Buckle in for a wild ride through the heart-pounding twists and turns of this complete urban fantasy action adventure where powerful magical families make the mafia look like choirboys and connections are everything in Jami Gray’s spellbinding Arcane Transporter series. A failed assassination, a kidnapped ally, and a treasonous scheme pit Rory and Zev against a devious enemy determined to watch Arcane society crash and burn. After a bumpy start, Rory Costas, Arcane Transporter, is gaining professional traction while her personal journey with the sexy Zev Aslanov is accelerating at an exhilarating pace. That is, until their date night is crashed by a mercenary team of magical assassins. Their goal—to derail the upcoming Arcane Council hearing on the ill-fated Delphi project and its magic altering serum. The assassination attempt leaves Zev stripped of his memories and Rory scrabbling to secure her fledgling alliances even as her mentor and employer, Sabella, disappears under mysterious and worrisome circumstances. Thrust into the resulting investigation, Rory dodges the hazards of her evolving magic and the unexpected exposure of long-buried family secrets as she speeds through the treacherous plots threatening to fracture Arcane society. As she careens toward the finish line will Rory’s ability to hold the wheel steady be enough to keep her world from veering off the cliff, or will it shift her into uncharted territory? LETHAL CONTENTS is the third novel in the complete urban fantasy series the Arcane Transporter. If you love Shannon Mayer, H.P. Mallory, and Annabel Chase, you’re going to want to claim your ticket to this sweet ride through the unexpected twists and turns of a high-octane adventure filled with intriguing mystery, a flash of romance, and riveting magic.

For years, American states have tinkered with the machinery of death, seeking to align capital punishment with evolving social standards and public will. Against this backdrop, North Carolina had long stood out as a prolific executioner with harsh mandatory sentencing statutes. But as the state sought to remake its image as modern and business-progressive in the early twentieth century, the question of execution preoccupied lawmakers, reformers, and state boosters alike. In this book, Seth Kotch recounts the history of the death penalty in North Carolina from its colonial origins to the present. He tracks the attempts to reform and sanitize the administration of death in a state as dedicated to its image as it was to rigid racial hierarchies. Through this lens, Lethal State helps explain not only Americans' deep and growing uncertainty about the death penalty but also their commitment to it. Kotch argues that Jim Crow justice continued to reign in the guise of a modernizing, orderly state and offers essential insight into the relationship between race, violence, and power in North Carolina. The history of capital punishment in North Carolina, as in other states wrestling with similar issues, emerges as one of state-building through lethal punishment.

An unprecedented and terrifying bioterrorism plot threatens to kill millions in the midst of a divisive presidential election in this new thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling Mitch Rapp series.

Mutant frogs, paralyzing wasps, adventurous sea turtles and many other extreme creatures will amaze readers in this action-packed volume. They’ll also encounter fun math challenges as they learn about the weirdest life cycles in the plant and animal kingdoms. A helpful key is located at the end of the book for readers to check their answers. Stunning full-color photographs and fact boxes bursting with cool information will capture readers’ interest. The high-interest topic makes this cross-curricular text perfect for any library.

The first monograph analysing all legal regimes applicable to the use of less-lethal weapons.

Who wanted her dead? Having rescued Cassidy McKnight from kidnappers in South America, Gabe Sinclair thought his job was done. Not that the former Navy SEAL could ever forget the brave, beautiful single mother. But when the danger followed her home, Gabe promised to protect her. Why anyone would want to kill Cassidy was a mystery. Was the motive related to the orphaned toddler Cassidy was raising, a sweet little girl who brought out the father fi gure in maverick Gabe? Or did a newly revealed family secret have killer consequences?

A family story for the twenty-first century, based on the phenomenally popular Texts from Bennett Tumblr blog, this epistolary novel chronicles the year that Bennett and the rest of his freeloading family moved into his cousin Mac's household. Hardworking Kansas City rapper Mac Lethal has a problem, and its name is Bennett. His wannabe gangsta cousin is seventeen, uses drugs and foul language, claims to be 13 percent black, and swears he speaks "da female language." (Strangely that last one sort of seems true.) But as different as they are, when Bennett and his mom lose their home, Mac’s got their backs. They’re family after all. Sure, it takes patience to live with the eternally smoked-out Bennett and the pill-popped Aunt Lily, but he can handle it. You know who can’t? Mac’s very pretty, very WASPy, very uptight girlfriend. So as his once-peaceful household gets completely crazy, Mac learns that wanna-be-Crips are thicker than water, that his little cousin—flawed, irreverent, and basically a Saturday morning cartoon gone horribly wrong—has become his mentor, and that he really has no idea what’s up with girls.