A teenage murder witness is drowned in a tub of apples! At a Halloween party Joyce -- a hostile thirteen-year-old -- boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her she storms off home. But within hours her body is found still in the house drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. That night Hercule Poirot is called in to find the evil presence. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer! ...

Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you & turned around to find nothing? Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly they are linked to sensory deprivation intoxication illness or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny Lilliputian figures. People with failing eyesight paradoxically may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of colour to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who are bereaved may receive comforting 'visits' from the departed. In some conditions hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one's own body. Humans have always sought such life-changing visions & for thousands of years have used hallucinogenic compounds to achieve them. As a young doctor in California in the 1960s Oliver Sacks had both a personal & a professional interest in psychedelics. These along with his early migraine experiences launched a lifelong investigation into the varieties of hallucinatory experience. Here with his usual elegance curiosity & compassion Dr Sacks weaves together stories of his patients & of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization & structure of our brains how they have influenced every culture's folklore & art & why the potential for hallucination is present in us all a vital part of the human condition. ...

The Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend. But just how many Spartans are left? While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth & the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as Section Three devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. Theyre going to need hundreds of willing soldiers though.. .and one more Spartan to get the job done. The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned & the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. But when the Master Chief destroys Halo something is triggered deep within Onyx: Ancient Forerunner technology stirs & fleets of UNSC & Covenant race to claim it to change the course of the Human-Covenant War. But this reawakened & ancient force may have plans of its own.. . ...

The Human-Covenant war rages on as the alien juggernaut sweeps inexorably toward its final goal: destruction of all human life. Halo has been destroyed & the threat it posed to sentient life neutralized. But victory has come at a terrible cost for the UNSC. Thousands of valiant soldiers fell in the battle to prevent the alien construct from falling into the enemy's clutches. Now everything depends on the Spartan known as the ' Master Chief'. Yet even with the aid of the artificial intelligence Cortana the Master Chief will be hard-pressed to rescue survivors & evade the Covenant ships patrolling the remains of Halo in debris-strewn space. Ahead lies a dangerous voyage home through a gauntlet of Covenant forces. For the sake of all the Master Chief & his war-torn squad must not only survive but take the fight to the enemy with a decisive first strike. ...

Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel the warrior; Ivy the healer; & Bethany a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. But she is the most human & when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone-especially herself-from the Dark Forces. Is love a great enough power against evil? ...

As the bloody Human-Covenant War rages on Halo the fate of humankind may rest with one warrior the lone SPARTAN survivor of another legendary battle. This was the desperate take-no-prisoners struggle that led humanity to Halo
- the fall of the planet Reach. Now for the first time here is the full story of that glorious doomed conflict.. . Almost on Earth's doorstep Reach is the last military fortress to defy the brutal Covenant onslaught. But their highest priority is to prevent the Covenant from discovering Earth. The outnumbered soldiers seem to have little chance but Reach is the secret training ground for the very first 'super soldiers'. Code-named SPARTANs these bioengineered & technologically augmented warriors are the best
- quiet professional & deadly. As the ferocious Covenant attack begins a handful of SPARTANs stand ready to wage ultimate war. & at least one of them
- the SPARTAN ' Master Chief'
- will live to fight another day on a mysterious & ancient artificial world called Halo.. .



...

Why do some companies prosper while others fail? Despite great amounts of research many of the studies that claim to pin down the secret of success are based in pseudoscience. THE HALO EFFECT is the outcome of that pseudoscience a myth that Philip Rosenzweig masterfully debunks in THE HALO EFFECT. THE HALO EFFECT highlights the tendency of experts to point to the high financial performance of a successful company & then spread its golden glow to all of the companys attributes
- clear strategy strong values & brilliant leadership. But in fact as Rosenzweig clearly illustrates the experts are not just wrong but deluded. Rosenzweig suggests a more accurate way to think about leading a company a robust & clearheaded approach that can save any business from ultimate failure.
...

The Covenant has collapsed after a long brutal war that saw billions slaughtered on Earth & her colonies. For the first time in decades however peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting's stopped the war is far from over: it's just gone underground. The UNSC's feared & secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five a team of ODSTs a Spartan & a diabolical AI to accelerate the Sangheili insurrection. Meanwhile the Arbiter the defector turned leader of a broken Covenant struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people. Across the galaxy a woman thought to have died on Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartans & now she's broken some more to save them. Marooned with Chief Mendez & a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx she finds that the shield world has been guarding an ancient secret -- a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC & mankind. As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey humanity's violent past begins to catch up with all of them as disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth & its most dangerous terrorist has an old painful link with both Halsey & Kilo-Five that will test everyone's loyalty to the limit. ...

This is the essential visual guide to the Halo universe. Take a journey into the world of Halo & discover everything you ever wanted to know about the characters creatures locations vehicles & weapons from Halo" " Halo 2" " Halo 3" " Halo Wars" & " Halo 3 ODST". Each page in this handy guide is dedicated to one element focusing on its role & significance in the Halo universe from Master Chief the Arbiter the Halo Array the UNSC Pillar of Autumn & the Spartan Laser. It also features over 600 specially commissioned artworks by Microsoft artists. This is a must have for any Halo fan." ...

This is how it began.. . It is the year 2524. Harvest is a peaceful prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space. But we have trespassed on holy ground -- strayed into the path of an aggressive alien empire known as The Covenant." What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer & a human freighter catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence. But humanity is also locked in a bitter civil war known as the " Insurrection." So the survival of Harvests citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines & their inexperienced colonial militia trainees. In this unlikely group of heroes one stands above the rest.. .a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson." ...