A natural-born collector with a nose for exotic adventure, San Diego–born Steven Martin followed his bliss to Southeast Asia, where he found work as a freelance journalist. While researching an article about the vanishing culture of opium smoking, he was inspired to begin collecting rare nineteenth-century opium-smoking equipment. Over time, he amassed a valuable assortment of exquisite pipes, antique lamps, and other opium-related accessories—and...

At the start of the twentieth century, Theodore Davis was the most famous archaeologist in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science. Using six of Davis's most important discoveries-- from the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut's sarcophagus to the exquisite shabti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum not too long ago-- Adams chronicles the dizzying rise of a poor country preacher's son who, through corruption and...

"Honey, you are 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring." When New York Post writer Stephanie Smith made a turkey and swiss on white bread for her boyfriend, Eric (aka E), he took one bite and uttered those now-famous words. While her beau's declaration initially seemed unusual, even antiquated, Stephanie accepted the challenge and got to work. Little did she know she was about to cook up the sexiest and most controversial love story of her generation....

"Like a character in a Hitchcock movie, Dave McOmie travels the country breaking into bank vaults, cracking jewelry safes, and decoding unbreakable codes secured deep in government facilities. He's never been arrested or charged with a crime, because--it's his job! Safecracker reveals a shadowy world where tumblers are twirled, skeletons are exposed, and longstanding mysteries are solved. You'll ride shotgun with Dave for one crazy week, beginning...

"A graphic designer's search for inspiration leads to a cache of letters and the mystery of one man's fate during World War II. Seeking inspiration for a new font design in an antique store in small-town Stillwater, Minnesota, graphic designer Carolyn Porter stumbled across a bundle of letters and was immediately drawn to their beautifully expressive pen-and-ink handwriting. She could not read the letters--they were in French--but she noticed all...