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Raw Bone
by Scott ThornleyIn the third suspense-filled instalment of the critically acclaimed MacNeice Mysteries, Detective Superintendent MacNeice finds himself in the line of fire when two seemingly random acts of violence lead him deep into Dundurn’s seedy underbelly.On a cold morning in early spring, the body of a young woman is found trapped in the ice of Dundurn Bay. The next day at dawn, a homeless man discovers a school teacher in a public park. Gagged and bound with duct tape, the man is rigged to an elaborate grenade that’s been set to blow if anyone attempts to free him.Detective Superintendent MacNeice and his team are called in to investigate the two seemingly unrelated crimes, and quickly find themselves venturing into the dive bars and rooming houses of Dundurn, where Irish immigrants rub elbows with mercenaries and the city’s criminal underclass….
Fortune
by Ian HamiltonInternational bestselling author Ian Hamilton returns with a riveting new novel featuring fan-favourite Uncle Chow Tung, who is called upon to end a violent turf war between rival gangs and stop Chinese authorities from eliminating the triad societies once and for all. Hong Kong, 1995. Two years before Hong Kong is to be returned to the People’s Republic of China, the Communist government has its eye on the New Territories, and tensions are running high among the triads. At the root of the tensions is a fear of what will become of Hong Kong after the Communists take over. Seeking to strengthen their positions, several triad gangs begin a violent turf war in Macau that quickly spreads to Hong Kong. Uncle realizes that prolonged violence will result in a crackdown by the organized crime bureau of the Hong Kong police, and steps in to mediate a ceasefire. His efforts are met with resistance, and soon his own territory of Fanling is attacked by a neighbouring gang. Meanwhile, Uncle expresses his concerns about the future to his partners in China. Their response comes as a surprise and leads to an unexpected outcome that will have a lasting effect on the triad societies for decades to come.
The Princeling of Nanjing
by Ian HamiltonThe eighth novel in the Ava Lee series finds Ava caught in a labyrinth of high-level political corruption. Ava is in Shanghai for the launch of the PÖ clothing line. She has invited Xu, and over the course of the glitzy event and a late-night dinner, she detects a certain hesitancy in him. He later confides that the Tsai family, headed by Tsai Lian, the governor of Jiangsu Province and a “princeling” — he is the son of a general who was on the Long March with Mao and a member of China’s power elite — is trying to force him and his triad organization back into the drug business. Xu is already paying millions of dollars a year to various Tsai businesses, but the family wants more and thinks the new venture can deliver it. Xu believes this move would lead to his eventual destruction and feels he has nowhere to turn. If he opposes them, they will crush him. If he goes along with them, he thinks that inevitably the police and military will hunt him down.Ava sets out to help Xu deter the Tsai family. As she digs into the breadth and depth of the family’s wealth and corruption, she gets caught up in a huge tangled web, extending all the way to the U.S. and the U.K., where it reaches the top echelons of political power.
The Goddess of Yantai
by Ian HamiltonIn the latest installment of the Ava Lee novels, Ava must infiltrate the seedy world of the Chinese film industry to protect the woman she loves. Ava travels to Beijing for the premiere of Mao’s Daughter, the latest film starring her secret lover, Pang Fai. After the screening, a distraught Fai tells Ava that she is being blackmailed by senior officials of the China Movie Syndicate, who seek sexual favours in return for their continued support of Fai’s career and films. When Fai resists, the threats become increasingly menacing and include the release of scandalous videos of the young Fai that could end her career entirely.Working alongside Fai and several of her friends, Ava delves deep into the dark side of the Chinese film industry in an attempt to liberate her lover from the grasp of the Syndicate. But can Ava save Fai from her memories?
The Ava Lee Series Bundle 4
by Ian HamiltonExclusive bundle of books 10, 11, and 12 in the Ava Lee series: The Triad Years, plus a special preview of Fate, the first book in The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung spin-off series.In The Imam of Tawi-Tawi, Ava is contracted by a senator in the Philippines to investigate a college on an island that he suspects is training terrorists. While working with a CIA agent, Ava’s judgement and morals are tested.In The Goddess of Yantai, Ava travels to Beijing for the premiere of her secret lover Pang Fai’s latest film. After the screening, a distraught Fai tells Ava that she is being blackmailed. Working alongside Fai, Ava delves deep into the world of the Chinese film industry in an attempt to liberate her lover from the grasp of the Syndicate. But can Ava save Fai from her memories?In The Mountain Master of Sha Tin, Ava goes to Shanghai with Pang Fai to visit her ailing friend Xu when a triad war breaks out in Hong Kong. Sammy Wing, an old enemy of Ava’s who has twice tried to kill her, has enlisted the aid of his nephew Carter to reclaim control of his old territory, Wanchai, from Xu’s men. As the violence mountss, Ava comes face-to-face with Sammy and Carter Wing. Who will pull the trigger first?
The Imam of Tawi-Tawi
by Ian HamiltonIn the most explosive novel in the Ava Lee series to date, Ava partners with a CIA agent to investigate a college on a Philippine island that is suspected of training terrorists — what she discovers is brutal and shocking. Ava has spent two nights luxuriating in a hotel in Yunnan Province with the actress Pang Fai, with whom she has begun a secret relationship. She receives an urgent phone call from Chang Wang, the right hand to the billionaire Tommy Ordonez and one of Uncle’s oldest friends. Chang asks Ava to fly to Manila to meet with his friend, Senator Miguel Ramirez. Ramirez asks Ava to investigate a college in Tawi-Tawi, an island province in the Philippines, which he suspects is training terrorists. Ava’s investigation leads to a partnership with a CIA agent, and together they attempt to stop an international plot so horrific in size and that Ava’s judgement and morals are tested like never before.
The King of Shanghai
by Ian HamiltonThe seventh novel in the Ava Lee series finds Ava caught up in the election for the chairmanship of the Triad Societies.It’s been three months since Uncle’s passing, and Ava is finally ready to begin her new life as a partner with May Ling Wong and her sister-in-law Amanda in their Three Sisters venture capital firm. Ava travels to Shanghai to hear a pitch on a new investment possibility: the creation of a fashion line by Clark and Gillian Po. She also meets with the mysterious Xu, a young man Uncle had been mentoring and who is the head of the triad in Shanghai. Xu makes an audacious business proposal that she and May Ling are compelled to consider. Meanwhile, separately and privately, he confides to Ava that he intends to run for the chairmanship of the Triad Societies and attempts to recruit her as his adviser.Against her will, Ava becomes enmeshed in triad warfare and her future is threatened…
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya
by Ian HamiltonThe fifth installment in the wildly popular Ava Lee series exposes the dark world of money laundering and the Italian mob.Ava begins an investigation into what she thinks is a Ponzi scheme. The trail leads her to a bank in Indonesia that is run by a Scot, but in actuality is a front for an elaborate money-laundering operation for Italian mobsters. The relationship between Ava and the Scotsman turns nasty and personal. Meanwhile, Uncle’s health problems become apparent…
The Sniper
by Kuo-Li ChangJason Bourne meets John McClane in this electrifying thriller about a special-forces sniper and a seasoned homicide detective who get caught up in a criminal conspiracy that involves the highest levels of power. Twelve days before retirement, Taipei police detective Wu is handed a curious case: a naval officer has been found dead in his hotel room. While it is immediately apparent to Wu that the officer has been murdered, the military insist it was suicide and want the case closed with no questions asked. Soon, however, more high-ranking officers turn up dead, and Wu realizes he has a full-blown conspiracy on his hands. Meanwhile in Italy, Alex, a young Taiwanese sniper, ex-Marine, ex–French Foreign Legion, and currently a fried-rice chef in Manarola, is called back into service. Ordered by his handler to assassinate a high-level Taiwanese government advisor in Rome, he soon finds himself on the run, hunted across Europe by his old brothers-in-arms.
The Guardian of Amsterdam Street
by Sergio SchmuclerRoma meets A Gentleman in Moscow in this vivid portrait of the twentieth century, witnessed by one boy from his self-imposed refuge in Mexico City.Galo has not left his home on Amsterdam Street, not since the day in 1938 when a shocking act of violence split his family apart. His hermitage is made easier by the peculiar design of the street. It is shaped like an ellipse — if you walk it, you will find yourself returning to the same place again and again.Playing host to Jewish refugees, Spanish exiles, and Latin American revolutionaries, his home becomes the school at which Galo learns about a world he never sees, and the ideals and terrors that shape history. He begins to realize that Amsterdam Street, the site of endless returns, may be the true centre of the world. Appointing himself the street’s guardian, Galo witnesses the decades pass, knowing that everyone who walks away must one day come back.A novel of rare humanity and grace, The Guardian of Amsterdam Street is a stunning portrait of a neighbourhood where the whole of the twentieth century comes alive and a moving inquiry into how we shape the world, and how it transforms us in turn.
Vantage Point
by Scott ThornleyThe highly anticipated fourth instalment in the critically acclaimed MacNeice Mysteries series finds MacNeice and his team on the hunt for a sophisticated serial killer who draws his inspiration from classic works of art — perfect for fans of Dan Brown’s mysteries with a historical twist.Two bodies have been found in the master bedroom of a mansion in Dundurn’s old-money neighbourhood under the mountain. Howard Terry and his son, Matthew, have both been shot twice in the chest. Under Matthew’s body is a doll with blood-red cotton wadding spilling out of its head. Nearby, a mannequin in a nightshirt lies on its back, with two bullet holes in the chest.On the other side of town, a body is discovered below the Devil’s Punchbowl waterfall. Leaning against an enormous rock is a man in a cotton nightshirt wearing a papier mâché donkey’s head. Two rounds in the chest. Something about the way the bodies have been arranged suggests the murders are connected and triggers a memory in Detective Superintendent MacNeice of an image he saw years before…
The Mountain Master of Sha Tin
by Ian HamiltonIn the latest installment of the Ava Lee novels, Ava becomes embroiled in a violent war between feuding gangs vying for control of the Wanchai territory in Hong Kong.Ava is in Shanghai visiting her ailing friend, the Mountain Master Xu, when a triad war breaks out in Hong Kong. Sammy Wing, an old enemy of Ava’s who has twice tried to kill her, has enlisted the aid of his nephew Carter — the new Mountain Master of Sha Tin — to reclaim control of his old territory, Wanchai, from Xu’s men.There is nothing subtle about the Wings’ methods. Xu’s most trusted enforcer, Lop, has been shot, and six of his street soldiers kidnapped. The Wings threaten to execute them unless Xu’s men vacate Wanchai immediately. Ava steps in to broker a settlement, and the Wings respond by sending her a box containing six fingers — and a twelve-hour deadline.As the violence and tension mount, Ava is driven to the edge, and she is forced to devise a plan that will bring her face-to-face with Sammy and Carter Wing. The only question is who will pull the trigger first?
Erasing Memory
by Scott ThornleyThe heart-pounding first installment of the MacNeice Mysteries, featuring a sophisticated detective solving the horrific murder of a beautiful young violinist — perfect for fans of Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks series.Detective Superintendent MacNeice is returning from a pilgrimage to his wife’s grave when he’s called to a crime scene of singular and disturbing beauty. A young woman in evening dress lies gracefully posed on the floor of a pristine summer cottage so that the finger of one hand regularly interrupts the needle arm of a phonograph playing Schubert’s Piano Trio. The only visible mark on her is the bruise under her chin, which MacNeice recognizes: it is the mark that distinguishes dedicated violinists, the same mark that once graced his wife. The murder is both ingenious and horrific, and soon entangles MacNeice and his team in Eastern Europe’s ancient grievances…
Bonnie Jack
by Ian HamiltonFrom the acclaimed author of the internationally bestselling Ava Lee novels, a bold and captivating new novel about a search for lost family and the cost of keeping secrets.As a boy, Jack Anderson was abandoned by his mother in a Glasgow movie theatre. Now living in the United States and facing his impending retirement, Jack and his wife Anne travel to Scotland to track down his long-lost sister. Their journey takes them from their home in a quiet Boston suburb to the impoverished mill towns of Ayrshire, the gray cobbled streets of Glasgow, and the majestic Scottish Highlands. Along the way, Jack gets entangled in local affairs and must confront uncomfortable truths about family, legacy, and the wife he thought he knew.Bonnie Jack, the first stand-alone novel by acclaimed author Ian Hamilton, is a compelling story about the importance of family, self-discovery, and the lengths we go to protect the ones we love.
India and the Changing Geopolitics of Oil
by Amit BhandariThe global energy scenario has transformed in the past 20 years. Oil demand, earlier driven by the West, is now shifting to the East, more specifically to Asia. New oil supplies from North America have challenged the hegemony of the traditional oil exporters from West Asia and Africa. India, once a marginal player in the world oil market, is now a valued customer providing demand security for oil exporters. This book systematically examines India’s oil and gas trade, which makes it the world’s third largest importer of oil after China and the US. It explores the changing patterns of oil demand and supply, and the growing market for natural gas, renewable energy, biofuel, and alternative sources of energy. Further, the volume discusses a range of issues that affect India’s position in the global energy econom,y such as The geographic shifts in energy production and trade; international relations and economic sanctions that affect the oil trade; India’s quest for energy security; and contest with China for oil assets; Building new partnerships, and investing in stable, oil-rich countries like the US and Canada, while keeping up existing energy relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait; Using market mechanisms to ensure energy security. Topical and comprehensive, this book in The Gateway House Guide to India in the 2020s series will be useful for scholars and researchers of international relations, geopolitics, foreign policy, security and strategic studies, energy studies, West Asia studies, South Asian studies, and international trade. It will also be of interest to policymakers, diplomats, career bureaucrats, and professionals working with think tanks, academia and multilateral agencies, media agencies, and businesses.
Modern Apartment Design
by Guy MarriageModern Apartment Design provides guidelines to the design of modern apartment buildings as well as a summation of current cutting-edge practice in engineered timber construction. The book covers a brief history of apartment buildings around the world, with a broad outline of different types of apartment blocks. It has a strong focus on the design and actual construction of apartment buildings, especially those utilising mass timber, such as cross-laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber. It also features six Case Study chapters from industry-leading practitioners in the area, enabling best practice in architecture and engineering of these new apartment building types to be more widely understood and propagated worldwide. The fully illustrated, full-colour case studies span the globe and include: Clearwater Quay in Christchurch, New Zealand (Pacific Environments NZ); Wynyard Central East 2 in Auckland, New Zealand (Architectus); Dalton Works in London, UK (Waugh Thistleton Architects); Mjøstårnet, Brumunddal, Norway (Voll Arkitekter); Brock Commons Tallwood House student housing in Vancouver, Canada (Acton Ostry Architects); and Regensbergstrasse apartments in Zurich, Switzerland (Dreicon). The book will be of great interest to architects and architecture students.
When Social Services are Local
by Roger Hadley and Morag McGrathIn the early 1980s in Britain the organisation of the personal social services had come under increasingly critical scrutiny. The establishment of large social services departments following re-organisation in the early 1970s had led, some argued, to the emergence of services which all too often were over-centralised, fragmented and crisis-oriented in their approach. In attempts to break out of this reactive system and to fashion services which were more coherent and preventive, a growing number of field teams within the departments had begun to adopt community-oriented patterns of organisation. Originally published in 1984, this book based on an eighteen-month study of the area team at Normanton (Wakefield MDC), which incorporated social workers, ancillaries, and domiciliary staff in neighbourhood sub-teams, offered the first systematic account of the operation of this new approach. The authors examine how referrals and long-term work are handled, describe the management of the team, and consider the views of workers, users and the staff of other agencies. While giving a clear picture of the difficulties faced in adopting a community-centred approach the book provides convincing evidence of its potential to create more responsive and effective services based on better knowledge of the population served, easier access to the team, broader staff roles, and the active encouragement of local community initiatives. The most comprehensive account of an area team so far published, this book would be essential reading for all those concerned to improve the performance of the personal social services at the time. It would be of particular importance to councillors, managers and planners, to social workers and other field staff in social services departments, and to teachers and students of social work.
The Political Economy of the Welfare State
by Thomas Wilson and Dorothy J. WilsonIn the early 1980s, the welfare state, for too long regarded as a notable contribution to the establishment of a humane social order, had over the previous decade come under increasing attack. Some of its critics, especially in the UK and the USA, maintained that it had failed to deal satisfactorily with the problem of poverty. Others held that it was over-elaborate, created a psychology of dependence and imposed costs that needed to be reduced as part of a policy of general economic recovery. In a number of countries, cuts had already been imposed or were now contemplated. In this situation it was crucially important to direct attention once more to the basic objectives of the various welfare services from a systematic and comparative standpoint. Originally published in 1982, the authors of this book, one an economist and the other a specialist in social administration, subjected these aims to rigorous analysis and discuss the underlying issues of social philosophy. They then attempt to assess the various methods adopted for their attainment in Britain and comment on those adopted in the USA and in some continental European countries. Although the authors reject the more extreme assertion that the welfare state has been a failure, they point to the need to relate some of the policies followed more clearly to the basic objectives. A number of proposals for reform are put forward which would imply some change of emphasis and should permit a simplification of existing over-complex arrangements.
The War Years
by Loyd E. LeeThis book, first published in 1989, combines the broad themes of diplomatic, political and military events with the human dimensions to form a major global analysis of the second world war. It also explains the difficulties encountered by the European powers in mobilising their colonies, and examines the economic and social reorganisation of the belligerents. It shows the impact of the collaboration of occupied peoples with the axis powers, and discusses in detail the resistance movements and the Holocaust. The book also looks at advances in science and technology, the application of social sciences to war, the intelligence services, and the arts.
The Japan/America Film Wars
by Abé Mark Nornes and Fukushima YukioWith contributions from noted critics and film historians from both countries, this book, first published in 1994, examines some of the most innovative and disturbing propaganda ever created. It analyses the conflicting images of these films and their effectiveness in defining public perception of the enemy. It also offers pointed commentary on the power of visual imagery to enhance racial tensions and enforce both positive and negative stereotypes of the Other.
Manual of Book Classification and Display
by Ernest A. SavageThis book, first published in 1946, lays out the tools a librarian has to organize books for use and to make them productive. The methods of classing, cataloguing, indexing, personal guidance, display and publicity are directed to one end, the making know of books and their contents.
Civil Liberties in Britain During the 2nd World War
by Neil StammersWar and such crises are seen as aberrations in the history and development of democracy – a time when otherwise unacceptable constraints can be imposed on the ordinary man with little or no dissent. The reasoning behind this is questioned in this book, first published in 1983. It makes a detailed study of government policy towards civil liberties in Britain during the Second World War, the nature of crisis government and its implications for democracy. Drawing on government documents and other primary sources, the book examines policies implemented, such as the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act of 1939 and Regulation 18B. Other government policies such as the internment of enemy aliens, restrictions on the media and the mobilisation of propaganda for the war effort are analysed thoroughly.
Vital Performance
by Andrew SneddenHistorically Informed Performance, or HIP, has become an influential and exciting development for scholars, musicians, and audiences alike. Yet it has not been unchallenged, with debate over the desirability of its central goals and the accuracy of its results. The author suggests ways out of this impasse in Romantic performance style. In this wide-ranging study, pianist and scholar Andrew John Snedden takes a step back, examining the strengths and limitations of HIP. He proposes that many problems are avoided when performance styles are understood as expressions of their cultural era rather than as simply composer intention, explaining not merely how we play, but why we play the way we do, and why the nineteenth century Romantics played very differently. Snedden examines the principal evidence we have for Romantic performance style, especially in translation of score indications and analysis of early recordings, finally focusing on the performance styles of Liszt and Chopin. He concludes with a call for the reanimation of culturally appropriate performance styles in Romantic repertoire. This study will be of great interest to scholars, performers, and students, to anyone wondering about how our performances reflect our culture, and about how the Romantics played their own culturally-embedded music.
Cross-cultural Genre Analysis
by Danni YuThis unique monograph provides a theoretical and methodological account on how to do cross-cultural genre analysis with the aids of corpus tools. Cross-cultural genre analysis investigates how discourse communities from different cultural backgrounds use language to realize a particular genre. It can shed light on genre nature as well as cultural specificities. The book suggests five specific approaches in doing cross-cultural genre analysis: Investigating genre context; Approaching genre complexity; Exploring genre nature; Exploring culture specificity; and Focusing on specific communicative functions. Each of these approaches is illustrated and demonstrated in a specific chapter with practical analyses of the genre of CSR reports. Covering linguistic analysis of CSR reports in three languages: Chinese, English and Italian, Yu provides insights into implications for both genre theories and CSR communication practice. By applying the cross-cultural perspective in corporate discourse analysis, her book demonstrates how the approach of cross-cultural genre analysis is fruitful and valuable in providing practical insights into the textual practice of CSR reporting in a globalized context. Moreover, in the final parts of the book, Yu illustrates how cross-cultural genre analysis can be applied in the didactic field of writing, translation and cross-cultural studies. This volume is a valuable reference to scholars of genre analysis, corpus-based studies, cross-cultural studies and corporate communication. Moreover, it is also useful for professionals involved in compiling CSR reports. Armed with the knowledge imparted in this book, the reader should be able to analyze other genres from a cross-cultural perspective. In particular, instructions on how to use specific corpus tools are provided in the appendices, which can give scholars basic technical knowledge to approach the field of cross-cultural genre analysis.
Special Operations
by Patrick HowarthThis book, first published in 1955, collects together accounts of some of the men and women who served as members of the remarkable S.O.E. This organisation was set up by Britain to encourage, help and organise resistance movements in occupied countries, and this book provides a valuable record of the types of people involved, and the work that they undertook.