“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.”—Alexandra Alter, The New York Times Detective Hank Palace returns in the second in the speculative mystery trilogy set on the brink of the apocalypse. There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband. Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees. Countdown City presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?

"[The] weird, beautiful, unapologetically apocalyptic Last Policeman trilogy is one of my favorite mystery series."—John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns Winner of the 2013 Edgar® Award Winner for Best Paperback Original! What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares. The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered? Ebook contains an excerpt from the anticipated second book in the trilogy, Countdown City.

"This is the revised text of a work first published as Countdown under the pseudonym Michelle Maddox by Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., in 2008"--Title page verso.

They may have battled in the courtroom, but KCPD detective Keir Watson wasn't going to let their turbulent past stop him from protecting attorney Kenna Parker. She'd been attacked, escaping with her life but with no memory of who wanted to end it. And the only person she dared trust was Keir. With the clock ticking, every second grows more precious...their feelings more intense. If Keir is going to discover Kenna's would–be killer, he has to focus on the case. But his attraction to Kenna is making this determined bachelor reconsider just what his idea of forever could mean.

This book deals with legends and images of the apocalypse and post-apocalypse in film and graphic arts, literature and lore from early to modern times and from peoples and cultures around the world. It reflects an increasingly popular leitmotif in literature and visual arts of the 21st century: humanity’s fear of extinction and its quest for survival -- in revenant, supernatural, or living human form. It is the logical continuation of a series of collected essays examining the origins and evolution of myths and legends of the supernatural in Western and non-Western tradition and popular culture. The first two volumes of the series, The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013) and Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic. (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013) focused on the vampire legend. The third, The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to Twenty-First-Century Chic (2016), focused on a range of supernatural beings in literature, film, and other forms of popular culture.

The book entitled “Advancements in Smart City and Intelligent Building” is the Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart City and Intelligent Building (ICSCIB 2018) held in Hefei, China, September 15-16, 2018. It contains 58 papers in total categorized into 8 different tracks, on Building Energy Efficiency, Construction Robot and Automation, Intelligent Community and Urban Safety, Intelligentialization of Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning System, Information Technology and Intelligent Transportation Systems, New Generation Intelligent Building Platform Techniques, Smart Home and Utility, and Smart Underground Space, which cover a wide range areas of smart cities and intelligent buildings. ICSCIB2018 provided an international forum for professionals, academics, and researchers to present the latest developments from interdisciplinary theoretical studies, computational algorithm developments and engineering applications in smart cities and smart buildings. This academic event featured many opportunities to network with colleagues from around the world in a wonderful environment. Its program covered invitation and presentations from scientists, researchers, and practitioners who have been working in the related areas to establish platforms for collaborative research projects in these fields. The conference invited leaders from industry and academia to exchange and share their experiences, present research results, explore collaborations and to spark new ideas, with the aim of developing new projects and exploiting new technology in these fields, and bridge theoretical studies and emerging applications in various science and engineering branches. This book addresses the recent development and achievement in the field of smart city and intelligent building. It is primarily intended for researchers and students for undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the background of multiple disciplines including computer science, information systems, information technology, automatic control and automation, electrical and electronic engineering, and telecommunications who wish to develop and share their ideas, knowledge and new findings in smart city and intelligent building.

“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.”—Alexandra Alter, The New York Times The explosive final installment in the Edgar® Award winning Last Policeman series. With the doomsday asteroid looming, Detective Hank Palace has found sanctuary in the woods of New England, secure in a well-stocked safe house with other onetime members of the Concord police force. But with time ticking away before the asteroid makes landfall, Hank’s safety is only relative, and his only relative—his sister Nico—isn’t safe. Soon, it’s clear that there’s more than one earth-shattering revelation on the horizon, and it’s up to Hank to solve the puzzle before time runs out...for everyone.