The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was-and its true nature could change the modern world. Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U. S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts-and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind. It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who's far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she's not alone. Competing for the historic prize-and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses-is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command. Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world-and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees. "From the Hardcover edition. "

A bold new contingent—Force Recon—joins the explosive Starfist space epic of marines at war. A Confederation army is besieged on the planet Ravenette, cut off by and facing destruction at the hands of a dozen Secessionist Coalition worlds arrayed against it. The outnumbered and outgunned forces cling precariously to their foothold, dubbed "Bataan" by the desperate men in their fighting bunkers. Reinforcements are on the way, but will they arrive in time? And even if they do, can they match the well-led, highly motivated enemy determined to destroy them in battle? But the Confederation commander holds a wild card, an elite force armed only with what they carry on their backs and in their heads: a small detachment of Marines who lightly go where others fear to tread, the Fourth Force Recon Company. For anyone else this mission would be suicide, but for these Marines, it's just another day in the maelstrom.

The town had a problem.Years earlier, a cuckolded rancher named Duke Sabien had killed his wife and her lover on Main Street, then lit out. No one in town went after him. Instead, they tore down his fences and divided up his land and livestock between them ... and hoped never to see Sabien again.But Duke Sabien had other ideas.Every year thereafter he came back to town to settle things with the men who'd stolen his land. One by one, they died ... and the town began to live in dread of his next visit.Mostly recently Sabien robbed the bank and killed the three posse men who went after him. The local lawman asked Blake Durant to take them back to town while he continued his manhunt, and Blake was happy enough to help out. But instead, he bought into a mess of greed and murder that, in the end, only he could sort out.And he found a woman who might just take the place of Louise Yerby, the love he'd lost so many years earlier ...

Cristiano is thirteen. Home life is far from perfect, and when his drink-sozzled father and two reprobate friends come up with a plan to rob a bank, Cristiano sees the chance of a better life. But as a tremendous storm brews that night, the perfect crime will have shocking consequences for all involved. And Cristiano must put childhood behind him once and for all. The utterly absorbing novel has pace, plot twists and glorious characters. An epic drama of innocence and delusion, The Crossroads is Ammaniti's most engaging novel yet.

A moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence. Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

This book represents six years in the life of one woman diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Her struggles against the possible effects of her tremor, her humanity in the face of a devastating diagnosis, and her sense of humour in the midst of it all will echo in the souls of middle aged readers everywhere. Each chapter reveals its own unique Reflections. Each one is touching and real. Those who sit down with this collection will laugh, cry, identify and question. This collection stands firm as a model to others. It shows how one person can achieve her goal, and share her philosophy, even in very challenging circumstances.Mirrors of my Soul contains 129 pages with an introduction by the poet. There is one Signature poem, and each chapter is entitled Reflections. There are Reflections on the Soul, Reflections on Middle Age, Reflections on Animals, Reflections on Illness, Reflections on Reflections, Reflections on Revelations, Reflections on Nature, Reflections on...

The #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Survivor in Death" has Lieutenant Eve Dallas walking a tightrope between her professional duties and her private demons. Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She's got no problem dealing with a holiday reveler in a red suit who plunges thirty-seven stories and gives new meaning to the term "sidewalk Santa." But when she gets back to the station and Trudy Lombard shows up, it's all Eve can do to hold it together. Instantly, she's thrown back into the past, to the days when she was a vulnerable, traumatized girl-trapped in foster care with the twisted woman who now sits in front of her, smiling. Trudy claims she just wanted to see how Eve was doing. But Eve's husband, Roarke, suspects otherwise-and his suspicions prove correct when Trudy arrives at his office, demanding money in exchange for keeping the ugly details of his wife's childhood a secret. Barely restraining himself, Roarke shows her the door-and makes it clear that she'd be wise to get out of New York and never bother him or his wife again. But just a few days later, Trudy's found on the floor of her hotel room, a mess of bruises and blood. A cop to the core, Eve is determined to solve the case, if only for the sake of Trudy's bereaved son. Unfortunately, Eve is not the only one to have suffered at this woman's hands, and she and Roarke will follow a circuitous, dangerous path to find out who turned this victimizer into a victim.

Martin Conway comes from a family filled with heroes and disgraces. His grandfather was a statesman who worked at the US Embassy in London during WWII. His father is an alcoholic who left his family. His sister is an overachieving Ivy League graduate. And Martin? Martin is stuck in between--floundering. But during the summer after 7th grade, Martin meets a boy who will change his life forever. Jimmy Harker appears one night with a deceptively simple question: Will you help? Where did this boy come from, with his strange accent and urgent request? Is he a dream? It's the most vivid dream Martin's ever had. And he meets Jimmy again and again--but how can his dreams be set in London during the Blitz? How can he see his own grandather, standing outside the Embassy? How can he wake up with a head full of people and facts and events that he certainly didn't know when he went to sleep--but which turn out to be verifiably real? The people and the scenes Martin witnesses have a profound effect on him. They become almost more real to him than his waking companions. And he begins to believe that maybe he can help Jimmy. Or maybe that he must help Jimmy, precisely because all logic and reason argue against it. This is a truly remarkable and deeply affecting novel about fathers and sons, heroes and scapegoats. About finding a way to live with faith and honor and integrity. And about having an answer to the question: What did you do to help? From the Hardcover edition.

They are five ordinary people, forced to do battle on the most terrifying field imaginable - the landscape of nightmares. They are the Night Warriors and only they can defeat the evil that has invaded our world through our dreams. Two of the cruelest and most horrific apparitions ever seen are attempting to destroy our world by entering the dreams of expectant mothers. They bring with them armies of nightmare creatures, horrible beings that could only spring from someone’s worst fear. It is against these demons, in an unreal world of terror, that the five Night Warriors must prepare to fight the...Night Wars

"Got a gun?"With those words, David Allen Crockett, a retired police officer who simply wanted to be left alone, finds his seclusion shattered by his friend, therapist Ruby LaCost. At Ruby's request, Crockett agrees to teach one of her clients, Rachael Moore, how to defend herself with a handgun.During the course of those lessons, Crockett and Rachael begin an intimate relationship. When Rachael is found dead from an apparent suicide, Crockett is devastated and tries to slink back into his self-imposed seclusion. But things get complicated when Crockett is contacted by Rachael's aunt, who believes the suicide was staged and claims she has the name of the murderer. Together, Crockett and Ruby begin an investigation that leads them into a world of treachery, deceit, and death.

From its founding in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency has been discovered in the midst of some of the most crucial-and most embarrassing-episodes in United States relations with the world. Safe for Democracy for the first time places the story of the CIA's covert operations squarely in the context of America's global quest for democratic values and institutions. National security historian John Prados offers a comprehensive history of the CIA's secret wars that is as close to a definitive account as is possible today.

50 Kids Are About To Die: Mac thought he'd seen every human evil. A former Company man, he'd witnessed mass murder and systematic torture. And he'd meted out justice to the perpetrators whenever he had the chance. But now that he was living the idyllic life of a Boca Raton beach bum, he figured that was all behind him. Then his housekeeper's granddaughter was kidnapped and Mac was plunged into a conspiracy born from the hells, involving an exiled Central American dictator, the Company, and fifty innocent children. By the time he finds out it's almost too late and Mac must become a one-man army to save the day.