Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty, they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash, they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come...

"Alex Cross joins forces with a female San Francisco detective to investigate a pattern of murders occurring across the country that draws him into the bizarre subculture of ritual role-playing and vampirism."--from NoveList.

A place of worship is vandalised, daubed swastikas testifying to a hatred that, for a time at least, defies understanding. But the Deckers, Rina and her detective husband Peter, soon realise the violence done to their synagogue can be traced to one deeply disturbed adolescent. Ernesto Golding, Born into privilege but obsessed by the past, he is eventually charged, his case closed. But Peter Decker still worries that others were involved. And six months...

American investment banker Ben Hartman arrives in Zurich for a ski holiday, the first time he's been back to Switzerland since his twin brother died there in a tragic accident four years earlier. But his arrival in Zurich triggers something far more sinister than his brother's fate. When Ben chances upon Jimmy Cavanaugh, an old college friend, Cavanaugh promptly pulls out a gun and tries to kill him. In a matter of minutes, several innocent bystanders

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In this book Stephen Hawking takes us to the cutting edge of theoretical physics to explain in laymen's terms the principles that control our universe. Like many in the community of theoretical physicists, Professor Hawking is seeking to uncover the grail of science-the elusive Theory of Everything that lies at the heart of the cosmos. He guides us on his search to uncover the secrets of the universe-from supergravity to supersymmetry, from quantum...

Eight linked stories tracing the history of a painting by the 17th century Dutch artist Vermeer. In one, he paints his daughter to pay off debts, a second story describes the loss of the ownership papers, a third takes place on the eve of its theft by the Nazis. More follow.

Brother detectives Frank and Joe return to dangerous Black Bear Mountain to help locate a scientist gone missing from a remote research station.

Dr. Gideon Wolfe, a renowned criminologist and professor at New York's John Jay University, is hired by the widow of a murdered special-effects wizard to track down her husband's killer.

A unique multimedia program designed for speakers of Chinese to learn English.