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In a collection of memories resembling pages snatched from a scrapbook, a leading physician and academic researcher reflects on the unpredictability of life. Medical school at Vanderbilt led to a series of life-altering experiences. A brief stint collecting blood samples from freshly slaughtered cattle in a Nashville abattoir left him with bespattered shirts and a dark apprehension of the closeness of death. Throughout his career, the polarity and inseparability of life and death have haunted him, a platform for savoring good times and exotic destinations when they came his way. This tragic sense has also fueled Dr. Brigham's avocation of writing fiction, including several published novels in which university hospitals provide the backdrop for tales of mystery, ambition, and suspense. Now retired, the author looks back at a life that carried him to a series of academic pinnacles--The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; the CDC in Atlanta; the University of California, San Francisco; once more to Vanderbilt, in Nashville; and then, finally, to Atlanta's Emory University.

In her private memoir, Theresa Alston Crandall reflects on family secrets she has held for forty years. Her duplicity has created a life of uneven rewards as she begins to hear footsteps from the past sneaking up on her. Is it too late to start over? Revealing the truth of her missteps would shatter the present and demand answers to painful questions. She has betrayed her husband and sons, causing them to be unsuspecting players in her orchestrated deception.Theresa spends time at Whimsy Towers, the oceanfront home she inherited from a grandmother she never knew. Poetry, parties, good food, and gratitude fill the summer days, allowing Theresa to maintain a careful charade. Whimsy Towers holds her secrets, until her safety from exposure gradually unravels.The mysterious death of her son requires Theresa to confront a host of unresolved problems, a twisted accumulation of love and lies. From Cape Cod to Alexandria, Virginia, and St. Michaels, Maryland, new relationships develop. Through losing and finding love, she redefines family.

Former Nashville detective and Rhodes Scholar, Shane Hadley, hasn't been involved in a murder case since a stray bullet transected his spinal cord, ending his career and stranding him in a wheelchair.One Sunday morning, the familiar pop,pop,pop of gunshots draws Shane like a magnet. He wheels himself onto the balcony of his apartment overlooking Printers Alley, the once-beating heart of Music City USA. There, he sees Bonz Bagley, proprietor of Bonz's Booze and Music, lying dead in front of his club. Shane's wife, neurologist Katya Karpov, is doubly alarmed by the murder-she was fond of the old man, and also, she knows that he was taking an experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease that was invented by Katya's boss at the university. Hardy Seltzer, the police detective assigned to the case, knows Shane as a department legend from before the accident that sidelined him. When fate brings them together, Hardy takes advantage of Shane's uncanny intuitions, launching the two of them on a quest through the worlds of country music, academic intrigue, shady business dealings, and pervasive amorality.Under growing pressure from the Nashville media and a crusading lawyer, as well as higher-ups in the police department, the two unlikely allies race to make sense of a seemingly pointless murder that threatens to destroy almost everyone who gets drawn into the mystery.

Ninth Grade Blues follows four teens through the adventures and misadventures, ups and downs of life in the first year of high school. They contend with classes and tests, worry about going out on dates, struggle with not being able to drive, and dread being called on by teachers they do not like.Interweaving first person stories are told by:Luke: a shy, hard working, poorly dressed boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Luke is mediocre at basketball, mediocre at baseball, and mediocre at school. But he has hidden talents in science--he is a budding fisherman, hunter, and naturalist-- and he is even appealing to some girls, unbeknownst to himself. Elly: sociable and friendly, Elly worries about getting a boy to like her. She has chubby legs, frizzy hair, and a few excess pounds gained over the summer. However, she is also a top notch student. Elly has her life mapped out, all the way through a big church wedding (groom to be determined later) and a nice house in the suburbs. Marcus: a freshman superstar, Marcus plays football and basketball at the varsity level and has his sights set on a D-I college scholarship. He worries about having to choose between playing in the NBA and the NFL. Marcus regards himself as God's gift to women, and caroms through a series of irate girlfriends while he blows off his classes. Mia: a smart, dedicated girl who gets straight A's and will definitely go to college. Her first-generation Mexican-American parents are hard working and intent on matching her up with a nice Hispanic boy. But Mia and Luke begin studying together, and very soon, Mia develops other opinions about where her heart lies.

A few weeks with no sea ice in the Arctic Ocean are enough to trigger a chain reaction that alters the Northern Hemisphere beyond recognition. Droughts and floods ravage the land, forests burn, crops are killed by the heat and nobody can find the cool spot on the pillow.

Tenth Grade Angst continues the story [begun in Ninth Grade Blues] of four teens as they negotiate the roller-coaster ride of high school. Now sophomores, they grapple with growing independence and changing dreams and ambitions for their future. Cars and driving lessons reshape their lives, as they struggle to balance their needs for exploration and independence with the boundaries set by their parents.Luke: a shy, hard-working boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Luke continues to come out of his shell with the friendly encouragement of Mia. His love for hunting, fishing, and all things nature-related keeps him sane and grounded, while ongoing problems with his dad worsen and require him to make some startling adjustments.Elly: a bit overweight and a lot insecure in her freshman year, Elly joins her mom at the gym, sheds a few pounds and discovers she can set her cap for star football players. But is that always a good idea? A hot date doesn't work out the way she expected-at all.Marcus: a football and basketball star, Marcus comes down to earth-discovering that he really does have limits to what he can expect from his athletic career. And, a series of rebuffs and rejections lead him to reflect on the best way to a girl's heart. Hint: just for a change, try caring about what she thinks.Mia: a straight-A student who looks like a good bet to be the class valedictorian, Mia is also on track to realize her dream of becoming a pediatrician and moving to Texas to help children of her own heritage. But what does that imply for the relationships she is developing in high school? And just how angry will her poppa get if she insists on dating Luke?

This is the first-ever biography of Elisabeth Gilman, a largely forgotten Marylander born to privilege in the nineteenth century who became an irrepressible force for social justice in the twentieth. As the second daughter of Daniel Coit Gilman, founding president of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Elisabeth was raised in well-to-do, influential circles. Privately educated by tutors, she eventually earned a bachelors degree at Johns Hopkins. But unlike many who shared Elisabeths elevated station, she was possessed of a restless and critical spirit. As a strong devotee of the Social Gospel, she campaigned on behalf of the poor, African- Americans, women, and laborers exposed to harsh conditions. After her fathers death, Elisabeth joined the Socialist Party and was nominated as a candidate for governor of Maryland, United States senator, mayor of Baltimore, and even sheriff of Baltimore. Never married, Elisabeth fell under the spell of a charismatic, progressive Episcopal priest named Mercer Green Johnston, and followed him and his wife to Paris during World War I, where she helped to support homesick American doughboys under the aegis of the YMCA.