The Dead Line

Top notch espionage thriller starring MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle written by the Service's former Director General, Stella Rimington. It doesn't get more authentic than this. 'Cracking pace ...the details of how MI5 conducts its business are fascinating' Sunday Express 'A wealth of persuasive detail drawn from first-hand experience' Marie Claire MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is called to an urgent meeting with her boss, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland and several heads of state are coming. The Syrians have learned that two individuals are preparing to disrupt the peace conference in a way designed to be spectacular, laying the blame at Syria's door. The source claims that Syrian Intelligence is going to kill them first. No one knows who they are or what they are planning to do. Are they working together? Who is controlling them? Or is the whole story a carefully laid trail of misinformation? It is Liz's job to find out. But, as she discovers, the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined. The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake...

From prolific and influential consultant and author Tom DeMarco comes a project management novel that vividly illustrates the principles--and the outright absurdities--that affect the productivity of a software development team. With his trademark wit set free in the novel format, DeMarco centers the plot around the development of six software products. Mr. Tompkins, a manager downsized from a giant telecommunications company, divides the huge staff of developers at his disposal into eighteen teams--three for each of the software products. The teams are different sizes and use different methods, and they compete against each other and against an impossible deadline. With these teams--and with the help of numerous "fictionalized" consultants who come to his aid--Tompkins tests the project management principles he has gathered over a lifetime. Each chapter closes with journal entries that form the core of the eye-opening approaches to management illustrated in this entertaining novel.

In the tradition of Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, a wise and fascinating book that shows us how “we can make deadlines work for us instead of the other way around” (The Wall Street Journal). Perfectionists and procrastinators alike agree—it’s natural to dread a deadline. Whether you are completing a masterpiece or just checking off an overwhelming to-do list, the ticking clock signals despair. Christopher Cox knows the panic of the looming deadline all too well—as a magazine editor, he has spent years overseeing writers and journalists who couldn’t meet a deadline to save their lives. After putting in a few too many late nights in the newsroom, he became determined to learn the secret of managing deadlines. He set off to observe nine different organizations as they approached a high-pressure deadline. Along the way, Cox made an even greater discovery: these experts didn’t just meet their big deadlines—they became more focused, productive, and creative in the process. An entertaining blend of “behavioral science, psychological theory, and academic studies with compelling storytelling and descriptive case studies” (Financial Times), The Deadline Effect reveals the time-management strategies these teams used to guarantee success while staying on schedule: a restaurant opening for the first time, a ski resort covering an entire mountain in snow, a farm growing enough lilies in time for Easter, and more. Cox explains how to use deadlines to our advantage, the dynamics of teams and customers, and techniques for using deadlines to make better, more effective decisions.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A new kind of phone awakens the dead in this technological horror novel “reminiscent of Koontz at his best” (Booklist). Ever since his life was shattered by the kidnapping and murder of his young daughter, Peter Russell has become a ghost of a man. Once a successful director of adult films, he has been reduced to running questionable errands for an eccentric California millionaire. But everything changes when a Los Angeles start-up offers him the opportunity to create promotional videos for their revolutionary new technology, Trans. The product offers exceptionally powerful, crystal-clear mobile communication that can operate anywhere and everywhere—and Peter sets out to put it into every palm. But as he uses the device himself, he starts to see his murdered little girl . . . Soon, there are other voices—disembodied, confused, angry—emanating from a newly invaded dimension. Many are even malevolent . . . and hungry . . . and deadly. As the death toll of Trans-users skyrockets, Peter’s life begins a new spiral downward. Now, he must race to make sense of the horror Trans has wrought before the gateway to Hell bursts wide open. With Dead Lines, author of the Eon series Greg Bear transforms the literary realm of Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, and Stephen King into something unique by ingeniously blending the speculative with the supernatural. You’ll never look at your phone the same way again.

If you're a security expert, what do you do if your fiancée suddenly goes missing, presumably kidnapped? If you're Daniel Trent, a highly trained specialist in hostage negotiation, the answer is simple: You find out who took her and you make them talk. But what if your chief suspect is taken as well? How do you get him back quickly—and alive—so you can find out what really happened to your fiancée? Set in Marseille, Chris Ewan's Dead Line is a fast-paced stand-alone thriller that pitches the reader into Daniel's world, as he tries desperately to secure the release of Jérôme Moreau from a ruthless gang in order to interrogate him on the whereabouts of his fiancée. When things don't go according to plan, Daniel must use all his skills and instincts to find the answers he's looking for, but will he be in time?

This digital edition of DEAD LINES includes a new foreword by David Niall Wilson, as well as an Author's Foreword by Criag Spector, and an Afterword by John Skipp. DEAD LINES is about a young writer/artist type, Jack Rowan, in NYC, whose career never took off. Hs life is in the toilet. He's broken up with his girlfriend and crashing on the couch of his more successful photographer friend, Glen's, loft while Glen is off in LA on a shoot. In the first chapter, Jack finishes his manuscript — a collection of short stories titled NIghtmare NYC — swigs off a bottle of vodka, then boxes the manuscript up, writes DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DOOMSDAY on it, and hides it in a crawlspace in his friend's apartment. Then he walks up a ladder he set up in the living room, puts the rope he knotted to a steam pipe around his neck/ He takes one last swig off the bottle, looks at a photo in his hand of himself and a woman, says, look what you made me do. Then he tosses the bottle and pitches off the ladder. The rope goes taut. Jack's neck snaps as he pinwheels around in mid-air, knocking over the ladder, swinging wildly as he hangs himself. Finally he goes still. His body hangs there for weeks, visible thru the fourth floor windows of the loft… if anyone was looking, which no one is. He remains there until Glen gets back. Glenn freaks out and promptly moves out. The loft is renovated for new tenants — a couple of girls who don't know each other move in. One, Meryl, is from a wealthy family in Boston and trying to escape her overbearing father by going to college at NYU; the other, Katie, is a waitress who used to know Glenn… and Jack. Meryl convinces Katie to pretend to be her roommate to get Meryl's father off her back. At first Katie says no thanks, but then she goes back to her Svengali-esque boyfriend Colin's apartment (where she lives) and finds him in bed with two girls — customers, as Colin is a low level drug dealer and all around scumbag. They fight. Katie shows back up on Meryl's doorstep that night and takes her up on the offer. Meryl is surprised…. she wasn't expecting a roommate for real — but Katie has no place to go, she Meryl lets her crash there. They start to become friends. One night while Meryl is fixing up her room, she finds the box containing Jack's lost manuscript. She starts to read the stories and becomes intrigued with this 'mystery' writer and his dark, brooding, moody vision of the city. What neither Meryl nor Katie realize, is that Jack's soul, upon the moment of his death, literally imploded into the atomic substructure of the apartment — frozen, in a kind of tormented limbo, forever. Until Meryl starts reading his stories… and the sheer energy of her reading his words in bed each night, and fantasizing about him, starts to bring him back. His soul coalesces; bit by bit, awareness and consiousness returns. Suddenly, he's back, and he's Jack — but he's dead, a presence haunting the loft, which is his prison now. But Meryl keeps reading, drawn deeper into his world each night. By day she searches for him in bookstores — but his work has never been published. She see echoes of his images on the streets of the city. She can feel his presence thru his stories. Her nightly fantasies become dreams… and the power of her dreams allows Jack to visit her, succubus-like, a night lover in spirit.

When Stephen's father passes away in 1861, he and his mother and brother are left at the mercy of a cruel uncle. As the Civil War intensifies to the south, Stephen's brother enlists to fight for the Union and help support the family. The war drags on and Stephen, an accomplished bugler in the town band, is witness to the sad consequences of slavery. The opportunity to enlist as Colonel Eli Lilly's personal bugler arises and Stephen jumps at the chance. After surviving the Battle of Sulphur Trestle in Alabama, Stephen is sent to a Confederate prison camp to await the end of the war. The trials of prison camp are severe but at war's end Stephen is set to be sent home to Indiana aboard the steamboat Sultana. However, disaster strikes and the ship catches fire and capsizes in America's largest maritime disaster. Through luck and fortitude Stephen survives, but his Civil War journey is one that will engage readers of all ages. Based on historical facts and characters, Stephan's story truly captures the essence of the era.