Editorial Content for Billion-Dollar Ransom
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
James Patterson has become the world’s top-selling author by creating a winning literary formula and sticking to it. This involves high-octane storytelling emphasized by short cliff-hanging chapters and action-filled plots that grab readers’ interest and don’t let go. Read More
Teaser
Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment. Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the streets of Beverly Hills. A patriarch wants his family back. The cash, gold, jewels and crypto are all ready. There’s only one problem: a brilliant, very stubborn FBI agent. Special Agent Nicky Gordon doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers. Not a dime.
Promo
Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment. Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the streets of Beverly Hills. A patriarch wants his family back. The cash, gold, jewels and crypto are all ready. There’s only one problem: a brilliant, very stubborn FBI agent. Special Agent Nicky Gordon doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers. Not a dime.
About the Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author James Patterson, six kidnappers pursue a whopping 10-figure payout in this thrilling novel featuring “breakneck pacing and loop-the-loop plotting” (Publishers Weekly).
Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment.
Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the streets of Beverly Hills.
A patriarch wants his family back. The cash, gold, jewels and crypto are all ready.
There’s only one problem: a brilliant, very stubborn FBI agent. Special Agent Nicky Gordon doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers.
Not a dime.
Audiobook available, read by Cynthia Farrell
Editorial Content for The Girl with Ice in Her Veins: A Lisbeth Salander Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
When Stieg Larsson passed away in 2004, it seemed to bring an end to his terrific Millennium trilogy, which began with THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Thankfully, David Lagercrantz picked up the mantle and continued the adventures of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. He then passed the baton to Karin Smirnoff, who has penned her second story in the series, THE GIRL WITH ICE IN HER VEINS. Read More
Teaser
Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up north, and finds her niece, Svala, on her doorstep, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas --- with Mikael Blomkvist at her side. Blomkvist takes the helm at Gasskas' newspaper, and Lisbeth tries to locate Plague. But then Svala goes missing, and Lisbeth's worst fears come to haunt her.
Promo
Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up north, and finds her niece, Svala, on her doorstep, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas --- with Mikael Blomkvist at her side. Blomkvist takes the helm at Gasskas' newspaper, and Lisbeth tries to locate Plague. But then Svala goes missing, and Lisbeth's worst fears come to haunt her.
About the Book
Lisbeth Salander returns in this chilling new installment of the multi-million-copy bestselling Millennium series.
Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered.
Meanwhile, Lisbeth is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up north, and finds her niece, Svala, on her doorstep, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas --- with Mikael Blomkvist at her side. Blomkvist takes the helm at Gasskas's newspaper, and Lisbeth tries to locate Plague. But then Svala goes missing, and Lisbeth's worst fears come to haunt her.
Lured back to a lawless town full of predators disguised as saviors and foes disguised as friends, forced to face down their own troubling pasts and those of their loved ones, Salander and Blomkvist must untangle a history of violence before it's too late. THE GIRL WITH ICE IN HER VEINS is a twisty, vertiginous, hard-hitting thriller that breathes new life into Stieg Larsson's epic series and unforgettable characters.
Audiobook available, read by Simon Vance
Editorial Content for Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
DARK RENAISSANCE is a brilliant work from Stephen Greenblatt that focuses on the life of poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe.
Since the mid-19th-century, there have been rumors questioning William Shakespeare's authorship of his plays. The claim is that many people, including Marlowe, wrote Shakespeare's plays. How wrong these ideas have been! Greenblatt sheds light not only on these stories, passed down like oral history, but on everything involving Marlowe’s tragically short life. Read More
Teaser
In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known --- and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. For Christopher Marlowe, it’s a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language and culture. His astonishing literary success will nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. DARK RENAISSANCE illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work.
Promo
In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known --- and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. For Christopher Marlowe, it’s a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language and culture. His astonishing literary success will nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. DARK RENAISSANCE illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work.
About the Book
Poor boy. Spy. Transgressor. Genius.
In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known --- and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire and dangerous skepticism.
What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.
DARK RENAISSANCE illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work --- from his erotic translations of Ovid to his portrayal of unfettered ambition in a triumphant Tamburlaine to Doctor Faustus, his unforgettable masterpiece about making a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge.
Introducing us to Marlowe’s transgressive genius in the form of a thrilling page-turner, Stephen Greenblatt brings a penetrating understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented by his own compromises, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered just when he had found love. Meanwhile, he explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific and cultural power of the modern world, including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini
Editorial Content for Beyond Her Reach
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
A really good series has books that stand alone but also has characters who grow and change from the first installment through the procession and the progression of stories. This arc, combined with the individual gripping novels, is what keeps us coming back to read book after book.
With her Bree Taggert series, Melinda Leigh manages to accomplish all of that and more. In addition to a really likable, vulnerable but strong protagonist, there is a romantic partner and a family. And what I especially love about this series is the dogs. Read More
Teaser
In a quiet suburban neighborhood in upstate New York, single mom Kelly Gibson is slain in her home --- the victim of a rage killing. Right away, Sheriff Bree Taggert has three persons of interest: an angry soon-to-be ex-husband, a furtive rebound boyfriend, and an obsessive neighbor. But as Bree and investigator Matt Flynn work together to narrow the field, there’s a shocking twist in the case: a second woman is murdered in the same brutal fashion. While investigating, Bree is attacked and left for dead. When another woman is kidnapped, Bree and Matt must act quickly to unravel the deceptions in Kelly’s life and death and find a killer before someone else dies.
Promo
In a quiet suburban neighborhood in upstate New York, single mom Kelly Gibson is slain in her home --- the victim of a rage killing. Right away, Sheriff Bree Taggert has three persons of interest: an angry soon-to-be ex-husband, a furtive rebound boyfriend, and an obsessive neighbor. But as Bree and investigator Matt Flynn work together to narrow the field, there’s a shocking twist in the case: a second woman is murdered in the same brutal fashion. While investigating, Bree is attacked and left for dead. When another woman is kidnapped, Bree and Matt must act quickly to unravel the deceptions in Kelly’s life and death and find a killer before someone else dies.
About the Book
In the wake of a woman’s savage murder, the suspects and motives are only mounting for Sheriff Bree Taggert in a twisting novel of suspense by #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh.
In a quiet suburban neighborhood in upstate New York, single mom Kelly Gibson is slain in her home --- the victim of a rage killing. Right away, Sheriff Bree Taggert has three persons of interest: an angry soon-to-be ex-husband, a furtive rebound boyfriend, and an obsessive neighbor.
But as Bree and investigator Matt Flynn work together to narrow the field, there’s a shocking twist in the case: a second woman is murdered in the same brutal fashion.
While investigating, Bree is attacked and left for dead. When another woman is kidnapped, Bree and Matt must act quickly to unravel the deceptions in Kelly’s life and death and find a killer before someone else dies.
Audiobook available, read by Christina Traister
Editorial Content for Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Back around the turn of the century --- especially in the wake of the 1994 strike that resulted in the cancellation of the remainder of the season --- several former baseball players and pundits published books on the problems with the game. Among them were a dwindling fan base due in part to competition from other diversions and starting times for games that were too late for the younger crowd, as well as feelings that the games were just too long. Read More
Teaser
As a pioneering female sportswriter, Jane Leavy eventually turned her talent to books, penning three of the all-time best baseball biographies about three of the all-time best players: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. But when she went searching for a fourth biographical subject, she realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: How much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture? Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions. What she uncovers is not only what’s wrong with baseball --- and how to fix it --- but also what’s right with baseball.
Promo
As a pioneering female sportswriter, Jane Leavy eventually turned her talent to books, penning three of the all-time best baseball biographies about three of the all-time best players: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. But when she went searching for a fourth biographical subject, she realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: How much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture? Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions. What she uncovers is not only what’s wrong with baseball --- and how to fix it --- but also what’s right with baseball.
About the Book
A New York Times bestselling biographer and lifelong baseball devotee takes readers on an epic journey through the game that baseball has become --- a heartfelt manifesto that's perfect for lovers of the sport.
Jane Leavy has always loved baseball. Her grandmother lived one long, loud foul ball away from Yankee Stadium --- the same grandmother who took young Jane to Saks Fifth Avenue and bought her her first baseball glove. It's no coincidence that Leavy was covering the game she loved for the Washington Post by the late 1970s. As a pioneering female sportswriter, she eventually turned her talent to books, penning three of the all-time best baseball biographies about three of the all-time best players: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth.
But when she went searching for a fourth biographical subject, Leavy realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl, often at the expense of thrills, skills, and surprise. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: How much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture?
Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions, talking with luminaries like Joe Torre, Dave Roberts, Jim Palmer, Dusty Baker and more. What Leavy uncovers is not only what’s wrong with baseball --- and how to fix it --- but also what’s right with baseball, and how it illuminates characters, tells stories, and fires up the imagination of those who love it and everyone who could discover it anew.
Audiobook available, read by Jane Leavy
Editorial Content for The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Ragnar Jónasson is a huge fan of Dame Agatha Chrisite. In fact, he often has modeled his work after Christie and enjoys paying homage to her whenever he can. That has never been more apparent than in his latest novel, THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER. Here, he takes an infamous part of Christie’s past and incorporates it into a new mystery featuring a missing Icelandic crime writer who is being pursued by a young detective. Read More
Teaser
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before its leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
Promo
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before its leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
About the Book
The next thrilling golden-age-style mystery from #1 Icelandic bestseller Ragnar Jónasson, author of DEATH AT THE SANATORIUM and REYKJAVÍK.
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing.
There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before its leaked to the press.
As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote.
As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
Audiobook available; read by Cicely Whitehead, Jane Slavin and Rufus Wright
Editorial Content for Hot Wax
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
On tour with a hard-living rock ‘n’ roll band is no place for the faint of heart, the easily offended, or a 10-year-old girl. But what if your dad is the frontman, and life on the road usually keeps you apart? What begins as an exciting family adventure just might end in violence and result in decades of bad memories and emotional turmoil. Read More
Teaser
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning --- one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come. The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.
Promo
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning --- one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come. The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.
About the Book
The new novel from the bestselling author of IF WE WERE VILLAINS and GRAVEYARD SHIFT --- a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is.
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning --- one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.
The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country --- and drives her to a desperation all her own.
Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, HOT WAX is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back --- where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.
Audiobook available, read by Helen Laser








