Jim Bartlett is a very reliable and unique professional killer for hire in the U.S. His clientele consist of mob bosses, who employ him to kill criminals, businessmen and politicians. During the Vietnam War, Bartlett was told by his commanding officer that he was "either a natural-born killer or natural-born soldier." His experience with killing led him to his career. After 29 years, Bartlett was feeling a change within himself because of his desire to be safe and secure with the woman he loved. Soon he decides to retire and on his own terms. He realizes his biggest challenge might not be the next assignment but how to retire on a tropical island with her. The problem is most hit men don't retire; they either go to jail or get killed. When a mob attorney contacts him for an assignment, Bartlett realizes this will be his last. At first, it appears to be a simple hit, until a series of unexpected events make it his most difficult yet. The story culminates with a series of surprise endings for many of the main characters who find themselves either dead, under indictment with their careers ruined or safe and secure. About the Author: John W. Gemmer resides in Syracuse and is a native resident of Indiana. For nine years, John was fortunate enough to spend part of his retirement years in Naples and Orlando, Florida. He is an Indiana University graduate and was a member of the U.S. Naval forces from 1968-1972. He served on the USS Harold J. Ellison DD 864 and worked for SACLANT, a NATO command. John spent the majority of his professional years as publisher of The Goshen (IN) News, a daily community newspaper. Gemmer had a kidney transplant on Dec. 28, 2010. In his spare time, he enjoys boating and jet skiing with family and friends, target shooting as well as reading and watching crime and drama movies. John is an avid Notre Dame, NFL and NBA fan. He has one daughter and is a proud grandfather of four.

Longarm owes his life to a man in handcuffs… Mild-mannered postal thief Brian Henry is not about to give Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long any trouble on the ride back to Denver for trial. After being double-crossed by a tantalizing temptress who took his money, Brian is good and licked. In fact, when Longarm is pistol-whipped by highwaymen, it’s his polite prisoner who comes to his aid and makes no attempt to escape as the lawman rides off to rescue a beautiful woman kidnapped by the desperadoes. But when the gun smoke clears, will this be Longarm’s last showdown?

The inspiration for the Netflix original movie War Machine, starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, and Ben Kingsley From the author of The Last Magazine, a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of our military commanders, their high-stake maneuvers, and the politcal firestorm that shook the United States. In the shadow of the hunt for Bin Laden and the United States’ involvement in the Middle East, General Stanley McChrystal, the commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was living large. His loyal staff liked to call him a “rock star.” During a spring 2010 trip, journalist Michael Hastings looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration. When Hastings’s article appeared in Rolling Stone, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was unceremoniously fired. In The Operators, Hastings picks up where his Rolling Stone coup ended. From patrol missions in the Afghan hinterlands to senior military advisors’ late-night bull sessions to hotel bars where spies and expensive hookers participate in nation-building, Hastings presents a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of what he fears is an unwinnable war. Written in prose that is at once eye-opening and other times uncannily conversational, readers of No Easy Day will take to Hastings’ unyielding first-hand account of the Afghan War and its cast of players.

Inspired by a real-life incident, this riveting novel explores the dangerous impact discrimination and antisemitism have on one community when a school assignment goes terribly wrong. Would you defend the indefensible? That's what seniors Logan March and Cade Crawford are asked to do when a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution--the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people. Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand, and soon their actions draw the attention of the student body, the administration, and the community at large. But not everyone feels as Logan and Cade do--after all, isn't a school debate just a school debate? It's not long before the situation explodes, and acrimony and anger result. Based on true events, The Assignment asks: What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail? "An important look at a critical moment in history through a modern lens showcasing the power of student activism." --SLJ

Stephen King has called him “a suspense master.” Now the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Broken Promise delivers a taut thriller about a crime that will give the town of Promise Falls a punch to the gut... Private investigator Cal Weaver doesn’t know what to expect when he’s called to the home of Chandler Carson. The sixteen-year-old has been suspended for writing a violent story about a bat-wielding teen who beats his best friend to death over a girl. Much to Chandler’s mother’s surprise, there’s nothing that Cal is willing to do—or can do—about it. Soon after, Chandler’s best friend is found murdered—beaten to death by a bat. Cal knew the victim, and now he knows the prime suspect. But there’s more to this story than anyone could have imagined... “Barclay has established himself alongside the masters of suburban fiction.”—The Associated Press “Twist-driven thrillers packed with explosive action are a hallmark of Barclay’s career.”—USA Today Includes a preview of Linwood Barclay’s new hardcover, Far from True

A witty and thought-provoking collection of visual poems constructed from stacks of books. Delighting in the look and feel of books, conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian’s playful photographic series proves that books’ covers—or more specifically, their spines—can speak volumes. Over the past two decades, Katchadourian has perused libraries across the globe, selecting, stacking, and photographing groupings of two, three, four, or five books so that their titles can be read as sentences, creating whimsical narratives from the text found there. Thought-provoking, clever, and at times laugh-out-loud funny (one cluster of titles from the Akron Museum of Art’s research library consists of: Primitive Art /Just Imagine/Picasso/Raised by Wolves), Sorted Books is an enthralling collection of visual poems full of wry wit and bookish smarts. Praise for Sorted Books “Katchadourian’s project . . . takes on a weight beyond its initial novelty. It’s a love letter to books, book collecting and the act of reading.” —San Francisco Chronicle “As a longtime fan of [Katchadourian’s] long-running Sorted Books project I’m thrilled for the release of Sorted Books—a collection spanning nearly two decades of her witty and wise minimalist mediations on life by way of ingeniously arranged book spines. . . . In an era drowned in periodic death tolls for the future of the physical book, her project stands as a celebration of the spirit embedded in the magnificent materiality of the printed page.” —Brain Pickings “Katchadourian’s stacks possess an understated sophistication; they are true to the intimate nature of books and yet reveal their dramatic features and unexpected potential.” —Publishers Weekly

In Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s experimental thriller The Assignment, the wife of a psychiatrist has been raped and killed near a desert ruin in North Africa. Her husband hires a woman named F. to reconstruct the unsolved crime in a documentary film. F. is soon unwittingly thrust into a paranoid world of international espionage where everyone is watched—including the watchers. After discovering a recent photograph of the supposed murder victim happily reunited with her husband, F. becomes trapped in an apocalyptic landscape riddled with political intrigue, crimes of mistaken identity, and terrorism. F.’s labyrinthine quest for the truth is Dürrenmatt’s fictionalized warning against the dangers of a technologically advanced society that turns everyday life into one of constant scrutiny. Joel Agee’s elegant translation will introduce a fresh generation of English-speaking readers to one of European literature’s masters of language, suspense, and dystopia. “The narrative is accelerated from the start. . . . As the novella builds to its horripilating climax, we realize the extent to which all values have thereby been inverted. The Assignment is a parable of hell for an age consumed by images.”—New York Times Book Review “His most ambitious book . . . dark and devious . . . almost obsessively drawn to mankind’s most fiendish crimes.”—Chicago Tribune “A tour-de-force . . . mesmerizing.”—Village Voice