Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Literature & Fiction

This collection of the finest short story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present features Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Burke, Harry Kemelman, and everyone in between. Edited by multi-award-winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, it offers a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

Learn the truth behind the mask of Hollywood in these 10 bizarre tales of dreams and dream weavers, movies and movie-makers, by some of the most respected fantasy writers of our time.

The hardworking single mother of young daughter, Joanna Brady still feels the acute pain of loneliness and loss, the hole that was left in her heart when her policeman husband was murdered. But Sheriff Brady is the law in Cochise County, and murder has shattered the small town's fragile peace. A local gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleared out. When two more slayings follow soon after, suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield.

In a future uncomfortably close to the present day, the apocalypse has surpassed all expectations. Hideous demons roam the streets in an orgy of terror, drawing pleasure from torturing humans as sadistically as possible. Ira, a young San Francisco artist, becomes involved with a strange group of scientists and philosophers desperately trying to end the bloody siege. But the most shocking revelation is yet to come.

Lela lives in a fantasy world. It is the only place she can go to escape the horrendous legacy of her father's sexual abuse and his brutal murder of mother. When she joins a loving adoptive family, she buries all the memories of her former life - even her last memory of her sister, Jolene, pledging in a courtroom that she would come back for Lela some day. Then, one day , a strange man walks into Lela's life, bringing with him a neglected child who needs her love.

A sizzling novel set against the backdrop of the Detroit car world. Champion Motors, one of Detroit's biggest auto manufacturers, is shutting down plants and laying off its workers. Tensions are mounting and violence is erupting. The lack of overtime to go around and a fatal attraction between employees at the plant ends in murder. Rife with scandal, drama, and passion—between and beyond the sheets—Blue Collar Blues is an explosive novel with piercing insight and humor.

Alison Young seems to have it all: a brilliant career, a beautiful San Francisco townhouse, a loving husband, and a talented teenage daughter. But for 18 years, Alison has kept a terrible secret: She was the victim of a violent rape, and her daughter is the result of it. Unable to bring her attacker to trial or get a legal abortion, Alison left her hometown, reinvented her past, and built a new life for herself. Now, however, someone threatens to destroy all that Alison has achieved.

These 16 stories represent a unique perspective on Orson Scott Card's short fiction, from science fiction to social commentary to pure fairy tale. Included are three new stories not yet published in book form. None have ever been released in audio before.

More than any other writer, Alice McDermott exposes the vein of poetry, of profound joy and pain that transforms everyday experience into the heroic and universal. At Weddings and Wakes tells the bittersweet, lovable, human story of an Irish-Catholic family on Long Island as seen through the eyes of two sisters and a brother.

Aboard the majestic ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II, the world's most powerful leaders meet to launch a new era of peace and global cooperation. For Chinese terrorists who believe that the summit will make their Asian homeland a pawn of Western imperialist power, this summit represents a betrayal. They infiltrate the ship— and in a terrifying instant, a small, deadly group of fanatics take control and hold the world and its leaders hostage. With the survival of the world's greatest leaders at stake, any misstep will mean the end of the delicate balance that passes for peace.

"I am born" famously begins David Copperfield. However, this is a birth which is blighted by its timing: 12 o'clock on a Friday night at precisely the time the clock began to strike. Such untimeliness means that David was destined to be unlucky in life and would be privileged to see ghosts and spirits, a dubious privilege. In David Copperfield, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are invoked in relation to a range of male characters and situations.

Amidst the upheaval of the French Revolution, former aristocrat Charles Darnay becomes wrongly tangled in unfortunate events, endangering his freedom and family. Sidney Carton, a cynical lawyer who squandered his life away, seeks to redress his unhappiness through Darnay's beautiful wife, Lucie. A work of historical fiction by one of the world's greatest writers, A Tale of Two Cities is a story about love, chaos, sacrifice, and redemption.

At the young age of 16, Andy Adams left his San Antonio home to follow his dream of becoming a cowboy. Going on long drives with some of the 19th century's hardiest cowboys, he learned his trade through many adventurous years of trial and error. This account of his true experiences includes dusty cattle drives, brandings, stampedes, dangerous river crossings, and remarkable encounters with the Blackfoot, Oglala, and Platte Indian tribes.

If there's even a smidgen of Scrooge in your psyche, just say, "Bah-Humbug!" and laugh at this satire of the treacly best seller, The Christmas Box. Among the variations on the theme are: The Christmas Vox, in which a young man finds himself having phone sex with Ms. Santa Claus; The Christmas Jury Box, a touching memoir by a sequestered O.J. juror who misses her fruitcake; and The Christmas Box Lunch, the touching tale of a caterer's X-mas. You'll be pleased to learn that the true meaning of Christmas is receiving.

This is the story of a generation, shaped by the 60s, that has reached its time of reckoning, and of a man who must uncover the secrets of his father's past before he can live and love in the present. Mitch Rozier has spent half of his 50 years writing an environmental column for an alternative West coast paper. Now he finds himself back under his father's roof. Sisters Lexa and Mariah McCaskill wrestle with the past that has driven them away from domesticity:

In the expert hands of two of the mystery world's top storytellers, being a housewife takes on a whole new meaning. These original stories explore the dark side of the housewife psyche and are guaranteed to delight. But be cautioned: These stories—"GDMFSOB" by Nevada Barr (author of the Anna Pigeon series) and "Acid Test" by Sara Paretsky (author of the V.I. Warshawski novels)—are meant to be listened to alone while sipping a glass of wine.

Little Saigon, Westminster, California, 1993. Anh, a diminutive, self-promoting, brash, Vietnamese beauty, supports her ever-extending family on tips from a gambling lawyer. Upon his disappearance, Anh turns to his secretary Jana, a tough, self-sufficient Anglo in need of money as desperately as Anh. Together they set up a bogus law practice in Little Saigon in which Anh supplies the clients while Jana plays lawyer.

The explosion in storytelling festivals and one-person shows demonstrate that Americans are growing disenchanted with the mass media and returning to the simple pleasures of a well-told story. Here is a survey of great contemporary monologues, including excerpts by Spalding Gray, Lynda Barry, Tom Bodett, and Peter Matthiessen.

Beaufort, South Carolina is home to the Smallwoods, a family closely knit but fiercely at odds. Georgie, the youngest, is tormented by worry for her son, who vanished two years earlier, and by her anger at her father. An unforgiving patriarch and ex-Marine, Georgie's father neglects her mother, belittles her brother Ashby, and denies her sister Claire the financial support she needs after a trying divorce.

By "assembling" some of the most fascinating figures in world history, Meeting of Minds provided a groundbreaking opportunity for audiences to be exposed to ideas by way of a medium not normally known for its intellectual vigor. Portrayed by actors, panelists engage in stimulating round-table discussions that were conducted like any other talk show but featured prominent influencers from bygone generations—not just philosophers and politicians, but poets, playwrights, and presidents.