Sometimes the worst nightmares happen in broad daylight... An utterly gripping novel for fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham, from a rising star in the crime genre. A woman is found brutally murdered on a quiet housing estate, her tongue and eyes ritualistically gouged out. Children are being abducted and then returned to their families days later without a scratch and with no knowledge or where they have been - or with whom. If DC Laura McGanity thought moving from London to sleepy Lancashire was taking the easy option then she can think again. Already worried about uprooting young son Bobby to follow her reporter boyfriend Jack Garrett back to his hometown, she must quickly get a handle on these mystifying cases terrifying the people of Blackley - without putting the local officers' noses out of joint. Meanwhile, restless Jack is itching to get back to his writing and the cases provide the perfect opportunity to do so. But as he delves deeper into them, he finds murky connections between the two crimes and skeletons buried in the most unlikely of closets. Most astonishing of all, he meets a man who 'paints' the future - terrible events come to him in vivid dreams which he then puts onto canvas. This 'precognition' is not so much a gift as a curse and to Jack it becomes terrifyingly that many people, including his own family, are in danger...

Daddy is going to camp. That's what I told my children. But it wasn't camp. . . .

Neil White wanted only the best for those he loved and was willing to go to any lengths to provide it--which is how he ended up in a federal prison in rural Louisiana, serving eighteen months for bank fraud. But it was no ordinary prison. The beautiful, isolated colony in Carville, Louisiana, was also home to the last people in the continental United States disfigured by leprosy--a small circle of outcasts who had forged a tenacious, clandestine community, a fortress to repel the cruelty of the outside world. In this place rich with history, amid an unlikely mix of leprosy patients, nuns, and criminals, White's strange and compelling new life journey began.

An extraordinary memoir at once funny, poignant, and uplifting, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts reminds us all what matters most.

What do you see in your dying moments...? A young woman is on the run, her boyfriend found brutally slain in their bed. A simple crime of passion. Or is it? Find out in the new heart-stopping thriller from the acclaimed author of LOST SOULS. The Lancashire town of Blackley has been rocked by the violent death of Luke Howarth. The fingers of suspicion point towards his girlfriend, Sarah Goode - missing since his murder. Just another crime of passion with a tragic end. Or is it? Reporter Jack Garrett isn't so sure - especially when he's asked by Sarah's distraught parents to find their daughter. Their description of caring schoolteacher Sarah doesn't tally with the media's portrayal of a cold-blooded killer. But as he hunts for Sarah, Jack finds himself immersed in the town's troubled history and discovers that dangerous rituals from the past are impacting on the present. Jack's girlfriend, DC Laura McGanity, in the midst of a tough custody battle, must be content to sit on the sidelines. But she soon finds herself caught up in the investigation, as the mystery surrounding Sarah's disappearance dramatically unravels. Jack and Laura find themselves in mortal danger as they come face to face with an unhinged killer who is determined that they will pay with their lives...

There's no way back... DI Sheldon Brown has never recovered from finding the body of Alice Kenyon brutally murdered, naked and abandoned in a pool. And he's never stopped pursuing his main suspect, hellraiser and lottery winner Billy Privett either. So when Billy is found dead and, what's more, viciously dissected, DI Brown's obsession is rekindled. Who killed the notorious millionaire in such a bloodthirsty way? With jaded lawyer Charlie Barker - who desperately needs to pick up the pieces of his own life - Sheldon will uncover a world of drugs, long-buried secrets and a cult with a deadly conviction to their cause ...

Every breath you take, he'll be watching you... When Jane Roberts is found dead in a woodland area Detective Sergeant Laura McGanity is first on the scene. The body bears a chilling similarity to a woman - Deborah Corley -murdered three weeks earlier. Both have been stripped,strangled and defiled. When reporter Jack Garrett starts digging for dirt on the notorious Whitcroft estate, he finds himself face-to-face with Jane's father and gangland boss Don who will stop at nothing until justice is done. It seems that the two murdered women were linked in more ways than one and a dirty secret is about to surface that some would prefer stay buried. As the killer circles once more, Jack and Laura must get to him before he strikes again. But his sights are set on his next victim and he's watching Laura's every move...

Matroids appear in diverse areas of mathematics, from combinatorics to algebraic topology and geometry. This largely self-contained work provides an intuitive and interdisciplinary treatment of Coxeter matroids, a new and beautiful generalization of matroids which is based on a finite Coxeter group.

Key topics and features:

* Systematic, clearly written exposition with ample references to current research

* Matroids are examined in terms of symmetric and finite reflection groups

* Finite reflection groups and Coxeter groups are developed from scratch

* The Gelfand-Serganova Theorem is presented, allowing for a geometric interpretation of matroids and Coxeter matroids as convex polytopes with certain symmetry properties

* Matroid representations and combinatorial flag varieties are studied in the final chapter

* Many exercises throughout

* Excellent bibliography and index

Accessible to graduate students and research mathematicians alike, Coxeter Matroids can be used as an introductory survey, a graduate course text, or a reference volume.

This book is a continuation of Theory of Matroids (also edited by Neil White), and again consists of a series of related surveys that have been contributed by authorities in the area. The volume begins with three chapters on coordinatisations, followed by one on matching theory. The next two deal with transversal and simplicial matroids. These are followed by studies of the important matroid invariants. The final chapter deals with matroids in combinatorial optimisation, a topic of much current interest. The whole volume has been carefully edited to ensure a uniform style and notation throughout, and to make a work that can be used as a reference or as an introductory textbook for graduate students or non-specialists.

This volume, the third in a sequence that began with The Theory of Matroids and Combinatorial Geometries, concentrates on the applications of matroid theory to a variety of topics from engineering (rigidity and scene analysis), combinatorics (graphs, lattices, codes and designs), topology and operations research (the greedy algorithm). As with its predecessors, the contributors to this volume have written their articles to form a cohesive account so that the result is a volume which will be a valuable reference for research workers.

The theory of matroids is unique in the extent to which it connects such disparate branches of combinatorial theory and algebra as graph theory, lattice theory, design theory, combinatorial optimization, linear algebra, group theory, ring theory and field theory. Furthermore, matroid theory is alone among mathematical theories because of the number and variety of its equivalent axiom systems. Indeed, matroids are amazingly versatile and the approaches to the subject are varied and numerous. This book is a primer in the basic axioms and constructions of matroids. The contributions by various leaders in the field include chapters on axiom systems, lattices, basis exchange properties, orthogonality, graphs and networks, constructions, maps, semi-modular functions and an appendix on cryptomorphisms. The authors have concentrated on giving a lucid exposition of the individual topics; explanations of theorems are preferred to complete proofs and original work is thoroughly referenced. In addition, exercises are included for each topic.

Matroids appear in diverse areas of mathematics, from combinatorics to algebraic topology and geometry, and "Coxeter Matroids" provides an intuitive and interdisciplinary treatment of their theory. In this text, matroids are examined in terms of symmetric and finite reflection groups; also, symplectic matroids and the more general coxeter matroids are carefully developed. The Gelfand-Serganova theorem, which allows for the geometric interpretation of matroids as convex polytopes with certain symmetry properties, is presented, and in the final chapter, matroid representations and combinatorial flag varieties are discussed. With its excellent bibliography and index and ample references to current research, this work will be useful for graduate students and research mathematicians.

This volume, the third in a sequence that began with The Theory of Matroids (1986) and Combinatorial Geometries (1987), concentrates on the applications of matroid theory to a variety of topics from geometry (rigidity and lattices), combinatorics (graphs, codes, and designs) and operations research (the greedy algorithm).

This book is a continuation of Theory of Matroids (also edited by Neil White), and again consists of a series of related surveys that have been contributed by authorities in the area. The volume begins with three chapters on coordinatisations, followed by one on matching theory. The next two deal with transversal and simplicial matroids. These are followed by studies of the important matroid invariants. The final chapter deals with matroids in combinatorial optimisation, a topic of much current interest. The whole volume has been carefully edited to ensure a uniform style and notation throughout, and to make a work that can be used as a reference or as an introductory textbook for graduate students or non-specialists.

Everyone would kill for their fifteen minutes of fame... A Premiership footballer is shot dead in cold blood on a busy London street, and a country is gripped by terror. Who is behind this apparently motiveless killing - and who's next in the firing line? Jack Garrett is determined to find out. A small-time journalist who's left behind his Lancashire roots for the glitz and glamour - and seediness and squalor - of the capital, he's convinced this is no celebrity stalker. Aided and abetted by DC Laura McGanity, desperately trying to juggle police life with motherhood and her feelings for Jack, the trail takes them back to Jack's home town of Turner's Fold - and his past. What's the connection between the recent murder and the death of a young girl 10 years before? Conspiracy, revenge and the high price of fame all combine in this stunning debut from a dazzling new voice in crime fiction.

Company towns are often portrayed as powerless communities, fundamentally dependent on the outside influence of global capital. Neil White challenges this interpretation by exploring how these communities were altered at the local level through human agency, missteps, and chance. Far from being homogeneous, these company towns are shown to be unique communities with equally unique histories.Company Towns provides a multi-layered, international comparison between the development of two settlements--the mining community of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, and the mill town of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada. White pinpoints crucial differences between the towns' experiences by contrasting each region's histories from various perspectives--business, urban, labour, civic, and socio-cultural. Company Towns also makes use of a sizable collection of previously neglected oral history sources and town records, providing an illuminating portrait of divergence that defies efforts to impose structure on the company town phenomenon.

When a man is found beaten to death in a local Manchester park, Detective Constable Sam Parker is one of the investigating officers. Sam swiftly identifies the victim, but what at first looks like an open and shut case quickly starts to unravel when he realises that the victim's fingerprints were found on a knife at another crime scene, a month earlier. Meanwhile, Sam's brother, Joe - a criminal defence lawyer in the city - comes face to face with a man whose very presence sends shockwaves through his life. Joe must confront the demons of his past as he struggles to come to terms with the darkness that this man represents. Before long, Joe and Sam are in way over their heads, both sucked into a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to change their lives for ever... 'Authenticity reeks from every page...hypnotic, troubling crime writing with a superb villain and a distinctive atmosphere.' Daily Mail on Next to Die

Oriented matroids are a very natural mathematical concept which presents itself in many different guises and which has connections and applications to many different areas. These include discrete and computational geometry, combinatorics, convexity, topology, algebraic geometry, operations research, computer science and theoretical chemistry. This is the second edition of the first comprehensive, accessible account of the subject. It is intended for a diverse audience: graduate students who wish to learn the subject from scratch; researchers in the various fields of application who want to concentrate on certain aspects of the theory; specialists who need a thorough reference work; and others at academic points in between. A list of exercises and open problems ends each chapter. For the second edition, the authors have expanded the bibliography greatly to ensure that it remains comprehensive and up-to-date, and they have also added an appendix surveying research since the work was first published.

Joe Parker is Manchester's most ingenious criminal defence lawyer. Sam Parker is Manchester's most tenacious homicide detective. Both bear the burden of the unsolved murder of their sister fifteen years earlier. And both have a stake in a new series of murders that has shaken their city to its core. Ronnie Bagley is locked up and facing trial for the murder of his girlfriend and baby and there's only one lawyer he wants to defend him: Joe Parker. As Joe takes to the courtroom to represent Ronnie, little does he know that Bagley is smarter than anyone has given him credit for, and soon Joe will find himself pitched against his own brother, Sam, in a race to outwit the most terrifying serial killer the city has ever seen. It isn't long before Joe and Sam's shared past comes crashing into the present in a pulse-pounding race to find out who is NEXT TO DIE...

Joe Parker is Manchester's top criminal defence lawyer and Sam Parker - his brother - is a brilliant detective with the Greater Manchester Police force. Together they must solve a puzzling case that is chilling Manchester to the bone... The Death Collector is charming, sophisticated and intelligent, but he likes to dominate women, to make them give themselves to him completely; to surrender their dignity and their lives. He's a collector of beautiful things, so once he traps them he'll never let them go. Joe is drawn into the Death Collector's world and when the case becomes dangerous, Sam is the first person he turns to. In this gripping thriller, danger lurks for not only the Parker brothers, but also those closest to them.

When a man is found beaten to death in a local Manchester park, Detective Constable Sam Parker is one of the investigating officers. Sam swiftly identifies the victim, but what at first looks like an open and shut case quickly starts to unravel when he realises that the victim's fingerprints were found on a knife at another crime scene, a month earlier. Meanwhile, Sam's brother, Joe - a criminal defence lawyer in the city - comes face to face with a man whose very presence sends shockwaves through his life. Joe must confront the demons of his past as he struggles to come to terms with the darkness that this man represents. Before long, Joe and Sam are in way over their heads, both sucked into a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to change their lives for ever...'Authenticity reeks from every page...hypnotic, troubling crime writing with a superb villain and a distinctive atmosphere.' Daily Mail on Next to Die