Poltergeist meets Wild, Wild West in this genre-bending adventure trilogy readers are calling “fast-paced,” “high-stakes” and full of “page-turning twists and turns!” THE JOB It was supposed to be simple. Help Marshal Sebastian Hardin escort his prisoner one stop on the railway to Charter Oak. Just one stop. But when that prisoner is a savant who talks to ghosts, even the simplest plans have a way of falling apart. THE LAW Sheriff’s Deputy Ruth Cortez always does the right thing. Lucky Boy is a company town, dependent on the rich and powerful Carnarvon family. Besides which, the charismatic Sebastian Hardin isn’t an easy man to say no to. When his transport derails in the middle of the prairie, Ruth begins a relentless manhunt that leads straight into the dark heart of the Carnarvon empire. THE FUGITIVE Lee Merriweather favors sharp suits and fast trains – especially when he’s stealing them. At the ripe old age of 18, he’s managed to become the most wanted criminal in three territories. Lee can’t resist playing cat and mouse with a small-town deputy, but what starts as a game becomes deadly serious. THE FIXER Sebastian Hardin is the Carnarvons’ right hand, loyal to the death and willing to keep any secret to protect the family. They want Lee alive, but with the young savant’s disturbing abilities it won’t be an easy proposition. Whoever catches Lee gets the keys to the kingdom and the Carnarvons aren’t the only ones hunting him down. Sebastian has enough problems without falling for Deputy Cortez – but you can’t always choose who you love. THE PHANTOMS They terrorized the settlers until Calindra Carnarvon learned to speak their language. Her empire relies on controlling their telekinetic powers, but Lee Merriweather could destroy it all. And not even Lee suspects the shocking truth of the phantoms’ real nature.

This enchanting study on the art of living with books considers how our personal libraries reveal our true nature: far more than just places, they are living labyrinths of our innermost feelings. The author, a lifelong accumulator of books both ancient and modern, lives in a house large enough to accommodate his many thousands of books, as well as overspill from the libraries of his friends. While his musings on the habits of collectors past and present are learned, witty and instructive, his advice on cataloguing may even save the lives of those whose books are so prodigiously piled as to be a hazard... The Phantoms on the Bookshelves ranges from classical Greece to contemporary Iceland, from Balzac and Moby Dick to Google, offering up delicious anecdotes along the way. This elegantly produced volume will be a lasting delight to specialist collectors, librarians, bibliophiles and all those who treasure books.

Ian Moore-Morrans has crafted a novel of adventure, fantasy and romance set in the Scottish Highlands. In it, twin brothers from present-day Edinburgh hope to witness a “phantom battle” purported to take place annually at northern Loch Ashie. Instead they are engulfed in this battle between ancient Highlanders and Vikings which transports them back to the 12th Century. In their encounters with the local inhabitants they experience hostility, friendship, romance, death sentences and a supernatural reprieve. Finally a wizard-like being, “Ancient One,” attempts to help them return to the 21st Century.

How the classical and medieval conceptions of Fortune shifted to the modern notion of chanceIs chance nothing more than a projection of human desire on to the world? In this fascinating new study, John Lyons argues that the idea of chance assumed new vigour in the late Renaissance, when converging philosophical and literary currents demystified the powerful concept of Fortune, sensitizing writers to the relationship between human desire and the world's apparent randomness. Up to now, the story of chance has been written by historians of mathematical thought and has focused on calculation, probability and gambling. Lyons, by contrast, highlights the ethical, aesthetic and even erotic aspects of chance. He offers detailed readings of the works of major French authors - Montaigne, Corneille, Lafayette, Scudery, Pascal, Racine, Bossuet, and La Bruyere.

Harpie Colcek is a newspaper reporter assigned to write an article about a mysterious blip that appears on NORAD’s radar screen every Christmas Eve at 11:55 p.m. As he heads to interview a four-star general at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Harpie has no idea that what lies ahead is much more intriguing than what the radar techs call Santa’s Ghost or Santa’s Sleigh. After Harpie inadvertently discovers the landing site of a space ship, he sneaks aboard and is horrified to learn the commander and the passengers are the only humanoids. The crew and passengers are an advanced civilization fleeing the planet Rau because its sun is dying. The FBI and CIA believe the blip is an aircraft planting enemy spies and saboteurs on American soil. When Harpie reveals his discovery, chaos reigns throughout the world as militia groups and frightened citizens target anyone suspected to be an extraterrestrial disguised as a human. As a chain of events unfolds and a new world is revealed, the future of the human race hangs in the balance as superpowers prepare to unleash a plan with the potential to change everything. In this exciting science fiction tale, a newspaper reporter becomes intertwined with an advanced civilization from another planet as evil lurks in the shadows and threatens an apocalypse.