There were things at Teind House that strangers must never find; things that must be kept concealed from the prying world at all costs . . . Selina March has lived in the remote Scottish hamlet of Inchcape, with its mysterious Round Tower, for nearly fifty years. Brought up by elderly relatives, long since dead, she now lives alone, shunning the outside world. But when she reluctantly accepts a paying guest, Selina's secluded life will change for ever. Crime writer Joanna Savile has come to Inchcape to research her latest novel by interviewing inmates at Moy, the asylum for the criminally insane situated nearby. Her secret aim is to question former child murderer, Mary Maskelyne, Moy's most infamous patient. Joanna's prying will yield unexpected results. For, although they have never met, Selina March and Mary Maskelyne are connected by a shared family tragedy: a terrible act of unspeakable cruelty that took place in India fifty years before. And there are secrets in Selina's more recent past, too. Secrets that are about to be uncovered with the most devastating and horrifying consequences . . .

There were things at Teind House that must be kept concealed from the prying world at all costs . . . Selina March has lived in the remote Scottish hamlet of Inchcape, with its mysterious Round Tower, for nearly fifty years. Brought up by elderly relatives, long since dead, she now lives alone, shunning the outside world as much as she can. But when she reluctantly accepts a paying guest, Selina's secluded life will change for ever. Crime writer Joanna Savile has come to Inchcape to research her latest novel by interviewing inmates at Moy, the asylum for the criminally insane situated nearby. Her secret aim is to question former child murderer, Mary Maskelyne, Moy's most infamous patient. Joanna's prying will yield unexpected results. For, although they have never met, Selina March and Mary Maskelyne are connected by a shared family tragedy: a terrible act of unspeakable cruelty that took place in India fifty years before. And there are secrets in Selina's more recent past, too. Secrets that are about to be uncovered with the most devastating and shocking consequences . . . 'Rayne handles a complicated story with many skeins very cleverly. A top psychological thriller' Good Reading magazine

The towers of silence, the third volume in Paul Scott's Raj quartet, takes us to an Indian hill station in 1943. The ladies of Pankot struggle to preserve the genteel façade of British society amid the debris of a vanishing empire during World War II.

A long-lost Sexton Blake mystery, 1920s detective fiction at its best Historian Gyan Prakash of Princeton University stumbled upon part of the unpublished manuscript of Tower of Silence by Phiroshaw Jamsetjee Chevalier (or Chaiwala, as he called himself) in the British Library. After scouring several Mumbai libraries, he found the missing pages. It is a thrilling tale that begins on a blistering April afternoon in Poona with the click of a camera shutter. An aerial photograph is taken from a small aircraft flying directly over the Tower of Silence. The Zorastrian community is thrown into turmoil and horrified grief at this heinous act. Beram, a suave wealthy man who drives around in a Rolls Royce but is a devout Parsi, decides to exact revenge. Thus begins a sensational cat-and-mouse game between Beram and Sexton Blake, England's most famous detective.

Long recognized as perhaps the greatest non-fiction writer at work in Ireland, for his vast, polymathic accounts of nature and culture in the Aran Islands and Connemara, Tim Robinson is also an essayist of genius whose fascinations range across the globe. In Experiments on Reality, he shines the light of his intelligence on his own life, and on some of the most fascinating questions in science and culture. Robinson brings us to his boyhood in Yorkshire, National Service in Malaya in the 1950s, and his years as a visual artist in Istanbul, Vienna and London. He revisits some of the scenes of his researches for the maps he made of Aran and Connemara, places that continue to throw up remarkable stories and puzzles. And he performs astonishing literary thought-experiments, playing with the boundaries of the essay form, scientific inquiry, and storytelling. Experiments on Reality is a masterpiece from one of the great minds of our time. 'One of the greatest of all landscape writers ... When the material world is brought forth for us so beautifully, with such rapt attention and illuminating insight, we are reminded of how lucky we are to be part of it' Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times PRAISE FOR THE CONNEMARA TRILOGY: 'One of the most remarkable non-fiction projects undertaken in English' Robert MacFarlane, Spectator 'Robinson is a marvel ... the supreme practitioner of geo-graphy, the writing of places' Fintan O'Toole, Observer Books of the Year 'One of contemporary Ireland's finest literary stylists ... This is a book that does justice, in every sense of that phrase, to the frequently betrayed people whose stories it incarnates, and to their strange and beautiful corner of the world' Joseph O'Connor, Guardian 'A masterpiece of travel and topographical writing and a miraculous, vivid and engrossing meditation on landscape and history and the sacred mood of places' Colm Tóibín, Irish Times Books of the Year 'One of the finest of contemporary prose stylists' John Burnside, Irish Times 'He is that rarest of phenomena, a scientist and an artist, and his method is to combine scientific rigour with artistic reverie in a seamless blend that both informs and delights.' John Banville, Guardian 'Breathtaking ... the West of Ireland has found its ultimate laureate' Patricia Craig, TLS 'Dazzling ... an indubitable classic' Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller

Creationists have acquired a more sophisticated intellectual arsenal. This book reveals the insubstantiality of their arguments. Creationism is no longer the simple notion it once was taken to be. Its new advocates have become more sophisticated in how they present their views, speaking of "intelligent design" rather than "creation science" and aiming their arguments against the naturalistic philosophical method that underlies science, proposing to replace it with a "theistic science." The creationism controversy is not just about the status of Darwinian evolution—it is a clash of religious and philosophical worldviews, for a common underlying fear among Creationists is that evolution undermines both the basis of morality as they understand it and the possibility of purpose in life. In Tower of Babel, philosopher Robert T. Pennock compares the views of the new creationists with those of the old and reveals the insubstantiality of their arguments. One of Pennock's major innovations is to turn from biological evolution to the less charged subject of linguistic evolution, which has strong theoretical parallels with biological evolution, both in content and in the sort of evidence scientists use to draw conclusions about origins. Of course, an evolutionary view of language does conflict with the Bible, which says that God created the variety of languages at one time as punishment for the Tower of Babel. Several chapters deal with the work of Phillip Johnson, a highly influential leader of the new Creationists. Against his and other views, Pennock explains how science uses naturalism and discusses the relationship between factual and moral issues in the creationism-evolution controversy. The book also includes a discussion of Darwin's own shift from creationist to evolutionist and an extended argument for keeping private religious beliefs separate from public scientific knowledge.

A new city. A new home. A new life. Things seem perfect ... for a while. A pregnant Anahita moves in to an apartment in Malabar Hill with her husband, eager to begin a new phase in her life. Unfortunately, nothing goes as expected and Anahita begins to witness things she cannot explain. It's not long before a presence makes itself known in their new home. Appearing after dark the strange apparition leaves Anahita terrified - but determined to find answers. Her search leads to Parizaad: a woman who was haunted by phenomena she believed to be linked to a tower of silence, or dakhma, that is deeply affected by environmental changes. As Anahita wades further into the mystery around the life and death of Parizaad, she uncovers a devastating secret - one that goes beyond nightmares and corpses. A spine-chilling psychological thriller, Dakhma brings horror to the heart of the big city. .

An authoritative account of the Duke lacrosse team rape case illuminates the ever-widening gap between America's rich and poor, and demonstrates how far the powerful will go to protect themselves.

Award-winning author Juliet Marillier’s “lavishly detailed”(Publishers Weekly) Blackthorn & Grim series continues as a mysterious creature holds ancient Ireland in thrall... Disillusioned healer Blackthorn and her companion, Grim, have settled in Dalriada to wait out the seven years of Blackthorn’s bond to her fey mentor, hoping to avoid any dire challenges. But trouble has a way of seeking them out. A noblewoman asks for the prince of Dalriada’s help in expelling a creature who threatens the safety and sanity of all who live nearby from an old tower on her land—one surrounded by an impenetrable hedge of thorns. With no ready solutions to offer, the prince consults Blackthorn and Grim. As Blackthorn and Grim put the pieces of this puzzle together, it’s apparent that a powerful adversary is working behind the scenes. Their quest soon becomes a life-and-death struggle—a conflict in which even the closest of friends can find themselves on opposite sides.

A Witch's Book of Silence will help you deepen your practice and increase the efficacy of your magic. Silence is the space from which creative impulse flows. In silence we touch the power we call God/dess and become attuned to wisdom beyond our own. We learn to commune with the spirits of land, our ancestors and others of the unseen realms. We enter the ineffable mystery sought by ancient and contemporary mystics alike. Through silent communion we attain ecstatic union with the Divine. The book addresses some of the most pressing and controversial concerns of the Craft as both a modern-day movement and private, religious system. A Witch's Book of Silence is a mirror for us individually and collectively. Here we see reflected our beauty and power as well as our fear and foibles. Divided into three segments. The first defines terms, explores concepts and discusses how and why we resist the practice of silence. The second segment offers practices leading the seeker into the heart of silence where the mysteries are revealed . The final segment offers a glimpse of what awaits us should we dare to steep ourselves in the cauldron of transformation. A Witch's Book of Silence is born out of decades of studying, practicing and teaching the art of Witchcraft during which time the author noted the impact of the internet on the transfer of once closely guarded information. The Witch's Pyramid became unbalanced as the powers to Know, Will and Dare were highly sought after while Keeping Silent fell out of fashion--a silly, scary and inconsequential relic of the past. The Witch must confront and overcome her fear and resistance to entering the realms of silence. Keeping silent is necessary to build power, perform effective magic and engage deeply with the mysteries. While written from the perspective of a Feri Witch, the concerns, practices and resolutions offered will be equally valuable when applied to any spiritual path requiring the practitioner develop self-awareness, personal integrity, cognizant communication with spirit and the use of meaningful speech imbued with creative force.