The House of the Scorpion


Book Description

Newberry Honour Award Winner & National Book Award Winner. Matt is six years old when he discovers that he is different from other children and other people. To most, Matt isn't considered a boy at all, but a beast, dirty and disgusting. But to El Patron, lord of a country called Opium, Matt is the guarantee of eternal life. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself - for Matt is himself. They share the exact same DNA. As Matt struggles to understand his existence and what that existence truly means, he is threatened by a host of sinister and manipulating characters, from El Patron's power-hungry family to the brain-deadened eejits and mindless slaves that toil Opium's poppy fields. Surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards, escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But even escape is no guarantee of freedom . . . because Matt is marked by his difference in ways that he doesn't even suspect. Praise for The House of Scorpions: 'It's a pleasure to read science fiction that's full of warm, strong characters... that doesn't rely on violence as the solution to complex problems of right and wrong. It's a pleasure to read.' Ursula K. LeGuin 'Fabulous' Diana Wynne Jones Also by Nancy Farmer: The Sea of Trolls Land of the Silver Apples The Islands of the Blessed The Lord of Opium




The Skorpion Directive


Book Description

In Vienna for a secret meeting, CIA cleaner Micah Dalton notices he is being followed. When he turns the tables and captures one of his watchers-mysterious operative Veronika Miklas-he is targetd by not only his enemies but his allies. He has inadvertently uncovered a secret that could shatter America's strategic global alliances. And Dalton will have to push himself to the very edge in a desperate attempt to save his honor and his life.




Scorpion Down


Book Description

One Navy admiral called it “one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era.” The U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident. For decades, the real story of the disaster eluded journalists, historians, and the family members of the lost crew. But a small handful of Navy and government officials knew the truth: The sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion on May 22, 1968, was an act of war. In Scorpion Down, military reporter Ed Offley reveals that the true cause of the Scorpion’s sinking was buried by the U.S. government in an attempt to keep the Cold War from turning hot. For five months, the families of the Scorpion crew waited while the Navy searched feverishly for the missing submarine. For the first time, Offley reveals that entire search was cover-up, devised to conceal that fact that the Scorpion had been torpedoed by the Soviets. In this gripping and controversial book, Offley takes the reader inside the shadowy world of the Cold War military, where rival superpowers fought secret battles far below the surface of the sea.




Skorpion's Death


Book Description




Scorpion Strike


Book Description

An island paradise is taken hostage in a plot to spark global war in this “perfect summer read for thriller fans” by the New York Times bestselling author (Publishers Weekly, starred review). For Jonathan Grave and Gail Bonneville, the Crystal Sands Resort just off Mexico’s Pacific coast is the perfect getaway—until gunshots shatter the night. Wealthy guests are yanked out of their rooms and forced to submit to their captors’ demands. But Grave and Bonneville are no ordinary vacationers. The Russian mercenaries who invade their bungalow receive a deadly surprise. And the two skilled operatives escape into the jungle. It won’t be long before the invaders turn this tropical paradise into a powder keg that will set off global chaos. Grave may be without weapons—and cut off from his usual tactical team—but he’s never without resources. Bold action is the only solution. Like the scorpion, Grave must strike fast and hard.




On the Good Ship Caligula


Book Description

When the Exceptionals uncover a deadly gladiatorial combat that has been televised worldwide, they make an even more horrifying discovery: one of their own, the techninja Temper, is a participant and fighting for her life.Conner Le-Shott is convicted of murder and then escapes jail only to find himself embroiled in the deadly games. He meets the young girl, Jester, who badly needs his help and finds his interest is more than professional.Can the Bodyguard discover where the games are and stop mad man Caligula's plans for world nuclear destruction before Le'Schott loses his life—or his heart? EPPIE Award Finalist!




Over the Edge


Book Description

* A different sort of true climbing adventure—this one with terrorists, kidnappings, and AK47s * New afterword by the author * First time in paperback Before dawn on August 12, 2000, four of America’s best young rock climbers—Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden, Jason “Singer” Smith, and John Dickey—were asleep in their portaledges high on the Yellow Wall in the Pamir-Alai mountain range of Kyrgyzstan. At daybreak, they would be kidnapped at gunpoint by fanatical militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which operates out of secret bases in Tajikistan and Afghanistan and is linked to Al Qaeda. The kidnappers, themselves barely out of their teens, intended to use their hostages as human shields and for ransom money as they moved across Kyrgyzstan. They hid the climbers by day and marched them by night through freezing, treacherous mountain terrain, with little food, no clean water, and the constant threat of execution. The four climbers -- the oldest of them only 25 -- would see a fellow hostage, a Kyrgyz soldier, executed before their eyes. And in a remarkable life-and-death crucible over six terrifying days, they would be forced to choose between saving their own lives and committing an act none of them thought they ever could. In Over the Edge, the climbers reveal the complete story of their nightmarish ordeal to journalist and climber Greg Child. With riveting details, Child re-creates the entire hour-by-hour drama, from the first ricocheting bullets to the climatic decision that gains them their freedom. Set in a region rife with narcotics and terrorism, this is a compelling story about loyalty and the will to survive. What continues to make it relevant today, 15 years after the events took place, is the geopolitical context -- the incident happened, eerily, on the eve of 9–/11; the fact that at least two of the four climbers continue to be prominent in the sport; and the details incorporated into the story around the media hype and controversy regarding the climbers and their story.




The Scorpion God


Book Description




Death Is Waiting In Sonora


Book Description

DEATH IS WAITING IN SONORA By Alfred Bekker The volume of this book corresponds to 40 pocket pages. The American West in the years after the Civil War: Jeff Kane has fled from the law by crossing the border to Mexico and meets men unwilling to accept that the war is over. Men celebrating the assassination of President Lincoln and preparing for a resumption of the fight ... Cover: Edward Martin




The Day the Sun Rose Twice


Book Description

When Karl Rainer Andor came to Berlin for the last time it was sacrifice, not victory, that was uppermost in his mind. He intended to use the plutonium bomb he had elaborately planted to effect the reunification of Germany, but he didn't expect to survive. The 'allied' powers are concerned as much with scoring off each other as with finding the bomb - or with seducing or frightening Andor into telling them where it is. And eventually they are faced with the impossible task of evacuating the historic capital of Germany.