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Breathless in Bombay: Stories
by Murzban F. ShroffShortlisted for the 2009 Commomwealth Writers' Prize Shroff's vibrant narratives in this concept collection of 14 stories set in contemporary Bombay feature a range of beautifully drawn characters in fascinating situations: from the laundrywallas' water shortage problems, to the doomed love affair of a schizophrenic painter and his Bollywood girlfriend, to the wandering thoughts of a massagewalla at Chowpatty Beach, to the heart-warming relationship of a carriage driver and his beloved horse. Each of these stories is richly crafted and arranged against the grand chaotic backdrop of life that is Bombay. Shroff's love for his hometown shines through, but so does his deep understanding of its challenges and problems. The reader is afforded an insider's view of this pulsating city, and through an unforgettable emotional and cultural journey comes to care for the characters presented in these stories.
Grant: A Biography (Great Generals Series)
by John MosierGrant: A Biography tells of the extraordinary life and legacy of one of America's most ingenious military mindsA modest and unassuming man, Grant never lost a battle, leading the Union to victory over the Confederacy during the Civil War, ultimately becoming President of the reunited states. Grant revolutionized military warfare by creating new leadership tactics by integrating new technologies in classical military strategy. In this compelling biography, John Mosier reveals the man behind the military legend, showing how Grant's creativity and genius off the battlefield shaped him into one of our nation's greatest military leaders.
Tonight I'm Someone Else: Essays
by Chelsea Hodson"I had a real romance with this book." —Miranda JulyA highly anticipated collection, from the writer Maggie Nelson has called, “bracingly good…refreshing and welcome,” that explores the myriad ways in which desire and commodification intersect.From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing.Starting with Hodson’s own work experience, which ranges from the mundane to the bizarre—including modeling and working on a NASA Mars mission— Hodson expands outward, looking at the ways in which the human will submits, whether in the marketplace or in a relationship. Both tender and jarring, this collection is relevant to anyone who’s ever searched for what the self is worth.Hodson’s accumulation within each piece is purposeful, and her prose vivid, clear, and sometimes even shocking, as she explores the wonderful and strange forms of desire. Tonight I'm Someone Else is a fresh, poetic debut from an exciting emerging voice, in which Hodson asks, “How much can a body endure?” And the resounding answer: "Almost everything."
Deep Black: Arctic Gold (Deep Black Ser. #7)
by Stephen Coonts William H. Keith Jr.The next installment in Stephen Coonts and Jim DeFelice's bestselling technothriller series, Deep Black: Arctic GoldIn the Arctic, two American intelligence operatives are kidnapped while investigating Russian submarines—a constant, covert presence beneath the ice caps. In Washington, ex-Marine Charlie Dean and his team at Desk Three trace the abduction back to the Russian mafiya, who have their sights set on the massive reserves of oil that lie thousands of feet below the ocean's floor.While Dean is sent to the Arctic to rescue the hostages, the beautiful Lia DeFrancesca penetrates a heavily guarded dacha on the shores of the Black Sea. Here she learns the explosive truth about Russia and its Arctic oil—one that could cost Dean and his Deep Black team their lives…and drive the world's superpowers to the brink of war.
Malts & Milkshakes: 60 Recipes for Frosty, Creamy Frozen Treats
by Autumn MartinThis sweet collection of 60 recipes puts a new spin on an old-fashioned treat with comforting dessert drinks from times new and old!Organized into sections covering Soda Fountain Classics, Modern Flavors, and Boozy Shakes, the 60 recipes for inspired shakes and malts utilize classic ingredients like malted milk and homemade syrups, as well as gourmet herbal infusions and exotic spices. And this delicious volume doesn't stop at shakes! Autumn Martin of Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery adapts recipes for her signature creations for knock-out cookies, ice cream sandwiches, and sundaes. Recipes include: - Peanut Butter Shake- Salted Malted Malt- Passion Fruit Creamsicle Shake- Earl Grey Shake- Peach Cobbler Malt- Bacon-Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Shake- Lemon Curd Raspberry Shake- Chocolate Espresso Whiskey Malt- St-Germain and Huckleberry Shake- Cherry Brandy Shake
The Year of Fear: Machine Gun Kelly and the Manhunt That Changed the Nation
by Joe UrschelIt's 1933 and Prohibition has given rise to the American gangster--now infamous names like Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger. Bank robberies at gunpoint are commonplace and kidnapping for ransom is the scourge of a lawless nation. With local cops unauthorized to cross state lines in pursuit and no national police force, safety for kidnappers is just a short trip on back roads they know well from their bootlegging days. Gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn, are some of the most celebrated criminals of the Great Depression. With gin-running operations facing extinction and bank vaults with dwindling stores of cash, Kelly sets his sights on the easy-money racket of kidnapping. His target: rich oilman, Charles Urschel.Enter J. Edgar Hoover, a desperate Justice Department bureaucrat who badly needs a successful prosecution to impress the new administration and save his job. Hoover's agents are given the sole authority to chase kidnappers across state lines and when Kelly bungles the snatch job, Hoover senses his big opportunity. What follows is a thrilling 20,000 mile chase over the back roads of Depression-era America, crossing 16 state lines, and generating headlines across America along the way--a historical mystery/thriller for the ages.Joe Urschel's The Year of Fear is a thrilling true crime story of gangsters and lawmen and how an obscure federal bureaucrat used this now legendary kidnapping case to launch the FBI.
Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth
by Albert PodellThis is the inspiring story of an ordinary guy who achieved two great goals that others had told him were impossible. First, he set a record for the longest automobile journey ever made around the world, during the course of which he blasted his way out of minefields, survived a breakdown atop the Peak of Death, came within seconds of being lynched in Pakistan, and lost three of the five men who started with him, two to disease, one to the Vietcong.After that-although it took him forty-seven more years-Albert Podell set another record by going to every country on Earth. He achieved this by surviving riots, revolutions, civil wars, trigger-happy child soldiers, voodoo priests, robbers, pickpockets, corrupt cops, and Cape buffalo. He went around, under, or through every kind of earthquake, cyclone, tsunami, volcanic eruption, snowstorm, and sandstorm that nature threw at him. He ate everything from old camel meat and rats to dung beetles and the brain of a live monkey. And he overcame attacks by crocodiles, hippos, anacondas, giant leeches, flying crabs-and several beautiful girlfriends who insisted that he stop this nonsense and marry them.Albert Podell's Around the World in 50 Years is a remarkable and meaningful tale of quiet courage, dogged persistence, undying determination, and an uncanny ability to extricate himself from one perilous situation after another-and return with some of the most memorable, frightening, and hilarious adventure stories you have ever read.
Miss Match
by Laurelin Paige Kayti McGee Laurelin McGee McGeeWelcome to the sexy, crazy, wildly unpredictable world of modern matchmaking, where fixing up strangers is part of the job—but falling in love is an occupational hazard…HE'S THE PERFECT CATCH.Blake Donovan is tall, handsome, rich, and successful—so why would a guy like him need a matchmaker? Andrea Dawson has no idea, but a job is a job. After being blackballed from a career in marketing, Andrea agreed to use her unique profiling skills to play matchmaker out of pure desperation. But when she meets her highly eligible—and particular—first client face to face, she wonders what she's gotten herself into…IS SHE HIS PERFECT MATCH?Blake knows exactly the kind of woman he's looking for—and it's the total opposite of Andrea. Though smart and undeniably sexy, she is simply too headstrong for a man who's used to being in charge. Still, Blake's blood pressure rises whenever she's near him. How can he explain the smoldering attraction that sizzles between them? And how can Andrea deny she's feeling it, too? Maybe, just maybe, they've finally met their match…
Underwater: How Our American Dream of Homeownership Became a Nightmare
by Ryan DezemberWinner of the Bruss Real Estate Book AwardHis assignment was to write about a real-estate frenzy lighting up the Redneck Riviera. So Ryan Dezember settled in and bought a home nearby himself. Then the market crashed, and he became one of the millions of Americans who suddenly owed more on their homes than they were worth. A flood of foreclosures made it impossible to sell. It didn't help that his quaint neighborhood fell into disrepair and drug-induced despair. He had no choice but to become a reluctant and wildly unprofitable landlord to move on. Meanwhile, his reporting showed how the speculative mania that caused the crash opened the U.S. housing market to a much larger breed of investors. In this deeply personal story, Dezember shows how decisions on Wall Street and in Washington played out on his street in a corner of the Sunbelt that was convulsed by the foreclosure crisis. Readers will witness the housing market collapse from Dezember’s perch as a newspaper reporter. First he’s in the boom-to-bust South where a hot-air balloonist named Bob Shallow becomes one of the world’s top selling real-estate agents arranging condo flips, developers flop in spectacular fashion and the law catches up with a beach-town mayor on the take. Later he’s in New York, among financiers like Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman who are building rental empires out of foreclosures, staking claim to the bastion of middle-class wealth: the single-family home. Through it all, Dezember is an underwater homeowner caught up in the mess.A cautionary tale of Wall Street's push to turn homes into assets, Underwater is a powerful, incisive story that chronicles the crash and its aftermath from a fresh perspective—the forgotten, middle-class homeowner.
The Fens: A Mystery (The Abby Endicott Novels #3)
by Pamela WechslerPamela Wechsler's enthralling series returns with The Fens, and promises to shock readers old and new.Boston’s chief homicide prosecutor Abby Endicott hasn't had the easiest adjustment to normal life. Her wealthy family cut her off because they don’t agree with her dangerous career choice, her new apartment with her musician boyfriend is not up to standards, and her impending position as godmother is overwhelming. Abby's personal life, however, is about to be put on hold when the star catcher for the Red Sox goes missing on opening day.Abby quickly realizes this is more than a case of one missing celebrity. Soon, another player turns up dead and the frantic search escalates. When Abby discovers greased baseballs and mysterious sums of cash, she knows that a lot more than the Red Sox's season is in danger.
Life Events: A Novel
by Karolina WaclawiakOne of Buzzfeed's 29 Books We Couldn't Put Down This Year“Every page of this novel is a point of no return; once you’ve read Karolina Waclawiak's Life Events, you will never see life, death, grief, and healing the same way.”—Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our LivesA woman at a crossroads learns the only way to reclaim her life is to help others dieKarolina Waclawiak’s breakout novel, Life Events, follows Evelyn, who, at thirty-seven, is on the verge of divorce and anxiously dreading the death of everyone she loves. She combats her existential crisis by avoiding her husband and aimlessly driving along the freeways of California looking for an escape—one that eventually comes when she discovers a collective of “exit guides.” Evelyn enrolls in their training course, where she learns to provide companionship and a final exit for terminally ill patients seeking a conscious departure.She meets Daphne, a dying woman still full of life; Lawrence, an aging porn king; and Daniel, who seems too young to die and whom Evelyn falls for, despite knowing better, not to mention the exit guide code. Each client opens something new in Evelyn, allowing her a chance to access her own grief and confront the self-destructive ways she suppresses her pain. When Evelyn travels through the Southwest to an afterlife convention to further her death education, she must finally face her complicated relationship with her alcoholic father and reconcile her life choices.Sensitively observed and darkly funny, Life Events is a moving, enlivening story of the human condition: the doldrums of loneliness, the consuming regret of past mistakes, and the thrill, finally, of finding meaning—and love—where you least expect it.
A Fanatic Heart: Selected Stories (Fsg Classics Ser.)
by Edna O'BrienIn these selections from twenty years of her best short fiction, Edna O'Brien's A Fanatic Heart pulls the reader into a woman's experience. Her stories portray a young Irish girl's view of obsessive love and its often wrenching pain, while tales of contemporary life show women who open themselves to sexuality, to disappointment, to madness. Throughout, there is always O'Brien's voice—wondrous, despairing, moving—examining passionate subjects that lay bare the desire and needs that can be hidden in a woman's heart.
Stormchaser (Cutter Cay #4)
by Cherry AdairNo one charters the depths of passion on the high seas like New York Times bestselling author Cherry Adair in StormchaserDESIRE RUNS DEEPSomewhere off the coast of Greece, a king’s ransom in gold, emeralds, and silver coins lies waiting at the bottom of the sea. Finding this ancient treasure would be a dream come true for marine archeologist Calista West. But that’s not why she’s here. She didn’t climb aboard Jonah Cutter’s magnificent yacht seeking fortune or fame. She’s come for revenge—against the sexiest, most seductive, modern-day pirate she’s ever encountered…Like his famous half brothers, Jonah is a master of salvaging ships—and driving women mad with his movie-star looks and raw animal magnetism. Tall, dark, and devastating, he manages to make Callie forget her mission. Every moment they share under the hot Mediterranean sun is an erotically-charged adventure neither can resist. But when Callie discovers what he’s really after—the lost city of Atlantis—is it too late to change the course of her heart…or go all in with the lover of her dreams?The Cutter Cay series is:"Action-packed drama." —Fresh Fiction"Sizzlingly sexy." —Booklist"Enticing." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War
by Delphine MinouiA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR"An urgent and compelling account of great bravery and passion." —Susan OrleanAward-winning journalist Delphine Minoui recounts the true story of a band of young rebels, a besieged Syrian town, and an underground library built from the rubble of warReading is an act of resistance.Daraya is a town outside Damascus, the very spot where the Syrian Civil War began. Long a site of peacefulresistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya fell under siege in 2012. For four years, no one entered or left, and aid was blocked. Every single day, bombs fell on this place—a place of homes and families, schools and children, now emptied and broken into bits.And then a group searching for survivors stumbled upon a cache of books in the rubble. In a week, they had six thousand volumes; in a month, fifteen thousand. A sanctuary was born: a library where people could escape the blockade, a paper fortress to protect their humanity.The library offered a marvelous range of books—from Arabic poetry to American self-help, Shakespearean plays to stories of war in other times and places. The visitors shared photos and tales of their lives before the war, planned how to build a democracy, and tended the roots of their community despite shell-shocked soil. In the midst of the siege, the journalist Delphine Minoui tracked down one of the library’s founders, twenty-three-year-old Ahmad. Over text messages, WhatsApp, and Facebook, Minoui came to know the young men who gathered in the library, exchanged ideas, learned English, and imagined how to shape the future, even as bombs kept falling from above. By telling their stories, Minoui makes a far-off, complicated war immediate and reveals these young men to be everyday heroes as inspiring as the books they read. The Book Collectors is a testament to their bravery and a celebration of the power of words.
Deadly Virtues: A Mystery (Gabriel Ash & Hazel Best #1)
by Jo BannisterIn this fast-paced thriller, Deadly Virtues, acclaimed writer Jo Bannister proves once again why she is considered "one of the genre's best" (Booklist)The town of Norbold, England is famous for its low crime rate, thanks to the zero-tolerance policy of Chief Superintendent John Fountain. And Norbold's newest police recruit, Hazel Best, is happy to help keep it that way. But numbers never tell the whole story, do they?Jerome Cardy knew he was going to die. He also knew that it would be made to appear like an accident. He might not be able to prevent it, but Jerome was determined to make sure that someone knew what was going to happen—even if that someone was a man with a concussion lying with his dog in a jail cell next to him.After Jerome is found beaten to death by a fellow inmate in another cell, Ash is unable to forget Jerome's last awkward words to him: "I had a dog once. Othello. That was its name. Othello." Certain there is a hidden message in these words, Ash is determined to discover the truth. But it won't be easy—no one believes his account of that night. And Hazel Best must decide whether pursuing the truth is worth her career.
Midnight in Berlin: A Novel
by James MacManusBerlin in the spring of 1939. Hitler is preparing for war. Colonel Noel Macrae, a British diplomat, plans the ultimate sacrifice to stop him. The West’s appeasement policies have failed. There is only one alternative: assassination. The Gestapo, aware of Macrae’s hostility, seeks to compromise him in their infamous brothel. There Macrae meets and falls in love with Sara, a Jewish woman blackmailed into becoming a Nazi courtesan. Macrae finds himself trapped between the blind policies of his government and the dark world of betrayal and deception in Berlin. As he seeks to save the woman he loves from the brutality of the Gestapo, he defies his government and plans direct action to avert what he knows will be a global war. Inspired by true events and characters, James MacManus’s Midnightin Berlin is a passionate story that will leave you in awe of the human capacity for courage, sacrifice, and love set against a world on the brink of war.
A Place of Confinement: The Investigations Of Miss Dido Kent (Dido Kent Investigations #4)
by Anna DeanThe inquisitive Miss Dido Kent returns in A Place of Confinement to elucidate the mysterious disappearance of a young woman in the fourth installment of Anna Dean's charming Regency era seriesThe dependably sharp Miss Dido Kent is suffering her sister-in-law's attempts to marry her off to the ghastly clergyman Doctor Prowdlee. Dido, however, is determined to refuse him, as well as his abominable side whiskers. As punishment she is sent to accompany her hypochondriac—and quite wealthy—Aunt Manners on a trip to Charcombe Manor. The family hopes that revisiting her childhood home will keep Aunt Manners in good spirits, and Dido in her good graces.However, upon their arrival it's clear to Dido that there is much more at stake than her aunt's favor. The rich heiress Letitia Verney has disappeared while visiting Charcombe, and Mr. Tom Lomax is suspected of abducting her. Dido is inclined to believe in his innocence, but how is she to explain by what method a young lady could enter through the front door and not appear on the other side? And this isn't the only enigma that the Elizabethan manor holds: there is a deserted wing in which lights mysteriously appear at night, a crying ghost which keeps visitors awake, and memories of old family quarrels.When the senior Mr. Lomax comes to town to defend his son, the mystery intensifies—and so does Dido's romantic life. With lives and reputations on the line, it's up to Dido to put the pieces together to save the Lomaxes and find the vanished young Miss Verney. In this captivating fourth installment of the Dido Kent series, readers will find more of the rich characters, meticulous historical detail, and masterful suspense they've come to expect from Anna Dean.
Bella and the Beast: A Cinderella Sisterhood Novel (Cinderella Sisterhood Series #4)
by Olivia DrakeEven a confirmed bachelor can meet his match.Because sometimes fairy tales do come true... OF ALL THE FABLED TREASURES Bella Jones feels like a fish out of water in civilized England. Raised abroad by her explorer father, she's amused by the very proper manners of the nobility. Nevertheless, to save her younger siblings from ruin, she must infiltrate a ducal household in order to find the map to an ancient treasure trove. Alas, the haughty, handsome duke stands in her way...unless she can tame his beastly temper, that is. THE MOST PRECIOUS ONE IS LOVE Miles Grayson, the Duke of Aylwin, prefers antiquities to, well, everything else. Especially prying females with their irksome questions. But Bella's blue eyes and beguiling smile are improbably charming, and the temptation of her kiss is impossible to resist. As the pair is swept into a mystery that reaches back to their childhoods, Miles realizes that Bella has made the rarest discovery of all-the key to his heart...The Cinderella Sisterhood series is: "Filled with romance [and] breathtaking passion."-Night Owl Reviews "Magical."-Once Upon a Romance "Sensual...engaging...beautiful."-RT Book Reviews
Time Traveler: In Search of Dinosaurs and Other Fossils from Montana to Mongolia
by Michael NovacekHunting for fossils with a preeminent guide and teacherMichael Novacek, a world-renowned paleontologist who has discovered important fossils on virtually every continent, is an authority on patterns of evolution and on the relationships among extinct and extant organisms. Time Traveler is his captivating account of how his boyhood enthusiasm for dinosaurs became a lifelong commitment to vanguard science. He takes us with him as he discovers fossils in his own backyard in Los Angeles, then goes looking for them in the high Andes, the black volcanic mountains of Yemen, and the incredibly rich fossil badlands of the Gobi desert.Wherever Novacek goes he searches for still undiscovered evidence of what life was like on Earth millions of years ago. Along the way he has almost drowned, been stung by deadly scorpions, been held at gunpoint by a renegade army, and nearly choked in raging dust storms. Fieldwork is very demanding in a host of unusual, dramatic, sometimes hilarious ways, and Novacek writes of its alluring perils with affection and discernment. But Time Traveler also makes sense of many complex themes - about dinosaur evolution, continental drift, mass extinctions, new methods for understanding ancient environments, and the evolutionary secrets of DNA in fossil organisms. It is also an enthralling adventure story.
Magic City: A Novel (Thorn Series #7)
by James W. HallA novel based on real events and newly declassified documents, Magic City is to Miami what L.A. Confidential and Chinatown were to Los Angeles. It evokes a time in our nation's history when powerful men were willing to do whatever they thought necessary to achieve their goals.A simple black and white photograph taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston fight on Miami Beach may hold the key to a horrific, politically-motivated crime forty-two years earlier. After it suddenly appears on display at a trendy Miami gallery opening, the photograph is burned in an act of arson that sets off a modern-day murder spree, reaching from the quiet neighborhoods of Miami to the back corridors of the White House. What the killer didn't know is that there is one remaining copy. When it falls into Thorn's hands, he and everyone he loves become the target of madmen and trained killers, each of whom has his own powerful motive to see the photograph destroyed forever and its mysteries kept hidden.To find retribution for the death of a loved one, Thorn joins forces with a dangerous enemy to solve a maddening puzzle. At its center are two families from very different worlds with their own dark secrets. Unraveling this dangerous riddle shakes the foundation of his bond with both Alexandra and his closest friend, and sends him on a deadly journey. But cover-ups have a way of disintegrating over time, especially when someone like Thorn is pounding on the door. Magic City is an epic crime thriller--exposing the past of a city in a time capsule of a novel.
Gone Forever: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal, and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Classics)
by Diane FanningSusan McFarland was a vivacious, successful mother of three young sons. On November 25, 2002, she disappeared. Three days later, her car was found, keys in the ignition. Later that day, her husband reported her missing—and a desperate search began.Her friends and family hoped against hope that Susan was not gone forever. But investigators became increasingly suspicious of Richard McFarland. When the charred, decomposed body of Susan McFarland was finally discovered at an overgrown farmstead outside of San Antonio, a new hunt began—for justice.McFarland maintained his innocence, and investigators only had circumstantial evidence against him. While headlines screamed out new details in the case, and police tried to gather more evidence, a blockbuster trial was about to begin. Then, Richard McFarland finally spoke...and a terrifying, chilling truth came out...
Don't Close Your Eyes: Don't Trust Your Friends. Don't Believe What You Hear. And Whatever You Do...
by Carlene ThompsonNestled on the shores of Lake Erie, the small town of Port Ariel, Ohio, is a welcome haven for Natalie St. John. Back home for the first time in years, she plans to visit old friends, mend a broken heart, and take a break from her busy veterinarian practice. But her peace is shattered her first night back, when she discovers the murdered body of her friend, Tamara Peyton.Was it a random act of violence...or something personal? The answer becomes clear as Natalie is stalked by the voice of "Tamara," whose terrifying phone calls warn her that she too, is going to die.One by one, the people closest to Tamara are being savagely murdered. But neither Natalie nor Sheriff Nick Meredith recognizes the face of the devious killer who walks among them, hiding behind a well-crafted lie. Now, a murderer's deadly act of vengeance demands one more sacrifice-and Natalie has been chosen to pay the price...
Summer on the River: A Novel
by Marcia WillettThe beloved author of The Summer House pens another touching and tender story of hearth and home."With an agile mastery of multiple story lines and an uncanny knack for creating sympathetic characters, Willett winsomely creates congenial worlds that welcome loyal fans and new readers with ease."—Booklist on Echoes of the DanceAs summer beckons, Evie’s family gathers once more at the beautiful old riverside house they all adore. But when Evie discovers a secret that threatens their future, a shadow falls over them all: this summer by the river could be their last together . . .For Charlie, a visit home to see stepmother Evie is an escape from his unhappy marriage in London. Until a chance encounter changes everything: in the space of a moment, he meets a woman by the river, falls in love, and his two worlds collide.As Evie and Charlie struggle to keep their secrets safe, they long for the summer to never end . . . Can the happiness of one summer last for ever?
The Disappearance at Père-Lachaise: A Victor Legris Mystery (Victor Legris Mysteries #2)
by Claude IznerFin de siècle Paris: the world of Verlaine and Zola, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec; a time of anarchists, scientists, and occultists, when can-can skirts were raised at the Moulin Rouge and fortunes were lost on the Panama Canal. Armand de Valois was one of these latter unfortunates, stricken by yellow fever at the site of his ruin. When his widow Odette disappears into his tomb in the Père-Lachaise cemetery and never returns, her maid Denise fears the worst. Alone in the great metropolis, Denise knows just one person she can go to for help: Odette's former lover, Victor Legris. When the frightened girl turns up at his bookshop, Victor feels there must be a simple explanation for Odette's disappearance. But it soon becomes apparent that something sinister lies behind events at the Père-Lachaise. When Denise turns up drowned in the Seine, and Odette's corpse is found buried in an overgrown backyard, Victor throws himself into his second investigation, aided by his trusty assistant Joseph and much to his lover Tasha's chagrin. Once again, Paris and its denizens come alive, and events of world and local history give the mystery a thrilling backdrop. From the the Bois de Vincennes to the streets of Saint-Germain, from trams to carriages, from artists' lofts to coffee bars, diligently researched and tightly plotted, The Disappearance at Père-Lachaise immerses readers in a fascinating mystery in the glorious City of Light.
Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control
by Dominic StreatfeildVivid and disturbing, Brainwash is essential insight into the modern practice of interrogation and torture. With access to formerly classified documentation and interviews from the CIA, U.S. Army, MI5, MI6, and British Intelligence Corps, Dominic Streatfeild traces the evolution of mind control from its origins in the Cold War to the height of today's war on terror. Behind the front lines of every war in the world, prisoners are forced to sit for interrogation: manipulated, coerced, and sometimes tortured--often without ever being touched. Brainwash is a history of the methods intended to destroy and reconstruct the minds of captives, to extract information, convert dissidents, and lead peaceful men to kill and be killed.