  UK NEWSLETTER
86 East Third Ave., San Mateo, CA 94401 Phone: 650-401-8077
OR Toll Free outside Bay Area: 888-405-8077
October 13th, 2011
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How to Order
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To place an order:
email usor phone us (650)401-8077 (888)405-8077 toll free We accept Visa, MC, Amex and checks by arrangement We ship USPS Media mail within the US and USPS International Priority for overseas addresses Shipping rates: In the US - $6.00 for the first book $1.35 each additional book Overseas - email us to discuss the options
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| Greetings! |
Just in from across the pond -- a nicely varied new shipment of first editions, plus more new titles in the always welcome and popular Agatha Christie facsimile editions. Quantities are limited, so we advise timely ordering.
SALE NOTICE!! Immediately below the new arrivals are some fine recent releases, newly marked 10% OFF THROUGH OCT. 31st. Take a look!
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 UK - Just Arrived!
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MARK BILLINGHAM - Good As Dead
|  (Sphere, $39.00) SIGNED. Mark Billingham won the 2003 Sherlock Award as the creator of the Best Detective created by a British writer, and has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier prize for best novel of the year. The Hostage Police officer Helen Weeks walks into her local newsagent's on her way to work. Little does she know that this simple daily ritual will change her life forever. It's the last place she expects to be met with violence, but as she waits innocently at the till, she comes face to face with a gunman. . .
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LEE CHILD - The Affair
|  (Bantam, $39.00) Not Signed. Booklist starred: "Jack Reacher fans know the basics about their hero career army MP suddenly transformed into the ultimate lone wolf but they don't know the backstory. Finally, Child fills us in on what drove Reacher, a good soldier above all, out of the army. . . . Child's mastery of high-octane plotting remains remarkable, as does his ability to inject what, in other hands, might have been cartoon characters with all the sinews that power human beings."
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AGATHA CHRISTIE -- More Facsimile Editions!
|  More Christie titles from the very collectible facsimile editions, now reproduced with absolute fidelity by UK HarperCollins from the original plates and dust jacket art.
Full list of Agatha Christie facsimiles can be found here: http://mformystery.com/british.html
Simply scroll down to Christie!
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CHRISTOPHER FOWLER - Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood
|  (Doubleday, $39.00) SIGNED. Raves from two UK newspapers; first, the Sunday Times: "Christopher Fowler manages to write detective novels that are warm homages and mild pastiches of the Golden Age while at the same time excellent stories in their own right. In [this one] there is even that rare element, the locked room mystery." And the Financial Times: "Arthur Bryant and John May [are] senior detectives at the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU), an obscure crime-fighting arm of the state in perpetual competition with the Metropolitan Police. [This] is their ninth outing in Christopher Fowler's charming and quirky series and is a pleasurably intelligent read."
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ERIN MORGENSTERN - The Night Circus
| This UK print run is smaller than that of the U.S. edition. Notably, also, the book is striking for its black page edges, against crimson cloth boards; front board is embossed with a large period clock face. The dustjacket art is exquisite, and endpapers feature a black and white motif with two splashes of red to match the boards.
 (Harvill Secker, $32.00) Not Signed. Starred reviews all around; first, from PW: "Debut author Morgenstern doesn't miss a beat in this smashing tale of greed, fate, and love . . . .a giant, magical story destined for bestsellerdom. This is an electric debut." And from Library Journal: "To enter the black-and-white-striped tents of Le Cirque des Rêves is to enter a world where objects really do turn into birds and people really do disappear. . . . Debut novelist Morgenstern has written a 19th-century flight of fancy that is, nevertheless, completely believable. The smells, textures, sounds, and sights are almost palpable."
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JO NESBO - Headhunters
|  (Harvill Secker, $24.00, paperback). Not Signed. A stand-alone thriller from the top-selling Norwegian star. "With echoes of The Thomas Crown Affair, spectacular storytelling and a beautifully judged super-twist, it confirms Nesbo's place at the pinnacle of thriller writers and, inevitably, a film version will be with us next year. It's that good," said the Daily Mail.
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STEF PENNEY - The Invisible Ones
|  (Quercus, $49.00). SIGNED. The author of The Tenderness of Wolves returns with her second novel, this one set in 1980's England involving a disappeared gypsy girl who had been married to the charismatic son of a travelling gypsy family. "This is an accomplished, polished tale . . . Penney takes her time building up suspense and drawing us into the heads of her characters, but never lets up on intriguing and mysterious situations. She is a true storyteller . . . she knows how to tell a story, how to reach her readers and hold them from start to finish. Indeed, she may be one of the best storytellers we have at the moment," said The Scotsman.
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WILLIAM RYAN - Bloody Meadow
|  (Mantle, $39.00). SIGNED. The author's second book after The Holy Thief, a 2010 bestseller. Moscow, 1936 and Stalin's Great Terror is beginning. In a deconsecrated Church, a young woman is found dead, her mutilated body displayed on the altar for all to see. Captain Alexei Dimitrevich Korolev of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Militia, is asked to investigate. But when he discovers that the victim is an American citizen, the NKVD -- the most feared organisation in Russia -- becomes involved.
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UK Books Still In Stock!
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TAKE 10% OFF prices marked -- through Oct. 31st !
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JOE ABERCROMBIE - The Heroes
|  (Gollancz, $64.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF! "Abercrombie's take on fantasy has always been dark, almost nihilistic, yet shot through with black humour. The deliberate irony of the title of this book is that he does not write about heroes, he writes about ordinary people thrust in to extraordinary situations who seldom, if ever, acquit themselves heroically. Highly recommended both for fantasy readers and lovers of Cornwell and Iggulden," said Book Geek. And SF Reviews said: "Abercrombie has quickly risen to the top ranks of heroic fantasy. This novel, a stand-alone epic that doesn't require you to have read his others, makes it abundantly clear why. Even among writers known for doing fine characterization, Abercrombie's approach is strikingly effective and not quite like anyone else's."
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JANE ADAMS - Blood Ties
|  (Severn House, 2010, $43.00) Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
When Alec and Naomi take a much-needed Winter holiday in Somerset, they encounter local eccentric Eddy Thame, a historian and metal detectorist obsessed with the Monmouth rebellion of 1685 and the alleged Kirkwood treasure. A few days after their arrival, Eddy is found dead. Reluctantly, Alec and Naomi become involved, but they soon realise that Eddy seems very different to the rather dotty individual they encountered in the local pub.
ALSO, buy 'Blood Ties' plus the following and get 10% off both:
"A Kiss Goodbye" (Alison & Busby, 2006, $18.00) As New. Signed.
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SIMON BEAUFORT - A Dead Man's Secret
|  (Severn House, 2010, $46.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
The new 'Sir Geoffrey Mappestone' mystery. Simon Beaufort, as well as Susanna Gregory, are pen-names of Elizabeth Cruwys. When the former crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone is ordered by King Henry to deliver a series of mysterious letters to the restless western reaches of Wales, he agrees only reluctantly. His conviction that the simple mission hides something more sinister is strengthened when the letters' scribe is murdered before the journey begins. Then one of Geoffrey's travelling companions is killed, and he knows he must uncover the secret behind the letters before more victims are claimed. |
BENJAMIN BLACK - A Death in Summer
|  (Mantle, $44.00) True first. Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
". . . with Quirke, he has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing" (The Guardian). The Chicago Tribune called it "a quick read, building in intensity like the heat of a July day before tapering off to a cooler twilight of revelation and reconciliation. If it's mysteries you crave, and if shimmering sentences refresh you even more reliably than would a two-week vacation at the shore, then Quirke -- mournful, shambling, guilt-ridden, whiskey-soaked and irresistible -- is just the ticket." And the Los Angeles Times praised: "A swift, hopscotching murder mystery . . . A beach read for the brainy."
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SIMON BRETT - Blotto, Twinks and the Rodents of the Riviera
|  (Constable, $48.00). Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
Consternation at Tawcester Towers! While giving a guided tour of the house's Long Gallery Blotto is stunned to discover that two of the family portraits -- a Gainsborough and a Reynolds -- are missing. Tawcester Towers has been the victim of art thieves! Blotto is forced to summon his brilliantly intelligent sister Twinks who instantly deduces that the paintings have been stolen by a gang of international art thieves based in Paris. So Blotto and Twinks instantly set off in the former's Lagonda for France. The Guardian said, "One of British crime's most assured craftsmen. . . .Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment."
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ANDREA CAMILLERI - The Track of Sand
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 (Mantle UK, $37.00) Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
Inspector Montalbano rises one morning to find the carcass of a horse on the beach in front of his seaside home. But no sooner do his men arrive, than the body has mysteriously vanished, leaving behind only a trail in the sand. Before long Rachele, a beguiling equestrian champion, turns up at police headquarters to report her horse missing. She had been keeping it at the stables of a certain Saverio Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily. Montalbano investigates, entering the strange, unfamiliar world of horse-racing. Maneuvering his way through the colorful demimonde of eccentric aristocrats and high-rolling bourgeois, Montalbano must once again call upon his special blend of intuition, analysis, play-acting and Proustian memory for good food, if he is to uncover this latest mystery. |
LESLIE CHARTERIS - The Best of the Saint (Vol 1)
|  (Hodder, $29.00) Unsigned. Trade paperback. TAKE 10% OFF!
"I am the Saint - you may have heard of me. Just a twentieth-century privateer. In my small way I try to put right a few of the things that are wrong with this cock-eyed world" says Simon Templar, aka the Saint. On the side of the law and yet outside it, the Saint, exciting, debonair and very slightly disreputable, lives for adventure. Here he is at his ebullient best, spreading terror among London's drug dealers, rescuing a lady crook from distress and much more. Introduced by Ken Follett, this anthology includes the very best of the earlier stories.
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JOHN CONNOLLY - Burning Soul
|  (Hodder & Stoughton, $39.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
Randall Haight has a secret: when he was a teenager, he and his friend killed a 14-year-old girl. Randall did his time and built a new life in the small Maine town of Pastor's Bay, but somebody has discovered the truth about Randall. He is being tormented by anonymous messages, haunting reminders of his past crime, and he wants private detective Charlie Parker to make it stop. But another 14-year-old girl has gone missing, this time from Pastor's Bay, and the missing girl's family has its own secrets to protect. Now Parker must unravel a web of deceit involving the police, the FBI, a doomed mobster, and Randall Haight himself. Kirkus said: "An intelligent, plausible thriller, both harrowing and memorable" and the 'Sun' concluded: "Crime writer John Connolly is a star in his own right. The Irishman has more than proved himself. . .
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PAUL DOHERTY - The Darkening Glass
|  (Headline UK, 2009, $32.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
March 1312 and England is divided. Edward II is in conflict with his barons over royal favourite Gaveston, and Queen Isabella is momentously pregnant with the first union of Plantagenet and Capetian blood. Meanwhile, rebel Robert Bruce prowls the Scottish border seeking advancement. Mathilde of Westminster senses a challenge for the throne is imminent. When the great Earls step up their campaign, the King and Queen are forced to flee to a fortified priory in Tynemouth, now vulnerable to the Scottish marauders on land and Bruce's allies at sea.
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BRIAN EASTMAN - Memory of Water
|  (A&B, 2006, $21.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
The two Fraser cousins shared everything as boys, but when Martin inherits the family estate, Jim is left with nothing. He lives an embittered existence in a small cottage on the edge of the village, feared and shunned by the whole community. When Rosemary Boxer witnesses his apparent suicide by drowning there is a general feeling of relief amongst the local people. While Laura and Rosemary restore Martin Fraser's Elizabethan garden, assisted by a group of prisoners on day release, the question of Jim's death becomes increasingly complicated.
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R.J. ELLORY - Saints of New York
|  (Orion, 2010, $59.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
The death of a young heroin dealer causes no great concern for NYPD Detective Frank Parrish -- Danny Lange is just another casualty of the drug war. But when Danny's teenage sister winds up dead, questions are raised that have no clear answers. Dark and intense, this is a novel of corruption and redemption, of the relentless persistence required to find the truth, and of one man's search for meaning amidst the ghosts of his own conscience.
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SUSANNA GREGORY - Mystery in the Minster
|  (Sphere, $49.00) Signed, Lined, & Dated. TAKE 10% OFF!
In 1358 the fledging college of Michaelhouse in Cambridge is in need of extra funds. A legacy from the Archbishop of York of a parish close to that city promises a welcome source of income. However, there has been another claim to its ownership and it seems the only way to settle the dispute is for a deputation from Michaelhouse to travel north. Matthew Bartholomew is among the small party which arrives in the bustling city, where the increasing wealth of the merchants is unsettling the established order, and where a French invasion is an ever-present threat to its port. But soon he and his colleagues learn that several of the Archbishop's executors have died in unexplained circumstances and that the codicil naming Michaelhouse as a beneficiary cannot be found.
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| ELLY GRIFFITHS - The House at Sea's End |  (Quercus, $44.00) Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
When a team from the University of North Norfolk, investigating coastal erosion, finds six bodies buried at the foot of the cliff, Ruth Galloway is immediately put on the case. Forensic tests prove that the bodies are from Southern Europe, killed sixty years ago. Police Investigations unearth records of Project Lucifer, a wartime plan to stop a German invasion. A further discovery reveals that members of the Broughton Sea's End Home Guard took a 'blood oath' to conceal some deadly wartime secret. The more information they uncover, the more elusive any explanation becomes. When a visiting German reporter is killed, Ruth and Nelson realise that someone is still alive who will kill to keep the secret of Broughton Sea's End's war years. |
| SOPHIE HANNAH - Lasting Damage |  (Hodder & Stoughton, $34.00) Signed, lined and dated. TAKE 10% OFF!
A click on the 'virtual tour' button of a property website reveals a nightmare scene: in the living room, in the middle of the carpet, there's a woman lying face down in a huge pool of blood. Acclaim for Hannah: 'If you're new to the Sophie Hannah phenomenon, let us explain: she's the author of five previous psychological crime thrillers, each of which begins with a cunning premise, which grips like a vice for the rest of the novel, with myriad twists you never see coming; another superb mystery in which extraordinary things happen to ordinary people." (Heat magazine) "Hannah takes domestic scenarios, adds disquieting touches and turns up the suspense until you're checking under the bed for murders." (The Independent) |
MATT HILTON - Dead Men's Harvest
|  (Hodder & Stoughton UK, $44.00). Signed & Lined. TAKE 10% OFF!
The Harvestman is back and determined to wreak revenge on Joe Hunter (6th in series). When Rink is ambushed by a team of highly skilled killers, Joe is pretty sure his friend is being used as bait. And the intended prey is Hunter himself. Joe has to go 'off radar' to rescue his friend. Their deadly game of cat and mouse reaches its climax on the rusty hulk of The Queen Sofia -- a container ship used by human traffickers that is moored off the North Carolina coast where Joe's ex-sister-in-law is being held hostage. Against overwhelming odds, and amid a ferocious storm, Joe comes face to face with his old enemy Tubal Cain.
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| ANN HOLT - 1222 |  (Corvus, 2010, $32.00) Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens of iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine. Author Anne Holt spent two years working for the Oslo Police Department before founding her own law firm and serving as Norway's Minister for Justice in 1996/97. Her first book was published in 1993 and she has subsequently developed two series: the Hanne Wilhelmsen series and the Vik/Stubo series. |
TOM LLOYD - The Ragged Man
|  (Gollancz, 2010, $44.00) TAKE 10% OFF!
Signed, dated, and inscribed "Death stalked the field". Continuing the powerful epic that started with The Stormcaller the Lord Isak is dead, his armies and entire tribe in disarray. It falls to King Emin to continue the war alone, and the Menin are only too happy to meet his challenge. In Byora, Ruhen is developing his 'Saviour' persona. The Harlequins start preaching in his name and many of the pilgrims who flock to him are recruited to be 'Children', disciples who spread Ruhen's message. All over the Land people are starting to see Ruhen as the answer to their troubles.
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ADRIAN MAGSON - Death on the Rive Nord
|  (Allison & Busby UK, $38.00). Signed. TAKE 10% OFF!
Picardie, 1963. A truck drops a group of illegal workers by a deserted stretch of canal in the dead of night near Poissons-les-Marais. Days later, one of them surfaces, stabbed to death. For Inspector Lucas Rocco, finding the victim's fellow travellers presents problems. Most Algerian immigrants are welcome, but trawling for any who aren't is a sensitive issue loaded with threats of civil unrest. One of the illegals is a young woman with a small child, on the run from her brutal husband, Samir Farek, an Algerian gangster who has threatened to kill them both. But Farek has another, bigger agenda: to take over as gang lord in Paris. Caught between his instinct to protect a vulnerable woman and her child, of obeying bosses interested only in preserving the status quo, and facing the threat of a dangerous gangster who recognises no boundaries in the murderous pursuit of his plans, Rocco begins to wonder how long he can survive.
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HENNING MANKELL - The Troubled Man
|  (Harvill Secker, Price, $36.00) Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
The first new Wallander novel for a decade, the culmination of the bestselling series from the godfather of Swedish crime. Every morning Håkan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. However, one winter's day he fails to come home. It seems that the retired naval officer has vanished without trace. Detective Kurt Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation but he has personal reasons for his interest in the case as Håkan's son is engaged to his daughter Linda. His search leads him down dark and unexpected avenues involving espionage, betrayal and new information about events during the Cold War that threatens to cause a political scandal on a scale unprecedented in Swedish history. |
HARRY SIDEBOTTOM - The Caspian Gates
|  (Michael Joseph, $44.00) SIGNED. TAKE 10% OFF!
AD 262: the Imperium is in turmoil after the struggle for the throne. Furthermore, Ephesus, Asia's metropolis, lies in ruins, shattered by a mighty earthquake. Its citizens live in fear as the mob overwhelms the city, baying for blood to avenge the gods who have punished them. Yet an even greater threat to the Empire advances from the North. The barbaric Goth tribes sail towards Ephesus, determined to pillage the city. Only Ballista, Warrior of Rome, knows the ways of the barbarians, and only he can defeat them. The Goths' appetite for brutality and destruction is limitless and before long Ballista is locked into a deadly blood feud, with an enemy that has sworn to destroy him -- and the Imperium -- at all costs. |
ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH - The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
|  (Little Brown UK, $39.00) Unsigned. TAKE 10% OFF!
As the countdown to Mma Makutsi's wedding begins, all is not as it should be at the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. While investigating unpleasant occurrences on a southern cattle-post, Mma Ramotswe, always on the side of the weak against the strong, has reason to reflect on Rule No.3 of The Principles of Private Detection: never lie to the client. Apprentice mechanic Charlie seems to be avoiding certain important responsibilities. And as Mma Makutsi's big day approaches, her nemesis Violet Sephotho is casting her net wider: by standing for election which could spell trouble for the entire nation. But as friends and family gather under starry African night skies, it turns out that even the most perplexing of apparitions -- and the most shocking of crimes -- may yield to rational explanation. And, of course, to Mma Ramotswe's inimitable way with love, intuition and redbush tea. |
UK EDITIONS PRISTINE, AT GREAT PRICES!
| Special SALE pricing on both HARDCOVER (many signed) and PAPERBACK U.K. imports!
ALL U.K. PAPERBACKS, normally listed at $7.99 to $15.00, ARE 40% OFF. Click here for our Paperback Imports catalog, or come in the store to browse the shelves.
Specially Priced UK Books:
 ANDREW GREIG - Romanno Bridge (Quercus, $10.00). Signed. A motorcyclist with a stolen ring walks into Rothiemurchus Forest until he finds a quiet place to die. A woman with an eventful past has signed the Official Secrets Act and gone to Dumfries to forget a man and keep out of trouble. In comfortable Crieff, a retired historian publishes an obscure article on the survival of the Stone of Destiny, then has his throat cut. A man with a long blade in a tan holster under his suit, a fondness for bird-watching, and memories of his short-lived Punk band Anger Management, has taken a commission to retrieve an object so valuable and mythic it might not exist. A wintry thriller, an entertainment, a quest and an exploration of contemporary themes of fakes, frauds, copies, and a struggle to find the Real Thing, wherever and whatever it might be.
 STUART NEVILLE - Collusion
(Harvill Secker, UK , 2009, $24.00) Signed. TPBO. Former paramilitary killer Gerry Fegan wanders New York City, hiding from a past he escaped at terrible cost. But he made a fatal mistake: he spared the life of Bull O'Kane, a ruthless man who will stop at nothing to get his revenge. Too many witnesses survived a bloody battle at his border farm, and now he wants them silenced, whether man, woman or child. O'Kane calls the Traveller, an assassin without pity or remorse, a killer of the purest kind. Back in Belfast, Detective Inspector Jack Lennon, father of one the witnesses, is caught up in a web of official secrets and lies as he tries to uncover the whereabouts of his daughter. The closer he gets to the truth about the events on O'Kane's border farm, the more his superiors instruct him to back off.
NOW at a SPECIAL LOW PRICE:  JOHN LAWTON - Old Flames
(UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996, $22.00, true first edition! Not Signed). A nice deal on this author's third book. "Lawton has created an effective genre-bending novel that is at once a cerebral thriller and an uproarious, deliciously English spoof," said PW. And Booklist said: "April 1956. Nikita Krushchev is in London on a diplomatic errand. Chief Inspector Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard is assigned as a bodyguard to the Russian leader. But he has a secret mission, too: Troy, fluent in Russian, is to spy on Khrushchev (who doesn't know the British cop speaks his language) by eavesdropping.... Lawton,... vividly re-creates cold war Britain.... jam-packed with detail and with many fully realized characters. The intriguing mystery plus the wonderfully re-created period setting equals first-class storytelling."
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MONDAY through SATURDAY from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm,
SUNDAY from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
and evenings until about 9pm when an author is scheduled to appear at 7pm
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