When an undercover operation monitoring the Real IRA goes horrifically wrong, British Intelligence turn to the one man who can get their agent out: Stratton, SBS operative with a lethal reputation. It's a dangerous race against time: if the Real IRA get to the Republic before Stratton gets to the Real IRA, his colleague is as good as dead.

But the battle in the Northern Ireland borders is just the beginning. For there can only be one way the Real IRA knew about the British agent: someone within MI5 is tipping them off. A surveillance mission is mounted in Paris to identify the mole but ends in disaster: Hank Munro, US Navy SEAL on secondment, is captured.

Munro's wife Kathryn is distraught, and her priest Father Kinsella is very supportive. Kinsella, though, is not the holy man he seems, and Kathryn becomes an unwitting part of a deadly Real IRA plan, a terror attack the likes of which London has never seen . . .

When Hank is inadvertently kidnapped by terrorists on an SBS 'safe op', Kathryn returns home to America, only to be manipulated by a priest and secret IRA godfather into playing a political role in the negotiations for Hank's release. Unknown to her she is to have a key part in the most destructive terrorist assault in Irish Republican history, one that holds the fate of hundreds of thousands of Londoners in its hands.

In thirteen blood-chilling stories from true masters of suspense, including five New York Times bestselling authors and four Edgar Award nominees, nothing is what it seems, and no one is safe. . . .

A stirring portrait of the decade when the Steelers became the greatest team in NFL history, even as Pittsburgh was crumbling around them.

In the 1970s, the city of Pittsburgh was in need of heroes. In that decade the steel industry, long the lifeblood of the city, went into massive decline, putting 150,000 steelworkers out of work. And then the unthinkable happened: The Pittsburgh Steelers, perennial also-rans in the NFL, rose up to become the most feared team in the league, dominating opponents with their famed "Steel Curtain" defense, winning four Super Bowls in six years, and lifting the spirits of a city on the brink.

In The Ones Who Hit the Hardest, Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne trace the rise of the Steelers amidst the backdrop of the fading city they fought for, bringing to life characters such as: Art Rooney, the owner of the team so beloved by Pittsburgh that he was known simply as "The Chief"; Chuck Noll, the headstrong coach who used the ethos of steelworkers to motivate his players; Terry Bradshaw, the strong-armed and underestimated QB; Joe Green, the defensive tackle whose fighting nature lifted the franchise; and Jack Lambert, the linebacker whose snarling, toothless grin embodied the Pittsburgh defense.

Every story needs a villain, and in this one it's played by the Dallas Cowboys. As Pittsburgh rusted, the new and glittering metropolis of Dallas, rich from the capital infusion of oil revenue, signaled the future of America. Indeed, the town brimmed with such confidence that the Cowboys felt comfortable nicknaming themselves "America's Team." Throughout the 1970s, the teams jostled for control of the NFL-the Cowboys doing it with finesse and the Steelers doing it with brawn-culminating in Super Bowl XIII in 1979, when the aging Steelers attempted to hold off the Cowboys one last time. Thoroughly researched and grippingly written, The Ones Who Hit the Hardest is a stirring tribute to a city, a team, and an era.

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"The Ones Who Hit the Hardest is a terrific book forged in grit, soul, perseverance and faith..." 
Jim Dent, New York Times bestselling author of The Junction Boys

"This is the eBook I've been waiting for. I grew up in Pittsburgh and finally had to leave in the late seventies in the middle of a coal miners' strike as the local economy folded. The Steelers and the Pirates - yes, the Bucs were not always losers - kept our spirits high. Chuck Noll went to the same church as I did and getting to do "peace" with him before communion (if he and his family were in a pew nearby) became an occasional highlight. Still remember being star-struck when Terry Bradshaw spoke before a small prayer breakfast in Bethel Park in the spring of 1970 right after being drafted. You could go down to South Park and watch the Steelers practice in those years, too. As a high school kid, seeing Joe Green from a distance was inspiring. Worked in a drugstore near Andy Russell's house and we'd rush to the register to serve him when he came by. An amazing gentleman who always took time to speak. To make life a little more interesting, I now live in Austin, Texas, among some serious Cowboys fans while Black and Gold still reigns at my home. Hopefully, the Steelers organization will stay true to its roots and rise above the current issues with Big Ben..."
Bob LiVolsi, CEO & Founder BooksOnBoard

"Put simply, the 1970s Super Bowl rivalry between the Steelers and Cowboys was a study in contrasts between the smashmouth Steelers of struggling, blue-collar Pittsburgh and the computerized complexity of the Cowboys of glitzy Dallas. Pittsburgh won both championships largely because of its spectacular pass-catching pair, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, but the Steelers were also the "ones who hit the hardest." The subtitle's reference to "the fight for America's soul" indicates the overreach of the book: the narrative runs on three concurrent tracks (Steelers, Cowboys, and the steelworkers' union in Pittsburgh), with the third a cursory treatment that stalls the engaging football story. Both teams are traced from their beginnings to the formation of these 1970s championship teams, but the Cowboys are treated mostly as a foil to the heroic Steelers. The book ends abruptly after the second Super Bowl confrontation, with no coda on the 1979 season that saw the Steelers' fourth Super Bowl triumph and the Cowboys' farewell to Roger Staubach. Worth reading for its scoring plays, but there are a lot of misfires here as well."
Library Journal

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Ones Who Hit the Hardest, Sports eBooks, by Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne

'Ever since I have inhabited old age, I have looked and listened, mostly in vain, for news of what it is like for others who inhabit it too. Naturally, I'm interested in its well-known depredations, the physical and mental ones that people in their forties and fifties so publicly dread. And who would not delight in the theatrical props of old age - the pills and sticks, the shrieking hearing aids and the tricks for countering the loss of names and threads and glasses. But that's not all. I have a fond hope that in old age there may be new kinds of time and of pleasure, perhaps even new kinds of vitality, and that, though we forget and muddle and fail to hear things, there may be moments when we truly understand what's going on for the first time. But then I've always been a late developer.'

Deeply thoughtful, wry and resilient, this fascinating and absorbing book about growing older is a life-enhancing look at what all of us - if we are lucky - can aspire to.

The full story of the once-great financial giant Lehman Brothers, from its modest start to its disastrous collapse

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 sent shock waves through the financial industry and left people wondering how one of the largest and most respected firms in the world could fail.

Peter Chapman answers this question by examining the history of Lehman from its beginnings as a cotton-brokering general store run by a family of German immigrants in Montgomery, Alabama, to its dramatic exit from the world financial stage.

Chapman offers a sweeping narrative as well as a clear perspective on exactly what caused Lehman to fail. It is not only the story of a once-prestigious and well-respected firm but also an intimate portrait of the people who ran it-from Henry Lehman, who founded the firm, to Bobbie Lehman, who led the company into the world of radio, motion pictures, and air travel in the 1920s, to Dick Fuld, who ran the firm during its final days.

Chapman shows that despite its inglorious end, Lehman not only helped shape the face of American finance, but also American life.

'I was the Fool-king of Soho and the number-one slag in the Groucho Club, the second drunkest member of the world's drunkest band. This was no disaster, though. It was a dream coming true.'

For Alex James, music had always been a door to a more eventful life. But as bass player of Blur - one of the most successful British bands of all time - his journey was more exciting and extreme than he could ever have predicted. In Bit of a Blur he chronicles his journey from a slug-infested flat in Camberwell to a world of screaming fans and private jets - and his eventual search to find meaning and happiness (and, perhaps most importantly, the perfect cheese), in an increasingly surreal world.

How government and business can work together to secure our economic future

How bad will the current recession get? According to Eric Janszen, by late 2009 we could face unemployment over 10 percent; half of all retail stores boarded up; skeletons of unfinished buildings in our cities; and tax revenues down by 30 percent, leading to big cuts in government services. Meanwhile, inflation will keep rising as the Fed is forced to devalue the dollar because foreign countries won't lend to us anymore.

Sounds grim, but the good news is that this crisis will open the door to a saner economic future if we recognize the opportunity to correct decades of bad policy. America can wean itself from the debt-financed growth of the past thirty years and restructure to grow based on old-fashioned savings and investment.

Janszen shows that the key is not more big government, but deploying our unique capacity for innovation through private-public partnerships. He calls for a modern New Deal that develops twenty-first century industries such as biotechnology, alternative energy, and nanotechnology. And he shows how our financial markets can adapt to make it happen.

This will be an essential book for everyone struggling to understand our current predicament.

New Zealand born nurse Marguerite van Geldermalsen first visited the lost city Petra with her friend Elizabeth in 1978 on a sightseeing tour of the ancient world. Already looking forward to her beach holiday at the end of the trip, little did Maguerite know she was about to meet the man she would marry, the charismatic Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin craftsman of the Manajah tribe.

A life with Mohammad meant moving into his ancient cave and learning to love the regular tasks of baking shrak bread on an open fire and collecting water from the spring. But as Marguerite feels herself becoming part of the Bedouin community, she is thankful for the twist in fate that has led her to this contented life.

Marguerite's light-hearted and guileless observations of the people she comes to love are as heart-warming as they are valuable, charting Bedouin traditions now lost to the modern world.

Young Andrew was touched by the otherworld when a dead murderer sought out his village, showing him his fate. And though his father is just a blacksmith, nothing will keep Andrew from riding to the Crusades to seek the honours he has been promised. He lives battles of the imagination, seeing harsh midday sun glint off sword and armour, where he rides his horse into war in a riot of colour and noise.

But dead men keep secrets, and much of the future has been kept from him. Andrew may find the glory of the Crusades and skirmish with Saladin's most powerful warriors. Or he may become entangled in Templar politics and wander in the desert haunted by jinn and demons.

What is certain is that Andrew will face tests of blade and spirit. And his dreams will be measured in blood before he sees home again.

Three men: an Iraqi, a former coalition soldier and a journalist, drive together from Baghdad towards Fallujah as the US Marines encircle the city to take it apart. It seems the men are on a single mission to seek a recent kidnap victim, but in truth all three have very different aims in the besieged town, and each keep a dark secret from the others. Greed, ambition - and guilt - are what separates their individual motivations, but a single miscalculation could bring an end to them all . . .

When big-boned, eager-to-please, accident-prone Taras Krohe ambles into a stiff English public school on a puzzling scholarship with his funny foreign name, an eccentric and over-protective Bukovinian mother, and no father at all, disappointment beckons.

A decade later, Taras and his mother are still living off their benefactress Mrs Bartlett in a cramped South London flat, while Taras's promising job has warped into a Kafkaesque nightmare, and his truculent Russian girlfriend has decamped with a ponytailed aesthete. When the mysterious Mrs Bartlett dies, an old schoolfriend with a grudge emerges and eviction looms. Now even the terminally easygoing Taras must show his mother he's a man, and uncover the secret behind his family's plummet into disaster. But she has other ideas for her little pourchi: she's determined to wrestle him away from the dangerous influences his search reveals. And it's by no means certain who will come out on top . . .

After the British military lose an officer to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, a desperate race begins to find his killers. Little do the assailants know that the precious information they have stolen could bring down the entire network of Western intelligence in the Mid-East. But then one of them is captured by US troops and flown to the States for interrogation. And so begins a nail-biting, claustrophobic and explosive thriller that will ultimately lead British operative John Stratton to the Styx penitentiary, America's undersea prison. How do you break in to a jail a hundred metres below the ocean? Can Stratton get the information back without the US discovering him? And is everyone in the prison really who they seem to be? With its labyrinthine narrative and authentic detail, its CIA plots and White House agents, this fourth thriller in the Stratton series will catapult Duncan Falconer right into the top tier.

This is the story of the financial cataclysm that started with the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929, and set in motion a series of economic, political and social events that affected many millions of people in America, Britain, Europe and Australia.

The Crash rolled across the world like a tidal wave, toppling governments, spreading the wave of dictatorships in Italy and Germany, infecting entire industries and plunging millions into unemployment and poverty. By the time it began to lift in 1935, the lives of people in scores of countries had changed forever.

Selwyn Parker's book also poses the question: could it happen again?