The Maracot Deep is a short 1929 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle about the discovery of a sunken city of Atlantis by a team of explorers led by Professor Maracot. He is accompanied by Cyrus Headley, a young research zoologist and Bill Scanlan, an expert mechanic working with an iron works in Philadelphia who is in charge of the construction of the submersible which the team takes to the bottom of the Atlantic

USA Today bestselling author Susan Mallery returns to the idyllic setting of her sensual Marcelli sisters trilogy – California wine country, where love and laughter flow, and where an unlikely couple discovers the one thing their hearts hunger for most: a place to call home. The rebel of the Marcelli family, Joe never joined his sisters Katie, Francesca, and Brenna in running the winery business. Instead, he chose a life of military service. But now that this handsome, headstrong former Navy SEAL has received a new, undercover assignment – protecting none other than the commander in chief's daughter – he finds himself stationed back at the California vineyard he defiantly left behind. First-daughter Darcy Jensen has been placed in hiding at the Marcelli Winery after surviving a kidnapping attempt… and now it's Joe's job to keep the fearful, fiery beauty out of harm's way. Begrudgingly, Joe heeds his presidential order – until "babysitting" Darcy proves to be the greatest pleasure he's ever known. How can Joe protect Darcy from danger, when he's falling dangerously in love? And can Darcy trust that Joe's intentions are true – when no one else's have ever been?

A smart, independent woman with a gorgeous four-year-old son, Mia Marcelli lost her one true love. Four years ago, while working undercover for the CIA, she watched Diego, the father of her unborn child, perish before her very eyes – crumbling the world around her. But one morning she awakens to find Diego lying next to her, alive and well with an unbelievable confession: he is really Rafael, Prince of Calandria, and he had been working covertly on the same mission when they met – his death had been staged. Utterly stunned, Mia is wary and delighted – she may have suffered a broken heart, but her breathtakingly handsome lover is back to reignite the passion that existed between them. Little does she know that Rafael has returned to give his newfound son a proper upbringing back in Calandria – even if it means seducing Mia into marriage. But when Rafael finds himself truly falling for this luscious beauty, he must decide between his royal duties and the woman who has claimed his heart

It is 1933 and a dead man has been found lying under railway arches in Berlin. An old soldier, hideously disfigured, he has been killed mysteriously. Gereon Rath is brought onto the case while his fiancée, Charlotte Ritter, blazes her own trail. Meanwhile, the Nazis consolidate their hold on power, the Reichstag is burned down, and things become a lot worse not only for Berlin's Jewish community but also for those police officers who can remain in action

In a little Mexican village, the American Ambassador is abducted. With him a Peace Corps volunteer, a nervous kid with a conscience, is picked up by mistake. The kidnappers are presumed to be Cuban exiles, anti-Castro terrorists. They have just committed the biggest mistake of their lives. In a fitting follow-up to his highly-acclaimed first novel. Fear in a Handful of Dust, John Ives has created a heroine to be long remembered. Carole Marchand is forty-three, attractive, sophisticated, a film director with a tart tongue. She is weary of letting her fantasies play themselves out on celluloid. When tragedy strikes her son. she is determined to act. While her unflappable ex-husband Howard and his colleague O’Hillary try to maneuver by phone from their air-conditioned Washington offices, Carole embarks on a harrowing voyage of vengeance. Companions on her adventure are a dreamy-eyed-CIA man who inconveniently falls in love and a crusty mercenary playing his last act for something more than mere money. Their opponents are a band of aging guerillas torn by dissension and guided by the imperious but faltering hand of one of the richest robber barons of the Caribbean. Carole Marchand and her mercenary follow a dim trail through the sleazy saloons and the offices of corrupt petty officials in Mexico and Puerto Rico and meet their destiny in a terrible climax in the tropical rainforests of El Yunque. John Ives has written a riveting suspense thriller that grapples directly with the moral issues of justice and revenge

The story of a Dominican girl, the white woman who introduces her to riding, and the horse who changes everything for her. Velveteen Vargas is eleven years old, a Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist on the fringe of Alcoholics Anonymous, and Paul, an academic who wonders what it will mean to “make a difference” in such a contrived situation. The Mare illuminates the couple’s changing relationship with Velvet over the course of several years, as well as Velvet’s powerful encounter with the horses at the stable down the road, as Gaitskill weaves together Velvet’s vital inner-city community and the privileged country world of Ginger and Paul

He awoke with a buzzing in his head, lost at sea… Hidden amidst the fractured remains of a sunken world are the answers the Mariner craves. The ocean is endless and yet he has the tools for such a hunt; an antique slave ship infested with Tasmanian devils, a crate of semi-automatic weapons, and a dreamlike clue formed loosely in his mind. Sinister impulses, however, gnaw at his soul, unravelling his sanity: a proclivity for violence and a hunger for rape. Surrounded by mindless zombies, flesh-eating eels and dangerous cults, this sadomasochist could be humanity’s last chance at unlocking the secrets of the crumbling universe. He’s a pervert, an addict and a monster, but might just hold the key to finding a route home… The Mariner is approximately 120,000 words long and contains scenes of a violent and sexual nature. Recommended only for adults

Claude is a Frenchman who lives in Dublin. His birthplace is famed as the city of lovers, but so far love has always eluded him. Instead his life revolves around the investment bank where he works. And then one day he realizes he is being followed around, by a pale, scrawny man. The man's name is Paul Murray. Paul claims to want to write a novel about Claude and Claude's heart sings. Finally, a chance to escape the drudgery of his everyday office life, to be involved in writing, in art! But Paul himself seems more interested in where the bank keeps its money than in Claude-and soon Claude realizes that Paul is not all he appears to be…

The Eleventh Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew. On St Scholastica’s Day in February 1355, Oxford explodes in one of the most serious riots in its turbulent history. Fearing for their lives, the scholars flee the city, and some choose to travel to Cambridge, believing that the killer of one of their colleagues is to be found in the rival University town. Within hours of their arrival, one member of their party dies, followed quickly by a second. Alarmed, they quickly begin an investigation to find the culprit. Brother Michael is incensed that anyone should presume to conduct such enquiries in his domain without consulting him, and is dismissive of the visitors’ insistence that Cambridge might be harbouring a murderer. He is irked, too, by the fact that Matthew Bartholomew, his friend and Corpse Examiner, appears to be wholly distracted by the charms of the town’s leading prostitute

Assuming the identity of a cold-blooded Cosa Nostra killer, Nick Carter finds himself on his way to Palermo to infiltrate the Mafia. Using false papers, real bullets, and the aid of an AXE-trained blonde named Tanya, his mission is to stop the flow of heroin to Saigon — a Chicom plot to demoralize American troops in Vietnam as well as to control organized crime in the U.S. But playing the part of a Mafia Don has big drawbacks, like being found out. And when that happens to Nick, he is marked for inescapable death by the macabre Mafia code of vengeance

A queen is dying. Her angry son is conspiring to thwart his planet's elections and maintain his rule. But he might not be her only heir. There may be another bearing the elusive Mark of the Crown. Qui-Gon Jinn and young Obi-Wan Kenobi come to the planet of Gala as guardians of peace. Now they are facing a deadly battle for power and royal position. The true heir must be found. The Jedi must find the way

Disenchanted academic Nick Elliot knows that he may be selling his soul when he joins City brokers Dekker Ward, but he needs the money. Dekker dominate the stormy Latin American bond market and Nick’s boss Ricardo Ross, known as the Marketmaker, is the most successful trader the region has ever seen. And as Nick discovers, you’re either with him or you’ve made an enemy for life. At first Nick’s content to ride his luck until strange things start to happen to Dekker employees. One top trader is fired without warning. Another dies in a bungled robbery. As tension mounts, Nick can’t disguise his feelings for his attractive colleague Isabel. Then she is kidnapped. While Nick debates the wisdom of taking matters into his own hands, the all-powerful Marketmaker gets ready to make his move

The Marksman is an original novelette, never published anywhere else, that is a crime and adventure story in the best Brian Garfield tradition — a race against the clock, double- and triple-crosses, and a breathtaking confrontation which makes the ending one you’ll never forget

A vivid new translation of a timeless classic: Kleist’s tense, ambiguous novella about an unexpected pregnancy In a Northern Italian town during the Napoleonic Wars, Julietta, a young widow and mother of impeccable reputation, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. This follows an attack on the town’s citadel, in which several Russian soldiers tried to assault her before she was rescued by Count F—, at which point she fell unconscious. Thrown out of her father’s house, Julietta publishes an announcement in the local newspaper stating that she is pregnant and would like the father of her child to make himself known so that she can marry him. What follows is an ambiguously comic drama of sexuality and family respectability. One of Kleist’s best-loved works, The Marquise of O— is an ingenious and timeless story of the mystery of human desire, and Nicholas Jacobs’s new translation captures the full richness of its irony

Her sisters have found wedded bliss with their wealthy,wonderful dream men, but not Julietta Conte. She’s stayed on terra firma as top executive of the family’s corporation, La Dolce Famiglia bakery. Work is her passion, and her trendy Milan apartment her sanctuary . . . until Sawyer Wells, a masculine masterpiece in a suit, lures her out of hiding with an irresistible offer: an exclusive partnership with his international chain of boutique hotels. Julietta’s been burned before—and trusting her brother-in-law’s friend, whose powerful gaze alone has her rethinking the best use of a conference room, is the riskiest proposition. But with a once-in-a-career chance to take the bakery global, will she mix stone-cold business with red-hot seduction?

Carina Conte has had a crush on her brother Michael’s best friend, Max Gray, since she was a teenager. Now she’s earned her MBA and come to work at Michael’s new venture, America’s fastest-growing bakery empire. But some things never change: her family still treats her like a child. With three drop-dead gorgeous siblings, she’s still the ugly duckling of the bunch. And Max, the company’s new CEO, still barely notices her. Max knows Carina Conte is strictly off limits. But hot-blooded lust wins out at a conference when the two share a scorching one-night stand—and are busted by her mother! Now, forced by old-world Italian tradition into a marriage he’s not ready for, Max is miserable—and Carina is furious. Her new husband is about to realize that hell hath no fury like a woman transformed…

"The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" is a book without any modern parallel. Forming an active link in a chain that reaches back through Ovid's METAMORPHOSES directly to Homer, Roberto Calasso's re-exploration of the fantastic fables and mysteries we may only think we know explodes the entire world of Greek mythology, pieces it back together, and presents it to us in a new, and astonishing, and utterly contempory way

The most enticing trap of all… To satisfy his late father’s wishes, hot and single billionaire Michael Conte must find a bride—someone who will fit into his traditional family back home in Italy—and fast, so his engaged sister will be allowed to wed. With no intention of being tied down, Michael “proposes” to fiery, free-spirited photographer Maggie Ryan: if she will play the part of his fiancée during her trip to Milan for a photo shoot, he will keep away from her married best friend, Alexa, and stop making Maggie nuts with their too-close-for- comfort flirtations. But once in Italy, sexual tension sparks the hottest no-strings- attached arrangement on any continent. Could marriage be the most enticing trap of all?

Топ-100 рейтингов Amazon. «Триллер года 2021» по версии читателей Amazon 10 лет назад он убил моего сына. Сегодня я выхожу за него замуж… Пронзительный, полный любви и ненависти психологический триллер о браке молодого мужчины и женщины на двадцать лет старше него. И о противостоянии двух матерей, которые были лучшими подругами, а стали заклятыми врагами. Затягивающий психологический триллер, который будет держать читательниц в напряжении до последней страницы. Десять лет назад любимый и единственный сын Бриджет Уилсон был убит. Виновным оказался сын ее лучшей подруги, Том Биллингерст. Жизнь Бриджет потеряла всякий смысл. Ее красивый, сильный мальчик превратился в воспоминание – фотографию, которую она всегда носит с собой. Бриджет ненавидела Тома. Но спустя десять лет она вышла за него замуж… Десять лет назад любимый и единственный сын Джилл Биллингерст попал в тюрьму, случайно убив лучшего друга одним-единственным ударом. Он получил максимально суровое наказание, но Джилл уверена: ее мальчик невиновен, а приговор – максимально несправедлив. И когда Тома наконец освободили, новость о свадьбе оглушает и шокирует ее. Джилл точно знает: Бриджет Уилсон – лгунья. Она задумала погубить убийцу своего сына. Но Джилл остановит ее любой ценой. «К. Л. Слейтер написала холодную, хитрую, расчетливую и совершенно блестящую историю, которая держит вас в напряжении. Книга, от которой вы не захотите отказаться. Поверьте!» – The Secret Book Sleuth «ВАУ, какая история! Настоящая мечта читателей: все, что вы хотите, здесь есть, но неожиданное продолжает происходить… 10/10!» – Book Mark «Я не спал всю ночь, читая эту книгу. Потрясающе! Я определенно буду читать другие книги этого автора». – The Written Blurred

From twice National Book Award–nominated Rachel Kushner, whose Flamethrowers was called “the best, most brazen, most interesting book of the year” (Kathryn Schulz, New York magazine), comes a spectacularly compelling, heart-stopping novel about a life gone off the rails in contemporary America. It’s 2003 and Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: the San Francisco of her youth and her young son, Jackson. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, which Kushner evokes with great humor and precision. Stunning and unsentimental, The Mars Room demonstrates new levels of mastery and depth in Kushner’s work. It is audacious and tragic, propulsive and yet beautifully refined. As James Wood said in The New Yorker, her fiction “succeeds because it is so full of vibrantly different stories and histories, all of them particular, all of them brilliantly alive.”

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Apollo 13 meets Castaway in this grippingly detailed, brilliantly ingenious man-vs-nature survival thriller—set on the surface of Mars. Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first man to die there. It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him—and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he’s stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to get him first. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

From the Sept. 94 issue of Magazine of Fantasy & Science (r) copyright 1994, by David Gerrold. All rights reserved. David Gerrold, CIS: 70307,544 Nebula and Hugo Awards winner

From “Rocket Summer” to “The Million-Year Picnic,” Ray Bradbury’s stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury’s characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they’ve displaced. Bradbury’s quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In “The Silent Towns,” the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of “the other,” yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art

Stephen Baxter’s The Martian in the Wood, a Tor.com Original In the aftermath of the First Martian War, in the interim between it and what was to come later, England seemed to once again become a green and peaceful place, if one haunted by the terrible events in Surrey that had happened in those early years of the century. Although people hoped and prayed peace had come, they were wrong. Across the gulf of space, plans were being drawn for a return, but before they could bear fruit a terrible discovery was made deep in Holmburgh Wood, one that would tear a family apart and shock the world. At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied

A powerful science fiction story about an architect on Earth commissioned to create (via long distance) a masterwork with materials from the last abandoned Martian colony, a monument that will last thousands of years longer than Earth, which is dying. At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied

The Mars trilogy has rapidly assumed the status of modern science fiction classic, capturing the imagination of hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. Now, with The Martians, comes Kim Stanley Robinson’s essential companion to the Mars series. New novellas and short stories head the collection, along with texts on the Martian constitution, maps and Martian inspired poetry. In short, The Martians is a unique collection of previously unpublished fiction, a fascinating addition to Robinson’s oeuvre, and a must for all lovers of the red planet

Whether they’re cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos’ characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants. A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos’ most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella — which takes its name from... Hollywood slang for the last shot of the day, the one that comes before the liquor shots begin — we go behind the scenes of a television cop show, where a writer gets caught up in a drama more real than anything he could have conjured for a script. By turns heartbreaking and humane, brutal and funny, these finely constructed tales expose the violence and striving beneath the surface of any city and within any human heart. Tough, sexy, fast-paced, and crackling with energy, The Martini Shot is Pelecanos at his very best

Tip and his creation, Jack Pumpkin, run away to Oz, where they save the city after it is captured by girls

Ingrid Winter is desperately trying to hold it all together. A neurotic Norwegian mother of three small children and an overworked literature professor with an overactive imagination, Ingrid feels like her life’s always on the brink of chaos. Her overzealous attempt to secure her dream house has strained her marriage. She’s repeatedly reprimanded for eye rolling in faculty meetings. Petulant PTA parents want to drag her into a war over teaching children to tie their shoes. And an alarmingly persistent salesman keeps warning her of the potential dangers of home intrusion. Clearly she needs to get away. But Russia? Forced to join an academic mission to Saint Petersburg to promote international cooperation, Ingrid finds herself at a crossroads while drinking too much cough syrup. Will this trip push her into a Siberian sinkhole of existential dread or finally give her life some balance and direction?

When the B-29 Superfortress Mary Jane is discovered in 1945 sitting in thick jungle with no visible damage, and her crew and mysterious payload are missing, the incident is hushed up and forgotten. But in 1990, mysterious radar images start to appear. F-18 crews sent up to investigate discover a B-29 flying towards Japan. What is this mysterious plane? If it is the Mary Jane continuing her mission, how can they stop it? [55000 words]