Tom Brown, disgraced former Home Secretary, is missing presumed dead. The police had been seeking him in connection with the deaths of several people, and his disappearance affectively closes the case.
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The philosopher Jacques Barzun thought that "whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." And whoever wants to know baseball had better learn about umpires. As Larry Gerlach points out in The Men in Blue, these arbiters transform competitive chaos into organized sport. They make it possible to "play ball," but nobody loves them. Considering the abuse meted out by fans and players, why would any sane person want to be an umpire? Many reasons emerge in conversations with a dozen former major league arbiters. While nobody loves them, they love the game. Gerlach has elicited entertaining stories from these figures under fire--about their lonely travels, their dealings with umpire baiters, battles for unionization, breaking through the color line, and much more. From Beans Reardon, who came up to the National League in 1926, to Ed Sudol, who retired in 1977, here is a witty and telling portrait of baseball from the boisterous Golden Age to the Jet Age of Instant Replay.
Tom Brown, disgraced former Home Secretary, is missing presumed dead. The police had been seeking him in connection with the deaths of several people, and his disappearance effectively closes the case. Grace Goody, Ministerial Director of Justice, is trying to rebuild her life in the light of a new romantic attachment, but always with the lurking threat of exposure given her involvement in Tom’s demise. When a photograph, taken by a journalist's girlfriend during a sailing trip around Scotland, raises serious doubts about the circumstances surrounding Tom's case, ripples of panic spread through Westminster's corridors of power. Retired Detective Chief Inspector, David Gerrard, begins to take an interest in the case, placing himself in danger from forces seeking to suppress the evidence, including a deadly killer with some powerful connections, and a convicted murderer whom David put away twenty years ago and who has just been released. Meanwhile, Maggie, Tom’s wife, is called to a meeting in London where she is shown an image of a man who has recently used her husband’s debit card and, suddenly, for everyone close to the case, nothing appears to be straightforward any more. As pressure mounts on Grace, she finds herself plunged into an international incident involving Hotel St Kilda, the UK's off-shore prison in the Atlantic, placing her at the centre of a potentially disastrous rift between the UK and its closest ally - a situation she will be fortunate to survive, Even if she does, what will be awaiting her back in London?
THE INSPIRATIONAL CLASSIC FROM THE MASTER STORYTELLER WHOSE BOOKS HAVE TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF OVER 40 MILLION READERS 'Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary' Cecilia Ahern _________ To his mind, Eddie has lived an uninspiring life. Now an old man, his job is to fix rides at a seaside amusement park. On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie's time on earth comes to an end. When a cart falls from the fairground, he rushes to save a little girl's life and tragically dies in the attempt. When Eddie awakens, he learns that the afterlife is not a destination, but a place where your existence is explained to you by five people - some of whom you knew, others who were ostensibly strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, five individuals revisit their connections to Eddie on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his 'meaningless' life and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: 'Why was I here?' __________ WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN 'Breathtakingly beautiful. A story that will stay with you forever' 'A beautiful and flawlessly choreographed book . . . No other book may ever compare' 'One of my favourite books . . . Wonderful, inspirational, and heart-warming! To me, it is a MUST READ! 'The book is beyond words . . . Well written, engaging, poignant' 'This really is a wonderful book. You should read it'
Richard Serrano, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times, pens a story of two veterans. In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117 blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending. Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one according to the best evidence nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie.
W.E.B. Griffin's bestselling series, THE CORPS and BROTHERHOOD OF WAR, have captured the pride and glory of the military community. Now he reveals a city police force with the same unique blend of realism, drama, and action. Here are the brave men and women behind the badge as you've never seen them before--their hopes and fears, their courage and heroism, sparked by a single, shocking event: the killing of a cop in the line of duty.
Some secrets refuse to stay hidden. Lacey Daughtry’s perfect weekend is interrupted by tragic news of her brother’s murder in the line of duty. Plagued by a rash of mysterious phone calls, she turns to her brother’s best friends and fellow officers for protection…and comfort. Spending time in close contact with Mason and Tyler, the two men she’s dreamed of since her first girlhood crush, seems like the answer to a prayer. Especially when they begin to explore the desire she’s harbored for so long. But the partners are holding out on Lacey. Determined to suppress the most extreme facets of their lust, they agree to settle for sharing the woman they crave while concealing their desire for each other. Until Lacey cracks their resolve, unleashing a torrent of emotions that threatens to distract them when they can least afford it. Their blossoming relationship is complicated by secrets. And the only way to evade the killer threatening their lives is to bare their souls in the darkest hours of the night. Or everything will come crashing down, just before the dawn. Warning: After reading this book you’ll never look at a pair of hot cops, a cemetery or a can of Spaghetti-O’s the same way again.
It was a warm summer afternoon when Bill and his little sister Nell headed out with their fishing poles and snacks for the little pond in the meadow. "Be home in time for supper," Mother called as she waved goodbye. Later that afternoon while sitting beneath a shade tree eating their snacks, they spied off in the distance a rusted old steam engine with a caboose attached behind. On exploring it further, they encounter unexpected events that prevent them from ever making it home in time for supper. Enjoy this mixture of adventure, fantasy, suspense and Christian morals all in one as you follow Bill and Nell through their adventures into the unknown.