The Miracle Detective

The Rolling Stone reporter’s “fascinating . . . globe-trotting, first-person spiritual odyssey” into the Catholic Church’s investigations of reported miracles (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). In a tiny, dilapidated trailer in northeastern Oregon, a young woman saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in an ordinary landscape painting hanging on her bedroom wall. After some skepticism from the local parish, the matter was placed “under investigation” by the Catholic diocese. Investigative journalist and Rolling Stone contributor Randall Sullivan wanted to know how, exactly, one might conduct an official inquiry into such an incident. So began his eight year immersion into the world of “Miracle Detectives.” Sullivan set off to interview theologians, historians, and postulators from the Sacred Congregation of the Causes for Saints, men charged by the Vatican with testing the miraculous and judging the holy. Sullivan traveled from the Vatican to the village of Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where six visionaries had seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Then, on a more personal turn, he traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona, to visit the site of America’s most controversial Virgin Mary sighting. In prose that “often reads like a spiritual whodunit,” The Miracle Detective takes you along Sullivan’s eight-year investigation into apocalyptic prophesies, claims of revelation, and the search for a genuine, direct encounter between man and god (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

As sightings of the Virgin Mary have increased around the world over the last couple of decades, the Vatican has placed increased importance on a group of theologians, scientists and physicians whose job is to investigate them. These are the miracle detectives. Randall Sullivan's book follows these investigators on the trail of the Virgin Mary from the Vatican City in Rome to Oregon, Arizona, Venezuela, Switzerland, Ireland, Japan and Kenya. What he discovers is that every road and each mystery leads back to a tiny village in Bosnia. There, against the background of the ongoing war, eight young visionaries have been receiving what they say are the final apparitions of the Madonna. These appearances, which began in 1981 in a small village in the former Yugoslavia, have been more thoroughly examined than any purported miraculous phenomenon in history. To date, the results defy explanation. This is an amazing story of religious mysticism, as well as a testing of the author's own faith and beliefs.

An examination of the longest-running Marian apparitions in history, and the author's own faith and beliefs as he himself becomes a miracle detective, are at the heart of Sullivan's stunning new book, "The Miracle Detective."

In the ninth installment of this infinitely enjoyable and bestselling series, Precious Ramotswe is doing what she does best–solving crimes and taking care of business: her own and everybody else’s. Investigating her latest case, Mma Ramotswe has to trek to a game preserve, where she rediscovers the breathtaking beauty of her beloved Botswana. She is there to uncover the truth about an elderly American traveller whose safari proved to be his last journey. What she discovers is a surprise to everyone concerned. Meanwhile, problems are also brewing back at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency: Mma Makutsi has instituted the Complaint Half Hour in order to air her grievances–which works well for her until Mma Ramotswe decides to institute her own version. And life is no less complicated at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, where Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni–Mma Ramotswe’s estimable husband–has suddenly decided to mortgage the garage. But without a doubt–and after several cups of bush tea–Precious Ramotswe will make sure, as only she can, that everything turns out as it should.

If you are interested in making your practice solution-focused quickly and effectively, look no further than this text. The authors, co-founders of the Brief Therapy Group, demystify the process of psychotherapy, making the concept of solution-based therapy accessible and relevant for newcomers to the field and for professionals seeking to apply SFBT principles in their own practices. The book's hands-on approach allows practitioners to adopt the authors' simple, self-teaching style and apply it to their work with clients. Practical information is included on: the differences between the solution-based approach and traditional therapy establishing a successful therapeutic alliance with clients determining detailed, meaningful goals for the client mapping the client's journey to a solution possible "dead ends" in applying this type of therapy and much more! As an academic textbook, it is ideal for individual study in a variety of courses, including social work, counseling, nursing, psychology, education, and any other helping professions.

In this seventh installment in the internationally bestselling, universally beloved series, there is considerable excitement at the shared premises of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe’s office. Then a nurse from a local medical clinic reveals to Mma Ramotswe that faulty blood-pressure readings are being recorded there. And it looks as though Aunty Emang, the advice columnist in the local newspaper, may not be what she seems. It all means a lot of work for Mma Ramotswe and her inestimable assistant, Grace Makutsi, and they are, of course, up to the challenge. But there’s trouble brewing in Mma Makutsi’s own life. Her greedy uncles are demanding an extra-large bride price from her well-to-do fiancé, a man of substance, Phuti Radiphuti, and though money may buy her that fashionably narrow (and uncomfortable) pair of blue shoes, it won’t buy her the happiness that Mma Ramotswe promises her she’ll find in simpler things – in contentment with the world and enough tea to smooth over the occasional bumps in the road.

A journalist’s story of corruption in the LAPD and hip-hop’s most infamous murders—“the most thorough examination of these much-publicized events” (Renée Graham, The Boston Globe). Acclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan follows Russell Poole, a highly decorated LAPD detective who, in 1997, was called to investigate a controversial cop-on-cop shooting, eventually to discover that the officer killed was tied to Marion “Suge” Knight’s notorious gangsta rap label, Death Row Records. During his investigation, Poole came to realize that a growing cadre of outlaw officers were allied not only with Death Row, but with the murderous Bloods street gang. And incredibly, Poole began to uncover evidence that at least some of these “gangsta cops” may have been involved in the murders of rap superstars Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Igniting a firestorm of controversy in the music industry and the Los Angeles media, the release of LAbyrinth helped to prompt two lawsuits against the LAPD (one brought by the widow and mother of Notorious B.I.G., the other brought by Poole himself) that may finally bring this story completely out of the shadows.

Some cases are as cold as the grave... A lost soul in limbo, Kevin Fahey is trying to prove he's a better ghost than he ever was a man. And trying to help Maggie Gunn, the detective who replaced him, is a good way to start.