Writing under the ambiguous pseudonyms ‘Waif Wander’ and ‘W. W.’, Mary Fortune penned a staggering 500 detective stories over a forty-year span, from 1868 to 1908. Narrated by the fictional detective Mark Sinclair, the series comprises Sinclair’s memoirs as he looks back through a “detective’s album” of mugshots from his long police career. This volume includes eight classic stories from one of the pioneers in the detective writing genre.

In their origin, the great cities of the Sumerians were little more than collections of rude huts constructed at first of reeds cut in the marshes and gradually giving place to rather more substantial buildings of clay and sun-dried brick. From the very beginning, the shrine of the Anunnaki Gods played an essential part in the foundation and subsequent development of each center of the population. Of the prehistoric period in Sumeria, we know little, but it may be assumed that already at t...

In the spring of 1852, Layard was obliged to close his excavations for want of funds, and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving all the northern half of the great mound of Kuyûnjik unexcavated. He resigned his position as Director of Excavations to the British Museum's Trustees, and Colonel (later Sir) H. C. Rawlinson, Consul-General of Baghdâd, undertook to direct any further excavations that might be possible to carry out later on. During the summer, the Trustees received a further...

Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialized group of attributes, that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name. It is unfortunate that every other word for supernatural intelligence has become debased so that we cannot well sp...

From a time beyond the dawn of history, humanity has been seeking to explain the universe. At first, the effort did not concern itself further than to make a supposition as to the causes of the various phenomena presented to the senses. As knowledge increased, first by observation and later by experiment also, the ideas as to these causes passed progressively through three stages—the theological (the causes were thought to be spirits or gods); the metaphysical (the causes were thought in t...

The objects found in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians, i.e., vessels of food, flint knives, and other weapons, etc., prove that these early dwellers in the Nile Valley believed in some kind of a future existence. However, as the art of writing was unknown to them, their graves contain no inscriptions, and we can only infer from texts of the dynastic Period what their ideas about the Other World were. They did not consider it of great importance to preserve the dead body in as comple...

Following the acclaim for Learning Outside the Classroom in 2012, this latest book more deeply explains how well constructed outdoor learning experiences can benefit children and young people’s academic development and health and wellbeing.Outdoor Learning Across the Curriculum outlines the theory and practice to enable preservice and experienced primary and secondary school teachers to systematically incorporate meaningful outdoor learning opportunities into thei...

Preaching for the Rest of Us serves as a starter's guide to text-driven preaching. Driven by the conviction that pastors hold the weighty and honorable responsibility of explaining Scripture to their congregations, Gallaty and Smith present a clear step-by-step process for re-presenting Scripture in compelling text-driven sermons.This unique type of preaching is the interpretation and communication of a text of Scripture driven by the substance, structure, and spirit of th...

The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place ha...

Alcatraz Smedry is up against a whole army of Evil Librarians with only his friend Bastille, a few pairs of glasses, and an unlimited supply of exploding teddy bears to help him.This time, even Alcatraz's extraordinary talent for breaking things may not be enough to defeat the army of Evil Librarians and their giant librarian robots.

The legendary members of the Jensen family gather together at the Sugarloaf Ranch for one Christmas homecoming they'll never forget—if they live through it...Smoke Jensen looks forward to spending a quiet holiday with the family. But an unexpected arrival from south of the border has him reaching for his guns, defending his land—and risking everything he loves...Sally Jensen strikes up a friendship with a lovely Mexican woman—who turns out to be married to the mysterious st...

With the fall of the Assyrian empire in 606 B.C., Mesopotamia once more regained her national status. This meant that her national god Merodach was no longer subservient to the Assyrian Asshur in a political sense and regained his place as sole head of the Mesopotamian pantheon.Great must have been the satisfaction of the people of Sumeria when this comparatively mild tyranny removed; they could worship their gods in their way, free from the humiliating remembrance that their north...