by Michael Crichton (2007)
Next is a 2006 satirical techno-thriller by Michael Crichton. It was the fifteenth novel under his own name and his twenty-fifth overall, and the last to be published during his lifetime.
story and lettering, Frank J. Barbiere
Mysterious killers dressed in white, they savaged the Cold War Russian underworld--then disappeared without a trace. Now they have resurfaced in New York, leaving a trail of dead mobsters in their bloody wake. In this tide of death, an amnesiac and a FBI agent bound by loss and haunted memories seek to answer a single question that may unlock their hidden pasts: Who are the White Suits?
Designed by Jeffrey P. Williams
"In October 1977, Dan Janzen, an ecologist then in his late thirties, wrote to the famous paleontologist Paul Martin, saying "I've got a screwy idea." What had led to Janzen's "screwy idea" was a mundane observation about the Costa Rican forest that, as he thought about it more and more, made less and less sense: There was a lot of uneaten fruit lying around on the forest floor. Fruit evolved to be eaten - it's a strategy plants employ to get animals to scatter their seeds - so such massive piles of rotting fruit made no evolutionary sense. Janzen wanted Martin to tell him what animals might have eaten the fruit in past eras. The paper the two co-wrote, published in Science in 1982, became an enduring classic in the ecological literature.". "Janzen and Martin had put their finger on an unnoticed contradiction in ecological thought. First, ecologists know that all living species evolve intricate, mutually dependent relationships with other species. Second, ecologists had also assumed that all species are adapted for their present environment. But what happens when a partner in one of these mutually dependent relationships goes extinct? The remaining partner is no longer well adapted: it becomes an ecological anachronism. At first such anachronisms were considered rare curiosities, but as increasing numbers have been discovered, they have emerged as an important element in understanding how ecosystems work. For the first time, the concept of deep time has entered ecological science and is changing the practice of both ecology and conservation biology.". "The Ghosts of Evolution is the first book of any kind to pull together all the various elements of the "missing partners" idea. It's a report on a scientific program in its infancy - so new, in fact, that the cutting edge is well within reach of any amateur naturalist. In this book, Connie Barlow finds new examples of North American anachronisms and does experiments at her kitchen sink that call into question the published theories of professional ecologists. She finds evolutionary ghosts on New York City streets, in her sister's backyard in Michigan, and on her neighbors' ranches in the desert southwest. After reading this book, you won't be able to look at a nearby park or even a shopping-mall parking lot without seeing the remnants of the elephants, camels, rhinos and lions that once roamed North America."--BOOK JACKET.
Suzanne Brockmann
This mass market original collection is filled with never-before-released short stories and novellas featuring the beloved characters from Suzanne Brockmann's wildly successful Troubleshooters series. Packed with pulse-pounding tales about everyone's favorite special ops team, this suspenseful collection is a must for fans of the New York Times bestselling series, and is also the perfect introduction for newcomers. Tough-as-nails Troubleshooters operative Sam Starrett learns the agony of loving someone in danger--and the hell of waiting on the home front--as his wife, Alyssa, hurtles into a foreign hot spot that's about to boil over. Navy SEAL Frank O'Leary's ill-fated holiday reunion with his older brother takes a turn for the better--when a chance encounter on a rainy New Orleans street gives Frank a reason to be thankful after all. In a maze of tunnels deep beneath a military base in Germany, Jules Cassidy, Alyssa Locke, and their comrades in arms match wits with terrorists on a mission with explosive consequences. Plus more never-before-released adventures featuring Jenk, Izzy, Gillman, Lopez, Kenny, Savannah, and other members of SEAL Team 16--along with Suzanne Brockmann's exclusive interviews with her beloved characters.
Todd McFarlane
Spider-Man hunts the Lizard throughout New York City in order to stop the villain's bloody and homicidal rampage, but when he finds out about his adversary's motivation, he begins to question his own sanity.