Actor and bestselling science writer Ben Miller takes readers to the cutting edge of one of the greatest questions of all: Is there life beyond Earth?

For millennia, we have looked up at the stars and wondered whether we are alone in the universe, but in the last few years as our probes begin to escape the solar system, and our telescopes reveal thousands of Earthlike planets scientists have taken huge leaps toward an answer. Forget science fiction, author Ben Miller writes. We are living through one of the most extraordinary revolutions in the history of science: the...

"This nail-biter teems with suspense...An unrelenting debut thriller." --Kirkus Reviews The strangled body of a 9-year-old girl is discovered behind a hedgerow bordering her school playground in York, Pennsylvania. The local authorities' only clue lies in a scrap of paper left in her front pocket, with a short phrase printed on it in an unfamiliar language. Jackson Byrne, an FBI agent who specializes in investigating crimes against children, has just completed a book tour promoting his best-seller about solving his most recent high-profile case-the abduction and murder of a celebrity's young...

"Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies"is the treatise of Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery, a master swordsman who participated in more than fifty duels, fought under twelve flags, battled gangsters, and was constantly involved in the great conflicts and upheavals of his time. This book isthe magnum opus of this remarkable and colorful character, originally published in the 1870s as a series of newspaper articles and collected here for the first time. Colonel Monstery presents a unique look into the Victorian-era fighting world, describing styles such as British purring (shin-kicking), Welsh...