Macmillan Publishers

New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is on the trail of semi-retired bail jumper Eddie DeChooch, an old man who can still slip out of sight. When a corpse is found in Eddie's garden and two of her friends vanish, Stephanie finds herself making a devil's bargain with her mentor, the Ranger, who'll give her all the help she needs — if she gives him everything he wants.

Dr. Ben Kazin is a brilliant acrheologist. Louren Sturvesant is rich, impulsive, and physically imposing, everything Ben is not. Now, the to men--friends, competitors and partner--are searching for the legendary lost city of Opet, built by an Egyptian culture that reached Africa two thousand years ago, then vanished completely. For Ben, the expedition is a chance to prove a controversial thesis. For Louren, it is a chance to spend milions — and make it all back in gold and glory. But what awaits them is an astounding discovery, a seige of terror, and an act of betrayal that will tear the two men apart and bind them together forever... Hidden beneath water, jungle, and blood-red cliffs is a lost world where two men and a beautiful woman were caught in a furious battle of passions two thousands years ago, but which has begun once again....

In this brief, intense, gem-like book, equal parts extended autobiographical essay and prose poem, Brodsky turns his eye to the seductive and enigmatic city of Venice. A mosaic of 48 short chapters — each recalling a specific episode from one of his many visits there (Brodsky spent his winters in Venice for nearly 20 years) — «Watermark» associatively and brilliantly evokes one city's architectural and atmospheric character. In doing so, the book also reveals a subject — and an author — readers have never before seen.

Victoria Jones has an adventurous streak, and connects with Edward, a handsome and mysterious traveler. However, no whirlwind affair can prepare Victoria for what happens in Baghdad. She witnesses the murder of a secret agent in her hotel room. And when she discovers a rival for Edward's affection arranged for her kidnapping, Victoria fears her impetuous nature could be the death of her.

n 401 B.C., a thundering army of mercenaries, camp followers, dreamers, and glory seekers set off to help a rebellious foreign general named Cyrus. In the months that followed, ten thousand men--trained and hardened in three decades of war in Greece — would engage in pitched battles, witness untold horrors, and begin a desperate march across he desert, over raging rivers, and into the jaws of hell itself. By the time it was over, some would be alive, others dead, and one among them would emerge and the greatest hero of all... In a novel of high adventure and riveting historical drama, Michael Curtis Ford brings to life an amazing true story from Greek antiquity — Xenophon's march of the ten Thousand. A tale of war and peace, of loyalties and betrayals, and of a soldier's love for a mysterious and dangerous woman, «The Ten Thousand» captures the eternal spirit of courage — in the face of impossible odds.

Filled with Evanovich's trademark style and wit, «Full House» is romantic suspense with a twist... Her life was pleasant, proper, and predictable — until he showed up and trouble moved in... Polo instructor Nicholas Kaharchek senses danger the minute he sees Billie Pearce. She represents everything he's so artfully avoided. Happy in her home life, a divorced mother of two, Billie is the epitome of stability. They have nothing in common. To his horror, Nick is fascinated — and irresistibly attracted. When Billie generously offers to share her home with Nick's crazy cousin Deedee for a while, Nick finds himself visiting — often. And while each is slowly seduced by the other's charms, and both are wildly encouraged by devious Deedee, Billie and Nick find out that what they have in common is most important of all. But neither one knows that danger is lurking where they least expect it and a killer is closing in on them.

The witch and her cat fly happily over forests, rivers and mountains on their broomstick until a stormy wind blows away the witch’s hat, bow and wand. They are retrieved by a dog, a bird and a frog, and each animal asks for a ride on the broom. They climb on, one after the next, until the broom is so heavy that it snaps in two! What will happen next as they tumble into a bog and meet a greedy dragon?

These four early works by the internationally lauded filmmaking team deal with the subject for which they are best known: corruption and crime in situations that combine the real and the surreal with the hilarious. Of the scripts included here, Barton Fink — an intense look at the psychological ruin of a New York playwright trying to make it in 1940s Hollywood — is a masterful culmination of these themes.

Welcome to Battleschool. Growing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets as a child begging for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who wouldn't hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean has learned anything on the streets, it's how to survive. And not with fists. He is way too small for that. But with brains. Bean is a genius with a magician's ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness. What better quality for a future general to lead the Earth in a final climactic battle against a hostile alien race, known as Buggers. At Battleschool Bean meets and befriends another future commander — Ender Wiggins — perhaps his only true rival. Only one problem: for Bean and Ender, the future is now.

»Nickel and Dimed» reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way the nation perceives its working poor.

Dispatched on a trial run, NASA's SuperAegis satellite has been created as the foundation of an international antimissle defense system. But moments after dispatch, it vanishes. Rear Admiral Jake Grafton fears something worse than a grave malfunction — he suspects sabotage...The USS America — the world's most technically advanced nuclear submarine — is launched on its maiden voyage. Then shortly after steaming out of harbor, the unthinkable happens. Pirated by terrorists, America disappears beneath the roiling waves of the Atlantic, its Tomahawk warheads aimed directly at the United States...An ingeniously calculated war has been waged — but the rouge enemy is far more insidious than Jake Grafton ever imagined. His mission: ferret out the core group responsible, overtake the stealth sub, and destroy it. But times is running out, and the race is on for Grafton to blow the covert operation out of the water before an entire nation is brought to its knees.

I've been summoned. Thursday, ten sharp. Thus begins a day in the life of a young factory worker in totalitarian Romania. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men's suits bound for Italy. Marry me the notes say, with her name and address. As she rides the tram to her interrogation, she thinks over the events and people of her life under terror. In her distraction, she misses her stop, and alone on an unfamiliar street, Lilli discovers something far worse than anything she had feared.

While serving a sentence for killing his mother, Jacko Argyle dies in prison. Two years later, a stranger shatters the peace of the Argyle household. Was Jacko convicted of a murder he didn't commit?

An unknown doomsday virus quickly claims the lives of four people across the country — including Dr. Sophia Russell, a researcher leading the team trying to crack the disease. Devastated and enraged, her fiance, Lt. Colonel Jonathan Smith, uncovers evidence that his lover's death was no accident — that someone out there has the virus, and the pandemic that threatens countless millions of lives was planned. Not knowing where to turn or whom to trust, Smith assembles a private team to aid his fight against the deadly virus. While the death toll mounts rapidly, their quest leads them to the highest levels of power and the darkest corners of the earth, as Smith and his team match wits with a determined genius out to destroy them, with the fate of the world in the balance...

Sequel to the New York Times bestselling «Faith of the Fallen». New York Times bestselling author Terry Goodkind has created his most lavish adventure yet. Tormented her entire life by inhuman voices, a young woman named Lauren seeks to end her intolerable agony. She at last discovers a way to silence the voices. For everyone else, the torment is about to begin. With winter descending and the paralyzing dread of an army of annihilation occupying their homeland, Richard Rahl and his wife Kahlan must venture deep into a strange and desolate land. Their quest turns to terror when they find themselves the helpless prey of a tireless hunter. Meanwhile, Lauren finds herself drawn into the center of a struggle for conquest and revenge. Worse yet, she finds her will seized by forces more abhorrent than anything she ever envisioned. Only then does she come to realize that the voices were real. Staggered by loss and increasingly isolated, Richard and Kahlan must stop the relentless, unearthly threat which has come out of the darkest night of the human soul. To do so, Richard will be called upon to face the demons stalking among the Pillars of Creation. Discover breathtaking adventure and true nobility of spirit. Find out why millions of readers the world over have elevated Terry Goodkind to the ranks of legend.

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew «Ender» Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

A towering epic of fantasy, The Pearl, is launched in «The Ring of Five Dragons». Filled with action, color, and the myriad details of another world, The Pearl is the first great fantasy series of the new millennium, set to rival Robert Jordan, David Eddings, George R. R. Martin, Terry Brooks, and Terry Goodkind in popular appeal. This astonishing first volume opens as the Kundalan people have suffered for a century under the viciously oppressive, technologically-superior V'ornn invaders. In the resulting crisis of faith — why hasn't their goddess Miina saved them? — Kundalan religion has fallen under the control of evil forces from within who forbid the teaching of traditional sorcery, pretending to have no magic of their own. The V'ornn's mysterious leaders, the Gyrgon, know better, and search for the lost Ring of Five Dragons, the key to the door of the fabled Kundalan Storehouse, and perhaps to Kundalan sorcery as well. But misused, the Ring is the trigger of seemingly inexorable annihilation for V'ornn and Kundalan alike. Now from among the oppressed must arise the hero of prophecy, the Dar Sala-at, who alone can wield the sorcerous power to save the world. Thus begins a huge epic rooted in the conflict between spiritual and technological cultures. The twisting plot raises difficult and provocative moral questions in the course of a constantly surprising, sometimes shocking, fantastic adventure that will transport fantasy readers to new heights of enthusiasm, and make them ask for more.

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

A surprising assessment of the failures and successes of modern Japan.In Dogs and Demons, Alex Kerr chronicles the many facets of Japan's recent, and chronic, crises — from the failure of its banks and pension funds to the decline of its once magnificent modern cinema. He is the first to give a full report on the nation's endangered environment — its seashores lined with concrete, its roads leading to nowhere in the mountains — as well as its monument frenzy, the destruction of old cities such as Kyoto and construction of drab new ones, and the attendant collapse of its tourist industry. Kerr writes with humor and passion, for passion, he says, is part of the story. Millions of Japanese feel as heartbroken at what is going on as I do. My Japanese friends tell me, 'Please write this — for us.'

The deep. The deadly. The damned... For a thousand years, an unimaginable treasure has rested on the bottom of the Indian Ocean, hidden by swift blue currents, guarded by deadly coral reefs, and even deadlier school of man-eating great white sharks. Harry Fletcher, a former soldier turned fisherman, is now being pulled into a murderous mystery by men willing to kill and a beautiful woman willing to lie for what rests far beneath the sea. Now, Harry has no choice but to enter full bore into an international battle to raise an extraordinary object from the deep. Because possessing this treasure isn't just about getting rich — it's about staying alive...

This well-researched cloth book has been developed to appeal to babies from birth. The mix of high-contrast images, crinkly pages and mirror will stimulate baby's senses and make this a perfect first introduction to books. Babies love looking at faces and will find the friendly images of animal faces and patterns fascinating. The book also has a strap, so it can be attached to cots or buggies, and very simple text to help parents discuss the images with baby. It's never too early to give baby the gift of books.

Peter F.Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy has proved one of the best-selling Science-Fiction series of the last decade, and the most dramatically successful from a UK author. This handbook is an essential companion volume for all the countless readers past, present and future for whom this massive trilogy has evolved into a defining SF classic. It comprises general background information relating to all three volumes, with comprehensive notes and glossaries on the major characters, planets, space stations, political hierarchies, weaponry, spacecraft, invasions, and the many alien races with their diverse social economies, industries and technologies.

Contributed articles presented at an International Workshop on High Capacity Bus Systems held in New Delhi in January 2002; with special reference to India.

Brilliant is a four-level primary course which follows the adventures of the same characters throughout each level. Key Features: An absorbing and colourful story which presents a language area and stimulating practice exercises 'Adventure Notebook' pages in every unit open children's eyes to the world around them through simple reading texts. Each mini-project has a multicultural feel and covers topics such as cities, food, national costumes and daily life Simple explanations of grammatical structures Clear presentation of new vocabulary Systematic recycling of the language Controlled writing practice Listening exercises with stickers in every unit Easy-to-learn songs in every unit Regular revision.