New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen knows how to expertly dissect a brilliantly suspenseful story, all the while keeping fascinated readers riveted to her side. By turns darkly enthralling and relentlessly surprising, The Keepsake showcases an author at the peak of her storytelling powers. For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X”, the mummy – to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact – seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim. To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large – and is now taunting them. Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering – or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come. The twisted killer’s familiarity with post-mortem rituals suggests to Maura and Jane that he may have scientific expertise in common with Josephine. Only Josephine knows that her stalker shares a knowledge even more personally terrifying: details of a dark secret she had thought forever buried. Now Maura must summon her own dusty knowledge of ancient death traditions to unravel his twisted endgame. And when Josephine vanishes, Maura and Jane have precious little time to derail the Archaeology Killer before he adds another chilling piece to his monstrous collection.

By the end of the twenty-third century, Earth is a plague-ridden, war-ravaged cesspool dominated by megacorporations whose ruthless armies fight one another for power and for the very scarce resources there are left. Capitol fighters Mitch Hunter and Nathan Rooker are battling the opposing forces of the Bauhaus corporation when a cannon blast exposes and destroys an ancient stone seal in the ground. From the bowels of the Earth crawl hordes of necromutants with razorlike boneblades for arms, hideous humanoids that thrive and multiply by commandeering the bodies of dying soldiers. Mitch barely escapes – only to discover that both the rise of the mutants and the “Deliverer” who will save humanity have been prophesied. Unless Mitch and a group of warriors from each of the megacorporations succeed in reaching the hidden horrors and wiping out the mutant scourge, ouir world will literally become a hell on Earth.

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«Eagerly anticipated by her legions of fans, this sixth novel in Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander saga is a masterpiece of historical fiction from one of the most popular authors of our time. Since the initial publication of «Outlander» fifteen years ago, Diana Gabaldon’s New York Times bestselling saga has won the hearts of readers the world over — and sold more than twelve million books. Now, «A Breath of Snow and Ashes» continues the extraordinary story of 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his 20th-century wife, Claire. The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest. With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence — with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.»

Darkness falls…despair abounds…evil reigns… Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire. Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training in the skills of the Dragon Rider: magic and swordsmanship. Soon he is on the journey of a lifetime, his eyes open to awe-inspring new places and people, his days filled with fresh adventure. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and nothing is what it seems. Before long, Eragon doesn’t know whom he can trust. Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle–one that might put Eragon in even graver danger. Will the king’s dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life...

Four sisters, a Manhattan brownstone, and a tumultuous year of loss and courage are at the heart of Danielle Steel’s new novel about a remarkable family, a stunning tragedy — and what happens when four very different young women come together under one very lively roof. Candy – it’s the only name she needs — is blazing her way through Paris, New York, and Tokyo as fashion’s latest international supermodel... Her sister Tammy has a job producing the most successful hit show on TV, and a home she loves in L.A.’s Hollywood Hills... In New York, oldest sister Sabrina is an ambitious young lawyer, while Annie is an American artist in Florence, living for her art... On one Fourth of July weekend, as they do every year, the four sisters come home to Connecticut for their family’s annual gathering. But before the holiday is over, tragedy strikes and their world is utterly changed. Suddenly, four sisters who have been fervently pursuing success and their own lives — on opposite sides of the world — reunite to share one New York brownstone, to support each other and their father, and to pick up the pieces while one sister struggles to heal her shattered body and soul. Thus begins an unscripted chapter of their lives, as a bustling house is soon filled with eccentric dogs, laughter, tears, friends, men... and the kind of honesty and unconditional love only sisters can provide. But as the four women settle in, they are forced to confront the direction of their respective lives. As the year passes and another July Fourth approaches, a season of grief and change gives way to new beginnings — as a family comes together to share its blessings and a future filled with surprises and, ultimately, hope. With unerring insight and compassion, Danielle Steel tells a compelling story of four sisters who love and laugh, struggle and triumph... and are irrevocably woven into the fabric of each other’s lives. Brilliantly blending humor and heartbreak, she delivers a powerful message about the fragility — and the wonder — of life.

On a warm May night in San Francisco, the Ritz-Carlton ballroom shimmers as a glittering, celebrity-studded crowd gathers for a charity dinner dance. The evening is perfect — until, just minutes before midnight, the room begins to sway…. In the earthquake’s aftermath, the lives of four strangers will converge.... Sarah Sloane, the wife of a financial whiz, watches her perfect world fall to pieces… Grammy-winning singer Melanie Free comes to a turning point in her life and career… Photographer Everett Carson finds new purpose amid the carnage…and Sister Maggie Kent, a nun who works with the homeless, searches through the rubble — and knows that there is much to be done…. As the city staggers back to life, a chain reaction of extraordinary events will touch each of the survivors… Sarah discovers a crime and a betrayal, then a strength she never knew she had. Volunteering at a refugee camp opens new worlds of possibility for Melanie. Everett will forge an unlikely relationship with Maggie, who helps him rebuild his shattered life — and upends her own in the process. And as a year passes each discovers the unexpected gifts in a tragedy’s wake…and the amazing grace of new beginnings. Throughout these enthralling pages, Danielle Steel creates a stunning array of contrasts — from the dazzle of a society benefit to the chaos of a makeshift hospital, from the pampered lives of rock stars to the quiet heroism of emergency volunteers. It is her most powerful and life-affirming novel to date.

Seven o’clock, on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again… Maddy Smith was born with a rusty-coloured runemark on her hand – a symbol of the old gods and definitely cause for suspicion. For magic is dangerous. Or so everyone thinks. But Maddy enjoys working magic. Even if it is just to control some pesky goblins. And every time her friend, One-Eye — a good-for-nowt Outlander — comes by, he teaches her more and more about the gods and the runes. Now he wants Maddy to open Red Horse Hill and descend into World Below to retrieve a relic of the old gods. Otherwise it is likely to be the End of Everything. Again... An epic romp into the heart of the old Norse tales: wild, dangerous, richly inventive and superbly imaginative.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes this pulse-pounding thriller that starts with a terrifying decision we all might face one day: Help—or run. Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy. He enjoys a beer after work at his friend’s tavern, the eccentric customers and amusing conversations. But tonight is no ordinary night. The jittery man sitting beside him has mistaken Tim for someone else — and passes him an envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. “Ten thousand now. You get the rest when she’s gone”. Tim Carrier always thought he knew the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. But tonight everything he thought he knew—even about himself—will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is at the center of a mystery of extraordinary proportions, the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer as relentless as evil incarnate. But first he must discover resources within himself of which he never dreamed, capacities that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be...

«No empire has been larger or more diverse than the British Empire. At its apogee in the 1930s, 42 million Britons governed 500 million foreign subjects. Britannia ruled the waves and a quarter of the earth’s surface was painted red on the map. Where Britain’s writ did not run directly, its influence, sustained by matchless industrial and commercial sinews, was often paramount. Yet no empire (except the Russian) disappeared more swiftly. Within a generation this mighty structure sank almost without trace, leaving behind a scatter of sea-girt dependencies and a ghost of empire, the British Commonwealth of nations. Equally, it can be claimed that Britain bequeathed its former colonies economic foundations, a cultural legacy, a sporting spirit, a legal code and a language more ubiquitous than Latin ever was. In a book of unparalleled scholarship, Piers Brendon presents the story of the decline and eclipse of British might, the major historical event in the closing stages of the second millennium. Full of vivid particulars, brief lives, telling anecdotes, comic episodes, symbolic moments and illustrative vignettes, «The Decline and Fall of the British Empire» evokes remote places as well as distant times. From the war for American independence, the end of the Raj, the ‘scram out of Africa’ and the unfinished business of the Falklands and Hong Kong to the new ‘informal’ empire of the United States, this is a comprehensive and engaging account.»

«The Orc King» finds Drzzt's whirling scimitar blades tackle both familiar foes and refreshingly ambiguous challenges... The story line marks the continuation of Salvatore's maturation as a writer, introducing more complex themes into a frequently black-and-white landscape.»

Paul Varderman could be at any normal school — bullies, girls and annoying teachers are just a part of life. Unfortunately 'normal' doesn't apply when it comes to the school's most evil bully, Roth, a twisted and threatening thug with an agenda quite unlike anyone else. When Paul ends up delivering a message from Roth to the leader of a gang at a nearby school, it fuels a rivalry with immediate consequences. Paul attempts to distance himself from the feud, but when Roth hands him a knife it both empowers him and scares him at the same time... This thought-provoking and original novel highlights the terrible consequences of peer pressure and violence, and casts a spotlight on the worrying rise in knife crime among teenagers.

Called tsubo-niwa after a unit of measurement that is two person-sized tatami mats placed side by side, the pocket garden has been a part of the Japanese architectural canon for thousands of years. Undergoing a modernization in the last few decades in which a new generation of architects began experimenting with the concept in imaginative ways, the contemporary garden follows a distinct yet global aesthetic, whether as an urban solution to importing nature, as an individual theme set within a larger garden space, or as a buffer between property lines of a house or apartment. Beautifully illustrated and designed with a reflective, contemplative aesthetic, the book offers a broad array of miniature garden designs, including Keno Kuma’s explorations of materials as diverse as andesite and plastic, Takeshi Nagasaki’s art installation gardens with stepping stones of cast glass and bronze, and Yasuhiro Harada’s mobile cube gardens—plantings in stainless-steel trays on wheels that can be stacked and rearranged at will.

«Camille is doing her best to disappear. She barely eats, works at night as a cleaner and lives in a tiny attic room. Philibert Marquet de La Durbellière is a stammering, erudite aristocrat who sells postcards outside a museum. One evening he overcomes his own excruciating reticence to rescue Camille, unconscious, from her freezing garret, and install her in the large, ornate apartment he is caretaking downstairs. He already has an unlikely flatmate, the foul-mouthed, talented working-class young chef, Franck, who is made more obnoxious by guilt about the beloved grandmother he's had to put in a home. Together, this curious, damaged little quartet may be able to face the world. Gorgeously original, full of wry humour and razor-sharp observation, redolent of Paris, its foibles, its food and its neglected corners, «Hunting and Gathering» is a universal story about despair, love and the virtues of ensemble-playing in a naughty world. It's a big novel that you will not want to put down.»

«Robert Prentice is eighteen, and his boyhood dreams have disintegrated on the battlefields of Europe. At home, his mother, Alice, wraps herself in fantasy against the relentless disappointments of life. From his compelling portraits of these two damaged souls, Richard Yates creates a brilliant novel of post-war America, at odds with its own identity, striving to combine prosperity and ideals, mercilessly exposed in the attempt to do so. At once tender and ironic, bitterly sad and achingly funny, «A Special Providence» is the second novel by the author of «Revolutionary Road».»

The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. Murakami, acclaimed master of the surreal, returns with a stunning new novel, where the familiar can become unfamiliar after midnight, even to those that thrive in small hours. With AFTER DARK we journey beyond the twilight. Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?

Take a rollercoaster ride through the vastness of space and, in the midst of an exciting adventure, discover the mysteries of physics, science and the universe with George, his new friends next door – the scientist Eric and his daughter, Annie – and a super-intelligent computer called Cosmos, which can take them to the edge of a black hole and back again. Or can it? And who else would like to get their hands on Cosmos? A funny and hugely informative romp through space, time and the universe.

Jason and his sister have just moved to Malibu — to a town full of beautiful rich kids whose lives revolve around money, fashion, cars and parties. But these teens hide a dark — and dangerous secret... Bloodlust Jason gets swept along by the excitement of his new crowd and is flattered to be included — and also very flattered by the apparent interest of the stunning Sienna. But when he finds out the truth behind his new friends, Jason has to decide if he can accept the status quo. Everyone else seems to be able to — and it might just mean he could get closer to Sienna... Initiation Something happens to take Jason's mind of the gorgeouse Sienna when he realises that there's something weird going on in De Vere Heights. Could his Aunt Megan be involved somehow? And when his old friend Tyler turns up too, and starts to mess with the wrong people, Jason starts to understand that they're all playing with something much more dangerous than it first seemed...

Jason and his sister have just moved to Malibu — to a town full of beautiful rich kids whose lives revolve around money, fashion, cars and parties. But these teens hide a dark — and dangerous secret... Ritual Jason takes his sister to a New Age fair — and they visit a psychic. Jason is given a warning of great danger — and sure enough, he is soon after attacked by a mysterious assailant. When he wakes up in hospital he discovers that he's been shot with a crossbow. Who would use such a weapon — possibly some kind of vampire hunter? Could Sienna be the one who's really in danger? Initiation Jason's new-found happiness with Sienna is under threat when her parents find out. They don’t believe a human-vampire relationship can work and forbid Sienna from seeing Jason. Jason’s vampire aunt Bianca has a suggestion that might solve the problem — for ever... Jason has to make a decision that could change his life completely. There are exciting new possibilities right at his fingertips, but what hidden dangers lurk beneath the glamorous surface?