DEATH VALLEY EARNS ITS NAME when a terrorist threatens to unleash lethal radioactive toxins -- in America's most fragile national park. Forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws embark on a perilous mission to find and stop the terrorist. But this hunt pushes them to their limits. The summer desert is brutal. The material they seek is hotter than the desert in August--and they are each particularly vulnerable to its effects. As the hunt turns dangerous, Cassie and Walter learn that they are up against more than pure human malice. The unstable atom--in the hands of an unstable man--is governed by Murphy's Law. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. And it does. ► All books in the series are complete novels, and can be enjoyed in any order.
From The Edge of Justice to Crossing the Line, Clinton McKinzie has captivated readers with thrillers that combine heart-pounding action with searing human drama–and feature a truly unforgettable hero, Special Agent Antonio Burns. Now McKinzie delivers a new novel filled with his trademarks–the thrill of danger, the clash between the law and the lawless, and the struggles of a family bound by love, loyalty, and a hunger for adventure. Here McKinzie takes us to a stark Wyoming landscape, where one tragic moment plunges Antonio Burns into a whirlpool of hate, violence, and revenge. Badwater Antonio Burns is at a crossroads–he rarely sees his six-month-old daughter, and his career has spiraled downward from hotshot golden boy to nearly having his badge confiscated. And things are about to get even worse. When a ten-year-old boy dies in a drowning incident in Badwater, Wyoming, the townspeople want the tourist they feel is responsible convicted of murder. In an already explosive case, Burns has been forced into working for the prosecution–and when a media-hungry celebrity lawyer takes over the defense, justice turns into a charade. Clinging to his sanity by climbing the crags and caverns of a local canyon, recovering from the near death of his daredevil brother and his breakup with the mother of his child, Antonio tries to turn his back on this situation. But he can’t. He finds one crucial piece of evidence, makes one mistake with a woman, and then turns to his brother, Roberto, for help. Soon he’s all the way in–no matter what the cost to his career, his life, or to the people who still count him as one of their own.… The spellbinding story of a cop drawn to danger, a community steeped in hatred, and an explosive mix of opportunists, idealists, and a few very bad men, Badwater is a taut, thunderous novel–and Clinton McKinzie at his electrifying best.
The Badwater Ultramarathon is commonly referred to as "the toughest footrace on the planet." In 2003, defending champion Pam Reed, Dean Karnazes and 71 other runners took the ultimate challenge of running 135 miles in California from Badwater to the portals of Mount Whitney. Their journey would take them through the hostile environment of Death Valley and subject them to temperatures ranking among the highest ever recorded on earth. Twenty-five runners tell of their adventures in arguably the absolute toughest of "the toughest footrace on the planet" - the good, the bad and yes, the ugly - in this incredible and fascinating compilation. You are certain to gain a respect for the runners you will meet and perhaps an even greater respect for the area known as Death Valley. The runners - who experienced heat exhaustion, dehydration, nausea, blisters, hallucinations, and fatigue during the race - competed in temperatures literally "a few degrees from hell."
Bad Water is a sophisticated theoretical analysis of Japanese thinkers and activists' efforts to reintegrate the natural environment into Japan's social and political thought in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. The need to incorporate nature into politics was revealed by a series of large-scale industrial disasters in the 1890s. The Ashio Copper Mine unleashed massive amounts of copper, arsenic, mercury, and other pollutants into surrounding watersheds. Robert Stolz argues that by forcefully demonstrating the mutual penetration of humans and nature, industrial pollution biologically and politically compromised the autonomous liberal subject underlying the political philosophy of the modernizing Meiji state. In the following decades, socialism, anarchism, fascism, and Confucian benevolence and moral economy were marshaled in the search for new theories of a modern political subject and a social organization adequate to the environmental crisis. With detailed considerations of several key environmental activists, including Tanaka Shōzō, Bad Water is a nuanced account of Japan's environmental turn, a historical moment when, for the first time, Japanese thinkers and activists experienced nature as alienated from themselves and were forced to rebuild the connections.
Barret Baumgart’s literary debut presents a haunting and deeply personal portrait of civilization poised at the precipice, a picture of humanity caught between its deepest past and darkest future. In the fall of 2013, during the height of California’s historic drought, Baumgart toured the remote military base, NAWS China Lake, near Death Valley, California. His mother, the survivor of a recent stroke, decided to come along for the ride. She hoped the alleged healing power of the base’s ancient Native American hot springs might cure her crippling headaches. Baumgart sought to debunk claims that the military was spraying the atmosphere with toxic chemicals to control the weather. What follows is a discovery that threatens to sever not only the bonds between mother and son but between planet Earth and life itself. Stalking the fringes of Internet conspiracy, speculative science, and contemporary archaeology, Baumgart weaves memoir, military history, and investigative journalism in a dizzying journey that carries him from the cornfields of Iowa to drought-riddled California, from the Vietnam jungle to the caves of prehistoric Europe and eventually the walls of the US Capitol, the sparkling white hallways of the Pentagon, and straight into the contradicted heart of a worldwide climate emergency.
Originally published in 1995, soon after Death Valley National Park became the fifty-third park in the U.S. park system, The Explorer's Guide to Death Valley National Park was the first complete guidebook available for this spectacular area. Now in its third edition, this is still the only book that includes all aspects of the park. Much more than just a guidebook, it covers the park's cultural history, botany and zoology, hiking and biking opportunities, and more. Information is provided for all of Death Valley's visitors, from first-time travelers just learning about the area to those who are returning for in-depth explorations. The book includes updated point-to-point logs for every road within and around the park, as well as more accurate map than those in any other publication. With extensive input from National Park Service resource management, law enforcement, and interpretive personnel, as well as a thorough bibliography for suggested reading, The Explorer's Guide to Death Valley National Park, Third Edition is the most up-to-date, accurate, and comprehensive guide available for this national treasure.
Bad Water and Other Stories of the Alaskan Panhandle is a book of short stories set in southeast Alaska on an archipelago about the size of Florida. There are not many people and most of them live in a few small scattered towns. Some live in the more remote areas of the thousands of miles of coastline and hundreds of backwater bays and coves, making a living at whatever is available. Alaska is a place where geography and weather dictate human behavior, and that could mean eating the same dried beans, rice, deer meat and fish for a good part of the year. With no freeways and little law enforcement (a 911call means contacting the Coast Guard), people must learn to be self-sufficient, especially in times of emergencies. Sometimes people make their own solutions to solve problems. If a solution doesn't work and you're still alive, it's time to try another! The folks that live in this remote part of Alaska do whatever it takes to make it work. There's a freedom that can't be had in civilization, but the price is high. These are their stories.
With My Life on the Run, Bart Yasso--an icon of one of the most enduringly popular recreational sports in the United States--offers a touching and humorous memoir about the rewards and challenges of running. Recounting his adventures in locales like Antarctica, Africa, and Chitwan National Park in Nepal (where he was chased by an angry rhino), Yasso recommends the best marathons on foreign terrain and tells runners what they need to know to navigate the logistics of running in an unfamiliar country. He also offers practical guidance for beginning, intermediate, and advanced runners, such as 5-K, half marathon, and marathon training schedules, as well as advice on how to become a runner for life, ever-ready to draw joy from the sport and embrace the adventure that each race may offer
