When a Hollywood cartoonist is poisoned, sharp-witted sleuth Miss Withers must draw her own conclusions. “[Miss Withers is] . . . still one of the best” (Anthony Boucher). At Hollywood’s most renowned cartoon studio, there are a few things you simply do not draw: snakes, cows with udders, violence, and death. So when Janet Poole finds a doodle of the studio’s famous cartoon penguin with a noose around its neck, she takes the drawing as a threat. Someone at the studio has murder on the mind. The top brass reach out to Hildegarde Withers, a retired amateur sleuth who has come to Los Angeles to relieve her asthma. The obvious suspect is Larry Reed, a disturbed cartoonist with a dark sense of mischief, but on Miss Withers’s first day working the case, something happens that suggests Larry is likely innocent: He’s murdered. This studio may work in animation, but Miss Withers will find the violence on the lot anything but cartoonish. Cold Poison is part of the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries series, which also includes The Penguin Pool Murder and Murder on the Blackboard.

Retired in Los Angeles, Miss Withers investigates a Tinseltown poisoning At Hollywood’s most renowned cartoon studio, there are a few things you simply do not draw: snakes, cows with udders, violence, and death. So when Janet Poole finds a doodle of the studio’s famous cartoon penguin with a noose around its neck, she takes the drawing as a threat. Someone at the studio has murder on the mind. The top brass reach out to Hildegarde Withers, a retired amateur sleuth who has come to Los Angeles to relieve her asthma. The obvious suspect is Larry Reed, a disturbed cartoonist with a dark sense of mischief, but on Miss Withers’s first day working the case, something happens that suggests Larry is likely innocent: He’s murdered. This studio may work in animation, but Miss Withers will find the violence on the lot anything but cartoonish. Cold Poison is part of the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries series, which also includes The Penguin Pool Murder and Murder on the Blackboard.

Gil Cunningham is the Archbishop’s questioner—his investigator. Nanty and Danny were rivals for the affection of Agnes, the apothecary’s daughter. Danny dies, apparently of poisoning, after drinking from his friend’s flask. But what was the poison? Is Nanty guilty? Then more murders ensue, and Gil’s wife, Alys, joins the investigation. From the Hardcover edition.

Although he was watching closely when the mummer was poisoned, it took Gil Cunningham several days and three more poisonings to work out how it was done. Danny Gibson and Nanty Bothwell, rivals for the affections of Agnes Renfrew, the apothecary's pretty daughter, are also good friends. When they both take part in the festive play at the house of Gil's sister Kate, it ends in Danny's death, apparently by poison from his friend's flask. So was it deliberate, and if not, why won't Nanty defend himself? Why is Agnes's eccentric brother Nicol so insistent that Nanty had the wrong flask, and why do none of the apothecaries in Glasgow recognize the poison it held? Gil, convinced Nanty is innocent, sets out to answer these questions and finds himself enmeshed in the tensions of the Renfrew household and the tangled relationships among the apothecary houses. And then a second and third death confuse matters further still, and bring Gil's wife Alys into the investigation. Praise for Pat McIntosh: 'McIntosh's characterisations and period detail are first rate.' Publishers Weekly 'The next Cunningham adventure is to be welcomed.' Historical Novels Review. 'Will do for Glasgow in the 15th century what Ellis Peters and her Brother Cadfael did for Shrewsbury in the 12th.' Mystery Readers Journal. 'Lots of dramatic characterisation and detail on medieval Glasgow.' Glasgow Herald. 'McIntosh does a solid job of blending plot and period detail.' Publishers Weekly, starred review.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. -Mahatma Gandhi It was a start to life so profoundly harrowing that it is almost inconceivable. When he was a baby only three months old, Frank Eckblom's mother tried to kill him, an act that would have her confined to a mental hospital for the rest of her life. As a child, he was subject to abuse at the hands of his stepmother, who punished bad behavior by beatings with a backyard fence picket. It was a trauma that no child should ever have to endure, a trauma that led to a condition of severe anxiety and panic attacks that would plague Frank throughout his life. Sustained by the extraordinary love of three Aunts, Frank not only persevered, but went on to develop a strong desire to live life to its fullest. It would take self-study, perseverance, development of his talents, numerous adventures, and the endless support of his wife, but the result was the happiest and most rewarding life possible. Love and Cold Poison is an inspiring account of a truly remarkable journey through life; it tears at the heart, it inspires the mind, it moves the spirit.

In the fall of 1961, KGB assassin Bogdan Stashinsky defected to West Germany. After spilling his secrets to the CIA, Stashinsky was put on trial in what would be the most publicized assassination case of the entire Cold War. The publicity stirred up by the Stashinsky case forced the KGB to change its modus operandi abroad and helped end the career of Aleksandr Shelepin, one of the most ambitious and dangerous Soviet leaders. Stashinsky's testimony, implicating the Kremlin rulers in political assassinations carried out abroad, shook the world of international politics. Stashinsky's story would inspire films, plays, and books-including Ian Fleming's last James Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun. A thrilling tale of Soviet spy craft, complete with exploding parcels, elaborately staged coverups, double agents, and double crosses, The Man with the Poison Gun offers unparalleled insight into the shadowy world of Cold War espionage.

In the early 1990s, Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed that for the previous thirty years the Soviet Union had dumped vast amounts of dangerous radioactive waste into rivers and seas in blatant violation of international agreements. The disclosure caused outrage throughout the Western world, particularly since officials from the Soviet Union had denounced environmental pollution by the United States and Britain throughout the cold war. Poison in the Well provides a balanced look at the policy decisions, scientific conflicts, public relations strategies, and the myriad mishaps and subsequent cover-ups that were born out of the dilemma of where to house deadly nuclear materials. Why did scientists and politicians choose the sea for waste disposal? How did negotiations about the uses of the sea change the way scientists, government officials, and ultimately the lay public envisioned the oceans? Jacob Darwin Hamblin traces the development of the issue in Western countries from the end of World War II to the blossoming of the environmental movement in the early 1970s. This is an important book for students and scholars in the history of science who want to explore a striking case study of the conflicts that so often occur at the intersection of science, politics, and international diplomacy.