Limitless ($1.14 Canada; $1.64 UK), by Alan Glynn, is the book the upcoming movie of the same name is based upon. (UK link)Book Description
Imagine a drug that made your brain function with perfect efficiency, tapping into your deepest resources of creativity, intelligence and drive. A drug that can help you learn a foreign language in a day. A drug that can help you process information so fast you can see patterns in the stock market.Just as his life is fading into mediocrity, Eddie Spinola discovers such a pill: MDT-48, Viagra for the brain. But while the benefits of such a mind-drug quickly start to materialise, so too do the side-effects. And when Eddie tries to track down other users, to help him kick his addiction, he finds out that they’re all dying, or dead…
Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You: A Guide to the Universe ($3.26 UK), by Marcus Chown (UK link)Book Description
The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But, almost a century after their advent, most people haven’t the slightest clue what either is about. Did you know that there’s so much empty space inside matter that the entire human race could be squeezed into the volume of a sugar cube? Or that you grow old more quickly on the top floor of a building than on the ground floor? Get set for the most entertaining science book of the year.
The Uncommon Reader ($3.32 UK), by Alan Bennett (UK link)Book Description
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
The Private Patient ($3.32 UK), by P. D. James (UK link)Book Description
When the notorious investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn booked into Mr Chandler-Powell’s private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar, she had every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week’s peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset’s most beautiful manor houses and the beginning of a new life. She was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder, and later a second death, which are to raise even more complicated problems than the question of innocence or guilt.A new detective novel by P. D. James is always keenly awaited and The Private Patient will undoubtedly equal the success of her worldwide bestseller The Lighthouse. It displays the qualities which P. D. James’s readers have come to expect: a masterly psychological and emotional richness of characterisation, a vivid evocation of place and a credible and exciting mystery. The Private Patient is a powerful work of contemporary fiction.
Rifles ($3.32 UK), by Mark Urban (UK link)Book Description
As part of the Light Division created to act as the advance guard of Wellington's army, the 95th Rifles are the first into battle and the last out. Fighting, thieving and raping their way across Europe, they are clearly no ordinary troops. The 95th are in fact the first British soldiers to take aim at their targets, to take cover when being shot at, to move tactically by fire and manoeuvre. And by the end of a six-year campaign they have not only proved themselves the toughest fighters in the army, they have also - at huge personal cost - created the modern notion of the infantryman.
Blood Rain ($3.32 UK), by Michael Dibdin (UK link)Book Description
Despite his best efforts to please everyone and keep out of trouble, the veteran Italian Criminalpol officer Aurelio Zen has made more enemies than friends over the years. Now it's payoff time. After his last case, amid the gentle hills and lush vineyards of Piedmont, Zen finally receives the order he has been dreading all his professional life: his next posting is to Sicily, heart of the Mafia's power.
The gruesome discovery of an unidentified, decomposed corpse sealed in a railway wagon on a deserted part of the island marks the beginning of Zen's most difficult and dangerous case. And indeed, it soon turns out that he will need all his cunning and skill to survive in a world where unwritten rules are enforced with ruthless violence, where one false step can prove fatal, and where the truth must be paid for in blood.
Set against the backdrop of the three-thousand-year-old city of Catania, in the shadow of the smoldering volcano of Etna, Blood Rain reveals Aurelio Zen at his most desperate and driven, and Michael Dibdin's writing at its most darkly atmospheric, galvanizing best.
A Pale View of Hills ($3.26 US), by Kazuo Ishiguro (UK link)Book Description
In his highly acclaimed debut, A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. Retreating into the past, she finds herself reliving one particular hot summer in Nagasaki, when she and her friends struggled to rebuild their lives after the war. But then as she recalls her strange friendship with Sachiko - a wealthy woman reduced to vagrancy - the memories take on a disturbing cast.
Smokeheads ($3.26 UK), by Doug Johnstone (UK link)Book Description
Four friends, one weekend, gallons of whisky. What could go wrong?
Driven by amateur whisky-nut Adam, four late-thirties ex-university mates are heading to Islay - the remote Scottish island world famous for its single malts - with a wallet full of cash, a stash of coke and a serious thirst.
Over a weekend soaked in the finest cask strength spirit, they meet young divorcee Molly, who Adam has a soft spot for, her little sister Ash who has all sorts of problems and Molly’s ex-husband Joe, a control freak who also happens to be the local police. As events spiral out of control, they are all thrown into a nightmare that gets worse at every turn.
A wild trip to the Scottish Highlands, Doug Johnstone’s debut on the Faber crime list is a classic violent thriller, doused with black humour.
Saints and Sinners ($3.32 UK), by Edna O'Brien (UK link)Book Description
A new collection of short stories by award-winning Irish author Edna O'Brien.
A woman walks the streets of Manhattan and contemplates with exquisite longing the precarious affair she has embarked on, amidst the grandeur and cacophony of the cityscape; a young Irish girl and her mother are thrilled to be invited to visit the glamorous Coughlan's but find - for all the promise of their green gorgette, silver shoes and fancy dinner parties - they leave disappointed; an Irishman in north London retraces his life as a young lad with his mates digging the streets and dreaming of the apocryphal gold, an outside both in Ireland and England, yet he carries the lodestar of his native land.A collection characterised by all of Edna O'Brien's trademark lyricism, powerful evocations of place and a glorious and an often heart-breaking grasp of people and their desires and contradictions.
Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen ($3.32 UK), by Giles Tremlett (UK link)Book Description
The image of Catherine of Aragon has always suffered in comparison to the vivacious eroticism of Anne Boleyn. But when Henry VIII married Catherine, she was an auburn-haired beauty in her 20s with a passion she had inherited from her parents, Isabella and Ferdinand, the joint-rulers of Spain who had driven the Moors from their country.This daughter of conquistadors showed the same steel and sense of command when organising the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Flodden and Henry was to learn, to his cost, that he had not met a tougher opponent on or off the battlefield when he tried to divorce her.Henry introduced 4 remarkable women into the tumultuous flow of England's history; Catherine of Aragon and her daughter 'Bloody' Queen Mary; and Anne Boleyn and her daughter, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth.'From this contest, between 2 mothers and 2 daughters, was born the religious passion and violence that inflamed England for centuries' says David Starkey.Reformation, revolution and Tudor history would all have been vastly different without Catherine of Aragon.Giles Tremlett's new biography is the first in more than four decades to be dedicated entirely and uniquely to the tenacious woman whose marriage lasted twice as long as those of Henry's five other wives put together. It draws on fresh material from Spain to trace the dramatic events of her life through Catherine of Aragon's own eyes.
The Red Coffin ($3.32), by Sam Eastland (UK link)Book Description
It is 1939. The world stands on the brink of Armageddon. In the Soviet Union, years of revolution, fear and persecution have left the country unprepared to face the onslaught of Nazi Germany. For the coming battles, Stalin has placed his hopes on a 30-ton steel monster, known to its inventors as the T-34 tank, and, the 'Red Coffin' to those men who will soon be using it. But the design is not yet complete. And when Colonel Nagorski, the weapon's secretive and eccentric architect, is found murdered, Stalin sends for Pekkala, his most trusted investigator. Stalin is convinced that a sinister group calling itself the White Guild, made up of former soldiers of the Tsar, intend to bring about a German invasion before the Red Coffin is ready. While Soviet engineers struggle to complete the design of the tank, Pekkala must track down the White Guild and expose their plans to propel Germany and Russia into conflict.
The Somme Stations ($3.32 UK), by Andrew Martin (UK link)Book Description
On the first day of the Somme enlisted railwayman Jim Stringer lies trapped in a shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival – even before they departed for France, a member of Jim's unit had been found dead. During the stand-off that follows, Jim and his comrades must operate by night the vitally important trains carrying munitions to the Front, through a ghostly landscape of shattered trees where high explosive and shrapnel shells rain down. Close co-operation and trust are vital. Yet proof piles up of an enemy within, and as a ferocious military policeman pursues his investigation into the original killing, the finger of accusation begins to point towards Jim himself . . .
QI: The Book of General Ignorance - The Noticeably Stouter Edition ($3.32 UK), by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson (UK link)Book Description
The indispensable compendium of popular misconceptions, misunderstandings and common mistakes culled from the hit BBC show, QI.The noticeably stouter QI Book of General Ignorance sets out to show you that a lot of what you think you know is wrong. If, like Alan Davies, you still think the Henry VIII had six wives, the earth has only one moon, that George Washington was the first president of the USA, that Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, that the largest living thing is a blue whale, that Alexander Graeme Bell invented the telephone, that whisky and bagpipes come from Scotland or that Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain, then there are at least 200 reasons why this is the book for you.
An Expert in Murder ($3.32 UK), by Nicola Upson (UK link)Book Description
An Expert in Murder is the first in a new series that features Golden Age crime writer Josephine Tey as its lead character, placing her in the richly-peopled world of 1930s theatre which formed the other half of her writing life. It’s March 1934, and Tey is travelling from Scotland to London to celebrate what should be the triumphant final week of her celebrated play, Richard of Bordeaux. However, a seemingly senseless murder puts her reputation, and even her life, under threat. An Expert in Murder is both a tribute to one of the most enduringly popular writers of crime and an atmospheric detective novel in its own right.
Suffer the Children ($3.26 UK), by Adam Creed (UK link)Book Description
London. A city where no-one feels safe and one man’s crime is another man’s justice. A pedophile is brutally murdered in his own home, and to protect other known offenders the police must haul the families of their victims down to the station for questioning. It’s just another day in the life of D. I. Will Wagstaffe; better known to friends and enemies alike as Staffe. In this case nothing is simple, least of all Staffe’s personal life. There’s heartache from Sylvie, his estranged lover, and the dark shadow of Jessop, his mentor. And as he digs for answers into the grime of the city he finds the boundaries between right and wrong have been blurred, but the main question remains: just how far would you go to protect your children?
Critique of Criminal Reason ($3.26 UK), by Michael Gregorio(UK link)Book Description
It's 1793, and Hanno Stiffeniis is a magistrate in Prussia. He has been called to investigate a spate of murders which has reduced the city to a state of terror, under the watchful gaze of his mentor, Kant. Four people have died, and there is no sign of an end to the killing spree. Tension inside the city is heightened by the imminent threat of invasion; Napoleon is menacing the borders of Prussia, so whilst hunting for the murderer, the city of Konisberg is forced to deal with scheming whores, necromancers who claim to speak with the victims, and the scum of the Prussian army. When the killer tries to murder him, the magistrate finds himself confronted by the demons of his own past. Therein lies the sinister source of those murders, and the true reason he has been enticed back to Konigsberg . . .Hugely atmospheric, entertaining and intelligent, Critique of Criminal Reason is the first in a series of compelling crime novels set in Prussia featuring Hanno Steffeniis.
