A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king.

The opening of this lovestory has our hero enchanted with our heroine's beauty and when he attempts to make his move, our heroine shocks him by presenting a crude personality sure to repulse him. Fabia has great fun fooling Alex, only she later learns that when he discovers her prank that he's not amused. Fabia allows a very painful experience with a rich playboy to paint her opinions of Alex in the same colour. Slowing through his persistence she begins to doubt her preconceived impressions. Fabia is torn by her attraction to Alex and by the voice in her heart that warns her that he's just like the one who hurt her. Alex hates that Fabia has stereotyped him because of his wealth and the press that comes with that wealth. Although we are not given his POV, it's clear that Alex cares deeply for Fabia even though she fails to see it until it's almost too late.

When city girl Molly Bonner arrives in the village of Lufferton Boney, she creates quite a stir. With her non-country-style boots, determined manner and alluring looks, she sets off a wave of intrigue that ripples through the lives of everyone there, from Julie the barmaid at the Holly Bush to antiques dealer Dryden Fellows and Montmorency the cat. For Molly is a girl on a mission: to discover the truth behind Lufferton Boney's most notorious resident, the giant (and slightly obscene) Gnome etched into the face of Pound Hill. And along the way, she has some personal demons to settle...

“What’s a header?” Fifteen years ago, Travis Clyde Tuckton asked that self-same question to his ancient grandfather, and the answer came in a rampage of twisted bloodlust, missing persons, and the most macabre and indescribable act of vengeance that human consciousness has ever devised… Now, in those same desolate woods, amongst dilapidated shacks behind whose rickety doors no one dare look, something even worse has come to curse the land of simple folk, a jubilee of murderous perversity and sexual abomination too hideous to describe. Only the courage of Travis Tuckton could ever begin to set things back to rights but, lo, Travis and his grandfather are long dead…  Ah, but their relatives aren’t! And it will be these stout-hearted men who shall rise to the occasion of the most horrific revenge in the history of the backwoods—an eye for an eye, a head for a head! Not even unearthed graves, molested corpses, abducted tots, and an unspeakable human monstrosity can thwart the might of right. Join steadfast hayseeds Helton, Dumar, and Micky-Mack as they venture forth into a wretched mire of unadulterated horror, where the symbol of ultimate evil is not a psycho-killer, nor a demon, but the full-tilt rev of power tools screaming through the endless night… HEADER 2 Where revenge is all in the mind.

SUMMARY: Eager to strike back at the Clans who destroyed his 'Mech and his career, former Com Guard soldier Jeremiah Rose recruits other soldiers from the arenas to create a new mercenary unit. Original.

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From Publishers Weekly Woods's latest (after Palindrome) is a slick thriller set in Manhattan's Upper East Side, the stomping ground of Stone Barrington, a well-bred but unpretentious detective who, in a city of several million people, always ends up in the right place at the right time. Late one evening, as Stone trudges home from Elaine's Restaurant, popular TV newscaster Sasha Nijinsky plummets 12 stories from her terrace and lands on a heap of dirt 20 yards away from him-remarkably, still alive. Stone fails to apprehend the person who flees Sasha's penthouse and, after the ambulance carrying her collides with a fire truck, Sasha herself disappears. Despite the fact that no corpse is in evidence, the baffled NYPD eagerly pins a murder rap on Sasha's distraught lesbian lover. Stone refuses to accept his colleagues' pat solution and even maintains that Sasha might have survived thanks to skydiving training and her billowing, parachute-like robe. Bed-hopping TV newspeople, a sexy blonde judge sporting a red dress beneath her robes, a serial killer targeting cabbies and a creepy med-school dropout turned mortician who idolizes Sasha romp through this calculatedly melodramatic crime story all the way to its grisly B-movie finale. 75,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; author tour.

Chilling in the extreme, "The Lost Stradivarius" is a classic tale of the supernatural. While practicing in his rooms in Oxford, gifted violinist John Maltravers notices a strange phenomenon: whenever a certain air is played, a mysterious presence seems to enter. Unable to rationalize this away, Maltravers becomes increasingly unsettled, until he makes a startling discovery-tucked away in a hidden cupboard in his room is a priceless Stradivarius. Obsessed by his find, he becomes increasingly withdrawn from those around him, choosing instead to explore more sinister pursuits, little knowing the spell that this seemingly perfect violin is unleashing upon him. English poet and novelist J. Meade Falkner is best remembered for his novel, "Moonfleet".

Sinfully sexy hotel CEO Nate Harper knows exactly how to please a woman. But one thing he's not so good at what-so-ever is getting his mind and all his dirty thoughts off the gorgeous, outgoing, and absolutely captivating Casey Sullivan, the new head of the Joy Delivered company. He finds himself signing up for more than his heart bargained for when she turns to him for his romantic expertise.

Victor, Isaac, Vanessa, and Sara have been taken away from their mother. They've been forced to leave behind their home, school, friends, and worst of all, each other. Vanessa and Sara have been placed in the same foster home, but Victor and Isaac have been separated from their younger siblings and each other. As Victor and Isaac grapple with the many challenges of their new lives, they try to keep in touch through email. Will their messages be enough to get them through the hard times and keep them together?

When we last saw Hamish X, he had been captured once more by the evil Grey Agents of the ODA(Orphan Disposal Agency), and the Wind City Orphanage had been destroyed. But with Mimi's strength and Parveen's ingenuity, Hamish X and all their Wind City friends are rescued. Now, new and surprising adventures are in store for everyone, when they make their escape to ... Switzerland! Deep within the Alps, the world's lost children have found safe haven in a hidden world. It is here, in the Hollow Mountain, where the mysteries of Hamish X, his boots, and his past will begin to unfold—if the Grey Agents don't get to him first!