THE GAUNTLET IS THROWN…Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner have united two Great Houses of the Inner Sphere in a marriage that upsets the balance of power among the stars. Though some hope this may bring an end to centuries of war, Maximilian Liao of the Capellan Confederation has enlisted the aid of two highly placed Davion traitors to destroy Hanse Davion and the Federated Suns from both within and without.But in the distant star chambers of the Capellan March and Draconis Combine, the warlords of Maximilian Liao are honoring a different and more deadly vow: to wage an unholy war that threatens to rip apart the vulnerable worlds of the Federated Suns. As Davion 'Mech commander Andrew Redburn and his mercenaries streak into battle, an explosive clash of metal and men signals the return of a formidable foe. Interstellar legend Yorinaga Kurita has returned to stake his claim as the most bloodthirsty warrior of all. For both men, it is do-or-die...

There’s nothing wrong with lying—until the truth comes out For her sixteenth birthday, Evvie Sebastian got her own room—a room she doesn’t have to share with her three sisters. There’s only one problem: It’s a dump, just like the rest of the family’s new house. Evvie has hardly moved in when her dad, Nicky, asks her to spend the summer at the seaside with her great-aunt Grace, who’s had a bad fall and needs cheering up—and who is snobbish, ill tempered, and very, very rich. Evvie reluctantly agrees. When she arrives at Eastgate, she finds Aunt Grace just as fierce as she remembered, but she has to admit that the place has some redeeming qualities. Like the handsome and charming Schyler Hughes . . . and Sam Steinmetz, who works in the town bookstore and makes smart jokes about the local culture of conformity. But it’s not all romantic sailing trips and walks on the beach. Evvie soon finds that some people like to tell old stories and share old secrets a little too much—and some of those secrets may hit closer to home than Evvie expected.

Night falls. In a lonely valley called the Sink, four people prepare for a quiet evening. Then in his orchard, Murray Jaccob sees a moving shadow. Across the swamp, his neighbour Ronnie watches her lover leave and feels her baby roll inside her. And on the verandah of the Stubbses' house, a small dog is torn screaming from its leash by something unseen. Nothing will ever be the same again.

A book for all people. And all who read it will be changed by the experience. ". . . an extraordinary book. . . I would commend it to everybody." Terry Lane, ABC Radio The Journey is a story of young people in a world so different and yet so like our own. It is a world in which young people must undertake a journey of discovery on their way to becoming adults. Fourteen-year-old Argus sets out on his journey away from his valley and his parents, never knowing what adventure will befall him next. He learns how to survive in the wild until he meets with a travelling fair, which he joins, becoming a friend of Mayon the storyteller, of Lavolta and Parara - twins who share the same body - and many others. But it is with the sweet and wise Temora that he learns some of the deepest secrets. All journeys must find an end. Argus leaves the fair and travels on alone, until his last and greatest adventure beckons him home. There he tells, for the approval of his elders, the seven stories which are now his story. But all is not done. There is one more chapter to be lived out in the story of Argus. Fans of Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins and John Flanagan will love John Marsden.

A cemetery of dark secrets... and Nancy's in the middle of it! Shady Glen was no different from any other cemetery -- maybe a little spooky, but harmless nonetheless. At least that's what Nancy thought until she stumbled onto a treasure map...and stumbled into a world of trouble. The map leads Nancy into a network of underground passageways, where she uncovers a series of clues to a recent outbreak of robberies and the location of a long-lost fortune in gold. She follows the hidden tunnels into the cold, dark heart of the cemetery and comes face-to-face with the chilling secret of Shady Glen!

From the author to the reader: Show-and-Tell was the very best part of school for me, both as a student and as a teacher.As a kid, I put more into getting ready for my turn to present than I put into the rest of my homework. Show-and-Tell was real in a way that much of what I learned in school was not. It was education that came out of my life experience.As a teacher, I was always surprised by what I learned from these amateur hours. A kid I was sure I knew well would reach down into a paper bag he carried and fish out some odd-shaped treasure and attach meaning to it beyond my most extravagant expectation. Again and again I learned that what I thought was only true for me . . . only valued by me . . . only cared about by me . . . was common property. The principles guiding this book are not far from the spirit of Show-and-Tell. It is stuff from home—that place in my mind and heart where I most truly live.P.S. This volume picks up where I...

From Andrew Neiderman comes a haunting tale of a son's terrifying legacy....Surrogate ChildFifteen-year-old Solomon Stern was the perfect teenager: an ideal student, an outstanding athlete, and a valued friend.But when Solomon ended his life with a hangman's noose, he shattered every dream that Joe and Martha Stern held dear. His legacy: guilt to a father who didn't know his own son...despair to a mother who loved him too well.The foster child was a second chance for the Sterns -- Jonathan, a boy of Solomon's age, intelligent and charming. But there were other similarities between Jonathan and the dead son. Disturbing similarities. And there was also something different about Jonathan...something chilling. Something deadly.

1587, and Mary, Queen of Scots, dies by the executioner's axe, her head, shorn of its auburn wig, rolling across the platform. Will her death end the ceaseless plotting against Mary's red-haired cousin, Elizabeth?[HTML_REMOVED]1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, is a time of more terror and triumph, not just for queen and court but for the whole of England. The turmoil is reflected in its theatres and under the galleries of inns like London's The Queen's Head where Lord Westfield's Men perform. The scene there on grows even more tumultuous when one of the actors is murdered by a mysterious stranger during a brawl.[HTML_REMOVED]Nicholas Bracewell, the company's bookholder, a role far wider than mere producer, faces two immediate repercussions. The first is to secure a replacement acceptable to its temperamental star -- and chief shareholder -- Lawrence Firethorn. The second is to keep his promise to the dying Will Fowler and catch his killer.[HTML_REMOVED]Soon further robberies, accidents, and misfortunes strike Lord Westfield's Men even as their stage successes swell. Bracewell begins to suspect a conspiracy, not a single murderous act, but where lies the proof? Then the players are rewarded with the ultimate accolade -- an appearance at court -- and the canny bookholder senses the end to the drama is at hand....[HTML_REMOVED]First published to great acclaim in 1988, The Queen's Head anticipated the lure of bawdy, boisterous, yet elegant epics like Shakespeare in Love. Actor and playwrite Marston has followed with, to date, ten more lusty, historically grounded, theatrically sound Bracewell mysteries that explore the face of England and reveal his deep love for its rich literary and dramatic heritage. The Roaring Boy was nominated for a 1996 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Publisher's WeeklyFans of fictional Chicago pol Jimmy Flannery, who might have been disappointed with Campbell's Hip-Deep in Alligators, rejoice: the precinct captain/sewer inspector is back in fine form. A flock of out-of-town models (the ''turkey herd'') have been found dead in the last year, but Chicago's cops aren't interested. Flannery's alderman-friend Janet, a feminist activist he calls ''lipstick lesbian,'' wants Jimmy to investigate. Her interest becomes personal when her friend Joyce, a model, doesn't show up to move into her apartment. After Flannery discovers Joyce strangled in a neighbor's apartment, he probes deeper and eventually nails the not very surprising, but very creepy, killer. Along the way he meets a wonderfully mixed bag of outlandish characters (exterminator Willy Dink stands out), conducts a hilarious raid on an animal shelter and adopts a mongrel dog almost as charming as himself.

...a magical parable of love, death and the power of familial bonds. —Stephen Salisbury, New York Times Book Review

Some joker is causing trouble for Danner & Bishop, Chicago's most exclusive department store, but no one's laughing. Then Nancy and friends go undercover as store employees to catch the culprit—and find themselves in serious trouble.

In The Clue in the Camera, what starts as a fun trip to San Francisco develops into a dangerous mystery when Nancy exposes the dark secrets of a dead man.

Life imitates art in The Lady in the Van, the story of the itinerant Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van in Alan Bennett's driveway from the early1970s until her death in 1989. It is doubtful that Bennett could have made up the eccentric Miss Shepherd if he tried, but his poignant, funny but unsentimental account of their strange relationship is akin to his best fictional screen writing.Bennett concedes that "One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation", but as the plastic bags build up, the years pass by and Miss Shepherd moves into Bennett's driveway, a relationship is established which defines a certain moment in late 20th-century London life which has probably gone forever. The dissenting, liberal, middle-class world of Bennett and his peers comes into hilarious but also telling collision with the world of Miss Shepherd: "there was a gap between our social position and our social obligations. It was in this gap that Miss Shepherd (in her van) was able to live". Bennett recounts Miss Shepherd's bizarre escapades in his inimitable style, from her letter to the Argentinean Embassy at the height of the Falklands War, to her attempts to stand for Parliament and wangle an electric wheelchair out of the Social Services. Beautifully observed, The Lady in the Van is as notable for Bennett's attempts to uncover the enigmatic history of Miss Shepherd, as it is for its amusing account of her eccentric escapades. --Jerry Brotton

WE DIDN'T KNOW—WE ONLY BELIEVED—NOW YOU'VE COME BACK "Does it seem reasonable to you that a Regency continues—into an Emperor's thirtieth year " "No, m'lord," Shoka said. "Not to us, either. Not to many of us. We were ready to make that objection—when lord Gitu overran Yijang and Hua.... Assassinations, elsewhere. Hired killers. Bands of mercenaries traveling under imperial orders. The Emperor's seal, and the Regent's orders. How do we stop such a thing How do we prevent it—when every lord able to lead is apprehended, assassinated, when they strip us of men, even boys out of the fields—go to Saukendar, some said. Go to Saukendar. They urged me to send to you. This time he has to listen, they said. But if I had sent—and Ghita had known—you understand—" Reidi gave an uncomfortable twitch of the shoulders. His horse shifted again. "I had no true hope that you'd come. You'd indicated to the villagers—that you had no wish to hear from anyone. That you would refuse any such petitions—" "You were watching me." "It's my village, m'lord—as the Regent pointed out to me again and again, and threatened my life should you leave that mountain. Of course the word came to me. I tried to get a messenger down the road to you when I knew you'd left Mon.... We believed you'd come back to deal with Ghita and his partisans." Shoka felt cold, cold all the way to the bones. "There are men ready to follow you, lord Saukendar. There are men who've committed their lives to this— We didn't know the hour. We only believed. Now you've come back ..." At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "It's gripping drama, tightly focussed and inexorable as Taizu herself. Read The Paladin and you'll never settle for another ordinary sword-wielding female." —Faren Miller LOCUS