Following the first three installments in the mafia enforcer's adventures, this whodunit finds Wilson taking up with his old partner, Ruby. The pair set out to take down an armored car carrying a huge payday, but there's one problem--Ruby's kid Rick is the one who scouted the job, and he wants in on the deal. Despite his misgivings about Rick, Wilson signs on with the condition that he runs the job. The heist is a success, but the antihero soon finds himself at the heart of a double cross, learning the hard way that honor among thieves is a myth. Packed with suspense and surprising twists, this novel adds yet another ruthless chapter to the celebrated Wilson Mystery series.

A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.

The popular broadcaster describes his involvement and recent disillusionment with spectator sports and documents his thirty-two years as a sports journalist, giving revealing accounts of those who have worked beside him

A tale told by an idiot, this is Book One of It Never Ends. Shakespeare it is not, but it is the guy who laughed at him for wearing tights and got kicked out of the Globe Theatre for shouting, "He's behind you!"

This collection explores the politics of game play and its cultural context by focusing on the Asia-Pacific region. Drawing from micro ethnographic studies to macro political economy analysis of techno-nationalisms and transcultural flows of cultural capital, it provides an interdisciplinary model for thinking through the politics of gaming.

An account of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's unbeaten 1988 season cites the pivotal contributions of such figures as coach Lou Holtz, star quarterback Tony Rice and NFL-bound Ricky Watters, drawing on original reporting and interviews to include coverage of the infamous "Catholics vs. Convicts" game.