Amazon.com ReviewMitchell Smith writes deceptively quiet, outwardly civilized thrillers about people we can identify with--people whose lives are suddenly ripped apart. He's fascinated by the way his characters react to stress, by how much pressure they can absorb before they either break or change into another kind of person. In Reprisal, Joanna Reed, a poet and professor, is sorely tested by various demons. She battles breast cancer, and then her husband Frank, an experienced sailor, drowns in the Atlantic Ocean. Joanna tries to work out her grief and pain as she has always done, by spelunking in dangerous caves. Meanwhile, her elderly father is burned to death in his cabin in the woods--another "accident."We quickly find out that a strange young girl named Charis--the college roommate of Joanna's daughter--is connected to the deaths. Tough and endlessly resourceful, Charis wants to destroy Joanna's life as reprisal for a past grievance. It takes the equally smart but grief-slowed Joanna some time to realize what's happening, but Smith is so good at getting into her mind and soul that we can easily forgive this small lapse. He also rewards our patience with an ending that is both terrifying and sadly inevitable. --Dick AdlerFrom Publishers WeeklyQuaint New England beaches and disorientingly vast, scary caves are among the effective settings used by Smith (Sacrifice) in this absorbing tale of memory, murder and long-postponed revenge. Smith's sixth novel offers much suspense but little mystery, since the villain is known from the outset: she's Charis Langenberg, sexually abused at age six, who has grown up to be, at 20-something, a full-time graduate student and sociopath. Charis has staged, only days apart, the "accidental" deaths on Asconsett Island of the father and grandfather of Rebecca Reed, her teenage summer-school roommate. Joanna Reed, the novel's heroine, is Rebecca's mom and also a poet. When she arrives at Asconsett Island to grieve, she has a hard time believing the deaths were accidents. How could her husband, a skilled seaman, have drowned? Could her elderly, obsessively cautious father have died accidentally in a cabin fire? After much suspicion and several flashbacks, Rebecca herself "falls" off a dormitory roof. When her death is ruled a suicide, Joanna suffers a minor breakdown and Charis returns to Asconsett to help her recover. Will Joanna figure out who is behind the deaths, and why? Smith's prose prowess and skill with psychology and landscape offset his sometimes jerky plotting. His credibly flawed, offbeat characters and vivid descriptionsAparticularly of the underground caverns that Joanna, an avid spelunker, exploresAwill keep readers deeply involved. But Joanna's incessant introspection can be wearying. Her understanding of what's really going on, when it finally arrives, seems forced and sudden, marring what would otherwise be the gripping underground climax to a novel that, while not Mitchell's best (that's probably Stone City), is a reliable page-turner. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Erotica/Suspense/Thriller. 13995 words long.

Only two ideologies grew out of a great paradigm shift, that of Atominii’s cybernetic autocracy, and the libertarian’s parecon experiment. But as the Erebus shuttle nears earth after years of studying the Charybdis black hole, a new ideology is about to emerge. One that is based on the great disembark - pure chaos.

Meet Dottie Harris. She lived the self-indulgent lifestyle of every childless couple. Then she and her partner decided to have kids.Struggling through the issues of pregnancy and motherhood, Dottie turns to social networking. Once there to help organise her social life, she quickly becomes reliant on it, using it as a way to reach out to others and beginning to come to terms with the funny side of motherhood, whilst realising that she's not the only person to consider anything after 7am a lie in.Made up entirely of Facebook-style updates you can follow Dottie on her journey, spanning four years of her life. It includes worries, insecurities, tears and tantrums, along with the things nobody ever tells you about motherhood!Full of humour and honesty, watch Dottie as she trades in her social life for the sofa and a bottle of gin, watching her children grow older and her less enthusiastic. A book that all ages can relate to.

It's not that Charlotte hates dogs. Or that she wants all of them to disappear off the face of the planet. It's just that she doesn't see why everyone loves them so much. So how did she get stuck taking care of a big, drooling Saint Bernard puppy? Rain or shine, hot or cold, poor Beauregard is left chained in the backyard. No one ever plays with him or checks his food and water bowls, and Charlotte can tell he's sad. So she makes sure he has water, gives him belly rubs — blech! — and feeds him every single day. But it's kind of a pain, and she knows Beauregard deserves better. There's a new girl at school who lives in a huge house — plenty of room there for a big dog.Charlotte has an idea. Now all she needs is a plan. Maybe a lot of plans. How do you rescue your own dog?

Bosco Roth is a crime lord. The owner of the biggest underground casino.He's the kind of man who gets what he wants. He's got the best poker face in the world.Now he wants me.When things become too intense, I hit the brakes and make a run for it.But one problem...he won't let me go.Now I belong to Bosco Roth.

Can Maura overcome her perfect image and finally be true to herself and her heart? You ever realize that what you're doing and where you are in life isn't where you're supposed to be? I did. My name is Maura Doughers. I'm perfect. I have the ideal soldier boyfriend and all the money a twenty-two year old girl could dream of. My life is just like it should be. But it's nothing close to what I want. I'm beginning to realize the person I am isn't who I'm meant to be....and maybe the person I'm with isn't the one for me. Is what I feel love or lust? I don't know... What I really want is forbidden and most certainly not something my parents would approve of. But what about me? What about what I want? Well, I'm about to get it. No matter the consequences.

Katherine heads to Santa Fe, New Mexico along with a Maine Coon Cat kitten to spend New Year's Eve with Lars. Her guilty feelings over the organist's death have her needing an escape. When she reaches Santa Fe, she discovers Lars is missing. She seeks and finds him and steps into another mystery. Lars' daughter dislikes Katherine but when the young woman is kidnapped, they are puzzled. The murder of Lars' daughter and one of his employees makes solving the mysteries necessary. Can she learn before Lars becomes a victim.

A Regency Romance. Penryth Bowen knows Lily Leigh is in need of rescue, but saving her means making her his wife. He’s undecided until he discovers Lily has been battered black and blue, but true kindness is a condition that requires self knowledge of one’s motives and an understanding that even well meant actions can have unforeseen consequences that are anything, but kind.

They call her theLanglinais Bride--though she'sseen her husband only one time . . .on their wedding day, twelve years ago.For years naÏve, convent-bred Julianadreaded being summoned to the side ofthe man she wed as a child so long ago. Now herhusband, Sebastian, Earl of Langlinais,has become ensnared in his villainous brother's wicked plots--and has no choice but toturn to his virgin bride for help.Juliana now finds herself face-to-facewith a man so virile and so powerful that she'sfascinated by him--just as he asks her togo against everything she holds true. Sebastiannever counted on being enchanted bythe beauty of this innocent angel he intended tokeep as wife in name only--and hedares not reveal to her the secret reasonwhy their love can never be . . .