Edgar Award--winning author Domenic Stansberry is known for his intensity---his dark thrillers, thick with suspense, in which the differences between good and evil are not so easy to decipher. The Big Boom is just such a novel: set in San Francisco, at the peak of the high-tech frenzy, just before the technology markets and the California economy all go bust. The Big Boom features the return of Dante Mancuso, the hero of Stansberry's Chasing the Dragon, an obsessive private investigator working the streets of his San Francisco neighborhood. He is a dark-eyed, complex figure---melancholic, tender, with fierce, aquiline good looks---known to neighborhood familiars by his nickname: the Pelican. Dante's nickname---like the demons that haunt his personal life---comes from his family on account of his tenacity, and his large, Sicilian nose. Now Dante has settled into a new apartment in North Beach, hoping to put those demons behind him and patch together a life with his longtime lover, Marilyn Visconte, but before long he is approached by an old North Beach family in hopes that he will find their missing daughter---a young woman, a former sweetheart, with whom Dante had been involved years before---and his newfound peace is shattered. Dante's search for Angela Antonelli, though, has hardly begun when the corpse of a young woman is dredged from the bay. He soldiers on in his investigation, fearful that the missing woman and the corpse are one and the same. His search for the missing woman---even after he has been called off the case---becomes an obsession that alienates his current lover, but Dante follows the ghostly trail anyway into the heart of the financial district and the underside of the dot-com revolution. It is a quest rendered in the staccato prose of the genre, a style that---in Stansberry's hands---takes on a dreamlike cast, hallucinatory at times, blurring the lines between reality and Dante's own dark nostalgia. The Big Boom is a tightrope of a novel, a taut story about familial duplicity, personal greed, and the desperate pull of love even across the divide of memory.

Fearless Vikings confront their destiny in this glory-seeking prequel to Ubisoft's next hit video game, Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Tensions escalate when a village caught between two rival kingdoms is brutally raided. Eivor, warrior and daughter of wise King Styrbjorn, dispatches the raiders, rescues the villagers, and claims the settlement for her father. She also seizes a prisoner--a woman, Gull, left behind by the rivals--who declares she possesses the secrets of Asgard itself. But there is more to Gull than meets the eye, and her capture will bring death and destruction to Eivor's family. In disgrace and lured by the promise of treasures and glory, Eivor undergoes a dangerous quest to regain her honor, but what terror awaits in the forgotten temple of a powerful god? All the time, her brother Sigurd forges his own legend while searching for fortune in the lands of the East. Far from home, he finds new weapons and fresh plunder, making a discovery that will change his destiny forever . . . The Assassin's Creed universe expands with a Viking epic brought to you by writer Cavan Scott (Star Wars: The High Republic, Doctor Who, Shadow Service) with art by Martin Tunica (Crossed Plus One Hundred), and colors by Michael Atiyeh (Star Wars, The Division, Dragon Age)! Collects Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory #1- #3.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE BOOM?!The NEW ONGOING SONIC COMIC BOOK SERIES from Archie Comics continues its frantic fun with Sonic Boom #3: Hammer Spaced! Amy’s most precious possession, her piko hammer, has gone missing! And if she can’t find it, her hammer won’t be the only thing she’ll lose! While the boys are on a hammer-hunting quest, Sticks tries to show Amy a new arsenal—but will she survive the experience?! Don’t miss the exclusive tie-in comic to the new TV Show and Video Games from Sega, featuring cover art from Sonic comics legend Tracy Yardley!

The meteoric rise of the largest unregulated financial market in the world-for contemporary art-is driven by a few passionate, guileful, and very hard-nosed dealers. They can make and break careers and fortunes. The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers-the tastemakers who back emerging artists and steer them to success, often to see them picked off by a rival. Dealers operate within a private world of handshake agreements, negotiating for the highest commissions. Michael Shnayerson, a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, writes the first ever definitive history of their activities. He has spoken to all of today's so-called mega dealers-Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher, and Iwan Wirth-along with dozens of other dealers-from Irving Blum to Gavin Brown-who worked with the greatest artists of their times: Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and more. This kaleidoscopic history begins in the mid-1940s in genteel poverty with a scattering of galleries in midtown Manhattan, takes us through the ramshackle 1950s studios of Coenties Slip, the hipster locations in SoHo and Chelsea, London's Bond Street, and across the terraces of Art Basel until today. Now, dealers and auctioneers are seeking the first billion-dollar painting. It hasn't happened yet, but they are confident they can push the price there soon.

Here comes the BOOM! Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends are back and ready to do battle with the evil DR. EGGMAN and his mechanical minions and diabolical death-machines! This ground-breaking new chapter in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise puts a new "spin" on all your favorite heroes and villains--plus new faces and hilarious new stories chock-full of action. Written by bestselling Sonic comic scribe Ian Flynn, the comic series will reside in the same story universe as the TV series and games, featuring a different take on the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, with a new look and feel. Sonic and his friends Tails, Amy, Knuckles and new member Sticks, must come together as a team to explore a new world full of comedy and adventure. SONIC BOOM Vol. 1 collects Sonic Boom #1-4.

A told B, and B told C, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree In this lively alphabet rhyme, all the letters of the alphabet race each other up the coconut tree. Will there be enough room? Oh, no -- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! The well-known authors of Barn Dance and Knots on a Counting Rope have created a rhythmic alphabet chant that rolls along on waves of fun. Lois Elhert's rainbow of bright, bold, and cheerful colors makes the merry parade of letters unforgettable.

A lovable dog who isn't afraid of anything suddenly finds herself feeling rather unbrave when she hears thunder. Beautifully written, this charming picture book addresses a common fear in an accessible way and introduces readers to a great new puppy protagonist with humor and charm.