She was born to kill, born to die. Can an assassin be a friend? Crescent is a crowhopper—a genetically modifiedmercenary programmed for ruthless warfare. For her it’s a disaster when a youngman denies her the chance to die in battle. When Crater Trueblood captures her,takes her home with him to Moontown, and actually treats her kindly? That’sbeyond comprehension.  Crater is weary of war. He’s a miner, not a soldier.He’d rather spend time working than battle the infernal crowhoppers and theirbosses from earth. When he captures a little crowhopper and brings her home,he’s surprised to enjoy her company. When she’s falsely accused of murder, hebecomes an outlaw to help her escape. Maria Medaris, like her grandfather, is a ruthlesscompetitor in business and in life. She’s well on her way to building an empirefor herself. But she’s haunted by the memory of a young man she traveled withthree years earlier,...

"A fascinating thriller, well crafted and relentless ... A cross between Tony Hillerman and Larry McMurtry, this is one hell of a good read."--Douglas Preston, author of Tyrannosaur Canyon and BlasphemyThe cowboys who work on the ranchlands of Montana expect more than their fair share of trouble. One of them is Mike Wire, a former homicide detective. Mike is about to learn murder and mayhem can happen under Motnana's big skies, too. Beneath the earth lie enough dinosaur fossils to fill several museum collections---and make a fortune for whoever claims them first. Soon he will have to combine everything he learned as a cop with everything he knows as a cowboy to protect the people and the land he could never live without.

It's 1943 and the Americans and Japanese are fighting a deadly war in the hot, jungle-covered volcanic islands of the South Pacific. The outcome is in doubt and a terrible blow has fallen on American morale. Lieutenant David Armistead, a Marine Corps hero and cousin of the President of the United States, is missing and some say he's gone over to the enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow and his ragtag crew are given the assignment to find Armistead, though not necessarily to bring him back alive. Recruited in the hunt is a tormented and frail PT-boat skipper nicknamed "Shafty" who is also known by another name: John F. Kennedy. When Josh is stranded in the jungles of New Georgia with a mysterious, sensual woman who has a tendency to chop off men's heads, it's up to Kennedy to come to the rescue and complete the mission. But to procure a gunboat, he first has to play high-stakes poker with a young naval supply officer called Nick who happens to be the best gambler in...

The shuttle is hijacked. Now the countdown to adventure begins....In his #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, October Sky, real-life NASA engineer Homer Hickam captured the excitement of America's first space ventures. Now, in this no-holds-barred joyride of a thriller, he straps us into the cockpit of the space shuttle Columbia as a renegade rocket man hijacks the shuttle--and blasts off on a Mach-speed chase into space....Jack Medaris is a man haunted by his past and driven by a dream: He's risking everything to "borrow" the Columbia--and pilot it to the moon. He didn't plan on an unexpected passenger, beautiful celebrity daredevil and scientist Penny High Eagle. To Penny, this hijacking will test every bit of her mettle as an adventurer--and as a woman. To Jack, the mission is a personal quest--to return to the moon and bring back what America left behind, something so explosive, it could change the future of the world. Now, as the U.S....

The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific. But nothing goes as planned as young Americans go up against fanatical defenders, who revel in snipers, big guns, and human wave attacks from which there is no escape save death. As blood colors the waters around Tarawa, Josh flounders ashore through a floating graveyard of dead men and joins the survivors, determined to somehow wrest victory from disaster. Critically wounded, ,Josh expects to die. Instead, he is spun off on one of his greatest adventures when Sister Mary Kathleen, a young Irish nun, nurses him back to health, then shanghais Josh, sidekick Bosun Ready O'Neal, and three American marines to a group of beautiful tropical islands...

A Helium-3 miner named Crater makes a treacherous journey through space to find a mysterious and priceless treasure.It's the 22nd Century and a tough, pioneering people are mining the moon to produce energy for a desperate, war-torn Earth. Crater, an orphan, loves his life in Moontown, a frontier mining settlement. Not quite sixteen-years-old, he is already a seasoned Helium-3 miner with hopes to be a foreman on the scrapes someday.But the man who owns the mine has a different plan for Crater and another orphan, a young girl with a violent past named Souza. With Souza and his gillie-a sentient and sometimes insubordinate clump of slime-mold cells-Crater must venture forth on a forbidding river of dust. Together, they'll cross the hostile Lunar terrain before vaulting in to the far reaches of space.Danger, adventure, and discovery await them as Crater, the gillie, and Souza use their wits and courage to find a mysterious treasure.

Song Hawkins is a beautiful, tough, but lonely New York City businesswoman who thinks she's met the man of her dreams in Cable Jordan, the superintendent of a West Virginia coal mine. But soon after they impulsively marry, Song realizes they're in big trouble. She can't imagine life outside of New York, and Cable has no intention of leaving his beloved town of Highcoal.Song's visit to the little mining community only makes things worse. It looks like the marriage is over. But in a shocking turn of events, Song realizes it's up to her to put on the red helmet of the new coal miner and descend into the deep darkness. There she faces her greatest challenge with choices and courage that will forever impact the life of Cable and the entire town.

Akidnapped lunar heiress. A deranged-science syndicate. An imminent asteroidimpact. Crater Trueblood has more to rescue than just his ex-girlfriend . . .namely the entire human race.Maria Medaris is the 21-year-old matriarch of the mostpowerful family on the moon. She is gorgeous, she is powerful, and she is highmaintenance. But when Maria is kidnapped by purple-faced, gene-splicingscientists in league with her father, her only hope is the very man she oncespurned: Crater Trueblood.Much more than Maria is at stake: the planet Earth,majestically rising over the lunar horizon, is in the crosshairs of an asteroidengineered by Maria's abductors. If Crater can't stop it, then Earth faces adinosaur-style collision. And humanity faces an extinction-level event.Along with Crescent, his fiercely loyal, bioengineeredshe-warrior, Crater and the Lunar Rescue Company must come to Maria'srescue—before she joins forces with the brainiac lunatics...

In 1941, Killakeet Island of the wind-swept Outer Banks of North Carolina is home to a tiny, peaceful population of fishermen, clam stompers, oyster rakers, and a few lonely sailors of the Coast Guard. Dominating the glorious, raw beauty of the little island is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, which for generations has been the responsibility of one family, the Thurlows.However, Josh Thurlow, the Keeper's son, has forsworn his heritage to become the commander of the Maudie Jane, a small Coast Guard patrol boat operating off Killakeet. Josh is still tortured by guilt, seventeen years after losing his baby brother at sea. Then his life is complicated by the arrival of the beautiful Dosie Crossan, who has journeyed to lonely Killakeet to escape the outside world and perhaps find a purpose in life. While Josh's heart is stirred by the often-vexing Dosie, he continues his search for his brother, even after a wolfpack of German U-boats arrives to soak the island's...

The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspired the film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir--a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true.With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph--at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining.One of the most beloved bestsellers in recent years, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir. A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the...

Big Fish meets The Notebook in this emotionally evocative story about a man, a woman, and an alligator that is a moving tribute to love, from the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning memoir Rocket Boys—the basis of the movie October Sky.Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie's dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer.Unfulfilled as a miner's wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every day because of his unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert she raised in the only bathroom in the house. When Albert scared Homer by grabbing his pants,...