My name is Palladin, as in pallbearer. Learning the skill of killing from his father at an early age, Wesley Palladin, Have Weapons Will Travel, reaches the highest level of his profession as an assassin for the mob in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Palladin mishandles a contract and exiles himself to Twin River, where he takes a bank security job and also becomes the mentor to fourteen-year-old Matt Henry, a very troubled, violent teenager. Matt is challenged to overcome the tragedy of abuse in his past, deny his quest for revenge, and find hope in the dark, foreboding Shadows of Death that cloak Blood Mountain. Riveting and deadly action originates in Chinatown, the Italian Market, and Bryn Mahr in Philadelphia and relocates ominously to the Twin River farmlands and mountains in Central Pennsylvania. Beset by kidnappings, wild hog attacks, extreme bullying, and unchecked brutality in a juvenile institution, violence prevails in the small mountain community. As the body count rises, unlikely contributions from Holden Caulfield and comedian Bob Hope bring a resolution that is fearsome, unexpected, and also triumphant.

Set in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania, “One Grey Night It Happened” recognizes the natural beauty and rich cultural heritage of Pennsylvania’s wilderness region. Running from a notorious mountain clan, a young and defiant Jeremiah Willis departs Arrowhead Mountain and enrolls in Bloomington High School. A black transfer student and gifted athlete, Lucas Bradshaw, enrolls that same morning. The day before he enrolled, Lucas witnessed a school massacre in his Virginia school, Robert E Lee Academy, and now is the target of a massive manhunt. Sparks fly when Jeremiah and Lucas meet. They form an unlikely alliance and become allies in the fight against bullies, racists, and corrupt officials. The boys share a deep reverence for nature. When developers plan a million-dollar Dream House on Arrowhead Mountain, Jeremiah and Lucas work together to protect the forests. Suspense mounts at a torrid pace. Either tragedy or triumph awaits Jeremiah and Lucas.

A gorgeous new centennial edition of Ernest Hemingway’s landmark short story of returning veteran Nick Adams’s solo fishing trip in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, illustrated with specially commissioned artwork by master engraver Chris Wormell and featuring a revelatory foreword by John N. Maclean. "The finest story of the outdoors in American literature." —Sports Illustrated A century since its publication in the collection In Our Time, “Big Two-Hearted River” has helped shape language and literature in America and across the globe, and its magnetic pull continues to draw readers, writers, and critics. The story is the best early example of Ernest Hemingway’s now-familiar writing style: short sentences, punchy nouns and verbs, few adjectives and adverbs, and a seductive cadence. Easy to imitate, difficult to match. The subject matter of the story has inspired generations of writers to believe that fly fishing can be literature. More than any of his stories, it depends on his ‘iceberg theory’ of literature, the notion that leaving essential parts of a story unsaid, the underwater portion of the iceberg, adds to its power. Taken in context with his other work, it marks Hemingway’s passage from boyish writer to accomplished author: nothing big came before it, novels and stories poured out after it. —from the foreword by John N. Maclean