From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, an assortment of eerie short stories to thrill and chill young readers

The short stories explore the complications faced by Africans in living the postcolonial experience, especially as it directly impacts the African world, its peoples and their sometimes ``complicated'' lifestyles. The narratives capture not only the angst of seeking meaning in a world that challenges wholeness for African communities and individuals but, above all, look at ways of retrieval of cultural/ancestral knowledge in authenticating themselves.

Explores debt as a central historical component of religion, literature, and societal structure, while examining the idea of humanity's debt to the natural world.

James 'Whitey Bulger is the last of the old-fashioned gangsters. A polished, sophisticated psychopath, Bulger's Boston reign of fear lasted 20 years – he was second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI's most wanted list. Captured after 16 years in hiding, he now sits in a maximum security prison awaiting trial on racketeering charges and 19 counts of murder. But Bulger will have his payback: at trial he has promised to lift the lid a toxic conspiracy of federal agents, cops, judges and politicians that helped enforce his rule. Combining first-rate reporting and the storytelling of a novelist, T.J. English has been writing about men like Bulger for over two decades. Here, in addition to coming face to face with Whitey, you'll discover hitman Joesph 'Mad Dog' Suliivan's favoured assassination method, you'll meet Eric Vassel, the Jamaican rudeboy who took on the Italian mob, you'll travel deep into the Mexican/American narcosphere as English takes his readers on a bloody but fascinating journey to the dark side of the American Dream.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The L Word in this fresh, sizzling New York Times bestselling rom-com by Lana Harper. Emmy Harlow is a witch but not a very powerful one—in part because she hasn't been home to the magical town of Thistle Grove in years. Her self-imposed exile has a lot to do with a complicated family history and a desire to forge her own way in the world, and only the very tiniest bit to do with Gareth Blackmoore, heir to the most powerful magical family in town and casual breaker of hearts and destroyer of dreams. But when a spellcasting tournament that her family serves as arbiters for approaches, it turns out the pull of tradition (or the truly impressive parental guilt trip that comes with it) is strong enough to bring Emmy back. She's determined to do her familial duty; spend some quality time with her best friend, Linden Thorn; and get back to her real life in Chicago. On her first night home, Emmy runs into Talia Avramov—an all-around badass adept in the darker magical arts—who is fresh off a bad breakup . . . with Gareth Blackmoore. Talia had let herself be charmed, only to discover that Gareth was also seeing Linden—unbeknownst to either of them. And now she and Linden want revenge. Only one question stands: Is Emmy in? But most concerning of all: Why can't she stop thinking about the terrifyingly competent, devastatingly gorgeous, wickedly charming Talia Avramov?

We call it justice—the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the incarceration of corrupt politicians or financiers like Rod Blagojevich and Bernard Madoff, and the climactic slaying of cinema-screen villains by superheroes. But could we not also call it revenge? We are told that revenge is uncivilized and immoral, an impulse that individuals and societies should actively repress and replace with the order and codes of courtroom justice. What, if anything, distinguishes punishment at the hands of the government from a victim’s individual desire for retribution? Are vengeance and justice really so very different? No, answers legal scholar and novelist Thane Rosenbaum in Payback: The Case for Revenge—revenge is, in fact, indistinguishable from justice. Revenge, Rosenbaum argues, is not the problem. It is, in fact, a perfectly healthy emotion. Instead, the problem is the inadequacy of lawful outlets through which to express it. He mounts a case for legal systems to punish the guilty commensurate with their crimes as part of a societal moral duty to satisfy the needs of victims to feel avenged. Indeed, the legal system would better serve the public if it gave victims the sense that vengeance was being done on their behalf. Drawing on a wide range of support, from recent studies in behavioral psychology and neuroeconomics, to stories of vengeance and justice denied, to revenge practices from around the world, to the way in which revenge tales have permeated popular culture—including Hamlet, The Godfather, and Braveheart—Rosenbaum demonstrates that vengeance needs to be more openly and honestly discussed and lawfully practiced. Fiercely argued and highly engaging, Payback is a provocative and eye-opening cultural tour of revenge and its rewards—from Shakespeare to The Sopranos. It liberates revenge from its social stigma and proves that vengeance is indeed ours, a perfectly human and acceptable response to moral injury. Rosenbaum deftly persuades us to reconsider a misunderstood subject and, along the way, reinvigorates the debate on the shape of justice in the modern world.

Award-winning novelist Carl Deuker creates a mystery-thriller against the backdrop of high school football and the criminal underworld.

See through the complicated is a collection of poems that represent a journey towards hope. Life comes with a lot of ups and downs and situations that are sometimes too complicated to comprehend. Sometimes, because of the many downs we may fail to see the ups. To sail through the hardships, we need to believe that it will be alright, we may need to be told that it will be alright. We may need to be told that we can do better than wait and that someone understands and cares; that they have been through it before, that we are not alone. Sometimes we need only to look past ourselves, see someone elses life and appreciate our own. In See through the complicated you get to see through my world and situations I know of. I do not hold back, for through writing this, I found my hope. And as the author, my hope is that you relate to one or two poems and somewhere within this, you find hope.

Payback is personal for a former NYPD detective taking on a corrupt cop and a dirty accounting firm in this adrenaline-laced thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sleepers and Tin Badges. “Carcaterra’s keen eye and deft style bring New York City to stunning life. A brilliant thriller by one of the all-time greats.”—Jeffery Deaver, #1 internationally bestselling author If there’s one kind of person Tank Rizzo hates most in this world, it’s a dirty cop. Criminals are at least honest about being dishonest; dirty cops are a disgrace to the badge they carry. Detective Eddie Kenwood is one such disgrace. He’s got the highest signed-confession rate in the NYPD and a distinguished career built on putting men behind bars—whether they’re guilty or not doesn’t matter much to him. When Tank’s partner, Pearl, tells him about an old family friend Kenwood put in jail for a murder he didn’t commit, Tank and Pearl vow to take Kenwood down. Also in need of a takedown: the money-laundering accounting firm where Tank’s brother used to work—before he mysteriously died, leaving Tank the sole guardian of his nephew, Chris. Chris smells a rat, and enlists Tank’s help to bring the men who had his father killed to justice. Working two big cases means getting out the big guns, and Tank assembles his A-team. With help from a retired mobster, a professional boxer, a Chelsea psychic, a dog named Gus, and the U.S. Attorney—not to mention his and Pearl’s own quick wits and Chris’s burgeoning skills as a computer whiz—Tank gears up to take on his most dangerous and personal cases to date.

Suspense fiction. More than a decade after the end of Apartheid, ex-gun-runners Mace Bishop and Pylon Buso are trying to settle down to a comfortable Cape existence. But when an old contact calls in a favour, they become embroiled once again in the country's violent underworld of crime and corruption - and with the lethal Islamist organisation PAGAD. A gripping tale of narcotics, arms-dealing and international intrigue, PAYBACK heralds the arrival of a major new crime-writing talent.