They came to earth--Pestilence, War, Famine, Death--four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all. He’s known by many names: Thanatos. Horseman. God’s last angel. And then, of course, there's the one I’m all too familiar with— Death. The day Death comes to Lazarus Gaumond’s town and kills everyone in one fell swoop, the last thing he expects to see is a woman left alive and standing. But Lazarus has her own extraordinary gift: she cannot be killed—not by humans, not by the elements, not by Death himself. She is the one soul Death doesn’t recognize. The one soul he cannot pry free from her flesh. Nor can he ignore the unsettling desire he has for her. Take her. He wants to, desperately. And the longer she tries to stop him from his killing spree, the stronger the desire becomes. When Lazarus crosses paths with the three other horsemen, an unthinkable situation leads to a terrible deal: seduce Death, save the world. A hopeless task, made all the worse by the bad blood between her and Thanatos. But Death’s attraction to her is undeniable, and try though she might, Lazarus cannot stay away from that ancient, beautiful being and his dark embrace. The end is here. Humankind is set to perish, and not even the horsemen can stop Death from fulfilling his final task. Only Lazarus can

DEATH AND THE CHAPMAN is the first in the series of Roger the Chapman mysteries – the memoirs of an insatiably curious ex-monk whose new vocation is to seek out justice for the victims of medieval miscreants. The political situation in 1471 is complex and the war between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions still rages. But for Roger the Chapman, who has recently given up a monk’s cell for the freedom to be found peddling his wares on the open road, life goes on much as normal. Until, that is, he gets caught up in the strange disappearance of Clement Weaver, the only son of a wealthy Bristol alderman. It seems that Clement is not the only one to have vanished without trace from the Crossed Hands inn… Roger’s interest is piqued and at the request of the alderman he sets off for the bustle and excitement of London, to find out just how Clement disappeared. It is a journey that carries him to a confrontation with the highest in the land and puts his very life in jeopardy

A footman should not be dancing when on duty. But suppose he does — what will be the consequences for the solving of a murder puzzle?

Neighbours Carole and Jude uncover more than they bargained for when Jude decides to redecorate her cottage in this lighthearted cosy mystery. Having decided to redecorate Woodside Cottage, Jude has engaged the services of local man Pete, who has painted and decorated the homes of Fethering residents for many years. Pete is currently working on Footscrow House, a large Victorian building which is being converted into holiday flats by a local developer. Having arranged to meet at 'Fiasco House', as it is known locally due to the many failed business enterprises over the years, Jude and Pete make a surprising discovery behind a wall panel: a woman's handbag! The casual discovery becomes serious when the police identify the handbag's owner as Anita Garner, a young woman who vanished in suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier. Determined to find out what really happened to Anita all those years ago, Jude and her neighbour Carole's investigations plunge them into a maze of deception and murder, as they uncover a number of uncomfortable secrets beneath the serene surface of Fethering life . . . 

In the year 1260, under the supervision of the architect Gerhard Morart, the most ambitious ecclesiastical building in all of Christendom is rising above the merchant city of Cologne: the great cathedral. Far below the soaring spires and flying buttresses, a bitter struggle is underway between the archbishop of Cologne and the ruling merchant families to control the enormous wealth of this prosperous commercial center—a struggle that quickly becomes deadly. Morart is the first of many victims, pushed to his death from the cathedral’s scaffolding by a huge man with long hair, clad all in black. But hiding in the branches of the archbishop’s apple orchard is a witness: a red-haired petty thief called Jacob the Fox, street-smart, cunning, and yet naive in the ways of the political world. Out of his depth and running for his life, he soon finds himself engaged in a desperate battle with some very powerful forces. Most dangerous of all is the killer himself—a mysterious man with remarkable speed, strength, and intelligence, hiding dark secrets that have stripped away his humanity and turned him into a cruel, efficient hired assassin who favors a miniature crossbow as his weapon of choice. But who is he killing for? Jacob the Fox—uneducated and superstitious—fears the killer is the Angel of Death himself. But the wily Fox makes an alliance with some of the strangest of bedfellows: a beautiful clothes dyer, her drunken rascal of a father, and her learned uncle, who loves a good debate almost as much as he loves a bottle of wine. Can this unlikely foursome triumph against the odds and learn the truth of the evil conspiracy before their quest leads to their death at the end of a crossbow arrow? Readers who loved the richly textured setting and historical accuracy of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” will thrill to discover a new novel through which they can vicariously enter the medieval world. With its vivid evocation of both the rich and powerful and those struggling to survive another day at the bottom of society’s rungs in the Cologne of 1260, “Death and the Devil,” the first novel by Frank Schätzing, sends a clear announcement to the literary world that an important new voice in fiction is here

Darynda Jones, author of The New York Times bestselling series that began with First Grave on the Right, brings us Death and the Girl Next Door, a thrilling Young Adult novel garnering high praise and early buzz from major authors Ten years ago, Lorelei's parents disappeared without a trace.  Raised by her grandparents and leaning on the support of her best friends, Lorelei is finally beginning to accept the fact that her parents are never coming home.  For Lorelei, life goes on. High school is not quite as painful as she thinks it will be, and things are as normal as they can be.  Until the day the school's designated loner, Cameron Lusk, begins to stalk her, turning up where she least expects it,  standing outside her house in the dark, night after night.  Things get even more complicated when a new guy—terrifying, tough, sexy Jared Kovach—comes to school.  Cameron and Jared instantly despise each other and Lorelei seems to be the reason for their animosity.  What does Jared know about her parents?  Why does Cameron tell Jared he can't have Lorelei?  And what will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real?  Thrilling, sassy, sexy, and inventive, Darynda Jones's first foray into the world of teens will leave readers eager for the next installment

Рассказ вошёл в сборники: The Machineries of Joy (Механизмы радости) Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (Сборник ста лучших рассказов)

With an abandoned degree behind her and a thirtieth birthday approaching, amateur writer Bonnie Falls moves out of her parents’ home into a nearby flat. Her landlady, Sylvia Slythe, takes an interest in Bonnie, encouraging her to finish one of her stories, in which a young woman moves to the seaside, where she comes under strange influences. As summer approaches, Sylvia suggests to Bonnie that, as neither of them has anyone else to go on holiday with, they should go away together — to the seaside, perhaps. The new novel from the author of the Man Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse is a tense and moreish confection of semiotics, suggestibility and creative writing with real psychological depth and, in Bonnie Falls and Sylvia Slythe, two unforgettable characters

After she double-crosses her lover, a ruthless crime lord, Drea must flee from a relentless assassin who ultimately succeeds in killing her. But after a very brief death, Drea returns to life a changed woman: no longer selfish and cruel, determined to bring down the ones who marked her for death. Joining forces with the FBI, little does she suspect that the man she will come to love is the same assassin who took her life

The debut thriller in the internationally acclaimed series – available for the first time in the United States A long-time number one bestseller in his native Sweden, Åke Edwardson's profile was conspicuously raised when his novel Frozen Tracks was chosen as a finalist for a 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Until now, however, the novel that launched Edwardson's critically acclaimed Erik Winter series has never been available in the United States. With a new series translator who fully captures Edwardson's signature atmospheric style, Death Angels is America's introduction to Sweden's youngest Chief Inspector as he teams up with Scotland Yard to solve the mysterious parallel killings of young British and Swedish tourists. Richly evocative of mid-nineties South London and Gothenburg, Sweden, Death Angels is a brilliant opening to a mesmerizing series that has become a phenomenon in international crime fiction. *** “A crime novel with snappy dialogue, depth and-most important of all-suspense from beginning to end.” – Morala Vadstena Tidning (Sweden) “Edwardson will not be hampered by the constraints of the crime genre… with his sharp dialogue… and a backdrop of darkness that recalls the early works of James Ellroy, one must proclaim Åke Edwardson a master of the Scandinavian detective novel.” – Le Monde des Livres (France) “A read which even on a really warm July day sends cold shivers down my spine… Edwardson’s language is vivid and full of nuance.” – Hufvudstadsbladet (Finland) “A fast, sleek, hard ballad.” – Die Welt (Germany) “Clever, exciting, atmospheric!” – Der Spiegel (Germany)

The Oslo Agreements were signed by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, marking the beginning of promise for constructive peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The ten years that followed were charted first by hope and optimism only to deteriorate into violence. This book presents a collection of articles which mark ten years to the dream of Oslo

There's plenty of excitement at Epsom Downs, as Lord Charles Sheridan and his American wife, Kate, watch the races from a box shared by Jennie Jerome Churchill and world-renowned actress, mistress and horse-trader Lillie Langtry. But the real excitement comes that evening, when Charles is called to investigate both the death of a Derby jockey and the theft of Lillie Langtry's jewels. Before long, there are no safe bets as Kate and Charles are pulled into Lillie Langtry's reckless social world, where lords and ladies run neck and neck with thieves and murderers-and the race for justice stands to be a photo finish

In an unnamed country on the first day of the new year, people stop dying. Amid the general public, there is great celebration: flags are hung out on balconies and people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity – eternal life. Death is on strike. Soon though, the residents begin to suffer. For several months undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local ‘maphia’ smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally. Death does return eventually, but with a new courteous approach – delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned?

Among the guests at the Plume of Feathers on the memorable evening of the murder were a West End matinée idol, a successful portrait painter, an Oxford-educated farmer’s daughter, a radical organizer and assorted rustics and villagers. Each of them had an opportunity to place the deadly poison on the dart that seemingly had been the instrument of murder. But no one admitted seeing any suspicious movement on the part of anyone else. And what exactly had been the method of the killer? This was the problem Inspector Alleyn had to solve — and he does so with all of his accustomed verve and brilliance

A powerful magic user is stealing people’s faces in San Francisco, and empath Ella Walsh and shifter Vadim Morosov have been called in to investigate. Still adjusting to the closeness and permanence of their new relationship, the government-paired mates are soon hot on the trail of an Otherworld cultist from Vadim’s past. But their target turns the tables, and after he gives Ella someone else’s face, the couple will have to follow him to Otherworld to get hers back. There, in an ancient world of family ties, old grudges and monsters, where living memory stretches centuries, Ella will have to confront the dangerous truth of Vadim’s bygone life. Because there’s a reason the Fae call him Death Bringer, and if Ella can’t unravel it, she may never see her mate—or her face—again

Thea Campbell goes out for revenge when the one person who is the most likely and least likely candidate for thief steals her horse. But Olympic hopeful Valerie Parsons is past caring about being arrested. She’s dead. At first Thea’s horse is assumed to have killed the woman, but when the coroner determines it was a human hand and not a horse’s hoof that ended Valerie’s li…more

Yoshio Kita’s hopelessness and lack of faith in his future crystallizes into a decision to commit suicide by what he calls ‘capital punishment at free will’, meaning his only pressing problem now is how to spend both his remaining self-allocated seven days on earth and all his worldly money. From fine dining with a former porn actress to insuring his life, from pursuing an ex-girlfriend to an entanglement with an assassin, Yoshio’s last seven days on earth take on unexpected twists and turns in this darkly comic exploration of the cult of suicide in Japan and the culture that has created it

Ordinarily, Charleston's Indigo Tea Shop is an oasis of calm. But when tea shop owner, Theodosia Browning, caters the annual Lamplighter Tour of historic homes, one of the patrons turns up dead.  Never mind that it's Hughes Barron, a slightly scurrilous real estate developer. Theodosia's reputation is suddenly on the line. Aided by her friends and fellow tea shop entrepreneurs, Theo sets about to unravel the mystery of the deadly Darjeeling and encounters a number of likely suspects.  Tanner Joseph, the fiery environmentalist, held a grudge against the developer for his misuse of land. Timothy Neville, the octogenarian majordomo for the Heritage Society, opposed Hughes Barron's election to the board. And Barron's unsavory partner might very well profit from a cleverly written buy-sell agreement!

On the rugged, wild, eastern shore of Barbados, Cindy and Clint are enjoying their dream honeymoon, when paradise quickly turns into hell. Cindy finds her newly beloved taken away from her, drowned in a freak accident in the ocean. The local police are quick to declare it an accident, to insist that he was caught in a sudden riptide. But Cindy, left all alone, is not convinced. Cindy must return to her and Clint's now-empty home in New York and face her in-laws, who never wanted Clint to marry her, and who did everything to make her engagement and wedding hell. She must deal with all of these women's backbiting, gossiping and unspoken accusations, while she tries to get a handle on her own grief and to get clear on what really happened to Clint

Bartulin’s debut is an old-fashioned mystery with lots of snappy dialogue and a noir atmosphere. A second-hand book dealer in Australia, Jack just wants a quiet life among his beloved books and far away from his former work as a Mob driver. Broke and with his store struggling, Jack accepts a commission from a local magnate to locate and buy all known copies of any books by a relatively unknown and out-of-print poet. But Jack isn’t the only one tracking down the books, and the businessman drives a tough bargain. The Australian setting doesn’t make a strong impression, but that is more than made up for by the well-rounded and believable characters. With a fast pace and a noir tone, this is bound to appeal to a wide audience of mystery readers but will be especially popular with book lovers and fans of John Dunning’s Cliff Janeway series. A strong debut and a promising series

Kenzaburo Oe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today." In Death by Water, his recurring protagonist and literary alter-ego returns to his hometown village in search of a red suitcase fabled to hold documents revealing the details of his father’s death during WWII: details that will serve as the foundation for his new, and final, novel. Since his youth, renowned novelist Kogito Choko planned to fictionalize his father’s fatal drowning in order to fully process the loss. Stricken with guilt and regret over his failure to rescue his father, Choko has long been driven to discover why his father was boating on the river in a torrential storm. Though he remembers overhearing his father and a group of soldiers discussing an insurgent scheme to stage a suicide attack on Emperor Mikado, Choko cannot separate his memories from imagination and his family is hesitant to reveal the entire story. When the contents of the trunk turn out to offer little clarity, Choko abandons the novel in creative despair. Floundering as an artist, he’s haunted by fear that he may never write his tour de force. But when he collaborates with an avant-garde theater troupe dramatizing his early novels, Kogito is revitalized by revisiting his formative work and he finds the will to continue investigating his father’s demise. Diving into the turbulent depths of legacy and mortality, Death by Water is an exquisite examination of resurfacing national and personal trauma, and the ways that storytelling can mend political, social, and familial rifts

The big brains behind the business usually have many pots boiling on their stove, or running their think engines as the case may be. But when the business motto of the Brewster forum, "Pursuing Research Into Original Thought", leads them to some eccentric affairs that throw them far enough off track, Remo Williams enlists the help of his Master Chiun to solve a harrowing crime

Ein turbulenter Sommer wird den 15jährigen Sherlock Holmes für immer verändern: Ein Mord, eine Entführung, Korruption und ein sehr finsterer Schurke werden ihm das Leben schwer machen. Über Andrew Lane Andrew Lane ist der Autor von mehr als zwanzig Büchern, unter anderem Romanen zu bekannten TV-Serien wie ›Doctor Who‹, ›Torchwood‹ und ›Randall & Hopkirk - Detektei mit Geist‹. Einige davon hat er unter Pseudonym veröffentlicht. Er hat außerdem für die ›Radio Times‹ und den ›TV Guide‹ geschrieben. Andrew Lane lebt mit seiner Frau, seinem Sohn und einer riesigen Sammlung von Sherlock Holmes Büchern in Dorset. ›Young Sherlock Holmes - Death Cloud‹ ist der erste Band der Serie über das Leben des jugendlichen Meisterdetektivs. Weitere Bände sind in Vorbereitung. Die englische Originalausgabe erschien 2010 unter dem Titel ›Young Sherlock Holmes - Death Cloud‹ bei Macmillan Children’s Books, London, England Aus dem Englischen von Christian Dreller

Введите сюда краткую аннотацию

If you can’t trust your family, where do you turn... Joyce Mildmay’s life is torn apart when her husband Charlie is killed in a tragic yachting accident. Though financially secure, Joyce is left to raise their three children by herself within Tarrant Park, a secluded gated development set in the rural countryside outside of Bristol. Six months later a mysterious letter arrives on her doorstep which turns her shattered world upside down. The letter is from Charlie, delivered belatedly in the event of his death, and contains a sinister warning that Joyce’s father, Henry Tanner, and the family business is not as it seems. For their children to be safe, her husbad pleads, she must leave their home and never look back. Confused and alarmed by this message from beyond the grave, Joyce decides instead to stay and unearth the truth. But what she learns reveals a trail of intrigue and deceptiont that stretches back though the years. It seems that death is only the beginning

Fans of Peter James and his bestselling Roy Grace series of crime novels know that his books draw on in-depth research into the lives of Brighton and Hove police and are set in a world every bit as gritty as the real thing. His friend Graham Bartlett was a long-serving detective in the city once described as Britain’s ‘crime capital’. Together, in Death Comes Knocking, they have written a gripping account of the city’s most challenging cases, taking the reader from crime scenes and incident rooms to the morgue, and introducing some of the real-life detectives who inspired Peter James’s characters. Whether it’s the murder of a dodgy nightclub owner and his family in Sussex’s worst non-terrorist mass murder or the race to find the abductor of a young girl, tracking down the antique trade’s most notorious ‘knocker boys’ or nailing an audacious ring of forgers, hunting for a cold-blooded killer who executed a surfer or catching a pair who kidnapped a businessman, leaving him severely beaten, to die on a hillside, the authors skilfully evoke the dangerous inside story of policing, the personal toll it takes and the dedication of those who risk their lives to keep the public safe

A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem. It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball. Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery. Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it

In “Death Comes To The Torpedo Factory”, World War II has been over for years and an old Torpedo Factory is now used to store government documents – including classified records from the campaign against Nazi Germany. In 1971, a lowly clerk stumbles upon a file with explosive photographs that, if made public, could ruin a prominent local family. When the photographs disappear, the hunt for them attracts a motley assortment of characters – including a former German intelligence agent and an old school gumshoe – with deadly consequences

From Publishers Weekly Reunited with fellow Manhattan crime scene investigators Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, brazen, outspoken Alexandra Cooper, assistant DA for the sex crimes prosecution unit, tackles the case of a murdered dancer with the Royal Ballet. While it was no secret that "world-renowned" Russian ballerina Natalya Galinova had a bad attitude and a cuckolded husband, that she was tossed, undetected, into the cooling unit at the Metropolitan Opera House still comes as a shock, even to a whole slew of suspects, among them her agent, Rinaldo; Broadway kingpin and voyeur Joe Berk; Berk's shady niece Mona; and the Met's slippery artistic director, Chet Dobbis. Varied clues paired with the fascinating theatrical spadework involved in the opera business lead to a sidewalk electrocution and several sabotaged stage sets. As additional suspects are tacked on, concurrent evidence and motives surface and the stage becomes increasingly deadly for everyone involved, especially Alex. Running alongside is a rape subplot involving an elusive Turkish doctor, and an unsolved urban assault case. Despite the overcrowded plot, this whodunit manages to pirouette to a satisfying climax just as the curtain drops. Fairstein (Entombed) fans will undoubtedly demand an encore

 Beware the golden disk - it brings decay… destruction… death…     Four hundred years ago, a woman died in agony to keep its secret and went to her rave with it hung around her neck. Now, in a desolate graveyard, a workman has unearthed the amulet by chance and decides to keep it. His first mistake…     That night the village of Medford is plunged into a nightmare of terror by the discovery of a double murder and mutilation - the first in a series of shocking killings.     Wherever the amulet is found, ancient evil - hideous, powerful and vile - is once again reborn…

An original novel set in the widely popular Wild Cards world created by science fiction scion George R.R. Martin. Edited by Hugo award winning and New York times bestselling author, George R.R. Martin. It's really quite simple. Mr. Nobody wants to do his job. The Midnight Angel wants to serve her Lord. Billy Ray, dying from boredom, wants some action. John Nighthawk wants to uncover the awful secret behind his mysterious power. Fortunato wants to rescue his son from the clutches of a cryptic Vatican office. John Fortune just wants to catch Siegfried and Ralph's famous Vegas review. The problem is that all roads, whether they start in Turin, Italy, Las Vegas, Hokkaido, Japan, Jokertown, Snake Hill, the Short Cut, or Yazoo City, Mississippi, lead to Leo Barnett's Peaceable Kingdon where the difference between the Apocalypse and Peace on Earth is as thin as a razor's edge and where Death himself awaits the final terrible turn of the card. Wild Cards: Death Draws Five is an original novel set in this shared world utilizing characters from other Wild Card adventures. John J. Miller Splitting his life between the Empire State and The Land of Enchantment, John J. Miller currently resides in Albuquerque, NM, with his wife Gail, five cats, two dogs, two goldfish, and too many books to count, approximately ten of which he's written. He's contemplating getting more goldfish, and, probably, books. George R. R. Martin was born in 1948 in Bayonne, NJ. Four-time winner of the Hugo Award, two-time winner of the Nebula and editor of over two dozen novels and anthologies, and the writer of numerous short stories. His New York Times bestselling novel, A Storm of Swords (the third volume in his epicfantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" (was published in 2000. Martin lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico

Was it an accident? Or suicide? Or murder? When 12-year-old David is found blindfolded and dead at the bottom of a ship's hold while on a school outing, the headmaster claims the tragedy was due to an accident. But the boy's father begins his own investigation and very quickly he uncovers a tawdry and messy web of secrecy, jealousy and cover-up

Temperance Brennan Book #2 Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs exploded onto bestseller lists worldwide with her phenomenal debut novel Déjà Dead – and introduced “[a] brilliant heroine” (Glamour) in league with Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta. Dr. Temperance Brennan, Quebec’s director of forensic anthropology, now returns in a thrilling new investigation into the secrets of the dead. In the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, Tempe Brennan is digging for a corpse buried more than a century ago. Although Tempe thrives on such enigmas from the past, it’s a chain of contemporary deaths and disappearances that has seized her attention – and she alone is ideally placed to make a chilling connection among the seemingly unrelated events. At the crime scene, at the morgue, and in the lab, Tempe probes a mystery that sweeps from a deadly Quebec fire to startling discoveries in the Carolinas, and culminates in Montreal with a terrifying showdown – a nerve-shattering test of both her forensic expertise and her skills for survival

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell cuts a new edge in suspense with this thrilling tale of passion, danger, and international intrigue in which a pair of former operatives must stop a deadly plot that threatens a major American city – and ultimately the world When she joined St. Kilda's, the elite security consulting firm, Emma Cross thought she'd left behind the blood, the guilt, and the tribal wars that defined her life at the CIA. Yet, trading spying for investigating yacht thefts didn't alleviate the danger – or melt away her professional paranoia. Now, the same good instincts that got her into trouble at the agency might be what will help her survive her latest case. With some arm-twisting, St. Kilda and Emma are tracking a yacht named Blackbird, a dead ringer for another ship that went missing somewhere between Vladivostok and Portland a year earlier. Emma knows the boat's intended cargo is lethal. What she needs to find out is whether it's biological, chemical, or fissionable. And she's only got seven days to uncover the truth… or a major American city will be lost. Fortunately, she's working with a new partner as menacing and distrustful as the worst enemy she's ever faced – and as deadly. A honed killer, MacKenzie Durand led a special ops team that was deployed to some of the world's nastiest places. But five years ago everything went to hell in Afghanistan, when bad intel hung his team out to dry. The only survivor, Mac walked away and never looked back, preferring to make money sailing high-end boats like Blackbird. But Emma and Mac aren't the only eyes watching Blackbird. Taras Demidov, an expert in extortion and execution in the pay of the oligarchs running the former Soviet Union, is also waiting in the shadows, determined to intercept a fearsomely powerful arms dealer with the money, weaponry, and connections to alter the geopolitical balance. Thrown together by an organization of enemies with global ties more dangerous than either of them realize, Mac and Emma must put aside their growing attraction for each other to save more than just their own lives. In a deadly game where the rules change without warning and the line between friend and foe is blurred, the pair must find answers fast – or watch as innocent civilians are sacrificed in a cold-blooded grab for power and supremacy. And even Mac and Emma aren't sure just who will get to the finish line alive… A breathtaking tale of passion and danger, Death Echo is superb entertainment from the queen of suspense, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell

Sheng Keyi was born in Hunan province in 1973 and lives in Beijing. Death Fugue is her sixth novel, and the second to be published in English translation, after Northern Girls (2012). It is a brave work of speculative fiction, a cross between Cloud Atlas and 1984, scathing in its irony, ingenious in its use of allegory, and acute in its understanding of the power of writing. The imagination that drives it is exuberant and unconstrained. In a large square in the centre of Beiping, the capital of Dayang, a huge tower of excrement appears one day, causing unease in the population, and ultimately widespread civil unrest. The protest, in which poets play an important part, is put down violently. Haunted by the violence, and by his failure to support his girlfriend Qizi, who is one of the protest leaders, Yuan Mengliu gives up poetry in favour of medicine, and the antiseptic environment of the operating theatre. But every year he travels in search of Qizi, and on one of these trips, caught in a storm, he wakes to find himself in a perfect society called Swan Valley. In this utopia, as he soon discovers, impulse and feeling are completely controlled, and every aspect of life regulated for the good of the nation, with terrible consequences