In the Gravity Lounge, every sin has its price. Jude Demarco can track anyone in the station-city of Nicodemia, but there are some places even he can’t follow. When a down-on-her-luck dancer goes missing, Demarco will sacrifice everything to find her, but a darker secret lurks behind her disappearance. A murderer is loose, and his killings follow an ominous pattern. Demarco must weigh the cost of backing down against the dangerous cost of success. And all trails lead back to the one place he can’t afford to go: The Gravity Lounge.
All things found. All things fixed. Jude Demarco will take any job in the station-city of Nicodemia, so long as it doesn't involve art or religion. People care too much about art and religion, and where there's passion, life gets messy. Then Charlotte Beck walks into his life with a lit cigarette and a lousy deal. She needs him to track down a stolen painting--one that's sought after by art collectors, criminal masterminds, and the Catholic Church. To find it, she needs to locate the men who stole it. She won't take no for an answer. In a city where crime lords are saints and good deeds are a commodity, Demarco soon discovers that if he wants the truth about his own dangerous past, then he's going to need to bend some rules. And life is going to get messy.
Charlie McKelvey goes to his northern hometown to find that the big city isn’t the only place with big problems. Retired Toronto detective Charlie McKelvey runs from a cancer diagnosis and the violent memories of the big city and retreats to his hometown. A small declining mining centre, Ste. Bernadette offers McKelvey a chance to resolve old family issues, including his father’s involvement in a deadly wildcat strike in the late 1950s. When the local police force enlists his help in tracing an upswing in youth violence and vandalism, McKelvey stumbles into the hornets’ nest of a crystal-meth industry. The timing couldn’t be worse for the town to expose its drug problem to the world: the mayor is hoping a new transmission line will be built through the town, bringing power-line jobs and construction dollars; the police chief is trying to close a deal to truck Detroit’s garbage to a local site as well as vie for the mayor’s job; and a sleazy businessman is attempting to buy up the town’s land to open a casino and resort. Despite searches and seizures, the flow of drugs continues, leading McKelvey to suspect a local is manufacturing the drug. The Devil’s Dust holds a magnifying glass to the current decline of rural life, the scourge of meth, and what happens when an entire town loses faith.
Detective Mara Lawson has seen her share of brutal crimes, but nothing could prepare her for the gruesome murder that would change everything. A lifeless body, carved with strange occult symbols, lies at the center of a mystery that defies logic and reason. As Mara digs deeper, she uncovers a trail of ancient rituals, demonic forces, and a secretive cult known as The Devil’s Greenhouse—one that seeks to unleash unspeakable horrors upon the world. With the help of Hunter Eldritch, a reclusive demonologist, and a priest whose faith has been shaken to its core, Mara must confront her greatest fears. Together, they unravel a conspiracy that reaches back centuries, buried in the shadows of history. As the lines between reality and the supernatural blur, Mara races against time to stop a ritual that could bring about the end of days. But in a world where faith is tested and evil knows no bounds, the cost of failure is unimaginable. With the city—and perhaps the world—on the brink of apocalypse, Mara must decide how far she is willing to go to stop the darkness from consuming everything she holds dear. The Devil's Greenhouse is a gripping tale of suspense, where ancient horrors collide with modern-day heroism, and the fight for humanity’s soul begins.
Dr. George Stanton, a renowned medical geneticist, is involuntarily admitted into the psychiatric ward of a Los Angeles area hospital after what appears to be an attempted suicide by cyanide poisoning. However, he denies poisoning himself, despite the suicide note that was composed on his computer, printed from his printer, and discovered on his desk. Is he delusional, as his psychiatrist believes, or is he the target of an elaborate assassination plot? Only his lab manager, Lynn Johnson, and a shrewd LAPD detective, Lieutenant Sharkey, can uncover the truth and expose the evil that threatens to destroy him and his life's work.
Take a moment and imagine your history books devoid of war. Envision entire civilizations absent of heinous crimes against humanity. A planet spared from the plagues of slavery, cultural genocides, and the colonization of indigenous nations by foreigners. Would you dare make the choices necessary to maintain this Utopia in which universal peace existed? Could you ignore the Devil whispering in your ear, luring you away from a world in which loving your fellow man was the expectation, not the exception? In a state of reverie, an impractical idea of world peace has given birth to a culture in which the human race has chosen to live free of violent criminals. Instead, criminals have been systematically exiled to the lone prison city, Katingal, constructed in a far corner of Earth. Sentenced for the remainder of their natural lives, the wicked pit themselves against their soulless brethren. Exposure, disease, and starvation claim their victims daily. Those who survive nature’s wrath negotiate the perils of the prison city through murder and cannibalism. All the while, this inimitable death sentence satisfies civilization’s aim to punish the world’s irretrievable outcasts. Charles “Yäbälay” Gravo is the criminal mastermind behind the world’s largest human trafficking network. As a prime most-wanted fugitive, he sets into motion events that will forever alter the realities of both civilization’s Utopia and Katingal’s Hell.
A revolution is waged against a totalitarian regime in this “courageous” novel of a dystopian near-future America by a #1 New York Times–bestselling author (Chicago Tribune). In the heart of Philadelphia, insurgent Andrew Durant has been nursing a festering rage. And he’s not alone. Through underground networks, he’s found himself among a secret thousands, building an army called the Minute Men. They’re readying themselves for war to reclaim what was once America. In the nation now known as the Democracy, independent thought is a thing of the past. The Constitution is waste paper. A conscienceless president has been appointed by the military—for life. The government has co-opted farmland crops. Citizens are divided between two classes: wealthy corporations and the destitute. Areas of the country devastated by war or natural disaster remain unchecked. On behalf of national security, neighbors are instructed to spy on one another. Exposing those who are undemocratic is law. And all dissenters are eliminated. Durant, the chosen agent for the poverty-stricken rural Democracy, finds himself increasingly isolated and afraid. Mobilizing revolutionaries has become a dangerous tactic; the Minute Men have their own traitors, infiltrators assigned to undo everything Durant and his men are fighting to conquer. Now, the rebels have only their beliefs left to trust. A stunning dystopian vision in the tradition of George Orwell’s 1984 and Ayn Rand’s Anthem, The Devil’s Advocate is author Taylor Caldwell’s “tour de force” (Kirkus Reviews). More than a half-century after its original publication, it is timelier than ever. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Taylor Caldwell including rare images from the author’s estate.
A killer stalks a college campus, sending the co-eds scurrying Terry Miles goes across the hallway expecting an orgy. When her neighbor opens his door, she finds that the promised erotic party is nothing more than a few brainy academics balancing beers on their bellies and arguing about philosophy. She’s disappointed, but not surprised. Nothing ever happens at Handclasp, the most wholesome university in the most commonplace city in the United States. Nothing, that is, but murder. When Miles disappears, Police Captain Bartholdi isn’t sure if she was kidnapped, murdered—or both. As the local cops mount a frantic search for the missing beauty, Bartholdi tries to unravel a case that hinges on a husband who doesn’t miss his vanished wife, a university full of suspects, and a ragout that’s overflowing with onions.
During the 1870s and '80s, a single bar-filled block in San Francisco called the Devil's Acre threw what may have been the most enduring party the world has ever seen. Duggan McDonnell is in love with the city of his forefathers and its ever-flowing cocktails, and it shows in this history-packed drinking tour through one of the most beloved cities in the world. Twenty-five iconic cocktail recipes made famous by the City by the Bay—from the legendary Pisco Punch, Mai Tai, and Irish Coffee to the Gold Rush–era Sazerac and more modern-day Lemon Drop—are accompanied by an additional 45 recipes that show the evolution of these classic elixirs, resulting in such contemporary favorites as the Revolver and the Last Word, guaranteeing to keep the party going and the liquor flowing.
