In this science fiction thriller by an LA Times bestseller, an assassin with the power to temporarily paralyze others helps with a hostage rescue. Robert Luxley has a biological problem he does not understand and cannot control: one touch from his bare skin and you’re paralyzed for fifteen minutes. Lonely and isolated, he’s turned his “special trick” into a lucrative career as a hired killer. He thinks he’s one of a kind—until one day he’s confronted by a young girl named Cassandra, who tells him he’s not alone. She has it too, and the two of them are not the only ones. Carriers can render anyone they touch blind, deaf, or otherwise senseless, in seconds. Fearing discovery, Luxley follows Cassandra through a dark underground network of “Deprivers” in a desperate hunt for her missing brother Nicholas, taken hostage by a radical group of carriers with a terrifying agenda. Luxley doesn’t know who to trust, or who is safe to touch, but he needs to learn Cassandra’s secrets fast. Praise for Deprivers “A book that gets under your skin and on your nerves. The science is impressive; the fiction is haunting. It has a lot on its mind; and it will touch you.” —Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks “Deprivers is the ultimate paranoia thriller—emphasis on the word thriller. Fans of everything from The Hot Zone to The X-Files take note, THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY!” — Rockne S. O’Bannon, creator of Alien Nation, Farscape, Defiance and Cult “Deprivers will take you to a terrifying and disturbing tomorrow and make you feel like you live there.” —David Brin, scientist and science fiction author, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Locus Awards

The essays in Eastern Christianity and Late Antique Philosophy provide valuable insights into the central role of philosophical ideas in a period when paganism was in decline and Eastern Christians were forging their community identities.

In the tradition of Coma and The Andromeda Strain comes the ultimate biological terror... A Depriver is someone who, for reasons still under scientific investigation, possesses and employs a defense mechanism that can drastically incapacitate other human beings. They are prohibited by law from touching anyone due to the inherent adverse effects of their touch. Some people, unfortunately, don't know they're Deprivers. Therefore, a brush with someone on a bus could have life-threatening consequences. If you have come into direct physical contact with a person suffering from this syndrome, you can be deprived of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, memory, pain, balance, or sense of direction...indefinitely. The Touch documents over twenty cases of Deprivers Syndrome outbreaks which will keep you in suspense until the final shocking page.

Leading psychologist and financial commentator Palaian offers a tested, step-by-step guide to help people break the spending obsession by looking within. Today, Americans are saving less, carrying larger debt loads, losing their homes to foreclosure, and filing bankruptcy in record numbers. Yet, people continue to spend more than they can afford. The advice of financial planners only treats the symptoms of overspending. In Spent, Sally Palaian offers proven plans for taking on a range of personal issues with money by examining those underlying emotional, familial, and societal factors that trigger spending behaviors. Spent teaches readers to control shopping, pay off debt, develop budgets, and become financially competent through: - easy-to-use assessment tools designed to pinpoint the severity of a problem - questionnaires that facilitate the exploration of the root causes of unhealthy financial behaviors - user-friendly exercises created to influence change from within Palaian's system for financial recovery is also designed to help hoarders, financial codependents, and underachievers attain lasting, positive change and a healthy view of one's true value in life. Palaian has spoken about financial disorders for various therapy associations and has served as an expert in the media on mental disorders and spending, most recently for MSN Money.

Melanie Wyatt always prided herself on being a good mother…until the night she awakened from a dream to find her baby dead. Now court-appointed psychologist Paul Murphy faced the greatest challenge of his career: to determine what actually happened that horrifying night. Did beautiful, demure Melanie kill her own child? Or had something more sinister and unbelievable occurred, causing her to erase the awful incident from her memory? Only Melanie knew the answer…and it lay buried deep within her troubled, confused mind..

?Why do some women exude confidence and look great in their clothes and others never feel good about how they look, no matter what they wear? And why do we claim we have “nothing to wear” when our closets are bursting with choices? Clothing and dressing anxiety — what Tracy McWilliams calls closet trauma — occurs because we lack a clear sense of self and we have not defined the image we wish to express.

A fascinating collaboration between a medieval historian and a professor of psychiatry, this enthralling book applies modern biological and psychological research findings to the lives of medieval mystics and ascetics. Drawing upon a database of over 1,400 medieval holy persons and in-depth studies of individual saints, this illuminating study examines the relationship between medieval mystical experiences, the religious practices of mortification; laceration of the flesh, sleep deprivation and extreme starvation, and how these actions produced altered states of consciousness and brain function in the heroic ascetics. Examining and disputing much contemporary writing about the political and gender motivations in the medieval quest for a closeness with God, this is essential reading for anyone with an interest in medieval religion or the effects of self-injurious behaviour on the mind.