Olive Clebo, wife of Dan Clebo chief investigator for the Piedmont, NC Police Department was brutally murdered by three released murderers that Dan had previously arrested. This vindictive retaliation was meant to send a warning to other police officers throughout the country. Dan pledged to avenge Olive's murder. He resigned from the police department, located and executed two of the three men. He left no clues that could legally be used against him. He did this to force a change in the l...

A rape, murders, a bank robbery, imprisonment, and suicideall these things that happened twenty years ago begin to converge and set a small North Carolina town on its ear. A dead body discovered in the Piedmont Bowling Alley is identified as a wanted fugitive, and Helen Martin, chief of detectives, realizes this will be no ordinary case. The owner of the bowling alley and his daughter receive threatening letters referring to the events of twenty years earlier, and the ensuing chaos sets Ma...

Following democracy's global advance in the late 20th century, recent patterns of democratic erosion or 'backsliding' have generated extensive scholarly debate. Backsliding towards autocracy is often the work of elected leaders operating within democratic institutions, challenging conventional thinking about the logic of democratic consolidation, the enforcement of institutional checks and balances, and the development and reproduction of democratic norms. This volume tackles these challen...

"Never go into the deep parts of the forest, for there are many dangers there, and they will ensnare your soul." Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of the Biltmore estate.There's plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate's maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember. But when...

In the highly-anticipated next installment of the Serafina series, Serafina must confront the darkest threat she's ever encountered at Biltmore Estate. She knows she can face anything with her best friend and closest ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, by her side. But when a sinister force tears them apart, Serafina scrambles to uncover the mystery of her most formidable challenge yet...and about herself and the destiny that awaits her.

This enchanting companion to Robert Beatty's instant #1 New York Times bestseller Willa of the Wood is perfect for any reader who cares deeply about the natural world. Willa and her clan are the last of the Faeran, an ancient race of forest people who have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains for as long as the trees have grown there. But as crews of newly arrived humans start cutting down great swaths of the forest she loves, she is helpless to stop them. How can she fight the destroyers of...

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Beatty comes a spooky, thrilling new series set in the magical world of Serafina. Move without a sound. Steal without a trace. Willa, a young nightspirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk in the cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work—the day-folk kill whatever they do not understand. But when Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in a day-folk...

Wanda the wanderer, practitioner of the movable feast, barroom pick-up artist, skilled technician at electronics and seduction, is a sexual adventuress who works as a repair and installer technician for a major telephone company. At an earlier age, just at the physical developmental stage where she was entering into puberty and her hormones are starting to run away with her, while on a road trip with her parents, staying in her own room at sleazy motel, she overhears a couple going at it h...

Samuel Martin is not afflicted with the wanderlust that teenage boys growing into young men in isolated areas in isolated times so often are. Samuel has no desire to break out of the isolation of the remote rural farm town he was born into and see the world. He wants nothing more than to be the third generation patriarch on the farm of his ancestors, living on the land he loves in company with the family he loves. He is just facing the problem of finding the one girl he wants to share his ...

Serafina's defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak has brought her out of the shadows and into the daylight realm of her home, Biltmore Estate. Every night she visits her mother in the forest, eager to learn the ways of the catamount. But Serafina finds herself caught between her two worlds: she's too wild for Biltmore's beautifully dressed ladies and formal customs, and too human to fully join her kin.Late one night, Serafina encounters a strange and terrifying figure in the forest, ...

A hurricane changes the course of a river and the life of a lonely girl in this nature-based mystery-adventure by the best-selling author of the Serafina series and the Willa seriesRobert Beatty, a master at telling atmospheric tales of mystery and suspense set in the natural world, has crafted another ingenious, unputdownable story.Thirteen-year-old Sylvia Doe has lived at the Highground Home for Children nearly all her life. Whenever the administrators try ...

Lawyer Robert Beattie assisted the police during the thirty-year search for the BTK Strangler—and was instrumental in the long-awaited arrest of a suspect. Here he shares his inside knowledge of the case, from its terrifying beginnings to its most up-to-date developments.In 1974 a killer embarked on a murder spree in Wichita, Kansas, counting among his victims, men, women, and children. Longing to join the ranks of the Hillside Stranglers and Black Dahlia killer, t...