V.I. Warshawski's latest case has already opened  up old wounds. But when a silky voice on the phone  threatened to throw acid in her eyes, V.I. knew  this one could finish her off with some brand-new  ones. The sour-faced old aunt she had agreed...  more

V.I. Warshawski's latest case has already opened  up old wounds. But when a silky voice on the phone  threatened to throw acid in her eyes, V.I. knew  this one could finish her off with some brand-new  ones. The sour-faced old aunt she had agreed to  help was accused of stealing millions in stock  certificates from a pious order of Dominican brothers.   V.I. knew the woman was a witch, not a thief, and  she soon smelled something rotten in the sanctum  sanctorum of Chicago's most powerful movers and  shakers -- the Church and the Mob. Now someone wants  to see V.I. burn in hell. But this tough cookie of  a private eye had her back up, a brand-new Smith &  Wesson, and a daring plan to make the bad guys go  to the devil first.

Peter and Pauli Winter are two very different brothers born into a time when the horrors of war engulf and extinguish the Germany that is. Yet for all their differences, the destinies of the two brothers are forever bound to the madness that lies ahead. From their sheltered childhood through...  more

Peter and Pauli Winter are two very different brothers born into a time when the horrors of war engulf and extinguish the Germany that is. Yet for all their differences, the destinies of the two brothers are forever bound to the madness that lies ahead. From their sheltered childhood through their violent coming of age in the Great War . . . from the chaos of 1920 Berlin to the spreading power of Hitler . . . the brothers are wrenched apart by conflicting ideals and ambitions. Now mortal enemies, they are trapped in a holocaust that threatens to tear them -- and the world -- to pieces.

Nudge is about choices -- how we make them and how we can make better ones. Authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein offer a new perspective on preventing the countless mistakes we make -- including ill-advised personal investments, consumption of unhealthy foods, neglect of our natural...  more

Nudge is about choices -- how we make them and how we can make better ones. Authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein offer a new perspective on preventing the countless mistakes we make -- including ill-advised personal investments, consumption of unhealthy foods, neglect of our natural resources, and other bad decisions. Citing decades of cutting-edge behavioral science research, they demonstrate that sensible "choice architecture"can successfully nudge people towards the best decisions without restricting their freedom of choice. Straightforward, informative, and entertaining, this is a must-read for anyone with interest in our individual and collective well-being.

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark?s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style?and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with...  more

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark?s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style?and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency?Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover?and become addicted to. This season?s offerings include volumes 7?9 in the series: The Seventh, The Handle, and The Rare Coin Score. In The Seventh, the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops?and the killer?to retrieve his cash. In The Handle, Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast. The Rare Coin Score features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker?s heister?s heart?while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins. ?Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark?s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world [he] makes things simple.??William Grimes, New York Times ?Whatever Stark writes, I read. He?s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.??Elmore Leonard ?Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.??Washington Post Book World ?Donald Westlake?s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you?ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust?these are the books you?ll want on that desert island.??Lawrence Block Also available from the University of Chicago Press:The HunterThe Man with the Getaway FaceThe OutfitThe MournerThe JuggerThe Score

1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "Negative Utopia"--a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is...  more

1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "Negative Utopia"--a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny this novel's power, its hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions--a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.

For the love of fine and wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson loses his life savings to a con man who knows the secret of turning ten-dollar bills into hundreds and steals from his boss, only to lose the stolen money at a crap table. Luckily for him, Jackson has a savvy twin brother, Goldy, who,...  more

For the love of fine and wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson loses his life savings to a con man who knows the secret of turning ten-dollar bills into hundreds and steals from his boss, only to lose the stolen money at a crap table. Luckily for him, Jackson has a savvy twin brother, Goldy, who, disguised as a Sister of Mercy, earns a living by selling tickets to Heaven in Harlem. Now for the big payback...

The rise of the internet and other technology has made information more easily-accessible than ever before. While this has had the positive effect of equalizing access to knowledge, it also has lowered the bar on what depth of knowledge is required to consider oneself an "expert." A cult of...  more

The rise of the internet and other technology has made information more easily-accessible than ever before. While this has had the positive effect of equalizing access to knowledge, it also has lowered the bar on what depth of knowledge is required to consider oneself an "expert." A cult of anti-expertise sentiment has coincided with anti-intellectualism, resulting in massively viral yet poorly informed debates ranging from the anti-vaccination movement to attacks on GMOs. This surge in intellectual egalitarianism has altered the landscape of debates-all voices are equal, and "fact" is a subjective term. Browsing WebMD puts one on equal footing with doctors, and Wikipedia allows all to be foreign policy experts, scientists, and more. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, there are a number of reasons why this has occurred-ranging from easy access to Internet search engines to a customer satisfaction model within higher education. The product of these interrelated trends, Nichols argues, is a pervasive distrust of expertise among the public coinciding with an unfounded belief among non-experts that their opinions should have equal standing with those of the experts. The experts are not always right, of course, and Nichols discusses expert failure. The crucial point is that bad decisions by experts can and have been effectively challenged by other well-informed experts. The issue now is that the democratization of information dissemination has created an army of ill-informed citizens who denounce expertise. When challenged, non-experts resort to the false argument that the experts are often wrong. Though it may be true, but the solution is not to jettison expertise as an ideal; it is to improve our expertise. Nichols is certainly not opposed to information democratization, but rather the enlightenment people believe they achieve after superficial internet research. He shows in vivid detail the ways in which this impulse is coursing through our culture and body politic, but the larger goal is to explain the benefits that expertise and rigorous learning regimes bestow upon all societies.

Forsaking a hard-fought sobriety after his $3 million inheritance vanishes from his Montana bank account, Milo Milodragovitch travels to El Paso, Tex., to ask his former partner, C. W. Sughrue, to help track the errant banker. He finds Sughrue hiding out in the desert after having been shot...  more

Forsaking a hard-fought sobriety after his $3 million inheritance vanishes from his Montana bank account, Milo Milodragovitch travels to El Paso, Tex., to ask his former partner, C. W. Sughrue, to help track the errant banker. He finds Sughrue hiding out in the desert after having been shot and left to die by Chicano thugs who divulged that it was a contract hit. The two join on a desperate quest for retribution, traveling through a haze of booze, cocaine, barroom brawls and sadistic crime scenes, zigzagging from Austin to Seattle to a final showdown south of the border on the estate of a drug lord.

The extraordinary pages of The War, written in 1944 but finished in 1985, form a totally new image of the heroine of The Lover and, through her, of Paris during the Nazi occupation and the first months of liberation. Married and living in Paris, part of a resistance network headed by Franois...  more

The extraordinary pages of The War, written in 1944 but finished in 1985, form a totally new image of the heroine of The Lover and, through her, of Paris during the Nazi occupation and the first months of liberation. Married and living in Paris, part of a resistance network headed by Franois Mitterand, Duras is swept up in the turmoil of the period. She tells of nursing her starving husband back to life on his return from Bergen-Belsen, interrogating a suspected collaborator, and playing a game of cat and mouse with a Gestapo officer who is attracted to her. The result is a book as moving as it is harrowing -- perhaps Duras's finest.

One day, a good old boy named Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law -- in the person...  more

One day, a good old boy named Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law -- in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell -- can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers -- in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives -- McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning's headlines.

The plan: to rob the Reina, a super-luxury hotel off the coast of Spain. The crew: three seasoned criminals with the skills to pull off the heist of the century. The edge: the scheme has been simulated in a computer, down to the last variable.  The complication: three beautiful women with...  more

The plan: to rob the Reina, a super-luxury hotel off the coast of Spain. The crew: three seasoned criminals with the skills to pull off the heist of the century. The edge: the scheme has been simulated in a computer, down to the last variable.  The complication: three beautiful women with agendas of their own - and the sort of variables no computer can fathom... 

The concept of the "public intellectual" has a rich and colorful history. It began in the early twentieth century, when the new mass media catapulted intellectuals who were able to write for the general public to semi-stardom. The first wave included figures like Walter Lippmann--who coined the...  more

The concept of the "public intellectual" has a rich and colorful history. It began in the early twentieth century, when the new mass media catapulted intellectuals who were able to write for the general public to semi-stardom. The first wave included figures like Walter Lippmann--who coined the term "stereotype" and is widely considered the founder of media studies--and by the 1950s, public intellectuals as a species had become a powerful and influential force in the American cultural landscape. By the 1970s, the standard definition of the public intellectual had solidified: a person (often university-affiliated, but not always) able to discuss and dispute any serious issue, typically in venues like The New York Review of Books, and occasionally influence politics. The traditional definition of the public intellectual remains with us, but as Daniel W. Drezner shows in The Ideas Industry, it has been gradually supplanted by a new model in recent years: the "thought leader." In contrast to public intellectuals, thought leaders gain fame as purveyors of a single big idea. Also, instead of battling it out with intellectual combatants in the pages of The Partisan Review, The Public Interest, and their descendants, they often work through institutions that are closed to the public and which release information selectively. Thought leaders and their associated ideas tend to become brands--hedgehogs to the public intellectual fox. They have also proven to be quite successful, as evidenced by TED, Aspen Ideas, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the like. Furthermore, they often align with one side of a politically polarized debate and enjoy the support of ideologically friendly private funders. Drezner identifies increasing inequality as a prime mover of this shift, contending that our present-day class of plutocrats not only wants to go back to school, it wants to force "schools"-in the form of intellectuals with elite affiliations-to come to them. And they have the money to make this happen. Drezner, however, does not see the phenomenon as necessarily negative. While there are certainly some downsides to the contemporary ideas industry, he argues that it is very good at broadcasting intellectual content widely and reaching large audiences of people hungry for new thinking. Both fair-minded and trenchant, The Ideas Industry will reshape our understanding of contemporary public intellectual life in America and the West.

It's 1963. Easy Rawlins has given up the street life that has brought him so much trouble and grief. He’s taken on a job as supervising custodian of Sojourner Truth Junior High School in Watts. For two years he’s been getting up early and going off to work. He wears nice clothes...  more

It's 1963. Easy Rawlins has given up the street life that has brought him so much trouble and grief. He’s taken on a job as supervising custodian of Sojourner Truth Junior High School in Watts. For two years he’s been getting up early and going off to work. He wears nice clothes and puts all his energy—and love—into his job and his adopted children. Easy likes his new life, even though he feels empty and a little bored sometimes. But all that is about to change. Easy comes in early one morning to find one of the teachers already in her classroom. She has a dog with her and a story about a husband gone mad. Before he knows what's happening, the teacher is in his arms. Before the day is over the teacher is gone, leaving Easy with her dog, and the handsomest corpse Easy has ever seen is found in the school garden. That night a second corpse turns up. Easy may have left the streets, but he hasn't been forgotten. The world is changing faster than he can keep up with it. The police believe that Easy is involved in the murders. Old enemies are waiting to get even. The principal of the school wants to fire him. His old friends aren't the same and his new friends might be his death. Easy wants back into his careful little life, but that door is closed. A murderer is running loose somewhere. And a little yellow dog plots revenge.

Dominant narratives - from the Cold War consensus to the War on Terror - have often served as the foundation for debates over national security. Weaving current challenges, past failures and triumphs, and potential futures into a coherent tale, with well-defined characters and plot lines, these...  more

Dominant narratives - from the Cold War consensus to the War on Terror - have often served as the foundation for debates over national security. Weaving current challenges, past failures and triumphs, and potential futures into a coherent tale, with well-defined characters and plot lines, these narratives impart meaning to global events, define the boundaries of legitimate politics, and thereby shape national security policy. However, we know little about why or how such narratives rise and fall. Drawing on insights from diverse fields, Narrative and the Making of US National Security offers novel arguments about where these dominant narratives come from, how they become dominant, and when they collapse. It evaluates these arguments carefully against evidence drawn from US debates over national security from the 1930s to the 2000s, and shows how these narrative dynamics have shaped the policies pursued by the United States.

Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful...  more

Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

Since the end of World War Two, the use of nuclear weapons has been America's-and the world's-worst nightmare. But they have never actually been used, despite the fact that an ever-increasing number of countries have obtained them. Our fear levels remain as high as ever today, but are they...  more

Since the end of World War Two, the use of nuclear weapons has been America's-and the world's-worst nightmare. But they have never actually been used, despite the fact that an ever-increasing number of countries have obtained them. Our fear levels remain as high as ever today, but are they justified? Eminent international relations scholar John Mueller thinks not, and this highly provocative work, he contends that our overriding concern about nuclear weapons borders on an obsession unsupported by either history or logic. Drawing on the history of the entire atomic era, Mueller argues that nuclear weapons have never represented much of a threat given states' fundamental unwillingness to use them. After the focus shifted away from "mutual assured destruction" to the terrorist threat following 9/11, alarmists had a new cause. Yet analysts have consistently overestimated the destructive capabilities of the devices we worry about the most now: suitcase nukes and dirty bombs. Moreover, our current worries about terrorists obtaining such weapons are essentially baseless. As Mueller points out, there is a multitude of reasons why terrorists will not be able to obtain weapons, much less build them themselves and successfully transport them to targets. Mueller goes even further, maintaining that our efforts to prevent the spread of WMDs have produced much more suffering and violence than would have been the case if we took a more realistic view of such weapons. This controversial thesis cuts against the received wisdom promulgated by America's enormously powerful military-industrial complex. But given how wrong that establishment has been on so many crucial issues over the course of the entire post-World War II era, Mueller's argument is one that deserves a wide public hearing.

In The Noble Hustle Colson Whitehead does for participatory journalism what he did for zombie novels in Zone One: Take one literary genius, add $10,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker, and stir. On one level, Colson Whitehead's The Noble Hustle is a familiar species of participatory...  more

In The Noble Hustle Colson Whitehead does for participatory journalism what he did for zombie novels in Zone One: Take one literary genius, add $10,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker, and stir. On one level, Colson Whitehead's The Noble Hustle is a familiar species of participatory journalism?a longtime neighborhood poker player, Colson was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online ESPN offshoot Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker. But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed!), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of?yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really!?the human condition. The book will appeal to a wide variety of consumers: the poker-loving readers of James MacManus Positively Fifth Street, or the I-could-do-that genre including Stefan Fatsis' Word Freak, or the oeuvre of A.J. Jacobs, or fans of humorous sports books like Rick Reilly's Whose Your Caddy?, or literary nonfiction readers who buy penetrating portraits of outcast subcultures like Bill Buford's Among the Thugs. The book delivers all those fans would want?including the author's surprising progress through the piratical competition of high-stakes Texas Hold 'Em poker. But it is also a bravura piece of writing, from its very first line?"I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside." And it is deeply, unbelievably funny, an uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself. So, yes, all the above comps can and should be used, but in truth The Noble Hustle is utterly unique, a book about poker like Moby-Dick is a book about fishing.

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing...  more

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox, his partner and closest friend, find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

From the back of the book: The "Hot Kid" of the U.S. Marshals Service, Carl Webster maintains the law with a cool, showdown attitude. He's one of the richest creations in Elmore Leonard's half century of delivering the goods. From his appearances in the critically acclaimed...  more

From the back of the book: The "Hot Kid" of the U.S. Marshals Service, Carl Webster maintains the law with a cool, showdown attitude. He's one of the richest creations in Elmore Leonard's half century of delivering the goods. From his appearances in the critically acclaimed novels The Hot Kid and Up in Honey's Room, Carl returns to lay down the law in a novella that originally appeared as a serial in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. The title novella -- plus two Carl Webster short stories -- traces Carl's career from his run-in with 1930's gangsters to his investigation of a murder at a German POW camp in Oklahoma. This time it's Carl against war-seasoned Afrika Korps Nazis. With its pitch-perfect dialogue, compelling characters, and classic charm, Comfort to the Enemy is vintage Leonard.

In what is nearly his final adventure, Travis McGee falls deeply in love with Gretel, his live-aboard boatmate. Then Gretel is horribly and impersonally murdered. Desperate and half-demented, McGee sets out to find the killers. The trail leads him to the Church of Apocrypha, an eerily...  more

In what is nearly his final adventure, Travis McGee falls deeply in love with Gretel, his live-aboard boatmate. Then Gretel is horribly and impersonally murdered. Desperate and half-demented, McGee sets out to find the killers. The trail leads him to the Church of Apocrypha, an eerily familiar religious cult whose converts are given terrorist training.

POWER GAMES… Denning rose abruptly. He opened the windows wife. Anger, raging anger, wasn’t the way to deal with kidnappers and torturers. Cold, determined purpose; calculations as in a chess game. That was the way. And how did you calculate, forestall each move of the enemy and...  more

POWER GAMES… Denning rose abruptly. He opened the windows wife. Anger, raging anger, wasn’t the way to deal with kidnappers and torturers. Cold, determined purpose; calculations as in a chess game. That was the way. And how did you calculate, forestall each move of the enemy and win? By making your own thought follow the patterns of your opponent’s mind. That was the lesson to learn. That was the way to checkmate…

WINNER OF THE 2015 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL #1 New York Times bestseller! In a high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. ?Mr. Mercedes is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable...  more

WINNER OF THE 2015 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL #1 New York Times bestseller! In a high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. ?Mr. Mercedes is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses? (The Washington Post). The stolen Mercedes emerges from the pre-dawn fog and plows through a crowd of men and women on line for a job fair in a distressed American city. Then the lone driver backs up, charges again, and speeds off, leaving eight dead and more wounded. The case goes unsolved and ex-cop Bill Hodges is out of hope when he gets a letter from a man who loved the feel of death under the Mercedes?s wheels? Brady Hartsfield wants that rush again, but this time he?s going big, with an attack that would take down thousands?unless Hodges and two new unusual allies he picks up along the way can throw a wrench in Hartsfield?s diabolical plans. Stephen King takes off on a ?nerve-shredding, pulse-pounding race against time? (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) with this acclaimed #1 bestselling thriller.

It's October 1980, and laid-back loner Vince Camden never misses a morning making maple bars at the doughnut shop he manages in Spokane, Washington. And he rarely misses a night relieving locals of their bankrolls at an after-hours poker game, selling his hooker pals pot at cost, and running...  more

It's October 1980, and laid-back loner Vince Camden never misses a morning making maple bars at the doughnut shop he manages in Spokane, Washington. And he rarely misses a night relieving locals of their bankrolls at an after-hours poker game, selling his hooker pals pot at cost, and running a lucrative credit-card theft ring. Vince has landed in eastern Washington via the witness-protection plan, and he is starting to like the simple pleasures, including receiving his first voter-registration card. So even when a hit man, a local cop, and Mob-boss-in-waiting John Gotti get Vince in their crosshairs, he keeps trying to figure out if he should pull the lever for Reagan or Carter.

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven...  more

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers -- among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears -- through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses -- and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The 2018 edition of The New York Times Bestselling Guide.The 23rd edition of this industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important regular and advanced statistics, player predictions and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, along with significant improvements...  more

The 2018 edition of The New York Times Bestselling Guide.The 23rd edition of this industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important regular and advanced statistics, player predictions and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, along with significant improvements to several statistics that were created by, and are exclusive to, Baseball Prospectus.Baseball Prospectus 2018 provides fantasy players and insiders alike with prescient PECOTA projections, which The New York Times called ?the überforecast of every player?s performance.?With forty-five Baseball Prospectus alumni currently working for major-league baseball teams, nearly every organization has sought the advice of current or former Prospectus analysts, and readers of Baseball Prospectus 2018 will understand what all those insiders have been raving about!

His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjustor for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside...  more

His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjustor for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside California Fidelity's offices. To the cops, it looked like a robbery gone sour. To Kinsey Millhone, it looked like the cops were walking away from the case. She didn't like the idea that a colleague and sometime drinking companion had been murdered. Or the idea that his murderer was loose and on the prowl. It made her feel exposed. Vulnerable. Bibianna Diaz was afraid for her life. If there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that you didn't cross Raymond Maldonado and live to tell the tale. And Bibianna had well and truly crossed him, running out on his crazy wedding plans and going into hiding in Santa Teresa light years away from the Los Angeles barrio that was home turf to Raymond and his gang. Now she needed money to buy time, to make sure she'd put enough space between them. And the quickest way she knew to get money was to work an insurance scam -- just like the ones Raymond was running down in L.A. The trouble was, Bibianna picked California Fidelity as her mark. And it wasn't long before her name surfaced in one of Parnell Perkins's open files and Kinsey was on her case. But so, too, was her spurned suitor, Raymond Maldonado. He had a rap sheet as long as his arm, a hair-trigger temper that was best left untested, and an inability to take no for an answer. He also had Tourette's syndrome, which did nothing to smooth out the kinks in his erratic and often violent behavior. All in all, Raymond Maldonado was not someone to spend a lot of time hanging out with. Unfortunately for Kinsey, she didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. Not after the love-sick Raymond kidnapped Bibianna. Like it or not, Kinsey was stuck baby-sitting Bibianna along with Raymond and his macho crew. You might say she was a prisoner of love.

Cajun police detective Dave Robicheaux knows the Sonnier family of New Iberia -- their connections to the CIA, the mob, and to a former Klansman now running for state office. And he knows their past -- as dark and murky as a night on the Louisiana bayou. An assassination attempt and the death...  more

Cajun police detective Dave Robicheaux knows the Sonnier family of New Iberia -- their connections to the CIA, the mob, and to a former Klansman now running for state office. And he knows their past -- as dark and murky as a night on the Louisiana bayou. An assassination attempt and the death of a cop draw Robicheaux into the Sonniers' dangerous web of madness, murder and incest. But Robicheaux has devils of his own. And they've come out of hiding to destroy the tormented investigator -- and the people he holds most dear. Filled with the usual Burke combination of brilliant action and a stunning novelistic theme, A Stained White Radiance will keep Burke's fans riveted -- and win him many new ones.

"An almost flawless story of love...Morgan emerges as a true hero."LOS ANGELES TIMESMorgan Gower works at Cullen's hardware store in north Baltimore. He has seven daughters and a warmhearted wife, but as he journeys into the gray area of middle age, he finds his household growing tedious. Then...  more

"An almost flawless story of love...Morgan emerges as a true hero."LOS ANGELES TIMESMorgan Gower works at Cullen's hardware store in north Baltimore. He has seven daughters and a warmhearted wife, but as he journeys into the gray area of middle age, he finds his household growing tedious. Then Morgan meets two lovely young newlyweds under some rather extreme circumstances--and all three discover that no one's heart is safe....From the Paperback edition.

Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with grifters--and...  more

Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with grifters--and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse.

Who is Kalki, and why is he planning to destroy the world -- and everything in it? And if Kalki is a mystical legend, then why does his ultimate world include only a select few chosen to breed a new human race?

Pretty teenager April Kyle is in grown-up-trouble, involved with people who'd beat her up for a dollar and kill her for five. Now she's disappeared, last seen in the Combat Zone, that side of Boston where nothing's proper, especially the sex for sale. With Hawk, his sidekick, Spenser takes...  more

Pretty teenager April Kyle is in grown-up-trouble, involved with people who'd beat her up for a dollar and kill her for five. Now she's disappeared, last seen in the Combat Zone, that side of Boston where nothing's proper, especially the sex for sale. With Hawk, his sidekick, Spenser takes on the whole X-rated industry. From a specialty whorehouse in Providence to stylish Back Bay bordellos, he pits muscle and wit against bullets and brawn until he finds what he's looking for: April Kyle, little girl lost. "Nowhere is Spenser's vitality clearer than in CEREMONY...Spenser probably had more to do with changing the private eye from coffin-chaser to a full-bodied human being than any other detective hero." (Sun-Times, Chicago)

Using unprecedented, dramatically compelling sleuthing techniques, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history. Between 1898 and 1912, families...  more

Using unprecedented, dramatically compelling sleuthing techniques, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history. Between 1898 and 1912, families across the country were bludgeoned in their sleep with the blunt side of an axe. Jewelry and valuables were left in plain sight, bodies were piled together, faces covered with cloth. Some of these cases, like the infamous Villasca, Iowa, murders, received national attention. But few people believed the crimes were related. And fewer still would realize that all of these families lived within walking distance to a train station. When celebrated baseball statistician and true crime expert Bill James first learned about these horrors, he began to investigate others that might fit the same pattern. Applying the same know-how he brings to his legendary baseball analysis, he empirically determined which crimes were committed by the same person. Then after sifting through thousands of local newspapers, court transcripts, and public records, he and his daughter Rachel made an astonishing discovery: they learned the true identity of this monstrous criminal. In turn, they uncovered one of the deadliest serial killers in America. Riveting and immersive, with writing as sharp as the cold side of an axe, The Man from the Train paints a vivid, psychologically perceptive portrait of America at the dawn of the twentieth century, when crime was regarded as a local problem, and opportunistic private detectives exploited a dysfunctional judicial system. James shows how these cultural factors enabled such an unspeakable series of crimes to occur, and his groundbreaking approach to true crime will convince skeptics, amaze aficionados, and change the way we view criminal history.

In its first seven years, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tripled trade among the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and the region's share of the world economy grew from 30 to 36 percent. In 2001, however, North America peaked. Trade slowed among the three, manufacturing jobs shrunk,...  more

In its first seven years, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tripled trade among the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and the region's share of the world economy grew from 30 to 36 percent. In 2001, however, North America peaked. Trade slowed among the three, manufacturing jobs shrunk, and illegal migration and drug-related violence soared. Europe caught up, and China leaped ahead. In The North American Idea, eminent scholar and policy-maker Robert Pastor demonstrates that no two countries are more important to the U.S. economy, security, and society than Canada and Mexico. He explains that NAFTA's mandate was too limited to address the new North American agenda. Interest groups and nativism inhibited bolder proposals, and the three governments lost their way. To overcome resistance and inertia, the leaders need to start with an idea big enough to inspire people in all three countries to forge a formidable region able to compete with a dynamic East Asia. Drawing on first-hand experience as a policy-maker and analyst, Pastor shows how this idea--once woven into the national consciousness of the three countries--could mobilize public support for continental solutions to problems that have confounded each nation working on its own. To stimulate trade and reduce illegal migration, for example, the three countries should establish a fund to invest in the continent's infrastructure. Such a fund would be impossible without leadership and an idea of the continent's current importance and its future promise. Challenging readers to view our continent in a new way, Robert Pastor offers an expansive vision and a detailed blueprint for a more integrated, dynamic, and equitable North America.

In this wickedly funny book, poor stick-in-the-mud Henry Pulling gets talked into accompanying his repobate Aunt Augusta on a questionable journey. The unlikely duo find themselves, in the course of the novel, in Brighton, aboard the Orient Express, on a boat from Buenos Aires to Asuncion -- and...  more

In this wickedly funny book, poor stick-in-the-mud Henry Pulling gets talked into accompanying his repobate Aunt Augusta on a questionable journey. The unlikely duo find themselves, in the course of the novel, in Brighton, aboard the Orient Express, on a boat from Buenos Aires to Asuncion -- and beyond.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, tucked away in upstate New York in a small town called Cooperstown, is far from any major media market or big league stadium. Yet no sports hall of fame?s membership is so hallowed, nor its qualifications so debated, nor its voting process so...  more

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, tucked away in upstate New York in a small town called Cooperstown, is far from any major media market or big league stadium. Yet no sports hall of fame?s membership is so hallowed, nor its qualifications so debated, nor its voting process so dissected. Since its founding in 1936, the Hall of Fame?s standards for election have been nebulous, and its selection processes arcane, resulting in confusion among voters, not to mention mistakes in who has been recognized and who has been bypassed. Numerous so-called ?greats? have been inducted despite having not been so great, while popular but controversial players such as all-time home run leader Barry Bonds and all-time hits leader Pete Rose are on the outside looking in. Now Jay Jaffe shows us how to use his revolutionary ranking system to ensure the right players are recognized. The foundation of Jaffe?s approach is his JAWS system, an acronym for the Jaffe WAR Score, which he developed over a decade ago. Through JAWS, each candidate can be objectively compared on the basis of career and peak value to the players at his position who are already in the Hall of Fame. Because of its utility, JAWS has gained an increasing amount of exposure in recent years. Through his analysis, Jaffe shows why the Hall of Fame still matters and how it can remain relevant in the 21st century.