A series of strange events leads a man to a confrontation with the deadly Straw Men.

All the depravity and evil of man is found upon the stage. January, 1381. Guests of the Regent, John of Gaunt, Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston have been attending a mystery play performed by the Straw Men, Gaunt's personal acting troupe. The evening’s entertainment, however, is suddenly and brutally interrupted by the violent deaths of two of Gaunt's guests, their severed heads left on stage. The Regent orders Athelstan to find out who committed such a heinous act, leading him to tackle his most baffling and disturbing case yet... A taut and clever medieval murder mystery that won’t let go, perfect for fans of S G MacLean, S W Perry and Rory Clements.

“An engrossing mystery with a wonderfully unique sleuth [who] tackles the most mysterious setting of all: the Bermuda Triangle of human memory” (Barbara Seranella, author of the Munch Mancini Novels). Eight years ago, Brenna Kennedy defended Carmen DellaVecchio. He was a loner, a freak, and accused of the brutal rape and near-murder of Pittsburgh cop Teresa Harnett. She lost the case and DellaVecchio was sent to prison. But now, DNA evidence has cast doubt on DellaVecchio’s guilt, and he is freed while waiting for a new trial. Kennedy continues to believe he is an innocent man. But if DellaVecchio is not guilty, then a dangerous sociopath is still out there. Kennedy’s boyfriend—the brilliant and compassionate psychologist Jim Christensen—has dedicated his career to studying the effects of memory loss, including victims of trauma. When Teresa Harnett asks him to help her remember the events of that terrible night, he reluctantly agrees—and soon all of them are caught in the web of a madman who will kill to stay free . . . In this finalist for the Edgar and Barry Awards, Michael J. Smith delivers “the creepiest good time I’ve had in ages—a genuine page-turner” (Laura Lippman, New York Times–bestselling author of And When She Was Good).

STRAW MEN is an historical novel thats set in motion when, on July 2, 1881, Charles Julius Guiteau shoots President James Garfield in a Washington, DC train station. It quickly became apparent that Guiteau was a lunatic - he loudly proclaimed that he had acted entirely on his own, having been instructed by God to remove the President in order to save the country. But was Garfields assassination truly the work of a deranged, lone gunman? The Byzantine political alliances that Americas Gilded Age had inherited from the trauma of Civil War, together with the tangled, and very public, personal relationships of the countrys most powerful leaders at the time, pointed toward the clear possibility of a larger, darker political plot. Had Guiteau, wittingly or not, merely been the sharp end of a well-disguised political conspiracy leading to a coup detat? The nations doubts had to be put to rest, so the Secret Service - formed during the Civil War to combat an epidemic of counterfeiting - was called upon to mount a national investigation designed to sort out the whole truth behind Guiteaus attack. The shocking story thats gradually uncovered in the course of this investigation reveals that all the players, great and small, in this densely complicated historical drama were being set up and used for one hidden purpose or another.

Nonsense is the best compilation and study of verbal logical fallacies available anywhere. It is a handbook of the myriad ways we go about being illogical--how we deceive others and ourselves, how we think and argue in ways that are disorderly, disorganized, or irrelevant. Nonsense is also a short course in nonmathematical logical thinking, especially important for students of philosophy and economics. A book of remarkable scholarship, Nonsense is unexpectedly relaxed, informal, and accessible.

Straw man (n) - one who "fronts" a casino for its real owners: the Mob. Straw Men (n) - A no-holds-barred memoir of true crime and justice, in which former agent Gary Magnesen boldly tells the story of how the FBI over-ran the Mob in Las Vegas.

For thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith—and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith—but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than 20 years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.