Ever have that shiver run down your spine just before something was going to happen. That feeling just woke me from the usual daze of scanning the instruments and the ever graying sky outside in the cold winter sky. I don't know about you, but I have learned by hard experience that when this tingle happens, watch out. It's often said that the sea is unforgiving of mistakes, so too it is of the sky. In the unforgiving sky, a calm day may suddenly become a maelstrom striving to swat the people in a small tube who's arrogance took them into the air. The Lonely Hours is a tale of the decisions which must be made when the tigress awakens to play with a small mouse which dared invade it's territory.

In a bewitchingly melancholy, thrillingly modern ghost story for readers of Eve Chase, Megan Shepherd, and Lisa Jewell, the new inhabitants of a centuries-old castle perched on a remote island in northwest Scotland must confront its tragic and terrifying history... On a small island in a remote corner of northwest Scotland lies Maundrell castle, owned by its wealthy namesake family for centuries—until now. Edwina Nunn is shocked to learn a relative she never heard of has bequeathed the castle and its land to her. What awaits Edie and her teenage daughter, Neve, is even more startling, for the castle is home to a multitude of ghosts. Yet there’s a strange beauty in the austere architecture and the eerie, bloody waters of Loch na Scáthanna, the Lake of Shadows. Beguiled by a frightened ghost who gazes longingly out of the castle’s windows, Edie and Neve are drawn to the legends shrouding the island and the mystery of the Maundrell Red—a priceless diamond that disappeared decades before. Is the gem really cursed, and the cause of the family tragedies that have all occurred on Samhain—Scottish Halloween? As Samhain approaches once more, Edie and Neve race to peel back the dark secrets entwining the living and the dead—a twisted story of bitter cruelty and hidden love—or they will become another Maundrell tragedy trapped in the lonely hours . . .

“Oh, joy, a new Peculiar Crimes Unit case by Christopher Fowler . . . the best fun is running all over the city with these amiable partners.”—The New York Times Book Review The brilliant Arthur Bryant and John May take the late, late shift in a cat-and-mouse hunt with a killer who preys on his victims at the same time every night—the lonely hour of 4 A.M. When a man is found hanging upside down inside a willow tree on Hampstead Heath, surrounded by a baffling assortment of occult objects, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. Was this a botched satanic ritual pulled off by bored teenagers, a gang initiation, or the work of a mastermind with grander intentions? Bryant and May set off in search of answers and are soon reminded that London is a city steeped in blood and magic. When another body is pulled from the river at dawn, it becomes clear that a killer lurks in the night. To catch him, the PCU switches to graveyard shifts, but the team still comes up short. As they explore a night city where the normal rules do not apply, they’re drawn deeper into a case that involves murder, arson, kidnapping, blackmail, loneliness, and bats. May takes a technological approach, while Bryant goes in search of his usual academics and misfits for help, for this investigation reveals impossibilities at every turn. How do you stop a killer who appears not to exist? Luckily, impossibilities are what the Peculiar Crimes Unit does best.

There is a particular flavor to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by thousands of strangers. This roving cultural history of urban loneliness centers on the ultimate city: Manhattan, that teeming island of gneiss, concrete, and glass. How do we connect with other people, particularly if our sexuality or physical body is considered deviant or damaged? Does technology draw us closer together or trap us behind screens? Laing travels deep into the work and lives of some of the century's most original artists in a celebration of the state of loneliness.

This life-affirming story follows the first year of a lone evergreen growing in the heart of the ancient oak woodland of the New Forest.

In this 1960 Edgar Award-winning thriller, a young housewife with two lively daughters and an endlessly crying baby battles domestic chaos as well as growing suspicions of the household's new lodger.

"It would be some time until the steel encasement sealing my lonely nest cracked. Some might say I was too damaged to know any better, having lived with an abuser so long. The truth is hard to accept and far more egregious when I say, we learn to sacrifice the ones we love in order to survive." The secret you buried thirty years ago comes banging at your door. You refuse to open, as you have a new life and remain speechless whenever someone asks, "How did your mother and sister die?" The events described in The Lonely Nest take place in a small New England town and reveal what hides behind time and shame. With a sense of urgency, Concetta Falcone-Codding takes the reader through her family history, narrating four decades of secrets, deadly betrayals, and harm that destroyed the women in her family. Written from the perspective of her child-self, Falcone-Codding's sensitive prose exposes the translucent line between witnessing abuse and being complicit in it. The Lonely Nest is a story of domestic violence, incest, childhood loss, and courage written for all whose stories have yet to be heard. Concetta Falcone-Codding https: //www.facebook.com/TheLonelyNestSeries/ [email protected]

Love and Dandelions is a collection of sixty-two original poems written by the author from 1945 to 1986. He has said "some are corny, some are good, and some are excellent," but all reflect the writer's perception of the human condition over four decades as he developed his skills as a wordsmith. A few of these efforts have been called classics, but if not all classics, they are at least sincere. They are also easy to read and understand, as opposed to the vagaries of others. Ranging in subject matter from the Civil War to Alaska, from Life to Death, and from Hell to New Orleans, Love and Dandelions will interest today's romantic and contemplative daydreamers. An entertaining author's self-review of each poem makes this work unique.

In Which Mr May Makes A Mistake And Mr Bryant Goes Into The Dark On a rainy winter night outside a run-down nightclub in the wrong part of London, four strangers meet for the first time at 4:00am. A few weeks later the body of an Indian textile worker is found hanging upside down inside a willow tree on Hampstead Heath. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. The victim was found surrounded by the paraphernalia of black magic, and so Arthur Bryant and John May set off to question experts in the field. But the case is not what it appears. When another victim seemingly commits suicide, it becomes clear that in the London night is a killer who knows what people fear most. And he always strikes at 4:00am. In order to catch him, the PCU must switch to night shifts, but still the team draws a blank. John May takes a technological approach, Arthur Bryant goes in search of academics and misfits for help, for this is becoming a case that reveals impossibilities at every turn, not least that there's no indication of what the victims might have done to attract the attentions of a murderer that doesn’t seem to exist. But impossibilities are what the Peculiar Crimes Unit does best. As they explore a night city where all the normal rules are upended, they’re drawn deeper into a case that involves murder, arson, kidnap, blackmail, bats and the psychological effects of loneliness on Londoners. It's a trail that takes them from the poorest part of the East End to the wealthiest homes in North London - an investigation that can only end in tragedy...

In today's world, it is more acceptable to be depressed than to be lonely-yet loneliness appears to be the inevitable byproduct of our frenetic contemporary lifestyle. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, one out of four Americans talked to no one about something of importance to them during the last six months. Another remarkable fact emerged from the 2000 U.S. Census: more people are living alone today than at any point in the country's history—fully 25 percent of households consist of one person only. In this crucial look at one of America's few remaining taboo subjects—loneliness—Drs. Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz set out to understand the cultural imperatives, psychological dynamics, and physical mechanisms underlying social isolation. In The Lonely American, cutting-edge research on the physiological and cognitive effects of social exclusion and emerging work in the neurobiology of attachment uncover startling, sobering ripple effects of loneliness in areas as varied as physical health, children's emotional problems, substance abuse, and even global warming. Surprising new studies tell a grim truth about social isolation: being disconnected diminishes happiness, health, and longevity; increases aggression; and correlates with increasing rates of violent crime. Loneliness doesn't apply simply to single people, either—today's busy parents "cocoon" themselves by devoting most of their non-work hours to children, leaving little time for friends, and other forms of social contact, and unhealthily relying on the marriage to fulfill all social needs. As a core population of socially isolated individuals and families continues to balloon in size, it is more important than ever to understand the effects of a culture that idealizes busyness and self-reliance. It's time to bring loneliness—a very real and little-discussed social epidemic with frightening consequences-out into the open, and find a way to navigate the tension between freedom and connection in our lives.