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Hector Finch, ace salesman, is handed the opportunity of a lifetime when a mysterious man offers him the power to teleport and a company that can sell anything, anywhere, anytime. But with a less-than-scrupulous procurement team and a sales force of unlikely beauties, Heck's dream quickly spirals out of control. As mob bosses and kidnappings enter the picture, Heck must use every ounce of his sales savvy to talk his way out of an impossible situation!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, BookPage“Dazzling” –Walter Mosley, The New York Times Book Review. It's 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It's strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly.1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney's endearingly violent partner in crime. It's getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook – to their regret.1976. Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole country is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. ('Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!'), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney's tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.CROOK MANIFESTO is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family. Colson Whitehead's kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and a time.

Colson Whitehead kétszeres Pulitzer-díjas, Nemzeti Könyvdíjas író új regénye az 1960-as években játszódik, New Yorkban.Ray Carneyt Harlemben ismeri az egész környék, megfizethető bútort árul a 125. utcai üzletében, ebből tartja el a családját. Felesége, Elizabeth állapotos, jön a második gyerek. Otthonuk nem valami nagy - Elizabeth pénzes szülei nem is örültek a házasságnak, nem szívelik Rayt -, de azért mégiscsak otthon.Carneyról kevesen tudják, hogy a becsületes életvitel felszíne mögött becsúszott már neki néhány stikli. Kétes alakokkal tartja a kapcsolatot. És a stiklik egyre húzósabbak.Freddie, az unokatestvére kisstílű enyves, Carney segít neki ezt-azt elpasszolni. Freddie beszáll egy bandába, ami azt tervezi, hogy kirabolja a Hotel Theresát, Harlem egyik nagymúltú szállodáját, és az akcióhoz Rayre is szüksége van. Ahogy az lenni szokott, semmi nem úgy sikerül, ahogy Freddie eltervezte, és Ray hiába kapálózik, egyre mélyebbre kerül a csávába. Már nem csak a hírneve forog kockán - a bőrére megy a vásár.Bűnregény? Moralitás? Társadalmi regény? Feketék és fehérek egymás mellett ebben a retró gyöngyszemben, amely végeredményben nem más, mint egy megható szerelmes levél a régi Harlemhez.Colson Whitehead regényei a 21. Század Kiadónál:A föld alatti vasút (2017), A Nickel-fiúk (2019)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel'(San Francisco Chronicle).'Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked...'To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the'Waldorf of Harlem'—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.Look for Colson Whitehead's new novel, Crook Manifesto!

A New York Times Bestseller A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize“Askaripour closes the deal on the first page of this mesmerizing novel, executing a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.”—Colson Whitehead, author of The Nickel Boys “A hilarious, gleaming satire as radiant as its author. Askaripour has announced himself as a major talent of the school of Ralph Ellison, Paul Beatty, Fran Ross, and Ishmael Reed. Full of quick pacing, frenetic energy, absurd—yet spot on—twists and turns, and some of the funniest similes I've ever read, this novel is both balm and bomb.” —Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street—a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.There's nothing like a Black salesman on a mission. An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother's home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC's hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor. After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he's hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America's sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America's workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.

From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard series, a hard-boiled novel set in 1960s Texas in which a no-nonsense car salesman faces a tempting decision, a dangerous deal, and an alluring affair.Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that'buyers better beware.'Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game.When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life.The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed -- in the throes of their salacious affair -- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through?Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.

High Priest of California, first published in 1953, is a gritty noir thriller by Charles Willeford. The book, Willeford's first novel, centers on San Francisco used-car salesman Russell Haxby, a highly unpleasant character, who, motivated perhaps by sheer boredom, engages in small time cons and seduces a married woman. Willeford (1919-1988) is best known for his books featuring hardboiled detective Hoke Moseley.A roaring saga of the male animal on the prowl—The world was his oyster—and women his pearls!

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le CarréInspector Maigret finds himself caught in the middle of a husband and wife duo's case of “he said/she said”—with murderous consequences An unusually quiet day for Inspector Maigret at the Quai des Orfèvres is disturbed by a visit from mild-mannered toy salesman Xavier Manton. Maigret is taken aback by Manton's revelation that he suspects his wife of plotting to poison him. And when he receives a visit from Madame Manton expressing her own grave concerns later that day, he finds himself deeply conflicted, unsure of whom to trust. Maigret heeds the advice of his seniors and begins investigating the couple—and with every turn, new complications arise. When the case comes to a boil and a body is discovered, everyone, including Maigret, is shocked. Maigret's Doubts is an engrossing mystery of marriage and deceit that forces the reader to question whether our brilliant inspector may be fallible after all.

“An incredibly interesting work.” —Jane Smiley “A straight up masterwork.” —Sarah Silverman “Blisteringly funny.” —Corey Seymour “A transcendent apocalyptic satire.” —Michael Silverblatt “Crackling with life.” —Paul Theroux “Great fun.” —Salman Rushdie “A provocative debut.” —Kirkus Reviews From legendary actor and activist Sean Penn comes a scorching, “charmingly weird” (Booklist, starred review) novel about Bob Honey—a modern American man, entrepreneur, and part-time assassin.Bob Honey has a hard time connecting with other people, especially since his divorce. He's tired of being marketed to every moment, sick of a world where even an orgasm isn't real until it is turned into a tweet. A paragon of old-fashioned American entrepreneurship, Bob sells septic tanks to Jehovah's Witnesses and arranges pyrotechnic displays for foreign dictators. He's also a contract killer for an off-the-books program run by a branch of United States intelligence that targets the elderly, the infirm, and others who drain society of its resources. When a nosy journalist starts asking questions, Bob can't decide if it's a chance to form some sort of new friendship or the beginning of the end for him. With treason on everyone's lips, terrorism in everyone's sights, and American political life sinking to ever-lower standards, Bob decides it's time to make a change—if he doesn't get killed by his mysterious controllers or exposed in the rapacious media first. A thunderbolt of startling images and painted “with a broadly satirical, Vonnegut-ian brush” (Kirkus Reviews), Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff is one of the year's most controversial and talked about literary works.

Amouren und Irrfahrten eines heutigen Odysseus Daniel Müller ist ein aufstrebender junger Möbelkaufmann. Er hat eine Freundin, doch auch eine Kundin seiner Firma versucht ihn zu gewinnen. Als Daniel sie ermordet auffindet, spricht alles dafür, dass er der Mörder ist. Er gerät in Panik und flieht, fährt zum Flughafen und bucht den nächsten Flug ins Ausland. Im Flugzeug entdeckt ihn eine nymphomanisch veranlagte Prinzessin: Sie versteckt ihn in ihrem Schloss. Während Zielfahnder der Polizei ihm auf den Fersen sind, erlebt Daniel immer neue Abenteuer und Überraschungen …

With the Eyes Shut was written in the year 1898 by Edward Bellamy. This book is one of the most popular novels of Edward Bellamy, and has been translated into several other languages around the world. This book is published by Booklassic which brings young readers closer to classic literature globally.

Quand un antihéros doit se mettre sur la pointe des pieds pour vivre à hauteur d'espoir...Bernard Gautier (sans h), vendeur de chaussures de son état, n'est pas vraiment taillé pour la promiscuité, les apéritifs en société et la fréquentation des autres en général. Mais le gain inopiné d'une caravane le mène à la Ricarde, camping autogéré où séjournent principalement d'anciens fonctionnaires de l'Éducation Nationale. Entre montées d'hormones et petits désagréments de la vie en communauté, BG tentera de trouver ses marques et de se faire un (sur)nom. Mais peut-on vraiment s'intégrer quand on s'appelle Bernard Gautier?La Ricarde, c'est à la fois la caricature drolatique et la description clinique d'un petit monde à l'humour souvent truculent.EXTRAIT– Encore un peu à droite. On pousse, encore, encore, encore… Top!La roue s'est calée dans le trou, comme un arpion dans une charentaise.– Simone, va me chercher le Niveau. Dans ma boîte à outils.Il a dit Niveau avec un N majuscule. Le Niveau, c'est l'arme absolue. Il est au campeur ce qu'Excalibur est à Arthur ou la couperose à Roger au comptoir : plus qu'un emblème, une légitimation.Simone part sans un mot, elle doit savoir où est la boîte à outils, sans doute sous le châssis, près de la pelle américaine repliable qu'elle a déjà dû apporter tout à l'heure pour que Bébert entame la terre rougeâtre et poussiéreuse de ma parcelle en pente douce, afin d'approfondir la cavité laissée par mes prédécesseurs – du travail d'amateur.Ils sont quatre bonshommes en short tergal avec braguette zippée, torse nu autour de ma caravane, Dédé, Bébert, Nico et un dont j'ai oublié le nom, sans compter ceux qui regardent à quelques mètres de distance, les mains sur les hanches, ou depuis leur installation, planqués derrière L'Équipe. À cette virile assemblée s'ajoutent deux ou trois épouses en robe de coton éponge à bouclettes dans des tons layette, dont Simone qui revient avec l'outil.– Ouvre voir la porte, Bernard.Bien qu'encore désarçonné par le tutoiement, je m'exécute d'un diligent tour de clé.A PROPOS DE L'AUTEURAprès Monsieur Quincampoix (2006), Fred Bocquet nous revient avec son amour des mots tarabiscotés et ses phrases bien torchées. Elle s'attaque à la beauferie, à la médiocrité, au manque de solidarité humaine et aux principes trop bien ancrés. Mais en arrière-fond, ce sont les blessures d'enfance, la difficulté d'être et le manque d'amour qui s'attachent au pas de ses héros. Avec tendresse, mais sans pitié pour les personnages qu'elle croque, elle s'en donne à cœur joie dans son style où l'on retrouve un petit peu d'Audiard et de Jean‑Paul Dubois, une certaine cruauté féminine en plus.

Though originally published in the late nineteenth century, this remarkably prescient tale from famed author Edward Bellamy will resonate with today's readers. A man taking a long journey by train finds himself overcome by motion sickness and thus unable to pass the time by reading. Fortuitously, a salesman hawking futuristic listening gadgets comes along, allowing the nauseous passenger to listen to a book. Though he is initially impressed with the ingenuity of the technology, he soon discovers that it comes with unforeseen consequences.

This complex and “always entertaining” British spy novel takes readers to a thrilling moment in history—the dawn of 20th-century espionage (Washington Post). On the eve of WWI, a Scottish car salesman's ‘innocent'data-gathering plunges him into a high-stakes game of espionage he never expected. It is 1913, and those who follow the news closely can see the world is teetering on the brink of war. Jack McColl, a Scottish car salesman with an uncanny ear for languages, has always hoped to make a job for himself as a spy. As his sales calls take him from city to great city—Hong Kong to Shanghai to San Francisco to New York—he moonlights collecting intelligence for His Majesty's Secret Service, but British espionage is in its infancy and Jack has nothing but a shoestring budget and the very tenuous protection of a boss in far-away London. He knows, though, that a geopolitical catastrophe is brewing, and now is both the moment to prove himself and the moment his country needs him most. Unfortunately, this is also the moment he begins to realize what his aspiration might cost him. He understands his life is at stake when activities in China suddenly escalate from innocent data-gathering and casual strolls along German military concessions to arrest warrants and knife attacks. Meanwhile, a sharp, vivacious American suffragette journalist has wiled her way deep into his affections, and it is not long before he realizes that her Irish-American family might be embroiled in the Irish Republican movement Jack's bosses are fighting against. How can he choose between his country and the woman he loves? And would he even be able to make such a choice without losing both?Secret agents, diehard patriotism, forbidden love—this is a grand, historically accurate spy novel that bears witness to the birth of 20th-century espionage through the eyes of an unforgettable everyman hero.

Tired of living life out of a suitcase, traveling auto parts sales representative Jessie Knutson jumps at the chance for a position close to home. When a flat tire keeps her from an interview appointment and the hot tow truck driver awakens her inner cougar, she realizes too much time away has done a number on her libido. Now the only position she wants involves being naked and pressed tightly against a hot, younger man whose eyes say she's more than a roadside pickup. BJ Spencer has no time for love with an auto parts store to run, though he yearns to find the right woman someday. So when the smoking hot redhead he rescues alongside the road gives him a sexy smile, he remembers sometimes a man needs to enjoy the finer things in life. Long legs encased in thigh-highs are definitely fine, but Jessie seems to be total perfection in a tempting package. BJ just might be able to make both business and pleasure work for him this time.

Ever since sixteen-year-old Gabe Strickland can remember, his father, Roman, has believed in the sale: that magical moment on the customer's porch, the deal about to close. But with each dizzying success comes an equally memorable failure, and Gabe's mother, Gladys, has grown tired of waiting for a life of financial stability. So in the summer of 1975, she leaves Roman and goes to live with his dependable brother Dutch. Confident he can win Gladys back, Roman pins all his hopes on a barnstorming tour of Southern carnivals, hawking tickets for “Death Cars of Celebrities.” Gabe finds his own truth somewhere between Roman's quixotic dreaming and Gladys's newfound stability, and he learns that love is, ultimately, the one thing that can't be bought or sold.

FIRST IN A STUNNING NEW WW1 SPY SERIES FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING'STATION'NOVELS Jack McColl is a globe-trotting salesman for a luxury car firm. He is also a part-time spy for the fledgling Secret Service on the eve of the First World War, doing London's bidding wherever internal or external enemies threaten the security of the British Empire. As 1913 ends he is in China, checking out the German naval base at Tsingtao between automobile demonstrations in Peking and Shanghai. Caitlin Hanley is a young Irish-American journalist with the sort of views that most British men would find dangerously advanced. McColl is no exception, but once captivated he finds himself unwilling to give her up -- even when Caitlin's radical politi and family connections threaten to compromise his undeclared career as a spy. Then the pair become involved in a plot that threatens the Empire in its hour of greatest need...

A rich man is murdered at the dog show, and the Human Encyclopedia is the prime suspect. Oliver Quade knows how to sell an encyclopedia. First, read it cover to cover three or four times, and make sure to remember everything in it. Next, dazzle an audience with your accumulated knowledge. Put on a good enough show, and the book will sell itself. Quade, better known as the Human Encyclopedia, is performing his act at a local dog show when a dogfight breaks out. Wary of wild mutts, Quade backs away and returns to his booth to find a nasty surprise -- a dead man in white flannels. When the police insist on holding Quade responsible, he and his assistant -- the indefatigable Charlie Boston -- are forced to solve the murder the Quade way: by always being the smartest men in the room. But is the Human Encyclopedia clever enough to prove to these dog show cops that they are barking up the wrong tree? This ebook features an introduction by Keith Alan Deutsch.

Eleven-year-old Travis has learned to be glib in the process of selling his mother's handmade products door-to-door to help contribute to his poverty-stricken family's finances. Usually, the seventh-grader only works the immediate twenty-square-block low-rent neighborhood, where he has become a familiar and unwelcome figure hawking items of dubious quality to customers with little money to spare and less inclination to buy.One evening, Travis and his mom decide to try new territory. They drive across town to an upscale subdivision in an attempt to sell batches of freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies. In the course of the night, young salesman Travis discovers that rich folks have just as many sins to hide as poor people and, better still, that the wealthy are willing to pay to protect their secrets…A short story.

Mike Strauss... father, husband and salesman... was a regular guy among regular guys. One night changed everything and now he must navigate the choppy waters of love and life and become a better man than he ever imagined. Also included are three short stories featuring characters from “The Best Thing”.

Peter Staines thinks God made rather a ham-fisted job of constructing the world, trying to shove millions of years'worth of work into just six days. Typical cowboy builder. And as a carpet salesman with over twenty years in the trade, he feels he's more than qualified to comment. So Peter's come up with some improvements. Shame his own tidy world is unravelling. You know, the usual stuff: murder, prostitution, gambling, infidelity, death and the Annual Carpet and Floor covering Exhibition to survive. Ultimately Peter is led to question everything he thought he knew, believed in and understood. But, then maybe, just maybe, life isn't that bad after all.

An explosive beach read that will leave you in stitches. Anna Fortune is a government intelligence analyst who longs for tropical sunsets, early morning beach walks, and a man bold enough to steal her heart. Sonny Cay is a large, lumbering toilet paper salesman with a terminal disease, unpaid medical bills and the haunting memory of a girl he lost years ago. She knows the location of terrorist cells, corrupt politicians and that no man can be trusted to keep his word, wedding date or promise to love forever. He knows life is for the taking, love for the making and both end all too soon. So when Anna is ordered to protect a presidential candidate polling in the single digits on a fund-raising junket in the Bahamas, both get a second chance at true love. He came because he loved her, because all those years ago, she'd stirred him the way no woman ever had. She was his Mt. Everest, the pinnacle of his small world. His head told him to run; his heart made him stay. Now only the gale force winds of a'Bahama Breeze'can cool the white-hot embers of old flames erupting.

'Miles Marin, adventure junkie and Mercedes-Benz sales representative, has an expensively dressed, striking blond woman offer to buy the most expensive car on the Mercedes lot—if—Miles will do one favor for her. Miles senses this woman is trouble but his boss wants the sale. The favor turns out to be the opening gambit in the kidnapping of Jens Beck, a high-ranking Mercedes marketing executive. Since Miles is the only person who has seen the blond woman's face, FBI agents Casper and Chance want his help, as does Wernher Lohse, the former Bundeswehr special ops officer sent by Mercedes to secure Beck's release. With the FBI and Lohse joining forces, you'd think the kidnap victim would be rescued quickly. But the kidnappers seem to know their every move and things begin to go horribly wrong. Even adventure junkie Miles wasn't expecting the ride to be this wild.'

The Death of Bunny Munro recounts the last journey of a salesman in search of a soul. Following the suicide of his wife, Bunny, a door-to-door salesman and lothario, takes his son on a trip along the south coast of England. He is about to discover that his days are numbered. With a daring hellride of a plot The Death of Bunny Munro is also a modern morality tale of sorts, a stylish, furious, funny, truthful and tender account of one man's descent and judgement. The novel is full of the linguistic verve that has made Cave one of the world's most respected lyricists. It is his first novel since the publication of his critically acclaimed debut And the Ass Saw the Angel twenty years ago.

Massie gets BE-yoo-tiful: After Massie Block gets kicked off her high horse and out of her ultra exclusive Westchester riding camp, her parents force her to do the unthinkable-find a summer job. Not one for dog-walking or brat-sitting, Massie comes up with the ah-bvious solution: She'll be a sales rep for the cosmetics brand Be Pretty. Massie fully hearts her new role as fairy gawdmother of makeup-until she discovers transforming LBRs into glam-girls takes more than a swish of her royal purple mascara wand.

One Christmas Eve, Whale Harbor is visited by a man who thinks he's Jesus and claims to be looking for a game of poker. But, as usual, things are not quite what they seem. Having some version of the Lord in town for his birthday creates a strange effect on the locals: unlikely couples are breaking up and making up and making out; a luxury mobile home that belonged to an elderly couple from New Jersey (until they disappeared after a run-in with “the Lord”) is won by a down-on-his-luck gambler in an unbelievable hand of poker; the area's most well-known and long-forgotten tourist attraction is rising up from a hole in the ground; and a gun no one has used in years is suddenly in hot demand. In the steamy climes of southern Florida, you take your miracles where you can get them—and if that means being led to salvation by a schizophrenic with a rap sheet, so be it. In the rollicking tradition of Carl Hiaasen's Tourist Season, with the heart of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, and peopled by the kind of colorful characters who would be quite at home in any Tom Robbins novel, N. M. Kelby's Whale Season is a sharp and funny novel made up of equal parts comic adventure and serial-killer inspired mayhem.

Edgar award-winning author of the popular historical novels A Conspiracy of Paper and A Spectacle of Corruption, David Liss showcases his amazing versatility with this brilliant new tale of contemporary suspense: a literary thriller set in Florida, where killing is a matter of conscience.No one is more surprised than Lem Altick when it turns out he's actually good at peddling encyclopedias door to door. He hates the predatory world of sales, but he needs the money to pay for college. Then things go horribly wrong. In a sweltering trailer in rural Florida, a couple whom Lem has spent hours pitching is shot dead before his eyes, and the unassuming young man is suddenly pulled into the dark world of conspiracy and murder. Not just murder: assassination– or so claims the killer, the mysterious and strangely charismatic Melford Kean, who has struck without remorse and with remarkable good cheer. But the self-styled ethical assassin hadn't planned on a witness, and so he makes Lem a deal: Stay quiet and there will be no problems. Go to the police and take the fall. Before Lem can decide, he is drawn against his will into the realm of the assassin, a post-Marxist intellectual with whom he forms an unlikely (and perhaps unwise) friendship. The ethical assassin could be a charming sociopath, eco-activist, or vigilante for social justice. To unravel the mystery and save himself, Lem must descend deep into a bizarre world he never knew existed, where a group of desperate–and genuinely deranged–schemers have hatched a plan that will very likely keep Lem from leaving town alive.David Liss skillfully interweaves a gallery of eccentric characters with a multilayered plot characterized by its unpredictable twists and turns. The Ethical Assassin is a brilliant, darkly comic novel that will leave readers in suspense until the very last page.

Good news! Fannie's back in town—and the town is among the leading characters in her new novel. Along with Neighbor Dorothy, the lady with the smile in her voice, whose daily radio broadcasts keep us delightfully informed on all the local news, we also meet Bobby, her ten-year-old son, destined to live a thousand lives, most of them in his imagination; Norma and Macky Warren and their ninety-eight-year-old Aunt Elner; the oddly sexy and charismatic Hamm Sparks, who starts off in life as a tractor salesman and ends up selling himself to the whole state and almost the entire country; and the two women who love him as differently as night and day. Then there is Tot Whooten, the beautician whose luck is as bad as her hairdressing skills; Beatrice Woods, the Little Blind Songbird; Cecil Figgs, the Funeral King; and the fabulous Minnie Oatman, lead vocalist of the Oatman Family Gospel Singers. The time is 1946 until the present. The town is Elmwood Springs, Missouri, right in the middle of the country, in the midst of the mostly joyous transition from war to peace, aiming toward a dizzyingly bright future. Once again, Fannie Flagg gives us a story of richly human characters, the saving graces of the once-maligned middle classes and small-town life, and the daily contest between laughter and tears. Fannie truly writes from the heartland, and her storytelling is, to quote Time,'utterly irresistible.'

Carlo Reinhart returns home from service in occupied Germany and finds the postwar US a different world: housing developments, gadget technology, a physical and spiritual malaise that boom times evoke.Good-hearted and intelligent, sympathetic but cynical, Reinhart is a participant who nevertheless remains a spectator. This gives the story its piquancy. Imagine going full throttle for success, simultaneously riding the brakes in apprehension.