The action begins when groundbreaking for an apartment tower in downtown Manhattan reveals a charnel house of murder victims from the late 19th century. Enter Pendergast, who for unexplained reasons taps Kelly to study the remains before the site is stripped by the building's developer, a Donald Trump-type who, with the mayor's backing, will accept no construction delays. As Kelly calls on Smithback for investigative help, the city is struck by killings that duplicate the earlier murders, with the victims' spinal cords ripped away and clues pointing to a 19th-century scientist who sought the secret of immortality.
A noted physicist and popular science writer heads for the beach to answer common and uncommon questions about the ocean: why the sea is salty, how bubbles form on the water's surface, where waves come from, and other curiosities of the marine world. 90 figures. 20 halftones. 1987 edition.
Gary Day has made a thought-provoking and highly readable contribution to one of the most difficult categories of critical writing: a history of literary criticism.... There is a great treasure trove of curiosities here, economically expressed, which really adds to the great pleasure of reading this book
A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World's Greatest Empire
Here is a whimsical and captivating collection of odd facts, strange beliefs, outlandish opinions, and other highly amusing trivia of the ancient Romans. We tend to think of the Romans as a pragmatic people with a ruthlessly efficient army, an exemplary legal system, and a precise and elegant language. A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities shows that the Romans were equally capable of bizarre superstitions, logic-defying customs, and often hilariously derisive views of their fellow Romans and non-Romans.
