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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, a short story featuring LAPD Detective Harry Bosch and FBI agent Rachel Walling.
Two women have gone missing, and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch has a strong suspicion that an avid fisherman named Denninger is the culprit. Bosch needs something stronger than a suspicion to bring Denninger in, but all he has are a handful of photos — prior mug shots and pictures of Denninger posing with his prize fish. It’s not much to go on, and Bosch is running out of time, which is why he calls in FBI agent Rachel Walling. What she sees in these photos could blow his case wide open.
“Blue on Black” by Michael Connelly is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books’s Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!
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Collected here for the first time is every piece of short fiction from New York Times Bestseller Mira Grant's acclaimed Newsflesh series, with two new never-before published novellas and all eight short works available for the first time in print.
We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, a man-made virus taking over bodies and minds, filling them with one, unstoppable command. . . FEED.
Mira Grant creates a chilling portrait of an America paralyzed with fear. No one leaves their houses and entire swaths of the country have been abandoned. And only the brave, the determined, or the very stupid, venture out into the wild.
Contents:
Countdown
Everglades
Sand Diego 2014
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell
Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus
All the Pretty Little Horses
Coming to You Live
More from Mira Grant:
Newsflesh
Feed
Deadline
Blackout
Feedback
Rise
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ONE MORE KISS . . .
Betty Lindholm doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The banner advertising the new shipment of satin at her fabric store finally arrived and now the entire town of White Pine is up in arms. How was she supposed to know there’d be a typo? Now the entire town thinks she’s proclaiming “Satan is here!” Even the gorgeous pastor with his steel-grey eyes and sexy smile . . .
. . . IS NEVER ENOUGH
Pastor Randall Sondheim is always on the lookout for excuses to drop by Betty’s shop and gaze into her lovely blue eyes. The latest is her crazy sign-could that be a sign of something more? Sweet Betty brings out the best in him but it’s the worst in him, his dark secret tragedy, that worries Randall. Can this man of God conquer his own demons to win a match made in heaven?
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The nightmares have returned. Something, or someone, wants to drag Julia Davidson back into a dreadful conflict she assumed was a distant memory. Was this, like before, the echo of another person’s dream? Is she responsible to rescue faces she doesn’t recognize but can’t forget? Do the murky images suggest she has a part to play in whatever ominous events lie ahead?
Things are finally looking up for Matthew Adams. As the top earner at MedCom Associates he has started to crawl out of the financial hole created during his “dark days.” And now, out of the blue, a mysterious woman invites him to join a confidential research initiative. She says it will ease the mounting economic crisis. But at what cost to Matthew’s fragile sanity, and his tortured soul?
Pastor Alex Ware faces a serious problem. The honeymoon period at Christ Community Church has ended. The finance committee says they can’t afford another year of dwindling income and dismal growth. The board wants action, now! Aging parishioners would gladly allocate a portion of their estate to help. But only if Alex stops condemning the transition industry and starts affirming what the Youth Initiative calls “our heroic volunteers.”
In Fatherless and Childless, Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner depicted a time in which present-day trends come to sinister fruition. This eagerly awaited conclusion vividly imagines what happens when God’s image on earth is exchanged for the horrors of a GODLESS world.
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A breathtaking novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the This Man trilogy.
ONE NIGHT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH . . .
Livy notices him the moment he walks into the coffee shop. He's heart-stoppingly stunning, with a blue-eyed gaze so piercing she's almost too distracted to take his order. When he walks out the door, she thinks she'll never see him again. Then she finds the note he left on his napkin . . . signed M.
All he wants is one night to worship her. No feelings, no commitment, nothing but pleasure. Every defense mechanism Livy has adopted during her solitary life is at risk of being obliterated by this confounding man. He's obnoxious but well-mannered. He's a gentleman but aloof. He's passionate but emotionless. Yet the fascination is so powerful, Livy can't deny him . . . or herself.
M awakens something in Livy, something deep and addictive that she never knew existed-and that she fears only he can satisfy. But she senses that behind the fast cars, fancy suits, and posh apartment, he's aching inside. To have him, body and soul, she'll have to brave his dark secrets. Delving into his world and breaking down his defenses become her obsession-an obsession that could shatter her heart beyond repair . .
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IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE HEAT . . .
Callie Hayes is the hardworking manager of the Blue Flame, Arizona’s most remote, relaxing guest ranch. She’s given everything to the ranch, body, heart, and soul-three things that go haywire when her sexy employer suddenly shows up. Their intense, stormy past has taught Callie to never mix business with pleasure. But something about Jake is different now . . .
San Diego firefighter Jake Rawlings knows the ranch he inherited from his father is safe in Callie’s capable hands. After being injured in a high-profile rescue, Jake decides to recover in solitude at the Blue Flame. He may have left the fires behind, but he hasn’t escaped the heat; Callie is just as hot and irresistible as he remembers. Now coming home doesn’t seem like the best idea-as the sparks between Jake and Callie threaten to burn out of control . . .
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Gems from the life of one of the most influential figures in American music!
Pete Seeger: The Storm King audio collection presents Pete Seeger’s spoken words as he captivatingly recounts his most engaging stories, narratives, and poems-set to new music created by nearly 50 musicians from traditions as diverse as African Music, Blues, Bluegrass, Classical Guitar, Folk, Jazz, and Native American Music, Pete’s wisdom and stories out to new audiences and into a new technological age.
Each piece is unique in sound and emotion and also in how it came together. Jeff Haynes, world-renowned percussionist and producer, has worked closely with Pete to create something spectacular — weaving Pete’s words to the music of artists from around the world who would not otherwise have shared a stage with Pete but who have been deeply influenced by him.
The result is astounding.
“It brings out things in my words that I never knew before.” — Pete Seeger
“Pete’s still finding the hope and planting the seeds . . . and keeping us invigorated in our own best intentions.” — Dar Williams
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Griffins lounged all around them, inscrutable as cats, brazen as summer. They turned their heads to look at Kes out of fierce, inhuman eyes. Their feathers, ruffled by the wind that came down the mountain, looked like they had been poured out of light; their lion haunches like they had been fashioned out of gold. A white griffin, close at hand, looked like it had been made of alabaster and white marble and then lit from within by white fire. Its eyes were the pitiless blue-white of the desert sky.
Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. The course of Kes’ life seems set: she’ll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer for the village of Minas Ford, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she’s content with that path — or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human . . . or a healer who can be made into something not quite human.
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One windy April afternoon, a young woman bicycles alone along a stretch of Iowa highway. She’s pedaling hard, hurrying to get home in time for dinner . . . Alex Voormann is a cerebral thirty-year-old archaeologist married to the woman of his dreams–a beautiful, ambitious botanist named Isabel. When Isabel, an organ donor, is killed by a reckless driver, Alex reluctantly consents to donate her heart. Janet Corcoran is a young, headstrong mother of two, an art teacher at an inner-city school in Chicago. Sick with heart disease, she is on the waiting list for a transplant, but her chances are slim. She watches the Weather Channel, secretly praying for foul weather and car accidents, a miracle. The day Isabel dies, she gets her wish. Flash forward a year. Janet sends Alex a long letter. She’d like to learn something about the woman who saved her life. Alex isn’t interested in talking to the recipient of his dead wife’s heart. Since Isabel’s accident, he’s become grief-stricken and bewildered. His closest companion is his mother-in-law, Bernice. They spend their nights reminiscing about Isabel and hiding out from the world. Meanwhile, a local blues musician named Jasper, the man responsible for Isabel’s death, attempts to atone for his misdeed. Jasper is devastated by the knowledge that he destroyed a life but attracted to the idea that he was partially responsible for saving another life — Janet’s. He sees her as his ultimate salvation.Irreplaceable is the story of what happens after the transplant — not only to Alex but within the concentric circles of family that spiral outward from him and from Janet. Stephen Lovely takes us vividly inside the lives of these characters to reveal their true intentions — however misguided — and gives us a stunning debut novel of loss and love.
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Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton-we are all familiar with the story of the Delta blues. Fierce, raw voices; tormented drifters; deals with the devil at the crossroads at midnight.
In this extraordinary reconstruction of the origins of the Delta blues, historian Marybeth Hamilton demonstrates that the story as we know it is largely a myth. The idea of something called Delta blues only emerged in the mid-twentieth century, the culmination of a longstanding white fascination with the exotic mysteries of black music.
Hamilton shows that the Delta blues was effectively invented by white pilgrims, seekers, and propagandists who headed deep into America’s south in search of an authentic black voice of rage and redemption. In their quest, and in the immense popularity of the music they championed, we confront America’s ongoing love affair with racial difference.
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No, it doesn’t get much weirder than this: Thor Templar, Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate, who claims to have killed ten aliens. Or April, the Neo-Nazi bringing up her twin daughters Lamb and Lynx (who have just formed a white-power folk group for kids called Prussian Blue), and her youngest daughter, Dresden. For a decade now, Louis Theroux has been making programs about offbeat characters on the fringes of U.S. society. Now he revisits the people who have most intrigued him to try to discover what motivates them, and why they believe the things they believe. From his Las Vegas base (where else?), Theroux calls on these assorted dreamers, schemers, and outlaws–and in the process finds out a little about the workings of his own mind. What does it mean, after all, to be weird, or “to be yourself”? Do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us? And is there something particularly weird about Americans? America, prepare yourself for a hilarious look in the mirror that has already taken the rest of the English-speaking world by storm: “Paul Theroux’s son writes with just as clear an eye for character and place as his father . . . And he’s funny . . .Theroux’s final analysis of American weirdness is true and new.” — Literary Review (England)
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In these fifty-two interviews, the greatest songwriters of our time go straight to the source of the magic of songwriting by offering their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on their art. Representing almost every genre of popular music, from folk to Tin Pan Alley to jazz, from blues to pop rock, these are the figures who have shaped American music as we know it. Here they share their secrets and personal methods for converting inspiration into song: Robbie Robertson of the Band an Tom Petty talk about working with Bob Dylan; Dylan himself, in his only in-depth interview in more than ten years, says that the world doesn’t need any new songs; R.E.M. name their favorite R.E.M. songs; Madonna describes collaborating with Prince; Sammy Cahn talks about writing standards for Sinatra; Pete Seeger recounts hitting the road with Woody Guthrie; Frank Zappa admits to loving “Louie Louie”; Todd Rundgren explains how he dreams his songs; and, in the book’s most extensive interview, Paul Simon delves into his opus from “The Sound of Silence” to “Graceland.” And almost all of them express delight at being able to talk about the mechanics of music itself, something that they have rarely been asked to discuss. Here expanded with new interviews with Burt Bacharach, Laura Nyro, Yoko Ono, Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Richard Thompson, and many others, Songwriters on Songwriting is a rare volume: one of the best books on the craft of musicmaking, an informative source for musicians and songwriters, and an invaluable historical record of the popular music of this century.
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Momentous events have a way of connecting individuals both to history and to one another. So it was on September 11. Even before more than 4000 people died in less than two hours, there were farewell messages from the sky. In their last minutes, doomed passengers used cell phones to reach loved ones. A short time later, office workers trapped high in the burning towers called spouses, children, parents. Never had so many had the means to say good-bye. During the hours afterward, the survivors scrambled to make contact with family and friends. “Are you all right?” they asked. As the enormity of it all began to sink in, the question hanging in the air was, Were we all right? Since September 11, many have noted a humbling irony: the more time we’d spent in the old world and the better we thought we understood its organizing principles, the less ready we were for the new one. Suddenly, familiar terms and concepts were inadequate, starting with the word terrorism itself. The dictionary defines it as violence, particularly against civilians, carried out for a political purpose. September 11 certainly qualified. But American’s earlier encounters with terrorism neither anticipated nor encompassed this new manifestation. Commentators instantly evoked Pearl Harbor, that other bolt-from-the-blue raid, sixty years before, as the closest thing to a precedent. But there really was none. This was something new under the sun.
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Experience the inspiration and joy of creation and performance in Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life , an intimate portrait of a unique artist and his audience. Set in the studio, on the stage, and in great cities and small towns across the country, this book captures life on the road for Marsalis and his musicians, evoking its ritual and renewal, energy and spirituality. Describing the art of improvisation, the book’s two voices mirror the interplay at the heart of jazz. “On the road and on the bandstand,” Marsalis writes, “something great may happen at any moment, something that might even change your life.” Alternately luminous and boisterous, often poignant, and always passionate, Marsalis and Vigeland’s extraordinary dialogue is a must for fans, musicians, and anyone curious about America’s only indigenous art form.