"You have one rare faculty, Jones. You can, when you choose, sharpen the pencil of your mind to a very fine point. Specialize, my boy, specialize." Adrian Van Reypen Egerton Jones —"Average," to his friends—has spent the five years since graduation from college "specializing in life," indulging his wanderlust and living comfortably on twenty-five thousand a year. In order to inherit the millions that his late uncle has bequeathed, Average must spend five continuous years as a resident of New York City. Already bored, he is advised by his friends Waldemar and Bertram to take up a hobby. Waldemar, a newspaper owner, suggests that he become an "Ad-Visor"—someone who investigates classified ads on behalf of clients to root out swindlers. As his college professor had opined, Jones possesses a particular singularity of focus, which allows him to notice details that others miss. In the process of investigating unusual and downright bizarre advertisements, he stumbles into solving actual crimes—and he finds he was born to it. Why would someone advertise for a musician to play a B-flat trombone in a certain street at a specific time of day? Or offer an unusually large reward for information about the death of a bulldog? What can be the meaning of a message written entirely in pinpricks? Who is the man who speaks only in Latin? These and other tantalizing puzzles will leave the reader eager to spend more time with the decidedly not-Average Jones.

All her life Melody Evans has wanted to marry a plain, average man who didn't take risks. But when the foreign embassy where she works as an aide is taken over by terrorists and she's rescued by a daring navy SEAL, Melody blames the extreme circumstances for their ensuing passion. When it comes to ordinary, Harlan "Cowboy" Jones is anything but, and their encounter leaves Melody with a little more than just memories.... Seven months later when Cowboy pays Melody a visit, he's surprised to find her pregnant--with his child. Now all he has to do is convince her that they are meant to be together. That he can be as ordinary as the next guy. The only problem is, once a hero, always a hero....

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Three men sat in the Cosmic Club discussing the question: "What's the matter with Jones?" Waldemar, the oldest of the conferees, was the owner, and at times the operator, of an important and decent newspaper. His heavy face wore the expression of good-humored power, characteristic of the experienced and successful journalist. Beside him sat Robert Bertram, the club idler, slender and languidly elegant. The third member of the conference was Jones himself. Average Jones had come by his nickname inevitably. His parents had foredoomed him to it when they furnished him with the initials A. V. R. E. as preface to his birthright of J for Jones. His character apparently justified the chance concomi-tance. He was, so to speak, a composite photograph of any thousand well-conditioned, clean-living Americans between the ages of twenty-five and thirty. Happily, his otherwise commonplace face was relieved by the one unfailing charac-teristic of composite photographs, large, deep-set and thought-ful eyes. Otherwise he would have passed in any crowd, and nobody would have noticed him pass. Now, at twenty-seven, he looked back over the five years since his graduation from college and wondered what he had done with them; and at the four previous years of undergraduate life and wondered how he had done so well with those and why he had not in some manner justified the parting words of his favorite professor.

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Thirteen classics devoted to genuine tale of ratiocination. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Charles Dickens' "Three Detective Anecdotes," Jack London's "The Leopard Man Story," 10 others. Introduction. Notes.

EBONY is the flagship magazine of Johnson Publishing. Founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, it still maintains the highest global circulation of any African American-focused magazine.

Why are some countries without an apparent abundance of natural resources, such as Japan, economic success stories, while other languish in the doldrums of slow growth. In this comprehensive look at North American economic history, Marc Egnal argues that culture and institutions play an integral role in determining economic outcome. He focuses his examination on the eight colonies of the North, five colonies of the South (which together made up the original thirteen states), and French Canada. Using census data, diaries, travelers' accounts, and current scholarship, Egnal systematically explores how institutions (such as slavery in the South and the seigneurial system in French Canada) and cultural arenas (such as religion, literacy, entrepreneurial spirit, and intellectual activity) influenced development. He seeks to answer why three societies with similar standards of living in 1750 became so dissimilar in development. By the mid-nineteenth century, the northern states had surged ahead in growth, and this gap continued to widen into the twentieth century. Egnal argues that culture and institutions allowed this growth in the North, not resources or government policies. Both the South and French Canada stressed hierarchy and social order more than the drive for wealth. Rarely have such parallels been drawn between these two societies. Complete numerous helpful appendices, figures, tables, and maps, Divergent Paths is a rich source of unique perspectives on economic development with strong implications for emerging societies.