Canterbury Tales Guesthouse

[Daveo]

White Shotgun: The Sicilian Mafia in Their Own Words

by Attilio Bolzoni.

 

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Lupara bianca ('White Shotgun') an Italian term that refers to a Mafia style killing, in which no trace of the victim can be found.

 

For thirty years, prize winning Sicilian journalist Attilio Bolzoni has reported on the shadowy activities of Cosa Nostra.

Now, for the first time, he has collected together a powerful anthology of rare interviews, court proceedings and transcripts of phone taps that together capture the essence of this most hidden of secret societies.

 

From the 'traditional' Mafia of the early 20th Century to the 'Maxi' show-trials of the 1980's and beyond, White Shotgun is both a history of modern Sicilian crime, and a book about the twisted logic and language of Cosa Nostra.

From the most humble of foot soldiers to famous pentiti ('grasses') and top level Bosses, this is a portrait of the men who live by a code of silence, in their own words.

 

[Daveo]

The Heretic's Treasure by Scott Mariani.

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An ancient fortune has lain hidden for thousands of years, one so powerful that men will kill to protect it. 
And only one man can unearth it, Ex SAS operative Ben Hope is living a peaceful life in rural France, until a phone call from an old army comrade turns his world upside down. 
Eminent Egyptologist Morgan Paxton has been brutally murdered while working on the mysterious 'Akhenaten Project' in Cairo and Colonel Harry Paxton wants Ben to find his son's killer.
Ben is unable to refuse the request from the man who once saved his life but when Harry asks him to avenge his son's death he's in dangerous territory. 
Made worse by the fact that he finds himself attracted to Zara Paxton, Harry's new bride. 
Carving through the seedy Cairo underworld, Ben soon realises that there was more to Paxton's research than meets the eye as he is plunged into one double cross after another. 
His mission leads him from Italy and Paris via the coast of Scotland to the banks of the Nile, climaxing in a tense showdown in the war torn Sudanese desert. 
At the end of the trail lies the ultimate treasure, hidden away by three rebel High Priests during the reign of the 'Heretic' Pharaoh Akhenaten a collection so valuable that some will stop at nothing to possess it.
A supercharged, heart racing thriller, perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Sam Bourne and Wilbur Smith. 
BEN HOPE is one of the most celebrated action adventure heroes in British fiction and Scott Mariani is the author of numerous bestsellers. 
Join the ever-growing legion of readers who get breathless with anticipation when the countdown to the new Ben Hope thriller begins.

 

The Sacred Sword by Scott Mariani.

 

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It’s Christmas and on a trip back to the UK to try to sort out his stormy personal life, ex-SAS soldier Ben Hope runs into two old friends.

Simeon and Michaela were once his fellow students at Oxford now they are the Reverend and Mrs Arundel.

 

Ben senses that Simeon is deeply troubled and frightened, but before the truth can emerge about his secretive research project concerning a mysterious, ancient ‘sacred sword’, both he and Michael are wiped out in a devastating road crash.

Convinced that his friends’ deaths were no accident, Ben is propelled on a global quest to unlock the enigma of the sacred sword.

At every step, he is pursued by ruthless agents of the sinister organisation that will stop at nothing to acquire it.

 

In the course of his investigations, Ben will discover an incredible secret, not just about the history of Christianity but about his own past.

 

Ben Hope is one of the most celebrated action adventure heroes in British fiction and Scott Mariani is the author of numerous bestsellers.

Join the ever-growing legion of readers who get breathless with anticipation when the countdown to the new Ben Hope thriller begins.

 

[Daveo]

Want You Dead by Peter James.

 

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Single girl, 29, smoldering redhead, love life that's crashed and burned.

Seeks new flame to rekindle her fire, fun, friendship and who knows, maybe more?

When Red Westwood meets handsome, charming and rich Bryce Laurent through an online dating agency, there is an instant attraction.

But as their love blossoms, the truth about his past, and his dark side, begins to emerge.

Everything he has told Red about himself turns out to be a tissue of lies and her infatuation with him gradually turns to terror, within a year and under police protection, she evicts him from her flat and her life.

But Red's nightmare is only just beginning, for Bryce is obsessed with her, and he intends to destroy everything and everyone she has ever known and loved and then her too.

A Well read Author at Canterbury Tales Bookshop, Pattaya.

 

[Daveo]

Exile; by Richard North Patterson.

 

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David Wolfe is a successful American lawyer being primed for a run for Congress.

But when the phone rings and he hears the voice of Hana Arif the Palestinian woman with whom he had a secret affair in law school he begins a completely unexpected journey.

 

The next day, the prime minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber while visiting San Francisco. Soon, Hana is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder.

Now David faces an agonizing choice, Will he, a Jew, represent her?

 

The most challenging case of David's career requires that he delve deep into the lives of Hana and her militant Palestinian husband, all the way back to Israel and the West Bank.

There he uncovers the couple's dangerous connections, culminating in an explosive trial where the stakes are Hana's life and the future of two peoples.

 

[Daveo]

For the Dead (A Poke Rafferty Novel) by Timothy Hallinan.

 

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After seven years in Bangkok, American travel writer Poke Rafferty finally feels settled, his family is about to grow larger and his adopted Thai daughter, Miaow, seems to have settled in at junior high school.

All that is endangered when Miaow helps her boyfriend buy a stolen iPhone that contains photographs of two disgraced police officers, both of whom have been murdered.

As Miaow's carefully constructed personal life falls apart, Rafferty discovers that the murders are part of a conspiracy that reaches the top rungs of Bangkok law enforcement and beyond.

Miaow's discovery threatens the entire family and if that's not enough, in order to survive, they may ultimately have to depend on someone who has already betrayed them.

Tim Hallinan always a popular Author at Canterbury Tales Bookshop Pattaya.

 

[Daveo]

The Queen of Patpong: A Poke Rafferty Thriller

by Timothy Hallinan.

 

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Author Timothy Hallinan returns to Bangkok, Thailand and plunges his protagonist, travel writer Poke Rafferty, into graver peril than ever before in The Queen of Patpong, Hallinan’s fourth Rafferty thriller following A Nail Through the Heart,

The Fourth Watcher and Breathing Water.

Fans of Dean Barrett, John Burdett, Alexander McCall Smith, Daniel Silva, and Alan Furst who love being transported to exotic locales will be riveted when a nightmare figure from the past arrives at Poke Rafferty’s door to bring chaos and danger to the lives of the people he loves.

 

 

[Daveo]

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.

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One of the most beloved novels of all time, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback, returns to enthrall a new generation.

[Daveo]

The Other Typist: by Suzanne Rindell.

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A haunting debut novel set against the background of New York City in the 1920s...

"From the first page was absorbed, Suzanne Rindell story of a 1920's police stenographer who becomes increasingly obsessed with a glamorous new typist reminds me at points of Notes on a Scandal and Patricia Highsmith, but has creepy charms all its own.

Confessions are Rose Baker's job, a typist for the New York City Police Department, she sits in judgment like a high priestess. Criminals come before her to admit their transgressions and with a few strokes of the keys before her, she seals their fate. 
But while she may hear about shootings, knifings, and crimes of passion, as soon as she leaves the room, she reverts to a dignified and proper lady. 
Until Odalie joins the typing pool.

As Rose quickly falls under the stylish, coquettish Odalie's spell, she is lured into a sparkling underworld of speakeasies and jazz. 
And what starts as simple fascination turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.

 

[Daveo]

Vulture Peak: A Royal Thai Detective Novel

by John Burdett .

 

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Nobody knows Bangkok like Royal Thai Police Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, but now he is heading out of his comfort zone.

Way out.

Assigned to the highest-profile case in all Thailand, he is tasked with ending international human-organ trafficking, his hunt will lead him across five countries and will draw in a host of unwitting players, including an aging rock star wearing out his second liver, and his quarry, twin Chinese queenpins of the international body

parts trade known as the Vultures.

Meanwhile, there are rumors at home that Sonchai’s wife is having an affair.

Although he has always known about her disreputable past, this is something else entirely. Confronting the rumors and controlling his jealousy, while embroiled in the most contentious case of his career may well be more than this detective’s Buddhist soul can handle.

 

[Daveo]

Honey Trap The Scandal by Anthony Summers.

 

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In 1963, it was learned that Defence Minister, John Profumo, had had an affair with 19-year old Christine Keeler who was also seeing a Soviet diplomat and suspected spy, Eugene Ivanov.

The resulting scandal saw the death, an apparent suicide, of society osteopath Stephen Ward (who brought them together) and is widely regarded as contributing to the resignation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan through ill health and the defeat of the Tory government at the next election, though the public was assured that national security had not been damaged.

This book produces evidence that only a fraction of the story was made known at the time or revealed by the trial of Ward for prostitution.

The involvement of MI5, the use of sex to procure defections, suspicions that Ward was murdered, and many other aspects of the case are produced here as links in a chain that leads right back to President Kennedy.

The book is re issued to coincide with the release of the film "Scandal". Anthony Summers has written other investigative books, including "The File on the Tsar", "Conspiracy" about the Kennedy's assassination, and "Goddess", a biography of Marilyn Monroe. Stephen Dorrill also worked on "Goddess" and is co editor of "Lobster", a political and intelligence quarterly.

 

 

[Daveo]

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

 

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“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all.

It was, of course, a miserable childhood, the happy childhood is hardly worth your while, worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

 

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works and when he does he drinks his wages.

Yet Malachy, exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story.

Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

 

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival.

Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors, yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

 

Angela’s Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.

 

[Daveo]

The Zero Game, by Brad Meltzer.

 

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Bestselling author of The Millionaires and The First Counsel returns to Washington, D.C, with the story of an insider's game that turns deadly.

 

Matthew Mercer and Harris Sandler are best friends who have plum jobs as senior staffers to well-respected congressmen.

But after a decade in Washington, idealism has faded to disillusionment, and they're bored, then one of them finds out about the clandestine Zero Game.

It starts out as good fun, a simple wager between friends, but when someone close to them ends up dead, Harris and Matthew realize the game is far more sinister than they ever imagined and that they are about to be the game's next victims.

 

On the run, they turn to the only person they can trust, a 16 year-old Senate page who can move around the Capitol undetected, as a ruthless killer creeps closer, this idealistic page not only holds the key to saving their lives, but is also determined to redeem them in the process.

 

Come play The Zero Game, you can bet your life on it.

 

[Daveo]

The Eagle and the Wolves by Simon Scarrow.

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In the summer of AD 44, tense undercurrents amongst the tribe of nominally friendly Atrebatans are ready to explode into open revolt. It falls to Centurions Macro and Cato to provide aged ruler Verica with an army. 
With a scratch force of raw recruits, unversed in the techniques of war, they must find and destroy a cunning opponent. 
But can they do this whilst surviving the deadly cross currents of plotters threatening to destroy not only Macro and Cato, but all their comrades serving with the Eagles?

[Daveo]

Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris.

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A cautionary tale of orator Cicero and his struggle for power in Rome. 
On a cold November morning, a terrified stranger, Sicilian victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor Verres, approaches senator Marcus Cicero. 
At age 27, the ambitious young lawyer and orator wants imperium - supreme power in the state.

[Daveo]

Martin Johnson Autobiography by Martin Johnson.

 

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Martin Johnson is the towering second row forward who has come to set the standards of what a professional rugby player should do. His drive and physical presence mean that he is a natural leader on the pitch and off it, too.

In this, his long-awaited autobiography, he looks at the changing world of rugby.

He explains why he led the England team to the brink of a strike in the autumn of 2000, and provides the definitive account of England's 2003 World Cup triumph, as well as Lions tours and all the goings on that make rugby such a special sport.

Hugely popular and respected, Martin Johnson has written vivid autobiography and a remarkable portrait of modern rugby.

 

[Daveo]

The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob by T.J. English.

 

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Even among the Mob, the Westies were feared.

Out of a partnership between two sadistic thugs, James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, the gang dominated the decaying slice of New York City's West Side known as Hell's Kitchen in the 1970's and '80s.

Excelling in extortion, numbers running, loan sharking and drug-peddling, they became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime.

then prosecutor Rudolf Giuliani called them 'the most savage organisation in the long history of New York street gangs'. Upping the ante on brutality and depravity, their speciality when it came to punishment and killings was dismemberment.

Their reign lasted almost twenty - their end would come as their own violent natures got the best of them and precipitated a downfall as infamous as their rise.

This revised and updated edition, brings the story of the Westies up to date with 'where are they now' snapshots of the men and women of the Westies.

 

[Daveo]

Twenty-one Stories by Graham Greene.

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In 'The Basement Room' a small boy witnesses an event that blights his whole life. 
Like the other stories in this book (written between 1929 and 1954), it hinges on the themes that dominate Graham Greene's novels fear, pity and violence, pursuit, betrayal and man's restless search for salvation. Some of the stories are comic, poor Mr Maling's stomach mysteriously broadcasts all sorts of sounds; others are wryly sad, a youthful indiscretion catches up with Mr Carter in 'The Blue Film'. 
They can be deeply shocking: in 'The Destructors' a gang of children systematically destroys a man's house. 
Yet others are hauntingly tragic, a strange relationship between twins that reaches its climax at a children's party. 
Whatever the mood, each one is a compelling entertainment and unmistakably the work of one of the finest storytellers of the century.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. 
With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. 
Trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award winning translators.

 

[Daveo]

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh.

 

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Roy Strang is engaged in a strange quest in a surrealist South Africa.

His mission is to eradicate an evil predator scavenger bird, the marabou stork, before it drives away the peace loving flamingo from the picturesque Lake Torto.

 

But behind this world lies another, the world of Roy's bizarre family, the Scottish housing scheme in which he grew up, his mundane job, a disastrous emigration to Africa and his youthful life of brutality with a gang of soccer casuals.

As one world crashes into the other, this potentially charming story of ornithological goodwill mutates into a filthy tale of violence, abuse and redemption.

 

[Daveo]

The Girl with All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey.

 

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Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

 

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair.

She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

 

Melanie loves school.

She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells.

She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up.

Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

 

The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.

 

[Daveo]

The Lao: Gender, Power and Livelihood (Westview Case Studies in Anthropology) By Carol Ireson-Doolittle.

 

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The Lao discusses culture and village life in Laos, exploring topics of kinship and family, gender relations, households, religion, livelihood strategies and ethnicity.

In particular, the effects of recent development projects on the relative power of men and women in rural Lao society and the responses of women to those changes, are highlighted.

Ireson-Doolittle and Moreno-Black not only provide a description of life on the ground but also explore how local affairs are connected to the wider world and how the Lao people preserve traditions while also responding to change.

 

[Daveo]

The Way Home by George Pelecanos.

 

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Hidden beneath the floorboards in a house he's remodeling, Christopher Flynn discovers something very tempting and troubling. Summoning every bit of maturity and every lesson he's learned the hard way, Chris leaves what he found where he found it and tells his job partner to forget it, too. Knowing trouble when he sees it and walking the other way-is a habit Chris is still learning.

 

Chris's father, Thomas Flynn, runs the family business where Chris and his friends have found work.

Thomas is just getting comfortable with the idea that his son is grown, working, and on the right path at last.

Then one day Chris doesn't show up for work and his father knows deep in his bones that danger has found him.

Although he wishes it weren't so, he also knows that no parent can protect a child from all the world's evils.

Sometimes you have to let them find their own way home.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Daveo

[Daveo]

Preparation for the Next Life Feb 2016 by Atticus Lish.

 

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In post-9/11 New York, Zou Lei is an illegal immigrant from northwest China.

Forced to work fourteen hour days and live in squalor, she nevertheless embraces the many freedoms her adopted homeland has to offer.

Damaged by three tours in Iraq, veteran Brad Skinner comes to New York with the sole intention of partying as hard as he can in order to forget what he’s seen.

Impulsive and angry, Skinner’s re entry into civilian life seems doomed.

But when he meets Zou Lei they discover that new beginnings may be possible for both of them, that is if they can survive homelessness, lockup and Skinner’s post traumatic stress disorder.

 

Set in the underbelly of New York, Preparation for the Next Life exposes an America as seen from the fringes of society in devastating detail and destroys the myth of the American Dream through two of the most remarkable characters in contemporary fiction.

 

[Daveo]

What's It All About, by Michael Caine.

 

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For more than 25 years, Michael Caine has remained one of the few enduring stars of international stage and cinema a rare and remarkable achievement.

Now, with easy charm and humor, the Academy Award winning actor brings to life his lean years and his triumphs, his treasured friendships and his passionate love affair with his wife, Shakira. Illustrated.

 

[Daveo]

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies

by Ben Macintyre.

 

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In his celebrated bestsellers Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre told the dazzling true stories of a remarkable WWII double agent and of how the Allies employed a corpse to fool the Nazis and assure a decisive victory.

In Double Cross, Macintyre returns with the untold story of the grand final deception of the war and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it.

 

On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties.

D-Day was a stunning military accomplishment, but it was also a masterpiece of trickery.

Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, deceived the Nazis into believing that the Allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy.

It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring that Hitler kept an entire army awaiting a fake invasion, saving thousands of lives and securing an Allied victory at the most critical juncture in the war.

 

The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it and the generals who led it.

But this epic event in world history has never before been told from the perspectives of the key individuals in the Double Cross System. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Crosses nucleus, a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming and a volatile Frenchwoman, whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire plan. The D-Day spies were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled, and their success depended on the delicate, dubious relationship between spy and spymaster, both German and British.

Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is revealed here for the first time.

 

With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller, Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.

 

[JAI DEE MAK]

Dave , You got any books with pictures of sheep in them I miss my darlings here in Thailand and would like to look at some.

 

I will pay top book for some nice photos.

 

JDM