Quando Rob Hale, un giovane tecnico del riscaldamento, si risveglia in ospedale dopo un incidente in moto, il suo primo pensiero va a chi era in sella dietro di lui, un'affascinante bionda conosciuta durante un intervento di riparazione in una casa tra i boschi. Ma i dottori e la polizia insistono nell'affermare che sul luogo dell'incidente non c'era nessun altro a parte lui, e attribuiscono la sua convinzione allo shock unito alla forte somiglianza della ragazza con la sorella di Rob, Laura, morta suicida. Sicuro di non essersi inventato niente, Rob decide di condurre personalmente delle indagini, con l'aiuto di una detective professionista, Rebecca Lewis. La donna è appena arrivata da Londra, assunta dai suoi genitori per far luce sulla morte della sorella. Il mistero non farà che infittirsi, coinvolgendo servizi segreti, ricchi petrolieri e molte altre pedine più o meno consapevoli di un gioco in cui nessuno si fida di nessuno. La piccola, pacifica isola di Man diventerà il cuore di un intrigo internazionale che nulla ha da invidiare alle atmosfere più cupe di una metropoli.

When his fiancée goes missing in a presumed kidnapping, hostage negotiator Daniel Trent confronts a ruthless Marseille gang to secure the release of a chief suspect in order to save the woman he loves. By the author of the Good Thief series. Read by Simon Vance. Simultaneous.

Cosa fareste se la vostra fidanzata sparisse nel nulla? Se qualcuno la rapisse? Se foste Daniel Trent, specialista addestrato nella negoziazione di ostaggi, la risposta sarebbe semplice: scoprireste chi è il rapitore e lo fareste parlare. È così che Trent si mette sulle tracce di un criminale marsigliese di nome Jérôme Moreau. Secondo Girard, un ex poliziotto con il quale condivide un passato tragico, è lui il maggiore indiziato per il rapimento. Trent studia l'uomo per settimane, pedinandolo in cerca di tracce che conducano alla sua Aimée, ma proprio quando è pronto a entrare in azione qualcun altro lo precede e del marsigliese si perde ogni traccia. Nonostante la piega inaspettata che hanno preso gli eventi, Trent è pronto a tutto per riavere la sua fidanzata sana e salva. Il suo unico obiettivo ora è trovare Moreau vivo, e il piano è geniale: presentarsi alla famiglia del malavitoso e offrirsi di collaborare per ritrovarlo. Ma le cose non vanno esattamente come si sarebbe aspettato: le poche persone di cui si fida gli voltano le spalle e il passato, che credeva sepolto, torna prepotentemente a tormentarlo. Per fronteggiare la banda criminale che tiene in ostaggio il suo uomo e trovare le risposte che sta cercando, Trent dovrà fare affidamento solo sul suo istinto e sulle sue abilità.

Over the last thirty years, scholars of health care organizations have been searching for concepts and images to illuminate their underlying, and shifting, modes of organizing. Nowhere has this controversy been more intense than in the United Kingdom, given the long succession of top down reorganizations within the National Health Service (NHS) over the last thirty years. This book characterises the nature of key reforms - namely managed networks - introduced in the UK National Health Service during the New Labour period (1997-2010), combining rich empirical case material of such managed networks drawn from different health policy arenas (clinical genetics, cancer networks, sexual health networks, and long term care) with a theoretically informed analysis.

The book makes three key contributions. Firstly, it argues that New Labour's reforms included an important network element consistent with underlying network governance ideas, specifying conditions of 'success' for these managed networks and exploring how much progress was empirically evident. Secondly, in order to conceptualise many of the complex health policy arenas studied, the book uses the concept of 'wicked problems': problematic situations with no obvious solutions, whose scope goes beyond any one agency, often with conflicting stakeholder interests, where there are major social and behavioural dimensions to be considered alongside clinical considerations. Thirdly, it makes a contribution to the expanding Foucauldian and governmentality-based literature on health care organizations, by retheorising organizational processes and policy developments which do not fit either professional dominance or NPM models from a governmentality perspective.

From the empirical evidence gathered, the book argues that managed networks (as opposed to alternative governance modes of hierarchy or markets) may well be the most suitable governance mode in those many and expanding policy arenas characterised by 'wicked problems', and should be given more time to develop and reach their potential.

The production notes and Hampton's introduction, written especially for this book, elaborate on the screen-writing challenge and on the collaboration between himself, Joe Wright, the BAFTA Award-winning director for Pride & Prejudice, and producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster.

The public sector continues to play a strategic role across the world. The last thirty years have seen major shifts in approaches to public sector management in many countries. There is also a fierce debate across academic disciplines about contemporary public administration/management: some advocate the use of more managerialist approaches; while others see managerialism as undermining democratic institutions. New roles have arisen, such as programme evaluation, management consulting, and reliance on NGOs and partnerships, which require new assessments. There is an intensified need for an analysis of contemporary public sector organisations, which are changing rapidly before our eyes.

It is thus time for an authoritative treatment of the major trends in public management, embracing both their intended and unintended consequences. This Handbook brings together leading international scholars to comment on key current issues. The individual chapters include broad overviews, in depth explorations of particular thematic areas and analyses of different theoretical perspectives such as political science, management, sociology and economics. The authors have space to develop their distinctive arguments. The editors provide an overall concluding chapter. The Handbook combines scholarly rigour, engaging writing and high policy relevance. It will be invaluable to advanced students, researchers and reflective public sector practitioners.

About the Series
Oxford Handbooks in Business & Management bring together the world's leading scholars on the subject to discuss current research and the latest thinking in a range of interrelated topics including Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Public Management, International Business, and many others. Containing completely new essays with extensive referencing to further reading and key ideas, the volumes, in hardback or paperback, serve as both a thorough introduction to a topic and a useful desk reference for scholars and advanced students alike.