Three months after returning to England, Christopher Burton, receives a phone-call at the reception desk of the Rembrandt Hotel, Knightsbridge that informs him of his son's suicide. But why on receiving this terrible news, does Burton immediately decide that he must leave his Italian wife of thirty years standing? Why does he find it so difficult to focus on his grief for his son? Intensely dramatic, dark and, against all odds, hilariously funny, Destiny is a satisfying story and a profound meditation on marriage and identity. Parks gives us a frightening experience of what it means to tread the narrow line between sanity and psychosis.

Keladry of Mindalen, the first girl to train as a knight since Alanna, is officially a page now, but she's got three more years before she'll be a squire. And those three years are not going to be easy. Kel has to stand up against bullying boys, cruel older sisters, and, as always, the training master, Lord Wyldon! From the Hardcover edition.

A definitive anthology of fiction by W. Somerset Maugham includes the complete texts of three novels--The Moon and Sixpence, The Painted Veil, and The Magician--as well as five short stories--Rain, The Letter, Alien Corn, The Pool, and Mackintosh. Original.

In Dressing Up for the Carnival, Carol Shields distills her characteristic wisdom, elegance, and insouciant humor in twenty-two luminous stories. A wealth of surprises and contrasts, this collection ranges from the lyricism of "Weather," in which a couple's life is thrown into chaos when the National Association of Meteorologists goes on strike, to the swampy sexuality of "Eros," in which a room in a Parisian hotel on the verge of ruin is the catalyst for passion, to the brave confidence of "A Scarf"-new for this collection-which chronicles the realities of a fledging author's book tour. Playful, graceful, acutely observed, and generous of spirit, these stories will delight her devoted fans and win her new converts as well.

The fight to survive is all in the mind. There is nothing exceptional about Greg Summers, until the day he returns home to discover that his wife no longer recognises him and is married to a stranger using his name. Perhaps it is an elaborate hoax, yet that wouldn't explain his vivid flashbacks to childhood, or the violent eruptions of blood that accompany them. Nor does it explain the stray memories that seem to belong to an entirely separate man called Richard Jameson. One of these men is a lie, and neither wishes it to be he. On the run from a creature that cannot exist, his comfortable truths shattered, Greg finds his whole knowledge of the world questionable. If he does not know himself, what can he trust himself to know? "A plot as wild as this could have easily spun out of control, but Wright holds the reins tight. His dexterity is dazzling." - Hellnotes

Known as the "American Agatha Christie," author Mary Roberts Rinehart produced a vast array of top-notch mysteries over the course of her career, with occasional incursions into other genres. The After House is a gripping whodunit that revolves around a series of grisly axe murders. Set on board a ship, this murder mystery is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat.

Here are thirteen deadly tales, all set within the dramatic turmoil of medieval Europe. Murder mystery fans and history buffs alike will be riveted by the selections offered by master anthologist Martin H. Greenberg and Nebula Award-winner John Helfers. You'll meet Peter Tremayne's seventh-century Celtic detective, Sister Fidelma, in "Like a Dog Returning;" discover Clayton Emery's take on Robin Hood in "Plucking a Mandrake;" learn about Brother Cadfael, soldier-turned-sleuthing-monk, from the wicked pen of Ellis Peters; and many others—all in the service of investigating crime in the Middle Ages, from the misdeeds of commoners to the felonies of kings.ContentsPeter Tremayne's Like a Dog Returning is a dip into Sister Fidelma's travels in which she detects the true murderer of a much-beloved nun murdered 20 years earlier bringing justice to the memory of a monk wrongfully lynched. I have no idea as to what the title refers.The bio at the back claims this story was first published after Spider's Web, #5.Doug Allyn's Country of the Blind is a sweet, odd tale of the past, present, and future life of a young blind girl with the sweetest singing voice. Life begun in a convent, lost when the convent is fired, and retrieved for a life on the road as a minstrel with Bard Owain Phyfe. My only peeve was Allyn's constant use of the phrase Country of the Blind.Lillian Stewart Carl's Cold as Fire finds Geoffrey caught between a rock and a hard place when a sheriff arrests one of Thomas Becket's priests for the murder of Johanna Frelonde of Estursete and he has to inform the archbishop. The evidence is against Father Baldwin, but circumstance and gossip require further digging.Gillian Linscott's A Horse for My Kingdom is another case of greed for power and wealth when a plot is hatched to prevent peace before the battle at Mortimer's Cross. And a gift makes the future bright for a man.Margaret Frazer's Simple Logic of It All is both bitter and funny as Frazer exposes us to the machinations of court with the verbose use of logic destroying a plot to make the Duke of York appear treasonous.Clayton Emery's Plucking a Mandrake drops us into a difficult time in Robin Hood and Marian's life when they are consulting a healer about their difficulty in conceiving a child. From bystanders to active participants, they expose the corruption in a small village caused by its mad priest.Edward Marston's A Gift from God is an underhanded plot to satisfy a spoiled brat of a man who thinks he can take what he likes only to come up against a couple who consider each other A Gift from God.Tony Geraghty's Queen's Chastity is an odd and confusing one. It tells of a bit of gossip about Queen Eleanor and a supposed infidelity interspersed with a modern email correspondence between rival theorists. I didn't really see the point of it.Kathy Lynn Emerson's Reiving of Bonville Keep was a nice treat after the previous story and read more like a romance as Sir Gavin Dunnett rescues his young daughter and a young maiden from certain death at the hands of a conniving slut.Michael Jecks' For the Love of Old Bones throws a number of red herrings into the plot before the murder of Abbot Bertrand de Surgères, the former Sir Bertrand de Toulouse, is solved. Admittedly, his errand to Launceston was one of greed as his abbey in France intended to take the saint's bones away for their own profit.Brendan DuBois' Wizard of Lindsay Woods is just plain sad to see how a brother would treat another. It begins and ends with greed when Lord Henry gains ownership of Lindsay Woods but a wizard is preventing his use of it. A wizard who kills from a distance!There's a bit of a time-travel feel to this. You'll appreciate the ending!Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Improvements truly is an improvement at least for this manor when the widowed Maude takes a firm hand in the treatment of whores. Go Maudie!Ellis Peters' A Light on the Road to Woodstock explains Cadfael's actions just before he enters the monastery when he is returning to England from war in Normandy with Sir Roger Mauduit and agrees to stay on through a court dispute Sir Roger has with the abbey of Shrewsbury.

The incomparable Jack Higgins returns to the bestseller lists, launching undercover enforcer Sean Dillon into his most spectacular adventure yet - a no-holds-barred battle with a Mafia don. It's all action and suspense as Sean Dillon and his secret intelligence colleagues seek to help American White House security insider Blake Johnson avenge the death of his ex-wife, a reporter murdered for getting too close to a Mafia story. In London, Beirut and Ireland, the daredevil friends are prepared to risk everything as they combine to thwart the ever more desperate ambition of Mafia frontman Jack Fox. Here in his eighth adventure, former IRA terrorist turned British Government enforcer Sean Dillon is established as one of the most popular characters in modern fiction, while Jack Higgins has an unrivalled position as the biggest name in thriller writing around the world. Widely hailed as an outstanding return to form, Day of Reckoning raced straight into the top ten of the Sunday Times bestseller list in hardbackReview'Another page-turner from the master... one of the fastest-moving thrillers Higgins has penned for some time. It isn't just Higgins at his best, it is him at his most inventive and impressive.' Oxford Times 'Dillon makes his 8th appearance in this return-to-form thriller. As in the best of his earlier work, Higgins shifts the action with practised ease between London, Beirut and Ireland... this is Higgins as we like him to be.' Good Book Guide About the AuthorJack Higgins was a soldier and then a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. The Eagle Has Landed turned him into an international bestselling author and his novels have since sold over 250 million copies and been translated into fifty-five languages. Many of them have also been made into successful films. The 9th novel in the Sean Dillon series, Edge of Danger, will be published by HarperCollins in Spring 2001. 'HIGGINS IS THE MASTER' Tom Clancy

Sera had been devastated when Keir Sutherlands became more interested in his career than in their wedding plans. Convinced he didn't love her any more, Sera knew she had to let Keir go....Sera tried to make a new life for herself, but was thrown into turmoil when Keir returned and seemed determined to marry her after all. But did Keir love her, or was he simply driven by revenge?

This thrilling digital prequel novella to Endgame: The Calling follows the lives of four of the twelve Players before they were chosen as the one to save their ancient bloodline—and win Endgame.Before the Calling . . .Marcus must choose between friendship and destiny. Chiyoko fights for what's hers. Kala learns the price of love. And Alice finally understands what she's Playing for.They must shed their normal lives and transform into the Players they were meant to be.They must train, learn, prepare.To Play, survive, and solve.To kill or be killed.Endgame is real.Endgame is coming.And only one can win.

He was my best friend until...he kissed me.OliviaTo say that I'm excited to have my best friend come live with me is an understatement. Even though he's not my boyfriend and I would never look at him as such, I'm excited that with him around, I'm no longer the ninth wheel.Plus, having a movie buddy to watch my favorite movie Dirty Dancing is a plus. Even if he rolls his eyes everytime we watch it.DerekI have one semester of freedom until my parents force me to persure a relationship with a girl who is beneficial to our family. Sure, I come from a rich family with loads of connections, but I'm trapped. I want to love who I want to love and not who my parents want me to marry.I want to love Olivia.But I'll settle for being her friend and spending the rest of my senior year feeling free.And I was fine, until my feeligs became to hard to ignore.She's the one girl who can make me smile. The one girl who...

Five killer outlaws, one killer beauty, and a night Longarm will never forget...Longarm's trapped up in the Ruby Mountains with a bad spell of amnesia—and a woman too wild to ever forget. And until Longarm gets his senses back, he's got no choice but to trust her—before the Haskill Gang gives him a new memory...his last.

From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community. In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone? Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not. Praise for The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip “In a perfect world, every child would own a copy of this profound, funny fable. . . . Every adult would own a copy too, and would marvel at how this smart, subversive little book is even deeper and more hilarious than any child could know.”—Entertainment Weekly “Saunders’s idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children’s book illustrator Smith’s heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops.”—Publishers Weekly “A riveting, funny, and sly new fairy tale.”—Miami Herald

The 'Black Queen' is what Billy calls his shadowy next-door neighbour. She always wears a black cloak and a wide-brimmed black hat. She lurks about her garden, alone except for her black cat. Scarily for Billy, the Black Queen befriends him and asks him to look after her cat while she's away. Billy can't resist the opportunity to peek inside her house. There are chessboards scattered everywhere. Who is the Black Queen and what sort of game is she playing? Billy thinks he knows...