The Territory A Novel - By Tricia FieldsACKNOWLEDGMENTSSpecial thanks to my GD3 writing pals: Linnet, Mella, and Merry. Your collective guidance and friendship were more appreciated than you will ever know. And thank you to my ...
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat - By Edward Kelsey MooreChapter 1I woke up hot that morning. Came out of a sound sleep with my face tingling and my nightgown stuck to my body. Third time thatweek. The clock on the...
The Summer We Came to Life - By Deborah CloyedCHAPTER1BIRTH AND DEATH ARE THE TWO OCCURRENCES in a person’s life that seem to say one thing: we are not the ones calling the shots. The only consolations are love and be...
The Summer Man - By S. D. PerryCHAPTER ONEAmanda was stoned out of her mind the night everything started to change. So high, in fact, that the sounds of the party around her, the voices and laughter, all sort of blended to...
The Summer I Learned to Dive - By Shannon McCrimmonTHE SUMMER I LEARNED TO DIVEPublished by Shannon McCrimmonCopyright © 2012 by Shannon McCrimmonThis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either...
The Summer I Became a Nerd - By Leah Rae MillerPraise for THE SUMMER I BECAME A NERDBetween the laugh out loud dialogue and Maddie and Logan’s pulse-skipping romance, I longed for the Flash’s speed so I couldread ...
The Summer He Came Home - By Juliana StoneChapter 1Cain Black hadn’t been home in ten years.At the age of twenty he’d packed his guitar—a beat-up Gibson Les Paul—said his good-byes, and left. Always a rebel, he&rs...
The Suitors - By Cecile David-WeillSpring 2007It was a Sunday like any other. My son, Felix, was with his father. My sister and I always arranged to have dinner at least once a month with our parents, and now that May was...
The Stud Book - By Monica DrakeSay you’re a night crawler in warm ground. Your body is a tube within a tube, soft as foreskin. You’re a hermaphroditic sex organ burrowing through dark earth, a reproductive decompose...
The Stranger You Seek - By Amanda Kyle WilliamsPROLOGUEThe sun had not even burned dew off the grass under the live oaks, but the air was thick and soupy already, air you could swim around in, and it was dead-summer hot.Ins...
The Spia Family Presses On - By Mary LeoAcknowledgmentsI could never have done this book without the support and love from my family and friends. They nourish both my creativity and my need for someone to laugh and cry with....
The Spear of Destiny - By Julian NoycePROLOGUECALVARY, JUDAEA, APRIL 3 33ADThe man sat alone, lost in his thoughts. The world in front of him hazy and pink. The sun warm on his face. He sensed the weather would change soon,...
The Smart One - By Jennifer CloseCHAPTER 1From inside her apartment, Claire could hear the neighbor kids in the hall. They were running from one end to the other, the way they sometimes did, kicking a ball or playing tag, o...
The Slippage A Novel - By Ben GreenmanPart IALL HANDS ON DECKWilliam had told the Kenners not to worry if they were a few minutes late, and he was foresuffering the moment when he’d have to reassure the Fitches that i...
The Sky Beneath My Feet - By Lisa Samsonchapter 1Jesus FishEvery once in a while, I glance at the rearview mirror and see my own eyes staring back at me. It’s disconcerting. I’d forgotten you were in there.And the...
The Sisterhood - By Helen BryanACKNOWLEDGMENTSNo matter how difficult, rewarding, frustrating, enjoyable, compulsive, or exhausting the process of producing a manuscript, writing is essentially a singular occupation for the author. T...
The Sins of the Mother - By Danielle SteelChapter 1Olivia Grayson sat in the chairman’s seat at the board meeting, listening intently to the presentations, her intense blue eyes taking in each member of the board. Her ey...
The Shoemaker's Wife - By Adriana TrigianiPART ONEThe Italian AlpsChapter 1A GOLD RINGUn Anello d’oroThe scalloped hem of Caterina Lazzari’s blue velvet coat grazed the fresh-fallen snow, leaving a pale pink path on...
The Shirt On His Back - By Barbara HamblyPROLOGUE March, 1837The third time that day that Benjamin January walked over to the Bank of Louisiana and found its doors locked, he had to admit the truth.It wasn't going to reo...
The Shining Girls A Novel - By Lauren Beukes‘A dark, relentless, time-twisting, page-turning murder story guaranteed to give you heart palpitations. It shines.’ MATT HAIG, The Radleys‘A tremendous work of suspense ...
The Shadow Girl - By Jennifer ArcherPrologueTy Collier shivered as he paused in front of the Daily Grind coffee shop to wipe his boots on the mat beside the door. Cold weather was nothing new to him; he had grown up freezi...
The Secret Keeper - By Kate MortonNew York London Toronto SydneyPart OneLAURELOneRURAL ENGLAND, a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, a summer’s day at the start of the nineteen sixties. The house is unassuming: half-timber...
The Second Virginity of Suzy Green - By Sara HantzProloguePass the bottle, I yell. If Lucy finishes it I’ll kill her. And I’m not joking either.Make me, she cries taking a step closer and waving it under my nose.R...
The Search The Secrets of Crittenden Cou - By Shelley Shepard GrayPrologueI’d love to say drugs are never a problem in Crittenden County. I’d love to say it, but it wouldn’t be true.MOSE KRAMERDecember 31Perry ...
The Search for Artemis - By P. D. GriffithCHAPTER ONEBLACKOUTLandon Wicker scurried down the fire escape. Orange flecks of rust covered his bloodstained hands. Stumbling from rung to rung, he couldn’t get to the ground fas...
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian HamiltonPROLOGUERevenge was not an emotion she was accustomed to managing.In the course of business there were times when things came unstuck and she found herself on the wrong end of ...
The Saxon Uprising-ARC - By Eric FlintPROLOGUEAn idle kingNovember 1635BerlinColonel Erik Haakansson Hand gazed down at the man who was simultaneously King of Sweden, Emperor of the United States of Europe, and High King of the...
The Saddest Song - By Susie Kaye LopezChapter 1RaineyI killed my boyfriend. He shouldn’t have died, but he was one of four that did. It may have been their time, but I know it wasn’t his. He died because of me,...
The Russian Affair - By Michael WallnerONEAnna laughed and pivoted to the left, turning her back to the harsh wind. The man in front of her folded his handkerchief, laid it across his empty shoes, and stepped to the brink. ...
The Rules (Project Paper Doll) - By Stacey KadeTo Susan, my sister and my best friend. You’ve always been there for me (well…after you were born. Not much you could do about the twelve years and 361 days before that,...
The Round House - By Louise ErdrichChapter One1988Small trees had attacked my parents’ house at the foundation. They were just seedlings with one or two rigid, healthy leaves. Nevertheless, the stalky shoots had managed to...
The Rosie Project - By Graeme Simsion1I may have found a solution to the Wife Problem. As with so many scientific breakthroughs, the answer was obvious in retrospect. But had it not been for a series of unscheduled events, i...
The Redeemed - By M.R. HallChapter 1Jenny was drinking cordial by the stream at the end of her overgrown garden, watching a school of tiny brown trout flick this way and that, quick as lightning. It was late June and the s...
The Ribbon Weaver - By Rosie GoodwinThis book is for Jack Aaron Yates, a beautiful, much wanted and long awaited baby brother for Charlotte. Welcome to the family, little man. You are a gift after a time of great sadness, e...
The Remembered - By E. H. LorenzoPrefaceNot so long ago, there was a time when lives were greatly impacted by limited capability to travel and communicate over even small distances. Each of us had ancestors who lived then, bu...
The Reluctant Assassin - By Eoin ColferThe Killing ChamberBEDFORD SQUARE. BLOOMSBURY. LONDON. 1898There were two smudges in the shadows between the grandfather clock and the velvet drapes. One high and one low. Two pale thumbprin...
The Red Pole of Macau - By Ian Hamilton( 1 )Ava Lee woke to the sensation of lips kissing her forehead. She opened her eyes to semi-darkness and saw her girlfriend, Maria, hovering over her, her face in shadow. Ava extended...
The Quality of Mercy - By Barry UnsworthLove to faults is always blind;Always is to joy inclin’d,Lawless, wing’d, and unconfin’d,And breaks all chains from every mind.—William BlakeSpring and Summer17671On finding ...
The Puppeteer - By Tamsen SchultzChapter 1AGENT DANIELLE DANI WILLIAMSON examined the picture lying in front of her. The subject wasn't the man she was looking for. None of the other twenty or so photos she'd looked at...
The Program - By Suzanne YoungPART IUNCOMFORTABLY NUMBCHAPTER ONETHE AIR IN THE ROOM TASTES STERILE. THE LINGERING scent of bleach is mixing with the fresh white paint on the walls, and I wish my teacher would open the window...
The Pretty One A Novel About Sisters - By Lucinda Rosenfeld1OLYMPIA LOUISE HELLINGER HAD always been the Beautiful One in her family. Among her sisters, she was also understood to be the Artistic One, the Flaky One, the Chron...
The Prelude (A Musical Interlude Novel) - By Kasonndra LeighPROLOGUELafayette, LouisianaIf I draw this guy’s face wrong one more time, I swear I’m just going to throw the damn pad out the window.The eyes sit too clo...
The Pirate Captain - By Kerry LynneChapter 1: JourneyMay, 1753On deck there. Sail ho!Where away?Larboard abeam, sir, ’bout three points.Ezekiel Pryce looked to the tops. It was Damerell up there, what sung out. An extra ra...
The Piper - By Lynn HightowerONEThey call us, you know, the dead do. The ones we’ve loved, the ones who’ve passed. Someone you know has received a call – maybe it was you. They call to tell us they love us...
The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermottAbout the BookAdam Gray is the ultimate spy.As the lead agent of the US government’s top-secret Persona project, he is its most valuable weapon in the War on Terror. Experimental te...
The Perfect Retreat - By Kate ForsterPART ONETo Clementina Ferrand, Comtesse de ClermontParis,January 1850Dearest Clementina,This small weight of paper does not do justice to the enormity of my task. It is done. I have fulfilled...
The Panther - By Nelson DemilleAuthor’s NoteRegarding the spelling of Arabic words in this novel, I’ve used a variety of sources in transliterating. There is no standard transliteration of Arabic script into American E...
The Painted Bridge A Novel - By Wendy WallaceONELizzie Button was upside-down. The crown of her head rested on the floor; her feet, in black laced boots, floated above her. Lucas St. Clair leaned his eye closer to the ground...
The Oracle Code - By Charles Brokaw132 Miles Southwest of HeratHerat ProvinceAfghanistanJune 18, 2012Fumbling with the small flashlight he’d brought from his tent, Thomas Lourds lurched through the darkness. He felt woozy, an...
The Only Exception - By Magan VernonChapter 1Central College was supposed to be my new beginning. A place where I could put my freshman year behind me and move on. That plan might have worked if I hadn’t moved next do...
The Nightingale Girls - By Donna DouglasAbout the BookIn at the deep endThree very different girls sign up as trainee nurses at a big London teaching hospital in 1934.DORALeaves her overcrowded, squalid East End home for a bet...
The Night Rainbow A Novel - By Claire KingChapter 1Maman’s belly is at the stove, her bottom squeezed up against the table where we are colouring. Her arm is stretched forwards, stirring tomato smells out of the pan and...
The Next Always - By Nora RobertsCHAPTER ONETHE STONE WALLS STOOD AS THEY HAD FOR MORE THAN two centuries, simple, sturdy, and strong. Mined from the hills and the valleys, they rose in testament to man’s inherent desire...
The Mystery Woman (Ladies of Lantern Str - By Amanda QuickOneThe heel of one of her high-button boots skidded across the stream of blood that seeped out from under the door. Beatrice Lockwood nearly lost her balance. She caug...
The Mugger (87th Precinct Series, Book 2 - By Ed McBainINTRODUCTIONAway back in the dim, distant past, a magazine called Manhunt published a story about a former private eye named Matt Cordell, whose gun license had been revok...
The Mothers A Novel - By Jennifer GilmorePart 1GETTING THERE1__November 2009We were headed for the Verrazano Bridge, caught in traffic. It was several weeks before Thanksgiving, which I remember because there was a massive billbo...
The Might Have Been - By Joe SchusterThe truth is, we are reminded each day of what we can’t do.—Todd Jones, major league pitcher,The Sporting News, June 30, 2008Author’s NoteFor purposes of the narrative, I have t...
The Maze The Lost Labyrinth - By Jason BrannonPart 1: The TrapMan is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it. ~John SteinbeckCHAPTER 1For, what other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart!...
The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fic - By Mike AshleyIntroductionReturn to the Crime SceneThe stories in this anthology cover over four thousand years of crime. We travel from the Bronze Age of 2300 BC to the eve of the...
The Magpies A Psychological Thriller - By Mark EdwardsPrologueShe crossed out ‘Paradise’ and wrote ‘Hell’ in its place. The caption didn’t fit the photograph any more. She felt like tearing up the whol...
The Luminist - By David RocklinAcknowledgementsI AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO RHONDA HUGHES, KATE SAGE, Adam O’Connor Rodriguez, and Liz Crain of Hawthorne Books; and agents extraordinaire Christy Fletcher and Melissa Chinchillo of ...
The Lovely Chocolate Mob - By Richard J. BennettAcknowledgementsI would like to thank the following for their contributions: First of all, to John Belken, Arkansas Parole Board member, who read the rough draft and made suggestio...
The London Blitz Murders - By Max Allan CollinsBEFORE…ON THE BRINK OF WAR, London was the largest and—in the opinion of many—greatest city in the world. Metropolitan London’s population was eight million and ever-growing,...
The Lives of Tao - By Wesley ChuCHAPTER ONEENDGAMEI once wrote Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. The humans refer t...
The Little Shadows - By Marina EndicottOVERTUREA summer evening. Moths dance in the lights outside the opera house.A girl in a white dress slides into a seat on the aisle beside her father. The hall is crowded, many standing...
The Litigators - By John GrishamCHAPTER 1The law firm of Finley & Figg referred to itself as a boutique firm. This misnomer was inserted as often as possible into routine conversations, and it even appeared in print in some ...
The Lightkeeper's Wife - By Karen ViggersPrologueShe was in the kitchen when it came—a loud rap on the door that bounced down the hallway, off the floorboards, the hat stand, and ricocheted through the sliding doors into ...
The Lawyer's Lawyer - By James SheehanPrologueOakville, Florida, December 30, 1991Can I have a Budweiser? the young man shouted at the bartender. He had to shout because the place was packed and everybody was crowded around...
The Laughterhouse A Thriller - By Paul CleavePROLOGUEIt was Christmas in August. A real winter wonderland. Yellow tape decorated the scene like tinsel, wisps of fog snap-frozen across the words Do Not Cross, blurring the letters...
The Last Policeman - By Ben H. WintersEven for Voltaire, the supremerationalist, a purely rational suicidewas something prodigious andslightly grotesque, like a comet ora two-headed sheep.—A. Alvarez, The Savage God:A Study of Sui...
The Killing Vision - By Will OverbyWEDNESDAY, JULY 49:00 PMAlthough the heat had baked the ground hard and dry throughout the day, the sun had now set, leaving a layer of humidity over the town like a wet blanket. Hoards of...
The Killing Room (Richard Montanari) - By Richard MontanariONEWhen she was a young girl, before the night embraced her with its great black wings, and blood became her sacramental wine, she was, in every way, a child of light...
The Killing League - By Dani AmorePrologueThe forest glowed in the dark, faint streams of moonlight ignited patches of steamy fog. The land seemed angry, seething in the cool of the night.Nicole Candela’s breath came much...
JThe Keeper of the Stones - By M J WebbAcknowledgementsWriting this book whilst holding down a full time job and being a loving father has been a huge commitment. I would like to thank my family for their love and support,...
The Kashmir Shawl - By Rosie ThomasONEMair made the discovery on the last day at home in the old house.The three of them were upstairs in their father’s bedroom. They had come together for the melancholy business of sor...
The Jerusalem Inception - By Avraham AzrieliChapter 1His wool uniform was rough against her cheek, but Tanya continued to cling to his arm. It was silent inside the Mercedes, only a restrained murmur from its powerful engine. ...
The Jerk Magnet - By Melody CarlsonSometimes the best way to handle rejection is to simply expect it. Just accept that antagonism is coming your way and get beyond it as quickly and quietly as possible. At least that was wh...
The Irish Healer - By Nancy HerrimanCHAPTER 1At sea, 1832My name is Rachel Dunne.I am not a murderer.Rachel tightened her grip on the ship’s wooden rail, as if she might choke into silence the echo of her own voice. Be...
The Interestings A Novel - By Meg WolitzerPART ONEMoments of StrangenessONEOn a warm night in early July of that long-evaporated year, the Interestings gathered for the very first time. They were only fifteen, sixteen, and they...
The Innocent - By David BaldacciCHAPTER1WILL ROBIE HAD closely observed every one of the passengers on the short flight from Dublin to Edinburgh and confidently deduced that sixteen were returning Scots and fifty-three were touri...
The Informer (Sabotage Group BB) - By Steen Langstrup1BB sticks close to the wall, pulling his Walther P38 from his pocket. The darkness is complete. The gate only a few feet to his left is nothing more than a dim shape. I...
The Informant - By Thomas Perry1IT WAS MONDAY afternoon when he drove the white van up the driveway and stopped it at the side door of the house. He pulled his blue baseball cap down securely, leaned to the seat beside him...
The Infatuations - By Javier MariasThe last time I saw Miguel Desvern or Deverne was also the last time that his wife, Luisa, saw him, which seemed strange, perhaps unfair, given that she was his wife, while I, on the other...
The Impossible Dead - By Ian Rankin1‘He’s not here,’ the desk sergeant said.‘So where is he?’‘Out on a call.’Fox stared hard at the man, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. The sergeant ...
The Hunger Angel - By Herta MullerOn packing suitcasesAll that I have I carry on me.Or: All that is mine I carry with me.I carried all I had, but it wasn’t mine. Everything either came from someone else or wasn’t...
The House that Love Built - By Beth WisemanOneBrooke Holloway woke with a start, then felt her stomach lurch when she recalled her dream. She rolled over and threw her arm across Travis’s side of the bed, wishing she c...
The House of the Wicked - By D. M. MitchellPrologue1867: 13 Years agoThey were all deeply afraid of what they had to do. But they were more afraid of the consequences should they not carry it out. If they shied away now, ...
The House of Serenades - By Lina Simoni1MONTHS LATER, removed from the world, her frail, unnourished body ravaged by pellagra and scurvy, her mind muddled with visions of black devils and fire-spitting monsters, in rare moments...
The House of Rumour A Novel - By Jake Arnott0the foolI still look up to the stars for some sort of meaning. As a kid I thought I was seeing the future. Space, this was where we were headed, I was sure of it. Now I kno...
The House at the End of Hope Street - By Menna van PraagChapter OneThe house has stood at the end of Hope Street for nearly two hundred years. It’s larger than all the others, with turrets and chimneys rising into the...
The Hope Factory A Novel - By Lavanya SankaranoneANAND K. MURTHY HAD TWO WINDOWS in his office. The first, narrow and with a stiff latch that he struggled to open, provided a glimpse of the factory campus. The second, his f...
The Hole in the Middle - By Kate HiltonDecember 2011Dear Friends,It’s hard to believe that another Christmas season is upon us! It’s been an action-packed twelve months, and all four Whelan-Walkers are busy, healthy a...
The Hit - By David BaldacciCHAPTER1FEELING ENERGIZED BY THE DEATH that was about to happen, Doug Jacobs adjusted his headset and brightened his computer screen. The picture was now crystal clear, almost as if he were there.But...
The History of History - By Ida Hattemer-HigginsPART IFleshThe coming awakening stands like the Greeks’ wooden horse in the Troy of dream.—WALTER BENJAMINONE • The Persistence of DocumentsThe oceans rose and the clouds...
The Hindenburg Murders - By Max Allan CollinsONEHOW THE HINDENBURG VOYAGE BEGAN IN A HOTEL, AND LESLIE CHARTERIS MADE NEW FRIENDSDESPITE THE ELEGANT SURROUNDINGS, IT had all been vaguely demeaning—thirty-six well-heeled passengers...
The Heritage Paper - By Derek CicconeChapter OneShe lay still in her bed with her hands clasped close to her chest, pretending to sleep. The darkness was penetrated only by a trickle of moonlight sneaking through the curtains....
The Heresy of Dr Dee - By Phil RickmanPART ONEAll my life I had spent in learning… with great pain, care and cost I had, from degree to degree, sought to come by the best knowledge that man might attain unto in the worl...
The Heiress of Winterwood - By Sarah LaddPROLOGUEDARBURY, ENGLAND, FEBRUARY 1814Katherine was going to die. And Amelia could do nothing to prevent it.Amelia Barrett dabbed at her dearest friend’s brow with a damp cloth. A ...
The Heart's Frontier - By Lori CopelandACKNOWLEDGMENTSA Note from Lori and GinnyWhen we set out to write The Heart’s Frontier, neither of us considered ourselves experts on cattle drives or the Amish lifestyle. We devou...
The Healing - By Jonathan OdellCHAPTER 11933The winter dampness crept through the kitchen door, chilling Gran Gran through her worn, flour-sack shift. The little girl standing in the doorway had not moved since she first appeare...