“The wildest, strangest, best Dresden adventure to date...Butcher’s blending of modern fantasy with classic noir sensibilities ensures that there’s never a dull moment.”—SF Site Paranormal investigations are Harry Dresden’s business and Chicago is his beat, as he tries to bring law and order to a world of wizards and monsters that exists alongside everyday life. And though most inhabitants of the Windy City don’t believe in magic, the Special Investigations Department of the Chicago PD knows better. Karrin Murphy is the head of S. I. and Harry’s good friend. So when a killer vampire threatens to destroy Murphy’s reputation unless Harry does her bidding, he has no choice. The vampire wants the Word of Kemmler (whatever that is) and all the power that comes with it. Now, Harry is in a race against time—and six merciless necromancers—to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead...

The stunning first novel in the Kate Brannigan series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller Val McDermid. ‘This is crime writing of the very highest order’ The Times

Sue Grafton's #1 New York Times bestselling series, reissued for a whole new generation of readers! D IS FOR DEADBEAT He called himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he had for Kinsey was cut-and-dried: locate a kid who'd done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. It was only later, after he'd stiffed her for her retainer, that Kinsey found out his name was Daggett. John Daggett. Ex-con. Inveterate liar. Chronic drunk. And dead. The cops called it an accident--death by drowning. Kinsey wasn't so sure. Pulled into the detritus of a dead man's life, Kinsey soon realizes that Daggett had an awful lot of enemies. There's the daughter who grew up with a cheating drunk for a father, and the wife who's become a religious nut in response to an intolerable marriage. There's the lady who thought she was Mrs. Daggett--and has the bruises to prove it--only to discover the legal Mrs. D. And there are the drug dealers out $25,000. But most of all, there are the families of the five people John Daggett killed, victims of his wild, drunken driving. The D.A. called it vehicular manslaughter and put him away for two years. The families called it murder and had very good reason to want John Daggett dead. Deft, cunning, and clever, this latest Millhone mystery also confronts some messy truths, for, as Kinsey herself says, "Some debts of the human soul are so enormous only life itself is sufficient forfeit"--but as she'd be the first to admit, murder is not a socially acceptable solution. "A" Is for Alibi "B" Is for Burglar "C" Is for Corpse "D" Is for Deadbeat "E" Is for Evidence "F" Is for Fugitive "G" Is for Gumshoe "H" Is for Homicide "I" Is for Innocent "J" Is for Judgment "K" Is for Killer "L" is for Lawless "M" Is for Malice "N" Is for Noose "O" Is for Outlaw "P" Is for Peril "Q" Is for Quarry "R" Is for Ricochet "S" Is for Silence "T" Is for Trespass "U" Is for Undertow "V" Is for Vengeance "W" Is for Wasted "X"

Author Beard is the former Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and knows the inside story of the waste of taxpayer money. The Bureau is responsible for building and operating water projects across the West, such as Hoover, Glen Canyon and Grand Coulee Dams.

The Cost of a Deadbeat is a thought-provoking study that takes both a humorous and cynical approach to identifying and defining the major types of deadbeats, and the hidden monetary and emotional costs they bring to society. With over forty years of experience in the workplace, author Michael Webb applies his business knowledge and observation skills to illuminate what most of us unknowingly tolerate each day from the selfish and lazy in our culture. In each chapter, Webb provides personal examples of DNA (Deadbeat Negligent Activities) and categorizes the types of deadbeats, such as: Workplace deadbeats--slackers, sickies, tenure train riders, and slacking supervisors Criminal deadbeats--pilferers, prisoners, cyber slugs, scam artists, and petty thieves Daylight deadbeats--porky politicians, bumbling bureaucrats, and deadbeat voters Cheater deadbeats--fraud finders, tax evaders, and bankruptcy bums New generation deadbeats--poor parents and weak schools The Cost of a Deadbeat will encourage you to join the fight against deadbeats by examining your own behavior and contributing common sense and decency to your own life.

This raw and vivid tell-all memoir is the Baby Mama’s guide to dealing with a Deadbeat Baby Daddy and learning how to be a Better Mama verses a Bitter Mama. Ms. KIA is the girl of your dreams and your worst nightmares all in one. Her sassy, honest, raw attitude had enabled her to proudly wear the “Independent” woman title. Then the day comes when the educated Independent Women becomes a Dependent Mother. The clash of these two roles forces Ms. KIA to revisit the unresolved pains of her past to resolve her current issues and once again regain her sense of self. Ms. KIA’s Baby Mama Memoirs is a true, uncensored and raw story of her experience dealing with her single mother's personal pain, shame, psychological/economical struggles and plan to break the cycle of being another government dependent Baby Mama.

"Outsmarting the Deadbeat: Tales of Survival and Empowerment" delves into the lives of wealthy, influential men who use their charm and societal standing to lure unsuspecting women into emotionally destructive relationships. Often promising a life of luxury and companionship, these men disappear when their true responsibilities—often in the form of unplanned children—start to materialize. But this book is not just a catalogue of betrayals and shattered dreams. It's a guidebook for resilience, a narrative of empowerment that follows the women who refuse to become lifelong victims of these 'deadbeat' men. From facing financial ruin and social stigma to discovering an inner reservoir of strength, the women profiled rise above their circumstances. They rebuild their lives, often finding their true calling in the process, whether it be returning to school, launching successful businesses, or becoming advocates for other women ensnared in similar predicaments. Rather than relying on clichéd psychological theories, "Outsmarting the Deadbeat" serves as a practical roadmap, offering real-life examples and actionable advice to women finding themselves caught in a web of deceit. It aims to inspire, showing that even in the darkest of situations, there exists a path to reclaiming control, achieving financial independence, and most importantly, rediscovering self-worth.

Laruel Mountain Laruel: the title is a sort of rough palindrome, appropriate for Jake Reinhart's vision, in which time is reflected upon itself and the end is also the beginning (and is also the end). The transient and the enduring are revealed to be one and the same. These photographs - somehow both tender and unsparing - were made in Southwest Pennsylvania, in the Youghiogheny region. One surviving translation has it that "Yough" means four, and "henné" means stream. "I've been along those four streams, and I've seen how they come together," Reinhart says, "losing their specificity yet retaining what is inherent to each - creating something larger and joining places and people that would otherwise appear disjointed and separate." As for the streams, so for the images in Laruel Mountain Laurel: individual pictures exist essentially, while together they bind both space and time - the eternal and the geological brought into a semblance of coherence with the fragile and the human. We see that, despite our best efforts to erase and exploit, the land will ultimately have its own way, and on its own schedule. --

The New York Times comes each morning and never fails to deliver news of the important dead. Every day is new; every day is fraught with significance. I arrange my cup of tea, prop up my slippers. Obituaries are history as it is happening. Whose time am I living in? Was he a success or a failure, lucky or doomed, older than I am or younger? Did she know how to live? I shake out the pages. Tell me the secret of a good life!Where else can you celebrate the life of the pharmacist who moonlighted as a spy, the genius behind Sea Monkeys, the school lunch lady who spent her evenings as a ballroom hostess? No wonder so many readers skip the news and the sports and go directly to the obituary page. The Dead Beat is the story of how these stories get told. Enthralled by the fascinating lives that were marching out of this world, Marilyn Johnson tumbled into the obits page to find out what made it so lively. She sought out the best obits in the English language and chased the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. Surveying the darkest corners of Internet chat rooms, surviving a mass gathering of obituarists, and making a pilgrimage to London to savor the most caustic and literate obits of all, Marilyn Johnson leads us into the cult and culture behind the obituary page. The result is a rare combination of scrapbook and compelling read, a trip through recent history and the unusual lives we don't quite appreciate until they're gone.

Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can is a strikingly rich, paradigm-shifting look at fatherhood among inner-city men often dismissed as “deadbeat dads.” Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly—without planning. The authors chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires, and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the relationship’s demise. They offer keen insight into a radical redefinition of family life where the father-child bond is central and parental ties are peripheral. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor. Intimate interviews with more than 100 fathers make real the significant obstacles faced by low-income men at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships, to decision-making dilemmas at conception, to the often celebratory moment of birth, and finally to the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond.