A woman digs up a buried treasure—and a buried body—in the Scottish Highlands: “There are few other crime writers in the same league.”—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville’s inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise—a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Karen Pirie is dealing not only with this cold case but with a domestic violence case, and as as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice. Or even the idea of what justice is. An engrossing, twisty thriller, Broken Ground is an outstanding entry in this Diamond Dagger-winning author’s “superior series” (The New York Times Book Review). “As always, McDermid’s story lines are as richly layered as her protagonist.”—Publishers Weekly “One of the best things about this series is the details of Karen's working life, the obstacles as well as the satisfactions, and the small pleasures of her off hours.”—Kirkus Reviews

Broken Groundis a riveting exploration of the dark, brooding presence of the First World War in the lives of the inhabitants of a “soldier’s settlement” on Vancouver Island. From out of a stubborn, desolate landscape studded with tree stumps, the settlers of Portuguese Creek have built a new life for themselves. But when an encroaching forest fire threatens this fledgling settlement, it also intensifies the remembered horrors of war. The story of Portuguese Creek is told by several of its citizens, including a boy trying to recover from the sudden loss of his father, and a former teacher haunted by what happened to the soldiers he led in France. With a memorable cast of characters, and by turns heart-rending and tragic, humorous and humane,Broken Groundis a powerful novel that immerses us in the lives of an entire community.

When a young oil rig widow escapes her grief and the Texas Dust Bowl, she discovers a surprising future—and new passion—awaiting her in California in this lyrically written romance by the author of Sing for Me. Newly married to her childhood sweetheart, twenty-one-year-old Ruth Warren is settling into life in a Depression-era, East Texas oil town. She’s making a home when she learns that her young husband, Charlie, has been killed in an oil rig accident. Ruth is devastated, but then gets a chance for a fresh start: a scholarship from a college in Pasadena, CA. Ruth decides to take a risk and travel west, to pursue her one remaining dream to become a teacher. At college Ruth tries to fit into campus life, but her grief holds her back. When she spends Christmas with some old family friends, she meets the striking and compelling Thomas Everly, whose own losses and struggles have instilled in him a commitment to social justice, and led him to work with Mexican migrant farmworkers in a camp just east of Los Angeles. With Thomas, Ruth sees another side of town, and another side of current events: the numerous forced deportations without due process of Mexicans, along with United States citizens of Mexican descent. After Ruth is forced to leave school, she goes to visit Thomas and sees that he has cobbled together a night school for the farmworkers’ children. Ruth begins to work with the children, and establishes deep friendships with people in the camp. When the camp is raided and the workers and their families are rounded up and shipped back to Mexico, Ruth and Thomas decide to take a stand for the workers’ rights—all while promising to love and cherish one another.

In Broken Ground, William Logan explores the works of canonical and contemporary poets, rediscovering the lushness of imagination and depth of feeling that distinguish poetry as a literary art. The book includes long essays on Emily Dickinson’s envelopes, Ezra Pound’s wrestling with Chinese, Robert Frost’s letters, Philip Larkin’s train station, and Mrs. Custer’s volume of Tennyson, each teasing out the depths beneath the surface of the page. Broken Ground also presents the latest run of Logan’s infamous poetry chronicles and reviews, which for twenty-five years have bedeviled American verse. Logan believes that poetry criticism must be both adventurous and forthright—and that no reader should settle for being told that every poet is a genius. Among the poets under review by the “preeminent poet-critic of his generation” and “most hated man in American poetry” are Anne Carson, Jorie Graham, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbery, Geoffrey Hill, Louise Glück, John Berryman, Marianne Moore, Frederick Seidel, Les Murray, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Johnny Cash, James Franco, and the former archbishop of Canterbury. Logan’s criticism stands on the broken ground of poetry, soaked in history and soiled by it. These essays and reviews work in the deep undercurrents of our poetry, judging the weak and the strong but finding in weakness and strength what endures.

Throughout United States history, and particularly from the 1930s through the 1960s, education was a sensitive political issue which preoccupied Congresses, Presidents and interest groups. By the time of John F Kennedy's Presidency federal aid to education was all but inevitable but the disproportionate influence of federal aid adversaries on the House Rule Committee would permit the Kennedy Administration no margin of error. There remained in this subject an abundance of complications and contradictions. This volume addresses the central questions of Kennedy versus Congress and Kennedy versus Kennedy, using a wide range of sources to give a comprehensive focus to this area of political education.

In this third book of the People of the Longhouse quartet, dangerous sorcerer Atotarho sets into motion a cataclysmic battle that threatens to destroy the Iroquoian world.

In the near future, the tides are rising, the weather is out of control, and the rain is poison. Mal lost his family in a storm and now lives with other young people, trying to survive the changing world. Faced with the threat of the rising water and his friend’s illness, Mal and his makeshift family must travel across the country to reach a safe place. But the road is dangerous and not all will find their way safely to their new home.

The second installment in Donachie's sweeping Roads to War series set in the pre-WWII European powder keg 1936: Soldier of fortune Cal Jardine travels to Barcelona to help with the athletic games rivalling the Berlin Olympics. But as the first shots of civil war ring out, friendship, love, and political conviction converge to persuade Jardine to once again embroil himself in a foreign war. Discovering that the British athletes attending the games are keen to enlist for the fight, Jardine agrees to train them into a professional force. With old army comrade Vince Castellano and his beautiful interpreter Florencia Gardiola by his side, Jardine leads the athletes through the street battles of Barcelona and on to the fighting in the Catalan countryside. But when murderous betrayal blights his previous fortune, Jardine will go to any lengths to seek suitable revenge . . .

After five centuries of oppressions committed in the name of Jesus, many hearts have hardened toward the name of Christ on the part of many of those native or original to the lands we now call America and Canada. The imposition of residential schools, removal policies, and forced adoptions left many angry about white man's religion, confused about a savior who would promote such violent ripping apart of families, deceitful taking away of lands, and forced assimilation away from natural heritages. Acknowledgment has been made and apologies given. In Canada large amounts of compensation are being paid out to survivors and their communities. But what does Scripture say about culture and what can original treaties teach us about healing from our shared history? In an era when America and Canada are being called to return to God, Mending the Broken Land provides a meeting ground in an ecotone of cultures as diverse as nature's meadows. Drawing on the example of the governance of a first people of the northeast, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, it witnesses a new generation in a process of healing aligning with the teachings of Christ.