As featured on 60 Minutes, Dateline, Inside Edition, and 48 Hours, the shocking true story of banker Edmond Safra's death and the man wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the crime. When billionaire banker Edmond Safra died in the ashes of Monaco's La Belle Epoque building on December 3, 1999, the event made international headlines-for many reasons. One, of course, was the sheer wealth of the Lebanese mogul and his formidable presence in the international banking world. But the more seductive reason for the worldwide attention was the strange and intriguing way Safra died-ensconced within the armored walls of his vigilantly secured residence in the "safest city in the world." At 4:45 in the morning, a firestorm gutted Safra's opulent Monte Carlo penthouse, trapping-and killing-Safra and one of his nurses, Vivian Torrente. When the fire was ruled arson, a fast finger was pointed at the only other nurse present: former Green Beret Ted Maher. The true, bizarre circumstances that led to Safra's death and to the subsequent imprisonment of Ted Maher are contained within the pages of Framed in Monte Carlo: How I Was Wrongfully Convicted for a Billionaire's Fiery Death. The story features a play-by-play of that deadly night, as well as Ted's sham of a trial that put him behind bars for seven years and eight months. Brutal betrayals, harrowing kidnappings, prison breaks straight out of The Great Escape, and more pepper the pages of Framed in Monte Carlo. Ted was freed when the judge from his trial came forward with a stunning revelation. But his life was never the same. And since his return to American soil, he's continued to unearth more and more disturbing details about his ordeal. Armed with fresh facts, a greater understanding of the players, and a wider lens of perspective, Ted now reveals all, including his never-before-released findings that seek to answer the lingering big question: Who did kill Edmond Safra? The powerful famous names legitimately put forth by the author will shock you.

Penelope Lemon is back for more madcap mom adventures in Inman Majors's hilariously unruly Operation Dimwit. It's summertime, and son Theo is away at camp. Feeling frisky, free, and tired of living vicariously through nighttime trysts with erotic novels, Penelope can begin phase two of her postdivorce life. First on the agenda is a date with the mysterious Fitzwilliam Darcy, who lives in a mansion with his snobbish cat, Algernon, and who spends his spare time painting massive nude portraits. Meanwhile, back at the trailer-park office, Penelope's boss, Missy, has become obsessed with getting rid of Dimwit, the backwoods interloper who may be stealing personal items from female residents. A sting operation to catch him in the act is planned, something so kooky and ill-advised that only a legendary goofball such as Missy could set it into motion. Throw in a bully trainer at Penelope's new gym, plus an infestation of skunks that requires the services of a wildlife expert and homespun mystic known as the Critter Catcher, and it becomes clear that Penelope's two weeks off from parenting won't be as relaxing and incident-free as she hoped. Building on the comedic hijinks of Penelope Lemon: Game On!, Operation Dimwit is a warmhearted look at the challenges of being a single working mom trying to stay afloat in the middle class after a divorce. Zany, stylish, and uproariously funny, this southern comedy will have readers laughing out loud at familiar absurdities of life in the twenty-first-century USA.

It's Father's Day 1972 and a young boy's dad takes him to visit a string of unimpressive ex-girlfriends that could have been his mother; the unconventional detective work of a koan-speaking, Kung Fu-loving uncle solves a case of arson during a pancake breakfast; and a former geology professor, recovering from addiction, finds himself sharing a taxicab with specters from a Jim Crow-era lynching. Set in and around the fictional town of Steepleburg, South Carolina, the loosely tied stories in George Singleton's Staff Picks place sympathetic, oddball characters in absurd, borderline surreal situations that slowly reveal the angst of southern history with humor and bite. In the tradition of Donald Barthelme, T. C. Boyle, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver, Singleton creates lingering, darkly comedic tales by drawing from those places where familiarity and alienation coexist. A remarkable and distinct effort from an acclaimed chronicler of the South, Staff Picks reaffirms Singleton's gift for crafting short story collections that both deliver individual gems and shine as a whole.

The Book of Acts never ended

A generation today is asking, "Where are all God's miracles which our fathers told us about? "(Judges 6:13).

From 1960-1966, author Tommy Welchel answered this question, living among the youth of one of the greatest spiritual outpourings ever experienced--the Azusa Street Revival. During this time, Tommy recorded first-hand accounts of the miracles that they had witnessed... and even performed themselves

These testimonies have been shared around the world, and the results have been amazing: Miraculous healings, supernatural phenomena, and impossible situations being turned around by a wonder-working God.

As you read about the miracles that God performed during this great move of His Spirit, your faith will be stirred to:

Encourage others that God's healing power has not passed away

Believe for the miraculous in your life

Release supernatural breakthrough to people who need a touch from God

Prepare to experience a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit... "today"

The innovative and dazzling short stories collected in Josh Russell's King of the Animals explore love and heartbreak, growing up and growing old, cities and suburbs, the fantastic and the everyday. A teenager and his family seek asylum in an Atlanta IKEA after their split-level is burned down because his father made fun of an autocrat's bad grammar. A man remembers how seeing a snapshot of his sister naked changed his life-and hers too. A talking doll fails her spelling test, and a king made of sugar and flour watches Fox News and smokes dope with the neighbor kid. A college student ponders the philosophical implications of a poetry-fueled one-night stand, and a father worries he's the reason his adult child hoards dogs. Ranging from pithy flash fiction to slow-burn stories meant to be savored, King of the Animals entwines the extraordinary with the commonplace, leaving us to wonder why we ever thought them separate.

In Mannequin and Wife, the debut story collection from Jen Fawkes, sharp and imaginative tales trip seamlessly across borderlands, navigating comedy and tragedy, psychological and magical realism, the mundane and the marvelous. Readers of these adventurous fictions will encounter a flock of stenographers, the strongest woman alive, a taxidermist with anger issues, an Elephant Girl, a fairy on her lunch break, and a married couple who live with a department store mannequin. Elsewhere, an American actor impersonates a code-breaking Britisher during World War II. A mother awaiting her son's return discovers his personal ad soliciting the services of a cannibal (and fears the worst). A criminal mastermind's protege plots the destruction of Mount Rushmore from within an extinct volcano. A man buys a drive-in theater and transforms it into a carnival sideshow. And an attorney puzzles over how to leave someone his deceased client's heart. Fawkes's award-winning stories examine the vagaries of human relationships-mother and child, husband and wife, mentor and protege-to tease out the startling complications that arise from our entanglements with those we loathe and those we love.

The Speaking Stone: Stories Cemeteries Tell is a literary love letter to the joys of wandering graveyards. While working on a novel, author and longtime Cincinnati resident Michael Griffith starts visiting Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, the nation's third-largest cemetery. Soon he's taking almost daily jaunts, following curiosity and accident wherever they lead. The result is this fascinating collection of essays that emerge from chance encounters with an interesting headstone, odd epitaph, unusual name, or quirk of memory. Researching obituaries, newspaper clippings, and family legacies, Griffith uncovers stories of race, feminism, art, and death. Rather than sticking to the cemetery's most famous, or infamous, graves, Griffith stays true to the principle of ramble and incidental discovery. The result is an eclectic group of subjects, ranging from well-known figures like the feminist icon and freethinker Fanny Wright to those much less celebrated- a spiritual medium, a temperance advocate, a young heiress who died under mysterious circumstances. Nearly ninety photos add dimension and often an element of playfulness. The Speaking Stone examines what endures and what does not, reflecting on the vanity and poignancy of our attempt to leave monuments that last. In doing so, it beautifully weaves connections born out of the storyteller's inquisitive mind.

Hybrid Creatures, Matthew Baker's sharp and innovative collection, follows four very different protagonists as they search for, and struggle with, connection: an amateur hacker attempts to track down his vanished mentor; a math prodigy, the child of divorced parents, struggles with being torn between his two families; a composer takes a spontaneous trip to Nashville while mourning his husband's death and gets trapped on a hotel rooftop with a hipster; and a wayward philosopher accepts a job working for an industrial farming corporation. Through-out, Baker explores the inner dialogue of failed, floundering, and successful bonds between strangers, among family and friends, and even within a person. Pairing the emotional pursuit of connection with multiple forms of communication, Baker weaves the languages of HTML, mathematics, mu-sical notations, and propositional logic into his storytelling in order to unveil nuances of experiences and emotions. This poignant formal invention articulates loneliness, grief, doubt, and comfort in ways that are inaccessible through traditional language alone. In both form and content, Baker captures the complexities of breaking and forming connections with other people, and the various lan-guages we use to navigate this inescapable human need, resulting in a moving exploration of interpersonal bonds.

This book is intended to be simple and to the point. There are examples for every suggestion in this book. This is not intended to be an in-depth study of every issue you will encounter while searching for a job and going through the interview process. I do not believe that the average job seeker is concerned with this. I believe the average job seeker wants to know what to do, how to do it, what not to do, and how to avoid it. This book is titled "Suggestions" for these reasons. These are simple suggestions for anyone seeking a job. My hope in writing this book is to enable you to be strategic and effective in obtaining meaningful employment.

What does it mean to be a missionary in the world today. Dr. Griffiths challenges those who may have not seriously thought about missions before, confronting them with the prospects of a life spent in cross-cultural missionary service. He also helps those who are already missionary candidates to assess their inner thoughts wisely and to face their futures confidently yet realistically. The purpose of this book is to motivate toward mmission in a persuasive and intelligent way through (1) giving a theological motivation rooted in the character of God; (2) indicating the necessary sacrifice involved, but also describing the cultural and spiritual enrichment arising from missionary service; and (3) carefully explaning the missionary call, showing young adults ways to achieve both inward and outward confirmation of their calling. Michael Griffiths has served as General Director of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Principal of London Bible College.

Bed is where we sleep and dream, where we make love and give ourselves nightmares. The thirteen stories in Wendy Rawlings's Time for Bed traverse the complicated terrain of bedtime activity, from adulterous couplings to nightmares that come to life, in terms that can feel lurid, unsettling, or disturbingly funny. A college student struggles with her mother leaving her father for a ""cafeteria lady"" at her high school. A woman loses her only daughter in a mass school shooting and goes on a road trip to buy a custom coffin, then decides to take a side trip to NRA headquarters. A daughter decides she should be born again, literally. Social, cultural, and familial disruptions haunt these characters in their waking lives as they look to grab something or someone for stability. A collection of comic stories that confront difficult and tragic events, Time for Bed crafts dreamscapes and bizarre encounters into bedtime stories for adults.

Penelope Lemon is a recent divorcée, closet Metallica fan, and accidental subversive to all the expectations of suburban motherhood. After ending her marriage with James, a woodsy intellectual who favours silky kimonos too short for his knobby knees, Penelope finds herself, at forty, living with her randy mother in her childhood home. Broke and desperate for work, she waitresses at Coonskins, a frontier-themed restaurant where the decor is heavy on stuffed mammals and discarded peanut shells. Despite the pitfalls of balancing parental duties, jobs, and the vagaries of middle-age life, Penelope pushes through one obstacle after another, trying to regain her independence. Whether fumbling through the world of online dating; coping with a bullying situation involving her son, Theo, something of a gastric wonder on the school bus; or wrestling with the discovery of nude photos from her carefree college days that are not quite as ""artistic"" as she remembers, Penelope gradually emerges as a modern-day heroine who navigates the assorted inanities of life with verve and humor. Audacious and laugh-out-loud funny, Inman Majors's new novel holds up a fun-house mirror to the relatable challenges of being a single parent in the digital age. All those who live by the beat of their own drum gain a coconspirator, an accomplice, and a champion in the unstoppable Penelope Lemon.