On a night out in London, Baz, Jazz, Stoney and Ralph get away with the rape and murder of a young Chinese woman.Fiona Cassatt helps a young American woman, Lisa, to flee from her violent husband.Five years later, in New York, Fiona learns from Lisa's mother, Alessandra Giaquinto, that Lisa has died, and has left Fiona her house in England. The FBI is monitoring the Giaquintos, they are a leading Mafia family, and Fiona's meeting is reported to Commander Ross Morris, of the UK Organised Crime Unit.When Fiona claims her inheritance, she discovers that it is still occupied by Lisa's husband, Barry (Baz) Frith. A murder occurs, and Ross believes the killing is Mafia linked. Two of the surviving quartet secretly thinks it is the Triads, in retaliation for the Chinese woman. The other is sceptical.Investigating officer, DI Coren Curran, who was a detective sergeant on the scene of the murdered Chinese woman, believes there is a connection.Mayhem is to follow.

Industrialist and patron of the arts, Anthony Higham is found in the house of his mistress, Angela Chase, with his throat slit. Angela has disappeared. Bryon Loudon, winner of the Higham Prize and friend of Anthony, receives a tape cassette from Angela. She reveals that she was also the mistress of Anthony's two partners. She maintains that she is innocent of Anthony's murder but she cannot go to the police and she asks for Bryon's help. The police think that Angela is a serial killer, a text book psychopath.

Olivia is twenty, a student, when her mother Inga, wife of politician John Turner, suddenly disappears from the family home.John, some twenty years earlier, was an eighteen-year old student when his lecturer's Finnish mistress, Inga Nielsen, seduced him. John joined the diplomatic service. Over the intervening years, during her marriage to John Turner and until her disappearance, Inga had become his intermittent lover.Olivia, following her mother's disappearance and, shortly afterwards, the death of her father, enters a profession as old as time itself. A chance remark leads her on a trail to her missing mother, but instead of finding Inga she discovers Kira.John resumes his duties as a commercial attaché and is posted to the Middle East.Over the ensuing years, John and Olivia's paths cross sporadically in the Middle East, USA and Europe; until they become entwined in a world of ex-Soviet agents, moles, assassins, and gangsters.And, inextricably, with Kira.

In 1980, on Mallorca, the evidence of Jocelyn Emery results in the brothers Jeremy and Russell Auerback being falsely found guilty of murder. They are sentenced to 30 years in prison. Russell dies of AIDS. Jeremy is released after 18 years. Seeking atonement he goes looking for Jocelyn. Max Rymer, a carpenter, receives an unexpected tax demand for 150 thousand pounds, supposedly owed by his late wife from the sale of her company. Max has no knowledge of this, nor does he have 150 thousand pounds. When he investigates the company he discovers that it was previously owned by a Jocelyn Emery. His initial suspicion that Josie and Jocelyn were one and the same are soon disproved and he too goes looking for Jocelyn. The lives of Jeremy and Max become inextricably linked. When the enigmatic Jocelyn finally reveals herself, Max is placated and given a dissembled version of the truth. Whereas Jeremy not only learns the reason behind her duplicity but also that revenge can be a double-edged sword.

Carol Dean is a middle-aged, middle-class woman married for over twenty-five years. Her husband, Nigel, has built up a thriving business and Carol runs a chain of up-market boutiques. Their son, Mark, is studying for the bar. When Nigel dies Carol would have preferred to close down her husband's business and concentrate on the shops, but finds herself forced to take the mantle due to a transaction Nigel had committed himself to. Laura Howard is thirty-two. She is a corrupt official who steals from the people she is supposed to investigate. Unknown to Carol, Nigel's buisness involved liaison with Laura. Following his death Laura wants Carol to take over where Nigel left off. Laura was also Nigel's mistress.Carol Dean is a drug dealer.Laura Howard is a detective constable.

Michelle Fox, emigrates to New Zealand, while Martin Temple, the man from whom she purloined diamonds, is standing trial for murder in the USA. Five years later she is Michelle Elmore, the owner of an exclusive nursing home, and married to Alan Elmore, the director of the National Art Gallery. She accompanys her husband and his team to Italy to purchase paintings and statues from the Renaissance period. An American freelance art historian residing in Venice, is hired to assist in the venture. She has a reputation in the world of fine art of possessing an uncanny ability to detect liars and cheats. An ability the police sometimes call upon. Gavin Benton, finds himself between entanglements. Robin Harvey, meets Carlo Paci in a nightclub. Before changing his name by deed pole, Robin was Lewis Temple, the estranged son of Martin Temple. Carlo Paci is murdered. Overshadowing it all is the malign influence of Martin Temple.

The second edition of this powerful analysis of African-Americans in the television insudtry since 1948 is completely updated. The increased visibility of blacks in television, the success of the Cosby Show and other sitcoms featuring black actors, and the impact of cable TV on programming are described in detail. Professor MacDonald traces the stereotyping, tokenism, and unfair treatment of blacks from the early days of the indsutry, but expresses his hope and belief that a new video order is materializing that will finally fulfill the bright promise of television.

Robert Smithson (1938-1973), one of the most important artists of his generation, produced sculpture, drawings, photographs, films, and paintings in addition to the writings collected here.