Jane Haddam

A killer stalks an outrageous talk show host and Gregor Demarkian agrees to appear on the show, but soon finds himself drawn into backstage politics and off-camera malice as he struggles to outbluff a murderer.

Bestselling author Queenan explores the world of sports fans in an attempt to understand the inexplicable: What does anyone get out of it? For Yankee, Cowboy, and Laker fans the answer is fairly clear: the return on investment is relatively high. But why do people root so passionately for tragically inept teams like the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, and the Philadelphia Phillies? Why do people organize their emotional lives around lackluster franchises such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the San Diego Padres, and the Phoenix Suns, none of whom have ever won a single championship in their entire history? Is it pure tribalism? An attempt to maintain contact with one₂s vanished childhood? In True Believers, humorist and lifelong Philly fan Joe Queenan answers these and many other questions, shedding light on--and reveling in--the culture and psychology of his countless fellow fans. Making pilgrimages to such cradles of competition as Notre Dame Stadium, Fenway, and Wrigley Field, Queenan delves into every aspect of fandom in such illuminating chapters as Fans Who Love Too Much (men, like the author, who actually resort to psychotherapy to deal with their unhealthy addiction), Fans Who Run in Front (which meticulously delineates the differences between Retroactive, Municipal, and Vicarious Frontrunners), and Fans Who Misbehave (those who spill beer on women, moon other fans, or throw half-eaten sandwiches at innocent bystanders simply because they look like the current coach of the New York Jets). True Believers is a hilarious but also heartfelt look into the world of those fans who realize that it is, in fact, more than just a game.

There is no e-book available for this book. Also, most of the few titles that one can borrow have their pages cut off top and bottom.

Sheila Dunham is a gossip columnist's dream - she is famous, loud, and, to almost everyone who has met or seen her, deeply, spectacularly offensive. Fired from every TV job she's ever had, she's now producing and hosting her own reality show, where thousands of women compete for a spot in the house where it will be filmed. On the first day of shooting, though, someone fires a gun at - and misses - Sheila Dunham.

"Taylor Anderson's enthralling New York Times bestselling series of alternate history continues as game-changing revelations upend the Grand Alliance in a potentially cataclysmic war. Ever since the USS Walker came from another world war to defy the terrifying Grik and diabolical Dominion, Matt Reddy and his crew have given their all to protect the oppressed Lemurians. But with the Walker in desperate need of repairs just as the Grik's First General is poised to strike, Reddy is desperate. With more enemies than ever before arrayed against them, the crew of the Walker needs new allies. That means combing the lethal wilds of Madagascar to find the Lemurians' fabled ancestors, as well as the enigmatic dwellers east of the Pass of Fire. But what Reddy's crew unearths may be more than they can handle--discoveries so shattering they could tilt the balance of the war in either direction. But Reddy's greatest adversary is from his past: a madman named Kurokawa whose single-minded mission of revenge will shake the Alliance to its core and raise the stakes to the most personal and terrifying levels Reddy has ever faced"--

When a notorious former member of an elite Connecticut beach community is found murdered, retired FBI profiler Gregor Demarkian is called in to solve the crime and uncover mysterious events from the victim's past.

Book 14

It's December in Bethlehem, Vermont. Christmas is coming, but there's no deep and dreamless sleep for this little town. Instead, everyone's getting ready to stage the annual Christmas pageant and Nativity play - a weeks-long celebration that brings tourists from around the world who spend enough money to take care of a good one-third of the town budget. That has always come in handy, and in today's recession-torn New England, it's downright essential. There's only one problem. The pageant is religious in nature, and it takes place on public land. One complaint could bring the whole tradition - and the town's finances - crashing down. Fortunately, no one's ever complained. Until now. Tish Verek is an outsider, a true-crime writer who's been dragged away from the city and into the woods by her artist husband. She decides to stir up a little excitement, so she interrupts her current work (a book on children who've committed murder) to announce that she's going to seek an injunction to stop the pageant. Everyone wants her stopped - the local boy who was a famous foreign correspondent, then came back to run the regional weekly; the battered wife who's been given the role of Mary and feels like somebody for the first time in her life; the Vietnam vet with a roomful of guns; the sheriff, who likes to read about big-time detectives like a certain Demarkian fellow; the local minister, whose newer-than-new theology apparently has nothing in it forbidding her to get cozy with another woman's man. Nobody wants Tish to make it to the courthouse that December morning. That's why, when her corpse turns up riddled with rifle fire, there's more than a little sentiment for chalking it up to a huntingaccident. But if it was an honest hunting accident, why hasn't the shooter come forward? And why was an apparently harmless old woman killed exactly the same way on that same morning? Intent on finding the answers, former FBI man Gregor Demarkian slouches toward Bethlehem.