***Brilliant and engagingly written,* Why Nations Fail *answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

*** Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South...

Wideacre Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves. But as a woman of the 18th century, she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by a world that mistreats women, she sets out to corrupt others.From Publishers WeeklyGregory's full-blown first novel is a marvelously assured period piece, an English gothic with narrative verve. Beatrice Lacey loves nothing more than the family estate, Wideacrenot her bluff, hearty father, her weak brother, Harry, or her mother, who can't quite believe mounting evidence that damns her passionate daughter. Foiled in her hunger to own the estate by the 18th century laws of entail, Beatrice plots her father's death, knowing she can twist Harry in any direction she chooses, for her brother harbors a dark, perverted secret. Their incestuous tangle is not broken even by Harry's marriage. And while a bounteous harvest multiplies, no one gainsays the young squire and his sister, the true master of Wideacre. Beatrice marries also, managing to hide the paternity of two children sired by Harry until her increasing greed squeezes the land and its people dry, and the seeds of destruction she has sown come to their awful fruition. Gregory effortlessly breathes color and life into a tale of obsession built around a ruthless, fascinating woman.

Inside a cabin tucked away in the Oregon woods a grisly scene awaits investigating police. Arrested soon after for the heinous crime, Vincent Cardoni—a brilliant surgeon with a history of violence and drug abuse—hires Portland's top attorney, Frank Jaffe, to defend him against a seemingly insurmountable pile of evidence.Jaffe's daughter, Amanda—a young lawyer getting her first taste of criminal defense—wonders whether she's representing an innocent man or using her considerable skills to set a monster free. Then Cardoni disappears under bizarre circumstances.Four years later the slaughter begins again. But is it Cardoni plying his gruesome trade, or the work of another equally brilliant, equally inspired killer? And can Amanda and policeman Bobby Vasquez hunt the elusive maniac down before they themselves fall victim to a psychopath's terrible hunger?Amazon.com ReviewWhen a killing field is unearthed in the Oregon woods, it's linked to a Portland surgeon whose increasingly aggressive behavior and explosive temper have already drawn the attention of his colleagues. Neophyte attorney Amanda Jaffe takes second chair to her father, a successful criminal lawyer retained by Dr. Vincent Cardoni when he is charged with multiple counts of murder. The victims have one thing in common: they are missing vital organs, which were clearly harvested by an expert surgeon. In this explosive and fast-paced suspense thriller, the forensic evidence against Cardoni is so convincing that even after his acquittal on a technicality, the reader, like Amanda, is sure of his guilt. And when a similar field of mutilated bodies turns up years later, Cardoni is again the primary suspect. But Cardoni has disappeared, and this time it's his former wife, Justine Castle, who's implicated in the new crimes, and Amanda who's retained as the lead attorney in the case.The particulars of the killings are so similar to the first set of murders that Amanda is convinced Cardoni is involved. When he is found to be working at the same hospital where he was once a promising surgeon (this time as a custodian and under an assumed name), she draws the logical conclusion. But when she finds Cardoni's severed hand at the scene of the crimes, she is forced to rethink the assumptions on which her defense of the doctor's ex-wife is based. Could Justine, in fact, be the killer? Author Phillip Margolin's newest book moves at an almost frantic pace. Bodies pile up, evidence mounts, and everything points to Cardoni's guilt until the end, a stunner that surprises Amanda as well as the reader. This chilling, deftly crafted novel will hold the reader's attention to the last page.

Nick Sandman's spine was shattered by a bullet in the Falklands. He has no money and no prospects, only a dream of sailing far away from his troubles on his boat, Sycorax. But Sycorax is as crippled as he is, and to make her seaworthy again, Nick must strike a devil's bargain with egomaniacal TV star Tony Bannister. Signing on to the crew of Bannister's powerful ocean racer,Wildtrack, Nick is expected to help sail her to victory. But the despised celebrity has made some powerful enemies who will stop at nothing for revenge. . . .From Publishers WeeklySome readers may quibble at the ambiguous ending, but Cornwell's first modern-day novel, after Redcoat and the Sharpe series, works very nicely. Narrator Nick Sandman, Falkland Islands hero and Victoria Cross recipient, is determined not only to walk again after a war wound but also to sail his ketch Sycorax to New Zealand. After two years' hospitalization, he is, barely, walking again, but Nick's return to Devon finds Sycorax beached and vandalized, apparently at the behest of TV talk-show host Tony Bannister. Legal difficulties force Nick into making a TV movie for Bannister in exchange for salvaging Sycorax. Complications arise immediately: Bannister is out to win the Cherbourg-Saint Pierre race and wants Nick to be navigator; Bannister's ex-father-in-law is out to avenge his daughter's "murder" aboard Bannister's ocean racer Wildtrack and wants Nick to help; Bannister's beautiful mistress Angela is out to make that TV movie; and Nick falls in love with Angela. The climax comes with Nick racing across the Atlantic in a howling gale to prevent Bannister's murder. Even landlubbers will enjoy Cornwell's terrific pacing, colorful characters and dry humor, and perhaps, will learn a few things, too (e.g., in sailing jargon, "scuttles" means portholes).

James Bond 007 reluctantly returns to active service, his mission to protect an observer of a NATO exercise, Admiral Sergei Yevgennevich Pauker, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy. From Publishers WeeklyFortunately for Gardner, dyed-in-the wool James Bond fans may be disposed to overlook the lack of credibility and characterization in this latest thriller featuring the superspy. The leaders of Britain, Russia and the U.S. are planning a top-secret summit aboard HMS Invincible . We never learn what they want to talk about, but we do know that BAST (Brotherhood of Anarchy and Secret Terror) is up to some high-level nastiness. Alerted to the threat, British Intelligence sends James Bond to protect the "heads of state." Promoted to captain, Bond is trained on Harrier jump-jets, and narrowly escapes death when a Sidewinder missile intercepts his flight path. Human menaces include "the Cat," a mysterious female terrorist, and "the Viper," head of BAST. A lot of huffing, puffing, padding ("Bond has not shown all his cards") and sloppy writing ("the first kind of ship of her type") occur before a limp confrontation that takes place inside the Rock of Gibraltar, with chief villain Bassam Baradj, inanely "born plain Robert Besavitsky, in the old Hell's Kitchen area of New York."

A fresh look at the endlessly fascinating Tudors—the dramatic and overlooked story of Henry VII and his founding of the Tudor Dynasty—filled with spies, plots, counter-plots, and an uneasy royal succession to Henry VIII.1501 England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy and civil war. Henry VII clambered to the top of the heap—a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England’s crown who managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted magnificent jousts, and sent ambassadors across Europe, for many Henry VII remained a false king. But he had a crucial asset: his family—the queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Now, in what would be the crowning glory of his reign, his elder son would marry a great Spanish princess.Thomas Penn re-creates an England that is both familiar and very strange—a country medieval yet modern, in which honor and chivalry mingle with espionage, real politik, high finance, and corruption. It is the story of the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen, as well as Henry VII—controlling, avaricious, paranoid, with Machiavellian charm and will to power. Rich with incident and drama, filled with wonderfully drawn characters,Winter Kingis an unforgettable tale of pageantry, intrigue, the thirst for glory—and the fraught, unstable birth of Tudor England.