Modern Conspiracy

Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy. We see it everywhere---from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, from the assassination of Kennedy to the death of Diana. In this age of terrorism we live in, the role of conspiracy is a serious one---one that can fuel radical or fringe elements to violence. For award-winning journalist David Aaronovitch, there came a time when he started to see a pattern among these inflammatory theories.

In 63 BC, frustrated by his failure to be elected leader of the Roman Republic, the aristocrat Catiline tried to topple its elected government. Backed by corrupt elites and poor, alienated Romans, he fled Rome while his associates plotted to burn the city and murder its leading politicians. The attempted coup culminated with the unmasking of the conspirators in the Senate. In How to Stop a Conspiracy, Josiah Osgood presents a brisk, modern new translation of the definitive account of these events, Sallust's The War with Catiline.

Is a secret and corrupt Illuminati conspiring to control world affairs and bring about a New World Order? Was Donald Trump a victim of massive voter fraud? Is Elizabeth II a shape-shifting reptilian alien? Who is doing all this plotting? In Hope and Fear, Ronald H. Fritze explores the fringe ideas and conspiracy theories people have turned to in order to make sense of the world around them, from myths about the Knights Templar and the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel to Nazis and the occult, the Protocols of Zion and UFOs.

Today's world is complicated: companies are becoming more powerful than nations, the lines between public and corporate institutions grow murkier, and the internet is shredding our privacy. To combat these onslaughts, people everywhere - rich and not so rich, in business and in their personal lives - are turning away from traditional police, lawyers, and government regulators toward a new champion: the private investigator.

In this eagerly anticipated, brand-new Nina Reilly thriller, Perri O'Shaughnessy takes listeners back to Nina's first murder investigation, to the case that ignites her passionate commitment to fighting for justice. Working as a paralegal and attending law school at night, Nina has her hands full. She's fighting for custody of her young son Bob and overseeing a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her mother, Virigina Reilly, whose health is rapidly declining after she suffered complications from an acupuncture procedure.

Today it is widely recognized that gay men played a prominent role in defining the culture of mid-20th-century America, with such icons as Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Montgomery Clift, and Rock Hudson defining much of what seemed distinctly "American" on the stage and screen. Even though few gay artists were "out," their sexuality caused significant anxiety during a time of rampant anti-homosexual attitudes.

From Martin Cruz Smith, "a master of the international thriller," comes an audacious novel of exotic locales, intimate intrigues, and the mysteries of the human heart. "A superb thriller and a remarkable evocation of a place," raves Booklist in a starred review. "A moving, believable love story in which individual lives are invested with great dignity, even in the face of national ideals."

Five years before the events related in O'Shaughnessy's first Nina Reilly novel, Motion to Supress, Nina is living in Carmel, California, with Bob, her toddler-age son, and working as a paralegal at a law firm while attending law school at night. Additional stress comes from Nina's former boyfriend, Richard Filsen, who thinks she is a bad mother and sues her for custody of her son.