Hidden Graves

Hidden Graves
Author: Jack Fredrickson
Publisher: Severn House/ORIM
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-02-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1780108346

“An investigator with a seductive one-two punch—a delectably smart mouth and a delightfully nimble brain.” —William Kent Krueger “Chicago private investigator Dek Elstrom is having a hard time making ends meet, what with the recent collapse of his marriage, the scandal that wrecked his career, and the lack of an actual private investigator’s license. When a woman hires Dek to confirm the whereabouts of three men, Dek’s not exactly in a position to turn down the work, despite his client’s deeply suspicious behavior (Why, for example, does she show up for their meeting wearing an obvious disguise?). When Dek discovers that one of the men is dead and the other two seem to have gone missing, not to mention the fact that the dead man may have taken on a new identity a couple of decades ago, he realizes he’s stumbled onto the kind of case that could resurrect his career―if he can beat a (trumped-up) murder charge, that is. The writing here is splendid, echoing genre veteran Loren D. Estleman, and Dek Elstrom is the kind of guy we genuinely like spending time with.” —Booklist

London's Hidden Burial Grounds

London's Hidden Burial Grounds
Author: Robert Bard
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2017-02-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1445661128

Uncovers the dark secrets of London's lost and forgotten burial places.

Unmarked Graves

Unmarked Graves
Author: Vanessa Hearman
Publisher: NUS Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2018-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9814722944

The anti-communist violence that swept across Indonesia in 1965–66 produced a particularly high death toll in East Java. It also transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of survivors, who faced decades of persecution, imprisonment and violence. In this book, Vannessa Hearman examines the human cost and community impact of the violence on people from different sides of the political divide. Her major contribution is an examination of the experiences of people on the political Left. Drawing on interviews, archival records, and government and military reports, she traces the lives of a number of individuals, following their efforts to build a base for resistance in the South Blitar area of East Java, and their subsequent journeys into prisons and detention centres, or into hiding and a shadowy underground existence. She also provides a new understanding of relations between the army and its civilian supporters, many of whom belonged to Indonesia’s largest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama. In recent times, the Indonesian killings have received increased attention, but researchers have struggled to overcome a dearth of available records and the stigma associated with communist party membership. By studying events in a single province and focusing on the experiences of individuals, Hearman has taken a large step toward a better understanding of a fraught period in Indonesia’s recent past.

Unmarked Graves

Unmarked Graves
Author: Neil Broadfoot
Publisher: Constable
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2023-11-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1408718766

Can a killer ever be on the side of justice? In 1983, Professor Robert Balfour was found floating in Airthrey Loch at the heart of Stirling University's campus. His death was deemed a tragic accident but there were other, darker rumours. The death of a politics professor allegedly linked to the armed wing of the Scottish Liberation Brigade was always going to attract conspiracy theories. But that's all they were. Theories. Until now. To mark the 40th anniversary of his father's death, Jonathan Rodriguez has travelled back to Stirling - and he's brought a camera crew with him. Rodriguez is convinced his father's death was no accident - and that at least one of the killers wore a uniform. Desperate to make the problem go away, DCI Malcolm Ford turns to Connor Fraser for help. And then another body is found at nearby Bannockburn. On the trail of a double killer, Connor is forced to confront dark truths about the meaning of justice. And those truths may just break his heart - or stop it, for good. Praise for Neil Broadfoot: 'Tense, fast-moving and bloody. Broadfoot's best yet' Mason Cross 'A true rising star of crime fiction' Ian Rankin 'Beautifully crafted . . . There's no filler, no exposition, just action, dialogue and layering of tension that'll hold you breathless until the very end' Helen Fields 'Wonderfully grisly and grim, and a cracking pace' James Oswald 'A frantic, pacy read with a compelling hero' Steve Cavanagh

Hidden History of Martha's Vineyard

Hidden History of Martha's Vineyard
Author: Thomas Dresser
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017-04-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 143966028X

Celebrated local historian Thomas Dresser unearths the little-known stories that laid the foundations for the community of Martha's Vineyard. Behind the mansions and presidential vacations of Martha's Vineyard hide the lost stories and forgotten events of small-town America. What was the island's role in the Underground Railroad? Why do chickens festoon Nancy Luce's grave? And how did the people of the Vineyard react in 1923 when the rum running ship John Dwight sank with the island's supply of liquor aboard? Delve deep below the surface of history to discover the origin and meaning of local place names and the significance of beloved landmarks.

The Land of Open Graves

The Land of Open Graves
Author: Jason De Leon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2015-10-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520958683

In this gripping and provocative “ethnography of death,” anthropologist and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time—the human consequences of US immigration and border policy. The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, systematic violence has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field. Featuring stark photography by Michael Wells, this book examines the weaponization of natural terrain as a border wall: first-person stories from survivors underscore this fundamental threat to human rights, and the very lives, of non-citizens as they are subjected to the most insidious and intangible form of American policing as institutional violence. In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert. The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.

The Hidden Powers of Ritual

The Hidden Powers of Ritual
Author: Bradd Shore
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2023-12-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0262376555

An illuminating overview of the development, benefits, and importance of ritual in everyday life, written by a leading cognitive anthropologist. The Hidden Powers of Ritual is an engaging introduction to ritual studies that presents ritual as an evolved form of human behavior of almost unimaginable significance to our species. Every day across the globe, people gather to share meals, brew caffeinated beverages, or honor their ancestors. In this book, Bradd Shore, a respected anthropologist, reaches beyond familiar “big-R” rituals to present life’s humbler, overshadowed moments, exploring everything from the Balinese pelebon to baseball to family Zoom sessions in the age of Covid to the sobering reenactment rituals surrounding the Moore’s Ford lynchings. In each ritual, Shore shows how our capacity to ritualize behavior is a remarkable part of the human story. Encompassing both the commonly unlabeled “interaction rituals” studied by sociologists and the symbolically elaborated sacred rituals of religious studies, Shore organizes his conception around detailed case studies drawn from international research and personal experience, weaving scholarship with a memoir of a life encompassed by ritual. A probing exploration that matches breadth with accessibility, The Hidden Powers of Ritual is a provocative contribution to ritual theory that will appeal to a wide range of readers curious about why these unique repetitive acts matter in our lives.

A Dog's Devotion

A Dog's Devotion
Author: Suzanne Elshult
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2022-10-15
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1493068725

In late March of 2014, death descended upon the community of Oso, Washington in the form of a massive landslide. Ten million cubic yards of dirt and mud crashed through homes, sweeping a 20-foot-high wall of debris before it and scouring the valley floor. In the cold rain of that morning, an entire community disappeared in a sea of mud. In the desperate hours that followed, rescue crews were able to pull only eight survivors out of the wrecked landscape. And then all became quiet, with the stunned realization that many more people were missing, but none were still living. This is the moment when the story of A Dog's Devotion begins. The emergency call from Oso went out, and was answered by K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) teams from across the Pacific Northwest. Suzanne, along with her 4-year-old Labrador Retriever, Keb, and her teammate Guy, was one of the SAR teams to respond to this disaster. In this book, readers immediately find themselves on the ground in the cold mud of the Oso Landslide Disaster on the desperate search for the remains of over forty lost souls. In subsequent chapters, readers will accompany Suzanne, Guy, and Keb as they are inserted by helicopter to search high snowfields on Mount Rainier, or as they traverse steep, forested slopes searching for the clandestine grave of murder victims. They’ll join K9 Keb, as her keen nose leads to human remains in the forests of Washington State and as far away as the woods of Scandinavia. Keb’s story is of a dedicated K9 who can distinguish the scent of the dead from the scent of the living, and who can detect buried bones and even corpses underwater. Readers will follow this intrepid K9 and her teammates as they face the challenges of changeable weather, deep northwest forests, high mountain slopes, and menacing coyotes to find dead bodies, missing hikers, and even the bones of murder victims from long ago. Among their successes: finding multiple victims buried by the 2014 Oso Landslide, solving the mysterious disappearance of women in wealthy suburbs, and finding human bones thought to be forever lost to time. It’s their story about evolving as search and rescue volunteers while overcoming harsh conditions, inner demons, a rust-bound bureaucracy, and back-stabbing teammates. While internal conflicts threaten their larger K9 team, Keb’s training, loyalty, and perseverance inspire them, and help them find the resolve to carry on their service to the community.