FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA 'One of the last century's most original literary talents' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A magician, a virtuoso' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'There is an intense and exhilarating fusion of feeling, landscape, climate, character and story' GUARDIAN 'Mary Farren went into the gun room one morning about half-past eleven, took her husband's revolver and loaded it, then shot herself. The butler heard the sound of the gun from the pantry ... ' The fourteen haunting stories in this collection span the whole of Daphne du Maurier's writing career and explore every human emotion: an apparently happily married woman commits suicide; a steamer in wartime is rescued by a mysterious sailing-ship; a dull husband breaks loose in a surprising fashion; a con woman plays her game once too often; and a famous novelist looks for romance, only to meet with bitter disappointment. Each meticulously observed tale shows du Maurier's mastery of the genre.

In the spellbinding Arthur C. Clarke tradition, here is an exhilarating adventure into the hearts of both the Universe and mankind . . . By the twenty-third century Earth has already had two encounters with massive, mysterious robotic spacecraft from beyond our solar system—the incontestable proof of an alien technology that far exceeds our own. Now three human cosmonauts are trapped aboard a labyrinthine Raman vessel, where it will take all of their physical and mental resources to survive. Only twelve years into their journey do these intrepid travelers learn their destination and face their ultimate challenge: a rendezvous with a Raman base—and the unseen architects of their galactic home. The cosmonauts have given up family, friends, and possessions to live a new kind of life. But the answers that await them at the Raman Node will require an even greater sacrifice—if humanity is indeed ready to learn the awe-inspiring truth.

In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier's considerable talent. "The appeal of romance and the clash of highly-charged emotions."-New York Herald-Tribune

Perhaps the most famous aviator of World War II, Butch O'Hare captured America's hearts and headlines in 1942 after saving the carrier Lexington in what has been called the most daring single action in the history of combat aviation - the downing of five attacking Japanese bombers. Yet the untimely and still controversial death of this Medal of Honor recipient the next year cast a shadow over O'Hare's legacy. This first full biography, written with the O'Hare family's cooperation and utilizing recently released Japanese war records, chronicles the short but eventful life of the American hero and sheds new light on his mysterious death. Seasoned naval aviation historians, the authors describe in fascinating detail O'Hare's awe-inspiring feats of aerial combat and his key role in developing tactics such as the Thach Weave and the night-fighting techniques that helped defeat the Japanese.

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time.

A former member of the French Resistance encounters an SS officer who interrogated her twenty years earlier in this novel that’s part thriller and part love story Twenty years after World War II, at a smart cocktail party in New York City, architect Karl Amstat finds himself face-to-face with Terese Masson. A courier in the Resistance, then eighteen-year-old Terese had been questioned by SS officer Alfred Brunnerman. The scion of an elite family, Brunnerman joined the Gestapo in 1940. Though experienced in counter-espionage and famed for his intellectual approach to prisoners, he secretly detested brutality of any kind. After the war, Brunnerman fled to Switzerland, where he reinvented himself as Karl Amstat. But he never forgot Terese. The now married Terese has no memory of this long-ago ordeal, and, unaware of Amstat’s true identity, she finds herself irresistibly attracted to him. But he’s a hunted outcast who has been living a lie for twenty years. When he’s reported to Israeli Intelligence, Amstat is ready to make the greatest sacrifice for the woman he loves more than life itself—the woman who has given him back his identity.

During the twenty-second century, a space probe's investigation of a mysterious, cylindrical asteroid brings man into contact with an extra-galactic civilization