....James P. Dandy and Dodee Swisher are reunited again on a hiking and whitewater rafting Elderhostel(r) in North Carolina. Jim's not too crazy about either the hiking in the woods or the whitewater rafting, but Dodee is really up for it, and he is really up for Dodee in their continuing love affair. ....Plus there's an added bonus. ....Considering Dodee's proclivity for turning up bodies and getting in into hassles with the coppers, he welcomes the idea as a respite from past troubles. ....After all, how many killers lurk about in the woods for passersby to bump off? And who ever heard of a drive-by shooting from a rubber raft? ....But think again, Jim Dandy, and tighten your personal floatation device, for you're in for a wild ride. ....Elderhostels(r) are learning adventures for those mellowing into fine wine. Like to learn more, or read a few chapters, go to: http: //www.elderhostelmysteries.com

Grieving widower Jim Dandy agrees to go to an Elderhostel to learn to grow and care for bonsai trees and ends up a suspect in the murder of a motel employee.

Like other fictional characters, female sleuths may live in the past or the future. They may represent current times with some level of reality or shape their settings to suit an agenda. There are audiences for both realism and escapism in the mystery novel. It is interesting, however, to compare the fictional world of the mystery sleuth with the world in which readers live. Of course, mystery readers do not share one simplistic world. They live in urban, suburban, and rural areas, as do the female heroines in the books they read. They may choose a book because it has a familiar background or because it takes them to places they long to visit. Readers may be rich or poor; young or old; conservative or liberal. So are the heroines. What incredible choices there are today in mystery series! This three-volume encyclopedia of women characters in the mystery novel is like a gigantic menu. Like a menu, the descriptions of the items that are provided are subjective. Volume 3 of Mystery Women as currently updated adds an additional 42 sleuths to the 500 plus who were covered in the initial Volume 3. These are more recently discovered sleuths who were introduced during the period from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1999. This more than doubles the number of sleuths introduced in the 1980s (298 of whom were covered in Volume 2) and easily exceeded the 347 series (and some outstanding individuals) described in Volume 1, which covered a 130-year period from 1860-1979. It also includes updates on those individuals covered in the first edition; changes in status, short reviews of books published since the first edition through December 31, 2008.

Necroscope V: Deadspawn is the fifth spine-tingling volume in Lumley's exciting vampire series and marks a turning point in the life and career of Harry Keogh, the original Necroscope. After the harrowing confrontations in Deadspeak, Harry regains his necroscopic abilities, once again bridging the realms of the living and the dead through the remarkable mathematics of the Möbius Continuum. Interacting with the departed and relaying their messages to the living is Harry's unique skill, but his pact with Faethor Ferenczy, the forefather of the vampires, leaves him with a tormenting dilemma. A vampire sprouts within the depths of Harry's consciousness, potentially morphing into a supreme Wamphyri, the most powerful of all vampires with sinister twists on the Necroscope's psychic abilities. The unfolding vampire threat within him drastically shortens Harry's earthly existence, but before his time is up, one more challenge awaits him. Only Harry can bring justice to the victims of a monstrous serial killer and necromancer. A race against time and an internal monster begins as Harry fights the vampire spawn within him to fulfill his mission. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sub Officer Kyle Hawkins is two days out of his training as a Knight Hospitaller when he is sent to the jungle planet of Paradiso. After four years of gruelling training as a warrior of the NeoVatican, criticised by his superiors for his liberal, pacifistic theological views, he volunteers for the Paradiso assignment in an attempt to prove his worth. However, after arriving he finds that it is little more than a simple security detail, attached to a platoon of Fusiliers of the PanOceanian Light Infantry, guarding a sleepy MagnaObra research facility not far from the border of Yujingyu territory known as Alpha Four Four. The platoon Hawkins works alongside is led by Lieutenant Priya Shankar, a driven, serious minded officer whose professionalism makes her popular with her seniors, but seemingly cold and unapproachable to the soldiers under her command. Experienced with peacekeeping, disaster relief operations and ceremonial guard duties, Shankar has done everything expected of a Fusilier officer - except actual combat.

I cut the dead body like a butcher. Though the incisions were medically and forensically correct, they were merciless, fast and forceful. I made a Y shaped incision from the shoulders up to the pubis. I was in extreme hurry to take out, see and study the organs. I took out the organs… the heart, lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys. I saw them and studied them meticulously. I was with my girlfriend Namita, who was repeatedly asking me to leave the post-mortem section as it was not allowed for us, final year medical students but I did not listen to her. I was a final year MBBS student and it was not right to go to the post-mortem section and cut a human body but I was so curious I could not resist. It was hypomania! It was my bloody bipolar mind!

I Corps, Republic of South Vietnam, bloody 1968 Live the harrowing highs and traumatic lows of one marine youth who finds his seven-month “in country” war-weary self carrying a field radio burden for a suspect glory-minded forward observer artillery officer who’d yet to learn the undeclared war was a government sham, a political ruse that would one tragic day force the FO team’s “command structured” relationship to a “who’s responsible” head over a short round of friendly artillery, which put their field commander permanently out of action. The resolve-testing war with the North Vietnamese Army, the near immobilizing, ever-sweltering jungle mountains and sandy flatlands, the thought-friendly villages, the two of our people executed, the four enemy prisoners executed in turn, as well as President Johnson’s bombing halts and retaking enemy positions are the nerve-pickling building blocks shackled themselves together like a confrontation-packed novel about combat-weary vets not taught to run from a political fight either. Experience the combative days, literally sweat the chancy nights, devour the popular songs . . . when lucky enough to hear such haunting “sounds” as “Get Off My Cloud” by the Rolling Stones. For one can’t simply “throw their rifle down and quit!” The corps will toss said shameless in the brig for untold years; though a panicked one can steal away into the masking jungle and surrender, yet hard-core enemy will put a bullet through a deserter’s enlisted head like a pesky bunker rat, unless one’s a commissioned officer, then the VC “might” keep said alive as a “peace”-bargaining chip. One may understand the historic reason why many the combat marine during such oh-so-questioning times likened themselves to the politically used, if not correct, title of Uncle Sam’s misguided children—know what it’s truly like to stalk and be stalked, kill or be killed, fear and be feared.

While taking an Elderhostel trip, Jim Dandy sees an Indian woman--a shaman--fall from a rooftop, and as he tries to discover if she was murdered, her ghost begins appearing in the paintings of his traveling companion, Dodee Fisher.