Dead Beat

“The wildest, strangest, best Dresden adventure to date...Butcher’s blending of modern fantasy with classic noir sensibilities ensures that there’s never a dull moment.”—SF Site Paranormal investigations are Harry Dresden’s business and Chicago is his beat, as he tries to bring law and order to a world of wizards and monsters that exists alongside everyday life. And though most inhabitants of the Windy City don’t believe in magic, the Special Investigations Department of the Chicago PD knows better. Karrin Murphy is the head of S. I. and Harry’s good friend. So when a killer vampire threatens to destroy Murphy’s reputation unless Harry does her bidding, he has no choice. The vampire wants the Word of Kemmler (whatever that is) and all the power that comes with it. Now, Harry is in a race against time—and six merciless necromancers—to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead...

The stunning first novel in the Kate Brannigan series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller Val McDermid. 'This is crime writing of the very highest order' The Times

A light-hearted look at the history and practice of “the ultimate human-interest story,” the obituary. “What a wonderful surprise—a charming, lyrical book about the men and women who write obituaries. The Dead Beat is sly, droll, and completely winning.”— David Halberstam Where can readers celebrate the life of the pharmacist who moonlighted as a spy, the genius behind Sea Monkeys, the school lunch lady who spent her evenings as a ballroom hostess? The obituary page, of course. Enthralled by these fascinating former lives, Marilyn Johnson tumbled into the little known world of the obituary page to find out what made it so compelling. She sought out the best obits in the English language, and chased the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. Surveying Internet chat rooms, surviving a mass gathering of obituarists, and making the pilgrimage to London to savor the most caustic and literate obits of all, she leads us into the cult and culture behind this fascinating segment of our daily news.

The Cost of a Deadbeat is a thought-provoking study that takes both a humorous and cynical approach to identifying and defining the major types of deadbeats, and the hidden monetary and emotional costs they bring to society. With over forty years of experience in the workplace, author Michael Webb applies his business knowledge and observation skills to illuminate what most of us unknowingly tolerate each day from the selfish and lazy in our culture. In each chapter, Webb provides personal examples of DNA (Deadbeat Negligent Activities) and categorizes the types of deadbeats, such as: Workplace deadbeats--slackers, sickies, tenure train riders, and slacking supervisors Criminal deadbeats--pilferers, prisoners, cyber slugs, scam artists, and petty thieves Daylight deadbeats--porky politicians, bumbling bureaucrats, and deadbeat voters Cheater deadbeats--fraud finders, tax evaders, and bankruptcy bums New generation deadbeats--poor parents and weak schools The Cost of a Deadbeat will encourage you to join the fight against deadbeats by examining your own behavior and contributing common sense and decency to your own life.

Sue Grafton's #1 New York Times bestselling series, reissued for a whole new generation of readers! D IS FOR DEADBEAT He called himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he had for Kinsey was cut-and-dried: locate a kid who'd done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. It was only later, after he'd stiffed her for her retainer, that Kinsey found out his name was Daggett. John Daggett. Ex-con. Inveterate liar. Chronic drunk. And dead. The cops called it an accident--death by drowning. Kinsey wasn't so sure. Pulled into the detritus of a dead man's life, Kinsey soon realizes that Daggett had an awful lot of enemies. There's the daughter who grew up with a cheating drunk for a father, and the wife who's become a religious nut in response to an intolerable marriage. There's the lady who thought she was Mrs. Daggett--and has the bruises to prove it--only to discover the legal Mrs. D. And there are the drug dealers out $25,000. But most of all, there are the families of the five people John Daggett killed, victims of his wild, drunken driving. The D.A. called it vehicular manslaughter and put him away for two years. The families called it murder and had very good reason to want John Daggett dead. Deft, cunning, and clever, this latest Millhone mystery also confronts some messy truths, for, as Kinsey herself says, "Some debts of the human soul are so enormous only life itself is sufficient forfeit"--but as she'd be the first to admit, murder is not a socially acceptable solution. "A" Is for Alibi "B" Is for Burglar "C" Is for Corpse "D" Is for Deadbeat "E" Is for Evidence "F" Is for Fugitive "G" Is for Gumshoe "H" Is for Homicide "I" Is for Innocent "J" Is for Judgment "K" Is for Killer "L" is for Lawless "M" Is for Malice "N" Is for Noose "O" Is for Outlaw "P" Is for Peril "Q" Is for Quarry "R" Is for Ricochet "S" Is for Silence "T" Is for Trespass "U" Is for Undertow "V" Is for Vengeance "W" Is for Wasted "X"

Diamond Dagger Award-Winning Author: Two mysteries introducing a Thai boxing, rock-and-roll female private detective from Manchester, England... As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Kate Branningan agrees to track down missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is only a prelude to murder. Juggling her other cases, including a search to uncover the source of counterfeit luxury goods, Brannigan finds herself for the first time on the trail of a killer. In Kick Back, Kate Brannigan investigates the bizarre case of the missing conservatories. Before long she’s up to her neck in crooked land deals, mortgage scams, financial chicanery, and murder. But when a favor for a friend puts Kate’s own life in danger, bizarre is not the first word she thinks of... “One of crime fiction’s most eminent writers.”—Entertainment Weekly

The living cannot be allowed to infect the dead. Adam Binder has lost what matters most to him. Having finally learned the true identity of the warlock preying on his family, what was supposed to be a final confrontation with the fiend instead became a trap that sent Adam’s beloved Vicente into the realm of the dead, where none living are meant to be. Bound by debt, oath, and love, Adam blazes his own trail into the underworld to get Vicente back, and to end the threat of the warlock once and for all. But the road to hell is paved with far more than good intentions. Demons are hungry, and ghosts are relentless, and what awaits Adam in the underworld is nothing he is prepared to face. If that weren’t enough, Adam has one more thing he must do if he and Vicente are to return to the world of the living: find the lost heart of Death herself.

And all too often, as this study shows, in the struggle between the state's protection of its financial interests and the fathers' focus on their personal rights, the needs of children disappear.".