After the Alden siblings visit their Great-Aunt Jane's ranch in a mining town, there is a mysterious fire which damages three houses, but Benny's friend Mike notices a strange man in a blue hat in the paper and Mike and Benny suspect he may be the culprit.

Set in Virginia in the 1980s, Tidewater Blood opens at the annual LeBlanc family celebration. Rich, pretentious, and proud, the LeBlancs operate a prosperous plantation and celebrate their heritage each year in grand old Southern fashion on the mansion's portico. But this year, the front of the mansion explodes and everyone on the portico is instantly killed. As the dust settles, all fingers point to embittered brother and ex-con Charles LeBlanc,...

"Anna May Jones is the daughter of a coal miner, but a sickly constitution has kept her confined to the house for most of her life. Hoping to improve her daughter's health-and lessen the burden on their family-Anna's mother sends her to live with her Aunt Jinny, a witchy-woman and an Elemental Master, in a holler outside of Ducktown. As she settles into her new life, Anna learns new skills at Aunt Jinny's side and discovers that she, too, has a gift...

In the coal mining region of mid-nineteenth century eastern Pennsylvania, Phin witnesses a murder and runs for his life, pursued by a mysterious man and a horse with the instincts of a bloodhound.

"West Virginia, 1869 Three years ago, Dr. Daniel Kavanagh settled down in the quaint town of Mount Laurel and established a medical practice there. The single doctor has been nursing an unrequited crush on Serena Norman, the local schoolteacher. Just down the road lies the coal mining town of Owenduffy, considered by most in Mount Laurel to be a backwoods hamlet. When the mine company's doctor abandons his post, Daniel agrees to visit one day a week,...

"Detective Isaac Bell's wife has said that he is always in the wrong place at the right time. This is certainly the case when Bell thwarts the assassination of a U.S. Senator shortly after meeting the man. This heroic rescue is just the start of the mystery for Bell, who suspects that the would-be assassins have a much larger and more dangerous agenda - one involving the nearly-constructed Panama Canal. While the senator supports the building of the...

Traces the history of coal, discussing how it has been used in different cultures, how it is mined, what negative effects it has had on people, economics, and the environment, and the role it has played in world history and development.

Coal is a natural resource millions of years in the making. Since over 40 percent of the world's electricity comes from burning coal, it remains an important, though sometimes controversial, energy source. The processes that transform organic remains into coal, coal mines, and the carbon cycle are important topics covered in this valuable volume. Readers will learn about the pollution attributed to the burning of coal as well as about coal alternatives....

Sixteen-year-old Wren MacAvoy works as a coal miner for a domed city where, after 200 years, society is complacent and coal is diminishing--until she unwittingly becomes a catalist for a revolution that destroys the dome, which could mean the end of everything.