English books
JOHN AND CAROLE E. BARROWMAN – BONE QUILL
12-years-old twins Matt and Emily Calder are Animare: they can bring art to life and enter paintings at will. They must do everything in their power to prevent a breach in Hollow Earth: a supernatural place that holds all the demons, devils and creatures ever imagined. The Hollow Earth Society are getting closer to finding the key that will release the beasts: an ancient bone quill whose powers can be only be used by a powerful Animare. The quill has been lost for centuries, but important clues to its whereabouts lie somewhere on the island of Era Mina - as does the entrance to Hollow Earth itself. Matt and Em must find the quill and protect it through their drawings, through certain famous paintings and, ultimately, deep into the mists of time itself. But their lives in the relative safety of Auchinmurn Abbey are thrown into confusion with the arrival of a newcomer who threatens to ruin everything they have worked for. All too soon, the twins are forced to make a terrible choice: save their father, or save the world.
JOHN CONNOLLY – THE GATES
A strange novel for strange young people.
Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund Boswell are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Hallowe'en. Which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Avenue.
The Abernathys don't mean any harm by their flirtation with Satanism. But it just happens to coincide with a malfunction in the Large Hadron Collider that creates a gap in the universe. A gap in which there is a pair of enormous gates. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out . . .
Can Samuel persuade anyone to take this seriously? Can he harness the power of science to save the world as we know it?
JOHN CONNOLLY – THE KILLING KIND
Irish author John Connolly delivers the third novel in his bestselling, critically acclaimed series featuring troubled ex-cop turned detective Charlie Parker.
John Connolly takes battered ex-cop Charlie Parker on his third outing after Every Dead Thing and Dark Hollow. Still struggling with the horrific ghosts of his past, Parker is now a disillusioned private eye hired to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Grace Peltier—which neither her father nor a former US Senator believe was suicide. The trail leads to a mass grave in northern Maine where a Baptist community disappeared forty years earlier. The deaths of the Baptists and Grace are connected and point in the direction of a shadowy organization known as the Fellowship. With the assistance of some idiosyncratic and murderous acolytes, Parker soon confronts the Fellowship's demonic leader and finds himself caught in a situation more gruesome than even he could ever have imagined.
JOHN GILSTRAP – DAMAGE CONTROL
The hostages are a bus full of teenagers on a church mission. The ransom demands are deliver three million dollars—with zero involvement from law enforcement—or all captives will be executed. But rescue specialist Jonathan Grave doesn’t believe in ultimatums. For him and his elite team at Security Solutions, it’s all about protecting the innocent. Now Grave must face the chilling possibility that someone within the U.S. government has a deadly secret to protect—one that could jeopardize national security like never before…
JOHN IRVING – THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
New York Times bestseller -- 20th anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author -- "A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and horrifying and heartbreaking."- The Washington Post
This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes--even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow"; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries-- with more than ten million copies in print--this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."
Praise for The World According to Garp
"John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist." - Los Angeles Times
"A brilliant panoply of current attitudes toward sex, marriage and parenthood, the feminist movement and - above all - the concept of delineated sexual roles... Irving's characters will stay alive for years to come." - Chicago Tribune
"A social tragi-comedy of such velocity that it reads rather like a domestic sequel to Catch-22." - The Observer (London)
"A large talent announces itself on practically every page." - The Book-of-the-Month Club News
JOHN KATZENBACH – HART’S WAR
Second Lieutenant Tommy Hart, a navigator whose B-25 was shot out of the sky in 1942, is burdened with guilt as the only surviving member of his crew. Now he is just another POW at the fiercely guarded Stalag Luft 13 in Bavaria.
Then routine comes to a halt with the arrival of a new prisoner: First Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, an African American Tuskegee airman who instantly becomes the target of contempt from his fellow soldiers. When a prisoner is brutally murdered, and all the blood-soaked evidence points to Scott, Hart is tapped to defend the soldier. In a trial rife with racial tension and raw conflict, where the lines between ally and enemy blur, there are those with their own secret motives, and a burning passion for a rush to judgment, no matter what the cost.
JOHN LESCROART – THE HUNTER
A forty-year-old secret. An unsolved murder. And a killer who wants to keep it that way...
New York Times bestseller John Lescroart delivers a dark, intimate thriller about the price we put on family and the terrible costs of seeking the truth. The Hunter is the third novel in the Wyatt Hunt series - perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and Paul Doiron.
'High-class... first-rate' - Sunday Telegraph
It started with an anonymous text: How did your mother die?
Private Investigator Wyatt Hunt has never been interested in finding his birth parents, but the discovery that his mother was murdered and the main suspect was his father leaves him with no choice but to take on a case he never knew existed. With the trail of the forty-year-old case long gone cold, Hunt's first priority is to find out who the mysterious texter is and that person's connection to him. But in confronting his past, could Hunt find himself up against a killer who's still very much alive and very dangerous? From the dark streets of San Francisco to the Jonestown massacre in the remote jungles of Guyana, thriller-master John Lescroart weaves a shocking tale about the skeletons inside family closets and the mortal danger outside the front door.
What readers are saying about The Hunter:
'So far, this is the best of the Hunt Club set. I read the book twice!'
'Lescroart grabs the reader in the first few pages and never lets go'
'Full of suspense and surprise'
JOHN MICHAEL GREER – APOCALYPSE NOT EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT 2012
For almost 3,000 years apocalypse prophecies have convinced people all over the world that the future is about to give them the world they want instead of the world they've got. All the end time prophecies splashed across the media in every age have had something else in common: every one of them has been wrong. Apocalypse Not is a lively and engaging survey of predictions about the end of the world, along with the failed dreams and nightmares that have clustered around them. Among the stories highlighted in Apocalypse Not are: the birth of the apocalypse meme out of archaic star myths in the ancient Middle East; the failed end time prophecies of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton, and other famous prophets; the long and murky road from the Great Pyramid to today's Rapture beliefs; and the real origins of the belief in apocalypse in 2012 (hint: it's not originally Mayan at all
JOHN R. FULTZ – SEVEN SORCERERS
The stunning conclusion to the Books of the Shaper series that began with Seven Princes and Seven Kings...
The Almighty Zyung drives his massive armies across the world to invade the Land of the Five Cities. So begins the final struggle between freedom and tyranny.
The Southern Kings D'zan and Undutu lead a fleet of warships to meet Zyung's aerial armada. Vireon the Slayer and Tyro the Sword King lead Men and Giants to defend the free world. So begins the great slaughter of the age...
lardu the Shaper and Sharadza Vodsdaughter must awaken the Old Breed to face Zyung's legion of sorcerers. So begins a desperate quest beyond the material world into strange realms of magic and mystery.
Yet already it may be too late...
JOHN SANDFORD – DEADLINE
The eighth Virgil Flowers novel by internationally bestselling author John Sandford
Barns, the chairman, looked around the room and said, 'Okay. We can do this. Let's see a show of hands. It's unanimous, or it's prison. Do we kill Clancy Conley?'
"They all looked around at each other, each of them reluctant to go first. Then the fat man raised his hand, and then Kerns, and then the rest of them.
"'It's unanimous,' Barns said."
In southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. There are no votes against.
Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier -- a team of dognappers supplying medical labs -- when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found -- and the victim is a local reporter...
* * * Praise for John Sandford and the Virgil Flowers novels * * *
‘Along the way to the satisfying ending, Virgil displays the rough humor and rough justice that make him such an appealing character’ Publishers Weekly on Deep Freeze
‘A knowing portrait of small-town life layered into a very well plotted mystery. Virgil understands that, in small towns, no one ever outgrows high school... One of the very best novels in a superior series’Booklist (starred review) on Deep Freeze
‘Add a gripping storyline, a generous helping of exquisitely conceived characters and laugh-out-loud humor that produce explosive guffaws, not muted chuckles, and you’re in for the usual late-night, don’t-even-think-of-stopping treat when Flowers hits town’ Richmond Times-Dispatch on Deep Freeze
‘An outstanding novel’ Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Escape Clause
‘Perfect entertainment’ Kirkus Reviews on Escape Clause
JOHN SANDFORD – INVISIBLE PREY
In the richest neighborhood of Minneapolis, two elderly women lie murdered in their home, killed with a metal pipe, the rooms tossed, only small items stolen. It is clearly the random work of someone looking for money to buy drugs. But as he looks more closely, Davenport begins to wonder if the items are actually so small or the victims so random, if there might not be some invisible agenda at work here. Gradually, a pattern begins to emerge, and it leads him to ... certainly nothing he ever expected. Which is too bad, because by this time the killers - and yes, there are more than one of them - the killers are expecting him.
JOHN SANDFORD – SHOCK WAVE
The fifth Virgil Flowers novel by internationally bestselling author John Sandford
The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants, fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.
The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage - and they do. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's job to find out . . . before more people get killed.
* * * Praise for John Sandford and the Virgil Flowers novels * * *
‘Along the way to the satisfying ending, Virgil displays the rough humor and rough justice that make him such an appealing character’ Publishers Weekly on Deep Freeze
‘A knowing portrait of small-town life layered into a very well plotted mystery. Virgil understands that, in small towns, no one ever outgrows high school... One of the very best novels in a superior series’Booklist (starred review) on Deep Freeze
‘Add a gripping storyline, a generous helping of exquisitely conceived characters and laugh-out-loud humor that produce explosive guffaws, not muted chuckles, and you’re in for the usual late-night, don’t-even-think-of-stopping treat when Flowers hits town’ Richmond Times-Dispatch on Deep Freeze
‘An outstanding novel’ Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Escape Clause
JOHN SANDFORD – SILKEN PREY
The extraordinary new Lucas Davenport thriller from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner.
“If you haven’t read Sandford yet, you have been missing one of the great summer-read novelists of all time.”—Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
Murder, scandal, political espionage, and an extremely dangerous woman. Lucas Davenport’s going to be lucky to get out of this one alive.
Very early one morning, a Minnesota political fixer answers his doorbell. The next thing he knows, he’s waking up on the floor of a moving car, lying on a plastic sheet, his body wet with blood. When the car stops, a voice says, “Hey, I think he’s breathing,” and another voice says, “Yeah? Give me the bat.” And that’s the last thing he knows.
Davenport is investigating another case when the trail leads to the man’s disappearance, then—very troublingly—to the Minneapolis police department, then—most troublingly of all—to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should work, and the money, ruthlessness, and sheer will to make it happen.
No matter who gets in the way.
Filled with John Sandford’s trademark razor-sharp plotting and some of the best characters in suspense fiction, Silken Prey is further evidence for why the Cleveland Plain Dealer called the Davenport novels “a perfect series,” and Suspense Magazine wrote, “If you haven’t read any of the Prey series, you need to jump on board right this second.”
JOHN SANDFORD – STORM PREY
When a gang carry out a daring drugs raid on a hospital pharmacy, during which several staff are injured and one medical orderly is brutally killed, the Minneapolis police department can only conclude that it must have been an inside job.
For Lucas Davenport, this case is about to get personal. Weather Karkinnen, Lucas's surgeon wife, was due to perform a high-profile operation on the day of the raid, and as an unwitting observer of the criminals' desperate getaway, she is now in grave danger.
As the culprits embark on a series of vicious murders in an attempt to silence any witnesses, it becomes apparent that a city gangster ring known as 'The Seed' is behind the attacks. With the body-count rising, Davenport knows that time is running out to identify the inside plant in the hospital before the gang catches up with Weather once and for all.
