Viviane Mikhalkov Books

In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. In the months before Sonnier’s death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. She also came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute—men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing. Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love. On its original publication in 1993, Dead Man Walking emerged as an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty. Now, some two decades later, this story—which has inspired a film, a stage play, an opera and a musical album—is more gut-wrenching than ever, stirring deep and life-changing reflection in all who encounter it.

Hard to Find book

Tempe Brennan arrives in Montreal from Charlotte in early December to testify as an expert witness. As a Forensic Anthropologist for Quebec, she should be reviewing her notes, but instead, she’s in a freezing pizza parlour basement, surrounded by rats and the skeletal remains of three young women. Homicide detective Luc Claudel, who has never been fond of Tempe, believes the bones are historic and not his concern, especially after the pizza parlour owner finds 19th-century buttons with the remains. However, Tempe suspects otherwise. She plans to conduct Carbon 14 testing to determine the bones' age and analyze the tooth enamel to trace the women's origins. If her suspicions are correct, Claudel could be facing three recent murders. Meanwhile, Detective Andrew Ryan's mysterious behavior raises questions. His private phone calls and sudden disappearances come just as Tempe begins to trust him, leaving her with her cat, Birdie, and more nights alone. As she delves into both her personal and professional challenges, Tempe becomes entangled in a sinister web, where women have vanished without a trace. With her own safety at risk, she realizes she may be the next target.

Dr Temperance Brennan and her students are working on a site of prehistoric graves on an island near Charleston, South Carolina, when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach. The bone is fresh and the remains are still topped by wisps of hair âe" itâe(tm)s a recent burial, and a case Tempe must take. Tempe determines that the deceased is a middle-aged white male - but who was he? Why was he buried in a clandestine grave? And what does an unusual vertical fracture of one of the vertebrae signify? While Tempe is trying to piece together the evidence, her personal life is thrown into turmoil. But before long, another body is discovered - and Tempe finds herself drawn deeper into a shocking investigation which will challenge her entire view of humanity.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs, a producer of the Fox hit show Bones, is back with her fifteenth "pulse-pounding" (Publishers Weekly) novel featuring North America's favorite forensic anthropologist, Tempe Brennan--a story of infanticide and murder set in the high stakes, high danger world of diamond mining. Beneath a diamond's perfect surface lies a story of violence and greed. Just like bones... In a run-down Montreal apartment, Tempe finds heartbreaking evidence of three innocent lives ended. The landlord says Alma Rogers lives there--is she the same woman who checked into a city hospital as Amy Roberts, then fled before doctors could treat her uncontrolled bleeding? Is she Alva Rodriguez, sought by a man who appeared at the crime scene? Heading up an investigation crackling with the sexual tension of past intimacies, Tempe leads homicide detective Andrew Ryan and police sergeant Ollie Hasty along the woman's trail and into the farthest reaches of mining country--where the grim industry of unearthing diamonds exacts a price in blood. And where the truths the unlikely trio uncovers are more sinister than they could have imagined.