Mated to werewolf Charles Cornick, the son-and enforcer-of the leader of the North American werewolves, Anna Latham now knows how dangerous being a werewolf is, especially when a werewolf opposes Charles and his father is struck down. Charles's reputation makes him the prime suspect, and the penalty for the crime is execution. Now Anna and Charles must combine their talents to hunt down the real killer-or Charles will take the fall.
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Now Briggs begins an extraordinary new series set in Mercy Thompson's world -- but with rules of its own. INTRODUCING THE ALPHA AND OMEGA NOVELS...Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack...and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she'd learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member -- and as his mate.
An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets Savannah, the girl of his dreams. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who has captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else. "Dear John," the letter read...and with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives were changed forever. Returning home, John must come to grips with the fact that Savannah, now married, is still his true love--and face the hardest decision of his life.
Koontz brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, violence, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itself—and a showdown with the darkness that would destroy it forever.
From the book
For more than fifteen years, Robin Sharma has been quietly sharing with Fortune 500 companies and many of the super-rich a success formula that has made him one of the most sought-after leadership advisers in the world. Now, for the first time, Sharma makes his proprietary process available to you, so that you can get to your absolute best while helping your organization break through to a dramatically new level of winning in these wildly uncertain times.
In The Leader Who Had No Title, you will learn:
- How to work with and influence people like a superstar, regardless of your position
- A method to recognize and then seize opportunities in times of deep change
- The real secrets of intense innovation
- An instant strategy to build a great team and become a "merchant of wow" with your customers
- Hard-hitting tactics to become mentally strong and physically tough enough to lead your field
- Real-world ways to defeat stress, build an unbeatable mind-set, unleash energy, and balance your personal life
Regardless of what you do within your organization and the current circumstances of your life, the single most important fact is that you have the power to show leadership. Wherever you are in your career or life, you should always play to your peak abilities. This book shows you how to claim that staggering power, as well as transform your life--and the world around you--in the process.
New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with a thriller that begins with a shocking crime scene you’ll never forget and follows two relentless detectives on a manhunt that ends in a chilling confrontation with the essence of human evil.
PRIOR BAD ACTS
It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry–and puts the judge in grave danger.
When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.
The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped–snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.
With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.
Chapter OneFifteen months later"He slaughtered a mother and two children."Hennepin County prosecutor Chris Logan was a man of strong opinions and stronger emotions. Both traits had served him well in the courtroom with juries, not always so well in judges' chambers. He was tall, broad shouldered, athletic, with a thick shock of black-Irish hair now threaded with silver. Forty-five years old, Logan had spent twenty of those years in the criminal court system. It was a wonder he hadn't gone entirely white."I'm sorry," said the defense attorney, his sarcasm belying the expression of shock. "Did I miss something? When were we suddenly transported to the Dark Ages? Aren't the accused in this country still innocent until proven guilty?"Logan rolled his eyes. "Oh, for Christ's sake, Scott, could you spare us the act? We're all adults. We all know each other. We all know you're full of shit. Could you spare us the demonstration?""Mr. Logan . . ."Judge Carey Moore gave him a level look. She had known Chris Logan since they had both cut their teeth toiling as public defenders--a job neither of them had the temperament for. They had moved on to the county attorney's office as quickly as they could, and both had made their names in the courtroom, prosecuting everything from petty theft to rape to murder.Sitting in the other chair across from her desk was another cog in the public defender's machine. Kenny Scott had gone in that door and had never come out, which made him either a saint battling for justice for the socially disadvantaged or a pathetic excuse for an attorney, unable to rise out of anonymity and go on to private practice. Having had him in her courtroom numerous times, Carey suspected the latter.He looked at Carey now with the eyes of a mouse in a room full of cats. Perspiring, nervous, ready to run, scrambling mentally. He was a small man whose suits never fit--too big in the shoulders, too long in the sleeves--which somehow emphasized the impression that he was overwhelmed by his job or by life in general.By the luck of the draw, he had gotten stuck with the job of defending the most hated man in Minneapolis, if not the entire state: a drifter named Karl Dahl, accused of the most heinous murders Carey had encountered in her career.The scene had been so gruesome, one of the uniformed officers who had responded to the original call had suffered a heart attack and had subsequently retired from the force. The lead homicide detective had been so affected by the case, he had eventually been removed from the rotation and put on a desk job, pending the completion of psychiatric counseling."Your Honor, you can't allow Mr. Logan to circumvent the rules of law," Scott said. "Prior bad acts are inadmissible--""Unless they establish a pattern of behavior," Logan argued loudly. He had the fierce expression of an eagle.Kenny Scott looked like he wanted nothing more than to bolt from the office and run for his life, but to his credit, he stayed in his seat."Mr. Dahl's previous offenses have nothing to do with this case," he said. "Criminal trespass? That hardly establishes him as a violent offender."Logan glared at him. "What about possession of child pornography? What about breaking and entering? Window peeping? Indecent exposure?""He never killed anyone with his penis," Scott...
Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life-- boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies--he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door.
Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about him...and the presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn't help. Despite himself, Travis can't stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could have foreseen.
Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, THE CHOICE ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?
Why are the instruction manuals for cell phones incomprehensible? Why is a truck driver's job as hard as a CEO's? How can 10% of every medical dollar cure 90% of the world's disease? Complexity is a slippery idea. Things that seem complicated can be astoundingly simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. These and other paradoxes are driving a whole new science —simplexity— that is redefining how we look at the world and using that new view to improve our lives. Through the lens of this surprising new science, the world becomes a delicate place filled with predictable patterns, but they're patterns we often fail to see as we're time and again fooled by our instincts, by our fear, by the size of things, even by their beauty.
In Simplexity, Jeffrey Kluger shows how a drinking straw can save thousands of lives; how investors behave like atoms; and how physics drives jazz. As simplexity moves from the research lab into popular consciousness it will challenge our models for modern living. Kluger adeptly translates newly evolving theory into a delightful theory of everything that will have you rethinking the rules of business, family, art— your world.
Long ago, Ephemera was split into a dizzying number of magical lands-connected only by bridges that may take you where you truly belong, rather than where you had intended to go. In one such land, where night reigns and demons dwell, the half-incubus Sebastian revels in dark delights. But in dreams she calls to him: a woman who wants only to be safe and loved-a woman he hungers for while knowing he may destroy her. And an even more devastating destiny awaits him, for an ancient evil is stirring-and Sebastian's realm may be the first to fall.
Rick Pitino is a basketball icon: the only coach in college history to lead three different schools to the Final Four, the winner of the 1996 NCAA championship, the owner of a sparkling career record, a bestselling author, and a lock for the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Yet Pitino's journey has not been without life-altering adversity: After experiencing profound personal and professional losses, including three losing seasons as coach and president of the Boston Celtics, the devastating loss of his infant son, Daniel, and the additional tragedies of losing two brothers-in-law, Pitino writes, "From that point on, my life changed forever. Nothing will ever be the same."
This realization gave Pitino a new perspective, and the failures and tragedies he recounts make this book unique. It's about how to succeed after you've failed; how to pick yourself up after being knocked down; and how to reframe yourself and see the world in a new light. This is a comeback story, a manual for overcoming life's difficulties. In Rebound Rules: The Art of Success 2.0, Pitino's crafted a book that's more deeply personal, more inspiring, more practical, and more powerful than any he's written before.
In 1997, amid Aerosmith's sold-out world tour and number one album release, Joey revealed in an interview his ongoing struggles with depression. The response from fans and people battling those same internal demons was overwhelming. Joey now tells the complete story: the early days of the band, glamorous drug-addled events leading up to their eventual sobriety, battles within his family and among bandmates, and the explosive internal dynamics in Aerosmith that continue to unleash a fury of endless creativity.
Hit Hard unpacks the history of a rock star who became willing to accept help and finally kick a serious alcohol and drug addiction, only to find that the real terrors and hard work were still ahead. Ultimately, Hit Hard is about how Joey recognized his confusion between love and abuse, awakening to the kind of self-acceptance and compassion that make relationships possible in the "real world" as a member of the biggest band in American history.
In 2004, journalist Michael Kodas joined mountain climbers from New England on an expedition to Mount Everest. He anticipated an exhilarating and arduous adventure among a group of like-minded idealists that he could report to his readers back in Connecticut. But on the Himalayan mountain, he discovered thieves, prostitutes, con men, and blackmailers. There were people who would do anything for a quick buck, or a guarantee of reaching the top. And some of them were on his own team.
Thieves stole equipment on which the team's lives depended, Kodas's life was threatened by one of his teammates, and a climbing partner was beaten unconscious by another in Base Camp. He returned from the Himalaya disillusioned. But a plea for help from the daughter of a mountaineer who vanished on Everest on the very day that Kodas had retreated from his own disintegrating team prompted him to return to Everest and uncover an underworld that preys on unsuspecting climbers on major peaks around the world.
A shocking exposé of the dark underside of Everest and written with thriller-like pacing, High Crimes is a gripping and fascinating story.
From the multiple award-winning author of Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and the three-book Fionavar Tapestry that "can only be compared to Tolkien's masterpiece" (Star-Phoenix), this powerful, moving saga evokes the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse cultures of a thousand years ago.
Venice--a city of masks and riddles, where narrow streets and passageways form a giant maze that confounds the uninitiated and deepens the sense of mystery. As captivating as it is elusive, the city teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are under way. In The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt, author of the record-breaking bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, unveils the enigmatic Venice as only he can.
The story opens on the evening of January 29, 1996, when a sensational fire destroys the historic Fenice Opera House. The loss of the Fenice, where five of Verdi's operas premiered, is a catastrophe for Venetians, made worse by the revelation that arson might have been the cause. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt inquires into the nature of life in this remarkable city while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. In the course of his investigations, he encounters a rich cast of characters: a hard-as-nails prosecutor who blushes when he's angered; the First Family of American expatriates facing the loss of their palace on the Grand Canal after four generations of ownership; a contemporary Venetian surrealist painter known locally as an outrageous prankster and provocateur; a twenty-first-generation master glassblower whose sons are locked in a dynastic war; and numerous others--pigeon trappers, scapegoats, hustlers, sleepwalkers, a believer in Martians, the Plant Man, the Rat Man of Treviso, and Henry James.
Berendt tells a tale full of atmosphere and surprise as the stories build, one after the other, ultimately coming together to portray a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif that runs throughout the book, contributing to the ever-mounting suspense and revealing the city of Venice in all its magic, mystery, and decadence."
Alone . . . Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge watches a tense hostage standoff unfold through the scope of his sniper rifle. Just across the street, in wealthy Back Bay, Boston, an armed man has barricaded himself with his wife and child. The man’s finger tightens on the trigger and Dodge has only a split second to react . . . and forever pay the consequences.
Alone . . . that’s where the nightmare began for cool, beautiful, and dangerously sexy Catherine Rose Gagnon. Twenty-five years ago, she was buried underground during a month-long nightmare of abduction and abuse. Now her husband has just been killed. Her father-in-law, the powerful Judge Gagnon, blames Catherine for his son’s death . . . and for the series of unexplained illnesses that have sent her own young son repeatedly to the hospital.
Alone . . . a madman survived solitary confinement in a maximum security prison where he’d done hard time for the most sadistic of crimes. Now he walks the streets a free man, invisible, anonymous . . . and filled with an unquenchable rage for vengeance. What brings them together is a moment of violence—but what connects them is a passion far deeper and much more dangerous. For a killer is loose who’s woven such an intricate web of evil that no one is above suspicion, no one is beyond harm, and no one will see death coming until it has them cornered, helpless, and alone.
"Three-dimensional characters fill out a riveting story that is like a juicy steak: slow broiled to perfection.... Highly recommended."
Chapter 1He'd put in a fifteen-hour shift the night the call came in. Too many impatient drivers on 93, leading to too much crash, bang, boom. City was like that this time of year. The trees were bare, night coming on quick and the holidays looming. It felt raw outside. After the easy camaraderie of summer barbecues, you now walked alone through city streets hearing nothing but the skeletal rattle of dry leaves skittering across cold pavement.Lots of cops complained about the short, gray days of February, but personally, Bobby Dodge had never cared for November. Today did nothing to change his mind.His shift started with a minor fender bender, followed by two more rear-enders from northbound gawkers. Four hours of paperwork later, he thought he'd gotten through the worst of it. Then, in early afternoon, when traffic should've been a breeze even on the notoriously jam-packed 93, came a five-car pile-up as a speeding taxi driver tried to change four lanes at once and a stressed-out ad exec in a Hummer forcefully cut him off. The Hummer took the hit like a heavyweight champ; the rusted-out cab went down for the count and took out three other cars with it. Bobby got to call four wreckers, then diagram the accident, and then arrest the ad exec when it became clear the man had mixed in a few martinis with his power lunch.Pinching a man for driving under the influence meant more paperwork, a trip to the South Boston barracks (now in the middle of rush-hour traffic, when no one respected anyone's right-of-way, not even a trooper's), and another altercation with the rich ad exec when he balked at entering the holding cell.The ad exec had a good fifty pounds on Bobby. Like a lot of guys confronted by a smaller opponent, he confused superior weight with superior strength and ignored the warning signs telling him otherwise. The man grabbed the doorjamb with his right hand. He swung his lumbering body backwards, expecting to bowl over his smaller escort and what? Make a run for it through a police barracks swarming with armed troopers? Bobby ducked left, stuck out his foot, and watched the overweight executive slam to the floor. The man landed with an impressive crash and a few troopers paused long enough to clap their hands at the free show."I'm going to fucking sue!" the drunken exec screamed. "I'm going to sue you, your commanding officer, and the whole fucking state of Massachusetts. I'll own this joint. You hear me? I'll fucking own your ass!"Bobby jerked the big guy to his feet. Ad Exec screamed a fresh round of obscenities, possibly because of the way Bobby was pinching the man's thumb. Bobby shoved the man into the holding cell and slammed the door."If you're gonna puke, please use the toilet," Bobby informed him, because by now the man had turned a little green. Ad Exec flipped him off. Then he doubled over and vomited on the floor.Bobby shook his head. "Rich prick," he muttered.Some days were like that, particularly in November.Now it was shortly after ten p.m. Ad Exec had been bailed out by his overpriced lawyer, the holding cell was washed down, and Bobby's shift, which had started at seven a.m., was finally done. He should go home. Give Susan a buzz. Catch some sleep before his alarm went off at five and the whole joyous process started once more.Instead, he was jittery in a way that surprised him. Too much adrenaline buzzing in his veins, when he was a man best known for being cool, calm, and collected.Bobby...
December 1, 1941It is seven days before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Days that are numbered for Sondegger, a Nazi spy captured in London while on a mission to take down the Twenty Committee, a German network of spies the British have turned. For American Tom Wall, the days have run together as he awakens to find himself locked in a British military asylum. Wounded and shell-shocked, all he knows is that his brother, Earl, betrayed his unit in Crete, causing one of the bloodiest massacres of the war.MI5 releases Tom by way of a bargain. Pretend to be Earl and convince Sondegger to reveal how and where he has arranged to transmit his intelligence to Germany. Fail, and spend the rest of the war in jail. Succeed, and Tom, though still considered a danger to himself, will be allowed to leave the hospital to find Earl—who may well be a Nazi informant. But Sondegger proves himself to be a formidable opponent. Even as he surrendered himself to the British, he knew the Japanese fleet had sailed for Pearl Harbor. The question is: Who will gain more if the Allies prevent the attack? Sondegger, MI5, the OSS, Tom, and Earl’s wife, Harriet, all have different answers. Unable to trust anyone, Tom attempts to save the Twenty Committee and stop the attack on Pearl Harbor as the clock counts down.In his electrifying debut, Joel Ross combines political insights with the high stakes and fast pace of classic espionage fiction, and he delivers what others have not in more than a decade—a Nazi spy novel that you cannot put down.
CHAPTER ONE11:46 p.m., December 1, 1941The young woman hitched her skirt to her thighs, revealing slender legs encased in lisle stockings."I do apologize they're not silk," she told the man in the shiny black waistcoat. "So terrifically hard to find silk these days, isn't it?" She lifted her skirt a fraction higher, and as the man gaped she brought the heavy iron piping down hard on his skull.He fell to his knees and made a funny wheeze.It was rather exciting. She hadn't been in London during the Blitz, but oh how she'd envied them the drama. The whine and clump of the incendiaries and ack-ack shells, the streams of tracers and the barrage balloons bumbling overhead. Now the Luftwaffe was raiding more heavily again, and she felt a glow of pleasure at being part of the grand sweep of things--a glitzy Berlin cabaret, with brilliant spotlights sweeping the darkened stage, but better for the real tears and blood and love.And bomb sites were super places to trap and scrap onetime informants. The man in the shiny waistcoat was like a funny crab, trying to crawl away over the rubble. She checked that the message he'd given her was intact. She knew that some people in the SD--the Sicherheitsdienst, the security service of the SS--considered her flighty. They'd laughed that her code name should be Schmetterling, Butterfly. But she wasn't flighty. She was dedicated and smart and she did what needed doing.She lifted the iron piping to finish the man but was interrupted by the gleam of a blackout torch pricking among the wreckage and an air warden calling out, "Hallo? Miss? You're within the danger area.""Oh this poor man!" she cried. "Please--he's hit, he's injured. Oh, do help!"She knelt as if to care for the man and put her knee on his throat."What? Is the gentleman hurt?" The elderly air warden hurried forward, babbling questions.She felt the knobby bone of the man's throat crack and separate under her knee. She heard him wheeze and die, but it was nothing so climactic as a death-rattle. She stood, her hand to her own throat in horror, her eyes wet and wide.The air warden became agitated, and she began to weep. It was curious, the lingering scent of a bomb site. Brick dust as thick as the London fog mixed with the smell of damp plaster and heavy clay and the bitter waft of domestic gas hissing from shattered pipes. The bouquet of an eviscerated building. She even imagined that the man in the shiny waistcoat had exuded a sort of fleshy-sweet fragrance, like narcissus, as he'd died.She sniffled away from the air warden, murmuring that she simply had to leave, then rode her bicycle through the dark streets to slip into Mr. Pentham's house through the garden. She memorized the message the man had given her and destroyed it. Was it bad news? She couldn't decide. She was forbidden to contact Hamburg except once: the first and final time, when the mission was complete. The British had direction finders, and there was no reason to jeopardize the operation by using her wireless too soon.The agent she called "Bookbinder" was in place. Not the place he'd intended, but in place nonetheless. He could not fail. Her faith in him was religious. The two of them together would ensure the victory of the Fatherland. It shouldn't be long now, ten days at the outside.It was the most thrilling assignment of her career,...