Heart of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno

Time is running out for the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt, the two warring nations that arose when the former United States split apart after an economiccollapse left tens of millions unemployed and desperate for leadership. Weakened by their endless conflict, both countries are now threatened by the expansionist dreams of the Aztlán Empire (formerly known as Mexico) to the south, which has steadily encroached deep into the regions once called California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Riven by intellectual and social decay, both the Islamic Republic and the Belt are at the brink of collapse.

The only solution is to reunite the countries and regain America's former power and global standing. And there's only one man who can do it: Rakkim Epps, genetically enhanced shadow warrior and hero of the two previous books in Robert Ferrigno's astonishing Assassin Trilogy.

Time is also running out for Epps's archenemy, the Old One, the sly, immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to create one world under his domination. Now more than one hundred and fifty years old, he is dying and unhappily knows it. His solution is to reunite the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt his way, and his plan involves his voluptuous but deadly daughter, Baby, and none other than Rakkim himself. The Old One is aided by his sadistic, carbon-skinned enforcer, Gravenholtz, whom Rakkim failed to kill in an earlier encounter and who now wishes to kill Rakkim and those he loves.

Meanwhile, there is a rumor of a discovery of a sacred relic in the contaminated ruins of Washington, D.C., a radiation zone peopled by diseased zombies and daring treasure hunters. It is into this deadly wasteland that Rakkim must secretly travel and retrieve the icon if he is to defeat Gravenholtz, Baby, and the Old One, and have even a chance to unite the two halves of America.

A stunning stand-alone read, Heart of the Assassin is a feast of cinematic violence, brilliant plotting, and futuristic scene-setting. Completing Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy, Heart of the Assassin confirms his position as a master of thriller fiction.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk of Aug. 9, 2009

Fire and Ice, by J.A. Jance, is on the Northwest Bestseller list, plus B is for Beer, by Tom Robbins, Border Songs by Jim Lynch, and children's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Week of August 9, 2009.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
2. That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
3. Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
4. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
5. The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz ZafŰn
6. Fire and Ice, J.A. Jance
7. Shanghai Girls, Lisa See
8. Border Songs, Jim Lynch
9. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, Rebecca Wells
10. B Is for Beer, Tom Robbins

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
2. Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
3. The End of Overeating, David A. Kessler
4. Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford
5. Crow Planet, Lyanda Lynn Haupt
6. Rustic Fruit Desserts, Cory Schreiber, Julie Richardson
7. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, Julia Child, et al.
8. The Third Chapter, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
9. The Evolution of God, Robert Wright
10. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers

MASS MARKET

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
2. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
3. Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
4. Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
5. Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris
6. From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
7. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, Dean Koontz
8. Careless in Red, Elizabeth George
9. 1984, George Orwell
10. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon

CHILDREN'S INTEREST

1. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illus.)
3. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
4. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
5. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
6. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
7. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
8. Inkspell, Cornelia Funke
9. Scat, Carl Hiaasen
10. The BFG, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illus.)

The Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by northwest-books.com, IndieBound and PNBA, is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and IndieBound. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest.

Fire and Ice by JA Jance

Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont is working a series of murders in which six young women have been wrapped in tarps, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. Their charred remains have been scattered around various dump sites, creating a grisly pattern of death across western Washington.

At the same time, thousands of miles away in the Arizona desert, Cochise County sheriff Joanna Brady is looking into a homicide in which the elderly caretaker of an ATV park was run over and left to die. All the man has left behind is his dog, who is the improbable witness to some kind of turf warfare--or possibly something more sinister.

Then a breakthrough in Beaumont's case leads him directly to the Southwest and into Brady's jurisdiction. When the two met on a joint investigation years earlier, sparks flew. Under different circumstances, both of them admit, even more could have happened.

But here, as the threads of their two seemingly separate cases wind together, Beaumont and Brady must put aside echoes of their shared past as they are once again drawn into an orbit of deception. Except this time it's not just their own lives that are in danger but those of the people closest to them as well.

About the Author

J. A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, the Ali Reynolds series, and three stand-alone thrillers. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, she lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Aug. 2, 2009

New on this week's Northwest Bestsellers List is the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Washington's First World's Fair. It joins 3 fiction bestsellers, as well as a children's book on the list: Jim Lynch's Border Songs, Tom Robbins' B is for Beer, Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy and Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Week ending Aug. 2, 2009.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
2. The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz ZafŰn
3. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
4. Fire and Ice, J.A. Jance
5. The Defector, Daniel Silva
6. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley
7. Shanghai Girls, Lisa See
8. B Is for Beer, Tom Robbins
9. The Host, Stephenie Meyer
10. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, Rebecca Wells

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
2. Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
3. Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford
4. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
5. The End of Overeating, David A. Kessler
6. The Wilderness Warrior, Douglas Brinkley
7. Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges
8. The Evolution of God, Robert Wright
9. Crazy for the Storm, Norman Ollestad
10. Crow Planet, Lyanda Lynn Haupt

MASS MARKET

1. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
3. Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
4. From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
5. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, Dean Koontz
6. Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris
7. Careless in Red, Elizabeth George
8. Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
9. Fearless Fourteen, Janet Evanovich
10. Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris

CHILDREN'S INTEREST

1. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illus.)
3. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illus.)
4. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
5. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
6. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
7. Listen to the Wind, Greg Mortenson, Susan L. Roth
8. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
9. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
10. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher

The Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by northwest-books.com, IndieBound and PNBA, is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and IndieBound. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest.