Showing results by author "S.J." in All Categories

It all started with a simple, yet sneakily difficult challenge from global best-selling author Harlan Coben: Pick a bird of prey, then use it as the inspiration for a brand-new story. The response from some of the best writers on the planet: Game on! The result: Eleven stories that are twisty, scary, surprising and bursting with imagination. An egg worth more than its weight in gold. A mysterious operative known only as Owl. An eagle-watcher who sees more than she should. Even a story that somehow places the Maltese Falcon in a nursing home.

Anno Domini 1040. Christianity has swept unstoppably across Scandinavia, leaving few enclaves of the old ways clinging on to their fading world as King Olof of Sweden works to convert his people. A young warrior, Halfdan, has witnessed the ‘mercy' of the Christian lords, watched his people attacked, his village burned and the Odin stone toppled as heretical. Watched his father cut down by an ambitious Christian jarl and his zealous priest. Among the ashes of his world, he vowed an oath of vengeance before all the gods.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER INTRODUCING AN INCREDIBLE NEW SERIES FROM THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING MASTER OF HISTORICAL CRIME, S. J. PARRIS...

Earth...Population: 1 Her name is Eve14. She is the result of a 1000-year project by the robots of Earth to restore the planet after all life was wiped out in 2065. 27 robotic minds, copied from Earth's great scientists, carried on after the species died. They mixed and matched those minds in endless combinations, producing a whole race of machines with human personalities. Immortal, but with memories of sensations they can no longer experience, some renegade robots now have a daring agenda. They want human bodies.

Chuck Ramsey is a traveling con man fronting as a comedian. After a gig on Earth, he picks Mordecai The Brown, a hitchhiking wizard on the run from his own kind. Chuck's ship, the Radio City, is a Winnebego of the stars, serving as both home and transport as he schemes and scams across the galaxy with his family. The pair form an unlikely bond, and "Mort" becomes a part of that family. The Ramseys, wizard in tow, embark on a journey of criminal hijinks, magical mayhem, and evasion of consequences for both.

Winter, 48 BC. Caesar and his small force are trapped in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Caught up in the dynastic struggles of the House of Ptolemy, the consul has sided with the clever and ruthless Queen Cleopatra. Her brother and fellow monarch, Ptolemy XIII, languishes in the palace, a hostage of Caesar's, while a huge army under the command of the Egyptian General Achillas closes on the city to free him. 

Kyrus had lived a quiet life as a scribe until his dreams begin seeping into his waking life. Fanciful tales of magic and battle turn out to be real. In his sleep, he witnesses the adventures of his twin. Kyrus is swept up in the intrigues of those who already know of this connection between worlds. As his knowledge of the two worlds grows, so does his entanglement in the intrigues between them. Kyrus discovers friends, lovers, and adversaries among the twinborn. His knowledge of magic grows until he becomes a valuable pawn for masterminds of plots that threaten empires.

It is 48 BC, and Caesar is master of Rome, but Pompey is at large in the huge recruiting grounds of the east with a core of powerful officers, nominally representing the senate in absentia. As the general deals with matters in the city, his army gathers at the coast, waiting to cross the sea and fight that worst of all conflicts: civil war.

57 BC. The fearsome Belgae have gathered a great army to oppose Rome, and Fronto and the legions assemble once more to take Caesar's war against the most dangerous tribes in the northern world. While the legions battle the Celts in the fiercest war of Caesar's career, the plots and conspiracies against him, both at Rome and among his own army, become ever deeper and more dangerous.

Prague, 1588 The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, wants to expand the boundaries of human knowledge and his court is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. His abiding passion is the elusive hunt for the philosopher’s stone and thus immortality. The Catholic Church fears he has pushed too far – into the forbidden realm of heresy – while the greatest powers in Christendom are concerned about the imperial line of succession. 

Theo Brooks is hard not to notice. With his coy smirk, rock-hard abs, and skilled agility on the ice, he's the cockiest of all the jocks and, unfortunately for me, my new roommate. When Admissions mixes up my first and last name, and I end up living in the male dorms, I feel my perfectly tied schedule loosening with every string Theo pulls. And he likes to pull every single one. It isn't until I find out that my long-time boyfriend is sampling other girls that things get interesting. Theo proposes a solution to my problem.

Book 1: After Z - For a decade, the world has known about the Immuno-Degenerative and Epidermal Decomposition Virus: Strain 2 (ImDED2), which turns the dead into cannibalistic zombies. Despite government efforts to control it, the virus finally unleashes a global pandemic. Lucky winners of a Powerball jackpot, Ryan Maxwell uses the family's newfound wealth to build the ultimate survival bunker. Follow the Maxwells and friends as they live through the end of the world, wondering if money can truly buy their safety after the apocalypse arrives.

Ninety years ago, the dwarves of the Dragonhammer Clan were driven from their ancestral home. Now, a small band from a new generation, raised in exile among humans, are mounting a venture to retake it. These young dwarves aren't fools. They don't have an army. They don't even know the old ways. Led by the young heir to the clan, Genrik Dragonhammer, they seek to carve out a foothold within a nearby mountain, rebuild the clan's strength, and eventually drive out the goblins that have settled in the city their ancestors built.

It is 56 BC. As Fronto and his friends’ winter in Rome and Caesar in Illyricum, trouble is brewing in the north. The tribes of Armorica, driven to desperate action by the harsh rule of Crassus, raise their standards in defiance of the Roman eagle, causing a chain reaction that threatens everything the legions of Caesar have achieved. Meanwhile, in Rome, the conspiracies against Caesar take an unexpected turn, plunging Fronto and his friends into a world of crime, violence and intrigue that threaten everything the legate cares about.

Summer, 1585: Sir Francis Drake prepares to embark on an expedition by royal commission to cross the Atlantic and seize major Spanish ports, diverting King Philip of Spain’s treasure to Queen Elizabeth. When a ship captain is brutally murdered, and Drake’s life threatened, it becomes clear that someone plans to destroy the expedition before it begins. Giordano Bruno and Sir Philip Sidney hunt for the killer, but are they being lured into a trap?

When the fae beckon, few resist. Even fewer return. As a veil witch, I'm used to taking out the supernatural trash. Everything from poltergeists to vampires, you name it and I've dealt with it. So opening a paranormal cleanup business just seemed to make sense. If I'm already dealing with the pests, why not get paid? But when I accidentally breach the faerie realm to encounter a girl recently reported missing, start seeing the ghost of a witch whose disappearance has never been solved, and discover a Book of Shadows that opens only for me, I can't just go back to business as usual.

I’m just so exhausted—always living on the edge of desperation, one paycheck away from ruin. But this new job… It could be the fresh start I need. It could change everything. The contract is only for three months, but if I keep my head down, work hard, and prove myself, maybe I could stay longer. Maybe I could make Black Mountain Lodge my home. As I pull down the gravel drive, surrounded by the forest and mountains and bright blue skies, I feel something I haven’t felt in a while. I feel hope.

After years of voyaging around the world, the Wolves of Odin are going home. Far from the green crew led by an unblooded, wily lad that departed Sigtun, they return a renowned, feared war-band, led by Jarl Halfdan Loki-Born. They have come back to hunt down the last man responsible for the death of Halfdan’s father, the wicked Christian priest Hjalmvigi.

In the depths of winter at an ancient German castle, high up in the mountains, a noble is found dead under mysterious circumstances. Back at Rourell, Arnau is taking on the responsibilities of a full Templar Knight. But when he is tasked with returning Brother LUtolf's papers to settle a legal dispute between his family and the Order, Arnau is unexpectedly drawn into the killing at the castle. Here he enters a dark game of knives and double-crosses.

I need to stop crushing on the hot new guy. Asking him to move in with me is the last thing I should do. Ian: My main goal for sophomore year is to survive with my bruised heart intact. That looks a lot like avoiding anything that could hurt me, at least until Callum Cross shows up. He's so...