It is the first week of July, in the year 1956, and four teenaged siblings are spending time on a rural farm in Arkansas; bored and restless. They, along with their parents are just beginning their summer vacation paying the obligatory visit to the grandparents, and Uncle Romey, the adult son with Down's syndrome. Instead of spending their time searching for four-leafed clovers in the grass, the youngsters would rather be going to the beach every day and hanging out with their friends back home in Long Beach, California. The vacation seems as though it will be the same as the last oneand the one before that. But at least the arrival of an aunt and uncle and cousin makes things a little more fun for the youngsters, as they find ways to entertain themselves; which of course translates as getting into mischief. Also, with the arrival of the aunt and uncle, tensions begin to escalate between the adults when a long held secret, previously known only to the grandparents is brought to light. Then with the unexpected arrival of the argumentative, prodigal daughter, who has decided to join the family in the Fourth of July celebration, things really begin to heat up within the household and the dissention magnifies. What was expected to be a routine holiday celebration, turns into an exraordinary adventure. With the discovery of long buried human remains, the story unfolds into one of dark secrets, assault, deception, lies, dead bodies, ghosts, and murder; and the life of each remaining family member is affected forever.

The most horrifying murder, the most unbelievable truth! The cannibal dinner, the gag girl, the lover's ice sculpture, the Nanke murderer's surrender, the human skin painting, the ghost's reflection in the mirror ... You will never be able to understand in the human mind the true purpose behind these horrific murders. Let the hypnotists take a unique view and lead you into the heart of those terrible criminals and into those terrifying truths. We hereby declare that anyone with a history of heart disease should give up! Those with IQ below 120, please give up! People with poor mental endurance, please give up! Never try to guess the truth until the last moment.

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again. A Prey to Murder is the fourth mystery novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. The huge and powerful hawk dominated the scene. Its talons pierced the woman’s flesh and the beak pointed towards her eyes . . . The sight is a particularly horrible shock for George Palmer-Jones, ornithologist and amateur detective, as he was an old friend of the victim Eleanor Masefield. George and his wife Molly are staying at Eleanor’s family run hotel, and whilst George believed Eleanor was a beautiful and charming widow, Molly has other ideas. Is Molly a little jealous? Or was Eleanor more a black widow – a ruthless manipulator of all those caught in her far-reaching web? Can Molly prove it in time to prevent another death?

Rich Nixon sat transfixed in front of his television set. As a third year law student, Rich knew he was witnessing history in the making, the forced resignation of the President of the United States. That night, aspiring attorney Rich Nixon decided to change his name... Little did he know how profoundly that decision would affect his life... When Rich unexpectedly receives an invitation to the 40th reunion of the Sugar Springs High School class of 1962, he puts himself in harm’s way. “Murder by Reunion” follows Rich as he learns the fate of his former high school friends, the “Posse”.

Irreverence and the Sacred brings together some of the most cutting edge, interdisciplinary, and international scholars working today in order to debate key issues in the critical and comparative study of religion. The project is inspired in large part by the work of Bruce Lincoln, whose influential and wide-ranging scholarship has consistently posed challenging, provocative, and often-irreverent questions that have really pushed the boundaries of the field of religious studies in important, sometimes controversial ways. Retracing the history of the discipline of religious studies, Lincoln argues that the field has tended to champion a "validating, feel-good" approach to religion, rather than posing more critical questions about religious claims to authority and their role in history, politics, and social change. A critical approach to the history of religions, he suggests, would focus on the human, temporal, and material aspects of phenomena that are claimed to have a superhuman, eternal, or transcendent status. This volume takes up Lincoln's challenge to "do better," by engaging in critical analyses of four key themes in the study of religion: myth, ritual, gender, and politics. The book also interrogates the "politics of scholarship" itself, critically examining the relations of power and material interests at work in the study as well as the practice of religion. The scholars involved in this project include not only some of the most important figures in the American study of religion--such as Wendy Doniger, Russell McCutcheon, Ivan Strenski, and Lincoln himself--but also European scholars whose work is hugely influential overseas but not as well known in the U.S.--such as Stefan Arvidsson, Claude Calame, Nicolas Meylan, and others.

"I should imagine this was murder, too, because it would be very difficult to build yourself into a heap of sandbags and then die..." In the blackout conditions of a wintry London night, amateur sleuth Agnes Kinghof and a young air-raid warden have stumbled upon a corpse stowed in the walls of their street's bomb shelter. As the police begin their investigation, the night is interrupted once again when Agnes' upstairs neighbour, Mrs. Sibley is terrorised by the sight of a grisly pig's head at her fourth-floor window. With the discovery of more sinister threats mysteriously signed "Pig-sticker," Agnes and her husband, Andrew—unable to resist a good mystery—begin their investigation to deduce the identity of a villain living amongst them in their block of flats. A witty and light-hearted mystery full of intriguing period detail, this rare gem of Golden Age crime returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1943. This edition includes an Introduction by award-winning author Martin Edwards.

EAVESDROPPING ON HISTORY. For lovers of history, there are many questions about the American War that have never been answered or that have been answered with obviously ridiculous lies. A perfect example is the lie about Fort Pillow. After Congress investigated the massacre it was found that eight of the men who testified as eyewitnesses before Congress were never there. But no one has ever asked who ordered those men to perjure themselves. Another example is the truth behind why Fort Sumter was shelled. The book is a page turner for those people who would love to eavesdrop on meetings where policy and crimes were fabricated. Listen in on a meeting Lincoln, Grant and Stanton are having on reneging on the Dix-Hill prisoner exchange program. Or listen in on a meeting Stanton is having with one of his employees John Wilkes Booth. Are you surprised? But most importantly it’s all about Lincoln. Keep an open mind about why he was so well preserved and why he behaved as he did. The book is a novel but most of the events are based on the evidence available as you shall see. That’s just a start of a book that took over 25 years of research to write!