John Meier

After the tragic death of his parents, a young heir is drawn back to his ancestral home in England. The responsibility of assuming his family's vast holdings draws young Geoffrey into a hornet's nest embezzlement, arson, and murder. He finds that outsiders are not welcome in the small coastal town of West Brighton and soon attracts enemies. Life in his beloved Shearing Manor is rapidly becoming a mix of intrigue, lies, and deceits. While visiting the lovely coastal town one day, Geoffrey encounters a very striking young lady. Standing at a good six feet tall, this shy librarian finds the attractive young man both interesting and puzzling. Her new emotions are something she has never dealt with before, and she seeks to hide from them. Abbigail Farworthy has been told that she will never have the opportunity to marry and have a family like normal women would because she towers over most men and she is too thin and too geeky. Abbigail had resigned herself to her fate but now struggles to find herself and her purpose in life while constantly running into this handsome yet troubling Yankee from America. Does Abbigail find herself while Geoffrey is nearly beaten to death? Does Inspector Holyoke solve the mystery at West Brighton Industries in time? Can Geoffrey repair the damage done to the company and heal the employees? Can a simple English country girl find love with an American who by now has been uncovered as Geoffrey Shearing, Lord of Shearing Manor, by his fianc e from New York?

Exploring Mathematics gives students experience with doing mathematics - interrogating mathematical claims, exploring definitions, forming conjectures, attempting proofs, and presenting results - and engages them with examples, exercises, and projects that pique their interest. Written with a minimal number of pre-requisites, this text can be used by college students in their first and second years of study, and by independent readers who want an accessible introduction to theoretical mathematics. Core topics include proof techniques, sets, functions, relations, and cardinality, with selected additional topics that provide many possibilities for further exploration. With a problem-based approach to investigating the material, students develop interesting examples and theorems through numerous exercises and projects. In-text exercises, with complete solutions or robust hints included in an appendix, help students explore and master the topics being presented. The end-of-chapter exercises and projects provide students with opportunities to confirm their understanding of core material, learn new concepts, and develop mathematical creativity.

Presenting groups in a formal, abstract algebraic manner is both useful and powerful, yet it avoids a fascinating geometric perspective on group theory - which is also useful and powerful, particularly in the study of infinite groups. This book presents the modern, geometric approach to group theory, in an accessible and engaging approach to the subject. Topics include group actions, the construction of Cayley graphs, and connections to formal language theory and geometry. Theorems are balanced by specific examples such as Baumslag-Solitar groups, the Lamplighter group and Thompson's group. Only exposure to undergraduate-level abstract algebra is presumed, and from that base the core techniques and theorems are developed and recent research is explored. Exercises and figures throughout the text encourage the development of geometric intuition. Ideal for advanced undergraduates looking to deepen their understanding of groups, this book will also be of interest to graduate students and researchers as a gentle introduction to geometric group theory.