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The Mars House: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick
By Natasha Pulley. 2024
'Pure Pulley' STUART TURTON'Joyful and profound' CATRIONA WARD'Simply unputdownable' THOMAS D. LEE'A work of staggering genius' IMRAN MAHMOOD'Charming and funny…
and perfectly paced' TEMI OH'A spiritual heir to Terry Pratchett' ROBIN STEVENS 'Book of the year for me' LAUREN JAMESJanuary Stirling was one of the principal dancers of London's Royal Ballet. Now he's a climate refugee bound for Tharsis, the notorious terraformed colony on Mars. It's a utopia for the naturalised population. For January, as a dangerous Earthstronger whose body is unadjusted to the weaker Martian gravity, it's a life sentence to hard labour and ferocious discrimination. But he will live.Aubrey Gale, energy trillionaire and hereditary senator, is running for election on a hardline platform to protect the native population from dangerous immigrants. The path to equality is simple, requiring all Earthstrongers who choose to come to Mars to undergo the disabling and sometimes fatal process of surgical naturalisation.Which is no life at all.When a disastrous media encounter plunges Aubrey and January's lives into chaos, the solution is a five-year made-for-reality-TV marriage that could secure January's future and ensure Aubrey's political success . . . but it soon becomes clear that thousands of lives hang in the balance, and nothing is as it seems.Timely and utterly unputdownable, The Mars House is an exceptional genre-blending story about privilege, strength, life, and love across class divisions - perfect for fans of Babel by R.F. Kuang, The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.'I was blown away by this dark, enchanting story of witchcraft, power and injustice. ..nothing short of brilliant' Mary ChamberlainErzsébet…
Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', was accused of the murder of over 600 peasant girls in Hungary, 1610. The Nightingale's Castle tells the story of a woman fighting for her survival and the complicated, often cruel, household over which she presides.Praise for The Nightingale's Castle'Moving, fascinating and haunting.. A mesmerising combination of gothic horror and elegant restraint' Francesca De Tores, author of Saltblood'Gripping... a fascinating exploration of women's struggle to have their truth heard' Louise O'NeillIn 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Trusted members of the countess's household have been sent out to gather new serving girls, and the kindly old man who has taken care of Boróka for almost all her life knows that it is dangerous to turn them away.Boróka struggles to find her place at Cachtice Castle: she is frightened of the countess's reputation as an alleged murderer of young girls, and the women who run the castle are terrifyingly cruel. When plague comes into the heart of the castle, a tentative bond begins to form between Boróka and the Countess Báthory. But powerful forces are moving against a woman whose wealth poses such a threat to the king: can the countess really trust the women who are so close to her? And when the show trial begins against the infamous 'Blood Countess' where will Boróka's loyalties lie?The Book of Words
By Jenny Erpenbeck. 2007
A searing novella about coming of age in a land of tyranny, by one of Germany's most brilliant young authors.…
In The Book of Words, Jenny Erpenbeck captures with amazing virtuosity the inner life of a young girl who survives the totalitarian regime of a curiously unnamed South American country (most likely Argentina during its "dirty war"). Raised by parents whose real identity ends up shocking her, the girl comes of age in a country where gunshots are mistaken for blown tires, innocent citizens are dragged off buses, and tortured and disappeared friends and family return to visit her from the dead.A Nest of Vipers: A Bangalore Detectives Club Mystery (The Bangalore Detectives Club Series)
By Harini Nagendra. 2024
'Deliciously exotic' Sunday Post'A beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India' M W CRAVEN----Death stalks the streets…
of Bangalore when the Circus comes to town . . .January 1922.The Bangalore Constabulary is on high alert as The Prince of Wales is scheduled to visit the city to redeem his reputation after disastrous visits marked by violent anti-British riots.Kaveri has none of these concerns on her mind, not when she has just been given VIP tickets to the famous Bangalore circus. But when a celebrity magician, shackled in an iron cage filled with deadly snakes, disappears into thin air, she is stunned to discover her friend and favourite policeman, Inspector Ismail, is telling her to leave the case well alone.After solving two murder cases, Kaveri Murthy thought she had cemented her reputation as Bangalore's favourite lady detective. But when death threats are left at her doorstep, former friends become foes, and the bodies start to pile up, Kaveri realises she has never been in this much danger . . .PRAISE FOR HARINI NAGENDRA'A gorgeous debut mystery with a charming and fearless sleuth . . . spellbinding' SUJATA MASSEY'Told with real warmth and wit. . . A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan' - ABIR MUKHERJEE'A cosy mystery that warmly illuminates a time and place not often examined in fiction' VASEEM KHAN'A beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India' M W CRAVEN'A delight' CATRIONA MCPHERSON'The classic whodunnit with the added appeal of a female sleuth in Colonial India. . . fascinating' RHYS BOWEN'Riveting . . . A fine start to a promising series' BOOKLIST Starred Review'I couldn't put it down' VICTORIA THOMPSON, USA Today bestselling author of Murder on Madison Square'Absolutely charming . . . this one is a winner!' CONNIE BERRY, USA Today best-selling and Agatha-nominated author of The Kate Hamilton Mysteries.'An enjoyable trip back in time with a spunky young woman for company.' R V RAMAN, author of Fraudster and A Will to Kill'This lush mystery will transport you to heady 1920s Bangalore . . . Mouth-watering fashion and food set against simmering colonial intrigue in this delicious whodunit can be devoured in one sitting.' SUMI HAHN, author of The Mermaid from Jeju'I loved The Bangalore Detectives Club . . . Kaveri especially is charming.' OVIDIA YU, author of The Cannonball Tree Mystery'Nagendra makes her fiction debut with an exceptional series launch. . . rich, edifying, and authentic' Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewThe Witching Hour: A thrilling new Dandy Gilver mystery to enjoy this summer (Dandy Gilver #17)
By Catriona McPherson. 2024
♥️ ' . . . an absolute delight . . . these are the perfect reads for a night by…
the fire' ♥️ ScotsmanWar is hovering on the horizon, and Dandy Gilver wants nothing more than to keep her friends and family close. But then a call in the night places her oldest friend Daisy at the centre of a murder investigation. With her friend's future on the line, Dandy and her fellow sleuth Alec Osbourne must race to prove her innocence. But when they reach the idyllic Scottish village of Dirleton, residents confirm a woman was seen at the crime scene - an ancient stone called the louping stane, still spattered with the victim's blood. And the longer the detectives spend in the village the more they question Daisy's involvement. They're not getting the answers they need, but are they asking the right questions? . . .The Brass Age
By Slobodan Šnajder. 2024
'Like Olga Tokarczuk, Šnajder has written a novel about a Europe that has lost its diversity and has beendestroyed by…
fascism, communism and, in recent times, nationalism ... a modern epic' Le Monde'A masterpiece' La RepubblicaThe very next day processions of young men, some still children, began to move around the little town of Nuštar, with drums providing a steady rhythm ... These young men came from German families, Germans living outside the Reich, Volksdeutsche. Some stayed in their houses, some were shut up in the storeroom by their mothers, but as time went on more and more of them followed the drumming ...1769. A hungry year in Germany. Kempf the ancestor departs his homeland with his compatriots in search of a brighter future. Years pass and generations of Germans make Slavonia their home. But in 1940, when Europe is at war once more, this minority, the Volksdeutsch, are called to fight for the Reich, for a land now foreign to them.Among their ranks is Georg Kempf, the narrator's father. Forcibly conscripted into the Waffen SS, he deserts, aware of the danger that this involves. At the end of the war, he falls in love with a committed partisan called Vera despite the unimaginable: if they had met earlier, each one would have had to kill the other.The Brass Age, Slobodan Šnajder's masterpiece, is both a family saga and a powerful historical novel about the destiny of those shackled by history, and the generations doomed to inherit the contradictory fates of their forebears. Šnajder looks to his own biography to capture two hundred years of conflict and dividing ideology. In the process, he reconstructs a world that fell apart.A Nest of Vipers: A Bangalore Detectives Club Mystery (The Bangalore Detectives Club Series)
By Harini Nagendra. 2024
'Deliciously exotic' Sunday Post'A beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India' M W CRAVEN----Death stalks the streets…
of Bangalore when the Circus comes to town . . .January 1922.The Bangalore Constabulary is on high alert as The Prince of Wales is scheduled to visit the city to redeem his reputation after disastrous visits marked by violent anti-British riots.Kaveri has none of these concerns on her mind, not when she has just been given VIP tickets to the famous Bangalore circus. But when a celebrity magician, shackled in an iron cage filled with deadly snakes, disappears into thin air, she is stunned to discover her friend and favourite policeman, Inspector Ismail, is telling her to leave the case well alone.After solving two murder cases, Kaveri Murthy thought she had cemented her reputation as Bangalore's favourite lady detective. But when death threats are left at her doorstep, former friends become foes, and the bodies start to pile up, Kaveri realises she has never been in this much danger . . .PRAISE FOR HARINI NAGENDRA'A gorgeous debut mystery with a charming and fearless sleuth . . . spellbinding' SUJATA MASSEY'Told with real warmth and wit. . . A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan' - ABIR MUKHERJEE'A cosy mystery that warmly illuminates a time and place not often examined in fiction' VASEEM KHAN'A beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India' M W CRAVEN'A delight' CATRIONA MCPHERSON'The classic whodunnit with the added appeal of a female sleuth in Colonial India. . . fascinating' RHYS BOWEN'Riveting . . . A fine start to a promising series' BOOKLIST Starred Review'I couldn't put it down' VICTORIA THOMPSON, USA Today bestselling author of Murder on Madison Square'Absolutely charming . . . this one is a winner!' CONNIE BERRY, USA Today best-selling and Agatha-nominated author of The Kate Hamilton Mysteries.'An enjoyable trip back in time with a spunky young woman for company.' R V RAMAN, author of Fraudster and A Will to Kill'This lush mystery will transport you to heady 1920s Bangalore . . . Mouth-watering fashion and food set against simmering colonial intrigue in this delicious whodunit can be devoured in one sitting.' SUMI HAHN, author of The Mermaid from Jeju'I loved The Bangalore Detectives Club . . . Kaveri especially is charming.' OVIDIA YU, author of The Cannonball Tree Mystery'Nagendra makes her fiction debut with an exceptional series launch. . . rich, edifying, and authentic' Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewThe Witching Hour: A thrilling new Dandy Gilver mystery to enjoy this summer (Dandy Gilver #17)
By Catriona McPherson. 2024
♥️ ' . . . an absolute delight . . . these are the perfect reads for a night by…
the fire' ♥️ ScotsmanWar is hovering on the horizon, and Dandy Gilver wants nothing more than to keep her friends and family close. But then a call in the night places her oldest friend Daisy at the centre of a murder investigation. With her friend's future on the line, Dandy and her fellow sleuth Alec Osbourne must race to prove her innocence. But when they reach the idyllic Scottish village of Dirleton, residents confirm a woman was seen at the crime scene - an ancient stone called the louping stane, still spattered with the victim's blood. And the longer the detectives spend in the village the more they question Daisy's involvement. They're not getting the answers they need, but are they asking the right questions? . . .The Brass Age
By Slobodan Šnajder. 2024
'Like Olga Tokarczuk, Šnajder has written a novel about a Europe that has lost its diversity and has beendestroyed by…
fascism, communism and, in recent times, nationalism ... a modern epic' Le Monde'A masterpiece' La RepubblicaThe very next day processions of young men, some still children, began to move around the little town of Nuštar, with drums providing a steady rhythm ... These young men came from German families, Germans living outside the Reich, Volksdeutsche. Some stayed in their houses, some were shut up in the storeroom by their mothers, but as time went on more and more of them followed the drumming ...1769. A hungry year in Germany. Kempf the ancestor departs his homeland with his compatriots in search of a brighter future. Years pass and generations of Germans make Slavonia their home. But in 1940, when Europe is at war once more, this minority, the Volksdeutsch, are called to fight for the Reich, for a land now foreign to them.Among their ranks is Georg Kempf, the narrator's father. Forcibly conscripted into the Waffen SS, he deserts, aware of the danger that this involves. At the end of the war, he falls in love with a committed partisan called Vera despite the unimaginable: if they had met earlier, each one would have had to kill the other.The Brass Age, Slobodan Šnajder's masterpiece, is both a family saga and a powerful historical novel about the destiny of those shackled by history, and the generations doomed to inherit the contradictory fates of their forebears. Šnajder looks to his own biography to capture two hundred years of conflict and dividing ideology. In the process, he reconstructs a world that fell apart.Pay Dirt: the gripping new crime thriller from the international bestseller
By Sara Paretsky. 2024
Sometimes, time doesn't heal all wounds...When a young woman named Sabrina disappears without a trace in Kansas, private investigator V.I.…
Warshawski knows she must act fast. But when she discovers Sabrina close to death in a drug house, the locals don't take kindly to her - and Sabrina's mother becomes suspicious. V.I. finds herself under the sharp gaze of the FBI - and the men running the county's opioid distribution. And when a dead body surfaces a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a battle between the locals - with roots that date all the way back to the American Civil War.The war might be over, but its legacy remains - and V.I.'s survival depends on keeping one step ahead in a game she doesn't even know she's playing...Pay Dirt: the gripping new crime thriller from the international bestseller
By Sara Paretsky. 2024
Sometimes, time doesn't heal all wounds...When a young woman named Sabrina disappears without a trace in Kansas, private investigator V.I.…
Warshawski knows she must act fast. But when she discovers Sabrina close to death in a drug house, the locals don't take kindly to her - and Sabrina's mother becomes suspicious. V.I. finds herself under the sharp gaze of the FBI - and the men running the county's opioid distribution. And when a dead body surfaces a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a battle between the locals - with roots that date all the way back to the American Civil War.The war might be over, but its legacy remains - and V.I.'s survival depends on keeping one step ahead in a game she doesn't even know she's playing...'I was blown away by this dark, enchanting story of witchcraft, power and injustice. ..nothing short of brilliant' Mary ChamberlainErzsébet…
Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', was accused of the murder of over 600 peasant girls in Hungary, 1610. The Nightingale's Castle tells the story of a woman fighting for her survival and the complicated, often cruel, household over which she presides.Praise for The Nightingale's Castle'Moving, fascinating and haunting.. A mesmerising combination of gothic horror and elegant restraint' Francesca De Tores, author of Saltblood'Gripping... a fascinating exploration of women's struggle to have their truth heard' Louise O'NeillIn 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Trusted members of the countess's household have been sent out to gather new serving girls, and the kindly old man who has taken care of Boróka for almost all her life knows that it is dangerous to turn them away.Boróka struggles to find her place at Cachtice Castle: she is frightened of the countess's reputation as an alleged murderer of young girls, and the women who run the castle are terrifyingly cruel. When plague comes into the heart of the castle, a tentative bond begins to form between Boróka and the Countess Báthory. But powerful forces are moving against a woman whose wealth poses such a threat to the king: can the countess really trust the women who are so close to her? And when the show trial begins against the infamous 'Blood Countess' where will Boróka's loyalties lie?If Only She Knew: A twisty humorous mystery series (If Only She Knew Mystery Series #1)
By Pamela Crane. 2023
WITH OVER 100,000 COPIES SOLD, THIS HUMOROUS MYSTERY SERIES IS GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU ON YOUR TOES!For over a century,…
death visits Bloodson Bay on the same day every year, and no one knows why…When a girl goes missing, Peace Bloodson's family is blamed as the "curse" strikes again—a deadly phenomenon that happens every year in her small town. Dark tales are retold in fearful whispers around campfires about an ancient murder. Wide-eyed children search the shadows for ghosts said to haunt the townsfolk. And the abandoned manor at the edge of Peace's farm, called the Slaughter Shed for good reason, holds unexplainable mysteries.As the rumors and body count grow, so does Peace's determination to crack the case. A hidden journal reveals a sinister family history along with a chilling link to the missing girl. To restore Peace's reputation and lay the spirits to rest, she must expose this terrible secret.While Peace is dangerously close to causing a public scandal and tearing her life apart, she faces a much more sinister threat. Someone will kill to keep the truth hidden as she faces the same deadly fate.Throw on your favorite flannel and combat boots, then dive into this 1990s throwback thriller that smells like teen spirit as a group of friends risk their so-called lives to stop a century-old murder spree...Fans of Nita Prose's The Maid, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series, and Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club are raving about this witty new twisty mystery series!Buy If Only She Knew to start this addicting series today!The Harlot's Tale: A Midwife Mystery (The Midwife's Tale #2)
By Sam Thomas. 2013
Sam Thomas's The Harlot's Tale takes readers back to Civil War England in this riveting sequel to The Midwife's Tale,…
hailed as an "ingenious, fast-paced mystery" by Kirkus ReviewsIt is August, 1645, one year since York fell into Puritan hands. As the city suffers through a brutal summer heat, Bridget Hodgson and Martha Hawkins are drawn into a murder investigation more frightening than their last. In order to appease God's wrath—and end the heat-wave—the city's overlords have launched a brutal campaign to whip the city's sinners into godliness. But for someone in York, this is not enough. First a prostitute and her client are found stabbed to death, then a pair of adulterers are beaten and strangled. York's sinners have been targeted for execution.Bridget and Martha—assisted once again by Will, Bridget's good-hearted nephew—race to find the killer even as he adds more bodies to his tally. The list of suspects is long: Hezekiah Ward, a fire and brimstone preacher new to York; Ward's son, Praise-God, whose intensity mirrors his father's; John Stubb, one of Ward's fanatic followers, whose taste for blood may not have been sated by his time in Parliament's armies. Or could the killer be closer to home? Will's brother Joseph is no stranger to death, and he shares the Wards' dreams of driving sin from the city.To find the killer, Bridget, Martha, and Will must uncover the city's most secret sins, and hope against hope that the killer does not turn his attention in their direction.The Bughouse Affair: A Carpenter And Quincannon Mystery (The Carpenter and Quincannon Mysteries #1)
By Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini. 2013
In The Bughouse Affair, this first of a new series of lighthearted historical mysteries set in 1890s San Francisco, former…
Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations.Sabina's case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady "dip" who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places. Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate's lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee. The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes. Fans of Marcia's Muller's bestselling Sharon McCone novels and Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective series will applaud this and future exploits from the annals of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services.The Carpenter and Quincannon Mysteries:#1 The Bughouse Affair#2 The Spook Lights Affair#3 The Body Snatchers Affair#4 The Plague of Thieves Affair#5 The Dangerous Ladies Affair#6 The Bags of Tricks AffairAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.God's Kingdom: A Novel
By Howard Frank Mosher. 2015
Howard Frank Mosher is one of America's most acclaimed writers. His fiction, set in the world of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom,…
chronicles the intertwining family histories of the natives, wanderers, outcasts, and fugitives-white, Native American, escaped slaves fleeing north, French Canadians, and others-who settled in this remote and beautiful place. God's Kingdom explores the Kinneson family through the coming of age of the heir, Jim, and its rich and complicated history. Earnest and innocent, a bright high school student, Jim grows curious about the unspoken "trouble in the family" that haunts his father, a small-town newspaper editor, and his grandfather, a raconteur who keeps the Kinnesons' secrets to himself. Layer by layer, tale by tale, sorting out fact from deliberately obscured legend, Jim explores the Kinnesons' long relationship with others in the Kingdom, culminating in a discovery that forever changes his life and place in that world. Beginning with a magical Thanksgiving Day hunting trip in the autumn mountains, and ending with Jim on the brink of leaving home to find life-and perhaps love-on the other side of the ridge, God's Kingdom unfolds with the patient delight of a master storyteller.A Curtain Falls: A Novel (Detective Simon Ziele #2)
By Stefanie Pintoff. 2010
Following on the heels of Stefanie Pintoff's acclaimed and award-winning debut, A Curtain Falls is a moody and evocative tale…
that follows Ziele and his partners as they scour the dark streets of early-twentieth-century New York in search of a true fiend.The careers of New York City detective Simon Ziele and his former partner Captain Declan Mulvaney went in remarkably different directions after the tragic death of Ziele's fiancée in the 1904 General Slocum ferry disaster. Although both men were earmarked for much bigger things, Ziele moved to Dobson, a small town north of the city, to escape the violence, and Mulvaney buried himself even deeper, agreeing to head up the precinct in the most crime-ridden area in the city.Yet with all of the detectives and resources at Mulvaney's disposal, a particularly puzzling crime compels him to look for someone he can trust absolutely. When a chorus girl is found dead on a Broadway stage dressed in the leading lady's costume, there are no signs of violence, no cuts, no bruises—no marks at all. If pressed, the coroner would call it a suicide, but then that would make her the second girl to turn up dead in such a manner in the last few weeks. And the news of a possible serial killer would be potentially disastrous to the burgeoning theater world, not to mention the citizens of New York.Run Afoul: A Mystery (Wiki Coffin Mysteries #3)
By Joan Druett. 2006
U.S. Exploring Expedition linguist Wiki Coffin sails with the famous convoy of ships toward Brazil, where he faces a whole…
new set of trials and tribulations, not the least being blamed for the sudden grave illness of a fellow crewman. But soon his own fate will be the least of his problems. As the great flagship Vincennes leads the convoy under the dubious command of eccentric captain Charles Wilkes toward a dramatic entrance in the port of Rio, careless maneuvering leads one of the vessels to run afoul of a Salem trading ship. The trader is owned and commanded by none other than the famous and larger-than-life Captain William Coffin, father to Wiki and sailor of all seven seas (plus another dozen or so he's managed to invent in his years of telling tall tales). The encounter sets in motion a series of chaotic events that reunite Coffin with his illegitimate half-Maori son and that will see two men dead, Captain Coffin on trial for murder, and Wiki working feverishly to unmask the real killers before the Expedition sails on—leaving his father at the mercy of an unforgiving Brazilian court.Small Blessings: A Novel
By Martha Woodroof. 2014
From debut novelist Martha Woodroof comes an inspiring tale of a small-town college professor, a remarkable new woman at the…
bookshop, and the ten-year old son he never knew he had. Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a quiet and half-fulfilled life. An English professor in a sleepy college town, he spends his days browsing the Shakespeare shelves at the campus bookstore, managing the oddball faculty in his department and caring, alongside his formidable mother-in-law, for his wife Marjory, a fragile shut-in with unrelenting neuroses, a condition exacerbated by her discovery of Tom's brief and misguided affair with a visiting poetess a decade earlier.Then, one evening at the bookstore, Tom and Marjory meet Rose Callahan, the shop's charming new hire, and Marjory invites Rose to their home for dinner, out of the blue, her first social interaction since her breakdown. Tom wonders if it's a sign that change is on the horizon, a feeling confirmed upon his return home, where he opens a letter from his former paramour, informing him he'd fathered a son who is heading Tom's way on a train. His mind races at the possibility of having a family after so many years of loneliness. And it becomes clear change is coming whether Tom's ready or not.A heartwarming story with a charmingly imperfect cast of characters to cheer for, Small Blessings's wonderfully optimistic heart that reminds us that sometimes, when it feels like life has veered irrevocably off track, the track shifts in ways we never can have imagined.Chasing the Dragon: A Novel (The North Beach Mysteries #1)
By Domenic Stansberry. 2004
With Chasing the Dragon, Domenic Stansberry--the acclaimed writer of modern noir--introduces a new hardboiled series set in San Francisco. In…
this, the series opener, Stansberry tells a story written in clear homage to the masters of the genre, yet with an original, breathtaking voice all his own.A complicated, shadowy man in disgrace, Dante Mancuso leads a double life. Lately, though, the line he walks has become razor thin. Dante works for The Company, a nebulous security organization operating just this side of the law. Dante wants out, but it's a hard life to leave behind-rich with its own seductions, its own dark attractions. His latest assignment sends him back to his old North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco. First rendezvous? His estranged father's funeral in the dying heart of Little Italy. Here Dante picks up the strands of his old life and soon finds himself playing an even more elaborate game, a game that involves not just his duplicitous family, but also his ex-fiancée and his former colleagues in the San Francisco Police Department. Adept as he is, Dante can not play this game forever, pursued by the laconic Frank Ying, a Chinese detective anxious to know the secrets Dante hides. Caught between the sinister imperatives of The Company and the ghosts of his own past, Dante treads a harrowing path to a confrontation more lethal-and more surprising-than he could have imagined.