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Title: Vicious Author: Kevin O'Brien File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Suspense Description: For more than two years, he held Seattle in a terror grip - a cold-blooded killer who abducted young mothers right in front of their sons and murdered them execution style. Then, as suddenly as the killings began, they seemed to stop. Susan Blanchette is looking forward to a relaxing weekend getaway with her fiancee, Allen, and young son, Matthew. But something about the remote lake house doesn't feel right. A woman vanished from the area a year ago, and now Susan thinks she's spotted someone lurking around the property. And when Allen disappears, her fear grows. A psychopath has returned, ready to strike again. Someone who can't resist the urge to kill, who derives pleasure from others' pain, and who is drawing nearer to Susan as each minute of the weekend ticks by. But she's just one pawn at the heart of a killer's deadly game - a killer who is unrelenting, unstoppable, and absolutely vicious.

Title: The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian Author: Lawrence Block File Type: Mobi Subject:Mystery Description:Amazon.com ReviewIf the only side of Lawrence Block you know is the dark and gloomy Matt Scudder books, such as the noir classic __, then you might be surprised to hear that he's also one of the most delightfully droll writers in the mystery business.I hurried uptown and changed into chinos and a short-sleeved shirt that would have been an Alligator except that the embroidered device on the breast was not that reptile but a bird in flight. I guess it was supposed to be a swallow, either winging its way back to Capistrano or not quite making a summer, because the brand name was Swallowtail. It had never quite caught on and I can understand why. That's Bernie Rhodenbarr, used book dealer and gentleman burglar, making a literary fashion statement in this latest return to print of one of Block's best books about him.As with the other entries in this admirable series--__, strong, strong, strong, strong, strong, strong--Block manages to be very amusing, moderately suspenseful, and impressively erudite all at the same time. The plot is a complicated tangle of double-cross and deceit surrounding the theft of a valuable painting and two murders. Mondrian isn't the only artist being framed here: Bernie has to use all of his skills--as burglar, lover, and art expert--to prove his (relative) innocence. --Dick AdlerIt's not that used bookstore owner and part-time burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr believes the less legal of his two professions is particularly ethical. (It is, however, a rush, and he is very good at it.) He just thinks it's unfair to face a prison term for his legitimate activities. After appraising the worth of a rich man's library -- conveniently leaving his fingerprints everywhere in the process -- Bernie finds he's the cops' prime suspect when his client is murdered.Someone has framed Bernie Rhodenbarr better than they do it at the Whitney. And if he wants to get out of this corner he's been masterfully painted into, he'll have to get to the bottom of a rather artful -- if multiply murderous -- scam.

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