A spare, elegantly simple exploration of father-son love and father-son hate. Equally strong passions, left unbridled, one can be harmful, the other deadly. Based on a real event, Patricide begins with a brutal homicide on the Iowa prairie in 1920. Told by several observers, the subject is handled with the respect befitting these salt of the earth people bewildered by the horrifying act of fifteen-year-old Carl Jess. What drove this boy to patricide? What was his motivation? Did he believe he had something to gain, or was he totally deranged? While the community wrestles with these questions, attempting to sort fact from speculation, the five men closest to the case examine their relationship with their sons. The killer, Carl Jess, has a point of view, too. Stirring the pot is Augusta Duvall, the first female reporter for the Des Moines Register, who publishes a sensationalized and somewhat fictional portrayal of Carl Jess. She also stirs romantic feelings in John Glover, 50 years her senior; they become the target of gossip. Patricide will have readers contemplating their life and family relationships. Given circumstances similar to Carl Jesss, who among us might commit murder? Christensens authentic voice carries readers beyond the opening shock of patricide into the hearts and minds of a rich cast of characters who explore the complexities of the human condition that tie, bind, and wound families. Long after closing this thought-provoking novel readers will find themselves asking: Why? JB Hamilton Queen: author of Dagger in the Cup, NIEBA Award; Raincrow; Imminent Reprisal; Masters of the Breed; and Sweet Gums. When tragedy strikes, I turn to a master storyteller for comfort and illumination. Madonna is one such light-bearer. In this beautifully and compassionately told tale, unfolding from multiple perspectivesthe sheriff, the newspaper reporter, the reverend, the young killer himselfMadonna portrays a community struggling to live with incomprehensible evil. Once youve read this story, it will be a light for your journey for the rest of your life. Marshall J. Cook, professor emeritus of creative writing, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author of the Monona Quinn mystery series.

Dave Harris's stellar debut takes a nuanced look at the complexities of black masculinity. Patricide weighs those complexities and how they impact a lineage of black boys who fight to become men in the image of their fathers. More than just a book about fear or death centered on being black in America, Patricide illuminates the internal struggle to be the best man possible with the shadow of other men at your back. Through poems on loss, music, college, and family strife, Harris examines how time shifts and changes, despite so much of a life’s architecture staying the same. Ultimately, Patricide opens itself up to reveal a story of many threads, one that finds a way to tie together in unexpected and joyful ways.

Understanding Parricide is the most comprehensive book available about juvenile and adult sons and daughters who kill their parents. Dr. Heide moves far behind the statistical correlates of parricide by synthesizing the professional literature on parricide in general, matricide, patricide, double parricides, and familicides. As a clinician, she explains the reasons behind the killings. Understanding Parricide includes in-depth discussion of issues related to prosecuting and defending parricide offenders. The book is enriched with its focus on clinical assessment, case studies, and follow-up of parricide offenders, as well as treatment, risk assessment, and prevention.

The Semantic Web is a new area of research and development in the field of computer science that aims to make it easier for computers to process the huge amount of information on the web, and indeed other large databases, by enabling them not only to read, but also to understand the information. Based on successful courses taught by the authors, and liberally sprinkled with examples and exercises, this comprehensive textbook describes not only the theoretical issues underlying the Semantic Web, but also algorithms, optimisation ideas and implementation details. The book will therefore be valuable to practitioners as well as students, indeed to anyone who is interested in Internet technology, knowledge engineering or description logics. Supplementary materials available online include the source code of program examples and solutions to selected exercises.

Roland Marks is a Nobel Prize winning novelist with a penchant for younger women and four marriages behind him. Lou-Lou Marks, his grown daughter, is a successful academic in her own right. But her real career lies in attending to her father. An egomaniacal and emotionally manipulative man, he demands of her absolute filial loyalty and an uncompromising acquiescence to his every need—her only reward is his approval, which she feels she never fully receives, but desperately desires. When Roland falls in love with a woman fifty years his junior, Lou-Lou senses the precarious decline of her power. Intent on preventing Roland from marrying for a fifth time and signing away his estate—and her inheritance—the relationship takes a darkly comical turn. Astute, insightful, and mordantly hilarious, Patricide is Joyce Carol Oates at her best.

One of the most ambitious, ingenious, and sophisticated works of psychohistory yet to appear. . . .Forgie s thesis challenges an entire tradition of American historiography. David Brion Davis, New York Review of Books"