Maggy Dundas is a star jazz pianist with looks, style, and a keen business brain. And when her hated mother Dolly dies, she is free at last from the memories that mar it all- from the woman whose wanton selfishness threatened to keep her from success. Or is she?

The saga of Harald Harrede. "He was a huge man, fully seven feet tall and no one could stand before him in battle or sport...His manner was often curt and haughty, though he know how to win to him those whom he liked...and he could never hear enough of far lands." "So wide a world and so short a span to wander it!"

The first Harry Stoner mystery! Harry Stoner is a private eye in the classic tradition. A loner with a history of failed relationships with women and all-too-successful relationships with bottles of scotch, he's unable to look away from the world's corruption and unable to avoid trying—futiley—to do something about it. His latest hopeless cause is Cindy Ann, a teenage hooker. Neither pretty nor engaging, she doesn't have much to offer at all, and somehow that makes her disappearance all the more disturbing for Stoner, who knows what can happen to girls nobody wants. And he's got a sick hunch that it happened to Cindy Ann, right across the Cincinnati border. As tough as Spenser in his heyday, Stoner is as hard-boiled as they come, but he's a lot more than a standard-issue pulp P.I. The story may be ugly, but in Valin's hands it has the brutal grace of a world-class boxing match.

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award: "Unqualified praise goes to this rarity: an extraordinary novel about ordinary people."—Chicago TribuneThe year is 1940, and Rhoda Taber is pregnant with her first child. Satisfied with her comfortable house in a New Jersey suburb and her reliable husband, Leonard, she expects that her life will be predictable and secure. Surprised by an untimely death, an unexpected illness, and the contrary natures of her two daughters, Rhoda finds that fate undermines her sense of entitlement and security. Shrewd, wry, and sometimes bitter, Rhoda reveals herself to be a wonderfully flawed and achingly real woman caught up in the unexpectedness of her own life.

People suffered under Det Morson's power. When the wizard Mor joined the fight, Det & his infamous Rondoval castle were destroyed. But the victory was not complete, for the conquerors found a baby amidst the rubble: Det's son, Pol. Unwilling to kill the child, Mor took him to a world where the ways of magic were considered mere legends--a world called Earth. Young Mark Marakson is obsessed with devices, building water wheels & later, steam engines. He doesn't understand why people rely on magicians rather than using machinery. Young Pol, meanwhile, grows up a poet, musician & singer, marked by a white streak in his dark hair. He's a disappointment to the man he regards as his father, an engineer. Sometimes he sees glowing strands in the air which he touches to make things happen. Ostracised, Mark wanders the hills & finds a machine graveyard from an ancient war between magic & technology. Restarting them, he returns on a flying machine for his childhood sweetheart, only to be assaulted by the villagers, losing an eye. Returning to the graveyard he creates a machine army for revenge. Realizing the world's balance is disturbed, Mor goes to retrieve Pol to counter Mark, revealing Pol's heritage & powers to him. Once Pol is back, Mor has to return to the technology world to balance out the transfer. He dies in a park where every tree, bird & insect is artificial. Pol must find his way around Castle Rondoval. The strands he uses to perform magic are all about. He finds a thief who was in the castle when Mor cast a sleep spell on it. Revived, the thief becomes his helper. He also discovers Det's dragons asleep in the dungeons. Reviving the mightiest one, who recognizes him as his former master's son, he then has to set out on a quest to find the three segments of his father's magical staff, scattered across the world by Mor. He's accompanied by Mark's former sweetheart, creating a romantic triangle. The quest requires him to defeat several magic guardians & traps. Completing it, he's able to take on & defeat Mark Marakson, restoring the world balance. In doing so, he loses the girl's affections. He's left to seek his future in Rondoval, among old magics left by his father. The tale's next part appears in Madwand.

Composed in the early thirteenth century, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival is the re-creation and completion of the story left unfinished by its initiator Chrétien de Troyes. It follows Parzival from his boyhood and career as a knight in the court of King Arthur to his ultimate achievement as King of the Temple of the Grail, which Wolfram describes as a life-giving Stone. As a knight serving the German nobility in the imperial Hohenstauffen period, the author was uniquely placed to describe the zest and colour of his hero's world, with dazzling depictions of courtly luxury, jousting and adventure. Yet this is not simply a tale of chivalry, but an epic quest for spiritual education, as Parzival must conquer his ignorance and pride and learn humility before he can finally win the Holy Grail.

Miss Jennie Bemyss was in a position that any intelligent young lady would envy. The wealthy, worldly Marquis of Charrington proposed a marriage of convenience that would leave him free to pursue his pleasures, and leave Jennie free of his undoubtedly depraved desires. At the same time, handsome charming Guy Chalmers, whom Jennie had loved since childhood, proposed to aid her in enjoying her freedom to the fullest. Jennie should have felt relief at being left alone at last by a man whom she should properly despise. She should have felt even happier to be courted by a man whom she had so long adored. Why, then, did she feel so confused??

Jason Marshall, an Earthman enslaved by the Goreans, is learning a valuable lesson in gender roles and must prove himself on the planet Gor. Determined to find the beautiful Earthwoman who was kidnapped with him, Jason is caught in the middle of a devastating war between Ar and the Salerians. Jason must prove himself a real man and survive the war in hopes of finally finding the girl of his dreams.Rediscover this brilliantly imagined world where men are masters and women live to serve their every desire.

It took years to develop. Cost billions to perfect. A cryptographic system so advanced it safeguards the United States' most vital secrets. It is secure. Impenetrable. Until sixteen year old autistic savant Simon Lynch happens upon a forgotten snippet of code, his damaged brilliance breaking the cipher with ease and unwittingly marking him for death. Soon, elements of a pathological government security apparatus are hunting him, as is a beautiful, sadistic assassin working for enemies who will stop at nothing to learn the secret locked in Simon's mind. Only FBI Agent Art Jefferson stands between the innocent young man and these corrupt forces, putting his career, his freedom, and his life on the line to save Simon. *Simple Simon was made into the Bruce Willis film '**Mercury Rising**'.* ### Amazon.com Review Director Ron Howard bought the rights to turn this engaging thriller into a movie, and it's no wonder: the story of a 16-year-old autistic genius being protected by a renegade FBI operative against a secret government agency has all the elements of his kind of humanistic blockbuster. It also helps that Ryne Douglas Pearson--whose previous books, *Capitol Punishment* and *October's Ghost*, are also available in paperback--creates instantly likeable characters in unlikely situations. ### From Library Journal Sixteen-year-old Simon is autistic but very good at puzzles. When he breaks the main computer code for the National Security Agency (NSA), he is perceived as a threat. After the NSA's first attempt kills his parents, Simon is befriended by a Chicago FBI agent, Art Jefferson. The NSA then tries to eliminate Jefferson, first manipulating FBI charges against him, then arranging his wife's arrest. Running from the NSA and the FBI, Jefferson and Simon are then beset by a Japanese assassin with a taste for sadistic methods. The action culminates in a shoot-out on top of Chicago's Sears Tower and a fiery crash over Lake Michigan. Action-packed and fast-paced, with pungent prose, Pearson's (Capitol Punishment, LJ 7/95) latest novel is a cyberthriller that keeps the reader flipping pages frantically. Recommended for public libraries.?M.J. Simmons, Duluth P. L., Minn. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Six days into their search for a man who put a .32-caliber bullet into a South African antique dealer, neither Kramer of the Murder Squad nor his Bantu assistant, Zondi, has a single lead in the case. On the seventh day, Mrs. Digby-Smith opens the trunk of her car and discovers the hideous, tied-up corpse of her younger brother. Two violent crimes - seemingly unconnected. But as Kramer and Zondi pursue their investigation, startling connections turn up in the sordid underworld of Terkkersburg and in the secret, unresolved enmities of World War II.

After surviving an unspeakable crime, a victim identifies a shocking attacker Lynne Jacobi gets the call a few hours before dawn. Model-turned-television celebrity Sanderalee Dawson lies on the kitchen floor of her sumptuous Manhattan apartment, hanging on to life by a tenuous thread. The victim of a savage assault, she stuns everyone when she survives and identifies her attacker. So begins a case that leads law enforcement down a twisting path of secrets, lies, and false leads. Lynne, bureau chief of the district attorney’s office, is fueled by ambition and her vow to bring a brutal killer to justice. But Chief Investigator Bobby Jones isn’t sure they have the right man, and he hesitates to put his legal career—and his affair with Lynne—at risk. The victim herself, as the only witness to her rape, must go up against a monster who just might get away with it.

Caroline had never imagined that anyone would want to marry her. After all, she wasn't pretty or clever in any way. But the imposing Professor Radinck Thoe van Erckelens did propose to her and, having speedily fallen in love with him, she accepted. However, Radinck was clear about what he wanted in a wife—a convenient hostess! Caroline could settle into that role. Or she could rise to the challenge of changing Radinck's feelings for her.