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All Hallows' Eve
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
In post-Blitz London, humanity's last hope of defeating a powerful magician's insidious plans lies with a ghost trapped in a surreal city of the dead During World War II, soon after Ms. Lester Furnival married her beloved Richard, she died in an accident. Now she wanders the dark and lonely streets with her friend Evelyn. An empty mirror image of the London she once knew, the city is a place where time has lost its rules and structure, and where Lester can catch heartbreaking glimpses of the world she left behind. But all is not well in the realm of the living. The other London has fallen under the sway of the magus Simon Leclerc, a master of black magic and necromancy who would sacrifice the soul of his own daughter in the pursuit of ultimate power. With her widowed husband entangled in the sorcerer's toxic web along with an enigmatic artist who can paint only the truth, Lester must somehow thwart Leclerc's malevolent plan if she is to find...
Descent into Hell
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
In this provocative, classic metaphysical thriller, a group of suburban amateur actors plagued by personal demons and terrors explore the pathways to heaven and hell Certain inhabitants of Battle Hill, a small community on the outskirts of London, are preparing to mount a new play by the neighborhood's most illustrious resident, the writer Peter Stanhope. Each actor struggles with self-absorption, doubt, fear, and sin. But "the Hill" is not like other places. Here the past and present intermingle, ghosts walk among the living, and reality is often clouded by dreams and the dark fantastic. For young Pauline Anstruther, who is caring for an aging grandmother and frightened by the specter of a doppelgänger who gets closer with each visitation, the prospect of heaven exists in the renowned playwright's willingness to bear the burden of her terror. For eminent historian Lawrence Wentworth, the rejection of his desire pulls him deeper inside himself, leaving him...
Shadows of Ecstasy
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
A charismatic and immortal leader rises up out of Africa to violently alter humankind's destiny There is great unrest on the African continent, and explosive uprisings that originated there are finding their way to Britain's shores. A man named Nigel Considine, a charismatic leader who calls himself the High Executive, is raising a great army to conquer the world. Universal love is his stated goal, to be achieved through violence if necessary, and his dogma has unleashed a terrible backlash of brutality, prejudice, and hatred throughout so-called civilized London. But who is this immortal prophet-king whose words inflame the passions of untold thousands of disciples? Is he a power-hungry madman, as the unrepentant agnostic Sir Bernard Travers has flatly stated, or is he the Antichrist, as Travers's dearest friend, the vicar Ian Caithness, believes? Perhaps the deathless Considine is the light of the age—indeed, of all ages: a saintly personage to be adored...
War in Heaven
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
The discovery of an ancient holy relic in an English country church ignites the ultimate battle of good and evil in this deeply thoughtful metaphysical thriller An unidentified body lies lifeless in the offices of a British publishing house. Soon after it is discovered, an urgent request from an author arrives by post, pleading for the deletion of an important paragraph from an upcoming publication. These unlikely incidents mark the beginning of a secret war waged in the English countryside but threatening to engulf all of humankind. On the side of the godly, an archdeacon, an eccentric duke, a book editor, and a young boy must confront the dark magic of relentless satanic forces—for behind the facade of a common pharmacy, sinister plans are being laid for the negation of everything. The most horrible of conspiracies, its success hangs on the acquisition of an object of enormous supernatural power recently discovered in a small parish church: the Holy...
Uncle Sagamore and His Girls
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
It's election season in Blossom County, and that means it's time for moonshineEducated at the racetrack, Billy has never had a firm grip on his ABCs, but he sure knows how to read a racing form. When a family court judge threatens to put the seven-year-old in a foster home, Billy and his father go to live in the countryside, at the wholesome little farm owned by Billy's Uncle Sagamore, where the air is pure, the grass is green, and the liquor from his hidden distillery is clear as water—and about 120 proof. But pressure from the law has kept Sagamore's still silent, and the stash of white lightning is starting to dwindle. To get his home-brewing operation back underway, Sagamore needs a distraction—and there's none better than local politics. When Uncle Sagamore throws his weight into the Blossom County elections, democracy will never be the same.
And the Deep Blue Sea
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
A sailor stranded in the Pacific Ocean finds there are a million ways to dieHis life in pieces, Harry Goddard buys a thirty-two-foot sloop and sets out to sail the Pacific. He is a thousand miles from anywhere when his craft strikes an unseen object, and begins taking water. For all his desperate efforts, he cannot save her, and Harry is forced into his life raft, to drift without food, water, or shelter from the sun. He is near death when the Leander rescues him. But by the time his trip is over, he'll wish he'd taken his chances in the open water.A tramp freighter sailing under the Panamanian flag, the Leander is en route to the Philippines when its crew spots Harry and takes him aboard. But as he regains his strength, Harry uncovers a murderous conspiracy that could destroy the ship that saved him.
Diamond Bikini
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
Raised at the racetrack, a boy comes to live on a Texas farmBilly doesn't know how to read a book, but give him a racing form and he can tell you everything about a pony that you'd ever want to know. He and his father live on the road, traveling from Aqueduct to Hialeah and back again, until an overzealous Welfare lady demands they settle somewhere more wholesome than the track. Not knowing anyplace wholesome, Billy's father takes him to Texas instead, to live on his brother Sagamore's farm.There Billy meets bootleggers, gangsters, and the beautiful Miss Choo-Choo Caroline, a Chicago stripper who is wearing nothing but a tiny, diamond-encrusted G-string when she disappears. Uncle Sagamore, an enterprising brute, sees this as a chance for profit. For a boy with gambling in his veins, there could be quite a lot to learn.
Hot Spot
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
For Madox, a dull town, a beautiful woman, and an easy bank heist spell doomIn a town so small that Main Street is only three blocks long, there isn't a lot to do—other than work, ogle women, and think about fast ways to get rich. After a year of aimless wandering, Madox has landed here, nearly broke and with no prospects but a dead-end job selling cars to yokels. Until one afternoon a fire at the burger joint draws the attention of everyone in town—including the men who are supposed to be guarding the bank. It's almost too good to be true, but there it is—$15,000 lying around, watched by no one. Now all Madox needs is a little nerve and a second distraction. And while one woman will give him the nerve, another will make him ready to kill.
A Touch of Death hcc-17
Part #17 of "Hard Case Crime" series by Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
It Began As a Burglary – And Ended As a Nightmare
When Lee Scarborough came upon the brunette sunbathing topless in her back yard, getting involved in a heist was the last thing on his mind. But somehow that’s where he found himself – sneaking through a stranger’s house, on the hunt for $120,000 in embezzled bank funds.
It looked like an easy score. But one thing stood between him and the money: the beautiful and deadly Madelon Butler.
Hell Hath No Fury
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
“When you break the law, you can forget about playing the averages because you have to win all the time.”
Madox is new to town when he hatches a scheme to rob the bank. At the same time, he's having an affair with his boss's wife and has the hots for the loan officer at the used car lot where he works. The robbery goes as smoothly as it can but Madox's life goes spiraling out of control in a web of sex, murder, and blackmail.
The Greater Trumps
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
In this classic tale of spirituality, morality, and the occult, a dark plot to murder an unsuspecting Englishman who possesses the world's rarest tarot deck unleashes uncontrollable elemental forces The original and most mystical of all playing-card decks, the tarot has seduced seekers of otherworldly knowledge for centuries—and of all its cards, the most potent are the twenty-two symbolic images that comprise the Greater Trumps. By a strange twist of fate, the very first tarot deck, dating back centuries, has come into the possession of Lothair Coningsby, a uniquely unimaginative Englishman. Though he has no intention of relinquishing his treasure, there are others who covet the tarot's power. Henry Lee, for one—fiancé of Coningsby's beautiful daughter, Nancy—is driven by an obligation even deeper than his devotion to his beloved. Henry is of Gipsy blood, and the Romany believe that they alone are the true guardians of the mystical tarot....
The Place of the Lion
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
One man must save the human race from total destruction when a small British village is invaded by a terrifying host of archetypal creatures released from the spiritual world In the small English town of Smetham on the outskirts of London, a wall separating two worlds has broken down. The meddling and meditations of a local mage, Mr. Berringer, has caused a rift in the barrier between the corporeal and the spiritual, and now all hell has broken loose. Strange creatures are descending on Smethem—terrifying supernatural archetypes wreaking wholesale havoc, destruction, and death. Some residents, like the evil, power-hungry Mr. Foster, welcome the horrific onslaught. Others, like the cool and intellectual Damaris, refuse to accept what her eyes and heart tell her until it is far too late. Only a student named Anthony, emboldened by his unwavering love for Damaris, has the courage to face the horror head on. But if he alone cannot somehow restore balance to the...
Go Home, Stranger
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
An engineer battles a small town to see his sister released from prisonIt takes Reno three days to get from Peru to the Gulf Coast, and when he gets to Waynesport he has only one stop to make: the city jail, where his sister is being held on a murder rap. The way Vickie tells it, she saw her husband having a drink with another woman, they quarreled, and she went to the bathroom. When she came out, he was shot through the back of the skull. The police believe every word of her story—except the part about who pulled the trigger.Her husband was in Waynesport looking for a crook named Rupert Conway, whom the local police do not seem towant found. To save his sister's neck, Reno must wade through corruption as fetid as the swamps that surround this hellish southern town, where the alligators aren't the only ones who are eager to kill.
Scorpion Reef
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
Aboard a ghost ship, sailors discover a tale of treasure, lust, and murderWhen the tanker finds the yacht, she is far from land, adrift in the middle of the Caribbean. No one is onboard, but the hold is stuffed with cash, the coffeepot is still warm, and a hint of perfume hangs in the air. The passengers have vanished, but the ship's log tells a chilling story of the madness peculiar to the search for sunken riches.The journal was written by salvage diver Bill Manning, who was out of money and out of luck when he met a statuesque Swede named Shannon. She and her husband hire him to sail them to the Yucatan coast, to find a plane that went down carrying untold wealth. But a pair of gangsters is pursuing them, hoping for a crack at the treasure as well. For the sake of Shannon's beauty Manning will chase this fortune, knowing it will take him to the height of riches, or to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.
Confidentially Yours
Charles Williams
Fantasy / Religion / Poetry
A small town is doomed by jealousy, greed, and a shared love of huntingIn the backwoods town of Carthage, there isn't much for the leading citizens to do but drink, sleep, and shoot. John Warren is preparing for an early morning duck hunt when he hears two shotgun blasts— only later does he learn they were the sound of Dan Roberts's death. Although it appears the handsome young man killed himself, Warren and the police are smart enough to realize that suicide victims seldom shoot twice.That night, a drunk woman calls Warren's house, offering a motive for the crime he didn't commit. Roberts was sleeping with Warren's wife—and he wasn't her only lover. Warren didn't kill Roberts, but as the rumors begin to swirl, he may wish that he had. In a town where every man is a crack shot, shooting a rival isn't murder. It's target practice."[Williams] is just about as good as they come." —The New York Times"Relying on wit, humor and ingenious plotting,...
