It's a gray, wet winter in southern California, and Phil Ainsworth is alone. The sudden death of his young wife has left him shaken, and he gets eerie sensations as he roams around the big, old house he inherited from his mother. He's sure he's seen people snooping around his property, by the old well that, in this wet weather, always seems ready to overflow. How much is real and how much is in his head? That's the question. A late-night phone call brings more bad news: Phil's sister has died, leaving her ten-year-old daughter Betsy an orphan and naming Phil as guardian. It seems like a bad time to bring a child into this unhappy house, but Phil had always promised he'd take care of Betsy - and now she's all the family he has left. What he can't know is that Betsy is a very special child. She has the ability to sense the powerful emotions of the past, to hear voices of the dead, and to see the uncanny powers that are closing in around this house... James P. Blaylock has set the standard for the contemporary ghost story. The Washington Post called him "a master." Dean Koontz has hailed his writing as "first rate." A brilliant blend of psychological insight and unearthly phenomena, The Rainy Season blurs the lines between the past and the present, the living and the dead, fantasy and reality. REVIEWS: "The author of Winter Tides continues to display an uncanny talent for low-key, off-kilter drama, infusing the modern world with a supernatural tint. Blaylock's evocative prose and studied pacing make him one of the most distinctive contributors to American magical realism." -- Library Journal "This may be Blaylock's weirdest yet: intriguing, dramatic, atmospheric." -- Kirkus Reviews

The Rainy Season, a work of engaging literary journalism, introduces readers to the remote bushveld community of Rooiboklaagte and opens a window into the complicated reality of daily life in South Africa. It tells the stories of three generations in the Rainbow Nation one decade after its first democratic elections. This multi-threaded narrative follows Regina, a tapestry weaver in her sixties, standing at the crossroads where her Catholic faith and the AIDS pandemic crash; Thoko, a middle-aged sangoma (traditional healer) taking steps to turn her shebeen into a fully licensed tavern; and Dankie, a young man taking his matriculation exams, coming of age as one of Mandela's Children, the first academic class educated entirely under democratic governance.

Marian Lindberg grew up being told that Walter Lindberg, the man who raised her father, was a brave explorer who had been murdered in the Amazon. She took her father’s claims at face value, basking in her exotic roots, until she started to notice things. The unverified legend became a riddle she couldn’t solve. As Lindberg moved from journalism to law, fell in love, and sought a family of her own, her father repeatedly interfered. He had a closed vision of his family, and she—unlike the silent Walter—was breaking out. Yet her father’s story of the past haunted Lindberg. Long after her father’s death, Lindberg set off for the Amazon, determined to find out the truth about Walter. Aided by generous Brazilians who adopted her search as if it were their own, she discovered as much about herself and her family as about Walter, whose true role in Brazil’s history turned out to be unexpected and deeply troubling. Sharply observant, wrought with honesty, and sweeping in its ambitions, The End of the Rainy Season is a powerful examination of identity and human relationships with nature, and between one another.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the rainy season. When a French man, Hugo Quercy, is found brutally murdered, Commandant Serge Morel finds his holiday drawn to an abrupt halt. Quercy - dynamic, well-connected - was the magnetic head of a humanitarian organisation which looked after the area's neglected youth. Opening his investigation, the Parisian detective soon finds himself buried in one of his most challenging cases yet. Morel must navigate this complex and politically sensitive crime in a country with few forensic resources, and armed with little more than a series of perplexing questions: what was Quercy doing in a hotel room under a false name? What is the significance of his recent investigations into land grabs in the area? And who could have broken into his home the night of the murder? Becoming increasingly drawn into Quercy's circle of family and friends - his adoring widow, his devoted friends and bereft colleagues - Commandant Morel will soon discover that in this lush land of great beauty and immense darkness, nothing is quite as it seems . . . A deeply atmospheric crime novel that bristles with truth and deception, secrets and lies: Death in the Rainy Season is a compelling mystery that unravels an exquisitely wrought human tragedy.

Seeds: Ecology, Biogeography, and Evolution of Dormancy and Germination provides a working hypothesis of the ecological and environmental conditions under which carious kinds of seed dormancy have developed. It also presents the seed germination of morethan 3500 species of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous species.

With the general consensus on sustainable development worldwide, the balance between nature conservation and poverty eradication has become an inevitable choice. Biodiversity (including ecosystem diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity) refers to the ecological complex formed by living organisms as well as their surrounding environment. Biodiversity provides ecosystem services essential for human well-being and is also interrelated with regional socio-economic development. Protected areas are the most direct and effective initiative to conserve biodiversity while increasing evidence shows that the services provided by intact and functioning ecosystems in protected areas are also of great value to human livelihoods, health, and well-being. Therefore, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development within and around protected areas have become a central topic in the field of conservation ecology. With this aim in mind, we would like to invite scholars to share novel findings on biodiversity conservation and the sustainable development of protected areas. The research topic will cover progress in the maintaining and sustainable use of different features of biodiversity (ecosystems, animals, plants, micro-organisms, etc.). We welcome contributions to the fundamental theories, technologies and approaches, and practices, toward a better understanding of the relationship between biodiversity conservation and regional development within and around protected areas.