Title: Kiss the Girls Author: James Patterson File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Suspense Description: First came the stunning number-one bestseller Along Came a Spider. Now comes the scariest, most unforgettable novel in several years. In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. Washington D.C.'s Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing- and they are working coast to coast. A Main Selection of Book-of-the-Month Club®

Title: Gryphon_ New and Selected Stories Author: Charles Baxter File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction Description:From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Baxter's skill with short fiction is confirmed in this stellar collection of 23 stories, seven of which are new. The title story is deservedly a classic, and other favorites, such as Fenstad's Mother, have gathered resonance as well, and the new stories show Baxter working a quirky beat. In each, the acutely observed real world is rocked by the exotic or surreal. In Poor Devil, the devils are a self-destructive couple headed for a divorce, while, in Ghosts, a stranger enters a young woman's house and tells her they are soul mates. She accuses him of being a devil, but his intentions are much less sinister than she imagines. Nightfall had always brought his devils out, the narrator says in The Old Murderer, a touching story about an alcoholic and an ex-con, each trying to get through the day. In Royal Blue, arguably the best of the new stories, an undertow of mystery shadows a handsome young art dealer who understands that 911 has affected a fundamental change in his life. In Baxter's comic-melancholic world, people may be incapable of averting sadness or violence, but they survive. (Jan.) (c) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromBaxter is a well-regarded short story writer who should be more widely appreciated. He is a consummate chronicler—depictor—of ordinary lives with which the majority of good fiction readers can identify. (“In my university town there are hundreds of men like Harrelson,” says one narrator, whose recognition of the type will be shared by all of us.) Baxter attaches to these lives an eccentric aspect, which, ironically, heightens their universality—we all have our quirks—and which increases our responsiveness to them. This volume pulls stories from the author’s four previous collections and adds seven previously uncollected stories. As in all big compilations, quality varies. The superior stories, including the title story (a delightful first-person narrative, from the perspective of a fourth-grade boy, about an odd substitute teacher), showcase Baxter’s first-rate talents in the form: sophisticated humor, exact writing style, plots at once ordinary and extraordinary, and in, common with all masters of the form, wizardry at the fetching opening line. --Brad Hooper