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Last Resort: The Grayton Series, Book 1

Cassey’s life is crazy enough. The last thing she needs is some cocky rich boy trying to destroy her business. Normally immune to these vultures, she finds this brazen hottie especially difficult to refuse.

Out to close the deal of a lifetime, Luke won’t take no for an answer, and the intoxicating beauty standing in his way isn’t going to go down easily. He’ll need more than business savvy to close this deal.

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The Last Mile

In his number-one New York Times best-seller Memory Man, David Baldacci introduced the extraordinary detective Amos Decker-the man who can forget nothing. Now, Decker returns in a spectacular new thriller…

THE LAST MILE

Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution–for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier–when he’s granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime.

Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars’s case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men’s families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth.

The confession has the potential to make Melvin Mars–guilty or not–a free man. Who wants Mars out of prison? And why now?

But when a member of Decker’s team disappears, it becomes clear that something much larger–and more sinister–than just one convicted criminal’s life hangs in the balance. Decker will need all of his extraordinary brainpower to stop an innocent man from being executed.

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The Last Mile

In his #1 New York Times bestseller Memory Man, David Baldacci introduced the extraordinary detective Amos Decker-the man who can forget nothing. Now, Decker returns in a spectacular new thriller . . .
THE LAST MILE
Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution–for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier–when he’s granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime.
Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars’s case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men’s families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth.
The confession has the potential to make Melvin Mars–guilty or not–a free man. Who wants Mars out of prison? And why now?
But when a member of Decker’s team disappears, it becomes clear that something much larger–and more sinister–than just one convicted criminal’s life hangs in the balance. Decker will need all of his extraordinary brainpower to stop an innocent man from being executed.

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The Last Girl: The Dominion Trilogy, Book 1

A mysterious worldwide epidemic reduces the birthrate of female infants from 50 percent to less than one percent. Medical science and governments around the world scramble in an effort to solve the problem, but 25 years later there is no cure, and an entire generation grows up with a population of fewer than 1000 women.

Zoey and some of the surviving young women are housed in a scientific research compound dedicated to determining the cause. For two decades, she’s been isolated from her family, treated as a test subject, and locked away – told only that the virus has wiped out the rest of the world’s population.

Captivity is the only life Zoey has ever known, and escaping her heavily armed captors is no easy task, but she’s determined to leave before she is subjected to the next round of tests…a program that no other woman has ever returned from. Even if she’s successful, Zoey has no idea what she’ll encounter in the strange new world beyond the facility’s walls. Winning her freedom will take brutality she never imagined she possessed, as well as all her strength and cunning – but Zoey is ready for war.

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Michael Connelly CD Collection 2: The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, Trunk Music (Harry Bosch Series)

The Concrete Blonde
This high-voltage thriller opens with Homicide Detective Bosch battling charges as the chief defendant in a civil suit against the LAPD. The family of a notorious serial killer whom Bosch shot during an arrest four years ago has accused Bosch of killing the wrong man. This allegation becomes horrifyingly plausible when a new murder occurs with all the hallmarks of the dead slayer’s style.

The Last Coyote
Harry attacked his commanding officer and is suspended indefinitely, pending a psychiatric evaluation. At first he resists the LAPD shrink, but finally recognizes that something is troubling him and has for a long time. In 1961, when Harry was twelve, his mother, a prostitute, was brutally murdered with no one ever accused of the crime.

Trunk Music
Back on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is ready for a challenge. But his first case is a little more than he bargained for. It starts with the body of a Hollywood producer in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head at close range―what looks like “trunk music,” a Mafia hit.

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The Last Call: The Bill Travis Mysteries, Book 1

Bill Travis, an unmarried, unattached investment counselor rapidly approaching his fortieth birthday, conceives that he may not live the most exciting of lives, yet Julie Simmons, his first appointment that Monday, is deeply in trouble. She has taken a North Texas quarter horse racer and liquor baron named Archie Carpin – the last of a dynasty of criminals from the 1920’s – for a ride and cleaned him out of a neat two million bucks. And thus begins the adventure of Bill’s life.

Ensues a chase north across Texas to recover the money and shake the pursuit of a couple of rednecks with a penchant for rifles and rigged explosives. Yet, through all this action the compelling tale of yet another mystery-an 80-year old missing person’s case-begins to unravel.

About the Author: This action/adventure mystery novel is the first of six completed novels in The Bill Travis Mysteries. With a total of twenty-one books planned for the series, including three prequels, Bill Travis, Austin, Texas’ newest hero, is here to stay. George Wier has been writing for over twenty years. His most recent publishing credits include a contribution to Lone Star Noir (Akashic Books 2010). He lives in Austin, Texas with his lovely wife, Sallie.

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Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t

Why do only a few people get to say “I love my job?”

It seems unfair that finding fulfillment at work is like winning a lottery; that only a few lucky ones get to feel valued by their organizations, to feel like they belong.

Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled.

This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders are creating environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.

In his travels around the world since the publication of his bestseller Start with Why, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams were able to trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives were offered, were doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?

The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general.

“Officers eat last,” he said.

Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first, while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What’s symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: great leaders sacrifice their own comfort―even their own survival―for the good of those in their care.

This principle has been true since the earliest tribes of hunters and gatherers. It’s not a management theory; it’s biology. Our brains and bodies evolved to help us find food, shelter, mates and especially safety. We’ve always lived in a dangerous world, facing predators and enemies at every turn. We thrived only when we felt safe among our group.

Our biology hasn’t changed in fifty thousand years, but our environment certainly has. Today’s workplaces tend to be full of cynicism, paranoia and self-interest. But the best organizations foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a Circle of Safety that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside.

The Circle of Safety leads to stable, adaptive, confident teams, where everyone feels they belong and all energies are devoted to facing the common enemy and seizing big opportunities. But without a Circle of Safety, we end up with office politics, silos and runaway self-interest. And the whole organization suffers.

As he did in Start with Why, Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories from a wide range of examples, from the military to manufacturing, from government to investment banking. The biology is clear: when it matters most, leaders who are willing to eat last are rewarded with deeply loyal colleagues who will stop at nothing to advance their leader’s vision and their organization’s interests. It’s amazing how well it works.

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The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure (Doctor Who)

A very special story which at last provides a heroic exit for Colin Baker’s much-loved Time Lord. Four hour-long episodes, connected by the presence of the Valeyard, the entity that exists between the Doctor’s twelfth and final incarnations. THE END OF THE LINE – The Doctor and his latest companion Constance investigate a commuter train that has lost its way…THE RED HOUSE – The Doctor and Charlotte Pollard arrive on a world that is populated by werewolves. STAGE FRIGHT – The Doctor and Flip visit Victorian London, where investigators Jago and Litefoot explore theatrical performances that have echoes of the Doctor’s past lives…THE BRINK OF DEATH – The Doctor and Mel face the final confrontation with the Valeyard – and the Doctor must make the ultimate sacrifice. Denied a proper farewell from the Doctor Who TV show, Colin Baker here takes the role anew to show how the Sixth Doctor met his end…New companion Constance Clarke is played by Miranda Raison, a familiar face from British stage and screen including Spooks, Poirot, Merlin, Doctor Who and 24: Live Another Day…India Fisher (Charlie Pollard) is the narrator for BBC’s popular Masterchef program. The four stories are from four different periods of the Sixth Doctor’s life, each bringing back a popular companion and other friends of the Time Lord…CAST: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Miranda Raison (Constance Clarke), Anthony Howell (Tim Hope), India Fisher (Charlotte Pollard), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lisa Greenwood (Flip), Christopher Benjamin (Henry Jago), Trevor Baxter (George Litefoot), Lisa Bowerman (Ellie Higson), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush).

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Hitler’s Last Days: The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World’s Most Notorious Dictator

By early 1945, the destruction of the German Nazi State seems certain. The Allied forces, led by American generals George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower, are gaining control of Europe, leaving German leaders scrambling. Facing defeat, Adolf Hitler flees to a secret bunker with his new wife, Eva Braun, and his beloved dog, Blondi. It is there that all three would meet their end, thus ending the Third Reich and one of the darkest chapters of history.

Hitler’s Last Days is a gripping account of the death of one of the most reviled villains of the 20th century–a man whose regime of murder and terror haunts the world even today. Adapted from Bill O’Reilly’s historical thriller Killing Patton, this book will have young readers–and grown-ups too–hooked on history.