For fans of Michael Connelly and CJ Box, the fourth suspenseful and thrilling novel in the Charlie Hood series from New York Times bestseller and Edgar-award winner T. Jefferson Parker, now featuring an excerpt from his upcoming novel The Room of White Fire. Charlie Hood searches for an undercover agent who has disappeared, only to resurface in a haunting series of bizarre and inexplicable video tapes. The trail leads Charlie into the fevered landscape of America's southern border and the unexplored depths of humanity's dark soul.

New York Times bestselling author Bertrice Small continues her Border Chronicles with this tale of a woman rescued, a man enraptured, and a love unanticipated by the fates… Duncan Armstrong, laird of Duffdour, had sworn never to wed unless it was to a lass he truly loved. But when he needs a favor from King James, Duncan never expects what he’s forced to pay in return: the taking of a bride he neither loves nor desires. When Highland heiress Ellen MacArther’s marriage plans are thwarted by a murder attempt, she has no choice but to beg the king for help. The cost for her urgent plea: to surrender her heritage and become a border lord’s bride. But the price to be paid for two strangers thrown together by fate is higher than imagined. And more dangerous than the passion—and betrayal—that could consume them.

Quill and Cross in the Borderlands examines nearly four hundred years of history, folklore, literature, and art concerning the seventeenth-century Spanish nun and writer Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, identified as the legendary “Lady in Blue” who miraculously appeared to tribes in colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the rudiments of the Catholic faith. Sor María, an author of mystical Marian works, became renowned not only for her alleged spiritual travel from her cloister in Spain to the New World, but also for her writing, studied and implemented by Franciscans on both sides of the ocean. Working from original historical accounts, archival research, and a wealth of literature on the legend and the historical figure alike, Anna M. Nogar meticulously examines how and why the legend and the person became intertwined in Catholic consciousness and social praxis. In addition to the influence of the narrative of the Lady in Blue in colonial Mexico, Nogar addresses Sor María’s importance as an author of spiritual texts that influenced many spheres of New Spanish and Spanish society. Quill and Cross in the Borderlands focuses on the reading and interpretation of her works, especially in New Spain, where they were widely printed and disseminated. Over time, in the developing folklore of the Indo-Hispano populations of the present-day U.S. Southwest and the borderlands, the historical Sor María and her writings virtually disappeared from view, and the Lady in Blue became a prominent folk figure, appearing in folk stories and popular histories. These folk accounts drew the Lady in Blue into the present day, where she appears in artwork, literature, theater, and public ritual. Nogar’s examination of these contemporary renderings leads to a reconsideration of the ambiguities that lie at the heart of the narrative. Quill and Cross in the Borderlands documents the material legacy of a legend that has survived and thrived for hundreds of years, and at the same time rediscovers the historical basis of a hidden writer. This book will interest scholars and researchers of colonial Latin American literature, early modern women writers, folklore and ethnopoetics, and Mexican American cultural studies.

The eagerly-awaited sequel to Carry The Wind, this is the second volume of Terry Johnston's award-winning saga of mountain men Josiah Paddock and Titus Bass, who here meet new challenges and new loves in the western wilderness of the 1830's.

A woman locked in her past and the fierce knight determined to set her free . . . Amanda Scott returns readers to the fourteenth century Scottish Borders, when men battled sword against sword and the hills echoed with the thunder of a thousand hooves. Unfit for marriage? Young, fair, yet mistrustful of men, Amalie Murray harbors a secret--one that could keep her single for life. At the coronation of the King of Scots, she overhears the plotting of a terrifying act...and virtually falls into the arms of Sir Garth Napier. Moved by her plight, Garth knows she now desperately needs protection--especially from her own stubbornness. Their unexpected passion and desire make Garth coax the truth out of Amalie, and make him more determined than ever to keep her safe. For though Amalie may be an "inappropriate bride," she's a woman he would gladly die for.

Lord and Hanners both describe a way of life that demanded toughness - stoicism, commitment, and humor when possible - but their recollections take an interesting counterpoint. Following the branding and castration of a thousand young bulls, Lord insists that the entire town came with buckets to carry the testicles home - "They were really meat hungry." Hanners insists, however, that cooking and eating mountain oysters was "strictly a masculine endeavor," pursued by the men after the women had vacated the kitchen. When Lord matter-of-factly describes being left alone at a young age to trail cattle in Indian Territory, Hanners observes that "sixteen seems pitifully young to be so far away front home, broke and hungry," while agreeing that necessity often required such things.

New York Times bestselling author Bertrice Small continues her 'intriguing and fascinating'* Border Chronicles with a steamy tale of a love held captive . . . Lady Cicely Bowen, daughter of the earl of Leighton, is sent away by her doting father when her jealous stepmother presents a threat to her safety. Raised by a royal widow, cicely becomes best friends with Lady Joan Beaufort, the king's cousin. When Joan is married to King James I of Scotland, she chooses Cicely as one of the ladies to accompany her north. At the Scot's court, Cicely finds herself pursued by two men- elegant Andrew Gordon, the laird of Fairlea, and Ian Douglas, the laird of Glengorm, a rough-spoken border lord. When Ian kidnaps Cicely just as Andrew is about to propose to her, the royal court is sent into an uproar. The queen demands the return of her friend and the Gordons threaten to set the border aflame, even as Ian Douglas attempts to win Cicely's love. But the border lord is difficult to tame-and the lady's heart is even harder to claim. PRAISE FOR THE BORDER CHRONICLES 'Rich with detail and sinfully sexy.' - Affaire de Coeur 'Contains all the ingredients her fans have come to expect- a strong-willed heroine, a dangerously sexy hero, an intriguing historical setting, and lots of steamy sensuality.' - Booklist

ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED BOOKS OF THE YEAR Contains an excerpt from Don Winslow’s explosive new novel, City on Fire! NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Washington Post • NPR • Financial Times • The Guardian • Booklist • New Statesman • Daily Telegraph • Irish Times • Dallas Morning News • Sunday Times • New York Post "A big, sprawling, ultimately stunning crime tableau." – Janet Maslin, New York Times "You can't ask for more emotionally moving entertainment." – Stephen King "One of the best thriller writers on the planet." – Esquire The explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Force What do you do when there are no borders? When the lines you thought existed simply vanish? How do you plant your feet to make a stand when you no longer know what side you’re on? The war has come home. For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America’s longest conflict: The War on Drugs. His obsession to defeat the world’s most powerful, wealthy, and lethal kingpin?the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel, Adán Barrera?has left him bloody and scarred, cost him the people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul. Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking even more chaos and suffering in his beloved Mexico. But not just there. Barrera’s final legacy is the heroin epidemic scourging America. Throwing himself into the gap to stem the deadly flow, Keller finds himself surrounded by enemies?men who want to kill him, politicians who want to destroy him, and worse, the unimaginable?an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down. Art Keller is at war with not only the cartels, but with his own government. And the long fight has taught him more than he ever imagined. Now, he learns the final lesson?there are no borders. In a story that moves from deserts of Mexico to Wall Street, from the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, D.C., Winslow follows a new generation of narcos, the cops who fight them, street traffickers, addicts, politicians, money-launderers, real-estate moguls, and mere children fleeing the violence for the chance of a life in a new country. A shattering tale of vengeance, violence, corruption and justice, this last novel in Don Winslow’s magnificent, award-winning, internationally bestselling trilogy is packed with unforgettable, drawn-from-the-headlines scenes. Shocking in its brutality, raw in its humanity, The Border is an unflinching portrait of modern America, a story of—and for—our time.

Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines how historical archetypes in violent narratives on the Mexican American frontier have resulted in political discourse that feeds back into real violence. The drug battles, outlaw culture, and violence that permeate the U.S.-Mexican frontier serve as scenery and motivation for a wide swath of North American culture. In this innovative study, Rafael Acosta Morales ties the pride that many communities felt for heroic tales of banditry and rebels to the darker repercussions of the violence inflicted by the representatives of the law or the state. Narratives on bandits, cowboys, and desperadoes promise redistribution, regeneration, and community, but they often bring about the very opposite of those goals. This paradox is at the heart of Acosta Morales’s book. Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes examines the relationship between affect, narrative, and violence surrounding three historical archetypes—social bandits (often associated with the drug trade), cowboys, and desperadoes—and how these narratives create affective loops that recreate violent structures in the Mexican American frontier. Acosta Morales analyzes narrative in literary, cinematic, and musical form, examining works by Américo Paredes, Luis G. Inclán, Clint Eastwood, Rolando Hinojosa, Yuri Herrera, and Cormac McCarthy. The book focuses on how narratives of Mexican social banditry become incorporated into the social order that bandits rose against and how representations of violence in the U.S. weaponize narratives of trauma in order to justify and expand the violence that cowboys commit. Finally, it explains the usage of universality under the law as a means of criminalizing minorities by reading the stories of Mexican American men who were turned into desperadoes by the criminal law system. Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes demonstrates how these stories led to recreated violence and criminalization of minorities, a conversation especially important during this time of recognizing social inequality and social injustices. The book is part of a growing body of scholarship that applies theoretical approaches to borderlands studies, and it will be of interest to students and scholars in American and Mexican history and literature, border studies, literary criticism, cultural criticism, and related fields.

A hidden labyrinth beneath the Canadian wilderness where dwarfish Lords and Ladies ride humans like horses - and plot the final downfall of mankind. Bart Dybig is a "Steed", but one gifted with mental and physical abilities unsuspected by those who have enslaved him. Soon, he vows, he will surprise the Lords and escape to the world above - if there's a world to go back to. For the Earth Lords are building a doomsday device of unimaginable power to completely destroy mankind. Only Bart and his strange heritage can stop them.