New York 's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons-the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police's fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit. Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. Shocked and shaken, he doesn't realize that he's accidentally captured a key piece of evidence. Ensnared in the city's most sensational crime in years, Nick investigates for a story of his own. Back off-or die-is the clear message as he closes in on the facts. Heedless, and perhaps in love, Nick endures humiliation, threats, violence, and worse in a thriller that overturns every expectation and finishes with the kind of flourish only James Patterson knows.

Meet Tommy St. James!In this novella, the first in a series of three, a blast from the past turns sinister when Minneapolis photojournalist Tommy St. James goes to meet an old friend and instead finds a dead body. As she investigates the murder, St. James suddenly finds herself taking care of a young boy who is far from his Mexican home. Rafael's father, hoping to give the boy a better life, paid a coyote to smuggle his son safely into America. But nobody knew what lay waiting just on the other side of the border. Instead of ending up at his uncle's house in Arizona, Rafael is taken prisoner and brought to Minnesota.He briefly escapes his captors with the help of Tommy St. James' friend, but they come back for him. While investigating the murder of her friend and trying to rescue Rafael, Tommy St. James unearths a perverted plot with international repercussions that involves some of the city's top dogs.

The fifteenth book in the Alex Cross series The year is 1906, and America is segregated. Hatred and discrimination plague the streets, the classroom, and the courts. But in Washington D.C., Ben Corbett, a smart and courageous lawyer, makes it his mission to confront injustice at every turn. He represents those who nobody else dares defend, merely because of the color of their skin. When President Roosevelt, under whom Ben served in the Spanish-American war, asks Ben to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in his home town in Mississippi, he cannot refuse. The details of Ben’s harrowing story – and his experiences with a remarkable man named Abraham Cross – were passed from generation to generation, until they were finally recounted to Alex Cross by his grandmother, Nana Mama. From the first time hear heard the story, Alex was unable to forget the unimaginable events Ben witnessed in Eudora and pledged to tell it to the world. Alex Cross’s Trial is unlike any story Patterson has ever told, but offers the astounding action and breakneck speed of any Alex Cross novel.

From the world's #1 bestselling author comes the newest book in the blockbuster PRIVATE series...Santosh Wagh quit his job as head of Private India after harrowing events in Mumbai almost got him killed. But Jack Morgan, global head of the world's finest investigation agency, needs him back. Jack is setting up a new office in Delhi, and Santosh is the only person he can trust.Still battling his demons, Santosh accepts, and it's not long before the agency takes on a case that could make or break them. Plastic barrels containing dissolved human remains have been found in the basement of a house in an upmarket area of South Delhi. But this isn't just any house, this property belongs to the state government. With the crime scene in lockdown and information suppressed by the authorities, delving too deep could make Santosh a target to be eliminated.

Part social satire, part police procedural, Bill James returns with the stunning prequel to Tip Top - In the drug-ridden Whitsun and Temperate housing estates a connection, once made, is only ever one thing: trouble. Trouble for the journalist whose investigation into the estates leads to his murder; trouble for policewoman Esther Davidson, whose job it is to arrest the killer; and trouble for TV producer Larry Edgehill, who becomes more involved with a Romeo and Juliet-esque cross-estate romance than he ever would have wanted .

The ninth book in the Alex Cross series Alex Cross' family is in terrible danger – at the same time that his new job with the FBI brings him the scariest case of his career. A team of kidnappers has been snatching successful, upstanding men and women right before their families' eyes – possibly to sell them into slavery. Alex's knowledge of the D.C. streets, together with his unique insights into criminal psychology, make this mindbending case one that only he can solve – if he can just get his colleagues to set aside their staid and outdated methods. With unexpected twists and whiplash surprises, this is another brilliantly irresistible novel from America's bestselling suspense writer.

Professor Monroe, did you kill your wife?Professor Robert Monroe's wife has vanished from their 5-star hotel in Gstaad, and no one saw a thing. Was she kidnapped? Or did she run off with the handsome Italian she and Robert partied with the night before?BookShotsLIGHTNING-FAST STORIES BY JAMES PATTERSONNovels you can devour in a few hours Impossible to stop reading All original content from James Patterson

Imagine a killer who thinks, "What is the worst thing anyone has ever done?"--and then goes far beyond it. Now imagine four women --a police detective, an assistant DA, a reporter, and a medical examiner --who join forces as they sidestep their bosses to track down criminals. Known as the Women's Murder Club, they are pursuing a murderer whose twisted imagination has stunned an entire city. Their chief suspect is a socially prominent writer, but the men in charge won't touch him. On the trail of the most terrifying and unexpected killer ever, they discover a shocking surprise that turns everything about the case upside down.Amazon.com ReviewThe Women's Murder Club pits four San Francisco women professionals against a serial killer who's stalking and murdering newlyweds in bestselling author James Patterson's newest thriller. Lindsay Boxer is a homicide inspector who's just gotten some very bad news. She deals with it by immersing herself in her newest case and soliciting the personal as well as professional support of her closest friend, who happens to be the city's medical examiner. The two women, along with an ambitious and sympathetic reporter and an assistant DA, form an unlikely alliance, pooling their information and bypassing the chain of command in an engaging, suspenseful story whose gruesome setup is vintage Patterson. "What is the worst thing anyone has ever done?" the killer muses to himself early in the narrative. "Am I capable of doing it? Do I have what it takes?" Answering his own question, he embarks on a murderous spree that takes him from the bridal suite in a Nob Hill hotel to a honeymoon destination in the Napa Valley and thence to a wedding reception at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Dispatching his victims on the happiest day of their lives, he purposefully leaves enough clues for his distaff trackers to discover his identity and put him behind bars. But just when the women think they've got the case all wrapped up, the killer turns the tables on them in a bloody denouement that even the most discerning reader won't see coming. Patterson, author of the popular Alex Cross mysteries, promises future adventures for the Women's Murder Club, which may give him an opportunity to develop his heroines' characters more completely and win new fans among those who prefer their detectives in high heels and lipstick. --Jane AdamsFrom Library JournalFans of Patterson (Along Came a Spider) will not be disappointed with his latest effort. A killer is murdering recently married couples, and police detective Lindsay is stumped. Off duty, she forms a murder club comprising three of her friends: an assistant district attorney, a newspaper reporter, and a coroner. The four women use everything at their disposal to figure out who the killer is before he can strike again. Their lead suspect is a world-famous writer whose plots resemble the murders. Deploying Patterson's usual short chapters, the book is exciting to the last page. One hopes that it is the first installment in what deserves to be a new series; Patterson should give Alex Cross a rest and concentrate on these four women instead. 1st to Die will air as a miniseries on NBC in May, so expect demand. For all public libraries.- Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.