Three novels from a multiple Academy Award winner and the New York Times–bestselling author of The Princess Bride. In Boys and Girls Together, author William Goldman offers a beautiful tale of early adulthood inspired by his own experiences. Five friends—all young, creative, ambitious, and troubled—make their way to New York City to pursue their dreams. Together they struggle, fight, love, make art, and face the hard truths of life. In Marathon Man—the New York Times–bestselling thriller Goldman adapted into the classic film starring Dustin Hoffman and Sir Laurence Olivier—Columbia University student and aspiring marathon runner Thomas “Babe” Levy is trying to clear his late father’s name after accusations of Communist affiliation. But soon Thomas finds himself embroiled in a Nazi conspiracy—and running for his life. In Goldman’s debut novel, The Temple of Gold, Raymond Euripides Trevitt comes of age in midwestern, mid-twentieth-century America. He is virtually alone in Athens, Illinois, until a boy named Zock moves in next door. Through adolescence, double dating, and first loves, they grow up side-by-side. But as their paths diverge, a tragic accident leaves Ray alone once again, and he must learn to find hope in the depths of despair.

William Goldman’s stunning debut novel about a young boy, adrift and alone, coming of age in a cruel world Raymond Euripides Trevitt is not yet ten when he resolves to make his own way in life. When a new boy, Zock, moves in next door, he knows he has finally met his partner in life’s great adventures. As they come of age in midwestern, midcentury America, Ray and Zock become the best of friends—even though they’re opposites in many ways. Ray takes Zock hiking; Zock teaches Ray about poetry. Together, they run away to Chicago, hide out in movie theaters, and watch Gunga Din over and over. They navigate high school together: double dating, learning about first love, getting into college. But during a summer visit home, a tragic accident leaves Ray racked with guilt and self-loathing. Broken and lost, Ray is left to find his way through life one blunder at a time, never giving up hope or relinquishing his quest for atonement. This ebook features a biography of William Goldman.

Johnstone Country. Family First. For generations, the Jensens have struggled to build their home, their land, and their dreams. But now the family is forced to fight fire with fire, bullet by bullet, blood for blood . . . GOLD MINE MASSACRE For Smoke and his daughter Denny, life on the Sugarloaf Ranch is more valuable than all the gold in the world. Which works out fine, since all the gold mines in Big Rock were squeezed dry years ago. Even so, that won't stop a pair of smooth-talking businessmen from trying to squeeze out a little more. One of them has developed a newfangled method for extracting gold—something called "hydraulics"—and he's bought up all the old mines to do it. His partner is the son of legendary gunfighter Frank Morgan, and Denny thinks he's awful handsome. Smoke isn't sure what to think of these would-be gold-diggers. Especially when the handsome one triggers a rivalry with Denny's off-and-on beau, a U.S....

A week before Christmas, John and Laura Ray storm into Myron's office, desperate to find their missing daughter. Money? They don't have any. Clues? They have few. Plagued by mounting bills and a skull-crushing migraine, Portland's only ghost detective wants nothing more than to show them the door.   But defying his conscience always proves tougher to Myron Vale than saying no, and he soon finds himself embroiled in one of the strangest cases of his career. The more he learns about this unique little girl and all of her extraordinary abilities, the more he feels a kinship to her. Who took Olivia Ray? And why?     The answers propel him toward a tantalizing solution to all of his problems — and a violent clash with a powerful personality, one who can cause irreparable harm to not just Myron, but everyone he loves.***The MYRON VALE INVESTIGATIONS (in chronological order):The Haunted Breadbox (short story...

Fyodor Volkov had risen from nothing to be wealthy beyond his dreams. But the zombie plague had forced him to retreat to his vacation house in the suburbs of Moscow, and he soon found himself scrabbling for subsistence like everyone else.This is the seventh story in the series. A new story will be released each week through the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012.Every housewife needs an alias. Donna Stone has one--and it happens to be government-sanctioned.Oh sure, you need to be ruthless to take on Russian mafia bosses, rogue dictators, and terrorists set on destroying the world. But it takes real killer instincts to survive suburbia. Try juggling the fifth grade phone tree during a shootout with skinhead arms dealers, or driving carpool while being chased by Chinese double agents.Donna’s life wasn’t always this complicated. Five years earlier she was just another woman with two preschoolers, a baby bump, and an adoring husband: Carl, with whom she lived happily ever after in a McMansion in the Orange County, California community of Hilldale. But Donna’s life was changed forever the night she delivered her baby: Carl’s car blew up on the way to the hospital.Turns out Carl was a “hard man”—an assassin—for the black ops organization known as Acme Industries. The hit on Carl was carried out by the Quorum, a terrorist cell he was tracking. The Quorum’s motto: “Show me the money.” Governments and corporations do as they’re told—or suffer bloody consequences.Carl left something behind that the Quorum wants badly. To protect herself and avenge Carl’s death, Donna joined Acme. Whereas her hostessing skills rival Martha Stewart’s, her marksmanship is second to none.A good thing, too, because the Quorum has planted a sleeper cell in Hilldale. For Donna, that’s too close for comfort. Will she be able to save her family before the Quorum blows up Los Angeles?Acme’s way of flushing out the Quorum is by “bringing Carl back from the dead.” But terrorism makes strange bedfellows--and brings new meaning to that old adage “Honey, I’m home…”*Not her real name."Adorable is not usually the word that comes to mind with a title like The Housewife Assassin’s Handbook, but it was just what I needed to pull me out of my reading doldrums. From the handy little homemaker/assassin tips at the beginning of each chapter to the thankless job of being a single parent with catty neighbors, this book hits all the right notes. Donna works for the good guys, Acme Industries, undercover by taking down drug lords and terrorists with a matter-0f-fact attitude while worrying about making it to her carpooling duties.Granted, the book ended with a hook that made me want to immediately get the next one, which is always a smart move and I was excited to see that there are actually 11 books in the series (including a prequel). I now want a week at the beach to read them all. Think Alias meets Desperate Housewives meets The Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Live a little, add some spice to your life, give this little book a try and give yourself a reason to smile. I know I did and now I’m completely smitten." -- Barbara Vey, BarbaraVey.com

William Osborn Stoddard (Cortland County, 1835–1925) was an American author, inventor, and assistant secretary to Abraham Lincoln during his first term.

The remarkable secret revealed in the following pages is not purely fiction. The discovery, much in the form that I have here presented it, has actually been made, and its discoverer, a well-known professor at one of the Universities in the North of Europe, recently placed the extraordinary statement in my hands.

An undercover cop does all he can to survive as killers close in A hotel maid enters the empty room, changes the towels, and takes the painting off the wall. Stealthily, she replaces it with an identical picture, different only in that it contains sophisticated audiovisual equipment that transmits to the next room. There, two men watch on a monitor and unpack a pair of Uzis. They are backup for a pair of undercover cops who have spent the last ten months infiltrating the city's most powerful drug ring. But when the bullets start to fly, backup won't be enough. The bungled operation leaves three cops dead and the NYPD's undercover network in shambles. As the group tries to pick up the pieces, it falls to deep-cover operative Alejandro Monahan to put things right. After years covertly infiltrating the Cleopatra network of drug smugglers, Monahan understands the unlimited reach of the cartels better than anyone. But can he escape death's grasp?

Johnstone—Keeping the West WildYoung Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves became blood brothers on the day the rancher's son saved the halfbreed's life, forging a bond no one could ever break. As years passed, a legend grew of the breed and the white man who rode together—and who could jerk killing iron with the best of them... GUNSMOKE AND GOLD In Dale, Colorado, any cowboy with good sense knows better than to step through the batwings of the Plowshare Saloon—and any sheep-herder crazy enough to belly up to the bar at the Red Dog is ordering the last taste of whiskey he'll ever lift to his lips. The town of Dale is heading for an all-out war that will pit father against son, and brother against brother. Bodine and Two Wolves try to make both sides see reason, but that fails when a bunch of hired night riders start scouring the countryside and putting notches on their six-guns. The blood brothers soon figure the cause of the...

Rare-book dealer Peter Fallon returns in a thrilling historical novel about the California Gold Rush, by New York Times bestselling author William MartinBound for Gold continues New York Times bestselling author William Martin's epic of American history with the further adventures of Boston rare-book dealer Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline Carrington. They are headed to California, where their search for a lost journal takes them into the history of Gold Rush. The journal follows young James Spencer, of the Sagamore Mining Company, on a spectacular journey from staid Boston, up the Sacramento River to the Mother Lode. During his search for a "lost river of gold," Spencer confronts vengeance, greed, and racism in himself and others, and builds one of California's first mercantile empires. In the present, Peter Fallon's son asks his father for help appraising the rare books in the Spencer estate and reconstructing...