Simon & Schuster

Three days before Christmas, Alvirah Meehan — the famous lottery winner and amateur detective — and Regan Reilly try to meet the harsh demands and tough deadlines of the kidnappers who have held Reilly's father for a $1,000,000 ransom. To make matters worse, a winter storm is gathering, putting their lives in greater danger. DECK THE HALLS is filled with twists and turns, intrigue and danger, as well as a hearty dose of holiday cheer. In HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING, Sterling receives his summons into heaven a few days before Christmas. In order to be deemed fit to enter heaven this year he is sent back to earth and given an opportunity to prove his worthiness by helping someone else. That someone is seven-year-old Marissa. She has been separated from her father and grandmother who have, following the threats of two mobsters, both been forced into the Witness Protection Program. Filled with suspense and humour, this is a delightful and warm-hearted tale of perseverance, redemption and love. Alvirah Meehan and Regan Reilly join forces once again in THE CHRISTMAS THIEF to solve a Christmas mystery. The time they must track down the beautiful ninety-foot tree that is hijacked on its way to the Rockefeller Centre for the Christmas season.

In 1945, Germany experienced the greatest outburst of deadly violence that the world has ever seen. Germany 1945 examines the country's emergence from the most terrible catastrophe in modern history. When the Second World War ended, millions had been murdered; survivors had lost their families; cities and towns had been reduced to rubble and were littered with corpses. Yet people lived on, and began rebuilding their lives in the most inauspicious of circumstances. Bombing, military casualties, territorial loss, economic collapse and the processes of denazification gave Germans a deep sense of their own victimhood, which would become central to how they emerged from the trauma of total defeat, turned their backs on the Third Reich and its crimes, and focused on a transition to relative peace. Germany's return to humanity and prosperity is the hinge on which Europe's twentieth century turned. For years we have concentrated on how Europe slid into tyranny, violence, war and genocide; this book describes how humanity began to get back out.

A special 10th anniversary edition of Stephen King's critically lauded, million-copy bestseller about the craft of writing.

Nikki Maxwell is not popular, in fact Nikki Maxwell is the opposite of popular, she's a total dork! But Nikki's hoping that by moving to a new school she might just stand a chance of making some friends and leaving her old dork-ways in the past. But life is never that simple, follow Nikki's diary and sketches as she starts her new school, battles with her mum for an iPhone and meets her arch-nemisis, the school's queen bee, Mackenzie.

Olivier Giugni, the renowned floral artist, presents stunning portraits of his sumptuous creations in a variety of private homes, along with detailed descriptions of their design and placement — and recipes for a dozen of his signature arrangements. Life is color and color is life. This is the mantra of Olivier Giugni, founder and owner of L'Olivier, the sleek floral design atelier in Manhattan. Far from Brignoles, the Provencal village where he grew up, Olivier reimagines the warmth, whimsy, style, and bursts of color from his native France in a singularly contemporary fashion, and in doing so, he has become one of the New York area's most beloved and acclaimed floral designers.Created from a breathtaking range of organic and sustainable material, Olivier's work becomes living sculpture, drawing from and reflecting back the signature elements of its surrounding environment. True to this vision, his gorgeous, lush arrangements of dramatic flowers and plants inspire and transform every space they occupy. In Living Art, Olivier walks readers through the homes of eighteen of his clients as well as his own, pointing out how their art, furnishings, and design preferences engage in a call-and-response with his unique arrangements. Along the way, Olivier's creative thought process is revealed, showing how composition, color, texture, and fragrance can have a subtle yet decisive impact on the energy of a room, enhancing and elevating mood and moment. Living Art 's spectacular images illuminate this master florist's aesthetic approach in an accessible way. A gift for experienced arrangers or novices just learning to work with flowers, the book includes recipes for twelve of Olivier's unique arrangements, offering novel ways to style flowers, plants, and foliage — from cascade to orchid garden to bouquet. The poetic, playful creativity featured in Living Art will move and spark the imagination of all those who are passionate about flowers.

What if America's most powerful leader was also its prime target? On a busy Washington morning, the stately calm of the White House is shattered as terrorists gain control of the executive mansion, slaughtering dozens of people. The president is evacuated to an underground bunker, but not before nearly one hundred hostages are taken. One man is sent in to take control of the crisis. Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterterrorism operative, determines that the president is not as safe as Washington's power elite had thought. Moving among the corridors of the White House, Rapp makes a chilling discovery that could rock Washington to its core: someone within his own government wants his rescue attempt to fail.

Im ersten Teil der Serie 'The Cousin's War', die zur Zeit der Rosenkriege spielt, erzählt Gregory die Geschichte von Elizabeth Woodville, der 'Weißen Königin'. Nicht durch Geburt sondern lediglich aufgrund ihrer Schönheit wurde sie zur Monarchin. Sie war die Mutter der zwei Prinzen, die Zentralfiguren eines der größten ungelösten Geheimnisse der Englischen Geschichte sind: ihre zwei Söhne wurden im Tower gefangen gehalten — ihr Schicksal ist bis heute unbekannt.

Brother turns on brother. The throne of England is at stake. The deadly Wars of the Roses have begun... They ruled England before the Tudors, and now internationally bestselling author Philippa Gregory brings the Plantagenets to life through the dramatic and intimate stories of the secret players: the indomitable women. Elizabeth Woodville, a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition, secretly marries the newly crowned boy king. While she rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become the central figures in a famous unsolved mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the lost princes in the Tower of London. Philippa Gregory brings the artistry and intellect of a master writer and storyteller to a new era in history and begins what is sure to be another bestselling classic series.

THE PREDATORS takes you on a wild odyssey through the gaudy and reckless life of Jerry Cooper: his struggle to survive in depression New York; his years in Europe during the war; his friends, wives and lovers; his life in organised crime and his entrance into the world of high-powered international business. Into the world of Plesscassier. The premier purveyor of vintage French spring water, its owner Jean Pierre Martine is a consummate rogue whose all-consuming greed is rivalled only by his unbridled sexual desires. But Plescassier is not yet the global colossus it may one day become. For all Jean Pierre's flair, the company lacks that single-minded individual who will propel it to its rightful place at the top of the international market. Jerry Cooper with his enormous appetites, financial genius and criminal past is such a person. As is Giselle, the former French courtesan, who is the driving force behind both Jerry and Jean Pierre, who inflames their ambition, their vanity, their destiny, their dream. And shares their bed.

From America's favorite storyteller comes the highly anticipated sequel to her New York Times bestseller, The Shop on Blossom Street. Once again, a disparate group of women find friendship and comfort as they learn the age-old craft of knitting.

Bill Gates is not only the world's most successful capitalist; he's the world's biggest philanthropist. Gates has approached philanthropy the same way he revolutionized computer software: with a fierce ambition to change the rules of the game. That's why at last year's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gates advocated a 'creative capitalism', in which big corporations should integrate doing good into their way of doing business. This controversial new idea is discussed and debated by the more than 40 contributors to this book, among them three Nobel laureates and two former U.S. cabinet secretaries. Edited by author and columnist Michael Kinsley, Creative Capitalism brings together some of the world's best minds to engage Gates's challenge. From Warren Buffet, who seconds Gates's analysis, to Lawrence Summers, who worries about the consequences of multiple corporate objectives, the essays cover a broad spectrum of opinion. Creative Capitalism is not just a book for philanthropists. It's a book that challenges the conventional wisdom about our economic system, a roadmap for the new global economy that is emerging as capitalism adapts itself once again to a changing world.

A sacred oath, a fallen angel, a forbidden love... This darkly romantic story features our heroine, Nora Grey, a seemingly normal teenage girl with her own shadowy connection to the Nephilim, and super-alluring bad boy, Patch, now her deskmate in biology class. Together they find themselves at the centre of a centuries-old feud between a fallen angel and a Nephilim... Forced to sit next to Patch in science class, Nora attempts to resist his flirting, though gradually falls for him against her better judgment. Meanwhile creepy things are going on with a mysterious stalker following her car, breaking into her house and attacking her best friend, Vi. Nora suspects Patch, but there are other suspects too — not least a new boy who has transferred from a different college after being wrongly accused of murdering his girlfriend. And he seems to have taken a shine to Nora... Love certainly is dangerous... and someone is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice for it.

When four famous 1960s radicals are gunned down, including the wife of an international media mogul, it would appear to be an open-and-shut case. A wealth of evidence ties the chief suspect, retired Marine sniper Carl Hitchcock, to the murders. Holder, until recently, of the record number of kills in Vietnam and anxious to reclaim his title, Hitchcock's subsequent suicide would seem to confirm his guilt. But FBI assistant director Nick Memphis has his doubts — and calls on former Marine Corps sniper Bob Lee Swagger to investigate. As Swagger digs deeper, it becomes clear that matters are more complicated than would initially appear. The shots were not executed with the scope of a 1972 rifle, Hitchcock's weapon of choice, but by a high-tech scope used by active Marines. But as Swagger starts to unravel the tangled web of connections surrounding the murders, he finds his own days may be numbered. Because he's about to face one of his most ruthless adversaries yet — a sniper whose keen intellect and pinpoint accuracy rivals his own. The end result will be a bloody confrontation that only one of them can survive.

The year is 1914 and Europe, armed with futuristic machines and biotechnology, is on the precipice of war. Prince Aleksandar is fleeing for his life, having discovered that his parents have been assassinated and that he is now a target for the Clanker Powers, a group determined to take over the globe with their mechanical machinery. They will stop at nothing to get what they want, so Alek knows his only choice is to keep on running. When he meets Deryn Sharpe, an orphan girl who has disguised herself as a boy so she can to join the British Air Service, they form an uneasy, but necessary, alliance. But the pair will soon discover that their emerging friendship will dramatically change their lives and the entire course of the Great World War...

Denver Jones is a hotshot twenty-something attorney working in L.A. Carolyn Henderson is P.A to a powerful and very married Senator in Washington with whom she is having an affair. And Annabelle Maestro — daughter of two movie stars — has carved out a career for herself in New York, with the help of her cocaine addicted boyfriend, as the madame of choice for discerning famous men. Then there is Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous, the Kennedyesque son of Lucky Santangelo. Back in the day he went to high school with Denver, Carolyn and Annabelle. When Annabelle's mother is found shot to death in her Beverly Hills mansion, the friends are thrown together, and secrets from the past have a way of coming back to haunt them...

Cambridge is home to 18,000 students, 1,500 academics — and one serial killer. The discovery of the headless, mutilated body of a female undergraduate in her bloodsoaked college room heralds the start of a series of bizarre and extremely violent murders. For the students of Ariel College, a siege mentality has developed following weeks of media interest in the 'Cambridge Butcher'. University life has become not about surviving their exams, but surviving full stop. Forensic psychiatrist Matthew Denison is sure that his traumatised patient, student Olivia Coscadden, has the killer's identity locked up in her memory. That within the little clique she belonged to lurks someone with a grudge. Someone who has yet to finish settling their score. In order to get to the truth, Denison must delve into the secrets hidden within Olivia's subconscious. Secrets that are about to lead him into a nightmare beyond imagining.

A war is coming, a war that will involve all who sail the seas. Sidorio and his newly resurrected bride, Lola, are planning to build an Empire. However in order to fulfil their dream they need the help of the tempest twins, Connor and Grace, and gaining the trust of the two children is not going to be easy. But Lola and Sidorio will stop at nothing to take control of the seas, so the twins are given an invitation they can't refuse and join the couple's vampirate crew. But Connor's allegiances still lie elsewhere and as he gets pulled deeper into the world of Sidorio and the vampirates he continues to provide Cheng Li and the Federation with the information they need to put a stop to Lola and Sidorio's plans. Meanwhile, thanks to a deception by Lola, Grace is facing a battle of her own as her growing blood lust leads her down a sinister and dangerous path...

The first novel in a thrilling new series featuring multiracial bounty hunter Kira Solomon. After Kira comes across an ancient dagger that belongs to Khefar, a 4,000-year-old Nubian warrior, the sexual tension between the two builds, and a sinister evil sets its sights on both of them.

Estep delivers the first book in a thrilling new urban fantasy series filled with vampires, giants, dwarves, and elementals, featuring Gin Blanco, a tough female assassin known as the spider, who moonlights at a barbecue joint in Tennessee.

Jackie Brighton's life as a succubus is going great: she's gone from mousy to bombshell, and although she has to have sex every forty-eight hours or die, she has two hot guys — the vampire Zane and the angel Noah — to scratch her Itch. But then her Itch accelerates to every twenty-four hours, and she's suddenly waking people's unconscious just by touching them. Something's out of control so she and Remy, her mentor, go on an adventure-filled road trip to New Orleans to consult with the oldest succubus in the United States. Jackie learns she's been cursed by a vampire queen — and reversing the curse demands a price she's not willing to pay.

Tears roll over my face. I touch them with my quivering tongue. They are clear and salty, not dark and bloody. Another sign that I am human. What Alisa has desired for five thousand years has finally come true: She is once again human. But now she is defenseless, vulnerable, and, for the first time in centuries, emotional. As she attempts to reconcile her actions as a vampire with her new connection to humanity, she begins to understand the weight of lifeand-death decisions. Can Alisa resolve her past and build a new identity, or is she doomed to repeat her fatal mistakes?

London, 1196. At the command of Richard the Lionheart, Sir John de Wolfe has left his beloved West Country for the Palace of Westminster, where he has been appointed Coroner of the Verge. But with the king overseas, embroiled in a costly war against King Philip of France, Sir John is dismayed to discover that the English court is a hotbed of greed, corruption and petty in-fighting. The murder of one of the palace clerks, stabbed in broad daylight and thrown into the River Thames, leads John to suspect that there's a conspiracy underway to overthrow King Richard. And with the visit of the dowager Queen Eleanor fast approaching, the new Coroner must risk his life to prove his suspicions are right, root out the traitors within and prevent a national catastrophe.

A very natural and honest version of life's events from the perspective of a young girl — from her suspicions about her neighbours, to her rocky friendship with the girl next door; from the sudden death of her beloved granny to her relentless quest for a pet hamster, only to then find it mysteriously slaughtered — which kickstarts a local investigation of 'suspects'. This is the first in a proposed series of short novels featuring the same characters and setting — with the themes of pets and detective work holding them together.

'Reader, I buried him.' So begins Sherri Browning Erwin's affectionate, funny and brilliantly clever monster mash-up of everyone's favourite literary classic. Mrs Reed and her children are vampires, Lowood is run by a voodoo headmaster who is turning his pupils into the walking dead, Mr Rochester's first wife is a werewolf, and Jane must learn to embrace her destiny as a slayer of evil before she can win her heart's desire. What's not to love? Jane Slayre is the one classic which can give Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a run for its money, and Sherri Browning Erwin's masterful take on a timeless tale will delight monster fans and lovers of Charlotte Bronte alike.