Showing results by author "Michael McDowell" in All Categories

They were the most elite team of interservice fighters America’s government had ever formed. As war raged in Vietnam, the Black Berets took on the most secret—and most heinous—of covert operations. Now they’re back, and they have a new mission. Eight years after their bloody exploits across the battlefields of Asia, the five-man team is reunited at the behest of their scheming CIA handler, a man none of them trusts after a dirty war of lies and betrayals. However, word has it one of their own, thought long-dead, is alive and being held prisoner in Laos.

The Black Palm called themselves a nation, though their own people had cast them out. They called themselves an army, but made war on unarmed men, women and children. And in their fanatical crusade, they might strike anywhere. Even in the tiny Caribbean republic of New Neuzen. The only thing that stood between New Neuzen and a terrorist bloodbath were five American tourists.

The Black Berets had to hand it to Parkes, their former CIA case officer. First he’d sent them on a suicide mission to Vietnam. Then he’d sent some CIA hitmen to finish them off when the enemy couldn’t. And the moment they set foot stateside, the world’s meanest mercenaries found that Parkes had arranged another lethal welcome. Well, they’d never liked Parkes much. But how were they going to tell him? First they had to find him, and that would take Beeker, Rosie, Cowboy, Harry, and Marty, from the bayous of Louisiana to an academy of terror in the Libyan desert.

1928 à Perdido. Alors que le clan Caskey se déchire dans la guerre intestine et sans merci que se livrent Mary-Love et sa belle-fille, et tandis que d'autres crises - conjugales, économiques, existentielles - aux répercussions défiant l'imagination se profilent, dans les recoins sombres de la maison d'Elinor, la plus grande de la ville, les mauvais souvenirs rôdent et tissent, implacables, leurs toiles mortelles.

Die Blackwater-Saga gilt als eine der besten unheimlichen Erzählungen aller Zeiten. Ein über mehrere Generationen verteiltes Familienfresko. Die Publikation war ein solcher Erfolg, dass sie Stephen King (ein Bewunderer der Werke von Michael McDowell) dazu inspirierte, The Green Mile ebenfalls in sechs Bänden zu veröffentlichen. Blackwater ist anders als alles, was du je gelesen hast. Eine Familiensaga mit einer einzigartigen Atmosphäre schleichenden Grauens.

When Michael Blumlein's debut collection The Brains of Rats first appeared, it marked the arrival of a major new talent, earning widespread acclaim from mainstream critics as well as genre stalwarts Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison, Pat Cadigan and many others.

"But come back soon", the sign said. Obviously it was a lie. The people in the grocery store just wanted to make sure he couldn't buy the spice he needed to make the recipe he'd selected for that night (recipes must be followed exactly). Obviously they wanted him to eat out...to meet the waitress, Marta, to see her horrible, unspeakable, unbearable ugliness. It was obvious to him: her maimed, twisted face was the living desire to be dead. He had to help Marta be dead. 

In un unico cofanetto tutti e sei i romanzi della saga di Blackwater. 1919. Le acque nere e minacciose del fiume sommergono la cittadina di Perdido, nel sud dell'Alabama. I ricchissimi Caskey devono fronteggiare il disastro. Ma il clan, capeggiato dalla potente matriarca Mary-Love e dal figlio Oscar, dovrà fare i conti anche con un'apparizione sconvolgente: dalle viscere della citta sommersa compare Elinor Dammert, con un passato misterioso e un oscuro disegno.

When a bloody raid in Libya turns up nothing but a camp of terrorists who know nothing about any bombs, the elite American fighters find themselves ordered to Portugal to follow up a new lead. Once there, they learn every undercover agent from every country working in Portugal has been taken out of play, leaving the door wide open for staging an apocalyptic attack. If the Black Berets fail to locate the bombs and take out the merciless cabal that stole them, it could mean the end of the world as they know it. For these five warriors, the stakes have never been higher.

Key Isabella might be small, but it has become a hub for the drug trade into the United States. For the Black Berets—the world’s fiercest mercenaries—the issue of a billion-dollar heroin smuggling operation hits a sore spot they can’t ignore. Arriving in the West Indies, the five-man team of American heroes is tasked with overthrowing Key Isabella’s evil dictator without anyone finding out they’re involved. To make matters more difficult, they soon bump into the additional problem of a police force just as violent and corrupt as the nation’s tyrannical leader.

In Mesa County, Nevada, the tide of history was about to change. A tiny tribe of Indigenous Americans had just beaten the white man in his own court—and won title to some of the richest land in America. But some people were poor losers. And if they couldn’t hold on to the land … they’d simply eliminate its rightful owners. With a handful of poorly armed Native Americans facing a lynch mob led by the county sheriff and backed by corporate millions, Mesa County might be the setting for another Wounded Knee. Until the Black Berets get in on the action and show how professionals handle a massacre.

Letting a struggling Chicano gas company run its pipeline across their Louisiana land struck the Black Berets as a good idea—especially once Cowboy got an eyeball on Isabella Cifuentes, its stunning, sultry president. But the contract, it seemed, contained some very fine and lethal print. A Texas oil magnate allied with a fanatical right-wing cult had made an unholy alliance to keep the territory free of Mexicans and competition—even if it meant taking his grievance to the people next door.

India is a country divided, torn by religious strife and hounded by potential invaders on all sides. The world’s most powerful governments believe that whoever controls India holds the strategic advantage for global domination. As the chaos spins out of control, a name resurfaces after centuries of obscurity: Akbar.

Someone wanted to overthrow the government of San Sebastian, a country whose tiny army, nonaligned status, and location on the deadly curve of Central America made it ripe for subversion. The first try was an attempted hit on its president on a crowded street in Washington. The second was an invasion from the sea. Both times the Black Berets were there to keep the worst from happening. But how long could five men and one boy hold out against an army of the world’s most skilled assassins? An army with limitless resources—and the patience to keep on killing?

To the average citizen, the Lion of Salvador was a national hero, a military general of such renown that his accolades spanned two continents. To those in the know, however, the man was the cruelest of drug lords, a savage despot building an unstoppable empire that ranged from the Central American jungle to the bustling streets of New York.

1958. Gli anni passano, tra ricevimenti fastosi, unioni insolite e rivelazioni travolgenti, ma non portano quiete per i membri della famiglia Caskey. Dopo l’età dell’oro, ritornano giorni foschi. Qualcosa di terribile incombe su Perdido, i suoi abitanti e i suoi fiumi. Il tempo delle profezie è ormai giunto. Sesto e ultimo episodio della saga bestseller dell’autore amato da Stephen King.

1946. Come un organismo vivente, la famiglia Caskey si sviluppa e si trasforma, tra riavvicinamenti inattesi, rancori sordi e separazioni inevitabili le relazioni si evolvono. Ormai a capo della segheria e punto di riferimento del clan, Miriam lavora instancabilmente per rendere i Caskey sempre più ricchi. Una scoperta sorprendente e miracolosa distribuirà la ricchezza anche in città. Ma sarà sufficiente questa improvvisa fortuna, ora che la natura reclama il suo debito? Quinto episodio della saga bestseller dell'autore amato da Stephen King.

1922. Mentre Perdido si sta riprendendo dalla devastazione, la costruzione di una diga è l'unica difesa possibile contro la furia dell'acqua. Ma il cantiere riversa sulla cittadina ancora precaria, un ulteriore carico di imprevisti: la rivolta degli operai, il capriccio delle correnti, il mistero di alcune sparizioni. La matriarca Mary-Love si scontra con Elinor, ora parte della famiglia Caskey. Macchinazioni, alleanze amene, sacrifici: a Perdido i mutamenti saranno profondi, le conseguenze irreversibili. La lotta è appena cominciata.

Nel 1919 le acque nere del fiume sommergono la cittadina di Perdido in Alabama. I ricchissimi Caskey, proprietari di boschi e segherie, devono fronteggiare il disastro provocato dalla furia dell’acqua. Ma il clan, capeggiato dalla potente matriarca Mary-Love e dal figlio devoto Oscar, dovrà anche fare i conti con un’apparizione sconvolgente. Dalla città sommersa compare Elinor, una donna dai capelli rossi e un passato misterioso che sembra volersi insinuarsi nel cuore dei Caskey. Primo episodio della saga bestseller dell’autore amato da Stephen King.

La determinazione di Elinor finalmente dà i suoi frutti. I nemici di ieri diverranno gli amici di domani e i mutamenti giungeranno da luoghi inaspettati. Anche per il mondo si apre una nuova èra, portatrice però di pericolo e distruzione: il conflitto in Europa farà affluire sangue nuovo a Perdido. Nella proprietà dei Caskey, gli uomini vanno e vengono. Come marionette che non sanno di essere appese a un filo. Quarto episodio della saga bestseller dell’autore amato da Stephen King.