The 'serial killer' has become increasingly prevalent in popular culture since the term was coined by Robert Ressler at the FBI in the mid-1970s. Murders and Acquisitions explores the social and political implications of this cultural figure. The collection argues that the often blood-chilling representations of the serial killer and serial killing offered in TV series, films, novels and fan productions function to address contemporary concerns and preoccupations. Focusing on well-known popular culture texts, such as The Wire, Kiss the Girls, Monster, the Saw series, American Psycho, The Strangers, CSI and Dexter, this eclectic anthology engages with a broad spectrum of cultural theory and performs critical textual analysis to examine the sophisticated ways the serial killer is deployed to mediate and/or work through cultural anxieties and fears.

During a weekend in the country, Reuben Frost investigates the murder of a frozen-food king who got himself into hot water Reuben Frost misses a lot of things about life as a corporate lawyer, but working for Andersen Foods Corporation is not one of them. A vast international enterprise, AFC has made millions pumping out cheap, inoffensive food. But Reuben Frost, a titan of Wall Street, is simply not the TV-dinner type. Unfortunately, even after retiring from the respected law firm Chase & Ward, Frost is still expected to attend the annual Andersen family retreat, a weekend of fun and games as bland as an Andersen frozen meal. This year, however, the retreat will be a bloody good time. A corporate raider has his eyes on the Andersen family fortune, and old Flemming Andersen is determined to fight him to the death—a wish he’ll get to fulfill all too soon. When Andersen is boiled alive in his hot tub, Frost must find the killer to save the corporation and rescue his long weekend. Murders & Acquisitions is the 3rd book in the Reuben Frost Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The 'serial killer' has become increasingly prevalent in popular culture since the term was coined by Robert Ressler at the FBI in the mid-1970s. Murders and Acqusitions explores the social and political implications of this cultural figure. The collection argues that the often blood-chilling representations of the serial killer and serial killing offered in TV series, films, novels and fan productions function to address contemporary concerns and preoccupations. Focusing on well-known popular culture texts, such as The Wire, Kiss the Girls, Monster, the Saw series, American Psycho, The Strangers, CSI and Dexter, this electic anthology engages with a broad spectrum of cultural theory and performs critical textual analysis to examine the sophisticated ways the serial killer is deployed to mediate and/or work through cultural anxieties and fears.

A bibliography of various mystery novels published between November 1976 and Fall 1992.

Never before has IT played such a significant role in transforming organisations, of all sizes. And yet it continues to be dominated by technical jargon, acronyms and irrelevant detail. This book cuts through all of the confusion, and presents a clear, direct, solution based focus on the key IT/business issues facing every company and business leader today. This book contains the complete, first fifteen months of David Taylor's highly acclaimed Computer Weekly column - Inside Track. With a reputation for cutting through the hype, David focuses on the IT/business and personal leadership agenda, covering such issues as: * The key IT issues for the boardroom - in business language * Actions to win in the new world of e-commerce - and get started today * The successful new IT leader - the skills you and your company need to employ * Quick solutions to long-term IT problems - they can be resolved * How to motivate your people, and slash staff turnover - save a fortune on recruitment costs * True IT/business alignment - add real value to your bottom line David Taylor is a leading authority on IT in business. He is President of the association of IT Directors, Certus, a reference partner to the UK Government's National Audit Office, and a registered expert with several global research companies. His overall aim is to enable people and organisations to be all that they can be, through the combination of world class technology, true leadership and the release of human potential. With a prestigious background across companies such as Rolls-Royce, Allianz and Cornhill, David has a driving, positive passion for IT in business, and a reputation for championing IT Directors who want to achieve board level positions in their organisations. David and his team work with FTSE 200 companies on winning in the new internet economy, with entrepreneurs starting new dot com ventures, and with CEOs, advising on the qualities they should seek in their IT leaders. A regular writer, television presenter and speaker, David gives keynote, leadership and IT presentations throughout the world. He lives with his wife, Rosalind and their two children, Anthony and Olivia, in Surrey.

Imagine if you simply could not fail. Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you be? There are no answers, only choices. Right here and now, as you hold this book in your hands, you have literally millions of choices open to you. This has been true since the day you were born, and remains true until the moment you die. Yet, with so many choices and decisions to make every day, how can you be sure you're getting it right every time? With The Naked Leader Experience David Taylor releases you for ever from doubt, uncertainty and the fear of failure, forever, as he helps you to choose the right paths to take - the ones that will lead you towards the fulfilment of your dreams and ambitions. Refreshingly free of jargon and hype, and packed with positive, practical advice, this invaluable guide will show you how to: * RECLAIM your birthright and be the very best that you already are... * REIGNITE your relationships and truly connect with others... * REINVENT your organization and unleash the awesome potential that lies within you and your team... No matter what your age, experience, or the challenges you face, The Naked Leader Experience will serve to remind you of your unique strengths and abilities - and that your future is in your hands. So, if you're ready to accept this inspiring invitation to personal and professional transformation - ready to shape your own destiny - please stand up. Your time has come. Your life awaits you.

If there's an everyman, then Michael Sennet is every celebrity. Michael Sennet is a movie star. He should be happy, but he's bored. What does he do after he's achieved the best of everything: the best women, the best cars, the best homes, the best drugs? He doesn't have an answer. Meanwhile, the Vanity Plate Killer is roaming the streets of Los Angeles looking for new victims and dreaming of fame of his own. When Michael Sennet uses the M.O. of the Vanity Plate Killer, they find something that eclipses any starring role.

Divided into four thematic sections, What's Eating You? explores the deeper significance of food on screen-the ways in which they reflect (or challenge) our deepest fears about consuming and being consumed. Among the questions it asks are: How do these films mock our taboos and unsettle our notions about the human condition? How do they critique our increasing focus on consumption? In what ways do they hold a mirror to our taken-for-granteds about food and humanity, asking if what we eat truly matters? Horror narratives routinely grasp those questions and spin them into nightmares. Monstrous “others” dine on forbidden fare; the tables of consumption are turned, and the consumer becomes the consumed. Overindulgence, as Le Grande Bouffe (1973) and Street Trash (1987) warn, can kill us, and occasionally, as films like The Stuff (1985) and Poultrygeist (2006) illustrate, our food fights back. From Blood Feast (1963) to Sweeney Todd (2007), motion pictures have reminded us that it is an “eat or be eaten” world.

In Laurel, Mississippi, in 1935, one daughter of a wealthy and troubled family stood accused of murdering her mother. On her testimony, authorities suspected an equally prominent and well-to-do businessman, her reputed lover, of assisting. Ouida Keeton apparently shot her mother, chopped her up, and disposed of most of her body parts down the toilet and in the fireplace, burning all but the pelvic region, the thighs, and the legs. Attempting to dispose of these remains on a narrow, one-lane, isolated road, Ouida left a trail of evidence that ended in her arrest. People had seen her driving to the road. Within hours, a hunter and his dogs found the cloth in which she had wrapped her mother’s legs. Touted as the most sensational crime in Mississippi history at the time, the Legs Murder of 1935 is almost entirely forgotten today. The controversial outcome, decided by an unsophisticated jury, has been left muddled by ambiguity. With The Legs Murder Scandal, Hunter Cole presents an intricately detailed description of the separate trials of Ouida Keeton and W. M. Carter. Having researched trial transcripts, courthouse records, medical files, and vast newspaper coverage, the author reveals new facts previously distorted by hearsay, hushed reports, and misinformation. Cole pursues many unanswered questions such as what, really, did Ouida Keeton do with the rest of her mother? The Legs Murder Scandal attempts to provide the reader with clarity in this story, which is outlandish, harrowing, and intriguing, all at once.

"America is the world's biggest haunted house and American Scary is the only travel guide you need. I loved this book." —Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group From the acclaimed author of American Comics comes a sweeping and entertaining narrative that details the rise and enduring grip of horror in American literature, and, ultimately, culture—from the taut, terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe to the grisly, lingering films of Jordan Peele America is held captive by horror stories. They flicker on the screen of a darkened movie theater and are shared around the campfire. They blare out in tabloid true-crime headlines, and in the worried voices of local news anchors. They are consumed, virally, on the phones in our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher movie worth its salt, we can’t escape the thrall of scary stories. In American Scary, noted cultural historian and Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes the reader to the startling origins of horror in the United States. Dauber draws a captivating through line that ties historical influences ranging from the Salem witch trials and enslaved-person narratives directly to the body of work we more closely associate with horror today: the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft, the lingering fiction of Shirley Jackson, the disquieting films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night stories of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele. With the dexterous weave of insight and style that have made him one of America’s leading historians of popular culture, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.