Cassie, who is seventeen, has a natural talent for reading people. She can determine who you are and what you desire by piecing together the smallest details. She hasn’t, however, ever taken it seriously as a skill. That is until the FBI shows up at her door. They are in need of Cassie as part of a secret program that the FBI has started to use extraordinary youngsters to solve infamous cold cases.
Cassie is sent to live with a group of kids whose skills are as strange as her own, but she has no idea that there is more in danger than a few unsolved murders. Michael is sarcastic and affluent, and he exploits his talent for reading people’s emotions to get into Cassie’s head and get under her skin. Although he shares Cassie’s talent for profiling, brooding Dean keeps her at a distance.
No one in the Naturals program is what they seem for long, it quickly becomes apparent. Furthermore, danger approaches faster than Cassie could have ever anticipated when a new killer strikes. The Naturals will need to use every one of their abilities to survive after being caught up in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You feel stupid. Doesn’t mean you are.”
“Everything you said or did was a data point you put out there in the world.”
“I’m just saying that statistically, a psychopath is more likely to end up as a CEO than a serial killer.”
“Studying mutilated bodies was routine. Talking to me—apparently, that was hard.”
“something about the curve of his lips was more intimate than any touch.”
Avery Grambs has a strategy for a better future: go through high school, secure a scholarship, then leave. But when millionaire Tobias Hawthorne passes away and leaves Avery nearly his entire fortune, her circumstances quickly shift. The problem? Avery doesn’t even know who Tobias Hawthorne is, let alone why. Avery must relocate to the enormous, secret passageway-filled Hawthorne House in order to claim her fortune. Here, every area has been touched by the old man, who also loved puzzles, riddles, and codes.
Unfortunately for Avery, the family that Tobias Hawthorne just evicted also lives in Hawthorne House. The four Hawthorne grandchildren are among them; they are charismatic, intelligent, and dangerous youths who grew up knowing they will one day inherit billions. Heir evident Avery must be a scam artist, in Grayson Hawthorne’s opinion, and he is determined to expose her. Jameson, his brother, sees her as their grandfather’s final act: a convoluted conundrum that must be unlocked. Avery will have to play the game herself in order to survive because she is trapped in a world of luxury and wealth, where danger lurks around every corner.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Everything’s a game, Avery Grambs. The only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games
“Sometimes things that appear very different on the surface are actually exactly the same at their core.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games
“Why do I have to tell a story?” I asked.
“Because if you don’t tell the story, someone else will tell it for you.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games
“We aren’t normal. This place isn’t normal, and you’re not a player, kid. You’re the glass ballerina—or the knife.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games
“If yes is no and once is never, then how many sides does a triangle have?”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games
The fifteen-year marriage of a couple has now become too interesting… Our love tale is straightforward. I met a stunning lady. We experienced love. We had children. We relocated to a suburb. We shared our deepest secrets and our loftiest aspirations with one another. We eventually became bored. We appear to be a typical couple. We are your neighbors, the guardians of your child’s playmate, and the friends you definitely plan to invite to dinner. Each of us has a method for preserving a marriage. It just so happens that ours has gotten away with murder.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“But I keep my mouth shut, because that’s what friends do. We don’t point out each other’s faults unless asked.”
“My feelings about this are conflicted. I want my kids to feel safe. I also want them to know how dangerous the world is.”
“The doctor called after hearing about Jane Doe, saying he wanted an extra session. He is afraid this new attack will make Jenna regress. I am not sure she has progressed enough to regress, but I take her anyway.”
“I laugh and rub her leg. It is slung over mine in that lazy way. “The kids might think it’s weird.”
“Sometimes it’s just easier to go along with things. It’s easier than breaking it all up and starting from scratch.”
Six homicides, about 100 pages, and there are countless combinations, but only one is accurate. Can you solve the murder mystery of Torquemada? Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), the creator of the Observer’s cryptic crosswords, published a book in 1934 that was both a murder mystery and the most challenging literary puzzle ever created.
Although the pages are printed in an utterly random order, it is possible to arrange them in the one and only correct order by using logic and intelligent reading, so exposing the identities of six murder victims and their individual killers. Can you join the two puzzle solvers who have already cracked the enigma of Cain’s Jawbone? Please take note that this puzzle is really challenging and not for the faint of heart.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I wished for the hundredth time I had a better brain.”
― Torquemada, Cain’s Jawbone
“Is there some esoteric meaning behind the titles?”
― E. Powys Mathers, Cain’s Jawbone
Eastern Europe has historically been home to vampires. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they spread throughout the continent and eventually the entire world, transforming entire populations into vampires—or human cattle. The troops of Night are currently extending into the countryside to further solidify their conquest after conquering India, the far east, and the major cities of North and South America.
The vampires and their human minions, the cowboys, have recently arrived at a town on the New Jersey coast. In exchange for the promise of perpetual life — later — the cowboys round up human livestock for the vampire rulers. Because vampires only want a select handful of their own kind to dominate and subsist. The source of life’s blood, the remainder of humanity, will be reduced to helpless herds.
Father Joe is inebriated and waiting for the end in a cellar after being falsely accused of assault. His superior has turned into a vampire and betrayed the nearby Catholic congregation. Sister Carole has developed into a deadly vampire and cowboy murderer. Dan’s niece has traveled south to find him after fleeing New York’s conquest. They organize their resistance after being brought together by Rabbi Zev Wolpin, who is alarmed by the vampires’ aversion to the cross and holy water.
They find that there may be a way for humanity to actually fight back, which is contrary to all expectations. However, they will need to assassinate New York’s vampire king first.
The season is winter in Greenglass House. The ancient smuggler’s inn is always quiet at this time of year, and Milo, the innkeeper’s 12-year-old adopted son, intends to unwind. But out of blue, the visitor bell sounds on the first chilly night of the vacation. Then rings again. once more. Milo’s mansion quickly fills up with strange, secretive visitors, each of whom has a strange tale to tell that is somehow related to the sprawling old house. In order to find out the truth regarding Greenglass House—and themselves—Milo and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, must discern hints and unravel the web of growing riddles.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Nobody said it had to be a story with an ending all neatly tied up like some ridiculous fairy tale. This story’s true, and true stories don’t have endings, because things just keep going.”
“Everybody feels better when there’s cake”
“Always check for traps, left is always right unless there’s a middle, always put your healer in the best armor and wear your magic rings on your toes instead of your fingers…What else?…Always have rope.”
“Troube comes when a person starts asking for money; it never does what they think it will do. And then there’s the problem of destiny. Things never turn out well when you try to outwit destiny. Only fools do that.”
“It is not merely our adversaries we must investigate…We must always work to know ourselves better, too.”
The Alden family settles on a boxcar to start their adventure. They seek to remain as a unit and discover a grandfather in the process.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from.”
“How they love the old boxcar!
“But when tomorrow came, the children had more than bread and milk, as you will soon see.”
“Watch. He is her dog. She took the thorn out of his foot.”
“Moore’s and stay, until the surprise comes.”
Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist, and investigator started her career at the age of thirteen as a servant in a Belgravia estate. However, her employer, Lady Rowan Compton, later found her reading in the library. Maisie, who was afraid of being fired, is taken aback when she learns that Lady Rowan and a close family friend, Dr. Maurice Blanche, will fund her hunger for knowledge. However, The Great War deters Maisie from following through with her ambitions, and soon after beginning her studies at Girton College in Cambridge, Maisie enlists for nursing service abroad.
Later, in 1929, after serving as an apprentice to the illustrious Maurice Blanche, who is renowned for his work with Scotland Yard, Maisie launches her own company. Her first task, a seemingly pointless investigation into a case of alleged adultery, leads her not just on the hunt for a murderer but also back to the conflict she had worked so hard to avoid.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Truth walks toward us on the paths of our questions…as soon as you think you have the answer, you have closed the path and may miss vital new information. Wait awhile in the stillness, and do not rush to conclusions, no matter how uncomfortable the unknowing.”
“Truth walks toward us on the paths of our questions…as soon as you think you have the answer, you have closed the path and may miss vital new information. Wait awhile in the stillness, and do not rush to conclusions, no matter how uncomfortable the unknowing.”
“Memories are links in a golden chain that bind us until we meet again.”
“The extraordinary hides behind the camouflage of the ordinary. Assume nothing, Maisie.”
“Coincidence is a messenger sent by the truth.” [Dr. Maurice Blanche]”
Shasta Fay, Doc Sportello’s ex-girlfriend, hasn’t been seen in a while. She suddenly appears out of nowhere with a tale of a scheme to abduct a billionaire land developer with whom she just so happens to be in love. She can say it with ease. In Los Angeles near the end of the psychedelic sixties, Doc is aware that “love” is one of the current buzzwords, along with “trip” and “groovy,” but that this one typically results in trouble.
Despite this, he quickly becomes entangled in a bizarre web of motivations and desires that features a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers, and rockers, as well as a murderous loan shark, a tenor saxophonist working secret agents, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a deep affection for Ethel Merman, and a strange entity known as the Golden Fang that may only be a tax.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“What goes around may come around, but it never ends up exactly the same place, you ever notice? Like a record on a turntable, all it takes is one groove’s difference and the universe can be on into a whole ‘nother song.”
“What, I should only trust good people? Man, good people get bought and sold every day. Might as well trust somebody evil once in a while, it makes no more or less sense.”
“Questions arose. Like, what in the fuck was going on here, basically.”
“Can’t say it often enough – change your hair, change your life.”
“You can only cruse the boulevards of regret so far, and then you’ve got to get back up onto the freeway again.”
INCLUDING HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS SPENCER, ARIA, EMILY, AND HANNA, EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE. Spencer wants the lover of her sister. Aria is daydreaming about her English professor. Emily has a thing going on with the new student. Hanna employs unsightly methods to maintain her beauty. But since their friend Alison disappeared, they have all harbored an even bigger secret.
How am I aware? Because I am fully aware of the sinister females they are, the mischievous girls they were, and the dark secrets they have maintained. And what’s this? Telling you.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything.”
“You know what they say about hope. It breeds eternal misery!”
“I kind of have to go to the bathroom,” Aria said woozily.
Ezra smiled. “Can I come?”
“Only two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.”
“Hell is other people.”
In 400 years, humanity will be dispersed across an area of interstellar space that was left behind by an old civilization that was discovered on Mars. Hyperspatial data-casting and infrequent sublight colony ship trips connect the colonies. Human awareness is routinely transferred into bodies and digitally freighted between the stars.
However, some things never alter. Takeshi Kovacs, a former envoy who is now incarcerated, shouldn’t be shocked when his consciousness and abilities are downloaded into the body of a former thug who is addicted to nicotine. When a billionaire hired Kovacs to find out who killed his last victim, Kovacs became embroiled in a frightening plot that reached all the way to the top of society and across known space.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.”
“If they asked how I died tell them: Still angry.”
“Take what is offered and that must sometimes be enough.”
“There are some arenas so corrupt that the only clean acts possible are nihilistic.”
“You’ll always have morons like that, swallowing belief patterns whole so they don’t have to think for themselves.”
Why did he have to fight his greatest war against the lady he loved and his battle not against his enemies but against those who needed him most? What drives the entire universe and every man’s motivation? When you learn the explanation for the puzzling events that ruin the lives of the characters in this tale, you will understand the answers to these questions.
This tale, which is incredibly expansive, offers an incredible view of human life, ranging from the productive genius who turns into a useless playboy to the great steel manufacturer who is unaware that he is working for his own demise to the philosopher who turns into a pirate.
When reading this book, you should be prepared to question every assumption that underlies your beliefs. This is a detective story rather than a tale of the death and rebirth of the human spirit. It is a theoretical revolution that is presented as an action thriller with shockingly superb plotting and unquenchable suspense. Are you saying it’s not possible? The first of your premises to verify is that I suppose.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“If you don’t know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”
“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
“I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.”
“Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”
“Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.”
Echo Ridge is a typical American community. Ellery has heard a lot about it but has never gone there. At the age of seventeen, her aunt vanished there. And just five years ago, the murder of a homecoming queen made the community famous. Ellery is currently required to relocate there to reside with a grandma she hardly knows.
Although the community appears idyllic, secrets are being kept there. In addition, someone has proclaimed homecoming open season and promised to make it just as deadly as it was just five years ago before Ellery even starts school. Then, seemingly as proof, another girl vanishes. Ellery is an expert on secrets. They are owned by both her mother and grandma. Additionally, it becomes more obvious that everyone in Echo Ridge is hiding something the longer she is there. The problem is that most people struggle to keep secrets, despite the fact that they are deadly. It is therefore ideal to keep your thoughts to yourself at Echo Ridge.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Ezra watches them leave with a bemused expression, then turns to me. “I have a really strong feeling that on Wednesdays, they wear pink.”
“All of Fright Farm’s success is based on how much people love to be scared in a controlled environment. There’s something deeply satisfying about confronting a monster and escaping unscathed. Real monsters aren’t anything like that. They don’t let go”
“When you come into the world with another person, they’re as much a part of you as your heartbeat.”
“Welcome to life in a small town. You’re only as good as the best thing your family’s done. Or the worst.”
“I thought she was your mother.”
The best thinkers, creators, and artists attend Vermont’s renowned private Ellingham Academy. Albert Ellingham, a business magnate from the early 20th century, founded it with the intention of creating a magical area filled with puzzles, winding paths, and gardens. He described it as “a place where learning is a fun.”
His wife and daughter were taken away not long after school started. The only real lead was a sarcastic riddle outlining murderous techniques that were written under the ominous alias “Truly, Devious.” One of the biggest unsolved crimes in American history resulted from it.
Stevie Bell, a true-crime enthusiast, is about to start her first year at Ellingham Academy and has a big goal: she’s going to solve this unsolved case. That is, once she adjusts to her hard new school life and her housemates—the scientist, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester—she will be able to solve the case. But something odd is taking place. Unexpectedly returning is Truly Devious, and death returns to Ellingham Academy. The past has risen from the dead. The murderer got away with it. The two intertwined mysteries in this first volume of the Truly Devious series fit together seamlessly, and Stevie Bell will keep looking for the murderers with tenacity in books two and three.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You have to take things as they are, not how you hear they’re supposed to be.”
“Where her books were, she was. Get the books right and the rest will follow. Now she could address the rest of the room.”
“When you have enough power and money, you can dictate the meanings of words.”
“Anything is better than doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“Few words are more chilling when put together than make friends.”
The once-great nation of Ravka has been split in two by the Shadow Fold, a region of nearly impenetrable darkness filled with monsters that feed on human flesh. Ravka is surrounded by adversaries. One lone refugee may now decide the country’s future.
Nothing Alina Starkov has ever been excellent at. However, when her regiment is assaulted on the Fold and her closest friend is horribly hurt, Alina discovers a hidden power that protects his life and may hold the secret to freeing her war-torn nation.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything.”
“You know what they say about hope. It breeds eternal misery!”
“Only two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.”
“Hell is other people.”
“That’s immortality my darlings”