"See to it, Blackwood," says the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, and Blackie Ryan, the Cardinal's auxiliary bishop, doesn't exactly jump (he never jumps), rather he moseys down to Washington, D.C., where one of his friends, Jack Patrick McGurn, called "Machine Gun McGurn" by the media, has surprisingly just been elected president and needs his help. Blackie's first confrontation is with Washington bureaucracy; the powers that be don't want to give Blackie a pass to wander in and out of the Oval Office at will. The bureaucracy blinks first and Blackie gets his pass. Blackie, who can do anything, has been called on to deal with ghosts in the White House. Yes, poltergeists. But there are more problems in the White House than ghosts. A conspiracy abroad in the land results in two men trying to blow up the White House. Happily, Blackie has one of his intuitive moments and manages to get a picture of the terrorists, and he didn't forget to take the cap off his camera. He also got the license number of the getaway car. Blackie also has to deal with four enchantingly beautiful women who, without knowing it, may be responsible for the strange ghostlike behavior of an unhappy spirit. None of these things does Blackie find daunting. He stumbles about his business and waits for enlightenment to come. The Bishop in the West Wing is one of the finest of the Blackie Ryan stories .We meet again a great cast of characters: Sean Cronin, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, who is turning out to be one of the treasures of modern American detective fiction; Mike Casey, the cop turned painter, and Dr. Kate Murphy, Blackie's beautiful and terrifyingly smart sister. With this cast of characters the poor ghosts deserve our pity. Andrew Greeley was a guest at the White House three times during the most recent administration and his keen eye and powers of observation are put to remarkable use in this latest Blackie Ryan mystery/adventure. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Matthew Francis's latest collection celebrates the richness of nature and of our responses to it. The pleasures of summer are emblazoned in the colourful wings and evocative names of butterflies, while a nocturnal encounter with an earwig becomes a joyous incantation to the 'witchy-beetle, forkin-robin' of dialect. His love of history, embodied in his acclaimed Mandeville and The Mabinogi, gives rise to a sequence based on Robert Hooke's microscopic observations. There are tributes to the poets Basho, Dafydd ap Gwilym and W. S. Graham, to fireworks, apple varieties, and hot toddies. And, in a moving elegy for a friend killed in a parachute accident, Francis shows us a vertiginous vision of a world where even the dead 'sleep on the wing'.

A young woman named Anna travels to America from central Europe for an arranged marriage in the dawn of the 20th century. If humans will do nearly anything to avoid change in their lives, what motivates someone to leave her homeland and travel to an unknown land for a lifetime with a stranger? Her husband dies before his time, and unable to read or write English, she finds herself a penniless widow with six children to raise. Eventually, Anna and her family move into a house in a small, steel-mill city in western Pennsylvania-when U.S. Steel was on the rise. The house endows them with emotional security; so strong are their feelings for the structure, the house becomes an entity within itself. Anna's five daughters are the heroines of the tale as they pull together for the sake of their mother's dream, though each breaks a rule of the tight system that binds them together. Their story parallels America's as it becomes a world power, and urban life, the suburbs, the middle class, women and blacks change its landscape forever. The story, a living testimony to family and human determination, is narrated by a member of the second generation of Americans.

Now, for the first time, an insider's look at an Air Force combat wing -- the planes, the technology, and the people . . . with Tom Clancy as your guide. Tom Clancy's previous explorations of America's armed forces, Submarine and Armored Cav, revealed exclusive, never-before-seen information an the people and technology that protect our nation. Now, the acclaimed author of Clear and Present Danger and Debt of Honor takes to the skies with the U. S. Air Force's elite: the Fighter Wing. With his compelling style and unerring eye for detail, Clancy captures the thrill of takeoff, the drama of the dogfight, and the relentless dangers our fighter pilots face every day of their lives . . . showing readers what it really means to be the best of the best. Fighter Wing includes: Detailed analyses of the Air Force's premier fighter planes, including the F-15 Eagle Exclusive photographs, illustrations, and diagrams An insider's look at the people behind the planes and weapons Combat strategies and training techniques used by the U. S. Air Force