This is the novel of the Old South, a world few people knew existed - a world of violence, cruelty, greed, and lust. Mandingo brings to vivid life the sounds, the smells, the terrible reality of the slave-breeding farms and plantations where men and women were mated and bred like cattle. Set in the 1830s around a plantation in Alabama owned by a planter named Maxwell, his son Hammond, and the Mandingo slave Ganymede, or Mede, Mandingo is a tale of cruelty toward the black people of that time and place, detailing the overwhelmingly dehumanizing behavior meted out to the slaves, as well as vicious fights, poisoning, and violent death. When first published in the 1950s, millions of readers found it to be an unforgettable read.

Janet was naturally worried when she heard from her mother, who had gone to live in sunny Ibiza, that someone was trying to make life difficult for her by, apparently, trying to cheat her out of her rights, and she went post-haste to the little island to see if she could sort things out. Her mother, she found, being a sunny-natured lady, was not as worried about the situation as Janet was -- and Janet was even more worried and annoyed when she met the cause of all the trouble, the odious Bruce Walbrook. Just who did he think he was? He might be an authority in the legal world, but she would show him that his words certainly cut no ice with her. On her mother's behalf, Janet was going to get the better of him -- or was it only on her mother's behalf?

A trip to the West Coast lands Jack LeVine in a tangled Hollywood murder webAfter nearly a decade of churning out hits, Warner Bros. screenwriter Walter Adrian wants a raise on his weekly $2,500 salary. He thinks a thousand dollars more is fair—but the studio’s counteroffer is low, and dropping fast. Something is wrong, and he thinks it may have to do with communism.Though he insists he isn’t a Red, Adrian has no way of proving it. He flees to New York to ask the advice of high school buddy Jack LeVine, private eye. LeVine is broke, and has no sympathy for his wealthy friend, but he agrees to fly West to investigate his old classmate’s trouble. When he arrives, Adrian hangs dead from the gallows at the Western set on the Warners’ backlot. Behind his friend’s death LeVine finds a shadowy Cold War conspiracy, and a city far darker than anything Hollywood puts on screen.Review“Bergman has a flip, easy style, and Hollywood and LeVine goes along with . . . confidence and flair.” —TheNew York Times “By far the best mystery comedy I’ve seen in some time, it’s a fine piece of invention, written with great energy and humanity and style.” —Ross Macdonald“It is without doubt the nearest thing to genuine Chandler I’ve ever come across. . . . Tough, witty—very witty—and a beautiful eye for period detail, which makes it a smashing read.” —Jack Higgins

Against Nature is the perfect illustration of Oscar Wilde's famous paradox that life imitates art, and not the other way around. First published in Paris in 1884 when the Naturalistic school - of which Huysmans himself was a major figure - was at its height, it delivered a body-blow to Zola's brand of literary realism, and almost single-handedly redefined the literary and artistic canon of the nineteenth century in the process. To a rising generation of readers, writers and artists across Europe, Huysmans' novel was the instruction manual of a movement that was to become emblematic of fin-de-siecle France: Decadence. The novel tells the story of its decadent aristocratic anti-hero, Jean Floressas des Esseintes, who, bored by the aesthetic and carnal pleasures the Parisian beau monde has to offer, decides to sell up and move to an isolated house in the suburbs. There he constructs a world of artifice that exactly minors his super-subtle, perverse and painfully neurotic sensibility. The result is one of the most bizarre, intriguing and influential books of the period. Whether read as an existential fable, psychological analysis, style manual, cultural critique or social satire, the novel remains as audacious and original today as when first published.

Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness's Under the Glacier is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, a wryly provocative novel at once earthy and otherworldly. At its outset, the Bishop of Iceland dispatches a young emissary to investigate certain charges against the pastor at Snæfells Glacier, who, among other things, appears to have given up burying the dead. But once he arrives, the emissary finds that this dereliction counts only as a mild eccentricity in a community that regards itself as the center of the world and where Creation itself is a work in progress. What is the emissary to make, for example, of the boarded-up church? What about the mysterious building that has sprung up alongside it? Or the fact that Pastor Primus spends most of his time shoeing horses? Or that his wife, Ua (pronounced 'ooh-a,' which is what men invariably sputter upon seeing her), is rumored never to have bathed, eaten, or slept? Piling improbability on top of improbability, Under the Glacier overflows with comedy both wild and deadpan as it conjures a phantasmagoria as beguiling as it is profound.  

NIGHT RIDERSBig Joe Gannon rode into Maddox, and into a living death. As a Special Officer on the Governor's staff, Gannon was on a mission to investigate the killing of Harrison Ord, a brother officer and friend. All the trails led to Snake Hallin... and rumor had it that Hallin was dead. But, piecing together all the threads of the many conflicting stories brought back to him. Big Joe had reason to believe that Snake Hallin was very much alive.As soon as he hit Maddox, Gannon spotted Pony Grimes, gambler-gunman wanted by the law for the killing of a rancher. In the chase that followed, Big Joe managed to kill Grimes, but not before he himself was nicked by a bullet from Pony's gun; in the resulting fall, Big Joe's head struck against a rock, knocking him unconscious.Picked up by Silver Linn, owner of the Maddox cafe, Big Joe was brought back to Maddox. And when Silver Linn discovered that Big Joe Gannon was suffering from amnesia, he decided to use him for his own purposes. So Big Joe was told that his name was Pony Grimes and that he had had a run-in with the law.The ensuing chapters unfold upon an unforgettable story of the Old West, with three different gangs of outlaws spreading terror through the night in an effort to force the ranchers to sell their land cheaply.

Nazi savagery. Famous Hollywood actor. Sinister doctor and fiendish torture. Young girl enslaved by secret passion. Woman with no boundaries.

"Within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king..."-Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard IIUnlike his father, the Black Prince, or his namesake, King Richard the Lionheart, Richard II never really wanted to be king. But the mantle of royalty is thrust upon his shoulders at age 11, at a time when England is racked by unrest and class warefare. A leader as unexpected as he is inexperienced, young Richard must find a way to triumph over a fierce conflict more destructive than any foreign enemy."Ms. Barnes captures the flavor, pageantry, and color of the Middle Ages...a distinguished novel."-Philadelphia InquirerRichard's love for his wife, Anne of Bohemia, gave him the strength to outwit the schemes of his enemies and govern as he saw fit, providing England with years of properity under his reign. But when tragedy strikes, Richard begins to loose the common touch by which he had ruled so brilliantly, and begins a downward spiral from which his detractors would derive strength..."Sympathetic picture of sensitive, peace-loving, and ill-beset Richard II, who had it in him to be one of the best kings England ever had."-Booklist(20100315)ReviewThis is a fascinating work of biographical fiction that will remind readers of the Shakespeare tragedy as a great ruler falls apart after his heart dies along with his beloved Anne. (Harriet Klausner Amazon.com #1 Reviewer 20100415)Intelligently written, sympathetic account of Richard II and his reign. (Carla Nayland Carla Nayland Historical Fiction 20100415)Barnes focuses on the human side of Richard which really made this story magnificent. (Marie Burton The Burton Review 20100415)A highly emotional story... that will make you feel sorry for this young man born of privilege for he is not exempt from the cruelties of life as most of us would think. (Terra Studer Yankee Romance Reviewers 20100415)Margaret Campbell Barnes truly deserves the accolades given her. Read this work, and you will see why. (Barbara Ligens BookLoons.com 20100415)Filled with all sorts of court intrigue, treason, murder,lots of secondary characters and even romance. (Kathleen CelticLady's Reviews 20100415)The author did a splendid job of helping the reader actually feel what it would be like to be Richard II. (Svea Love Confessions of a Muse in the Fog 20100415)The author really brings to life this enigmatic figure of history and explores a different angle to this infamous king than the one portrayed in Shakespeare's Richard II. (Alaine Bucknall Queen of Happy Endings 20100421)Barnes masterfully takes command and tells an exquisitely written tale of the last reigning Plantagenet King. (Jennifer Higgins Rundpinne 20100422)A very enjoyable book about a very tragic King. (Patty Woodland The Broken Teepee 20100422)a spirited quick read... the authors use of a richly worded text enhances the reading experience. (Renee Renee's Reads 20100426)Amazing twists and plots, murder, love, and intrigue. (Monica The Bibliophilic Book Blog 20100427)A fascinating work of biographical fiction... brings to life the late fourteenth century England. (Harriet Klausner Genre Go Round 20100428)Campbell Barnes is a wonderful writer. (She Read a Book )Definitely a great read for those who love historical fiction. (Nicole A Blog of Books )Margaret Campbell Barnes is an amazing historical fiction writer. Her characterization is impeccable. (Jennifer Mrs. Q Book Reviews ) About the AuthorNew York Times bestseller Margaret Campbell Barnes wrote several historical novels, including Brief Gaudy Hour, My Lady of Cleves, King's Fool, and The Tudor Rose. Her novels have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.

Mercenary. Galactic traveller. Survivor. Earl Dumarest is all those things? and more. For he claims to come from the mythical planet of Earth. And those claims have just attracted the attention of the sinister Cyclan . . . Stranded on Gath with no way off, Dumarest becomes embroiled in the schemes of a sadistic prince and a dying matriarch. Plots within plots unfold?and Dumarest is the key to their success. For amid the schemes of prince and matriarch alike, all have come to experience the legendary Winds of Gath. For when the star swarms come, when the music of the spheres rises over the the planet's valleys and mountains, the dead can speak to the living . . . and men go mad! THE WINDS OF GATH is the first volume in the Dumarest of Terra saga!

“IN the past twenty years English curiosity about the Deep South has been rightly sated by American novelists, and to many readers the description of Mr Frank Yerby’s new work of fiction as ‘a four-generation novel about the South’ may act as a sharp deterrent. More kindly Negroes, more camellias, more gracious living in Grecian Mansions, more Spanish moss? Here they will be wrong . . . The South of Mr Yerby in this lengthy novel, stretching from 1843 to 1920 and covering the singular misfortunes of the Benton family during this extensive period of time, rings a very authentic note . . . But apart from a wealth of suggestive fact to be gleaned by reading Benton’s Row, and even apart from the tumultuous succession of incidents of love, sex, violence, more violence, murder and sudden death, this novel raises wider and more disturbing issues for the critic . . . How . . . are we to explain why it is so hard to put Benton’s Row down? A best-seller who has since 1946 sold more than twelve million copies of his novels in the United States alone, Mr Yerby perfectly understands the mixture of episode needed to keep alive interest in a tale . . . He believes in his characters’ sentiments, as well as in their sentimentality, he believes in their bouts of violence; and by doing so he carries us panting along behind him, so that we believe in it too.”The Times Frank Yerby was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1916. He studied at Fisk University in Tennessee and at the University of Chicago where he gained his M.A. degree. During the war he wrote his first novel and has since had twenty-three others published. He now lives in Spain.

A mysterious black hole is draining away power from the Universe. Even the Time Lords are threatened. The Doctor is also in trouble. Creatures from the black hole besiege UNIT Headquarters. The only person who can help the Doctor is... himself. The Time Lords bring together the first three incarnations of the Doctor to discover the truth about the black hole and stop the energy drain. The Doctors and their companions travel through the black hole itself, into a universe of anti-matter. Here they meet one of the very first Time Lords - Omega, who gave his race the power to travel through time. Trapped for aeons in the black hole, he now plans to escape - whatever the cost. This novel is based on a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 30 December 1972 to 20 January 1973. *Featuring the first three Doctors as played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, together with Jo Grant and the UNIT organisation commanded by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart*