Beautiful Penelope Creed had known Piers Luttrell from childhood. They had early pledged their love to each other, eagerly awaiting the day they could turn it into a lifelong reality. But now there was another man in her life. A dashing figure of a London dandy, the witty, worldly, handsome Sir Richard Wyndham, a man who made his own rules of life and love, a man who was everything Piers was not. How could she choose between them? How could she even compare these two who shared nothing in common? Nothing, that is, but her heart ...

In the Wild West, a desperate gang of outlaws targets a gold shipmentDuring the Indian Wars, Boag and Wilstach rode with the Tenth Cavalry, the most feared outfit ever to gallop over the American plains. But now that things are relatively peaceful, the two soldiers wander the land, cloaking their once-spotless uniforms with dust. To be men again requires money, and they have no skills but riding, shooting, and waving sabers. Luckily, those are just the kind of men that Jed Pickett needs.A one-time outlaw king, Pickett is a man of the desert, with his eyes on the greatest prize to ever cross the wasteland: Nearly one and a half tons of gold bullion are waiting to be shipped by riverboat. Boag and Wilstach sign on, agreeing to “a few days of work” that will either make their fortune or cost them their lives. In the Western desert, gold is scarce, but blood flows like water.

Adam Penhallow’s death seems, at first, to be by natural causes. But Penhallow wasn’t well liked — so bad tempered, that both his servants and his family hated him. It soon transpires that Penhallow was murdered, poisoned, in fact, on the eve of his birthday celebration, and there are more than a dozen prime suspects.

Called upon to probe the mysterious disappearance of two touring motorcoach drivers, Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley uncovers a racket which involves stolen antiques, smuggling and murder. Later, a third driver is missing, but reappears to tell a tale which Dame Beatrice suspects is only partly true. But one slender clue leads to another until the drama is played out . . .Review"Mrs. Lestrange Bradley . . . is by far the best and most vital English female detective." -- The Observer (The Observer and Eccentric )

A trio of uncollected stories from early in T. C. Boyle's career, Rock and Roll Heaven shows all of the qualities that had people excited about Boyle from the beginning—great ideas, dazzling writing full of wit, black humor, and wisdom. These three stories were published in journals but have not been included as of yet in any of Boyle's short story collections. Combined here, all Boyle fans have easy access to reading them now.

Первого издания к сожалению не нашел, поэтому отсканировал издание второе 1953 года с дополнительной главой, рассматривающей процесс Берии. Лучший анализ развития идеологии коммунизма и Советского Союза от Ленина до Сталина, который мне попадался. Особая его ценность в том, что выполнен современником — книга была начата еще при жизни Сталина, а закончена уже после его непредвиденной смерти и смещения Берии. Некоторые положения наивны, большинство прогнозов — как мы теперь знаем — не подтвердились, но тем не менее Deutscher провел на редкость здравое иследование причин возникновения культа личности и его соответствия тогдашним реалиям. Честно говоря, я бы с удовольствием заменил многие главы школьного учебника этой книгой. Например только здесь нашлась более или менее полная информация о Маленкове, период правления которого у нас традиционно пробегают в двух словах. Изложение логичное и последовательное, без попыток превдонаучной абракадабры. Язык вполне соответствует, хотя стилистика оставляет желать лучшего — временами слишком много повторений, можно выделить даже особенно «любимые» автором слова. Ах да, ну и самое главное :) Эта книга и есть первоисточник той самой знаменитой цитаты про Сталина, соху и атомные ракеты. Если остались еще Фомы меднолобые, отныне можно посылать их прямиком на Либрусек. Stiver

Цикл о Крае Времени весьма необычен. Это не фэнтези, это не научная фантастика в обычном смысле этого термина, это - нечто иное. Край Времени - это когда "дни вселенной были сочтены". Герои этого цикла - люди, хотя человеческого в них не сильно много. Они всемогущи, а если их настигает смерть, то они легко могут возродиться, а главное - они не живут, они скорее играют в жизнь. Играют в любовь, в страдания, играют во что угодно, лишь бы занять время. Беспрерывные развлечения - вот смысл их жизни. Цикл полон языковых изысков, необычных способов построения речи и сюжета, странных имен героев, но при этом читается просто отлично. Первая трилогия , Танцоры на Краю Времени, это "история Джерека Карнелиана, несведущего в тонкостях морали, и миссис Амелии Ундервуд, неукоснительно следующей ей". Рассказывать сюжет этой книги, все равно, что пытаться описать вкус прекрасного вина. Лучше попробовать... Единственно, что хочется к этому добавить - это наличие в этом мире сразу двух инкарнаций Вечного Героя. Кроме собственно Джерека Карнелиана, который является главным героем цикла, есть еще Лорд Джеггед Канарья, собственно, и являющийся настоящей инкарнацией Вечного Героя - единственный на Краю Времени человек действия. "Танелорн: Всё о Майкле Муркоке" http://www.moorcock.narod.ru/

The victim of a cruel experiment, Commander Spock renounces the U.S.S. Enterprise , becomes the Messiah of the planet Kyros, and launches a holy war on the rest of the world.

A thrilling plot that involves a wayward heiress, an antagonistic police official, numerous shady characters and at least three murders…

Ishmael Reed's electrifying first novel zooms readers off to the crazy, ominous kingdom of HARRY SAM—a miserable and dangerous place ruled for thirty years by Harry Sam, a former used car salesman who wields his power from his bathroom throne. In a land of a thousand contradictions peopled by cops and beatniks, black nationalists and white liberals, the crusading Bukka Doopeyduk leads a rebellion against the corrupt Sam in a wildly uproarious and scathing satire, earning the author the right to be dubbed "the brightest contributor to American satire since Mark Twain" (The Nation).

In 1933, Erle Stanley Gardner launched the Perry Mason series with the novel THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS, and he was also still a prolific and highly successful pulp author at the time. A year later, under the pseudonym Carleton Kendrake, he published THE CLEW OF THE FORGOTTEN MURDER, which may have been intended as the start of another series featuring freelance criminologist Sidney Griff. Instead, this novel was Griff’s only appearance, probably because Gardner was busy with the Mason novels, his pulp work, and then a few years later the great Donald Lam/Bertha Cool series under the name A.A. Fair. But THE CLUE OF THE FORGOTTEN MURDER, as it was retitled when it was reprinted under Gardner’s name, is a good book on its own.When this novel starts out, it’s hard to know who the detective is going to be. A young police reporter named Charles Morden uncovers a potential scandal involving a banker and businessman from a neighboring city. Morden sets out to investigate, but murder soon crops up, and it looks like Dan Bleeker, the very Perry Mason-like publisher of the newspaper, is going to take over as the detective. But there are more murders, and about a fourth of the way into the book, criminologist Sidney Griff comes onto the scene and dominates the action from then on. Griff, too, is reminiscent of Mason in that he figures out pretty quickly what’s going on and manipulates people and events to uncover the truth and get the results he wants.As is common with these early Erle Stanley Gardner novels, the plot is ridiculously complicated, with all sorts of double identities, impersonations, blackmail, past crimes, phony alibis, gangsters, poisonings, and more. I won’t even attempt to get into the details. Eventually Sidney Griff sorts it all out into at least a semblance of coherence, but I’m still not sure how he figured out everything. I will say, however, that I spotted the vital clue as soon as it was introduced.This book is from the more hardboiled phase of Gardner’s career and has some nice action in it, including a shootout with a guy standing on the running board of a speeding car and blasting away. You gotta love that stuff, or at least I do. There’s also quite a bit of humor and snappy patter, and of course the usual rapid-fire pacing. The early Gardner novels are nice snapshots of their era. Reading them is like watching a good 1930s B-movie. If you’re in that sort of mood, they’re great entertainment, and THE CLUE OF THE FORGOTTEN MURDER definitely falls into that category. Here’s the opening paragraph, which I really like:Crime sifted into police headquarters and then seeped down into the press room in the basement with the unfailing regularity of dirty water draining through the waste pipe of a bathtub.

First appeared in Galaxy Magazine, 1957/7. A part of Notions: Unlimited collection of science fiction short stories by Robert Sheckley. It was first published in 1960 by Bantam Books.

Fafhrd and Mouse are not innocents; their world is no land of honor and righteousness. It is a world of human complexities and violent action, of discovery and mystery, of swords and sorcery. With Swords Against Wizardry, the fourth installment of the Lankhmar series, the story unfolds behind the curtain in the Witch's Tent. Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are there to consult a sorceress who holds the secret to their escape, but when would they ever need to escape? Would they need this knowledge when they journey to Stardock? Where is there to escape up there? No doubt the icy seduction of "the cruel one," with her greed for both gore and graciousness, could offer them several ways out. Their luck has been good so far; one way out should work. Their luck continues as thieves. They are the best thieves in Lankhmar until better positions arise: the Lords of Quarmall. Gray Mouser and Fafhrd steal a kingdom within a hill and declare themselves lords. Before The Lord of the...