Bøger udgivet af St. Martins Press-3pl

A new adult novel from Michael Scott and Colette Freedman...The Hallows. Ancient artifacts imbued with a primal and deadly power. But are they protectors of this world, or the keys to its destruction? A gruesome murder in London reveals a sinister plot to uncover a two-thousand-year-old secret.For decades, the Keepers guarded these Hallows, keeping them safe and hidden and apart from each other. But now the Keepers are being brutally murdered, their prizes stolen, the ancient objects bathed in their blood.Now, only a few remain.With her dying breath, one of the Keepers convinces Sarah Miller, a practical stranger, to deliver her Hallow-a broken sword with devastating powers-to her American nephew, Owen. The duo quickly become suspects in a series of murders as they are chased by both the police and the sadistic Dark Man and his nubile mistress. As Sarah and Owen search for the surviving Keepers, they unravel the deadly secret the Keepers were charged to protect. The mystery leads Sarah and Owen on a cat-and-mouse chase through England and Wales, and history itself, as they discover that the sword may be the only thing standing between the world... and a horror beyond imagining. The Thirteen Hallows is the beginning of a spellbinding new saga, a thrilling tale of ancient magic and modern times by a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning playwright.

It all began with the nationally bestselling Rhapsody Trilogy. A fellowship of three had been forged, companions brought together by fate, driven by prophecy: Rhapsody, a Singer of great talent and beauty; Achmed, an assassin with unearthly talents; and Grunthor, a giant of jolly disposition and lethal skill with weapons. The three overcame great adversity in defeating the F'dor--an ancient evil being intent on destroying the world--their battle culminating in Destiny, a thundering crescendo of tragedy, love, and triumph of the human spirit over world-shattering cataclysm.Now comes...Requiem for the Sun, Sequel to the USA Today bestselling Rhapsody TrilogyIt has been three years since their devastating battle, and peace has settled across their land. But to the south an empire lies ready to crumble. When the Dowager Empress dies, along with her successor, a great war breaks out, threatening to overwhelm the known world.And an old nemesis of Rhapsody's--presumed dead for centuries--resurfaces, forcing her to choose between facing his depravity or sacrificing her own life . . . and that of her unborn child.

Starman is the third title in Sara Douglass's epic fantasy Wayfarer Redemption series. A sprawling tale of love and magic, enormous battles and true monstersAxis is the StarMan of prophecy and legend, destined to lead the three races of his world to unite as one people. The people of his world all know the Prophecy of the Destroyer, despite the failed attempts of the Seneschal to suppress it in the name of the god Artor the Ploughman, and it predicts and dictates Axis's path through war and destruction to the creation of Tencendor.The Prophecy foretold that Axis would defeat his half-brother and lay claim to the land that Tencendor will be created upon. The Prophecy told of the traitor in Axis's camp-Faraday's champion, Timozel. And the Prophecy foretold many a choice that Axis must make in order to fulfill his destiny . . . but neglected to mention the choice between the beautiful and courageous Faraday, his late half-brother's wife, and the feisty and hauntingly enchanting Azhure. To Faraday, he had pledged his love and a place by his side as ruler of Tencendor; to Azhure, he had given his children, his time, and his devotion. His love for both women is what the last twist of the Prophecy relies on. While Azhure explores her newfound powers as an Icarii Enchantress, and Faraday replants the ancient forests of the Mother, the evil Gorgrael is plotting Axis's downfall, invading the sky with ice and terror and the flesh-hungry Gryphons. His most daring move is to follow prophecy, to taunt Axis with the pain of his beloved. But which beloved woman will Gorgrael choose . . . and will she be the one whose death will distract Axis from saving the world?

A new adventure of brotherhood and magic from beloved fantasist Dave Duncan In the Kingdom of Jorgary, the days of feudal chivalry are fading as national armies are formed. But Ottokar Magnus is still baron, and his host of brothers include Anton, an ambitious young soldier, and Wulfgang, an amiable teenager. Unable to seek his fortune as a knight errant, Anton has enlisted with the royal Jorgarian hussars and taken Wulf along as his servant. There is magic in Jorgary, but it is regarded as Satanism, rituals performed by Speakers who are in contact with the Devil. The Speakers, though, believe that the Voices they hear belong to saints. Anton is not a Speaker...but Wulf is. Anxious to impress the court, Anton exhibits spectacular horsemanship at a royal hunt, with a little boost from Wulf. Two nights later he is dragged before Cardinal Zdenek, the king's chief minister. Zdenek offers him an earldom and anything else he could dream of if he will ride at once to a strategic fortress at Cardice and take command there. The count and his son have died, victims of both treason and witchcraft. The cardinal thinks that neighboring enemies are preparing to invade, using "modern" arms to capture the fort. Mortal resources alone will not suffice, but Zdenek knows that Anton's improbable jump at the hunt was aided by supernatural power. Anton wants nothing to do with this mission, but Wulf's Voices tell him that they should accept the charge. The result is a harrowing ride through limbo with astonishing results.

New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and the International Thriller Writers, Inc. present a collection of remarkable stories in First Thrills. Showcasing many of the organization's bestselling authors as well as rising stars in the genre, here are twenty-five brand-new, never-before published, stories packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem.*A cunning criminal thinks he can use a child to take the rap for his crimes.*A hospital intern turned body-snatcher.*A priest who comes face to face with his wife's murderer on death row.*A confederate soldier comes home to his love, but changed by more than just the war....he comes back wrong.*The discovery of a flying saucer in the deep sea brings one man to the brink of a massive revelation. *A dying man's last request proves to his ex-wife that he's still rotten to the core. *A clandestine operative finds himself caught in a wicked game of confusion . . . but who is calling the shots? No matter what type of thriller you read, you'll find something here that will entertain you . . . and perhaps a new writer you'll cherish for years to come.

Whitley's Strieber's breathtaking thriller is coming to TV: Hunters-an original Syfy series-is executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) and Natalie Chaidez (12 Monkeys) and premieres in April 2016.When police investigator Flynn Carroll's wife disappears, he discovers that someone is abducting people and then framing the abductees as runaways. While Flynn's case files grow, Special Agent Diana Glass, a member of the most secret police unit on the planet, surreptitiously watches him work. Her agents are investigating the same enigmatic abductions and she wants Flynn on her team. Will Flynn's desperate search for his wife come up empty? Or will it expose a conspiracy that reveals the most dangerous terrorists of all may not even be of this world?

Two stories of renowned American explorers in one low-priced edition, from master of the western novel Richard S. WheelerSnowboundAmerican explorer John Frémont embarks on a quest to find a railway route to the west along the 38th parallel. His fourth expedition, into the American west in the dead of winter, proves more challenging than anticipated. Trapped, snowbound, in the Colorado mountains, Frémont must battle the frigid elements in a harrowing journey over the backbone of the continent. This novel of desperate danger and fierce courage is a survival saga par excellence-a struggle of man against man, man against nature, and man against himself.EclipseLewis and Clark made history with their epochal first crossing of the North American continent. Upon their return, plain-spoken William Clark enjoys his fame, marries his childhood sweetheart, and settles in St. Louis as superintendent of the nation's Indian affairs. His black manservant, York, forces him to confront the nature of slavery and question the society that condones it. Meriwether Lewis, a man of courage and brilliant intellect, returns from the Pacific a changed man. Something terrible has happened to him, a disease with no name that erodes his health and threatens to destroy his mind-and his honor. Eclipse is an exploration of triumph and tragedy told in the authentically rendered voices of two of the greatest American explorers.This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

A retired detective pairs up with a sworn enemy to solve a series of countryside murders in The Snowy Range Gang, and an atoning criminal goes on a dangerous adventure seeking lost treasure in Vendetta Gold: two memorable novels from Spur Award-winning author Mike Blakely.The Snowy Range GangClaude Duval thought he was through with rustlers and killers when he left Texas for Wyoming. But the retired livestock detective soon finds ranch hands turning up dead and cattle missing. It looks like the work of Lone Wolf Wolverton, who murdered Duval's partner years ago. But Lone Wolf, who's done his time and gone straight, rides to Duval's ranch looking for a chance to prove he's being framed. Out of leads, the lawman reluctantly accepts help from the man he's sworn to kill, and the unlikely pair teams up to track down the real rustlers and killers, the Snowy Range Gang.Vendetta GoldA bloody family feud sent Roy Huckaby to a dusty Texas prison for three years. Now that he's out, he vows to follow the straight and narrow and to ride alone into a solid new life. But when a dying vaquero gives him a treasure map, the opportunity is too exciting to pass up. Roy starts out on a path he hopes will lead to incalculable wealth, only to find it's bordered with dangerous pitfalls--and unexpected romance.This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

Reign Grazi is no stranger to dangerous men. Her whole life, they've been there. Grandfathers, uncles, cousins...she knows the difference between people who made the rules and those who broke them. But she has no idea why someone might want her dead. Nick Fattelli is handsome, sophisticated, and...an assassin. He doesn't know who hired him to take out Reign, but after they meet and sparks fly, he vows to protect her. Unless it's really him they are after...Thus begins PLAYING WITH FIRE, a sexy thriller by Renee Graziano, star of VH1's hit show Mob Wives.The author knows this lifestyle firsthand: She is the daughter of one of the most famous mobsters of our day, with an ex-husband now in witness protection, and a trail of "connected" boyfriends a mile long.

An astonishing short story collection from the New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Archer, To Cut a Long Story Short. A dying man doesn't know which of his relations to leave his fortune to, only to find out who really cares about him. A chance overheard conversation changes the course of an entire man's life. A woman savors every word of a letter from her lover while her husband reads over her shoulder. A criminal on the loose confesses that he is desperate to be caught. A widowed mother learns the cold truth about her second husband at the dawn of her third marriage. A pencil, the cruelest of the artist's tools, leaves nothing to chance...

Bloodline: a gritty historical novel about the Mafia in 1920s New York, from Edgar Award-winning author Warren Murphy.The Falcones are an immigrant family living in New York City in 1920. Their patriarch, Tony, is a respected policeman. His sons, Tommy and Mario, both served in the Great War and are now upstanding citizens-a cop and a priest. But their cousin Nilo has a dark past, and he fled to America after causing several deaths in a fight in Italy. Nilo soon falls in with Don Maranzano, a Mafia boss who comes from his hometown in Italy. Maranzano grooms Nilo as a "real estate broker," but after a few months, Nilo is offered the chance to do some serious work. He becomes a useful still-wrecker, assassin, and skilled criminal. The papers give him the name "Kid Trouble." Tommy and Mario try to turn a blind eye, but it's hard to hide his underworld affiliations. As conflicts in the city begin to erupt into a violent war involving gangsters from all parts of the country, Tommy and Mario struggle to stay out of the dark world into which Nilo has dragged the family. But when things take a turn for the worse, the Mafia may be the only place for them to go.

Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And it its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of space.America needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy. Worse, Dan discovers that the plane worked perfectly right up until the moment that saboteurs knocked it out of the sky. And whoever brought it down is willing and able to kill again to keep Astro grounded.Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy ideal as a campaign plank for the candidate she's grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck.Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they've figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West.A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.

Replace shame and guilt with self-compassion to change the way you think about weight lossAuthor Shahroo Izadi presents a new approach losing weight-without ever telling you what or how to eat. In The Last Diet., she shares how the same evidence-based tools she used effectively with her clients who struggle with addiction helped her to lose over a hundred pounds, increase her self-esteem, and transform her habits around food and negative self-talk. Diets often offer quick, short-term fixes and so-called miracle cures, but the real challenge is managing weight and changing habits over a sustained period of time. Everybody's journeys and needs are different: it's about shifting the way we communicate with ourselves and our bodies every single day, in every aspect of our lives. Shahroo's revolutionary kindness method gives readers the tools to embrace self-kindness and self-respect and in doing so change the narrative of health. Using a custom-tailored plan, The Last Diet. will help you identify where your unhealthy habits come from, teach you how change them, and show you what to do when you slip up. Shahroo guides you through every step, helping you to draw out your own wisdom and find motivation to change your long-term habits and lose weight - for good.

A MOST FORBIDDEN LOVEThey call him Chance, though in truth the Marquess of Fairlamb feels bitterly cursed: A long-ago family feud is still standing in the way of his heart's desire. Lady Tempest is the daughter of his father's sworn enemy, the Marquess of Norgrave. She is beautiful, innocent, and utterly untouchable. But some seductions are just too good to resist... Turns out Tempest is a woman of her own mind-and a true romantic who will overcome every obstacle to be with the man of her dreams. But the odds are against handsome, wickedly charming Chance if he intends to win Tempest as his bride. Will he choose loyalty to his family-or risk everything he has for the woman he yearns for?

Evening Lake: an idyllic, peaceful, western Massachusetts getaway with a close-knit community of families. Detective Harry Jordan sees his lake home as a respite from solving crimes on the streets of Boston...until crime comes to Evening Lake. Harry Jordan is out for a walk when the night is rocked by an explosion: the Havnel house is engulfed in a conflagration and Bea Havnel is seen fleeing, hair on fire, plunging into the lake. Mysterious, rough-around-the edges, and private, Bea and her mother Lacey are newcomers to Evening Lake and nothing like the well-heeled families of the community. Bea survives the fire, but her mother does not, and Harry is pulled into the investigation. As is young Diz Osborne, who, unbeknownst to any of them, carries a weighty secret about who else he saw rowing on the lake that night. When it's discovered that Lacey Havnel died not from the explosion but from a knife wound, it's clear that a murderer is on the loose. And this murderer is poised to strike again, and again. Told with Elizabeth Adler's inimitable style, illuminating descriptions, and intricate family dynamics, Last to Know is the definition of a page-turner.

What begins as a beautiful evening at a party on a yacht ends with attempted murder...and a quest for revenge...One moment Angie Morse is standing on the deck of a large luxury yacht and the next she feels a stinging blow to her head from a champagne bottle wielded by a beautiful woman. And then a push. She is in the water. She can see people on the yacht, but they don't seem to notice that she is gone, and all seem to have deliberately turned their backs as the yacht begins to slowly pull away from her. These are her friends, and one is her love. Two had a reason for getting rid of her, though she would never have thought it would come to this. Until now.Revenge burns so deeply inside her that she knows she will survive somehow. She will get them. One way or another.Told with Elizabeth Adler's trademark attention to luxurious detail of people and places, One Way or Another is a glamorous, twisty novel of vengeance and vindication.

"I KILLED MY PARENTS."Seventeen-year-old Tyler Hadley posted an invitation on Facebook: party at my crib tonight. But this was no ordinary house party in the Florida suburbs; it was a grisly crime scene. Later that night, Tyler revealed to his best friend, Michael, that he'd bludgeoned his parents to death with a hammer. Michael didn't believe him...until he entered the master bedroom and saw the bodies of Tyler's parents on the floor-murdered, beyond the shadow of a doubt. "THEY DESERVED IT."Mary Jo and Blake Hadley had always known their son had a dark side. He would make disturbing jokes about murder on Facebook. He apparently idolized the infamous Menendez brothers, who murdered their parents for money. But how could they have known their son was dead serious? What kind of person could kill his mother and father, throw a party with their bodies in the next room, and brag about it? This riveting account by an award-winning journalist takes you deep inside the mind of a troubled teenager-and behind the scenes of a true American nightmare...

From TE Carter, All We Could Have Been is a powerful and heartbreaking look at the assumptions we make about people and how one person's actions can affect everyone around them. Five years ago, Lexi witnessed something that shattered her very core. To cope, she moves from town to town, desperate to hide the darkest of family secrets. In every location, she assumes a new name and flies under the radar as long as she can before anyone figures out who she is-who she's related to. Lexie now lives with her aunt, has minimal interaction with her parents, and has no communication with her brother. But the pain is always there.After starting her newest school, all she wants is to just live life. But how can she when the past keeps threatening to drag her back?

A brilliant, exhilarating debut novel that retells The Odyssey during the 1965 Watts Riots-like nothing you've ever read beforeIt's August 1965 and Los Angeles is scorching. Americo Monk, a street-haunting aficionado of graffiti, is frantically trying to return home to the makeshift harbor community (assembled from old shipping containers) where he lives with his girlfriend, Karmann. But this is during the Watts Riots, and although his status as a chronicler of all things underground garners him free passage through the territories fiercely controlled by gangs, his trek is nevertheless diverted. Embarking on an exhilarating, dangerous, and at times paranormal journey, Monk crosses paths with a dizzying array of representatives from Los Angeles subcultures, including Chinese gangsters, graffiti bombers, witches, the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, and others. Graffiti Palace is the story of a city transmogrified by the upsurge of its citizens, and Monk is our tour guide, cataloging and preserving the communities that, though surreptitious and unseen, nevertheless formed the backbone of 1960s Los Angeles.With an astounding generosity of imagery and imagination, Graffiti Palace heralds the birth of a major voice in fiction. A. G. Lombardo sees the writings on our walls, and with Graffiti Palace he has provided an allegorical paean to a city in revolt.

Corinne Sullivan's debut that bestselling author Jennifer Close called "a sharp and complex coming-of-age story," now in trade paperback. "[A] surprising debut...an affecting novel, examining self-doubt, self-sabotage, and the lasting impact of both." -- Publisher's Weekly "Sullivan's debut is a smart and delicious page-turner." -- Booklist Exploring issues of class, sex, and gender, Indecent by Corinne Sullivan is a smart, sexy debut that shatters the black-and-white nature of victimhood, taking a close look at blame and moral ambiguity.Shy, introverted Imogene Abney has always been fascinated by the elite world of prep schools, having secretly longed to attend one since she was a girl in Buffalo, New York. So, shortly after her college graduation, when she's offered a teaching position at the Vandenberg School for Boys, an all-boys prep school in Westchester, New York, she immediately accepts, despite having little teaching experience-and very little experience with boys. When Imogene meets handsome, popular Adam Kipling a few weeks into her tenure there, a student who exudes charm and status and ease, she's immediately drawn to him. Who is this boy who flirts with her without fear of being caught? Who is this boy who seems immune to consequences and worry; a boy for whom the world will always provide? As an obsessive, illicit affair begins between them, Imogene is so lost in the haze of first love that she's unable to recognize the danger she's in. The danger of losing her job. The danger of losing herself in the wrong person. The danger of being caught doing something possibly illegal and so indecent.

Bella Poldark marks the twelfth and final book in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, now a major TV series from Masterpiece PBS.Cornwall 1818We continue the tale of Ross and Demelza; of the wayward Valentine Warleggan, whose existence keeps open the old wounds of the feud between Ross and George; of Bella, the Poldarks' youngest daughter, whose precocious talent as a singer is encouraged by her old flame, Christopher Havergal, and by a distinguished French conductor, who has more in mind than Bella's music; of Clowance, the Poldarks' widowed daughter, who considers remarriage to one of two rival suitors; and of a murderer who stalks the villages of west Cornwall.In his Poldark series, Winston Graham explores the complications of love lost and the class struggle of early 19th-century England with a light comic touch. Bella Poldark is the final Poldark book.

The Miller's Dance, the ninth novel in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, now a major TV series from Masterpiece PBS.Cornwall 1812At Nampara, the Poldark family finds the new year brings involvement in more than one unexpected venture. For Ross and Demelza there is some surprising - and worrying - news. And Clowance, newly returned from her London triumphs, finds that her entanglement with Stephen Carrington brings not only happiness but heartache.As the armies battle in Spain, and the political situation at home becomes daily more obscure, the Poldark and Warleggan families find themselves thrust into a turbulent new era as complex and changing as the patterns of the Miller's Dance . . .In his Poldark series, Winston Graham explores the complications of love lost and the class struggle of early 19th-century England with a light comic touch. The Miller's Dance is followed by the tenth book in the series, The Loving Cup.

The Loving Cup, the tenth book in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, now a major TV series from Masterpiece PBS.Cornwall 1813A silver cup lies half-forgotten in a dank cave, amongst a pile of stolen goods. Yet the tiny vessel and its inscription Amor gignit amorem haunts the lives of the still-feuding Poldark and Warleggan families, as Ross, Demelza and the ambitious and powerful Sir George Warleggan watch their children make the decisions that will shape their destinies.In the closing years of the wars against Napoleon, for Jeremy and Clowance, and for arrogant, cynical Valentine Warleggan, these are troubled and momentous times . . .In his Poldark series, Winston Graham explores the complications of love lost and the class struggle of early 19th-century England with a light comic touch. The Loving Cup is followed by the eleventh book in the series, The Twisted Sword.

A bombing injures private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker, leaving it up to his soon-to-be-married junior partner-Thomas Llewelyn-to find the person trying to murder them both before it's too late. In 19th century London, Cyrus Barker and his associate Thomas Llewelyn are renowned private enquiry agents, successfully employed by the highest levels of Her Majesty's government as well as private citizens. Their success, however, has led to their acquiring a powerful group of enemies, many of whom are determined to have their revenge. At least one of those enemies is responsible for a bombing of their offices that puts Cyrus Barker into the hospital and endangers Thomas Llewelyn's rapidly forthcoming nuptials. To add to the confusion, Barker's long-lost brother Caleb turns up on the rubble of their doorstep not long after the not-quite-fatal bombing. Unsure of Caleb and warned about him by Barker, Thomas reluctantly accepts Caleb's help both with a new case that comes in as well as trying to pinpoint which of Barker's enemies is making a move against them. As Thomas works his way through their enemy list, someone else is winnowing down that list: one by one those enemies are dying. With time running out-and his bride-to-be reconsidering their marriage-Llewelyn must (with the sick-bed bound Barker's help) uncover the killer and the plot before it's too late.

For fans of Josie Silver's One Day in December, The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is a wholly original, charismatic, and uplifting novel that no reader will soon forget. Ailsa Rae is learning how to live. She's only a few months past the heart transplant that-just in time-saved her life. Now, finally, she can be a normal twenty-eight-year-old. She can climb a mountain. Dance. Wait in line all day for tickets to Wimbledon. But first, she has to put one foot in front of the other. So far, things are as bloody complicated as ever. Her relationship with her mother is at a breaking point and she wants to find her father. Then there's Lennox, whom Ailsa loved and lost. Will she ever find love again?Her new heart is a bold heart. She just needs to learn to listen to it. From the hospital to her childhood home, on social media and IRL, Ailsa will embark on a journey about what it means to be, and feel, alive. How do we learn to be brave, to accept defeat, to dare to dream? From Stephanie Butland, author of The Lost for Words Bookshop, The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae will warm you from the inside out.

A devoted fascist changes her mind and her life after witnessing the horrors of the HolocaustFirst published in Italy in 1979, Luce D'Eramo's Deviation is a seminal work in Holocaust literature. It is a book that not only confronts evil head-on but expands that confrontation into a complex and intricately structured work of fiction, which has claims to standing among the greatest Italian novels of the twentieth century.Lucia is a young Italian girl from a bourgeois fascist family. In the early 1940s, when she first hears about the atrocities being perpetrated in the Nazi concentration camps, she is doubtful and confused, unable to reconcile such stories with the ideology in which she's been raised. Wanting to disprove these "slanders" on Hitler's Reich, she decides to see for herself, running away from home and heading for Germany, where she intends to volunteer as camp labor. The journey is a harrowing, surreal descent into hell, which finds Lucia confronting the stark and brutal realities of life under Nazi rule, a life in which continual violence and fear are simply the norm. Soon it becomes clear that she must get away, but how can she possibly go back to her old life knowing what she now knows? Besides, getting out may not be as simple as getting in.Finally available in English translation, Deviation is at once a personal testament, a work of the imagination, an investigation into the limits of memory, a warning to future generations, and a visceral scream at the horrors of the world.

From the Wall Street Journal's opera critic, a wide-ranging narrative history of how and why the New York City Opera went bankrupt-and what it means for the future of the artsIn October 2013, the arts world was rocked by the news that the New York City Opera-"the people's opera"-had finally succumbed to financial hardship after 70 years in operation. The company had been a fixture on the national opera scene-as the populist antithesis of the grand Metropolitan Opera, a nurturing home for young American talent, and a place where new, lively ideas shook up a venerable art form. But NYCO's demise represented more than the loss of a cherished organization: it was a harbinger of massive upheaval in the performing arts-and a warning about how cultural institutions would need to change in order to survive.Drawing on extensive research and reporting, Heidi Waleson, one of the foremost American opera critics, recounts the history of this scrappy company and reveals how, from the beginning, it precariously balanced an ambitious artistic program on fragile financial supports. Waleson also looks forward and considers some better-managed, more visionary opera companies that have taken City Opera's lessons to heart.Above all, Mad Scenes and Exit Arias is a story of money, ego, changes in institutional identity, competing forces of populism and elitism, and the ongoing debate about the role of the arts in society. It serves as a detailed case study not only for an American arts organization, but also for the sustainability and management of nonprofit organizations across the country.

An eye-opening exploration of blood, the life giving substance with the power of taboo, the value of diamonds and the promise of breakthrough science.Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don't even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event.Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, is renowned for her intrepid work on topics that are invisible but vitally important. In Nine Pints, she takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthrough of the "liquid biopsy," which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world's first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as "Menstrual Man" for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the "OPEC of plasma." And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you.Spanning science and politics, stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life's blood in an entirely new light.Nine Pints was named one of Bill Gates' recommended summer reading titles for 2019.