"Mr. Patterson is a natural storyteller....Fast moving...A handsome job."--The New York Times William Lasko is a self-made millionaire with an eye for wealth and influence, the ear of the president, and a talent for using both to get what he wants. Now the Economic Crime Commission wants Lasko brought down, and US Attorney Christopher Paget is tipped to take on the job.

"The book is devoted to geometry of algebraic varieties in projective spaces. Among the objects considered in some detail are tangent and secant varieties, Gauss maps, dual varieties, hyperplane sections, projections, and varieties of small codimension. Emphasis is made on the study of interplay between irregular behavior of (higher) secant varieties and irregular tangencies to the original variety. Classification of varieties with unusual tangential properties yields interesting examples many of which arise as orbits of representations of algebraic groups."--ABSTRACT.

"An elegantly written, introductory overview of the field, with a near perfect choice of what to include and what not, enlivened in places by historical tidbits and made eminently readable throughout by crisp language. It has succeeded in doing the near-impossible—it has made a subject which is generally inhospitable to nonspecialists because of its ‘family jargon’ appear nonintimidating even to a beginning graduate student." —The Journal of the Indian Institute of Science "The book under review gives a comprehensive treatment of basically everything in mathematics that can be named multivalued/set-valued analysis. ...The book is highly recommended for mathematicians and graduate students who will find here a very comprehensive treatment of set-valued analysis." —Mathematical Reviews "This book provides a thorough introduction to multivalued or set-valued analysis... The style is lively and vigorous, the relevant historical comments and suggestive overviews increase the interest for this work...Graduate students and mathematicians of every persuasion will welcome this unparalleled guide to set-valued analysis." —Zentralblatt Math