LETRAS

Song of great sorrow. Even greater love. Lost between the timeless lines of Homer’s epic, the women of Troy finally stand to be counted. Their story is one you’ve never encountered, and it will change the fate of Troy forever. Andromache has proven herself a capable leader, but can she maintain that hard-won status now that she is the mother to the city’s long-awaited heir? With enemies closing in, Andromache must bring together a divided city in time to make a final stand. Rhea is a Trojan spy, but she never expected to find love in the enemy camp. When the final battle lines are drawn, Rhea must decide where her loyalties lie and how much she is willing to lose. Helen is no longer the same broken woman first brought to Troy as a captive. Given a second chance at life, she must cast off her shroud of grief and use her healing gifts to save Troy’s greatest hope. Cassandra has seen Troy’s fate. But she knows the truth is only as valuable as the person who tells it . . . and few in Troy value her. All that is about to change. One hero will rise, another will fall . . . and this time, Cassandra will have her say.

Why is it so hard to stand up to authority, even when we know something’s wrong? Many of us comply much more than we realize. How many times have you wanted to object, disagree, or opt out of something but ended up swallowing your words, shaking your head, and just going along? Analyzing cases ranging from corporate corruption and sexual abuse to everyday acquiescence at work, the doctor’s office, and in our personal lives, award-winning organizational psychologist Dr. Sunita Sah delves deep into why the pressure to comply is a corrosive and often invisible force in our society. With her own revelatory research, she radically transforms our idea of defiance from a misunderstood negative trait into a crucial, positive force for personal and societal change. Taking us through her five stages of defiance, Dr. Sah equips readers with simple tools to make decisions that align with their values. Defy is the essential playbook for how to speak up and act when it matters most.

Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. Undine’s main talent, aside from cultivating disgusting habits, seems to be raising Flavia’s hackles, although in her best moments she shows potential for trespassing, trickery, and other assorted mayhem. When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn’t it she who’d picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet, and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? “I have to admit,” says Flavia, an expert in the chemical nature of poisons, “that I’d been praying to God for a jolly good old-fashioned mushroom poisoning. Not that I wanted anyone to die, but why give a girl a gift such as mine without giving her the opportunity to use it?”