Five Dead Men

In the North African desert, during the closing years of the nineteenth century, a warrior chieftain appeared from out of the sands themselves, claiming to be the incarnation of the Prophet. He called himself the Mahdi, and he pledged to sweep the Infidel English colonizers of the Sudan and their Egyptian allies from the land, to scourge the land by fire, blood and steel until not a single interloper was left among the living. At the head of his minions, called Ansari or believers by the Mahdi but Dervishes and "Turks" -- a name for all outsiders -- by the British, the Mahdi rode, wielding his trademark, a jewel-encrusted sword whose origins lay in the time of the Crusades. At first, the Mahdi was dismissed as a mere madman. But as the Bedouin tribesmen of sub-Saharan Africa rallied to his standard, taking up the sword against the hated Infidel in a Holy War of Madiyyah, the Mahdi's forces swept across North Africa in a blood-tide of death and destruction that left nothing but ashes and rubble strewn in its wake. The British and the Egyptians (the latter who, to this day, maintain interests in the Sudan) built and then manned forts such as mighty Omdurman against the incursion of the Mahdi, but were unable to turn the tide on their own. As the situation worsened, and before the crisis had passed the point of no return, a military expedition comprised of British regular forces was launched against the warrior chieftain's band in a desperate bid to defeat him. But it too failed to succeed. All but a few of the soldiers were exterminated in the desert wastes of Kordofan, and in its aftermath the Mahdi grew even stronger and far bolder than he had ever been before. The Sudan's defenders realized that unless drastic measures were taken, and the Mahdi stopped, before long the war would be certainly lost and the entire region of sub-Saharan Africa plunged into an era of barbarism and bloodshed the likes of which had never before been seen. While the last outposts of once great colonial power manned their forts along the Nile and in the desert vastness further inland, counting the days and weeks until they too would be destroyed by the Mahdi's ferocious hordes of nomadic warriors, foreign mercenaries were sought out in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of battle in the war against the Mahdi. The center of mercenary activity was Zanzibar, a small island republic that lay off the East African coast, ruled by its Sultan who was the Mahdi's sworn enemy -- for the Sultan himself held an ancestral claim on the lands of the Sudan. In the days during which this story occurred, Zanzibar was a place where anything went and any pleasure or vice could be bought by whomever carried enough gold in his purse with which to meet the seller’s price. From its slave markets to its hashish dens, Zanzibar had long since earned a reputation for being a hotbed of every form of corruption, vice and sinful pursuit known to man. At the same time it was also a place to which an adventurer might come in order to make both his fortune and write his name forever on the bloodstained pages of history. At the height of the Mahdi's reign of terror, the desert warlord overstepped himself by kidnapping one of the most beautiful denizens of the Sultan’s royal seraglio, an Englishwoman who was the descendant of titled nobility. The Sultan could not permit such a brazen act of aggression to go unavenged. The Mahdi had taken his favorite wife of all his many other wives and concubines, and he knew that he had to get her back or forfeit his right to rule. But how? From the renowned military leader, bold adventurer and former Governor of the Sudan, "Chinese Charlie" Gordon, and his colleagues in Whitehall, London, came the solution. It would be based upon the same principles by which Gordon had established the band of cut-throat mercenaries some years before that had come to be called Baker's Forty Thieves by friend and foe alike. Only now they would solicit the aid of one of the most notorious pirates of the day, the American privateer known as Snakeskin Blake. History states that the Mahdi was never defeated on the battlefield, but instead vanished from the Sudan one day, years later, almost as mysteriously as he had originally first appeared. This is because history has never recorded the true reason for the Mahdi's sudden demise. As the story chronicled in the pages of this book will reveal, the Mahdi’s defeat was brought about by the secret war waged against him by Snakeskin Blake and his band of mercenary heroes whose exploits made them known throughout the windswept desert reaches of North Africa as the Brothers of the Gun.

London in high summer, the temperature soaring into the 90s. A man tumbles to his death on a building site. Was he just careless? Or is there a more sinister explanation?

Capitalism has become strange. Ironically, while the ‘age of work’ seems to have come to an end, working has assumed a total presence – a ‘worker’s society’ in the worst sense of the term – where everyone finds themselves obsessed with it. So what does the worker tell us today? "I feel drained, empty… dead." This book tells the story of the dead man working. It follows this figure through the daily tedium of the office, to the humiliating mandatory team building exercise, to awkward encounters with the funky boss who pretends to hate capitalism and tells you to be authentic. In this society, the experience of work is not of dying...but neither of living. It is one of a living death. And yet, the dead man working is nevertheless compelled to wear the exterior signs of life, to throw a pretty smile, feign enthusiasm and make a half-baked joke. When the corporation has colonized life itself, even our dreams, the question of escape becomes ever more pressing, ever more desperate… ,

The third novel starring Montana's fly fisherman-cum-detective Sean Stranahan, for fans of C. J. Box and Craig Johnson Wolves howl as a riderless horse returns at sunset to the Culpepper Dude Ranch in the Madison Valley. The missing woman, Nanika Martinelli, is better known as the Fly Fishing Venus, a red-haired river guide who lures clients the way dry flies draw trout. As Sheriff Martha Ettinger follows hoof tracks in the snow, she finds one of the men who has fallen under the temptress’s spell impaled on the antler tine of a giant bull elk, a kill that’s been claimed by a wolf pack. An accident? If not, is the killer human or animal? With painter, fly fisherman, and sometimes private detective Sean Stranahan’s help, Ettinger will follow clues that point to an animal rights group called the Clan of the Three-Clawed Wolf and to their svengali master, whose eyes blaze with pagan fire. In their most dangerous adventure yet, Stranahan and Ettinger find themselves in the crossfire of wolf lovers, wolf haters, and a sister bent on revenge, and on the trail of an alpha male gone terribly wrong.

Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.

From a skeleton, a skull, a mere fragment of burnt thighbone, prominent forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples can deduce the age, gender, and ethnicity of a murder victim, the manner in which the person was dispatched, and, ultimately, the identity of the killer. In Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Dr. Maples revisits his strangest, most interesting, and most horrific investigations, from the baffling cases of conquistador Francisco Pizarro and Vietnam MIAs to the mysterious deaths of President Zachary Taylor and the family of Czar Nicholas II.