Advertising copywriter Leigh Koslow is not leaving her twenties on a good note. Her career's going nowhere, her parents live too close for comfort, and the love of her life is a skittish Persian cat. Luckily the Pittsburgh suburbs have enough quirky characters and unusual goings-on to keep Leigh's investigative instincts honed. But possessing the same curiosity as her cat may get her killed--and Leigh doesn't have nine lives.... To keep her pregnant cousin company while her husband's out of town, Leigh moves into their beautiful Victorian home overlooking the Ohio River. But before Leigh can unpack, trouble arrives in the form of a corpse ... in the hammock ... embalmed. Laid off from her job, Leigh decides to investigate--and steps on the toes of her favorite policewoman, Maura Polanski. Their efforts lead them to the deadly events that occurred in the house more than fifty years ago. As the neighborhood rumor mill runs full tilt, Leigh and Maura must unravel fact from fiction to exorcise the demons of the past. A welcome diversion from turning thirty.... Views: 17
On February 9th 1983 Dennis Nilsen was arrested at his Muswell Hill home, after human remains had been identified as the cause of blocked drains. 'Are we talking about one body or two,' a detective asked. Nilsen replied 'Fifteen or sixteen, since 1978. I'll tell you everything.' Within days he had confessed to fifteen gruesome murders over a period of four years. His victims, all young homosexual men, had never been missed. Brian Masters, with Nilsen's full cooperation, has produced a study of a murderer's mind which is unique of its kind. Views: 17
Criminal psychologist David Hemswell receives a desperate call from a worried man. William Forbes, former solicitor to serial killer Jack Reid believes himself to be threatened by the living soul of the notorious Victorian enigma, Jack the Ripper. Convinced that Reid was a descendant of the Ripper and that the evil that first entered the current era through the inheritance of the Ripper’s journal by psychiatrist Robert Cavendish, Forbes turns to Hemswell as his last hope to free himself from the demons he believes are pursuing him. Forbes travels to Skerries Rock, David Hemswell’s private island home off the bleak, barren west coast of Cape Wrath, Scotland, where Hemswell soon realises that there is much about his visitor that is disquieting and frightening. Hemswell summons help in the form of paranormal investigator Kate Goddard, and together, the pair attempt to free Forbes of whatever strange phenomenon has assaulted his mind. As their investigation gathers pace, however, they soon begin to believe that the three of them are not alone on the tiny island. Has the soul of Jack the Ripper found a way to encroach upon the present day? Is William Forbes the living embodiment of The Ripper, or is he too a victim of the curse that appears to have been handed down across time by the unfortunate Cavendish family? As time begins to run out, and the danger surrounding them grows ever stronger by the second, David Hemswell must face his own demons and is faced with the most terrible decision of his life, as the story that began with A Study in Red - The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper and continued in Legacy of the Ripper reaches its shattering and terrifying conclusion! Views: 17
Heck is used to getting by on his own; his mother is unreliable, at best. But even a boy with a rich imagination is going to have a tough time managing when he and his mother find themselves without a home. It’s a good thing Heck has wit, strength, and a lot of optimism. Views: 17
BONUS: This edition contains a Major Pettigrew's Last Stand discussion guide.You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition? Amazon.com ReviewAmazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: In her witty and wise debut novel, newcomer Helen Simonson introduces the unforgettable character of the widower Major Ernest Pettigrew. The Major epitomizes the Englishman with the "stiff upper lip," who clings to traditional values and has tried (in vain) to pass these along to his yuppie son, Roger. The story centers around Pettigrew's fight to keep his greedy relatives (including his son) from selling a valuable family heirloom--a pair of hunting rifles that symbolizes much of what he stands for, or at least what he thinks he does. The embattled hero discovers an unexpected ally and source of consolation in his neighbor, the Pakistani shopkeeper Jasmina Ali. On the surface, Pettigrew and Ali's backgrounds and life experiences couldn't be more different, but they discover that they have the most important things in common. This wry, yet optimistic comedy of manners with a romantic twist will appeal to grown-up readers of both sexes. Kudos to Helen Simonson, who distinguishes herself with Major Pettigrew's Last Stand as a writer with the narrative range, stylistic chops, and poise of a veteran. --Lauren NemroffFrom Publishers WeeklyIn her charming debut novel, Simonson tells the tale of Maj. Ernest Pettigrew, an honor-bound Englishman and widower, and the very embodiment of duty and pride. As the novel opens, the major is mourning the loss of his younger brother, Bertie, and attempting to get his hands on Bertie's antique Churchill shotgun—part of a set that the boys' father split between them, but which Bertie's widow doesn't want to hand over. While the major is eager to reunite the pair for tradition's sake, his son, Roger, has plans to sell the heirloom set to a collector for a tidy sum. As he frets over the guns, the major's friendship with Jasmina Ali—the Pakistani widow of the local food shop owner—takes a turn unexpected by the major (but not by readers). The author's dense, descriptive prose wraps around the reader like a comforting cloak, eventually taking on true page-turner urgency as Simonson nudges the major and Jasmina further along and dangles possibilities about the fate of the major's beloved firearms. This is a vastly enjoyable traipse through the English countryside and the long-held traditions of the British aristocracy. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Views: 17
Valdemar and Karse are now in Alliance with one another...a huge shock to both sides since they were at war with one another for so long they didn't even remember how it started! SunPriest Ulrich and his Secretary, Sunpriest-apprentice Karal are sent into Valdemar as Envoys. In this book we get to know the history of Karse and we learn about Karal a great deal. FireSong now has a new lover, An'desha, whose body Mornelithe Falconsbane had claimed his own. But now that the evil mage is gone, An'desha can discover himself. Ancar is gone and Hardorn is in ruins from his rule. The Eastern Empire, a huge land that relies on magic and is very powerful, is moving in to take over but is meeting with resistance from the Hardorians. to make matters worse, Mage storms are starting. They are the returning echoes from the Cataclysm that happened when Urtho, the Mage of Silence, died. Now they are returning through time and in reverse, starting with small storms that make even a person with limited mage ability disabled with huge headaches. Magic is becoming unreliable. How can they stop this and the Empire? Views: 17
From Publishers WeeklyAn American reporter takes in one Middle East cataclysm after another in this searing memoir. Los Angeles Times correspondent Stack covered the war in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, then bounced around to other hot-spot postings, including Israel during the second Intifada, occupied Baghdad, and southern Lebanon during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Stack offers gripping accounts of the sorrows of war, especially of the traumas Afghan and Lebanese civilians endured under American and Israeli bombing, but she also writes evocatively of quieter pathologies: Libya's jovially sinister totalitarian regime, corruption under Egypt's quasi-dictatorship, and lyric anti-Semitism at a Yemeni poetry slam. Dropping journalistic detachment in favor of a novelistic style, she enters the story as a protagonist whose travails—fending off a lecherous Afghan warlord, seething under the humiliating restrictions of Saudi Arabia's gender apartheid system—illuminate the societies she encounters. The big-picture lessons Stack draws—The Middle East goes crazy and we go along with it—are none too cogent, but her vivid, atmospheric prose and keen empathy make her a superb observer of the region's horrific particulars. (Jun.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FromStarred Review Society assigns war to the military, not the media, yet journalists venture into combat zones ahead of, alongside, and well after the troops whose stories they tell. As a 25-year-old correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Stack covered Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11, then traveled to other outposts in the war on terror, from Iraq to Iran, Libya, and Lebanon. In a disquieting series of essays, Stack now takes readers deep into the carnage where she was exposed to the insanity, innocence, and inhumanity of wars with no beginning, middle, or end. Her soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are. Stack grew increasingly demoralized with each new outburst of hostilities, and clearly covering the violence took its emotional toll: the uncomfortable hypocrisy of Abu Ghraib, the unconscionable confusion over women’s subjugation, the unfathomable intricacies of tribal allegiances. Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity—the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims. --Carol Haggas Views: 17
