The Man with the Black Feather is an adventure novel about a mysterious young man with a double life. Excerpt: "I WAS passing through the waiting-room of the Morning Journal on a certain evening last year when my attention was drawn to a man seated in a corner. He was dressed in black and his appearance was that of the deepest dejection."

"One evening last year I perceived in the waiting-room of my newspaper, Le Matin, a man dressed in black, his face heavy with the darkest despair, whose dry, dead eyes seemed to receive the images of things like unmoving mirrors. He was seated; and there rested on his knees a sandalwood box inlaid with polished steel. An office-boy told me that he had sat there motionless, silent, awaiting my coming, for three mortal hours." (Extract) Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera, which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever.

A dazzling anthology of avian-themed fiction guaranteed to frighten and delight, edited by one of the most acclaimed horror anthologists in the genre. Birds are usually loved for their beauty and their song. They symbolize freedom, eternal life, the soul. But there’s a dark side to the avian. Birds of prey sometimes kill other birds (the shrike), destroy other birds’ eggs (blue jays), and even have been known to kill small animals (the kea sometimes eats live lambs). And who isn’t disgusted by birds that eat the dead—vultures awaiting their next meal as the life blood flows from the dying. Is it any wonder that with so many interpretations of the avian, that the contributors herein are eager to be transformed or influenced by them? Included in Black Feathers are those obsessed by birds of one type or another: A grieving widow takes comfort in her majestic winged neighbors, who enable her to cope with a predatory relative. An isolated society of women relies on a bird to tell their fortunes. A chatty parrot makes illegal deals with the dying. A troubled man lives in isolation with only one friend for company—a jackdaw. In each of these fictions, you will encounter the dark resonance between the human and avian. You will see in yourself the savagery of a predator, the shrewd stalking of a hunter, and will wade into this feathered nightmare, braving the horror of death for that which we all seek—the promise of flight.

As heard on NPR's This American Life “Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever.” —Christian Science Monitor A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief. On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them—and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.

Forget vampires! Only angels know that true love is worth falling for... One wrong may impact a lifetime, but for an angel, it can have repercussions for eternity. Exiled from Heaven, Ashrafel must walk the earth a fallen angel, until he can right the wrong that cost a human life. He waits patiently for the soul of the woman he loves to be reborn, never knowing if this will be the last time, or if he will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of his past and lose her again. Kate, fixated on the past and reluctant to live in the present, discovers a hidden casket beneath the floor of her local church and is compelled to discover the secret it contains. When she does, she is faced with the most important dilemma of her life. Can she overcome the past and find a way to send Ashrafel home or will the she succumb to the evil that stalks her and send him to Hell? Either way she will lose the man she loves. Both of them need saving, from themselves, from evil, from Hell, but the past and the man that wants Ashrafel's soul for himself, is catching up with them and time is running out. Blackfeather is a fast paced supernatural romance with historical elements, vividly brought to life with well researched detail. A cast of strong characters pull the reader along through a thrilling and sophisticated philosophical drama that unfolds against the backdrop of a five hundred year long love story.

TransPac's Smallest Finisher Robert Crawford...raced the 2008 Singlehanded TransPacific Yacht Race aboard "Black Feathers," his 1961 Cal 20, finishing in 19 days 21 hours...making "Black Feathers" the smallest boat to have finished the race...Crawford followed the 1990's mantra of the Singlehanded Sailing Society, of which he is a member: "Do the race in the boat you have." Talk about a small-boat adventure! "Sail Magazine" Follow the evolution of "Black Feathers" from a stock 1961 Cal 20 sailboat into an effective pocket racer. Go with her and her skipper as they sail solo from San Francisco to beautiful Hanalei Bay, Kauai in the 2008 Singlehanded TransPac. Imagine sailing 2200 miles across the Pacific Ocean in a 20-foot sailboat-ALONE with NO ENGINE! YOU can be there. Bonus Features A Do-It-Yourself Prep Manual: "From daysailer to pocket racer-small boat preparation for offshore racing" Over 60 photographs and diagrams A Concise History of the Singlehanded TransPac A Wife's Perspective "Black FeathersInspires Us to Keep Our Dreams Alive. Experience One Man's Efforts for the Common Sailor"

The Black Feather will weave you through inter-dimensional mind and body travel at a rapid pace. So allow for your imagination to soar along with Ms. Weaver, Odin (Raven/Kangee) and his young love, Becke. Weaver has been summoned to help Odin a young man of 19 make his quest in his self –discovery. While Becke lives the harsh realities of life. Set in the Pacific Northwest and Ireland. Have you ever played a drum and felt it resonant within your body and got lost within? Or held your hands up into the sky and watched all of your being ness catch stardust? Perhaps you have taken the time to look deeply into the eyes of a bird and felt its spirit reach out and speak to you? If so, this book should please you, if not this book should engage your mind for countless travelers have used these methods to cross the many dimensions. Genora W. (Olson) Powell, author

Here he is, husband and father, scruffy romantic, a shambolic scholar--a man adrift in the wake of his wife's sudden, accidental death. And there are his two sons who like him struggle in their London apartment to face the unbearable sadness that has engulfed them. The father imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness, while the boys wander, savage and unsupervised. In this moment of violent despair they are visited by Crow--antagonist, trickster, goad, protector, therapist, and babysitter. This self-described "sentimental bird," at once wild and tender, who "finds humans dull except in grief," threatens to stay with the wounded family until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and the pain of loss lessens with the balm of memories, Crow's efforts are rewarded and the little unit of three begins to recover: Dad resumes his book about the poet Ted Hughes; the boys get on with it, grow up. Part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's extraordinary debut combines compassion and bravura style to dazzling effect. Full of angular wit and profound truths, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is a startlingly original and haunting debut by a significant new talent.