The Longest Silence

In a compilation of thirty-three essays, the author reflects on the world of angling as he shares his observations on his quarry, great fishing spots around the world, and fishing equipment.

A killer stole her voice. Now she’s ready to take it back. Don’t miss the chilling Shades of Death series from USA TODAY bestselling author Debra Webb. Joanna Guthrie was free. She had been for eighteen years—or so she needed everyone to believe. What really happened during the longest fourteen days of her life, when she and two other women were held captive by a dangerous serial killer, wasn’t something she could talk about. Not with him watching. Not unless she wanted to end up like the ones who didn’t make it out. But when more women go missing in an eerily similar manner, Jo knows her prolonged silence will only seal their fates. She’s finally ready to talk; she just needs someone to listen. FBI special agent Tony LeDoux can’t deny he finds Jo compelling—he’s just not sure he believes her story. But with the clock ticking, Jo will do anything to convince him, even if it means unearthing long-buried secrets that will land them squarely in the crosshairs of the killer…

ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR For more than four decades, Thomas McGuane has been heralded as an unrivaled master of the short story. Now the arc of that achievement appears in one definitive volume--forty-five stories, including two new and six previously uncollected pieces. Set in the seedy corners of Key West, the remote shore towns of the Bahamas, and McGuane's hallmark Big Sky country with its vast and unforgiving landscape, these are stories of people on the fringes of society, whose twisted pasts meddle with their chances for companionship. Moving from the hilarious to the tragic and back again, McGuane writes about familial dysfunction, emotional failure, and American loneliness, celebrating the human ability to persist through life's absurdities.

J. R. Hartley's best-known catch to date is the public imagination. Here are his elusive fishing recollections told in a series of sometimes vividly comic chronological cameos, ranging period and location from York school days in the early 1930s through memorable outings on stream, spate river and loch to startling conclusion half a lifetime later on a Scottish summer night. Complimented by his protege Patrick Benson's evocative illustrations and with his anglers expertise lightly threaded throughout, J. R.'s story will touch every fly fisherman's experience. But it is book too that will appeal to everyone even those who have never held a rod, for the engaging point that emerges of the ultimate reluctant hero.

Amateur or expert, every angler dreams of landing "the big one," but that's only part of the appeal of fly fishing. Because even when hours pass without a bite, nothing beats the rugged beauty of the surroundings. For both armchair travelers and avid outdoorsmen who may have already started a checklist of their own, Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die maps out the meccas of the fly-fishing world. Through in-depth interviews with the sport's acknowledged gurus, author Chris Santella goes beyond standard guides to convey the very essence of the recommended locations. Readers can vicariously cast mouse pattners to fifty-pound taimen in the wilds of Mongolia, wrangle with wily permit off the Florida Keys, and match the hatch on Montana's Armstrong's Spring Creek. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba (tarpon), the Zhupanova River, Kamchatka (rainbow trout), and the Rio Negro, Brazil (peacock bass) are also included. The essays include a cultural and natural history of each site, along with colorful anecdotes based on the author's and authorities' experiences. With breath-takingly-beautiful photos of the spots, many by celebrated fly-fishing photographer R. Valentine Atkinson, the book also provides adventurous anglers with enough travel-and-tackle information so that they, too, can start planning excursions to go fish around the globe.

Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America's utter South. And Skelton's plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose. "Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely." Newsweek on Ninety-Two in the Shade.

As a child in the 1960s, Luke Jennings was fascinated by the rivers and lakes around his Sussex home. Beneath their surfaces, it seemed to him, waited alien and mysterious worlds. With library books as his guide, he applied himself to the task of learning to fish. His progress was slow, and for years he caught nothing. But then a series of teachers presented themselves, including an inspirational young intelligence officer, from whom he learnt stealth, deception, and the art of the dry fly. So began an enlightening but often dark-shadowed journey of discovery. It would lead to bright streams and wild country, but would end with his mentor's capture, torture, and execution by the IRA. Blood Knots is about angling, about great fish caught and lost, but it is also about friendship, honor, and coming of age. As an adult Jennings has sought out lost and secretive waterways, probing waters "as deep as England" at dead of night in search of giant pike. The quest, as always, is for more than the living quarry. For only by searching far beneath the surface, Jennings suggests in this most moving and thought-provoking of memoirs, can you connect with your own deep history.

The perfect fly fishing book for today's novice, enthusiastic amateur, as well as the devoted angler is part narration of the author's own angling obsessions and adventures, part practical how-to, and part meditation on a connection to the natural world.