There are some places in the world where humans quite simply should not go. Not just haunted places, but sites where ancient forces still hold sway. We can recognize such locations by the responses they evoke within us—that feeling we call "the creeps." But just where are these places, and why do they terrify us?In The World's Creepiest Places, Dr. Curran visits some of these sites, looking at their history and traditions and exploring the creepy feeling they evoke in people who have been there. His travels range widely—from his native Ireland and through the empty deserts of the Middle East, to the misty hills of Tibet and back through Europe to America. He's not only looking for ghosts, but also for sinister people, vampires, the living dead, doorways to other worlds—even venturing close to the Gates of Hell itself! This is not just a ghostly travel book. It's for those who want to explore the weird, out-of-the-way locations of our planet and test the... Views: 8
Detective Inspector Tom Mariner investigates a suspected arson attack and a missing bridegroom in this latest intriguing mystery. When an elderly man dies in a house fire, the investigating officers are left baffled as to whether the blaze was accidental or started deliberately. If arson, was it a random attack - or part of a personal vendetta? It's not the first time the Shah family has been targeted. At the same time, DI Mariner is searching for a missing bridegroom who has vanished two weeks before his wedding. A case of cold feet? Or is there something more sinister behind his disappearance? Two seemingly unrelated investigations - but there is more to each case than meets the eye. And when a second body is found, events take a decidedly darker turn. Views: 8
The latest thriller from the author of number one bestseller Strike BackFormer SAS Captain Will Jackson is a man with nothing to lose. A veteran of the most dangerous missions the Regiment could throw at him, his life was torn apart the day a terrorist attack killed his family. Now he leads a life of grief-stricken obscurity, the world of warfare nothing but a distant memory.People higher up the chain of command have other plans, however. They're in a mess of their own making, and unless they sort it out, thousands of innocent people will pay the price. And so they make Jackson an offer he can't refuse. An offer that will take him straight back into a brutal theatre of war.Only one person can help prevent the disaster that is waiting to happen, and that person is being held by the Taliban insurgency in the depths of a harsh Afghanistan winter. As Will reluctantly prepares to undertake this final mission, he does so in the knowledge that it will stop a... Views: 8
Discover Africa by bicycle in book one of a delightful children's adaptation of Alastair Humphrey's journey around the world. In this charming caricature of Alastair Humphreys’ infamous circumnavigation of the world on his bike, children are swept along with the character of Tom, an adventurous boy who feels there must be more to life than school. The first part of The Boy Who Biked the World follows Tom leaving England, cycling through Europe and all the way through Africa to the tip of South Africa. Along the way, young readers are introduced not only to the various fascinating landscapes he passes through, but also to the various people who so happily embrace him as he traveled on his journey. With engaging illustrations and journal entries throughout, this book provides an immersive experience for any young adventurer. Views: 8
Seduction of the Minotaur is an example of Anaïs Nin’s most mature and cohesive fiction. The central character, Lillian, arrives in an exotically primitive Mexico from New York, in part to forget her crumbling marriage and to find flow in her life after years of stasis. She befriends Dr. Hernandez, who, like Lillian, is also trying to forget, to escape, which he does with violence, shocking Lillian into facing her inner demon, the “Minotaur.” Critic Oliver Evans says of Seduction of the Minotaur : “Its symbolism is the most complicated of any of Miss Nin’s longer works… and at the same time it makes more concessions…to the tradition of the realistic novel: the result is a work of unusual richness.” Consider this passage: “It was the time of the year when everyone’s attention was focused on the moon. ‘The first terrestrial body to be explored will undoubtedly be the moon.’ Yet how little we know about human beings, thought Lillian. All the telescopes are focused on the distant. No one is willing to turn his vision inward… Such obsession with reaching the moon, because they have failed to reach each other, each a solitary planet!” Seduction of the Minotaur reveals Nin’s struggle for self-awareness through her character Lillian. In a setting that is sumptuously described, with fully developed characters, the plot involves the dichotomy between civilization and the primitive, the dark and bright sides of human nature, with a conclusion that is classic Nin: enlightenment. ( Seduction of the Minotaur was originally published as Solar Barque in 1958) Views: 8
From acclaimed writer George Zebrowski, a tale of urban terrorWhat do you tell yourself when impossible things begin to happen? What can you say? You're a police detective, but maybe you're just not good enough and that's what you have to admit, whether you like it or not. You see evidence of things that can't be real, but you just don't observe well enough to explain it in any natural way. Can you ask rational questions and still be crazy? Does it help any that you know your mind is gone? You're trapped in a black comedy with a beautiful but fatal woman right out of an old poem by Keats, hoping to wake up from the nightmare, even if on a cold hillside - as long as you wake up sane.Detective William Benek is faced with an impossible crime; bodies are turning up without their brains, and without any indication of how the organs were removed. His only lead - an attractive woman - becomes more than a lead, and then drives him into a world of terror, where his sanity is questioned and he must stop a monster he can barely comprehend.Listed as a Best Book of 2009 by EDGE/Boston Views: 8
Unpublished author and reluctant amateur detective Jennifer Marsh doesn't know how she keeps finding herself in the middle of a murder. Okay, the first one was her fault (she framed herself) but this one is just bad luck: catching her good friend, Emmie Walker, standing over her dead ex-husband, Edgar, holding a bloody knife.Jennifer's sure Emmie is innocent. She's a sweet senior citizen who is way too smart to do something so stupid. So what if she has motive (her former husband was loaded and she'd gain ownership over his successful chain of restaurants) and opportunity (found holding a knife over his body)? She's not the only one.Edgar Walker was not a nice man. People were probably standing in line to murder him. The question is who got to him first?With help from her quirky writer's group, gorgeous, cranky reporter Sam, and her own fictional heroine Maxie Malone, Jennifer's determined to get to the bottom of this... before Emmie's convicted based on Jennifer's own eyewitness testimony. Views: 8
For readers of The Monuments Men and The Hare with Amber Eyes, the story of the Nazis' systematic pillaging of Europe's libraries, and the small team of heroic librarians now working to return the stolen books to their rightful owners. While the Nazi party was being condemned by much of the world for burning books, they were already hard at work perpetrating an even greater literary crime. Through extensive new research that included records saved by the Mouments Men themselves—Anders Rydell tells the untold story of Nazi book theft, as he himself joins the effort to return the stolen books. When the Nazi soldiers ransacked Europe's libraries and bookshops, large and small, the books they stole were not burned. Instead, the Nazis began to complie a library of their own that they could use to wage an intellectual war on literature and history. In this secret war, the libraries of Jews, Communists, Liberal politicans, LGBT activists, Catholics,... Views: 8
This book contains all manner of grim and ancient punishments from London's long and bloody history. Over the centuries, many hundreds have expired inside the capital's dank, rat-infested cells, or whilst dancing the 'Tyburn jig' at the end of a swinging rope, and many of the sites in this book have become bywords for infamy. From the Tower and Newgate prison to the Clink and the Fleet, this book explores London's criminal heritage; also including the stocks and pillories that lie, almost forgotten, in churchyards and squares across the City, and the many shocking punishments exacted inside the region's churches, workhouses and schools, it is a heart-breaking survey of our nation's penal history. Richly illustrated, and filled with victims and villains, nobles, executioners and torturers, it will delight historians, residents and visitors alike. Views: 8
With their enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, Britain's railways, this book perfectly brings together the authors' interests in social history and the history of crime, both subjects on which they have a number of published titles to their credit, ensuring that the reader will find this title an enthralling read. Views: 8
