Night Of The Hunter

The bestselling, National Book Award–finalist novel that inspired Charles Laughton’s expressionist horror classic starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. Two young children, Pearl and John Harper, are being raised alone by their mother in Cresap’s Landing, Ohio. Their father Ben has just been executed for killing two men in the course of an armed robbery. Ben never told anyone where he hid the ten thousand dollars he stole; not his widow Willa, not his lawyer, nor his cell-mate Henry “Preacher” Powell. But Preacher, with his long history of charming his way into widows’ hearts and lives, has an inkling that Ben's money could be within his reach. As soon as he is free, Preacher makes his way up the river to visit the Harper family where—he hopes—a little child shall lead him to the fortune that he seeks. Foreword by JULIA KELLER

Jones uncovers the fascinating inside story of the making of this film, one of the American Film Institutes's 100 Greatest Thrillers. Every aspect is revealed of the film's development and production - casting, design, shooting, scoring, and editing - to the profound disappointment upon its release. This book is the result of over a decade of archival research and interviews with a dozen key people associated with the film, including Grubb, Gregory, actors Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish and cinematographer Stanley Cortez. Their oral histories, along with numerous artifacts and film stills, are here deftly assembled into an account that is as compelling as the movie it celebrates.

Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall join forces to rescue an old friend and battle drow intrigue in this new chapter in the New York Times–bestselling saga The beloved Companions of the Hall have been restored, thanks to the workings of the goddess Mielikki. With his most faithful friends at his side once more, Drizzt Do'Urden returns to Gauntlgrym to rescue Thibbledorf Pwent, Bruenor’s loyal shield dwarf-turned-vampire. But in order to return Pwent back to his mortal form, Drizzt and the Companions must first undertake a perilous journey through the Underdark—a journey made all the more dangerous by the political turmoil that has erupted among drow society. House Baenre, the most prestigious of the ruling drow houses, wants to increase its power over Menzoberranzan even further. While their leaders race to erect a sister city in Gauntlgrym, a Baenre noble seeks to tear down Drizzt Do'Urden once and for all. Night of the Hunter is the first book in the Companions Codex and the twenty-eighth book in the Legend of Drizzt series.

Reaching simultaneously into the realms of film and literature, "The Night of the Hunter": A Biography of a Film details the transformation of Davis Grubb's 1953 novel into a motion picture. A popular and critical success, the novel spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list, and Hollywood responded to its atmospheric lyricism. In the hands of first-time director Charles Laughton, the story became equal parts thriller, allegory, and fever dream, filled with slow, inexorable suspense. Yet the film initially failed at the box office. In the first major study of the long-lost first-draft screenplay by James Agee, Jeffrey Couchman confronts a fifty-year controversy about the authorship of the film. He explores many levels of artistic convergence-between novelist and director, director and actor, and cinematic form and audience expectations. The talents that clashed or came together along the road from book to movie created a film of rich stylistic contradiction. Combining biographical and historical analysis with a critical study of both the novel and the film, Couchman makes the case that this initially overlooked cinematic gem is a prismatic work that continually reveals new aspects of itself. Book jacket.

In the realm of the Dark-Hunters there is a code of honor that even immortal bad boys must follow: Harm no human. Drink no blood. Never fall in love. But every now and again a Dark-Hunter thinks himself above the Code. That's when I'm summoned. Who am I? I'm the one thing the fearless fear. Step over the line and it's my wrath you will face. Nothing can touch me. Nothing can sway me. I am relentless and unfeeling. Or so I thought until I met a female Dark-Hunter who goes by the name of Danger-it's not just her name, it's how she lives her life. She doesn't trust me at all. And who could blame her? She alone knows that I'm here to be judge, jury and most likely executioner of her friends. Yet she is my key to saving some of them. Without her, they all will die. Dangereuse St. Richard is a deadly distraction. Something about her is reawakening a heart I thought was long dead. But in a race against evil, the only hope mankind has is that I do my duty. And how can I do my duty when it means that I will have to sacrifice the only woman I've ever loved?

It's a predator eat predator world for the Were-Hunters. Danger haunts any given day. There is no one to trust. No one to love. Not if they want to live... An orphan with no clan that will claim him, Wren Tigarian grew to adulthood under the close scrutiny and mistrust of those around him. A forbidden blend of two animals—snow leopard and white tiger—Wren has never listened to anyone when there was something he wanted. Now he wants Marguerite. Marguerite D'Aubert Goudeau is the daughter of a prominent U.S. Senator who hates the socialite life she's forced to live. Like her mother before her, she has strong Cajun roots that her father doesn't understand. Still, she has no choice but to try and conform to a world where she feels like an outsider. But the world of rich and powerful humans is never to meet the world of the Were-Hunters who exist side by side with them, unseen, unknown, undetected. To break this law is to call down a wrath of the highest order. In order to have Marguerite, Wren must fight not just the humans who will never accept his animal nature, but the Were-Hunters who want him dead for endangering their world. It's a race against time and magic without boundary that could cost Marguerite and Wren not just their lives, but their very souls...

Bob Lee Swagger, former Marine Corps sniper, is back. And this time, it's personal. Forced off the road and into a crash that leaves her in a coma, barely clinging onto life, journalist Nikki Swagger had been investigating reports of a crystal meth superlab in sleepy Tennessee, when she found herself inadvertently peeling back the layers on a huge conspiracy. Bob Lee Swagger is worried. As a former Marine Corps sniper, he's picked up more than his fair share of enemies hell-bent on revenge and he senses that something isn't right. Unconvinced by the Sheriff's conclusion that Nikki's crash was caused by a local kid high on Meth, Bob picks up the investigation where his daughter left off. As Swagger digs deeper, a violent crime clan, gunmen of all stripes and shapes, and deranged evangelicals all rear their ugly heads, but they will live to rue the day they targeted the wrong man's daughter. What people are saying about Bob Lee Swagger thrillers: ‘Stephen Hunter's I, Sniper brings back one of the great characters in modern thrillerdom, Bob Lee Swagger, everyone's favourite lethal, dour Southerner. I kind of want Swagger to meet up with Lee Child's Jack Reacher one day, in a contest to see who could say the least while doing the most damage.’ Malcolm Gladwell ‘The tension never lets up’ New York Times ‘Stephen Hunter is an Elmore Leonard on steroids’ John Sandford ‘As all Bob Lee fans know, it comes down to 'straight killing time.' And so it does, in a ramped-up, high-tech High Noon finale. As always, Hunter makes it work with precise, detail-rich prose that strips the faux glamour from gun fighting and leaves only the skills of the combatants set against the horrors they wreak.’ Booklist ‘Hunter is back at the top of his game.’ Publisher’s Weekly ‘In his guns-a-poppin' latest, Hunter pits his series hero against a nest of sharp-shooting vipers. Dust off the OK Corral. Even the somewhat squeamish, and even certifiable gun-dummies, may once again find chivalric, heroic Bob Lee just about irresistible.’ Kirkus Reviews ‘Hunter's thrillers are always taut, exciting, and well written, and his latest is no exception. There's also a lot of gun and tech talk as Swagger uses decades' worth of skills to stay a step or three ahead of the baddies. Swagger fans will not be disappointed.’ Library Journal 'Hunter has a unique writing style that thrills and captivates from the opening scene to deliver an exciting whodunit' The Sun ‘Stories of passion, guilt and redemption that jump right off the page and smack the reader clean between the eyes’ Independent on Sunday ‘American hardboiled at its very best, full of taciturn and stoical characters and plotting in explosive overdrive’ The Times ‘Hunter choreographs the violence in steely prose and Swagger ... remains one of crime fiction’s most engaging heroes’ Irish Independent