Marfa Shadows

Marfa Shadows PDF

Author: John DeMers

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781933979816

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"Brett Baldwin is a Texas chef who keeps his life, his emotions, and especially his restaurant--a hip, cutting edge destination called Mesquite in the timy town of Marfa--under careful control. He arranges most of the things that matter to him in color-coded folders in his office. That control lasts only as long as it takes Meridyth Morgan--Marfa girl, high school love interest and now Hollywood star--to walk into his dining room and beg him to help locate her missing brother. Almost as soon as Brett reluctantly agrees to ask around, Meridyth finds herself kidnapped. And Brett finds himself drawn into a violent world he's always taken pains to avoid: the nearby Tex-Mex frontier of drug smuggling, human trafficking, corruption, extortion and murder. Nothing in Brett's personality, nothing in his marriage and divorce, and absolutely nothing in his recipe books help him deal with this" --Cover, p. 2.

The Shadow Catcher

The Shadow Catcher PDF

Author: Hipolito Acosta

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-04-17

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1451632894

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Living under an assumed identity and risking his life were all in a day’s work for U.S. Government Agent Hipolito Acosta. He worked regularly in high-stakes undercover operations infiltrating Mexico’s murderous immigrant smuggling rings and drug cartels. Acosta’s investigations are legendary, both inside law enforcement and the crime cartels he helped neutralize. He had himself smuggled from Mexico to Chicago with a truckload of poor immigrants; worked his way into the confidences of a gang of international counterfeiters; socialized with some of Mexico’s most vicious drug lords; arrested a female smuggler by luring her across the U.S. border for an amorous rendezvous; and was the target of multiple murder plots by the criminals he put in jail. For three decades, Hipolito Acosta’s work routinely made national headlines, and he quickly gained a reputation as a daring crime fighter who used his intelligence and audacity to stay one step ahead of those who would kill him if his cover were ever blown. Acosta’s stories read like chapters from a page-turning crime novel, but The Shadow Catcher is more than a front-seat ride through the criminal underworld along the U.S./Mexico border. This heartbreaking exposé goes beyond sensational headlines and medals of honor to divulge what an agent endures in order to ensure that U.S. law is enforced and to reveal the unseen human side of illegal immigration.

In the Shadow of the Chinatis

In the Shadow of the Chinatis PDF

Author: David W. Keller

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2019-01-31

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1623497353

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Winner, 2020 Al Lowman Memorial Prize for Best Book on Texas County or Local History There is a deep and abiding connection between humans and the land in Pinto Canyon—a remote and rugged place near the border with Mexico in the Texas Big Bend. Here the land assumes a certain primacy, defined not by the ephemera of plants and animals but by the very bedrock that rises far above the silvery flow of Pinto Creek— looming masses that break the horizon into a hundred different vistas. Yet, over time, people managed to survive and sometimes even thrive in this harsh environment. In the Shadow of the Chinatis combines the rich narratives of history, natural history, and archeology to tell the story of the landscape as well as the people who once inhabited it. Settling the land was difficult, staying on it even more so, but one family proved especially resilient. Rising above their meager origins, the Prietos eventually amassed a 12,000-acre ranch in the shadow of the Chinati Mountains to become the most successful of Pinto Canyon’s early settlers. But starting with the tense years of the Great Depression, the family faced a series of tragedies: one son was killed by a Texas Ranger, and another by the deranged son of Chico Cano, the Big Bend’s most notorious bandit. Ultimately, growing rifts in the family forced the sale of the ranch, marking the end of an era. Bearing the hallmarks of an epic tragedy, the departure of the Prieto family signaled a transition away from ranching towards a new style of landownership based on a completely different model. Today, Pinto Canyon’s scenic and scientific value increasingly overshadows the marginal economics of its past. In the Shadow of the Chinatis reveals a rich tapestry of interaction between humans and their environment, providing a unique examination of the Big Bend region and the people who call it home.

Lines and Shadows

Lines and Shadows PDF

Author: Joseph Wambaugh

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2016-04-20

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 0804150699

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The true story only Joseph Wambaugh could tell. A band of California cops set loose in no-man’s-land to come home heroes. Or come home dead. Not since Joseph Wambaugh’s bestselling The Onion Field has there been a true police story as fascinating, as totally gripping as Lines and Shadows. The media hailed them as heroes. Others denounced them as lawless renegades. A squad of tough cops called the Border Crime Task Force. A commando team sent to patrol the snake-infested no-man’s-land south of San Diego. Not to apprehend the thousands of illegal aliens slipping into the U.S., but to stop the ruthless bandits who preyed on them nightly—relentlessly robbing, raping, and murdering defenseless men, women, and children. The task force plan was simple. They would disguise themselves as illegal aliens. They would confront the murderous shadows of the night. Yet each time they walked into the violent blackness along the border, they came closer to another boundary line—a fragile line within each man. And crossing it meant destroying their sanity and their lives. Praise for Lines and Shadows “With each book, it seems, Mr. Wambaugh’s skill as a writer increases. . . . In Lines and Shadows he gives an off-trail, action-packed true account of police work and the intimate lives of policemen that, for my money, is his best book yet.”—The New York Times Book Review “A saga of courage, craziness, brutality and humor. . . . One of his best books, comparable to The Onion Field for storytelling and revelatory power.”—Chicago Sun-Times

More Haunted Houses

More Haunted Houses PDF

Author: Joan Bingham

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1991-10

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0671695851

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From Simon & Schuster, More Haunted Houses is a guide to cryptic hangouts and ghostly locales in the United States. From a robber's cave that echoes with voices of its past to America's own Loch Ness Monster to a vampire-infested cemetery, this fascinating companion volume to Haunted Houses USA takes us on a tour of some of America's spookiest places.

From the Shadow of Empire

From the Shadow of Empire PDF

Author: Olga Maiorova

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2010-08-17

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0299235939

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As nationalism spread across nineteenth-century Europe, Russia’s national identity remained murky: there was no clear distinction between the Russian nation and the expanding multiethnic empire that called itself “Russian.” When Tsar Alexander II’s Great Reforms (1855–1870s) allowed some freedom for public debate, Russian nationalist intellectuals embarked on a major project—which they undertook in daily press, popular historiography, and works of fiction—of finding the Russian nation within the empire and rendering the empire in nationalistic terms. From the Shadow of Empire traces how these nationalist writers refashioned key historical myths—the legend of the nation’s spiritual birth, the tale of the founding of Russia, stories of Cossack independence—to portray the Russian people as the ruling nationality, whose character would define the empire. In an effort to press the government to alter its traditional imperial policies, writers from across the political spectrum made the cult of military victories into the dominant form of national myth-making: in the absence of popular political participation, wars allowed for the people’s involvement in public affairs and conjured an image of unity between ruler and nation. With their increasing reliance on the war metaphor, Reform-era thinkers prepared the ground for the brutal Russification policies of the late nineteenth century and contributed to the aggressive character of twentieth-century Russian nationalism.

A Shadow in the City

A Shadow in the City PDF

Author: Charles Bowden

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2006-07

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780156032537

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Joey O'Shay is not the real name of the narcotics agent in an unnamed city in the center of the country. But Joey O'Shay exists. The nearly three hundred drug busts he has orchestrated over more than two decades are real, too; if the drug war were a declared war, O'Shay would have a Silver Star. With nerves and mastery worthy of his subject, Charles Bowden follows O'Shay as he sets in motion his latest conquest, a $50 million heroin deal that originates in Colombia and has federal agents sitting at attention from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to New York City. As it unfolds, O'Shay reveals the unerring instinct and ceaseless vigilance that have led him through minefields and brought down kingpins. But now they have led him to a place where it isn't so clear who the heroes are or what the fight has been for. And still the warrior fights on, in a murky and unforgiving landscape readers will not be able to forget.

Shadows and Joys of a Life in Bavaria

Shadows and Joys of a Life in Bavaria PDF

Author: Gerlinde Pyron

Publisher: Outskirts Press

Published: 2018-12-29

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 197720323X

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Growing up in rural Bavaria, Gerlinde didn’t know about Hitler’s regime in the way Americans learn about it in school. All she knew was the beauty and tragedy of daily life on the farm where she lived with her brother and sister, her mother, and her stepfather—she never knew her father, who was killed in the Siege of Leningrad. Experience country life in Germany in the 1940s and 1950s, through the eyes of an observant, imaginative child who watched as defeated German soldiers and their families tried to reinvent their lives after the war. From elaborate childhood games to the sobering reality of exhausting daily work, from the love and care of friends and neighbors to the heartbreak of a traumatized family, this compelling memoir is a testimony to the courage and grit of a girl who eventually came to America, fulfilling her own great-grandmother’s dream.

A Wild Justice

A Wild Justice PDF

Author: Craig Thomas

Publisher: Canelo

Published: 2023-06-26

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 1804363871

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Three murders. Two continents. One price for justice. Bill Grainger, chief executive of an American gas company, and his wife Beth are found dead, violently murdered in their home in Washington D.C. It appears to be a home invasion and robbery, gone horribly wrong. Beth’s brother, former CIA agent John Lock vows revenge, swearing to not stop until their killers are brought to justice. Meanwhile, in the subarctic gas field town of Novy Urengoy, Siberia, a parallel investigation is taking place. Detective Alexei Vorontsyev is looking into the death of another executive of the same American gas company, apparently the victim of the local mafia. John and Alexei’s cases soon become entwined as they battle endless red tape to uncover new evidence, and both of their lives are put at risk. The deaths connected to the Grainger gas company seem to be symptoms of a wider conspiracy – a conspiracy which threatens world order and the future of the West... Part-police procedural, part-spy thriller, A Wild Justice is a knock-out, perfect for fans of Desmond Bagley and Frederick Forsyth.

Night Photography and Light Painting

Night Photography and Light Painting PDF

Author: Lance Keimig

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2015-05-15

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317964616

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Lance Keimig, one of the premier experts on night photography, has put together a comprehensive reference that will show you ways to capture images you never thought possible. This new edition of Night Photography presents the practical techniques of shooting at night alongside theory and history, illustrated with clear, concise examples, and charts and stunning images. From urban night photography to photographing the landscape by starlight or moonlight, from painting your subject with light to creating a subject with light, this book provides a complete guide to digital night photography and light painting.