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Terrifying serial killer thriller set in the gritty Glasgow of the near future, from the bestselling author of the Logan McRae series.

Glasgow, not too far in the future. A new punishment has been devised for the perpetrators of serious crimes – one that not only reduces the prison population but also benefits society at large. The process is known as halfheading: the offender's lower jaw is removed and they are lobotomized. They are then put to work as cleaners in municipal areas like hospitals, where they serve as a warning to all that crime doesn't pay. But for one halfhead, it seems the lobotomy hasn't quite succeeded. Six years after her surgery, Dr Fiona Westfield 'wakes up' surrounded by the butchered remains of a man she has just brutally killed. As her mind slowly begins to return, she sets out on a quest for vengeance. William Hunter, Assistant Section Director of the 'Network' – a military wing of the police – attends the crime scene left behind by the newly awakened halfhead. Sherman House is a run-down concrete housing development full of undesirables and Hunter and his team quickly find themselves in a firefight with the locals. With the help of old comrades and a new friend in the form of prickly but attractive Detective Sergeant Josephine Cameron, Will gets on the trail of the killer. But before long the investigation leads back to a terrible tragedy in his own past, as well as to a terrifying conspiracy to sow violence and misery among Glasgow's most vulnerable citizens.

Książkę dwukrotnego laureata Literackiej Nagrody Nike opublikowano po raz pierwszy w 1984 r. To opowieść o życiu chłopskiego bohatera i jego rodziny. Okazją do wspomnień jest pomysł zbudowania grobu rodzinnego. Wiesław Myśliwski nadał tej powieści ton rzeczowości i chłopskiego realizmu, a nie poetyzowania czy brutalności. Życie Szymona Pietruszki, opowiedziane przez niego samego, układa się w symboliczny zarys chłopskich dziejów. Na oczach głównego bohatera tradycyjna wieś przestaje istnieć. W zapomnienie odchodzą dawne obyczaje, więzi sąsiedzkie i ludzkie. Rodzina ulega dezintegracji, a krewni z miasta najpewniej nie zechcą skorzystać z gotowego grobowca…

Wiesław Myśliwski (ur. 1932) debiutował w 1967 r. powieścią „Nagi sad”. Jego utwory poświęcone są polskiej wsi, charakteryzuje je głęboka refleksja nad losem człowieka, jego związkiem z czasem i z przyrodą, a także szczególna uroda stylu, raz poetyckiego (jak w powieści „Pałac”), a kiedy indziej jędrnego i soczystego.

Każda nowa powieść Myśliwskiego – jak „Widnokrąg” czy „Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli” – natychmiast staje się wydarzeniem literackim.

The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency backup mistress of the Greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public.

Whoa. And this is a love story? Yup. 'Cept there's no whining. See, while some lovers were born to run, Jody and Tommy were born to bite. Well, reborn, that is, now that they're vampires. Good thing theirs is an undying love, since their Goth Girl Friday, Abby Normal, imprisoned them in a bronze statue.

Abby wants to be a bloodsucking fiend, too, but right now she's really busy with other stuff, like breaking in a pair of red vinyl thigh-high Skankenstein® platform boots and wrangling her Ph.D.-candidate boyfriend, Steve (the love monkey). And then there's that vampire cat Chet, who's getting bigger and smarter – and thirstier – by the minute. Abby thought she and Steve could handle the kitty cat on their own, mais non…

Before you can say "OMG! WTF?" Tommy and Jody are sprung from captivity, and join forces with Abby, Steve, the frozen-turkey-bowling Safeway crew, the Emperor of San Francisco and his trusty dogs Lazarus and Bummer, Abby's gay Goth friend Jared, and SF's finest Cavuto and Rivera to hunt big cat and save the city. And that's when the fun really begins.

Georgina Kincaid has formidable powers. Immortality, seduction, shape-shifting into any human form she desires, walking in heels that would cripple mere mortals—all child's play to a succubus like her.

Helping to plan her ex-boyfriend's wedding is a different story. Georgina isn't sure which is worse—that Seth is marrying another woman, or that Georgina has to run all over Seattle trying on bridesmaid dresses. Still, there are distractions. Georgina's roommate, Roman, is cluttering her apartment with sexual tension. Then there's Simone, the new succubus in town, who's intent on corrupting Seth.

But the real danger lies in the mysterious force that's visiting her thoughts, trying to draw her into a dark, otherworldly realm. Sooner or later, Georgina knows she'll be too weak to resist. And when that happens, she'll discover who she can trust, who she can't—and that Hell is far from the worst place to spend eternity. . .

The second novel in the wonderful Paddy Meehan series by Scotland 's princess of crime.

Paddy Meehan, Glasgow's aspiring journalist is back on the beat, trawling the streets of Glasgow for a story – something to prove she can write; that she's better at her job than all her male colleagues; anything that will get her off the terrible night shift that is slowly turning her brains to mush. And then she meets the woman with the poodle perm at the door of a wealthy suburb in the north of the city. It's just a domestic dispute, Paddy's told, although her instincts are alerted when she's slipped a £50 note to keep the story out of the papers. By the next morning the woman is dead; she's been tortured, beaten, and left to die. Paddy has found her story, but she's still got the £50; and with her father and brothers unemployed, and her upright Roman Catholic family perilously short of money, this could solve a lot of problems.

A day later, Paddy sees a body being pulled from the river. Another death, she's told; it's nothing to do with you; go home. But when Paddy talks to the wife of the dead man, she finds that the relationship between him and the murdered woman was closer than the police had imagined. Why have these people died? What were they trying to hide? And could this be the break Paddy's been waiting for? What follows is a deeply personal journey into the dark heart of a brutal economic recession, and the brutal bud of the drugs trade in the 1980s.

Paddy Meehan, una joven de 18 años, trabaja como botones en un periódico de Glasgow y sueña con llegar a ser periodista. Un día, a la redacción llega la historia de la muerte de un niño a manos de dos chavales de diez y once años, pero Paddy ve pistas que indican que detrás de los dos chicos hay un adulto. Pronto se dará cuenta de que sus investigaciones pueden llevarla a un suicidio profesional, una crisis personal y, además, ponerla en grave peligro.<

Laureen O'Donnell trabaja en la Casa de Acogida para Mujeres de Glasgow, donde conoce a Anne Harris, una chica que llega al centro con dos costillas rotas y en plena batalla contra el alcoholismo. Dos semanas después, el cuerpo de Anne aparece en el río, grotescamente mutilado y envuelto en una manta. Todo apunta a que el marido de Anne es el asesino, pero ¿no puede haber un culpable menos evidente?

Maureen y su amiga Leslie tratan de romper con la indiferencia que rodea el asesinato de Anne, aunque, misteriosamente, Leslie mantiene la boca bien cerrada y no cuenta todo lo que sabe. En un intento por aclarar la confusión en la que se ve sumida su vida, Maureen viaja a Londres. Sin embargo, en lugar de solucionar sus problemas, pronto se verá inmersa en un mundo de violencia y drogadicción.

Maureen O'Donnell no es una chica con suerte. Además de vivir en un barrio marginal de Glasgow y ser paciente de un centro psiquiátrico, se encuentra anclada a un trabajo sin futuro y a una relación hermética con Douglas, un psicoterapeuta poco transparente.

A punto de poner fin a su relación con Douglas. Maureen se despierta una buena mañana con una resaca insufrible y con su novio muerto en la cocina de su piso. La policía la considera una de las principales sospechosas, tanto por ser una joven que- se sale de los cánones de la normalidad como por su carácter inestable y su actitud poco cooperativa. Incluso su madre y su hermana sospechan de ella. Presa del pánico y con un sentimiento de abandono por parte de sus amigos y familiares. Maureen empieza a poner en duda todo lo que creía inamovible.

Maureen O'Donnell wasn't born lucky. A psychiatric patient and survivor of sexual abuse, she's stuck in a dead-end job and a secretive relationship with Douglas, a shady therapist. Her few comforts are making up stories to tell her psychiatrist, the company of friends, and the sweet balm of whisky. She is about to end her affair with Douglas when she wakes up one morning to find him in her living room with his throat slit.

Viewed in turn by the police as a suspect and as an uncooperative, unstable witness, Maureen is even suspected by her alcoholic mother and self-serving sisters of being involved. Worse than that, the police won't tell her anything about Douglas 's death.

Panic-stricken and feeling betrayed by friends and family, Maureen begins to doubt her own version of events. She retraces Douglas's desperate last days and picks up a horrifying trail of rape, deception… and suppressed scandal at a local psychiatric hospital where she had been an inmate. But the patients won't talk and the staff are afraid, and when a second brutalized corpse is discovered, Maureen realises that unless she gets to the killer first, her life is in danger.

When a quaint Pennsylvania town hosts a Civil War reenactment, only the blood will be real…

How does a once-hip New Yorker get used to living in a quaint Pennsylvania town famous for its gooey, oversized sticky buns? For Tori Miracle, it means kissing her diet good-bye, always showing up in the wrong clothes, and struggling with a love life. And now that she's filling in for the editor of the Lickin Creek Chronicle and has the town newspaper to look after as well as her own dear fastidious felines, sometimes it means cosponsoring public events like a Civil War reenactment for the local women's college.

But when this charmingly authentic reenactment is done, and each man and woman has played his or her part to the hilt, it's clear that Tori has miscalculated again. Someone used one live bullet in an antique gun. And with a man dead, it's going to be up to the only city slicker in Lickin Creek to unravel a mystery of murder in a town where calories don't count, but murder does…

Maureen O'Donnell is facing the darkest episode in her life. She owes more than she makes in a year in back taxes; Angus Farrell, the psychologist who murdered her boyfriend, is up for trial, with Maureen as the reluctant star witness; and her abuser has arrived back in Glasgow in time for the birth of her sister's baby. On top of it all, Maureen – who identifies all too readily with the underdogs of this world – has become embroiled in someone else's family feud.

When an elderly stallholder at the flea market where Maureen and Leslie are selling illegally imported cigarettes dies in hospital after a brutal beating, Maureen questions why anyone might want to kill the woman popularly known as 'Home Gran'. She suspects Ella's son, but Si McGee is an upstanding member of the Scottish business community, runs a chain of estate agents and has a health club in Glasgow 's West End. But she soon discovers that the 'health club' fronts a much less respectable establishment. As Angus's trial approaches, once again Maureen is under threat, and this time she has very few protectors.

This sixteen collection anthology revolves around a charm bracelet that brings misfortune to the holder. The tales are unique yet build off where the previous story left off. Beginning in the Georgia Mountains in 1803, continuing in 1839 and on into the twentieth century, the bracelet moves from one ill-fated soul whose story is unfolded until at the end of the tale, another person holds the bracelet and his or her story is told in the next chapter.

The fifteen contributors (Karin Slaughter opens and closes the anthology) seem to have enjoyed adding their spin to the book because all the inputs are well written and loaded with action and suspense. The “charmed characters” surprisingly for the most part come across as genuine regardless of their era and location (the bracelet gets around). LIKE A CHARM is gimmicky, but fans of interconnected short stories will appreciate this delightful thriller that lives up to its title as readers will enjoy this suspenseful interrelated compilation.

Alex Morrow is not new to the police force-or to crime-but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men have slipped from a van into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems, or something much more unexpected?

As Alex falls further into the most challenging case of her career, Denise Mina proves why "if you don't read crime novels, Mina is your reason to change" (Rocky Mountain News).

Paddy Meehan discovers that one of the boys charged with the murder of toddler Brian Wilcox is her fiance Sean's cousin, Callum. Soon Callum's name is all over the news, and her family believe she is to blame. Shunned by Sean and by those closest to her, Paddy finds herself dangerously alone.<

The last time Maureen O'Donnell saw Ann Harris, she was in the Glasgow Women's Shelter smelling of a long binge on cheap drink. A month later Ann's mutilated body, stitched into a mattress, is washed up on the banks of the Thames. No-one, except for Maureen and her best mate, Leslie, seems to care about what has happened to her, and Maureen is the only person who thinks Ann's husband is innocent.

But solving Ann's murder comes as light relief. Maureen's father is back in Glasgow, Leslie is sloping about like a nervous spy, and then there's Angus, Maureen's old therapist, who's twice as bright as she is and making her play a dangerous game with the police.

In the long tradition of Scots in trouble, Maureen runs away to London. Looking for answers to the mystery surrounding Ann's death, she becomes embroiled in a seedy world of deceit and violence. Alone in a strange city, Maureen starts to piece together Ann's final days. But time is not on her side, and Maureen needs just twelve hours, just twelve, to put things right and she doesn't care what it costs…

Andy Nocera is on probation after being arrested for solicitation in a public rest room on Interstate 85. He’s taken refuge with his mother after being kicked out by his wife and is forced to take a job traveling the country selling display shelving after being fired by his father-in-law. The ‘highlight’ of his week is his court-mandated counseling session with his psychiatrist who also happens to be ordained as a Jesuit priest. Resistant at first, he gradually surrenders to his counselor’s persistent probing as they search for clues in his boyhood and early married years to explain why he risked his seemingly perfect life for an anonymous sexual encounter.

One year of therapy with no more arrests and the State of North Carolina will expunge Andy’s record. But he’s having a hard time coping without the unconditional support of his wife, who’s moved on to a new relationship, and his mother, who’s been diagnosed with an aggressive lymphoma. Failing every attempt to start a new life as an openly gay man, he begins to spiral into anger and depression, alienating everyone close to him, until he finally discovers that rescuing another lost soul is the means to his own redemption.

"Probation is the rare novel that dares to take the reader on a journey through the dark night of the soul. An unflinching look at the dark side of self-discovery, it is ultimately a story of transformation and the worlds of possibilities hidden within each of us."

– Michael Thomas Ford, author of JANE BITES BACK and WHAT WE REMEMBER

"If you're looking for a smart, engaging, witty, sad and unusual book about the complicated nature of family and love, try Tom Mendicino's Probation. You'll be glad you did."

– Bart Yates, author of THE BROTHERS BISHOP and THE DISTANCE BETWEEN USS

"If David Sedaris were cast as Willy Loman, it might sound something like Probation. Andy, a sharp-tongued travelling salesman, gives us the life events that led to his being taken away in handcuffs, and the hilarious and agonizing self-inquiry that follows. Snarky yet profound, it is a bold examination of the destructive effects of a life spent in the closet, reported with a Carolina twang." – Vestal McIntyre, author of LAKE OVERTURN

From the author of "The Master of the Blacktower", this is the story of a young orphan girl who possesses the gift of second sight. Fate brings her to the home of a wealthy duchess, where the ghostly presence of her own father calls to her from beyond.<

Mad, Bad Dangerous is a stand-alone sequel to Almost Human.Baelvar is gorgeous, charming, insane, childish and mildly psychotic. He-s also mated to Kett, who-s brilliant, bitchy, violent and more than a little psychotic herself. It-s a match made in heaven, except for one tiny detail-Kett doesn-t want to be mated to anyone.The Curse of Kett has befallen everyone she-s ever cared about, but impressing this fact upon Bael is a little difficult, what with all the terrifically explosive sex getting in the way. Oh, and the repeated attempts on Kett-s life from persons unknown are a bit distracting too.Still, if they can just stop shagging and fighting for their lives for two seconds, surely she can convince Bael they-re actually a match made in hell. Can-t she?<