The rapid rise in Russia’s power over the course of the last ten years has been matched by a stunning lack of international diplomacy on the part of its president, Vladimir Putin. One consequence of this, when combined with Europe’s rapidly shifting geopolitics, is that the West is on a possible path toward nuclear war. Former deputy commander of NATO General Sir Richard Shirreff speaks out about this very real peril in this call to arms, a novel that is a barely disguised version of the truth. In chilling prose, it warns allied powers and the world at large that we risk catastrophic nuclear conflict if we fail to contain Russia’s increasingly hostile actions.In a detailed plotline that draws upon Shirreff’s years of experience in tactical military strategy, Shirreff lays out the most probable course of action Russia will take to expand its influence, predicting that it will begin with an invasion of the Baltic states. And with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump recently declaring that he might not come to the aid of these NATO member nations were he to become president, the threat of an all-consuming global conflict is clearer than ever.This critical, chilling fictional look at our current geopolitical landscape, written by a top NATO commander, is both timely and necessary-a must-read for any fan of realistic military thrillers as well as all concerned citizens.

The rapid rise in Russia’s power over the course of the last ten years has been matched by a stunning lack of international diplomacy on the part of its president, Vladimir Putin. One consequence of this, when combined with Europe’s rapidly shifting geopolitics, is that the West is on a possible path toward nuclear war. Former deputy commander of NATO General Sir Richard Shirreff speaks out about this very real peril in this call to arms, a novel that is a barely disguised version of the truth. In chilling prose, it warns allied powers and the world at large that we risk catastrophic nuclear conflict if we fail to contain Russia’s increasingly hostile actions.In a detailed plotline that draws upon Shirreff’s years of experience in tactical military strategy, Shirreff lays out the most probable course of action Russia will take to expand its influence, predicting that it will begin with an invasion of the Baltic states. And with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump recently declaring that he might not come to the aid of these NATO member nations were he to become president, the threat of an all-consuming global conflict is clearer than ever.This critical, chilling fictional look at our current geopolitical landscape, written by a top NATO commander, is both timely and necessary—a must—read for any fan of realistic military thrillers as well as all concerned citizens.

Gentleman spy Alex Hawke has all but given up on life. The British-American M16 counterterrorism operative lost the woman he loved on his last mission, almost a year ago, and has sought refuge at the bottom of a rum bottle ever since. But late one night at his home on Bermuda, he receives a wake-up call.literally.His Royal Highness Prince Charles, an old friend, desperately needs his help. Someone is threatening the lives of the British Royal Family. And the death threat Charles has received carries a signature identical to one found in a book that belonged to his uncle, Lord Mountbatten – the beloved family patriarch who was assassinated 30 years before. Someone from the past has the British crown in his sights again, and has proven once before that these threats are not to be taken lightly. This is just the call to duty Hawke needs to get back in action – if the madman doesn't wreak total havoc first.Warlord is adventure-thriller fiction of the highest order – told with verve and swashbuckling panache by a master of the art.

From Publishers WeeklyWhen can a psychologist go to the police about a client without violating the doctor/patient contract? Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory, veteran of nine previous White suspense novels, wrestles with this dilemma in White's latest top-flight thriller. Neurotic Naomi Bigg seeks help when she suspects her high school son, Paul, plans to avenge his sister's rape and his father's murder conviction for killing the rapist, who was let off on a technicality. Paul's best friend, Ramp, an explosives fanatic, lost his mother to a paroled rapist/murderer and has his own list of targets. Alan's erratic sessions with Naomi begin to unnerve him when he picks up hints of a connection to the recent brutal murder of Boulder 's DA, his wife Lauren's boss. Even worse, he realizes that Lauren, suffering from MS and just ending maternity leave, assisted in the bungled prosecution of Paul's sister's rapist. And to further complicate things, the prime suspect in the DA murder case is Boulder police detective Lucy Tanner, partner of Alan's best friend, Sam Purdy. When a car bomb kills a judge's wife in Denver, Alan is torn with indecision, but goes to Sam after explosives are found in the dead DA's house. When a bomb goes off at Alan's office and Lucy is kidnapped, Alan and Sam team up and track Ramp on his deadly bomb spree. White (Private Practices) deliciously taunts the reader with his trademark twists, smoothly weaving plots together and sprinkling red herrings among the solid clues. Could Columbine have been prevented if the shooters' parents had gone to the police? How many warning signs are needed before action should be taken? These questions have led to the "no tolerance" policies in many schools and underlie this tensely satisfying outing. National ad/promo.

General Cheng has studied the American strategy in the Iraqi war from top to bottom, back to front, and now he is massing his divisions on the Manchurian border. To the west, Siberia’s Marshal Yesov is readying his army. Their aim: To drive the American-led U.N. force back to the sea.The counterstrike: Unleash the brilliantly unorthodox American General Douglas Freeman. If this eagle can’t whip the bear and the dragon, no one can…

Flora and Neil are happily married, but they can’t have children so decide to adopt. And when Flora meets little Beckie it’s love at first sight. Deep in her heart, she knows they’re meant for each other, destined to be mother and daughter.

When Flora officially becomes Beckie’s mum, it’s like a part of her that’s always been missing is finally in place. She is complete, every day filled with purpose and joy.

There’s only one problem. Beckie was taken from her birth family, the Johnsons, because they have a history of violence and criminal behaviour and so are judged to be unfit to care for a child.

But the Johnsons don’t agree. As far as they’re concerned, Flora has stolen their little girl and they are determined to get her back. They’re very smart, utterly ruthless – and they have a plan. One that will turn Flora’s life into a living hell and push her to the very edge of insanity.

This stunning psychological thriller is perfect for fans of K.L. Slater, Mark Edwards, and Teresa Driscoll.

LIGHTSAll's quiet in the small town of Holliswood. Television sets, computers, and portable devices are aglow in every home, classroom, and store. Yet not all is perfect. Evil is lurking, just out of sight, behind the screen.CAMERAResiding in this sleepy town is a villain with more ambition than the world can withstand. Twisted beyond reason, he is dead set on throwing Holliswood into chaos and documenting the destruction of every person in it, including Daniel X.EXTERMINATIONThe only person who can stop this made-for-TV tyrant, Daniel must use his extraordinary power to save the town. But this devilish director has assembled an all-star team of his own creation and vows to stage the most spectacular finale the world has ever seen. Can Daniel X stop this deranged outlaw-or will he find himself on the cutting room floor?

Prolific Koontz's recent horror efforts (Strangers, Phantoms, Whispers) smothered readers under ungainly layers of fatty subplots and scleroid exposition. In this 49th novel, he strips away much of the excess to deliver his leanest book since The Vision (1977), and his best ever, an imaginative and unusual blend of suspense and sentiment as man, woman, and dog flee from horrors both inhuman and inhumane. The dog, a golden retriever, is the novel's centerpiece. World-weary Travis Cornell stumbles upon him snarling at something deep in a California woods. Showing uncanny wit, the dog leads Travis out of the forest, responding to every command with near-human intelligence. Adopting the dog, Travis names him "Einstein." Meanwhile, two villains wreak havoc in the L.A. suburbs, Koontz's excuse to indulge in his customary gory excesses: some thing is decapitating random loners, while, in an unnecessary subplot, a KGB-hired assassin kills scientists connected with a gene-splicing lab. Days later, Einstein saves a lonely woman, Nora, from rape. As she and Travis romance, they explore the dog's powers, even teaching him to read and write. With the use of Scrabble tiles, Einstein explains that he, as well as a murderous baboonish creature so vile as to be called "The Other," are results of an Army genetic experiment. Einstein escaped; The Other, jealous of his charm, broke out to kill him – and all who stand in its way. Grateful to Einstein the dog for reviving their tired lives, Travis and Nora hide out with him in S.F., where, amidst domestic bliss highlighted by a pregnancy and the dog's obsession with Mickey Mouse videos, they await the coming of The Other. But the assassin, hoping to steal Einstein, shows up first; Travis guns him down. When The Other arrives, razor teeth flashing, it meets the same fate. At the close: a happy ending foretelling a race of super-dogs to grace the earth. More a fable about love and trust than an outright chiller, this work, with its echoes of Frankenstein and The Island of Dr. Moreau, still peppers enough tension and mayhem throughout to satisfy horror fans. And the touching, if often hokey, interplay between dog and human could attract new, non-genre readers. A break-through for Koontz.

From a top secret government laboratory come two genetically altered life forms. One is a magnificent dog of astonishing intelligence. The other, a hybrid monster of a brutally violent nature. Both are on the loose…

From International Thriller Writers comes WATCHLIST: two powerful novellas featuring the same thrilling cast of characters in one major suspenseful package. THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT and THE COPPER BRACELET are collaborations of some of the world’s greatest thriller writers, including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, and Jeffery Deaver, who conceived the characters and set the plots in motion. The other authors each wrote a chapter and Deaver then completed what he started, bringing both novellas to their startling conclusions.In the first novella, THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT, former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frederic Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans. As he races from Poland to America to uncover the mystery of the manuscript, Middleton will be accused of murder, pursued by federal agents, and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat will come from a shadowy figure from his past: the man known only as Faust.Harold Middleton returns in THE COPPER BRACELET -- the explosive sequel to THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT -- as he’s drawn into an international terror plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war. Careening from Nice to London and Moscow to Kashmir to prevent nuclear disaster, Middleton is unaware that his prey has changed and that the act of terror is far more diabolical than he knows. Will he discover the identity of the Scorpion in time to halt an event that will pit the United States, China, and Russia against each other at the brink of World War III?

Deep in Pennsylvania’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a woman befriends a mysterious newcomer from Uzbekistan, setting in motion this suspenseful, atmospheric, politically charged debut.

After surviving a car crash that left her widowed at twenty-two, Kathleen has retreated to a remote corner of a state park, where she works flipping burgers for deer hunters and hikers—happy, she insists, to be left alone.

But when a stranger appears in the dead of winter—seemingly out of nowhere, kicking snow from his flimsy dress shoes—Kathleen is intrigued, despite herself. He says he’s a student visiting from Uzbekistan, and his worldliness fills her with curiosity about life beyond the valley. After a cautious friendship settles between them, the stranger confesses to a terrible crime in his home country, and Kathleen finds herself in the grip of a manhunt—and face-to-face with secrets of her own.

Steeped in the rugged beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with America’s war on terror raging in the background, Sarah St.Vincent’s Ways to Hide in Winter is a powerful story about violence and redemption, betrayal and empathy… and how we reconcile the unforgivable in those we love.

**'Surely destined to conquer the world . . . Astonishingly good' RUTH JONES**

**'So beautifully written . . . will remain with you for a long time' LYNDA LA PLANTE**

**'Contender for thriller of the year' JON COATES,** SUNDAY EXPRESS

*With the staggering intensity of James Lee Burke and the absorbing narrative of Jane Harper's* The Dry *,* We Begin at the End *is a powerful novel about absolute love and the lengths we will go to keep our family safe. This is a story about good and evil and how life is lived somewhere in between.*

**'YOU CAN'T SAVE SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T WANT TO BE SAVED . . .'**

**There are two kinds of families: the ones we are born into and the ones we create.** Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. Duchess is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old brother. At school the other kids make fun of Duchess―her clothes are torn, her hair a mess. But let them throw their sticks, because she’ll throw stones. Rules are for other people. She’s just trying to survive and keep her family together. A fortysomething-year-old sheriff and a thirteen-year-old girl may not seem to have a lot in common. But they both have come to expect that people will disappoint you, loved ones will leave you, and if you open your heart it will be broken. So when trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed. Chris Whitaker has written an extraordinary novel about people who deserve so much more than life serves them. At times devastating, with flashes of humor and hope throughout, it is ultimately an inspiring tale of how the human spirit prevails and how, in the end, love―in all its different guises―wins.

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

That neither nature nor nurture bears exclusive responsibility for a child’s character is self-evident. But generalizations about genes are likely to provide cold comfort if it’s your own child who just opened fire on his fellow algebra students and whose class photograph—with its unseemly grin—is shown on the evening news coast-to-coast.If the question of who’s to blame for teenage atrocity intrigues news-watching voyeurs, it tortures our narrator, Eva Khatchadourian. Two years before the opening of the novel, her son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-beloved teacher who had tried to befriend him. Because his sixteenth birthday arrived two days after the killings, he received a lenient sentence and is currently in a prison for young offenders in upstate New York.In relating the story of Kevin’s upbringing, Eva addresses her estranged husband, Frank, through a series of startingly direct letters. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son became, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general—and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault?We Need To Talk About Kevin offers no at explanations for why so many white, well-to-do adolescents—whether in Pearl, Paducah, Springfield, or Littleton—have gone nihilistically off the rails while growing up in the most prosperous country in history. Instead, Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story with an explosive, haunting ending. She considers motherhood, marriage, family, career—while framing these horrifying tableaus of teenage carnage as metaphors for the larger tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

Dr Gary Lasch is found dead at his desk. The murder stuns his elite Connecticut community – especially when his beautiful young wife, Molly, is arrested and charged with his murder. Six years later, on Molly's release from prison, she reasserts her innocence in front of reporters gathered at the prison gates. Among them is an old schoolfriend, Fran Simmons, who is currently working as an investigative reporter for a true crime television series. Determined to prove her innocence, Molly convinces Fran to research and produce a programme on Gary 's death. Fran agrees, but in doing so, she has a second agenda – to learn the truth about her own father's suicide fourteen years earlier. Fran soon finds herself enmeshed in a tangled web of intrigue and menace – more deaths and more unanswered questions about Gary Lasch's death. As her investigation proceeds, there are those who know they must make a choice: face ruin, or eliminate Fran.

In 2003, the world watched as coalition forces toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, then searched — unsuccessfully — for the weapons of mass destruction they were certain existed. None were ever found, but they do exist. On the eve of the invasion, a handful of nuclear weapons was smuggled out of Iraq and hidden in the most unlikely of places — Iran. Now, as the threat of WMDs fades into a late-night punch line, a shadowy Iranian faction waits for the perfect moment to unleash Saddam Hussein’s nuclear legacy on the West. Brendan McHugh, a Navy SEAL, meets a mysterious Iranian diplomat on a raid in Iraq. His former girlfriend and FBI linguist discovers a link to Iran among a group of captured jihadis. And pulling it all together is a CIA analyst who can’t forget about Saddam Hussein’s WMDs — even if it costs him his career. Patriot Games meets The Fourth Protocol in this riveting story of modern-day nuclear terrorism.

The Weapons of the Gods were stolen from the countless tombs that Drake and his team uncovered; then sold on, coveted and killed for. Now, the new promise of their combined power has unleashed a formidable force who will stop at nothing to own them all.

Thrown into the new quest against their will, Team Spear face incredible odds — they are being hunted by their own government whilst trying to weed out highly placed traitors, and stop global mercenary and terrorist forces from causing worldwide mayhem.

The team battle from Texas to Greece, from deserted islands to London, from Syria to Washington DC, as they identify the traitors that disavowed them and join an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime battle where a force made up of hundreds of elite Special Forces soldiers takes on a vast army of terrorists in Syria.