Fiction

The fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It's a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep.

Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object--something he calls "the key to everything"--and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And Jeffy and Amity can't help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away?

Jeffy and Amity aren't the only ones interested in the device. A man with a dark purpose is in pursuit, determined to use its grand potential for profound evil. Unless Amity and Jeffy can outwit him, the place they call home may never be safe again.

October 1945. The war is over. The OSS has been disbanded. But for Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS, the fight goes on...

In the closing months of the war, the United States made a secret deal with Reinhard Gehlen, head of German intelligence's Soviet section. In exchange for a treasure trove of intelligence on the Soviets and their spies within the U.S. atomic bomb program, Gehlen's people would be spirited to safety in Argentina.

Only a handful of people know about the deal. If word got out, all hell would break loose--and the U.S. would lose some of the most valuable intelligence sources they possess. It is up to Frade and company to keep them safe.

But some people have other ideas...

In the #1 New York Times bestselling series' latest thriller, Mitch Rapp finds himself alone and targeted by a country that is supposed to be one of America's closest allies.

After 9/11, the United States made one of the most secretive and dangerous deals in its history. The evidence against the powerful Saudis who coordinated the attack would be buried. In return, King Faisal would promise to keep the oil flowing and deal with the conspirators in his midst.

When the king's own nephew is discovered funding ISIS, the president suspects that the Saudis never intended to live up to their agreement. He decides that the royalty needs to be sent a message and that Mitch Rapp is just the man to deliver it. The catch? America can't be seen moving against an ally. Rapp will be on his own. Forced to make a decision that will change his life forever, Rapp quits the CIA and assembles a group of independent contractors to help him complete the mission.

They've barely begun unraveling the connections between the Saudi government and ISIS when the brilliant new head of the intelligence directorate discovers their efforts. With Rapp getting too close, he threatens to go public with the details of the post-9/11 agreement between the two countries.

Facing an international incident that could end his political career, the President orders America's intelligence agencies to join the Saudis' effort to hunt the former CIA man down.

Rapp, supported only by a team of mercenaries with dubious allegiances, finds himself at the center of the most elaborate manhunt in history. It's only a matter of time before he's caught or killed. Will it be enough to turn the tables on the Saudis and clear his name?

Michael Ondaatje's three previous novels have each been met with the highest praise: for their startling narrative inventiveness, the richness of their imagery and emotion, and the spellbinding quality of their language. When "In the Skin of a Lion" was published in 1987, Carolyn Kizer, writing in "The New York Times Book Review," called Ondaatje "a beautiful writer... brilliantly gifted." And Tom Clark wrote in the "San Francisco Chronicle" that "Ondaatje handles fiction with the deceptive touch of a magician." Now, with "The English Patient," he gives us his most stunningly original and lyric novel yet. During the final moments of World War II, in a deserted Italian villa, four people come together: a young nurse, her will broken, all her energy focused on her last, dying patient, a man in whom she has seen something "she wanted to learn, to grow into and hide in.".. the patient: an unknown Englishman, survivor of a plane crash, his mind awash with a life's worth of secrets and passions ... a thief whose "skills" have made him one of the war's heroes, and one of its casualties ... an Indian soldier in the British army, an expert at bomb disposal whose three years at war have taught him that "the only thing safe is himself." Slowly, they begin to reveal themselves to each other, the stories of their pasts and of the present unfolding in scene after haunting scene, taking us into the Sahara, the English countryside, down the streets of London during the Blitz, into the makeshift army hospitals of Italy, and through the battered gardens and rooms of the villa. And with these stories, Ondaatje weaves a complex tapestry of image and emotion, recollection and observation: the paths anddetails of four diverse lives caught and changed and now inextricably connected by the brutal, improbable circumstances of war.

Special Agent Puller's brother is the country's most wanted criminal, but his conviction points to a cover-up--and a dangerous enemy bent on burying the truth in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.

It's a prison unlike any other. Military discipline rules. Its security systems are unmatched. None of its prisoners dream of escaping. They know it's impossible...until now.

John Puller's older brother, Robert, was convicted of treason. His inexplicable escape from prison makes him the most wanted criminal in the country. Some in the government believe that John Puller represents their best chance at capturing Robert alive, and so Puller must bring in his brother to face justice.

But Puller quickly discovers that his brother is pursued by others who don't want him to survive. Puller is in turn pushed into an uneasy, fraught partnership with another agent, who may have an agenda of her own.

They dig more deeply into the case together, and Puller finds that not only are her allegiances unclear, but there are troubling details about his brother's conviction...and someone out there doesn't want the truth to ever come to light. As the nationwide manhunt for Robert grows more urgent, Puller's masterful skills as an investigator and strengths as a fighter may not be enough to save his brother--or himself.

#1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline offers a sweeping and shattering epic of historical fiction fueled by shocking true events, the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome...in the creeping shadow of fascism.

What war destroys, only love can heal.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment. This moving novel will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of readers.

It all begins with what appears to be a simple mugging and murder of a female White House staffer. Secret Service agent Scott Roarke discovers the truth: that the murder was committed by his secret nemesis, the mysterious assassin who had managed to always stay one step ahead of him during the presidential campaign.

Nathan Zuckerman returns to New York in the long-awaited final installment of Philip Roth's renowned Zuckerman series.

Alone for eleven years on his New England mountain, Zuckerman has been nothing but a writer: no media, no terrorist threats, no women, no tasks other than his work and the enduring of old age. Walking the streets of New York after so many years away, he quickly makes three connections that explode his carefully protected solitude. Suddenly involved, as he never wanted or intended to be again, with love, mourning, desire, and animosity, Zuckerman plays out an interior drama of vivid and poignant possibilities.

Revisiting the characters from Roth's much-heralded The Ghost Writer, Exit Ghost is an astounding leap into yet another phase in this great writer's oeuvre.

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she's knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she's flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he's dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo--Stephanie Plum. Now she's the target, and she doesn't intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she'll need to watch her back.

Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie's temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie's wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie's apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton's hottest cop, isn't talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn't talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It's complicated.

The hardcover edition of Explosive Eighteen contains a tear-out calendar inside!

Sisterhood Forever

Lush, exclusive Spyder Island is home to many of the world's billionaires. Years ago, Gretchen Spyder, daughter of the island's namesake, gave her twin babies up for legal adoption. Now Gretchen and her father are trying to get them back. The twins' adoptive parents are a loving but poor couple, completely outgunned by the Spyders' wealth. Their only hope lies with Myra Rutledge and her formidable Sisterhood, who are as ready as ever to fight the good fight. But nestled among the lavish mansions and immaculate landscaping of Spyder Island is a sinister enemy. And in a case that's far more twisted than it first appeared, the ingenuity, courage, and friendship of the Sisterhood will be tested as never before.

Praise for Fern Michaels and her Sisterhood novels. . .

Readers will enjoy seeing what happens when well-funded, very angry women take the law into their own hands. --Booklist on Weekend Warriors

Delectable. . .Revenge that's creatively swift and sweet, Michaels-style. --Publishers Weekly on Hokus Pokus

The government abandoned him.
Now they're asking for his help.
But they're not going to like his answer.
A secret department of Homeland Security is recruiting agents to work undercover in the Middle East, and the director wants his second-in-command, Matt Egan, to bring aboard an old friend, Salam Al Fayed-better known as Fade.
He seems perfect for the job: A New Yorker and ex-Navy Seal, he is the son of immigrants and he speaks perfect Arabic. Trouble is, he's "retired;" he got shot in the back in the line of duty, and the U.S. government refused to pay for the risky surgery that could have helped him.
Now Fade lives the life of a hermit, walking around with a bullet lodged near his spine and liable to shift at any moment, and the last thing he wants to hear is that his country needs him-least of all, his ex-best friend Matt Egan, whom he sees as responsible for his present condition.
Against Egan's wishes, the director forces the issue and tries none too subtly to "persuade" Fade to join the team. But Fade, angry and hopeless, is prepared to fight back at any cost; the ensuing confrontation is a bloody one. And the chase is on-will Matt be able to find his friend-turned-fugitive before Fade can take the ultimate revenge?
"Fade" is a remarkable, take-no-prisoners read from an unparalleled writer at the height of his talents.

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RFairy Tales&&L/I&&R, by &&LSTRONG&&RHans Christian Andersen&&L/B&&R, &&L/B&&Ris part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&RNew introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&LBR&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&RWho has not laughed at the emperor's new clothes, thrilled to the song of the nightingale, or sympathized with the ugly duckling? In the 170 years since they first began to appear, &&LSTRONG&&RHans Christian Andersen&&L/B&&R's &&LI&&RFairy Tales&&L/I&&R have entranced and bewitched millions of readers, adults and children alike. &&LBR&&R &&LBR&&RWriting in the midst of a Europe-wide rebirth of national literature, Anderson broke new ground with his fairy tales in two important ways. First, he composed them in the vernacular, mimicking the language he used in telling them to children aloud. Second, he set his tales in his own land and time, giving rise to his loving descriptions of the Danish countryside. In contrast to such folklorists as the Brothers Grimm, Anderson's tales are grounded in the real and often focus on the significance of small or overlooked things.&&LBR&&R &&LBR&&RHere are all of Andersen's collected tales, many--such as "The Little Mermaid," "The Red Shoes," and "The Steadfast Tin Soldier"--still popular through modern adaptations, and others, including "The Flying Trunk" and "The Most Incredible Thing," well worth rediscovering.&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RJack Zipes &&L/B&&Ris professor of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. A specialist in folklore and fairy tales, he has authored numerous books of criticism over the last thirty years and edited several major anthologies, including the &&LI&&RNorton Anthology of Children's Literature&&L/I&&R (2005).&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RMarte Hvam Hult &&L/B&&Rholds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian languages and literatures from the University of Minnesota. She is the author of &&LI&&RFraming a National Narrative: The Legend Collections of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen&&L/I&&R and a forthcoming translation of Asbjørnsen's &&LI&&RHuldreeventyr&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R.&&L/I&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

When her beloved Aunt Grace is found dead on the floor of her bedroom, eleven-year-old Zoe Delaney is convinced it was murder. Determined to get to the truth of the matter, and with the help of a journal she finds under her aunt's bed, Zoe sets out to investigate her aunt's death. Her covert investigation, however, soon turns up evidence that her aunt, a highly regarded ethics professor at Rhode Island College, might not have been the person Zoe and others thought she was. Zoe is forced to face the possibility that, rather being an innocent victim, her Aunt Grace may have murdered several people.

Should she turn her discoveries over to her parents--and the police--or destroy the evidence and save her aunt's reputation?

"Stunning and relentless. This is Jaws at 35,000 feet." --Don Winslow
"Falling is the best kind of thriller...Nonstop, totally authentic suspense." --James Patterson
"Amazing...Intense suspense, shocks and scares...Chilling." --Lee Child
"The perfect summer thriller. Relentlessly paced and unforgettable." --Janet Evanovich

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don't know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot's family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

Thomas Hardy's impassioned novel of courtship in rural life

In Thomas Hardy's first major literary success, independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. One of his first works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.

This edition, based on Hardy's original 1874 manuscript, is the complete novel he never saw published, and restores its full candor and innovation. Rosemarie Morgan's introduction discusses the history of its publication, as well as the biblical and classical allusions that permeate the novel.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Kurt Austin races to Antarctica to stop a chilling plot that imperils the entire planet in the latest novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling Grand Master of Adventure.

In the early days of World War II, the infamous German Luftwaffe embark upon an expedition to Antarctica, hoping to set up a military base to support their goal of world domination. Though the military outpost never comes to fruition, what the Nazis find on the icy continent indeed proves dangerous...and will have implications far into the future.

In the present day, Kurt Austin and his assistant Joe Zavala embark for the freezing edge of the world after a former NUMA colleague disappears in Antarctica. While there, they discover a photo of the Luftwaffe expedition of 1939, and are drawn into a decades-old conspiracy. Even as they confront perilous waters and frigid temperatures, they are also are up against a terrifying man-made weapon--a fast-growing ice that could usher in a new Ice Age.

Pitted against a determined madman and a monstrous storm, Kurt and the NUMA team must unravel the Nazi-era plot in order to save the globe from a freeze that would bury it once and for all.

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RFathers and Sons&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RIvan Turgenev&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&RNew introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&RYouth rebels. It's true today and it was true in Russia, in 1862, when&&LSTRONG&&R Ivan Turgenev&&L/B&&R's &&LI&&RFathers and Sons &&L/I&&Rfirst appeared. At the novel's center stands Evgeny Bazarov, medical student, doctor's son, and self-proclaimed nihilist. Bazarov rejects all authority, all so-called truths that are based on faith rather than science and experience. His ideas bring him into conflict with his best friend, recent graduate Arkady Kirsanov, with Arkady's family, with his own parents, and eventually with his emotions, when he falls helplessly in love with the beautiful Madame Odintsova.&&LBR&&R &&LBR&&RTurgenev's earlier &&LI&&RA Sportsman's Sketches&&L/I&&R had helped hasten the liberation of the serfs in 1861. But the complex portrait of Bazarov, whose goals he admired but whose rejection of art and embrace of violence he could not accept, enraged both right and left. The right saw &&LI&&RFathers and Sons&&L/I&&R as a glorification of radical extremists; the left saw it as a denunciation of progress. Even today, readers argue over Turgenev's attitude towards Bazarov. But they can't resist the novel's power to grip the heart while engaging the mind.&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RDavid Goldfarb&&L/B&&R is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages at Barnard College. He has published numerous scholarly articles as well as the Introduction and Notes to the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of Leo Tolstoy's &&LI&&RThe Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories&&L/I&&R.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

The 30th Anniversary special!

Originally published in 1973, the ground-breaking, uninhibited story of Isadora Wing and her desire to fly free caused a national sensation--and sold more than twelve million copies. Now, after thirty years, the iconic novel still stands as a timeless tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.

Everyone in Madrid in the torrid fall of 1868 is discussing political plots and revolution except for Don Jaime. He is a fencing master and a man of honor, an anachronism. For years he has been working on a Treatise on the Art of Fencing, the heart of which is his perfection of the unstoppable thrust. He is approached one day by a beautiful and mysterious woman with a scar at the corner of her mouth that hints at dark violence. She asks the maestro to teach her the unstoppable thrust. Even though Do-a Adela de Otero's weapons of charm and elegance are formidable, Don Jaime declines. But he is entirely unprepared for the unhurried, sure, and inexplicable movements that follow. Soon he finds himself involved in a plot that includes seduction, politics, secret documents, and murder. Rich with the historical detail of a decaying world that agonizes-as does the art of fencing-over ideals of honor and chivalry, The Fencing Master is superb literature and an honest-to-goodness page-turner.

"As clever and witty a novel as anyone has written in a long time . . . Robbins takes readers on a wild, delightful ride. . . . A delight from beginning to end."--Buffalo News

Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy; a cyberwhiz who hates computers; a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn't merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. And as we dog Switters's strangely elevated heels across four continents, in and out of love and danger, discovering in the process the "true" Third Secret of Fatima, we experience Tom Robbins--that fearless storyteller, spiritual renegade, and verbal break dancer--at the top of his game. On one level this is a fast-paced CIA adventure story with comic overtones; on another it's a serious novel of ideas that brings the Big Picture into unexpected focus; but perhaps more than anything else, Fierce Invalids is a sexy celebration of language and life.

Praise for Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

"Superb."--New York Post

"Dangerous? Wicked? Forbidden? You bet. . . . Pour yourself a bowl of chips and dig in."--Daily News, New York

"Robbins is a great writer . . . and definitely a provocative rascal."--The Tennessean

"Whoever said truth is stranger than fiction never read a Tom Robbins novel. . . Clever, creative, and witty, Robbins tosses off impassioned observations like handfuls of flower petals."--San Diego Union-Tribune

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!

From debut author Asha Lemmie, "a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together."--Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale

Kyoto, Japan, 1948. "Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist."

Such is eight-year-old Noriko "Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.

The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond--a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it--a battle that just might cost her everything.

Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

Just as with his remarkable military novels, millions of readers have been captured by the rich characters and vivid realism of Griffin's police dramas. "Griffin has the knack," writes "The Philadelphia Inquirer." "He sets his novel before you in short, fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes. Before you know it, you've gobbled it up."
Now, in "Final Justice," Detective Matt Payne-newly promoted to Sergeant and assigned to Homicide-finds himself in the middle of three major assignments. The first, a fatal shooting at a fast-food restaurant, seems simple, but rapidly becomes complicated. The second begins complicated and only gets more so, as Payne becomes involved with a local guru who has fled the country, leaving behind the mummified body of his girlfriend in a trunk. And, as if that weren't enough, the self-absorbed star of a series of improbable police movies comes into town-and it is his presence that will complicate Payne's life most of all.
Filled with color and detail and plots as real as the headlines, this is a riveting novel of the men and women who put their lives on the line, from the cop on the beat to the commissioner himself.

German Prodigy, Leonardo only lives with one purpose: to play the piano. His parents know it, his siblings know it, and all of Germany knows it. His technique stems from the training from his father, who sees him as a student rather than a son. He's never been afraid to perform onstage as the puppet his family wants, until now. As he strives to sever the association between him and the piano, he makes one move that will reset his whole life. Set right after WWI, Leonardo must find his way in a country that's against him, and decide if giving up music is what he's wanted all along. As far as Estella was concerned, her life was set. She had a home, a husband, a violin, and a beautiful daughter. England had just won the war, and things were supposed to be better. But they weren't. As the devastation of the Spanish flu sets in, Estella and her family are thrown into a whirlwind of sorrow and controversy. Now there are rules and servants that surround them constantly, and not to mention, a newly hired German man who draws endless suspicion. Can two enemy countries, two different people, and two instruments find harmony?