Death Message

Death Message

Mark Billingham

Mystery & Thrillers

The first message sent to Tom Thorne's mobile phone was just a picture – the blurred image of a man's face, but Thorne had seen enough dead bodies in his time to know that the man was no longer alive. But who was he? Who sent the photograph? And why? While the technical experts attempt to trace the sender, Thorne searches the daily police bulletins for a reported death that matches the photograph. Then another picture arrives. Another dead man…It is the identities of the murdered men which give Thorne his first clue, a link to a dangerous killer he'd put away years before and who is still in prison. With a chilling talent for manipulation, this man has led another inmate to plot revenge on everyone he blames for his current incarceration, and for the murder of his family while he was inside. Newly released, this convict has no fear of the police, no feelings for those he is compelled to murder. Now Tom Thorne must face one of the toughest challenges of his career, knowing that there is no killer more dangerous than one who has nothing left to lose.
Read online
  • 8
Michael Graves

Michael Graves

Ian Volner

Ian Volner

One of the most prominent and prolific designers and architects of the late twentieth century, Michael Graves is best known for his popular product designs, including the world-famous Alessi whistling-bird teakettle, and controversial buildings, such as the Portland Building in Oregon, Humana Building in Kentucky, and Dolphin and Swan Hotels at Walt Disney World, Florida. Graves was widely seen as the leading voice of postmodernist architecture, which reintroduced human scale, color, and, sometimes, playful forms into the stark white vocabulary of modernism. Following a devastating illness that paralyzed him from the chest down, Graves became a tireless designer and advocate of improved health-care products and facilities before his sudden death in 2015. Shortly before this, he began a series of interviews with journalist Ian Volner, which form the basis of this biography of a remarkable designer. Volner also conducted numerous interviews with Graves's family, patrons, colleagues,...
Read online
  • 8
The Unimaginable

The Unimaginable

Dina Silver

Dina Silver

From the author of One Pink Line comes a story about letting go of the past and finding bravery in the depths of fear. Set on the sun-soaked beaches of Thailand and the rough waters of the Indian Ocean, The Unimaginable paints a vivid portrait of a young woman on a journey to find herself—and her harrowing fight for survival.After twenty-eight years of playing by the rules, Jessica Gregory moves from her small Indiana town to Phuket, Thailand. But her newfound routine is upended with the arrival of Grant Flynn, a captivating, elusive man who is sailing around the world while trying to move on from a past tragedy. Jessica volunteers to help crew Grant’s boat, Imagine, on a passage across the Indian Ocean and finds herself falling in love with him as the voyage gets underway. But when disaster strikes, Jessica must summon her courage as the crew is confronted by unspeakable terrors––and, aboard a boat named for such promise, comes the unimaginable.
Read online
  • 8


Pygmalion and Three Other Plays

Pygmalion and Three Other Plays

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

Pygmalion and Three Other Plays , by George Bernard Shaw , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, 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 Barnes & Noble Classics : All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences — biographical, historical, and literary — to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Hailed as “a Tolstoy with jokes” by one critic, George Bernard Shaw was the most significant British playwright since the seventeenth century. Pygmalion persists as his best-loved play, one made into both a classic film — which won Shaw an Academy Award for best screenplay — and the perennially popular musical My Fair Lady . Pygmalion follows the adventures of phonetics professor Henry Higgins as he attempts to transform cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a refined lady. The scene in which Eliza appears in high society with the correct accent but no notion of polite conversation is considered one of the funniest in English drama. Like most of Shaw’s work, Pygmalion wins over audiences with wit, a taut morality, and an innate understanding of human relationships. This volume also includes Major Barbara , which attacks both capitalism and charitable organizations, The Doctor’s Dilemma , a keen-eyed examination of medical morals and malpractice, and Heartbreak House , which exposes the spiritual bankruptcy of the generation responsible for the bloodshed of World War I. John A. Bertolini is Ellis Professor of the Liberal Arts at Middlebury College, where he teaches dramatic literature, Shakespeare, and film. He has written The Playwrighting Self of Bernard Shaw and articles on Hitchcock, and British and American dramatists. Bertolini also wrote the introduction and notes to the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of Shaw’s Man and Superman and Three Other Plays .
Read online
  • 8
Sam McCain - 01 - The Day the Music Died

Sam McCain - 01 - The Day the Music Died

Ed Gorman

Ed Gorman

### Amazon.com Review Veteran mystery writer, editor, and anthologist Ed Gorman plays all the right notes in his latest book--hopefully the first of a promising period series. It's 1959 (the book says 1958, but that must be a mistake, because everyone knows Buddy Holly died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959), and Sam McCain--"a young lawyer in a town that already had too many lawyers"--is working as an investigator in Black River Falls, Iowa, for Judge Esme Anne Whitney, a wealthy and eccentric old woman who smokes Gauloises in Chesterfield country and takes pleasure in shooting McCain with rubberbands while they confer. The day after a long drive to and from what turns out to be Buddy Holly's last concert before his fatal plane crash, McCain finds the murdered wife of Judge Whitney's rotten nephew, Kenny, and then is unable to stop Kenny from killing himself. Everybody, including the town's loutish police chief, is sure that Kenny killed his wife--only McCain has his doubts. Complicating things are the troubles of a local black former football star now crippled by booze, and those of McCain's teenage sister who is trying to abort her baby. The period details about race and sex seem dead right; the people of Black River Falls, especially McCain's family and various girlfriends, are all sharply-sketched; and even the very late appearance of a possible villain can't spoil the considerable fun. Previous examples of Gorman's craft, or sullen art, include *Daughter of Darkness*, *Black River Falls*, *Dark Trail*, *The First Lady*, *Hawk Moon*, *The Marilyn Tapes*, *Senatorial Privilege*, *Trouble Man*, and *Cage of Night*. *--Dick Adler* ### From Publishers Weekly There's a dead-on sense of time and place?February 1958 in small-town Iowa?in Gorman's latest, which, despite minor problems with plot resolution, makes an enjoyable start to a new series. Narrator Sam McCain, "a young lawyer in a town that already had too many lawyers," earns most of his income by working as an investigator in Black River Falls for the wealthy and eccentric Judge Esme Anne Whitney, who smokes Gauloises in Chesterfield country and takes pleasure in shooting McCain with rubber bands. The day after a long drive to what turns out to be Buddy Holly's last concert before his fatal plane crash, McCain discovers the body of the wife of Whitney's rotten nephew, Kenny, and then is unable to stop Kenny from killing himself. Everybody, including the loutish local police chief, is sure that Kenny murdered his wife, but McCain has his doubts. Complicating matters are the troubles of a local former football star now crippled by booze and of McCain's teenage sister, who is trying to get an abortion. Gorman sketches the people of Black River Falls, especially McCain's family and various girlfriends, with a sharp eye, and even the very late appearance of a possible villain doesn't spoil the fun: despite the title, Gorman, as usual, rocks. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Read online
  • 8
Eddie and the Cruisers

Eddie and the Cruisers

P. F. Kluge

P. F. Kluge

Overlook is proud to put P. F. Kluge's classic Eddie and the Cruisers--the book that spawned the movies--in paperback for the first time, so it can find a new generation of readers. With sparkling dialogue, superb plot and suspense that never flags this page-turner is the seminal novel of the 50's new music- rock-and-roll- and how it changed America. Eddie and his Jersey-bred band, The Parkway Cruisers, were going places. With an album and a few minor hits to their credit the future seemed bright until Eddie died in a fiery car crash. Twenty years later a British rock band turns their old songs into monumental fresh hits. With this comes a surge of interest in the surviving Cruisers and in a rumored cache of tapes that Eddie made before he died. That's when the killing starts.
Read online
  • 8
Heaven in His Arms

Heaven in His Arms

Lisa Ann Verge

Lisa Ann Verge

From a City of Depravity...The illegitimate daughter of a courtesan, Genevieve Lalande struggles to survive on the dangerous streets of Louis XIV's Paris. Desperate for a new life, she trades identities with a woman chosen to be a mail-order bride...and is soon bound for the new French colony of Quebec....To a Savage WildernessA rugged loner who prowl the frigid Canadian wilderness like a sensual lion, Andre Lefebvre is furious to learn he must wed in order to keep his fur-trading license. He selects the pale, seasick Genevieve, believing she can't possibly survive in such a harsh, unyielding land....And a Wild LoveYet as they embark on a perilous journey into soaring mountains and rushing rivers, neither Andre nor Genevieve can know their true destination: the unexplored regions of desire that await two wary hearts hiding secrets...and hungry for love
Read online
  • 8
One Week in August

One Week in August

Margaret Thornton

Margaret Thornton

From one of the genre's best-loved names, a charming tale of friendship and romance, happiness and heartbreak.August, 1955. Janice Butler is working as a waitress at her mother's Blackpool boarding house before she heads off to university. When Val and Cissie, both from Walker's woollen mill in Halifax, come to stay for a week, the three young women form an instant friendship.When they attend a local dance at the Winter Gardens, the events of that evening will change all their lives, both for better and for worse. Romance beckons for all three girls – but can a holiday fling ever lead to something deeper? As autumn approaches, the three friends discover that life doesn't always turn out as one would expect – and the course of true love never did run smooth ...
Read online
  • 8
183