From the New York Times bestselling author of Once Upon a Grind comes a new, all-American mystery... When the White House asks coffeehouse manager and master roaster Clare Cosi to consult on a Rose Garden Wedding, she uncovers long-simmering secrets that threaten to boil over... Clare’s Washington visit is off to a graceful start, when she lands a housesitting job in a Georgetown mansion and is invited to work on the Smithsonian’s salute to coffee in America. Unfortunately, her new Village Blend DC is struggling—until its second floor Jazz Space attracts a high-profile fan in the daughter of the President. But as Clare’s stock rises, she learns a stark lesson: Washington can be murder. First a State Department employee suspiciously collapses in her coffeehouse. Then the President’s daughter goes missing. After another deadly twist, Clare is on the run with her NYPD detective boyfriend. Branded an enemy of the state, she must uncover the truth before her life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness come to a bitter end.

This book is the outgrowth of one of J. Stephen Funks major injury lawsuits, one in the 1970s, where the dishonesty and a conspiracy of silence by the medical profession supported a negligent doctors efforts to maintain his exalted and privileged place in society. In real life, he exposed the doctors duplicity for all to see, and provided an orphaned child just legal compensation for the loss of her young and innocent mother. In Last Drop of Blood, the heartless and amoral doctor, his wife and her father will stop at nothing to conceal the truth. The widowed husband and a courageous, young nurse provide the help a relentless attorney needs to expose the conspiracy. Through twists and turns, the unexpected ending reveals itself to be more just and satisfying than predictable.

After a year hiding out in the Bronx, Joe Pitt is given an assignment he can't refuse. One Clan needs Joe to inform on another, but he's playing them both while keeping his eye on the main prize: his girl Evie is on the Island somewhere and he'll do anything to get her back. And in this case, 'anything' means coming face to face with the horrendous secret that lies beneath the Vampyre world. It's a quest that will drive him to the heart of the two most perplexing mysteries of the Vampyre community: how were the Clans originally formed, and where do the powerful ones get all that blood? The search for the answer takes Joe to a dark corner of Queens, puts him face to face with a mythic and savage Clan, and leaves him in possession of a vision he'll never scrape off his retinas - as well as a bargaining chip that redefines his place in the Vampyre universe.

Fiery, fierce, and erotic, Blood Canticle marks the triumphant culmination of Anne Rice’s bestselling Vampire Chronicles, as Lestat tells his astounding tale of the pleasures and tortures that lie between death’s shadow and immortality. . . . Surrounded by its brooding swampscape, Blackwood Farm is alive with the comings and goings of the bewitched and the bewitching. Among them is the ageless vampire Lestat, vainglorious enough to believe that he can become a saint, weak enough to fall impossibly in love. Gripped by his unspeakable desire for the mortal Rowan Mayfair and taking the not so innocent, new-to-the-blood Mona Mayfair under his wing, Lestat braves the wrath of paterfamilias Julien Mayfair and ventures to a private island off the coast of Haiti. There, Saint Lestat will get his chance to slay his dragon. For Mona and the Mayfairs share an explosive, secret blood bond to another deathless species: a five-thousand-year-old race of Taltos, strangers held in the throes of evil itself.

David Loogan’s dark past is revealed in this prequel to Bad Things Happen—the critically acclaimed mystery that Stephen King called a “great f***ing book.” On a rainy night in April, a chance encounter draws David into a romance with Jana Fletcher, a beautiful young law student. Jana is an enigma: living in a run-down apartment with only the barest of possessions, sporting a bruise on her cheek that she refuses to explain. David would like to know her secrets, but he lets them lie—until it’s too late. When Jana is brutally murdered, the police consider David a prime suspect. But as he sets out to uncover the truth, he soon learns that Jana’s death may be related to an earlier murder, one that she was obsessed with during the last weeks of her life. And as he retraces her steps, he begins to realize that he’s treading a very dangerous path—and that her killer is watching every move he makes.

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.

Why are so many of America's schools failing? Our children's classrooms-and the teaching and learning that take place within them-should and can be upheld as sacrosanct. One of the country's leading school principals cites the significant role that character plays, as well as the essential values that support total school success. Among the issues addressed: What are the characteristics of successful schools? What is effective school leadership? How might parents and school districts determine whether a school is well-run or in need of a change in direction? How might school districts attract, support, and retain quality, first-rate classroom teachers and administrators? The Achievement Gap-learn how this exceptional principal addressed the persistent performance disparity among groups of students, which led to all student groups meeting or exceeding state academic standards. Can schools be safe and secure places of teaching and learning? A sobering, penetrating but uplifting read, Dead Last provides poignant insight into American education, promoting a spirit of optimism that our schools can improve to world-class standing.