Murder Wears a Mummer's Mask


Book Description

A private investigator’s Colorado vacation is cut short by gold miner’s murder in this classic Mike Shayne novel. Private inspector Mike Shayne and his young bride, Phyllis, have escaped Miami for a badly needed vacation, taking in a theatre festival in the picturesque mountains of Colorado. Once a year, this cozy little town is overrun by actors, playwrights, directors, and aficionados, all of whom are as interested in cocktail parties as they are in what happens onstage. After a tiring day, Mike and Phyllis are having drinks in the hotel bar when they hear a woman scream. Her name is Nora Carson, and she is visibly shaken. After ten long years, Nora believes she has just seen her father, an eccentric old prospector, standing right outside the hotel window. She chases after him, but by the time she reaches him, it is too late. Hours after making his big strike, Nora’s father is dead—and it’s up to Mike Shayne to discover who snuffed him out. Murder Wears a Mummer’s Mask is the 7th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.







Riches and Regrets


Book Description

In the history of Central City and Black Hawk, Colorado, there have been three great moments exceeding all capacity for imagination and prediction: the discovery of gold in 1859; the renewal of Central City's opera in 1932; and the opening of casino gaming in 1991. Gambling was adopted to stimulate the local economy and bring new riches to the Gilpin County towns, replicating the accomplishments of previous mining and opera times. Yet, it was not long after gambling was approved that residents began expressing regrets over what they had lost in the transformation of their community. In Riches and Regrets, Patricia Stokowski traces the development of contemporary Gilpin County gambling from the proposal and campaign stage in 1989 and 1990, through the construction period leading to the opening of casinos in October 1991, and across several years of post-opening impacts. Combining critical historical perspectives with sociological analyses, Stokowski documents the economic, social, cultural, and institutional effects of the gaming development, concluding that gambling has produced mixed results for the Gilpin County towns. With gambling becoming increasingly popular as an economic development strategy in both rural and urban communities across America, Riches and Regrets can provide lessons for other communities seeking their own golden dreams at the card tables and slot machines.




The Publishers Weekly


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Antiquarian Bookman


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The Globalization of Rural Plays in the Twenty-First Century


Book Description

The Globalization of Rural Plays in the Twenty-First Century excavates the neglected ideological substratum of peasant folk plays. By focusing on northeastern Romania and southwest Ukraine—two of the most ruralized regions in Europe—this work reveals the complex landscape of peasant plays and the essential role they perform in shaping local culture, economy, and social life. The rapid demise of these practices and the creation of preservation programs is analyzed in the context of the corrosive effects of global capitalism and the processes of globalization, urbanization, mass-mediatization, and heritagization. Just like peasants in search of better resources, rural plays “migrate" from their villages of origin into the urban, modern, and more dynamic world, where they become more visible and are both appreciated and exploited as forms of transnational, intangible cultural heritage.




The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery


Book Description

Bruce Murphy's Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is a comprehensive guide to the genre of the murder mystery that catalogues thousands of items in a broad range of categories: authors, titles, plots, characters, weapons, methods of killing, movie and theatrical adaptations. What distinguishes this encyclopedia from the others in the field is its critical stance.




The Publishers Weekly


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Cumulative Paperback Index, 1939-1959


Book Description

This was the first bibliography and guide to the American mass market paperback book, and it remains one of the most definitive. The major index is by author, and lists: author, title, publisher, book number, year of publication, and cover price. The title index lists titles and authors only. The publisher index provides a history of that imprint, with addresses, number ranges, and general physical description of the books issued. This is the place that all study of the American paperback must begin.