(Mostly)-Abridged Audio Books, Miscellaneous
|
| | (Single books On Sale For up to 60% -OFF MSRP) | | AUTHOR | TITLE | Unabr | SALE | New | Media |
| BOX 34B |
| PETER BLAUNER | MAN OF THE HOUR -
All his life, schoolteacher David Fitzgerald has wanted to live up to the legacy left by his war-hero father, and one day he gets his chance. There is an explosion on a bus, and in a moment of unexpected courage, he saves the life of a student on board. Suddenly, David is a local celebrity. But then everything changes.
The police begin to suspect that David planted the bomb to make himself heroic. And in the whiplash that follows, he becomes the target of a federal investigation and the prey of the media wolf pack. In the midst of all this, he learns that the real bombers are getting ready to strike again, on a far more deadly scale.
| Yes
(9T,14H) | $19 | No | T |
| BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD | A SECRET AFFAIR -
The story of an illicit affair that plunges into mystery when one of the lovers fails to appear for an assignation, this new work is being published in the same small gift format as last season's Bradford best seller, Love in Another Town.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| DAVID BRIN | THE POSTMAN -
Gordon Krantz survived the Doomwar only to spend years crossing a post-apocalypse United States looking for something or someone he could believe in again. Ironically, when he's inadvertently forced to assume the made-up role of a "Restored United States" postal inspector, he becomes the very thing he's been seeking: a symbol of hope and rebirth for a desperate nation. Gordon goes through the motions of establishing a new postal route in the Pacific Northwest, uniting secluded towns and enclaves that are starved for communication with the rest of the world. And even though inside he feels like a fraud, eventually he will have to stand up for the new society he's helping to build or see it destroyed by fanatic survivalists.
| N
(2T,3H) | $5 | No | T |
| SANDRA BROWN | ENVY -
The prologue of a novel arrives in the Manhattan offices of a book editor, who's intrigued enough to chase its mysterious author, identified only by his initials, to his decrepit plantation on an island off the Georgia Coast. That's the first clue that fiction is stranger than fact; few publishers (if any) would go to that sort of trouble for anything less than a new J.D. Salinger novel. But bestselling author Sandra Brown makes the most of her far-fetched premise, setting up a convoluted plot that keeps the reader engrossed despite its flaws and foibles.
Maris Matherly-Reed is more than an editor. She's also the beloved daughter of the publishing house's highly respected and successful leader, and the wife of Matherly Press's second-in-command, the smooth, suave, double-dealing Noah Reed. Reed, it develops, is the real target of the literary scam set up by the reclusive writer of the novel whose opening pages so captivate Reed's spouse. P.M.E., the writer, has a score to settle with Maris's husband, and he doesn't care whom he hurts as long as he brings Noah down. At least, not until he meets Maris, who has an unfortunate habit of falling in love with her authors (see above; that's the second clue).
| N
(4T,6H) | $15 | No | T |
| SANDRA BROWN | EXCLUSIVE -
A second-stringer with first-class talent, Barrie Travis is stuck at a low-budget television station. Then, suddenly, she receives an invitation from the First Lady for an off-the-record conversation. Barrie's reporter's instincts are instantly aroused.
Blind to everything but getting her exclusive, Barrie is determined to investigate the death of the Present's child. But, she soon realizes that getting her story will test her ethics and her patriotism. She confronts this problem with Gray Bondurant, a former presidential aide and war hero who shunned Washington. And when they both begin to folow a trail of lies and intrigue right to the White House door, Barie's exclusive puts at least three people on the firing line: the first Lady, Gray, and herself.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY | LITTLE GREEN MEN -
John O. Banion is an acerbic journalist, a talk-show host, a D.C. insider?and proud of it. MJ-12 is a secret federal program (based on a real-life program of the same name) that stages alien abductions to maintain popular support for military spending and space exploration. When he is "probed" by "aliens" at a golf course, Banion becomes a true believer in UFOs. Ostracized by the D.C. establishment, he uses his TV show to organize millions of UFO cultists (the "Millennium Men"), who gather on the Mall (the "Millennium Man March") and just may bring down the government. Consistently hilarious and painfully topical, the novel can resemble a series of stand-up comedy routines; it's dense with one-liners, inside jokes, mini-exposes and tangential riffs on peripheral characters, from FBI men to Larry King. But Buckley's plot is no drawing-room farce: he envisions national catastrophes, convergences of millions of people, the stuff of big-budget disaster movies and spy thrillers.
| N
(4T,6.5H) | $9 | No | T |
| BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL | SINGING IN THE COMEBACK CHOIR
Maxine McCoy has made it. She has overcome the odds she faced as an African-American woman from a working class Philadelphia neighborhood to become a successful television producer in Los Angeles. She loves her hard-working, ambitious husband, and is pregnant with her first child. She does worry, though, that the shows she produces are of no social value. But this concern drops away when she receives a phone call from her grandmother's caretaker and learns she has to return to Philadelphia. Orphaned at an early age, Maxine grew up with her grandmother, Lindy, a singing star. Lindy is now a smoking, drinking, embittered woman whose glorious voice has atrophied from disuse - and the house on Sutherland Street, that used to swing with laughter and music, is dim and lifeless. Lindy's once-thriving neighborhood has become a blighted, crime-infested area. Yet, after a few days there, Maxine realizes that Lindy and Sutherland Street itself have been the source of her own strength and success, and she is moved to help them both reclaim their glory.
| N
(4T,6H) | $12 | No | T |
| JOHN CASE | THE SYNDROME -
What if you weren't who you thought you were, and behind the screen of false memories that convinced you of your identity was another, even more terrifying set of equally false memories, so awful that if anyone or anything made it past the first, artificially induced "firewall," you'd kill yourself rather than live with the horror of what you thought you'd done? That's the intriguing, if somewhat muddled, setup for John Case's (The Genesis Code) new thriller, which starts with the disappearance of Lew McBride, a young research psychologist, and the suicide of a beautiful but troubled young woman soon after she inexplicably guns down an old man in a wheelchair.
Adrienne Cope blames her sister Nico's death on Jeff Duran, the psychologist who's been treating Nico for the after-effects of the satanic sexual abuse she supposedly suffered in childhood, abuse that Adrienne has reason to know is a complete fiction. When the detective Adrienne hires to investigate Duran turns up proof that he's an impostor, Duran himself is baffled; his belief in his own identity is so convincing that he passes a lie detector test without breaking a sweat. Someone has stolen his mind: is it the same shadowy cabal that stole Nico's, too? When he and Adrienne finally join forces, their first stop is a neurologist, whose tests reveal an anomaly in Duran's brain, an implant that leads them to a Swiss clinic where a ruthless scientist has taken up experiments in brainwashing and mind control that the CIA shut down decades ago. Or did it?
| N
(4T,6H) | $12 | No | T |
| DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D. | LORDS OF LIGHT -
A thrilling tale of our world at the brink of Armageddon!
Michael Aulden, an American doctor working in the war-torn Middle East, thinks he has seen it all ... the devastating ravages of war, human bodies desecrated beyond recognition, the pain and misery of gaping psychological and physical wounds ... the worst kinds of destruction humankind can create. But nothing has prepared him for the evil he is about to experience.
| N
(2T,3H) | $9 | No | T |
| DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D. | THE RETURN OF MERLIN
Some legends endure the effects of time, reaching back to the mystery and the magic of a place and a people whom we know are part of who we are today. Camelot is such a legend and the mist shrouded fields, the ancient stone walls, the graceful figures of arthur and Guinevere are the touch-stones that connect us to purity of the heart and a sense of honor that knows no fear of death.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| SANDRA CISNEROS | THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET -
Esperanza and her family didn't always live on Mango Street. Right off she says she can't remember all the houses they've lived in but "the house on Mango Street is ours and we don't have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn't a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom. But even so, it's not the house we thought we'd get." Esperanza's childhood life in a Spanish-speaking area of Chicago is described in a series of spare, poignant, and powerful vignettes. Each story centers on a detail of her childhood: a greasy cold rice sandwich, a pregnant friend, a mean boy, how the clouds looked one time, something she heard a drunk say, her fear of nuns: "I always cry when nuns yell at me, even if they're not yelling." Esperanza's friends, family, and neighbors wander in and out of her stories; through them all Esperanza sees, learns, loves, and dreams of the house she will someday have, her own house, not on Mango Street.
| Yes
(2T,2.5H) | $9 | No | T |
| TOM CLANCY | OP-CENTER: STATE OF SIEGE -
Driven by greed, a group of UN peacekeeping soldiers move to the wrong side of the law.
| N
(4T,4.5H) | $10 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | ALL AROUND THE TOWN
Mary Higgins Clark's latest spellbinding tale of kipnapping, multiple personality and murder is read splendidly by Kate Nelligan, an award-winning actress. Her varied accents richly differentiate the many characters. The masculine voices are well done though the Australian accent of psychiatrist Justin Donnelly could use some work. The abridgment flows well with no noticeable gaps. The suspense concerning the murderous threat to the terrified Laurie Kenyon builds well and will probably cause listening commuters to take the long way home to hear the thrilling conclusion.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT -
When Alvirah and Willy, two of Clark's most beloved characters become caught up in a Christmas mystery, all of Alvirah's deductive powers, as well as Willy's world-class common sense are called upon. It begins when an unmarried woman leaves her newborn on the rectory doorstep of a Manhattan church. Meanwhile, a small-time thief and drug peddler is absconding from the church with a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a single star-shaped diamond. To elude the police, he grabs the stroller and disappears.
Seven years later, the young mother returns to the church where her child was kidnapped while Alvirah and Willy are helping neighborhood kids prepare for a Christmas pageant at an after-school shelter. But the future of the shelter is threatened, when the city condemns the site, and it is learned that the brownstone to which the shelter was moving has been willed to a smooth-talking couple, tenants in the building. Suspecting that the will is a fake and the tenants con artists, Alvirah sets out to discover the truth. Soon she finds herself in the middle in the mystery of the puzzle of the missing child and chalice.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | A STRANGER IS WATCHING -
Two years after Nina Peterson's brutal murder her husband Steve is still fighting to bring the killer to justice. Their six-year-old son Neil remains haunted by the terrible vision of the murderer's hands wrapped around his mother's throat. And Sharon Martin, who has grown to love both Steve and Neil, wishes only to ease their pain and suffering.
But as 19-year-old Ronald Thompson sits wrongly convicted on the eve of his execution, a stranger is still watching -- still plotting as he did before, living for the moment when he can kill and kill again...
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| CAROL HIGGINS CLARK | FLEECED -
Regan Reilly is in New York to attend a crime conference organized by her celebrity-author mother. A friend, Thomas Pilsner -- the frenetic president of the Settlers' Club on Gramercy Park -- calls Regan, desperately pleading for help. Thomas is distraught over the sudden suspicious deaths of two members of the Settler's Club. The men had promised to donate a cache of valuable diamonds to save the Club. But now the diamonds re gone, the men are dead, and Thomas is a mess. He fears the police will suspect he is at the heart of both mysteries, and worse yet, he'll lose his job.
Enter Regan. Who better than the star of Decked, Snagged, Iced, and Twanged to solve the mystery of the missing diamonds and the suspicious deaths? Who better to contend with quirky characterslike Lydia Sevatura, the self-styled "Princess of Love" who operates a dating service and her butler, Maldwin Feckles, who has just opened up the first school of butlering in New York City? And who better than Carol Higgins Clark whose sparkling, canny prose keeps listeners guessing to the end "who done it"?
| N
(3T,4.5H) | $11 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | I'LL BE SEEING YOU -
Meghan Collins, newly hired TV reporter, makes a startling discovery while on assignment at a large metropolitan hospital. An unidentified young woman dying of a knife wound is rushed into the emergency ward, and Meghan finds herself staring down at a person who could be her double. She is thrust into an investigation that not only involves finding out the identity of the dead woman, but also uncovering the details of her father's puzzling death 10 months earlier. No trace of his body or car was ever found. To complicate things further, Meghan's next assignment reveals some questionable procedures at a fertility clinic in regard to in vitro fertilization of identical twins. Clark masterfully fits all the pieces together, delivering an expertly written, gripping mystery.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART -
Kerry McGrath, a young attorney on her way to a judgeship, seeks the medical assistance of plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Smith when her daughter is injured in a car accident. While waiting for Robin in the doctor's office, Kerry is amazed to see two women sharing the same face. She is further confused to discover that the face is that of Dr. Smith's own daughter, Suzanne Reardon, murdered 10 years earlier. Skip, Suzanne's husband, is serving a life sentence for her death. His attorney soon gets Kerry's interest in appealing Skip's conviction as well as attracting her romantically. The cast of characters includes Kerry's boss; her benefactors and great friends, State Senator Jonathan Hoover and his invalid wife; and her former husband, who is defending a Mafia client. All of their paths cross as Kerry must choose between her professional future and her belief in Skip Reardon's innocence. A suspenseful novel that's sure to please.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | LOVES MUSIC, LOVES TO DANCE
-
New York's trendy magazines are a source of peril when a killer enacts a bizarre dance of death, using the personal ads to lure his victims...
After college, best friends Erin Kelley and Darcy Scott move to the city to pursue exciting careers; Erin is a promising jewelry designer, Darcy finds success as a decorator. On a lark, Darcy persuades Erin to help their TV producer friend research the kinds of people who place personal ads. It seems like innocent fun...until Erin disappears.
Erin's body is found on an abandoned Manhattan pier -- on one foot is her own shoe, on the other, a high-heeled dancing slipper. Soon after, startling communiques from the killer reveal that Erin is not the first victim of this "dancing shoe murderer." And, if the killer has his way, she won't be his last. Next on his death list is Darcy.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | MY GAL SUNDAY -
Imagine Nick and Nora Charles with a taste for politics and none for gin, and you'd be pretty close to Mary Higgins Clark's Henry Parker Britland IV and his attractive young wife, Sandra O'Brien Britland, known as Sunday. Henry, possessor of an enormous inherited fortune and known as one of America's sexiest men, has just finished his second term as president of the United States and is happily retired at 44, puttering around his New Jersey country estate. Sunday, who bootstrapped her way up from a modest working-class background, is a junior congresswoman with a reputation for smarts. The two met, romantically enough, on the eve of Henry's leaving office, fell madly in love, and were married six weeks later. In this collection of four pleasantly readable stories, the sleuthing duo catch the murderer of a statesman's flashy amour, endure Sunday's kidnapping and mastermind her rescue, solve the 34-year-old mystery of the disappearance of a foreign prime minister from the Britland family yacht, and reunite a ransomed boy with his parents at Christmas. Of the four, "They All Ran After the President's Wife" may be the best plotted, and has a particularly amusing McGuffin in the character of a caviar-loving terrorist. While the suspense is on the mild side throughout, the romance is lighthearted but sincere, and the occasional flashes of wit are dryly appealing. It's a bonbon, to be enjoyed for its brief sweetness.
| N
(4T,4.5H) | $12 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | PRETEND YOU DON'T SEE HER -
What happens when a young woman is accidentally caught up in a dangerous murder investigation, having merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time?
What happens when she is placed under protective care, forced to give up her identity and move to another part of the country, at least until the killer can be firmly identified and apprehended?
What happens when in her new life she meets and falls in love with the perfect man, only she can't marry him because she can't tell anyone -- even him, especially him -- who she really is?
Pretend You Don't See Her is the story of Lacey Farrell, a rising star on Manhattan's high-powered real estate scene. Lacey becomes the witness to a murder and bears the dying words of the victim, a woman who is convinced that her attacker was after a diary her daughter had kept up until the day she supposedly took her own life. Lacey gives the diary to the police -- but not before she makes a copy for herself.
Obliged to give up her family, her job, her very identity, Lacey is placed in the Witness Protection Program. She must assume a new life, at least until the killer can be found and brought to trial...But she soon realizes that her sanctuary is not safe. Lacey is caught in a race against time as she tries to uncover what happened before she is killed herself...
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | REMEMBER ME -
A tinge of the supernatural flavors the latest entry from our leading practitioner of the damsel-in-distress school of suspense. Just what is the mysterious presence that seems to haunt Menley Nichols and baby Hannah in their spectacular rented Cape Cod mansion? Menley is still trying to recover from the horror of her two-year-old son Bobby's death on the railroad crossing. Lawyer husband Adam is too busy dashing to and from New York, and defending a local hunk suspected of doing away with his wealthy bride, to be much help. And so the presence moves in on Menley, Rebecca style, with eerie middle-of-the-night sound effects and rocking cradles. As always with Clark, there are several plots going on at once, which are miraculously blended and resolved in the finale; people to watch out for here include a pretty waitress in a local inn and a real estate lady who is an old flame of Adam's. Clark opens herself to charges of excessive authorial legerdemain by employing many narrative points of view, including those of at least two guilty parties.
| N
(2T,2H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | SILENT NIGHT -
It is Christmas Eve in New York City when Brian, a determined seven year old, follows the thief who took his mother's wallet, hoping to retrieve the St. Christopher's medal that he believes will save his father, who has leukemia, just as it saved his grandfather in World War II. However, the child is kidnapped by a vicious escaped convict who needs a hostage. The central characters come to life rapidly as the fast-moving story quickly builds suspense. Teens will appreciate the realistic, paradoxical description of the relationship between Brian and his older brother: caring, concerned, and name-calling at the same time.
| N
(2T,2H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | TERROR STALKS THE CLASS REUNION -
Lovely young Kay Crandall has come back for the reunion of a high school where she once taught. But Kay cannot guess that the happy occasion is about to turn into a nightmare ... as she falls into the hands of a madman who wants to make her into his wife .... and his victim. N
(2T,2H) | $7 | No | T |
|
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | THE BODY IN THE CLOSET AND PLUMBING FOR WILLY -
Alvirah Meehan wins the lottery, quits her job as a cleaning woman, and, along with her ex-plumber husband, Willy, accidentally begins a new career in crime-solving. In THE BODY IN THE CLOSET, Alvirah and Willy return from vacation to find a strangled woman in their bedroom closet. In PLUMBING FOR WILLY, poor Willy is kidnapped and held ransom for his lottery money. Frances Sternhagen's Queen's accent shapes the street-savvy Alvirah. Additionally, she creates a Willy perfectly compatible for Alvirah, a befuddled, loving, "salt-of-the-earth" darling. These short story plots are hilarious, clever, and performed with zany enthusiasm.
| N
(2T,2.5H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? -
A mystery about a woman who had lost her husband and two children a few years before, remarried and had two more children. When they are kidnapped out of their own backyard, all of the old feelings of the past come rushing back and she is determined to find them. The story captivates you and makes you want to keep reading more and more with each chapter: at each chapter's end you will be left hanging, wondering what is going to happen next. But then, just when you think the next chapter will answer your questions form the last, it doesn't. Needless to say, it isn't a very easy book to put down. By the end you still won't have put the pieces together and the ending will leave you stunned. | N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | WEEP NO MORE, MY LADY -
Young Elizabeth Lange is determined to unearth the truth about how her beloved sister Leila really died. Ted Winters, Leila's multi-millionaire fiance, has been accused of her murder. Elizabeth is slated to be witness for the prosecution, but gets swept in a current of confusing emotions and perplexing questions. As glimpses of the dark truth are revealed, an unexpected source threatens to engulf her entirely.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| MARY HIGGINS CLARK | WHILE MY PRETTY ONE SLEEPS -
Gossip columnist Ethel Lambston knew everything about everybody who was somebody ... so there were more than enough suspects in her murder. But for Neeve Kearny, owner of an expensive Madison Avenue boutique, the killing of one of her best customers had eerie echoes of another death that had occurred many years earlier ... the murder of her own mother. Suddenly, Neeve is plunged into the mystery, following a trail that leads from the glittering palaces of New York's rich and beautiful to the Mafia underworld.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| HARLAN COBEN | TELL NO ONE -
David Beck has rebuilt his life since his wife's murder eight years ago, finishing medical school and establishing himself as a pediatrician, but he's never forgotten the woman he fell in love with in second grade. And when a mysterious e-mail arrives on the anniversary of their first kiss, with a message and an image that leads him to wonder whether Elizabeth might still be alive, Beck will stop at nothing to find the truth that's eluded him for so many years. A powerful billionaire is equally determined to make sure his role in her disappearance never comes to light, even if it means destroying an innocent man.
| N
(3T,5H) | $12 | No | T |
| MICHAEL CONNELLY | A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT -
When a sheriff's detective shows up on former FBI man Terry McCaleb's Catalina Island doorstep and requests his help in analyzing photographs of a crime scene, McCaleb at first demurs. He's newly married (to Graciela, who herself dragged him from retirement into a case in Blood Work), has a new baby daughter, and is finally strong again after a heart transplant. But once a bloodhound, always a bloodhound. One look at the video of Edward Gunn's trussed and strangled body puts McCaleb back on the investigative trail, hooked by two details: the small statue of an owl that watches over the murder scene and the Latin words "Cave Cave Dus Videt," meaning "Beware, beware, God sees," on the tape binding the victim's mouth.
| N
(4T,6H) | $9 | No | T |
| PAT CONROY | BEACH MUSIC -
Conroy evolves from the Margaret Mitchell school of southern writing, where everything must be Big--the smartest, most beautiful people on the planet living the biggest lives on the grandest sets and, of course, wracked by the greatest tragedies. It's all here in the story of Jack McCall of Waterford, South Carolina, his five brothers, drunken father, white-trash mother, and Holocaust-surviving in-laws. Nothing small happens in this book: the McCalls' story is played out against World War II, Auschwitz, the sixties, and, of course, the South in all its triumph and tragedy. Even the little moments are big in their way: the best cup of cappuccino, the most beautiful southern evening, the freshest shrimp, the most precocious kid. And yet, sneer as we will, we also must admit that Conroy plays the high-concept game as well as anyone. Like Mitchell, he builds narrative momentum that is impossible to resist
| N
(6T,9H) | $8 | No | T |
| PAT CONROY | THE GREAT SANTINI -
Today his family would be called dysfunctional. Bull Meecham -- fighter pilot, warrior, juggler, clown and bully -- a hard-drinking terror of a man who calls himself The Great Santini -- actually hides behind his misnomer. His swaggering mask is all Marine, and entitles him to be the absolute ruler of his family, which he handles with all the tenderness and understanding of a drill sergeant shaping up a class of new recruits.
Bull's wife, Lillian, is a beautiful steel magnolia -- without her cool head and infinite patience, the family would fall apart. Ben, at eighteen the oldest of Bull and Lillian's three children, is a natural athlete whose best never satisfies his father. As Ben struggles to become his own man against the intimidation of his father, he's forced to stand up, even fight back, against a man who refuses to give in.
| N
(2T,3H) | $11 | No | T |
| PAT CONROY | THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE -
In this powerful, mesmerizing, and highly acclaimed bestseller, PAT CONROY sweeps us into the turbulent world of four young men–friends, cadets, and blood brothers–and their days of hazing, heartbreak, pride, betrayal, and, ultimately, humanity. | N
(2T,3H) | $9 | No | T |
| BERNARD CORNWELL | ENEMY OF GOD -
Cornwell furnishes a provocative look at the Arthurian legends in Enemy of God, the second book in the Warlords Chronicle. This version of the tale takes place during the Dark Ages, when even the lords of the land lived in thatched huts. Arthur, still defending Britain for his younger half-brother Mordred, faces religious uprisings, Saxon invasions, and disloyalty at the heart of the kingdom. His uncompromising belief in oaths and his optimistic blindness to human betrayal isolate him from even his closest friends. At the same time, Merlin's quest for the Cauldron (read Holy Grail) also becomes entangled in treachery.
Cornwell's writing skills have continued to evolve since his journeyman Sharpe series, and Enemy of God combines intriguing descriptions of Druidical magic with the war-ravaged landscape of Dark Ages Britain, without holding back on the brutality of vengeance and war. The Matter of Britain always commands interest, and Cornwell invests the usual splendor and tragedy with the human squalor of the times.
| N
(4T,6H) | $13 | No | T |
| ROBERT CRAIS | LULLABY TOWN -
Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America. It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep — until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Conneticut town, she's nothing like what he expects. The lady has some unwanted — and very nasty — mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . .at the bottom of the Hudson River.
| N
(4T,6H) | $6 | No | T |
| WES CRAVEN | FOUNTAIN SOCIETY -
Dr. Peter Jance, a brilliant physicist on the verge of developing the ultimate weapon for the U.S. government, is suffering from pancreatic cancer and is in danger of dying before he completes his task. The solution may lie with Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the master of the super-secret military-sponsored Fountain SocietyAas in "fountain of youth." (My god: what if scientific geniuses could live forever?) What follows is a wickedly clever tale of genetic experimentation and human cloning, international military intrigue, mad-scientist wizardry, and evil secret intelligence that would be right at home in The X-Files. That Craven can make all of this believable is a testament to his writing skill; the "master of the macabre" has a winner
| N
(4T,5H) | $12 | No | T |
| KENNETH C. DAVIS | DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT SPACE -
Using the popular style that has won millions of readers, best-selling author Kenneth C. Davis blasts off for the stars! With an entertaining Q&A format, amusing anecdotes, and much more, he sets his sights on the mysteries of space.
Davis takes you back to the time when the Babylonians first charted the stars over three thousand years ago! You'll uncover amazing facts about the planets and stars, hear how people were once convinced the Earth was the center of the universe, and discover how the experience of moon-walking astronauts may someday lead us to become pioneers on other planets.
| Y
(2T,3.5H) | $12 | No | T |
| BARBARA DELINSKY | COMMITMENTS-
On her Manhattan rooftop terrace, elegant Sabrina Stone looks like a society wife, except for the handicapped child in her arms. She speaks with investigative reporter Derek McGill for only a few minutes; it is long enough to tell her all she needs to know about this caring man. Sabrina next meets Derek in a maximum security prison-after he is convicted of murder. She comes to tell him she believes in his innocence, and finds him a man hardened by experience yet one who still loves her and her son But to commit herself Sabrina must finally end her marriage—and begin a fight for a man's freedom that holds no guarantees, only the promise of fulfilling all of their dreams.
| Yes
(8T,12H) | $18 | No | T |
| BARBARA DELINSKY | COMMITMENTS -
On her Manhattan rooftop terrace, elegant Sabrina Stone looks like a society wife, except for the handicapped child in her arms. She speaks with investigative reporter Derek McGill for only a few minutes; it is long enough to tell her all she needs to know about this caring man. Sabrina next meets Derek in a maximum security prison-after he is convicted of murder. She comes to tell him she believes in his innocence, and finds him a man hardened by experience yet one who still loves her and her son But to commit herself Sabrina must finally end her marriage—and begin a fight for a man's freedom that holds no guarantees, only the promise of fulfilling all of their dreams.
| No
(4T,6H) | $10 | No | T |
| TAMI HOAG | DARK PARADISE -
In the place she feels safest, terror lies in wait ... New Eden, Montana, is a piece of heaven on earth where one woman died in her own private hell. Now it's up to ex-court reporter Marilee Jennings to decipher the puzzle of her best friend's death, but someone has a stake in silencing her suspicion ... | (4T,6H) | $10 | No | T |
| STEPHEN HUNTER | PALE HORSE COMING
Something ugly's going on at the secret Mississippi prison. Ex-prosecutor Sam Vincent, demanding justice and honesty, finds neither in his search for Earl Swagger, who has vanished into the swamps. Looking for him, Sam grapples with corruption, brutal lawmen, and racist thugs. From the Washington Post's Pulitzer-winning drama critic.
| N
(4T,6H) | $13 | No | T |
| JOSEPH KANON | THE GOOD GERMAN -
This compelling thriller is both a touching love story and a masterful portrayal of the struggle for geopolitical control of postwar Germany. Network correspondent Jake Geismar, who covered Berlin before the war, has returned to the devastated city, ostensibly to cover the Potsdam Conference but actually to find the woman he loves. Miraculously, Lena Brandt, Jake's wartime mistress, has survived. However, her mathematician husband is missing, and both the American and Russian intelligence services are hunting him. When the bullet-ridden body of an American soldier washes up on the shores of Potsdam in front of Jake's eyes just as Truman, Churchill, and Stalin convene the first postwar conference, Jake is plunged into a maelstrom of intrigue, corruption, and betrayal. | N
(4T,7H) | $11 | No | T |
| JOHNATHAN KELLERMAN | FLESH AND BLOOD -
The third novel to feature child psychologist Alex Delaware begins with a desperate, garbled phone call from former patient Jamey Cadmus, genius of record and heir to a construction fortune. The next day, Jamey is accused of the Lavender Slashings, a series of grisly homosexual murders that have rocked Los Angeles. The teenager's lawyer asks Alex to examine Jamey's recent history with the hope that a plea of diminished capacity will protect Jamey from a prison sentence. Though soon fired, Alex continues his investigation, motivated by the compassion and intelligence previously demonstrated in When the Bough Breaks and Blood Test. Tracing the rocky road of Jamey's emotional development, Alex crisscrosses L.A., moving from Beverly Hills mansions to biker cabins, from the old Haight district to mountain canyons, with stops at the U.C.L.A. medical library, the high-security section of the L.A.P.D. jail and some exquisitely appointed legal offices. Aided by his friend, homicide detective Milo Sturgis, Alex ignores warnings to stay away from the case and begins to discern an ominous pattern in Jamey's family history, connecting esoteric South American hallucinogens, a massively irresponsible real-estate scam and the ageless human motivations of revenge and greed.
| N
(4T,6H) | $12 | No | T |
| HENRY KISSINGER | DOES AMERICA NEED A FOREIGN POLICY? -
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asks a question in the title of his book Does America Need a Foreign Policy?--but there's really no doubt about the answer. That's not to say it shouldn't be asked: "The last presidential election was the third in a row in which foreign policy was not seriously discussed by the candidates," writes Kissinger. "In the face of perhaps the most profound and widespread upheavals the world has ever seen, [the United States] has failed to develop concepts relevant to the emerging realities." Kissinger tours the world in this book, describing how the United States should relate to various regions and countries. This is not a gripping book, but it is sober, accessible, brief, and comprehensive--and an excellent introduction to international relations and diplomacy.
Kissinger has opinions on just about every topic he raises, from globalization (for it) to international courts (against them, for the most part). He supports a vigorous missile-defense system: "The United States cannot condemn its population to permanent vulnerability." He opines on peace in the Middle East: "Israel should abandon its opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state except as part of a final status agreement." His claims are often eye-opening: "There are few nations in the world with which the United States has less reason to quarrel or more compatible interests than Iran." He is especially critical of domestic politics interfering with America's international relations: "Whatever the merit of the individual legislative actions, their cumulative effect drives American foreign policy toward unilateral and seemingly bullying conduct." The media has been a special problem in this regard, as it zips around the world in search of exciting but ephemeral stories, which are "generally presented as a morality play between good and evil having a specific outcome and rarely in terms of the long-range challenges of history." Does America need a foreign policy? Of course it does, and Henry Kissinger has done readers a service by outlining what a good one might be.
| N
(2T,3H) | $8 | No | T |
| ELIZABETH LOWELL | MOVING TARGET -
When Serena inherits some rare pages from the mysterious Book of the Learned, she discovers that someone is willing to kill to keep their secrets under wraps. Of course, this being a novel by a doyenne of romantic suspense, Serena also gets involved with the man set to appraise her valuable inheritance.
| N
(4T,6H) | $12 | No | T |
| WENDY NORTHCUTT | THE DARWIN AWARDS -
Warning: The Darwin Awards are not for the tenderhearted. The vastly popular Web site, now a book, recognizes "individuals who ensure the long-term survival of our species by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion." Who wins a Darwin Award? Terrorists who set their bombs on daylight saving time and delivered them on standard time, blowing themselves up. Folks who put garlands around a Bengal tiger's neck. Guys in Cambodia who took turns stomping on a land mine they'd brought into a bar. The six Egyptians who drowned trying to rescue a chicken that fell into a well. (The chicken alone survived.) The Buenos Aires husband who threw his wife out an eighth-floor window during a spat, noticed she'd gotten caught in power lines, and jumped after her, "angrily trying to finish the job, or remorsefully hoping to rescue her." He went splat; she escaped unscathed. There are some urban legends, like the sergeant said to have attached a Jet-Assisted Take-Off unit to his Chevy and hit a cliff 125 feet up (not true, says author Wendy Northcutt), and all-too-true honorable mentions, like the man who put weather balloons on his lawn chair, soared to 16,000 feet, crashed into power lines, blacked out Long Beach, California, and told police, "A man can't just sit around." My favorite winner: the man who was bitten nine times by the same king brown snake because he put it in a bag on his car seat and kept sticking his hand back into the bag. Why did he pick up the snake with his left hand? "Because I was holding a beer in my right one." And where did this take place? In Darwin, Australia. If you think somebody up there doesn't have a wicked sense of humor, The Darwin Awards may change your mind.
| N
(2T,3.5H) | $7 | No | T |
| JAMES PATTERSON | KISS THE GIRLS -
What's worse than a serial killer on the loose? How about twin serial killers? While Casanova and The Gentleman Caller are not blood brothers, psychologist/detective Alex Cross explains twinning to show how they work together to pull off their grisly crimes. When Cross's niece becomes the latest victim, he uses his research on twinning to catch the killers. This three-hour abridgment is riveting. Macabre sound effects, careful editing and chilling performances by Guillaume and Noth produce a viseral reaction in the listener. Though complicated and fast-paced, the story is easy to follow and hard to forget.
| N
(2T,3H) | $9.50 | No | T |
| ANNE PERRY | FUNERAL IN BLUE -
Aided by Colacci's cool but carefully calibrated reading, which cleverly cranks up the excitement when necessary, Perry's tale transports readers to Victorian London along with a splendid side trip to Vienna, as the Monks try to clear a doctor friend of two murder charges. Along the way, Perry gets to show off again her seamless talent for illustrating the era's social evils this time addictive gambling and barely hidden anti-Semitism without making her obviously prodigious research seem lumpy or excessive. There's more about period medical practices here than some listeners might have the stomach for, as Hester and Dr. Kristian Beck (the man accused of killing his wife and an artist's model) perform some very bloody surgery, but it certainly roots the story in reality. So do Perry's writing and Colacci's sly reading about women's fashions and what they had to say about the social roles of the people forced to wear them.
| N
(4T,6H) | $12 | No | T |
| ELIZABETH PETERS | THE APE WHO GUARDS THE BALANCE -
The prospects for the 1907 archaeological season in Egypt seem fairly dull to Amelia Peabody. Despite her adored husband's brilliant reputation in his field, his dashing-yet-less-than-diplomatic behavior has Professor Radcliffe Emerson ignominiously demoted to examining only the most boring tombs in the Valley of the Kings -- mere leftovers, really. All the Peabody Emersons profess stiff upper lips and intend to make the best of a bad situation, but this year the legendary land of the pharoahs will yield more than priceless artifacts for the Emerson expedition. For the desert guards even deeper mysteries that are wrapped in greed -- and sealed by murder. | N
(4T,6H) | $13 | No | T |
| GARY M. POMERANTZ | NINE MINUTES, TWENTY SECONDS -
In August 1995, twenty-six passengers and a crew of three board a commuter plane in Atlanta headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. Shortly after takeoff they hear an explosion and, looking out the windows on the left side, see a mangled engine lodged against the wing. From that moment, nine minutes and twenty seconds elapse until the crippled plane crashes in a west Georgia hayfield–nine minutes and twenty seconds in which Gary Pomerantz takes readers deep into the hearts and minds of the people aboard, each of whom prepares in his or her own way for what may come.
Ultimately, nineteen people survive both the crash and its devastating aftermath, all of them profoundly affected by what they have seen and, more important, what they have done to help themselves and others.
This is not so much a book about a plane crash as it is a psychologically illuminating real-life drama about ordinary people and how they behave in extraordinary circumstances. | N
(4T,6.5H) | $12 | No | T |
| NORA ROBERTS (J.C. Robb) | RAPTURE IN DEATH -
Roberts writes as J.D. Robb with Rapture In Death, which benefits from Susan Ericksen's smooth style, capturing the drama of three apparent suicides and an investigation into virtual reality games.
| N
(4T,6H) | $9 | No | T |
| RITA RUDNER | TICKLED PINK -
Well known for her comedy films and her nonfiction (e.g., Naked Beneath My Clothes), Rudner has written her first novel. Sounding remarkably like Rudner's own life, the story focuses on Mindy Solomon as she travels to New York to become a dancer in the summer of 1980. There, she meets Ursula Duran, a struggling model, and the two become fast friends. During her climb to success on Broadway, Mindy hurts her leg and switches to stand-up comedy, and Ursula becomes a cover girl and television star. Rudner's depictions of life as a stand-up comedienne during the Reagan years and of show business in general ring true. In a story that is both funny and touching, Rudner has handsomely made the transition from nonfiction to fiction.
| Yes
(6T,8H) | $16 | No | T |
| RITA RUDNER | TICKLED PINK -
Well known for her comedy films and her nonfiction (e.g., Naked Beneath My Clothes), Rudner has written her first novel. Sounding remarkably like Rudner's own life, the story focuses on Mindy Solomon as she travels to New York to become a dancer in the summer of 1980. There, she meets Ursula Duran, a struggling model, and the two become fast friends. During her climb to success on Broadway, Mindy hurts her leg and switches to stand-up comedy, and Ursula becomes a cover girl and television star. Rudner's depictions of life as a stand-up comedienne during the Reagan years and of show business in general ring true. In a story that is both funny and touching, Rudner has handsomely made the transition from nonfiction to fiction.
| No
(3T,4H) | $9 | No | T |
| JOHN SANDFORD | CHOSEN PREY -
When a spring thaw disinters the body of a young woman who's been missing for over a year, Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport doesn't have much to go on except the victim's rumored connection with an unnamed man, who may be an artist and also, perhaps, a priest. But then the deserted property where her body was discovered turns out to be a killing field full of other young blondes last seen in the company of a man with a nasty habit of superimposing their faces on pornographic drawings. Davenport begins to close in on a serial killer whose perverted hobby provides the clues Davenport needs to stop him in his bloody tracks. James Qatar isn't a priest, and he's not really an artist, but he's definitely a monster, one who's met his match in Davenport.
| N
(4T,6H) | $9 | No | T |
| SCOTT SMITH | A SIMPLE PLAN -
Hank Mitchell ... steady, solid, devoted husband, proud new father ... finds an immense cache of money with two other men. The three agree to a simple plan that will allow them to hide, keep and eventually share the fortune.
But when suspicion, blackmail, betrayal and murder come on the scene, Hank's orderly universe begins to crumble.
"Fulfills every expectation of a novel of suspense, leading the reader on a wild exploration of the banality of evil, consummate skill increasing the tension exponentially with plot twists that are inevitable and unpredictable at the same time."
| N
(T,3H) | $7 | No | T |
| PETER STARK | LAST BREATH -
A fascinating look at how individuals can face death in the course of adventure and daring. Each of the 11 chapters is a separate saga of a fictitious character in a life-threatening situation. Scenarios include hypothermia, drowning while kayaking on a treacherous Chinese river, suffocation by avalanche, and heatstroke in a competitive bike race. Other dangers include altitude sickness, scurvy, falling, jellyfish stings, the bends, malaria, and dehydration. As readers begin each story, they have no way of knowing whether or not the character will survive. The physiological details of the body's attempts to endure, the psychological changes that occur as death is faced, and the serendipity that allows one to live and another to die all make for an engrossing book. Stark has a clear way of imparting a lot of detail. He describes the intricacies involved in each sport, the biological details of the body's response, and the nuances of the character's personality within the few pages. Each story is compelling and the mystery of the outcome holds readers' attention.
| N
(4T,6H) | $13 | No | T |
| LAO TZU | TAO TE CHING -
Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living, and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching looks at the basic predicament of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love; to child rearing, business, and ecology. | N
(1T,1H) | $ | No | T |
| STUART WOODS | NEW YORK DEAD -
Stone Barrington is too smart to be a cop, but a stroke of bad luck turns his life into a living hell.
Late one evening, as Stone trudges home from Elaine's Restaurant, popular TV newscaster Sasha Nijinsky plummets 12 stories from her terrace and lands on a heap of dirt 20 yards away from him--remarkably, still alive. Stone fails to apprehend the person who flees Sasha's penthouse and, after the ambulance carrying her collides with a fire truck, Sasha herself disappears. Despite the fact that no corpse is in evidence, the baffled NYPD eagerly pins a murder rap on Sasha's lesbian lover. Bed-hopping TV newspeople, a sexy blonde judge, a serial killer targeting cabbies and a creepy med-school dropout turned mortician who idolizes Sasha romp through this calculatedly melodramatic crime story all the way to its grisly finale.
| N
(4T,6H) | $10 | No | T |
| STUART WOODS | ORCHID BLUES -
Holly is on her way to be married to Jackson Oxenhandler, her steady beau, when her wedding day is shattered by a serious crime that takes place very close to home. A highly disciplined team of men hit a bank in Orchid Beach, Florida, and the waves from this robbery nearly capsize Holly's life. She vows to find these men - who have been careful enough to leave nothing behind except the corpse of a bank customer - and quickly, she discovers evidence that leads her into the midst of what appears to be a politically motivated clan. Her father, Ham, a retired Army chief master sergeant, is her ticket into this strange world, and what Ham finds there stuns both Holly and her FBI contact, Harry Crisp.
Holly and Ham find themselves sucked into a whirlpool of crazed criminality and, in the end, the FBI can do little to help them. This time, Holly, Ham, and Daisy are on their own, and they wouldn't have it any other way. | Yes
(5T, 7H) | $14 | No | T |
| STUART WOODS | THE RUN -
Wood's account of an idealistic politician's presidential campaign moves quickly and provides readers with many intriguing plot twists. By unusual circumstance, Will Lee, a well-respected senator from Georgia, is thrown into a run for the United States presidency. Though Will remains courageously true to his principles as campaign staffers cobble together his strategy, the path to the presidency proves fraught with difficulties and danger. For, in addition to unscrupulous political adversaries, Will must contend with an affair from 10 years past and an assassin from a right-wing militia group. Howard fluctuates between reading the story straight and acting out its characters. This is not a problem, however, as his pacing is superb and his deep voice is the perfect timbre for this suspenseful tale.
| N
(4T,6H) | $13 | No | T |
| |
| Wholesale Price Box - 25% MSRP (Single books On Sale For up to 60% -OFF MSRP) |
| Media Mail S&H (Insurance optional to buyer) |
| |
|
|
|