Title: The Millionaires Author: Brad Meltzer File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Suspense Description:Amazon.com ReviewWhat would you steal if you couldn't get caught? That's the tag line of Brad Meltzer's new thriller, which pits an ambitious young money manager against a corporate villain, whose intricate financial shenanigans accidentally put a huge chunk of dough right in front of a man who desperately needs it. Of course Oliver Caruso's conscience troubles him, but that doesn't keep him from letting his somewhat looser and less ethical brother convince him this is too good an opportunity to pass up. Meltzer's in interesting territory here, but in order to buy his premise, you have to believe that it's OK to steal if you have a good enough reason. This makes his protagonist, who narrates the novel, hard to root for and less than sympathetic. Despite this hollow ring, the book is nicely plotted and should please the author's enthusiastic fan club. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyThis giddy fourth thriller by Meltzer (The First Counsel) mixes up banking, cyber-theft and Disney World in a fast-paced, fresh-scrubbed tale of financial adventure. Oliver Caruso is sweating out some scut work for Henry Lapidus, bigwig at Greene & Greene, a private bank so exclusive clients require $2 million just to open an account. When Oliver and his younger brother, Charlie, find proof that Lapidus has been sabotaging Oliver's career plans, the brothers conspire to rip off the lingering balance from a deceased client's account. Silly boys! Not only is the local security goon Shep (formerly Secret Service) already chiseling in on their scam, the real Secret Service thugs are on the case almost immediately. The $3 million the Carusos swiped has somehow cybernetically blossomed overnight to over $300 million. Desperate to clear their names, the boys escape to Florida, following the money to the daughter of the deceased millionaire, a former tech wizard for Disney with a secret invention everyone in this book would happily kill for. The ins and outs of how to steal money that isn't really there makes for an interesting premise if you don't think about it too much, but two flaws detract from the action. First, the narrative POV jumps too often from one character to the next and from present tense to past, making for a choppy read. Second, the novel's juvenile flavor from the PI who bluffs her way into a building by claiming to be searching for her mother's favorite sock to the hapless schoolboy dialogue (You touched her cookies, didn't you?) loudly proclaims its Hardy Boys heritage. (Jan. 8)Forecast: Meltzer's legion of fans will jump-start sales of his latest, prompted by massive television, print, radio and transit advertising campaigns and a 12-city author tour. 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Title: Colonel Roosevelt
Author: Edmund Morris
File Type: Mobi
Subject:History
Autobiography
Description:FromStarred Review Morris completes his fully detailed, correlatively dynamic triptych of the restless, energetic, on-the-move first President Roosevelt, following The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), the title self-explanatory in terms of its coverage of TR’s life, and Theodore Rex (2001), about his presidency. Now the author presents Colonel Roosevelt, the title by which Roosevelt chose to be called during his postpresidential years (in reference, of course, to his military position during the Spanish-American War). This is the sad part of TR’s life; this is the stage of his life story in which it is most difficult to accept his self-absorption, self-importance, and self-righteousness, but it is the talent of the author, who has shown an immaculate understanding of his subject, to make Roosevelt of continued fascination to his readers. In essence, this volume tells the story of TR’s path of disenchantment with his chosen successor in the White House, William Taft, and his attempt to resecure the presidency for himself. The important theme of TR’s concomitant decline in health is also a part of the narrative. We are made aware most of all that of all retired presidents, TR was the least likely to fade into the background. --Brad Hooper Reviewstrong_Praise for Colonel Roosevelt_strong Now with Colonel Roosevelt, the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud. –Janet Maslin, _The New York Times Exemplary… Consistently rich and on point, with rapidly developing events providing a backdrop for the balanced examination [Morris] presents of his subject…The TR trilogy is masterful, and can rightfully take its place among the truly outstanding biographies of the American presidency. –LA Times_Reading Edmund Morris on Teddy Roosevelt is like listening to Yo-Yo Ma play Bach: You know from the first note you’re in inspired hands. In Colonel Roosevelt—the final installment in a trilogy that began with The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex—Morris registers the Bull Moose’s last decade in handsome, sweeping prose that avoids the valedictory chord struck by biographers who, nearing the end of their prodigious labors, resort to swooning across the chapters, unwilling to let go of their muse. _– The Washingtonian Colonel Roosevelt_, the third part of his three-volume biography of Roosevelt, is a worthy and extremely engaging culmination of Mr. Morris' work. It is popular history at its best. –Claude R. Marx, _The Washington Times_ strongPraise for the classic biographies by Edmond Morrisstrong The Rise of Theodore RooseveltWinner of the Pulitzer Prize “One of those rare works that is both definitive for the period it covers and fascinating to read for sheer entertainment.”_—The New York Times Book Review_ “A towering biography.”_—Time_ Theodore RexWinner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography “A masterpiece . . . A great president has finally found a great biographer.”_—The Washington Post_ “As a literary work on Theodore Roosevelt, it is unlikely ever to be surpassed. It is one of the great histories of the American presidency, worthy of being on a shelf alongside Henry Adams’s volumes on Jefferson and Madison.”_—Times Literary Supplement_ “Magnificent . . . a compulsively readable, beautifully measured and paced account.”—Chicago Tribune
Title: American Outrage
Author: Tim Green
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Thriller
Description:From Publishers WeeklyBestseller Green (_Kingdom Come_) introduces a tough, appealing hero in his action-packed 12th thriller. Jake Carlson, a correspondent for the tabloid TV news show American Outrage, based in New York City, has softened his hard line a bit after his wifes recent death, but is still capable of going for the jugular when necessary for a hot story. On the home front, to help his preteen adopted son, Sam, get over his grief, Jake agrees to try and track down Sams biological mother. This simple request goes from bad to worse once pseudo-celebrity Jake starts asking questions about the boys supposed Albanian roots. After Jake is drugged and shot at, his personal life becomes tabloid fodder as his own colleagues ruthlessly chase down the story. When Sam disappears, Jake gets serious and sets out to do whatever it takes to bring his son back, regardless of who pays the price. Greens tale is ripe with irony and full of barbs. (Apr.) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromSure, Jake Carlson is making big bucks as a reporter on the tabloid news show I^ American Outrage, but the former foreign correspondent is ashamed of his job, and his personal life is a mess, too. Widowed for a year, hes struggling to keep his 13-year-old adopted son, Sam, on the straight and narrow. Jake finds a renewed sense of purpose, though, when Sam convinces him to help find his birth mother. He knows the hunt will be difficult, but he doesnt realize just how challenging until he starts asking questions. The head of the agency Jake used for the adoption had died, and theres no trace of the agency, which had been operating slightly under the radar, funneling babies from Albania to the U.S. for couples desperate for children. As Jake attempts to tie his investigation into a story to bolster his waning popularity at I^ American Outrage, he and Sam become the target of violence and revenge. Genre veteran Green hits his stride here, with his best novel since his early football thrillers (I^ Outlaws, 1996). Mary Frances Wilkensbr American Library Association. lt
Title: I Drink for a Reason
Author: David Cross
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Humor
Description:
After a decade spent in isolation in the Ugandan jungles thinking about stuff, David Cross has written his first book. Known for roles on the small screen such as never-nude Tobias Funke on Arrested Development and the role of David in Mr. Show With Bob And David, as well as a hugely successful stand-up routine full of sharp-tongued rants and rages, Cross has carved out his place in American comedy. Whether deflating the pomposity of religious figures, calling out the pathetic symbiosis of pseudo-celebrity and its leaching fandom, or merely pushing the buttons of the way-too-easily offended P.C. left or the caustic, double-standard of the callous (but funnier) right, Cross has something to say about everyone, including his own ridiculous self.Now, for the first time, Cross is weaving his media mockery, celebrity denunciation, religious commentary and sheer madness into book form, revealing the true story behind his almost existential distaste of Jim Belushi (The Belush), disclosing the up-to-now unpublished minutes to a meeting of Fox television network executives, and offering up a brutally grotesque run-in with Bill O'Reilly. And as if this wasn't enough for your laughing pleasure in these troubled times, some of the pieces splinter off with additional material being created online in exclusive video and animated web content created solely for the book-a historical first (presumably)!With a mix of personal essays, satirical fiction posing as truth, advice for rich people, information from America's least favorite Rabbi and a top-ten list of top-ten lists, I DRINK FOR A REASON is as unique as the comedian himself, and cannot be missed.
Title: Shadow Men
Author: Jonathon King
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Mystery
Description:From Publishers WeeklyThough moody ex-Philadelphia cop Max Freeman has found a measure of peace in life, he faces some of the same challenges in King's third stellar outing as he did in last year's Visible Darkness. Government types are still trying to evict him from his Everglades hideaway, his love life is tenuous and friendattorney Billy Manchester has once again piqued his interest with a case. Max, now a fully licensed PI in Florida, agrees to look into the disappearance of a father and two sons who signed on for three weeks of work on the Tamiami Trail 80 years earlier and never made it home. Built across the Everglades, the trail is the stuff of legend, filled with murky water and murkier deeds, snakes and gators and untimely death. The case, of course, is more complicated than it seems, with corporate intrigue, intimidation and the sins of fathers raining unmercifully down on their sons. As usual, Max is aided by a lively cast of characters, including the mysterious Nate Brown, whose knowledge of the Glades and its secrets is part of his being. King strikes a deft balance between his extraordinary South Florida setting and an engrossing tale of inhumanity and greed. This fine novel resonates with the atmosphere and immediacy of the Everglades, as well as with Max's struggle to define himself in an often hostile world. br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromStarred Review Welcome to Max Freeman's world. It centers on an abandoned research shack on a river at the edge of the Florida Everglades. It's lit by an oil lamp. The furniture? A couple chairs, a table, and a bunk bed, the top bunk of which is loaded with travel and history books. Freeman, introduced in the Edgar-winning Blue Edge of Midnight (2002) and met again in A Visible Darkness [BKL F 1 03], may be the most thoughtful, well-read, and multilayered private-eye hero since Spenser. He's an ex-cop from Philadelphia with a history that keeps him holed up in the wilds, venturing forth only to do investigations for an old friend, an attorney. The third Freeman novel gets its unlikely impetus from a discovery in an antique hope chest, letters from a worker on the Tamiami Trail, a road project through the Everglades undertaken 80 years ago. The letters detail the brutal conditions under which the men and boys worked. The disappearance of the letter-writer and his two sons points to a triple homicide in 1923. (The stunning first chapter showing the three men being hunted down on the river ranks among the most frightening in crime fiction.) Freeman's investigation quickly moves from history to present threat, as he discovers that any number of people want what happened on the road project to remain buried. Haunting and evocative. Connie Fletcherbr American Library Association. lt;
Title: A Rare Benedictine
Author: Ellis Peters
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Mystery:Historical
Description:
Peters has gained worldwide praise for her meticulous re-creations of 12th-century monastic life. Here, her chronicles continue with a Christmas story, a tale of robbery and attempted murder, and a narrative of Brother Cadfael's early years.
Title: The Husband
Author: Dean Koontz
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Suspense
Description:
With each and every new novel, Dean Koontz raises the stakes—and the pulse rate—higher than any other author. Now, in what may be his most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever, he brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itself—and to a showdown with the darkness that would destroy it forever.
What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill?
We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he’s standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare.
Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch’s wife and he’s named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn’t care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He’s confident that Mitch will find a way.
If he loves his wife enough. . . Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He’s got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he’ll pay a lot more. He’ll pay anything.
From its tense opening to its shattering climax, The Husband is a thriller that will hold you in its relentless grip for every twist, every shock, every revelation…until it lets you go, unmistakably changed. This is a Dean Koontz novel, after all. And there’s no other experience quite like it.
Title: Fever Dream
Author: Douglas Preston
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Thriller
Description:From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Preston and Child up the emotional ante considerably in their 10th thriller featuring brilliant and eccentric FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast (after Cemetery Dance), one of the best in the series. For 12 years, Pendergast has believed that the death of his wife, Helen, in the jaws of a ferocious red-maned lion in Zambia was just a tragedy, but his chance examination of the gun she carried on the fateful day reveals that someone loaded it with blanks. Pendergast drags his longtime NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, into a leave of absence that includes travel to Africa as well as the American South. The motive for Helen's murder appears to be linked to her fascination with John James Audubon and her quest for a mysterious lost Audubon painting. Once again, the bestselling authors show they have few peers at creating taut scenes of suspense. Their restraint in the book's early sections make the payoffs all the more compelling. (May) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. ReviewRené Auberjonois...lends the proper air of gravitas to his performance. With the underlying story featuring zombies and the undead, it takes the sober Auberjonois to help maintain the credibility of the plot. His sincere delivery is perfect for a strange story that is more than a little creepy. (strongAudioFile Magazine on CEMETERY DANCEstrong ) [A] suspenseful tale of urban terror...this taut page-turner can only add to the authors' growing fan base. (strongPublishers Weekly on CEMETERY DANCEstrong ) Narrator As Pendergast discovers that his beloved wife kept a myriad of secrets, Auberjonois's characterization dramatizes the special agent's confusion over his wife's loyalty. (_strongAudioFilestrong_ )