The Eighth Circle

Edgar Award winner: Investigating a crooked cop, a private detective gets too close to the case. The investigators of the Conmy-Kirk detective agency don’t work in trench coats, drink on the job, or carry pistols. They are researchers who comb newspapers and government records in search of the tiny details that could make or break their clients’ fortunes. It is painstaking and unromantic, but as co-owner Murray Kirk is about to learn, those details can mean the difference between life and death. The district attorney is cracking down on corruption in the NYPD, and the search is spreading like wildfire, forcing hundreds of policemen to resign in disgrace. When Conmy-Kirk is hired to clear the name of one of the accused, Kirk finds himself falling for his client’s daughter, a moral infraction that draws him deeper into the city’s underworld than he ever wanted to slip. This work isn’t like it is in the movies—if Murray Kirk catches a bullet, he’ll stay dead.

New edited version.

Discover how to tap into your extraordinary human capacity for connection and healing using astonishing new findings about the miraculous power of group intention in this new book by the author of the international bestsellers The Intention Experiment and The Field. In The Power of Eight, Lynne McTaggart—whose “work has had an unprecedented impact on the way everyday people think of themselves in the world” (Gregg Braden, author of The Divine Matrix)—reveals her remarkable findings from ten years of experimenting with small and large groups about how the power of group intention can heal our lives and change the world for the better. When individuals in a group focus their intention together on a single target, a powerful collective dynamic emerges that can heal longstanding conditions, mend fractured relationships, lower violence, and even rekindle life purpose. But the greatest untold truth of all is that group intention has a mirror effect, not only affecting the recipient but also reflecting back on the senders. Drawing on hundreds of case studies, the latest brain research, and dozens of McTaggart’s own university studies, The Power of Eight provides solid evidence showing that there is such a thing as a collective consciousness. Now you can learn to use it and unleash the power you hold inside of you to heal your own life, with help from this riveting, highly accessible book.

Condemned to burn in the eighth circle of Dante's Hell, Odysseus, legendary thief and liar of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, decides he is going to break out. His adventure begins with a prayer to Athena Parthenos, who appears to him bearing gifts: his armor, his famous bow, a mysterious leather pouch, and seven unusual arrows. She then sends him on a quest through the Underworld along with Diomedes, his friend from the Trojan War who had been sharing in his eternal punishment. To complete their escape, the goddess warns them, they must recover their squandered honor and learn to use "the eighth arrow". At turns exciting, humorous, and edifying, this action-packed epic follows Odysseus and Diomedes as they journey through all the circles of Dante's Hell, where they encounter various characters from Greek mythology, ancient history, and Renaissance literature, including Helen of Troy, Cerberus, Penelope, Homer, Harpies, Centaurs, and eventually Satan himself. With witty banter and wily stratagems, the two Greek warriors fight their way through the obstacles that stand between them and redemption. The Eighth Arrow is a thoroughly entertaining jailbreak story. Full of allusions to great works of old, it is also gently educational, and as such it can be read as a guide or a companion to Dante's Inferno and the works of Homer.

The Paradise, which Dante called the sublime canticle, is perhaps the most ambitious book of The Divine Comedy. In this climactic segment, Dante's pilgrim reaches Paradise and encounters the Divine Will. The poet's mystical interpretation of the religious life is a complex and exquisite conclusion to his magnificent trilogy. Mark Musa's powerful and sensitive translation preserves the intricacy of the work while rendering it in clear, rhythmic English. His extensive notes and introductions to each canto make accessible to all readers the diverse and often abstruse ingredients of Dante's unparalleled vision of the Absolute: elements of Ptolemaic astronomy, medieval astrology and science, theological dogma, and the poet's own personal experiences.