In this auspicious literary crime debut, an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amid the lawlessness of a post–World War II Eastern European city. It’s August, 1948, three years after the Russians “liberated” this small nation from German occupation. But the Red Army still patrols the capital’s rubble-strewn streets, and the ideals of the Revolution are but memories. Twenty-two-year-old Detective Emil Brod, an eager young man who spent the war working on a fishing boat in Finland, f...

More democracy means more freedom. Or does it?American democracy is, in many people's minds, the model for the rest of the world. Fareed Zakaria points out that the American form of democracy is one of the least democratic in use today. Members of the Supreme Court and the Federal Reserve, institutions that fundamentally shape our lives, are appointed, not elected. The Bill of Rights enumerates a set of privileges to which citizens are entitled, no matter what the majority says. By...

On the eve of World War II, a murder in New York City draws two vastly different men, an American detective and a German intelligence officer, into the gathering storm.The death of a spinster nurse killed in her apartment was one of hundreds of simple homicides, indistinguishable from any other in 1938. A suspect was caught and convicted. Then Private Investigator Fintan Dunne is lured in to the case, and coerced by conscience into unraveling the setup that has put an innocent man ...

“Joan of Arc, a village girl from the Vosges, was born about 1412—burnt for heresy, witchcraft, and sorcery in 1431—rehabilitated after a fashion in 1456—designated Venerable in 1904—declared Blessed in 1908—and finally canonized in 1920. She is the most notable Warrior-Saint in the Christian calendar, and the queerest fish among the eccentric worthies of the Middle Ages.”—George Bernard ShawWith Saint Joan, Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the stor...

With the premiere of two new film versions of the Snow White tale, Blackstone enters the fray with its own adult, edgy, and not altogether serious full-cast exposé of fairy-taledom. At last it can be told! Was Snow White really as pure as the driven snow? Did her allegedly wicked stepmother get a bum rap from the Grimm brothers? What went on behind the closed Dutch doors of the dwarves’ cottage? How many handsome princes does it take to screw in a light bulb? These and other burning questi...

Based on Johnston McCulley’s The Curse of Capistrano first published in 1919 by pulp magazine All-Story WeeklySet in Los Angeles during the era of early nineteenth century Colonial Spanish California, the story introduces us to wealthy, young aristocrat Don Diego de la Vega, son of the richest ranchero in the country. Don Diego is an idler who has never concerned himself with more than the cut of his clothes. Unlike other full-blooded youths of his age, he presents himself as a fop...

The world has changed forever. Across America, technology has been eclipsed by magic, and ordinary people become the embodiments of their darkest desires, deepest fears, purest selves.To save his sister, Tina, who has been transformed into one of the ethereal creatures known as flares, former lawyer Cal Griffin seeks out the source of this terrifying phenomenon. Cal and his band of unlikely heroes follow the song of a cursed bluesman and the visions of the charming lunatic Goldie t...

One of the finest and most influential horror writers of the twentieth century, Richard Matheson has left his stamp on the collective imagination. Here are more than twenty of Matheson's most memorable tales of fear and paranoia, personally selected by the author himself. Many of these stories have already entered into popular culture, including the title story, which became a landmark episode of The Twilight Zone, and "Duel," the nail-biting tale of man versus machines that inspi...

Based on a real-life event, a monied client at a progressive law firm pressures the partners to drop a pro bono case they passionately believe in. Will they choose the easy path to preserve their business or keep fighting for what they believe is right?An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance starring:Michael Gross as BennettSean Sinitski as Hal and othersBob Adrian as AbeNed Schmidtke as DelTony Mockus Jr. as Pete and othersScott Lowell...

Olen Steinhauer's first two novels, The Bridge of Sighs and The Confession, launched an acclaimed literary crime series set in post–World War II Eastern Europe. Now he takes his dynamic cast of characters into the shadowy political climate of the 1960s. State Security Officer Brano Sev's job is to do what his superiors ask, no matter what—even if that means leaving his post to work the assembly line in a factory, fitting electrical wires into gauges. So when he gets a dir...

In 1975, a People’s Militia homicide investigator is on a plane for Istanbul when it is hijacked by Armenian terrorists. Before the Turkish authorities can fulfill the hijackers’ demands, the plane explodes in midair.Two investigators, a secret policeman and a homicide detective, are assigned to the case. Both believe that their superiors are keeping them in the dark, but they can’t figure out why … until they begin to realize that everything is connected to a seven-year-old murder...

The revolutionary politics and chaotic history at the heart of Olen Steinhauer’s literary crime series set in Eastern Europe have made it one of today’s most acclaimed, garnering two Edgar Award nominations and numerous other awards. Upon reaching the tumultuous 1980s, the series comes full circle as one of the People’s Militia’s earliest cases reemerges to torment its inspectors, including militia chief Emil Brod, the original detective on the case. His arrest of a revolutionary leader in...