Detective Ruggiero Carlucci of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, investigates the slaying of a baseball player, famous for his aggressive pitching style. Suspects include two ex-wives and a girlfriend, all of whom were at the receiving end of the player's aggressive style at home. By the author of Family Values.

From an Edgar Award–nominated author, a small-town chief of police is pushed to his limits while going up against a local crime syndicate. The near-fatal stabbing of Armand “Fat Manny” Manditti, a numbers runner working for the local mob boss, has chief of police Mario Balzic in a bind. Neither Fat Manny nor his brother Tullio are talking, probably because they are putting together a revenge plan that will soon turn the small rust-belt town of Rocksburg into a morgue. Unless Balzic can come up with the perp before they do. It’s the kind of fix that can get even the most conscientious cop in trouble. . . . “Constantine is a marvelous writer. May Mario Balzic thrive.” —The New York Times “K.C. Constantine is one of the most talked about mystery writers on the American scene. Constantine has a smooth style, and his plots are loaded with unexpected twists and turns.” ―Boston Globe “Constantine writes a terrific mystery.” ―Providence Journal

Small towns have long been a commonplace setting in cozy mysteries, but in recent years writers of realistic crime fiction have discovered fresh possibilities in small town settings. There they can take advantage of distinct facets of small town life--a sense of community, slower pace of life, proximity to nature--and yet deal with social, economic and environmental issues. Because crimes in small communities hit closer to home, the human element can better be emphasized. This book focuses on the work of ten contemporary authors who have placed small towns like Rocksburg, Pennsylvania (K. C. Constantine), West Table, Missouri (Daniel Woodrell), Niniltna, Alaska (Dana Stabenow), Aurora, Minnesota (William Kent Krueger), Paradise, Michigan (Steve Hamilton), Millersburg, Ohio (P. L. Gaus), Heartsdale, Georgia (Karin Slaughter), Millers Kill, New York (Julia Spencer-Fleming), Durant, Wyoming (Craig Johnson), and a number of national parks (Nevada Barr) on the map of American crime fiction.

What do men-white straight men in particular-want? In a series of witty and provocative investigations of American popular culture, Fred Pfeil exposes the contradictions in the construction of white heterosexual masculinity over the last fifteen years. White Guys probes such topics as the rock'n'roll bodies of Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose, and the late Kurt Cobain; the "male rampage" films Die Hard and Lethal Weapon and the films of "sensitive transformation" that followed in their wake; and the curious yet symptomatic activities of the men's movement whose "rituals" Pfeil has investigated firsthand.

An introduction to and advice on book collecting with a glossary of terms and tips on how to identify first editions and estimated values for over 20,000 collectible books published in English (including translations) over the last three centuries-about half are literary titles in the broadest sense (novels, poetry, plays, mysteries, science fiction, and children's books); and the other half are non-fiction (Americana, travel and exploration, finance, cookbooks, color plate, medicine, science, photography, Mormonism, sports, et al).