Pamela C. Jordan

In this collection of stories from the world of The Last Word Bookstore, we witness the highs and lows, the victories and defeats, the real and the ridiculous of the world's greatest profession: Bookselling. This anthology contains both stories from the first three Last Word novels as well as several brand new literary adventures. Come join Sal, Camden, and all the other inmates of this biblio-asylum as we see once again what happens when The Sopranos meets Fawlty Towers...in a bookstore.

Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world's top security agencies ever since her quantum computing breakthrough. She's also an agoraphobe shackled to a narrow routine since her father's suicide. When her intelligence work unexpectedly exposes a sinister plot to assassinate the country's first viable female presidential candidate, Salem finds herself both target and detective in a modern day witch hunt.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.