戏剧与现实交错的杰作在雷格纳·希尔部推理小说《喜欢交际的女人》里，他创造的一对独特的侦探搭档也首度登场。一位是心宽体胖、好色贪怀、爱斗嘴耍活宝的刑事主任达尔齐尔，另一位则是教养优雅、学识丰富的警官帕斯科。自从柯南·道尔创造了华生医生作为神探福尔摩斯的搭档之后，推理小说家就经常使用这种对比手法，用一位“次要而平凡”的角色来衬托神探的不凡。这些二号人物有时候是侦探的朋友，有时候是记者，有时候是助手或忠仆，但多半不脱烘托主角的功能。但雷格纳·希尔采取了另外一种途径：他让侦探的搭档有能力也有作用，甚至是重要的互补，没有对方彼此都不是完整的；他又让两人的文化特质与思考形态南辕北辙，比较与冲突的趣味因而源源不绝。仅此一项，就是希尔对推理小说的重大贡献。希尔的小说结构复杂紧凑，在我们要读的
In a host of consecutive bestsellers, Jonathan Kellerman haskept readers spellbound with the intense, psychologically acuteadventures of Dr. Alex Delaware-and with excursions through the rawunderside of L.A. and the coldest alleys of the criminal mind.""Rage offers a powerful new case in point, as Delaware and LAPDhomicide detective Milo Sturgis revisit a horrifying crime from thepast that has taken on shocking and deadly new dimensions. TroyTurner and Rand Duchay were barely teenagers when they kidnappedand murdered a younger child. Troy, a remorseless sociopath, diedviolently behind bars. But the hulking, slow-witted Rand managed tosurvive his stretch. Now, at age twenty-one, he's emerged ahaunted, rootless young man with a pressing need: to talk-onceagain-with psychologist Alex Delaware. But the young killer comesto a brutal end, that conversation never takes place. Has karmacaught up with Rand? Or has someone waited for eight patient yearsto dine on ice-cold revenge? Both seem strong possibilities toStur
Nobody knows the crooked turns, slippery slopes, and dark, dangerous stretches of the Beltway better than Margaret Truman, dean of the Washington, D.C., mystery scene. And no one is better equipped to lead a suspenseful tour into the treacherous territory of big-time political lobbying, where the right information and enough influence can buy power the kind that corrupts . . . and sometimes kills. Arriving home from a fund-raising dinner, senior Illinois senator Lyle Simmons discovers his wife s brutally bludgeoned body. And like any savvy politician with presidential aspirations, his first move is to phone his attorney. In this case, it s his old friend and college roommate, former DA Philip Rotondi, who gamely agrees to step out of quiet retirement and into the thick of a D.C.-style political, criminal, and public relations maelstrom from which no one will escape unscathed. The crime scene is barely cold when the senator s estranged daughter arrives hurling shocking allegations of murder at her father,
Unlock your dreams with the second novel in the bestsellingKey trilogy. Three women. Three keys. Each has 28 days to find herkey. If one fails, they all lose. If they all succeed, money,power, and a new destiny await.
"In the small town of Innocence, Mississippi, days are long,nights are fragrant, and secrets are hard to keep. But when abrutal killer starts claiming the lives of the town's mostattractive women, lifelong neighbors are forced to wonder if theculprit is a stranger lurking in the bayou...or someone right nextdoor." Burned out by a whirlwind career, world-famous concertviolinist Caroline Waverly arrives in Innocence looking for alittle peace and some time to think. She hopes that a stay at herlate grandmother's house--the one with a covered porch just madefor soft summer nights--will provide the tranquillity she needs.But Innocence has something else to offer Caroline: handsome,charming Tucker Longstreet. Tucker is known for keeping hisromances short and shallow. But one look at Caroline, and Tuckerrealizes that she is unlike any other woman he's met. The coollyreserved Caroline feels an unexpected thrill at his ardentadvances. But when she discovers a third murder victim in the murkywaters behind her ho
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author-a spellbindingtale about a woman who, though battered in both body and spirit,never loses hope...
Hollywood homicide detective Petra Connor takes center stage inbestseller Kellerman's elaborate, suspenseful, albeit improbable,thriller. Connor, who assisted Kellerman's main series detective,psychologist Alex Delaware, in 2003's A Cold Heart, proves anengaging protagonist, fully capable of carrying a story on her own.She's investigating a seemingly random drive-by shooting thatclaimed four teenage victims when a precocious 22-year-old graduatestudent intern, Isaac Gomez, presents her with evidence that aserial killer has struck on the same day, June 28, every year forthe past six years. Though his proof relies entirely on astatistical analysis he's performed, his unquestioned brillianceprompts Connor to do a little extracurricular digging that turns upsuggestive clues supporting Gomez's theory. Meanwhile, afterdoggedly pursuing even the slightest lead in the drive-by shootingcase, Connor suspects that one of the victims, perhaps the one whowasn't claimed by any next-of-kin, was deliberately targeted. While
Book De*ion Dean Koontz’s uniquetalent for writing terrifying thrillers with a heart and soul isnowhere more evident than in this latest suspense masterpiece thatpits one man against the ultimate deadline. If there were speedlimits for the sheer pulse-racing excitement allowed in one novel,Velocity would break them all. Get ready for the ride of yourlife. From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. A diabolic killer plays a harrowing game of catand mouse with a reclusive bartender in Koontz's latest grippingsuspense thriller. Billy Wiles, a 30-something bartender and formerwriter, is content with his solitary Napa County existencelistening to "beer-based psychoanalysis" from tavern regulars;visiting his hospitalized, comatose fiancée, Barbara; and carvingwood sculptures. But the simple life gets mighty complicated whenhe finds a note with a deadly, time-sensitive ultimatum: he mustchoose between the death of a young schoolteacher or an elderlyhumanitarian in six hours. Reluctant local s
Psychologist-detective Dr. Alex Delaware finds terror in theheart of paradise in this relentlessly sinister novel by America'spremier writer of psychological suspense, the author of tensuccessive New York Times bestsellers. Three months inparadise, all expenses paid. It's an invitation Alex Delawarecan't refuse. Dr. Woodrow Wilson Moreland, a reveredscientist and philanthropist on the tiny Pacific island of Aruk,has invited Alex to his home to help him organize his papers forpublication-- a light workload leaving Alex plenty of time to enjoya romantic interlude with Robin Castagna. Quickly, however, secretive houseguests, frightening nocturnalvisitors, and the elusive Dr. Moreland himself dim the pleasures ofdeep blue water and white sand. The cases Moreland chooses to share--a patient driven to madnessby a cruel, unspeakable act; a man who succumbed forty years ago toradiation poisoning after a nuclear blast; a young woman, brutallymurdered, whose mutilated body was found on the beach j
When twelve-year-old Billy Straight, a runaway struggling tosurvive L.A.'s most dangerous streets, becomes the sole eyewitnessto a brutal murder, he becomes the target of the media, bountyhunters, and a killer, as L.A.P.D. homicide detective Petra Connorraces against time to save his life. Reissue.
Skeeve must deal with myth guided desires, fairy godfathers,and an offer he can't refuse in two of Robert Asprin's mostdelightful myth adventures.
Stock up on the first three novels in the series -- the livesand loves of three brothers on the windswept shores of theChesapeake Bay...
With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daringartistry, and storytelling magic, Dean Koontz returns with anemotional roller coaster of a tale filled with enough twists,turns, shocks, and surprises for ten ordinary novels. Here is thestory of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to anextraordinary legacy—a story that will challenge the way you lookat good and evil, life and death, and everything in between. Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfatherleaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tockspends long hours walking the corridors between the expectantfathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's astrange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of thestorm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speakscoherently for the frist and last time since his stroke. What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days inthe life of his grandson—five dates whose terrible events Jimmywill have to prepar
Donna Leonas Commissario Guido Brunetti series grows morepopular in America with the publication of every new novel. In thisinstallment, Brunettias hopes of a refreshing family holiday in themountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is madein Margheraaa body so badly beaten the face is completelyunrecognizable. Brunetti searches Venice for someone who canidentify the corpse, but he is met with a wall of silence. Then hereceives a telephone call from a contact who promises sometantalizing information. And before the night is out, Brunetti isconfronting yet another appalling, and apparently senseless,death.
A brand-new thriller from internationally bestselling JonathanKellerman TRUE DETECTIVES follows Moe Reed and Aaron Fox on thetwisted trail of a missing girl, a dark, baffling whodunit thatforces the brothers to put aside their mutual animus -- and toconfront the unresolved family mystery that turned them intoenemies. PIs can do things, legally, that cops can't. And cops haveaccess to resources denied their private counterparts. Only bypooling their efforts -- and by consulting a man both brothersrespect, psychologist Alex Delaware, do Fox and Reed stand a chanceof peeling back the secrets in high places that explain the fate ofan outwardly innocent young woman. And, by doing so, the brotherslearn about much more than murder.
A riveting new mystery from international bestseller DonnaLeon Donna Leonas Commissario Brunetti series has made Veniceaacity thatas beautiful and sophisticated, but also secretive andcorruptaone of mystery fansa most beloved locales. In thisbrilliant new book, Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bed of arespected pediatrician, where he is confronted with more questionsthan answers. Three men had burst into the doctoras apartment,attacked him, and kidnapped his eighteen-month-old son. What couldhave motivated an assault so violent that it has left the doctormute? And could this crime be related to the moneymaking scam runby pharmacists that Brunettias colleague has recently uncovered? AsBrunetti delves deeper into the case, a story of infertility,desperation, and illegal dealings begins to unfold.
The doctors call it Munchausen by proxy, the terrifying diseasethat causes parents to induce illness in their own children. Now,in his most frightening case, Dr. Alex Delaware may have to provethat a child's own mother or father is making her sick. Twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones is bright, energetic, the pictureof health. Yet her parents rush her to the emergency room nightafter night with medical symptoms no doctor can explain. Cassie'sparents seem sympathetic and deeply concerned. Her favorite nurseis a model of devotion. Yet when child psychologist Alex Delawareis called in to investigate, instinct tells him that one of themmay be a monster. Then a physician at the hospital is brutally murdered. A shadowydeath is revealed. And Alex and his friend LAPD detective MiloSturgis have only hours to uncover the link between these shockingevents and the fate of an innocent child.
Ambassador Geoffrey James might be a British citizen, but whenhe dies on the night of a gala party, it's up to Captain SalMorizio of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department toinvestitgate. Despite orders to desist, Morizio and his lady love,fellow officer Connie Lake, know too much. And what they learn onan international search for missing clues tells them a lot aboutcorruption in high places--and the effects of caviar on otherwiserational people....
