Christian Zorn has a choice: spend the final six months of his sentence in juvenile detention, or go to work on a vineyard. The latter isn't as pleasant as it sounds. The work is backbreaking, and Immanuel Dessoir, the owner, has peculiar ideas about quality and integrity. The two eventually clash, and Immanuel banishes Christian to custodial duties.Violet Dessoir, the winemaker's youngest daughter, idolizes Christian. She sits next to him at meals, follows him around the property,...

When the body of seventeenth-century mapmaker Johannes Cellarius floats to the surface of a bog in northern Germany, a 57-carat ruby clutched in his fist, the discovery ignites an international treasure hunt to unearth the fabled Tavernier stones. The hoard reputedly contains some of the world's most notorious missing jewels, including the 280-carat Great Mogul diamond and the 242-carat Great Table diamond.Amish-born cartographer John Graf teams up with outlaw prospector and gemolo...

A literary journal editor shares his idiosyncratic "thinks" about writing and publishing.

The first 100 words of your manuscript are as important as all the words that follow. They comprise a first impression. They set the tone and introduce your writing style. If poorly chosen, they may be the only words an editor reads. The purpose of The First 100 Words is to share one editorial staff's insights into that narrow literary domain, to chart the pitfalls and headlong plunges that inspire frontline readers to reject manuscripts, often without bothering to finish them.

The first volume of the Abraham trilogy. René Jordan and Father Malcolm Marchand are caught hoarding forbidden books in post-apocalyptic Kebek. They escape to Ellanoy and what appears to be a Utopia. During their stay Ellanoy is attacked by an army of warriors descended from less fortunate survivors of the poisoned rains. Paradise is a cruel mirage.

Germany, 1990: The Berlin Wall has fallen. East and West Germany are discussing reunification. After four and a half decades of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, the Cold War is coming to an end. Not for Jimmy Fisher, a plans clerk in the American 111th Infantry Division. Fisher black markets cigarettes, steals valuables from the dead, and takes advantage of every weakness he identifies in each living person he meets. Which makes him the perfect target for foreign agents seeking to buy documents....

Music of the Spheres is a mathematical fantasy about the circular inhabitants of the planet Corona struggling with avarice, apathy, and allegiance while questioning the shape of their world. Readers are assumed to have a knowledge of pre-calc math.

Anatomy of a Spy is a brief sketch of the quintessential American spy. The author draws on his experience serving under Clyde Lee Conrad, one of the most notorious turncoats in American history. Written primarily to help authors of espionage fiction, Anatomy of a Spy will also enlighten readers of the genre, as well as anyone interested in the little-known facts and often bizarre reality of the world's second oldest profession.

A new Mike Hammer story from the archives of Mickey Spillane.On the death of crime boss Don Giraldi, a rumour begins to spread about the existence of a very dangerous book. A ledger that lists every deal made during his career.The rumored is that the book is in the possession of person he trusted most. But who can a crime boss trust? Hired by the local police to find the ledger, Mike Hammer soon finds himself in the firing line of everyone from the cops, the local politicia...

Who killed two thousand innocent people, and how? More importantly, can they be stopped from striking again?Infectious disease expert Dr. Susan Lyle teams up with Blaine McCracken, ex-CIA operative, in the search for answers. Hideously deformed cadavers and a missing teenage genius are their only leads. The chase takes them all the way down the eastern seaboard and across the country, and they soon realize that at the heart of the puzzle lies a whole new generation of biological wea...

In Loren D. Estleman's Don't Look For Me, Amos Walker's up to his neck in dames, drugs…and murder, again.Amos Walker doesn't mean to walk into trouble. But sometimes it finds him, regardless. The missing woman has left a handwritten note that said, "Don't look for me." Any P.I. would take that as a challenge, especially when he found out that she'd left the same message once before, when having an illicit affair.But this time it's different. The tr...

Everyone loves their grandma but these three are just a little...different. They have certain skills in war and strategy developed over forty years through military training and discipline. They are the definition of "never judge a book by its cover." They now work as contractors for the extra money. Follow the hapless Clem as he is hired to drive the three on their latest mission of destruction.