Category: Comedy, Thriller Characters: 4 males, 3 females

When nice Mrs. Collier and her two horrendous children are chosen to star in a shampoo commercial, it's not just the dandruff that has to go

"Polished, fast moving and thoroughly entertaining." - The Plymouth Evening Herald

"A positive mine field of surprises." - Croydon Advertiser

"A must for theatre fans." - The Derbyshire Times

Mystery / Characters: 7 male, 3 female

Scenery: Interior

This Broadway success by the author of Sleuth takes audiences to Agatha Christie's England. Six strangers and a butler have gathered for a black tie dinner in a wealthy lawyer's mansion during a thunderstorm. The guests include an aged rear admiral, a bitchy aristocrat, a doddering old archeologist, a dashing young cad and other Christie types. One of the guests is an oily Levantine who tells the others (each in private) that he has the goods to blackmail them. He is ripe for murder and so it happens. Whodunnit?

"A torrent of merriment ... heavy with excitement, crackles with repartee, rings the bell with epigrams, and detonates depth charges of laughter.... Converts the theatre into a discotheque of explosive delight ... [with] enough riotous surprises to supply another mystery dramatist with a trunkful of plays."- New York Magazin

An unusual and macabre beginning to this play sets the audience's nerves twitching well before any dialogue confuses their minds! Norman apparently murders his girlfriend, Millie, and is in the process of disposing of her body when he is interrupted by a Sergeant Stenning. The ensuing hunt for the victim and the ghoulish discovery of a head burning in the stove is fiendishly climaxed by the revelation that it is only a dummy. Yet is Millie really dead or not?2 women, 2 men

The ultimate game of cat-and-mouse is played out in a cozy English country house owned by celebrated mystery writer, Andrew Wyke. Invited guest Milo Tindle, a young rival who shares not only Wyke's love of the game but also his wife, has come to lay claim. Revenge is devised and murders plotted as the two plan the ultimate whodunnit.5 men

"Sleuth" has all the ingredients of a top-class thriller, which it undoubtedly is - a plot whose twists and turns are breathtakingly audacious and fiendishly cunning; suspense and excitement galore; and a brilliant parody of the Agatha Christie country-house thriller, mercilessly satirizing the genre at the same as using its technical devices to the full. It is a dramatic study of sexual conflict and jealousy between an older and a younger man; as well as a subtle psychological portrait of an inadequate and sexually-obsessed middle-aged man.
"Sleuth" was filmed by Joseph Mankiewicz, with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in the leading roles, and this edition is fully illustrated with stills from the film, for which Anthony Shaffer wrote the screenplay.
Anthony Shaffer has written several television and stage plays, including the West End success "Murderer" (also available from arion Boyars Publishers). He has also written many screenplays, including "Play with a Gypsy," Hitchcock's "Frenzy, The Wicker Man," and the Agatha Christie films "Death on the Nile" and "Evil Under the Sun."

First published in 1978, five years after the release of the classic horror film from which it is adapted, The Wicker Man by director Robin Hardy and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, is a gripping horror classic. A novelization of the haunting Anthony Shaffer script, which drew from David Pinner's Ritual, it is the tale of Highlands policeman, Police Sergeant Neil Howie, on the trail of a missing girl being lured to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle. As May Day approaches, strange, magical, shamanistic and erotic events erupt around him. He is convinced that the girl has been abducted for human sacrifice. Yet he is soon to find that he may be the revellers' quarry . . .

On Friday, August 13, 2010, just as St. Martin's Press was readying its initial shipment of this book, the Department of Defense contacted us to express its concern that our publication of "Operation Dark Heart" could cause damage to U.S. national security. After consulting with our author, " "we agreed to" "incorporate some of the government's changes into a revised edition of his book while redacting other text he was told was classified. The newly revised book keeps our national interests secure, but this highly qualified warrior's story is still intact. "Shaffer's assessment of successes and failures in Afghanistan remains dramatic, shocking, and crucial reading for anyone concerned about" "the outcome" "of the war."

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"While I do not agree with the edits in many ways, the DoD redactions enhance the reader's understanding by drawing attention to the flawed results created by a disorganized and heavy handed military intelligence bureaucracy." --Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer had run intelligence operations for years before he arrived in Afghanistan. He was part of the "dark side of the force"---the shadowy elements of the U.S. government that function outside the bounds of the normal system. His group called themselves the Jedi Knights and pledged to use the dark arts of espionage to protect the country from its enemies.

Shaffer's mission to Afghanistan, however, was unlike any he had ever experienced before.

There, he led a black-ops team on the forefront of the military efforts to block the Taliban's resurgence. They not only planned complex intelligence operations to beat back the insurgents, but also played a key role in executing those operations---outside the wire. They succeeded in striking at the core of the Taliban and their safe havens across the border in Pakistan. For a moment Shaffer saw us winning the war.

Then the military brass got involved. The policies that top officials relied on were hopelessly flawed. Shaffer and his team were forced to sit and watch as the insurgency grew---just across the border in Pakistan.

This wasn't the first time he had seen bureaucracy stand in the way of national security. He had participated in Able Danger, the aborted intelligence operation that identified many of the future 9/11 terrorists but failed to pursue them. His attempt to reveal the truth to the 9/11 Commission would not go over well with his higher-ups.

"Operation Dark Heart" tells the story of what really went on--and what went wrong--in Afghanistan. Shaffer witnessed firsthand the tipping point, when what seemed like certain victory turned into failure. Now, in this book, he maps out a way that could put us on the path to winning the war.