When two bodies are discovered within six weeks of one another, it would appear that a serial killer is at large in the sleepy Cotswold village of Folly. Six weeks after a battered body is found in the grounds of the village cricket club, DCI Dan O’Reilly and his team are no further forward in the investigation. No witnesses, no leads, no clues whatsoever. Then a second body is discovered in the nearby tithe barn used by the local amateur dramatics society, artfully posed just like the first. Could there be a serial killer on the loose? When evidence leads O’Reilly to visit the Black Dog pub, owner Alex Duggins and her partner Tony are once again drawn into a police investigation. But Tony is dealing with some disturbing news of his own. Someone from his past has reached out and threatens all he holds dear. Are they who they claim to be, and what do they really want . . .?

M. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernise a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognisable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying. Sheets, pictures, carvings, a dolls house, a lonely beach, a branch tapping on a window, ordinary things take on more than a tinge of dread in the hands of the original master of suspense.

A definitive how-to book for every practitoner of sports turf -- from football to baseball to soccer and everything in between. Sports Fields covers every important aspect of planning, design, construction, and turfgrass maintenance with hundreds of illustrations and step-by-step procedures to help you get the job done right -- first time, every time. No other book provides such intricate detail, combined with easy-to-understand guidance.

"Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, The Playing Fields of Eton takes us on a three-century tour of modern mental and physical life. We visit gymnasiums and dueling fields, murderball courts and Olympic venues, and while immersed in thought-provoking stories of people wrestling with the twin pursuit of equality and excellence, we find ourselves learning what it might mean to be modern. With equal measures of erudition and gentle humor, Mika LaVaque-Manty convincingly refutes the view that egalitarian progress forecloses possibilities for human excellence." ---Elisabeth Ellis, Texas A&M University "A very insightful and clearly written philosophical inquiry into the nature of sport." ---Marion Smiley, Brandeis University "A marvelously original analysis of the tensions---and interdependence---between equality and excellence in modern political life. From eighteenth-century dueling to contemporary doping in sports, LaVaque-Manty illuminates the bodily life of democracy at play, and challenges us to think in new ways about the connections between achievement and autonomy. The Playing Fields of Eton is an important book that pushes liberal and democratic theory in fruitful new directions." ---Sharon Krause, Brown University Can equality and excellence coexist? If we assert that no person stands above the rest, can we encourage and acknowledge athletic, artistic, and intellectual achievements? Perhaps equality should merely mean equality of opportunity. But then how can society reconcile inherent differences between men and women, the strong and the weak, the able-bodied and the disabled? In The Playing Fields of Eton, Mika LaVaque-Manty addresses questions that have troubled philosophers, reformers, and thoughtful citizens for more than two centuries. Drawing upon examples from the eighteenth-century debate over dueling as a gentleman's prerogative to recent controversies over athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs, LaVaque-Manty shows that societies have repeatedly redefined equality and excellence. One constant remains, however: sports provide an arena for working out tensions between these two ideals. Just as in sports where athletes are sorted by age, sex, and professional status, in modern democratic society excellence has meaning only in the context of comparisons among individuals who are, theoretically, equals. LaVaque-Manty's argument will engage philosophers, and his inviting prose and use of familiar illustrations will welcome nonphilosophers to join the conversation. Mika LaVaque-Manty is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.

Perhaps, civilization in the world began with organized athletic competitions. Formal sporting events are considered to have originated with the ancient Olympics, which took place at a place called Olympia from 776 BC to AD 393. (The modern Olympic Games began in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and have continued throughout the world every four years to the present.) Before they were Greeks, they called themselves Hellenes. Ancient Greece was comprised of many city-states that were typically at war. The Hellenes agreed to a truce called Ekecheiria, which allowed free passage to and from Olympia for participants and representatives for the games. This story begins with main characters traveling the Greek isles recruiting participants for the next games at Olympia; it concludes with sporting battles for victory on the sacred grounds of Olympia.

James Harris takes you on a roller-coaster ride through his life from From the Fields to the Feds. Starting as early as the age of seven years old, all odds were stacked against James. Born and raised in East St. Louis, not many people make it out. Due to his quick and critical thinking, James was able to succeed on and off the field to a certain extent. With various obstacles and everything under the sun, you will enjoy this ride with James and examine how a man could live multiple lives while achieving the impossible.

A comprehensive study of black participation in sports since slavery reveals a checkered history of prejudice and cultural bias that have plagued American sports from the beginning.

Papers presented at a symposium (on title), held in Phoenix, Dec. 1988. Nineteen peer-reviewed papers present the views of designers, administrators, athletes, and researchers with regard to playing field standards, surface traction, testing and correlation to actual field experience, and state-of-the-art natural and artificial surfaces. Price to members is $34.40. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Can equality and excellence coexist in a democratic society?

In a malarial outpost in the South American rain forest, two misplaced gringos converge and clash in this novel from the National Book Award-winning author. Martin Quarrier has come to convert the elusive Niaruna Indians to his brand of Christianity. Lewis Moon, a stateless mercenary who is himself part Indian, has come to kill them on the behalf of the local comandante. Out of this struggle Peter Matthiessen creates an electrifying moral thriller—adapted into a movie starring John Lithgow, Kathy Bates, and Tom Waits. A novel of Conradian richness, At Play in the Fields of the Lord explores both the varieties of spiritual experience and the politics of cultural genocide.