What became of Harold Prettyman, a German agent captured by the British during World War Two? Eighty years later, an investigation by reporter Jack Flynt seems to end at a new dormer bungalow with white pebble-dash walls, not the grey stone terraced house in the Welsh valleys from which, according to a recently declassified MI5 file, Prettyman operated a radio transmitter from the attic alerting German U-Boats to Allied shipping movements. Dead ducks are news stories destined for the News Editor's spike and Flynt suspects he has found one until a letter arrives at the bungalow with the same coded message --Many Happy Returns Harold Prettyman--used by Prettyman and his accomplice in 1940. But there are no Allied food convoys in the North Atlantic and, believing the letter a hoax Flynt's newspaper moves him to another assignment—the disappearance of a Foreign Office diplomat suspected of fleeing to Moscow like his predecessors Burgess and Maclean. But Scotland Yard seems more interested in the Coal Miner, a missing Van Gogh masterpiece looted by the Red Army Trophy Brigade as war reparations, but now the focus of an exhibition at Tate Britain after being returned to its owner by the Commission for the Recovery of Looted Art in Europe. The painting discovered hanging on the kitchen wall of the apartment of a dead Trophy Brigade officer had been taken in lieu of pension. Private homes, art galleries and museums across the Russian Federation continue to hold large quantities of booty from the Second World War, worthless since President Putin banned the repatriation of cultural artifacts, but priceless in the West. So, is the Coal Miner exhibited at the Tate the missing Van Gogh or a forgery made by a copyist at the Hermitage in St Petersburg? A zig-zag trail leads Flynt's search for Harold Prettyman into the world of Diplomatic Bags, fakes, and money laundering.

dead cat bounce n. Stock market jargon for a small, temporary rise in a stock's trading price after a sharp drop. Since she bought her rambling old fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick firmly planted in his cranium. Not much happens in her tiny Maine town, but that's about to change. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be a world-famous corporate raider, local boy turned billionaire Threnody McIlwaine. When Jake's best friend, quiet and dependable Ellie White, readily confesses to the murder, cops and journalists swarm into snowbound Eastport. Jake smells a cover-up, and begins poking into past history between McIlwaine and Ellie's family. But someone doesn't like nosy neighbors...and Jake's rustic refuge may become her final resting place.

The author combines inspirational thoughts with humor to describe how she overcame a series of personal tragedies and setbacks, including her husband's suicide, financial disaster, and estrangement from her daughter.

On this Christmas Eve let these hand-picked horror classics give you unforgettable shivers and goosebumps:_x000D_ The Strange Visitation (Marie Corelli)_x000D_ The Night of Christmas Eve (Nikolai Gogol)_x000D_ The Silver Hatchet (Arthur Conan Doyle)_x000D_ What the Shepherd Saw: A Tale of Four Moonlight Nights (Thomas Hardy)_x000D_ Markheim (Robert Louis Stevenson)_x000D_ The Wolves of Cernogratz (Saki)_x000D_ Mustapha (Sabine Baring-Gould)_x000D_ The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance (M.R. James)_x000D_ The Christmas Banquet (Nathaniel Hawthorne)_x000D_ The Haunted Man (Charles Dickens)_x000D_ Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions (Charles Dickens)_x000D_ The Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)_x000D_ The Ghost's Touch (Fergus Hume)_x000D_ Glámr (Sabine Baring-Gould)_x000D_ The Ghosts at Grantley (Leonard Kip)_x000D_ A Terrible Christmas Eve (Lucie E. Jackson)_x000D_ Ghosts and Family Legends (Catherine Crowe)_x000D_ The Ghost: A Christmas Story (William Douglas O'Connor)_x000D_ Thurlow's Christmas Story (John Kendrick Bangs)_x000D_ The Mystery of My Grandmother's Hair Sofa (John Kendrick Bangs)_x000D_ The Abbot's Ghost; or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (Louisa M. Alcott)_x000D_ Old Applejoy's Ghost (Frank R. Stockton)_x000D_ Wolverden Tower (Grant Allen)_x000D_ The Christmas-Eve Vigil (James Bowker)_x000D_ Told After Supper (Jerome K. Jerome)_x000D_ The Box with the Iron Clamps (Florence Marryat)_x000D_ Joseph: A Story (Katherine Rickford)_x000D_ The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton (Charles Dickens)_x000D_ The Ghost of Christmas Eve (J. M. Barrie)_x000D_ The Dead Sexton (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu)_x000D_ Uncle Cornelius His Story (George MacDonald)_x000D_ The Grave by the Handpost (Thomas Hardy)_x000D_ Number Ninety (Bithia Mary Croker)_x000D_ At Chrighton Abbey (Mary Elizabeth Braddon)_x000D_ The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step (Catherine L. Pirkis)_x000D_ Between the Lights (E. F. Benson)_x000D_ Transition (Algernon Blackwood)_x000D_ The Kit-Bag (Algernon Blackwood)_x000D_

“This is a fascinating book and should be on the reading list of every young aspiring entrepreneur…”—Harry Pearce, Vice Chairman of General Motors (Retired) Want to talk about tenacity? Resilience under pressure? Leadership that stands for character and integrity? Max James comes to mind—Air Force Academy graduate, pilot, shot down twice in Vietnam to become the original founder and CEO of American Kiosk Management, a billion-dollar global presence in North America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand with 5 million repeat customers, 600 staffed locations, 1000 automated stores, and 54,000 employees. Through personal stories and business adventures, Max James delivers insightful business lessons within the pages of his new business memoir The Harder I Fall, The Higher I Bounce. In recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to the specialty retail field, Max James became the first inductee into the $25 Billion Specialty Retail Hall of Fame. He also received the Distinguished Graduate award for the year 2010 from the Air Force Academy for “extraordinarily significant contributions to our nation and his communities, for recognition of accomplishments that are inspirational and elevate the reputation and standing of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Additionally, Max has been featured in Fortune Magazine and dozens of media and television appearances for his work in business and charitable contributions. Max James has spent the past decade leading the charge as the Chairman of the Air Force Academy Foundation committee for the CCLD (Center for Character and Leadership Development), now called Polaris Hall. Max and his wife Linda Johansen-James, reside in Las Vegas and enjoy the beauty of the Southwest. They have three children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Dave Robicheaux is back in this powerful New York Times bestseller that takes him into the underbelly of New Iberia’s mafia to solve the brutal murder of two teenage girls. When a beautiful teenage girl is killed, New Iberia police detective Dave Robicheaux senses that the most likely suspect, Tee Bobby Hulin, is not the actual killer. Though a drug addict and general neer-do-well, Hulin just doesn’t fit the profile for this kind of crime. He’s a Cajun blues singer (one of his songs is titled “Jolie Blon’s Bounce”), and he’s been raised by his grandmother Ladice Hulin, a proud and strong-willed black woman. But when there’s another, similar murder—this victim a drugged-out prostitute who happens to be the daughter of one of the local mafia bigwigs—the cries for an arrest become too loud to ignore. The mafia figure, however, prefers to take matters in his own hand and sets out to find—and punish—the killer himself. Once again, Tee Bobby Hulin seems the most likely suspect. Added to the mix of characters on the good guy side of the balance sheet is Clete Purcel, a long-time buddy of Robicheaux’s and a confirmed boozer and womanizer. Coming to New Iberia for a visit, Clete is quickly drawn into the struggle between the various forces of evil in the town: Jimmy Dean Styles, a black man intent on maintaining his empire of corruption; Joe Zeroski, a trailer-park mafioso with palatial aspirations—and of course Legion Guidrey, the devil incarnate.

The environment of the stock market is complex and interrelated. As you explore the pathways of a steep stock market decline you will discover the safest time to invest. You will become a veteran fire sale shopper and you will be waiting to reward yourself with profits in the next four severe stock market declines in your lifetime.