What is tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal worth to you today? Where is the line between reality and fiction? Are the financial markets really predictable? Does an ancient artefact hold the key to how some of the world’s wealthiest families made their fortunes?When a mysterious granite and cypress Egyptian box is found hidden away in a secret room in the palatial Biltmore Estate, twin scientists Alex and Nicholas Shepard work to unlock the secret of its intricate dials, gauges, crystals, and carvings. What they discover has the potential to make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But it could also collapse financial markets, bankrupt corporations around the globe, and destroy many of the world’s most powerful families. As the twins quickly find out, people will not only kill to make money, but will kill to keep it.What begins as a simple scientific experiment dabbling in the stock market quickly descends into a nightmarish intrigue of murder, deception, and mystery. When one Shepard brother is killed, the surviving twin and his wife find themselves in a desperate gambit to learn the truth about the box’s legacy. Using ancient documents found with the box, they unearth clues and trace its history through the ages, from the catacombs of Paris to the Knights of the Templar in Scotland. Their investigation takes them from London to Paris, Venice, and finally, to the Vatican itself, where they uncover the greatest deception ever perpetuated by man.Robert D. Taylor’s enthralling novel Paradigm is a unique and masterful blend of intelligent scientific suspense and bold historical mystery stretching from earliest antiquity to the present day and beyond. His intriguing plot and cast of memorable characters makes for a suspenseful page-turner that will keep readers guessing about where the lines of reality and fiction merge.Paradigm demands we believe the unbelievable. And yet the scientific and historical data supporting the "unbelievable" rests right before our eyes. The challenge of finding out just what is truly real and what is not is now up to you.

For the first time in his life, Robert Ryder doesn't have orders. He has just buried his son Mark; his career in the French Foreign Legion is finished. Unable to settle into civilian life, he drifts to Thailand, where he learns of a man on death row for dealing with the same drug lords responsible for Mark's deadly overdose. However, the smugglers find Ryder before he can find them. Kidnapped to Burma, Ryder escapes and realizes his mission. Facing the reality of a growing drug culture and the greed that fuels it, Ryder aims to make peace with his past by exacting retribution in the best way he knows. With the vengeance of a father wronged and the precise brutality of a Foreign Legionnaire, Ryder infiltrates the organization. But the deeper he goes, the more familiar the faces become. "Walk With The Devil is a scintillating fuel pumped thriller. A true in your face juggernaut of adrenaline, plotting and pace. Both a fascinating insider's view of The Legion, and a deeply moving compassionate examination of loss. This is thriller writing of the highest order and Tom Foote is the new name to reach for. Foote rules on just every level there is!" - Ken Bruen "Walk With the Devil is Tom Foote at the peak of his Powers! Read it!" - Stuart Woods "An old-fashioned, no-holds-barred revenge story." - Publishers Weekly "A meticulously detailed and very exciting story of revenge. Think of Ryder as having the wrath of an Old Testament prophet and skills of a professional killer." - Irish AmNew

Phallos is a 2004 novel by the acclaimed novelist and critic Samuel R. Delany. Taking the form of a gay pornographic novella, with the explicit sex omitted, Phallos is set during the reign of the second-century Roman emperor Hadrian, and circles around the historical account of the murder of the emperor's favorite, Antinous. The story moves from Syracuse to Egypt, from the Pillars of Hercules to Rome, from Athens to Byzantium, and back. Young Neoptolomus searches after the stolen phallus of the nameless god of Hermopolis, crafted of gold and encrusted with jewels, within which are reputedly the ancient secrets of science and society that will lead to power, knowledge, and wealth. Vivid and clever, the original novella has been expanded by nearly a third. Appended to the text are an afterword by Robert F. Reid-Pharr and three astute speculative essays by Steven Shaviro, Kenneth R. James, and Darieck Scott.

Called "one of our brightest cultural commentators" by Publishers Weekly, Kit Reed draws from life-with a difference. This new collection brings together thirty-four of her strong, original stories, from early classics like "The Wait" and "Winter" to six never-before-collected short stories, including "The Legend of Troop 13" and "Wherein We Enter the Museum." An early favorite, "Automatic Tiger," is the first in a series of Reed's stories about animals. There's a monkey who grinds out bestsellers with the help of a "creative writing" app. Her uncanny black dog can enter a crowded room and sit down at the feet of the next man to die. Her characters confront war in various arenas: mother/daughter battles, the war of the sexes, the struggles of men scarred by war. Kit Reed's self-described "transgenred" fiction is confirmation of an "extraordinary talent" (The Financial Times). The range and complexity of her work speaks for itself in The Story Until Now.

H.L. Mencken, in his illustrious career as a journalist, made his reputation with satirical writing and controversial ideals. Although his is a name not customarily associated with short fiction, it was his first literary love. From 1900 to 1919, he published nearly 60 stories and short-shorts, sometimes pseudonymously. Here for the first time, 30 of Mencken's thoroughly entertaining stories are collected, showcasing Mencken's wit and skill in a medium for which he is not well known. Meet a bumbling anarchist newspaper editor; the `Charmed Circle' of Long Island in a story strikingly prescient of F. Scott Fitzgerald; a shop owner whose mannequins belie a horrific secret; and a pair of wily entrepreneurs working in the Caribbean, among plenty of other excellent, amusing, and memorable stories. "Superb, clever, or hilarious use of language… Read Epithalamium, a sendup of the social rigmarole of marriage for its exquisite choice of words, or the Poe-esque The Window of Horrors, about a clothier and his obsession with life-like mannequins, for its chills. For quintessential Mencken, read The Man of God, whose lowly grocer becomes an evangelist." - Publishers Weekly

“Japan in the 17th century was a relatively peaceful place, unified by the Tokugawa family in 1601 after many centuries of feudal warfare. The resultant peace, however, left many men who had lived by the sword, the samurai class, out of work, and since samurai were not permitted to work at anything else, many became destitute and roamed the countryside; some even turned their hands to poetry and calligraphy. This stability also ensured the rise of the merchant classes, an explosion of the arts from theatre to poetry, and a growth in trade for courtesans who inhabited ‘the floating world of desire’. It is into this remote world and in particular the last decade of that century, that John Givens breathes a whole new life, in his book of short stories exploring the characters of that era, from courtesans to bandits, monks, brigands and rogue samurai.... Givens is not just a gifted storyteller – these stories are freighted with a deep knowledge and cultural understanding of Japan....Givens' prose and dialogues are so authentic that it's almost as if these stories were handed down or were translated from original sources.” – Joseph Woods, The Irish Times It's Japan. The last decade of the 17th century. Men who lived by the sword find themselves without a vocation while women begin to confront new opportunities and threats hitherto unimaginable. The austere demands of the haikai poet are no match for the new popularity of urban performers, and the medieval samurai ethos has been replaced by that of the merchant and the shogun's bureaucrats. This colourful but remote world is portrayed in these stories. Japan's greatest poet Basho features in several of them. We also meet young 'peony girls' who yearn for a life outside the pleasure quarters; a rogue samurai who seeks solace in wine, in the supposed serenity of haikai poetry, in the rigours of Zen Buddhism, and finally in his own acceptance of the impossibility of regaining the past. Another, more murderous samurai evolves into what modern yakuza gangsters see as their historical essence. A mysterious 'daughter of the palace' struggles with an unbearable remorse; a senior government official seeks to preserve Basho's poetic legacy; a teenage sociopath tries to carve out his own career by cutting a bloody swathe across the landscape; and, a bizarrely preternatural pariah supervisor brings his own understanding of things with surprising and sometimes horrifying results. The Plum Rains and Other Stories brings to life a uniquely beautiful and violent world.

Arguably the most famous and recognized detective in history, Sherlock Holmes is considered by many to be the first pop icon of the modern age. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective has stood as a unique figure for more than a century with his reliance on logical rigor, his analytic precision, and his disregard of social mores. A true classic, the Sherlock Holmes character continues to entertain twenty-first-century audiences on the page, stage, and screen. In The Philosophy of Sherlock Holmes, a team of leading scholars use the beloved character as a window into the quandaries of existence, from questions of reality to the search for knowledge. The essays explore the sleuth's role in revealing some of the world's most fundamental philosophical issues, discussing subjects such as the nature of deception, the lessons enemies can teach us, Holmes's own potential for criminality, and the detective's unique but effective style of inductive reasoning. Emphasizing the philosophical debates raised by generations of devoted fans, this intriguing volume will be of interest to philosophers and Holmes enthusiasts alike.

Post-divorce dating is one more cause for celebration (or a quick call in to the police) in Beth Bosworth's revelatory new book, The Source of Life and Other Stories. The spine of this collection is a series of linked stories about Ruth Stein, a Brooklyn author whose first book has exposed her father's abuses; while the voice here, speaking across a lifetime, ranges from bittersweet to humorous to lethal. In other stories Bosworth's narrators—a mother left to care for her son's suicidal dog, an editor haunted by a dog-eared manuscript—seem to grab hold of the reins and run off with their fates. Meanwhile Bosworth explores the extended family, the bonds of friendship, an apocalyptic Vermont, the rank yet redeemable Gowanus Canal; also rites of passage, race relations, divorce, middle-aged romance, dementia, funerals, alcoholism, and the Jewish religion. Reality is just another stumbling block for Bosworth's characters, who might help themselves but don't always choose to. There are leaps of faith here, nonetheless, as the collection dispenses a kind of narrative psychotropic for survival and redemption, with a chaser of humor mixed in.

This work contains three dialogues on love, desire, and the love of God, by a Jewish physician and philosopher.

H. G. Wells wasn't the only nineteenth-century writer to dream of a time machine. The Spanish playwright Enrique Gaspar published El anacronópete-"He who flies against time"-eight years before Wells's influential work appeared. The novel begins at the 1878 Paris Exposition, where Dr. Don Sindulfo unveils his new invention-which looks like a giant sailing vessel. Soon the doctor embarks on a voyage back in time, accompanied by a motley crew of French prostitutes and Spanish soldiers. The purpose of his expedition is to track down the imprisoned wife of a third-century Chinese emperor, believed to possess the secret to immortality. A classic tale of obsession, high adventure, and star-crossed love, The Time Ship includes intricately drawn illustrations from the original 1887 edition, and a critical introduction that argues persuasively for The Time Ship's historical importance to science fiction and world literature.

Adjusting to the sweltering heat of the Mississippi Delta is the least of Teri's troubles. Dragged there by her mother's ill-advised search for career development, she must now drudge her way through a new school, the constant tension between her parents, and the duplicitous nature of teenagers and adults alike. But then she meets a strange boy at school, Nother Martin, and as their relationship develops she is drawn into a world of moonshine and roadhouses, fortune tellers and grizzled Blues legends. In contrast to her own tangled relationships, she finds comfort in Nother's strong family bonds and his roots in the depthless South. As Teri learns about bad behavior and untimely death, she discovers a better, wiser version of herself. "The mind of a smart teen girl is a universe that has attracted many writers, and David Racine's Teri is one of the best. A tightly woven and gorgeously written report from inside a unique person, by a writer who knows the world and doesn't allow it to lie." - Andrei Codrescu "A complex story line, well-developed characters, evocative descriptions, and quirky humor create an inviting read." - Library Journal "There is much to admire in Racine's treatment of character and setting."-Booklist "Racine's beautiful prose deftly handles these alternate narratives... [Teri's] perceptive voice adds depth and pathos to this modern-day bildungsroman." - Publishers Weekly

In the tenth book of the acclaimed DI Christy Kennedy series, a successful investment banker is found dead under unusual circumstances. While it looks like the case of an autoerotic escapade gone wrong, Kennedy has other suspicions. After working through a battery of interviews, and uncovering a potential political scandal, Kennedy follows the trail to California. There he is intrigued by an attractive police officer investigating her husband's murder. But the redoubtable DI still finds time to get his man. "A bit of luck and an astonishing clue lead Kennedy to San Francisco, where a door opens into an entirely new mystery with engrossing twists of its own. Haunted by a broken romance, bewildered by a new one, the reserved and courtly Kennedy proves irresistible to women, much to his (and the reader's) delight." - Publishers Weekly "The tenth Christy Kennedy mystery finds the Camden Town detective inspector following the clues to a man's death all the way to California."--Booklist. "An intriguing mystery." - Half Moon Bay Review "One murder leads to another and DI Kennedy goes trans-Atlantic in his 10th appearance… Charles serves up his usual pleasant concoction at his usual leisurely pace." - Kirkus Reviews "The characters are handled well, and Charles adds enough flavor to the dialogue to distinguish everyone from each other." - Mystery Scene Magazine

James Still remains one of the most beloved and important writers in Appalachian literature. Best known for his acclaimed novel River of Earth (1940), the Alabama native and adopted Kentuckian left an enduring legacy of novels, stories, and poems during his nearly seventy year career.The Hills Remember: The Complete Short Stories of James Still honors the late writer by collecting all of Still's short stories, including his stories from On Troublesome Creek (1941), Pattern of a Man and Other Stories (1976), and The Run for the Elbertas (1980), as well as twelve prose pieces originally published as short stories and later incorporated into River of Earth. Also included are several lesser-known stories and ten never-before-published stories. Recognized as a significant writer of short fiction in his day -- many of his stories initially appeared in The Atlantic and The Saturday Evening Post and were included in The O. Henry Memorial Award Stories and The Best American Short Stories collections -- Still's short stories, while often overshadowed in recent years by his novels and poetry, are among his most enduring literary works. Editor Ted Olson offers a reassessment of Still's short fiction within the contexts of the author's body of work and within Appalachian and American literature. Compiling all of James Still's compelling and varied short stories into one volume, The Hills Remember is a testament to a master writer.

Enslaved by their own fears, the characters in this riveting collection are straining for redemption. Their choices reflect the well-worn patterns we carve for ourselves through our idiosyncrasies-our dominant traits. A basketball coach teaches moral ambiguity; a divorcee clutches at sanity; a mother struggles with her son's paternity; a childless man regrets his youthful onanism. Through their shared experiences these tangible characters undergo the sad, hilarious search for wholeness and security. Set in the stark isolated landscape of Southern Alberta, Eric Freeze's debut collection is a deftly-crafted study of desperate mortals careening through their liminal moments, grasping for certainty. "An honest record, a way to trace the passage of time and understand the little stories of our past" - Boston Review "Freeze Builds his sentences with the intricate grace of the snowflakes so often falling from the sky in these stories, all of them peculiarly sad and funny and beautiful." - Ben Percy "The fiction in Dominant Traits seems grounded in the quirkiness that is the everyday, that is where we learn about the human heart and its odd acts of defiance, generosity, courage, ineptitude." - Darrell Spencer "Excellent stories... Freeze produces realistic, believable people and delves deeply into their psyches to create truly enjoyable character studies." - Booklist

When asked to describe her short stories, Edith Pearlman replied that they are stories about people in peculiar circumstances aching to Do The Right Thing. She elaborated with the same wit and intimacy that make her stories a delight to read:\u201cBefore I was a writer I was a reader; and reading remains a necessary activity, occupying several joyous hours of every day. I like novels, essays, and biographies; but most of all I like the short story: narrative at its most confiding. \u201cMy own work, and particularly the stories in Vaquita, aims at a similar intimacy between writer and reader. My imagined reader wants to know who loves whom, who drinks what, and, mostly, who answers to what summons. Thank Heavens for Spike Lee! Before his movies writers and critics had to natter about moral stances; now I can say with a more tripping tongue that my characters are people in peculiar circumstances, aching to Do The Right Thing if only they can figure out what The Right Thing is. If not, they’ll at least Do Their Own Right Thing Right.\u201cAnd I’m drawn to heat: sweltering Central American cities; a steamy soup kitchen; Jerusalem in midsummer; the rekindled passion of an old historian; the steady fire of terminal pain. I like solitaires, oddities, charlatans, and children. My characters are secretive; in almost every story somebody harbors a hidden love, dread, regret, or the memory of an insult awaiting revenge.\u201cWhen I stop writing stories I plan to write letters, short and then shorter. My mother could put three sentences onto a postcard and make the recipient think he’d read a novel. I’m working towards a similar compression.\u201d

To the short list that includes Jules Verne and H.G. Wells as founding fathers of science fiction, the name of the Belgian writer J. -H. Rosny Aîné must be added. He was the first writer to conceive, and attempt to narrate, the workings of aliens and alternate life forms. His fascination with evolutionary scenarios, and long historical vistas, from first man to last man, are important precursors to the myriad cosmic epics of modern science fiction. Until now, his work has been virtually unknown and unavailable in the English-speaking world, but it is crucial for our understanding of the genre. Three wonderfully imaginative novellas are included in this volume. "The Xipehuz" is a prehistoric tale in which the human species battles strange geometric alien life forms. "Another World" is the story of a mysterious being who does not live in the same acoustic and temporal world as humans. "The Death of the Earth" is a scientifically uncompromising Last Man story. The book includes an insightful critical introduction that places Rosny's work within the context of evolutionary biology.