Most Popular Books by Ross MacKenzie

The mysterious Nowhere Emporium has appeared once more. With its shining bricks the colour of midnight, and rich scents of melting chocolate and exotic spices, it''s easy to see why inquisitive Lucy isn''t the only one bewitched by the magical store. Behind the Emporium''s red velvet curtain lies a palace of unimaginable treasures glittering jewels and gleaming gold, sparkling diamonds and shining armour. But hidden among these wonders, something sinister is lurking. The Emporium is under the control of a menacing figure in a top hat who calls himself Vindictus Sharpe. Who is he? And where is the Emporium''s rightful owner, Daniel? Return to a world where imagination is power and anything is possible in the heart-stopping finale to the multi-award-winning Nowhere Emporium trilogy.

Jim McPherson is an architect, no longer young but still quietly ambitious. He watches with acid distaste as each new outrageous, extravagant, willfully transgressive building gets all the publicity, and wonders-how the hell did this happen? Then he finds himself designing one of his own.An old acquaintance, now a mysterious, manipulative figure of great means and even greater will, has drawn him into a project that promises to violate every principle he holds dear. The struggle with habit and conscience is trying.But the process transforms him, and Jim at last produces, with full willing participation, a building so appalling that it not only inspires local opposition but triggers a freakish mishap that lands everyone in court. The flamboyant opposing counsel attempts to put the whole of twenty-first century architecture on trial, in all its irrational exuberance and iconic exhibitionism. An unexpected judicial denouement is only the first of a number of surprising outcomes for the principals and for the notorious building, which itself serves as both impetus and arena for several frenzied scenes of deranged public behavior. Moby-Dick meets Monty Python in this surreal unfolding, set against the dark backdrop of post-9/11, pre-crash America: at war abroad and with itself, distracted by celebrity and poorly served by its institutions.

Eleven-year-old Zac follows his grandmother into the magical world of dreams called Nocturne, where Dream Stealers led by Shadow are spreading dark magic that creates nightmares, and it is up to Zac and new friends to foil the evil plan.

[Truncated] This thesis presents work that has been performed in the synthesis of a range of mono and bimetallic organometallic complexes. The electronic and structural characteristics of these complexes have been investigated. Of particular interest is the intramolecular communication between metal centres that can be observed for the bimetallic complexes. Understanding electronic communication is a fundamental concern for the growing field of molecular electronics. The introduction presents a brief background to the field of molecular electronics. This is followed by an overview of mixed valence complexes and the application to the study of electronic communication. The introduction concludes by presenting the ligands that were studied in this thesis, along with a summary of spectroelectrochemistry and theoretical studies as they were applied to the complexes synthesised here. The majority of the complexes studied in this thesis contained a ruthenium ?-alkynyl moiety. Chapter 2 begins with a summary of the properties and synthesis of transition metal ?-alkynyl complexes. The synthesis and characterisation of ruthenium ?-alkynyl complexes of the widely studied ligand 5-ethynyl-2,2''-bipyridine is presented along with a spectroelectrochemical and theoretical investigation of the complexes. Chapter 3 introduces the coordination chemistry of the 2,2''-bipyridine moiety. The complexes synthesised in Chapter 2 were used as metalloligands for the coordination of an additional metal centre to the bipyridyl moiety. The bimetallic complexes were characterised and studied by spectroelectrochemical and theoretical methods. The homobimetallic complexes that were synthesised showed Class II mixed valence behaviour resulting from weak electronic communication. Chapter 4 uses the less studied ligand 4-ethynyl-2,2''-bipyridine to synthesise and characterise a range of mono and bimetallic complexes that were analogous to those synthesised in Chapters 2 and 3. Evaluation of the electronic communication through this ligand by spectroelectrochemical and theoretical methods showed Class II mixed valence behaviour. Comparison of the electronic communication exhibited by complexes in Chapters 3 and 4 showed that there was better electronic communication through the 4-ethynyl-2,2-bipyridine isomer of the ligand.