Small-time stoolie, Jake " The Spinner" Jablon, made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money -- and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating in the East River with his skull bashed in.And what's worse, no one cares -- except Matthew Scudder. The ex-cop-turned-private-eye is no conscientious avenging angel. But he's willing to risk his own life and limb to confront Spinner's most murderously aggressive marks. A job's a job after all -- and Scudder's been paid to find a killer -- by the victim...in advance.

Destitute after the death of her beloved Papa, Carmela is miserable working as Nanny to the brattish children of the local vicar. So when her closest friend Felicity asks her to take her place in the home of her guardian, the dictatorial Earl of Galeston, she nervously agrees. The subterfuge is necessary to ensure Felicity can marry the love of her life – and possible firstly because none of Felicity’s feuding family have set eyes on her since she was a child... And secondly because both young women are blue-eyed, blonde and beautiful. The Earl’s ancestral home is awe-inspiring – but it is the Earl himself who makes the greatest impression on Carmela. Growing to appreciate the profound kindness behind his steely fa?ade, she falls deeply, utterly in love... But can true love live when it’s based on a lieThe Earl finds the answer in his heart when Carmela’s life – and any hope of love – is at stake...

The death of her beloved father, has left artistic and idealistic Tempera and her stunning, scatterbrained stepmother Lady Rothley bereft not only of love but also of money. So when Lady Rothley?s womanly wiles attract an invitation from none other than the Duke of Chevingham to join him in the South of France, it?s a Godsend. At last the prospect of a handsome, aristocratic suitor for Tempera?s Belle-m?re who would keep them both in the style to which they would dearly love to be re-acquainted! To arrive without a lady?s maid is inconceivable to afford one impossible. So Tempera escorts her Belle-m?re in the guise of a servant and attempts to coach her in fine art, the Duke?s consuming passion. While her stepmother flirts with C?te D?Azur society Tempera contents herself with capturing the local flora?s beauty on canvas. And when the flair she inherited from her father captivates and mystifies the magnificent Duke, something stirs in Tempera that she has never felt before. Is it loveOr is it betrayal?

Anastasia is about to be married, which should be the most exciting day of any young girl?s life. Pretty, impulsive and wise beyond her years it seems that the young Princess will make an ideal bride for one lucky man. There is only one flaw in the wedding plans she is not in love with her bridegroom. Commanded to marry by Queen Victoria, Anastasia is horror struck at the thought of an arranged marriage. Having dreamt of true love since childhood, she despairs that a marriage based on political allegiance can ever be a happy one. Especially when her bridegroom, the handsome King of Maurona, is reputed to have a preference for anything French, including the seductive wife of Maurona's French ambassador. Determined to do her duty, Anastasia prepares to meet her future husband just days before their wedding. The roar of the assembled crowd tells her that she has won the love and approval of the people, but will she ever have the love of their KingAs passions and political intrigue simmer amidst the idyllic palaces and sun-kissed olive groves of Maurona, Anastasia decides that this is a challenge she must rise to. As well as ensuring British protection for the tiny Principality from the greedy hands of neighbouring France, she determines to make her marriage a success. But can an innocent English rose compete with the dark smoldering beauty of the sensual Comtesse le GranmontTwo women, one man and only one winner but as danger grows ever closer will the King realise who his real friends are, and which woman should be at his side, in time to save his country?

Have you ever been so desperate that you would do literally anything for moneyThis is the tragic situation Giselda finds herself in, with no money for an operation her younger brother desperately needs to save his life, and no one to turn to. Ground down by poverty she plucks up her courage to offer the only thing she has of value her purity. Choking back her pride and knowing that she is about to forfeit his respect, she approaches her wealthy employer, the handsome Earl of Lyndhurst, who is recovering from his injuries sustained in the Battle of Waterloo. Appalled that this frail and innocent young girl should be faced with such a terrible decision, he vows to find a way to help her without offending her dignity. He knows she would never accept his charity, and she refuses to confide in him the reasons for her family's poverty. Intrigued by the air of mystery about a girl of obvious quality reduced to the role of maidservant, the Earl decides to discover why a beautiful young woman of strong principles has been reduced to such extreme measures. Discovering her to have gentle hands and wonderful nursing skills he employs her as his private nurse and turns his sharp mind to uncovering her secrets and learns his own lessons in love in the process.

Get started with the fundamentals of PowerShell DSC and utilize its power to automate deployment and configuration of your serversAbout This BookCreate flexible and maintainable deployments using DSC configuration *s that stand the test of timeExplore the in depth details of the core architecture, concepts, and practices used by PowerShell DSCA step-by-step guide that shows you how to start using and taking advantage of PowerShell DSC Who This Book Is For This book is intended for system administrators, developers, or engineers who are responsible for configuration management and automation and wish to learn PowerShell Desired State Configuration for efficient management, configuration and deployment of systems and applications.What You Will LearnUnderstand configuration management and why you need itCraft flexible, reusable, and maintainable configuration *s for thousands of serversCreate custom DSC resources to manage any application or server settingApply configuration data to deploy applications to different environmentsUtilize DSC push deployments to test your configuration *s and custom DSC resourcesInstall, configure and use DSC pull serversRun a Windows MSI packageDeploy a website In Detail Windows PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and *ing language designed especially for system administration. PowerShell DSC is a new management platform that enables you to deploy and manage configuration data for software services and manage the environment in which these services run. This book begins with an overview of the basics of PowerShell DSC by covering the architecture and components of the Desired Sate Configuration. It will then familiarize you with the set of PowerShell language extensions and new PowerShell commands. It will help you understand and create DSC configurations with the help of practical examples, and to create DSC custom resources for your custom applications. Finally, you will learn to deploy a real world application using PowerShell DSC. By the end of the book, you will have better knowledge about the powerful Desired State Configuration platform, which helps you to achieve continuous delivery, and efficient management and easy deployment of data for systems.Style and approach This book is an in-depth guide to using PowerShell DSC, full of real-world experiences and best practices using PowerShell DSC. The topics are explained and build on one another other to provide a holistic learning experience. At the end, all the features learned will be used to create a real world application deployment using DSC.

Teresa is everything her father Sir Hubert Bryan could wish for – clever, loyal and sharp-witted. The only problem is that she was born a girl and not the son he hoped would follow in his footsteps. But Teresa sees no reason why her gender should prevent her from being an asset to him in his mighty shipping empire, and tells him so. Sir Hubert is astounded at her request – he is far more concerned that his beautiful daughter will fall prey to the scavengers and fortune hunters amongst London Society. Having made his own vast fortune the hard way he is only too aware of what men will do to have access to the kind of wealth his lovely daughter will inherit. So when his dear friend the Marquess of Walstoke begs for help to prevent his heir Harry, the Earl of Lanbourne, making a disastrous marriage to a notorious actress he sees an opportunity to help his friend, and set a test of intelligence for his daughter too. Together, the two men hatch a plot to ‘save’ Harry from himself and prevent him from ruining his life. Promising her work in the family business, Teresa agrees to her father’s pleas to play a central character in a daring deception. But Harry is not a fool, and astounded at his uncle’s lack of faith in him he storms off to Bourne Hall, his family estate, taking Teresa with him. Teresa is torn; she loves her father but the longer she spends with Harry the more her loyalties are tested. Experiencing strange new feelings, she begins to have her own reasons to make sure that Harry puts the past behind him. But are these reciprocatedOr is Harry destined to shake the foundations of Society by making his flame-haired actress the new Countess of Lanbourne?

While staying at Lady Merrill’s French Riviera villa, flame haired and beautiful American heiress Nevada van Arden passes her time by casually breaking the hearts of her many ardent suitors – particularly that of young David, Lord Merrill. When his uncle, intrepid explorer and diplomat Tyrone Strome, overhears her cruel humiliation of his lovelorn nephew, he resolves to teach this ‘vixen’ a lesson – and save David from his misery. Tyrone Strome abducts Nevada, spiriting her away in his luxury yacht to Morocco. There the reluctant voyager, swaddled in native clothing, is terrified by the perils of the Sahara and its nomadic tribesmen. But, as they flee from certain death or worse, they find sanctuary in a beautiful hidden valley, a second Garden of Eden, where to Nevada’s surprise, love begins to blossom in the desert.

Lady Loretta's father, the well-respected Lord Lieutenant of the County, is doing his best to force her into marriage with the Marquis of Sauerdun, the son of a good friend. Whilst her father thinks he is making a good match for his beloved daughter, she is aghast at the thought of an arranged marriage and vows she will only marry for love. Searching her mind for a way to stay free to pursue the kind of love she has always dreamt of, she happens upon a good plan. What if she could prove to her straight-laced father that the man he means for her is not only an unsuitable husband, but a philandering rake tooWith the Marquis’s reputation for love affairs with beautiful, seductive and preferably married women well known in Society, surely this would not prove too difficultSeizing upon this last ditch attempt to stay unmarried, Lady Loretta devises a scheme to prove to her father that her intended is an unrepentant heartbreaker. Throwing herself upon the charity and good nature of her notorious cousin Ingrid, whose scandalous love affair has already rocked polite English Society, she heads for Paris alone. Delighted at how quickly she has escaped and enjoying the freedom of her adventure, Loretta determines to find out more about the Marquis and wastes no time in seeking him out. But Fate has its own plans for this spirited English beauty and before too long she is caught up in a web of deceit that threatens to change her life forever.

Develop interactive Arduino-based Internet projects with Ethernet and WiFiAbout This BookBuild Internet-based Arduino devices to make your home feel more secureLearn how to connect various sensors and actuators to the Arduino and access data from InternetA project-based guide filled with schematics and wiring diagrams to help you build projects incrementally Who This Book Is For This book is intended for those who want to learn more about Arduino and make Internet-based interactive projects with Arduino. If you are an experienced software developer who understands the basics of electronics, then you can quickly learn how to build the Arduino projects explained in this book.What You Will LearnMake a powerful Internet controlled relay with an embedded web server to monitor and control your home electrical appliancesBuild a portable Wi-Fi signal strength sensor to give haptic feedback about signal strength to the userMeasure water flow speed and volume with liquid flow sensors and record real-time readingsSecure your home with motion-activated Arduino security cameras and upload images to the cloudImplement real-time data logging of a solar panel voltage with Arduino cloud connectorsTrack locations with GPS and upload location data to the cloudControl a garage door light with your Twitter feedControl infrared enabled devices with IR remote and Arduino In Detail Arduino is a small single-chip computer board that can be used for a wide variety of creative hardware projects. The hardware consists of a simple microcontroller, board, and chipset. It comes with a Java-based IDE to allow creators to program the board. Arduino is the ideal open hardware platform for experimenting with the world of the Internet of Things. This credit card sized Arduino board can be used via the Internet to make more useful and interactive Internet of things projects. Internet of Things with Arduino Blueprints is a project-based book that begins with projects based on IoT and cloud computing concepts. This book covers up to eight projects that will allow devices to communicate with each other, access information over the Internet, store and retrieve data, and interact with users—creating smart, pervasive, and always-connected environments. It explains how wired and wireless Internet connections can be used with projects and the use of various sensors and actuators. The main aim of this book is to teach you how Arduino can be used for Internet-related projects so that users are able to control actuators, gather data from various kinds of sensors, and send and receive data wirelessly across HTTP and TCP protocols. Finally, you can use these projects as blueprints for many other IoT projects and put them to good use. By the end of the book, you will be an expert in the use of IoT with Arduino to develop a set of projects that can relate very well to IoT applications in the real world.Style and approach Every chapter in this book clearly explains how to assemble components through easy-to-follow steps on while laying out important concepts, code snippets, and expected output results so that you can easily end up with a successful project where you can also enhance or modify the project according to your requirements.

The time has come for three kits of ThunderClan Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw to become apprentices. Grandchildren of the great leader Firestar, all three possess unusual power and talent. But dark secrets surround them, and a mysterious prophecy hints at trouble to come. The warrior code is in danger of being washed away by a river of blood, and all the young cats' strength will be needed if the Clans are to survive.

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie where nothing, not even a fallen star, is what he imagined. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman comes a remarkable quest into the dark and miraculous in pursuit of love and the utterly impossible.

Barbarians at the Gate has been called one of the most influential business books of all time -- the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's gripping account of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street in October and November of 1988 is the story of deal makers and publicity flaks, of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms -- giving us not only a detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. Barbarians at the Gate -- a business narrative classic -- is must reading for everyone interested in the way today's world really works.

Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching llods at the basic predicatment of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how wo work for the good with the efforless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love, to childrearing, business, and ecology. The Tao Te Ching is the most widely traslated book in world literature, after the Bible. Yet the gemlike lucidity of the original has eluded most previous translations, and they have obscured some of its central ideas. Now the Tao Te ching has been rendered into English by the eminent scholar and traslator Stephen Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell's Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a modern Zen classic, and his translations of Rilke and of the Book of Job have already been called definitive for our time.

The Professor and the Madman , masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED , begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Bernie Rhodenbarr is a personable chap, a good neighbor, a passable poker player. His chosen profession, however, might not sit well with some. Bernie is a burglar, a good one, effortlessly lifting valuables from the not-so-well-protected abodes of well-to-do New Yorkers like a modern-day Robin Hood. (The poor, as Bernie would be the first to tell you, alas, have nothing worth stealing.) He's not perfect, however; he occasionally makes mistakes. Like accepting a paid assignment from a total stranger to retrieve a particular item from a rich man's apartment. Like still being there when the cops arrive. Like having a freshly slain corpse lying in the next room, and no proof that Bernie isn't the killer. Now he's really got his hands full, having to locate the true perpetrator while somehow eluding the police -- a dirty job indeed, but if Bernie doesn't do it, who will?

The most successful business book of the last decade, Reengineering the Corporation is the pioneering work on the most important topic in business today: achieving dramatic performance improvements. This book leads readers through the radical redesign of a company's processes, organization, and culture to achieve a quantum leap in performance. Michael Hammer and James Champy have updated and revised their milestone work for the New Economy they helped to create -- promising to help corporations save hundreds of millions of dollars more, raise their customer satisfaction still higher, and grow ever more nimble in the years to come.

A respected senator from Georgia, Will Lee has aspirations of more.But a cruel stroke of fate thrusts him onto the national stage well before he expects, and long before he's ready, for a national campaign. The road to the White House, however, will be more treacherous -- and deadly -- than Will and his intelligent, strikingly beautiful wife, Kate, an associate director in the Central Intelligence Agency, can imagine.A courageous and principled man, Will soon learns he has more than one opponent who wants him out of the race. Thrust into the spotlight as never before, he's become the target of clandestine enemies from the past who will use all their money and influence to stop him -- dead. Now Will isn't just running for president -- he's running for his life.

Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness -- sexual pleasure for its own sake -- or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

A stranger arrives at the remote village of Viscos, carrying with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars. He comes searching for the answer to a question that torments him: Are human beings, in essence, good or evilIn welcoming the mysterious foreigner, the whole village becomes an accomplice to his sophisticated plot, which will forever mark their lives. A novel of temptation by the internationally bestselling author Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym is a thought-provoking parable of a community devoured by greed, cowardice, and fear as it struggles with the choice between good and evil.

Leverage the power of LibGDX to create a fully functional, customizable RPG game for your own commercial title About This Book Learn game architecture and design patterns with concrete examples using proper software engineering principles Save time and money with this handy reference guide for future game development with LibGDX Design and develop a fully functional RPG video game from scratch with a hands on, step-by-step approach using LibGDX Who This Book Is For If you are an intermediate-level game developer who wants to create an RPG video game but found the creation process overwhelming, either by lack of tutorials or by getting lost in a sea of game-related technologies, engines, or frameworks, then this book is for you. This book assumes familiarity with Java and some basic knowledge of LibGDX. What You Will Learn Develop characters with stat attributes, player movement, animation, physics, and collision detection Create interactive NPC characters with speech windows and build immersion via dialog trees Build inventory management system UIs with drag and drop items to sell, buy, and equip Design a quest system to expand out the content of your game Form interesting enemies with battle mechanics and spawn points Devise *ed cutscenes to add an element of story and drama Develop save and load game profiles Create special effects to give the game extra “juiciness” and polish, and help build the atmosphere In Detail LibGDX is a Java-based framework developed with a heavy emphasis on performance, and includes cross-platform support out of the box (Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, and HTML5) as well as providing all the low-level functionality so that you can focus on developing your game and not battling with the platform. LibGDX also has an engaged and responsive community, active maintenance, and is available for free without a prohibitive license. Starting from the beginning, this book will take you through the entire development process of creating an RPG video game using LibGDX. First, this book will introduce you to the features specific to RPG games, as well as an overview of game architecture. Then, you will create map locations, develop character movement, add animation, integrate collision detection, and develop a portal system. Next, you will learn and develop a HUD and other UI components, as well as an inventory management system. You will then develop NPC interactions including dialog trees, shopkeepers, and quest givers. After this, you will design and create battle features for fighting enemies, as well as event triggers for world events. Finally, you will add the final polish with sound, music, and lighting effects. By the end of this book, you will have learned and applied core components from the LibGDX framework, as well as have a finished game to use as a springboard for customization and story development for your own commercial video game. Style and approach This book walks you through the concepts and implementation of developing a complete RPG game, unfolding chapter by chapter and building upon previous concepts. Each chapter can be used as an individual reference with diagrams to explain core concepts with concrete example code explained in detail.