Zebra book

"Life for private investigator Lizzy Gardner will never be the same. It's been three weeks since her fiancé, Jared, was shot on what was supposed to be their wedding day. He's in a coma now, and Lizzy is being forced to make a decision she might not be able to live with. But a string of deaths has forced her to get back to work. While they appear to be unrelated accidents at first glance, a closer look shows they all have something in common. More than a decade earlier, the victims were all members of the Ambassador Club at a Sacramento high school: a posh posse that bullied other students, one of whom remains tormented years later. In this pulse-pounding thriller from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author T.R. Ragan, Lizzy will need her colleagues and what's left of her wits to help her track down a cunning killer with a deadly revenge list before the next name--maybe hers--is crossed off for good,"--page of cover.

It was a very cold, very clear morning in the Carlos Avery game reserve - cold enough to preserve the body lying there, clear enough so the state investigator couldn't miss it. There was something familiar about the stab wounds, she thought - but the Minneapolis police dismissed her theories, and the city's new police chief has problems enough of her own. The cops are wary of her, the public thinks she's too political, the feminists think she's sold out. And this damn murder just won't go away. Caught in the middle, the chief turns to Lucas Davenport for help, and reluctantly, he agrees. Still recovering from his near-fatal wounds of the year before, trying for once in his life to settle down with one woman, Lucas has his own concerns, but something about this murder, and another like it - the body found in a dumpster this time - teases him, and the more he looks into them, the more he's sure the investigator is right. There is something disconcertingly familiar about the wounds not only in these two cases, but just maybe in several others as well. Somewhere out there lurks a killer of unusual skill and savagery. And if Lucas is right, he's just getting warmed up....

Drake researched her own family's roots in Scotland all the way back to the Middle Ages for this new series, which explores the history and lore of the 12th-century war of the Highlands. In the days when Scotland lay under siege, King David sought loyal warriors who would fight with their blood and hearts. Waryk de Graham, the greatest of these fighters, was knighted Lord Lion, but his honored position as Scottish chieftain came with a price: a Viking bride who had sworn to resist him in body and spirit. Daughter of a Gaelic noblewoman and a Viking warlord, Mellyora MacAdin ruled her ancestral lands like a Valkyrie—wielding a sword and bowing to no man—until she found herself an unwilling captive to Lord Lion's compelling power. Now, torn between defiance and devotion, Mellyora must decide where her loyalty truly lies...and discover the secrets of her husband's heart. Graham Clan Series: Come the Morning (Graham, #1) Conquer The Night (Graham, #2) Seize The Dawn (Graham, #3) Knight Triumphant (Graham, #4) The Lion In Glory (Graham, #5) When We Touch (Graham, #6) The Queen's Lady (Graham, #7) note: Shannon Drake and Heather Graham are pen names for the same author.

In Trust, a sweeping assessment of the emerging global economic order "after History," Fukuyama examines a wide range of national cultures in order to divine the hidden principles that make a good and prosperous society, and his findings strongly challenge the orthodoxies of both left and right. In fact, economic life is pervaded by culture and depends, Fukuyama maintains, on moral bonds of social trust. This is the unspoken, unwritten bond between fellow citizens that facilitates transactions, empowers individual creativity, and justifies collective action. In the global struggle for economic predominance that is now upon us - a struggle in which cultural differences will become the chief determinant of national success - the social capital represented by trust will be as important as physical capital. But trust varies greatly from one society to another, and a map of how social capital is distributed around the world yields many surprises. The greatness of this country, he maintains, was built not on its imagined ethos of individualism but on the cohesiveness of its civil associations and the strength of its communities. But Fukuyama warns that our drift into a more and more extreme rights-centered individualism - a radical departure from our past communitarian tradition - holds more peril for the future of America than any competition from abroad.

A brilliantly researched investigation into the psychological, sexual, and social forces behind one of the most horrifying domestic crimes of the decade--the murder of six-year-old Lisa Steinberg.

Abby Whitaker knew the true meaning of grief and loneliness. Young, poor, and tragically widowed, she had little hope of finding happiness until a surprising letter arrived - and changed her life. Her uncle, the black sheep of the family and a seeker of gold in Alaska, had died: if a family member did not arrive in remote Juneau within a month, the house would be sold. Abby knew that Alaska was a land bursting with opportunities. How perfect a place to start life over - the land of the midnight sun! But once the perilous sea journey was behind her and she set foot in the strange, icebound frontier settlement, Abigail learned that her uncle had left huge gambling debts and that his death had not been an accident. His house was eerie and hollow and icy cold and the tall gold miner who offered to cut firewood for her stared at her most strangely. His piercing eyes - pools of dark mystery - drew her into their depths and made her heart race with fire even as icy fingers of fear crept up her spine. Abigail tried to ignore her sense of foreboding. She tried to ignore the creaking stairs, the lantern mysteriously lit, the cryptic warning against the very man who had begun to claim her heart....

WEDDING BELLS A hasty marriage to redeem her reputation was bad enough, but Alessandra's punishment for an innocent moment in the park was not to end there. Only if she and her new husband Jeffrey Huntingsley managed to share sleeping quarters for a month, yet leave their marriage unconsummated, would Alessandra's father agree to an annulment. A needlessly tedious exercise, Alessandro fumed, since it was a simple matter to remain at arm's distance from a husband she scarcely knew. Although he was a most handsome and agreeable gentleman. And the nights did seem inexplicably colder, longer, and lonelier than ever before .... WEDDING NIGHT Observing the terms of the "annulment agreement" should have presented no difficulty for a gentleman Jeffrey Huntingsley. All it took was a scrupulous consideration for Alessandra's sensibilities, a modicum of self control, and a few pillows dividing the marriage bed down the middle. If all else failed, a midnight card game or two ought to do the trick. But the sight of his bride, adorably attired in a modest nightgown, was distinctly unsettling. Alessandra was proving a decent sort, and Jeffrey would be a scoundrel indeed to take advantage of her innocence, despite the inviting warmth he was convinced he saw in her eyes ... .