Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air • Chicago Tribune • Newsday • New York • AV Club • Publishers Weekly “Ranks with the best fiction published by any American writer during this short century.”—New York “A posthumous masterpiece.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Boston Globe • New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Bloomberg The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come. Praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden “An instant classic.”—Newsday “Exceptional luminosity . . . hits a powerful vein.”—The New York Times Book Review “Grace and oblivion are inextricably yoked in these transcendent stories. . . . [Johnson’s] gift is to extract the beauty in all that brokenness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson. Nobody ever came close. . . . We’re just left with this miraculous book, these perfect stories, the last words from one of the world’s greatest writers.”—NPR

The bestselling author of Demolition Angel and L.A. Requiem returns with his most intense and intricate thriller yet. As the Los Angeles Times said, Robert Crais is “a crime writer operating at the top of his game.” His complex heroes and heroines, his mastery of noir atmosphere, and his brilliant, taut plots have catapulted him into the front rank of a new breed of thriller writers. Hostage proves his earlier success was no fluke. It’s an unstoppable read. An ex-con with delusions of grandeur and his tagalong brother unwittingly team up with a psychopath one wrong word away from meltdown. When their late afternoon joyride turns into a random act of violence, they take a family hostage in the affluent bedroom community of Bristo Camino. Enter Chief of Police Jeff Talley, a stressed-out former LAPD SWAT negotiator who is hiding from his past. Plunged back into the high-pressure world that he desperately wants to forget, Talley soon learns that his nightmare has only begun. The hostages are not who they seem, and the home contains secrets that even L.A.’s most lethal and volatile crime lord, Sonny Benza, fears. As Talley tries to hold himself together and save the people inside, the full weight of Benza’s wrath descends on him, putting the police chief and his own family at risk. Soon, all involved are held hostage by the exigencies of fate and the only one capable of diffusing the standoff is the least stable of them all. Hostage is a blistering stand-alone thriller with superb characters in crisis, multistranded plotting, and pitch-perfect Southern California sensibility.

This delightful novel describes the post-war summer of 1946 - and follows the growing-up of three young women in the months between leaving school and taking up their scholarships at university. Una Vane, whose widowed mother runs a hairdressing salon in her front room ('Maison Vane Glory - Where Permanent Waves are Permanent'), goes bicycling with Ray, the boy who delivers the fish and milk. Hetty Fallowes struggles to become independent of her possessive, loving, tactless mother. And Lieselotte Klein, who had arrived in 1939 on a train from Hamburg, uncovers tragedy in the past and magic in the present. Rooted in the north of England, THE FLIGHT OF THE MAIDENS is peopled with extraordinary characters, who are evoked with all the humour, compassion and eye for detail that mark Jane Gardam as one of Britain's most gifted and original novelists.

“Superb...an appropriate homage”—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times The much-anticipated final installment in Ariana Franklin’s popular Mistress of the Art of Death historical mystery series, finished by the author’s daughter after her death. England. 1191. After the death of her friend and patron, King Henry II, Adelia Aguilar, England’s vaunted Mistress of the Art of Death, is living comfortably in retirement and training her daughter, Allie, to carry on her craft—sharing the practical knowledge of anatomy, forensics, and sleuthing that catches murderers. Allie is already a skilled healer, with a particular gift for treating animals. But the young woman is nearly twenty, and her father, Rowley, Bishop of Saint Albans, and his patron, the formidable Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, have plans to marry Allie to an influential husband . . . if they can find a man who will appreciate a woman with such unusual gifts. When a friend in Cambridgeshire falls ill, Allie is sent to Ely, where her path will cross with Lord Peverill, a young aristocrat who would be a most suitable match for the young healer. But when Allie arrives, all is chaos. A village girl has disappeared—and she’s not the first. Over the past few months, several girls from the villages surrounding Ely have vanished. When the body of one of the missing is discovered, Allie manages to examine the remains before burial. The results lead her to suspect that a monstrous predator is on the loose. Will her training and her stubborn pursuit of the truth help her find the killer...or make her the next victim? A richly detailed, twisty thriller, Death and the Maiden is historical mystery at its finest—and a superb final episode in Ariana Franklin’s much-loved, much-acclaimed series.

A new original story from the bestselling and award-winning master of suspense, featuring Colter Shaw. Colter Shaw is a career "reward-seeker," making his living locating missing persons and collecting reward money in return. In the course of his search for a missing woman, he visits the police station in the small Kansas town of Humble, and, is pulled into a puzzling case. A man is holding a hostage in a lakeside cabin, and the Humble police need Shaw's experience and know-how to assess the situation, and the captor's motives. As Shaw begins negotiating, he begins to realize that nothing about the hostage situation is as it seems, including the hostage himself.

Who can uncover the elusive identity of the Poison Maiden? The Poison Maiden is Paul Doherty's second compulsive novel set during the turbulent reign of Edward II, featuring Mathilde of Westminster.Perfect for fans of Ellis Peters and Robin Hobb. It's 1308 and England hovers on the brink of civil war. Edward II, his wife Isabella and the royal favourite Peter Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, have been forced to retreat to the King's folly. Just an arrowshot away lay the Great Lords and Philip IV of France, who are demanding that the Earl of Cornwall be charged with high treason. Edward is trapped, and worse, he has learnt that Philip has the 'Poison Maiden' on his side, a formidable spy who did untold damage during his father's reign. As Edward tries in vain to unmask the identity of the spy, Mathilde, handmaiden to the Queen, also attempts to identify the source of this threat. Soon the crisis spills over into violence. The Lords attempt to take Gaveston by force and the King and his Court, including Mathilde, are forced to flee. As the enemy closes in, Mathilde finds herself embroiled in a life and death struggle for the English crown. What readers are saying about The Poison Maiden: 'This is medieval mystery at its very best' 'A fascinating and illuminating page-turner of a book' 'This is a really good adventure; an atmospheric read, a great story, and lots to think on as you close the last page'

Bestselling master of suspense Jeffery Deaver’s enviable task was to select from the thousands of stories written over the past one hundred years those which best represented the classic form, as well as the celebrated authors whose ironic twists and stunning payoffs left a lasting and vivid impression. Delivering everything from the one-two punch of the detective story to the ingeniously precise trappings of the police procedural, from the disquieting corners of the criminal mind to sheer dread-inducing horror, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a rich anthology of this popular literary genre, a stunning tribute to the art of storytelling, and to the men and women who have done it best.

A bus full of children is taken hostage in this “screaming hit” (The New York Times Book Review) from the bestselling author of The Never Game and The Bone Collector. Along a windswept Kansas road, eight vulnerable girls and their helpless teachers are forced off a school bus and held hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse. The madman who has them at gunpoint has a simple plan: One hostage an hour will die unless the demands are met. Called to the scene is Arthur Potter, the FBI’s best hostage negotiator. He has a plan. But so does one of the hostages—a beautiful teacher who’s willing to do anything to save the lives of her students. Now the clock is ticking as a chilling game of cat and mouse begins.

Set in northern California’s Amador County, evil waits for opportunity among the quaint Gold Country mining towns, rolling vineyards, and wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. MAIDEN’S GRAVE introduces Sidney Dietrich, an ambitious young attorney at the top of her game fired from her San Francisco law firm when her father goes to prison for real-estate fraud. Sidney accepts a job in a small-town legal practice in the remote Sierra foothills, with little hope of finding meaning to her life in an isolated existence. Sidney’s godfather, Jack McGlynn introduces her to Maude Hill, the wealthy, widowed owner of Quarry Hill Vineyard, who asks for Sidney’s help in taking another look at the long-ago suicide of her brother, renowned artist Joshua Morgan. Sidney’s efforts to uncover the truth about Joshua’s suicide become complicated when the teenaged daughter of Quarry Hill’s foreman is found strangled at MAIDEN’S GRAVE, a lonely mountain vista in the high Sierras. Defending Maude’s son Jeremy unravels a dangerous web of family hatred, deceit, and revenge that has Sidney facing a cunning murderer who has killed before and if not stopped, will surely kill again.

The soul in the bed, the grave under the bedJuly 15th SacrificeA Sacrifice to the Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, Incinerator, IncineratorWas it a person or a soul?