Death Wore White by Jim Kelly - A Crime Story

Jim Kelly, the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award, lives inCambridgeshire, England. He is the author of The Fire Baby, The Moon Tunnel, The Coldest Blood, The Skeleton Man and The Water Clock that was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Award.

“Death Wore White by Jim Kelly” is a horror, thriller and crime story written by Jim where he gives detailed entry to the snowy fens along England’s Norfolk coast. This new series, set in Norfolk, features a duo of cops, unwillingly partnered. DI Peter Shaw is the son of a previous partner of DS George Valentine. They have history and it's not looking good for the partnership. Shaw thinks Valentine is past it, and Valentine thinks Shaw is a stuck-up fast tracked college graduate who has got too big for his boots.

The main story is about Harvey Ellis who sits in a line of traffic on an isolated road along the Norfolk coast, trapped by a fallen tree in a snowstorm. At 8:15 p. m., he is discovered stabbed to death, despite having been in full view of the other drivers the whole time, and the fact that no footprints are seen the snow around his vehicle. From this point, the crime gets into effect.

The detectives involve in this case on the same night they find the dead body of another man washed up on a nearby beach. Before they can get to the depth of either mystery, the dead bodies increases up in number and the case becomes more puzzling. Shaw and Valentine are experiencing the untold tension between them resulting from a twelve-year-old case involving a murdered boy which Valentine worked with Shaw’s father, Jack. Valentine and the senior Shaw were accused of planting evidence in that case and Jack eventually died of heartbreak from disappointment.

While handling with all the murders happening on his watch, Peter is re-investigating the cold case that may clear his father’s name and bring the things back to normal. Now the queries arise like Did Peter finds the culprit? Or did he fail to remove the knots?

In short, the author is taking the readers to thrilling stages at the middle of the story and makes them to walk along with the characters involved in the story.

[ Thriller Books ]

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly - A Writer traps the Criminal

In this story, three issues weave their ways linking to each other. The main plot centers on the murders committed by someone who comes to be known as the Scarecrow. He has a special way of killing, of course, but the police have not threaded the knots as they have settled for the expedient solution. Computers figure heavily into the crimes as they provide a means of identifying potential victims. A major part of the story revolves around the decline of newspaper business and the difficulties it is raising in real life of the hero, Jack McEvoy who had won a Pulitzer for his reporting on The Poet.

Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels who is among that select few authors who seem to always spin gold. The Scarecrow is a 2009 novel written by Michael in which he introduces us to a killer right up front.

Jack is focused on writing about Alonzo Winslow -a 16 year old teen who is being convicted of murdering a Hollywood dancer, but when he discovers that the story is bigger than he thought, and Jack discovers that Alonzo might actually be innocent. Things start to turn as his further investigation brings him back in touch with Rachel, his former lover, whom the FBI had relegated to a backwater office. She has just rehabilitated herself and is now backing in the mainstream of the agency. However, her participation with Jack creates new problems, resulting in her suspension and resignation. While Jack is looking for the killer, the killer is not looking for him because he knows he is coming and is waiting for his kill.

Now the queries arise in the minds of the readers. Did Jack save his job? Will Rachel save hers? Will the Scarecrow be caught?

[ Horror Thriller Books ]

Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac - A Teenager’s Love Story

Jack Kerouac, the youngest of three children in a French-Canadian family was born in 1922 in Lowell,Massachusetts. Having left college, he joined the merchant marines and began the restless wanderings that were to continue for the greater part of his life. He is one of the most controversial and best-known writers of his time. His first novel, The Town and the City, followed by his many other books like The Subterraneans, Doctor Sax and Desolation Angels, and more made him more popular. Jack Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of forty-seven.

"Maggie Cassidy" is the love interest of a teenage boy growing up in Lowell, MA. The base is a basic adolescent love story in a New England mill town. The young narrator is active in sports, hangs out with his friends, and daydreams of being with Maggie -- his love interest.

At the beginning of the story, Young and loveable, Jack Dulouz experiences all the trembling of fear, anxiety and delight as he dreams of making it -- as a football star, and with Maggie Cassidy, his high school sweetheart. He met her at the New Year's Eve Dance at the Rex Ballroom, which makes him crazy about her. But at eighteen, a year older than him, she's giving him a lot of trouble with her capricious sexuality.

In short, this book unfolds the story of Jack and Maggie, in love with the idea of being in love, looking ahead to marriage with hope and anxiety, is told with touching simplicity. It skillfully captures both the intensity and the ordinariness of adolescent life, with its torments and complications and is a beautiful evocation of growing up in America. So did the Romeo fulfill his dreams as a football star? And did he thread himself with his love?

[ Latest Romance Books ]

Constable in Love by Martin Gayford - Exhibiting a Painter’s Love Story

Martin Gayford has been art critic of the Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph. He is currently chief European art critic for Bloomberg and lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

“Constable in Love” is a romantic story about John Constable -- one of the grand masters of English painting, fell in love with Maria Bicknell, granddaughter of a Suffolk country neighbour, Dr. Rhudde. The story begins with the description of Constable -- his achievements and his family background is also plotted well. In 1800, when he was 24, he met a 12-year-old with a sweet and winsome face, who was visiting her grandfather, the wealthy, rector of the parish. From 1809 onwards, his childhood friendship with Maria Bicknell developed into a deep, mutual love. They soon fell in love and immediately found their plans for future happiness beset with problems since their engagement in 1816 was opposed by Maria's grandfather, who considered the Constables his social inferiors and threatened Maria with disinheritance.

Maria Bicknell was intelligent, attractive, refined and delicate, as befitted the daughter of a well-known and successful London lawyer, Charles. But one of the most important things about her was that she and Constable knew one another from East Bergholt. From Constable’s point of view, she was thus a natural muse, the embodiment of the landscape which was always at the centre of his art. After the rejection of his marriage proposal by Maria’s grandpa, Maria herself pointed out that a penniless marriage would detract from any chances John had of making a career in painting.

Now its upto the hero of this story to bring out himself as a successful individual and to stay connected with his love interest, Maria after such a worse disappointment in his marriage plans. Did he triumphs in his love and career?

[Latest Romance Books]

Tropic of Capricorn by Simon Reeve - Insight into the Fascinating Journey

Simon Reeve is a British author and TV anchor. Based in London, he is skilled in international terrorism, conflict resolution, and making travel documentaries in little-known areas of the world.

“Tropic of Capricorn” is a travel categorized book by Simon Reeve that takes the readers on a journey along the tropic of Capricorn line starting in Africa & finishing in Australia. Simon journey doesn't visit only the big well known towns and cities, but also visited most of the places that are well off the beaten track.

In the first part of his journey, Simon travels though Africa and finds out that some countries economies are developing due to trade from China but others are still suffering from murderous omnipotentants and chronic lack of food and good medical facilities. On the journey though Western Australia and the Northern territory, Simon finds out that the Australian farmers and people living in the outback are suffering the most dramatic change in the climate like the chronic shortness of rain and very hot temperatures.

Some of his experiences in meeting different people were also said neatly through out the book. In his journey, the author met miners scrabbling for gems in dark, dangerous tunnels and a British anthropologist who is fighting to save forest communities in South America. He also went hunting with a tribe of former cannibals, traveled the equivalent of half-way up the giant Everest, ate dried caterpillars, and searched for wild honey in the forests of northern Argentina.

Through different experiences that reveal out the traditions of mankind and availability of resources, this book is taking the readers to different places and subjects them the experiences that the author has felt during his journey.

[Latest Travel Book]

1000 Things for Kids to do in the Holidays by Ronnie Haydon - A perfect Guide for Children

Ronnie Haydon hails in London and has three children. She has modified Time Out’s annual guideLondon for children since its launch in 2003.

“1000 Things for Kids to Do in the Holidays” is a new guide from Ronnie Haydon that is packed full of ideas for children to keep themselves busy when schooling is temporarily out in vacation. This book is crammed with sights, excursions and events, as well as activities that can be done at home thereby it covers all categories, from the adventurous to the educational, from the eco-friendly to just plain fun.

In this book, the author neatly describes a large variety of diverse events providing when, where and how long they last as well as contact information, cost and whether the event is child-friendly. Also this is a concise guide comprising nine main regions of Britain covering a fantastic variety of local festivals. Moreover the author has suggested some activities like swimming in Loch Ness, watching monkeys in Dorset, building a hedgehog shelter, sleeping in a windmill, viewing the circus shows, learning to drive off-road and more.

Aside of short day-trips and even some overnight ventures, this book has a detailed listings include addresses, websites, admission prices, and payment options for outings. In short, this book is a useful source for parents who can vanish out the boring times of their children by offering hundreds of activities that can be undertaken on weekends, school vacations, or rainy afternoons. So this book gains good credits among the people since it offers tips to keep their children engaged in useful activities thereby teaching them perfect mannerisms.

[ Children Books ]

Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer - A Detective’s Story

Eoin Colfer is an Irish author and comedian. He is most famous as the creator of the Artemis Fowl series, but he has also achieved success with other books.

Half Moon Investigations is a children's crime/comedy drama television series created by the BBC and based upon the novel of the same name by the author Eoin Colfer. It frames out a schoolboy, Fletcher Moon who spends much of his spare time solving petty crimes around his school, St. Jeromes. He is also known around school as "Half-Moon" due to his size, has qualified as a private eye after taking Internet classes. He graduated top of his class and received a gold plated detective's shield for his effort. Armed with his prized shield, Fletcher takes on various petty crime cases in his school.

Things were going well, until April Devereux hires him to find a lock of celebrity hair that was stolen from her playhouse. While working on the case, Fletcher gets attacked, and then accused of being an arsonist. One thing leads to another, and he finds himself holding up with Red Sharkey -- son of a local gangster and well-known for his family's criminal reputation. Fletcher Moon knows that this still does not solve the mysteries that included his assault.

Meanwhile, he finds that the link between the crimes was the school, Saint Jerome's. Having looked at information held within Saint Jerome's, it turns out that the affected victims were directly and indirectly linked to the school talent show. Now there is only a short period of time to clear their names and to find the guilty party. Will the thief just be one of the usual suspects? Or Will Fletcher will be declared to be a guilty one?

[Latest Thriller Books]

Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James - A Master Piece

Peter James, one of most successful authors in unleashing thriller novels, has released yet another crime novel -- Dead Man's Footsteps, the fourth Roy Grace thriller.

Superintendent Roy Grace is the protagonist, the story takes precedence in Dead Man’s Footsteps, with Roy's personal life taking a back seat apart from a few hints that the relationship with Cleo might be on the way out. Brighton is the base, but this time the action moves around the world. At the start of the book, the body of a young woman, long dead, is found in a storm drain in Brighton. Roy is one of the team called in to investigate, and finds himself increasingly tense as the circumstances seem to fit rather too well to the body being that of his long-missing wife, Sandy.

The second tale is about a failed businessman and perennial loser, Ronnie Wilson is in New York on a last ditch mission to secure funding for his latest venture. It’s 11th September 2001 and he’s heading to an early appointment in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The third tale is about Abby Dawson who has just returned home after some years in Australia. She has moved into a luxury flat in Brighton in dread of an unknown threat. She's obsessively careful about making any sort of move into the outside world, but she doesn't think to check the lift. Its cable breaks, and she's trapped - the alarm doesn't work either.

Now the final tale is occurring across the other side of the world, in Australia, where another woman’s body is found decomposing in the boot of a car resting on the bottom of a river near Melbourne. She was apparently strangled. As this brilliantly complex tale moves between Brighton, New York and Melbourne, the threads binding these tales together become more and more tightly woven. Now it’s up to Roy to solve the mysteries.

Peter James is masterly, not just at keeping all the pages to move in mystery path, but also links his description to the World Trade Center tragedy, involving the reader in those events and their aftermath in a realistic and exciting way, as befits that awful day.

Until it's Over by Nicci French - Suspense floats in Air

The team of Nicci Gerard and Sean French provide a predictably involving and tense London-based thriller in “Until its over”. Nicci Gerrard was born in June 1958 in Worcestershire. After graduating with a first class honors degree in English Literature from Oxford University she began her first job -- working with emotionally disturbed children in Sheffield. Sean French was born in May 1959 in Bristol, to a British father and Swedish mother. He studied English Literature at Oxford University at the same time as Nicci, also graduating with a first class degree, but their paths didn't cross until 1990.

The first half is told from the point of view of Astrid Bell, a Young and athletic, London cycle courier who can't decide what to do with her life since graduating from university, so she has become a bike messenger until she can decide. She's happy in her lifestyle, living in a shared house with Pippa, an old university friend. Miles, the owner of the house and assorted other tenants. The action begins when Astrid has an accident on her bike, caused by an inattentive neighbour opening her car door without looking.

Shaken but not seriously hurt, Astrid is looked after by her housemates -- but shocked to discover later that the woman who caused the accident has been found dead by the dustbins outside her house. Then a few days later, Astrid is asked to pick up a package from a millionaire's house in Hampstead, only to find that the woman from whom she's to collect the packet is lying dead in the hallway. For the police it's more than coincidence.

At the same time, the previously companionable atmosphere in the shared house has been shattered by Miles's girlfriend Leah, who has induced him to evict the tenants so that she and Miles can live alone in the house. Tensions mount, and enmities are increasingly brought into the open as the tenants negotiate with Miles for money to move out, while at the same time needing the emotional security of their home base. The story moves fast, climaxing in a third death which directly affects the whole cast of characters. However, as the pages turn, the tension begins to build again, particularly in the last couple of chapters.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - A Spooky Story

Sarah Waters was born in Wales in 1966. She has a PhD in English Literature and has taught at the Open University. She has been shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange prizes and three of her four novels have been adapted for television.

The Little Stranger, by Sarah is a pondering and evocative narrative set in Warwickshire, England in the late 1940s. Privation still continues even after World War II. Dr. Faraday is a country physician, inclined to all manner of disorders among the local, mostly working-class or poor residents. There had always been estates in Warwickshire. Hundreds Hall is a house that stands on the edge of financial ruin. Dr. Faraday visited once as a boy, when his mother worked as a nanny at the grand home of the Colonel and Mrs. Ayres.

Thirty years later, the Colonel is long dead. His son Roderick, who was severely injured during the war, is trying to manage the remaining farm and house. His sister Caroline had come back to take care of Roderick and their mother. Together they are holding on, with just enough to live on and afford one daytime housekeeper and one live-in maid.

One day, Dr. Faraday is called to the Hundreds Hall to cure the maid, Betty, a 14 yr old girl. He finds Betty only pretending to be ill. she is unhappy since she feels there is "something bad" in the house. Dr. Faraday offers to treat Roderick's injuries and begins to make regular trips to the Hundreds, and becomes a friend of the Ayres'. When a new family moves into a nearby estate, Mrs. Ayres decides to have a party to welcome them. The house is moving with great anticipation, but the night ends in tragedy.

From this stage, mysterious things happen at the hall, affecting one by one, becoming spookier as time goes on. Betty is convinced the house is haunted, perhaps by the spirit of the first Ayres child, a daughter who died in childhood of diphtheria; Roderick feels there is something in the house that he must be kept away and Caroline feels the house itself to be spookier. Dr. Faraday, irritated with all the superstition, tries to demonstrate there are rational explanations for everything. He thinks that it is a kind of emotion or rumor started by Betty and spread among the Ayres.

Inspite of Hopeless efforts, he shares the whole events to a fellow physician, who claims some kind of psychic force constituted in those living there. Is the house haunted? If so, Why and by What? These queries are raised to the reader when they are nearer to the conclusion of the story.

[ The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters ]

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett - The Wizards’ Play

Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie.

Unseen Academicals is a forthcoming novel in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. The story unbinds about the football game that has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. It is not football with the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go going when you drop them. The story will introduce several new characters, including a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr. Nutt.

The main theme of the story is about the football match in which wizards of Unseen University have to win without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else. The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin who seems to be a poor lady, making good pies and the mysterious Mr. Nutt who is unknown to the wizard team. Even he himself doesn’t know whether he can play football well. This is how the story moves out. Did wizards win the match? If so did they win it without using the magic? And what sort of contribution is been made by the Urchin and Mr. Nutt? These are the queries that arise in the minds of the readers when they are at the middle of the story.

[ Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett ]

The Host by Stephenie Meyer - A Sci-fi, Romantic, Thrilling Story

Stephenie Meyer is an American author, known for her vampire romance series Twilight.

The Host is a Sci-fi romantic novel by Stephenie Meyer. The novel introduces an alien race, called souls, who take over Earth and its inhabitants. The book describes one soul's predicament when the mind of the host body refuses to cooperate with her takeover.

The Host is about a species invading earth and taking over the minds of their hosts-the humans. This book brings out the situation that arises if these little 'souls' are inserted into their hosts and the humans essentially are supposed to be gone although the soul has their memories. The story is all about such two combinations of a human and a soul i.e. Melanie-the human and the Wanderer-the soul. Melanie is one of few "wild" humans - rebels who have evaded the alien souls that have taken over the Earth. With her younger brother Jamie and the man she loves -- Jared Howe, She is on the run from souls who hunt down host bodies for use.

Souls are creatures that rely upon host bodies to survive. After insertion, they erase any mental presence of the being there prior and establish a claim over the body and mind. Earth is Wanderer's ninth planet, and Melanie is her ninth host body. The Wanderer goes crazy at first trying to get rid of her but eventually they find they like each other and develop a bond together. Wanderer started having more and more of Melanie's memories and feelings and they came to a sort of understanding with each other. She wanted her to feel all of the feelings and emotions she did so that she would not be destroyed.

When Melanie wants to know where the people she left behind are and when she and the Wanderer set out to do just that, the story becomes a struggle for survival and learning to live in a different world. Did the souls continued to occupy the minds and bodies of the humans? Was there any solution given by Melanie and the Wanderer?

In simple terms, the story delivers a gripping story of love and betrayal in a future with the fate of humanity at stake for the readers.

[ The host by Stephenie Meyer ]

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor - The Dark Historical Anecdote

Antony Beevor is the renowned author of Stalingrad, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, and Berlin, which received the first Longman-History Today Trustees’ Award. Antony is also known as a master of narrative, expertly blending the grand sweep with the telling anecdote.

“D-Day: The Battle for Normandy” is another historical narration of the War by the author Antony where the Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever is been brought out in a dramatic, exciting, well-paced and lucid manner. The very scale of the undertaking and the meticulous planning were unparallel, but although the beachheads were established, it soon became clear that the next stage of the battle would be far more difficult than anyone had imagined.

The thick hedgerows of Normandy were ideal for the defender and the Germans, especially the Waffen-SS divisions, fought with cunning and a desperate ferocity. Making use of overlooked or new material from over thirty archives in half a dozen countries, Beevor shows how the British, Canadian and American forces became involved in battles whose savagery was often comparable to the Eastern Front. Casualties began to mount and so did the tension between the principal commanders on both sides. French civilians, caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing, endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. The war in northern France marked not just a generation but the whole of the post-war world, profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe.

In this book, the writer’s gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war. He brings back the true story of that war and also reveals the heroism of the soldiers who fought bravely to save their country from the invasion.

[ D-Day The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor ]