A top newspaper position in the peaceful Maine city of Fairchance appeals to Beth Armstrong as ideal. But she soon learns that reporting has a dark side when she must photograph the slashed body of a young woman, found on the golf course. Two more similar muders panic local residents, who demand a more aggressive investigation. When Beth discovers the motive linking the victims, she never guesses that she may become the fourth.

Bookstore owner Tricia Miles tries to open a new chapter in life, but murder mars the pages in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Things are changing in the booktown, and some merchants would say not for the better. They grumble that too many non-book-related stores are moving into the village, taking up the most visible storefronts on Main Street, diluting the “Booktown” moniker. Of course, the members with other businesses, like the latest, The Bee’s Knees, are fine with other businesses moving in. No matter what side of the argument they're on, all the business owners agree on one thing: Tricia and Angelica are to blame. Still, it's a pretty typical day in the life of a small-town Chamber of Commerce until one of the disgruntled bookstore owners is killed—Eli Meier from The Inner Light Bookstore, the most vocal of the Chamber complainers. He sold religious and other spiritual books, but also stocked books on wild conspiracy theories and sold incense, crystals, etc. Eli had never been a member of the Chamber until Angelica recently convinced him to join. He hit on her and she, having good taste, turned him down. He hounded (but not stalked) her, and some might think that was a motive for murder. Stoneham's new police chief is an old friend of Tricia's, but that doesn't mean he's going to go easy on her sister. One might even say that he's going to throw the book at her.

Probability theory is one branch of mathematics that is simultaneously deep and immediately applicable in diverse areas of human endeavor. It is as fundamental as calculus. Calculus explains the external world, and probability theory helps predict a lot of it. In addition, problems in probability theory have an innate appeal, and the answers are often structured and strikingly beautiful. A solid background in probability theory and probability models will become increasingly more useful in the twenty-?rst century, as dif?cult new problems emerge, that will require more sophisticated models and analysis. Thisisa text onthe fundamentalsof thetheoryofprobabilityat anundergraduate or ?rst-year graduate level for students in science, engineering,and economics. The only mathematical background required is knowledge of univariate and multiva- ate calculus and basic linear algebra. The book covers all of the standard topics in basic probability, such as combinatorial probability, discrete and continuous distributions, moment generating functions, fundamental probability inequalities, the central limit theorem, and joint and conditional distributions of discrete and continuous random variables. But it also has some unique features and a forwa- looking feel.

For nearly a century, British expatriate Charles Joseph Finger (1867–1941) was best known as a Newberry-award-winning author of children’s literature. In Shared Secrets, Elizabeth Findley Shores relates Finger’s untold story, exploring the secrets that connected the author to an international community of twentieth-century queer literati. As a young man, Finger reveled in the easy homosociality of his London polytechnical school, where he launched a student literary society in the mold of the city’s private men’s clubs. Throughout his life, as he wandered from England to Patagonia to the United States, he tried to recreate similarly open spaces—such as Gayeta, his would-be art colony in Arkansas. But it was through his idiosyncratic magazine All’s Well that he constructed his most successful social network, writing articles filled with coded signals and winking asides for an inner circle of understanding readers. Shared Secrets is both the story of Finger’s remarkable, adventurous life and a rare look at a community of gay writers and artists who helped shaped twentieth-century American culture, even as they artfully concealed their own identities.

One of the most impressive facts about death today is how much and in how many different ways various aspects of death and dying are undergoing dramatic changes. Edwin Shneidman has compiled this volume to give the reader a broad-ranging view of current trends in thanatology. The result is a remarkable compendium of pertinent insights upon which to build an understanding of death in our time - death as it relates to our comprehension of ourselves and our fellow beings. Edwin S. Shneidman, Ph. D., was Professor of Thanatology (the study of death and its surrounding circumstances, as in forensic medicine) and Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Life-Threatening Behavior at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Modern Statistical Methodology and Software for Analyzing Spatial Point PatternsSpatial Point Patterns: Methodology and Applications with R shows scientific researchers and applied statisticians from a wide range of fields how to analyze their spatial point pattern data. Making the techniques accessible to non-mathematicians, the authors draw on th

A concise and accessible introduction to natural law ethics, this book introduces readers to the mainstream tradition of Western moral philosophy. Building on philosophers from Plato through Aquinas to John Finnis, Alfonso Gómez-Lobo links morality to the protection of basic human goods — life, family, friendship, work and play, the experience of beauty, knowledge, and integrity — elements essential to a flourishing, happy human life. Gómez-Lobo begins with a discussion of Plato's Crito as an introduction to the practice of moral philosophy, showing that it requires that its participants treat each other as equals and offer rational arguments to persuade each other. He then puts forth a general principle for practical rationality: one should pursue what is good and avoid what is bad. The human goods form the basis for moral norms that provide a standard by which actions can be evaluated: do they support or harm the human goods? He argues that moral norms should be understood as a system of rules whose rationale is the protection and enhancement of human goods. A moral norm that does not enjoin the preservation or enhancement of a specific good is unjustifiable. Shifting to a case study approach, Gómez-Lobo applies these principles to a discussion of abortion and euthanasia. The book ends with a brief treatment of rival positions, including utilitarianism and libertarianism, and of conscience as our ultimate moral guide. Written as an introductory text for students of ethics and natural law, Morality and the Human Goods makes arguments consistent with Catholic teaching but is not based on theological considerations. The work falls squarely within the field of philosophical ethics and will be of interest to readers of any background.

Challenging assumptions about caregiving for those dying of chronic illness. What is it like to live with—and love—someone whose death, while delayed, is nevertheless foretold? In Living in Death’s Shadow, Emily K. Abel, an expert on the history of death and dying, examines memoirs written between 1965 and 2014 by family members of people who died from chronic disease. In earlier eras, death generally occurred quickly from acute illnesses, but as chronic disease became the major cause of mortality, many people continued to live with terminal diagnoses for months and even years. Illuminating the excruciatingly painful experience of coping with a family member’s extended fatal illness, Abel analyzes the political, personal, cultural, and medical dimensions of these struggles. The book focuses on three significant developments that transformed the experiences of those dying and their intimates: the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, the growing use of high-tech treatments at the end of life, and the rise of a movement to humanize the care of dying people. It questions the exalted value placed on acceptance of mortality as well as the notion that it is always better to die at home than in an institution. Ultimately, Living in Death’s Shadow emphasizes the need to shift attention from the drama of death to the entire course of a serious chronic disease. The chapters follow a common narrative of life-threatening disease: learning the diagnosis; deciding whether to enroll in a clinical trial; acknowledging or struggling against the limits of medicine; receiving care at home and in a hospital or nursing home; and obtaining palliative and hospice care. Living in Death’s Shadow is essential reading for everyone seeking to understand what it means to live with someone suffering from a chronic, fatal condition, including cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease.

This text details critical information on all aspects of prison litigation, including information on trial and appeal, conditions of isolated confinement, access to the courts, parole, right to medical aid and liabilities of prison officials. Highlighted topics include application of the Americans with Disabilities Act to prisons, protection given to HIV-positive inmates, and actions of the Supreme Court and Congress to stem the flow of prison litigation. Part II contains Judicial Decisions Relating to Part I. Part II contains briefs of judicial decisions related to the topics covered in the the text, in order to help the reader learn rule of law as well as the reasoning of the court that guides future court rulings. Appendices include Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America, related court rulings, and a table of cases.