Professor Bryan Sykes, the world's leading expert on human genetics, set a goal to locate and analyse as many DNA samples as possible with links to the yeti. In doing so, he found himself entering a strange world of mystery and sensationalism, fraud and obsession and even the supernatural. Protected by the ruthless vigour of genetic analysis he was able to listen to the stories of the yeti without having to form an opinion. The only opinion that mattered was the DNA. Three hair samples from the miogi, the Bhutanese yeti are the cause of the investigation. The hairs did not surrender their secrets easily, but eventually two were identified as known species of bear. The third remained a mystery. One of the many theories to account for the yeti legend is that there were small groups of Neanderthals that had managed to survive until recent times. If so, would it be possible to detect recent interbreeding between our own species and Neanderthals in the genomes of indigenous people living in remote regions? Professor Sykes has made some surprising and significant discoveries. Discoveries that could change our understanding of human origins.

Too often, our servicemen return with more than scars and invisible wounds. They become something often considered monstrous for our military in order to defend our homeland. But what happens when their work is done and their respected units have no further use for them? Trained killers now told to be normal members of society and forget about what they were programmed to do. For most, it isn’t that easy to just revert back. Once killing is in your blood, you return to your primal roots and never again will you ever be the same. On the south coast of Texas, five fishermen, grown disenfranchised by hard work and low wages, find themselves in over their heads in the seedy world of international drug trafficking and in a crossfire between feuding cartels. When two border patrol agents find a dead man and a large sum of money on the banks of the Rio Grande, they are faced with the age-old decision between right and wrong. Alas, the distinction is not always so clear. A cartel enforcer is tasked with enforcing smuggling routes, but the former Mexican soldier has his own fanatical agenda as well. They are all lost souls on a collision course with one another that can only end with violence, an all-too-familiar outcome on the troubled Texas-Mexico border.

Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village. But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. Leads right to the door of an old poet. And now it is now, writes Ruth Zardo. And the dark thing is here. A monster once visited Three Pines. And put down deep roots. And now, Ruth knows, it is back. Armand Gamache, the former head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, must face the possibility that, in not believing the boy, he himself played a terrible part in what happens next.

The City is a cold, sterile place. What lies Outside it? Raine O'Kelly has a gift. The very power of nature is his to command. When his gift lands him in trouble with the government, Raine find himself thrown into The Prison; one of the most feared punishment for those citizens who wont conform to The City's ideals. Abused, scared, and slowly dying of deprivation from the one thing his body truly needs, an accident lands him in the infirmary, which leads him to be given to The Prison's most feared inmate... The Beast. When The Beast defends him from the guards, Raine finds himself inexplicably drawn to the misunderstood man. A man with unique abilities of his own, the Beast's animalistic desires forms a connection between them that cannot be denied. When he learns The Beast comes from Outside the City, is Raine willing to take the chance on escape with the mysterious man? Escape wont be easy, and there are dangers waiting for them on The Outside, ready to strike at the fragile relationship between the two men. When The Beast's past come's to light, will Raine be able to put aside his own fears in order to fight for the life the two of them could have together? Or will he fold under the pressure? Will he get his happily ever after? Or will he become just another victim of the Nature of the Beast.

English teenager Bill Coward finds himself losing control of his life when the mill where his father works is shut down and a mysterious beast begins making savage attacks on local livestock.

Different people react to disasters in different ways. But why would Amy Petty want the world to presume her dead? Fate is not alone in deciding who lives and who dies after the crash of a train travelling from Kent to London. One passenger uses the opportunity to commit a murder. Another — the blonde and beautiful Amy Petty — uses the accident as an opportunity to leave her life behind.... Is it because Amy’s husband is currently embroiled in a libel action against a national newspaper? Douglas Petty, a former barrister, is rich, charismatic and evil tempered: he runs a dog sanctuary in a brutally eccentric manner. Amy is his star witness: without her, his reputation faces ruin. Or maybe it isn’t the present that Amy is running from. Maybe it is the past.... The Nature of the Beast is mesmerizing. A brooding thriller of truth, betrayal and human instinct, it is Frances Fyfield at her most thrilling best. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Does your dog get sad when you leave for the day? Does your cat purr because she loves you? Do bears attack when they’re angry? You can’t very well ask them. In fact, scientists haven’t been able to reach a consensus on whether animals even have emotions like humans do, let alone how to study them. Yet studies of animal emotion are critical for understanding human emotion and mental illness. In The Nature of the Beast, pioneering neuroscientist David J. Anderson describes a new approach to solving this problem. He and his colleagues have figured out how to study the brain activity of animals as they navigate real-life scenarios, like fleeing a predator or competing for a mate. His research has revolutionized what we know about animal fear and aggression. Here, he explains what studying emotions and related internal brain states in animals can teach us about human behavior, offering new insights into why isolation makes us more aggressive, how sex and violence connect, and whether there’s a link between aggression and mental illness. Full of fascinating stories, The Nature of the Beast reconceptualizes how the brain regulates emotions–and explains why we have them at all.