The Deep Blue Sea 2016 Edition

“Titanic meets Tom Clancy technology” in this national-bestselling account of the SS Central America’s wreckage and discovery (People). September 1875. With nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, the side-wheel steamer SS Central America encountered a violent storm and sank two hundred miles off the Carolina coast. More than four hundred lives and twenty-one tons of gold were lost. It was a tragedy lost in legend for more than a century—until a brilliant young engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck. Driven by scientific curiosity and resentful of the term “treasure hunt,” Thompson searched the deep-ocean floor using historical accounts, cutting-edge sonar technology, and an underwater robot of his own design. Navigating greedy investors, impatient crewmembers, and a competing salvage team, Thompson finally located the wreck in 1989 and sailed into Norfolk with her recovered treasure: gold coins, bars, nuggets, and dust, plus steamer trunks filled with period clothes, newspapers, books, and journals. A great American adventure story, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is also a fascinating account of the science, technology, and engineering that opened Earth’s final frontier, providing “white-knuckle reading, as exciting as anything . . . in The Perfect Storm” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). “A complex, bittersweet history of two centuries of American entrepreneurship, linked by the mad quest for gold.” —Entertainment Weekly “A ripping true tale of danger and discovery at sea.” —The Washington Post “What a yarn! . . . If you sign on for the cruise, go in knowing that you’re going to miss meals and a lot of sleep.” —Newsweek

Terence Rattigan's devastating masterpiece, a classic study of forbidden love, suppressed desire and the fear of loneliness.

Pearl’s fear of sharks is not unfounded—but can she find a way to feel safe in this Mermaid Tales adventure? Late-breaking news from the Trident City Tide: There have been shark sightings in Trident City! No swimming alone! Pearl’s father even hires a Shark Guard to escort her to school. Pearl starts stirring up lots of trouble with anything that has to do with sharks, even denouncing the skeleton Kiki has in her room. And then, to make matters worse, Pearl accuses Kiki of stealing her precious pearl necklace! And though the undersea waters are indeed filled with danger, Pearl just might discover that true friends can provide a sense of safety!

This brilliant account of the maritime world of the eighteenth-century reconstructs in detail the social and cultural milieu of Anglo-American seafaring and piracy. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Michigan born-and-bred Petie Singer is not happy, not happy at all! Her best friend just inherited ocean-front property in California, and Petie is suddenly Emma-less for the first time in fifty years. So when Emma invites her to help on the big cross-country move, Petie thinks that's a great idea. But from the first day, things aren't what she's expecting. It's bad enough that Emma, after just two weeks in California, seems changed almost beyond recognition: vibrant and glowing, younger somehow, full of secrets and mysteries. But when Petie gets to Emma's beachfront home, things get even stranger. And the most unexpected thing of all is the growing restlessness that grips Petie. She's never even seen an ocean before, but the closer she gets to it, the more loudly its siren song calls her. Insistent and irresistible, singing through her veins, it pulls at her, luring her until she finally plunges in and WHOOSH, is swept away on a rogue wave into a way-too-close encounter with the very heart of the sea. Three days later she's tossed back up on the beach, battered, bruised, and strangely - decorated? She's left questioning not only where she's been, but who she is and, in fact, what she is. There's only one thing she knows for sure: her life will never be the same. Even if she can stay out of the water . . . . The eagerly anticipated companion to Left Turn at Cloud 9 brings Petie and Emma back for more mystery and mischief!

'Captivating, a John le Carre-esque yarn' Telegraph 'A thoroughly good read' Michael Portillo, author of Portillo's Hidden History of Britain and presenter of Great British Railway Journeys 'A compelling story of courage, determination and skill' Terry Waite CBE, author of Taken on Trust The true story of a retired British army officer's private Somali-hostage rescue mission During the peak of the Somali piracy crisis, three ships - from Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan - were hijacked and then abandoned to their fate by their employers, who lacked the money to pay ransoms. All would still be there, were it not for Colonel John Steed, a retired British military attaché, who launched his own private mission to free them. At 65, Colonel Steed was hardly an ideal saviour. With no experience in hostage negotiations and no money behind him, he had to raise the ransom cash from scratch, running the operation from his spare room and ferrying million-dollar ransom payments around in the boot of his car. Drawing on first-hand interviews, former chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph, Colin Freeman, who has himself spent time held hostage by Somali pirates, takes readers on an inside track into the world of hostage negotiation and one man's heroic rescue mission.

THE STORY: The setting is a rundown bar in the Bronx, where two of society's rejects, Danny and Roberta, strike up a halting conversation over their beer. He is a brooding, self-loathing young man who resorts more to violence than reason; she is a