Readers who fell in love with Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, now have new cause for celebration in the protagonist of these three light-footed comic novels by Alexander McCall Smith. Welcome to the insane and rarified world of Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld of the Institute of Romance Philology. Von Igelfeld is engaged in a never-ending quest to win the respect he feels certain he is due–a quest which has the tendency to go hilariously astray. In At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, Professor Dr. von Igelfeld gets caught up in a nasty case of academic intrigue while on sabbatical at Cambridge. When he returns to Regensburg he is confronted with the thrilling news that someone from a foreign embassy has actually checked his masterwork, Portuguese Irregular Verbs, out of the Institute’s Library. As a result, he gets caught up in intrigue of a different sort on a visit to Bogota, Colombia.

A classic lost race novel in which a brave heroine discovers a hidden city of immortals in the Egyptian desert.

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*Fire. It violently destroys futures and pasts in a terrified heartbeat, devouring damning secrets while leaving even greater mysteries in its foul wake of ash and debris.The night sky is ablaze as fire engulfs two barges moored end to end on a Yorkshire canal. On board are the blackened remains of two human beings. One was a reclusive and eccentric local artist, the other a junkie, a sad and damaged young girl. To the seasoned eye of Inspector Alan Banks, this horror was no accident, its method so cruel and calculated that only the worst sort of fiend could have committed the dark act. And it isn't long before the fears of Banks and D.I. Annie Cabbot are brutally confirmed, when another suspicious blaze incinerates a remote trailer in the countryside . . . and another solitary life is gruesomely consumed. But is it the work of a serial arsonist, or an ingeniously conceived plot to obliterate the trail to other heinous crimes? There are shocking secrets to be uncovered in the charred wreckage, grim evidence of lethal greed and twisted hunger, and of nightmare occurrences within the private confines of family. A terrible suspicion that a killer's work is not yet done drives Alan Banks as the hunt intensifies for an elusive, cold-blooded chameleon who could be anyone and anywhere. In Playing with Fire, award-winning, internationally bestselling author Peter Robinson delivers a modern masterwork of suspense that confirms his standing as one of the brightest literary lights in crime fiction -- a blistering tale of murder and betrayal that is as frightening, devastating, and hypnotic as flame itself.

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In Clothar the Frank, the first novel of a two-book miniseries called The Golden Eagle, best-selling author Jack Whyte invites us to explore his cast of fascinating characters during the reign and tragic downfall of the Riothamus Arthur, High King of All Britain. From Gaul, now the land of the Franks, comes young Clothar, the son of one king and the nephew of another. He has just survived a fierce civil war in Benwick, the land of his childhood—a war involving his own family, pitting brother against brother—to discover that his fate is not in his own hands. Instead it rests with his teacher and mentor, the renowned and powerful Bishop Germanus; Germanus’s old friend, the elusive and enigmatic Caius Merlyn Britannicus; and Merlyn’s young ward, the future king, Arthur Pendragon. Clothar's story is the story of Lancelot—his past, his loves, his loyalty and his role as King Arthur’s friend and betrayer. 

He's grumpy, boring, and thinks it's okay to wear a suit and tie to a small town bar full of lumberjacks. But when I kiss him? Let's just say I wasn't expecting THAT. HarperIt's one thing to be dumped by the huge Hollywood star you thought you were going to marry. It's quite another to move back to the small town you're both from.As a booby prize for being shown the door by Dex Ryder, everyone is trying to set me up with their son, their nephew, or their long-lost cousin's gardener. Either that or they're throwing me pitying looks that say, "You're a big loser." I'm not going to put up with their patronizing sympathy anymore. So, when I spot new-guy-in-town Christopher Young, I set out to make him mine. Or you know, pretend to make him mine. I'm still in a horrible funk over Dex, andChristopher is an uptight grump. Not exactly my type. The fact that despite...

East and West collide in a "timely" and "bittersweet tale of loyalty, love, and the siren call of freedom" (Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times).Milena Urbanska is a red princess living in a Soviet satellite state in the 1980s. She enjoys limitless luxury and limited freedom; the end of the Cold War seems unimaginable. When she meets Jason, a confident but politically naive British poet, they fall into bed together. Before long, Milena is planning her escape. She follows Jason to London, where she's shocked to find herself living in bohemian poverty. The rented apartment is dingy, the food disgusting, and Jason's family withholding, but at least there are no hidden cameras recording her every move. As she adjusts to her new life, however, Milena discovers the dark side of Jason's idea of freedom.With cool wit and tender precision, Vesna Goldsworthy delivers a razor-sharp vision of two worlds on the brink of change, amidst the failures of family and...

Jude Deveraux, the dazzling "New York Times" bestselling author of "Wild Orchids" and "Forever and Always" delivers a delightful and passionate yuletide tale sure to become a classic this and every holiday season. Hollander "Holly" Latham can't believe her good fortune. After endless calls, letters, emails, and promises, she's finally persuaded her parents to buy Spring Hill Plantation just outside beautiful, historic Edenton in eastern North Carolina -- and strategically located near Belle Chere, the purest, most untouched plantation site in America. At the tender age of thirteen, Holly fell in love with Lorrie Beaumont, who inherited the Revolutionary-period estate when his heiress mother died during childbirth. Though more than a decade has passed since Holly last locked eyes with her childhood love, the passion she felt in her young heart has never come close to extinguishing -- that is, until charming, ruggedly handsome Nick Taggert unexpectedly waltzes into her life and treats her to an unforgettable weekend of laughter and intense passion. Despite Holly's undeniable attraction to this dazzling stranger, she knows he's not marriage material. What Holly doesn't know is that Nick Taggert is actually Dr. Nicholas Taggert. Having been with more than his share of women only interested in money and pedigree, Nick decides to test Holly and conceal his more refined qualities. Will Holly be seduced by Lorrie's wealth and privilege, or will she choose the simple gift of love that Nick has offered her? The answer is unveiled on a starry Christmas night, when passion, hate, and greed collide to reveal bitter truths that will forever change the course of Holly's charmed life. With"Holly," Jude Deveraux once again uses her golden touch to conjure up a tale full of dazzling intrigue and inspiring romance. It is a story for all seasons and one to remember always.

Hope Winston will do anything for a friend—even if it means travelling across the world to help run an English language school in Italy.  When her good deed puts her life in danger, Hope is in need of protection, but she doesn’t want protection from a cop. She has good reason to distrust them—so how is it that she's ended up sleeping with one?Head of the elite anti-mafia squad, Capitano Franco Rivera finds the gorgeous American delectable but dangerous.  He feels compelled to protect her, even though she can't seem to stop stirring up trouble.Hope needs a keeper and Franco is just the man to keep her…in his bed. Note: Port of Paradise was previously released by another publisher. The current edition has been lightly edited and updated. 

How do you investigate a murder when the victim seems to have no past? A puzzling new crime thriller by the author of A Fatal Move. When Oliver Upton is shot dead on a golf course, DCI Fleming and his team look for details about the man's life, but they aren't easy to find. All they know is that he showed up in Oxford and started working as a taxi driver. Not even the victim's new partner, Jamila Kazan, knows much about him—and the mystery deepens when Kazan is also shot. Grasping for clues, Fleming investigates Kazan's ex, who joined a rifle club after their breakup—and Upton's ex, who may have been abused by him. But after Fleming heads to Edinburgh to follow a lead, he soon learns that Upton had a good reason for leaving his past behind, and that far more lies at the heart of these crimes . . .

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: A “stellar collection” of stories about navigating life off the reservation, filled with laughter and heartbreak (People). In these lyrical, affectionate tales from the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, characters navigate the crossroads of culture, battle stereotypes, and find themselves through everything from politics to basketball. Richard, the narrator of “Lawyer’s League,” grows up in Seattle, the son of “an African American giant who played defensive end for the University of Washington Huskies” and “a petite Spokane Indian ballerina.” A woman is caught in a restaurant when a suicide bomb goes off in “Can I Get a Witness.” And Estelle Walks Above (née Estelle Miller), studies her way off the Spokane Indian Reservation and goes on to both enjoy and resent the company of the white women of Seattle—who see her as a shamanic genius, and look to her for guidance on everything from sex and fashion to spirituality. These and the other “warm, revealing, invitingly roundabout stories” in Ten Little Indians run the gamut from earthy wit to sobering emotional truth, mapping the outer reaches of the human heart (The New York Times Book Review). From a New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author, these tales, “rambunctious and exuberant, bristle with an edgy and mordant humor” (Chicago Tribune). This ebook features an illustrated biography including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Alex Cross's first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues stymied. Across the country, beautiful women are being kidnapped-to be bought and sold as slaves. Behind this depraved scheme stands a shadowy figure known only as The Wolf, a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organized crime. With Alex's personal life in chaos because of his ex-fiancée's return and with the FBI's caution testing his patience, Alex has to go out on his own. For to stalk a ruthless predator without a name or a face, Alex Cross must become a lone wolf himself...