The Last Don (Mario Puzo)

The Last Don

Mario Puzo

Blurb: In a corrupt world where crooked cops and desperate gamblers play dangerous games of betrayal, one man has power over them all.

The Last Don is Mario Puzo at his finest - a masterful saga of the last great American crime family, the Clericuzios, and their powerful reach into Hollywood and Las Vegas. Domenico Clericuzio is a wise and ruthless man who in his old age is determined to create a life free from criminal activities for his grandchildren. But as he strives to establish his heirs in legitimate society, secrets from his family's past spark a vicious and bloody war between cousins...

ISBN: 9780099533245 (Paperback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Arrow Books

Pages: 482 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Wikipedia page for the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Goodreads page

5. IMDB page for a TV series based on the book

Eragon / Eldest - The Inheritance Cycle Books One & Two (Christopher Paolini)

Eragon / Eldest - The Inheritance Cycle Books One & Two

Christopher Paolini

Blurb: Eragon

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will but his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realises he has stumbled upon a legacy almost as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic and power. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands...

Eldest

Eragon and his dragon, Saphira have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the forces of King Galbatorix. Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training in magic and swordsmanship. It is the journey of a lifetime, each day a fresh adventure. but chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and as his cousin Roran fights a new battle in Carvahall, Eragon is put in even graver danger...

ISBN: 9780552559997 (Paperback)

Year: 2002/2005

Publisher: Corgi Books

Pages: 1197 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the series

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Official site of the series

4. Wiki for the series

5. Goodreads page for Eragon

Thereby Hangs a Tail - A Chet and Bernie Mystery #2 (Spencer Quinn)

Thereby Hangs a Tail - A Chet and Bernie Mystery #2

Spencer Quinn

Blurb: Bernie Little and his canine companion, Chet, are private investigators. Both have had some setbacks in life - Bernie in combat, Chet in K-9 dog-training school - but together they make up a team like no other.

In Thereby Hangs a Tail, Bernie and Chet are hired to investigate threats made against an unlikely target - a pretty, pampered show dog named Princess. What seems like a joke turns serious when Princess and her owner are abducted. And to make matters worse, Bernie's on-again, off-again girlfriend, reporter Susie Sanchez, disappears too.

When Chet gets separated from Bernie, he tries to put the pieces together, find his way home, and save the day.

With genuine suspense and intrigue, combined with humour and insight into the special bond between man and dog, Thereby Hangs a Tail will have everyone talking - and chuckling.

ISBN: 9781741759358 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Pages: 309 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Publisher's page

4. Review of the book

5. Official site of the series

The Taste of Night - The Second Sign of the Zodiac (Vicki Pettersson)

The Taste of Night - The Second Sign of the Zodiac

Vicki Pettersson

Blurb: Being mortal isn't easy. Being a superhero is even harder.

Even mortal, Joanna Archer was nobody's idea of a victim. She survived physical trauma and emotional devastation long before her true destiny was revealed on her 25th birthday. But now, infused with the supernatural power to alter the battle between Shadow and Light forever, she has become a target.

The Shadow Zodiac of Las Vegas will stop at nothing to force Joanna's allegiance, and they will stop at nothing to destroy her if she continues to resist them. But when a toxic virus strikes Las Vegas, Joanna's friends and loved ones become targets too and she knows she must act.

To find the cure and best the Shadows Joanna must alienate her allies and release the darkness within her, but first she must vanquish the demons in her past.

ISBN: 9780007270224 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Pages: 440 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Goodreads page

3. Browse inside the book

4. Author's official page

5. Wikipedia page for the author

The 50th Law (50 Cent and Robert Greene)

The 50th Law

50 Cent and Robert Greene

Blurb: nihil timendum est / fear nothing

Hip hop icon 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) has written a bible for success with the one motto of 'fear nothing'.

With intimate stories of his rise to fame, this inspirational book is a must read for anyone interested in 50 Cent.

ISBN: 9781846680687 (Softback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Profile Books

Pages: 291 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page for the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Wikipedia page for the book

4. Blog on the book

5. Review of the book

Obernewtyn - The Obernewtyn Chronicles Book One (Isobelle Carmody)

Obernewtyn - The Obernewtyn Chronicles Book One

Isobelle Carmody

Blurb: In my dream I was somewhere cold and darkly quiet. I could hear water dripping and I was afraid, though I did not know why. In the distance there was a bright flash of light. A high-pitched whining noise filled the air like a scream, but no one could scream for so long without stopping to breathe.

In a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. But for Elspeth Gordie, born with enhanced mental abilities that would see her sterilised or burned if discovered, it is also dangerous. There is only survival by secrecy, and so she determines never to use her forbidden powers. But is is as if they have their own imperative, and their use inevitably brings her to the attention of the totalitarian Council that rules the Land.

Sent to the remote mountain institution of Obernewtyn where escape is impossible, she must throw off her safe cloak of concealment and pit herself against those who would resurrect the terrible forces of the apocalypse. 

Only then will she learn most truly who and what she is...

ISBN: 9780140178548 (Paperback)

Year: 1987

Publisher: Penguin 

Pages: 245 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the series

2. Publisher's page for the series

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Goodreads page for the book

5. Review of the book

Nightlife (Thomas Perry)

Nightlife 

Thomas Perry

Blurb: Perry's new thriller takes us on a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that pits two women against each other: one a beautiful, highly manipulative serial killer, the other the detective who is determined to stop her.

This murderer changes her appearance and identity with every kill, moving from Portland to San Francisco, to LA, to Las Vegas, with Catherine Hobbs, Portland homicide detective, always just one step behind. Catherine must use everything she has as a woman as well as a detective to stop her. She must learn how to read the murderer's mind. And she is up against a killer who turns to stalking her.

Delving deep inside the female psyche, reinterpreting conventions and confounding expectations, this is Perry at his critically acclaimed best.

ISBN: 9781847241153 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Quercus

Pages: 489 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Review of the book

3. Publisher's page for the book

4. Goodreads page for the book

5. Wikipedia page for the author

The Given Day (Dennis Lehane)

The Given Day

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, The Given Day tells the story of two families - one white, one black...

Beat cop, Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most powerful police captains, is on the hunt for hard-line radicals. Drawn into the political fray, he soon finds his loyalties compromised. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss, works for the Coughlin family, all the while desperately trying to find a way home to his pregnant wife.

As Danny, Luther and those around them face increasingly turbulent times, they are forced to ride a rising storm of hardship and deprivation that will change their lives forever.

Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the age, Dennis Lehane's masterly new novel explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in thrall of, itself.

ISBN: 9780552775588 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Black Swan

Pages: 733 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of the book

4. Another review

5. Wikipedia page for the author

At Risk - Winston Garano #1 (Patricia Cornwell)

At Risk - Winston Garano #1

Patricia Cornwell

Blurb: A Massachusetts state investigator is called home from the National Forensic Academy in Tennessee. His boss, an attractive but hard-charging woman, is running for governor, and as a showcase plans to use a new crime initiative called At Risk - motto: 'Any crime, any time.' She's looking for a way to employ cutting-edge DNA technology, and thinks she's found it in a twenty-year-old murder - in Tennessee. If her office solves the case, they'll all look pretty good, right?

Her investigator is not so sure, but before he can open his mouth a shocking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up not only their lives but the lives of everyone around them...

ISBN: 9780751538717 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Sphere

Pages: 229 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Wikipedia page for the author

3. About the movie adaption of the story

4. Review of the book

5. Author's official site

The Scent of Shadows - The First Sign of the Zodiac (Vicki Pettersson)

The Scent of Shadows - The First Sign of the Zodiac

Vicki Pettersson

Blurb: Before you plan your next trip to Vegas, you might want to answer... Are you Light? Or are you Shadow?

Because there's another world behind the neon lights and action of sin city; a world where forces of Light and Shadow wage war, and only twelve brave men and women endowed with supernatural abilities keep evil at bay.

But the battle has reached a tipping point, and just one person will control the fate of the city: casino heiress, photographer, and vigilante: Joanna Archer.

Brutally raped as a teenager, Joanna should, bu rights, be dead. Now she prowls the streets after sunset, seeking answers to whom or what she really is and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure.

But the nightmare is just beginning, for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful Shadows want her for their own...

ISBN: 9780007270217 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Pages: 455 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Author's official site

3. Preview the book at Harper Collins

4. Goodreads page

5. Review of the book

The Dragon's Call - The Adventures of Merlin #1 (Simon Forward)

The Dragon's Call - The Adventures of Merlin #1

Simon Forward

Blurb: When Merlin arrives in the great kingdom of Camelot he discovers a dark side to the bustling city: magic is outlawed on pain of death! If he wants to stay alive, Merlin will have to keep his unique magical talents a closely guarded secret...

ISBN: 9780553821903 (Hardback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 200 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page

2. TV episode the book is based on

3. Wiki for the episode

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Review of the TV epsiode

Secret Army - Henderson's Boys #3 (Robert Muchamore)

Secret Army - Henderson's Boys #3

Robert Muchamore 

Blurb: Britain, 1941.

The government is building a secret army of intelligence agents to work undercover, gathering information and planning sabotage operations.

Henderson's boys are part of that network: kids cut adrift by the war, training for the fight of their lives. 

They'll have to parachute into unknown territory, travel cross-country and outsmart a bunch of adults in a daredevil exercise.

In wartime Britain, anything goes.

For official purposes, these children do not exist.

ISBN: 9780340956502 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Hodder

Pages: 363 (Fiction)

Links

1. Official page for the series

2. Wikipedia page for the author

3. Goodreads page

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Review of the book