A boy, a rat, and an exterminator -- three players in a game of survival. Christmas vacation is supposed to be a blast. Or so Eric thinks. But with all his friends either sick in bed or out of town, Eric's getting more bored by the hour. Then he meets Anje Gabrail, exterminator. Anje's got all the normal stuff an exterminator needs -- roach powders and smoke bombs -- but he also carries some extra equipment: a crossbow and metal-tipped arrows that can penetrate concrete walls and will annihilate any creature with which they come in contact. Anje's number one target? Rats. To Eric, this guy is creepy but fascinating. So, with nothing better to do, he joins Anje on a mission to destroy the rat living in the basement of his apartment building. But as Christmas Day draws nearer and the temperature outside keeps dropping, things in the basement go from weird to deadly. And Eric learns how valuable life truly is.

The peaceful town of Millersburg, Ohio, in the heart of Ohio's Amish country, is rocked by the vicious murder of one of its citizens at the hands of an ex-convict. When a local reporter covering the story ends up dead as well, with the convict already behind bars, suspicion falls on David Hawkins, father of the first victim. But Hawkins is nowhere to be found, not even among the protective Amish colony that had taken him in as one of its own regardless of his shadowy past. Following on the critical and popular success of his first book, mystery writer P. L. Gaus again brings us a moral and legal conundrum as Professor Michael Branden, Sheriff Bruce Robertson, and Pastor Cal Troyer set out to uncover the truth that seems so elusive in their otherwise quiet corner of the world. Along the way, Gaus paints a unique portrait of the relationship between the Amish and the "English" cultures as seen from the inside. Against this backdrop, Broken English is a tale of honor, deception, and revenge, where circumstances and the search for justice test the mettle of the closest of friends and reveal the desperate measures of the strongest of foes.

My boyfriend is trying to kill me, but that's alright—I'm trying to kill him, too.Alright, maybe "boyfriend" is a stretch, here. What Graham and I are doing is much more casual than that. I figured it would just be a physical arrangement, so imagine my surprise when he shows up at my house for Thanksgiving. Worse, I've already found the next enchantment—and I can't take the damn thing off! Cursed to tell the truth, I'm trapped in Ravenswood with my family and three guys who either want me dead...or in their bed. For fans of Immortals After Dark, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, and Sookie Stackhouse, featuring:Reverse HaremLove TriangleHe Falls FirstEnemies to LoversObsessive LoversMultiple First-Person POV

After just three years, THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES series is already a great success, earning raves from such diverse sources as Joyce Carol Oates, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, and ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. Little wonder, given the power of the Best American brand, the talent of the series editor, Otto Penzler, and the high profile of the guest editors. Now, with the legendary mystery writer Donald E. Westlake as guest editor, the 2000 edition is sure to boost the series’ popularity even more. From Tfty exceptional stories chosen by Penzler, Westlake has selected the twenty best, including stories by Tom Franklin, Jeffery Deaver, Shel Silverstein, and Dennis Lehane, for a collection that will delight mystery buffs and casual readers alike.

When Shan was fifteen years old, dark soldiers came out of the west, like a cloud of evil boiling over the soft hills of his homeland. They commanded terrible beasts, which killed with hook claws like scythes and cold eyes that dripped icy fire. The soldiers wore helmets that looked like fiends, tusked and snarling and sneering. The terrible consequences of war have left the boy Shan wounded in body and mind by the invading army of Magravandias. He's taken from his devastated village by the magus Taropat, chosen by the master's mysterious impulse to become the wizard's pupil, and a weapon against the invading empire.

Short stories filled with empathy, laughter, and a love of the game, from the award-winning author of Shoeless Joe.   W.P. Kinsella weaves his characters into the thrill of the game, be it in Japan, Central America, Canada, or the United States, with a variety of comic, tragic, and mystical results. This collection captures the dazzling wit, compelling insight, and obsession with baseball that have made Kinsella more popular than a ballpark frank.   “There is a new depth and gentleness to Kinsella’s storytelling here, a more subtle nuance than his readers may be accustomed to. In ‘The Kowloon Club,’ the baseball club is persuaded to hire a Feng Shui master to determine the site for their new park…‘The First and Last Annual Six Towns Old-Timers’ Game’ is vintage Kinsella…The final extra-base hit is a deeply felt, introspective look at the half-lived life of an umpire and the...

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is a novel by Lew Wallace published on November 12, 1880 by Harper & Brothers. Wallace\'s work is part of an important sub-genre of historical fiction set among the characters of the New Testament. The novel was a phenomenal best-seller; it soon surpassed Harriet Beecher Stowe\'s Uncle Tom\'s Cabin (1852) as the best-selling American novel and retained this distinction until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell\'s Gone with the Wind.

ReviewThis is the kind of near future thriller that would not even be considered SF if it was written by Tom Clancy or someone else not connected with the genre, and the publisher hasn't even labeled it SF. If this results in a wider audience for Swann's other novels, then I'm all for it. -Science Fiction Chronicle Product DescriptionThe breakout novel that puts S. Andrew Swann in the techno-thriller ranks of Clancy, Coonts, and Cussler! Veteran writer S. Andrew Swann turns his talents to a mainstream techno-thriller that combines the authentic detail of Tom Clancy, the global intrigue of Jack Higgins, and the sheer adventure of Clive Cussler. Gideon Malcolm was a Washington DC cop who stumbled into the midst of a high-level sting operation gone wrong and nearly paid with his life. Now he wants answers. But the government wants him to forget the whole thing. Yet Gideon wasn't about to give up, and what began with a stolen super computer soon led him on the trail of a missing woman, Dr. Zimmerman--and into the heart of a conspiracy so vast, so devastating, that the entire world would be caught up in its power!

The members of the Tribulation Force face their most dangerous challenges. Following the assassination of the Antichrist, some are murder suspects; others test the precarious line between subversion and being revealed. All over the news, reporters announce that Rayford Steele is Nicolae Carpathia's assassin, but Buck soon learns the truth. The world mourns the loss of a world leader until events at Nicolae's funeral bring all mourning to an end. A repackage of the seventh book in the "New York Times" best-selling Left Behind series.

No matter how hard she tries to live the quiet life, trouble has a way of grabbing Carole Ann Gibson by the throat — and this time all her famous intuition and raw courage might not be enough to save her. In the heartbreaking aftermath of her husband's death, Carole Ann, widely known as "the best damn trial lawyer in D.C.," left her criminal-law practice for what she hoped was a safer, saner life as a partner in her friend Jake's security firm. But when the richest man in Washington, D.C., hires her to find his daughter, she is caught up in a tangle of family relationships in which the stakes are not only money but life itself. Add to that a routine surveillance job that turns up three corpses and the kidnapping of her partner's beloved wife, Grace, and Carole Anne is — once again — in over her head in the kind of trouble that launches an all-out attack on her survival skills. Showcasing her rare talent for mixing the subtlety and complexity of...

The last thing 11-year-old Robin wants to hear is that his mother and her new husband are extending their honeymoon indefinitely. Not that staying with his Aunt Mags is so bad, but there's her boyfriend to contend with, and the members of the school gang are insisting that he complete a dare before they let him join the group. They want Robin to kidnap Mrs. Nordling's prize-winning cat when no one is home.Getting into the Nordling's house is easy, and Robin manages to find the cat and put him in his bag. As Robin is leaving, however, he stumbles upon a terrifying scene—Mr. Nordling leaving the master bedroom with blood all over his body. Robin is momentarily paralyzed and then flees down the stairs. He can't be sure whether or not he has been seen, but realizes that in order to stay safe, he will have to hide the unusual-looking cat.Meanwhile, Mr. Nordling is getting desperate. He knows that if he can find the unmistakable cat, he will also find the witness to his brutal crime. He begins a frantic search for the young boy, but his infuriating neighbor won't leave him alone. She is beginning to understand what happened that night, and he decides that he will have to deal with her too.