Dave Warner writes a genre called 'outback noir'; imagine a gritty detective story, but set in the Australian outback, instead of grimy inner city streets. Think Aussie Carl Hiassen or Elmore Leonard. His protagonist, Dan Clement, is always working against the odds - the weather, nature, crocodiles, spiders or human snakes - are never kind to him. The best thing about Warner's fiction though is that he lays breadcrumbs for the reader, but never telegraphs who the guilty party is before the last chapter. (I hate crime fiction where you guessed or are told who the baddie is halfway through the book, and then have to labor through hundreds of pages that just confirm what you already know!)
For Broome detective Dan Clement, it seems that crime is as plentiful as wet season rain. When his sergeant is beaten up, and a woman is brutally assaulted, it seems like the same two suspects are behind both incidents. But when a woman’ s hand is discovered in crocodile-infested waters, things take a macabre turn. The stakes rise sky-high as Dan races against time to solve this complex and puzzling case.
A book which is almost sure to teach you something you didn't know about Chinese history, in this case, the story of two families of refugees from the Middle East who settled in Shanghai 175 years ago - the Sassoons and the Kadoories. It traces their history and influence through the Opium Wars, foreign interventions, multiple revolutions and up until modern day. I've visited Shanghai multiple times over the last decade, and always thought of it as a very Chinese city, oblivious to the possibility it had such exotic origins.
"In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."--The Boston Globe
"Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."--LA Review of Books
An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
The Sassoons and the Kadoories stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred seventy-five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and…
Personal stories of the modern conflict in Syria, told from multiple perspectives, that put a human face to the headlines we've been seeing for the last decade. With Syria back in the fray due to ongoing war in the Middle East, a very timely read for those who want to understand both the personal impact and the wider regional political context. Trigger warning: there are some very morally and ethically confronting passages in this book, but for me, those were the most compelling.
Extending back to the first demonstrations of 2011, No Turning Back dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict. As protests ignited in Daraa, some citizens were brimming with a sense of possibility. A privileged young man named Suleiman posted videos of the protests online, full of hope for justice and democracy. A father of two named Mohammad, secretly radicalized and newly released from prison, saw a darker opportunity in the unrest. When violence broke out in Homs, a poet named Abu Azzam became an unlikely commander in a Free Syrian Army militia. The regime's…
Something different from the author of the bestselling FUTURE WAR and AGGRESSOR technothriller series: a light hearted take on the space adventure genre…
WHAT IF you were offered this choice – life in prison, or service in the Red Army?
Would you take it, knowing that you need to rack up ninety-nine combat hours and only one in twenty recruits makes it out the other end alive?
Would you take it, knowing you are going to be fighting a mysterious foe who uses your own humanity against you?
Would you go, knowing none of the men and women you are going to serve with is completely sane, since no sane person would volunteer to serve Redside?
I did. And I'm keeping a journal about it, but given life expectancy Redside, this might be a very, very short story.
Quotes from Advance Readers: "I’ll admit I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Red Legion—I think I was originally imagining a military thriller, just set in a different world—but this book was so much fun! There were parts of it that truly made me laugh out loud as I was reading" - NS
"Very "Tomorrow War". I like the quick précis of what's going on then ... Bang! Into the action." BR
"Love the conflict between the characters' survival instinct and the utter hopelessness of their circumstances!" IM
"Sci-fi with a neat twist at the end that leaves a huge opening for the future..." MR
