John Reilly – författare

Edgar Award-winning writer Tony Hillerman has earned a reputation as a Grand Master of the popular mystery. This is the first full-length examination of his work. One of the most successful contemporary American writers, Hillerman has made his stories of Native American detectives instrumental in understanding modern American life. Through the creation of his Navajo detective characters, Hillerman has given new vigor to the popular genre of mystery fiction with his treatment of the problems of order and identity in modern society. This study examines each of his 13 novels in turn and includes a biographical chapter and a chapter on his innovations in the genre of detective fiction.This careful study of the narrative techniques and thematic investigations of Hillerman's detective fiction illuminates the way he has crafted a new and profound method for understanding the conditions of modern life. A biographical chapter traces the influence of his life on his writing. Individual chapters on his novels are divided into sections on setting, plot, generic conventions, character development, and themes. In addition, Reilly offers alternate approaches—such as feminist criticism or post-colonialism—from which to read the novel, which gives the reader another perspective on the fiction. This study discusses all of Hillerman's novels: The Blessing Way, The Fly on The Wall, Dance Hall of the Dead, People of Darkness, The Dark Wind, Listening Woman, The Ghostway, Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time, Talking God, Coyote Waits, Sacred Clowns, and Finding Moon. A complete bibliography of Hillerman's work, critical and biographical sources, and a list of reviews of each of his novels completes the work. Because Hillerman is considered a serious writer of popular detective fiction and has a wide following of adult and young readers, this work is an essential purchase by public and secondary school libraries, as well as college and university libraries.

This volume is the most comprehensive of the existing studies of McMurtry's writings, covering all of his works up to the most recent. A biographical chapter introduces the reader to Larry McMurtry. A literary heritage chapter helps students understand how McMurtry transforms the traditional components of the western genre into stories that are models of modern life. Each chapter explores a grouping of McMurtry's novels with in depth literary analysis identifying plot, character development, themes, and narrative construction. Each chapter also includes an alternative critical perspective for reading the texts. A bibliography and lists of general criticism, biographical sources, and reviews complete this volume, making it an indispensable resource for any reader seeking to develop a greater understanding of McMurtry's works.

When and where did the ancestors of modern birds evolve? What enabled them to survive the meteoric impact that wiped out the dinosaurs? How did these early birds spread across the globe and give rise to the 10,600-plus species we recognise today ― from the largest ratites to the smallest hummingbirds? Based on the latest scientific discoveries and enriched by personal observations, The Ascent of Birds sets out to answer these fundamental questions.The Ascent of Birds is divided into self-contained chapters, or stories, that collectively encompass the evolution of modern birds from their origins in Gondwana, over 100 million years ago, to the present day. The stories are arranged in chronological order, from tinamous to tanagers, and describe the many dispersal and speciation events that underpin the world's 10,600-plus species. Although each chapter is spearheaded by a named bird and focuses on a specific evolutionary mechanism, the narrative will often explore the relevance of such events and processes to evolution in general.The book starts with The Tinamou’s Story, which explains the presence of flightless birds in South America, Africa, and Australasia, and dispels the cherished role of continental drift as an explanation for their biogeography. It also introduces the concept of neoteny, an evolutionary trick that enabled dinosaurs to become birds and humans to conquer the planet.The Vegavis's Story explores the evidence for a Cretaceous origin of modern birds and why they were able to survive the asteroid collision that saw the demise not only of dinosaurs but of up to three-quarters of all species.The Duck's Story switches to sex: why have so few species retained the ancestral copulatory organ? Or, put another way, why do most birds exhibit the paradoxical phenomenon of penis loss, despite all species requiring internal fertilisation?The Hoatzin's Story reveals unexpected oceanic rafting from Africa to South America: a stranger-than-fiction means of dispersal that is now thought to account for the presence of other South American vertebrates, including geckos and monkeys.The latest theories underpinning speciation are also explored. The Manakin’s Story, for example, reveals how South America’s extraordinarily rich avifauna has been shaped by past geological, oceanographic and climatic changes, while The Storm-Petrel’s Story examines how species can evolve from an ancestral population despite inhabiting the same geographical area. The thorny issue of what constitutes a species is discussed in The Albatross's Story, while The Penguin’s Story explores the effects of environment on phenotype ― in the case of the Emperor penguin, the harshest on the planet.Recent genomic advances have given scientists novel approaches to explore the distant past and have revealed many unexpected journeys, including the unique overland dispersal of an early suboscine from Asia to South America (The Sapayoa’s Story) and the blackbird's ancestral sweepstake dispersals across the Atlantic (The Thrush’s Story).Additional vignettes update more familiar concepts that encourage speciation: sexual selection (The Bird-of-Paradise's Story); extended phenotypes (The Bowerbird's Story); hybridisation (The Sparrow's Story); and 'great speciators' (The White-eye's Story). Finally, the book explores the raft of recent publications that help explain the evolution of cognitive skills (The Crow's Story); plumage colouration (The Starling's Story); and birdsong (The Finch's Story)

How did the thousands of different mammal species on the planet today evolve from a shrew-like, nocturnal insectivore that lived 200 million years ago? What allowed our ancestors to survive the cataclysmic impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and become one of the most successful lineages on Earth? How did mammals adapt to myriad lifestyles and populate every corner of the globe, from oceans and deserts to tropical forests and mountains?In The Ascent of Mammals, acclaimed science writer John Reilly weaves a tapestry of stories about the fascinating shared history of the egg-laying monotremes, the pouch-bearing marsupials and the ubiquitous placentals – including Homo sapiens – that make up the mammalian world. Drawing from the cascade of unforeseen insights into evolution provided by modern genetics research, Reilly describes the development of key mammalian traits (such as mammary glands, warm-bloodedness and a three-boned middle ear) as well as species-specific adaptations. The book explores the intriguing geographical origins and ancient global dispersal routes of many mammalian families, as well as the discoveries of unexpected kinships that have required family trees to be redrawn.Each chapter centres on a particular species and a specific evolutionary mechanism – including gene duplication, gene loss, hybridisation, imprinting, pseudogenes and retrogenes – considering their relevance for evolution on a broader scale. Accessibly written and complemented by illustrations and colour photographs, this is a groundbreaking account of science’s ability to unravel the truth about mammals.