Bøger udgivet af Ballantine Group

Tyler and Lymie are sick in bed and bored out of their minds. But while their hometown plans a festival for a famous local artist, and folks scramble to find his last known works of art, the boys hatch a clever plot. Tyler and Limy create their own sculptures as a joke and discard them near the artist's studio. But when the sculptures are found and determined to be authentic, the art world is suddenly abuzz with news of the amazing discovery--and two boys with great imaginations are in a hilarious heap of trouble. . . .

SOLDIERS OF $$ Privateers, contract killers, corporate warriors. Contract soldiers go by many names, but they all have one thing in common: They fight for money and plunder rather than liberty, God, or country. Now acclaimed author and war vet Michael Lee Lanning traces the compelling history of these fighting machines-from the "Sea Peoples" who fought for the pharaohs' greater glory to today's soldiers for hire from private military companies (PMCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. What emerges is a fascinating account of the men who fight other people's wars-the Greeks who built an empire for Alexander the Great, the Nubians who accompanied Hannibal across the Alps, the Irish who became the first to go global in their search for work. Soldiers of fortune have always had the power to change the course of war, and Lanning examines their pivotal roles in individual battles and in the rise and fall of empires. As the employment of contract soldiers spreads in Iraq and America's War on Terrorism-the U.S. paid $30 billion to PMCs in 2003 alone-Mercenaries offers a valuable inside look at a system that appears embedded in our nation's future. Includes eight pages of photographs

Eighteen-year-old Eddie Nye was bound for U.S.C. and a bright future that fateful summer in the Bahamas. But somebody set Eddie up. Instead of four years of higher education, he did fifteen behind bars for drug smuggling. Eddie went in innocent, but with three prison murders under his belt, he comes out dangerous. Although all he wants is to stay clean, Eddie's future won't be that easy. The nightmares of his past—corruption, greed, and most of all a stunning betrayal—are on a collision course with a daring plot hatched in a prison cell. To learn the secret of his own life, half-hidden in an ancient mariner's saga, Eddie must face the hardest choice a free man can make.

Before mild-mannered furniture salesman Al Tuschman left New Jersey for a week in Key West, he hadn't an enemy in the world. But a series of puzzling assaults on his privacy, his sanity, and his life has turned his stay at the tasteful Paradise Hotel into Tropical Hell. Maybe it's the humidity. Maybe the Sambuca. Or maybe it's the nickname emblazoned on his license plate: Big Al. For Big Al Marracotta, Mafia capo, a Florida getaway means outrunning a career in crime and rancid calamari. For Katy Sansone it's a bid for sunshine and self-respect--until a case of mistaken identity pits the confused woman against a bafflement of Als and more danger than any one of them had reason to pack for. Now, if Tuschman doesn't watch his back, somebody's going to be reporting the death of another salesman. . . .

RECIPE FOR MURDER As Minnesota housewives race to meet the deadline for the Times Register's meat loaf contest, an unsavory small-towner named Kirby Runbeck is blown to smithereens by a car bomb. Days later, the town's former mayor, John Washburn, near death from a stroke, confesses to the killing. His wife and two children vehemently deny it, but when Sophie Greenway, food maven and friend of the family, happens upon an old snapshot, a bundle of letters, and a tattoo of a red-eyed snake, she wonders about Washburn's innocence. Unlike the recipe for a prize meat loaf, this murder is seasoned with spicy secrets and a generous portion of scandal, which Sophie dares to bring to a roiling boil. . . .

"Sharyn McCrumb is a born storyteller."Mary Higgins ClarkSharyn McCrumb's acclaimed sequel to MISSING SUSAN.Forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson heads to Danville, Virginia, to save her brother Bill--a novice lawyer--from a charge that could send him to prison. It seems that eight women, the daughters of Confederate veterans, had asked Bill to sell their antebellum mansion. But the real estate deal is the cover for a calculated deception. As Bill finds himself facing fraud charges, his clients suddenly disappear without a trace. It will fall to Elizabeth to follow a twisted trail of bitterness and resentment--one that leads to a Civil War secret that may be the key to the ugly truth.... A MAIN SLECTION OF THE MYSTERY GUILD

Four successful businessmen want Thomas Black to track down the four women they've had secret crushes on for years and set up "dream dates" with them. But Black, on the trail of the first dreamgirl, finds a woman battered into a coma instead. And then a double murder and the disappearance of another dreamgirl make Black realize how quickly dreams can turn into deadly nightmares . . .

They survived the "date which will live in infamy." Now they tell the unofficial story. Many books have been written about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an unprecedented event that launched the United States into World War II. But here is a rare compilation of eyewitness accounts by those who actually survived the bombing on December 7, 1941. This book is their story. Not the official version from the top brass, but the riveting, clear-as-yesterday accounts of the ordinary soldiers, sailors, airmen, nurses, chaplains, and wives who were at Pearl Harbor, going about their normal lives that fateful Sunday morning. From the burning deck of the Tennessee in the inferno of Battleship Row, from the airfields, from the hospitals, and from the Navy Yard dry docks come the chilling and unforgettable stories of these brave men and women.

If you are one of millions of smokers who are torn between the desire to smoke and the desire to stop, award-winning medical writer Dr. Tom Ferguson has the answers. With this reasoned, responsible, and practical program, he can help you control, reduce, and quit smoking on your terms. He'll show you how to : Pinpoint the psychological factors behind your habit, as well as alternative ways to handle them; use exercise, stress management, and a prudent diet to reduce your desire to smoke, and much more.

The real estate boom has come and gone. The stock market is always a risky business. Today the smart money is in antiques and collectibles: you don't need much to get started, and the market for everything from furniture to folk art, from bottles to baseball cards, is just beginning to explode! Bruce Johnson, the expert called the "Dear Abby" of antiques, shows how you can turn today's bargains and discounts into tomorrow's hot money-making deals. Here are hundreds of inside tips that show you how to: -- Get in on the bottom floor before prices begin to go through the roof-- Enter the business without a formal education or a sizable investment-- Expand your operation and increase your income without taking time away from your present job-- Find the best sales, the best days to attend, and the best deals-- Negotiate bargains with dealers -- and beat them at their own game-- Create print ads for your wares that will pull in customers eager to buy-- Sell your treasures at a profit from your home, or at flea markets, yard and garage sales, auctions, and antique malls Plus: More than thirty antiques-related services you can run from your home, including caning, appraising, and refinishing.

More than a century after its first publication, this small treasure is an uplifting guide to the true meaning of the Bible's message: We have all been endowed by our Creator with the strength and spirit to move beyond life's difficulties and attain the shining happiness that is Christianity's promise. The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life has outlived the years, not for its holy optimism alone, but more because there is nothing shallow or shadowy in its optimism. It is a rock of a book, solid and immovable, built upon the inexhaustibility of God and the unfolding of His everlasting truth. This is no quickly written "how-to-be-successful-and-popular" treatise, no ill-conceived experiment in "new thought." This is truth and proof of truth as Hannah Whitall Smith found it and lived it. She took her Bible promises literally, tested them, and found them true as tested steel. She stepped out of conjecture into certainty, and from that moment on she found no shadows on her path. Greater still, she shows us how we may do it! She writes here, not for the spiritual genius, not for the world-forsaking saint, but for those who are in the world and of it, for the great little ones who long for God as they struggle for bread. She writes in their language--plainly; the confusing theological speech of the scholar is not here; the secret is revealed in countless illustrations from the common walk of life. It is as simple and understandable as the language of Jesus Christ. Helpful to generations of Christians.--Catherine Marshall

Before celebrated author Fern Michaels soared to stardom with her Texas saga, she wrote extraordinary stories of peril and passion that have become legendary. Here is one of her classic gems--a searing tale of medieval Spain where a willful princess finds herself at the mercy of a man like no other. . . . They call him El Cid. His real name is Ruy Diez, Spain's unconquerable hero. Until he meets Mirjana. The beautiful princess of Seville begs him to rescue her from a nightmare. But once she is in his arms, he cannot let go. He takes possession of her body and soul, forsaking his own ruthless ambitions in the name of desire, only to betray her. But Mirjana has plans of her own--and she will battle the king himself to win the heart of her beloved warrior.

"Stanton's battalion was the first army unit in Somalia in 1992 and it did one hell of a job accomplishing a difficult mission where there wasn't a template. I had the pleasure of tagging along with his unit and saw first-hand how its leaders dealt with and solved problems. . . . A first-rate book and a must read. All professional soldier-leaders should carry Stanton's book in their rucksacks."--DAVID H. HACKWORTH Author of About Face and Hazardous DutyA country torn by seemingly endless war, a people tormented and victimized by relentless banditry---into this land of warlords came the soldiers of the army's elite 10th Mountain Division. They were strangers in a strange land sent to restore hope to this cauldron of misery and despair. The Pentagon deemed it a hostile fire zone thereby earning each soldier a monthly bonus of $150-- Somalia on $5.00 a day. Major Stanton and the infantrymen of Task Force 2-87 found themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, trying to accomplish a vague and constantly changing mission where knowing the good guys from the bad guys was nearly impossible. When the focus of Restore Hope changed from limited famine relief to nation building, the men found themselves in armed clashes with Somali warlords. In this exciting and often humorous memoir, Stanton relates the mounting frustrations experienced by the U.S. soldiers, futility that culminated in the infamous chaos on the streets of Mogadishu.

"Vietnam was a fantasy life of gunfire, blood, heat, and superhuman toil." By late 1969, the end of the war was just over the horizon. But for Ches Schneider, a drafted schoolteacher turned infantry grunt in the deadly Central Highlands, it was just beginning. This story of a Missouri boy, told with grit and honesty, describes the stark transition from the normalcy of schooldays to the life-and-death drama endured daily in Vietnam's bloody jungles. As a soldier in the 1st Infantry Division, Schneider went out on twelve-man search-and-destroy combat missions, never knowing whether the next moment would bring an ambush, a firefight, or eternal oblivion. Later, when the Big Red One rotated back to the U.S., he was transferred to the 1st Cav and fought it out with the NVA in the steamy jungles of Phuoc Long Province near the Cambodian border. As an ordinary man in extraordinary times, Schneider realistically captures the pain, loss, sacrifice, and courage of the men who fought for their lives even as the war wound down . . . .

DETECTIVE-CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT ERSKINE POWELL RETURNS--INVESTIGATING MALICE IN HIS OWN BACKYARD. When a murder victim is discovered in the murky waters of the River Thames, Erskine Powell of Scotland Yard plunges into the most diabolical case of his distinguished career. A second brutal slaying draws Powell even deeper into a tangled web of greed, deception, and blackmail. From Tower Bridge to Soho, from Mayfair to Bloomsbury, Powell throws a dragnet across London, racing against time to link two savage crimes--and stop a cold-blooded killer dead in his tracks. . . .

Bestselling author Judith Michael's most moving and captivating novel spans the pastoral beauty of the Pacific Northwest . . . the glitter of Broadway . . . the spectacular vistas of Sydney, Australia . . . and the myriad acts of love that will reunite a lost woman with her dreams, her destiny, and the one man who truly believes in her talent--and in their love. . . . When director Lucas Cameron finds letters to his grandmother from her protégé--the brilliant young actress Jessica Fontaine--who had vanished mysteriously after a tragic accident, he is intrigued, and determined to find her. When finally they meet, they have one magic week of passion and love. But still Jessica cannot return with Lucas to his world--and he cannot share hers--unless they discover the many kinds of love, and the inner strength, that can triumph over the past and open the way for their hands and hearts to join.

ERSKINE POWELL OF SCOTLAND YARD IS BACK--INVESTIGATING THE STRANGE RIDDLE OF PENRICK SANDS. On the north coast of Cornwall, residents in the quaint seaside town of Penrick report a terrifying phenomenon--an eerie, glowing apparition that rides the surf at night, adding a weird fascination to this place of picturesque streets, secluded beaches, and abandoned mines. Yet Chief Superintendent Powell soon learns that Penrick already harbors unsolved mysteries. For, thirty years ago, someone killed a teenager and left her body to wash up on Penrick Sands--precisely where the apparition now appears. In fact, Powell faces not one but two strangely intertwined puzzles and a double-edged sword of menace. . . .

FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH Every year, the Morris Avenue Boys--chums since childhood--gather for a Father's Day reunion dinner. Now late in middle age, these men can bask in the rewards of honest success. So which of them seizes the opportunity that fateful evening to pull out an ice pick and stab to death the group's most celebrated member, novelist Arthur Wein? As investigator (and former nun) Christine Bennett peels back the layers of the past, forty years' worth of secrets emerge from the shadows--and the web of lies, theft, adultery, and blackmail woven by the once-innocent Bronx playmates rivals even the darkest plot of the dead man's novels. But in real life, this flesh-and-blood villain may never be caught. . . .

HOW WORDS WORK--AND HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK FOR YOU!Read, write, and speak more clearly and more confidently with this compact, concise, all-in-one vocabulary-building guide. In school and in business, in public speaking and in private conversation, knowing just the right words to say can make a world of difference. Now, here's a book that puts a world of word power at your fingertips, including: * A handy pronunciation guide, including an extensive list of words that are often mispronounced* How to use prefixes and suffixes to dramatically increase your vocabulary * Word roots and histories--the keys to mastering English* An invaluable glossary of usage to ensure that you choose the right words and put them in their proper placePlus, numerous vocabulary tests and exercises as well as a section of entertaining word puzzles.THE RANDOM HOUSE POWER VOCABULARY BUILDERFor home, school, or office, it's an expression of success.

On the bustling docks along the River Thames, Great Britain's merchant ships unload the treasures of the world. And here, in dank and sinister alleys, sex merchants ply their lucrative trade. The dreaded kingpin of this dark realm is Jericho Phillips, who seems far beyond the reach of the law. But when thirteen-year-old Fig is found with his throat cut, Commander William Monk of the River Police swears that Phillips will hang for this abomination. Monk's wife, Hester, draws a highly unusual guerrilla force to her husband's cause--a canny ratcatcher, a retired brothel keeper, a fearless street urchin, and a rebellious society lady. To one as criminally minded as Phillips, these folks are mere mosquitoes, to be sure. But as he will soon discover, some mosquitoes can have a deadly sting.