Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.  

Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she had kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust. This book reveals that story. Nonna?s childhood writings, revisited in her late adulthood, tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl from a...  more

Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she had kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust. This book reveals that story. Nonna?s childhood writings, revisited in her late adulthood, tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl from a family that had known wealth and privilege, then exposed to German labor camps, learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness. This story of loss, of love, and of forgiveness is one you will not forget.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there...  more

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last year of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic -- a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old...  more

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last year of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic -- a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding.  For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annexe" of an old office building.  Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. With an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt.

When the body of 45-year-old Glen Harrelson was found in his Denver home, police tried to contact his wife, but soon they made a startling realization. She had played the part of grieving widow once before: her previous husband also had died a mysterious accidental death... In a true story as...  more

When the body of 45-year-old Glen Harrelson was found in his Denver home, police tried to contact his wife, but soon they made a startling realization. She had played the part of grieving widow once before: her previous husband also had died a mysterious accidental death... In a true story as shocking as any fiction, The Confessions of an American Black Widow is the amazing account of Sharon Lynn Nelson, a wild, beautiful preacher's wife who couldn't get enough -- enough sex, enough money, or enough of her rugged "Mountain Man" lover, Gary Adams. Nelson was so consumed by greed that she convinced Adams to kill two of her three husbands in order to cash in on their insurance policies. Here is a compelling portrait of a woman driven by the darkest forces to mate, then kill -- an American black widow who ultimately got snared in her own twisted web...

Some people wait for the end of their working years to do those things they've always wanted to do, but now you can explore how to make the most of life even before retirement.Why wait until retirement to have all the fun? 101 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO BEFORE YOU RETIRE encourages readers not to...  more

Some people wait for the end of their working years to do those things they've always wanted to do, but now you can explore how to make the most of life even before retirement.Why wait until retirement to have all the fun? 101 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO BEFORE YOU RETIRE encourages readers not to postpone until tomorrow the adventures they could be having today. They will learn that nearing retirement doesn't have to signal the start of a dull lifestyle. This book is chock full of practical and spiritual suggestions that help readers seize the gifts of every day. They'll live life to the max, experiencing moment by moment what God has planned for them.

Everyone relishes a good "strange but true" story now and again, and this book has 62 of them! These are stories of phenomena and occurrences that have completely defied conventional explanation -- events that have baffled scientists, stymied detectives, and intrigued ordinary mortals...  more

Everyone relishes a good "strange but true" story now and again, and this book has 62 of them! These are stories of phenomena and occurrences that have completely defied conventional explanation -- events that have baffled scientists, stymied detectives, and intrigued ordinary mortals for hundreds of years. Some of the stories are legendary, some have taken place in our own lifetime. Is it absolutely certain that Joan of Arc died at the stake? Did the Master of Macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, murder the "Cigar Girl"? Was Tchaikovsky a murder victim? Did Union soldiers kill John Wilkes Booth in 1865, or did he die 38 years later in a lodging house in Baltimore? Was martial arts superstar Bruce Lee murdered? Did Atlantis really exist? These mysteries and many more are explored in this entertaining read. Introduction -- The Count St Germain -- Hannah Brade -- William Harrison -- Harry Agannis -- Thomas Blood -- Reszo Seress -- Bruce Lee -- Spring-Heeled Jack -- Edgar Allan Poe -- Daniel Dunglas Home -- The Xinjiang Mummies -- The Alençon Spaceman -- The man on the shroud -- The ohantom writers -- Bill Frost -- The Magi -- Elizabeth Canning -- Reynard Beck -- Jacques Cazotte -- Andrew Crosse -- Prester John -- The man in the iron mask -- Pope Joan -- The A38 hitch-hiker -- Jack the Ripper -- Victor Grayson -- Richard Bingham -- Valentine Greatrakes -- "Alice" -- The men in black -- Sadhu Sundar Singh -- Joan of Arc -- Homer -- Richard III -- Michel de Nostrdame -- Kaspar Hauser -- Jonathan Swift -- Janet Ursula Southiel -- The Long man of Wilmington -- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky -- Coinneach Odhar -- William Shakespeare -- Robert Nixon -- Robin Hood -- Sir Henry Cavendish -- John Lee -- John Wilkes Booth -- Charles Walton -- Adolf Hitler -- Emanuel Swedenborg -- The Atlanteans -- The green children. Charles Wells -- The Lunarians -- Thomas Cregreen Williams -- Lionel "Buster" Crabb -- The mystery airship pilots -- Vampires -- Doppelgängers -- The Tunguska alien -- "Zodiac" -- The frozen woman

Not one of Shakespeare?s plays exists in manuscript form until a failing bookseller discovers a long-lost, early version of HAMLET. In an attempt to trace the puzzling manuscript's origins, its new owner finds he can?t trust the identity of play?s author and soon has doubts about his own. But by...  more

Not one of Shakespeare?s plays exists in manuscript form until a failing bookseller discovers a long-lost, early version of HAMLET. In an attempt to trace the puzzling manuscript's origins, its new owner finds he can?t trust the identity of play?s author and soon has doubts about his own. But by then, the race to stage the new HAMLET is on, taking a toll on everyone involved. In the end, the new play leaves audience and actors alike wondering about the unexpected and moving consequences of the play they?ve just experienced.

Thomas L. Friedman's no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy--both of which could poison our world if we do not act...  more

Thomas L. Friedman's no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy--both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future. Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy--which he calls "Geo-Greenism"--is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure. As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era--the Energy-Climate era--through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought 3 billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted "green revolution" has hardly begun. With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation. Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman--fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today. Unabridged - 17 CDs - 21 hours - read by Audie Award winner Oliver Wyman

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the...  more

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition? From the Hardcover edition.

A Union officer struggles homeward through a Christmas Eve snowstorm, haunted by loss and doubtful of the future. Paroled from a brutal prison camp, a young southern soldier yearns to find the one person he loves most in the world -- and worries over the devastation rumored to have reached his...  more

A Union officer struggles homeward through a Christmas Eve snowstorm, haunted by loss and doubtful of the future. Paroled from a brutal prison camp, a young southern soldier yearns to find the one person he loves most in the world -- and worries over the devastation rumored to have reached his family's mountain. An immigrant private plans a startling Christmas surprise for his comrades. And a newly freed slave must choose between the desire for revenge and his longing to be a better man than his master . . . From northern colliery towns to ruined Old South plantations and the divided loyalties of the Appalachian Mountains, Owen Parry casts his storyteller's spell with a collection of unforgettable tales celebrating the enduring spirit of Christmas. Moving from darkness toward the light in the grand tradition of holiday tales, these stories are bound to become classics of the American yuletide season. Whether whispering an old-fashioned Christmas ghost story or reminding us that not all who suffered war's losses wore uniforms, the author always leads us back to the joyous beauty -- the miracle -- of Christmas. Moving and heartfelt, Our Simple Gifts revives the tradition of Christmas tales for grown-ups. As quietly as snow falls on holly, these Civil War Christmas tales will insist on being read again, year after year.  

Miami trail lawyer Jake Lassiter, "ex-football player, ex-public defender, ex-a-lot-of-things," is defending Dr. Roger Salisbury, a surgeon and womanizer charged with malpractice in the death of wealthy Philip Corrigan. But the dead man's daughter insists that the doctor and her...  more

Miami trail lawyer Jake Lassiter, "ex-football player, ex-public defender, ex-a-lot-of-things," is defending Dr. Roger Salisbury, a surgeon and womanizer charged with malpractice in the death of wealthy Philip Corrigan. But the dead man's daughter insists that the doctor and her sexy stepmother conspired to kill her father -- and wants Lassiter to prove it. Can Lassiter really defend his client for malpractice and build a case against him for murder? Turning for help to the wisdom of his old friend, retired county coroner Charlie Riggs, Lassiter hopes to get the evidence he needs from the dead man himself. But outside the courtroom, he soon finds more trouble that he ever imagined -- possible -- murder, missing persons, grave robbery, kinky sex, and deadly drugs -- as he searched Florida's steamy streets and tropical swamps for a cold-blooded killer.

This book details the lives and careers of fifteen women whose crimes have, at one time or another, stained the pages of history. Parricide, fratricide and, most terrible of all, infanticide; murder under trust; serial murder, including the stalking and killing of men; torture, persecution,...  more

This book details the lives and careers of fifteen women whose crimes have, at one time or another, stained the pages of history. Parricide, fratricide and, most terrible of all, infanticide; murder under trust; serial murder, including the stalking and killing of men; torture, persecution, massacre and judicial murder; sexually motivated killings; murders for gain or to conceal other crimes- all these and others are detailed in this fascinating study of the manifestation of true evil in women over some 2,000 years. From Roman empresses to jealous daughters and bored housewives, they have all been responsible for terrible crimes. Lizzie Borden : the Fall River murders -- Audrey Marie Hilley : secrets and lies -- Valeria Messalina : a Roman Lolita -- Agrippina the Younger : empress of poison -- Tz'u-hsi : the dragon empress -- Catherine the Great : empress of all the Russias -- Queen Ranavalona I : Bloody Mary of Madagascar -- Elena Ceausescu : mother of the fatherland -- Mary Ann Cotton : the black widow -- Marie Noe : an unlucky parent -- Rose West : the house of horror -- Grace Marks : a teenage temptress -- Aileen Carol Wuornos : damsel of death -- Myra Hindley : the face of evil -- Karl Homolka : lovebirds

The greatest fantasy epic of our time...  Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders and worse unknown...  more

The greatest fantasy epic of our time...  Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders and worse unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo --- alone and unaided --- who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside... This stirring adventure fantasy begins the tale of the hobbits that was continued by J.R.R. Tolkien in his bestselling epic The Lord of the Rings.

It began the evening pretty Gwynn Elston, hoping to sell a children's encyclopaedia, called at the Frankline Gillett residence. The sight of 7-year-old Frankie was shock enough, but the photograph of Franklin Sr. stunned her with its implication -- both father and son were the image of...  more

It began the evening pretty Gwynn Elston, hoping to sell a children's encyclopaedia, called at the Frankline Gillett residence. The sight of 7-year-old Frankie was shock enough, but the photograph of Franklin Sr. stunned her with its implication -- both father and son were the image of Felting Grimes, husband of her best friend, Nell... — Later, at the Grimes residence, shock changed to fear when Felting, strangely interested in Gwynn's recent whereabouts, pressed on her a drink that immediately roused her suspicions. She poured it out, carefully taking a sample of the residue... That's where Perry Mason entered the picture. But he was scarcely on scene before Felting Grimes was discovered, a bullet hole in his chest...

The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the AmazonIn 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project...  more

The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the AmazonIn 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself, along with its golf courses, ice-cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model Ts rolling down broad streets. Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, quickly became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the car magnate, lean, austere, the man who reduced industrial production to its simplest motions; on the other, the Amazon, lush, extravagant, the most complex ecological system on the planet. Ford?s early success in imposing time clocks and square dances on the jungle soon collapsed, as indigenous workers, rejecting his midwestern Puritanism, turned the place into a ribald tropical boomtown. Fordlandia?s eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest. More than a parable of one man?s arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, Fordlandia depicts a desperate quest to salvage the bygone America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch. As Greg Grandin shows in this gripping and mordantly observed history, Ford?s great delusion was not that the Amazon could be tamed but that the forces of capitalism, once released, might yet be contained.

Award-winning journalist Julian Sher goes behind the headlines about child pornography to describe how police officers, prosecutors, and high-tech analysts are fighting back against a tide of abuse to save victims. Granted extraordinary access by law enforcement agencies worldwide, Sher talks...  more

Award-winning journalist Julian Sher goes behind the headlines about child pornography to describe how police officers, prosecutors, and high-tech analysts are fighting back against a tide of abuse to save victims. Granted extraordinary access by law enforcement agencies worldwide, Sher talks with FBI investigators, Department of Homeland Security, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Interpol, New Scotland Yard, and sex crimes units in Canada and Australia. Drawing on candid jailhouse interviews in penitentiaries, court Confessions, and hidden blogs, Sher exposes the dark underbelly of the Web to reveal how predators isolate and groom their victims; how they use secret Internet chat rooms to swap images of abuse and security tips and tricks to foil the police; and how shady entrepreneurs make millions from the trade of child exploitation material. In riveting detail, we see how clue-by-clue, and image-by-image, investigators use CSI-type techniques and old-fashioned hard detective work to track down the predators. From Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond to a global child protection center in London, England, a new generation of computer technology is being developed to make the web safer for children. Included are the latest tips and resources for parents, children, and teens wanting to ensure safety online.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist gives a bold, timely, and surprising picture of the state of globalization in the twenty-first centuryWhen scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter “Y2K to March 2004,” what will...  more

The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist gives a bold, timely, and surprising picture of the state of globalization in the twenty-first centuryWhen scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter “Y2K to March 2004,” what will theysay was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world’s two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this “flattening” of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner? In this brilliant new work, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world, allowing listeners to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.

The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russian princess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944 and then as a nurse, these pages give us a unique picture of wartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20th of July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill...  more

The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russian princess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944 and then as a nurse, these pages give us a unique picture of wartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20th of July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill Hitler -- was born.

From a bestselling novelist with an unrivalled insight into the workings of power comes a compelling new novel exploring Winston Churchill's remarkable journey from the wilderness to No 10 Downing Street at the beginning of World War II. WINSTON'S WAR is a masterful blending of imagination and...  more

From a bestselling novelist with an unrivalled insight into the workings of power comes a compelling new novel exploring Winston Churchill's remarkable journey from the wilderness to No 10 Downing Street at the beginning of World War II. WINSTON'S WAR is a masterful blending of imagination and compelling fact that places the listener at the right hand of the most momentous events in our history. Saturday 1 October 1938. Winston Churchill has reached his lowest point. Reviled, mocked, accused of being nothing more than a drunken warmonger. Now his arch-rival, Neville Chamberlain, has done a deal with Hitler that destroys everything Churchill has fought for. But the world is about to change. Churchill is visited by a young and unkempt BBC journalist who rebukes him for being defeatist. It proves to be a turning point. Churchill grows to like his young visitor, who rekindles his determination to fight on. What Churchill doesn't know is that the man from the BBC is also a leading Soviet spy. His name is Guy Burgess. Now Michael Dobbs, one of the country's most acclaimed novelists, throws brilliant fresh light upon Churchill's relationship with Burgess and the twenty months of conspiracy, chance and outright treachery that propelled Churchill from outcast to messiah.

Before there was Liz Lemon, before there was "Sarah Palin," before there was "Weekend Update"--there was a woman with a dream. A dream that one day she would write a book about how she got here. But she had to get there first. On her way to becoming an award-winning superstar, Tina Fey...  more

Before there was Liz Lemon, before there was "Sarah Palin," before there was "Weekend Update"--there was a woman with a dream. A dream that one day she would write a book about how she got here. But she had to get there first. On her way to becoming an award-winning superstar, Tina Fey struggled through some questionable haircuts, some after-school jobs, the rise of nachos as a cultural phenomenon, a normal childhood, a happy marriage and joyful motherhood. Her story must be told! Fey's pursuit of the perfect beauty routine may actually give you laugh lines, and her depiction of her whirlwind tour of duty as the Other Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live takes you behind the scenes of a comedy event that transfixed the nation. Now, Fey can reflect on what she's learned: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

Cops are the people who see and hear it all. They work at one of the world's most dangerous jobs, but it's also one of the most entertaining. When their lives are at risk-and even when they aren't-cops encounter constant weirdness and stupidity in human behavior. The Funniest Cop Stories Ever...  more

Cops are the people who see and hear it all. They work at one of the world's most dangerous jobs, but it's also one of the most entertaining. When their lives are at risk-and even when they aren't-cops encounter constant weirdness and stupidity in human behavior. The Funniest Cop Stories Ever collects the strangest, most amusing stories about stupid crooks, bungled crimes, and station-house banter. A true look at what life is like behind the badge, the tales in The Funniest Cop Stories Ever were collected by real-life ex-New York City policeman Scott Baker and coauthor Tom Philbin. Anecdotes are told by the real-life cops who experienced them and include: A foot chase after a dwarf who karate-kicked his girlfriend's door and assaulted her while wearing a tuxedo and carrying a violin case. A beggar who ended people's pay phone calls so he could demand their extra spare change. A narcotics bust on a guy who claimed the crack cocaine-and his pants-didn't belong to him.

No one has performed more autopsies in high-profile cases than Dr. Cyril Wecht. During the past four decades, he has dissected more than 16,000 bodies to determine how and why they died. He has testified in hundreds of trials and exhumed dozens of corpses. He's investigated the deaths of...  more

No one has performed more autopsies in high-profile cases than Dr. Cyril Wecht. During the past four decades, he has dissected more than 16,000 bodies to determine how and why they died. He has testified in hundreds of trials and exhumed dozens of corpses. He's investigated the deaths of presidents and princes, coal miners and Hollywood stars. From the tragic homicides of Laci Peterson and Nicole Brown Simpson to the mysteries that surround the deaths of JonBenét Ramsey and Natalee Hollaway, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, the New York Times, and scores of other publications constantly call upon Dr. Wecht to provide his expert analysis. In this new book, Dr. Wecht and true-crime journalist Dawna Kaufmann present five fascinating mysteries: Who or what killed Anna Nicole Smith's young son, Daniel? Who or what killed Anna Nicole Smith? Was her son's death associated with her own demise just months later? Dr. Wecht considers whether someone attempted to get one or both of them out of the way. Who killed twelve-year-old Stephanie Crowe, who was found stabbed to death in the hallway of her home? Dr. Wecht's acumen helped straighten out a baffling whodunit that had left local law enforcement going down the wrong path. Should David Westerfield be on death row for the murder of his seven-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam? What were the mistakes and victories in that dramatic trial? During the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, did medical professionals at a distinguished New Orleans hospital purposely inject elderly patients with heart-stopping medications? What does the evidence say? The combined expertise of one of the leading forensic pathologists in the world and an accomplished true-crime journalist come together in this riveting page-turner filled with many details about these notable cases available nowhere else.

Two years after the Great Earthquake that destroyed San Francisco, and a year after the bitter misunderstanding that almost destroyed their budding romance, Fremont Jones and Michael Archer are back in the City by the Bay, this time committed to being "partners in life and work." Their...  more

Two years after the Great Earthquake that destroyed San Francisco, and a year after the bitter misunderstanding that almost destroyed their budding romance, Fremont Jones and Michael Archer are back in the City by the Bay, this time committed to being "partners in life and work." Their life is shared as equals, and their work is the private investigations agency they have opened together, but--not surprisingly, where Fremont is concerned--it's sometimes difficult to separate the two. In fact, it's her friendship with a slightly flighty, pretty, and troubled young woman that gets Fremont involved in her first murder investigation. Frances McFadden is besotted with spiritualism, and the curious but skeptical Fremont agrees to accompany her to a seance. When Frances' husband finds out about their adventure, her punishment is both degrading and galvanizing at once. Then two mediums are murdered, Frances begins to discover her own talent for telepathy and takes a lover, and Fremont becomes dangerously embroiled in her friend's illicit liaison. While Fremont hones her investigative skills, she also comes to a new appreciation of Michael's professional talents and his other special qualities as well. 

In Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward provides the most intimate and sweeping portrait yet of the young president as commander in chief. Drawing on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of interviews with most of the key players, including the president, Woodward...  more

In Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward provides the most intimate and sweeping portrait yet of the young president as commander in chief. Drawing on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of interviews with most of the key players, including the president, Woodward tells the inside story of Obama making the critical decisions on the Afghanistan War, the secret campaign in Pakistan and the worldwide fight against terrorism. At the core of Obama's Wars is the unsettled division between the civilian leadership in the White House and the United States military as the president is thwarted in his efforts to craft an exit plan for the Afghanistan War. "So what's my option?" the president asked his war cabinet, seeking alternatives to the Afghanistan commander's request for 40,000 more troops in late 2009. "You have essentially given me one option.... It's unacceptable." "Well," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates finally said, "Mr. President, I think we owe you that option." It never came. An untamed Vice President Joe Biden pushes relentlessly to limit the military mission and avoid another Vietnam. The vice president frantically sent half a dozen handwritten memos by secure fax to Obama on the eve of the final troop decision. President Obama's ordering a surge of 30,000 troops and pledging to start withdrawing U.S. forces by July 2011 did not end the skirmishing. General David Petraeus, the new Afghanistan commander, thinks time can be added to the clock if he shows progress. "I don't think you win this war," Petraeus said privately. "This is the kind of fight we're in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids' lives." Hovering over this debate is the possibility of another terrorist attack in the United States. The White House led a secret exercise showing how unprepared the government is if terrorists set off a nuclear bomb in an American city--which Obama told Woodward is at the top of the list of what he worries about all the time. Verbatim quotes from secret debates and White House strategy sessions--and firsthand accounts of the thoughts and concerns of the president, his war council and his generals--reveal a government in conflict, often consumed with nasty infighting and fundamental disputes. Woodward has discovered how the Obama White House really works, showing that even more tough decisions lie ahead for the cerebral and engaged president. Obama's Wars offers the reader a stunning, you-are-there account of the president, his White House aides, military leaders, diplomats and intelligence chiefs in this time of turmoil and danger. From the Washington Post By Steve Luxenberg, September 22, 2010: President Obama urgently looked for a way out of the war in Afghanistan last year, repeatedly pressing his top military advisers for an exit plan that they never gave him, according to secret meeting notes and documents cited in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. Frustrated with his military commanders for consistently offering only options that required significantly more troops, Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page "terms sheet" that sought to limit U.S. involvement, Woodward reports in Obama's Wars. According to Woodward's meeting-by-meeting, memo-by-memo account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review, the president avoided talk of victory as he described his objectives. "This needs to be a plan about how we're going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan," Obama is quoted as telling White House aides as he laid out his reasons for adding 30,000 troops in a short-term escalation. "Everything we're doing has to be focused on how we're going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It's in our national security interest. There cannot be any wiggle room." Read the full Post news report on Obama's Wars.

On June 8, 1969, a patriotic, happy-go-lucky young nurse fresh out of basic training arrived in Vietnam to serve a year's tour of duty as a second lieutenant in the Army. It was a year that was to rob Lynda Van Devanter of her youth, her patriotism, her innocence -- and her future.

Bernie Madoff was a king of the financial world and a beloved philanthropist. But very few people knew that he was quietly running the largest hedge fund in the world, a fund that eventually spread to over forty nations and handled tens of billions of dollars.Harry Markopolos was a little-known...  more

Bernie Madoff was a king of the financial world and a beloved philanthropist. But very few people knew that he was quietly running the largest hedge fund in the world, a fund that eventually spread to over forty nations and handled tens of billions of dollars.Harry Markopolos was a little-known number cruncher at a Boston equity derivatives firm analyzing investment products. A marketer for that firm, Frank Casey, handed Harry a prospectus outlining Madoff?s strategy and asked him to create a similar product. Harry sat down and looked at the numbers. The numbers didn?t add up. For the next ten years, the investigative team Markopolos recruited warned the government, the industry, and the financial press that the largest and most successful hedge fund in the industry was a total fraud and that the respected and admired Bernie Madoff was a crook. But no one would listen.This is the thrilling, complete story of the pursuit of the greatest financial criminal in history. The incredible investigation takes listeners inside the financial industry, revealing the never-before-told stories behind the headlines. No One Would Listen is the frighteningly true story of massive fraud, governmental incompetence, and criminal collusion that has changed thousands of lives forever?as well as the world?s financial system.

She found the diary and brought the world a message of love and hope. It seems as if we are never far from Miep's thoughts....Yours, Anne For the millions moved by Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, here at last is Miep's own astonishing story. For more than two years, Miep...  more

She found the diary and brought the world a message of love and hope. It seems as if we are never far from Miep's thoughts....Yours, Anne For the millions moved by Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, here at last is Miep's own astonishing story. For more than two years, Miep Gies and her husband helped hide the Franks from the Nazis. Like thousands of unsung heroes of the Holocaust, they risked their lives each day to bring food, news, and emotional support to the victims. From her own remarkable childhood as a World War I refugee to the moment she places a small, red-orange, checkered diary -- Anne's legacy -- in Otto Frank's hands, Miep Gies remembers her days with simple honesty and shattering clarity. Each page rings with courage and heartbreaking beauty.

What's a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who's never been out of Massachusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country house, having lunch with King Haakon of Norway? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home in Southie, he'd barely made detective when war was...  more

What's a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who's never been out of Massachusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country house, having lunch with King Haakon of Norway? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home in Southie, he'd barely made detective when war was declared. Unwilling to fight -and perhaps die- for England, he was relieved when his mother wangled a job for him on the staff of a general married to her distant cousin. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz. And Uncle Ike wants Billy to be his personal investigator. Billy is dispatched to the seat of the Norwegian government in exile. Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned, but it is feared that there is a German spy amongst the Norwegians. Billy doubts his own abilities, with good reason. A theft and two murders test his investigative powers, but Billy proves to be a better detective than he or anyone else expected.

Dave Pelzer shares his unforgettable story of the many abuses he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic mother and the averted eyes of his neglectful father. Someone with no one to turn to, his dreams barely kept him alive. Through each of his struggles, readers will find themselves enduring his...  more

Dave Pelzer shares his unforgettable story of the many abuses he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic mother and the averted eyes of his neglectful father. Someone with no one to turn to, his dreams barely kept him alive. Through each of his struggles, readers will find themselves enduring his pain, comforting his loneliness and fighting for his will to survive. This compelling story will awaken you to the horrifying truth about child abuse -- and the ability we have to make a difference.

Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. His only possesions are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just begining -- he has no...  more

Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. His only possesions are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just begining -- he has no place to call home. This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to A Child Called "It". In The Lost Boy, he answers questions and reveals new adventures through the compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child (Foster Child), Dave is moved in and out of five different homes. He suffers shame and experiences resentment from those who feel that all foster kids are trouble and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a "real" family. Tears, laughter, devastation and hope create the journey of this little lost boy who searches desperately for just one thing -- the love of a family.

The inspiring conclusion to A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy"All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself."--Dave Pelzer, from A Man Named DaveThese words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his...  more

The inspiring conclusion to A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy"All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself."--Dave Pelzer, from A Man Named DaveThese words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality, denying him food and clothing, torturing him in any way she could imagine. This was the woman who told her son she could kill him any time she wanted to-and nearly did. The more than two million readers of Pelzer's previous international bestsellers, A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy, know that he lived to tell his courageous story. A Man Named Dave is the gripping conclusion to his inspirational trilogy. With stunning generosity of spirit, Dave Pelzer invites readers on his journey to discover how he turned shame into pride and rejection into acceptance.

Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most thoughtful and powerful book, a novel about the childhood of Christ the Lord based on the gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship. The book?s power derives...  more

Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most thoughtful and powerful book, a novel about the childhood of Christ the Lord based on the gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship. The book?s power derives from the passion its author brings to the writing, and the way in which she summons up the voice, the presence, the words of the young Jesus who tells the story.

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and...  more

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. In this groundbreaking historical novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Mamah's profound influence on Wright. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world, and her unforgettable journey, marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leads inexorably to this novel's stunning conclusion. Read by Joyce Bean Abridged,  5 CDs,  6 hrs.

Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: "I want to be you." My stock reply is always: "Then you have to take the whole package." Now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that "whole package," in...  more

Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: "I want to be you." My stock reply is always: "Then you have to take the whole package." Now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that "whole package," in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life. Barbara Walters' perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that made Barbara aware of the ups and downs that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks. The financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love all played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She has spent a lifetime auditioning, and this book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating. 5 disc abridged audio CD, read by the author.

In the heartland of 19th-century America, amid a roaring sea of racism and hatred, a mixed-race community existed where blacks lived as equal citizens. Schools and churches were completely integrated, blacks and whites married, and power and wealth were shared between the races. Starting in the...  more

In the heartland of 19th-century America, amid a roaring sea of racism and hatred, a mixed-race community existed where blacks lived as equal citizens. Schools and churches were completely integrated, blacks and whites married, and power and wealth were shared between the races. Starting in the 1860s, the people of Covert, Michigan, broke laws and barriers to attempt what then seemed impossible: to love ones neighbor as oneself. Far from serving as a beacon, amidst Americas turmoil the story of Covert was forgotten, swept aside by those who found its presence threatening, wiped away by the passage of time. Now, in A STRONGER KINSHIP, Anna-Lisa Cox gives us an astonishing account of the residents of Covert, told through six leading families who lived out this grand experiment in peaceable justice. It presents an America that miraculously once was, and a vision of what our nation might be. Anna-Lisa Coxs amazing history of Covert is a revelation.

In 1998 a troubled young man and his flamboyant mother were arrested for murdering a wealthy widow in her New York City mansion. Suddenly, America was transfixed by a pair of real-life film noir characters, an Oedipal team of scam artists who left a trail of blood, lies, and larceny from coast...  more

In 1998 a troubled young man and his flamboyant mother were arrested for murdering a wealthy widow in her New York City mansion. Suddenly, America was transfixed by a pair of real-life film noir characters, an Oedipal team of scam artists who left a trail of blood, lies, and larceny from coast to coast. The media couldn't get enough of the twisted relationship between Sante Kimes and her twenty-three-year-old son Kenny.But the most chilling story of all was never told -- until now. Kent Walker, Sante's elder son, reveals how he survived forty years of "the Dragon Lady's" very special brand of motherly love and still managed to get away.As a child Kent watched his mother destroy his hardworking father, Ed Walker, and then -- with Kent's painful collusion -- snare what Sante called "my millionaire." When she married seemingly respectable real-estate developer Ken Kimes, it was a match made in hell.For the next two decades Kent's mother and stepfather indulged in a globetrotting orgy of criminal behavior, laying waste to each other and anyone who got in the way. Kent, their would-be recruit, was privvy to the family business -- torching houses, defrauding friends, crashing White House parties, "shopping" for trunkloads of fur coats -- and Sante's self-serving style of adultery. When Kent's half-brother, Kenny was born, Kent was twelve years old -- old enough to know that he was his younger sibling's only protector. Kent tried desperately to save Kenny from his mother's sinister bidding. His failure haunts him to this day.Here, with shocking and sometimes brutal frankness, Kent explodes the romantic Hollywood image of the grifter as antihero and exposes the truth about Sante Kimes behind the headlines. Sone of a Grifter poignantly chronicles what it means to love somebody despite your better instincts, your worst fears, and even your most forbidden hopes.

V. I. Warshawski may have left her old South Chicago neighborhood, but she learns that she cannot escape it. When V. I. takes over coaching duties of the girls’ basketball team at her former high school, she faces an ill-equipped, ragtag group of gangbangers, fundamentalists, and teenage...  more

V. I. Warshawski may have left her old South Chicago neighborhood, but she learns that she cannot escape it. When V. I. takes over coaching duties of the girls’ basketball team at her former high school, she faces an ill-equipped, ragtag group of gangbangers, fundamentalists, and teenage moms, who inevitably draw the detective into their family woes. Through young Josie Dorrado, V. I. meets the girl’s mother, who voices her worries about sabotage in the little flag manufacturing plant where she works. The biggest employer on the South Side, discount-store behemoth By-Smart, pays even less, and Ms. Dorrado doesn’t know how she’ll support her four children if the flag plant shuts down. The elder Dorrado’s fears are realized when the plant explodes; V. I. is injured and the owner is killed. As V. I. begins to investigate, she finds herself confronting the Bysen family, who own the By-Smart company. Founder William “Buffalo Bill” Bysen, now in his eighties, has four sons who quarrel with each other and with him; the oldest, “Young Mr. William,” is close to sixty and furious that his father doesn’t cede more power to him. And then, there’s “Billy the Kid,” Young Mr. William’s nineteen-year-old son, whose Christian idealism puts him on a collision course with his father, his grandfather, and the company as a whole. When Billy runs away with Josie Dorrado, V. I. is squeezed between the needs of two very different families. As she tries to find the errant teenagers, and to track down a particularly cruel murderer, her own life is almost forfeit in the swamps that lie under the city of Chicago.

Short description of book.

There's no one and nothing the great detective Nero Wolfe wouldn't take on if the price was right. That's something wealthy society widow Rachel Bruner is counting on when she writes him a check for a whopping hundred grand. But even Wolfe has a moment's doubt when he finds out...  more

There's no one and nothing the great detective Nero Wolfe wouldn't take on if the price was right. That's something wealthy society widow Rachel Bruner is counting on when she writes him a check for a whopping hundred grand. But even Wolfe has a moment's doubt when he finds out why the prize is so generous. For the oversize genius and his able assistant Archie Goodwin are about to lock horns with the F.B.I. and those highly trained G-Men have a way with threats, tails, and bugs that could give even sedentary sleuth Nero Wolfe a run for his money.

Baby on the Car Roof brings together 222 totally new, funny, quirky, frightening, bizarre and always entertaining urban legends. Urban legends or myths are dramatic and often humorous stories that circulate under the guise of truth and usually as having happened to "a friend of a friend" even...  more

Baby on the Car Roof brings together 222 totally new, funny, quirky, frightening, bizarre and always entertaining urban legends. Urban legends or myths are dramatic and often humorous stories that circulate under the guise of truth and usually as having happened to "a friend of a friend" even though often they are entirely made-up. Organized by genre, each tale runs one- to two-pages long. Story variations are included in each listing. The subjects range from famous people, sex, office foibles and travel nightmares to college pranks, biological abnormalities and ghost stories.

From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense, charismatic father he both idolized and resented. Yet it was these exhilarating tests of skill that prepared "Boy Wonder," as his father called him, to become a...  more

From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense, charismatic father he both idolized and resented. Yet it was these exhilarating tests of skill that prepared "Boy Wonder," as his father called him, to become a fearless champion -- and ultimately saved his life. Flying to a ski championship ceremony in February 1979, the chartered Cessna carrying Norman, his father, his father's girlfriend, and the pilot crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains and was suspended at 8,200 feet, engulfed in a blizzard. Norman's father was dead, and the devastated eleven-year-old had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone. Set amid the spontaneous, uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, this riveting memoir recalls Ollestad's childhood and the magnetic man whose determination and love infuriated and inspired him -- and also taught him to overcome the indomitable. As it illuminates the complicated bond between an extraordinary father and his son, Ollestad's powerful and unforgettable true story offers remarkable insight for us all. Narrated by the author.  6 audio discs (7 hr., 45 min.)

A job he shouldn't have taken ... A woman he shouldn't have loved ... A secret he shouldn't expose ... if he wants to live. Nick Neumann had it all: a Harvard degree, a beautiful fiancée, a star-making Wall Street career.  But behind the dazzling veneer of this...  more

A job he shouldn't have taken ... A woman he shouldn't have loved ... A secret he shouldn't expose ... if he wants to live. Nick Neumann had it all: a Harvard degree, a beautiful fiancée, a star-making Wall Street career.  But behind the dazzling veneer of this golden boy is a man haunted by the brutal killing of his father seventeen years before. Now chilling new evidence has implicated his father's employer, the United Swiss Bank, in the crime.  Nick doesn't know how.  Or why.  But he has a plan to find out: move to Zurich.  Work for the same bank.  Follow in his father's footsteps.  Look for the same secrets ... and uncover something so shocking, so unexpected, justice may not be enough. For as a circle of treachery tightens around him, as a woman with secrets of her own enters his life, Nick makes another chilling discovery.  Not just about his father but about himself.  And how far he's willing to go to find out what happened seventeen years before -- when a man died and a conspiracy was born.  Abridged: 5 Compact Discs, Running Time: 6 hours, Narrator: Stephen Lang.

The story of Colonel Martin Herford the most decorated doctor of World War Two. A true story about a physician in the thick of combat in Europe and how his initiative and innovation saved lives. 

Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren?t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it...  more

Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren?t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it has become toxic, devastating to the very people it?s meant to help. In his four decades of urban ministry, Lupton has experienced firsthand how our good intentions can have unintended, dire consequences. Our free food and clothing distribution encourages ever-growing handout lines, diminishing the dignity of the poor while increasing their dependency. We converge on inner-city neighborhoods to plant flowers and pick up trash, battering the pride of residents who have the capacity (and responsibility) to beautify their own environment. We fly off on mission trips to poverty-stricken villages, hearts full of pity and suitcases bulging with giveaways?trips that one Nicaraguan leader describes as effective only in ?turning my people into beggars.? In Toxic Charity, Lupton urges individuals, churches, and organizations to step away from these spontaneous, often destructive acts of compassion toward thoughtful paths to community development. He delivers proven strategies for moving from toxic charity to transformative charity. Proposing a powerful ?Oath for Compassionate Service? and spotlighting real-life examples of people serving not just with their hearts but with proven strategies and tested tactics, Lupton offers all the tools and inspiration we need to develop healthy, community-driven programs that produce deep, measurable, and lasting change. Everyone who volunteers or donates to charity needs to wrestle with this book.

"I was a greedy, ravenous individual, determined to rise from the bottom to the top . . . It wasn't me!"--Jack Unterweger's final words to his jury Serial killers rarely travel internationally. So in the early 1990s, when detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department began to find bodies of...  more

"I was a greedy, ravenous individual, determined to rise from the bottom to the top . . . It wasn't me!"--Jack Unterweger's final words to his jury Serial killers rarely travel internationally. So in the early 1990s, when detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department began to find bodies of women strangled with their own bras, it didn?t occur to them at first to make a connection with the bodies being uncovered in the woods outside of Vienna, Austria.  The LAPD waited for the killer to strike again. Meanwhile, in Austria, the police followed what few clues they had. The case intrigued many reporters, but few as keenly as Jack Unterweger, a local celebrity. He cut a striking figure, this little man in expensive white suits. His expertise on Vienna?s criminal underworld was hard-earned. He had been sentenced to life in jail as a young man. But while incarcerated, he began to write?and his work earned him the glowing attention of the literary elite. The intelligentsia lobbied for his release and by 1990, Jack was free again. He continued writing, nurturing his career as a journalist. But though he now traveled in the highest circles, he had a secret life. He was killing again, and in the greatest of ironies, reporting on the very crimes he had committed.  With unprecedented access to Jack?s diaries and letters, John Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the life and crimes of Jack Unterweger, and in unnerving detail, exposes the thrilling twists?both in the United States and Europe?that led to Jack?s capture and Austria?s ?trial of the century.?

After solving a murder and surviving a couple of attempts on her life (recounted in the bestselling mystery Slipknot), Jane Bunker believes she's finally earned a respite from murder and intrigue. But if she thinks it's time for her to soak up the peace and quiet she's been seeking,...  more

After solving a murder and surviving a couple of attempts on her life (recounted in the bestselling mystery Slipknot), Jane Bunker believes she's finally earned a respite from murder and intrigue. But if she thinks it's time for her to soak up the peace and quiet she's been seeking, she should think again. On her way back from a routine investigation into some smashed equipment, Jane takes a moment to appreciate the beauty of a Maine autumn -- there's the sublime rainbow foliage of the highlands, the serene reflections of the setting sun on the bay's gentle waves, the elegant silhouette of a lobster boat on the bay. But her calm lasts only as long as it takes for Jane to make the chilling discovery that the vessel is in serious trouble with nobody aboard--and that its owner has vanished without a trace. And that's the least of the mysteries. A young mariner dead of a heroin overdose; the real agenda of a charismatic Indian leader; a missing bait iron and a corpse painted red -- nothing is what it seems. Fisherman's Bend brings us Greenlaw's pitch-perfect ear for all things maritime. From the eccentric denizens of little Green Haven -- Audrey, the punk rock waitress, the delightful Vickersons with their all-mussel cookbook -- to the dark undercurrents that run beneath this seemingly idyllic coastal village, Greenlaw's flair for combining humor and Down East flavor with roller-coaster suspense makes this a mystery that will grab you hook, line, and sinker.

Too much work? Too much worry? Need a change of scene? - Get out of town! Twenty-five great minivacations take you away from the hustle and bustle of the city: sample a range of visual and performing arts, attend unique lectures and classes, or go boating, swimming, and fishing on the...  more

Too much work? Too much worry? Need a change of scene? - Get out of town! Twenty-five great minivacations take you away from the hustle and bustle of the city: sample a range of visual and performing arts, attend unique lectures and classes, or go boating, swimming, and fishing on the Chautauqua escape; visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, tour the trendy Warehouse district, and stroll through a Costa Rican cloud forest at the Botanical Garden on the Cleveland escape; view breathtaking scenery along the New River Gorge National River, tour a former coal mine, and explore one of the best small arts towns in America on the downstate West Virginia escape. Information at your fingertips includes detailed route maps, travel directions, destination highlights, activities for morning, afternoon, and evening, choice restaurants, picnic sites, and lodgings, special events and festivals, shopping, and local sources of information.

Do you love to read big adventure thrillers packed with tales of gold snatched away from Nazis, chase scenes in steaming jungles, even steamier sex scenes, treacherous waterfalls, coded messages buried in dusty journals, and a secret society conspiring to take over the world? Christine...  more

Do you love to read big adventure thrillers packed with tales of gold snatched away from Nazis, chase scenes in steaming jungles, even steamier sex scenes, treacherous waterfalls, coded messages buried in dusty journals, and a secret society conspiring to take over the world? Christine Kling's new Caribbean thriller, CIRCLE OF BONES, is just such a real page-turner based on an actual true mystery of World War II. The French submarine Surcouf, once the largest submarine in the world, departed Bermuda in 1942 and vanished without a trace. In this pulse-pounding thriller, Kling imagines what might have happened in this unsolved mystery. Solo sailor Maggie Riley is cruising aboard her forty-foot sailboat when she rescues a sexy ? but crazy conspiracy-spouting treasure hunter/archeologist who is swimming totally nude off the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. She soon learns he is searching for the wreck of a mysterious submarine. Cole Thatcher claims the sub holds millions in gold coins as well as secret documents from a powerful inner circle of Skull and Bones whose goal is to keep America at war for their own profits. Cole hopes for Riley's help in decoding his father?s journals that are the key to the location of the wreck. At last, Riley joins the search for Surcouf when she discovers the demons in her own past intersect the inner Circle of Bones, and this conspiracy nut might not be so crazy after all.

She had a cameo choker around her neck and a bullet in her skull...The heiress had been dead for over seventy years. Eyebrows are raised as yellow crime-scene tape drapes across the once-distinguished Colonial Bloodworth House. For the mansion, nestled cozily amidst the tranquil academia of...  more

She had a cameo choker around her neck and a bullet in her skull...The heiress had been dead for over seventy years. Eyebrows are raised as yellow crime-scene tape drapes across the once-distinguished Colonial Bloodworth House. For the mansion, nestled cozily amidst the tranquil academia of Kenan College, may have once been the scene of a brutal murder. The decayed body was found when archeologist David Morgan conducted a dig beneath the original three rooms of the 1785 house-- he was only hoping to unearth some Colonial-era artifacts. Professor Simon Shaw, Kenan College's youngest full-time professor, knows more about the house than anyone-- he even wrote a book about the historic building-- so naturally, Morgan enlists his professional friend for a little detective work. What Morgan has found, it seems, are the remains of the estate's heiress-- an unsolved missing persons case since 1926. As Simon digs deeper into this decades-old murder, he finds that someone still very much alive wants to put a permanent stop to his investigating...

Dirty looks and taunting notes are just a few examples of girl bullying that girls and women have long suffered through silently and painfully. With this book Rachel Simmons elevated the nation's consciousness and has shown millions of girls, parents, counselors, and teachers how to deal with...  more

Dirty looks and taunting notes are just a few examples of girl bullying that girls and women have long suffered through silently and painfully. With this book Rachel Simmons elevated the nation's consciousness and has shown millions of girls, parents, counselors, and teachers how to deal with this devastating problem. Poised to reach a wider audience in paperback, including the teenagers who are its subject, Odd Girl Out puts the spotlight on this issue, using real-life examples from both the perspective of the victim and of the bully.

Latina novelist Alma Huebner is suffering from writer's block and is years past the completion date for yet another of her bestselling famly sagas. Her husband, Richard, works for a humanitarian organization dedicated to the health and prosperity of developing countries and wants her help on an...  more

Latina novelist Alma Huebner is suffering from writer's block and is years past the completion date for yet another of her bestselling famly sagas. Her husband, Richard, works for a humanitarian organization dedicated to the health and prosperity of developing countries and wants her help on an extended AIDS assignment in the Dominican Republic. But Alma begs off joining him: the publisher is breathing down her neck. She promises to work hard and follow him a bit later. The truth is that Alma is seriously sidetracked by a story she has stumbled across. It's the story of a much earlier medical do-gooder, Spaniard Francisco Xavier Balmis, who in 1803 undertook to vaccinate the populations of Spain's American colonies against smallpox. To do this, he required live "cariers" of the vaccine. Of greater interest to Alma is Isabel Sendales y Gómez, director of La Casa de Expósitos, who was asked to select twenty-two orphan boys to be the vaccine carriers. She agreed? with the stipulation that she would accompany the boys on the proposed two-year voyage. Her strength and courage inspire Alma, who finds herself becoming obsessed with the details of Isabel's adventures. This resplendent novel-within-a-novel spins the disparate tales of two remarkable women, both of whom are swept along by machismo. In depicting their confrontation of the great scourges of their respective eras, Alvarez exposes the conflict between altruism and ambition.

A midnight shootout on the beach gets the action going with a bang in this explosive story of illicit drugs and bizarre murders. As Detective Clay Randall and his team start to unravel clues, two names keep popping up: rogue ex-cop Roy Connor, and his high profile boss, defense attorney...  more

A midnight shootout on the beach gets the action going with a bang in this explosive story of illicit drugs and bizarre murders. As Detective Clay Randall and his team start to unravel clues, two names keep popping up: rogue ex-cop Roy Connor, and his high profile boss, defense attorney Tony Savoy. Filled with plot twists and double-dealings, the investigation takes an unexpected turn when the trail leads inside police headquarters. The Six O'clock Rule puts friendship to the test as the lines between right and wrong become blurred. The Six O'clock Rule is part of an ongoing police thriller series. Check out Body Toll by Bruce Thomason for another exciting Clay Randall thriller. THE SIX O'CLOCK RULE HAS WON THE FOLLOWING NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS : GOLD MEDAL WINNER (FICTION-THRILLER CATEGORY) IN THE 2011 READERS FAVORITE AWARD CONTEST FINALIST (FICTION-SUSPENSE CATEGORY) IN THE 2011 READERS FAVORITE AWARD CONTEST FINALIST (FICTION-THRILLER CATEGORY) IN THE 2011 INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD CONTEST.

Hearry Benson suffers from violent seizures. When he becomes part of an experimental program that sends electrodes to his brain to calm him, he is in recovery. Until he discovers how to get those soothing pulses more frequently, and then escapes the hopsital -- on a murderous rampage with a...  more

Hearry Benson suffers from violent seizures. When he becomes part of an experimental program that sends electrodes to his brain to calm him, he is in recovery. Until he discovers how to get those soothing pulses more frequently, and then escapes the hopsital -- on a murderous rampage with a deadly agenda....

Which president killed a man? Which president had just fathered an illegitimate child when he entered the White House? Which first lady taught her husband how to read and write? Which president broke his arm jumping out of a window to escape his mistress's husband? Which president's daughter...  more

Which president killed a man? Which president had just fathered an illegitimate child when he entered the White House? Which first lady taught her husband how to read and write? Which president broke his arm jumping out of a window to escape his mistress's husband? Which president's daughter married another president's grandson? Who was the only president to be preceded and succeeded by the same man? Which president had a secret operation performed to remove a cancerous jaw? Which president's last words were "My nourishment is palatable." Written by a White House speechwriter who actually served five presidents, this irresistible collection of presidential trivia reveals the more colorful side of American history. Following a Q&A format and organized around 31 themes, Which President Killed a Man? will captivate trivia fans and history buffs of every political persuasion. Answers: Andrew Jackson Warren Harding Andrew Johnson's wife Eliza Thomas Jefferson Richard Nixon Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland Millard Fillmore

As 1879 draws to a close, this Rocky Mountain boomtown has infected the world with silver fever. It's not much different than the dot.com mania or the corporate scams that heat up over a century later. Unfortunately for Joe Rose, a precious-metals assayer, death stakes its own claim....  more

As 1879 draws to a close, this Rocky Mountain boomtown has infected the world with silver fever. It's not much different than the dot.com mania or the corporate scams that heat up over a century later. Unfortunately for Joe Rose, a precious-metals assayer, death stakes its own claim. Joe's body is found trampled into the muck behind Inez Stannert's saloon. Inez already had much more to deal with than pouring shots of Taos Lightning and cleaning up a corpse. A lady educated on the East Coast, she has a past that doesn't bear close scrutiny, including her elopement with a gambling man who has recently disappeared. Most townsfolk, including Inez's business partner, Abe Jackson, dismiss Joe's death as an accident. Death, after all, is no stranger in Leadville. But Inez wonders: Why was this loving husband and father carrying a brass token good for "one free screw" at the parlor house of Denver madam Mattie Silks? When Joe's widow Emma asks Inez to settle Joe's affairs, almost against her will, Inez uncovers skewed assays, bogus greenbacks, and blackmail. Lies and secrets run deep in Colorado, secrets more likely to lead to a hanging than to today's congressional hearings or country-club prisons for the crooked and the greedy. Then again, maybe Joe's murder was purely personal....

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood...  more

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood -- the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers -- Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah -- the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

If you believe in angels, then you will rejoice in this thrilling collection of stories attesting to angelic intervention in human affairs. If you do not believe, you may find yourself wavering as you read true stories of intervention. This exhilarating book offers overwhelming evidence that...  more

If you believe in angels, then you will rejoice in this thrilling collection of stories attesting to angelic intervention in human affairs. If you do not believe, you may find yourself wavering as you read true stories of intervention. This exhilarating book offers overwhelming evidence that heavenly beings are very much with us -- combating evil, bringing news, warning of danger, consoling us in our suffering. It may even help you remember a time in our own life when an angel walked beside you.

It was the mystery that gripped the nation during the summer of 2001: the sudden disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young, promising intern, and the possible involvement of Congressman Gary Condit. And then the case went cold. By 2007, satellite trucks and reporters had long since abandoned...  more

It was the mystery that gripped the nation during the summer of 2001: the sudden disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young, promising intern, and the possible involvement of Congressman Gary Condit. And then the case went cold. By 2007, satellite trucks and reporters had long since abandoned the story of the congressman and the intern in search of other news, fresh scandals. Across the country, Chandra's parents tried to resume their daily lives, desperately hoping that someday there might be a break in the investigation.And in Washington, the old game of who's up and who's down played on without interruption. But Chandra Levy haunted. Six years after the young intern's disappearance, investigative editors of the Washington Post pitched two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters their idea: Revisit the unsolved case and find out what happened to Chandra, a task that had eluded police and the FBI. Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz went to work. The result was a thirteen-part series in the Washington Post that focused on a prime suspect the police and the FBI had passed over years before. They had wrongly pursued Condit and chased numerous false leads, including a claim that Chandra had been kidnapped and taken to the Middle East. But the most likely culprit was far less glamorous: an immigrant from El Salvador, a young man in the clutches of alcohol, drugs, and violence who had been stalking the running paths of Rock Creek Park, assaulting female joggers at knifepoint. He had attacked again, even as the police and the press concentrated on a congressman romantically linked to the intern. Finding Chandra explores the bungled police efforts to locate the crime scene and catch a killer, the ambition and hubris of Washington's power elite and press corps, the twisted culture of politics, the dark nature of political scandal, and the agony of parents struggling to comprehend the loss of a child. Above all, it is a quintessential portrait of a cast of outsiders who came to Washington with dreams of something better, only to be forever changed.

Here is the one book with all of the answers to your questions about the TITANIC! This is the heart-stopping story about the legendary ship -- from the building, maiden voyage, and tragic sinking, to its high-tech discovery on the ocean floor. Special features include the making of the James...  more

Here is the one book with all of the answers to your questions about the TITANIC! This is the heart-stopping story about the legendary ship -- from the building, maiden voyage, and tragic sinking, to its high-tech discovery on the ocean floor. Special features include the making of the James Cameron movie, true-or-false quizzes, and real-life stories of the young people who sailed on the fateful journey. Illustrated with dozens of paintings, diagrams, and rare photographs.

It was April 3, 1974. Crime was soaring. Unemployment and inflation were out of control. A costly war had just come to its demoralizing end, and an unpopular President was on his way out of office. Then, over a sixteen-hour period, nature stepped forward with its own display of mayhem: an...  more

It was April 3, 1974. Crime was soaring. Unemployment and inflation were out of control. A costly war had just come to its demoralizing end, and an unpopular President was on his way out of office. Then, over a sixteen-hour period, nature stepped forward with its own display of mayhem: an unprecedented outbreak of 148 tornadoes, covering thirteen states in the heart of the country, from Michigan to Mississippi. Hundreds of people were killed, thousands of homes demolished, and a billion dollars in losses sustained. Sixty-four of the tornadoes would be classified as severely violent; six belonged to the most rare, most deadly category: F5, or "incredible tornadoes." Like the best nonfiction, F5 is a brilliantly crafted page-turner that reads with the immediacy of a novel, telling a harrowing story of natural disaster against the backdrop of the turbulent 1970s. Acclaimed journalist Mark Levine follows the heart-wrenching fate of a rich cast of intertwined characters -- ordinary Americans whose lives are transformed in a terrifying instant. A pair of teenage lovers are caught while driving on a dark country road; a Vietnam veteran is trapped at home with a newborn baby; a sheriff finds himself in the line of fire twice in rapid succession; a black preacher with a past of dire hardship struggles to protect his family. Other figures enter the story from the broader cultural scene, including Hank Aaron, on his way to challenging baseball's home run record amid racist death threats; Patty Hearst, whose image as kidnapping victim is undergoing a radical shift; Richard Nixon and George Wallace, both intent on using the storms to their political advantage; and a memorably eccentric scientist, known as Mr. Tornado, who regards the "Superoutbreak" as the apotheosis of his scholarly life. Gripping and revelatory, F5 braids the story of the shattering outbreak with images of social upheaval and individual heroism in a stunning, unforgettable read.

A true story -- as powerful as Schindler's List -- in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw -- and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and...  more

A true story -- as powerful as Schindler's List -- in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw -- and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants: otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes. With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her.

Acclaimed journalist Charlie Glass looks to the American expatriate experience of Nazi-occupied Paris to reveal a fascinating forgotten history of the greatest generation. In Americans in Paris, tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival unfold season by season, from the spring...  more

Acclaimed journalist Charlie Glass looks to the American expatriate experience of Nazi-occupied Paris to reveal a fascinating forgotten history of the greatest generation. In Americans in Paris, tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival unfold season by season, from the spring of 1940 to liberation in the summer of 1944, as renowned journalist Charles Glass tells the story of a remarkable cast of expatriates and their struggles in Nazi Paris. Before the Second World War began, approximately thirty thousand Americans lived in Paris, and when war broke out in 1939 almost five thousand remained. As citizens of a neutral nation, the Americans in Paris believed they had little to fear. They were wrong. Glass's discovery of letters, diaries, war documents, and police files reveals as never before how Americans were trapped in a web of intrigue, collaboration, and courage. Artists, writers, scientists, playboys, musicians, cultural mandarins, and ordinary businessmen-all were swept up in extraordinary circumstances and tested as few Americans before or since. Charles Bedaux, a French-born, naturalized American millionaire, determined his alliances as a businessman first, a decision that would ultimately make him an enemy to all. Countess Clara Longworth de Chambrun was torn by family ties to President Roosevelt and the Vichy government, but her fiercest loyalty was to her beloved American Library of Paris. Sylvia Beach attempted to run her famous English-language bookshop, Shakespeare & Company, while helping her Jewish friends and her colleagues in the Resistance. Dr. Sumner Jackson, wartime chief surgeon of the American Hospital in Paris, risked his life aiding Allied soldiers to escape to Britain and resisting the occupier from the first day. These stories and others come together to create a unique portrait of an eccentric, original, diverse American community. Charles Glass has written an exciting, fast-paced, and elegant account of the moral contradictions faced by Americans in Paris during France's dangerous occupation years. For four hard years, from the summer of 1940 until U.S. troops liberated Paris in August 1944, Americans were intimately caught up in the city's fate. Americans in Paris is an unforgettable tale of treachery by some, cowardice by others, and unparalleled bravery by a few.

After a price-fixing scandal at her prestigious New York auction house, Josie Prescott moves to the New Hampshire coast to restore her reputation -- and perhaps a few antiques along the way. As an antiques dealer, Josie knows how to make an honest assessment, and she’s about to land...  more

After a price-fixing scandal at her prestigious New York auction house, Josie Prescott moves to the New Hampshire coast to restore her reputation -- and perhaps a few antiques along the way. As an antiques dealer, Josie knows how to make an honest assessment, and she’s about to land her largest account. But when the owner of the collection is found stabbed to death, Josie’s fingerprints are all over his possessions…and the murder weapon. Suddenly Josie’s innocence appears as tarnished as an old relic. Everybody’s got their eyes on her, especially the local police chief who may or may not be in love with her. Now it’s just a matter of time before Josie can produce enough evidence to clear her name -- or fall into the clutches of the real killer and find herself...CONSIGNED TO DEATH

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and spy, is about to face the greatest challenge of his life. Allon is recovering from his grueling showdown with a Palestinian master terrorist, when terrorism comes to find him once again. An al-Qaeda suspect is killed in London, and photographs are found on...  more

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and spy, is about to face the greatest challenge of his life. Allon is recovering from his grueling showdown with a Palestinian master terrorist, when terrorism comes to find him once again. An al-Qaeda suspect is killed in London, and photographs are found on his computer - photographs that lead Israeli intelligence to suspect that al-Qaeda is planning one of its most audacious attacks ever, straight at the heart of the Vatican. Allon warns his old friend Monsignor Luigi Donati, the pope's private secretary, and rushes to Rome to assist in security, but what neither he nor Donati knows is that the Vatican has been thoroughly penetrated. An extraordinary enemy walks among them... and he's just getting started. In the days and weeks to come, Allon and his colleagues will find themselves in a deadly duel of wits against one of the most dangerous men in the world -- a hunt that will take them across Europe to the Caribbean and back. But for them, there may simply not be enough of anything: enough time, enough facts, enough luck. All Allon can do is set his trap -- and hope that he is not the one caught in it.   Abridged, 5 CDs, 6 hours

In 1864, thirty-three thousand captured Union soldiers were herded into a log stockade where food was scarce, conditions were brutal, and men's characters were put to the ultimate test. At the infamous Andersonville prison, captured Union soldiers witnessed both shocking acts of betrayal and...  more

In 1864, thirty-three thousand captured Union soldiers were herded into a log stockade where food was scarce, conditions were brutal, and men's characters were put to the ultimate test. At the infamous Andersonville prison, captured Union soldiers witnessed both shocking acts of betrayal and inspiring acts of heroism. Based on personal journals and historical records, Andersonville is the story of a nation divided and of men trapped together in a struggle for survival. An unforgettable journey into the most harrowing chapter of our country's history.

Laurel Gray Hawthorne hasn't seen a ghost in the thirteen years she and her husband have lived in their beautiful gated community. Then, in the dog days of a Florida August, she wakes to find Molly, her daughter's best friend, standing by her bed, who then leads her to her own small body...  more

Laurel Gray Hawthorne hasn't seen a ghost in the thirteen years she and her husband have lived in their beautiful gated community. Then, in the dog days of a Florida August, she wakes to find Molly, her daughter's best friend, standing by her bed, who then leads her to her own small body floating lifelessly in the Hawthornes' pool. Laurel's carefully constructed existence cracks, and the past seeps through... Laurel and her sister, Thalia, grew up in what looked like a typical blue-collar home. But the Grays have long been hiding a skeleton in their closet. While Laurel built her "perfect" life, Thalia became an actress with a capital A, a woman who doesn't fit in Laurel's tidy world. Now Molly can't rest until someone learns her secrets. Laurel turns to her sister, and together they begin a journey that will unearth their family's history, the true state of Laurel's marriage, and what really happened to...the girl who stopped swimming. Read by the author Unabridged: 8 CDs, 9 hrs.

Spenser encounters danger, venality and plenty of comic material in this brisk tale spanning the worlds of experimental theater and illegal immigration. While he'd rather be at work renovating the old farmhouse that he and his lover, psychiatrist Susan, have bought in nearby Concord, Spenser...  more

Spenser encounters danger, venality and plenty of comic material in this brisk tale spanning the worlds of experimental theater and illegal immigration. While he'd rather be at work renovating the old farmhouse that he and his lover, psychiatrist Susan, have bought in nearby Concord, Spenser agrees to find out who is following the Artistic Director of the Port City Theater Company, on whose board of directors Susan sits. The detective is utterly bored by a performance of the latest production in Port City, "a town 50% Portuguese and 50% Chinese"-- until one of the actors is fatally shot from the audience. The shooter gets away, leaving Spenser with murder to probe as well. After talking to one of the board members, Spenser is warned out of Port City by the woman's husband, an important member of a Boston tong. The threat prompts a call to his old pals Hawk and Vinnie, who, he notes, blend in to the theatrical scene "like two coyotes at a poultry festival." As Spenser discovers that the influx of Chinese illegals into the area is being overlooked by the Port City Chief of Police, an actress in the company reports that she too is being followed. Another murder and a kidnapping occur before the mysteries are resolved and Spenser can get back to his sledgehammer. Although the detective lags in reaching a conclusion readers may have sussed out earlier, the expected pleasures of an adroit Spenser adventure are here in full supply.

Unabridged.  Read by Linda Emond When Tess literally stumbles onto the set of Mann of Steel, a big-budget TV miniseries shooting in her neighborhood, she finds herself hired as a bodyguard for Selene Waites, the show's 20-year-old hard-partying star. Flip Tumulty—the...  more

Unabridged.  Read by Linda Emond When Tess literally stumbles onto the set of Mann of Steel, a big-budget TV miniseries shooting in her neighborhood, she finds herself hired as a bodyguard for Selene Waites, the show's 20-year-old hard-partying star. Flip Tumulty—the show's writer and son of a Baltimore-born Hollywood mogul—tells Tess the set has been plagued by vandalism and he fears for Selene's safety. Tess soon uncovers unsettling photos of Selene and learns they were taken by Wilbur Grace, a stalker who later hanged himself. When one of the crew members is murdered, Tess suspects someone may be trying to shut down more than the TV production.

The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Contents: Prologue : The poison game...  more

The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Contents: Prologue : The poison game -- Chloroform (CHCl₃) -- Wood alcohol (CH₃OH) -- Cyanides (HCN, KCN, NaCN) -- Arsenic (As) -- Mercury (Hg) -- Carbon monoxide (CO), part 1 -- Methyl alcohol (CH₃OH) -- Radium (Ra) -- Ethyl alcohol (C₂H₅OH) -- Carbon monoxide (CO), part 2 -- Thallium (Ti) -- Epilogue : The surest poison.

Nearly five million men and women have served the United States as police officers. Only one has been executed for murder. They called it Satan’s Circus -- a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the...  more

Nearly five million men and women have served the United States as police officers. Only one has been executed for murder. They called it Satan’s Circus -- a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the twentieth century, murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel. But when, two weeks later, an ambitious district attorney charged young policeman Charley Becker with ordering the murder, even the denizens of Satan’s Circus were surprised. The handsome lieutenant was a decorated hero, the renowned leader of New York’s vice-busting Special Squad. Was he a bad cop leading a double life, or a pawn felled by the sinister rogues who ran Manhattan’s underworld? With appearances by the legendary and the notorious, Satan’s Circus brings to life an almost-forgotten Gotham. Chronicling Charley Becker’s rise and fall, the audiobook tells of the raucous, gaudy, and utterly corrupt city that made him, and recounts not one but two sensational murder trials that landed him in the electric chair. Read by David Ackroyd.  5 audio discs (6 hr.)

Deborah Rodriguez arrived in Afghanistan in 2002 with nothing but a desire to help and a beauty degree. In her first few weeks she learned that the once-proud tradition of Afghan beauty salons had been all but destroyed by the Taliban. With her knowledge of both beauty and enterprise,...  more

Deborah Rodriguez arrived in Afghanistan in 2002 with nothing but a desire to help and a beauty degree. In her first few weeks she learned that the once-proud tradition of Afghan beauty salons had been all but destroyed by the Taliban. With her knowledge of both beauty and enterprise, Rodriguez opened the first salon in Kabul that actually trained local women to become beauticians - one of the few ways in which a woman could support herself and her family, and gain some autonomy in a strictly patriarchal society. Many of the students had alarming stories to tell, and within the sisterhood of the Kabul Beauty School, together with Rodriguez herself, they learn the art of perms, friendship, and freedom.

SERIAL KILLER ON WARD C: In Northampton, Massachusetts, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kristen Gilbert was known as a hardworking, dedicated nurse--so why were her patients dying? So many emergencies and sudden deaths occurred while Kristen made her rounds on Ward C that her colleagues...  more

SERIAL KILLER ON WARD C: In Northampton, Massachusetts, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kristen Gilbert was known as a hardworking, dedicated nurse--so why were her patients dying? So many emergencies and sudden deaths occurred while Kristen made her rounds on Ward C that her colleagues jokingly called her the "Angel of Death." Yet most people didn't suspect the horrifying truth behind the nickname: that Gilbert's polished facade concealed a scheming, manipulative liar and narcissistic sociopath. She sabotaged patients to strike back at staffers she didn't like. She engaged in an obsessive adulterous affair with hospital security guard James Perrault. When her husband objected, she tried to kill him with a lethal injection. But nobody turned her in. LETHAL CURE: From August 1995 through February 1996, Gilbert dealt out wholesale death. Her victims were helpless patients who trusted her as a caregiver, only to learn too late that she was a killer, her weapon a drug capable of causing fatal heart attacks. But she got away with murder until three of her fellow nurses could no longer ignore the proliferation of deadly "coincidences" on Gilbert's watch. Investigators believe Kristen Gilbert may have been responsible for as many as 40 deaths. As the law closed in, she struck back, faking suicide attempts, harassing witnesses, stalking her ex-boyfriend, and terrorizing the hospital with bomb threats. In March 2001, after being found guilty of four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, Angel of Death Kristen Gilbert was sentenced to life imprisonment.

New York Times bestselling author Diane Mott Davidson has taken readers by storm with clever mysteries filled with tantalizing plots and mouthwatering recipes. In her twelfth novel -- her tastiest tale yet -- the ingenious storyteller whips up a rich souffle of murder and mischief. The...  more

New York Times bestselling author Diane Mott Davidson has taken readers by storm with clever mysteries filled with tantalizing plots and mouthwatering recipes. In her twelfth novel -- her tastiest tale yet -- the ingenious storyteller whips up a rich souffle of murder and mischief. The governor of Colorado has commuted the prison sentence of Goldy Schulz's ultra-handsome, ultra-charming, ultra-venal ex-husband, Dr. John Richard Korman, otherwise known to Goldy as the Jerk. He's released, and soon afterward Goldy becomes the victim of threats, rumors, and violence. Then there's a murder and suspicion centers on Goldy. Suddenly, she is faced with the challenge of running her successful catering business while fending off two persistent detectives. Caught in a web of secrets and lies that can tear her family apart, Goldy must use all of her considerable powers of detection to find the real killer before she herself becomes a target. Abridged: 5 CDs, Running Time: 6 hrs. Performed by Patricia Kalember.

Throughout history there have been several thousand different strains of influenza. Each year hundreds are active. Chances are, this year, you will catch one of those strains. You will cough, sneeze, and your body will ache. Without a second thought, you'll take a double dose of green liquid,...  more

Throughout history there have been several thousand different strains of influenza. Each year hundreds are active. Chances are, this year, you will catch one of those strains. You will cough, sneeze, and your body will ache. Without a second thought, you'll take a double dose of green liquid, go to bed, and swear you'll feel better in the morning. Not this time. In 1918 forty-million people succumbed to a particular strain of swine flu. It appeared out of nowhere, and just as quickly as it surfaced, the Spanish Flu vanished. Gone for good. Or so we thought. Though mankind has anticipated its resurfacing for some time, mankind is ill prepared. Mutated and with a vengeance, the Spanish Flu returns. In a world blackened with plague, a glimmer of light exists in the small town of Lodi, Ohio. They shine as a sanctuary because they ... are 'flu-free' In the wake of the reality that they are spared, the spirit and strength of Lodi is tested. It becomes a fight against what is morally right or wrong in an increasingly difficult battle to stay healthy and alive until the flu has run its course.