From a Harvard scholar and former Obama official, a powerful proposal for curtailing violent crime in America Urban violence is one of the most divisive and allegedly intractable issues of our time. But as Harvard scholar Thomas Abt shows in Bleeding Out, we actually possess all the tools necessary to stem violence in our cities. Coupling the latest social science with firsthand experience as a crime-fighter, Abt proposes a relentless focus on violence itself -- not drugs, gangs, or guns. Because violence is "sticky," clustering among small groups of people and places, it can be predicted and prevented using a series of smart-on-crime strategies that do not require new laws or big budgets. Bringing these strategies together, Abt offers a concrete, cost-effective plan to reduce homicides by over 50 percent in eight years, saving more than 12,000 lives nationally. Violence acts as a linchpin for urban poverty, so curbing such crime can unlock the untapped potential of our cities' most disadvantaged communities and help us to bridge the nation's larger economic and social divides. Urgent yet hopeful, Bleeding Out offers practical solutions to the national emergency of urban violence -- and challenges readers to demand action.

Meet Lieutenant L.A. Franco—better known as Frank—who commands Homicide Squad #93 in the gang-ravaged central Los Angeles area. Described by one of her detectives as “Dirty Harry’s personality stuffed into Martina Navratilova’s body,” Frank allows nothing into her bruised personal life except music, football, booze and exercise—all her drugs of choice. And just when she needs them the most, they are all about to fail her… The first book in the critically acclaimed L.A. Franco series, Bleeding Out introduces Frank and author Baxter Clare to readers everywhere.

When veterinarian Rachel Goddard and Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger take teenagers on an outing to clean up roadside trash in rural Mason County, Virginia, they make a grisly discovery: the plastic-wrapped body of a young woman. One teen peers at the face through the plastic and screams. The dead girl is her sister, Shelley, a law student who has been missing for a month. As Tom launches a murder investigation, Rachel copes with a visit from her own sister, Michelle, who is terrified that a man is stalking her. Michelle insists she’s receiving threatening calls and someone has invaded her office in the Washington, DC, area. Her own husband doubts her. Although Michelle is a psychologist, she has always been emotionally fragile, and she reverts to her childhood dependence on Rachel, stirring up memories Rachel wants to forget. Soon it becomes clear that the mysterious stalker is real and dangerous and has followed Michelle to Mason County. Now he’s turning his attention to Rachel too. Tom pursues the stalker at the same time he investigates Shelley’s murder. Was it random, or was she killed because she was working to prove that a Mason County man was wrongly convicted of murder? Relatives of his supposed victim were enraged by Shelley’s efforts to free a man they believe is guilty. Did they kill her to stop her? But what if she was right? If an innocent man was convicted, one person would have the strongest motive to silence Shelley: the real murderer. As Tom closes in on Shelley’s killer, the stalker makes his move against Rachel.

Hanna is what you'd call mentally ill. She'd call it being totally crazy. After running away to Portero, Texas to find her estranged mother, Hanna thinks this new town can't be any crazier than she is. She's wrong. Portero is haunted with doors to dimensions of the dead, and protected by demon hunters called Mortmaine. Hanna soon falls for a young Mortmaine named Wyatt, but when her mother is possessed by a murdering ghost, Hanna decides to do whatever it takes to save her, even if it means betraying the boy she loves. In the end no one will be left unscarred.

The author of The City Under the Skin maps out “a delightful fiction, and a wonderfully exasperated love letter to a great city” (Kirkus Reviews). Like any international metropolis, London draws the most diverse characters to its bustling streets. Meet Mick. He’s on his way to the smoke from the provinces. He’s got six guys to find with only their names to go on, a lust for vengeance, and a city guide. Meet Stuart. Determined to walk each of the capital’s roads, streets, and alleyways, he’s a man on a mission . . . but has no plan for when there’s nowhere left to go. Meet Judy. She’s determined to leave her mark on London—one lover at a time—creating a virtual A–Z of sex in the city. “A book whose setting becomes as much a character as the people who pepper its pages, Bleeding London is dark, droll, and suspenseful.” —Library Journal “As packed with strange characters and comic and menacing incidents and characters as any night-bus . . . Nicholson obviously boasts a rich and arcane knowledge of the city and exploits it to the full.” —The Times (London) “Nicholson’s Bleeding London is a dark, frayed and filthy place . . . filled with weird sex, arbitrary violence and obscure threat . . . He produces comic lines when you least expect them, making you laugh out loud.” —New Statesman “An ambitious, clever and witty novel which attacks its subject with verve and humor.” —Literary Review

Bleeding Hearts: From Passionate Activism to Violent Insurgency in Egypt examines the wave of violence that broke out in Egypt in the aftermath of the 2013 military takeover against the country’s first democratically elected president. Abdallah Hendawy sheds light on stories of several political activists who abandoned their commitment to nonviolence and took up arms against the state. Through multiple interviews, ethnographic observations, field work, and qualitative data analysis, Hendawy challenges the dominant theoretical paradigms on radicalization that often attribute this complex phenomenon to ideological or religious beliefs. Hendawy thoroughly examines the tumultuous events that followed the 2013 military takeover and the journey of several radicalized individuals. He demonstrates how and why select Egyptian activists turned to violent tactics in the course of their political engagement. The book ultimately concludes that repressive political environments, particularly the systematic authoritarian practices by state security agencies against political activists, are largely responsible for radicalization. Abusive state practices traumatized the activists and created a litany of unsettled grievances without recourse, giving rise to a formidable desire for revenge against those who violated them – both individuals and the institutions they represent.

The USA Today–bestselling authors of Home Invasion return with another timely thriller that puts readers on the frontlines of the battle for America. The Shady Hill Mobile Home Park isn't shady or hilly—this is West Texas after all. To military vet John Howard Stark, it's home. And worth fighting for. When a vicious drug cartel starts terrorizing the residents of Shady Hill, the Feds and the local police run for cover. But the good people of Shady Hill make a stand, electing Stark as their chief of police. Once a rancher, always a Texan, Stark and his fellow patriots send the cartel into a bloodthirsty fury by daring to fight back. When the bad guys start slaughtering innocent high school students, the God-fearing folks of Shady Hill find themselves deep in the heart of a bloody battle. It’s a desperate fight for survival that can only end in liberty . . . or death.