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Using Dante’s Inferno to draw out the reality behind the fantasy, author Kim Paffenroth tells the true events... During his lost wanderings, Dante came upon an infestation of the living dead. The unspeakable acts he witnessed —cannibalism, live burnings, evisceration, crucifixion, and dozens more—became the basis of all the horrors described in Inferno. At last, the real story can be told.<

A young woman awakes to find out that not only is she an important Countess, but she is also the very first—or 'Ancient One' as she is called by her subjects. Her memories of being a vampire or of anyone else are gone, so she must relearn everything—ranging from spells to flying—from those around her, but can they be trusted? She rediscovers her main objective as the old Countess was to purify the vampire race and wishes to continue with that work. The 'Others', powerful and evil vampires, attempt to use her memory loss to their advantage. They had been trying to entice her to their side for centuries. Struggling to remember her past, battling the 'Others', and coping with her new life, keep the Countess busy throughout this spellbinding and thrilling novel. Will she succeed in her goals, or will the 'Others' win her over to their side this time around?<

SUMMARY:
A legendary Skinner has passed. Among the articles he left behind are runes, potions, and powerful weapons to aid in the ongoing war against the unspeakable creatures that prowl the shadows outside normal human consciousness. But there is something else: the remains of a terrifying beast no other Skinner has ever encountered. And it isn't dead. Skinners, partners, lovers, Cole Warnecki and Paige Strobel are well armed with the tools the late Jonah Lancroft provided. But even his best weapons may not be enough to defeat the monstrosity they now face. A new terror has risen up to infect them both with its virulent malevolence, even as Paige confronts the secrets of her astonishing past. The purest evil walks the world again—the First Deceiver, humankind's darkest nightmare, the self-proclaimed King of the Full Bloods.

Sparta, a beautiful and mysterious agent whose superhuman ablities are the result of advanced biotechnology, investigates a tragic accident aboard the freighter "Star Queen" that leaves a lone survivor<

Gifted by advanced biotechnology with extraordinary beauty and superhuman powers, Sparta risks her life and her secret identity to solve the case when the theft of an alien artifact, the Martian plague, leads to two murders in Labyrinth City

Sparta, Special Investigator for the Space Board, begins a special research mission to the ice moon of Jupiter and discovers evidence of an ancient alien civilization<

Review

Vertical -- Rex Pickett's long-anticipated sequel to his now iconic Sideways -- had me alternately laughing and crying through this hilarious, heartbreaking and ultimately moving meditation on Fame, Friendship and Family. Vertical managed to break my heart and then put it back together again, piece by piece ... and should abolish any lingering doubts whether the author just got "lucky" with Sideways. This is a work to be both admired and savored like the great Willamette Valley Pinots Miles exults over." --Marco Mannone, Forth Magazine

"Vertical" is an often over-the-top, sometimes poignant, always entertaining story peppered throughout with impenetrably obscure but colorfully descriptive and eminently accurate adjectives... . What happens on the trip north through California accounts for much of the hilarious, ludicrous and outrageous action..Rex Pickett has not let us down. --Kark Klooster, Oregon Wine Press

"Sideways," ....is arguably the most influential wine-themed book that became a film in American history. The film Sideways grossed $250 million... and people are still debating whether it alone caused Pinot Noir sales to spike, or was merely a factor in the variety's astonishing success. Now we have the follow up story in Vertical..." --Steve Heimoff, Wine Enthusiast

Rex Pickett shows that his gift for creating wildly funny scenes is quite intact... The book is laugh-out-loud funny. --Paul Jameson, New York Journal of Books

About the Author

Rex Pickett is a screenwriter and novelist living in Santa Monica, CA. His novel "Sideways" was made into the movie of the same title, directed and co-adapted by "Election" and "About Schmidt" filmmaker Alexander Payne. "Sideways" garnered over 350 prestigious awards from various critics and awards organizations, including, most notably, the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It recently was voted as one of 101 Greatest Screenplays of All Time by the Writers Guild of America. Rex's script "My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York" was the basis for the Barbara Schock-directed AFI film which won the 2000 Oscar for Best Live Action Short. He is currently writing a comedy series for HBO entitled "The Nose." "Vertical" is his second novel.

Nolan Gray is an elite soldier, skilled in all forms of combat. After years fighting on foreign battlefields, witnessing unspeakable evils and atrocities firsthand, a world-weary Nolan returns home to find it just as corrupt as the war zones. Everywhere he looks, there's pain and cruelty. Society is being destroyed by wicked men who don't care who they make suffer or destroy.

Nolan decides to do what no one else can, what no one has ever attempted. He will defend the helpless. He will tear down the wicked. He will wage a one-man war on the heart of man, and he won't stop until the world is the way it should be.

The wicked have had their day. Morality's time has come. In a culture starving for a hero, can one extraordinary man make things right?<

Review

'Charming and humorously told.' SPECTATOR

About the Author

Ellis Peters is one of the pseudonyms of Edith Pargeter who wrote several books under her own name and also Peter Benedict, Jolyon Carr and John Redfern. She was the recipient of the Crime Writers Association and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award. She died in 1995.

Amazon.com Review

Here's a fine modern mystery that would have made a wonderful 1950s B movie. Robert Mitchum would have been perfect as the hulking stranger John Faith, who arrives one day in the faded Northern California resort town of Pomo with a mysterious agenda. Who but Paul Douglas could have played the tough but fair-minded police chief? And the part of Storm Carey, the gorgeous widow feeding her grief with rampant sex, would have been a natural for Jan Sterling or Elisabeth Scott. Bill Pronzini both uses and overcomes these film noir images as he skips from voice to voice to tell a tricky, compelling story. Other books by this excellent writer include Blue Lonesome and--from his Nameless Detective series--Hardcase.

From Booklist

Beneath the surface in the northern California resort community of Pomo swirls a viper's nest of desire, jealousy, loneliness, and crime. When a sexual assault occurs, the obvious suspect is an outsider, John Faith; after all, the sheriff doesn't like Faith's interest in a sexy local widow he fancies himself. Neither does a boozy reporter, who launches a yellow-journalism campaign against the outsider. When the widow is murdered, the town explodes. Pronzini, the author of the extraordinary "Nameless" detective series (see starred review, p.1667), rotates the first-person narrative among the main characters as if they were sitting around a campfire and picking up the story where the previous teller left off. It's a difficult technique to execute successfully, but Pronzini pulls it off by providing each narrator with a unique voice and personal context. The result, as in Stephen Dobyns' Church of Dead Girls , is a thriller in which a small town's fear of the unknown drives the action. Highly recommended. Wes Lukowsky