A detective, bored of mundane local crimes, looks into an international case of murders which then uncover a major conspiracy.

As violence erupts in endless cycles and old grievances reemerge throughout the world, we are challenged to examine the underpinnings of protracted conflict. In this bold new work, Thomas Scheff argues that the roots of protracted conflict lie in unacknowledged feelings of shame and rage. Scheff builds from the assumption that the social bond is a real and palpable phenomena and that in every type of human contact the bond is either built, maintained, repaired, or damaged. He then demonstrates how damaged bonds are the basic cause of conflict. When one side or the other in a dispute is humiliated or threatened in such a way as to disturb fundamental bonds, the feelings that follow are often not acknowledged. Threats to the social bond give rise to violent emotions, shame, and rage. Unless these feelings are resolved, the stage is then set for cycles of insult, humiliation, and bloody revenge. According to Scheff, it is by recognizing the emotional source of conflict and repairing the broken social bond that both sides achieve cognitive and emotional understanding, allowing them to trust and cooperate, and perceive themselves as "all in the same boat." Thus, secure social bonds ensure clear boundaries–even during competition or conflict–that help keep wars limited and make disagreements productive.

Following the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign in the early seventeenth century, the new court of King James was beset by political instability and moral corruption. This atmosphere provided fertile ground for the dramatists of the age, whose plays explore the ways in which social decadence and the abuse of power breed resentment and lead inexorably to violence and bloody retribution. In Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, the debauched son of an Italian Duke attempts to rape the virtuous Gloriana - a veiled reference to Elizabeth I. Webster's The White Devil depicts a sinister world of intrigue and murderous infidelity, while The Changeling, perhaps Middleton's supreme achievement, powerfully portrays a woman bringing about her own unwitting destruction. All three are masterpieces of brooding intensity, dominated by images of decay, disillusionment and death.

An ambiguous message led her into the abyss. She had witnessed her father's death, her mother's mental disorder, the sudden death of her baby, and her husband, who had been married for three years, colluding with a third party to force her to die. Perhaps it was due to the pity of the heavens that her unwilling soul was reborn in the body of a novice celebrity. The moment she woke up, she found herself in deep crisis. All her enemies from her previous life had gathered together, waiting to push her into hell! Jane swore that in this life, no matter how lowly and despicable one was, no matter how many people despised and cursed at him, those who owed her would not be able to escape! All the grudges she had against them — always to get them back! From then on, the C-list celebrity gradually became the rumored Queen of Gossip and the Heavenly Queen of Celebrity in the entertainment circle, blooming with a dazzling brilliance that no one could match. The male partners beside her were swapped one by one, even swearing that all the Wealthy Class families in the world would fall for her hand ...

At the very least, he would not die, nor would he be reborn into the body of his master's fiancee. After feeling an unprecedented gentleness, he sent her to hell, hurt her over and over, and protected her time and time again. "What I want is for me to love you, not hurt you." So just let it go, okay? " she begged. However, he received a negative answer: "In this lifetime, don't even think about leaving me!"

The word Gothic has connotations of violence and grotesqueness. The popular Gothic elements are blood and gore, unnatural and supernatural occurrences, eerie passages, mystery, haunted castles, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, numerous death in a gory manner, Byronic love, passion and revenge. As Virginia Woolf rightly calls them, they are “the strange human need for feeling afraid.” It is the Hyde in every Jekyll that makes one take to the gothic. The British Revenge Tragedies, embedded with these elements, serve as forerunner of the gothic genre. In The Jew of Malta, we find the barbaric, scheming Machiavellian Barabas that plots the evil actions in the play that leads to mass graves and, eventually, himself being burned alive in a cauldron. In The Spanish Tragedy, Andrea’s ghost and Revenge; discovery of the mangled body of Horatio and the blood-stained handkerchief; letter written with blood and Hieronimo cutting out his tongue are the major Gothic elements. In Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet’s father; the violent stabbing of Polonius; the grave digger’s eulogizing death and the introduction of Yorick’s skull never fail in creating chills down the spine of any reader. Ian Jack observes on Webster’s plays that The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, have no other purpose other than making the audience’s ‘flesh creep.’ Thus, gothic as a genre, has been strongly haunting literature and would still continue to haunt, not only literature but also life.

A young woman searches for the truth about her sister, who boarded a ship headed to the frozen Arctic and never returned. “Lizzie Pook is a master of suspense. The story of one sister's love and determination to avenge her sister's death, is an unforgettable, atmospheric thrill ride.” —Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone Twenty-year-old Constance Horton has run away from her life in Victorian London, disguising herself as a boy to board the Makepeace, an expedition vessel bound for the icy and unexplored Northwest Passage of the Arctic. She struggles to keep her real identity a secret on the ship, a feat that only grows more difficult when facing off with the constant dangers of the icy North. Even more dangerous than the cold, the storms, and the hunger, are some of the men aboard—including the ship’s scientist Edison Stowe. He seems to be watching Constance, and she knows that his attention could be fatal. In London two years later: Maude Horton is searching for the truth. After being told by the British Admiralty that her sister’s death onboard the Makepeace was nothing more than a tragic accident, she receives a diary revealing that Edison Stowe had more of a hand in Constance’s death than the returning crew acknowledged. In order to get the answers she needs, Maude decides to shadow Edison. She joins him on a new venture he’s started to capitalize on the murder mania that has all of London in a frenzy—a travel company that takes guests around the country via train to witness public hangings—to extract the truth from him in any way possible. As tensions and dangers mount, it ultimately falls to Maude to enact the ultimate revenge to get justice for her sister. Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge is a transporting, atmospheric novel about the lengths we will go to for justice—and for love.