Van Dorn private detective Isaac Bell is investigating John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, when a sniper begins murdering opponents of Standard Oil, and it doesn’t stop there. The murders --- shootings, poisonings, staged accidents --- have just begun as Bell tracks his phantom-like criminal adversary across the U.S., to Russia’s war-torn Baku oil fields on the Caspian Sea, and back to America for a final, desperate confrontation. And this one will be the most explosive of all.

Van Dorn private detective Isaac Bell is investigating John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, when a sniper begins murdering opponents of Standard Oil, and it doesn’t stop there. The murders --- shootings, poisonings, staged accidents --- have just begun as Bell tracks his phantom-like criminal adversary across the U.S., to Russia’s war-torn Baku oil fields on the Caspian Sea, and back to America for a final, desperate confrontation. And this one will be the most explosive of all.

Van Dorn private detective Isaac Bell is investigating John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, when a sniper begins murdering opponents of Standard Oil, and it doesn’t stop there. The murders --- shootings, poisonings, staged accidents --- have just begun as Bell tracks his phantom-like criminal adversary across the U.S., to Russia’s war-torn Baku oil fields on the Caspian Sea, and back to America for a final, desperate confrontation. And this one will be the most explosive of all.

If habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know is: How do we change our habits? BETTER THAN BEFORE answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits --- and to change them for good. Infused with Gretchen Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, the book explains the (sometimes counter-intuitive) core principles of habit formation.

If habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know is: How do we change our habits? BETTER THAN BEFORE answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits --- and to change them for good. Infused with Gretchen Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, the book explains the (sometimes counter-intuitive) core principles of habit formation.

The author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT and HAPPIER AT HOME, tackles the critical question: How do we change?

Gretchen Rubin's answer: through habits. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.

So if habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know is: How do we change our habits?

BETTER THAN BEFORE  answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits --- and to change them for good. Infused with Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, BETTER THAN BEFORE explains the (sometimes counter-intuitive) core principles of habit formation. 

Along the way, Rubin uses herself as guinea pig, tests her theories on family and friends, and answers readers’ most pressing questions --- oddly, questions that other writers and researchers tend to ignore: 

• Why do I find it tough to create a habit for something I love to do? 
• Sometimes I can change a habit overnight, and sometimes I can’t change a habit, no matter how hard I try. Why? 
• How quickly can I change a habit? 
• What can I do to make sure I stick to a new habit? 
• How can I help someone else change a habit? 
• Why can I keep habits that benefit others, but can’t make habits that are just for me? 

Whether readers want to get more sleep, stop checking their devices, maintain a healthy weight, or finish an important project, habits make change possible. Reading just a few chapters of BETTER THAN BEFORE will make readers eager to start work on their own habits --- even before they’ve finished the book.

Thanks to William Shakespeare, the death of Julius Caesar is the most famous assassination in history. But what actually happened on March 15, 44 BC is even more gripping than Shakespeare’s play. In THE DEATH OF CAESAR, Barry Strauss tells the real story. Shakespeare shows Caesar’s assassination to be an amateur and idealistic affair. The real killing, however, was a carefully planned paramilitary operation, put together by Caesar’s disaffected officers and designed with precision.

Thanks to William Shakespeare, the death of Julius Caesar is the most famous assassination in history. But what actually happened on March 15, 44 BC is even more gripping than Shakespeare’s play. In THE DEATH OF CAESAR, Barry Strauss tells the real story. Shakespeare shows Caesar’s assassination to be an amateur and idealistic affair. The real killing, however, was a carefully planned paramilitary operation, put together by Caesar’s disaffected officers and designed with precision.

Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate on March 15, 44 BC --- the Ides of March according to the Roman calendar. He was, says author Barry Strauss, the last casualty of one civil war and the first casualty of the next civil war, which would end the Roman Republic and inaugurate the Roman Empire. “THE DEATH OF CAESAR provides a fresh look at a well-trodden event, with superb storytelling sure to inspire awe” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

Why was Caesar killed? For political reasons, mainly. The conspirators wanted to return Rome to the days when the Senate ruled, but Caesar hoped to pass along his new powers to his family, especially Octavian. The principal plotters were Brutus, Cassius (both former allies of Pompey) and Decimus. The last was a leading general and close friend of Caesar’s who felt betrayed by the great man: He was the mole in Caesar’s camp. But after the assassination everything went wrong. The killers left the body in the Senate and Caesar’s allies held a public funeral. Mark Antony made a brilliant speech --- not “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” as Shakespeare had it, but something inflammatory that caused a riot. The conspirators fled Rome. Brutus and Cassius raised an army in Greece but Antony and Octavian defeated them.

Ali Reynolds’ longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before when another young girl wasn’t so lucky.

Ali Reynolds’ longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before when another young girl wasn’t so lucky.

Revenge isn’t the only dish served cold...

Ali Reynolds’s longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before when another young girl wasn’t so lucky.

Meanwhile, married life agrees with Ali. But any hopes that she and her husband, B. Simpson, will finally slow down and relax now that they’ve tied the knot are dashed when Ali’s new daughter-in-law approaches her, desperate for help. The girl’s grandmother, Betsy, is in danger: she’s been receiving anonymous threats, and someone even broke into her home and turned on the gas burners in the middle of the night. But the local police think the elderly woman’s just not as sharp as she used to be.

While Ali struggles to find a way to protect Betsy before it’s too late, Sister Anselm needs her help as well, and the two race the clock to uncover the secrets that The Family has hidden for so long --- before someone comes back to bury them forever.

From the New York Times bestselling author hailed for her “inimitable, take-no-prisoners style” (Kirkus Reviews), COLD BETRAYAL forces Ali to confront the face of evil, and the women who are being hunted.