Publisher: Black Cat Weekly
When food journalist Naomi travels home to the U.S. Virgin Islands for a wedding, an old friend talks her into investigating some supposedly stolen recipes worth a lot of dough—and so much more.
After her mother is sent to prison for art forgery, Edie Brown returns to Northern Vermont to rebuild her family’s fine art and antiques business. She’s certain she can do it now that her mother is gone. After all, butting heads with her mom over bad business practices was what drove Edie away three years ago, including a screw-up that landed Edie on probation for selling stolen property. When Edie scores a job appraising a waterfowl decoy collection at a hoarder’s farmhouse, she’s determined to take advantage of the situation to rebuild the business’s tarnished reputation and dwindling coffers. In lieu of payment, Edie intends to cherry-pick an exceptional decoy carved by the client’s renowned Quebecoise folk artist ancestors. Only the tables turn when the collection vanishes. Accused of the theft, Edie’s terrified that the fallout will destroy the business and land her in prison next to her mom. Desperate, she digs into the underbelly of the local antiques and art world. When Edie uncovers a possible link between the decoy theft and a deadly robbery at a Quebec museum, she longs to ask her ex-probation officer, and ex-lover, for help. But she suspects his recent interest in rekindling their romance may hide a darker motive. With the help of her eccentric uncle Tuck and Kala, their enigmatic new employee, Edie must risk all she holds dear to expose the thieves and recover the decoys before the FBI’s Art Crime Team or the ruthless thieves themselves catch up with her.Show book
DISCOVER A BREATHLESSLY TWISTY NEW THRILLER, FROM A BESTSELLING AUTHOR. The truth can be a bitter pill . . . Michelle will never get tired of the view from her office window. Jagged mountains - and the wintry streets of Reykjavik, Iceland. It's a perk of her new job at Kimia Pharmaceuticals. Her old life - a dreary 9-to-5 and a cheating ex back in London - already feels a million miles away. Still, there's something strange about Michelle's new colleagues. They're all young, beautiful . . . and aloof. But then Michelle meets Lars, a jittery researcher from the restricted upper floors. She thinks she's alone in the elevator, until he squeezes between the doors. Just in time. The elevator whirs into action - and judders to a sickening halt. That's when it happens. Lars locks eyes with Michelle. Thrusts a folder into her hands. This is evidence. Hide it . . . I discovered something and I'll be silenced because of it. Michelle's already run from her past. This time, she'll be running for her life . . .Show book
Every family has a Funscreen on their wall. The question is... who's watching who? When the government's new private welfare system begins rewarding unemployed viewers for watching the right kind of ads, Roger Birch welcomes a Funscreen into his home. Like millions of others, Roger and his family soon depend on ad-viewing income for their survival. Unlike millions of others, the events of one uncomfortable evening leave Roger aware of the government's shadier reasons for investing in Funscreens. With HD cameras hidden behind a 60-inch glass veil, the answer was staring him in the face all along... __________ Funscreen is one in a series of Sci-Fi Sizzlers: standalone short stories from international bestselling author Craig A. Falconer. These stories can be read in any order — dive in today!Show book
Liv has a lot of secrets. For her, home is the picturesque town of Ålesund, perched on a fjord in western Norway. One night, in the early-morning embers of a great party in the basement apartment she shares with two friends, Liv is watching TV, high on weed, and sees a python on an Australian nature show. She becomes obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, the baby Burmese python, becomes the apartment's fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she feels extremely protective, like a caring mother, and she is struck by a desire that surprises her with its intensity. Finally she is safe. Thirteen years later, in the nearby town of Kristiansund, Mariam Lind goes on a shopping trip with her eleven-year-old daughter, Iben, who angers her mother by asking for a magazine one too many times. Mariam storms off, leaving her daughter in the shop, expecting that she’ll find her own way home. When she returns home later that evening, Iben isn't there. Detective Roe Olsvik is assigned to the case of Iben's disappearance; he has just turned sixty and is new to the Kristiansund police department. As he interrogates Mariam, he instantly suspects her—but there is much more to this case and these characters than their outer appearances would suggest. A biting and constantly shifting tale of family secrets, rebirth, and the legacy of trauma, Reptile Memoirs is a brilliant exploration of the cold-bloodedness of humanity and the struggle to mend broken lives and families.Show book
Despite what the old children's rhyme says, words can cause grievous harm. It’s a lesson ex-con Hollis Morgan, a casualty of her deceased ex-husband’s white-collar crimes, knows all too well. Now that she has received an official pardon, she’s free to pursue her dreams of moving up in the world from paralegal to attorney. While awaiting the results of the bar exam, she hopes to clear the name of a friend accused of libel by philanthropist Dorian Fields, a man whose charitable giving looks a lot like money-laundering. The only problem? The evidence has disappeared, and her friend Catherine is found dead. Although initially thought a suicide, Hollis's friend was murdered. Catherine was writing an article about Fields for a tabloid. Hollis and attorney Mark Haddan convince the magazine to let them carry on with the libel defense, but they have fewer than sixty days to prove Catherine’s exposé was well-founded. In the meantime, Hollis has other distractions: she’s helping to settle the estate of Margaret Koch—a rich client of the law firm whose impetuous actions, as revealed in her letters, still embitter the lives of those she left behind—and then there are the two men vying for her attention—one a police detective, the other a private eye. Normally Hollis trusts her built-in lie detector, but in this case, too many people are lying for too many reasons—and one of them is not only a liar, but a killer.Show book
William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform. Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month's rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her eye: 'WANTED. HOUSEKEEPER.' She begins to work in William's house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times before, encounters that have changed her life. He is oblivious to this, while she spins tales of the well discovered in his back garden and of a mythical saint, of the healing powers of the water and the moss that surrounds it. But as the moss begins to heal William's troubled hands, the lines between legend and reality begin to blur, secrets resurface, and past and present collide in unexpected ways. Praise for the author: 'One of the most inventive artists of our day' John Banville. 'This strange relationship – of indenture, but also of mutual need – defines this thrillingly written, gripping tale that revisits many of Jordan's lifelong preoccupations with class, Irishness and sexuality to powerful moving effect' Observer. 'The historical research is evident [and] as with his previous novels, Jordan creates an evocative sense of time and place... Although the book is an odyssey, tracking thousands of miles across the globe, the pace is leisurely' The Times. 'Jordan is a writer of uncommon talent, particularly around pacing and visual description' Irish Times. 'An expertly spun ballad defined by themes of belonging, illusion and, fundamentally, fidelity' ? RTÉ CultureShow book
