J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award Nominee for 2002A chieftain, Rory MacGregor puts her clan?s welfare ahead of her own and weds a stranger. An oath sworn on the dirk compels Duncan Cameron to forge an uneasy alliance with Rory, unaware that a Stewart prince comes to the Highlands to wage war against the usurper who sits on the throne. Duty and honor dictate they answer the call to arms, but will the bloody rebellion of 1745 sever the ties that bind them or will it forever strengthen the fragile threads that unite them?

A collection of ten Scottish legends passed down through the ages Scottish culture is rich with mythology. There are tales of monks and saints, fairies and witches, kings, nobles, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Some stories were never written down, shared instead through retellings that turned storytelling into an art form. In Thistle and Thyme, Sorche Nic Leodhas brings together ten folktales that were passed down through the generations as part of Scotland’s vibrant oral tradition. In this volume, stories about the changeling and the stolen child, the bride who was cursed to silence by a water kelpie, and the beekeeper who found a rabbit under a spell are just a handful of the thousands of local myths that make up Scotland’s colorful history.

“No one in Scotland can escape from the past. It is everywhere, haunting like a ghost.” Geddes MacGregor Does the Scottish Thistle Amulet have unescapable mystic properties related to the past? When Riley ad her cousin Charlie learn of a priceless, stolen Scottish thistle antiquity on their visit to the Edinburgh Museum in Scotland, the temptation to uncover its whereabouts lures them into a conspiracy scheme with their new friends, the McGregor twins. Deliberately ignoring Riley’s parents’ warning not to engage in any amateur detective capers, the four sleuths choose to pursue what they think is a harmless investigation. The lines between right and wrong become blurred as the four detectives create a prickly situation of their own by withholding their sleuthing escapades from Riley’s parents. The exhilarating expectation of fi nding the lost treasure unwittingly tangles them in a thorny plot by a maniacal criminal who’ll stop at nothing to protect an unlawful, lucrative enterprise. Strange, haunting, threatening events are shrugged off by the teens. How could they know that every clue they fi nd will become an entanglement that, in the end, could possibly lead to their demise.

From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. Ritchie and Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change.

Weed Management Handbook updates the 8th edition of Weed Control Handbook (1990). The change in the title and contents of the book from previous editions reflects both the current emphasis on producing crops in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner, and the new weed management challenges presenting themselves. This landmark publication contains cutting edge chapters, each written by acknowledged experts in their fields and carefully drawn together and edited by Professor Robert Naylor, known and respected world-wide for his knowledge of the area. The sequence of chapters included reflects a progression from the biology of weeds, through the underpinning science and technology relating to weed management techniques including herbicides and their application to crops, leading to principles of weed management techniques. Finally a set of relevant case studies describes the main management options available and addresses the challenges of reduced chemical options in many crops. Weed Management Handbook is a vital tool for all those involved in the crop protection / agrochemical industry, including business managers, horticultural and agricultural scientists, plant physiologists, botanists and those studying and teaching BASIS courses. As an important reference guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying horticultural and agricultural sciences, plant physiology, botany and crop protection, copies of the book should be available on the shelves of all research establishments and universities where these subjects are studied and taught. Weed Management Handbook is published for the British Crop Protection Council (BCPC) by Blackwell Publishing.

The latest entry in the charming Highland Bookshop mystery series finds the women of Yon Bonnie Books embroiled in the death of a local doctor, which sets off a chain of other curious—and deadly—events. Out for a bicycle ride in the hills beyond Inversgail, Janet Marsh discovers the body of Dr. Malcolm Murray. The elderly Murray and his own bicycle went off the road and down a steep slope—he’s sprawled in the burn at the bottom, his damaged bike in a patch of thistles on the bank. Janet calls the Police Scotland emergency number. Tire tracks at the side of the narrow road suggest a vehicle might have been involved. But if it was an accident, the driver hasn’t come forward. And if it wasn’t an accident. . . . But who would want the well-loved, retired doctor dead? A few days after the death, a box of vintage first editions is left on the doorstep of Yon Bonnie Books with a note: “Please look after these books. Thank you.” Janet and her crew at the shop are at first delighted, and then mystified—what exactly does “look after” mean? Are they free to sell them? And what are the odd notes penciled in the margins? With a little digging, the women decide the books might belong to Malcolm Murray or his reclusive brother, Gerald. When Janet and Christine call at Malcolm’s house, they find his confused, angry sister and evidence of a burglary. When they go to Gerald’s modest croft house, they find the door ajar and Gerald dead inside, stabbed with a regimental dagger. While the police try to determine if the Murray brothers’ deaths are connected and who’s responsible, Janet and the bookshop owners try to find out how and why the box of books ended up on their doorstep. The police are interested in those questions, too, and they’re more than a little suspicious. Are the Yon Bonnie women as good with burglar tools as they are with books—and at finding bodies?