Skeletal remains are found in a cellar below Bath's Georgian tearooms. To Peter Diamond's delight they are not all of medaeival origin, a radius proves to be only twenty years old and bears the marks of a sharp weapon. While a police team painstakingly sift through the cellar looking for the rest of the body, Diamond is distracted by the search for a missing American tourist, the wife of an English Professor who has been behaving very oddly. What Diamond doesn't know is that the professor believes he is on the point of locating the diaries of Mary Shelley written whilst in Bath finishing the manuscript of FRANKENSTEIN. Suspecting the professor of disposing of his wife but unable to prove anything, Diamond concentrates on trying to identify whose remains have been found in the cellar, and by solid old-fashioned detection he does so with shocking result. But before he can begin to work out who might have been the killer, the owner of the city's largest 'antique' emporium is found brutally murdered and the last person known to have seen her alive is the Professor. With consummate skill, wit, erudition and ingenuity, Peter Lovesey has crafted a whodunnit of brilliant complexity and, finally, of total satisfaction. Views: 59
Escape to the beautiful town of Littlewood with Part 3 in an exciting new serial from Victoria Walters! Perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley, Holly Hepburn and Jo Thomas. Welcome to Littlewood, a small town community with a big heart. Abbie and her boyfriend Jack are about to start their own PR company in London, but there are so many unanswered questions about their past and Abbie begins to question her decision to leave Littlewood... Will Thomas manage to hold onto Huntley Manor without her, or has her departure ruined his chances...? After a shaky start, Eszter is determined to show her daughter Zoe that it doesn't matter where you are from, that we are all the same. With a little help from Brew cafe, they decide to run a cake baking class for the local children to help her make some friends. But as the summer goes on, their return to Hungary looms over them... Will they go back and leave Zoe's granny, Anne, all on her own? Or... Views: 59
An English university professor on holiday in Spain is drawn into a web of intrigue and murder surrounding an intoxicating woman of mystery Dr. Philip Ardower is fascinated by the stunning beauty in a red cape he encounters on a beach in Spain outside the Hostal de las Olas. While immediately charmed by the lady's sophistication and pluck, the British academic knows nothing of the enchanting Olura's personal history, or the rumors that have accompanied her recent arrival as the companion of an African politician. But when an Italian paparazzo in search of scandal is discovered dead in her hotel room, Olura has no one but Ardower to turn to for help. Suddenly they are on the run together, fleeing the police, the hungry press, and determined assailants who wish them grievous harm, on a furious flight that leads them into the treacherous mines and mountains of Basque Country. In a single day, Andower's once-quiet life is transformed by passion, terror, and violent... Views: 59
2nd in the Sudden series by Frederick H Christian. The Cotton boys owned the town. Nothing moved in or out without their say– so. Drifters weren't encouraged. Move on, they were told. There's a lot of lead in the air. All except one moved on. He was a dark- haired stranger who gave the name Green, and asked about two men he was looking for. When the Cottons tried to gun down an unarmed kid, he took a hand. The Cotton boys decided to make an example of him to the rest of the town. They didn't know they were taking on legendary gunfighter: Sudden. Views: 59
"Steve Baker puts his finger on perhaps the most important cultural trend today: the explosion of data about every aspect of our world and the rise of applied math gurus who know how to use it." --Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine (Wired Magazine )
An urgent look at how a global math elite is predicting and altering our behavior -- at work, at the mall, and in bed
Every day we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now, in one of the greatest undertakings of the twenty-first century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists is beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior -- what we buy, how we vote -- without our even realizing it.
In this tour de force of original reporting and analysis, journalist Stephen Baker provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're all entering -- and to the people controlling that world. The Numerati have infiltrated every realm of human affairs, profiling us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists -- and lovers. The implications are vast. Our privacy evaporates. Our bosses can monitor and measure our every move (then reward or punish us). Politicians can find the swing voters among us, by plunking us all into new political groupings with names like "Hearth Keepers" and "Crossing Guards." It can sound scary. But the Numerati can also work on our behalf, diagnosing an illness before we're aware of the symptoms, or even helping us find our soul mate. Surprising, enlightening, and deeply relevant, The Numerati shows how a powerful new endeavor -- the mathematical modeling of humanity -- will transform every aspect of our lives.
STEPHEN BAKER has written for BusinessWeek for over twenty years, covering Mexico and Latin America, the Rust Belt, European technology, and a host of other topics, including blogs, math, and nanotechnology. But he's always considered himself a foreign correspondent. This, he says, was especially useful as he met the Numerati. "While I came from the world of words, they inhabited the symbolic realms of math and computer science. This was foreign to me. My reporting became an anthropological mission." Baker has written for many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He won an Overseas Press Club Award for his portrait of the rising Mexican auto industry. He is the coauthor of blogspotting.net, featured by the New York Times as one of fifty blogs to watch.
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Rachel Lambert can escape from a Bohemian Torture Crib, but she can't leave her marriage. 'You're stuck,' says the voice inside her head. 'And you'll never get out.' Her whole life she's tried to be a good girl - she considers others first and she's never missed a deadline. Now her family's doing a vanishing act, her book on magic is a year late to the publishers, and Rachel's losing her grip on reality. She's even taken to fantasising about Harry Houdini in the grocery aisle at the supermarket. Guido, her husband, is spending more and more time with his star pupil, Silvia, and her daughter, Clara, has run off to Italy, seeking independence and adventure. From Florence, Clara sends news like mysterious puzzle pieces, forming a disturbing picture of Guido's past and exploding her mother's illusions. Yet sometimes truth is the key to freedom - and possibly our salvation . . . Anna Fienberg's new novel is a wry and wrenchingly honest look at the pitfalls of motherhood and... Views: 59
Olivia Daley's travel itinerary might be unusual, but she believes the best cure for a broken heart is a radical change of scenery. Exotic, vibrant China is far enough from rainy gray England to be just that! In the hustle and bustle of Beijing, Olivia is starting a whole new adventure… She's mesmerized by the ancient legends of love, and soon finds herself wishing she could be the bride who wore red. Views: 59
Stieg Larsson gleaned a remarkable degree of success before his too-early death in 2004. He had delivered to his publisher three remarkable crime novels; the initial book in his ‘Millennium’ sequence, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, had enjoyed an unprecedented success in his native Sweden before the translation took the UK by storm. Larsson had made a considerable mark as a crusading journalist, with a speciality in tackling political extremist groups. But he offered assistance to many people and groups who he felt were vulnerable – something of a modern hero, in fact. One of Larsson's key achievements as a writer was to create an innovative kind of heroine for the crime novel. His unconventional sleuth, the highly intelligent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, is a confrontational young woman, whose Goth accoutrements sometimes alienate those around her (except the individuals she opts to have sexual relations with – strictly, that is, according to the rules she lays down). In the second book in the Millennium sequence, The Girl Who Played with Fire (as in its its predecessor), Lisbeth's closest ally is the older journalist Mikael Blomqvist, even though she has abruptly ended her emotional relationship with him. Lisbeth has left all she knows behinds her and has begun a relationship with a gauche young lover. But after a grim revenge run-in with a man who has abused her, she becomes a suspect in three murders, and is the subject of a nationwide search. Blomqvist, however, is convinced of her innocence (he has just been responsible for a blistering report on the sex trafficking industry in Sweden), and is determined to help her – whether she wants his help or not. As with Larsson’s earlier book, this is highly compelling fare, with tautly orchestrated suspense; it's often grisly and uncompromising (not a problem for many readers), and the massive text may be longer than is good for it, but Larsson admirers won't begrudge the late author a word,and will be impatient for the third (and, regrettably, concluding) book in the sequence. Views: 59
A night of secret passion could immerse this lawyer in red-hot gossip. Book 5 of the Jamesville series. Alicia Flint enjoys her community, her home, and her career as a lawyer. But since her livelihood depends on her spotless reputation, it's not easy to even date in this small town, much less take a lover. Then a chance encounter with a stranger at a friend's wedding tempts her to do something she's never done before-have a red-hot, one-night stand. The guy will be gone tomorrow; no one need ever know her delicious little secret. Gill Baron has come to Jamesville to visit friends and figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. As a newly retired, burnt-out cop, he's not looking for love, but he won't say not to a night of no-strings sex with the seductive brunette. A night that leaves him wanting more. When she meets the investigator on her latest case, Alicia is shocked to come face-to-face with Mr. One-Night-Stand. Jamesville doesn't need another lawyer-related scandal to gossip about, but the truth is, she needs Gill's top-notch investigative skills. Their attraction is too deep to keep the town clueless of their affair forever. When Jamesville finds out, Alicia wonders if her reputation-and her relationship with Gill-will weather the storm. Warning, this title contains very explicit sex and lots of it Views: 59
