A distinguished Shakespearean scholar found tortured to death . . . A lost manuscript and its secrets buried for centuries . . . An encrypted map that leads to incalculable wealth . . . The Washington Post called Michael Gruber's previous work "a miracle of intelligent fiction and among the essential novels of recent years." Now comes his most intellectually provocative and compulsively readable novel yet. Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know. I could be dead by the time anyone actually gets to read them, as dead as, say, Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives? These are the words of Jake Mishkin, whose seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer—or killers—unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for four hundred years. In a frantic race from New York to England and Switzerland, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one—not family, not friends, not lovers—is to be trusted. Moving between twenty-first-century America and seventeenth-century England, The Book of Air and Shadows is a modern thriller that brilliantly re-creates William Shakespeare's life at the turn of the seventeenth century and combines an ingenious and intricately layered plot with a devastating portrait of a contemporary man on the brink of self-discovery . . . or self-destruction.
Timothy Carrier has a dry sense of humor, but his deadpan wit lands him in a precarious situation when a stranger Tim converses with mistakes him for a hit man.
Koontz delivers suspense for all seasons with a transcendent thriller--a heart-gripping tour de force featuring a dedicated dog rescuer, a very special golden retriever she saves, and the murderous adversaries they must face together.
A member of a species that takes over the minds of human bodies, Wanderer is unable to disregard his host's love for a man in hiding, a situation that forces both possessor and host to become unwilling allies.
Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path. One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.
After the battle at Masada, the Neteru team returns to San Diego believing 40,000 demons had been eradicated and that Lilith's spawn has been killed. But somehow the treacherous little creature got away. Now the Antichrist has been born and will soon rise to power.
Ladies and Gentlemen...I have to state that Mrs Lovett' s pies are made OF human flesh ! ' This shocking announcement provides the stunning d' enouement TO a narrative first published OVER a period OF four months IN the winter OF 1846 - 7. The revelation marked ONLY the beginning, however, OF the notorious career OF Sweeney Todd, soon known TO legend AS the ' Demon Barber ' OF London ' s Fleet Street.The story OF Todd ' s entrepreneurial partnership WITH neighbouring pie - maker Margery Lovett - at ONCE inconceivably unpalatable AND undeniably compelling - has subsequently provided the substance FOR a seemingly endless series OF successful dramatic adaptations, popular songs AND ballads, novellas, radio plays, graphic novels, ballets, films, AND musicals.Both gleeful AND ghoulish, the original tale OF Sweeney Todd, first published under the title The String OF Pearls, IS an early classic OF British horror writing.It combines the story OF Todd 's grisly method of robbing and dispatching his victims with a romantic sub-plot involving deception, disguise, and detective work, set against the backdrop of London' s dark AND unsavoury streets.This edition provides an authoritative text OF the first version OF the story ever TO be published, AS well AS a lively introduction TO its history AND reputation.
Joe Pitt’s life sucks. He hasn’t had a case or a job in God knows how long and his stashes are running on empty. What stashes? The only ones that count to a guy like Joe: blood and money. The money he uses to buy blood; the blood he drinks. Hey, buddy, it’s that or your neck–you want to choose? The only way to lay his hands on both is to take a gig with the local Vampyre Clan. See, something new is on the streets, a new high, a high so strong it can send a Vampyre spazzing through Joe’s local watering hole. Till Joe sends him through a plate-glass window, that is. So it’s time for Joe to gut up and swallow that pride and follow the leads wherever they go. It won’t be long before he’s slapping stoolies, getting sapped, and being taken for a ride above 110th Street. Someone’s pulling Joe’s strings, and now he’s riding the A train, looking to find who it is. He’s gonna cut them when he finds them–the strings and the hands that hold them.
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigates the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler, a quest that takes her across Europe and into the pasts of her father and his mentor. A first novel. Reprint. 500,000 first printing.