Kill some time with former hit man Taro Sakamoto!

Taro Sakamoto was once a legendary hit man considered the greatest of all time. Bad guys feared him! Assassins revered him! But then one day he quit, got married, and had a baby. He’s now living the quiet life as the owner of a neighborhood store, but how long can Sakamoto enjoy his days of retirement before his past catches up to him?!

The fight between Gaku and Nagumo ends with Nagumo delivering a knockout blow. Down in the museum’s basement, X confronts the JAA’s chairman while X’s gang takes on Shishiba and Shin on the upper floor! As these battles reach their climaxes, Sakamoto rushes to X—but can he make it there in time?

THE BRAND NEW BOOK IN THE TIKTOK FANTASY SENSATION THAT'S SOLD OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES, PERFECT FOR FANS OF SARAH J. MAAS AND JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT 'Read this series NOW! I felt like I was in the story watching and holding my breath the entire time' 5***** Reader Review 'Sexy and touching all at the same time . . . and that plot twist, OMG' 5***** Reader Review _________ 'It scares me - what I did that night. Because I don't know my own power . . . But that's been the problem all along, hasn't it?' My life has been shaped and controlled by the greed of others, but that ends now. I have burned down the court of King Midas and from those flames, I will rise and wield my own power. The problem is, when you turn against a King - everyone turns against you. But with Slade by my side we will fight the monarchs that come for us. And if we need to become the villains, then so be it. Because as long as I live in this world, I won't be used again. I must be strong. I must be undefeatable. I will shine like the sun - and blind our enemies . . . _________ 'A spectacularly written, engaging, imaginative retelling of the ancient myth of King Midas' 5***** Reader Review 'I literally devoured this book in one sitting' 5***** Reader Review

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King's most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to uncover the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a Midwestern town.

Bonnie Dahl is missing . . .

Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency is meant to be on leave. But she finds it impossible to turn down Bonnie's mother's desperate request for help.

Then she discovers a single earring close to the location of Bonnie's abandoned bike.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harbouring a savage secret in the basement of their book-lined home.

Now Holly must summon all her formidable talents if she is to uncover the truth behind multiple disappearances in her Midwestern town.

1987. Die opdrag aan Spesmagte se sersant Jos Fourie is eenvoudig: pas 'n vrag missiele op wat stil-stil uit Oos-Duitsland verskeep moet word. Maar iets vrot. Eers die onverklaarbare teenwoordigheid van 'n groep US Navy Seals wat hom in Duitsland dophou, daarna die skokontdekking van wapengehalte uraan-235 wat versteek is in sy vrag. Jos het elke greintjie vernuf waaroor hy beskik nodig om aan die lewe te bly onder die aanslag van Nigeriese seerowers, die agtervolgende Angolese vloot en sy ontluikende gevoelens vir die mooi ingenieurstudent Ashley Ramirez.

Dit word 'n nagmerrie-tog van die Noordsee tot by 'n geheimsinnige Weermag-skag in die Kalahari se duine, 'n aksiebelaaide wedren teen tyd om 'n katastrofiese kerntoets te stop voor dit 'n internasionale insident veroorsaak en sodoende die brose onderhandelingsproses na Suid-Afrika se ontluikende demokrasie kelder.

Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered Stephen King's seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction. It has sold millions of copies and has been adapted twice for television. Generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilisation, and its stunning array of characters.

Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorised a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology, as presented by award-winning authors and editors C hristopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today's greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand - brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel.

Featuring an introduction by Stephen King, a foreword by C hristopher Golden and afterword by Brian Keene. C ontributors include Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer C anon, C . Robert C argill, Nat C assidy, V. C astro, Richard C hizmar, S. A. C osby, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, C aroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, C ynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, C atherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, C atriona Ward, C huck Wendig, Wrath James White and Rio Youers.

From bestselling indie author and TikTok favorite Laura Thalassa comes a witch fantasy set in the world of the Bargainer series. At age twenty, Selene Bowers desperately hopes to be accepted into Henbane Coven, an academy for young witches. Since one of the requirements for entry is to connect with her powers via a quest through the wilderness, Selene books a trip to South America. When a nefarious supernatural force tries to drag her plane from the sky, Selene's magic awakens to save her life-at a cost. Using her powers devours her memories, one by one. Worse, when Selene braves the jungle and discovers the source of the attack, she finds herself awakening an ancient evil, Memnon the Cursed, who mistakes Selene for his long-dead wife. The wife who betrayed him. Selene manages to escape and begin her studies at Henbane, but when Memnon turns up at the coven and witches are found dead across campus, Selene becomes entangled in a dangerous plot. Accused of the murders on the basis of her memory loss, Selene must rely on Memnon's help for answers-and his plans for her will change everything.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

Moving, passionate, and unforgettable, this novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover follows two young adults from completely different backgrounds embarking on a tentative romance, unaware of what the future holds.

After a childhood filled with poverty and neglect, Beyah Grim finally has her hard-earned ticket out of Kentucky with a full ride to Penn State. But two months before she’s finally free to change her life for the better, an unexpected death leaves her homeless and forced to spend the remainder of her summer in Texas with a father she barely knows.

Devastated and anxious for the summer to go by quickly, Beyah has no time or patience for Samson, the wealthy, brooding guy next door. Yet, the connection between them is too intense to ignore. But with their upcoming futures sending them to opposite ends of the country, the two decide to maintain only a casual summer fling. Too bad neither has any idea that a rip current is about to drag both their hearts out to sea.

The urbane New Yorker sets out on his fifth and sixth cases
This is the third volume of the Leonaur series of Philo Vance Murder Mysteries. In the first novel of this book-the fifth in the series-the title 'The Scarab Murder Case' gives the clue to its subject matter. The crime takes place in a private house which is also a museum of Egyptology. The murderer has deliberately hidden his identity under a smoke screen of ancient Egyptian references-including the introduction of the possibility that the death may actually be due to the vengeance of an angry Nilotic god. Predictably, Philo Vance knows better. From ancient history and hieroglyphics, Vance steps into the world of dog breeding-a subject about which, predictably, he is also an expert-to solve the second story in this volume: 'The Kennel Murder Case'. Two dead brothers, a wounded Scottish Terrier, broken Chinese porcelain and a cast of suspicious characters all combine to provide an entertaining romp of detective fiction from the dependably erudite Philo Vance which will delight both newcomers and acolytes alike.

The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive, and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them, and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

Petunia Moraleng, voormalige stasiebevelvoerder op Parys, is haar rang kwyt en oorgeplaas Mooibaai toe. Die bedompige klimaat voel soos ’n tronksel en sy mis die ooptes van die Vrystaat en, daarmee saam, bekostigbare blyplek. Speursersant JP Hendriks, aan wie sy deesdae rapporteer, toon boonop nie ’n greintjie simpatie nie.

Een Vrydagoggend in Desember vang ’n vakansieganger met sy hommeltuig se kamera ’n afgryslike toneel vas. Tussen die voetstukke van ’n geroeste windpomp in ’n afgeleë stuk veld wat grens aan ’n staproete, lê ’n bebloede bondeltjie mens. Minder as 24 uur later word ’n foto van nóg ’n slagoffer iewers in ’n stegie van die onderdorp soos ’n veldbrand op sosiale media versprei.

Wat het Die Clowns, ’n Russiese skeepskaptein en die matriarg van die vooraanstaande Heemstra-familie se testament gemeen? En waar kom die albaster wat in die eerste slagoffer se hand vasgeknyp is, vandaan?

Petunia en JP bevind hulself oornag as die hoofondersoekers in ’n duistere moordsaak.

One summer before World War I, a young couple escapes on a romantic weekend getaway to the small German town of Rheinsberg, north of Berlin, in the midst of a rural landscape filled with country houses and castles, cobble-stone streets, lush forests, and dreamy lakes. The story of Wolfie and Claire, told with a fresh, new style of ironic humor, became Kurt Tucholsky s first literary success and the blueprint for love for an entire generation. Kurt Tucholsky was a was a brilliant satirist, poet, storyteller, lyricist, pacifist, and Democrat; a fighter, lady s man, one of the most famous journalists in Weimar Germany, and an early warner against the Nazis. Erich Kaestner called him a "small, fat Berliner," who "wanted to stop a catastrophe with his typewriter." When Tucholsky began to write, he had five voices in the end, he had none. His books were burned and banned by the Nazis, who drove him out of his country. But he is not forgotten. Rheinsberg is at once a delightful and a deeply disquieting story. The lovers, Claire and Wolfie a silly but harmless pair escape the confines of Berlin for a romantic romp in the countryside. As their brief interlude nears its end, already consigned to memory, there comes with it an end to innocence, to frivolity. It was 1912; Kurt Tucholsky s prescience was uncanny: the holiday is over and soon we will go to war. --Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Hester Among the Ruins and The Scenic Route Once known as Weimar Germany s greatest political satirist and one of that fabled era s most celebrated literary figures, Kurt Tucholsky is today virtually unknown in America. Now, readers have the chance to discover one of his early pieces of fiction that exhibits the intense wit, charm, and rhetorical verve for which he earned his reputation. Noah Isenberg, author of Between Redemption and Doom: The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism In Rheinsberg, Tucholsky delivers the newness and intensity of young love, sweet, sometimes strident, with repartee juxtaposed against the sylvan landscape of rural Germany. Poignant, biting, tender: a reminder of what love promises and can be. Victoria Zackheim, playwright, novelist, and anthologist A wonderful and charming love story, finally rediscovered and brought to America Claudia Dreifus, Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, New York Teachers and students of history and literature will welcome this collection of texts by Kurt Tucholsky, an early 20th century master of literary and political criticism, whose incisive and elegant voice will now be more widely available in English. Atina Grossmann, Professor of History at Cooper Union and author of Jews, Germans and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Germany Rheinsberg a short story of two unconventional lovers in the last carefree days of Germany before 1914. The first major work by the anti-Nazi journalist and poet Kurt Tucholsky finally appears in a new translation for English speakers. Ian King, Professor of German, Chair of the Kurt Tucholsky Society

The start of a dark and bloody new fantasy epic from New York Times bestseller Anthony Ryan, whose books have sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Prokureur Ian Brand stuur ’n ondeurdagte twiet die kuberruim in en sy lewe word oornag pure hel. Thuli Khumalo, studenteaktivis op 'n kampus wat stink na petrol en traangas, moet kies tussen vaderverraad of haar beginsels versaak. Snaar Windvogel, vroeër van Matjiesfontein, is nou in transisie onder die lem van ’n enigmatiese plastiese chirurg. En al hoe gereelder slaan ’n kruisboogmoordenaar in die Moederstad toe . . .

Hierdie en vele ander fassinerende karakters bevolk ’n landskap waarin die enigste sekerheid ónsekerheid is. Want Etienne van Heerden se tergend aktuele nuwe roman sê veel oor die tyd waarin ons lewe, waar privaatheid en identiteit abstrakte begrippe geword het, fopnuus ononderskeibaar van die werklikheid, en “die waarheid” klaarblyklik ’n onhaalbare ideaal.

Parties and Passions is a literary celebration. Love, betrayal, sadness, humor and more are explored in this collection of party stories by classic authors.

Featuring tales from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Parties and Passions shows making merry doesn’t always go to plan. Joy and disappointment, murder and mix-ups: there’s a party for everyone here. Find stories of glamorous masked balls from Edgar Allan Poe and Alexandre Dumas, ghostly wedding celebrations dreamed up by Edith Nesbit and Washington Irving, and more occasions for dancing and music in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘Wiser Than a God’. Nothing happens as expected in Nella Larsen’s ‘The Wrong Man’ and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Bridal Party’, and calm gatherings descend into chaos in witty and ironic writing from Saki and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

With an international range of much-loved writers from Akutagawa to Tolstoy, here is an eclectic collection of literary parties to suit every mood.

When the UK's favourite breakfast TV presenter dies live on air in front of millions of viewers, the nation is left devastated.

More devastated still when it becomes clear that her death was not an accident.

The evidence points to one culprit: celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks. But junior barrister Adam Green is about to discover that the case is not as open-and-shut as it first seemed.

And although her angelic persona would suggest otherwise, she was not short of enemies in the glittery TV world . . .

Can Adam uncover the truth?

They raised her. Nurtured her. And lied about everything.

They told Sadie she was adopted.

They gave her a home and showered her with love.

But they lied.

Sadie was stolen.

They say Sadie’s making it all up.

But you shouldn’t believe a word…

It’s their toughest case yet. And their best detective is missing.

Holmes, Margaret and Poe’s Brooklyn-based detective agency solves the crimes no one else can. Or they did – until Holmes decided to leave the business.

There is no time to waste as the team are called to a fresh NYPD crime scene – and tasked with looking into the disappearance of six children.

Time is ticking as they work to unravel the mystery.

But they need Holmes.

If they're going to solve the crime of the century, first they must save their friend.

'Secrets and stones have settled in Hawden where everything stays as it is; the past is hidden, or rewritten. Lauren lives with her dad and Mr Lion after her mother left her when she was three months old. Her boyfriend Peter is struggling with his identity. When Meg and her son Richard arrive, both dangerously attractive, and Ali too, angry and on the run from drug dealers, old stories resurface, creating new tensions. After seventeen years Lauren's mother comes back into her life and nothing is quite what it seems any more, but love, however tainted, can sometimes heal.' TAINTED LOVE is a modern gothic tale of how old stories can unravel people's lives.

From BookTok sensation Emily McIntire comes a dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining of The Wizard of Oz. A woman can be great, and terrible too. Evelina Westerly has always been the bad guy. As the brains, brawn, and botanist behind her family's drug empire, she's her father's ruthless secret weapon. With her days divided between perfecting her greenhouse, seeking revenge for her sister's murder, and putting a gun to the head of anyone in her way, Evelina doesn't have time for anything else. Especially not for love. After a one-night stand with a gorgeous man at a nightclub, she's sated her urges and is back to her criminal ways. That is, until that same man shows up as the new Westerly lackey...under a totally different name. But Nicholas Woodsworth's real secret is much more dangerous than an alias. He's an undercover DEA agent, and he's hell-bent on destroying the drug trade that devastated his family. When he realizes the youngest daughter of the Westerly empire is the same woman he's been fantasizing about since that night at the club, attraction wars violently with disgust. Evelina embodies everything he's against, and he's been sent here to be her downfall. Yet the more they learn about the darkness in each other's hearts, the more alike they seem, and when hatred turns to something more, Nicholas will have to decide whether he can love a wretched woman, even if it means bringing both of their lives to ruin.

Vern, a hunted woman alone in the woods, gives birth to twins and raises them away from the influence of the outside world. But something is wrong - not with them, but with her own body. It's changing, it's itching, it's stronger, it's... not normal.

To understand her body's metamorphosis, Vern must investigate not just the secluded religious compound she fled but the violent history of dehumanization, medical experimentation, and genocide that produced it. In the course of reclaiming her own darkness, Vern learns that monsters aren't just individuals, but entire histories, systems, and nations.

Sorrowland is a memorable work of Gothic fiction that wrestles with the tangled history of racism in America and the marginalisation of society's undesirables. It is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in American fiction.

The weakest of the weak, E-class hunter Jinwoo Sung has no money, no talent, and no prospects to speak of. And when he enters a hidden dungeon that fateful day, he ends up being left to die in the aftermath of a horrendous tragedy. At death's door, Jinwoo is suddenly invited to be a "player" by a mysterious voice. Desperate to live, Jinwoo jumps at the chance...but what is this strange new leveling system that only he can see?

From the author of Sunday Times bestseller, TALL BONES, comes a story of journalist returning to her home in the swamplands of Louisiana.

The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers.

The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother.

Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…