Vanish (Jane Rizzoli, Book 5)

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Sally E. Hadden

"Obscured from our view of slaves and masters in America is a critical third party: the state, with its coercive power. This book completes the grim picture of slavery by showing us the origins, the nature, and the extent of slave patrols in Virginia and the Carolinas from the late seventeenth century through the end of the Civil War. Here we see how the patrols, formed by county courts and state militias, were the closest enforcers of codes of governing slaves throughout the South.". "Mining a variety of sources, Sally Hadden presents the views of both patrollers and slaves as she depicts the patrols, composed of "respectable" members of society as well as poor whites, often mounted and armed with whips and guns, exerting a brutal and archaic brand of racial control inextricably linked to post-Civil War vigilantism and the Ku Klux Klan. City councils also used patrollers before the war, and police forces afterward, to impose their version of race relations across the South, making the entire region, not just plantations, an armed camp where slave workers were controlled through terror and brutality."--BOOK JACKET.

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Dean Koontz

"Jane Hawk--who dazzled readers in The Silent Corner and The Whispering Room--faces the fight of her life, against the threat of a lifetime in this electrifying new thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling suspense master Dean Koontz. "I could be dead tomorrow. Or something worse than dead." Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time. But as long as she's breathing, she'll never cease her one-woman war against the terrifying conspiracy that threatens the freedom--and free will--of millions. Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane's husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot. Deploying every resource their malign nexus of power and technology commands, Jane's enemies are determined to see her dead. or make her wish she was. Jane's ruthless pursuers can't stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call. Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will make her way from southern California to the snow-swept slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her. But nothing can prepare her for the chilling truth that awaits when she descends the crooked staircase to the dark and dreadful place where her long nightmare was born. PRAISE FOR DEAN KOONTZ'S JANE HAWK NOVELS "Gripping. The paranoia and mystery increase as the story unfolds. Koontz has created such a wonderful character in Jane Hawk that. readers will clamor for more. Koontz rocks it again."--Associated Press "Vintage Dean Koontz: paranoia-fueled suspense. sleek and highly realized action, developed characters, and more twists and turns than any two ordinary novels combined. as relevant to current events as it is audacious. amongst Dean Koontz's finest contemporary work."--Mystery Scene "Perhaps Koontz's leanest, meanest thriller, [The Silent Corner] introduces a smart, appealing heroine who can outthink as well as outshoot the baddest of bad dudes."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"-- "In this riveting high-stakes novel, Jane Hawk tracks the powerful DOJ operative at the center of the murderous conspiracy that killed her husband, a decorated Marine, and now threatens others closest to her. Dark, ingenious, utterly relentless, the Jane Hawk thrillers are Dean Koontz at his celebrated best, a brilliant, deeply affecting synthesis of his singular gifts for heart-stopping suspense, unparalleled characterization and atmosphere, and twisting, chillingly topical storylines--all driven by an unforgettable, take-no-prisoners heroine"--

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Mark Bowden

Late in the afternoon of Sunday, 3 October 1993, 140 elite US soldiers abseiled from helicopters into a teeming market neighbourhood in the heart of the city of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour. Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night in a hostile city, fighting for their lives against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. When the unit was rescued the following morning, eighteen American soldiers were dead and more than seventy badly injured. The Somali toll was far worse – more than five hundred killed and over a thousand injured. Authoritative, gripping, and insightful, *Black Hawk Down* is a heart-stopping, minute-by-minute account of modern war and is destined to become a classic of war reporting.

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Mary-Ann Tirone Smith

"When the body of a young, pregnant woman washes ashore on a stretch of barren beach at Boston Harbor, Boston homicide detective Rocky Patel writes to FBI agent Poppy Rice for help in identifying the Jane Doe. But the crime lab comes up empty, and not until a year and a half later does an anonymous tip to the Boston PD reveal the woman to be the wayward daughter of a prominent, Irish-American political family." "Just days before the ID, an Irish-born Boston fire marshal (and old flame) asks Poppy to look into another case. It seems that more than thirty years earlier, a pregnant woman's corpse was discovered on the island of Inishmore. A group of women, led by the fire marshal's mother, secretly buried the body (the church would not have allowed burial in consecrated ground) but saved a lock of the dead girl's hair. The marshal, knowing Poppy is better than he is at cutting through red tape, appeals to her on his mother's behalf. She agrees to set up a DNA test, which soon confirms her gut feeling that the two drownings, while separated by thirty years and an ocean, are somehow linked." "Teaming up with the inimitable Rocky Patel, Poppy sets out in search of truth and justice and instead finds herself ensnared in a web of political deceit, family intrigue, and out-and-out bad guys. As always, she rises to the occasion."--BOOK JACKET.