Drawing on her love of archaeology and the legends surrounding the Lost Colonists of Roanoke Island, author Deborah Dunn has woven a spell-binding murder mystery about a young archaeologist, Andrea Warren, who goes in search of why her father committed suicide as a young man while looking for the infamous coffins of Beechland, coffins the locals claim belong to remnants of the 117 men, women, and children who vanished without a trace in 1590. But what she discovers soon puts her life in danger. Who wants to stop her? And how far would they go to keep her from making one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time: What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island? Where did Virginia Dare go? "Most archaeologists, including myself, rarely have the time or the inclination to read historical novels, particularly those whose themes are archaeology. There are so many errors in the research or the stories are so unrealistic that it is difficult to truly enjoy reading. But The Coffins was the exception. Not only is it a successful blend of historical research and local ethnography, it is a true page-turning crime thriller. Think Sue Grafton meets Ivor Noel Hume. It is historical fiction as it should be written. A great read!" Dr. Charles Ewen, Director of the Phelps Archaeology Lab, Professor, East Carolina University Greenville, North Carolina

Timothy Schaffert has created his most memorable character yet in Essie, an octogenarian obituary writer for her family’s small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn woman. Either way, the story of the girl reaches far and wide, igniting controversy, attracting curiosity-seekers and cult worshippers from all over the country to this dying rural town. And then it is revealed that the long awaited final book of an infamous series of YA gothic novels is being secretly printed on the newspaper’s presses. The Coffins of Little Hope tells a feisty, energetic story of characters caught in the intricately woven webs of myth, legend and deception even as Schaffert explores with his typical exquisite care and sharp eye the fragility of childhood, the strength of family, the powerful rumor mills of rural America, and the sometimes dramatic effects of pop culture on the way we shape our world.

Eighty-three-year-old obituary writer Essie finds her life in small town Nebraska turned upside-down when a young country girl is reported missing and the long-awaited final book in an infamous series of young adult gothic novels is being secretly printed on her newspaper's presses. Reprint.

Examines the tools and techniques of coffin-making, and features illustrated, step-by-step instructions for constructing three pet and three human-sized coffins. Includes patterns.

In rural Maine, a stop on the Underground Railroad is menaced by a supernatural force in this terrifying novel of pre–Civil War horror. Davis Bentwood has nearly finished medical school when he meets an abolitionist dwarf walking across Harvard Yard. Jeb Coffin is a nonpracticing doctor, a devoted student of transcendentalism whose home life has been shaken by tragedy. The two men become friends, and Coffin invites Bentwood to rural Maine to save his family from itself. The Coffins are noted abolitionists, their home a stop on the Underground Railroad, and lately they have been menaced by a supernatural terror. The tragedies are countless: two brothers killed, a father driven mad, and a baby frozen solid in its crib. At first Bentwood cannot bring himself to acknowledge the impossible horrors that have cursed this family. But he will not survive his sojourn in Maine unless he can open his mind to the possibility that something evil is waiting in the dark.

Ancient Egyptian coffins provided a shell to protect the deceased both magically and physically. They guaranteed an important requirement for eternal life: an intact body. Not everybody could afford richly decorated wooden coffins. As commodities, coffins also pl ayed a vital role in the daily life of the living and marked their owner's taste and status. Coffin history is an ongoing process and does not end with the ancient burial. The coffins that were discovered and shipped to museums have become part of the National heritages. The Vatican Coffin Project is the first international research project to study the entire use-life of Egyptian coffins from an interdisciplinary perspective.This edited volume presents the first Leiden results of the project focusing on the lavishly decorated coffins of the Priests of Amun that are currently in the collection of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities. Six chapters, written by international specialists, present the history of the Priests of Amun, the production of their coffins and use-life of the coffins from Ancient Egypt until modern times. The book appeals to the general public interested in Egyptian culture, heritage studies, and restoration research, and will also be a stimulating read for both students and academics

It is 1891 in New Orleans, and young Typhus Morningstar cycles under the light of the half-moon to fulfil his calling, re-birthing aborted foetuses in the fecund waters of the Mississippi River. He cannot know that nearby, events are unfolding that will change his life forever-events that were set in motion by a Voodoo curse gone wrong, forty years before he was born. In the humble home of Sicilian immigrants, a one-year-old boy has been possessed by a demon. His father dead, lynched by a mob, his distraught mother at her wit's end, this baby who yesterday could only crawl and gurgle is now walking, dancing, and talking - in a voice impossibly deep. The doctor has fled, and several men of the cloth have come and gone, including Typhu's father, warned off directly by the clear voice of his Savoir. A newspaper man, shamed by the part he played in inciting the lynch mob that cost this boy his father, appalled by what he sees, goes in search of help. Seven will be persuaded, will try to help...and all seven will be profoundly affected by what takes place in that one-room house that dark night. Not all will leave alive, and all will be irrevocably changed by this demonic struggle, and by the sound of the first notes blown of a new musical form: jazz..

Photographer and reporter Thierry Secretan's superb color photographs record a wide variety of these sculptural masterpieces.

The 1918–19 influenza epidemic killed more than 50 million people, and infected between one fifth and half of the world's population. It is the world's greatest killing influenza pandemic, and is used as a worst case scenario for emerging infectious disease epidemics like the corona virus COVID-19. It decimated families, silenced cities and towns as it passed through, stilled commerce, closed schools and public buildings and put normal life on hold. Sometimes it killed several members of the same family. Like COVID-19 there was no preventative vaccine for the virus, and many died from secondary bacterial pneumonia in this pre-antibiotic era. In this work, Ida Milne tells how it impacted on Ireland, during a time of war and revolution. But the stories she tells of the harrowing impact on families, and of medicine's desperate search to heal the ill, could apply to any other place in the world at the time.