A thriller that explodes with taut suspense and raw emotion, The Ice Curtain pulls us into a murder mystery that is at once compelling and deeply moving. With the skill of a master storyteller, the bestselling author of Siberian Light breathes life into a haunting and unforgettable landscape, weaving a dazzlingly original story of murder, deceit...and diamonds. The Ice Curtain The Iron Curtain is down, and Russia has become a smuggler’s paradise. Hidden behind a curtain of ice in Siberia’s far north is the richest diamond mine on earth, a motherlode of treasure so vast it could break the back of the world’s oldest–and wealthiest–cartel. A cartel that will buy the enemies it can...and eliminate the ones it cannot. Against this turbulent backdrop, Gregori Nowek searches for the truth behind the murder of his best friend–shot in cold blood on a dark Moscow street. In a violent land where a twenty-dollar bill can buy or end a life, half a billion dollars in rough diamonds have vanished, lost between Siberia’s mines and Moscow’s vaults. The brutal murder of his best friend tests everything Nowek believes as a Russian, and as a man. In a dark realm of glittering diamonds, corrupt politicians, biznessmen, and cops caught up in the chaos of modern Russia, Nowek must find the missing diamonds before the world finds out they’re gone. At stake is the future of Russia itself. Nowek’s search will take him back to the place he knows best...Siberia, where the reason for his friend’s murder is buried inside a gem-filled chasm beneath eternal ice and snow. It is a secret guarded by the vastness of Siberia, the diamond cartel, and a beautiful young woman who, like the dazzling gems, is trapped in a grim city walled off from the world behind a curtain of ice. Dangerously stubborn and committed to the truth, Nowek risks his life to vindicate a friend, to secure Russia’s future, and to bring an astounding act of deception into the light of day. With haunting images and a powerful sense of character and place, The Ice Curtain is riveting entertainment. Deeply atmospheric and unfailingly gripping, it delivers top-notch suspense from its opening scene to its unforgettable climax.

The Sunset Patrol tries to locate the Shadowship's northern base in order to stop the killing of whales.

Just five years after a Soviet missile blew a civilian airliner out of the sky over the North Pacific, an Alaska Airlines jet braved Cold War tensions to fly into tomorrow. Crossing the Bering Strait between Alaska and the Russian Far East, the 1988 Friendship Flight reunited Native peoples of common languages and cultures for the first time in four decades. It and other dramatic efforts to thaw what was known as the Ice Curtain launched a thirty-year era of perilous, yet prolific, progress. Melting the Ice Curtain tells the story of how inspiration, courage, and persistence by citizen-diplomats bridged a widening gap in superpower relations. David Ramseur was a first-hand witness to the danger and political intrigue, having flown on that first Friendship Flight, and having spent thirty years behind the scenes with some of Alaska’s highest officials. As Alaska celebrates the 150th anniversary of its purchase, and as diplomatic ties with Russia become perilous, Melting the Ice Curtain shows that history might hold the best lessons for restoring diplomacy between nuclear neighbors.

From #1 New York Times-bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin comes a dramatic thriller in the Clandestine Operations series about the Cold War, the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency—and a new breed of warrior. January, 1946: Two WACs leave an officers' club in Munich, and four Soviet NKGB agents kidnap them at knifepoint in the parking lot and shove them in the back of an ambulance. That is the agents' first mistake, and their last. One of the WACs, a blonde woman improbably named Claudette Colbert, works for the new Directorate of Central Intelligence, and three of the men end up dead and the fourth wounded. The “incident,” however, will send shock waves rippling up and down the line, and have major repercussions not only for Claudette, but for her boss, James Cronley, Chief DCI-Europe, and for everybody involved in their still-evolving enterprise. For, though the Germans may have been defeated, Cronley and his company are on the front lines of an entirely different kind of war now. The enemy has changed, the rules have changed—and the stakes have never been higher.

From behind the Iron Curtain onto hockey's biggest stage The incredible true story of the trailblazing men who risked everything to pass through the Iron Curtain and become NHL superstars, Breakaway is a thrilling look at the untold stories that changed hockey forever. From midnight meetings in secluded forests, to evading capture by military and police forces, this is the story of the brave players whose passion of the game trumped all. Featuring exclusive interviews with the legends of the ice who put everything on the line just for the chance to play on the world's greatest stage, many of them speaking about their experiences for the very first time, the book looks at how Peter Stastny, Igor Larionov, Petr Klima, Petr Nedved, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Fetisov, Alexander Mogilny, and other hockey superstars captured the imaginations of fans around the world. The remarkable true story of some of the true pioneers of hockey, told for the very first time, often in the players' own words A fascinating look behind the Iron Curtain and the trials these brave men endured for a taste of freedom, through their love of the game Looks at how some of the NHL's greatest players made it onto North American ice As much a tale of espionage and social history as a gripping hockey chronicle, Breakaway sheds light on the untold stories of some of the sports' most inspiring heroes.

Shortlisted for Ontario Silver Birch Award 2010 Selected, Canadian Children's Book Centre's "Best Books for Kids & Teens" (Starred selection, 2009) Since Halloween, things are getting back to normal for Cat Peters. Now the big drama in her life isn’t a battle against diabolical fairies, but a battle of the sexes on the soccer field. Meanwhile, ever since Cat’s little sister, Sookie, was imprisoned on Grim Hill, she has only been interested in one thing: magic. When the aspiring conjurer takes her discoveries too far, it is up to Cat to set things straight. Can she really bear to return to the dreaded Grim Hill for a final confrontation with the powerful beings that dwell there?