This crafty guide gives the low-down on how the experts crack crime. Readers will uncover the correct way to dust for dabs, how to work out if someone's disguising their handwriting, and why a dad

Many Freemasons have made the world a better place, while some have been villainous criminals. Members of the Craft have developed forensic science, solved famous crimes and invented all manner of things. Several members of the Royal Family have also been members. Masons have been very active in the criminal justice system, both as 'goodies' and 'baddies': it was a mason who formed the Special Branch to fight terrorism and another who brought the Moors Murders to an end. In some cases, such as the Cleveland Street Scandal, masons found themselves on both sides of the law. The medical profession is also well represented in lodges. Happily, it was a member of the Craft who rescued the Elephant Man, while another masonic doctor was the first to identify an occupational cancer. On the other side of the coin, there have been several evil masonic doctors who committed murder, and one masonic surgeon may have committed regicide, although his motives were merciful. This tells the stories of weird and wonderful masons too - celebrities, film makers, soldiers, explorers, world-famous businessmen, politicians, forgers and scoundrels. There are masons of every character, and all are covered in this book.

Witnessing the end of a war that nearly terminated the nation, the abolition of racial slavery and rise of legal segregation, the rise of Modernism and Hollywood, the closing of the frontier and two World Wars, the literary historical period represented in this volume constitutes the crucible of American literary history. Here, 35 essays by top researchers in the field detail how considerations of race and citizenship; immigration and assimilation; gender and sexuality; nationalism and empire; all reverberate throughout novels written in the United States between 1870 and 1940. Contributors discuss the professionalization of literary production after the Civil War alongside legal and political debates over segregation and citizenship; while chapters on journalism, geography, religion, and immigration offer discussions on everything from the lasting role of literary realism in American fiction to the Spanish-American War's effect on developing theories of aesthetics and popular culture. The volume offers thorough coverage of the emergence of serial fiction, children's fiction, crime and detective fiction, science fiction, and even cinema and comics, as new media and artistic revolutions like the Harlem Renaissance helped usher in the new international aesthetic movement of Modernism. The final chapters in the volume explore the relationship of the novel to the emergence of "American literature" as a category in the academy, in public criticism and journalism, and in mass culture.

This series presents a comprehensive, global and up-to-date history of English-language prose fiction and written ... by a international team of scholars ... -- dust jacket.

15 all new stories of criminal handiwork and the art of deduction.