On his way to baseball practice, Zeke lines up for Vancouver's newest thrill ride: Death Drop, an elevator that falls faster than gravity. The theme of the ride is based on the story of Persephone, who tumbled into the underworld. Zeke tumbles into a frightening situation himself after he discovers a little girl who is lost. He takes her to the Death Drop manager's office. But later, when he tries to find out what happened with her, the ride's staff say they never saw her! To find the missing girl, Zeke must navigate a devilish plot that includes Dante Gabriel Rossetti's famous painting Proserpine, a fiery drop into flames, and an angry coach. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

In this eloquent and provocative "open letter" to evangelicals, Ronald Osborn wrestles with the problem of biblical literalism and the ongoing challenge of animal suffering within an evolutionary understanding of the world. Osborn forces us to ask hard questions, not only of the Bible and church tradition, but also and especially of ourselves.

The astonishing true story of how the CIA, MI6 and a Soviet defector saved the world in 1962, as told in the new film, The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. In August 1960, a Soviet colonel called Oleg Penkovsky tried to make contact with the West. His first attempt was to approach two young American students in Moscow. He handed them a bulky envelope and pleaded with them to deliver it to the American embassy. MI6 and the CIA came to believe Penkovsky was genuine and so the two agencies decided to run the operation jointly. It ran right through the Berlin crisis - in an astonishing near-miss, Penkovsky learned that the Wall was going to be built four days before it happened but was unable to contact his handlers - and the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which rocket manuals Penkovsky had handed over were crucial in determining what President Khrushchev was doing, and helped President John F. Kennedy and his team end the crisis and avert a nuclear war. Penkovsky, codenamed HERO, is widely seen as the most important spy of the Cold War, and the CIA-MI6 joint operation to run him has never been bettered. But had the KGB already 'turned' Penkovsky and were the Russians making sure he saw the information they wanted him to see? If so, it may even have been possible that the whole Cuban Missile Crisis might have been a Russian deception operation. Thrilling, evocative and hugely controversial, Dead Drop blows apart some of the myths about one of the Cold War's most well-known operations as the world stood on the brink of nuclear destruction.

New York Times-Bestselling Author: A water park is targeted by terrorists in a novella starring “a formidable warrior readers will want to see more of” (Publishers Weekly). Every summer, thousands of families head to the nation’s largest water park, famous for its 21-story waterslide, the “Dead Drop.” This year, one visitor didn’t pack his bathing suit. He packed explosives. When the bomb goes off, dozens are instantly killed. The rest are herded into the park’s massive pool by the bomber’s accomplices. An organized team of fanatical but well-trained terrorists, they seal off the entrances, turn the waterslide into a watchtower, and train their sights on the families below. But one hostage isn’t playing along. He’s special agent Jericho Quinn. He’s on vacation with his daughter. And he’s about to turn this terrorist pool party into one righteous bloodbath… “Jericho Quinn is most definitely one of the best characters in the thriller realm.”—Suspense Magazine

Homeless teen Chris certainly isn't the most reliable of witnesses. And so no one takes her seriously when she walks into a police station and claims that her boyfriend Max, nicknamed Zorro, has been kidnapped. Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd is initially inclined to dismiss Chris as well. But then Chris mentions a ransom demand, a mysterious phone call demanding an envelope in exchange for the safe return of Max. Chris claims she has no idea what the kidnappers are talking about. But when Helen and her team investigate the abandoned warehouse that Max and Chris have made their home, she notices unusual activities in the area. But what precisely do the kidnappers want? And whatever happened to Max? This is a mystery novelette of 8700 words or approximately 28 print pages in the Helen Shepherd Mysteries series, but may be read as a standalone.