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Review

Bartlett combines murder, a touch of romance, and a lot of intrigue in this charming story. With personable characters, and a lively, fast-paced storyline--readers will be enthralled & delighted with this fresh new series. --Fresh Fiction

The red herrings were aplenty, and the killer a complete surprise. Ms. Bartlett has created a crafty tale that must be read. --The Best Reviews

About the Author

Lorraine Bartlett has done it all--from drilling holes for NASA to typing scripts in Hollywood. In addition to writing the Victoria Square Mysteries, she also writes the New York Times bestselling (and Agatha-nominated) Booktown Mysteries under the name Lorna Barrett. And she writes the Jeff Resnick Mysteries as L.L. Bartlett.  She lives in Rochester, NY with her husband and four crazy kitties.

Product Description

“You never get away. You’re always getting away.”

Karen and Ray want out. Rossi wants his ear back. Doyle wants Ray. Melody wants a good story. Sleeps just wants to do some soft time. A trans-Europe road-trip screwball noir, CRIME ALWAYS PAYS features a cast of cops and robbers, losers and hopers, villains, saints and a homicidal Siberian wolf. You’ll never see the Greek islands in quite the same light again …

Praise for THE BIG O:

“Imagine Donald Westlake and his alter ego Richard Stark moving to Ireland and collaborating on a screwball noir, and you have some idea of Burke’s accomplishment.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Declan Burke’s THE BIG O is one of the sharpest, wittiest and most unusual Irish crime novels of recent years … Among all of the recent crop of Irish crime novelists, it seems to me that Declan Burke is ideally poised to make the transition to a larger international stage.” – John Connolly

“Burke has married hard-boiled crime with noir sensibility and seasoned it with humour and crackling dialogue … fans of comic noir will find plenty to enjoy here.” – Booklist

Review

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
 
“As distinctively Canadian as a Tom Thomson painting. . . . Crime Machine is as good as Canadian crime fiction gets.” — Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
 
“A marvelously controlled writer, equally confident with characters and narrative.”
— Toronto Star
 
“Teeming with questions, possibilities and clever, enticing dialogue.”
— The Hamilton Spectator

“With Crime Machine, Blunt delivers another twisting page-turner that will keep readers up late at night, proving yet again that he can deftly toe the line between terror and intrigue.”
— CBC Books

“First-rate series. . . .You can hear the crunch of snowshoes through the bush, smell the buckshot mingling with fresh blood.”
— NOW (Toronto)

“Another winner from one of Canada’s leading crime writers.” —The Peterborough Examiner

From the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

The long-awaited new instalment in the award-winning, bestselling John Cardinal mystery series.

A year after the death of his beloved and troubled wife, Catherine, John Cardinal has moved into a new, but very humid, condo. He has fallen into an easy routine of work on cold case files and platonic movie nights with friend and colleague Lise Delorme. The quiet of a snow-covered Algonquin Bay is shattered when the decapitated bodies of two people are found in a summer home on Trout Lake. The victims, visitors from Russia, are in Algonquin Bay attending the annual fur auction. This is by no means a routine murder investigation as Cardinal soon discovers, but a horrific piece of a very twisted puzzle. Blunt has, once again, given us a page-turning plot, a remarkable cast of characters and the comfort of John Cardinal at the helm.

From the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Lamin and Zion meet in church, where they've been dragged by their grandmother and foster mother, respectively. Their fast friendship grows even tighter after Lamin is put out of his home by his mother and her abusive boyfriend. He joins Zion in a crack-dealing scheme, and soon the teens are living large. Lamin finds romance with rich girl Lucky, and Zion secretly spends time with his friend's younger sister, Olivia. But after Lamin gets shot in a club, he realizes that it's time to get legit. While he is able to use his drug money to finance a career in music videos, his hustling life always threatens to catch up with him. Lamin, Zion, Lucky, Olivia, and Lamin's ex-con cousin take turns narrating the story, a tactic that makes an already fast-paced tale even more of a page-turner. Each character's perspective illuminates the misguided decisions the others make. However, despite their bad choices, readers will root for them. The language and situations are occasionally explicit, but also perfectly in character for these Staten Island young adults. While some of the story lines are pulled from a variety of rap videos and rapper bios, the plot also has unique twists that will keep readers going. Urban fiction is hotter than ever with teens of both sexes, and this is a strong entry in the genre.–Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Lamin and Curtis are cousins and have been raised like brothers. When Curtis goes to jail for defending himself and killing a high-school bully, their lives are forever changed. Lamin starts spending Sundays with his grandfather and visiting Curtis. When a new guy shows up at church, Lamin finds a lifelong friend in Zion. Zion has passed through the foster care and prison system and has never really had family. So they become brothers and start a drug-trafficking enterprise that provides big money and a comfortable lifestyle. When Lamin gets shot, he decides to give up the life of a drug dealer and go legitimate. During his recuperation, he begins reading up on the one dream he has always had--to be a film director. Zion is not ready to give up the hustler life but becomes Lamin's silent partner. When Curtis gets out of jail, he is jealous of Lamin's success and his friendship with Zion. Each of these men is forced to deal with his past and pay for his sins. Lillian Lewis
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

SUMMARY:
Kicking off a new trilogy of vampire stories, this first title introduces psychologist Meghann O'Neill, who specializes in treating victims of abusive relationships. She is also a vampire who suffered the cruelty of the man who turned her into an immortal creature. Over 30 years ago, she left Simon Baldevar staked on a roof to die. But he survived--and now he's begun his sadistic games by murdering the humans Meghann has sworn to help through her practice.

SUMMARY:
In this sequel to "Crimson Kiss, " Meghann O'Neill continues to run from Simon Baldevar, the creature responsible for her immortality. Taking human form, Meghann is found by Simon, who takes her as a vessel of his desires. Now Meghann is pregnant with his child. Simon has always believed a vampire's offspring will possess all their strengths and none of their weaknesses, and he will stop at nothing to possess his "child of the night."

SUMMARY:
"Dazzlingly original." -- Daily Mail"Gripping, touching and funny." -- TLSThe war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.

SUMMARY:
In The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks presents a distant future that could almost be called the end of history. Humanity has filled the galaxy, and thanks to ultra-high technology everyone has everything they want, no one gets sick, and no one dies. It's a playground society of sports, stellar cruises, parties, and festivals. Jernau Gurgeh, a famed master game player, is looking for something more and finds it when he's invited to a game tournament at a small alien empire. Abruptly Banks veers into different territory. The Empire of Azad is exotic, sensual, and vibrant. It has space battle cruisers, a glowing court--all the stuff of good old science fiction--which appears old-fashioned in contrast to Gurgeh's home. At first it's a relief, but further exploration reveals the empire to be depraved and terrifically unjust. Its defects are gross exaggerations of our own, yet they indict us all the same. Clearly Banks is interested in the idea of a future where everyone can be mature and happy. Yet it's interesting to note that in order to give us this compelling adventure story, he has to return to a more traditional setting. Thoughtful science fiction readers will appreciate the cultural comparisons, and fans of big ideas and action will also be rewarded. --Brooks Peck