In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, globalization has significantly influenced gendered experiences worldwide. While scholarly attention has predominantly focused on women’s lives and marked gender identities since the seventies, there remains a conspicuous gap in the exploration of the phenomenically “unmarked” gender and particularly men’s identities and the unique challenges they face. Drawing upon a diverse array of texts and ideas from cultural theory, this book delves into crucial issues surrounding masculinity; the shame, struggle, precariousness, and predicaments inherent in navigating the expectations of being “a man” in today’s era of neoliberalism and globalization. Through the lens of the main characters in novels by Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Coe, Yann Martel and Christos Tsiolkas, all from the anglophone sphere, the narrative illuminates these often overlooked facets of masculinity crisis. The book seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of masculinities today, shedding light upon the vulnerable nature of the masculine experience.

The Crow Trap is the first book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series - which is now a major TV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera. Three very different women come together at isolated Baikie's Cottage on the North Pennines, to complete an environmental survey. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal... Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman, hiding plenty of her own secrets. Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, where she discovers the body of her friend, Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide - a verdict Rachael refuses to accept. When another death occurs, a fourth woman enters the picture - the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope...

Originally published: Great Britain: Doubleday, 2016.

First published in 1936 and adapted for the screen as The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, Ethel Lina White's suspenseful mystery remains her best-known novel, worthy of acknowledgement as a classic of the genre in its own right. Then the rhythm of the train changed, and she seemed to be sliding backwards down a long slope. Click-click-click-click. The wheels rattled over the rails, with a sound of castanets. Iris Carr's holiday in the mountains of a remote corner of Europe has come to an end, and since her friends left two days before, she faces the journey home alone. Stricken by sunstroke at the station, Iris catches the express train to Trieste by the skin of her teeth and finds a companion in Miss Froy, an affable English governess. But when Iris passes out and reawakens, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. The other passengers deny any knowledge of her existence and as the train speeds across Europe, Iris spirals deeper and deeper into a strange and dangerous conspiracy.

This early work by Jerome K. Jerome was originally published in 1893 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Dancing Partner' is a short story about the scarcity of young men as dancing dancing partners and a creepy solution offered by a mechanical toy maker. Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in Walsall, England in 1859. Both his parents died while he was in his early teens, and he was forced to quit school to support himself. In 1889, Jerome published his most successful and best-remembered work, 'Three Men in a Boat'. Featuring himself and two of his friends encountering humorous situations while floating down the Thames in a small boat, the book was an instant success, and has never been out of print. In fact, its popularity was such that the number of registered Thames boats went up fifty percent in the year following its publication.

Rose Sayer joins forces with the Cockney pilot of a dilapidated steam launch in a desperate journey along a Central African river

In this mystery in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series, Jessica Fletcher visits New York City during fashion week, only to discover someone has rather fatal designs... Jessica is in Manhattan to attend the debut of a new designer. Formerly Sandy Black of Cabot Cove, the young man has reinvented himself as Xandr Ebon, and is introducing his evening wear collection to the public and—more important—to the industry’s powers-that-be: the stylists, the magazine editors, the buyers, and the wealthy clientele who can make or break him. At the show, the glitz and glamour are dazzling until a young model—a novice, taking her first walk down the runway—shockingly collapses and dies. Natural causes? Perhaps. But when another model is found dead, a famous cover girl and darling of the paparazzi, the fashion world gets nervous. Two models. Two deaths. Their only connection? Xandr Ebon. Jessica’s crime-solving instincts are put to the test as she sorts through the egos, the conflicts of interest, the spiteful accusations, and the secrets, all the while keeping an amorous detective at arm’s length. But she’ll have to dig deep to uncover a killer. A designer’s career is on the line. And another model could perish in a New York minute.

Linking the dying words of three slain strangers proves risky for Dalziel and Pascoe in this “shrewd . . . and deft” mystery (The New York Times). Reginald Hill “raised the classical British mystery to new heights” when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them “the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction” (Toronto Star). Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as ebooks. On the same night, three old men are offed: One is found in the icy rain sputtering the name “Polly” before expiring; another mumbles “Charley” after being beaten in his bathtub; and most alarmingly, the final words of the third, a cyclist knocked off the road by a drunk driver, implicate Superintendent Andrew Dalziel in the fatal hit and run. Bearing the brunt of three seemingly disparate investigations while proving his partner’s innocence, Peter Pascoe follows a confounding trail that leads to one victim’s family secrets, a shady retirement community, and corruption within the CID’s ranks that’s putting more than Dalziel’s already dicey reputation in peril. Exit Lines is the 8th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Lodger is the first known novelization of the Jack the Ripper story. It follows the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, a maid and butler. An eccentric lodger, Mr. Sleuth, arrives at their lodging-house just as a wave of horrific murders begins to sweep London. The Buntings become engrossed in the newspaper sensationalism as well the detailed accounts of their young friend, a Scotland Yard detective. Lowndes first wrote The Lodger as a short story published in McClure’s Magazine, then later published the novelization in the Daily Telegraph as a serial. It was very successful, with over a million copies sold within a few decades. Writers like Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein praised it, with one contemporary reviewer calling it “the best novel about murder written by any living author.” It has since been adapted to other media, notably as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first movies. Today the novel is still considered the best fictional adaptation of the Jack the Ripper legend. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.