They called him Goon. Not the Goon. Just Goon, as if it was his name, which it sort of was … During a mafia hit with his sharpshooting partner, a thug named Goon finds a little girl hiding in a closet. Until now, Goon has been content playing the part of the dumb sidekick, but how far will he go when the girl's life is on the line? This riveting tale of redemption and sacrifice kicks off Carter's latest collection, six stories of crime, revenge, lost loves, and heroic choices. Whether the tale involves a down-and-out screenwriter looking for a fresh start as a journalist in his hometown, a grieving widower meeting an assassin-for-hire on an urban park bench, or a mysterious payphone at a rural gas station that might not be quite of this world, each of these powerful tales leaves its own indelible mark on the reader's imagination.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER • With music pulsing on every page, this startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption “features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human” (The Chicago Tribune). One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. “Pitch perfect.... Darkly, rippingly funny.... Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.” —The New York Times Book Review
Gage hates birthdays. So when his daughter throws him a surprise party on the coldest night the Oregon coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs has seen in years, Gage finds himself in an equally frosty mood. And when a police cruiser stops him as he trudges along Highway 101, minding his own business, he can't imagine the night could get any worse. Oh, but it does. For the cranky private investigator with the bum knee, it can always get worse. When the cops collar one of the people closest to Gage for murder, the desperate hours ahead become a frantic push to right a presumed injustice. Add in a daughter’s secret life, a bad boy Hollywood star, and a troubled new police chief with something to prove, and the night doesn't just get worse. It forces a quickly unraveling Gage to choose between cold, uncomfortable truths—about himself, about someone he loves—and shallow but comforting deceptions.
They call it Deadtown: Boston's quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders--but Victory Vaughn, the city's only professional demon slayer, isn't exactly human... When Vicky allowed an ancient goddess Ceridewen to possess her, she had no regrets--it was the only way to protect the people she loved. But now she's got two supernatural beings posessing her body to use her for their own means, leaving her with little free will of her own and more demonic trouble than she cares to deal with. Despite the forces pulling her apart, Vicky needs all her wits about her. The demons of Hell are growing bold and she can barely keep up with the attacks plaguing the city: sirens in the Mystic River, goblins snarling traffic on Storrow Drive, imps tearing the gold from the State House dome. As the signs of war multiply and Hell threatens to overrun its boundaries, Vicky finds herself torn between her duty to save the world and her desire to save something of herself... Praise for the Deadtown series "Nancy Holzner is a master of characterization."--Ilona Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of Magic Bites "Fresh and funny, with a great take on zombies."--Karen Chance, New York Times bestselling author of Reap the Wind "All urban fantasy lovers should be reading this superb series."--Bitten by Books
ÿBrian Iddon discovered a passion for chemistry as an eleven-year-old schoolboy. He went on to study it at university, obtaining a BSc, PhD and DSc, and taught and researched his subject at the highest level before making his name in the wider world by presenting a demonstration lecture called ?The Magic of Chemistry? to audiences across Britain and Europe. Brian?s second career was in politics. Elected to Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council in 1977, he fulfilled a wide range of public roles over the next 20 years. In 1997 he was elected to Parliament by the safe Labour seat of Bolton South East, retiring in 2010 after a career in which he wrestled with a range of hot topics from drugs to euthanasia and from health food to peace in the Middle East. He helped to steer through three Acts of Parliament and was a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee. In retirement, in addition to voluntary work, Dr Iddon has finally found time to write his memoirs ? this is Volume 1.
Catch up on Dave Robicheaux’s latest adventures. This boxed set includes the three most recent novels featuring fan favorite Detective Dave Robicheaux, The Tin Roof Blowdown, Swan Peak, and The Glass Rainbow, plus an excerpt from the next Robicheaux novel, Creole Belle (publishing July 2012). Robicheaux’s creator, New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke, is a rare winner of two Edgar Awards and in 2009 was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. The Tin Roof Blowdown In the waning days of summer, 2005, a storm of unfathomable force peels the face off southern Louisiana. This is the gruesome reality Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux discovers as he is deployed to New Orleans: Hurricane Katrina has left the commercial district and residential neighborhoods awash with bodies, as well as looters and predators of every stripe. The power grid destroyed, New Orleans is reduced to the level of a medieval society. There is no law, no order, no sanctuary for the infirm, the helpless, and the innocent. In the midst of an apocalyptic nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city. Swan Peak Swan Peak finds Detective Robicheaux far from his New Iberia roots, fleeing with his wife and his old buddy Clete Purcel from the harsh, gritty landscape of post-Katrina Louisiana to a ranch in rural Montana. The serenity of the untouched wilderness is soon shattered when two college students are brutally murdered in the hills behind the ranch, and Clete and Dave are quickly ensnared in a dangerous mystery with a twisted cast of characters including a vicious oil tycoon, a sexually deviant minister, an escaped con and former country music star, and a vigilante Texas gunbull out for blood. All the while, Clete can’t shake the feeling that he’s being haunted by a ghost from his past: Sally Dio, the mob boss he sabotaged and killed years ago. The Glass Rainbow Detective Dave Robicheaux and his partner, Clete Purcel, are on the trail of a killer responsible for the deaths of seven young women—a trail that always seems to lead back to the notorious pimp Herman Stanga, whom they both despise. But the case takes a nasty turn when Stanga turns up dead after a fierce beating by Purcel in front of numerous witnesses. Adding to Robicheaux’s troubles is his daughter Alafair’s romantic involvement with the scion of a once-prominent Louisiana family whom Robicheaux suspects is involved in some very shady business. To protect his daughter and clear his best friend’s name, Robicheaux will need every ounce of guts, wit, and investigative chops he can muster. Creole Belle (excerpt) Creole Belle begins with Dave Robicheaux in a recovery unit in New Orleans, not quite sure what is real and what may be the effects of the painkillers he’s been taking. While there, he receives a nighttime visit from a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton, who leaves him an iPod with the country blues song “Creole Belle” on it. Then she disappears. Obsessed with the song and the memory of Tee Jolie, Dave goes in search of her sister, Blue, who later turns up inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf. Meanwhile, an oil well blowout on the Gulf threatens the cherished environs of the bayous. In the face of public indifference to both the blowout and Blue Melton’s murder, Dave and Clete must find their own way to bring those responsible to justice.
New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.
Comet’s Tale is a story about a friendship between two former winners, both a little down on their luck, who together stage a remarkable comeback. A former hard-driving attorney, Steven Wolf has reluctantly left his job and family and moved to Arizona for its warm winter climate. There he is drawn to a local group that rescues abused racing greyhounds. Although he can barely take care of himself because of a spinal condition, Wolf adopts Comet, an elegant cinnamon-striped racer. Or does Comet adopt Wolf? In Comet’s Tale we follow their funny and moving journey as Wolf teaches Comet to be a service dog. With her boundless enthusiasm and regal manners, Comet attracts new friends to Wolf’s isolated world. And finally, she plays a crucial role in restoring his health, saving his marriage, and broadening his definition of success.
