When a brutal homophobic attack ended David Lloyd's career as a police officer, his life was changed forever. Five years later David is running his own private detective agency, where a missing person's case comes to his attention. Digging into the circumstances of her disappearance forces David to realize he has not dealt with what happened to him, and that he can no longer deal with his long-time partner's fear of being honest about their relationship. Solving the case might not only bring peace to a shattered family, but could finally put David's own demons to rest.
PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.
When a twelve-year-old girl goes missing, a suburban family’s perfect life reveals its dark secrets in this tense psychological thriller. Life can change in an instant. For Ryan and Karen Lane, it happens on the morning they discover their twelve-year-old daughter’s window open, their beloved Maddie missing from her bed. Police investigate. Suspicions swirl. The Lane family is thrown into turmoil. Then detectives turn their sights on them. No one is ruled out. Not Karen, with her tragic past, who argued with her daughter. Not Ryan, with his violent streak. Not Maddie’s thirteen-year-old brother, Tyler, who heard voices in her room the night she vanished. As time goes by and no answers emerge, the Lanes fear that Maddie is gone forever. But when a stunning revelation shocks everyone, the family plunges deep into a world of buried secrets whose revelations threaten the very foundation of their lives.
In The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film (2005), scholar Drewey Wayne Gunn examined the history of gay detectives beginning with the first recognized gay novel, The Heart in Exile, which appeared in 1953. In the years since the original edition's publication, hundreds of novels and short stories in this sub-genre have been produced, and Gunn has unearthed many additional representations previously unrecorded. In this new edition, Gunn provides an overview of milestones in the development of gay detectives over the last several decades. Also included in this volume is an annotated list of novels, short stories, plays, graphic novels, comic strips, films, and television series with gay detectives, gay sleuths of secondary importance, and non-sleuthing gay policemen. The most complete listing available--including the only listing of early gay pulp novels, present-day male-to-male romances, and erotic films--this new edition brings the work up to date with publications missed in the first edition, particularly cross-genre mysteries, early pulps, and some hard-to-find volumes. The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography lists all printed works in English (including translations) presently known to include gay detectives (such as amateur sleuths, police detectives, private investigators, and investigative reporters), from the 1929 play Rope until the present day. It includes all films in English, subtitled or dubbed, from the screen version of Rope in 1948 and the launch of the independent film Spy on the Fly in 1966 through the end of 2011. Complete with two appendices--a bibliography of sources and a list of Lambda Literary Awards--and indexes of titles, detectives, and actors, this extensively revised and updated reference will prove invaluable to mystery collectors, researchers, aficionados of the subgenre, and those devoted to GLBTQ studies.
This is a book about jurisprudence—or legal philosophy. The legal philosophical texts under consideration are—to say the least—unorthodox. Tolkien, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Million Dollar Baby, and other cultural products are all referenced as exemplary instances of what the author calls lex populi—“people’s” or “pop law.” There, more than anywhere else, will one find the leading issues of legal philosophy. These issues, however, are heavily coded, for few of these pop cultural texts announce themselves as expressly legal. Nonetheless, Lex Populi reads these texts “jurisprudentially,” that is, with an eye to their hidden legal philosophical meanings, enabling connections such as: Tolkien’s Ring as Kelsen’s grundnorm; vampire slaying as legal language’s semiosis; Hogwarts as substantively unjust; and a seriously injured young woman as termination’s rights-bearer. In so doing, Lex Populi attempts not only a jurisprudential reading of popular culture, but a popular rereading of jurisprudence, removing it from the legal experts in order to restore it to the public at large: a lex populi by and for the people.
"Barbara Freethy’s suspense novels are explosively good!" – New York Times Bestselling Author Toni Anderson Haunted by a youthful tragedy, FBI Agent Andi Hart specializes in finding missing children, but her latest case throws her off her game when she discovers her former childhood friend turned bitter enemy has been called in to consult. Eighteen years ago, Cooper Bradford was with Andi the night a toddler disappeared from their neighborhood. He wanted to find the kid as much as Andi did, but her amateur sleuthing turned the focus on his older brother and destroyed his family. Since then, Cooper has made it his life's mission to fight for the falsely accused and has become an enemy of law enforcement. With a child's life on the line, Andi and Cooper must put aside the emotional fall-out from their once strong bond and work together. But the tension between them reaches a boiling point when they uncover something far more sinister than they ever imagined and a shocking connection to their past. Suddenly nothing is what they thought it was… Can Andi trust Cooper to have her back, and can he trust her to have his? The answer to that question could mean the difference between life and death. This heart-pumping, romantic and suspenseful novel from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy will keep you guessing until the very end! Note: Every book in the Off The Grid: FBI Series stands completely on its own and there are no cliffhangers! The books feature complex and exciting storylines ranging from kidnapping to organized crime, terrorism, and espionage. Personal stories often play out against a bigger, broader storyline, and surprising twists will keep you up all night. Start reading today! What the readers are saying about the FBI Series… "I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday night than losing myself in one of Barbara Freethy’s books. I love the Off The Grid series but I honestly think this one is my favorite. I have no doubt her next book will be awesome, too!" Booklovers Anonymous "PERILOUS TRUST is a non-stop thriller that seamlessly melds jaw-dropping suspense with sizzling romance, and I was riveted from the first page to the last." USA Today HEA Blog "You will love Reckless Whisper. From the first sentence of the book until you end, you are on a suspense filled ride." J. Stryker – Goodreads "Words cannot explain how phenomenal this book was. The characters are so believable and relatable. The twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat and flying through the pages. This is one book you should be desperate to read." Caroline on Desperate Play "For me a good romantic suspense book needs a good story, strong characters, honest dialogue, chemistry between the hero and heroine and believable suspense. Elusive Promise checks off all the boxes for me. Thank you Barbara Freethy for another great read!" Trude – Goodreads "Dangerous Choice is a clever blend of mind games and breathtaking emotion. I felt the story come alive and twist my stomach into knots, but never did I even think about walking away." Isha – Goodreads Also Available: Perilous Trust #1 Reckless Whisper #2 Desperate Play #3 Elusive Promise #4 Dangerous Choice #5 Ruthless Cross #6 Critical Doubt #7 Fearless Pursuit #8 Daring Deception #9 Risky Bargain #10 Perfect Target #11 Fatal Betrayal #12
As visual artist Claire Sullivan drives through the picturesque landscape of Northern Wisconsin, she unwittingly becomes a witness to what seems to be a chilling crime. This unexpected encounter triggers a cascade of events that ultimately leads to a life-altering accident. Awakening with shattered memories and a fractured sense of self, Claire finds herself trapped in a labyrinth of uncertainty. As the lines between reality and illusion blur, even familiar faces become strangers. With an ever-growing sense of urgency, Claire struggles to piece together her fragmented recollections and come to terms with her new reality. Did she truly witness the work of a serial killer, or are these visions mere phantoms born of her disjointed mind? A riveting thriller where danger lurks around every corner, Rômulo Silva's I KNOW WHAT I WITNESSED will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.
In 1997 journalist Karin Evans walked into an orphanage in southern China and met her new daughter, a beautiful one-year-old baby girl. In this fateful moment Evans became part of a profound, increasingly common human drama that links abandoned Chinese girls with foreigners who have traveled many miles to complete their families. At once a compelling personal narrative and an evocative portrait of contemporary China, The Lost Daughters of China has also served as an invaluable guide for thousands of readers as they navigated the process of adopting from China. However, much has changed in terms of the Chinese government?s policies on adoption since this book was originally published and in this revised and updated edition Evans addresses these developments. Also new to this edition is a riveting chapter in which she describes her return to China in 2000 to adopt her second daughter who was nearly three at the time. Many of the first girls to be adopted from China are now in the teens (China only opened its doors to adoption in the 1990s), and this edition includes accounts of their experiences growing up in the US and, in some cases, of returning to China in search of their roots. Illuminating the real-life stories behind the statistics, The Lost Daughters of China is an unforgettable account of the red thread that winds form China?s orphanages to loving families around the globe.
“I always hoped [Mary Williams] would tell her incredible story. She's a writer of uncommon clarity and humor, and the arrival of her memoir is cause for celebration." —Dave Eggers, author of What is the What As she grew up in 1970s Oakland, California, role models for Mary Williams were few and far between: her father was often in prison, her older sister was a teenage prostitute, and her hot-tempered mother struggled to raise six children alone. For all Mary knew, she was heading down a similar path. But her life changed when she met Jane Fonda at summer camp in 1978. Fonda grew attached to the bright girl and eventually invited her to become part of her family, becoming the mother Mary never had. Mary’s life since has been one of adventure and opportunity—from hiking the Appalachian Trail solo, working with the Lost Boys of Sudan, and living in the frozen reaches of Antarctica. Her most courageous trip, though, involved returning to Oakland and reconnecting with her biological mother and family, many of whom she hadn’t seen since the day she left home. The Lost Daughter is a chronicle of her journey back in time, an exploration of fractured family bonds, and a moving epic of self-discovery.