Soft Target – Stephen Hunter
Soft Target A Thriller Stephen Hunter Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers Price: $12.99 Publish Date: December 06, 2011 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Seller: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc. Black Friday America's largest shopping mall Suburban Minneapolis 3:00 P.M. Ten thousand people jam the aisles, the corridors, the elevators, and the escalators of America, the Mall — a giant Rubik's Cube of a structure with its own amusement park located in the spacious center atrium. Of those people, nine thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight have come to shop. The other twelve have come to kill. Stephen Hunter's hyper-drive, eighth-gear new thriller, Soft Target, chronicles the day when the unthinkable happens: twelve gunmen open fire in the mall corridors, driving the pack before them. Those on the upper floors take cover or get out any way they can; but within a few minutes the gunmen have herded more than a thousand hostages into the amusement park. Ray Cruz, one of the heroes of Hunter's last bestseller, Dead Zero , is in the mall with his fiancée and her family. The retired Marine sniper thought he was done with stalking and killing — but among the trapped thousands, he's the only one with a plan and the guts to confront the self-proclaimed “Brigade Mumbai.” Now all he needs is a gun. FBI Sniper Dave McElroy has a gun. But positioned on the roof of the vast building, looking down through one of its thickly paned Great Lakes – shaped skylights, and without explosives or fuses — or the go-ahead from his superiors — he is effectively cut off from his targets and forced into the role of witness to the horror unfolding below. Set during the four hours of the terrifying event, the story follows both hostages and gunmen, detailing the complex strategic police response, the full-press media saturation coverage, even the politics of SWAT as both the Minnesota State Police and the FBI struggle to control, confront, and ultimately defuse the crisis. Having learned the lessons of Columbine, the feds believe that immediate action is the only solution. But Douglas Obobo, the charismatic and ambitious commandant of the state police, orders cooperation, tolerance, communication, and empathy for the gunmen. He feels that with his superior negotiating skills, he can make contact with the shooters and gently nudge them into surrender. But what if their goal all along has been unparalleled massacre — and they're only waiting for prime time? With unrelenting suspense and vivid scenes of violence and chaos in the center of a terror-crazed afternoon in Middle America, thriller master Stephen Hunter takes us into the belly of the softest of soft targets.
BoneMan’s Daughters – Ted Dekker
BoneMan’s Daughters Ted Dekker Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers Price: $1.99 Publish Date: April 14, 2009 Publisher: Center Street Seller: Hachette Book Group They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who's abducted six young women. He's the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die. Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives. Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan's estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own. But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.
Money to Burn – James Grippando
Money to Burn A Novel of Suspense James Grippando Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers Price: $2.99 Publish Date: February 23, 2010 Publisher: HarperCollins Seller: HarperCollins In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, New York Times bestselling author James Grippando, whom the Wall Street Journal calls “a writer to watch,” explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can occur in a matter of hours?perhaps even minutes. At thirty-one, Michael Cantella is a rising star at Wall Street's premier investment bank, Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until Ivy Layton, the love of his life, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Fast-forward four years. It's the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday, and Michael is still on track: successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money. Reveling in his good fortune, Michael logs in to his computer, enters his password, and pulls up his biggest investment account: Zero balance. He tries another, and another. All of them zero. Someone has wiped him out. His only clue is a new e-mail message: Just as planned. xo xo. With these three words Michael's life as he knows it is liquidated, along with his investment portfolio. Saxton Silvers is suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy, and he's the leading suspect in its ruin. Michael is left alone, framed, and facing divorce, with undercover FBI agents afoot, spyware on his computer, and mysterious e-mails from a “JBU.” Embroiled in corporate espionage, he's desperate to clear his name and realizes that several signs point to his first wife, Ivy, as a key player. But what if Ivy has come back from the dead, only to visit on Michael a fate worse than death? With echoes of The Firm, James Grippando's newest thriller takes readers to the inner circle of Wall Street, illustrating the very real dangers of what Warren Buffett called “financial weapons of mass destruction.”
Abuse of Power – Michael Savage
Abuse of Power Michael Savage Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers Price: $12.99 Publish Date: September 13, 2011 Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Seller: Macmillan / Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC From the New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host comes a high-intensity debut thriller, the story of a smeared network journalist who uncovers a chilling terrorist plot Jack Hatfield is a hardened former war correspondent who rose to national prominence for his insightful, provocative commentary. But after being smeared as a bigot and extremist by a radical leftist media-watchdog group, he ultimately loses his job and finds himself working in obscurity as a freelance news producer in San Francisco. One afternoon Hatfield is on a ride-along with the SFPD bomb squad when a seemingly routine carjacking turns deadly, after police find several pounds of military-grade explosives in the jacked car. And when the FBI urges Hatfield to stay out of it, he knows he's onto something big. This event will open up a shadowy trail that leads Hatfield from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and back again, as he works with a stunning Yemeni intelligence agent and a veteran Green Beret to expose a terrorist group known as the Hand of Allah—and a plot within the highest corridors of power that will dwarf 9/11. In this lightning-paced first thriller, spanning the globe from Europe and Israel to the back alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown, a reporter must make the choice between protecting his own life and investigating a terrorist cell whose goal is nothing less than total political control—no matter what the cost.
Lethal – Sandra Brown
Lethal Sandra Brown Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers Price: $14.99 Expected Publish Date: September 20, 2011 Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Seller: Hachette Book Group When her four year old daughter informs her a sick man is in their yard, Honor Gillette rushes out to help him. But that “sick” man turns out to be Lee Coburn, the man accused of murdering seven people the night before. Dangerous, desperate, and armed, he promises Honor that she and her daughter won't be hurt as long as she does everything he asks. She has no choice but to accept him at his word. But Honor soon discovers that even those close to her can't be trusted. Coburn claims that her beloved late husband possessed something extremely valuable that places Honor and her daughter in grave danger. Coburn is there to retrieve it — at any cost. From FBI offices in Washington, D.C., to a rundown shrimp boat in coastal Louisiana, Coburn and Honor run for their lives from the very people sworn to protect them, and unravel a web of corruption and depravity that threatens not only them, but the fabric of our society
Jane Fonda – Patricia Bosworth
Jane Fonda The Private Life of a Public Woman Patricia Bosworth Genre: Biographies & Memoirs Price: $14.99 Expected Publish Date: August 30, 2011 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Seller: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Bosworth goes behind the image of an American superwoman, revealing Fonda—more powerful and vulnerable than ever expected—whose struggles for high achievement, love, and successful motherhood mirror the conflicts of a generation of women. As actress, activist, businesswoman, wife, and mother, Jane Fonda has pushed herself to the limit, attempting to please all, excel in every arena, be everything. We’ve read her version of her controversial life, yet nothing can prepare us for this genuinely revelatory account of Jane’s engrossing, sometimes shocking journey. Supplemented by the psychiatric records of her suicidal, bipolar mother, Fonda’s FBI file, and interviews with her intimates, this perceptive portrait strips away hype and the subject’s own mythmaking. Patricia Bosworth shows us what a toll Jane’s quest to excel (and please her demanding father, Henry) exacted and sheds light on truths she’s glossed over: her rejection of her mother before her suicide; the death threats and self-doubts of her antiwar crusade; her second husband Tom Hayden’s habit of putting her down while spending her fortune; the emotional downfall that led her to stop acting and marry Ted Turner. Lee Strasberg once said that Jane had “panic in her eyes,” and it is this wounded but so familiar woman—human yet still heroic, the embodiment of a generation’s conflicts and triumphs—whom Bosworth captures so utterly and definitively.
Two Little Girls in Blue – Mary Higgins Clark
Two Little Girls in Blue A Novel Mary Higgins Clark Genre: Fiction & Literature Price: $4.99 Publish Date: April 04, 2006 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Seller: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc. In a riveting new thriller, worldwide bestselling suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark weaves the mystery of twin telepathy into a mother’s search for a kidnapped child, presumed dead. Margaret and Steve Frawley celebrate the third birthday of their twin girls, Kelly and Kathy, with an afternoon party in their new home, a modest fixer-upper in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The evening of the twins’ birthday party, Steve and Margaret attend a black-tie dinner in New York. When they return home, the police are in the house, and they are told that the babysitter had been found unconscious, the children are gone, and a note demanding an eight-million-dollar ransom had been left in their room. Steve Frawley’s firm, a global investment company, agrees to pay the ransom. The kidnapper, who identifies himself as the “Pied Piper,” makes his terms known — on delivery of the ransom, a call will come, revealing the girls’ whereabouts. The call comes, but only Kelly is in the car parked behind a deserted restaurant. The driver is dead from a gunshot wound and has left a suicide note, saying he had inadvertently killed Kathy and had dumped her body in the ocean. At the private memorial Mass for Kathy, Kelly tugs Margaret’s arm and says: “Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now.” More unexplainable occurrences follow, indicating that Kelly is in touch with Kathy. At first, no one except the mother believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. As Kelly’s warnings become increasingly specific and alarming, however, FBI agents set out on a search for Kathy. The novel reaches a breathtaking climax as they close in on the Pied Piper and his accomplices, while Kathy’s life hangs by a thread. In delving into the well-documented but still unexplained phenomenon of twin telepathy, Mary Higgins Clark tells a spellbinding tale that takes us deep into the minds of her characters while lifting us to the heights of suspense.
Ghost in the Wires – Kevin Mitnick & William L. Simon
Ghost in the Wires My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker Kevin Mitnick & William L. Simon Genre: Network Price: $12.99 Publish Date: August 15, 2011 Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Seller: Hachette Book Group Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies–and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable. But for Kevin, hacking wasn’t just about technological feats-it was an old fashioned confidence game that required guile and deception to trick the unwitting out of valuable information. Driven by a powerful urge to accomplish the impossible, Mitnick bypassed security systems and blazed into major organizations including Motorola, Sun Microsystems, and Pacific Bell. But as the FBI’s net began to tighten, Kevin went on the run, engaging in an increasingly sophisticated cat and mouse game that led through false identities, a host of cities, plenty of close shaves, and an ultimate showdown with the Feds, who would stop at nothing to bring him down. Ghost in the Wires is a thrilling true story of intrigue, suspense, and unbelievable escape, and a portrait of a visionary whose creativity, skills, and persistence forced the authorities to rethink the way they pursued him, inspiring ripples that brought permanent changes in the way people and companies protect their most sensitive information.
The Pirates of Somalia – Jay Bahadur
The Pirates of Somalia Inside Their Hidden World Jay Bahadur Genre: Military Price: $13.99 Publish Date: July 19, 2011 Publisher: Knopf Seller: Random House Digital, Inc. (Books) Somalia, on the tip of the Horn of Africa, has been inhabited as far back as 9,000 BC. Its history is as rich as the country is old. Caught up in a decades-long civil war, Somalia, along with Iraq and Afghanistan, has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Getting there from North America is a forty-five-hour, five-flight voyage through Frankfurt, Dubai, Djibouti, Bossaso (on the Gulf of Aden), and, finally, Galkayo. Somalia is a place where a government has been built out of anarchy. For centuries, stories of pirates have captured imaginations around the world. The recent bands of daring, ragtag pirates off the coast of Somalia, hijacking multimillion-dollar tankers owned by international shipping conglomerates, have brought the scourge of piracy into the modern era. The capture of the American-crewed cargo ship Maersk Alabama in April 2009, the first United States ship to be hijacked in almost two centuries, catapulted the Somali pirates onto prime-time news. Then, with the horrific killing by Somali pirates of four Americans, two of whom had built their dream yacht and were sailing around the world (“And now on to: Angkor Wat! And Burma!” they had written to friends), the United States Navy, Special Operation Forces, FBI, Justice Department, and the world’s military forces were put on notice: the Somali seas were now the most perilous in the world. Jay Bahadur, a journalist who dared to make his way into the remote pirate havens of Africa’s easternmost country and spend months infiltrating their lives, gives us the first close-up look at the hidden world of the pirates of war-ravaged Somalia. Bahadur’s riveting narrative exposé—the first ever—looks at who these men are, how they live, the forces that created piracy in Somalia, how the pirates spend the ransom money, how they deal with their hostages. Bahadur makes sense of the complex and fraught regional politics, the history of Somalia and the self-governing region of Puntland (an autonomous region in northeast Somalia), and the various catastrophic occurrences that have shaped their pirate destinies. The book looks at how the unrecognized mini-state of Puntland is dealing with the rise—and increasing sophistication—of piracy and how, through legal and military action, other nations, international shippers, the United Nations, and various international bodies are attempting to cope with the present danger and growing pirate crisis. A revelation of a world at the epicenter of political and natural disaster. From the Hardcover edition.
Angel Fire – Lisa Unger
Angel Fire Lisa Unger Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers Price: $0.99 Publish Date: August 09, 2011 Publisher: Crown Trade Group Seller: Random House Digital, Inc. (Books) The childhood murder of Lydia Strong’s mother has turned her into a woman obsessed with bringing brutal killers to justice. The reclusive, bestselling true-crime writer and investigative consultant has made a life out of chasing monsters. And her powerful intuitions rarely fail her. When three adults—loners, drifters—go missing, no one seems to notice except for Lydia. Enlisting the help of her friend, former FBI agent Jeffrey Mark, Lydia starts an investigation of her own. But when someone raises the stakes and goes after Lydia—just as fifteen years ago when she put the FBI on the trail of her mother’s killer—the real hunt begins. From the Trade Paperback edition.
