From a psychiatric hospital, Peter Stonehouse, late of Sandhomen University, grapples with his family history as he edits a collection of manuscripts written during the last stages of the War of 1812. As he does so, he untangles his own experiences in Vietnam and those of his son in Iraq. Many characters both in history and in Peter's immediate experience retreat from life and from themselves. However, bands of roving pigs and well hidden hordes of unconventional treasure as well as simple...

The electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Hunter takes you deep inside the mind of the most notorious serial killer of all time: Jack the Ripper.In the fall of 1888, Jack the Ripper slaughtered five prostitutes in London’s seamy Whitechapel District. He did not just kill—he ripped with a butcher’s glee—and then, after the particularly gruesome slaying of Mary Jane Kelly, he disappeared. For 127 years, Jack has haunted the...

Hearing that a young Yankee officer was being court-martialled for cowardice, Captain Dusty Fog felt that it was a matter of honor that he should challenge the charges. And, with their Southern sense of chivalry, the rest of the Texas Light Cavalry agreed. So Ole Devil Hardin arranged for Dusty to go behind enemy lines under a flag of truce to present his evidence at the trial. But Dusty soon made a shocking discovery—Union fanatics were experimenting with barbaric forms of warfare ... Sho...

A New York Times Notable Book and "thoroughly gripping" historical mystery: On a ship packed with Irish immigrants, one passenger is a killer ( People).In the bitter winter of 1847, leaving an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some of them optimistic, many more of them desperate. Among them are a maid with a devastating secret, the bankrupt Lord Merridith accompanie...

The latest comic novel from Christopher Buckley, in which a hapless Englishman embarks on a dangerous mission to the New World in pursuit of two judges who helped murder a king.London, 1664. Twenty years after the English revolution, the monarchy has been restored and Charles II sits on the throne. The men who conspired to kill his father are either dead or disappeared. Baltasar “Balty” St. Michel is twenty-four and has no skills and no employment. He gets by on ha...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Room comes a moving set of historical stories spanning centuries and continents.The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue's stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, i...

How on earth did 'with bells on' come to express enthusiasm? What do chips on shoulders have to do with inferiority complexes? And who is the face that launched a thousand ships? Did you know that 'the rule of thumb' refers to the use of the thumb to make measurements, as the first joint of the average adult thumb measures one inch?Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pyjamas provides us with the meanings of these well-worn and much-loved phrases by putting these linguistic quir...

Visiting the Underworld of Georgian London but not sure how to blend in? Can't tell a clapperdogeon from a running smobbler? Wouldn't recognise the upright man if he noped your costard with his filchman? You need this book. This fascinating guide will teach you all you need to know about the vocabulary of the Rogues of Georgian London and how to function in society at the lowest level. Along the way you will acquire some much-needed information and advice on how to make...

A new and truly awesome collection of comic fantasy masterpieces!It isn't often you find a posse of Greek goddesses putting down insurrection among unruly classical mortals, stranded aliens escaping earth in a church converted into a rocket, or a light-fingered time-traveller attempting to steal the universe - but here they all are, in another selection of bizarre comic fantasies.

The year is 1864. Sister Thomas Josephine is on her way from St Louis, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. During the course of her journey, however, she'll find that her faith requires her to take off her wimple and pick up a gun...NUNSLINGER Book II relates the true tale of how Sister Thomas Josephine of St Louis, Missouri, comes to be wanted for murder and faces the hangman's noose in Carson City, Nevada. Only by relying on the help of an armload of fancy women and a wily old f...

Alice Duer Miller's heart-warming novel written entirely in verse. The narrative follows an American girl who falls in love with an Englishman during World War I. This touching and beautiful tale will appeal to lovers of poetry and those with an interest in life during the Great War, and it is not to be missed by discerning collectors of such literature. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly hard-to-come-by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing ...

“The Ransom of Red Chief” (1910) is the O. Henry short story that continues to entertain young and older readers.-The language of a hundred years ago has been extensively modernized.-End notes, interpretation, and discussion of major themes follow the text.-Biographical information on O. Henry included.-Every effort has been made to keep the story as close to the original as possible.-Accelerated Reader AR Quiz No. 7937 EN Fiction IL: UG - BL: 6.4 - ...