A miscreant, misanthrope, and misfit, two-nosed Luther Jukes lands in jail for murdering a man who insulted his froglike facial features. As Luther schemes in his cell, "hoosegow scullery maid" Juanita Sparks frets over an unwanted pregnancy. But there may be a bit of magic that can sort out this mess. In the style of underground comix, Ed McClanahan and J. T. Dockery present Juanita and the Frog Prince, an outrageous tale adapted from McClanahan's novella of the same name, originally published in A Congress of Wonders. Set in 1940s Kentucky, Juanita features a cast of characters trying to get ahead at all costs, including the Right Reverend Philander Cosmo Rexroat, redheaded rich boy Warren Harding Skidmore, and "Bad-Cess" Sallie Jukes, the town apothecary rumored to have "access to sinister forces." Rendered in bold strokes of ink that swirl from panel to panel, Luther's and Juanita's stories become further entangled until, in desperation, they attempt to harness the power of a lucky toadstone to create their own fairytale ending -- or do they?Juanita and the Frog Prince is a southern Gothic psychedelic trip of a comic that will enrapture readers until the stroke of midnight -- and the final KLANG of the clocktower bell.

Martin Kern has a special sensitivity to fonts, a skill that he uses to solve typographical crimes. When a local printer is found dead in his workshop, his body in the shape of an X, Martin and his co-investigator, journalist Lucy Tan, are drawn into a mystery that is stranger than anything they have encountered before. Someone is leaving typographical clues at the scenes of a series of murders. All the trails lead back to Pieter van Floogstraten, a Dutch design genius who disappeared without trace in the 1970s, and who has since been engaged in a mystical scheme to create the world’s most perfect font, which is concealed in locations around the globe. But is he really the killer, and how are the crimes connected to his secret font? In solving the mystery, Martin and Lucy may have to expose Martin’s hero as a psychopath. The main plot of the novel unfolds in Melbourne, while interleaved chapters set variously in a Tibetan monastery, on the plains of Peru, in London, Naples and Amsterdam, gradually reveal the story of Floogstraten in flashback. Other characters include a noir-style private font investigator, a typographical monk from the Renaissance, a Dutch prog rock group named I Am A Dolphin, and a collective of Italian typo-terrorists. This novel takes the reader into the arcane world of typographers and their typefaces, of symbols, swashes and glyphs, where the difference between a serif and sans serif could mean life and death.

War and its aftermath change the lives of everyone they touch. In 1946 the Japanese War Crime Trials begin in Tokyo, where General MacArthur is initiating his grand strategy for converting Japan to a democracy and a bastion against Asian communism. Bill Liston, an Australian law lecturer conscripted to assist in the prosecutions, is embroiled in the dubious legal manoeuverings and questionable summary justice. His fiancée Irene White remains in Brisbane. Both are brought into contact with survivors of the war years – an exotic Dutch commando, a martinet Land Army Officer, teenage prisoners of war rescued from the sinking of HMAS Perth, military and legal careerists, and shattered Japanese civilians. Amongst all of this, Bill and Irene struggle to resolve their relationship and their future.

On Bondi Beach tells the story of a day in Bondi by allowing residents and visitors to tell their stories. The beach changes as the day passes. Different people arrive and leave, and as their lives and stories intersect, those being talked about become those who are talking. This is a book about living in a particular place, but it is also about contemporary Australia, flourishing in transience and diversity.

Summer in Paris. British art student Adam King undertakes an internship at a contemporary art museum. An encounter with an unusual collective of young people looking to change the world, along with a strange revelation in front of The Mona Lisa, sees him facing much more than his own coming-of-age. Against a backdrop of late capitalism, media and surveillance, 'The Eleven Associates of Alma-Marceau' not only asks questions about how people’s images, words and lives are given a platform, used and manipulated in the digital era, but alsoinvites readers to question the very nature of what they perceive. Within this modern-day story about painting, visual communication and how creative ideas are responded to by society, Leonardo, of course, is still ahead of the game, more than five hundred years after his death... ********** The Old School Writers Circle is a group of friends who periodically meet up to discuss art, writing and books. The current members studied at the same school in Birmingham, UK, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and now live in various locations around England. Famous literary alumni of the school include, somewhat eclectically, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lee Child and Jonathan Coe, all of whom are on the circle’s ever-growing list of influences. Projects can be serious as well as playful, confronting unusual and challenging themes through stories that do not necessarily fit squarely within conventional genres. For their debut publication, 'The Eleven Associates of Alma-Marceau', the starting point was a shared love of Paris and The Louvre – inspired in part by numerous trips across the Channel by members of the circle over the past twenty-five years. The other driving force was the long-standing interest of circle member Matt Price in esoterica and unusual optical phenomena in the history of painting – ideas explored and brought together by the circle in the form of this curious, engaging and thought-provoking novel. 'The smart move here is to pursue meaning in painting through the medium of fiction' ––Nicholas Alfrey, Art Historian

Seattle, 2116. The world is divided into a network of vast corporations (Corpos), each controlled by a triumvirate of elderly Chinese. The masses are conditioned to extol the virtues of utilitarianism, with society dominated by the power of 'the numbers'. Men, who have previously caused the collapse of society, must stay at home and raise children while women rule - with dispassionate ruthlessness. Enter Li, a 'career boy' tele-sales manager in Ireland-corpo. After years of sleeping around and getting high - and into trouble - his life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a mysterious young woman, Tattoo. Are his troubles behind him - or only beginning? As with all the best science-fiction, Number Games gives hints of what our world might become. With echoes of Bladerunner, The Man in the High Castle and The Time Machine, this superbly crafted novel makes for a compelling - and sometimes chilling - read.

DI Christy Kennedy returns in Departing Shadows, a deceit-laden tale of intrigue, which takes him from London to Brighton and back, and into the arms of the West End's most celebrated up-and-coming actress, Nealey Dean. But all's not well in vibrant Camden Town, as Kennedy investigates a death just outside a diplomatic compound, and finds his investigation immediately stymied by the invocation of diplomatic privilege. The deceased, an actress of a different sort, hostess and social media influencer Gabriella Byrne, left behind a world of mystery, where even those who knew her best did not know her well. As Kennedy interviews witnesses and checks alibis, his investigation brings him from London's hallowed palaces of power to seamy gentlemen's clubs, each with smoke and mirrors of their own. Along the way, he discovers just how far some people will go to protect their darkest secrets, in this, the 11th DI Christy Kennedy mystery. About the series: The Christy Kennedy Mysteries are mostly set round and about Camden Town and Primrose Hill. Just as in real police work there is usually more than one crime being investigated in each book. Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy is an Ulsterman living in leafy Primrose Hill and working in vibrant Camden Town. Kennedy loves the art of detection, he's addicted to the puzzle of the crime; it's his only drug. He's a bit of a loner and doesn't socialise a lot. He's clean-cut, dresses well, very well, but he doesn't have a drink problem. Not really a career policeman, he's content to work away while others trip over each other as they leapfrog over him for promotion. He's not bothered about the career ladder at all, as long as the powers that be allow him to get on with solving the crime. Kennedy's around about thirty-eight years old, loves tea and the music of the Beatles, Ray Davies and Jackson Browne and not necessarily in that order. He has recently met Ann Rea whom he considers to be his soul mate. He is desperate for this relationship to work. He has spent his entire life waiting for the someone special to come along and now she has, he feels ill equipped to deal with the politics of love.

The 14 stories of The Dogs of Detroit each focus on grief and its many strange permutations. This grief alternately devolves into violence, silence, solitude, and utter isolation. In some cases, grief drives the stories as a strong, reactionary force, and yet in other stories, that grief evolves quietly over long stretches of time. Many of the stories also use grief as a prism to explore the beguiling bonds within families. The stories span a variety of geographies, both urban and rural, often considering collisions between the two.

In 1936, life on the road means sleeping on the bus or in hotels for blacks only. After finishing her tour with Nobel Sissel’s orchestra, nineteen-year-old Lena Horne is walking the last few blocks to her father’s hotel in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. She stops at a lemonade stand and meets a Lebanese American girl, Marie David. Marie loves movies and adores Lena, and their chance meeting sparks a relationship that will intertwine their lives forever. Lena also meets Josiah Conner, a charismatic teenager who helps out at her father Teddy’s hotel. Josiah often skips school, dreams of being a Hollywood director, and has a crush on Lena. Although the three are linked by a determination to be somebody, issues of race, class, family, and education threaten to disrupt their lives and the bonds between them. Lena’s father wants her to settle down and give up show business, but she’s entranced by the music and culture of the Hill. It’s a mecca for jazz singers and musicians, and nightspots like the Crawford Grill attract crowds of blacks and whites. Lena table-hops with local jazzmen as her father chaperones her through the clubs where she‘ll later perform. Singing makes her feel alive, and to her father’s dismay, reviewers can’t get enough of her. Duke Ellington adores her, Billy Strayhorn can’t wait to meet her, and she becomes “all the rage” in clubs and Hollywood for her beauty and almost-whiteness. Her signature version of “Stormy Weather” makes her a legend. But after sitting around for years at MGM as the studio heads try to figure out what to do with her, she isn’t quite sure what she’s worth. Marie and Josiah follow Lena’s career in Hollywood and New York through movie magazines and the Pittsburgh Courier. Years pass until their lives are brought together again when Josiah is arrested for the murder of a white man. Marie and Lena decide they must get Josiah out of prison—whatever the personal cost.

In this interactive work, you are U.S. Army Second Lieutenant, Bruce Davis. Your light infantry battalion has been airlifted into the Middle East on short notice, and now your platoon must defend Wafi Al Sirree against the superior might of an advancing enemy's mechanized force. The stakes are high; the odds are long. Your knowledge and judgment will determine your success. If you are wrong, defeat and death may be your fate. Success will let you savor the sweet taste of victory and live to fight another day.The scenario is highly realistic and is supported by maps and appendices with detailed specifications of the equipment and forces involved. The choices you must make are those that would face a rifle platoon leader in combat. You must win the respect of your troops, ensure the security of your positions, obtain intelligence of the enemy, and accomplish everything else required to survive and win in a hostile environment.Whether you’re a serving infantryman or armchair enthusiast, this is the best crash course in light infantry tactics you will find, short of a rotation through the National Training Center.

Hyper-aware Denny, a young American in Dublin, makes his tentative way towards adulthood with a supporting cast of oddball friends. Denny hopes for a big love, the 'girl named Ireland'. Akin to a Joycean ramble, Oh When the Saints follows a sensitive boy on the reluctant verge of manhood, who cannot help endlessly analyzing his own - and others' - place in the stream of life. His heart is ‘a sack of air’ until he meets a trainee librarian with ambitions to be wild. This is a strange, elliptical novel of ideas, told in punchy, poetic prose; Peter Money's is a vivid, fresh and welcome voice.

Shortly before his death, Mr Timmons, the only partner in Kilcreddin law firm Timmons & Associates, made a handwritten note of a meeting with a key client. Now the client, Lord Barrington, along with his wife, Lady Barrington, are dead, and the note is a key piece of evidence in the investigation. Is Timmons’s own death related to those of the Barringtons?

Translation of a Russian novel, providing a fictionalized account of the assassination of grand duke Sergei Alexandrovich, written by the leader of the terrorist cell who actually organized the real murder.

Isra Shadi, a twenty-one-year-old woman of mixed Palestinian and white descent, lives in California with her paternal amu (uncle), amtu (aunt), and cousins after the death of her mother and abandonment by her father at a young age. Ever the outcast in her amu and amtu's household, they eagerly encourage Isra to marry and leave. After rejecting a string of undesirable suitors, she marries Yusef, an old love from her past. In Amreekiya, author Lena Mahmoud deftly juggles two storylines, alternating between Isra's youth and her current life as a married twentysomething who is torn between cultures and trying to define herself. The chapters chronicle various moments in Isra's narrative, including the volatile relationship of her parents and the trials and joys of forging a partnership with Yusef. Mahmoud also examines Isra's first visit to Palestine, the effects of sexism, how language affects identity, and what it means to have a love that overcomes unbearable pain.An exploration of womanhood from an underrepresented voice in American literature, Amreekiya is simultaneously unique and relatable. Featuring an authentic array of characters, Mahmoud's first novel is a much-needed story in a divided world.

A welcome return for Brendy McCusker… Charles crafts with such a careful eye on the sparks that can fly-some of them charming, some witty, some downright menacing-between characters who don't happen to see eye to eye, or sometimes even to be operating in the same galaxy. Once again, it's hard to resist a hero who realizes, "He just had a habit of opening his mouth and not knowing what was going to come out." (Kirkus Reviews). "Charles's skillful depiction of the many sides of love and its strange bypaths lifts this clever novel well above the genre average." - Publishers Weekly "Paul Charles is an outstanding author of crime fiction novels. They are models of character development and powerful observations of people the detectives meet." - Irish American News

This revised and updated edition of the classic Cold War novel Team Yankee reminds us once again might have occurred had the United States and its Allies taken on the Russians in Europe, had cooler geopolitical heads not prevailed. For 45 years after World War II, East and West stood on the brink of war. When Nazi Germany was destroyed, it was evident that Russian tank armies had become supreme in Europe, but only in counterpart to US air power. In 1945 US and UK bombers sent a signal to the advancing Russians at Dresden to beware of what the Allies could do. Likewise when the Russians overran Berlin they sent a signal to the Allies what their land armies could accomplish. Thankfully the tense standoff continued on either side of the Iron Curtain for nearly half a century. During those years, however, the Allies beefed up their ground capability, while the Soviets increased their air capability, even as the new jet and missile age began (thanks much to captured German scientists on both sides). The focal point of conflict remained in central Germany—specifically the flat plains of the Fulda Gap—through which the Russians could pour all the way to the Channel if the Allies proved unprepared (or unable) to stop them. Team Yankee posits a conflict that never happened, but which very well might have, and for which both sides prepared for decades. This former New York Times bestseller by Harold Coyle, now revised and expanded, presents a glimpse of what it would have been like for the Allied soldiers who would have had to meet a relentless onslaught of Soviet and Warsaw Pact divisions. It takes the view of a US tank commander, who is vastly outnumbered during the initial onslaught, as the Russians pull out all the cards learned in their successful war against Germany. Meantime Western Europe has to speculate behind its thin screen of armor whether the New World can once again assemble its main forces—or willpower—to rescue the bastions of democracy in time.