No one writes “good scary fun” (The Washington Post) better than New York Times bestselling master of psychological suspense Lisa Unger. With more than 1.7 million books sold in more than thirty countries, it’s clear why USA TODAY declared that her thrillers “should be on everyone’s to-read list.”

Falling in love can feel like a dream…or a living nightmare.

Darkness has a way of creeping up when Ian is with Priss. Even when they were kids, playing in the woods of their small Upstate New York town, he could feel it. Still, Priss was his best friend, his salvation from the bullies who called him “loser” and “fatboy”…and from his family’s deadly secrets.

Now that they’ve both escaped to New York City, Ian no longer inhabits the tortured shell of his childhood. He is a talented and successful graphic novelist, and Priss…Priss is still trouble. The booze, the drugs, the sex—Ian is growing tired of late nights together trying to keep the past at bay. Especially now that he’s met sweet, beautiful Megan, whose love makes him want to change for the better. But Priss doesn’t like change. Change makes her angry. And when Priss is angry, terrible things begin to happen…

The New York Times bestselling author and International Thriller Writers “Best Novel” finalist Lisa Unger returns to the dark psychological suspense that made Beautiful Lies a bestseller around the world.

Lana Granger lives a life of lies. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is that the truth is like a cloudy nightmare she can’t quite recall. About to graduate from college and with her trust fund almost tapped out, she takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, the manipulative young Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. But, in Lana, he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers?

When Lana’s closest friend, Beck, mysteriously disappears, Lana resumes her lying ways—to friends, to the police, to herself. The police have a lot of questions for Lana when the story about her where­abouts the night Beck disappeared doesn’t jibe with eyewitness accounts. Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: someone else knows about Lana’s lies. And he’s dying to tell.

Lisa Unger’s writing has been hailed as “sensational” (Publishers Weekly) and “sophisticated” (New York Daily News), with “gripping narrative and evocative, muscular prose” (Associated Press). Masterfully suspenseful, finely crafted, and written with a no-holds-barred raw power, In the Blood is Unger at her best.

Kate has written a novel based on a tragic love story from her family’s past. Emily is a struggling waitress whose toxic relationship with the wrong man has led her to make a horrible, life-altering decision. Without knowing each other, and with lives that couldn’t be more different, they head to the same point on the map: Heart Island. It’s an idyllic place in the middle of an Adirondack lake, and home to harsh and unyielding matriarch Birdie Burke. These three women find themselves on a heart-wrenching collision course—with dark memories, restless ghosts and each other. And unbeknownst to them all, Heart Island has a terrifying history all its own.

Mesmerized by her family's heartbreaking history, Kate uses the journals left behind by her aunt and grandmother to write a tragic novel. Although fiction, her book is based in truth, and there may be more to the story than she realizes. On the other side of town, Emily is about to set fire to her life. She’s in a dead-end job and is involved with the wrong man; she can feel herself being drawn into darkness, with horrific consequences. With nowhere to go, she finds herself on the run. Unbeknownst to each other, and with lives that couldn't be more different, Kate and Emily head to the same point on the map: Heart Island, an idyllic place in the middle of a lake in the Adirondacks, owned for generations by Birdie Burke's family. The harsh and unyielding Birdie is at one with this island, which has a terrifying history of its own. She, too, has consequences to face.
Heartbroken is a tense, shattering thriller about the limits of dysfunctional families, of an island haunted by dark memories and restless ghosts, and of the all-too-real demons we must battle.

Ridley Jones is on a mission to find a ghost from her past . . . a very deadly ghost.

In Beautiful Lies, Ridley Jones stepped off a street corner and into an abyss of violence, deception, and fear. She is being a lot more careful about where she steps and trying to get on with her life when another seemingly mundane act—picking up a few envelopes of prints at a photo lab—puts her at the nexus of a global network of crime. A shadowy figure of a man appears in almost every picture she’s taken in the last year, lurking just far enough away to make identification impossible. Everyone from the federal government to the criminal underworld wants to know who the man is, but the only thing Ridley knows for sure is that she has to get to the truth about herself and her past if she’s ever going to find her way home.

The childhood murder of Lydia Strong’s mother has turned her into a woman obsessed with bringing brutal killers to justice. The reclusive, bestselling true-crime writer and investigative consultant has made a life out of chasing monsters. And her powerful intuitions rarely fail her. When three adults — loners, drifters — go missing, no one seems to notice except for Lydia. Enlisting the help of her friend, former FBI agent Jeffrey Mark, Lydia starts an investigation of her own. But when someone raises the stakes and goes after Lydia — just as fifteen years ago when she put the FBI on the trail of her mother’s killer — the real hunt begins.

Fresh from a tour promoting her last book, reclusive true-crime writer Lydia Strong receives an anonymous cry for help, begging her to find and protect Tatiana Quinn. Maybe the plea strikes close to her heart; maybe her investigator’s intuition ignites. She takes it on. But this simple case of a missing teenager soon becomes much more. Someone wants Lydia to drop the case, someone anxious enough to engineer the reappearance of one of Lydia’s most dangerous adversaries. Now, in addition to tracing the roots of Tatiana’s disappearance on a trail across the country and eventually overseas, Lydia must find the man who wants her dead.“The suspense is almost unbearably high . . . an intelligent thriller, with a love story [that] adds a poignant and beautiful relief to the omnipresent evil that pervades the rest of the pages.” — New Mystery Reader

Acclaimed artist Julian Ross has just been found standing over her husband’s bloody corpse in their New York City apartment. Julian claims that she slept peacefully beside him while he was violently stabbed in their bed. But police are skeptical, especially since Julian’s first husband was killed and mutilated in exactly the same way. Julian turns to the tough-as-nails crime writer Lydia Strong, who plunges into the case with her signature grit and the help of her partner, P.I. Jeffrey Mark. Meanwhile, Lydia learns that Jed McIntyre, the serial killer who murdered her mother, is on the loose in New York. McIntyre is out for Lydia’s blood, and his presence forces her to confront the evils of her past while solving her toughest murder case yet.

The terrorist use of diseases as bioweapons has been one of the major security concerns in recent years, particularly after the anthrax letter attacks in the USA in 2001. This uncertain threat of intentional outbreaks of diseases exists side by side with the constantly changing very real threat from diseases, epidemics and pandemics as recently illustrated by the H1N1 influenza pandemic, SARS, and H5N1 bird influenza events.

This publication contains case studies on the public health planning for (un)usual disease outbreaks for 11 large and small countries with a focus on South Eastern Europe. In many countries, military entities traditionally play an important role in emergency response to disease outbreaks. In smaller countries, very little exists, however, in terms of specific biopreparedness efforts (in both the military and civilian area), which is at least partly due to a relatively low bioterrorism threat perception, and serious resource constraints.

The uncertainty associated with the bioterrorism threat makes public health preparedness planning for such events politically and financially very difficult. The similarity of responding to bioterrorism events and natural disease outbreaks from a public health point of view suggests the merit of looking at biopreparedness as a part of overall health emergency planning, not as a separate effort.

Holy days and holidays, special times and ordinary time, the celebration of the church year adds spiritual meaning and depth to our lives as Christians. Around the Year in Children’s Church is a resource created to help children understand and celebrate the entire liturgical year from the first Sunday of Advent through Kingdomtide.

Around the Year in Children’s Church is filled with fifty-two active, hands-on programs. Each featuring a simple Christian message related to the season of the church year or a particular holiday; a Bible verse; a story; a prayer; a time for sharing; a snack; and a musical activity, a craft, or a game. The programs are structured to last from thirty-five to forty minutes. An additional activity is included for those who want to extend Children’s Church to a full hour. Supplies and set-up are kept to a minimum, and the book’s easy-to-use format makes it just right for today’s busy teacher.

Novelist Bethany Graves is recovering from a bitter divorce when she decides to move back to her small Northeastern hometown, The Hollows. There, she plans to write her next book and repair her relationship with her teenage daughter, Willow. But when Willow spots a caver digging what looks like a grave in the nearby woods, they becomes tangled up in an investigation that goes back over twenty-five years. Soon more townspeople are involved, from semi-retired cop Jones Cooper to local psychic Eloise Montgomery, whose dire visions warn that pursuing this case may just be the last thing they do.

The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Lies and Fragile returns to The Hollows, delivering a thriller that explores matters of faith, memory, and sacrifice.
 
After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He's in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.

Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce.  Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away—a predilection that might lead her to dark places.

Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. The result is Lisa Unger's most compelling fiction to date.


From the Hardcover edition.

Book Four in the Lydia Strong Series
In the final installment of her Lydia Strong series, bestselling author Lisa Unger, writing as Lisa Miscione, brings us her most shocking and emotionally wrenching case yet. An NYPD detective visits Lydia and her husband, P.I. Jeffrey Mark, to inform them that Lily, one of Lydia's former writing students, has been missing for more than two weeks. Before she disappeared, Lily had tried to get in touch with Lydia, seeking her help. Could this have had something to do with the death of Lily's brother, which Lily refused to accept as a suicide? If they want to discover the truth, Lydia and Jeffrey will have to follow the trail that Lily left behind, a trail of evidence that—like Lily herself—seems to disappear like smoke.

Book Three in Lisa Unger's Lydia Strong series
 
Acclaimed artist Julian Ross has just been found standing over her husband's bloody corpse in their New York City apartment. Julian claims that she slept peacefully beside him while he was violently stabbed in their bed. But police are skeptical, especially since Julian's first husband was killed and mutilated in exactly the same way. Julian turns to the tough-as-nails crime writer Lydia Strong, who plunges into the case with her signature grit and the help of her partner, P.I. Jeffrey Mark.       

Meanwhile, Lydia learns that Jed McIntyre, the serial killer who murdered her mother, is on the loose in New York. McIntyre is out for Lydia's blood, and his presence forces her to confront the evils of her past while solving her toughest murder case yet.

Fresh from a tour promoting her last case, reclusive true crime writer Lydia Strong receives an anonymous cry for help, begging her to find and protect Tatiana Quinn, 'and all the other girls in need of rescue.' Maybe the plea strikes close to her heart; maybe her investigator's intuition starts buzzing. She takes it on.

But this simple case of a missing teenager soon becomes much more. Someone wants Lydia to drop the case, someone powerful, someone anxious enough to engineer the reappearance of one of Lydia's first--and most dangerous--adversaries. Now, in addition to tracing the roots of Tatiana's disappearance on a trail across the country and eventually overseas, Lydia must find the man who wants her dead, his unfinished business from years ago.

The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Lies and Fragile returns to The Hollows, delivering a thriller that explores matters of faith, memory, and sacrifice.
 
After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He's in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.

Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce.  Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away—a predilection that might lead her to dark places.

Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. The result is Lisa Unger's most compelling fiction to date.

Maggie and Jones live with their teenage son, Rick, in The Hollows, a small town outside of New York City.  The cozy intimacy of the town is broken when Rick's girlfriend, Charlene, mysteriously disappears.  The investigation has Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely and Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn.  Maggie finds herself drawn in both as a trained psychologist and as a mother, walking a tightrope that threatens the stability of her family.  Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene's disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret—one that could destroy everything she holds dear.

Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It's a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another's kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows's insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients' lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie's intuitive gift proves useful to the case—and also dangerous. 

Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene's disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely.  Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn.  In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.  

“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie as he searches Rick's room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”

As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene's disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret—one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community's intricate yet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, How well do I know the people I love? and How far would I go to protect them?

From the Hardcover edition.

Isabel Raine thought she had everything—a successful career, a supportive family, and a happy marriage. Then one ordinary morning, her husband, Marcus, leaves for work and never comes back.  She spends the day frantically calling his cell phone and his office, but receives no answer.  After a dramatic raid at his office in which she's knocked unconscious, a homicide detective shows up wanting to question her about Marcus Raine—the real Marcus Raine.  Now the only thing Isabel knows for sure is that her husband of five years is gone. Where is he and who is he are questions no one seems able to answer. But Isabel will not rest until she discovers the truth about the man she loves, even if it means risking everything—including her own life.

Isabel Raine thought she had everything–a successful career, a supportive family, and a happy marriage to the man she loved. Then one ordinary morning, her husband, Marcus, picks up his briefcase, kisses her good-bye, and simply vanishes.

That day, all her calls to him go straight to voice mail; the messages she leaves at his office go unreturned, too. Panicking after finally receiving a call from his cell phone in which all she can hear is a man's terrified cry, Isabel calls the police. But they aren't interested. Men leave, they tell her. They leave all the time. Desperate to find her husband, Isabel races to his office. But instead of finding him, she finds herself in the middle of an FBI raid. Hours later, she awakens in the hospital with a severe concussion and a homicide detective by her bedside waiting to question her about Marcus Raine–the real Marcus Raine.  

Now the only thing Isabel knows for sure is that her husband of five years is gone. Where is he and who is he are questions no one seems able to answer. But Isabel will not rest until she discovers the truth about the man she loves, even if it means risking everything–including her own life. 

Bestselling author Lisa Unger takes us on a nightmarish journey from bustling, glamorous New York City to the murky, twisted streets of Prague, seeking the answer to one bone-chilling question: What if the man you love, the one sleeping beside you, is a stranger? 


From the Hardcover edition.

On the surface, Annie Powers's life in a wealthy Florida suburb is happy and idyllic. Her husband, Gray, loves her fiercely; they have a beautiful young daughter, Victory. But the bubble surrounding Annie is pierced when she senses that the demons of her previous life, when she was known as Ophelia March, have resurfaced and, to her horror, are now creeping up on her. Disturbing events—the appearance of a familiar dark figure on the beach, the mysterious murder of her psychologist—trigger strange and confusing memories for Annie, who realizes she has to quickly piece them together before her new life is taken away from her.

On the surface, Annie's life in a wealthy Florida suburb is happy. Her husband, Gray, loves her fiercely; together, they dote on their beautiful young daughter, Victory. But the bubble surrounding Annie is pricked when the demons of her past resurface. These are demons she can't fully recall because of a highly dissociative state that allowed her to forget the violence of her earlier life as Ophelia March and to start over, under Gray's protection, as Annie Powers. Disturbing events—the appearance of a familiar dark figure on the beach, the mysterious murder of her psychologist—trigger confusing memories for Annie, who realizes she must quickly piece them together before her past comes to claim her future and her daughter.

'[A] hurricane of a thriller...impossible to extract yourself until the last page.' —Entertainment Weekly

Today show pick for Top 10 Summer Reads (2008)

'Full of twists and turns. A great read for anyone craving some suspense.' —John Searles, Cosmopolitan

'Black Out is riveting psychological suspense of the first order. If you haven't yet experienced Lisa Unger, what are you waiting for?' —Harlan Coben

nger is already a bestselling author in Australia, and is a }New York Times{ bestseller. Another novel due to be released in the UK soon. 'Suspenseful, sensitive, sexy and subtle...The best nail-biter I have read for ages. Highly recommended'

Ridley Jones has been living a lie. A mysterious package showed up on her doorstep one morning and the beautiful lie she used to call her life was over. Suddenly, everyone in she knows feels like a stranger. She has no idea who's on her side and who has something to hide—even her new lover, Jake, might have disturbing secrets of his own.

Now she's determined to find out the truth, even if it means risking her life. Ridley embarks on a breathtaking pursuit where every choice she makes sets off a whirlwind of consequences that are as frightening as they are shocking.

The highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Lies.

Charged with relentless intensity and kinetic action, and playing out with unnerving suspense on the streets of New York and London, Sliver of Truth delves deep into the shadowy world of Ridley Jones, a terrified but determined young woman at once hunting down a ghost from her past and running for her life.

'Sharing God's love in children's church is a book filled with active, hands-on programs, designed for children ages three to seven. Each program features a simple Christian message, a Bible verse, a story, a prayer, a snack, and several creative activities such as crafts, games, and musical activities. The programs are structured to last from thirty- to forty-five minutes. An additional activity is included in each program to extend children's church to a full hour. Supplies and set-up are kept to aminimum'--P. [4] of cover.

If Ridley Jones had slept ten minutes later or had taken the subway instead of waiting for a cab, she would still be living the beautiful lie she used to call her life. She would still be the privileged daughter of a doting father and a loving mother. Her life would still be perfect—with only the tiny cracks of an angry junkie for a brother and a charming drunk with shady underworld connections for an uncle to mar the otherwise flawless whole.

But that's not what happened. Instead, those inconsequential decisions lead her to perform a good deed that puts her in the right place at the right time to unleash a chain of events that brings a mysterious package to her door—a package which informs her that her entire world is a lie.

Suddenly forced to question everything she knows about herself and her family, Ridley wanders into dark territory she never knew existed, where everyone in her life seems like a stranger. She has no idea who's on her side and who has something to hide—even, and maybe especially, her new lover, Jake, who appears to have secrets of his own.

Sexy and fast-paced, Beautiful Lies is a true literary thriller with one of the freshest voices and heroines to arrive in years. Lisa Unger takes us on a breathtaking ride in which every choice Ridley makes creates a whirlwind of consequences that are impossible to imagine . . . .


AN INTERNATIONAL BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH SELECTION

A featured alternate selection of the Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Book-of-the-Month Club, Mystery Guild, and Rhapsody Book Club.

Also available as a Random House AudioBook, a Large Print edition, and an eBook.


From the Hardcover edition.