A Curious Beginning

London, 1887. Veronica Speedwell intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. But fate has other plans. When Veronica thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, he offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker - a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. When the Baron is murdered, Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth.

The New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey mysteries returns once more to Victorian England and introduces intrepid adventuress Veronica Speedwell.... London, 1887. After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.

London, 1887. Veronica Speedwell intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. But fate has other plans. When Veronica thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, he offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker - a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. When the Baron is murdered, Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth.

Receiving a warning from a mysterious baron after suffering a home invasion, Veronica Speedwell accepts the baron's shelter and teams up with an ill-tempered naturalist when her host is subsequently murdered.

Eric Moon, a progressive, even radical librarian who for more than 50 years has served his profession as goad and prod, devoted practitioner, gutsy journalist, magnanimous publisher, revered and resented association leader, smug antagonist, beloved mentor and antic crony, has been at the center of almost every important debate involving the shape and direction of the library profession in North America since the late 1950s and well into the 1990s, and before that for some years in England. Editor of Library Journal, president of Scarecrow Press, president of the American Library Association, Moon has had an opinion on all of the heated issues that have preoccupied librarianship in recent decades: civil rights, social responsibility, intellectual freedom, spurring the young and the new, balanced collections, public funding, and the Sisyphean governance of the ALA. Eric Moon's life is told with the help of Kister's 115 hours of interviews with Moon and his wife, and over 50 hours with dozens of friends and associates. This unvarnished account balances Moon's ambitions and accomplishments with his demons and failures and not only tells the story of the man but also outlines the main course of events in Anglo-American librarianship during the past half century.

Epstein investigates the relationship between the ineffable art of music and the hard science of neurobiology. He integrates philosophic and scientific inquiry to formulate a theory of the fundamental yet elusive quality in music time. Derived from an analytical study of motion, tempo and emotion, Shaping Time offers a theory of the way we percieve, perform and interpret music. Epstein suggests that audience satisfaction with a musical performance results from timing trajectories established by the performer at the beginning of the piece. When the timing of a performance conflicts with audience anticipation, listeners experience physical and affective discomfort. Epstein applies his thesis to a wide range of examples for the repertoire.