The most famous of highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, may actually marry at last. The entire village of Lochdubh adores Macbeth's bride-to-be. Josie McSween is Hamish's new constable, and she is a pretty little thing, with glossy brown hair and big brown eyes. The local folk think that Josie is quite a catch, but Hamish couldn't be more miserable. The wedding wouldn't be happening if it weren't for the murder of a beautiful woman in a nearby village. After the gorgeous woman receives a deadly Valentine's Day gift, Hamish and Josie take on the case. However, they soon discover that the list of the victim's admirers is endless.

When a debonair stranger takes interest in her, 16-year-old Katya Spivak is enticed by his wealthy, cultured lifestyle. But things turn sinister, and Katya begins to question this mysterious benefactor's real motives.

A meteorite has passed straight through the Earth. Wyman Ford is called to investigate its mysterious exit hole. What he finds shatters all that is known about the universe. There is an ancient structure buried deep in Mobius Crater on one of Mars' moons. Sticking up from the structure is the unmistakable outline of a gun. It was built to monitor the solar system and destroy any intelligent life that might challenge it -- but built by whom? The end-game is at hand. Ford and a team of scientists must figure out how to destroy the alien doomsday weapon aimed at Earth…in the next sixty hours.

Linc Blaise needed the perfect fiancée to win his dream job, but finding a woman who'd be convincing in a charade seemed impossible-until he heard Daisy Flattery charm her way out of a sticky situation! Playing the prim and proper bride-to-be was a lark to the dazzling storyteller, but once she glimpsed the touching vulnerability Linc tried to hide, pretense turned into temptation. Could she find a way to make their fairy tale last?

Beautiful actress Mallory Thane endured the harsh, unforgiving glare of publicity during the trial in which she stood accused of murdering her husband. But even the acquittal that set her free couldn't ease the heartache of her ordeal. Desperate to get back her life, her career, and her sanity, she accepts a new movie deal on an island paradise-only to realize that she has walked into a trap. Her captor is power player Sabin Wyatt, a dark, enigmatic man who still holds Mallory responsible for his brother Ben's death. But at the root of his scheme is his obsessive need to possess the woman who haunts his dreams, no matter what truth she's hiding.

At last, together in one collection, are Lisa Scottoline's wildly popular Philadelphia Inquirer columns. In her column, Lisa shows the humorous side of life from a woman's perspective., including: being caught braless in the emergency room; Betty and Veronica's Life Lessons for Girls; a man's most important body part; interrupting as an art form; a religion men and women can worship; real estate ads as porn; Spanx® are public enemy number one; and so much more about life, love, family, pets, and the pursuit of jeans that actually fit!

Adrian Monk is horrified when he learns there's going to be a blue flu in San Francisco. He doesn't understand what the blue flu is -- but it sounds terrible. Captain Stottlemeyer explains that it's not really a virus: the police force plan to call in "sick" until they get a better contract. The good news is that the labor dispute will give Monk a chance to get back on the force. The bad news is, it means he'll be a "scab" -- and he doesn't like the sound of that, either.

Lancashire, England, June, 1920. Who was the woman who lived and died behind the red door? What did she see before she died? And who was the man who never came home from the Great War, for the simple reason that he had never really gone? How is the woman's death linked to his disappearance? And why is Scotland Yard blind to the connection, even when Inspector Ian Rutledge points it out?

A charity golf tournament in Maggody, Arkansas presents a bit of a challenge, since no one plays golf and there is no course. But considering the prize -- a top of the line bass boat -- nearly everyone in town quickly develops a profound interest. Tommy Ridner beats the odds and sinks a hole-in-one to win the boat on the first day of the tournament -- and is found dead the next day. Now the prize is once again up for grabs. Sheriff Arly Hanks tackles a complicated investigation -- and everyone in town is a suspect.

For Mack McKinley and his team of GhostWalker killing machines, urban warfare is an art -- and now he's come face-to-face with a woman who can play just as tough. She's Jaimie, a woman with a sapphire stare so potent it can destroy a man. Years ago she and Mack had a history -- volatile, erotic, and electric. Then she vanished. Now she's walked back into Mack's life, as a spy with more secrets than are good for her.

Readers of Patrick Taylor's books know Mrs. Kinky Kincaid as the unflappable housekeeper who looks after two frequently frazzled town doctors in the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo. But some forty-odd years before and many miles to the south, the girl who would someday be Kinky Kincaid was Maureen O'Hanlon, a farmer's daughter growing up in the emerald hills and glens of County Cork. A precocious girl on the cusp of womanhood, Maureen has a head full of dreams, a heart open to romance, and something more: a gift for seeing beyond the ordinary into the realm of fairies, spirits, and even the dreaded Banshee, whose terrifying wail she first hears on a snowy night in 1922. As she grows into a young woman, Maureen finds herself torn between love and her fondest aspirations, for the future is a mystery even for one blessed with the sight.

To judge by the worldwide success of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot, it is not only the Anglo-Saxons who have an appetite for mystery and mayhem. Talking about the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal thoughts and observations on one of the most popular and enduring forms of literature, P. D. James examines the challenges, achievements and potential of a genre which has fascinated her for nearly fifty years as a novelist. P. D. James explores the metamorphosis of a genre which has gripped and entertained the popular imagination like no other type of novel. Written by the author widely regarded as the queen of the detective novel, this book is sure to appeal to all aficionados of crime fiction.

The rich master of Enderby Hall, Richard Abernethie, has passed away, leaving his massive fortune divided up between family members. The rest of his family are quick to stop his sister Cora from speaking further when, at the reading of the will with Mr. Entwhistle, the family solicitor, she suggests that his death may not have been as natural as it appears to have been. The next day, another body shows up. Cora has been killed with a hatchet, supposedly during a robbery. Mr. Entwhistle speaks with family members and finds that they are less concerned with the death of Cora than they are with how her share of the fortune will be divided. He turns to brilliant detective Hercule Poirot for help.

The nuclear scientist has disappeared. Asked to impersonate his late wife, Hilary takes on a dangerous mission to fool those who might know where he is. But a faked air disaster, radioactive pearls, and a leper colony all lead her to a treacherous discovery: the truth can be terrifying. An Audie Award finalist!

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlowe finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

Three friends descend upon an art auction in search of some excitement. Mike Mackenzie -- retired software mogul, bachelor and fine art enthusiast -- wants something that money can't buy. Fellow art-lover Allan Cruickshank is bored with his banking career and burdened by a painful divorce. And Robert Gissing, an art professor, is frustrated that so many paintings stay hidden in corporate boardrooms, safes and private apartments. After the auction-and a chance encounter with crime boss Chib Calloway-Robert and Allan suggest the "liberation" of several paintings from the National Gallery, hoping Mike will dissuade them. Instead, he hopes they are serious.

During their 20-year marriage, Tim and Jane Farnsworth have savored the fruits of his labor as a high-powered lawyer: they love in a beautiful home, they travel on exotic vacations. Tim has twice battled a bizarre, inexplicable illness, but those episodes, while not exactly forgotten, have passed. Then the illness returns, causing him to behave in a frightening, new way. Tim is driven out of his comfortable existence and into a way of life that he doesn't recognize, and that tests Jane's love in the most fundamental ways. How far will he go to fight his body's incomprehensible desires, and what will they both risk to find their way back to each other?

This definitive box set includes all the landmark speeches of the great orator and American leader Martin Luther King, Jr., from his inspirational "I Have a Dream" to his fiery "Give Us the Ballot." Comprised of recordings previously included in A Call to Conscience and A Knock at Midnight, The Essential Box Set is a must-have for any library collection.

Being a kid with wings--constantly on the run--has never been easy, and Max and her flock are getting tenser than ever. First, on a trip to Africa, they meet a mysterious billionaire whose intense scrutiny of the Flock makes her fear the worst. Then, a cryptic message from a young girl arrives, warning them "The sky will fall." And as if an impending apocalypse weren't bad enough, canny birdkid Angel makes a dire prophecy about Max's soul mate: Fang will be the first to die. Max's desperate desire to protect Fang brings the two closer than ever. But can the team weather the storm, or will the turmoil rip them apart for the last time?

A portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-nineteenth century, Cranford relates the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of vignettes, Elizabeth Gaskell portrays a community governed by old-fashioned habits and dominated by friendships between women. This excellent unabridged reading is narrated by Prunella Scales.

Mansfield Park is named for the magnificent, idyllic estate that is home to the wealthy Bertram family and a powerful symbol of tradition and stability. When Sir Thomas Bertram decides to bring up his poor niece Fanny with his own children, he introduces into Mansfield Park a strong character of good sense.

Alex Morrow is not new to the police force, but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, three armed men have slipped from a van into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems?

In debt after her husband's unexpected death, Meg Rosenthal secures a job as a teacher at an upstate New York boarding school. Meg and her teenage daughter, Sally, embark on a new life in Arcadia Falls, a beautiful but isolated small town. With a hurtful rift growing between her and her daughter, Meg is hopeful that the change will provide them with a fresh start. But it soon becomes clear to Meg that this isolated community hides deeply rooted and deadly secrets.

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell, the consummate politician.

Denver Jones is a young hotshot attorney working in L.A. Carolyn Henderson is personal assistant to a powerful senator with whom she is having an affair. Annabelle Maestro has carved out a career for herself in New York as the madame of choice for discerning famous men. And then there is Bobby Santangelo Stanislopoulos, who owns the hottest club in New York. The four went to high school together in Beverly Hills. When Annabelle's beautiful movie star mother is found dead, they are thrown together…and the secrets from their past come back to haunt them.

Dr. Nick Garrity spends his days and nights dispensing medical treatment from a mobile clinic for the homeless. Psych nurse Gillian Coates does not believe that her sister Belle, an ICU nurse, took her own life. Belle has left Gillian a subtle clue that connects her with Nick Garrity. Together, Nick and Gillian determine that one-by-one, each of those in the operating room during a fatally botched case is dying.

Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov is an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union. He and his team are searching for a serial killer who has claimed at least forty victims. And then there is the problem of protecting a visiting British journalist who is working on a story about a Moscow prostitution ring -- in doing so Rostnikov and his team uncover a chain of murders that lead to a source too high to be held accountable if the police want to keep their jobs -- or their lives.

Holloman, Connecticut, April 1967: twelve murders have taken place in the town on one day. Suddenly Captain Carmine Delmonico, chief of detectives, has other, more important matters to occupy him than finding a satisfactory name for his infant son. With his cohorts Abe Goldberg and Corey Marshall giving him unfailing support, Carmine embarks on what looks like an insoluble case.

Children of New York's elite are being abducted and held hostage. But the criminal doesn't crave money -- he only wants to ask these privileged kids if they know the price others pay for their luxurious lifestyles. A wrong answer has fatal consequences. The killer has insanely grand ambition -- and is about to bring the entire city to its knees. Detective Michael Bennett sets out to capture this mastermind.

When an abandoned pickup truck complete with suicide note leads a search party to find human remains that have clearly served as a snack for a bear, case closed -- it's suicide by Alaska. But things get complicated when the dead man stumbles out of the wilderness and onto Kate's homestead. Kate and Trooper Jim Chopin must unravel the story of the man and the body.

Seven years ago, Vivek Rai murdered Ruby Gill in a restaurant in New Delhi because she refused to serve him a drink. Now Vicky Rai is dead, killed at a party he had thrown to celebrate his acquittal. Six of the guests are discovered with guns in their possession and are taken in for questioning. Who are these six, and what were they doing that night? In this elaborate mystery we join Arun Advani, investigative journalist, as the lives of the six unravel.

Will Durant is known as a pioneer of modern philosophy and an expert on the history of civilization. Co-authored by Durant's wife Ariel, and encompassing a lifetime's work, The Lessons of History is a lush survey of human history, full of dazzling wisdom into civilization and human experience. This expanded edition was awarded a Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award.

Smart-aleck attorney Jackie Swaitkowski's business relies on constant movement of Hamptons' real estate market. After making an odd request to evict his sister-in-law from his home, one of her clients turns up dead. Jackie would have expected that to be the end of it, but an envelope found on the corpse contains an item so unusual that Jackie finds herself working on something bigger -- and more dangerous -- than real estate.

Serge A. Storms, the Sunshine State's numero uno favorite son, has made it his life's mission to eliminate the slimeballs of every flavor polluting his beloved state. From the panhandle to the Keys, he's laid down his own brand of law -- helped by his drug-addled deputy, Coleman -- terrorizing everyone from greedy land developers and crooked politicians to shady gangsters and Hollywood phonies.

An American senator, supposedly on a political trip to the Ukraine, turns up dead on the island of Capri. When the President asks Jack McClure to find out how and why this happened, he sets out from Moscow across Eastern Europe, following a perilous trail of diplomats, criminals, and corrupt politicians. Thrust into the midst of a global jigsaw puzzle, Jack's unique dyslexic mind allows him to put together the pieces that others can't even see.

1980s Britain. The Winshaw family -- an integral part of the British Establishment -- are becoming more wealthy and corrupt by the day. Newspaper columnist Hilary Winshaw gets thousands for telling it like it isn't; Henry is turning hospitals into carparks; Roddy is selling art in return for sex; down on the farm, Dorothy's squealing every last pound from her livestock; Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange, and Mark is selling arms to dictators. Michael Pearce, a reclusive novelist (and our narrator), is commissioned to write their biography by a wealthy geriatric who wishes to expose them.

Charles Dickens' gift for social commentary is displayed to brilliant effect in this story of the poor orphan, Oliver Twist. Oliver experiences the terror and brutality of the criminal world with his companions: a pickpocket, a thief, a prostitute, and a fence.

Newland Archer prided himself that in May Welland he had found the companion of his needs. Enter Countess Olenska, a woman of quick wit sharpened by experience, not afraid to flout convention and determined to find freedom in divorce. Against his judgment, Newland is drawn to the socially ostracized Ellen Olenska. He knows that in sweet-tempered May, he can expect stability and the steadying comfort of duty. But what new worlds could he discover with Ellen?

In Black Hills, Dan Simmons weaves together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, from the Battle of the Little Bighorn up through the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, depicting a violent and tumultuous time in the history of both Native and white Americans.

With only one bizarre clue to the agonizing death of a wealthy financier, Miss Marple must unravel a mystery hidden in a child's nursery rhyme that is to prove one of the strangest cases of her life.

Even Hercule Poirot can't explain why a thief has stolen all these unrelated items from a youth hostel: stethoscope, lipstick, diamond ring, and a cookbook. Soon, what first looks only like small-time mischief turns into a murder mystery – as well as hints of something more sinister than missing odds and ends.

Elspeth McGillicuddy was not a woman usually given to hallucinations. But when she witnesses a woman being strangled on a train, no one believes her. With no other witnesses and no corpse, she turns to the one person who can help, but how can Miss Marple solve a murder that appears not to have happened?

At 28, Michael Cantella is a rising star at a Wall Street investment bank when the love of his life, Ivy Layton, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Seven years later, on the eve of his 35th birthday, he logs into his investment accounts, and discovers that someone has wiped him out. The signs point to his first wife. Could she be back from the dead to destroy him?

Adam March loses his job and loses his wife. He is assigned to work in a soup kitchen as a form of community service. Unbeknownst to Adam, this is where his life will intersect with Chance. Chance is a mixed-breed pit bull. He's been raised to fight and seldom leaves the dirty basement where The Boys keep him in between fights. But Chance is not a victim or a monster. It is Chance's unique spirit that helps him escape and puts him in Adam's path.

Thirty-year-old Alex has always felt as if something is missing inside her, some small but essential piece of the puzzle. When her mother, Patsy, commits suicide without leaving behind any information about that past that tormented her, Alex is determined to follow any leads she can. She starts by tracking down the person who last spoke with her mother, Detective Daniel Reed. What he reveals is shocking, and soon she is drawn deep into the search for a twisted killer.

Basil Hallward, an artist, meets Dorian Gray and paints his portrait. The artist is so infatuated with Dorian's beauty that he begins to believe it is the reason for his quality of art. Dorian becomes convinced that beauty is all-important and wishes his portrait could age instead of him. Beware of what you have wish for! Each time Dorian commits a sin his portrait ages, showing him what is happening to his soul.

Benny Rosato's twin sister Alice drugs her and leaves her for dead, buried underground in a remote field. As Alice slips easily into Bennie's life, doing her job, interacting with her friends, seducing her boyfriend, she never counts on the fact that Bennie is tougher than she seems. And that, against all odds, Bennie will escape. But escaping is only the first challenge.

William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a Boston millionaire, the other a penniless Polish immigrant, are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream. Two ambitious men are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fueled by their all-consuming hatred. Over sixty years and three generations, through war, marriage, fortune, and disaster, Kane and Abel battle for the success and triumph that only one man can have.

When a young girl's body is found in a London cemetery and the local police, under the command of Wexford's nephew, are baffled, Wexford decides to brave his doctor's wrath and the condescension of the London police by doing a little investigating of his own. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes.

Dimiter opens in the world's most oppressive and isolated totalitarian state, Albania in the 1970s. A prisoner is held by state security; he is subjected to almost unimaginable torture but remains mysteriously mute. He escapes -- and on the way to freedom, completes a mysterious mission. The prisoner is Dimiter, the American "agent from Hell." The scene shifts to Jerusalem, focusing on Hadassah Hospital and a cast of engaging, colorful characters.

Milo Burke, a development officer at a third-tier university, has "not been developing": after a run-in with a well-connected undergrad, he finds himself among the burgeoning class of the newly unemployed. Grasping after odd jobs to support his wife and child, Milo is offered one last chance by his former employer...

Eldritch Swan is a dead man. Or at least that is what his nephew Stephen has always been told. Until one day Eldritch walks back into his life after 36 years in an Irish prison. His return should be of interest to no one. But the visit of a solicitor with a mysterious request will take Eldritch and his skeptical nephew on a journey that will transport them back to the Second World War and the mystery behind Eldritch's imprisonment.

What fun! The village party features a Murder Hunt, hosted by mystery writer Ariadne Oliver. Follow the game's make-believe clues and be the first to find the body. Only this time, it isn't a game, and the clues lead to a genuine corpse. Ariadne needs the help of her old friend, Hercule Poirot, who cracks the case and finds the murderer.

When Richard Hannay returns from a long stay in Africa, he becomes caught up in a plot to precipitate a pan-European war. After a corpse is found in his flat, Hannay flees the attentions of both the conspirators and the law, and a manhunt ensues.

August, 1914: Michael Clifton -- the youngest son of an Englishman -- puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to enlist as a cartographer. By 1917, he is listed among the missing. April, 1932: Investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael's parents, recently arrived from America after learning that their son's remains were discovered in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were discovered among their son's belongings -- a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet, wartime love.

Photojournalist Katie James is working on a story of international importance. But shortly after her meeting with a potential inside source, she is smuggled unconscious onto an airplane headed to an undisclosed destination. In the days to come, Katie and Shaw will be reunited in a deadly duel of nerve and wits against a surprising, secretive enemy and led around the world at a breakneck pace.

A young woman and her infant child are ruthlessly gunned down while returning to their car in the garage of a shopping mall. The same night, the wife of A-list actor Marcus Dowling walks in on a cat burglar. In just seconds there is an empty safe, a lifeless body, and another mystery that throws San Francisco into hysteria. Detective Lindsay Boxer summons her friends in the Women's Murder Club. She is asked to put her own life on the line -- but will it be enough?

Hospitalized after a liaison with another man's wife ends in violence, Paul Cole has just one goal: to rebuild his shattered life. But with his memory damaged, the police hounding him, and no way even to get home, Paul's facing steep odds -- and a bleak fate if he fails. This final, never-before-published novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake is a noir masterpiece, a dark and painful portrait of a man's struggle against merciless forces.

When Abraham Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died from an ailment called "the milk sickness." Only later did he learn that his mother's deadly affliction was actually the work of a local vampire. When the truth became known to the young Abraham Lincoln, he wrote in his journal that he would devote himself to the elimination of all vampires. Seth Grahame-Smith has reconstructed the life story of our greatest president for the first time.

Louise Watkins runs the boardinghouse that is her family's main source of income. A stranger ill with influenza has taken refuge in an old cabin in the woods nearby. Although badly scarred by wounds suffered in the War, he is strong and slowly recovers. When he gradually takes on odd jobs around the house, Louise accepts his help. She is drawn to him despite his disfigurement, and his voice is comforting, yet vaguely familiar.

April Lavery has vanished. A junior doctor at a local hospital, she is something of a trailblazer in the deeply conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin. Phoebe Griffin, her best friend, immediately suspects the worst. Frantic, Phoebe seeks out Quirke, her brilliant but erratic father, and asks him for help. Quirke becomes deeply involved in April's murky story, and encounters complicated and ugly truths about race-hatred, Catholic ruthlessness, and family savagery.

Syn was raised as a tech-thief until his livelihood uncovered a truth that could end his life. He has been on the run ever since. Now trained as an assassin, he allows no one to threaten him. Shahara Dagan is the best bounty hunter in the universe. When Syn comes back on the radar, she’s the only one who can bring him to justice. There’s only one problem: Syn is a close family friend. But if she saves him, both of their lives will be on the line.

An unexpected discovery takes eighty-four-year-old Lily Davis Woodward back to 1945, and five days that forever changed her life. Married for only a week before her husband was sent to fight in WWII, Lily is anxious for his return. After a chance encounter, Jake Russo, a handsome Italian immigrant also back from war, steals Lily’s heart. Now, torn between duty and true love, Lily must make a difficult choice.

FBI special agent Brad Raines is facing his toughest case yet. A Denver serial killer has murdered four beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each crime scene, and he’s picking up his pace. Raines appeals for help at a private psychiatric institution for gifted, yet mentally ill, individuals. It’s there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family. Raines enlists Paradise’s help--but will it be too late?

Jacko is convicted of his mother’s murder and dies in prison. Two years later, a stranger arrives to confirm Jacko’s disbelieved alibi. But if Jacko wasn’t guilty, who is? Each family member becomes detective, suspect, and potential victim.

In a palace in Ramat, a prince entrusts a stash of jewels to his pilot, in the hope that he can smuggle them to England. But before they reach their destination the prince and the pilot are both dead. To the people after the jewels, murder is a small price. Then a frightened girl brings Hercule Poirot an astounding case: A killer is terrorizing a famous school for girls; an unsuspecting student has become a magnet for evil and death. Somehow the two cases are linked.

Have you ever wondered how lone wolf Clayton Danvers finally got bitten by the last thing he ever expected: love? Or how the hot-blooded bad-girl witch Eve Levine managed to ensnare the cold, ruthless corporate sorcerer, Kristof Nast in one of the Otherworld’s most unlikely pairings? Now, Otherworld readers can share these moments with some of their favorite characters—as well as catching welcome glimpses into the minds of some of the lesser-known players.

When Sandor snatched little Joe from the path of a London Tube train, he was quick to make clear the terms of the rescue. “I saved your life,” he told the homeless youngster, “so your life belongs to me now.” Sandor began to tell him a fairy-tale: an aging prince, a kidnapped princess chained by one ankle, a missed rendezvous. But what did this mysterious story have to do with Sandor’s preparations? Joe had only understood his own role: he was a gallowglass, the servant of a Chief.

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s smashed a hostile alliance of five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. have turned Charis into a place of refuge. Their success may prove short-lived. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martins is nicknamed the Hard Detective because of her tough stance. But while investigating the murder of Britain’s number one tennis player, Harriet falls madly and passionately in love with a fellow officer.

Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father Jack, a hard drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: they are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before—and his father is their prime suspect.

Having outwitted a band of pirates to obtain a map disclosing the whereabouts of Captain Flint’s treasure, Young Jim sets sail for Treasure Island. But the crew of the Hispaniola are not what they seem.

Anna Karenina seems to have everything—beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.

Serena Jameson looked like a cross between a temptress and a teenager, but she could be gently ruthless when it came to getting Brian Ashford to make his move! The handsome industrialist was determined to protect her from danger -- in the form of rakish playboy Joshua Long. But when Serena pleaded with Brian to teach her how to seduce a man, she ignited a primitive heat that shattered his control…and hers.

Mark Genevich is stuck in a rut: his narcolepsy isn't improving, his private-detective business is barely scraping by, and his landlord mother is forcing him to attend group therapy sessions. Desperate for companionship, Mark goes on a two-day bender with a slick and charismatic acquaintance, Gus. When Gus asks Mark to protect a friend who is being stalked, Mark inexplicably finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.

Zachary Mason's brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer's classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer's original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations.

HALO: EVOLUTIONS features a wide variety of tales set across the span of the Halo universe. Contributing brand-new original stories are New York Times bestselling Halo novelists Eric Nylund and Tobias Buckell, as well as Halo newcomer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss. The collection also includes a number of other bestselling and award-winning writers, as well as contributions from the games writers and creators themselves, including original Halo contributor, Robt McLees of Bungie, LLC.

In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman start to make love, trapping a burglar behind a secret wall. Then the passion turns deadly, and the witness is running into the night. Because what he has just seen is a brutal slaying involving the president of the United States.

For a thousand years the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.