fiction

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand's South Island, cutting o? the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam's founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He's intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they're poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?.

On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, "reprieve," they'll win a substantial cash prize. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.

In 1668, fifteen-year-old Kemosha is sold by a slave owner to a tavern keeper in Port Royal, Jamaica; the "wickedest city on earth." She soon flees from a brutal assault and finds herself in the company of a mysterious free Black man, Ravenhide, who teaches her the fine art of swordplay, introduces her to her soul mate, Isabella, and helps her win her freedom. Ravenhide is a privateer for the notorious Captain Morgan aboard his infamous ship, the Satisfaction. At Ravenhide's encouragement, Morgan invites Kemosha to join them on a pillaging voyage to Panama. As her swashbuckling legend grows, she realizes she has the chance to earn enough to buy the freedom of her loved ones; if she can escape with her life.

Even though Pamela Isley spends most of her time caring for a few small plants and does not trust other people, when cute goth girl Alice Oh comes into her life she starts to open up, but the dark secrets from home could destroy the one person who ever cared about Pamela, or as her mom called her, Ivy.

Agent Amy Cornwall excels at working from the shadows; until a botched field operation reveals dark dealings between her bosses and an informant. And a hidden plot by a terrorist genius that could kill thousands of Americans. Among them: her husband and daughter. She has to go dark. The Division wants to erase her. And they know every detail about her identity, her history, and her family. Agent Cornwall's countdown has begun.

Still stranded in the ocean kingdom once visited by his father and mother, our hero Stud unites with his new friends Dan the detective and Dan's sister Diane in a showdown agaist Steele, the vicious hammerhead shark.

Left on his own again, Stud gets sucked into one of his father's journals down into an ocean kingdom grappling with the murder of its king. Can Stud use his hammer hands to solve the case? Our hero Stud is a fourteen-year-old boy whose father regularly abandons him on expeditions that he regularly catalogs in his own journals. Having to fend for himself, Stud isn't like most kids--he can turn his hands into hammers! Unfortunately, the kids in the village don't think it's cool and do not allow him to join their own fun adventures. Considering that his father has always advised him that friends are the most important accomplishment a person can make, what's a boy who can turn part of his body into metal to do? Go on his own adventures, of course!.

Tucker Thompson is just an ordinary 8th grader from Detroit, Michigan. He loves school and baseball. Everything seems great for the left-handed pitcher with a big, breaking curveball. That is, until one dreadful event changes his life. Tucker learns that his parents are getting divorced. If that wasn?t bad enough, his mom is making a move. He will be forced to attend a new school, across town in the inner city of Detroit. Struggling to handle his anger, Tucker does the only thing he can think of to get his parent?s attention: cause trouble. Not everyone at his new school finds him entertaining, especially the principal, Mr. David. After pulling off the prank of the century, Tucker gets kicked out of school and shipped off to live with his Uncle Ed and Aunt Loretta in a remote area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The U.P. is a far cry from the concrete jungle of Detroit. But Tucker quickly realizes there is something magical and mysterious about Uncle Ed?s place. He is warned early and often by his uncle to never venture into the West Woods. But why? Is Uncle Ed hiding something?.

Hunter's life revolves around video games, more video games, and still more video games. Growing up in downtown Denver was the perfect place to live unnoticed from the rest of the world. But Hunter's life suddenly changes when his dad is laid off from his job and their family is forced to move in order to make ends meet. Trying to get back on their feet, Hunter's family relocates to the wild mountains of Colorado, far away from the city life Denver offers. But tiny Pine Bluff is barely big enough to have a school and it offers Hunter no place to hide from prying eyes. As bad as things seem, they're about to get much worse for Hunter.

A thunderous sound echoes through the stormy Nebraska countryside. The hair on the backs of their necks stood up. But it wasn't lightning. For twin Kent and Kyle Morris, there was only one creature who could make such a loud noise; it was Scarface! When the set out on an adventure to discover the secrets of the huge thunder chicken and finally bag him, another surprising opportunity arose that could change the fortune of their family forever.