You just dropped off your child at the bus stop. A panicked stranger calls your phone. Your child has been kidnapped. The stranger explains that their child has also been kidnapped, by a completely different stranger. The only way to get your child back is to pay a ransom and kidnap another child--within 24 hours. Your child will be released only when the next victim's parents kidnap yet another child. And most importantly, the stranger explains,...

When David Hunter is assigned to decipher the mysterious code on a letter from Joseph Smith, everything goes wrong. The code is much harder to break than he'd imagined, complicated by the fact that someone has been stealing documents from the Church's Historical Department. And always in the back of his mind is his overwhelming need to translate an even stranger document: his grandfather's authentic copy of characters from the golden plates -- a fading...

People are dying . . . Each victim has been a thorn in the side of the FBI, and, inexplicably, domestic terrorists who claim to be anti-Bureau are claiming responsibility -- and threatening more murders if their huge financial demands aren't met. The trap has been set. The Bureau's best agents attempt to follow the detailed demands of the blackmailers, only to be drawn into intricate mazes which are ingeniously riddled with hazards, ensuring that...

Inspector Montalbano is at home recuperating after he was shot by a child trafficker. "But his recuperation is hampered by the demands of a new case: the abduction of Susanna Mistretta, an attractive university student and daughter of a geologist. Unable to trust his colleagues to handle the case properly, Montalbano focuses on subtle anomalies, such as the direction the missing girl's motorbike was pointed, that suggest the kidnapping is more than...

"Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity--and that of his pen pal--will be revealed"--

"Aloysius Archer travels to 1950s California to apprentice with a legendary private eye and former FBI agent but immediately finds himself involved in a scandal"--

Dru Rayne and her uncle fled to L.A. after Hurricane Katrina; but now, five years later, they face a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a protection gang, he offers his help, but neither of them want it -- and neither do the federal agents mysteriously watching them. As the level of violence escalates, and Pike himself becomes a target, he and Elvis Cole learn that Dru and her uncle are not who they seem -- and that everything...

"Lt. Eve Dallas must separate rumors from reality when a woman who traffics in other people's secrets is silenced. The chic Manhattan nightspot Du Vin is not the kind of place Eve Dallas would usually patronize, and it's not the kind of bar where a lot of blood gets spilled. But that's exactly what happens one cold February evening. The mortally wounded woman is Larinda Mars, a self-described "social information reporter," or as most people would...

Ex-FBI agent Steve Vail navigates a maze of hidden codes and brain-teasing puzzles to stay hot on the trail of a band of Russian spies in this breathtaking follow-up to his New York Times bestselling debut, The Bricklayer. FBI-agent-turned-bricklayer Steve Vail once helped the FBI solve a brilliant extortion plot. It was supposed to be a one-and-done deal. But when he's in Washington, D.C., to see Kate Bannon -- an FBI assistant director -- on what...

"It was nothing more than a one-night stand. Juliana Brody, a judge in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, is rumored to be in consideration for the federal circuit and maybe, someday, the highest court in the land. At a conference in a Chicago hotel, she meets a gentle, vulnerable man and has an unforgettable night with him--something she's never done before. They part with an explicit understanding that this must never happen again. But back home...