The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs

The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs
Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453235248

DIVA dog’s murder leads detective Masuto to a most unusual poisoning case/div DIVIn Beverly Hills, murder has suddenly gone out of style. For five weeks, the head of the city’s tiny homicide squad, Zen detective Masao Masuto, has worked only robbery investigations. But after more than a month without a corpse, this dry spell is about to end./divDIV /divDIVThe dead woman is Ana Fortez, a Chicana whose death was originally classified as terminal food poisoning brought on by a feast of botulism-infested éclairs. But because botulism can only grow in an airtight space, the medical examiner warns Masuto that the fatal bacteria must have been purposefully injected into the pastry. When a wealthy housewife’s dog drops dead after munching on premium chocolates, Masuto finds that her bonbons have been laced with the same toxin. He begins a search for a killer targeting the sweet tooth of Beverly Hills—proof that crime in Southern California never stays boring for long./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate./div

The Masao Masuto Mysteries Volume One

The Masao Masuto Mysteries Volume One
Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2018-12-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504057635

A collection of thrilling murder mysteries featuring “an unusually interesting detective” from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Spartacus (The Washington Star). Japanese-American Beverly Hills homicide detective Masao Masuto is a karate expert, a devotee of roses, and a Zen Buddhist. He does his job with a cool, caustic wit—and with surprising force when necessary. He possesses a singular sense of justice, taking action on his own and occasionally pushing the boundaries of the law . . . The Case of the Angry Actress: When a Hollywood mogul drops dead at his own party, Detective Masuto must dig into the darkest secrets of the magnate’s past. Now he must uncover a secret worth killing for before someone else dies. “A good fast-paced thriller.” —Reader’s Syndicate The Case of the One-Penny Orange: Masuto has a break-in and a murder to solve, both of which are baffling. But when he suspects a connection between the two crimes, he uncovers a bizarre conspiracy that reaches back to the darkest days of World War II. “A finely perceived mystery puzzle . . . an unusually interesting detective.” —The Washington Star The Case of the Russian Diplomat: When a dead body is found in a pool at a high-class hotel notorious for its illicit activities, Matsuo finds himself hunting for a killer and tangled in a web of espionage and international intrigue. “An enjoyable, highly professional entertainment.” —The New Yorker The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs: A pleasant lull in murder cases is broken when a series of unusual poisoning deaths puts Masuto on the hunt for someone whose terrifying vendetta has only just begun. “A consummate storyteller.” —The Baltimore Sun

The Philosophy and Psychology of Ambivalence

The Philosophy and Psychology of Ambivalence
Author: Berit Brogaard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-12-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0429638590

This book collects original essays by top scholars that address questions about the nature, origins, and effects of ambivalence. While the nature of agency has received an enormous amount of attention, relatively little has been written about ambivalence or how it relates to topics such as agency, rationality, justification, knowledge, autonomy, self-governance, well-being, social cognition, and various other topics. Ambivalence presents unique questions related to many major philosophical debates. For example, it relates to debates about virtues, rationality, and decision-making, agency or authenticity, emotions, and social or political metacognition. It is also relevant to a variety of larger debates in philosophy and psychology, including nature vs. nature, objectivity vs. subjectivity, or nomothetic vs. idiographic. The essays in this book offer novel and wide-ranging perspectives on this emerging philosophical topic. They will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in ethics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and social cognition.

The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery

The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery
Author: B. Murphy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 553
Release: 1999-12-09
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0230107354

Bruce Murphy's Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is a comprehensive guide to the genre of the murder mystery that catalogues thousands of items in a broad range of categories: authors, titles, plots, characters, weapons, methods of killing, movie and theatrical adaptations. What distinguishes this encyclopedia from the others in the field is its critical stance.

The Case of the Russian Diplomat

The Case of the Russian Diplomat
Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 145323523X

DIVA murder investigation at a high-priced hotel reveals a deadly plot reaching the highest seats of power/div DIVThey call the pool at the Beverly Glen Hotel “the naked hooker.” To the frustration of the Beverly Hills police department, the women there are so high class that it’s impossible to distinguish guests and girlfriends from professionals. Women flock to the lavish hotel because it teems with film stars, businessmen—and America’s richest criminals. Tonight, to detective Masao Masuto’s chagrin, there is the body of a naked man in the pool./divDIV /divDIVThough the management insists the death was accidental, Masuto doubts that any man would hide his own clothes before taking a midnight swim. The woman who reported the body is gone by the time the police reach her room, and the man they find there, Jack Stillman, insists there was nobody staying with him. The next day Stillman is dead, and Masao Masuto has a killing spree to deal with—one that leads to a tangled web of espionage and international conspiracy./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate./div

Mystery Fanfare

Mystery Fanfare
Author: Michael L. Cook
Publisher: Popular Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1983
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9780879722302

This work is a composite index of the complete runs of all mystery and detective fan magazines that have been published, through 1981. Added to it are indexes of many magazines of related nature. This includes magazines that are primarily oriented to boys' book collecting, the paperbacks, and the pulp magazine hero characters, since these all have a place in the mystery and detective genre.

The Tao of S

The Tao of S
Author: Sheng-mei Ma
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1643363085

A study of recent shifts in the depictions of Asian cultural stereotypes The Tao of S is an engaging study of American racialization of Chinese and Asians, Asian American writing, and contemporary Chinese cultural production, stretching from the nineteenth century to the present. Sheng-mei Ma examines the work of nineteenth-century "Sinophobic" American writers, such as Bret Harte, Jack London, and Frank Norris, and twentieth-century "Sinophiliac" authors, such as John Steinbeck and Philip K. Dick, as well as the movies Crazy Rich Asians and Disney's Mulan and a host of contemporary Chinese authors, to illuminate how cultural stereotypes have swung from fearmongering to an overcompensating exultation of everything Asian. Within this framework Ma employs the Taoist principle of yin and yang to illuminate how roles of the once-dominant American hegemony—the yang—and the once-declining Asian civilization—the yin—are now, in the twenty-first century, turned upside down as China rises to write its side of the story, particularly through the soft power of television and media streamed worldwide. A joint publication from the University of South Carolina Press and the National Taiwan University Press.

Howard Fast

Howard Fast
Author: Andrew F. Macdonald
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 220
Release: 1996-08-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1573566470

Howard Fast, one of the most prolific American writers of the 20th century, has enjoyed wide popularity for his writing and suffered from great notoriety for his politics, but has never been given full credit for his contribution to the essential tales of American culture, the American Revolution, and immigrant acculturation. Although his novels have sold close to eighty million copies, this is the first book-length critical study of his work. In addition to an overview of his fiction, it offers close, critical readings of his historical novels of the American Revolution, Citizen Tom Paine, April Morning, and his most recent, Seven Days in June, his novels about slavery, Freedom Road and Spartacus, and his popular series about the American experience, The Immigrants. A biographical chapter is partly based on an extensive interview granted by Fast exclusively for this book. A comprehensive bibliography completes the work. This critical study begins with a biographical chapter that links life and works, showing how Fast transmuted his experience into fiction. Macdonald asserts that for all Fast's notoriety as a Communist in the 1940s and 1950s, his works show him to be deeply committed to the principles that inspired the American Revolution. A chapter on literary background discusses all of Fast's major works and most of his minor ones, placing the historical novels into literary context and the other works into their genre traditions. The remaining six chapters focus on his most important individual novels. Each novel is analyzed for plot structure, characterization, and thematic elements. In addition, Macdonald defines and applies alternative critical perspectives from which to read each novel. A genealogy table for The Immigrants series, and a complete, up-to-date bibliography of all of Fast's nearly one hundred published works, as well as selected reviews and background reading, make this study invaluable for research and critical understanding. This study of Fast's classic works of historical fiction will aid the student and support the interdisciplinary American history/literature curriculum.

Penelope

Penelope
Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453235345

DIVDissatisfied with life on the Upper East Side, a socialite finds a new favorite pastime: robbing banks/div DIVWhen James R. Hastings, president of the City Federal Bank, began construction of a new branch on Madison Avenue, he vowed to make it burglar proof. Vaults set forty feet below ground, an array of cameras, and a quartet of burly guards were intended to deter any bandit. But James Hastings did not count on being robbed by his wife./divDIV /divDIVThree weeks after the bank opens, a demure old woman removes a Luger from her handbag and asks a clerk to empty her register, then disappears into the bathroom with a haul of over $50,000. When the guards arrive, a scared young woman flees the bathroom and points them to the stalls. Inside, they find nothing but a discarded disguise, while the young woman walks calmly out the front door. This is Penelope Hastings—a bored banker’s wife who, now that she has taken up crime, will never be bored again./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate./div

Lydia

Lydia
Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453235329

DIVA hard-boiled insurance investigator upends New York in search of a perfect diamond necklace/div DIVDeath follows the Sarbine necklace. Its eleven diamonds are flawless, and all cut from the same stone—one of the largest ever unearthed from the mines of South Africa. But lately this most elegant piece of jewelry has become a bad luck charm. Its original owner killed himself, and his daughter, who was meant to inherit the piece at eighteen, died shortly after. When the necklace itself goes missing, it becomes Harvey Krim’s problem—and his chance to make a fortune./divDIV /divDIVAn insurance investigator with a porous moral code, Krim will collaborate with thieves if it means recovering the necklace. The answer could lie with a Texan maid named Lydia Harvey, but she seems too inept to be a skilled jewel thief. Those who possess the Sarbine necklace have a short lifespan, and with so many others looking for it, if Krim isn’t careful, his neck could be next./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate./div