Scientists, journalists, novelists, and filmmakers continue to generate narratives of contagion, stories shaped by a tradition of disease discourse that extends to early Greco-Roman literature. Lucretius, Vergil, and Ovid developed important conventions of the western plague narrative as a response to the breakdown of the Roman res publica in the mid-first century CE and the reconstitution of stabilized government under the Augustan Principate (31 BCE-14 CE): relying on the metaph...

One man’s crazy is another man’s norm.Inside, eight bizarre stories explore twisted perceptions and challenge conceptions about right and wrong. With a fascinating dive into several unstable minds, the authors examine different avenues for exposing warped cognition and mutilated logic. Each delivers a disquieting glimpse of reality.Reformation by M. Irish Gardner: With a fresh start in life, the last thing freed inmate Todd Jefferson wants to do is live someone else’s, unti...

Helping Sophomores Succeed offers an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of the common challenges that arise in a student's second year of college. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina's National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, this groundbreaking book offers an examination of second-year student success and satisfaction using both quantitative and qualitative measures from national research findings. Helping Sophomores Succeed...

TURN OFF YOUR PHONE . SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER . SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.Welcome to Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can’t Put Down.Edited by the grand master of adventure, Clive Cussler, Thriller 2 is packed with over 20 all-new stories from some of the biggest names in fiction, including Jeffery Deaver, David Hewson and R. L. Stine.

An airliner's controls abruptly fail mid-flight over the Atlantic. An oil tanker runs aground in Japan when its navigational system suddenly stops dead. Hospitals everywhere have to abandon their computer databases when patients die after being administered incorrect dosages of their medicine. In the Midwest, a nuclear power plant nearly becomes the next Chernobyl when its cooling systems malfunction.At first, these random computer failures seem like unrelated events. But Jeff Aiken...

In this "powerful and frightening" British thriller, two estranged sisters confront a crime that exposes the nightmares that lurk at the edges of domesticity ( Irish Independent).On a picture-perfect morning in Bath, England, a teenage girl's body is found on the towpath of a canal. Police detective Zoe Benedict is convinced the department head should look beyond the usual domestic motives to solve the brutal murder case. But no one wants to hear any far-f...

Sickos around the world are playing a deadly game, and the body count is climbing.In this thrilling sequel to the Chasing Chinatown trilogy, Agent Abby Kane hunts the mastermind behind the sadistic challenges the only way she knows how: by playing the game and moving up the bloody leaderboard herself.Upon arriving in Bangkok, she discovers a killer is already on the prowl, determined to claim victory. As Abby becomes entangled in this deadly game, the rules suddenly shift...

Your mother hollers that you're going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don't stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don't thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.Only, if it's the last time you'll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you'd stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.But the bus was barreli...

“Dark and mysterious. . . . A novel whose daring is found in its bleakness. . . . The plot unfolds with a weighty languor reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy. . . sparse, elegant. . . haunting.” — New York TimesSet in rural New York state at the turn of the twentieth century, superb new talent James Scott makes his literary debut with The Kept—a propulsive novel reminiscent of the works of Michael Ondaatje, Cormac McCarthy, and Bonnie Jo Campbe...

Innocent people are dying. Who will be next? Find out in the second Detective Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg from #1 ebook bestseller Paul Finch.A vicious serial killer is holding the country to ransom, publicly – and gruesomely – murdering his victims.When a man is burnt alive on a bonfire, it seems like a tragic Guy Fawkes Night accident. But with the discovery of a young couple on Valentine’s Day – each with an arrow through the heart – something more sinister becomes clear. A ‘...

They locked him up seven years ago. He’s still killing.Executives from Detroit’s automakers are being mutilated, and all signs point to a serial killer known as the Doctor. But there’s a problem with that. Detroit Police put him away a long time ago.Fiery FBI agent Abby Kane is tasked with figuring out how this madman can kill again. When she visits the Doctor behind bars, he swears he’s innocent and not the psychopath everyone thinks he is. Oddly enough, Abby believes hi...

From New York Times bestselling author Mira Grant comes a vision of a decade in the future, where humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.We owe our good health to a humble parasite — a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the Intestinal Bodyguard worm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system — even secretes designer drugs. It's been successful beyond the scientists' wil...