Winner of the 2012 Melville J. Herskovits award (African Studies Association) Throughout southwestern Nigeria, Yoruba men and women create objects called aale to protect their properties�farms, gardens, market goods, firewood�from the ravages of thieves. Aale are objects of such unassuming appearance that a non-Yoruba viewer might not register their important presence in the Yoruba visual landscape: a dried seedpod tied with palm fronds to the trunk of a fruit tree, a burnt corncob suspended on a wire, an old shoe tied with a rag to a worn-out broom and broken comb, a ripe red pepper pierced with a single broom straw and set atop a pile of eggs. Consequently, aale have rarely been discussed in print, and then only as peripheral elements in studies devoted to other issues. Yet aale are in no way peripheral to Yoruba culture or aesthetics. In Vigilant Things, David T. Doris argues that aale are keys to understanding how images function in Yoruba social and cultural life. The humble, often degraded objects that comprise aale reveal as eloquently as any canonical artwork the channels of power that underlie the surfaces of the visible. Aale are warnings, intended to trigger the work of conscience. Aale objects symbolically threaten suffering as the consequence of transgression�the suffering of disease, loss, barrenness, paralysis, accident, madness, fruitless labor, or death�and as such are often the useless residues of things that were once positively valued: empty snail shells, shards of pottery, fragments of rusted iron, and the like. If these objects share �suffering� and �uselessness� as constitutive elements, it is because they already have been made to suffer and become useless. Aale offer would-be thieves an opportunity to recognize themselves in advance of their actions and to avoid the thievery that would make the "useless" people.

The accidental hunting death of his eight-year-old son caused attorney Paul Dixon to go off on a wild tangent, costing him his marriage, his law career, and much, much more. He quit his position at the law firm where he was employed and left town after his divorce was final. He went into seclusion, changed his identity to Sam Little, and carefully conceived a plan to seek out the family members of those victims whose loved ones had suffered violence at the hands of the criminals in our societycriminals who had not received the full punishment of the justice system due to technicalities, loop holes in the law, crooked police, crooked judges, or slick-talking lawyers. Dixon's plans would be financed by those family members who felt they were cheated by the system, and the custom plans would be carried out by Sam Little's select few hand-chosen associates. This is a Meredith story of such mystery, suspense, and intrigue, that the reader will find it difficult to lay it aside.

Detective Inspector Frank Worall is fighting a losing battle trying to contain the rise in offences in Newtown, which used to be a thriving town, with many vibrant trades and industries, connected to the busy port. But those days are long gone and for some, the frustration of idleness and hopelessness leads them to turn to crime.

They took her freedom and her liberty. They should have taken her life. Alex Ridley knows there are only three certainties in life... taxes, death, and that if you kidnap and hurt girls and young women, she will hunt you down, and she will end you! Alex Ridley has changed. She was once a respected art historian. A pacifist. Flawed, yes. Troubled, certainly. Now she’s driven to do whatever it takes to bring down the traffickers, including acts of extreme violence. She’ll track them to their dens. She’ll play them at their own heinous game. She’ll turn justice into a masterpiece. From India to Tibet, and then Milan, Ridley’s fierce determination to administer justice and liberate the victims — woman and girls, just like her — thrusts her into the chaos of Marrakesh. She thought she’d seen the very worst of humanity. The ‘Red City’ opens her eyes to new levels of depravity. Ridley must survive. Hundreds — thousands — will suffer if she doesn’t. Yet, up against the most dangerous enemy she’s ever faced, the odds are stacked against her. She hates them. To defeat them, she must become them. From the author of the bestselling Hiram Kane, Ryan Bodean and Kayla Stone action-thriller books, the brand new Alexandria Ridley series is what some readers are saying is ‘Yet more brilliance from this author.’

Nolan Gray is an elite soldier, skilled in all forms of combat. After years fighting on foreign battlefields, witnessing unspeakable evils and atrocities firsthand, a world-weary Nolan returns home to find it just as corrupt as the war zones. Everywhere he looks, there's pain and cruelty. Society is being destroyed by wicked men who don't care who they make suffer or destroy. Nolan decides to do what no one else can, what no one has ever attempted. He will defend the helpless. He will tear down the wicked. He will wage a one-man war on the heart of man, and he won't stop until the world is the way it should be. The wicked have had their day. Morality's time has come. In a culture starving for a hero, can one extraordinary man make things right?

Everyone dreams of revenge… Sin lives for it. Sin was only nine when her family was slaughtered by crime lord Kolya Kurev. She’s had nothing but time to plan how Koyla and his kin will pay for what they did. But hers wasn’t the only family the Kurev crime lords took down. And now Lee is hot on her heels, as angry as she is and trying to steal her revenge. His methods are haphazard, and he’s got a death wish of his own. He’s going to get them both killed unless Sin can stop him, too. All along, she’s just barely managed to evade capture. In fact, the FBI hasn’t yet figured out their most wanted criminal is just a girl. But, between Lee and the FBI, Sin isn’t likely to make it out of this alive… Readers say A.J. Scudiere’s start to this award-winning trilogy is “seriously one of the best action/suspense books I've ever read.” Vengeance is the first book in the Vendetta Trifecta by USA Today bestselling author A.J. Scudiere. While it can be read as a standalone, be prepared to reach for book two as you finish this one.

Invulnerable Super Hero RPG: Vigilante Edition is here! Invulnerable's flexible point-based system emphasizes versatility and roleplaying. Invulnerable heroes gain a wide variety of Power Enhancements to show the amazing feats they can perform, and their Motivations and Central Contradiction tell you what kind of hero they are behind the mask! Heroes need a world to protect. Invulnerable includes a detailed setting, Earth-Omega, filled with heroes to join, and villains to trounce, and legacies to uphold! So what are you waiting for? Grab Some Dice And Save The World!

From the bestselling authors of Yesterday’s Gone and Pretty Killer comes the unforgettable thriller series that blends mystery and suspense into pulse-pounding revenge-seeking, serial-killing action. Where her law ends, his justice is only beginning … Detective Mallory Black’s world was shredded when her daughter, Ashley, was murdered by a serial killer with an unspeakable fetish and the truly twisted desire to carry it out. Jasper Parish is a vigilante who punishes killers that have escaped traditional justice. Relying on the psychic visions of his daughter, he wages war from the shadows, doing what the police can’t — or won’t — do. Hero, killer, and vigilante are on a collision course in a world where there is no justice … unless you’re willing to risk everything in the pursuit of your own. This collection pulls together all 6 books of the completed No Justice series, a pulse-pounding new series for fans of Dexter, Silence of the Lambs, and Seven.

This Jessica Daniel series eBook bundle contains the first three titles in this heart-stopping crime series from Kindle bestselling author, Kerry Wilkinson. Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel works for the Greater Manchester Police force. Apart from fighting the daily battle against the northern weather, she also has to deal with exasperating colleagues, a hopeless best friend and managing her ever-growing floordrobe. And that's before she even gets started on some of Manchester's more challenging crimes . . . Locked In: When a body is found in a locked house Jessica has little in the way of leads. With a journalist that seems to know more about the case than she does, Jessica is already feeling the pressure to not only discover the killer but also work out how they got in and out of the house. Then a second body shows up in identical circumstances to the first . . . Vigilante: The national media can't believe their luck with an apparent vigilante on the streets, while Jessica's new boss seems grateful someone else is doing their job for them as the victims are all hardened criminals themselves. The case becomes more complex when forensics matches blood from the apparent killer to a man already behind bars. The Woman in Black: A severed hand is found in the centre of Manchester. With a lengthy missing persons list and frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones, Jessica has plenty to deal with - and that's before more sinister evidence starts to emerge. The only clue is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing the hand carefully on the ground but who is the mysterious woman in black?