Hap Collins is in a LaBorde, Texas, hospital recuperating from an attackby a rabid squirrel and wondering why his best friend, Leonard Pine, hasn''t been by to visit. Turns out that Leonard was upset enough about his boyfriend Raul leaving him for another guy that he went down to the biker bar this guy hangs out at and beats him with a broom handle. When the biker turns up dead later that night, it doesn''t take long to guess who the primary suspect is--especially with Leonard nowhere to be found.After Hap checks himself out of the hospital and finds Leonard hiding in his bed, the fourth novel in this series kicks into high gear--or what passes for high gear in Lansdale''s deceptively laid-back storytelling style. Pretty soon, they''ve stumbled onto a conspiracy involving gaybasher pornography, and Leonard''s ready to exact some vigilante justice over Hap''s protestations: "There''s few people think a roach exterminator is a murderer. I''m not talkin'' about beatin'' up and rapin'' innocent people who are lookin'' for love in all the wrong places. I''m talkin'' about stampin'' out a plague, man.... I''ve heard you rave about the horrors of the child sex trade in Thailand, the poor, the plight of blacks and women and gays, and all the stuff you gripe about, but me, I''m gonna do somethin''."Add in a budding romance between Hap and Brett Sawyer, the nurse who tells him on their first date about how she set her abusive husband on fire--which impresses him much more than it scares him--and you''ve got the makings of another classic Lansdale thriller.

272 p

Imriel de la Courcel's birth parents are history's most reviled traitors, but his adoptive parents, the Comtesse Phedre and the warrior-priest Joscelin, are Terre d'Ange's greatest champions. Stolen, tortured and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood; third in line for the throne in a land that revels in art, beauty and desire. It is a court steeped in deeply laid conspiracies...and there are many who would see the young prince dead. Some despise him out of hatred for his mother, Melisande, who nearly destroyed the entire realm in her quest for power. Others because they fear he has inherited his mother's irresistible allure...and her dangerous gifts. As he comes of age, plagued by unwanted desires, Imriel shares their fears. When a simple act of friendship traps Imriel in a besieged city where the infamous Melisande is worshiped as a goddess and where a dead man leads an army, the Prince must face his greatest test: to find his true self.

976 p

From Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of Kushiel's Scion, comes the second adventure in the Imriel trilogy.

Imriel de la Courcel's blood parents are history's most reviled traitors, while his adoptive parents, Phedre and Joscelin, are Terre d'Ange's greatest champions. Stolen, tortured, and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood, third in line for the throne in a land that revels in beauty, art, and desire.

After a year abroad to study at university, Imriel returns from his adventures a little older and somewhat wiser. But perhaps not wise enough. What was once a mere spark of interest between himself and his cousin Sidonie now ignites into a white-hot blaze. But from commoner to peer, the whole realm would recoil from any alliance between Sidonie, heir to the throne, and Imriel, who bears the stigma of his mother's misdeeds and betrayals. Praying that their passion will peak and fade, Imriel and Sidonie embark on an intense, secret affair.

Blessed Elua founded Terre d'Ange and bestowed one simple precept to guide his people: Love as thou wilt, When duty calls, Imriel honors his role as a member of the royal family by leaving to marry a lovely, if merely sweet, Alban princess. By choosing duty over love, Imriel and Sidonie may have unwittingly trespassed against Elua's law. But when dark powers in Alba, who fear an invasion by Terre d'Ange, seek to use the lovers' passion to bind Imriel, the gods themselves take notice.

Before the end, Kushiel's justice will be felt in heaven and on earth.

912 p

When earth needs heroes, whom will we call to valor? When flares streaking across the sky herald massive destruction, who will defend us? When mankind's enemy is beyond our worst imagination, who will be our champions? Will we pick the brightest and the toughest? Or the ones with nothing left to lose? Mankind's first alien contact tears into Earth: projectiles launched from Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, vaporize whole cities. Under siege, humanity gambles on one desperate counterstrike. In a spacecraft scavenged from scraps and armed with Vietnam-era weapons, foot soldiers like eighteen-year-old Jason Wander, orphans that no one will miss, must dare man's first interplanetary voyage and invade Ganymede. They have one chance to attack, one ship to attack with. Their failure is our extinction.

320 p