Books published by publisher Fawcett Crest

“Anyone who finds it is finding a jewel. Its themes are profound and universal.”—The Wall Street JournalIt is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again. . . .

"A must for anyone who wants to play a game and play it correctly."Charles H. GorenWhether you play card games, dice games, parlor games, word games, chess, checker, backgammon, or solitaire games, here is a comprehensive, up-to-date book with the complete rules of your favorite games of skill and chance. ACCORDING TO HOYLE gives not only the rules but expert advice on winning, too.

The bestselling author of Demolition Angel and L.A. Requiem returns with his most intense and intricate thriller yet. As the Los Angeles Times said, Robert Crais is “a crime writer operating at the top of his game.” His complex heroes and heroines, his mastery of noir atmosphere, and his brilliant, taut plots have catapulted him into the front rank of a new breed of thriller writers. Hostage proves his earlier success was no fluke. It’s an unstoppable read.An ex-con with delusions of grandeur and his tagalong brother unwittingly team up with a psychopath one wrong word away from meltdown. When their late afternoon joyride turns into a random act of violence, they take a family hostage in the affluent bedroom community of Bristo Camino. Enter Chief of Police Jeff Talley, a stressed-out former LAPD SWAT negotiator who is hiding from his past. Plunged back into the high-pressure world that he desperately wants to forget, Talley soon learns that his nightmare has only begun. The hostages are not who they seem, and the home contains secrets that even L.A.’s most lethal and volatile crime lord, Sonny Benza, fears. As Talley tries to hold himself together and save the people inside, the full weight of Benza’s wrath descends on him, putting the police chief and his own family at risk. Soon, all involved are held hostage by the exigencies of fate and the only one capable of diffusing the standoff is the least stable of them all.Hostage is a blistering stand-alone thriller with superb characters in crisis, multistranded plotting, and pitch-perfect Southern California sensibility.

“Mrs. Pollifax gives Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple a rival to reckon with.”—Toronto Star“What we are looking for—aside from the stolen Plutonium, Mrs. Pollifax—is evil in its purest form.” Mrs. Pollifax was leading a very full life: Garden Club, karate, yoga—and a little spying now and then. This time the mysterious Mr. Carstairs sent her to Switzerland—to a famous health resort where the world’s intelligence agents had gathered. The mission: to track down a missing package of plutonium. Just enough to make a small atom bomb. It was a job that suited Mrs. Pollifax’s talents. She was good with people—and good at sniffing out their secrets. But it was not until she became enchanted with Robin, the young jewel thief, that her new adventure really began. . . .

Once again the irrepressible Mrs. Pollifax, that very special agent with her own very special brand of logic, is off on an incredible escapade of international intrigue . . . from the exotic towns and countryside of Turkey to a mysterious rendezvous with a gypsy caravan.“You are in effect replacing a dead man, Mrs. Pollifax. . . .”When Emily Pollifax answered the phone that Sunday morning she quickly forgot about her Garden Club tea in the afternoon. The last time she had heard the voice on the other end of the line it had sent of her off on a journey that plunged her into a wild tangle of secret agents and high adventure.Now the man from the CIA was asking if she could leave immediately on a mission that would take her halfway across the world. What could Mrs. Pollifax say but yes?Praise for The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax“Mrs. Pollifax is an enchantress.”—The New York Times“One of the most suspense-creating and unorthodox heroines of our time is Mrs. Pollifax . . . . A charmer!”—Shrevport Times

"When Emily Pollifax answers the phone that Sunday morning, she quickly forgets all about her Garden Club tea that afternoon. For the voice on the other end belonged to a man she had never seen, a man from the CIA who asked her if she could leave immediately on a mission that would take her halfway across the world! What could Mrs. Pollifax say but yes?"

“The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines.”—Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy The first major bioterror event in the United States-the anthrax attacks in October 2001-was a clarion call for scientists who work with “hot” agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense. Peter Jahrling, the top scientist at Usamriid, a wry virologist who cut his teeth on Ebola, one of the world’s most lethal emerging viruses, has ORCON security clearance that gives him access to top secret information on bioweapons. His most urgent priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox-and win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers-at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all vaccines. Usamriid went into a state of Delta Alert on September 11 and activated its emergency response teams when the first anthrax letters were opened in New York and Washington, D.C. Preston reports, in unprecedented detail, on the government’ s response to the attacks and takes us into the ongoing FBI investigation. His story is based on interviews with top-level FBI agents and with Dr. Steven Hatfill. Jahrling is leading a team of scientists doing controversial experiments with live smallpox virus at CDC. Preston takes us into the lab where Jahrling is reawakening smallpox and explains, with cool and devastating precision, what may be at stake if his last bold experiment fails.

In this acclaimed classic novel, James A. Michener sweeps readers off to the Caribbean, bringing to life the eternal allure and tumultuous history of this glittering string of islands. From the 1310 conquest of the Arawaks by cannibals to the decline of the Mayan empire, from Columbus’s arrival to buccaneer Henry Morgan’s notorious reign, from the bloody slave revolt on Haiti to the rise of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Caribbean packs seven hundred dramatic years into a tale teeming with revolution and romance, authentic characters and thunderous destinies. Through absorbing, magnificent prose, Michener captures the essence of the islands in all of their awe-inspiring scope and wonder. Praise for Caribbean “Michener is a master.”—Boston Herald “A grand epic . . . [James A. Michener] sympathizes with the struggles of the region’s most oppressed, and succeeds in presenting the Caribbean in its rich diversity.”—The Plain Dealer “Remarkable and praiseworthy . . . utterly engaging.”—The Washington Post Book World “Even American tourists familiar with some of the serene islands will find themselves enlightened. . . . In Caribbean, there appears to be a strong aura of truth behind the storytelling.”—The New York Times

"Populated by engaging characters, rich in incicdent, and vivid in historical detail."THE NEW YORKTIMES BOOK REVIEWIn the eleventh-century London, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling,juggling, peddling cures to the sick--and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing--a gift that urged him on to become a doctor. So all consuming was his dream, that he made the perilous, unheard-of journey to Persia, to its Arab universities where he would undertake a transformation that would shape his destiny forever....

Once again the irrepressible Mrs. Pollifax, that very special agent with her own very special brand of logic, is off on an incredible escapade of international intrigue . . . from the exotic towns and countryside of Turkey to a mysterious rendezvous with a gypsy caravan.“You are in effect replacing a dead man, Mrs. Pollifax. . . .”When Emily Pollifax answered the phone that Sunday morning she quickly forgot about her Garden Club tea in the afternoon. The last time she had heard the voice on the other end of the line it had sent of her off on a journey that plunged her into a wild tangle of secret agents and high adventure.Now the man from the CIA was asking if she could leave immediately on a mission that would take her halfway across the world. What could Mrs. Pollifax say but yes?Praise for The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax“Mrs. Pollifax is an enchantress.”—The New York Times“One of the most suspense-creating and unorthodox heroines of our time is Mrs. Pollifax . . . . A charmer!”—Shrevport Times