As the assassin's hand arched for his throw, Janzene cocked and fired his Colt in a smooth, practiced motion. Silver spinning objects spun from the man's hand, shooting through the air toward Janzene. At the same time, the assassin's body was hurled backward by the force of Janzene's bullet. The man staggered and fell, dead as he hit the floor. Janzene threw off his blanket and leaped to his feet, reaching the body shortly after it fell. A pool of blood was forming on the man's garment. Janzene looked at his assailant. Of all the people to attack him, he had expected least of all a Chinaman. Why had his visit to the Chinese area aroused such desire to kill him? What could the scroll he possessed contain? He shook his head. What had he gotten himself into?

"I was physically and mentally braced for whatever death brings. Then I began to think rationally, and gained control of the thought process. If he intended to kill me, would he do it in a public place?" The reader is taken inside a federal agent's undercover world, and witnesses a life-and-death race against time to prevent a contract killing. His mission is to hunt down a paid assassin - only to find that he himself is hired as the killer. He encounters the New Orleans mafia, cop killers, bank robbers, gamblers, race fixers, and eventually, Interpol. He struggles to maintain his own moral compass; and at one point prays silently as a killer presses a sawed-off shotgun to his head. The story exposes the underworld of the Cajun French. The characters and events are based on an extraordinary, hard-hitting, true crime story. "Palumbo's harrowing undercover work raised goose bumps on my arms. He proves the old adage that Sicilians make the best criminals and the best cops as he takes us step-by-step through murder-for-hire in the corruption capital of the world - Louisiana." -- O'Neil De Noux, Shamus and Derringer award winning author of ten crime novels, including JOHN RAVEN BEAU, CRESCENT CITY KILLS, and the epic of love and war, BATTLE KISS. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Many men killed Julius Caesar. Only one man was determined to kill the killers. From the spring of 44 BC through one of the most dramatic and influential periods in history, Caesar's adopted son, Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, exacted vengeance on the assassins of the Ides of March, not only on Brutus and Cassius, immortalized by Shakespeare, but all the others too, each with his own individual story. The last assassin left alive was one of the lesser-known: Cassius Parmensis was a poet and sailor who chose every side in the dying Republic's civil wars except the winning one, a playwright whose work was said to have been stolen and published by the man sent to kill him. Parmensis was in the back row of the plotters, many of them Caesar's friends, who killed for reasons of the highest political principles and lowest personal piques. For fourteen years he was the most successful at evading his hunters but has been barely a historical foot note--until now. The Last Assassin dazzlingly charts an epic turn of history through the eyes of an unheralded man. It is a history of a hunt that an emperor wanted to hide, of torture and terror, politics and poetry, of ideas and their consequences, a gripping story of fear, revenge, and survival.

A young apprentice to an assassin becomes embroiled in a conspiracy that could destroy a kingdom in a brilliant epic fantasy debut by David Gemmell Award-nominated author RJ Barker To catch an assassin, use an assassin... Girton Club-foot has no family, a crippled leg, and is apprenticed to the best assassin in the land. He's learning the art of taking lives, but his latest mission tasks him with a far more difficult challenge: to save a life. Someone is trying to kill the heir to the throne, and it is up to Girton to uncover the traitor and prevent the prince's murder. In a kingdom on the brink of civil war and a castle thick with lies, Girton finds friends he never expected, responsibilities he never wanted, and a conspiracy that could destroy an entire kingdom. Praise for The Wounded Kingdom: "Dead gods, dread magic, and a lead that feels like a breath of fresh air. Great fun."―Peter Newman, author of The Vagrant "Often poignant and always intriguing, Age of Assassins reveals its mysteries with the style of a magic show and the artful grace of a gifted storyteller."―Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wild "The most interesting treatment of the fantasy assassin trope in a while, and an involving narrative in its own right."―RT Book Reviews The Wounded Kingdom Age of Assassins Blood of Assassins King of Assassins For more from RJ Barker, check out: The Tide Child Trilogy The Bone Ships Call of the Bone Ships

A New York Times bestseller, The Midnight Assassin is a sweeping narrative history of a terrifying serial killer--America's first--who stalked Austin, Texas in 1885. In the late 1800s, the city of Austin, Texas was on the cusp of emerging from an isolated western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan metropolis. But beginning in December 1884, Austin was terrorized by someone equally as vicious and, in some ways, far more diabolical than London's infamous Jack the Ripper. For almost exactly one year, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the entire city, striking on moonlit nights, using axes, knives, and long steel rods to rip apart women from every race and class. At the time the concept of a serial killer was unthinkable, but the murders continued, the killer became more brazen, and the citizens' panic reached a fever pitch. Before it was all over, at least a dozen men would be arrested in connection with the murders, and the crimes would expose what a newspaper described as "the most extensive and profound scandal ever known in Austin." And yes, when Jack the Ripper began his attacks in 1888, London police investigators did wonder if the killer from Austin had crossed the ocean to terrorize their own city. With vivid historical detail and novelistic flair, Texas Monthly journalist Skip Hollandsworth brings this terrifying saga to life.

The hunter has become the hunted Victor is a freelancer, a professional, a killer---the best there is. He's ice cold, methodical, and deadly. He lives alone. He operates alone. No one knows his background, or even his name. For him, business is a straight transaction. He's given a job; he takes out the target; he gets paid. He's in Paris to perform a standard kill and collect for an anonymous client. The contract is simple, routine, and Victor completes it with trademark efficiency, only to find himself in the middle of an ambush and fighting for his life. Faced with powerful and determined enemies, and caught in the crossfire of an international conspiracy unfolding across four continents, Victor is forced to go on the run across a winter-ravaged Europe. Pursued by the authorities, hired assassins, and intelligence agencies from both sides of the Atlantic, he discovers that no place is safe for him anymore and there is no one he can trust. But Victor is no easy target, and he's every bit as ruthless as those hunting him. He will find out who wants him dead and why, one corpse at a time. Debut author Tom Hinshelwood has written a classic cat-and-mouse thriller for the twenty-first century that takes off from the very first page and never lets up. Filled with adrenaline-charged action worthy of the big screen, The Killer will have readers looking down the barrel of a gun at every turn. The Killer was previously published under the title, "The Hunter".

The Trateri are about to learn a vital lesson of the Broken Lands. Deep in the remote expanse where anything can happen, it pays to be on a pathfinder’s good side. Nobody ventures beyond their village walls. Nobody sane that is. Monstrous creatures and deadly mysteries wait out there. Lucky for the people she serves, Shea’s not exactly sane. As a pathfinder, it’s her job to face what others fear and protect her charges from the dangers that await in the Broken Lands. It’s not an easy job, but she’s the best at what she does. When the people she serves betray her, Shea must rely on her wits and skill to survive the Trateri, a barbarian horde sweeping in to conquer the Lowlands, and their warlord, a man as dangerous as he is compelling. Her actions and the decisions she makes might mean the difference between life or death. Danger looms on the horizon and a partnership with the Warlord may be the only thing preventing the destruction of everything she holds dear.