Christian Roberts, lanky, blond, and twenty-five-years-old, rents out small sailboats on Sarasota Bay. His peaceful life is shattered when he accepts a Thoroughbred colt from his estranged, dying father, an Ocala horse trainer. When Christian promises his father that he’ll race the colt, he’s plunged into the underworld of horse racing. To navigate his way he naively hires Ed Price, a heartless Miami trainer. And when his colt shows potential—and a surprising resemblance to Secretariat—a dubious, wealthy sheik wants to buy him, but Christian vows to keep his promise to his father. With a sizable debt still owed on the horse, Christian is forced to take out a loan, his only recourse, Vince, a New York mobster. If the money is not repaid on time, Christian’s life and that of Allie, his colt’s trainer, are threatened. To add to his roller-coaster of troubles, he also faces fraud charges since his father illegally registered the colt, and he is being stalked by a psychotic ex-girlfriend.

Mo Xuetong has lost everything. Her mother, her child, even her servants, have been killed. Betrayed, disfigured, and alone, she dies trying to destroy the people who deceived her¡­ ¡­and wakes up as a child again. Given a second chance, she vows to make things different. This time she will not be a na?ve child. This time she is beautiful, cold, and willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge. But her plans are disrupted when she uncovers a thirty year old conspiracy that changes everything. Will she still be able to change her fate? And even if she does, will her new fate be any better, or will her hunger for revenge destroy her?

Mo Xuetong has lost everything. Her mother, her child, even her servants, have been killed. Betrayed, disfigured, and alone, she dies trying to destroy the people who deceived her¡­ ¡­and wakes up as a child again. Given a second chance, she vows to make things different. This time she will not be a na?ve child. This time she is beautiful, cold, and willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge. But her plans are disrupted when she uncovers a thirty year old conspiracy that changes everything. Will she still be able to change her fate? And even if she does, will her new fate be any better, or will her hunger for revenge destroy her?

Mo Xuetong has lost everything. Her mother, her child, even her servants, have been killed. Betrayed, disfigured, and alone, she dies trying to destroy the people who deceived her¡­ ¡­and wakes up as a child again. Given a second chance, she vows to make things different. This time she will not be a na?ve child. This time she is beautiful, cold, and willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge. But her plans are disrupted when she uncovers a thirty year old conspiracy that changes everything. Will she still be able to change her fate? And even if she does, will her new fate be any better, or will her hunger for revenge destroy her?

Kari, a young woman, returns to the jungle planet of Dora after ten years in Earth's schools determined to unravel the mysteries surrounding the harpies, a feral species with the appearance half-bird, half-human. The human colonists believe harpies are dangerous animals, which are known to steal women. The creatures are hunted like wild game, their wings considered rare trophies. But Kari distrusts these rumors. When she was attacked by a monster in the jungle as a child, a male harpy with rare golden coloring rescued her. Constant hunting by men has driven the harpies to the brink of extinction. Is Kari's savior, the elegant golden harpy, is still alive? If so, how long can he and his flock survive the ravages of mankind? Susan Klaus's Flight of the Golden Harpy is an imaginative and romantic fantasy novel that questions what it means to be human.

The field of public administration currently lacks sufficient resources for understanding the rationale, implications, and inherent practices of reforming government administration around the world.The Handbook of Administrative Reform satisfies this need by bringing together diverse international experts to analyze the sensible processes an

Political corruption adversely affects the efficiency and effectiveness of governments, slows the rate of economic development and poisons public attitudes towards the legitimacy of the state. Affecting governmental and non-governmental organizations, developed and developing nations and millions of people's lives, it is a subject of great interest to students from a wide variety of academic disciplines. Using a concise, comparative approach based on original case studies Political Corruption in Comparative Perspective: Sources, Status and Prospects provides context and clarity on this complex problem. Cases analysed include countries and organizations as diverse as the United States, Brazil, Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, NGOs and the United Nations. International contributors discuss the historical background of political corruption in a particular country, region or organization and focus on the causes and consequences of that corruption before offering overviews and opinion on how the problem might be addressed. The range of cases used ,each contributor's depth of knowledge and consistency of style applied throughout ensures that Political Corruption in Comparative Perspective: Sources, Status and Prospects is an important addition to the debate and fills a significant gap between academic study and general public knowledge of a truly global problem.

Authoritarian Absorption unveils the transformation of China's pandemic response system from 1978 to 2018 through its battle against HIV/AIDS. Chinese bureaucrats, facing pressure from foreign agencies--especially those of the US and UK--and grassroots social movements, developed ways to turn epidemics into opportunities for enhancing domestic control and international stature. Drawing on longitudinal-ethnographic research, Yan Long reveals how Western liberal interventions can simultaneously bolster public health institutions and reinforce authoritarian power, a development pivotal to China's subsequent handling of COVID-19 and instrumental in advancing the rights of groups like gay men.

Trauma Informed Placemaking offers an introduction to understanding trauma and healing in place. It offers insights that researchers and practitioners can apply to their place-based practice, learning from a global cohort of place leaders and communities. The book introduces the ethos and application of the trauma-informed approach to working in place, with references to historical and contemporary trauma, including trauma caused by placemakers. It introduces the potential of place and of place practitioners to heal. Offering 20 original frameworks, toolkits and learning exercises across 33 first- and third-person chapters, multi-disciplinary insights are presented throughout. These are organised into four sections that lead the reader to an awareness of how trauma and healing operate in place. The book offers a first gathering of the current praxis in the field – how we can move from trauma in place to healing in place – and concludes with calls to action for the trauma-informed placemaking approach to be adopted. This book will be essential reading for students, researchers and practitioners interested in people and places, from artists and architects, policy makers and planners, community development workers and organisations, placemakers, to local and national governments. It will appeal to the disciplines of human geography, sociology, politics, cultural studies, psychology and to placemakers, planners and policymakers and those working in community development.

Christian Roberts is the prime suspect when his wife, Allie, is murdered on their sloop in the Caribbean. Grief-stricken and unstable, he must evade arrest to fulfill Allie’s dying plea – to “save the sharks”. Shark finning has been decimating the species as the Asian demand for shark fin soup escalates. The disappearance of sharks from the ocean will threaten the entire marine ecosystem, and Allie’s dedication to stop the shark slaughter had been unshakable. Christian, reeling from the loss of his wife, steels himself to avoid arrest, determined to honor Allie’s wish. With help from his friend, Vince Florio, Christian attacks those responsible. Under the guise of an eco-terrorist calling himself Captain Nemo, he uses brutal vigilante tactics to eliminate shark fin soup from every restaurant menu in the world. But those who are amassing great fortunes from this Asian specialty will not be easily stopped. Nor will the FBI agent hounding Christian’s every move.