Murder Takes Center Stage

From USA Today bestselling author Tracy D. Comstock... A new school year is under way, and English teacher turned reluctant amateur sleuth Emily Taylor has been roped into directing Ellington High's fall play production. With the help of the new junior high English teacher, Destiny Willis, their production of Clue is soon ready to take the stage. The students are especially thrilled when James Bodley, a hometown favorite with a rising star on Broadway, agrees to help out at rehearsals. But when the drama king, Bodley, is found murdered-strung up like Mr. Boddy, the play's victim, was supposed to be!-Emily vows to find the person behind this heinous killing. Unfortunately, the list of suspects is as long as her cast roll. Could it be his new love...or her resentful daughter? Or maybe his scorned high school sweetheart? Or was the death less about love and more about his betrayal... possibly of the theater seamstress, baker, or woman from his past? With the days ticking down to the first showing, Emily is under the gun to find out who the real killer is before another murder takes center stage. Schooled in Murder books: Murder is our Mascot - book #1 School's Out for Murder - book #2 Lesson in Fear - short story in the "Killer Beach Reads" collection Murder Takes Center Stage - book #3 "Fun, fast paced, and completely engaging! Tracy D. Comstock's Schooled in Murder series will leave you dying for more!" Gemma Halliday, New York Times bestselling mystery author

Studying the drama of any culture offers insight into the characters' -- and even society's -- everyday lives, values, and concerns. Amy K. Rathburn's textbook offers insight into the American experience through study of Oklahoma, Raisin in the Sun, Death of a Salesman, and Casablanca. Students will read, watch, and perform material that is both entertaining and engaging, which will sharpen reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Taking Center Stage introduces students to drama in its many presentational forms -- stage, radio, television, and film. Taking Center Stage is an advanced-level textbook in Alliance, the Michigan State University series for content-based methodology that integrates study of a particular discipline with techniques for learning a language. The rationale for a content-based approach is that material relevant to the student increases motivation and promotes effective language learning. Teachers who have not taught content-based courses or are not well-versed in American drama can rely on the textbook and teacher's manual for lesson plans.

The Fifth Entry in the Acclaimed John Keegan Mystery Series When homicide detective John Keegan solved the murder of Hollywood A-lister Patrick Dillons, he knew he left stones unturned. He knew the case would endure. He did not expect it to haunt his dreams, or, worse, that it would take over his life again. Six months later, the anonymous tipper who guided and provoked him during the Dillons case returns with an ominous question: "Would the hero like to finish the game?" In exchange for agreeing to continue, the tipper promises to feed Keegan evidence and clues about a new murder. Keegan balks, but when the tipper's info proves helpful, he knows he must straddle the line between saving lives and morality. The 'game' restarts and Keegan must play it alone, hiding the tipper from everyone, including his wife and partner. With his relationships strained under the pressure of deceit, Keegan attempts to stay ahead of the tipper. The first body has a note indicating it is the first of eight victims. A plot is underway and Keegan must calculate every move carefully. the tipper uses technology to both track and elude Keegan. Keegan knows the tipper had direct involvement with the Dillons murder and perhaps these new deaths as well. Keegan's singular focus on stopping this menace amplifies with a simple text message: "Meet number four. You will kill him." Keegan must avoid this outcome. His hopes falter when he discovers the plan to make him the eighth. He wants to stop the game but knows his family's future depends on him outsmarting the tipper and stopping the deaths before they happen. The hero must suffer the trials, outwit the villain, and emerge victoriously. The Fallen delves deep into the intricacies of a murder investigation and technology's effect on detective work. It places Keegan in a no-win situation he must see to completion. How far is too far when trying to solve a case? Where is the line between family and duty? Keegan doesn't have all the answers but knows they lie at the end of the tipper's epic tale. "The game will end, hero. You will decide how."

Everyone’s favorite guide to fiction that’s thrilling, mysterious, suspenseful, thought-provoking, romantic, and just plain fun is back—and better than ever in this completely revamped and revised edition. A must for every readers’ advisory desk, this resource is also a useful tool for collection development librarians and students in LIS programs. Inside, RA experts Wyatt and Saricks cover genres such as Psychological Suspense, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery, Literary and Historical Fiction, and introduce the concepts of Adrenaline and Relationship Fiction; include everything advisors need to get up to speed on a genre, including its appeal characteristics, key authors, sure bets, and trends; demonstrate how genres overlap and connect, plus suggestions for guiding readers among genres; and tie genre fiction to the whole collection, including nonfiction, audiobooks, graphic novels, film and TV, poetry, and games. Both insightful and comprehensive, this matchless guidebook will help librarians become familiar with many different fiction genres, especially those they do not regularly read, and aid library staff in connecting readers to books they’re sure to love.

With her trusty poodle at her side, a sleuth tries to bring a killer to heel in this mystery by the Agatha Award finalist. Melanie Travis has added a husband and three more dogs to her already cramped home. At least she’s getting a welcome respite from the stress of house-hunting by taking her dog Faith for advanced training at The South Avenue Obedience Club. There are enough sexual and political undercurrents in the group to power a small generator, but Melanie is enthusiastic about the opportunity to bring Faith to the program at the Winston Pumpernill Nursing Home. Club member Paul Lennox initiated the outings to please his Great Aunt Mary, and since many of the other residents are also dog lovers, the trips are now a treasured tradition. Melanie and Faith are warmly welcomed at the home, but their very first visit ends in tragedy when Aunt Mary is found suffocated in her bed. There’s no shortage of suspects—from the wealthy victim’s ne’er-do-well son to the staff to the club members themselves. All Melanie has to do is follow the trail—and watch her back… “Engaging…The author depicts the nursing home residents with a wise and knowing chuckle.”—Publishers Weekly

Watching Murder shines a light onto the dark world of jihadi murder videos and the people who watch and share them on the internet. Images and videos of murder, torture and other cruelties are everywhere on the internet. Why do some people seek out and watch this material, how are they affected by it and do they have a right to watch any of it in the first place? In this ground-breaking book, terrorism scholar Simon Cottee visits the murky fringes of the internet in search of answers. Focusing on ISIS, he shows how the group transformed the urban myth of the snuff movie into a grim reality watched by tens of thousands of people across the globe. On shock-sites, he finds a contingent of ISIS fans who, while hating the group, love to watch its most monstrous depredations in high definition. He interviews his fellow extremism researchers and asks them about all the dark things they have seen online and how this has affected their mental health. He speaks with the "cleaners" whose job is to report and remove violent jihadi propaganda from the internet. And he surveys thousands of young adults to find out what they think of ISIS and its notorious beheading videos. Cottee exposes the hysteria around online radicalization, and shows how our engagement with violent online spectacles is much more complex and multifaceted than many would have us believe. Watching Murder will appeal to anyone with an interest in violence, media, terrorism and ISIS. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of terrorism studies, political science, culture and communication.

Helicopters patrolled low over the city, filming blocks of burning cars and buildings, mobs breaking into storefronts, and the vicious beating of truck driver Reginald Denny. For a week in April 1992, Los Angeles transformed into a cityscape of rage, purportedly due to the exoneration of four policemen who had beaten Rodney King. It should be no surprise that such intense anger erupted from something deeper than a single incident. In The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins, Brenda Stevenson tells the dramatic story of an earlier trial, a turning point on the road to the 1992 riot. On March 16, 1991, fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins, an African American who lived locally, entered the Empire Liquor Market at 9172 South Figueroa Street in South Central Los Angeles. Behind the counter was a Korean woman named Soon Ja Du. Latasha walked to the refrigerator cases in the back, took a bottle of orange juice, put it in her backpack, and approached the cash register with two dollar bills in her hand-the price of the juice. Moments later she was face-down on the floor with a bullet hole in the back of her head, shot dead by Du. Joyce Karlin, a Jewish Superior Court judge appointed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson, presided over the resulting manslaughter trial. A jury convicted Du, but Karlin sentenced her only to probation, community service, and a $500 fine. The author meticulously reconstructs these events and their aftermath, showing how they set the stage for the explosion in 1992. An accomplished historian at UCLA, Stevenson explores the lives of each of these three women-Harlins, Du, and Karlin-and their very different worlds in rich detail. Through the three women, she not only reveals the human reality and social repercussions of this triangular collision, she also provides a deep history of immigration, ethnicity, and gender in modern America. Massively researched, deftly written, The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins will reshape our understanding of race, ethnicity, gender, and-above all-justice in modern America.

During the last fifty years, Mouloud Feraoun, Mohammed Dib, Mouloud Mammeri, and Kateb Yacine achieved significant international recognition yet remain little known in the United States. Filling a pressing need, The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse provides a critical introduction and a new approach to the works of these Algerian novelists. Beginning with an overview of their novels, this book goes on to discuss critical approaches to them, challenging the widely held notion that they are merely ethnographic, upholding the status quo. The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse provides a new reading, and, most significantly, argues that they are best read as witnesses to the kind of conflict Jean-François Lyotard calls a différend - a conflict in which one suffers an injustice and is at the same time deprived of the means to argue. The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse then examines the issue of humanism that the novels allegedly both appeal to and reject and demonstrates that the Algerian authors' condemnation of colonialism is both a coherent political position and consistent with their critique of liberal humanism. It concludes with a discussion on the ongoing relevance of the Algerian novels. The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse includes a glossary and a short history of modern Algeria to provide readers with the political and cultural contexts they need to understand its literature. This combination of innovative theoretical approach and political context makes this book of utmost importance for students of Francophone literature and for literary critics interested in colonialism, postcolonialism, and Lyotard's philosophy.