The Reapers Garden

Winner of the Merle Curti Award Winner of the James A. Rawley Prize Winner of the Louis Gottschalk Prize Longlisted for the Cundill Prize ÒVincent Brown makes the dead talk. With his deep learning and powerful historical imagination, he calls upon the departed to explain the living. The ReaperÕs Garden stretches the historical canvas and forces readers to think afresh. It is a major contribution to the history of Atlantic slavery.ÓÑIra Berlin From the author of TackyÕs Revolt, a landmark study of life and death in colonial Jamaica at the zenith of the British slave empire. What did people make of death in the world of Atlantic slavery? In The ReaperÕs Garden, Vincent Brown asks this question about Jamaica, the staggeringly profitable hub of the British Empire in AmericaÑand a human catastrophe. Popularly known as the grave of the Europeans, it was just as deadly for Africans and their descendants. Yet among the survivors, the dead remained both a vital presence and a social force. In this compelling and evocative story of a world in flux, Brown shows that death was as generative as it was destructive. From the eighteenth-century zenith of British colonial slavery to its demise in the 1830s, the Grim Reaper cultivated essential aspects of social life in JamaicaÑbelonging and status, dreams for the future, and commemorations of the past. Surveying a haunted landscape, Brown unfolds the letters of anxious colonists; listens in on wakes, eulogies, and solemn incantations; peers into crypts and coffins, and finds the very spirit of human struggle in slavery. Masters and enslaved, fortune seekers and spiritual healers, rebels and rulers, all summoned the dead to further their desires and ambitions. In this turbulent transatlantic world, Brown argues, Òmortuary politicsÓ played a consequential role in determining the course of history. Insightful and powerfully affecting, The ReaperÕs Garden promises to enrich our understanding of the ways that death shaped political life in the world of Atlantic slavery and beyond.

Winner of the Merle Curti Award Winner of the James A. Rawley Prize Winner of the Louis Gottschalk Prize Longlisted for the Cundill Prize “Vincent Brown makes the dead talk. With his deep learning and powerful historical imagination, he calls upon the departed to explain the living. The Reaper’s Garden stretches the historical canvas and forces readers to think afresh. It is a major contribution to the history of Atlantic slavery.”—Ira Berlin From the author of Tacky’s Revolt, a landmark study of life and death in colonial Jamaica at the zenith of the British slave empire. What did people make of death in the world of Atlantic slavery? In The Reaper’s Garden, Vincent Brown asks this question about Jamaica, the staggeringly profitable hub of the British Empire in America—and a human catastrophe. Popularly known as the grave of the Europeans, it was just as deadly for Africans and their descendants. Yet among the survivors, the dead remained both a vital presence and a social force. In this compelling and evocative story of a world in flux, Brown shows that death was as generative as it was destructive. From the eighteenth-century zenith of British colonial slavery to its demise in the 1830s, the Grim Reaper cultivated essential aspects of social life in Jamaica—belonging and status, dreams for the future, and commemorations of the past. Surveying a haunted landscape, Brown unfolds the letters of anxious colonists; listens in on wakes, eulogies, and solemn incantations; peers into crypts and coffins, and finds the very spirit of human struggle in slavery. Masters and enslaved, fortune seekers and spiritual healers, rebels and rulers, all summoned the dead to further their desires and ambitions. In this turbulent transatlantic world, Brown argues, “mortuary politics” played a consequential role in determining the course of history. Insightful and powerfully affecting, The Reaper’s Garden promises to enrich our understanding of the ways that death shaped political life in the world of Atlantic slavery and beyond.

In the Dark Forest, a creature known as the Reaper collects lost souls to save them from a horrible fate.

BOOK THREE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES "Thrilling and hard to put down, readers will absolutely devour Tahir's latest." --BuzzFeed An Entertainment Weekly Summer Reads pick! "The perfect summer read." --The Washington Post The highly anticipated third book in #1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir's EMBER QUARTET. Beyond the Martial Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger. Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister's life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent, while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor's volatility to grow her own power--regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path. Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But in the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she'd have to fight. And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender--even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.

A clash of warriors draws closer as Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chancellor. Against this backdrop, a band of fugitives seek a way out of the empire, but one of them, Fear Sengar, must find the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye. It is his hope that the soul might help halt the Tiste Edur, and so save his brother, the emperor.

The sexy continuation of the New York Times bestselling Reapers Motorcycle Club series As Reapers Motorcycle Club president, Reese “Picnic” Hayes has given his entire life to the club. After losing his wife, he knew he’d never love another woman. And with two daughters to raise and a club to manage, that was just fine with him. These days, Reese keeps his relationships free and easy—he definitely doesn’t want to waste his time on a glorified cleaning lady like London Armstrong. Too bad he’s completely obsessed with her. London is independent, and she likes it that way. Besides running her own business, London’s got her junkie cousin’s daughter to look after—a more reckless than average eighteen-year-old. Sure she’s attracted to the Reapers’ president, but she’s not stupid. Reese Hayes is a criminal and a thug. But when her young cousin gets caught up with a ruthless drug cartel, Reese might be the only man who can help her. Now London has to make the hardest decision of her life—how far will she go to save her family?

May 1195, and Sir John de Wolfe is faced with a strange series of serial murders, which begins with the suffocation of a Jewish money-lender and proceeds through that of a London harlot, a dissolute priest and a burgess suspected of abusing young boys. The common factor is that an appropriate Biblical text is left at each murder scene, the mode of which reflects the alleged sin of the victim. This means that a literate and Bible-learned killer is involved - which, in an age where only 1% of the population can read or write - can only be a priest. There are at least twenty-five parish churches in Exeter, so the killer could be any one of more than a hundred clerics. Crowner John sets about to discover the identity of the homicidal priest.

Poor thing has no idea what she's just gotten herself into. The sacrificial lamb for her stepfather's sins. She foolishly traded her life for his. One look at her and we knew she didn't belong. Beautiful. Innocent. Good. Everything a world like ours would devour. If we were better men, we'd let her go. But my brothers and I are sinful bastards. And she may be the closest thing to heaven we'll ever get to taste. We'll make use of our little toy until she inevitably breaks, as most porcelain dolls do. Once we're through with her, our good girl won't just be broken, she'll be utterly destroyed.

Larkspur Nielsen is ready for a change. Her parents have passed on, and her older brother is successfully running the family business. She bristles at the small-mindedness that permeates life in her small Ohio community, and she sees little chance of a satisfying future there. She has a little money saved, and after turning the tables on a crooked gambler who had fleeced several locals, including her younger brother, she can stake a new start for herself and her three sisters. As the gambler's threats of revenge echo in her ears, she and her sisters head to Independence, Missouri, to join a wagon train bound for Oregon. Knowing that four women traveling together will draw unwanted attention, Larkspur dons a disguise, passing herself off as "Clark" Nielsen, accompanying his three sisters. But maintaining the ruse is more difficult than Larkspur imagined, as is protecting her headstrong, starry-eyed sisters from difficult circumstances and eligible young men. Will reaching their goal prove too much for them?