Books published by publisher Phoenix Books

Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were thirteen clocks that wouldn t go, there lived a cold, aggressive Duke, and his niece, the Princess Saralinda. She was warm in every wind and weather, but he was always cold. His hands were as cold as his smile, and almost as cold as his heart. He wore gloves when he was asleep, and he wore gloves when he was awake, which made it difficult for him to pick up pins or coins or the kernels of nuts, or to tear the wings from nightingales.So begins James Thurber s sublimely revamped fairy tale, The 13 Clocks, in which a wicked Duke who imagines he has killed time, and the Duke s beautiful niece, for whom time seems to have run out, both meet their match, courtesy of an enterprising and very handsome prince in disguise. Readers young and old will take pleasure in this tale of love forestalled but ultimately fulfilled, admiring its upstanding hero ( He yearned to find in a far land the princess of his dreams, singing as he went, and possibly slaying a dragon here and there ) and unapologetic villain ( We all have flaws, the Duke said. Mine is being wicked ), while wondering at the enigmatic Golux, the mysterious stranger whose unpredictable interventions speed the story to its necessarily happy end.

Combine a crime, a criminal, a fat man in a fez, and a guy named "Chicken Man", and you get a zany sci-fi adventure that defies gravity to bring you a mind-boggling feast. As Wizard of Comedy Daniel M. Pinkwater transports the Snarkout Boys and the Rat through the tunnel under North Aufzoo Street to the warmth of Beanbenders, you'll meet some strange characters and learn much about the versatile avocado. The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death is a sci-fi mystery adventure that seems like a dream...but no one is sleeping!

When an affluent railcar owner disappears with millions of dollars belonging to Moose County investors, the international police launch an intense investigation to find the fugitive. But journalist detective Jim Qwilleran and his feline crime-busters find a mystery to unravel that is closer to home. Who blew the whistle on the embezzler? And, why did they do it? Qwill goes full steam ahead to solve the puzzle before tragedy occurs, but the case is complicated by a train wreck on the main line and a murder in a railroad tavern. Only Qwill and the cats can find the answer to the questions "who" and "why".

O Jerusalem! is the epic drama of 1948, when Arabs and Jews fought for control of the city of Jerusalem. This story traverses centuries and continents, covering the time between WWII and the creation of the independent state of Israel. Based on five years of intensive research and thousands of interviews, this is a story of courage, terrorism, heroism, and ultimately, war.

Killashandra Ree was drawn like a magnet to the song of crystal, and now it's erasing her memory. She knew the forgetfulness would be a byproduct of the singing, and she doesn't mind the little annoyances, like being unable to remember her address or the names of her colleagues. But she hadn't counted on the loneliness a person can feel when the heart still remembers what the mind has forgotten. Can the crystal that destroyed her memory somehow restore it? Find out in this exciting fantasy, part of Anne McCaffrey's Killashandra Ree adventure series that also includes Crystal Singer and Killashandra.

Do you believe in Santa Claus? You will after you've experienced this magical Christmas classic that pits cynics against Santa-believers. Miracle on 34th Street begins when a last-minute replacement in the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade claims to be the genuine Santa. Is he the real thing or just a charlatan in a red fuzzy coat? In a classic courtroom climax, the department store's Kris Kringle convinces everyone, including a skeptical little girl named Susan Walker, that Santa Claus really does exist. This charming remake retains the magic and mystery of the well-known original, showing how the power of faith can prove that miracles really do happen. Originally published in 1994 as tie-in to the 20th Century Fox motion picture remake of the classic 1947 film.

The exhilarating adventures of Anne McCaffrey's best selling Crystal Singer series continue with Killashandra, a story that mixes interplanetary political intrigue with passionate romance. In this installment, Killashandra Ree's crystal claim has been exhausted, forcing her to take a new assignment and leave her new lover back on their native Ballybran. She goes undercover on a distant, desolate planet, searching desperately for the crystal that will save her - and, quite possibly, the fate of the entire universe.

Persuaded by his beloved companion to join her in a group tour of Scotland, Qwill expects to revel in his Scottish heritage while keeping Polly Duncan safe from the Pickax Prowler. Instead, his trip is cut short when a thief swipes a suitcase, the bus driver disappears, and a fellow tourist is found dead, all in the same day. Although the town of Pickax is in a tizzy over the recent events, Qwill has other, more puzzling worries on his mind. Who is the fellow still following Polly? Why is Koko licking Qwill's photographs of Scotland and tackling him on the apple barn stairs? Upon investigating the secret life of the deceased and the bizarre behavior of one of the tour's members, Qwill's sensitive moustache tells him one thing: more trouble is on the way.

After five years of legal formalities, Jim Qwilleran has officially inherited his freedom and a fortune, which leaves him with a serious dilemma. What should he do now? Seeking a place of peace and isolation to make up his mind, he heads to the Potato Mountains for the summer. But Qwill lands in the middle of controversy, not solitude. The mountains are a haven for the independent, roughneck descendants of Prohibition-era moon-shiners. The valley is home to developers eager to turn the pristine Potatoes into a giant tourist trap. To make matters more complicated, a Tater, as the mountain folk are called, has been convicted of the murder of millionaire developer J.J. Hawkinfield. Some people swear the wrong man was convicted, and Qwill is inclined to agree when he hears what transpired before the trial. But if Forest Beechum didn't do the dirty deed, who did? With Qwill, Koko, and Yum Yum on the case, the killer won't get away with murder.

The Sternwood family, immortalized in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, is in trouble again. Lovely Vivian's psychotic sister, Carmen, has disappeared from the sanitarium, and Vivian herself has once again fallen into the clutches of the shady underworld character Eddie Mars. Enter Philip Marlowe, the original tough-but-tender private eye, resurrected by Robert B. Parker, creator of his own phenomenally popular Spenser mystery series. He saved the Sternwoods once before. The question is: Can he do it again?

The young Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann conjures a brilliant and gently comic novel from the lives of two geniuses of the Enlightenment. Toward the end of the 18th century, two young Germans set out to measure the world. One of them, the Prussian aristocrat Alexander von Humboldt, negotiates savannas and jungle, travels down the Orinoco River, tastes poisons, climbs the highest mountain known to man, counts head lice, and explores every hole in the ground. The other, the barely socialized mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss, does not even need to leave his home in Göttingen to prove that space is curved. He can run prime numbers in his head. He cannot imagine a life without women, yet he jumps out of bed on his wedding night to jot down a mathematical formula. Von Humboldt is known to history as the Second Columbus. Gauss is recognized as the greatest mathematical brain since Newton. Terrifyingly famous and more than eccentric in their old age, the two meet in Berlin in 1828. Gauss had hardly climbed out of his carriage before both men were embroiled in the political turmoil sweeping through Germany after Napoleon's fall. Already a huge best seller in Germany, Measuring the World marks the debut of a glorious new talent on the international scene.