Dix Steele is back in town, and 'town' is post-war LA. His best friend Brub is on the force of the LAPD, and as the two meet in country clubs and beach bars, they discuss the latest case: a strangler is preying on young women in the dark. Dix listens with interest as Brub describes their top suspect, as yet unnamed. Dix loves the dark and women in equal measure, so he knows enough to watch his step, though when he meets the luscious Laurel Gray, something begins to crack. The American Dream is showing its seamy underside.
A riveting novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Learning to Swim and an Anthony Award nominee for Best Novel While she's watching the crew build the Winter Carnival ice palace, Troy Chance sees a body encased in the frozen lake—a man she recognizes as the boyfriend of one of her roommates. When she is assigned to write a feature on his life and mysterious death, Troy discovers he was the missing son of a wealthy Connecticut family. Trying to unravel what brought him to this Adirondack village, she joins forces with his girlfriend and his sister, who comes to town to find answers. But as Troy digs deeper, it’s clear someone doesn’t want the investigation to continue. And when she uncovers long-buried secrets that could shatter the serenity of the small town and many people’s lives, she’ll be forced to decide how far her own loyalties reach. “Sara J. Henry brilliantly draws us into a terrifying but ultimately affirmative novel in which love, friendship, and the shining truth about who we really are redeem an otherwise hopeless universe.” —Howard Frank Mosher, award-winning author of God’s Kingdom
Although film noir is traditionally associated with the mean streets of the Dark City, this volume explores the genre from a new angle, focusing on non-urban settings. Through detailed readings of more than 100 films set in suburbs, small towns, on the road, in the desert, borderlands and the vast, empty West, the author investigates the alienation expressed by film noir, pinpointing its motivation in the conflict between desires for escape, autonomy and freedom--and fears of loneliness, exile and dissolution. Through such films as Out of the Past, They Live by Night and A Touch of Evil, this critical study examines how film noir reflected radical changes in the physical and social landscapes of postwar America, defining the genre's contribution to the eternal debate between the values of individualism and community.
A New York Times bestseller! "Has everything you'd want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale." - Jodi Picoult In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer. Fall in love, break the curse. It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope. Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world. Break the curse, save the kingdom. A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.
Most churches today struggle to answer the same-sex relationship debate that is quickly transforming our culture, our kids, and our churches. As a result, Christians struggle to demonstrate love and grace to those with same-sex attraction. That means that more and more people who are looking for truth and a place where they belong are deciding that the church is either indifferent to their struggle or outright hostile to "people like them." There's a better way--the way of hope. With deep understanding born from her own painful experiences, Melissa Fisher shows that somewhere between the extremes of condemning and condoning is compassion. In this book, she aims to equip the church to make a positive difference in the lives of those hurting from relational or sexual brokenness. Perfect for pastors, parents, siblings, and friends of the ten million people in America who identify as LGBTQ, who long to love them well.
For months, Batman has been haunted by the death of Tim Drake, the young hero who fought beside him as Red Robin. Tim helped Batman assemble a team of heroes and misfits to help him keep Gotham safe, then fell in battle defending the city. Or so it seemed. In reality, Tim has been held captive, snatched from the moment of death by the mysterious Mr. Oz. Now he must escape this prison that exists outside of time, but he isnÕt coming back alone. Tim has every reason to trust his fellow prisoner, but when his new ally proves heÕs not afraid to kill, Tim begins to doubt everything he thought he knew! When the duo make their way back to Gotham City, TimÕs escape partner sets a plan in motion to murder one of BatmanÕs allies. Even reunited with Red Robin, can Batman and his team of heroes protect one of their own from a killer who knows them better than they know themselves? Writer James Tynion IV (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and artists Eddy Barrows, Alvaro Martinez and Carmen Carnero continue the acclaimed run on Batman: Detective Comics. Collects Detective Comics #963-968.
Austin’s thriving film culture, renowned for international events such as SXSW and the Austin Film Festival, extends back to the early 1970s when students in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin ran a film programming unit that screened movies for students and the public. Dubbed CinemaTexas, the program offered viewers a wide variety of films—old and new, mainstream, classic, and cult—at a time when finding and watching films after their first run was very difficult and prohibitively expensive. For each film, RTF graduate students wrote program notes that included production details, a sampling of critical reactions, and an original essay that placed the film and its director within context and explained the movie’s historical significance. Over time, CinemaTexas Program Notes became more ambitious and were distributed around the world, including to luminaries such as film critic Pauline Kael. This anthology gathers a sampling of CinemaTexas Program Notes, organized into four sections: “USA Film History,” “Hollywood Auteurs,” “Cinema-Fist: Renegade Talents,” and “America’s Shadow Cinema.” Many of the note writers have become prominent film studies scholars, as well as leading figures in the film, TV, music, and video game industries. As a collection, CinemaTexas Notes strongly contradicts the notion of an effortlessly formed American film canon, showing instead how local film cultures—whether in Austin, New York, or Europe—have forwarded the development of film studies as a discipline.