The concept of controlled release has attracted increasing attention over the last two decades, with the applications of this technology proliferating in diverse fields in­ cluding medicine, agriculture and biotechnology. Research and developmental efforts related to controlled release are multiplying in both industry and academia. The reason for this phenomenal growth is obvious. The use of a variety of biologically active agents, such as drugs, fertilizers and pesticides, has become an integral part of modern society. Along with the use of these reagents has evolved an awareness that their uncontrolled application almost inevitably induces harmful effects on the health of humans and their surrounding environments. To eliminate or minimize these harmful effects necessitates the controlled release of these chemicals. Moreover, the controlled release of substances, not usually considered toxic or hazardous, e.g., some catalysts and nutrients, can enhance their effectiveness. The number and variety of controlled release systems, differing in their physical and chemical makeup, are increasing rapidly. Proliferation almost always demands correlation, generalization and unification; it requires both the development of underlying theories of their behavior and the mechanistic interpretation of their performance. This, in turn, requires a statistical and mathematical (quantitative) treatment of the scientific information and technical data pertaining to them. A quantitative treatment can also facilitate the formulation of procedures for computer-aided design of these systems through a priori prediction of their per­ formance for a variety of design parameters.

Product Description: From the evil geniuses who brought you Bust comes a roller-coaster ride of suspense, mayhem, and vicious fun.Max Fisher used to run a computer company; Angela Petrakos was his assistant and mistress. But that was last year. Now Max is reinventing himself as a hip-hop crack dealer, and Angela is back in Ireland hooking up with a would-be record setter-in the field of serial killing...read more

Fugitive Angel Petrakos hooks up with a serial killer in Ireland, while her ex-lover and partner, Max Fisher, a failed New York businessman, reinvents himself as a crack dealer.

When Max Fisher, who is cheating on his wife, hires a psychopath to kill his wife, things go horribly wrong for everyone involved. Original.

Product Description: From award-winning authors Ken Bruen and Jason Starr comes Bust, an original new noir novel by two of the world's finest crime writers.Five valuable lessons you can learn by listening to Bust: When you hire someone to kill your wife, don't hire a psychopath...read more

Product Description: Sex, lies, and insurance fraud on America's North Coast. Nick Kepler is a Cleveland insurance investigator who finds three cases, two seeming slam dunks and an easy cheating spouse job, are all tied together somehow. He soon finds himself in a web of sex, blackmail, and murder that reaches the upper echelons of the city's elite...read more

Jack Taylor thinks he has a chance at last to rest and heal from the myriad mental and physical traumas that beset him. However, after a skateboarder long suspected of dealing drugs to children is shot dead in mid-air during a public performance, Jack receives a crytic message with a picture of the skateboarder, a clipping about a rapist gone free through procedural error, and a chilling invitation: �Your turn.� The note is signed simply �C 33.�From the author considered �among the most original and innovative noir voices of the last two decades� (Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a mystery as labyrinthine as any Jack has yet encountered-and perhaps even more deadly. Purgatory is Ken Bruen at his best: lyrical, brutal, and ceaselessly suspenseful.

Product Description: Jack Taylor, a disgraced ex-cop in Galway, has slid further down the slope of despair. After a year in London he returns to his home town of Galway with a leather coat and a coke habit. Someone is systematically slaughtering young travellers and dumping their bodies in the city centre...read more

Still stinging from his unceremonious ouster from the Garda Síochána€”the Guards, Ireland€™s police force€”and staring at the world through the smoky bottom of his beer mug, Jack Taylor is stuck in Galway with nothing to look forward to. In his sober moments Jack aspires to become Ireland€™s best private investigator, not to mention its first€”Irish history, full of betrayal and espionage, discourages any profession so closely related to informing. But in truth Jack is teetering on the brink of his life€™s sharpest edges, his memories of the past cutting deep into his soul and his prospects for the future nonexistent.Nonexistent, that is, until a dazzling woman walks into the bar with a strange request and a rumor about Jack€™s talent for finding things. Odds are he won€™t be able to climb off his barstool long enough to get involved with his radiant new client, but when he surprises himself by getting hired, Jack has little idea of wh

Product Description: Jack Taylor, a disgraced ex-cop in Galway, has slid further down the slope of despair. After a year in London he returns to his home town of Galway with a leather coat and a coke habit. Someone is systematically slaughtering young travellers and dumping their bodies in the city centre...read more

Two guards, one nun, one judge - when a letter containing a list of victims arrives in the post, PI Jack Taylor is sickened, but tells himself the list has nothing to do with him. He has enough to do just staying sane. A guard and then a judge die in mysterious circumstances. But it is not until a child is added to the list that Taylor determines to find the identity of the killer, and stop them at any cost. What he doesn't know is that his relationship with the killer is far closer than he thinks. And that it's about to become deeply personal.