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Ten daring stories from the Booker Prize-shortlisted Philip Hensher. Backdrops vary in this collection of stories from the author of The Northern Clemency - from turmoil in Sudan following the death of a politician in a plane crash to Southern India, where a Soho hedonist starts to envisage the crump and soar of munitions. Each story, regardless of location, reveals a great writer at the peak of his powers.

Marianne Jidhoff is having trouble getting back on her feet after the death of her husband, Hans. As Stockholm’s Attorney General, Hans was known as much for his marital indiscretions as his ability to solve complex cases. But Olle Lundqvist, Lead Prosecutor at the department and Marianne’s friend of many years, knows that she was the brain behind Hans’s success. He persuades her to come back to work, and she quickly shakes her grief as she finds herself at the center of a series of mysterious killings among Stockholm’s upper echelons.

One cold November night when Kat Kominski was 15 years old, she and some friends held up a convenience store. In the heat of the moment, one of the others shot and killed an off-duty cop moonlighting as a security guard. Kat and her pals fled the scene in a panic, and no one was caught. Thirteen years later, Kat - now Kate White - has built a new life for herself. Now a single mom with a nine-year-old son, she works as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia DA's office. But her dark past returns to haunt her.

Christina Antonioni is preparing for the holidays at her Nantucket toy shop, unpacking last-minute shipments and decorating for her loyal Christmas shoppers. But when her Scrooge of a landlord, Oscar Bittlesman, raises her rent, it seems nearly impossible for Christina to continue business on the wharf. Even so, Christina firmly believes there may be a warm heart underneath Oscar's steely exterior. When she bonds with Wink, his sweet, young granddaughter who frequents the shop, it becomes clear that perhaps he isn't so cold after all.

Claire Weatherly has fled a high-stress lifestyle for a slower pace - in Amish country: Heavenly, Pennsylvania. She only planned a short visit but instead found herself opening an Amish specialty shop, Heavenly Treasures, and settling in. Claire loves her new home, and she’s slowly making friends among the locals, including Esther, a young Amish woman who works in the shop. So when the store’s former owner, the unlikable Walter Snow, is murdered, and the man Esther is sweet on becomes a suspect, Claire can’t help but get involved.

Sage Cassidy is falling for a boy from out of this world. When Adam appears in the lake one spring night in an explosion of light, Sage learns he is more than just the boy who visits every summer and leaves her to dream about him all winter. Adam is part alien, and he is caught in a cosmic custody battle between a human mother and a powerful otherworldly father.

When therapist Elizabeth Heaney left her private practice to counsel military service members and their families, she came face-to-face with unheard-of struggles and fears. Emotions run deeply - and often silently - in the hearts of combat veterans in this eye-opening portrait of the complex, nuanced lives of service personnel, who return from battling the enemy and grapple with readjusting to civilian life.

Karen Rhodes was born with a hole in her heart, but that was just the start of her problems. As a child, she contracted meningococcal meningitis. But her world was really turned upside down when she was diagnosed with Cushing's disease and underwent brain surgery. This is her story, in her words.

When PR pro Anna Wallingham gets dumped by her last client, she finds herself running out of options in LA, where looks trump experience. Desperate to prove she is still relevant, the fiftysomething accepts a shady job offer from Pierre Barton, secretive billionaire owner of Barton Pharmaceuticals. Isolated in a facility outside London, she agrees to test a new top-secret product guaranteed to make her look thirty years younger.

Inspired by an actual terrorist attack on Greenwich Laboratory in 1894 ‘The Secret Agent’ is arguably Conrad’s greatest work. Mr. Verloc, the spy, is roused to action by his masters. He is to instigate an act ‘of destructive ferocity so absurd as to be incomprehensible, inexplicable, and almost unthinkable; in fact, mad’. All does not run smoothly however and leads to Mr Verloc’s wife, Winnie, demonstrating how quickly rational equilibrium can change to frenzied destruction.

The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul will encourage listeners to stay upbeat, because there's always a brighter way to look at life. This collection includess 31 Stories about family, courage, and how to listen.

After his former relationship goes up in flames, Andrew Buchanan accepts a position as captain of a firehouse near his hometown. Determined to invest time in his family and the new community, Andrew lets his brother reel him into coaching a kids’ soccer team. The last thing on his mind is romance...until an opportunity presents itself in the form of Bianca Perez. She’s a single mom run ragged, but ready to step back into dating after being a widow for five years. When her fantasy unfolds to reality, they both realize how much they need a chance to love again.

Sloane would rather curl up with a John Hughes movie than walk the halls of Grover High. However, all of that is about to change because on the first day of school she runs into none other than Mr. Sixteen Candles himself, Jake Ryan. Okay, he's not really Jake Ryan, but Gabe has the khakis, sports car, and trademark charm to fit the role. Sloane hopes to pull a Molly Ringwald and win him over with her quirky sense of humor and even quirkier fashion sense, but what she doesn't know is that she and her seemingly untouchable celebrity crush have a lot more in common than they think.

Sell Your Work is a report on how to turn your crafts expertise into your business. It was written by a former state exhibition chairperson of Arizona Designer Craftsmen, a statewide organization for fine-crafts artists who participate in juried gallery shows throughout the country and whose work has been sought after by collectors.

Serial killer Arnie Milhouse may be ready to end his thirteen-year killing spree, but he wants one last victim before leaving Annapolis - and the sexy new photographer in town promises to be his most satisfying score yet. He develops plans to seduce the mysterious Allison by luring her out to sea aboard his luxury catamaran for a secluded weekend he won't forget...and one she won't survive.

In Finding Serenity in Seasons of Stress, Candy Paull reveals that cultivating inner serenity can begin with small adjustments. By understanding serenity as a gift that comes moment by moment and choice by choice, it can grow from within and expand outward - whether you are facing a storm or standing in the sun of a shining day.

When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days, and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her.

Kate Malick, a former Carmelite nun turned security professional to the stars, is dedicated to protecting her clients. Celebrities are her specialty, and right now teenage celebutante and slow-motion train wreck Chelsea Brewer is testing Kate’s devotion. A poster child for the pitfalls of childhood fame and fortune, Chelsea is careening past the boundaries of “poor choices” and into the deep waters of self-destruction. On LA’s mean streets, young lives are often cut short, and Chelsea’s is no exception.

Private investigator and former homicide detective Alice James was just six months old when her father, Leon Stapper, abandoned his family. Forty years later, Alice has convinced herself she’s over it - until her half sister, Corina, calls her up and wants to meet. But before Alice and Corina can get acquainted, everything goes terribly, tragically wrong. Determined to uncover the truth behind what happened to her sister, Alice calls in reinforcements: Jim Snow, her partner in Las Vegas’s James & James Detective Agency.

Dani North is a filmmaker who just won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her documentary, The Drugging of Our Children, a film critical of the pharmaceutical industry. When a pharmaceutical industry vaccine researcher hands her “smoking gun” evidence about the national vaccination program seconds before he’s murdered right in front of her, Dani finds herself implicated and pursued by the police.