In the city of Sylvow, brother and sister Claudia and Leo Vestra made a childhood promise to each other: he would look after the plants and she would look after the animals. Unlike most promises, both of these were kept - each in their own way. Claudia is now a vet - looking after pampered pets or putting down strays and leading a mundane life in the city. Leo, on the other hand, disenchanted with modern urban life, has abruptly abandoned his wife and disappeared into the surrounding forest, his only contact with the outside world being a sequence of dramatic and prophetic letters - increasingly convinced that a semi-sentient natural world is preparing to rebel against its human irritants. Nature is a strange thing - although we have done an amazing job of cataloguing and observing it, we still know very little about it. Nature always surprises - and always changes, especially under an external influence such as humanity's devastating effect on the environment. This book follows its cast of characters through a spectacular clash between everyday life and life on the evolutionary scale - as society dissolves and is stripped away under the onslaught of surreal environmental disaster. Douglas Thompson has dug deep into the inevitable guilt that we all feel, as a culture/species, for the disastrous state of civilization and its effect on both ourselves and the world around us - in the process touching on elements as diverse as literary surrealism, philosophical tract, horror, disaster novel and visionary science fiction.

Under the biological microscope, fractal geometry reveals itself as the secret structure of Life itself. Like Russian dolls, the closer we zoom in, the more we pass into repeating realms of infinite divisibility. In Ultrameta, Douglas Thompson searches for just such patterns in the confusion and social devastation of modern urban life. Ultrameta is the metropolis of all metropolises. The city we all live in, wherever we happen to be in the world. London, Glasgow, Athens, New York, Tokyo . . . the 'City of the Soul' that has grown within all of us. The time-span of the text ranges from Ancient Greece to the unnervingly familiar present, leading us to uncomfortable questions about ourselves and the life we live. It encompasses a vast emotional and social spectrum, which we plunge through as we follow the main character, Alexander Stark, through a vivid range of different identities, moving from one time and place to another in a seemingly endless cycle of death and re-emergence. What is Ultrameta? Visionary horror? Experimental surrealism? Trippy outsider art? Like Danielewski's House of Leaves, this is one of those few books that possess a core of something genuinely unusual, both in its ideas and its approach to storytelling. A tale of 'Serial Suicide' - or perhaps of immortality. A circular novel - or is it a story collection? A four-dimensional shadow of, or an enigma modelled on, Life itself? Ultrameta represents a striking development in Slipstream writing and a unique way of looking at the world.

April Ashley was a trailblazing figure in the history of transgender rights and advocacy. Born in 1935 in Liverpool, Ashley was assigned male at birth, but knew from a young age that she identified as a woman. At the age of sixteen, April left home and began her journey of self-discovery, eventually transitioning and undergoing gender-reassignment surgery in 1960. She became one of the first British people to undergo the procedure, which was illegal at the time in the UK. April’s transition was met with both admiration and hostility from the media and the public. Despite facing discrimination and transphobia, she remained dedicated to promoting trans visibility and acceptance. In the 1960s, she moved to Paris and became a successful model and cabaret performer, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. She also appeared in films and on television, becoming a prominent figure in the entertainment industry. Throughout her life, April Ashley was a tireless advocate for the rights of trans people, speaking out on issues such as discrimination, health care, and legal recognition. She received numerous awards for her activism, including an MBE in 2012 for services to transgender equality. Today, April’s legacy continues to inspire and empower trans people around the world. Her courageous journey and unwavering dedication to fighting for trans rights will undoubtedly be remembered as a vital part of the LGBTQ+ movement.

'Bobby called. He's coming to California. He wants to see me.' Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary and never before published first-hand testimony, this book proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they plotted to silence her. The new evidence and revelatory statements are provided by Mike Rothmiller who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division (OCID) of the LAPD, had direct personal access to hundreds of restricted LAPD files on exactly what happened at Marilyn Monroe's Californian home on August 5, 1962. With his training and investigator's knowledge, Rothmiller used that confidential information to get to the heart of the matter, to the people who were there the night Marilyn died - two of whom played major roles in the cover-up - and the wider conspiracy to protect the Kennedys whatever the collateral damage. There will be those with doubts, but to them, the lawman - who directed international intelligence operations targeting organized crime - says the printed, forensic and oral evidence are totally convincing. He insists: 'If I presented my evidence in any court of law, I'd get a conviction.'

The astonishing true story of the Scottish coal miner’s daughter who took on the Mafia-backed creators of the world’s biggest financial fraud and helped the FBI to convict them Soon to be a major Hollywood film directed by Scott Z Burns    ‘In the 1990s, Erin Brockovich showed what a difference one smart, angry woman can make in a world that marginalized her. Jen McAdam stepped forward in our time to shut down a diabolical fraud that preys those most desperate.’ Scott Z Burns, Director (Contagion and The Bourne Ultimatum) As featured on the hit BBC podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen Jen McAdam was a victim of the OneCoin global cryptocurrency fraud, which stole an estimated $27 billion from ordinary people around the world. The evil genius of the scam was its target, society’s ‘unbanked,’ not wealthy investors, and it robbed millions of their livelihood and futures. The poor became poorer. The brutal plundering led by self-styled Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova defied all legal and banking barriers bamboozling financial authorities — until Jen McAdam fought back. With a £15,000 inheritance from her father, saved from a careful life in a west of Scotland mining town, Jen wanted to invest wisely for her family’s future and was enraptured by the possibilities offered by OneCoin’s promotional material and convincing endorsements from celebrities and financial institutions. They, like all Dr Ruja’s flamboyant promises, were bogus. Jen McAdam was the first victim brave enough to fight back and despite death threats and an intimidating campaign to shut her down, and through a debilitating illness, strived tirelessly for justice – for herself, her family and friends, and the millions around the world who lost everything. She created and continues to lead victims ’support groups and in 2023, as the OneCoin bandits were being punished by international courts, spearheaded a move to get financial compensation for the many whose life hopes were cruelly crushed by the Cryptoqueen. This is a true David-and-Goliath story. It shows us the power we can have as individuals, even when things seem hopeless.

Providing a comprehensive picture of the design, conduct, analysis, and interpretation of non-experimental studies of both infectious and non-infectious diseases, the Second Edition of this widely used text has been thoroughly updated to take into account the numerous developments in epidemiology over the past decade. Since the first edition was published in 1986, additional sources of data have become available through the increasing use of computerized records for health-related purposes. Also, a better understanding of the uses and limitations of certain epidemiologic concepts has been gained. Modifications of traditional study designs, including nested case-control studies and case-cohort studies, are now more frequently employed. Biological markers of exposure, disease susceptibility, and disease itself are used in many studies and methods of statistical analysis have been further developed. All of these developments have been considered in writing the Second Edition. The authors cover the full scope of observational studies, describing in detail cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, and epidemic investigation. The use of statistical procedures is described in easy-to-understand terms. Sample size estimation, sampling, measurement, and measurement error are fully discussed. Each chapter in the second edition has been updated and several chapters have been expanded. Chapter 3, which summarizes sources of data on disease occurrence, includes several additional sources of data. Chapter 5, which describes modifications of traditional study designs, now contains nested case-control and case-cohort studies. Chapter 15, on other types of measurement, has been expanded to include sections on measurement in epidemiologic studies of the elderly and on biological markers since these have become major areas of epidemiologic research in recent years. Much of the material in Chapters 6, 7, and 9 on the analysis of data from epidemiologic studies is also new to this edition. Perhaps the greatest challenge for the authors in writing this Second Edition was to make some of the modern, frequently used methods of statistical analysis understandable to readers with a limited mathematical or statistical background. Although this book is intended for readers who have had introductory courses in epidemiology and biostatistics, even readers who do not fully comprehend the theory behind some of the techniques should understand the rationale for their use and be able to interpret results when they appear on a computer printout or in the literature. The Second Edition of this widely used text will serve as a practical resource for students and practitioners of epidemiology, public health and biostatistics.

It was said of the young Frank Sinatra that he came across as 'St Francis of Assisi with a shoulder holster'. In Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders Mike Rothmiller and Douglas Thompson draw on previously secret Los Angeles Police intelligence files, a cache of FBI documents released to the authors in 2021 and extensive interviews with prime sources, including many who worked with Frank Sinatra and many more who tracked his long and fatal association with the American Mafia, notably his ongoing connection, after his original godfather was assassinated: Sam 'Momo' Giancana, who shared a lover with President John F. Kennedy. Sixteen days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 30 November 1963, nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at gunpoint from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A $240,000 ransom was demanded from his father. While the FBI and Nevada and California law-enforcement agencies sprang into action, Frank secretly contacted his Mafia friends for help. The Mafia believed they could free young Frank much more quickly through their underworld connections. Some of those they questioned died. Revealed here as never before is the extent to which Sinatra was adopted by the Mafia. They promoted his career and 'watched his back' and, in return, Sinatra danced to their tune. New information disclosed here shows that Sinatra also offered to spy for the CIA. Inside sources say Sinatra wanted the CIA to intercede to stop an investigation into his gaming licence in Las Vegas. But the CIA declined because they were already working with the Mob and were concerned Sinatra would learn of the Mafia's connection to the CIA and leak it.

Scott Malthrop is a murderer with a difference: his entire house is filled with an enormous device gradually assembled by him and his father over four decades. Known only as "The Machine" the device seems to transport Malthrop to different locations in space and time by feeding off his memories and a vast array of sentimental objects and trophies taken by Malthrop from his own past and that of his victims. As Malthrop's experiments become ever more violent and life-threatening, they cause distortions in the surrounding quantum fabric, and spark off pursuit from two very different directions: a local Police Inspector and two "Angels" sent back from the end of time.

By turns wistful, haunting and macabre, 'The Sleep Corporation' is a major collection of thirty-one stories by Douglas Thompson, a self-proclaimed 'Glasgow Surrealist' and one of the most original and individual voices to have emerged in the field of British speculative and dark fiction over the last fifteen years. "Thompson is a short story writer and novelist of almost unparalleled skill. This is an extraordinarily gifted writer whose lines are infused with poetry" Charles Packer - Sci Fi Online

In the city of Sylvow, brother and sister Claudia and Leo Vestra made a childhood promise to each other: he would look after the plants and she would look after the animals. Unlike most promises, both of these were kept - each in their own way. Claudia is now a vet - looking after pampered pets or putting down strays and leading a mundane life in the city. Leo, on the other hand, disenchanted with modern urban life, has abruptly abandoned his wife and disappeared into the surrounding forest, his only contact with the outside world being a sequence of dramatic and prophetic letters - increasingly convinced that a semi-sentient natural world is preparing to rebel against its human irritants. Nature is a strange thing - although we have done an amazing job of cataloguing and observing it, we still know very little about it. Nature always surprises - and always changes, especially under an external influence such as humanity's devastating effect on the environment. This book follows its cast of characters through a spectacular clash between everyday life and life on the evolutionary scale - as society dissolves and is stripped away under the onslaught of surreal environmental disaster. Douglas Thompson has dug deep into the inevitable guilt that we all feel, as a culture/species, for the disastrous state of civilization and its effect on both ourselves and the world around us - in the process touching on elements as diverse as literary surrealism, philosophical tract, horror, disaster novel and visionary science fiction.

Apoidea... When the bees were wiped out, famine and war threatened and mankind faced the abyss. But then came salvation, in the form of the cyber bee. Fully functional, fully capable of replacing its extinct predecessor. Humanity would survive. But suddenly, the bees are not behaving the way they should. Something is wrong... Apoidea... A fast paced, intelligent and frighteningly contemporary science fiction thriller from Douglas Thompson, author of Ultrameta and Sylvow. Praise for Douglas Thompson... ""Thompson writes with the assurance of someone completely in control of his material..."" Pete Tennant, Black Static magazine ""Thompson uses the tropes of the fantastic in unique and compelling ways while at the same time creating vivid and fully realized protagonists..."" Mike O'Driscoll, The Fix Online ""Thompson has certainly shown he is a name to watch."" Ian Sales, Interzone Magazine

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Sir Devaux Of Davington: A Rhyme Douglas Thompson (prelector at Cheltenham grammar sch.)

The murder of a free-lance investigator aboard a crack Chicago to California train might have been written off and forgotten except for the involvement of a quasi-secret group funded by a general with the United States government when the train reaches the yard at Salt Lake City. A tangled trail of murder and mayhem is precipitated when a persistent Mexican/Irish homicide detective, Ramos Torres, is ordered to back-off and accept the version arranged by two Federal officers from D.C. His neatly organized life is changed forever when he is initiated into a world of deceit and biotechnological research by a reporter from Boston, Kathleen Flaherty. The young woman is drop-dead gorgeous, Irish, and the victim's partner in their investigation of the mail handling inquiries. Torres becomes enhanced with this Irish Queen's story and because of his involvement with her the department becomes embroiled in a dangerous game of espionage and murder. The murder on the train escalates to include the Medical Examiner and the Police department before involving trips through several western states and ending up in Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout the story Faulkner and his stone cold killer Corrigan, known as the 'Iceman', do everything within their power to keep Torres isolated from any assistance from his friends by destroying them incrementally. The violent end comes in a hotel room with the help of a Boston cop, two U.S. senators, an editor and a Mafioso's top man.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Under the biological microscope, fractal geometry reveals itself as the secret structure of Life itself. Like Russian dolls, the closer we zoom in, the more we pass into repeating realms of infinite divisibility. In Ultrameta, Douglas Thompson searches for just such patterns in the confusion and social devastation of modern urban life. Ultrameta is the metropolis of all metropolises. The city we all live in, wherever we happen to be in the world. London, Glasgow, Athens, New York, Tokyo . . . the 'City of the Soul' that has grown within all of us. The time-span of the text ranges from Ancient Greece to the unnervingly familiar present, leading us to uncomfortable questions about ourselves and the life we live. It encompasses a vast emotional and social spectrum, which we plunge through as we follow the main character, Alexander Stark, through a vivid range of different identities, moving from one time and place to another in a seemingly endless cycle of death and re-emergence. What is Ultrameta? Visionary horror? Experimental surrealism? Trippy outsider art? Like Danielewski's House of Leaves, this is one of those few books that possess a core of something genuinely unusual, both in its ideas and its approach to storytelling. A tale of 'Serial Suicide' - or perhaps of immortality. A circular novel - or is it a story collection? A four-dimensional shadow of, or an enigma modelled on, Life itself? Ultrameta represents a striking development in Slipstream writing and a unique way of looking at the world.

Sabrina (Brandy) Mackenzie is a young woman finishing her college education in Boston when she is precipitously thrust into the mysterious world of Witchcraft against her will. A direct descendant of a 14th century witch, Lilith, Brandy's destiny was preordained from birth by a circumstance her mother called 'Satan's Heritage'. The novel moves through Scotland, England, Maine and Key West, Florida. Shortly after her arrival in Florida she meets Alan Menteith, an enigmatic man about town and local leader of a witches' coven. Finding a position in town, Brandy recalls her formative years in Downeast Maine and how she came to Old Town. She relives the circumstances that brought her together with Rachel Dussault, a self proclaimed Queen of Witches, and Raoul, Rachel's Grand Master, and how she was forced into fleeing them. Although her mother, Lucinda, had initiated her in the secret spells of Wicca, Brandy has spent years attempting to distance herself from affiliations with witches or their covens. She meets and falls for Scott Duncan, a recovered alcoholic and a charter boat captain. They mistakenly determine Menteith as their common enemy; Brandy because the man is a witch, and Scott because during his drinking period years he ran guns for Menteith. After five years of sobriety, AA gave him a new life and he defies all who threaten Brandy. Their problem start with a perilous dive on a 400 year old wreck, a dive that almost cost Scott's life, followed by murders, kidnapping, and a hurricane that fuel the action of the lovers fight for their lives. The story concludes on a lonely stretch of beach with confrontation between Queen Witch and the Grand Master. A decisive conflict is broughtto conclusion by the Minions of Heaven and Demons of Hell, and the man who knew one prayer.

Baron Armand Bless, a 300-year-old vampire, leaves his native land to visit the Maine coast where his need for blood results in the death of several young women. In the small town of Rams Head, Maine, the attacks of the women and the death of one by exsanguination, involves the police chief, Dave Collins. Baffled by the nature of the attacks he is unable to solve, he calls on his old Vietnam commander, Ian Rawlins, to help him with the investigation. A young French heiress, Azur Bless, arrives in Rams head with her cat, Saki, after she inherits a mansion on an island known as Dark Island. Unbeknownst to her, the mansion is the Vampire's lair. She meets and precipitately falls in love with Rawlins. This incurs the jealousy and subsequent pursuit of Azur by the angry Baron. As the plot evolves and delves into vampirism, they need the expertise of Dr. Morreau, an authority on the Undead. This is a tale of unrelenting passion and high adventure on a stormy windswept sea, culminating in a confrontation with the Baron on Dark Island, with three friends and a cat attempting to save Azur from the Vampire's evil exploitation.