Fall in love with this sexy, thrilling star-crossed romance...

Contains WILD, DIRTY, and SECRET - all three books in Luke and Shelly's complete story! This boxed set from the Chicago Underground series is over 450 pages long.

WILD

Once upon a time I was the girl who had everything, the clothes, the car. The rich dad who spoiled me. But the truth was, the only thing I had was my body. I used it to buy my way out.

That's how I became a call girl.

There's only one man who makes me wish things had been different. One man who could never be with a girl like me. Luke is a cop. Untouchable. Unbreakable. And dangerous in his own way.

When I end up on the run, he's the only one I can turn to.

And he just might be my downfall.

DIRTY

There's no escape for me. I'm tied to some of the scariest men in Chicago. Bound so tight I'll never get free.

I'll do anything to survive, except bring Luke down with me. I won't taint him. I won't ruin the one good man I've ever met. I won't turn him into a dirty cop.

Except he refuses to let me go.

SECRET

I'm the one with the dark past, the scarlet letter, the soul so black there's no hope of redemption. At least, that's what I always believed...

Luke has secrets of his own, and the more I search, the more I'm afraid of what I'll find. But I have to know. My survival depends on it.

****************

WILD DIRTY SECRET is a sexy suspense novel told in three parts, all of which are included in this bundle! Not intended for those uncomfortable with the subject matter or those under eighteen.

From global phenomenon C. S. Pacat comes the first novel in her critically acclaimed Captive Prince trilogy.

Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos, but when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.

Beautiful, manipulative and deadly, his new master Prince Laurent epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.

For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A delightful debut.”—People 
 
For readers of Lilac Girls and The Nightingale, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir unfolds the struggles, affairs, deceptions, and triumphs of a village choir during World War II.

As England becomes enmeshed in the early days of World War II and the men are away fighting, the women of Chilbury village forge an uncommon bond. They defy the Vicar’s stuffy edict to close the choir and instead “carry on singing,” resurrecting themselves as the Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. We come to know the home-front struggles of five unforgettable choir members: a timid widow devastated when her only son goes to fight; the older daughter of a local scion drawn to a mysterious artist; her younger sister pining over an impossible crush; a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia hiding a family secret; and a conniving midwife plotting to outrun her seedy past.
 
An enchanting ensemble story that shuttles from village intrigue to romance to the heartbreaking matters of life and death, Jennifer Ryan’s debut novel thrillingly illuminates the true strength of the women on the home front in a village of indomitable spirit.

When Maggie May Carver moved to Baker Valley, Colorado she wanted two things: to open a dog barkery with her best friend, and to take care of her aging grandpa.

But when her grandpa is accused of murder--a crime he may well have committed--Maggie finds herself in the role of amateur detective.

With her faithful Newfie, Miss Fancypants, at her side, Maggie is determined to find the real killer and clear her grandpa's name.

Assuming he isn't the real killer, that is.

THE INQUISITION IS BACK! AND THIS TIME THEY HAVE TECHNOLOGY.

An action-packed unraveling of the secrets of ancient history mixed in with a chilling conspiracy that brings to mind Dan Brown’s bestseller INFERNO.

“Swigart is one of the few thriller writers with a poetic sense … [who] knows how to give high velocity to an action mystery.” -San Francisco Chronicle

Papyrologist Lisa Emmer’s world flips when the Surete meets her at her Metro station with news of the savage murder of the esteemed Paris historian Dr. Raimond Foix, her friend and mentor in the study of ancient documents. Horrified, Lisa finds clues at the crime scene left behind for her by her mentor—clues to a secret kept hidden for centuries. These clues make her a prime suspect in the murder investigation, and also put her directly in the cross-hairs of a deadly commando group that proves to be none other than a contemporary offshoot of the Inquisition.

They want an ancient document that reveals a secret so explosive it could change the world—a document they’ve been tracking for centuries. Led by a sadistic priest and a vicious but very accomplished nun with excellent military cred, their mission is to destroy the document—no matter what the cost in blood.

Desperate to clear her name and to stay alive, with the help of a handsome yet mysterious banker, Lisa must solve the clues and uncover the millennia-old secret before her adversaries can find and destroy it. Since she was a child Lisa had suffered from uncontrollable fugue states. Now she discovers just in time that what she always thought was a liability may in fact be an almost paranormal ability to see things in ways others cannot. The trail leads everywhere from ancient cemeteries and tombs throughout France to Istanbul and Greece, as Lisa and Steve desperately stay one step ahead of their enemies, solving the clues to a dangerous treasure hunt their lives now depend upon.

A must-read for fans of Steve Berry, Dan Brown and Raymond Khoury!

Praise for Rob Swigart's THRILLER IN PARADISE series

“Bold and brassy … a breathless romp with prose that crackles like a live wire, bites like a rabid dog, [and] smooths like 30-year-old Scotch.” -San Francisco Review of Books

I’ll never love again after losing my wife.

There’s no time for it anyway.

My daughter is my main focus, along with fighting fires for a living.

I’ve closed up my heart and decided the bachelor life is for me.

Or that was the plan.

And yet there’s something about my daughter’s teacher.

The woman unravels me—one smile at a time.

Too bad she’s off limits.

A casual fling would be nice. But no, it’s not right.

Unfortunately, the pretty woman who’s staining my dreams disagrees.

She wants what I want, and so much more.

No matter how badly I fight it, all bets are off, and I’m losing this battle.

She lights a fire inside me that rivals the ones I’ve dedicated my life to fighting.

And no matter how much I fight it, this woman is mine.

Now. Tomorrow. Forever.

Every Good Girl Deserves a Bad Boy. ~ Weston

The first time it happened, it seemed like an impossible miracle. Bills were piling up, adding up to more money than I could ever make. Mom's hospital bills. My baby brother's tuition. My tuition. Rent. Electricity. All of it on my shoulders. And I had just lost my job. There was no hope, no money in my account, no work to be found. And then, just when I thought all hope was lost, I found an envelope in the mail. No return address. My name on the front, my address. Inside was a check, made out to me, in the amount of ten thousand dollars. Enough to pay the bills and leave me some left over to live on until I found a job. Enough to let me focus on classes. There was no name on the check, just "VRI Inc.," and a post office box address for somewhere in the city. No hint of identity or reason for the check or anything. No mention of repayment, interest, nothing…except a single word, on the notes line: "You." Just those three letters.

If you receive a mysterious check, for enough money to erase all your worries, would you cash it?

I did.

The next month, I received another check, again from VRI Incorporated. It too contained a single word: "belong."

A third check, the next month. This time, two words. Four letters. "To me."

The checks kept coming. The notes stopped. Ten thousand dollars, every month. A girl gets used to that, real quick. It let me pay the bills without going into debt. Let me keep my baby brother in school and Mom's hospice care paid for. How do you turn down what seems like free money, when you're desperate? You don't. I didn't.

And then, after a year, there was a knock on my door. A sleek black limousine sat on the curb in front of my house. A driver stood in front of me, and he spoke six words: "It's time to pay your debt."

Would you have gotten in?

I did.

It turns out $120,000 doesn't come free.

"With a dose of Southern charm and a bad boy you won't want to forget, A Cutthroat Business has enough wit and sexual chemistry to rival Janet Evanovich!" - New York Times bestselling author Tasha Alexander

"VERDICT: The hilarious dialog and the tension between Savannah and Rafe will delight fans of chick-lit mysteries and romantic suspense." - Jo Ann Vicarel, Library Journal


Savannah Martin has always been a good girl, doing what was expected and fully expecting life to fall into place in its turn. But when her perfect husband turns out to be a lying, cheating slimeball—and bad in bed to boot—Savannah kicks the jerk to the curb and embarks on life on her own terms. With a new apartment, a new career, and a brand new outlook on life, she’s all set to take the world by storm.

If only the world would stop throwing her curveballs...

Everyone has warned new-minted realtor Savannah Martin that real estate is a cutthroat business. But Savannah doesn’t think she’s supposed to take the warning literally ... until an early morning phone call sends her to an empty house on the ‘bad’ side of town, where she finds herself standing over the butchered body of a competitor, face to face with the boy her mother always warned her about.

Rafe Collier is six feet three inches of testosterone and trouble; tall, dark, and dangerous, with a murky past and no future—not the kind of guy a perfect Southern Belle should want to tangle with. In any way. But wherever Savannah turns, there he is, and making no bones about what he wants from her.

Now Savannah must figure out who killed real estate queen Brenda Puckett, make a success of her new career, and avoid getting killed—or kissed—by Rafe, all before the money in her savings account runs out and she has to go back to selling make-up at the mall.

"A frothy girl drink of houses, hunks and whodunit narrated in a breezy first person ... If you love an umbrella in your drink, grab A Cutthroat Business for a quick beach read." -Lyda Phillips, Nashville Scene

Elsie has everything she could ever want - mated to the Vampire King, working at her dream job, surrounded by family and friends and expecting her first child. Her bliss quickly turns into a nightmare of epic proportions when her newborn daughter becomes the primary target of the nefarious archdemon. Seeking guidance from the Goddess, Elsie and Zander discover the only way to protect their fragile baby is to summon a Guardian Angel.

When the enticing guardian appears, Elsie and Zander face far more challenges than merely keeping their daughter safe. As feelings ignite, jealousy threatens to tear them apart and for the first time, being Fated may not guarantee an eternity together.

Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces---and this series---with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.

The “gripping… page-turner” (Time) hitting all the best of summer reading lists, Miracle Creek is perfect for book clubs and fans of Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng

How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies?

In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident.

A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?

“A stunning debut about parents, children and the unwavering hope of a better life, even when all hope seems lost" (Washington Post), Miracle Creek uncovers the worst prejudice and best intentions, tense rivalries and the challenges of parenting a child with special needs. It’s “a quick-paced murder mystery that plumbs the power and perils of community” (O Magazine) as it carefully pieces together the tense atmosphere of a courtroom drama and the complexities of life as an immigrant family. Drawing on the author’s own experiences as a Korean-American, former trial lawyer, and mother of a “miracle submarine” patient, this is a novel steeped in suspense and igniting discussion. Recommended by Erin Morgenstern, Jean Kwok, Jennifer Weiner, Scott Turow, Laura Lippman, and more-- Miracle Creek is a brave, moving debut from an unforgettable new voice.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup.

“I devoured Daisy Jones & The Six in a day, falling head over heels for it. Daisy and the band captured my heart.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine book pick)

Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Praise for Daisy Jones & The Six

“Backstage intrigue is the engine of Daisy Jones & The Six. . . . [A] celebration of American mythmaking.”—Vogue

“Each character is compelling but Daisy Jones is the star. She’s a blazing talent who is unapologetic in her sexuality and lives life on her own terms. . . . Like a poignant song with lyrics that speak to your soul, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid will transport you to another place and time.”—Associated Press

“Reid’s wit and gift for telling a perfectly paced story make this one of the most enjoyably readable books of the year.”—Nylon 

“Wildly delicious.” —Entertainment Weekly

Never run out of inspiring reading material!  

Welcome to the curated Master List of New Thought, New Age, Spiritual, Law of Attraction & Manifesting books recommended by the online manifesting community around the world!

There are millions of books out there in the market…are you confused about which books might actually be helpful or a great read?

The Master List is a compilation of REAL reader recommendations from hundreds of threads in exclusive social media groups - with approx. 500,000 members in total! Readers actively search for peer-suggestions and now the Master List provides a single place to find this.

In this Kindle version, you have all 222 books listed on the go for your convenience. And even better, you can select and order books from categories!

• If you love to browse for whatever calls out to your soul, visit The Master List – Alpha section to review the full listing.
• If you're looking for the best intro books, planners or full-on manifesting books, select from the Manifesting, Law of Attraction Books and Planners section and get started on your manifesting journey today!
• Are you looking for LOVE? If you want to deep dive into love and appreciation, visit the Love, Self-Love and Relationships category.
• Are you a big fan of affirmations and mindset or want to learn how to visualize more effectively? Visit the Mind Power, Visualization and Affirmations category for powerful daily rituals.
• Do you need a dose of soothing and inspiring wisdom? Visit the Spiritual, Inspirational and New Age books category and feel better faster so you can enjoy your life!
• Are you fascinated by how The Law of Attraction teachings developed in the turn of the century? Explore the Classic New Thought section.
• Are you having some health challenges or want to get fitter and healthier in a holistic way? Select from the Diet, Health and Wellness section and plan your way back to vibrant health!
• Do you love to soak in alternative wisdom? Visit the Channeled category to discover the teachings of Abraham Hicks, and more!
• Are you struggling financially? Are you desperate to power up more wealth and abundance into your life? Visit the Wealth, Money, Abundance and Prosperity section for phenomenal works!
• Are you curious about the hereafter? Visit the Afterlife section for both mystical and psychological experience book recommendations!

Download the Master List instantly! Because now you will always have easy access to these life-changing books.

Imagine powering through your day and uplifting your life starting now!

Doctor Winters… would you like to be a daddy… my baby daddy?

It would just take one little accident, right?

I… I want a baby,

No, no… I don’t want IVF,

I want it the ‘old fashioned way’.

I want it …. with you, doctor.

When Doctor Ted Winters takes me to a sperm bank,

I am supposed to be evaluating the qualities I want in a donor.

But, all I am thinking about is,

How about Doctor Winters as the… omg… 

We all deserve a second chance in life, right?

Well, I know it’s not going to happen,

I know what I did back then was unpardonable,

And yet, I am dreaming about our future.  

Dreaming about him rubbing my swollen pregnancy feet,

Dreaming about him running out at midnight to satisfy my weird food cravings,

Dreaming about him feeling my belly when the baby kicks.

A high-school sweetheart, now my fertility doctor, and in the future…

Well, who knows…

Judge me all you want,

Call me the queen of scandals, if you will!

Thirteen Unforgettable Sci Fi Adventures in One!

Join these award-winning and bestselling sci fi authors as they take you into dystopian worlds, technological societies beyond your imagination, and beyond the farthest reaches of the cosmos.

Exit Protocol by Nick Stephenson

Earth’s Secret Weapon Just Switched Teams.

When an elite Im-Sec agent is blackmailed by the very people he’s sworn to protect, he realises the only way to win the game is to change the rules.

Troubled Space by AK DuBoff

Aspiring smuggler Jack Tressler is conscripted into a pirate gang to assist with an ill-planned heist of an experimental energy core. With rabid pirates, ruthless corporations, and a scorned former employer all vying for the same bounty, Jack and his new friends will need all their wits and snark to survive until their next meal in this farcical space opera adventure.

Made to Kill by Sarah Noffke

Olento Research wants its experiments back. Its CEO, Mika Lenna, will tear every city apart until he has his werewolves imprisoned once again. He didn't undertake a huge risk just to lose his would-be assassins.

>>>These and many more in one out of this world collection! Proceeds from this collection go to the Well Aware charity!

Scroll Up and Grab Your Copy Today!

Tess was used to being in the shadows. But when movie star Ryan McDonnell pulls her into the spotlight, her whole world is threatened. Can a relationship that starts as a secret fantasy ever survive in the real world?

My sister Juliet has always gotten everything she wants. It’s fine though. I never wanted the spotlight. That was my sister’s domain. And now that she’s America’s most popular starlet? She can have it.

But when Gran—the feisty woman who raised us, and who I cannot seem to wean off video games, an afternoon doobie, or her daily Manhattan—has a huge party to celebrate her 90th birthday, Juliet brings the Hollywood madness straight to Maryland. 

In the form of my ultimate movie-star crush, Ryan McDonnell. I can barely form a sentence around the guy (at least I don’t still have a poster of him on my wall). And I definitely can’t get over the fact that he’s Juliet’s new boyfriend. 

I just need to get through the weekend with them—and with the magazine people who are covering them and the party for a feature. I just need to stay away from Ryan and his warm curious eyes, his perfectly chiseled arms, and the impossibly sexy things that come out of his mouth when we’re alone together.

It’s only one weekend, and I just need to remember that Ryan is an actor. A good one. Because I almost believe him when he tells me we have a chance together.

If you're looking for a snort-laugh-inspiring romcom with lovesick housechickens, video game-playing grannies, and hot swoony heroes, you're in luck! Grab the first book in this duet today! (Both books are full-length standalones with happily ever afters and no cliffhangers!)

"An addictive first entry in the Julie Madigan Thriller series... fortunately for us, a second Julie Madigan book awaits." –Best Thrillers

Julie Madigan’s career with the New Mexico State Police ended in a puddle of her own blood after having her throat cut, barely able to lift her gun to shoot and kill the man who almost ended her life. But survival led to a year of recovery and left her desperate to hide the scars and to escape her past. She moved to Michigan, away from friends and coworkers who knew her secrets.

Now a Medical Examiner Investigator, Julie Madigan loves her job and her team, but when a killer sends her clues and evidence about two of his victims, taunting her with his unusual methods of murder, she is pulled into a twisted game that eventually targets those she cares about. The killer’s goal – to prove that not only will Julie kill again, but that she will enjoy it as much as he does. While trying to identify him, Julie discovers that this monster has been much closer to her than she ever imagined, leaving her in a race to save the victims he has selected, forcing her to choose who lives and who dies.

Ivy Granger takes on a simple grave robbing case, but in Harborsmouth nothing is ever simple when dealing with the dead.

Grave robbing is Harborsmouth's second best-kept secret. The first is the existence of supernatural creatures that live alongside the city's humans. In fact, the dirtiest little secret of all might be the truth behind most of those empty graves.

Most supernaturals eke out a pretty mundane existence. Nobody wants a return to the Burning Times. Well, nobody sane.

The creature that was stealing the more odoriferous of Harborsmouth's citizens from their graves had to be crazy. Sir Gaius, ruler of the local vamps, owned the harvesting rights to every corpse buried within the city limits. No one touched the vampire master of the city's property without permission and lived to scream about it--until now.

Warning: This book features necromancy, grave robbing, an abandoned amusement park, and zombie clowns.

Blood Rite is the sixth novel in the award-winning Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens. The world of Ivy Granger, including the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective series and the Hunters' Guild series, is filled with bloodsucking vampires, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines.

ADVENTURE TRAVEL IN AN ARMCHAIR … AT AN UNBEATABLE PRICE!

Armchair travelers who happen to love cozy puzzlers won't be able to resist this deal. Four of Michaela Thompson's delightful international mystery novels—set in France, Italy, and India—each featuring bright and funny leading ladies, are on sale as a box set.

Take the grand tour! Cuddle up and enjoy these exotic and thrilling adventures one after the other.

MAGIC MIRROR

SACRE BLEU! THEY KILLED A MAN FOR A MIRROR!

Florida transplant Georgia Lee Maxwell doesn't take to Paris at first, despite the fact that she's at least leaving a no-good man and a hated job as a society editor. Now she's a Paris correspondent, thank you very much—a dream come true for any journalist.

There's just a slight down side—she arrives in freezing rain, gets caught in a traffic jam caused by a bomb scare, and hates her apartment; but the real Bonjour is finding herself face down on a museum floor during a robbery. Three terrifying masked gunmen shoot the unfortunate security guard and make off with only a mirror. Does it have some prophetic ability? Does someone know something the gendarmes don't? Here's what Georgia Lee knows: If she finds out first, she's a journalistic hero. If she doesn't, she's dead.

A TEMPORARY GHOST

A GHOST-WRITING GIG IN PROVENCE--SHE'S LIVING THE DREAM! UNTIL THE KILLING STARTS...

In journalist Georgia Lee Maxwell's second adventure, she leaves her new home in Paris for Provence, where she's been offered a lucrative ghost-writing job. But her co-author, suspected murderess Vivien Howard, the widow of a wealthy New York financier, seems strangely uninterested in writing her memoir Vivian was widely believed to have murdered her husband but was never charged with the crime, and now she promises to tell all.

Amid the beauties of Provence, settled in, a charming renovated farmhouse, Georgia Lee finds a household full of ill-feeling, not to mention suspicious characters. Frustrated by Vivien's lack of cooperation and unnerved by threatening letters, Georgia Lee soon realizes that she has become a player in a more dangerous game than she could have imagined. And then there's another murder.

VENETIAN MASK

AT CARNIVAL IN THE FLOATING CITY—AN ARTLESS YOUNG AMERICAN, A MYSTERIOUS MASKED COUNT, AND MURDER

The surreal splendor of Venice glitters and mesmerizes as six so-called friends who, it turns out, barely know each other meet at Carnival to play a malignant game that quickly turns murderous. Sally, the “Tallahassee lassie” spurned by the rest as a virtual hayseed, is swept up by a mysterious count, attending masked balls, operas, and Carnival revels even as she mourns her marriage and dodges a deadly pursuer. “Things should happen at Carnival,” says her unlikely protector, who resembles Harlequin in more than his costume. “If they go on just the same, there’s no reason for Carnival at all.” There’s absolutely no chance of that in this psychological tour de force of surging identities wrestling to emerge in people forced by violence to confront their inner Harlequins and Medusas.

FAULT TREE

HELLO, IT’S YOUR PAST CALLING…

“Placing blame” thinks Marina Robinson, “is my life’s work. And why?” There’s a lot in her past to account for—nightmares and terrors, crimes and betrayals that happened half a world away, ten years go. Now she’s an engineer with a great job. She’s a failure analyst, an investigator who figures out what causes accidents, and she’s working on her most fascinating case—the fatal crash of a roller coaster--when suddenly the phone rings. And her world tilts…

The elusive, unidentified caller can be only one perso

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.  How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir.  In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his  cash.  He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented.  Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away.  Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.

Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life.  Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless.  Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.

When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris.  He is said  to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.