The New York Times bestselling crime writer and author of The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential gives us a searing, candid memoir about his obsession with women, his related search for atonement, and his remarkable literary career. • “Forceful and unsparing in its revelations.... Marvelous fury, passion and energy.” —San Francisco Chronicle The year was 1958. Jean Hilliker had divorced her hustler husband and resurrected her maiden name. Her son, James, was ten years old. In a dark moment, he “summoned her dead.” Three months later she was murdered. The curse was evoked, and James Ellroy began his unending pursuit of women. Here, he unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, his nervous breakdown, and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her. A startling revelation, a treatise on guilt and the power of malediction, and above all, a heartfelt confession, The Hilliker Curse is a brilliant, soul-baring revelation of self.

Greenwich Village coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi is rolling with a popular new trend, until someone close to her is driven to kill… The Village Blend’s Muffin Muse coffee truck is all the rage. But a fatal hit-and-run and a shocking death at a food truck–catered wedding give Clare a clue that something bitter is brewing. Then she opens a bag of imported coffee beans and finds ten pounds of rocks—the kind that will earn you a twenty-year jail sentence. Is her ex-husband and business partner smuggling Brazilian crack? Is her staff now in danger? To clear up this murky brew, Clare must sweet-talk two federal agents, dupe a drug kingpin, stake out a Dragon Boat festival, and teach a cocky young undercover cop how to pull the perfect espresso—all while keeping herself and her baristas out of hot water. Coffee. It can get a girl killed.

Today's hottest urban fantasy authors come together in this delicious brew that crackles and boils over with tales of powerful witches and dark magic! In Charlaine Harris' "Bacon," set in the same world as Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, a beautiful vampire joins forces with a witch from an ancient line to find out who killed her beloved husband. In the Alpha & Omega series short story "Seeing Eye" by Patricia Briggs, a blind witch helps sexy werewolf Tom Franklin find his missing brother—and helps him in more ways than either of them ever suspected. And in Jim Butcher's "Last Call," wizard Harry Dresden takes on the darkest of dark powers—the ones who dare to mess with this favorite beer. For anyone who's ever wondered what lies beyond the limits of reality, who's imagined the secret spaces where witches wield fearsome magic, come and drink deep. Let yourself fall under the spell of this bewitching collection of short stories!

This chilling and disturbing memoir tells the story of one of Glasgow's most notorious criminals. In his own words, William Lobban tells how he was born in Exeter Prison to a violent, schizophrenic mother. His upbringing in the East End of Glasgow was just as bleak, and he ended up in care, destined for a life of violence and insecurity. Aged only 15 he masterminded a daring break-in to a Glasgow pub, and many years of armed robberies, dealing class A drugs and gang fights followed. When he wasn't causing mayhem on the streets, Lobban was serving terms in various young offenders' institutions and prisons, where he was involved in some of the most serious prison riots of recent years. In the course of his criminal career Lobban became closely associated with the infamous Paul Ferris, who was later to incriminate him as the murderer of fellow gangster Arthur Thompson Jr. Police also believed that Lobban was the man behind the brutal double killing of Bobby Glover and Joe 'Bananas' Hanlon, but none of these charges was made to stick. Finally released from prison in 1998, Lobban decided to walk away from a life of crime, but at first it proved impossible for him to break the way of life that had moulded him, and only in recent years has he found a measure of peace and stability. In this searing expose of the Glasgow underworld he reveals the true facts behind those crimes which he really committed, and those of which he is falsely accused.

Jane and the others have left behind the Island of Shadows, but they can't leave behind the lingering consequences. She now holds the magick of darkness within her, and slumbering as he is there is still danger in traveling with such a powerful companion. That danger arrives on the heels of torrential rain and whipping winds. A storm for the ages traps them in a remote town where the locals cast suspicious glances at them. They soon learn that other outsiders have come with demands for the ancient automata harbored within their metalus mines. One of the villagers, a young historian, takes a liking to them and offers them shelter in his tiny abode. There he regales them with tales of a mighty hero who protected the village many millennia ago. The other villagers ridicule his love of the past when their future is so perilous, but the historian assures them he has a plan. That plan involves Jane, and as the storm worsens and new foes arrive she finds herself caught in a web of lies and greed, a web in which she must break free, or die trying.

A new age dawns in the kingdom of Eileanan, but not without resistance. Now the Righ, Lachlan the Winged, overturns his dead brother’s decrees against witchcraft. But sixteen years of hatred and superstition have cloaked Eileanan in darkness. And though he has won the power of the Lodestar, Lachlan’s rule is challenged by a mere babe—and a civil war erupts. The flame-haired twins—Iseult the Scarred Warrior and Isabeau the apprentice-witch—must go their separate ways. Iseult to fight side by side with her husband, Lachlan. Isabeau to the Cursed Towers, to master her powers and to find the family she has never known. One woman battling for a new reign, one woman learning the old ways, their separate threads will twist and turn into a tale of mayhem, mystery, and magic.

The perfect proposal leads to a chilling cold case in this novel in the New York Times bestselling Coffeehouse Mystery series. After everything Clare and her NYPD detective boyfriend have been through, they deserve a little bit of happily ever after. But while Mike's marriage proposal to Clare is steeped in perfection, the celebration of their engagement is not long lived. First, a grim-faced attorney interrupts their party with a mysterious letter bequeathing a hidden treasure to Clare's daughter. Next, the world-famous jeweler who designed Clare's ring is found poisoned in his shop. Both events appear to be connected to a cold case murder involving a sunken ship, an Italian curse, a charming jewel thief, and a shocking family secret. With deadly trouble brewing, Clare must track down clues in some of New York's most secret places before an old vendetta produces fresh corpses. With recipes to die for, including how to make cold-brew coffee at home!