FICTION · MYSTERY AND DETECTIVE
Malcolm Rose
Most acclaimed
Blood brother
In a futuristic London, sixteen-year-old forensic investigator Luke Harding and his robotic assistant, Malc, investigate suspicious deaths at a local hospital. But Luke discovers something he hadn't bargained for - his father's DNA has appeared at several crime scenes, making his the prime suspect. Can Luke stop the deaths and clear his father's name?
Framed
A fast-paced tale of international intrigue that begins with Gabrielle Fleming, a travel writer who agrees to accompany her sister on a tour of Great Britain. Utilizing the trip as the basis for a series of travel articles, Gabby unwittingly finds herself saddled with a new photographer, Jarod Walls, a man whose background and true identity are shady at best. When Gabby's sister suddenly disappears amid rumors of an enormous, and possibly illegal, debt, Gabby has no choice but to rely on Jarod as she struggles to solve the mystery behind her sister's sinister alliance.
Payback
From the child taunted by her playmates to the office worker who feels stifled in his daily routine, people frequently take out their pain and anger on others, even those who had nothing to do with the original stress. The bullied child may kick her puppy, the stifled worker yells at his children: Payback can be directed anywhere, sometimes at inanimate things, animals, or other people. In this book, the authors, an evolutionary biologist and a psychiatrist, offer a look at this phenomenon, showing how it has evolved, why it occurs, and what we can do about it. Retaliation and revenge are well known to most people. We all know what it is like to want to get even, get justice, or take revenge. What is new in this book is an extended discussion of redirected aggression, which occurs not only in people but other species as well. The authors reveal that it's not just a matter of yelling at your spouse "because" your boss yells at you. Indeed, the phenomenon of redirected aggression, so called to differentiate it from retaliation and revenge, the other main forms of payback, haunts our criminal courts, our streets, our battlefields, our homes, and our hearts. It lurks behind some of the nastiest and seemingly inexplicable things that otherwise decent people do, from road rage to yelling at a crying baby. And it exists across boundaries of every kind, culture, time, geography, and even species. Indeed, it's not just a human phenomenon. Passing pain to others can be seen in birds and horses, fish and primates, in virtually all vertebrates. It turns out that there is robust neurobiological hardware and software promoting redirected aggression, as well as evolutionary underpinnings. Payback may be natural, the authors conclude, but we are capable of rising above it, without sacrificing self-esteem and social status. They show how the various human responses to pain and suffering can be managed mindfully, carefully, and humanely.