A Question Of Blood

When a former soldier and recluse murders two 17-year-old students at a posh Edinburgh boarding school, Inspector John Rebus immediately suspects there is more to the case than meets the eye.

Finn Koenen, former Delta Force operator and current private investigator, wasn't really in the business of taking on cases that had already been solved - especially when they were as high-profile as this one. Last year's bombing of the Boston Marathon was certainly a tragedy, but it wasn't a conspiracy. Or was it? Unfortunately for Finn, a tantalizing clue from an unreliable witness suggests another, much more terrible attack on Boston is in the offing. He finds he can't quite ignore a nagging, unsettling feeling that he may have stumbled into something seriously dangerous. However, now he sounds as crazy as his newest client while his leads dry up faster than he can chase them down. Will Finn uncover the truth in time to prevent the deadliest attack ever made on American soil?

"Ex-cop Renee Montoya was at the end of her rope, until her friend Vic Sage -- the original faceless avenger known as The Question -- passed on his masked persona to her before his untimely death. Now as the new Question, Renee is on the hunt for the near-mythical 'Crime Bible' -- a dark text that has been passed between master criminals for years"--Jacket.

Set in the magical world of Renthia, The Queen of Blood is Sarah Beth Durst’s ambitious entry into adult epic fantasy. With the danger of Peter Brett’s The Warded Man, heart of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and lyricism of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, this is the first chapter in a series destined to be a classic. Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . . But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms. With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . . before it’s bathed in blood.

The fourteenth Inspector Rebus novel - and No.1 bestseller. Two seventeen-year-olds are killed by an ex-Army loner who has gone off the rails. The mystery takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community. Ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone. Army investigators are on the scene, and won't be shaken off. The killer had friends and enemies to spare and left behind a legacy of secrets and lies. Rebus has more than his share of personal problems, too. He's fresh out of hospital, but won't say how it happened. Could there be a connection with a house-fire and the unfortunate death of a petty criminal who had been harassing Rebus's colleague Siobhan Clarke?

The fifth novel featuring Inspector John Rebus, available for the first time as an e-book and with an exclusive introduction by author Ian Rankin. When the Central Hotel, a place of decidedly unsavory reputation, burned to the ground in a mysterious fire, the Edinburgh police were unable to disguise their delight. That is, until a body was found in the still-smoldering ashes, charred beyond all identification but with a bullet lodged in its skull. Now it's five years later and Inspector John Rebus is following any leads in a vicious off-duty ambush that has put one of his favorite junior officers into a coma. A cheap black notebook belonging to the wounded policeman contains a cryptic allusion to the almost-forgotten blaze, but crucial pieces of the puzzle obstinately refuse to fall into place. What could young Detective Sergeant Brian Holmes have learned to render him such a threat that he must be silenced at all costs? "The past is important," Rebus hardly needs to remind himself, yet the secrets he persists in uncovering are buried in layer upon layer of sordid and evil lies.

In one of the most entertaining and twisty thrillers of the year a London family, a mother, father and young son, must deal with the murder of their secretive next door neighbor and the intrusive police investigation that follows. Readers will be faced with ever shifting and increasingly frightening suspicions that one or all of them had something to do with it. Alex Mercer loves his family more than anything. His wife Millicent and their precocious eleven-year-old son Max are everything to him, his little tribe. When he is with them all is right with the world. But when he and Max find their next door neighbour dead in his bathtub, their lives are suddenly and irrevocably changed. Max is surprisingly fascinated by the dead body, and Alex is understandably anxious about how Max will react later, once he takes it all in. And Alex is increasingly impatient for the police to conclude their investigation and call this the suicide that it so clearly was. But as new information surfaces, it becomes clear that there is more to this than anyone is saying... Why was the neighbour charging his home improvements to the Mercers’ address? How did Millicent’s bracelet end up in his apartment? And why, in fact, did Max lead his father into the house on the quiet summer night that they found the corpse? As suspicion grows between the three, the once close-knit family starts to disintegrate. Is Alex really the loving husband we believe him to be? And where is Millicent really going when she disappears for hours, walking the parks of London, stewing over something that she can’t forget? Each of them is suffering. Each has something to hide. And as each questions how well they really know each other, they must decide how far they’ll go to protect themselves-and each other-from investigators who are watching every move they make. Just waiting for someone to make a mistake.

The first paperback in Ludlow s epic continuation of the Conquest trilogy (Mercenaries, Warriors, Conquest)"