Assassin Trilogy, Rakkim Epps battles radical fundamentalist forces in a futuristic America, now a divided blood-soaked dystopia. Will he survive? Can America ever be unified again?

The year is 2043. New York and Washington, D.C., have been leveled by nuclear bombs. New Orleans is submerged beneath fifty feet of water and treasure hunters scavenge its watery ruins. The United States no longer exists, and in its place two new nations maintain an uneasy coexistence.

To the west stretches the Islamic Republic, seemingly governed by a moderate president but hollowed from within by the violent, repressive Black Robes, a shadowy fundamentalist group intent on crushing all those who do not follow Allah's path. In this frightening world, freedom is controlled by the state, and non-Muslims are either second-class citizens, hidden underground, exiled, or executed.

To the east and south lies the Christian Bible Belt, itself torn by conflict from warring factions, each claiming to be more righteous than the others. Meanwhile the former United States is being nibbled away at the edges: South Florida, known as "Nuevo Florida," is independent; the Aztlán Empire, formerly Mexico, encroaches from the south; and Canada has laid claim to huge swaths of territory along the United States's former northern border.

What stability exists between the warring empires is threatened when the president of the Islamic Republic discovers that a Bible Belt warlord, known simply as the Colonel, is searching for a superweapon hidden inside a remote mountain decades earlier by the old United States regime. Rakkim Epps, retired shadow warrior, is sent on a perilous mission to infiltrate the Belt and steal or destroy the weapon. Accompanying Rakkim is Leo, a naive nineteen-year-old whose technologically enhanced brain is crucial to their success.Together they sneak through the Belt, a lawless territory where a bloodthirsty, drug-addled militia prepares for the End-Times.

When Rakkim and Leo finally reach the Colonel's mountain, Epps is forced to rely on his shadow warrior's ability to kill any and all who would halt his quest. Opposing him is the Colonel's enforcer, a sadistic, carbon-skinned killer named Gravenholtz, and the Colonel's wife, the alluring, sexually rapacious Baby, who wants -- and gets -- more of everything. Meanwhile, the Old One, the ancient and immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to rule both American nations, plots his attack from the safety of his ocean liner. Rakkim Epps, he realizes, must be stopped, controlled, or killed.

A terrific stand-alone read, Sins of the Assassin is a cinematic feast of action and plot, and verifies Robert Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy as a monumental imaginative work of suspense.

http://www.amazon.com/Sins-Assassin-Novel-Robert-Ferrigno...

Posted by Heather

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The Morning After

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:16:16 -0500

A woman is frantic as she awakens in a dark, closed space. From above her comes the muffled sound of cruel laughter, followed by the hard splatter of dirt. Pure terror takes over as she realizes she's being buried alive, and her last breath is a scream that no one but a sadistic killer will hear. To journalist Nikki Gillette, this disturbing story is a ticket out of small - town Savannah and on to the big time. She's already given the killer a nickname - The Grave Robber - and she's spending every minute dogging tough cop Pierce Reed's investigation, trailing him through Savannah's deep thickets and crumbling cemeteries...even though she's starting to wonder about the secrets he's keeping. Another body is found...and another. Each gruesome discovery unnerves Nikki a little more...there's something familiar about it, something she should know. Now, as a serial killer pulls her ever deeper into his sick game, she has no idea how close she's getting to the truth - or how deadly it will be.

http://www.amazon.com/Morning-After-Lisa-Jackson/dp/08217...

Posted by Heather

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Shakespeare's Champion (Lily Bard Mysteries, Book 2)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:14:59 -0500

When Lily stumbles upon the well-built corpse of a local body builder-his neck broken by a barbell-the town's underlying racial tension begins to boil over. The white victim was somehow connected to two unsolved murders of black residents of Shakespeare-and a dogged policeman is determined to stop the killing. But it is Lily herself who may have to decide whether to stay and fight for justice, or run away one more time.

http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Champion-Lily-Bard-Mys...

Posted by Heather

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Killer Smile

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:13:08 -0500

Lawyer Mary DiNunzio's new case is a mystery—the strange suicide of an Italian fisherman interned during a dark, unspoken chapter in American history. Armed only with the puzzle pieces of a lock of hair, an old photograph, and a paper covered with indecipherable doodles, Mary digs deep into the case and suspects betrayal—and murder.

Meantime, Mary's friends worry that her investigation is becoming an obsession, so they set her up on a series of truly disastrous blind dates. She escapes romance only to risk life and limb to hunt down a ruthless killer. But someone in the shadows—powerful, cold-blooded, and very deadly—will stop at nothing to keep Mary from the truth.

http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Smile-Lisa-Scottoline/dp/006...

Posted by Heather

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Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Deception

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:29:10 -0500

After Bourne is ambushed and nearly killed while in Indonesia, he fakes his death to take on a new identity and mission- to find out who is trying to assassinate him. In the process, Bourne begins to question who he really is and what he would become if he no longer carried the Bourne identity. Across the globe, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt-apparently by an Iranian missile-leaving the world wondering if it was an accident or an act of aggression. A massive global team lead by Soraya Moore is assembled to investigate the attack before the situation escalates.
When Bourne's search for his would-be assassin intersects with Soraya's search for the group behind the airplane bombing, Bourne is thrust into a race to prevent a new world war. But it may already be too late.

http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Ludlums-TM-Bourne-Deception/...

Posted by Heather

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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Harper Fiction)

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:36:33 -0500

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Times-Witch-Harper-Fiction/d...

Posted by Heather

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Contact

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:37:41 -0500

In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out there?

In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future -- and our own.

http://www.amazon.com/Contact-Carl-Sagan/dp/0671004107%3F...

Posted by Heather

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