Deon Meyer - 13 uur

Here you are – an Afrikaans e book – the first one I have ever seen on the internet.

Om 05:36 hardloop die vrou teen die hang van Leeukop. Sy is jonk, beeldskoon, Amerikaans - en beangs. Sy word soos 'n dier gejag deur mans wat net ure gelede haar beste vriendin se keel afgesny het.

Om 05:43 bel hulle vir speurder-inspekteur Bennie Griessel wakker. Hy moet kom, 'n jong meisie se lyk le langs St. Martini, die Lutherse kerk bo in Langstraat.

Die vorige aand nog het hy gedink dit gaan vir hom 'n spesiale dag wees: Die begin van 'n nuwe era in sy loopbaan, as mentor van 'n groep jong swart en bruin speurders. En hy verwag nuus oor sy bevordering. 'Kaptein Bennie Griessel'. Dit klink vir hom reg. Behoort 'n redelik normale dag te wees. Tot sy jong span polisiemense begin stry, baklei, struikel. Met die kerkmoord. Met die middeljarige, alkoholis-vrou wat haar man, 'n groot gees in die Afrikaanse musiekbedryf, twee keer met sy eie pistool deur die hart geboor het. Met die soektog na die Amerikaanse toeris.

 Terwyl die diplomatieke telefoonlyne vuurwarm gebel word en selfs die Minister begin druk toepas, sodat die hele mentor-ding soos mis voor die son verdwyn en Griessel self moet inklim om die gemors te probeer red.

Om nie eens te praat van sy persoonlike probleme nie.Sy bankrekening lyk sleg, hy stoei nog met die dranklus, sy vervreemde vrou Anna bel uit die bloute en se vanaand is die aand dat hulle oor die toekoms moet gesels. Weet sy van die 26-jarige rekenaartegnikus met die aansienlike borste wat hy gisteraand, in 'n oomblik van swakheid, op sy sitkamerbank beetgekry het?

 Boonop kondig sy vriend en kollega Mat Joubert aan dat hy die SAPS gaan verlaat, en dan bel sy seun Fritz met die nuus dat hy klaar is met skool, hy gaan kitaarspeler word in 'n rock-groep met die naam van 'Wet & Orde'. En dan, net wanneer hy op die punt staan om die Amerikaanse meisie te red, skiet hulle vir Bennie Griessel. Reg in die hart.

Redelik normale dag, jou tipiese dertien uur van Suid-Afrikaanse wetstoepassing.

Laai hier af

Joseph Olshan - Cloudland

A stunning literary thriller set in rural Vermont from the much praised author of Nightswimmer and Clara's Heart

Once a major reporter for a national newspaper, Catherine Winslow has retreated to the Upper Valley of Vermont to write a household hints column. While out walking during an early spring thaw, Catherine discovers the body of a woman leaning against an apple tree near her house. From the corpse’s pink parka, Winslow recognizes her as the latest victim of a serial killer, a woman reported missing weeks before during a blizzard.

When her neighbor, a forensic psychiatrist, is pulled into the investigation, Catherine begins to discover some unexpected connections to the serial murders. One is that the murders might be based on a rare unfinished Wilkie Collins novel that is missing from her personal library. The other is her much younger lover from her failed affair has unexpectedly resurfaced and is trying to maneuver his way back into her affections.

Elegant, haunting and profoundly gripping, Cloudland is an ingenious psychological trap baited with murder, deception and the intricacies of desire.

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Terry Pratchett - The Long Earth

The possibilities are endless. (Just be careful what you wish for. . . .)



1916: The Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong and the wind in the leaves. Where have the mud, blood, and blasted landscape of no-man's-land gone? For that matter, where has Percy gone?



2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive—some say mad, others allege dangerous—scientist who seems to have vanished. Sifting through the wreckage, Jansson find a curious gadget: a box containing some rudimentary wiring, a three-way switch, and . . . a potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way humankind views the world forever.

The first novel in an exciting new collaboration between Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth transports readers to the ends of the earth—and far beyond. All it takes is a single step. . . .

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James Patterson - I Michael Bennett

To be released in July

Police officers shot

Detective Michael Bennett arrests an infamous Mexican crime lord in a deadly chase that leaves Bennett's lifelong friend Hughie McDonough dead. From jail, the prisoner vows to rain epic violence down upon New York City-and to get revenge on Michael Bennett.

Judges murdered

To escape the chaos, Bennett takes his ten kids and their beautiful nanny, Mary Catherine, on a much-needed vacation to his family's cabin near Newburgh, New York. But instead of the calm and happy town he remembers from growing up, they step into a nightmare worse than they could have ever imagined. Newburgh is an inferno of warring gangs, and there's little the police-or Bennett-can do to keep the children safe.

Target: Michael Bennett

As violence overwhelms the state, Bennett is torn between protecting his hometown and saving New York City. A partner in his investigations, federal prosecutor Tara McLellan, brings him new weapons for the battle-and an attraction that endangers his relationship with Mary Catherine. A no-holds-barred, pedal-to-the-floor, action-packed novel, I, Michael Bennett is James Patterson at his most personal and most thrilling best.

You may contact me here for links :-http://justfletcher.wordpress.com/

Lincoln Child - The Third Gate

Under the direction of famed explorer Porter Stone, an archaeological team is secretly attempting to locate the tomb of an ancient pharaoh who was unlike any other in history. Stone believes he has found the burial chamber of King Narmer, the near mythical god- king who united upper and lower Egypt in 3200 B.C., and the archaeologist has reason to believe that the greatest prize of all—Narmer’s crown—might be buried with him. No crown of an Egyptian king has ever been discovered, and Narmer’s is the elusive “double” crown of the two Egypts, supposedly pos­sessed of awesome powers.

The dig itself is located in one of the most forbidding places on earth—the Sudd, a nearly  impassable swamp in north­ern Sudan. Amid the nightmarish, disorienting tangle of mud and dead vegetation, a series of harrowing and inexpli­cable occurrences are causing people on the expedition to fear a centuries- old curse. With a monumental discovery in reach, Professor Jeremy Logan is brought onto the project to investigate. What he finds will raise new questions . . . and alarm.

In the hands of master storyteller Lincoln Child, The Third Gate breaks new ground and introduces a fascinating new protagonist to the thriller world

Kindle Edition $14.99

(You can always move it to a different device later with Whispersync)

Also on Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, PC and Mac.

Charles Todd - An Unmarked Grave

World War I nurse and amateur sleuth Bess Crawford matches wits with a devious killer in this exciting and suspenseful adventure from New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd

In the spring of 1918, the Spanish flu epidemic spreads, killing millions of soldiers and civilians across the globe. Overwhelmed by the constant flow of wounded soldiers coming from the French front, battlefield nurse Bess Crawford must now contend with hundreds of influenza patients as well.

However, war and disease are not the only killers to strike. Bess discovers, concealed among the dead waiting for burial, the body of an officer who has been murdered. Though she is devoted to all her patients, this soldier's death touches her deeply. Not only did the man serve in her father's former regiment, he was also a family friend.

Before she can report the terrible news, Bess falls ill, the latest victim of the flu. By the time she recovers, the murdered officer has been buried, and the only other person who saw the body has hanged himself. Or did he?

Working her father's connections in the military, Bess begins to piece together what little evidence she can find to unmask the elusive killer and see justice served. But she must be as vigilant as she is tenacious. With a determined killer on her heels, each move Bess makes could be her last.

Joanne Harris - Peaches for Monsieur le Cure

A welcome return to Lasquenet, the small town in rural France that was the setting for Joanne Harris's remarkable number one bestseller Chocolat.

Vianne Rocher is called back to Lasquenet by a letter from beyond the grave...

Eight years ago a woman and child arrived in the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes and all kinds of trouble ensued. That woman was Vianne Rocher, heroine of Joanne Harris’s Chocolat, who for the past four years has been living on a houseboat on the Seine.

But now Vianne is back in Lansquenet, summoned by a letter from beyond the grave and a warning that her old adversary the Curé may be in need of help - as indeed he is. For while Lansquenet seems at first unaltered, a thriving Muslim community now exists on the banks of the Tannes, and conflict is brewing. Once more, a woman and her child are at its centre: a stranger whose niqab and froideur combine to cause discord and division. Who is she? And can the Curé really be guilty of a hate crime against her?

Lansquenet, reflects Vianne, is ‘like the sundew that draws in the fly with its many honeyed strands’ - which is a good description of this expertly crafted, typically mouthwatering novel, too. Harris sketches the culture clash deftly, but her real concern is whether others are as free as Vianne to shape their fate and ‘call the wind’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2145806/Joanne-Harris-PEACHES-FOR-MONSIEUR-LE-CURE.html#ixzz1xlRKCkdV

Kitty Kelley - The Family

They have wielded enormous financial power and dominated world politics for more than half a century. They have been appointed to positions of great power and have been elected as governors, congressmen, senators and presidents. They have shaped our past and, with our country at war under the leadership of their number one son, they are, more critically than ever, shaping our future.



As the Bush family has risen to dominance, so too they have been master orchestrators of their own public image, acting and operating under the shield of privacy their money and status have always afforded them. Until now.



Number One bestselling author and investigative biographer Kitty Kelley has closely examined the lives of Jacqueline Onassis, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and the British Royal family. Now the First Lady of unauthorized biography reckons with the first family of the United States—and the result is at once a rich and shocking history and a very human portrait of the world’s most powerful dynasty.



An important work on wealth, power, and class in America, The Family is rich in texture, probing in its psychological insight, revealing in its political and financial detail, and stunning in the patterns that emerge and expose the Bush dynasty as it has never before been exposed. Ms. Kelley takes us back to the origins of the family fortune in the Ohio steel industry at the turn of the last century, through the oil deals and international business associations that have maintained and increased their wealth over the past hundred years. The book leads us through Prescott Bush’s first entree into government at the state level in 1950s’ Connecticut, to George Herbert Walker Bush’s long and winding road to the White House, to his son’s quick sweep into the same office. Along the way, we see the complex relationships the Bushes have had with the giants of the century—Eisenhower, Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, Kissinger, Reagan, Clinton—as well as the often ruthless methods used to realize their goals.



Perhaps most impressive—and surprising—is the way the book delves behind the obsessively protected public image into the family’s intimate private lives: the matriarchs, the mistresses, the marriages, the divorces, the jealousies, the hypocrisies, the golden children, and the black sheep.

At a crucial point in American history, Kitty Kelley is the one person to finally tell all about the family that has, perhaps more than any other, defined our role in the modern world. This is the book the Bushes don’t want you to read. This is The Family.

Philippa Gregory - Changeling

Dark myths, medieval secrets, intrigue, and romance populate the pages of the first-ever teen series from #1 bestselling author of The Other Boleyn Girl.



Italy, 1453. Seventeen-year-old Luca Vero is brilliant, gorgeous—and accused of heresy. Cast out of his religious order for using the new science to question old superstitious beliefs, Luca is recruited into a secret sect: The Order of the Dragon, commissioned by Pope Nicholas V to investigate evil and danger in its many forms, and strange occurrences across Europe, in this year—the end of days.



     Isolde is a seventeen-year-old girl shut up in a nunnery so she can’t inherit any of her father’s estate. As the nuns walk in their sleep and see strange visions, Isolde is accused of witchcraft—and Luca is sent to investigate her, but finds himself plotting her escape.



     Despite their vows, despite themselves, love grows between Luca and Isolde as they travel across Europe with their faithful companions, Freize and Ishraq. The four young people encounter werewolves, alchemists, witches, and death-dancers as they head toward a real-life historical figure who holds the boundaries of Christendom and the secrets of the Order of the Dragon.

     The first in a series, this epic and richly detailed drama is grounded in historical communities and their mythic beliefs. It includes a medieval map of Europe that will track their journey  and the interior will include relevant decorative elements as well as an interior line illustration. And look for a QR code that links to a note from the author with additional, detailed information about the setting and the history that informed the writing. With Philippa Gregory’s trademark touch, this novel deftly brings the past—and its salacious scandals—vividly and disturbingly to life.

NEW Download Link

http://filemates.com/ajht0jii5e6k/Changeling.rar

Steve Gannon - Kane

Los Angeles is terrorized by a series of murders. One man can stop the killer: Detective Daniel Kane. But for Kane—devastated by personal tragedy and haunted by a secret that could destroy his family—to do so may cost him everything, even his life . . .

At times chilling, funny, and occasionally brutal, Kane is a nonstop thriller filled with complex characters, surprising twists, and unforgettable scenes. From a political firestorm that sends the investigation spinning out of control to an unexpected, breath-taking climax, Kane will keep you in suspense until the turn of the final heart-pounding page.

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Kane Review 2/19/2012

I recently retired as a police officer in the Los Angeles County area. I served the community for over 31 years. I recently found "Kane" by Steve Gannon, while checking Amazon for a book. I am very critical when reading police fiction novels. I have not heard about Mr. Gannon, nor did anyone recommend this book.

What a pleasure it was reading "Kane." I was unable to put the book down. Every page held my interest. I immediately sent emails to my friends, several that are still on the job. I recommended this book to my friends and family. I also wanted to leave a quick review, because I would not want someone who enjoys police novels to miss this book.Enjoy reading "Kane." ~ Henry "Bud" Johnson

About the Author

STEVE GANNON is the author of A Song for the Asking, a bestselling novel originally published by Bantam. His newest thriller, Kane, was released in September, 2011. A book of short fiction titled Stepping Stones is scheduled for print early next year, and Allison, his third Kane Novel, will be released in September, 2012. Gannon lives in Idaho, where he is the Executive Director of Sun Valley Artist Series, a nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion and encouragement of the art of classical music. He spends his time skiing, presenting an annual series of classical music performances and educational programs, and working on a new novel. To contact Steve Gannon, purchase books, or to join his email list to receive updates on new releases, please visit his website at: stevegannonauthor.com

Stolen Prey

John Sandford is back with the latest installment (#22) - Stolen Prey - in his wildly successful and hugely popular series featuring Lucas Davenport, an agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs.

There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.

Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.

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Remove the inverted commas in order to unzip!

Jeffrey Archer – And Thereby Hangs a Tale

International bestselling author Jeffrey Archer has spent the last five years gathering spellbinding stories from around the globe. These fifteen brand-new tales showcase Archer’s talent for capturing an unforgettable moment in time, whether tragic, comic, or outrageous.

In India, Jamwal and Nisha fall in love while waiting for a traffic light to turn green on the streets of Delhi.

From Germany comes “A Good Eye,” the tale of a priceless oil painting that has remained in the same family for over two hundred years, until...

To the Channel Islands and “Members Only,” where a golf ball falls out of a Christmas cracker, and a young man’s life will never be the same...

To Italy and “No Room at the Inn,” where a young man who is trying to book a room at a hotel ends up in bed with the receptionist, unaware that she...

To England, where, in “High Heels,” a woman has to explain to her husband why a pair of designer shoes couldn’t have gone up in flames...

Some of these stories will make you laugh while others will bring you to tears but, once again, every one of them will demand that you keep turning the page until you finally discover what happens to this remarkable cast of characters.

Steven King – The Gunslinger

I have never read SK’s books, but I have seen movies. But I do believe they are very popular so here goes:-

King’s (Pet Sematary, Audio Reviews, LJ 11/1/98) fantastical and allegorical “Dark Tower” series commenced in 1982 with the publication of The Gunslinger. Subsequent volumes have appeared about every five years thereafter. The Gunslinger introduces protagonist Roland as he pursues the Man in Black through bleak and tired landscapes in a world that has “moved on.” Roland believes that the Man in Black knows and can be made to reveal the secrets of the Dark Tower, which is the ultimate goal of Roland’s quest. The Waste Lands sees Roland and his fellow travelers continuing the quest for the Dark Tower. They journey through imaginative landscapes, over astounding obstacles, and meet with and confront a unique and fully drawn cast of characters, both human and nonhuman. Reader Frank Muller gives voice to the characters with a thoroughly engaging precision, accuracy, and great humanity and with an edge that drives the story onward and seems to amplify King’s skill as an author. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.

DownloadLink

How to download an ebook

Click on download link –.

That takes you to the . web site where you have the option of selecting "Premium" or "Free".or slow download
Click the "Free" or slow download button.

You are then asked to enter a verification code which is displayed as jumbled letters and numbers.
Enter that and click where it says "download from Cogent network" (or something like that).

Save the file to your hard disk.

It is a .rar or zip file which is an archived file. To open it you need a de-archiving program such as http://www.7-zip.org/

or Zip Reader

or Winrar

(P S Sometimes very seldom When you try to open the archive file you will be asked for a password (in fact when I used 7Zip I was asked twice).
The password is books_for_all (as usual but not always - just see Password field in description area).

Craig Johnson - AS The Crow Flies

LONGMIRE, a new A&E drama series

The Wyoming lawman returns after staking his claim on the New York Times bestseller list

Embarking on his eighth adventure, Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire has a more important matter on his mind than cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married to the brother of his undersheriff, Victoria Moretti. Walt and old friend Henry Standing Bear are the de facto wedding planners and fear Cady’s wrath when the wedding locale arrangements go up in smoke two weeks before the big event.

The pair set out to find a new site for the nuptials on the Cheyenne Reservation, but their scouting expedition ends in horror as they witness a young Crow woman plummeting from Painted Warrior’s majestic cliffs. It’s not Walt’s turf, but the newly appointed tribal police chief and Iraqi war veteran, the beautiful Lolo Long, shanghais him into helping with the investigation. Walt is stretched thin as he mentors Lolo, attempts to catch the bad guys, and performs the role of father of the bride.

With the popularity of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series growing apace, fans new and old will relish As the Crow Flies, the sheriff’s latest quirky and complex investigation.

Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire mystery series, now an A&E drama series, Longmire. He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for fiction, the Nouvel Observateur Prix du Roman Noir, and the Prix 813. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population twenty-five.

Also visit my blog here

http://justfletcher.wordpress.com/

Nelson deMille – The Book Case

Marilyn Bardsley - After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Marilyn Bardsley  - After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

If you enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the book,  not so much the movie) as much as I do you may want to read this book too. We even visited Savannah when we were in the states and I loved it.

The reviews are from Amazon.

(A 100-page True Crime Short with photographs) Clint Eastwood’s movie and the book from which it was made — Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil — put the grand historic city of Savannah on the map. Tourists flocked to see the gorgeous mansion where flamboyant designer and antiques dealer Jim Williams, played by Kevin Spacey, killed his young gay lover, played by Jude Law. While the movie portrayed the natives of Savannah as remarkably decadent, exotic characters, it missed the amazing dark side of Jim Williams himself.

Savannah owes Jim Williams an enormous debt of gratitude for his remarkable restoration of historic houses. A brilliant and intensely interesting, charismatic figure, he brought a style and sophistication to the city that it did not have before. Rich and famous people, like Jacqueline Onassis and Rockefellers, made special trips to bargain for his extraordinary antique treasures. However, he was also a smooth predator, whose crimes could have put him behind bars long before he shot his lover.

The wonderful world of Jim Williams came crashing down on him one night after he killed Danny Hansford. Williams stood trial four times for premeditated murder. Between the passionate and dedicated prosecution and the best defense lawyers money could buy, precisely what happened that night is still a mystery. The prosecution’s documents, never published before, reveal its highly effective strategies and the intrigue that caused the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn two convictions.

“Finally! The real story of one of the most bizarre cases in modern crime history. Marilyn Bardsley has nailed it. The movie was Hollywood. The book was...a stretch. After Midnight is the unvarnished truth.”

—Chuck Hustmyre, bestselling crime novelist and screenwriter, A Killer Like Me and House of the Rising Sun

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marilyn Bardsley is the editor of RosettaBooks’s Crimescape series and the former executive editor and founder of Time Warner’s Crime Library, the premiere true crime site on the Internet. She has written extensively on true crime and is an expert on serial killers.

"I suspect there are a good many of our readers who like myself savored the pleasures, on the screen or on the printed page, of John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The prose was elegant, the story was gripping, and both book and film were so richly evocative of one of my favorite cities -- what was not to like? Yet even after all of that, after all of the seductive, artful presentation of Jim Williams/Kevin Spacey, Danny Hansford/Jude Law, Lady Chablis/Lady Chablis, John Cusack's narrator, and more, weren't you left hanging just a bit? Didn't you want to get closer to the truth, at long last, closer than Hollywood or Berendt's atmospherics allowed? I did, but I never thought I'd get there until I learned about and read Marilyn Bardsley's remarkably well-told exposition of the truth of the matter and the evidence behind the intrigue. It was a treat for me, and one that could be consumed in a single satisfying sitting, so it is only right that I should share it here with you. Enjoy. Your questions will be answered, and you may discover both an author and a series to which you will want to return in Marilyn Bardsley and RosettaBooks' Crimescape series, for which she is the editor." -Steve Windwalker.

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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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John Grisham – Calico Joe

A surprising and moving novel of fathers and sons, forgiveness and redemption, set in the world of Major League Baseball… Whatever happened to Calico Joe? It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring.

The first baseman for the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third and headed for home. The next day, Jim Hickman, the first baseman for the Cubs, injured his back. The team suddenly needed someone to play first, so they reached down to their AA club in Midland, Texas, and called up a twenty-one-year-old named Joe Castle. He was the hottest player in AA and creating a buzz. In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen.

The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records. Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever…

In John Grisham’s new novel the baseball is thrilling, but it’s what happens off the field that makes CALICO JOE a classic.

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David Baldacci - The Innocent

David Baldacci – The innocent

America has enemies--ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military can't stop. That's when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone cold hitman who never questions orders and always nails his target.
But Will Robie may have just made the first--and last--mistake of his career . . .
THE INNOCENT
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway-her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.
Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life . . . and perhaps his own.

Masha Gessen - The Man without a Face

. The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low- level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to her own people and to the world.

Handpicked as a successor by the "family" surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had stood in the shadows, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave, and smashed the country's fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies.

As a journalist living in Moscow, Masha Gessen experienced this history firsthand, and for The Man Without a Face she has drawn on information

and sources no other writer has tapped. Her account of how a "faceless" man maneuvered his way into absolute-and absolutely corrupt-power has the makings of a classic of narrative nonfiction.

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Price of e-books

I have always complained that the price of ebooks seems way out of line.

Extracts from The Sydney Morning Herald 

The government says avid best-seller readers who use electronic books have been getting ripped off. Tina Fey's "Bossy Pants," Tim Tebow's "Through My Eyes" and Keith Richards' `"Life" _ maybe they should have cost less.

The Justice Department and 15 states sued Apple Inc. and major book publishers Wednesday, alleging a conspiracy that raised the price of electronic books. They said the scheme cost consumers more than $100 million in the past two years by adding $2 or $3, sometimes as much as $5, to the price of each e-book.

If there was price fixing, even the e-book version of the hot-selling Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, the late genius behind Apple computers, may have cost too much.

Justice's antitrust chief, Sharis Pozen, said the executives were desperate to get Amazon.com _ the marketer of Kindle e-book readers _ to raise the $9.99 price point it had set for the most popular e-book titles, because that was substantially below their hardcover prices.

Since Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, e-book sales have surged. They represented just 2 percent of all titles sold in the United States that year, but soared to 25 percent last year. In 2010, about 114 million e-books were sold at a total cost of $441.3 million.

Holder told a Justice Department news conference that "we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles" as a result of the alleged conspiracy. Pozen said the scheme added an average of $2 to $3 to the prices of individual e-books

PS I am considering whether I should still give links to ebooks here – I never get any feed back, - you like, you don’t like,  you have read, you recommend. – like I am talking to myself.

I would appreciate comments in this regard.Show More

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Charles Duhigg - The Power of Habit

A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed. Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.

An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones. What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives. They succeeded by transforming habits.

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains.

We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

Alice Hoffman - Blue Diary

Blue Diary

The New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book and a Booksense 76 Top Ten selection for September/October. 2002

The courage to face the unthinkable is at the core of this magnificent new novel. How do we manage to confront the truths in our lives and find forgiveness in the most unforgiving of circumstances? How do we love truly and deeply in a world that is as brutal as it is beautiful?

When Ethan Ford fails to show up for work on a brilliant summer morning, none of his neighbors would guess that for more than thirteen years, he has been running from his past. His true nature has been locked away, as hidden as his real identity. But sometimes locks spring open, and the devastating truths of Ethan Ford's history shatter the small-town peace of Monroe, affecting family and friends alike.

This deeply felt and compelling novel makes it clear why Alice Hoffman has been called "one of the best writers we have today" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Honest, shattering, seductive, and ultimately healing, Blue Diary is an unforgettable novel by a writer who tells "truths powerful enough to break a reader's heart" (Time).

William Landy - Mission Flats

MIssion Flats

 By William Landay who wrote Defending Jacob

You cannot buy this  in S A from Amazon

Former D.A. William Landay explodes onto the suspense scene with an electrifying novel about the true price of crime and the hidden corners of the criminal justice system. Only an insider could so vividly capture Boston’s gritty underworld of cops and criminals. And only a natural storyteller could weave this mesmerizing tale of murder and memory, a story about the hold of time past over time present–and the story of one unforgettable young policeman who ventures into the most dangerous place of all.

By a gleaming lake in the forests of western Maine, outside a sleepy town called Versailles, the body of a man lies sprawled in a deserted cabin. The dead man was an elite D.A. from Boston, and his beat was that city’s toughest neighborhood: Mission Flats.

Now, for small-town police chief Ben Truman, investigating the murder will mean leaving his quiet, haunted home and journeying to an alien world of hard streets and hard bargains, where the fierce struggle between police and criminals is fought for the ultimate stakes.

Ben joins a manhunt through Mission Flats, where cops are scrambling to find their number-one suspect: Harold Braxton, a ruthless predator targeted for prosecution by the murdered D.A. To the Boston police, Braxton is a marked man. But as Ben watches the shadow dance of cops and suspects, he begins to voice doubts about Braxton’s guilt…especially when he uncovers a secret history of murder and retribution stretching back twenty years…back to a brutal killing now nearly forgotten. As past and present collide and a bloody mystery unfolds, only one thing remains certain: the most powerful
revelations are yet to come.

Mission Flats is at once a relentless page-turning mystery and a vivid portrait of a cop’s life. Here are the street corners, courtrooms, and stationhouses; the deal makers, thugs, and quiet heroes. An unforgettable world–and the luminous, boundary-breaking debut of a new voice in suspense fiction–Mission Flats will haunt you long after the final pages