Random House Inc.

Once upon a time, I had known nothing about my family. Gran never, ever spoke about her family, and I never asked. My parents and I knew that Gran had come from Europe, but anyone would have known that from her beautiful, aristrocratic French. But being me, I just couldn't leave it alone. So I went to Europe and found out. And then my life fell apart. Or shoudl I say, my «old» life fell apart. And my new life... well, it was like something right out of a fairy tale. I had been ta teacher on the college level, and now I was a member of one of the royal families of Dobrenica, an obscure European country with some very unusual attributes. Like magic. Yes, there was magic in Dobrencia. For instance, if certain members of two royal lines married at a specific time, Dobrenia «vanished.» And ghosts, I could now see ghosts. And vampires... but I still can't quite wrap my brain around that one. Let's just say that Dobrenica was one strange little country. I was truly happy. I was engaged to the heir apparent to the throne of Dobrenica, and we were in love. Wedding preparations were underway and, although the thought of being a princess made me feel weird, being with Alec was like living a dream. So my mood was high as I walked under the triumphal arch in the center of the capital city and ducked thorugh a lichen-dotten medieval archway. Trailing my fingers along the wall, I soon passed the odd little painting of a door that had intrigued me ever since I first came to Dobrenica. It was rendered so realistically that on first glance it seemed three-dimensional, but as I passed my hands over the painted doorknob, my fingres closed on cold metal, and the false door swung inward, revealing a sun-drenched landscape and a teenage girl with honey-colored braids. «I am Xanpia,» she said, and somehow I knew she wasn't just another girl named after the patron saint of Dobrenica. «This door,» I blurted, «how does it work?» «It is a door between your past and your future,» she responded. «Oh, no! No, no, no — I'm about to married!» I said in desperation, trying to back away. «You are called to guide the child Aurelie,» she said. «But that is only half your task: To save Dobrenica, you must bring her here.» And with that, she disappeared, leaving me floating like a spirit in a strange world, two hundred years in the past...

Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-top-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz. Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles — dead or alive. Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South's most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda, the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago. Django and Schultz's search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie, the proprietor of Candlyand, an infamous plantation. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen, Candie's trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival.

The international bestselling series takes flight with Max and the flock in this manga adaptation. Having rescued Angel from the horrors at the School, the flock heads east to escape the Erasers. But the danger's not over yet. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family are on the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb — now her betrayer and greatest enemy — that her purpose is to save the world. But can she? The Angel Experiment concludes in volume 2!

Hyperville is 2013's top hi-tech 24-hour entertainment complex — a sprawling palace of fun under one massive roof. You can go shopping, or experience the excitement of Doomcastle, WinterZone, or Wild West World. But things are about to get a lot more exciting — and dangerous... What unspeakable horror is lurking on Level Zero of Hyperville? And what will happen when the entire complex goes over to Central Computer Control? For years, the Nestene Consciousness has been waiting and planning, recovering from its wounds. But now it's ready, and its deadly plastic Autons are already in place around the complex. Now more than ever, visiting Hyperville will be an unforgettable experience... Featuring the Doctor as played by David Tennant in the hit Doctor Who BBC Television series.

Full-color guide — Make your trip to London unforgettable with 48 maps, illustrated features, and 260 color photos. Customize your trip with simple planning tools — Ideas for making the most of your time — Convenient overview of each neighborhood and its highlights — Easy-to-read color city and Underground Tube maps Explore Westminster, the East End, and beyond — Discerning Fodor's Choice picks for hotels, restaurants, sights, and more — «Word of Mouth» tips from fellow Fodor's travelers — Illustrated features on the Tower of London, the British Museum, and the Thames River — Best theater, markets, and day trips Opinions from destination experts — Fodor's London-based writers reveal their favorite local haunts — Revised annually to provide the latest information Added bonus: At the end of each Fodor's hotel review, we've included snippets from TripAdvisor reviews. Plan your trip with the extra peace of mind that comes from knowing each of Fodor's expert selections is reinforced by consumer experience and feedback.

Detective Lindsay Boxer's long-awaited wedding celebration becomes a distant memory when she is called to investigate a horrendous crime: a badly injured teenage girl is left for dead, and her newborn baby is nowhere to be found. Lindsay discovers that not only is there no trace of the criminals — but that the victim may be keeping secrets. At the same time, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano is prosecuting the biggest case of her life — a woman who has been accused of murdering her husband in front of her two young children. Yuki's career rests on a guilty verdict, so when Lindsay finds evidence that could save the defendant, she is forced to choose. Should she trust her best friend or follow her instinct?

A descendant of one of Hawaii's largest landowners, Matthew King finds his luck has changed. His two daughters — Scottie, a feisty ten-year-old, and Alex, a teenage recovering drug addict — are out of control; his thrill-seeking, high-maintenance wife, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat-racing accident and will soon be taken off life support. Suddenly the King family must come to terms with this tragedy — and with the shameful sense of freedom that comes with it. As Matt gathers Joanie's friends and family to say their final goodbyes, a difficult situation is made worse by the discovery that one person hasn't been told — the man with whom Joanie has been having an affair. Forced to examine what he owes not only to the living but also to the dead, Matt takes to the road with his daughters to find his wife's lover on a memorable journey of painful revelations and unforeseen humour.

A breathtaking feat of scholarship' The Times. 'I can do no more than praise, recommend, insist that you buy and read this book. It supersedes all other Dickens biographies' Anthony Burgess, Independent. In Peter Ackroyd's abridged edition of his classic biography of Charles Dickens, the acclaimed biographer takes us to the heart of one of the world's greatest writers. From Dickens's birth in Portsmouth to his death at the age of just fifty-eight, Ackroyd explores the life of this renowned author and the hundreds of characters who were born with Dickens but didn't die with him, living on for ever in the pages of his books, on the radio and the television and film screens.

Special Agent Faith Mitchell returns home to a nightmare. Her baby daughter Emma has been locked outside, and there's a trail of blood to the front door. Without waiting for back-up, Faith enters the house. Inside a man lies dead in a pool of blood. Most worrying of all, her mother is missing. When the Atlanta police arrive, Faith has some difficult questions to answer. But she has some desperate questions of her own. What were the killers searching for? And where is her mother? Suspended from duty, Faith turns to her work partner, Will Trent. Together he and Sara Linton must piece together the fragments of a brutal and complicated case, and catch a vicious murderer with only one thing on his mind. To keep on killing until the truth is finally revealed.

Roger Brown has it all: Norway's most successful headhunter, he is married to a beautiful gallery owner and owns a magnificent house. But he's also a highly accomplished art thief. At a gallery opening, his wife introduces him to Clas Greve. Not only is Greve the perfect candidate for a position that Brown is recruiting for; he is also in possession of 'The Calydonian Boar Hunt' by Rubens, one of the most sought-after paintings in modern art history. Roger starts planning his biggest theft ever. But soon, he runs into trouble — and it's not financial problems that are threatening to knock him over this time...

In 2007 Luke Harding arrived in Moscow to take up a new job as a correspondent for the British newspaper the «Guardian». Within months, mysterious agents from Russia's Federal Security Service — the successor to the KGB — had broken into his flat. He found himself tailed by men in cheap leather jackets, bugged, and even summoned to Lefortovo, the KGB's notorious prison. The break-in was the beginning of an extraordinary psychological war against the journalist and his family. Vladimir Putin's spies used tactics developed by the KGB and perfected in the 1970s by the Stasi, East Germany's sinister secret police. This clandestine campaign burst into the open in 2011 when the Kremlin expelled Harding from Moscow — the first western reporter to be deported from Russia since the days of the Cold War. «Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia» is a brilliant and haunting account of the insidious methods used by a resurgent Kremlin against its so-called «enemies» — human rights workers, western diplomats, journalists and opposition activists. It includes unpublished material from confidential US diplomatic cables, released last year by WikiLeaks, which describe Russia as a «virtual mafia state». Harding gives a unique, personal and compelling portrait of today's Russia, two decades after the end of communism, that reads like a spy thriller.

'The mind is a time machine that travels backwards in memory and forwards in prophecy, but he has done with prophecy now...' Sequestered in his blitz-battered Regent's Park house in 1944, the ailing Herbert George Wells, 'H.G.' to his family and friends, looks back on a life crowded with incident, books, and women. Has it been a success or a failure? Once he was the most famous writer in the world, 'the man who invented tomorrow'; now he feels like yesterday's man, deserted by readers and depressed by the collapse of his utopian dreams. He recalls his unpromising start, and early struggles to acquire an education and make a living as a teacher; his rapid rise to fame as a writer with a prophetic imagination and a comic common touch which brought him into contact with most of the important literary, intellectual, and political figures of his time; his plunge into socialist politics; and, his belief in free love, and energetic practice of it. Arguing with himself about his conduct, he relives his relationships with two wives and many mistresses, especially the brilliant student Amber Reeves and the gifted writer Rebecca West, both of whom bore him children, with dramatic and long-lasting consequences. Unfolding this astonishing story, David Lodge depicts a man as contradictory as he was talented: a socialist who enjoyed his affluence, an acclaimed novelist who turned against the literary novel; a feminist womaniser, sensual yet incurably romantic, irresistible and exasperating by turns, but always vitally human.

For nearly fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover held great power in the United States. The creator of the FBI and its Director until his death, he played a role in nearly every major tragedy and scandal in America during the twentieth century. Hoover was lauded when he died as an American hero. Anthony Summers' controversial bestseller, «Official & Confidential, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover», draws on more than 800 interviews to explode the myths, exposing the dark secrets that remained hidden throughout Hoover's lifetime. Hoover used his intimate knowledge of the John F. Kennedy's sex life to ensure that Lyndon B. Johnson became Vice President, and suppressed evidence about J.F.K's assassination. Hoover himself, meanwhile, was a closet homosexual, which allegedly led to him being blackmailed by the Mafia. This fascinating book reveals that even Hoover's death, on the eve of Watergate, was clouded with mystery. Witnesses have indicated that, in the panic over the secrets he was holding over President Nixon, an operation was mounted to break into his house — possibly even to murder him.

Russia is a country of contradictions, a nation of cultural refinement and artistic originality and yet also a country that rules by 'the iron fist'. In this riveting history, Martin Sixsmith shows how Russia's complex identity has been formed over a thousand years, and how it can help us understand its often baffling behaviour at home and abroad. Combining in-depth research and interviews with his personal experiences as a former BBC Moscow correspondent, Sixsmith skilfully traces the conundrums of modern Russia to their roots in its troubled past, and explains the nation's seemingly split personality as the result of influences that have divided it for centuries. «A Sunday Times» bestseller, Russia is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political landscape of this country, and its unique place in the modern world.

Set in contemporary Boston and in Moscow after the Second World War, Russian Winter tells the story of Nina Revskaya, who rose through the ranks of the Bolshoi Ballet to become one of the Soviet Union's greatest ballerinas, until her defection in 1952 on the heels of a terrible betrayal. Now confined to a wheelchair, Nina finds herself confronted by her haunting past in the form of a letter from Grigori Slonim, a professor of foreign languages who believes he may be Nina's illegitimate son: he has enclosed a photograph of an amber pendant as evidence to support his claim. Prompted by the letter, Nina decides to auction her famed jewellery collection, including the matching amber earrings and bracelet she now feels compelled to divest, thus setting into motion a tale that weaves together a contemporary academic mystery with the long-ago tale of a group of friends whose ability to love and to create are tragically compromised by the repressions of the Stalinist regime.

This title is winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011. Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. «The Sense of an Ending» is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, it is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers.

The hit BBC series «Sherlock» offers a fresh, contemporary take on the classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to the legendary detective. The debut episode took as its inspiration the very first Sherlock Holmes novel, «A Study in Scarlet» — and this new edition of Conan Doyle's novel will allow Sherlock fans to discover, or re-discover, the power of that classic story. «A Study in Scarlet» is the genre-defining work with which popular crime fiction was born. A potent mix of serial murder, suspense, cryptic clues, red herrings and revenge, the novel introduces us to the world-famous characters of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Inspector Lestrade and sees Sherlock and Dr. Watson meet and join forces for the first time as they track a mysterious killer that stalks London's streets. In addition to the original text, this edition also has an introduction by Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat, who explains how it inspired the Sherlock script.

Dirty money, tax havens and the offshore system describe the ugliest and most secretive chapter in the history of global economic affairs. Billionaire Warren Buffet, currently the third wealthiest man in the world, paid the lowest rate of tax among his office staff, including his receptionist. In 2006 the world's three biggest banana companies did nearly GBP400 million worth of business in Britain but paid just GBP128,000 in tax between them. In January 2009, US law enforcement fined Lloyds TSB $350 million after it admitted secretly channelling Iranian and Sudanese money into the US banking system. Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor. They lie at the very heart of the global economy, with over half the world trade processed through them. They have been instrumental in nearly every major economic event, in every big financial scandal, and in every financial crisis since the 1970s, including the latest global economic downturn. In Treasure Islands, Nicholas Shaxson shows how this happened, and what this means for you.

In this latest installment of the Cat in the Hat's Learning Library, the Cat and Co. attend the Short-Shaggy-Tail-Waggy Super Dog Show, a strictly Seussian-style event where readers learn — among other things — that dogs are mammals who vary wildly in size and shape; the difference between purebreds and mutts (who are both featured throughout); how tails help dogs to balance; that they can see better in dim light than we can; the amazing things they've been trained to do; and much, much more. Fans of the new PBS preschool science show The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (which is based on the Cat in the Hat's Learning Library) won't want to miss this doggone good new addition to the series!

The hit BBC series Sherlock offers a fresh, contemporary take on the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to the legendary detective. In this TV tie-in edition to the classic novel, Sherlock and Dr Watson receive a visit from Mary Morsten, who offers up a particularly cryptic puzzle for them to solve. Her father went missing six years ago and since then she has received a pearl for every year he has not re-appeared. Now, the treasure's sender has requested a meeting and she would like Sherlock and Watson to accompany her. Finding the mystery benefactor is only the start of this adventure that puts Sherlock and Watson hot on the trail of cold-blooded killers and thieves, and a lost Indian fortune.

In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador in the far north-east of Canada, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three people share the secret — the baby's parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina. Together the adults make a difficult decision: to go through surgery and raise the child as a boy named Wayne. But as Wayne grows up within the hyper-male hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self — a girl he thinks of as 'Annabel' — is never entirely extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life. As Wayne approaches adulthood, and its emotional and physical demands, the woman inside him begins to cry out. The changes that follow are momentous not just for him, but for the three adults that have guarded his secret. Haunting and sweeping in scope, this is a first novel as much concerned with its characters as it is with their predicament, as much about humanity as it is about a rigidly masculine culture that shuns the singular and the unique. Told with great elegance and empathy, Annabel is the powerfully moving story of one person's struggle to discover the truth and the strength to change, to find tenderness in a severe and unforgiving land.

Sometimes when the nightmare ends — the terror is only just beginning. For Hannah Shapiro, a beautiful young American student, this particular nightmare began eight years ago in Los Angeles, when Jack Morgan, owner of Private — the world's most exclusive detective agency — saved her from a horrific death. She has fled her country, but can't flee her past. The terror has followed her to London, and now it is down to former Royal Military Police Sergeant Dan Carter, head of Private London, to save her all over again. In central London, young women are being abducted off the street. When the bodies are found, some days later, they have been mutilated in a particularly mysterious way. Dan Carter's ex-wife, DI Kirsty Webb, is involved in the investigation and it looks likely that the two cases are gruesomely linked. Dan Carter draws on the whole resources of Private International in a desperate race against the odds. But the clock is ticking... Private may be the largest and most technologically advanced detection agency in the world, but the only thing they don't have is the one thing they need — time. James Patterson's white-knuckle rollercoaster has just reached London. Buckle up, it's one hell of a ride.

This is an abridged edition of Peter Ackroyd's magisterial biography of the city of London. Prize-winning historian, novelist and broadcast, Peter Ackroyd takes us on a journey — historical, geographical and imaginative — through the city of London. Moving back and forth through time, Ackroyd is an effortless, exuberant guide to times of plague and pestilence, fire and floods, crime and punishment, and sex and theatre. He brings the ever changing streets alive for the reader and shows us what lies beneath our feet and above our heads. His biography is as rich in detail and fizzing with vitality as the city itself.

A compelling, finely-crafted, intelligent thriller set in the Second World War. It is 1940, and war is raging in Europe. With forty million citizens of German ancestry, there is great pressure within America to stay out of the fight. Elements ranging from the Nazi-sympathetic German-American Bund to the WASP-led America First movement are working feverishly to make sure America does not intervene on the side of a beleaguered Great Britain. Stephen Nessheim, a 28-year-old German-American Lutheran, is working for the still-fledgling FBI. Having grown up in a small Wisconsin town, Nessheim has attended the University of Chicago already known for its radical theories of education and Leftist sympathies. But Nessheim is conservative, befitting his small town upbringing as the son of a schoolteacher, and plays American football in college. Dealing with his own conflicts and that of his divided community, Nessheim finds himself assigned to infiltrate the Bund to seek out suspected Nazi-extremists. His investigations take him deep into the heart of Roosevelt's government. But as he moves closer to the truth, another even more sinister plot emerges which threatens the very foundations of American democracy.