This etymological dictionary gives the origins of some 20,000 items from the modern English vocabulary, discussing them in groups that make clear the connections between words derived by a variety of routes from originally common stock. As well as giving the answers to questions about the derivation of individual words, it is a fascinating book to browse through, and includes extensive lists of prefixes, suffixes, and elements used in the creation of new vocabulary.

Tetrad introduces Dracul von Ryan and his Koven of Khaos in a tale of ancient archetypes and modern mayhem. Chris Kyriakou returns from Greece with more than he bargained for--and it's not something Customs will ever find...

A dream flip turned on its head, a body insulated than most homes, and the bomb squad on speed dial? Would this flip be a stone dead flop? Henry thought he'd hit the jackpot with his fixer-upper, but that was before he uncovered a body hidden in one wall. There wasn't a chance the guy had gone gentle into that good night. Kicking and screaming and without teeth and fingerprints was Henry's summation. The other thing he'd unearthed on reporting his grisly find was a decades -old vendetta. One that saw him at odds with Police Chief Stan Baker, the guy heading up the investigation, and the jerk determined to charge Henry with the murder. But why? Because this went way past high school bullying. Lucky for Henry, he wasn't alone in trying to clear his name, with Jed his offsider, lawyer Belinda Wanamaker, and decrepit private investigator Ervine Wallace along for the ride. Will this flip be a stone dead flop, or is Henry destined to make a killing?

Join Susie Dent, lexicographer extraordinaire and Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, on a curious and exceedingly interesting adventure through all the very best RED HERRINGS, COCK AND BULL STORIES and NINE-DAY WONDERS in the English language. Who was SWEET FANNY ADAMS? What's the dramatic true story behind STEALING THUNDER? Why is it CHANCING YOUR ARM when you take a risk? What do bears have to do with LICKING INTO SHAPE? Or robbers with PULLING SOMEONE'S LEG? Why are CIRCLES VICIOUS? And, what's so bad about a WHITE ELEPHANT? 'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent' Gyles Brandreth

Next in the literary, emotionally propulsive Ryan DeMarco Mystery books from Randall Silvis, critically acclaimed master of crime fiction. Just when you think you've reached the bottom... Ryan DeMarco would rather not go home. Not now, maybe not ever. But when his estranged wife attempts suicide, he has no choice but to return to western Pennsylvania, and all the memories that wait for him there. Unfortunately, it's not only ghosts from the past waiting to greet DeMarco upon his return. An old high school classmate has risen through the ranks to become a county sheriff, and he is desperate for help investigating a series of murders that might tie into a cold case from his and DeMarco's school days. DeMarco and his new love, Jayme, agree to join the team working on the case. But it's not easy for DeMarco to be walking the streets of his troubled past, and the deeper he and Jayme dig into the disturbing murders the less likely it is that either one of them will escape the devastation. Rife with intrigue and suspense, A Long Way Down is an emotionally wrenching thriller perfect for readers of Harlan Coben and Lisa Regan. "Silvis is at it again, striving for a blend of crime story and literature, mutilated bodies and lapidary prose."—Booklist Ryan DeMarco Mystery Series: Two Days Gone (Book 1) Walking the Bones (Book 2) A Long Way Down (Book 3) No Woods So Dark as These (Book 4)

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of 13 international workshops held as part of OTM 2008 in Monterrey, Mexico, in November 2008. The 106 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 171 submissions to the workshops. The volume starts with 19 additional revised poster papers of the OTM 2008 main conferences CoopIS and ODBASE. Topics of the workshop papers are ambient data integration (ADI 2008), agents and web services merging in distributed environment (AWeSoMe 2008), community-based evolution of knowledge-intensive systems (COMBEK 2008), enterprise integration, interoperability and networking (EI2N 2008), system/software architectures (IWSSA 2008), mobile and networking technologies for social applications (MONET 2008), ontology content and evaluation in enterprise & quantitative semantic methods for the internet (OnToContent and QSI 2008), object-role modeling (ORM 2008), pervasive systems (PerSys 2008), reliability in decentralized distributed systems (RDDS 2008), semantic extensions to middleware enabling large scale knowledge (SEMELS 2008), and semantic Web and Web semantics (SWWS 2008).