Most Popular Books by John Lawrence

Although the illustrious career of Sherlock Holmes has been documented in innumerable stories over the decades, some accounts have remained classified due to their extremely sensitive nature … until now. Cases involving major historical figures and topics –Winston Churchill''s request to investigate the emerging Nazi Party, the emergency surgery on the British monarch, the apparent suicide of a leading suffragist and the strange death of an American president – have been locked away, sometimes with explicit instructions that they be kept from public view well into the future. Now, these cases are available to readers in the collection The Undiscovered Archives of Sherlock Holmes. Each of these seven stories is linked to a major historical figure or event. The actual nature of the case had often been misunderstood for a century and more because of the need to respect the privacy of those involved and, in some cases, to avoid potentially embarrassing disclosures and diplomatic controversies. The author of these “history mysteries” is John Lawrence, a University of California-trained history Ph.D. who spent nearly 40 years as a top staff person in the U.S. House of Representatives, the last 8 as chief of staff to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The author uses his professional training to blend historical fact with Holmesian embellishments that produce unique stories any devotee of The Canon will enjoy. These are all traditional-style pastiches published in various anthologies from 2015 – 2020, including the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories.

The "natural law" worldview developed over the course of almost two thousand years beginning with Plato and Aristotle and culminating with St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. This tradition holds that the world is ordered, intelligible and good, that there are objective moral truths which we can know and that human beings can achieve true happiness only by following our inborn nature, which draws us toward our own perfection. Most accounts of the natural law are based on a God-centered understanding of the world. After the Natural Law traces this tradition from Plato and Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas and then describes how and why modern philosophers such as Descartes, Locke and Hobbes began to chip away at this foundation. The book argues that natural law is a necessary foundation for our most important moral and political values freedom, human rights, equality, responsibility and human dignity, among others. Without a theory of natural law, these values lose their coherence: we literally cannot make sense of them given the assumptions of modern philosophy. Part I of the book traces the development of natural law theory from Plato and Aristotle through the crowning achievement of Thomas Aquinas. Part II explores how modern philosophers have systematically chipped away at the only coherent foundation for these values. As a result, our most important moral and political ideals today are incoherent. Modern political and moral thinkers have been led either to dilute the meaning of such terms as freedom or the moral good or abandon these ideas altogether. Thus, modern philosophy and political thought are leading us either toward anarchy or totalitarianism. The conclusion, entitled "Why God Matters", shows how even the philosophical assumptions of the natural law depend on a personal God.

"I’d rather laugh in bad taste than cry in good taste." That’s how Josie Marshall deals with the death of her detective husband, Gabe, found naked outside their home on the beach with a bullet in his brain. Everyone calls it suicide. Josie knows it isn’t . . . but fears it could be. After all, she had provided Gabe with a motive. The clues are so strong that even Josie begins to believe Gabe shot himself. But when a horrific slaying occurs literally at her feet, she knows Gabe was murdered, and her determination to prove it carries her toward dark corners of the beach strip and exposes the darker sides of its residents. Fending off her fears with humour and outrage, she encounters a drug-crazed drifter, an organized-crime boss with romance on his mind, a woman with a murderous past and a pervert who’s been frequenting her garden shed. When a chance remark leads Josie to the astonishing truth of Gabe’s death, her story takes a shocking turn that no one could have seen coming.

When a key witness—as well as his new partner—are gunned down in broad daylight, Boston homicide detective Lieutenant Joe McGuire swears he will not rest until he finds the killer. But when his investigation threatens to expose an ongoing government investigation into the decades-old theft of a military weapon, McGuire himself becomes the hunted. With the help of an anonymous, although not innocent, source, McGuire uncovers the truth behind his witness’s murder . . . but not before McGuire himself comes perilously close to the mastermind behind one of the greatest unsolved thefts in military history. Whisper Death is the third novel in the Joe McGuire mystery series. It is followed by Gypsy Sins. Praise for Whisper Death “. . . well-drawn characters, a terrific plot, plenty of action, and some fine atmosphere. . . .”—Hamilton Spectator

A beloved local priest brutally murdered in his own church. A cloistered monk in a peaceful seminary shot at point-blank range. A Jesuit teacher slain at night in his classroom. Facing a brutal serial killer with his sights set firmly on the Catholic diocese, Boston homicide detective Lieutenant Joe McGuire—one half of the best homicide team in Boston’s history—is in a race against time to find a killer who seemingly leaves no trace. With the help of the local diocese, McGuire’s investigation leads him to the monstrous, decades-old betrayal of an innocent child. But will McGuire be able to find the killer before he strikes again? The Man Who Murdered God, the first novel in the thrilling Joe McGuire mystery series, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. It is followed by And Leave Her Lay Dying, Whisper Death, Gypsy Sins, Solitary Dancer, and Haunted Hearts. Praise for The Man Who Murdered God “. . . a compelling and chilling mystery . . . ”—The London Free Press

Explores Mill''s influence on our constitutional rights tradition including the right to privacy, free speech and how we understand liberty.

This is a study of one of China''s most influential regional musical traditions, the Jiangnan sizhu - string and wind music - of Shanghai. The in-depth approach adopted reveals much about Chinese musical culture.