Alex Abella

Born in the wake of World War II, RAND quickly became the creator of America’s anti-Soviet nuclear strategy. A magnet for the best and the brightest, its ranks included Cold War luminaries such as Albert Wohlstetter, Bernard Brodie, and Herman Kahn, who arguably saved us from nuclear annihilation and unquestionably created Eisenhower’s "military-industrial complex." In the Kennedy era, RAND analysts and their theories of rational warfare steered our conduct in Vietnam. Those same theories drove our invasion of Iraq forty-five years later, championed by RAND affiliated actors such as Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Zalmay Khalilzad. But RAND’s greatest contribution might be its least known: rational choice theory, a model explaining all human behavior through self-interest. Through it RAND sparked the Reagan-led transformation of our social and economic system but also unleashed a resurgence of precisely the forces whose existence it denied -- religion, patriotism, tribalism. With Soldiers of Reason, Alex Abella has rewritten the history of America’s last half century and cast a new light on our problematic present.

>>“… and what a motive! Murder to save one’s artistic soul… who’d believe that?” >Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing. . . >This expertly curated thespian anthology features fourteen stories from giants of the classic crime genre such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Julian Symons and Ngaio Marsh, as well as firm favourites from the British Library Crime Classics series: Anthony Wynne, Christianna Brand, Bernard J. Farmer and many more. >Mysteries abound when a player’s fate hangs on a single performance, and opening night may very well be their last.

A novel on a U.S. Marine fighting in the Cuban Revolution. While visiting 1950s Havana, William Morgan falls in love with a woman who convinces him to join Castro's guerrillas. He participates in many actions and amours, but finishes the war disillusioned. By the author of The Killing of Saints.

Appointed by the court to investigate a vicious murder in a downtown jewelry store, Charlie Morell, a Cuban-American, must confront his own guilty past while attempting to exonerate Ramon, a Cuban man accused of the crime.

The bus conductor / E.F. Benson -- Sweeney Todd, the demon barber / Thomas Prest -- The middle toe of the right foot / Ambrose Bierce -- King's evidence / Algernon Blackwood -- The sire de Malétroit's door / Robert Louis Stevenson -- The hands of Mr. Ottermole / Thomas Burke -- A thing about machines / Rod Serling -- The weird tailor / Robert Block -- [Pit and the Pendulum]( / Edgar Allan Poe -- Perez / W.L. George -- The pond / Nigel Kneale -- The ferryman / Kingsley Amis -- De mortuis / John Collier.