SUMMARY: They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but if you ask Castor he'll tell you there's quite a bit of arrogance and reckless stupidity lining the streets as well. And he should know. There's only so many times you can play both sides against the middle and get away with it. Now, the inevitable moment of crisis has arrived and it's left Castor with blood on his hands. Well, not his hands, you understand; it's always someone else who pays the bill: friends, acquaintances, bystanders.So Castor drowns his guilt in cheap whisky, while an innocent woman lies dead and her daughter comatose, his few remaining friends fear for their lives and there's a demon loose on the streets. But not just any demon ? this one rides shotgun on his best friend's soul and can't be expelled without killing him. Looks like Felix Castor's got some tough choices to make, because expel the demon he must or all Hell will break loose. Literally . . .<

Vogel started with crossword puzzles ... and worked his way up to Man's greatest enigma!<

Amateur detective and Oxford don, Gervase Fen, with the assistance of Inspector Humbleby solves a series of baffling mysteries<

Product Description

For more than a decade two East End families have been locked in a bitter war.On one side are the Mitchells, a notorious underworld mob from East London’s Canning Town. They have an iron in every fire and will resort to intimidation and violence to get what they want. When Stanley Smith’s lovely young daughter, Jessica, announces that she is to marry Eddie, the son of mob boss Harry Mitchell, Stanley is horrified, but too afraid to stand in their way.On the other side are the O’Haras. The Mitchells’ biggest rivals are a travelling family who live in nearby Stratford. They compete with the Mitchells for pub protection and the two families hate each other.Caught between these two families at war, are two innocent children, who will grow up to love the wrong people and spark the last terrible act in the long-running feud. 1988 was a happy year in many people’s lives. Some called it The Rave Year, others The Second Summer of Love. For Eddie Mitchell and his family it is neither. 1988 is the year in which his whole dangerous, violent world explodes around him.

About the Author

Kimberley Chambers, one-time DJ and street market trader, decided one fine day that she wanted to better herself, and with virtually no formal education and no previous experience, settled down to write her first novel, BILLIE JO. BORN EVIL quickly followed and both were signed up as part of the Preface fiction first list of acquisitions. She lives in Romford, close to her childhood friends and family. For more information please visit www.kimberleychambers.com.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Connelly's compelling fourth legal thriller featuring Mickey Haller (after Reversal) finds the maverick L.A. lawyer who uses his Lincoln town car as an office specializing in "foreclosure defense." Haller's first foreclosure client, Lisa Trammel, is fighting hard to keep her home, maybe too hard. The bank has gotten a restraining order to stop Trammel's protests, and she becomes the prime suspect when Mitchell Bondurant, a mortgage banker, is killed with a hammer in his office parking lot. A ton of evidence points to Trammel, but Haller crafts an impressive defense that includes "the fifth witness" of the title. Connelly has a sure command of the legal and procedural details of criminal court, and even manages to make the arcane, shady world of foreclosure interesting. While the prose may lack some of the poetic nuance of his early novels, the plot is worthy of a master storyteller. The film of The Lincoln Lawyer, the first Mickey Haller novel, releases in March. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Starred Review Crime-fiction megastar Connelly can always be counted on to try something a little different. In The Reversal (2010), his last Mickey Haller novel, starring the L.A. lawyer who prefers to work out of his Lincoln Town Car, Connelly offered a tour de force of plotting on multiple levels. Here, he narrows the focus considerably, concentrating almost exclusively on what happens inside the courtroom but bringing to the traditional give-and-take of prosecutor, defender, judge, and jury an altogether more complex commingling of personality and legal strategy than is typically on view in legal thrillers. He accomplishes this with a particularly rich first-person narration in which Haller takes us through the courtroom drama as it happens, noting his blunders and praising himself for quick-thinking improvisations. It doesn't hurt, either, that the plot is meaty: a woman whom Haller was representing in a suit against the bank attempting to foreclose on her mortgage is accused of killing the bank official in charge of foreclosures. Combining ripped-from-the-headlines information on the mortgage crisis with a cast of characters that defies stereotypes at every turn of the plot, Connelly shows once again that he will never simply ride the wave of past success. And, neither, apparently, will Mickey Haller, as he reveals a shocking change of direction in the novel's final pages.

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Connelly's latest Mickey Haller novel will benefit from the release in March of a movie version of The Lincoln Lawyer, the first Haller novel, starring Matthew McConaughey. 750,000 first printing. --Bill Ott

aka The Marijuana Mob

She discovered a dark secret, witnessed a murder and fled fearing for her life. Three years later, Cassie is hiding from her past, haunted by a dream lover and fighting to control a terrifying beast that seems to grow stronger each day. When Bryan, pack Beta, appears to claim her, Cassie is forced to face the truth of her existence. Innocence, betrayal, greed and love collide in The Finding<

From Booklist

Indefatigable genre veteran Collins brought back his hit-man hero Quarry two years ago (The Last Quarry, 2006) after a 30-year hiatus. Now he flashes way back to reveal how Quarry got in the killing business. Naturally, it started in Vietnam, where ne’er-do-well Quarry found something he was good at—killing people; later, after a wrong turn or two back in the States, he hooks up with a broker who runs a murder-for-hire business. Quarry’s first target: a philandering college professor whose latest conquest happens to be the coed daughter of a Chicago mafioso. Rationalizing that the prof is a dead man whether or not Quarry does the deed, our antihero takes the job. Like Lawrence Block in his hit-man series starring the similarly one-named Keller, Collins manages the neat trick of engendering sympathy for a killer by muddying the moral waters: plot complications change the terms of the deal, requiring Quarry to do his killing out of self-preservation rather than cold-blooded commerce. Either way, Collins knows the terrain, mixing pulp-style action with just enough character building to keep us going. Great entertainment from a pro’s pro. --Bill Ott

Review

Violent and volatile and packed with sexuality…classic pulp fiction --USA Today

Collins witty, hard boiled prose would make Raymond Chandler proud --Entertainment Weekly

As cool as an Eskimo Pie on a hot summer day and as sharp as a Ginsu knife --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Review

Each novel by Elizabeth Chadwick continues to build her reputation of one of the queens of historical writing. (Night Owl Romance 20100909)

Another fantastic story . (Terra Yankee Romance Reviewers 20100909)

This tale is replete with details about the history and culture of late 12th-century England, a time of royal, financial, familial, marital and political conflicts that keep the reader riveted to every page. A grand read! (Viviane Crystal Historical Novel Reviews 20100909)

Chadwick's characters are carefully and brilliantly crafted... extremely well written historical fiction. (Jennifer Higgins Rundpinne 20100913)

Elizabeth Chadwick once again delivers the goods and I have to place her right up there with Jean Plaidy. (LizzyJ Historically Obsessed 20100914)

The characters really come to life. (Carrie In the Hammock 20100914)

I swear, each Elizabeth Chadwick book I read is even better than the last. Chadwick breathes such life into characters so long dead; to read one of her books is to have a peephole on the past. (Devourer of Books 20100914)

Another awesome read for me and another fantastic book by Elizabeth Chadwick. (The Maiden's Court 20101007)

Filled with sacrifice, sibling rivalry and war, For the King's Favor is truly a gem. (Readin' and Dreamin' 20100915)

The writing is exemplary and the attention to detail sublime... a book to be savored... an experience rather than just a read. (The Broken Teepee 20100916)

Elizabeth Chadwick weaves a tapestry of a tale that is spellbinding. (The Long and Short of It Reviews 20100917)

Chadwick did not disappoint! She had a good cast of characters from real life to draw from. She made them come back to life with richly textured scenes of England and Royalty (So Many Precious Books, So Little Time 20100921)

A joy to read. I love how [Chadwick] fits into Medieval England with seemingly little effort. (Book Lust 20100921)

Elizabeth Chadwick's name has become a byword for high quality historical fiction. If any one author can "claim" medieval England as his or her territory, it must be she, for she nails the era with precision as she lures the reader into an incredible world of chivalry and knights gallant. (Hist Fic Chick 20100921)

The lives of Ida and Roger captivate and give the reader the all important gift of hope. (Luxury Reading 20100923)

Elizabeth Chadwick has a knack for developing characters with flaws and believability, therefore making them completely 'real' while you read their stories. They are authentic and a tribute to her research. (She Read a Book 20100927)

Recommend? Absolutely to lovers of royal Historical Fiction. (Life in the Thumb 20101007)

Smart writing, a mastery of the time period and impeccable research is what we've come to expect from Elizabeth Chadwick and she certainly brought it with For the King's Favor. (Passages to the Past 20101007)

I could not put this book down... Highly recommended. (Bookfoolery and Babble 20101007)

I loved this book. It brought to life historical people that I knew nothing about and created an almost obsession for me. I can't wait to pick up the rest of Elizabeth Chadwick's books. (Books Like Breathing 20101007)

Elizabeth Chadwick does a fabulous job in her depiction of the King's court, the people whose lives are impacted by the rotation of the King's attention, and of the political intrigues and favor-currying that takes place. (Drey's Library 20101007)

Chadwick's writing style was thoroughly engrossing and I found myself living in the 1100s along with the characters. (Favorite PasTimes Blog 20101007)

Chadwick's work is beautiful; it reminds me why I love historical fiction in the first place. (The Bibliophilic Book Blog 20101007)

Elizabeth Chadwick has once again weaved a work of art with her vivid descriptions and ability to tell a most captivating tale. (Confessions and Ramblings of a Muse in the Fog 20101018)

Highly recommended. I absolutely loved For the King's Favor. (Bookfoolery and Babble 20101101)

Elizabeth Chadwick's name has become a byword for high quality historical fiction.

One of the best historical fiction novels I have read this year. Everyone must experience Elizabeth Chadwick's exquisite writing. Her proficiency and talent place her among the elite in her genre. (Bookworm's Dinner )

A truly poignant story, For the King's Favor is a masterpiece in historical fiction! (History Undressed )

Chadwick breaths life in times gone by... The book made me remembered why I loved her books in the first place. (Book Girl of Mur-Y-Castell )

About the Author

Elizabeth Chadwick (UK) is the author of 17 historical novels, including The Greatest Knight, The Scarlet Lion, A Place Beyond Courage, Lords of the White Castle, Shadows and Strongholds, the Winter Mantle, and The Falcons of Montabard, four of which have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Awards.

Aaron Tucker isn't a detective. So he's baffled when the richest guy in his New Jersey town insists that Aaron, and Aaron alone, investigate the disappearance of his wife, who has inexplicably vanished from their home in the middle of the night. Funny, down-to-earth, lovable, and resourceful, Aaron Tucker, family man and freelance writer, reluctantly says yes, and continuously wishes he hadn't.<

From Booklist

MGM's sf thriller Forbidden Planet (1956), about the search for an expedition lost on a hazardous planet, has been the model for a cottage industry's worth of TV series and movies. Any show featuring a starship, a captain, and crew--particularly Star Trek and its many spin-offs--owes a debt to the Shakespeare-inspired motion picture. For the fiftieth anniversary of the movie's premiere, editor Crowther solicited 12 new stories set on other treacherous planets humans would have more wisely avoided. Ray Bradbury introduces the volume with the twin revelations that he declined writing FP's screenplay and would have exterminated its famous robot, Robby, if he hadn't. Jay Lake's story offers an alternate "forbidden" plotline based on King Lear instead of the movie's template, The Tempest, while Matthew Hughes' dissects a forbidden and deadly alien plant instead of a planet. Other notable contributions come from Ian McDonald, Michael Moorcock, and space-opera specialist Stephen Baxter, who gives a penetrating analysis of the film's enduring influence on his own work as well as his chosen genre. Carl Hays
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