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Elgin Collier, AKA Gillian Shelby, is the world's most popular women's erotica author. She has wealth, success and now apparently a stalker who may already have committed murder. Sheila Forbes, Elgin 's publisher and best friend hires Campbell Harm, head of Harm's Way Security to protect her and find the stalker. It's hate at first sight for these strong-willed, independent people. He thinks she's a "pornographer" and she thinks he's a "knuckle-dragging Neanderthal." Sparks fly from their first meeting. <

“‘As far as I can determine there is only one solution [to the CEO’s demand to save more money]’, the HR representative wrote to her superiors. ‘That would be the death of all existing retirees.’”

It’s no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs- what they call “a perfect storm” of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures.

But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E. Schultz, award-winning investigative reporter for the , reveals how large companies and the retirement industry-benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks-have all played a huge and hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits.

A little over a decade ago, most companies had more than enough set aside to pay the benefits earned by two generations of workers, no matter how long they lived. But by exploiting loopholes, ambiguous regulations, and new accounting rules, companies essentially turned their pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters, and profit centers.

Drawing on original analysis of company data, government filings, internal corporate documents, and confidential memos, Schultz uncovers decades of widespread deception during which employers have exaggerated their retiree burdens while lobbying for government handouts, secretly cutting pensions, tricking employees, and misleading shareholders. She reveals how companies:

Siphon billions of dollars from their pension plans to finance downsizings and sell the assets in merger deals

• Overstate the burden of rank-and-file retiree obligations to justify benefits cuts while simultaneously using the savings to inflate executive pay and pensions

• Hide their growing executive pension liabilities, which at some companies now exceed the liabilities for the regular pension plans

• Purchase billions of dollars of life insurance on workers and use the policies as informal executive pension funds. When the insured workers and retirees die, the company collects tax-free death benefits

• Preemptively sue retirees after cutting retiree health benefits and use other legal strategies to erode their legal protections.

Though the focus is on large companies—which drive the legislative agenda-the same games are being played at smaller companies, non-profits, public pensions plans and retirement systems overseas. Nor is this a partisan issue: employees of all political persuasions and income levels-from managers to miners, pro-football players to pilots-have been slammed.

A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning about language, love, and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways.

Josie, Riley, and Jeremy have come to the City of Light for different reasons: Josie, a young high school teacher, arrives in hopes of healing a broken heart. Riley, a spirited but lonely expat housewife, struggles to feel connected to her husband and her new country. And Jeremy, the reserved husband of a renowned actress, is accompanying his wife on a film shoot, yet he feels distant from her world.

As they meet with their tutors – Josie with Nico, a sensitive poet; Riley with Phillippe, a shameless flirt; and Jeremy with the consummately beautiful Chantal – each succumbs to unexpected passion and unpredictable adventures. Yet as they traverse Paris's grand boulevards and intimate, winding streets, they uncover surprising secrets about one another – and come to understand long-buried truths about themselves.

Stolz, edelmütig, tapfer, melancholisch und verliebt – das sind die Eigenschaften des schillernden Schwarzen Korsaren aus dem erfolgreichsten Roman des bekannten italienischen Abenteuerschriftstellers Emilio Salgari (1862-1911). Vor dem grandiosen Szenarium der Karibik und der venezolanischen Urwälder entspannt sich eine Rachegeschichte mit all jenen packenden Episoden, die einen klassischen Abenteuerroman ausmachen: Zweikämpfe, Seeschlachten, Unwetter, Begegnungen mit Raubtieren und Indianern, das ganze kunstvoll verwoben mit einer melodramatischen Liebesgeschichte.<

Emilio Salgari

Geboren am 21. August 1862 in Verona; gestorben am 25. April 1911 in Turin.

Sein Vater ist Tuchhändler. Die Oberschule kann er wegen schlechter Noten nicht zu Ende bringen. Von 1878 bis 1881 studierte er am Königlich Nautischen Institut in Venedig, um Kapitän zu werden. Er fiel bei der ersten Prüfung durch und heuerte als Schiffsjunge an, verließ in Brindisi das Schiff und fuhr mit der Eisenbahn zurück nach Verona. Soweit bekannt ist, hat er Italien nie verlassen.

Er studiert aber eifrig Abenteuerromane und veröffentlicht schon 1883, zwei Jahre nach seiner mißglückten Weltreise, im Alter von 21 Jahren seine erste Erzählung. Emilio Salgari produzierte in den folgenden Jahren ein Gesamtwerk von über 90 Romanen und Erzählungen.

1909 fürchtet er sein Augenlicht zu verlieren; seine Frau zeigt erste Anzeichen von Geisteskrankheit. Nachdem seine Frau 1910 in eine Heilanstalt eingeliefert wird, unternimmt er einen Selbstmordversuch, wird aber gerettet. Am 25. April 1911 bringt er sich dann mit einem Rasiermesser um.

Aus dem Italienischen übersetzt von Fr. Martha von Siegroth

W okupowanej Belgii katolicki ksiądz ukrywa żydowskiego chłopca Josepha. Chłopcu udaje się przeżyć, odnajduje rodziców i po latach opowiada swoją historię. Cała ta opowieść nie różniłaby się niczym od wielu innych, które znamy, gdyby nie to, że ojciec Pons ocala nie tylko życie Josepha, ale coś znacznie więcej.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt znowu nas zaskakuje, wzrusza i skłania do refleksji. Ta oparta na autentycznych wydarzeniach opowieść o różnorodności, tolerancji i poszukiwaniu tożsamości ma wymiar uniwersalny. Łączy humor z powagą i udowadnia, że o dobru można mówić w sposób prosty, piękny, a zarazem pozbawiony sentymentalizmu.

"Kiedy widzicie kobietę i mężczyznę w urzędzie stanu cywilnego, zastanówcie się, które z nich stanie się mordercą". Ta książka to przewrotna, zabawna i pełna zaskakujących zwrotów akcji opowieść o związku dwojga kochających się niegdyś ludzi. Co zostało między nimi po 15 latach małżeństwa? Schmittowi udała się nie lada sztuka: napisał dramat, który czyta się jak najbardziej wciągającą powieść.<

Thirty-something Alex Owens knows very little about her childhood or who she really is, her only family an absent, emotionally fragile mother. Alex spent most of her adulthood searching for the missing link, drifting from job to job, relationship to relationship. But when an infant's remains are unearthed in her hometown in back-country California, Alex suddenly realises that she has a connection to the case. As if opening Pandora's box, long-lost memories start flooding in, dark and terrifying nightmares that haunt her every waking moment. When she arrives in Sonoma, the tight-knit community greets Alex with silence and suspicion, but Alex presses on, determined to get to the heart of a secret no one wants to see uncovered. As more violent deaths and a series of deadly rituals shock the small town, Alex is finally forced to confront the terrible truth about a single night that changed her family's lives forever…<

"I won't talk to anyone else – only you. Another child, another sweet girl will die. You can stop it, Kitt. Don't you want to stop it?"

Five years ago, three young victims were found dead, posed like little angels. There were no witnesses. Strangely clean scenes. The Sleeping Angel Killer called his despicable acts "the perfect crimes."

The case immobilized the close-knit community of Rockford, Illinois, and nearly destroyed homicide detective Kitt Lundgren's career – and her life. During the investigation, Kitt tragically lost her own child to illness. She was overwhelmed by the death of her daughter, and the final blow was the crushing realization that she let the killer get away.

Now the Sleeping Angel Killer is back.

Familiar with every nuance of the cold-case file, Kitt knows there's something different about this new rash of killings – a tiny variation that opens terrifying new possibilities. Is the Sleeping Angel Killer really back, or is a copycat killer re-creating the original "perfect crimes"?

But Kitt has no authority in this investigation. Young, ambitious detective Mary Catherine Riggio is heading up the Sleeping Angel Killer case. M.C. knows that Kitt wants back in and she's smart enough to realize that Kitt's obsession with the case has given the detective insight that M.C. lacks. But M.C., intent on proving herself, fears Kitt will blow the investigation – again.

Then Kitt starts receiving disturbing phone calls. It's him – the Sleeping Angel Killer – and he makes Kitt an unthinkable offer: help in finding his copycat. Forced to rely on each other, Kitt and M.C. must decide whether to place their trust in a murderer… or risk becoming victims of a fiend who has taken the art of the perfect murder to horrific new heights.

When her sister Rachel, a pastor in Key West, mysteriously vanishes, and two murders occur, Liz is forced to team up with former Miami cop Rick Wells to unearth the dark secrets that lurk beneath the surface of this seemingly perfect community.<

Veintitrés años antes, Anna North había sobrevivido a una pesadilla. Un loco la había secuestrado y le había cortado el dedo meñique. En la actualidad, Anna vivía en Nueva Orleans, escribiendo novelas de suspense bajo seudónimo. Por fin se sentía a salvo. Pero, súbitamente, la vida de Anna dio un giro aterrador. La novelista empezó a recibir cartas misteriosas. Una amiga suya desapareció de pronto. Allanaron su apartamento. Alguien había comenzado a acosarla…

Desesperada, Anna acudió al inspector Quentin Malone, pero el policía estaba más preocupado por los recientes asesinatos de dos mujeres en el Barrio Francés. Sin embargo, tras el hallazgo de una tercera víctima, pelirroja como Anna y con el meñique amputado, Malone comprendió que la novelista era el nexo de unión entre los asesinatos y que podía ser la siguiente víctima…

La historia de tres generaciones de mujeres, sus complejas vidas, sus misterios, sus pecados, y al hombre que lo sabe todo sobre ellas y puede desvelar los más ocultos secretos.

Lily Pierron es una legendaria madame que sabe que en la cálida Nueva Orleans se puede cometer cualquier pecado a cambio de un alto precio. Para ella, el precio es su hija Hope.

Hope Pierron St. Germaine es la elegante y piadosa mujer de una acaudalado hotelero y la dedicada madre de Glory durante el día, pero por la noche sucumbe a las pasiones carnales que amenazan con destruirla.

Glory St. Germaine ignora los vergonzosos secretos de su familia, pero sufre las consecuencias de una oscuridad cuya existencia desconoce. Obstinada y atolondrada, Glory encuentra el amor prohibido en el hombre que lo sabe todo sobre las Pierron.

To the outside world, Cypress Springs, Louisiana, is a postcard-perfect town where moral, decent citizens lead safe, wholesome lives. But outsiders, it seems, don't fare so well…

When journalist Avery Chauvin returns home to Cypress Springs, Louisiana, after twelve years, it's as if time has stood still. Yet for her everything has changed – her mother died a year ago and now her father is gone. Devastated by her father's suicide and her inability to save him, Avery has taken a leave of absence from her newspaper job to come back and put his affairs in order. But in truth, she has come looking for answers. How could her father, a physician who dedicated himself to preserving life, have taken his own?

As Avery begins the heartbreaking task of cleaning out her parents' home, she discovers a box of fifteen-year-old newspaper articles covering the same event – the brutal murder of a young woman in Cypress Springs. Why, she wonders, did her father keep the clippings?

Then Avery meets a newcomer to Cypress Springs – a woman looking into her brother's sudden disappearance and into whispered rumors of strange happenings in town. Soon the events of the past and present take on a terrifying new meaning for Avery. A woman is found savagely murdered. An outsider passing through town vanishes. Neighbors go missing in the night.

Determined to get to the truth, Avery soon discovers that each layer of deceit she exposes is somehow linked to that long-ago murder – and to her father. Could he have been murdered?

Uncertain where to turn and whom to trust, Avery must face the fact that in this peaceful Southern town a terrible evil lives, protected – until now – by the power of silence.

Erica Spindler weaves a chilling tale of murder, betrayal and uncertain loyalties as she explores the razor edge between good and evil in a novel that will keep you turning the pages long into the night.

"The White Rabbit beckons you to follow him, down the rabbit hole, into his world. He's a deceiver, a trickster. You won't know what is truth and what is a lie. He aims to best you. Beat you. And when he does, you die."

When a friend is found brutally murdered in her New Orleans apartment, former homicide detective Stacy Killian has reason to believe her death is related to the cultish fantasy role-playing game White Rabbit. The game is dark, violent – and addictive.

As a former member of the Dallas police force, Stacy was exposed to more than her share of the horrors of crime. Moving to New Orleans was her attempt to pursue a quieter life. But her friend's murder plunges her back into the role that she fled – especially after she meets Spencer Malone, the homicide detective assigned to the murder case. Stacy doubts the overconfident rookie is up to the task and vows to track down the killer herself.

Her investigation draws her into the privileged circle of White Rabbit's brilliant creator, Leo Noble, a man with many dark secrets in his past… a man whose life has the same frightening surreal quality of the game he invented.

As the bodies mount and the game is taken to the next level, Stacy and Spencer are forced to work together. Soon they are trapped in the terrifying world of a game gone mad where Leo Noble and all the people around him are suspect, cryptic notes foretell the next victim and no one – no one – is safe.

Because White Rabbit is more than a game. It's more real than life and death. And anyone can die before the final moment when the game is over… and the killer takes all.

For police captain Patti O’Shea, the discovery of a dead body is shocking, but part of the job. A dead body with the right hand severed is disturbing. But when a corpse is discovered with the police badge of her murdered husband, she is pushed over the edge. Driven by revenge, and working outside the law, Patti vows to track the monster responsible. But as the killings continue, it becomes clear that she is not the hunter – but the hunted.<