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Pursuit of the Deadly Diamonds | null | 1,984 | When Mr. and Mrs. Lane invited charming French woman Annette Reynaud to their brownstone for dinner with the family, they had no idea that she was a jewel burglar whose real name was Michelle, and that Mrs. Lane's younger brother Richard Duffy had known Michelle from his past. Richard privately warned Michelle from having any ideas about his sister's home, but she assured him she was retired, having come to USA to get away from those who demanded she work for them. Shortly afterwards though, he got a strange phone call from her hinting she was in trouble but could not speak freely. The clues she gave in her talk were 'nice', 'park' and 'au revoir'. That got Richard and his nephew Stephen Lane to fly to Nice, booked into a Hotel Parc and saw from binoculars that Michelle was on board a yacht named Au Revoir. Faking a chance meeting, Richard learned that Michelle was being compelled to stage a diamond heist for a gang, whose mastermind's name she was hoping to learn to trade with the police. They even got ready imitations for Michelle to replace the real stones during the heist. With no other recourse available, Richard and Stephen could only keep a close watch on Michelle while trying not to be discovered. Their only ally was the police inspector Armand Duval, who was only prepared to take a chance on their crazy story because there was really a gang of thieves operating in the area, having stolen some very precious stones. The gang was likened to a hydra, and so far, the police only managed to get hold of the lowly footpads but had no inkling about the mastermind. |
The Firework-Maker's Daughter | Philip Pullman | 1,995 | A young girl called Lila wants to become a firework-maker, like her father Lalchand. Despite her talents, Lalchand believes this is an unsuitable job for girls. Lila disagrees, and journeys to get Royal Sulphur from Razvani the Fire-Fiend at Mount Merapi, as all aspirant firework-makers must do. The quest is nearly unsuccessful, as she does not have protection from the Fire-Fiend's flames or the Three Gifts to present to Razvani. However, her friends Hamlet, a talking white elephant, and Chulak, Hamlet's caretaker, manage to deliver the water of the Goddess of the Emerald Lake that will protect her. To Lila's surprise, Razvani recognizes her as a firework maker who has brought the Three Gifts, despite Lila being unaware of what the Three Gifts are. Upon her return home, she learns that Lalchand has been imprisoned for the disappearance of Hamlet. To save his life, Lila and Lalchand must win the upcoming competition for the Firework Festival against other extremely talented firework makers. Upon their victory, Lalchand explains to his daughter that she does possess the Three Gifts: rather than tangible objects, they are talent, courage, and luck, all of which she has. She has talent, having worked with her father at firework-making for many years; courage, for having undertaken the journey; and good fortune, which lies in having loyal friends, Chulak and Hamlet. |
So B. It | Sarah Weeks | 2,004 | Twelve-year-old Heidi lives in the town of Reno, Nevada with her mentally-disabled mother and their neighbor, Bernadette. Her mother only knows twenty-three words, including one mysterious one, "soof," that no one can define. Meanwhile, Bernadette has a serious condition called agoraphobia, which causes her to be too afraid to go outside her house. Heidi must take on responsibilities beyond her years to provide for their households. When Heidi finds some photos of her mother at a Christmas party in New York, Heidi decides to go to that state, anxious to uncover more about her family history and to seek what the word "soof" meant, after hearing her mother mutter it all the time. Although Bernadette is anxious about Heidi leaving, she reluctantly allows her to go as long as she calls every night. During her road trip to Liberty, New York, Heidi meets Georgia Sweet, a kind and curious lady on the bus. When she arrived at Hilltop Home, she felt unwelcomed by Thurman Hill. Feeling sorrowful, Ruby takes Heidi into her own home where she and her husband, Roy, investigate. She discovers that Thurman Hill, is her grandfather, Elliot is her father, and that her grandmother was named Diana. She finally finds out what her mothers word, soof, meant, which was her nickname for Sophia Demuth. By the end her mom dies. |
Now and Forever | Danielle Steel | 1,985 | Although Jessica and Ian Clarke have been married seven years, they insist the thrill and excitement haven't dimmed. At Jessica's urging, Ian has quit his advertising job to become a struggling writer, and she supports him with her successful San Francisco boutique. Ian's financial dependence on Jessica upsets him more than he admits, and in a moment of bored malaise, Ian's first casual indiscretion will create a nightmare that threatens everything Jessica and Ian have carefully built. What he does changes their lives, and them, perhaps forever, as they struggle to pay the price of his mistake. |
V | null | 2,008 | Set 20 years after the original miniseries, The Second Generation depicts an Earth still under Visitor domination with the Resistance fighting a losing battle. They desperately try to persuade the masses that the Visitors are evil aliens bent on mankind's destruction. However, they are largely ignored, as the many technological and social advancements brought by the Visitors to the planet have convinced the majority that the aliens have their best interests in mind. They are halfway to taking all of the planet's water, under the guise of cleansing it of all polluting substances. Many people were also convinced to join the Visitors' civilian militia, the Teammates (an evolution of the miniseries' Visitor Youth), for the purposes of hunting resistance members. Just when all seems hopeless, the message that Resistance leader Juliet Parrish sent into space at the end of the original miniseries is finally heard. An alien race called the Zedti, who are long-standing enemies of the Visitors, reinforces the Resistance in their time of need and soon the war is turned in their favor. However, all is not as it seems, as the Zedti's actions make the Resistance wonder about their newfound allies' actual motives. |
Trace Memory | null | null | After a mysterious crate containing an alien orb, destined for Torchwood, explodes on the docks at Tiger Bay in 1953, young docker Michael Bellini is sent bouncing randomly through time and space. He ends up in the Hub where all the current members of Torchwood realise they have met him at earlier times in their lives. Meanwhile, 'The Men in Bowler Hats' are following Michael as he jumps unpredictably from era to era... |
The Twilight Streets | null | null | Jack Harkness receives a message in 1941 which simply reads "Revenge for the Future". There's a part of the modern city that no one much goes to, a collection of rundown old houses and gloomy streets. No one stays there long, and no one can explain why - something's not quite right there. Even Jack himself seems unable to enter the area, feeling physically ill when he tries. Now the district of Cardiff is being renovated and opened with street parties and entertainers out in force to advertise the new area. All seems well until Toshiko recognises the sponsor of the event: Bilis Manger. |
Something in the Water | null | null | An irregular bout of coughs and colds has Dr Bob Strong worried, especially when he himself starts to cough up blood. Saskia Harden is persistently found submerged beneath bodies of water and is not on any files apart from at Dr Strong's GP practice. Torchwood have found a dead body in an advanced state of decay that is still able to talk. And all it can say is 'Water hag'... |
The Sacred Land | Harry Turtledove | 2,003 | In the book, Sostratos, the more scholarly of the pair, visits Jerusalem, where he tries to learn more about the odd monotheists who live there. Menedemos, meanwhile, fulfills his usual role of paying more attention to profits than prophets and pays a great deal of attention to women (occasionally those married to other men). |
Acorna's Search | Elizabeth Ann Scarborough | 2,001 | The homeworld Acorna has never known was horribly scarred in the brutal attack by the cold-blooded Khleevi, but the Linyaari-the unicorn girl's gentle, spiritual race-live on. Now is the time for healing and rebuilding, for restoring the natural beauty corrupted by the savage insectile oppressors. But Acorna's Linyaari friends and colleagues begin mysteriously disappearing soon after work gets under way, among them her beloved Aari. And her desperate search for answers will lead courageous Acorna to a shocking descovery beneath the surface of her people's world-and deep into the realms of limitless space, where the truth of the origin of everything awaits. |
Darkside | Tom Becker | 2,007 | Jonathan Starling is being chased by kidnappers, and accidentally stomps across the place called Darkside, a place known by his father but kept from him because of its dangerous ways. A place that is ruled by Jack the Ripper's descendants. The place is full of murders,thieves,werewolves and a vampire. Jonathan needs to escape from Darkside and back into the safe haven of central London . |
Millions of Cats | Wanda Gág | 1,928 | The hand-lettered text, done by the author's brother, tells the story of an elderly couple who realize that they are very lonely. The wife wants a cat to love, so her husband sets off in search of a beautiful one to bring home to her. After traveling far away from home, he finds a hillside covered in "Cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats..." This rhythmic phrase is repeated several other times throughout the story. The man wants to bring home the most beautiful of all the cats, but he's unable to decide. Each seems lovely, so he walks back home with all of the cats following him. His wife is dismayed when he arrives, realizing immediately what her husband overlooked: they won't be able to feed and care for billions and trillions of cats. The wife suggests letting the cats decide which one should stay with them, asking "Which one of you is the prettiest?" This question incites an enormous cat fight, frightening the old man and woman so that they ran back into the house. Soon, all is quiet outside. When they venture out, there is no sign of the cats: they'd apparently eaten each other up in their jealous fury. Then, the old man notices one skinny cat hiding in a patch of tall grass. It had survived because it didn't consider itself pretty, so the other cats hadn't attacked it. The couple take the cat into their home, feed it and bathe it, watching it grow sleek and beautiful as the days pass: exactly the kind of cat they wanted. |
Men of Stone | Gayle Friesen | 2,008 | The novel follows protagonist Ben Conrad, a fifteen-year-old boy struggling with family affairs, school, and bullying. Ben is surrounded by girls at home: three older sisters and his mother. His father died when he was only five years old. Now that he has grown older, he knows he has to step up and be the man of his family. His Aunt Frieda comes to visit and he finds out how strong an old woman can truly be. The plot contains the story of Aunt Frieda's past life in Russia and her love and determination for her family. Rapidly, the two start building an unexpected relationship that strengthens both, especially Ben who learns to stand up for himself and believe in what he does. |
Ender's Game | Orson Scott Card | null | This story begins as Ender is made the commander of Dragon Army at Battle School, an institution designed to make young children into military commanders to fight in the next interstellar war against an unspecified enemy. Armies are groups of students that fight mock battles in the Battle Room, a null gravity environment, and are subdivided into squads known as "toons". Due to Ender's genius in leadership, Dragon Army goes on to dominate the competition, despite the teachers' attempts to put obstacles in their way. After his nineteenth consecutive victory, Ender is told that his Army is being broken up and his toon leaders promoted to be commanders in their turn, while he is being transferred to Command School for the next stage of his education. Here, a veteran named Mazer Rackham tutors him in the use of a space battle simulator. Eventually, many of his former toon leaders are brought along to serve under him once more. Once they are familiar with the simulator, they begin to fight a series of what Mazer tells them are mock battles against a computer-controlled enemy. Ender's team wins again and again, finally destroying a planet that the enemy fleet seems to be protecting. Once the battle is over, Mazer tells an exhausted Ender that all of the battles were in fact real, the children's commands having been relayed to the actual fleet, and that he just destroyed the enemy's home world and ended the war. |
Evil Genius | Catherine Jinks | 2,005 | The story begins when a young Cadel Piggot is taken to a psychologist due to the fact that he is "different" from regular kids. Meaning he is more knowledgeable than other kids and is brilliant with computers. Because Cadel is a genius, his morality has significant consequences for those around him, and ultimately his use of his intellect destroys his surroundings until, at the last minute, he is saved by a moral code instilled in him by his relationship with a girl named Sonja Pirvert, who has cerebral palsy, although he does not know this or her name at first. His quest for moral direction is complicated by Phineas Darkkon, an evil genius of sorts whom he is told is his father, and Thaddeus Roth, his psychologist whom the police identify as Prosper English, a notorious criminal and right hand man of Dr. Darkkon, and who later also claims to be Cadel's father. He also meets a number of other talented people at the Axis Institute, which is the university Thaddeus and Phineas created for him to hone his criminal skills. His specialty is IT and hacking. |
The Delivery Man | Joe McGinniss Jr. | 2,008 | The story follows the lives of childhood friends who've been negatively affected in different ways from their years growing up in Las Vegas off the strip. When we meet the main characters – Chase, Michele and Bailey – they are now in their twenties and the story focuses on their lifestyle, illegal professions and their caustic influence on the generation right behind. The story is told from the perspective of Chase, an aspiring painter just out of college, who had left Las Vegas to study art in New York where he met Julia, an MBA student who represents the promise of a life outside of Las Vegas. After returning to Las Vegas to finish school and finding work as a high school art teacher, Chase struggles to break free of his old life and his old friends, who are entrenched in the Las Vegas life of excess. Plot summary from the Willamette Week in Portland, OR, "A sympathetic look at the life of drug-using, self-destructing hookers and hustlers sounds like an uphill battle, but the simple truth about these characters is that they aren’t hookers or hustlers. They are aspiring painters, film directors and grad students. Although they inevitably prostitute themselves, they seldom talk about it, because they are ashamed or because they don’t understand what’s happening in their lives. All they want is comfort, to live in the Sun King suite on the 22nd floor of the Palace and order room service. But before they know it, prostitution isn’t even paying the bills; one by one, they go into debt with their own bodies." |
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe | Penelope Lively | 1,973 | James Harrison and his family move into a small cottage in a village called Ledsham. From the first day they are disturbed by incidents that are caused by a ghost called Thomas Kempe, James eventually learns. In life Kempe had been a 17th-century cunning man ("sorcerer") and now he wants to resume work. He attacks people whose work usurps his place, such as the village doctor, nurse, policemen, and pharmacist. He is also vicious regarding the vicar, but most dangerous regarding Mrs Verity whom he believes to be a witch. Kempe tries to make James his apprentice and James is blamed for many of the incidents. The Harrisons are among those who do not believe in ghosts or sorcery, so they blame James for a long time. The boy tries both alone and with outside help to resolve the situation but there is no way out until Kempe determines that the modern world is not for him. |
Shards of Honor | Lois McMaster Bujold | 1,986 | Cordelia Naismith, captain of an Astronomical Survey ship from Beta Colony, is exploring a newly-discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find that, while most of her crew has escaped, she is marooned with an injured Betan crewman and Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious as the "Butcher of Komarr". He had been left for dead by a treacherous rival. During their five-day hike to a secret Barrayaran base, she finds Vorkosigan not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and she is strongly attracted to him. The feeling is mutual—he asks her to marry him. She helps him to defeat a mutiny, despite some well-intentioned interference from her crew. She is then "rescued" and returns to Beta Colony. It turns out that Barrayar is planning an invasion of Escobar, to be led by Crown Prince Serg, the vicious son and heir of Emperor Ezar. Cordelia goes to Escobar in command of a decoy ship and successfully distracts the Barrayaran ships on picket duty at the wormhole exit so the transport ships following her can deliver a devastating new Betan weapon to the Escobaran defenders. She is captured, briefly tortured by the sadistic Admiral Vorrutyer, then unexpectedly rescued by Vorrutyer's mentally unstable batman, Sergeant Bothari, who kills his master. Afterwards, Commodore Vorkosigan hides the pair in his cabin. He is in disgrace, it seems, and has been assigned a minor role in the invasion under the watchful eye (and cybernetic perfect memory) of Lieutenant Simon Illyan. The new weapons give the Escobarans an overwhelming advantage and the Barrayarans are driven back with heavy losses. Crown Prince Serg, his flagship, and all hands aboard are lost. As Vorkosigan takes charge and organizes his fleet's retreat, Cordelia overhears one critical fact and deduces, step by step, a political secret that would plunge Barrayar into civil war if it ever got out. When Vorkosigan no longer needs to hide her in his cabin, she is placed in the ship's brig. When the ship is attacked, Cordelia is injured. She recovers in a prison camp on the same planet where she first met Vorkosigan. The planet was used to mass forces for the surprise invasion. The camp inmates, mostly women, live in fear until Vorkosigan arrives and summarily executes the officer in charge. Cordelia has inherited command of the camp by virtue of her rank and thus spends her time dealing directly with Vorkosigan. He proposes to her again, and she again rejects him because she sees what Barrayaran society does to people. Vorkosigan negotiates a prisoner exchange and then deals with a delivery of "uterine replicators" each containing a fetus from a woman raped by a Barrayaran soldier. One of them is Bothari's. On her way back to Beta Colony after the prisoner exchange, the Betan psychiatrist assigned to her is convinced that her injuries show that she was tortured by Vorkosigan, and the fact that she denies it means that she has been psychologically tampered with as well. She is assumed to be suffering from a form of "Stockholm Syndrome." Desperate to keep the secret of the Barrayaran plot, Cordelia refuses to let herself sleep, developing insomnia, stuttering, and a nervous tic, which further leads the authorities to conclude that she has been brainwashed and may even be a spy. Fending off attempts to "cure" her, she disables one of her "minders", takes her clothes and flees to Barrayar, where she marries Aral Vorkosigan. She also encounters Bothari, now in Vorkosigan's personal guard and much saner, thanks to good medical care. He has accepted his rape-child as his own and called her Elena. She is being raised by a local woman. The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra appoints Aral as Regent-Elect for his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor. Aral, who is next in line of succession, at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job. |
A Mysterious Affair of Style | Gilbert Adair | null | Set in post-war London and at Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, the "mysterious affair" of the title is the murder of ageing actress Cora Rutherford on the set of the film which she hopes will mark her comeback to the silver screen. As it happens, mystery writer Evadne Mount, an old friend of Cora's, and Chief-Inspector Trubshawe, retired, formerly of Scotland Yard, are watching the shooting of the scene in which the actress drinks from a champagne glass whose content, unbeknownst to everyone except the murderer, has been laced with a strong poison. Right from the start of the investigation, a neat group of suspects presents itself to the police. However, although each of them would have had means and opportunity to kill Cora Rutherford, none of them has the slightest motive to have done so. It takes amateur sleuth Evadne Mount several days to figure out the solution to the crime, and only by linking up the murder with an accident which happened some time previously, and eventually by using a decoy, is she able to solve the case. |
Dragon Cauldron | Laurence Yep | null | Shimmer, Monkey, Indigo, Thorn and Civet are forced to flee the Green Darkness after encountering the Butcher's soldiers and set off in search of the Smith and the Snail Woman, the only beings capable of repairing Baldy's cauldron, which was cracked when it was stolen from Sambar's treasure vault. They camp for the night by a lake in a wasteland that was the site of a former a kingdom destroyed by the Nameless One, a once powerful king and wizard who battled the Five Masters but could not be killed, and was punished by unknown, "terrible" means. While getting water, Civet notices a mysterious door at the bottom of the lake bed, from which she can sense a magical presence. Later that night the sound of weeping is heard coming from the lake. Monkey, Thorn and Civet get pulled onto the lake surface by the needleweed plants growing along the shore, and a whirlpool is created within the lake allowing them to access the door. Thorn and Monkey follow Civet inside, who is desperate for a means to supply her magic which has all been used up. The door leads to an ancient tomb, within which they encounter a mysterious, ghostly woman wearing a golden tiara with a pearl set in it. Drawn to the tiara, Civet takes it and puts it on, becoming possessed by the owner's spirit. Imbued with power, she begins to make strange prophecies. Despite the best efforts of Monkey and Shimmer, who soon joins them, Civet cannot be touched. Thorn succeeds in tricking her, allowing him to get the tiara immersed in a bowl of wine and destroying the pearl. The spell broken, the tomb begins to collapse and the whirlpool dissipate, from which the four manage to escape. Shimmer is disappointed in Thorn, further worsening their relationship which has been strained as Shimmer appears to have switched her favor to Indigo in an attempt to help her out, at Thorn's expense. Indigo is filled in on what happened, and after discovering the buoyancy properties of the needleweed, decides to take some of its juice. Civet later reveals that she believes she saw visions while possessed. Monkey discovers from spying on her that Civet believes her purpose in traveling with the group is not to help Shimmer, but rather Thorn. The next day the group enters the Desolate Mountains, which were once part of the Nameless One's kingdom. They get attacked by mysterious soldiers, who succeed in getting Shimmer entangled in a net. While seeking refuge on a ledge, the disguised cauldron is nearly lost. A sudden avalanche that is triggered sweeps them from the ledge and onto trees that had been broken loose and are being carried on a river that runs through the mountains. Monkey ends up on a tree with Thorn, finding that despite what he has had to put up with Shimmer, he sticks by her, because she was the first person in his life who showed him kindness. Thorn vows to prove that he is as worthy of her esteem as Indigo. Finding Shimmer, Indigo and Civet close by, they pass by a small, strange island with an odd, egg-shaped building on it. They are forced to seek refuge on the island in order to escape a waterfall the river empties into, and are helped by a mysterious, giant white dog. Trying to leave, they find that they cannot fly or swim away from the island due to a magical barrier in place around it, which also nullifies magic. Left with a boat building kit by the mysterious dog, they try various means of constructing a boat, which fail. The dog is not the only other being on the island, but they are unable to determine who it could be. Thorn figures out that the barrier spell is selective, filtering in certain things while blocking out others. The group searches the egg-shaped house on the island for suitable floatation devices, but when tested none proves to able to float past the barrier. After being goaded by Indigo, Thorn throws a pebble in his hand into the river in frustration, which skips several times. He realizes that clay is an exception to the barrier spell, or otherwise the island would have silted up. Monkey recalls a large lamp at the egg house that might work, which Shimmer manages to save after the mysterious dog hears of their plans. Although Monkey ties it up with rope, it manages to escape and succeeds in destroying the lamp when they try to bring it to the beach. However Thorn proposes using multiple smaller clay jars, which they are able to secure. Monkey finds a patch of human skin inside one of the jars, which is buried. Finding that the jars work, a raft is built out of them, but the reeds used to bind it prevent it from working. The glue left in the boat building kit proves to be quite strong and waterproof, so a smaller raft is made which proves successful, although it can only transport one person at a time. The surplus jars are destroyed, and Shimmer in her dragon form manages to float off the island, helping the humans cross the river. On a ledge opposite the island, while seeking a way out of the cavern, a mysterious white object is fished out of the river, which turns out to be the patch of skin encountered earlier. It manages to escape their attempts to capture it, at which point Civet realizes that her prophecy has come true, as the skin is the Nameless One who had been trapped on the island. The Nameless One adopts the name of the Boneless King after hearing them discuss him, and vows to turn the whole world into a wasteland. Thorn blames himself for letting the Nameless One lose, and refuses to go with Shimmer and Indigo when they leave to summon the Smith and Snail Woman. Shimmer misinterprets his intentions, leaving him with Monkey and Civet, who try to find the Boneless King, but are unsuccessful. Leaving the mountain on foot and in disguise, they encounter a group of soldiers, who arrest them and take them to where an excavation of the Nameless One's tomb is being undertaken by the Butcher. There their warnings fall on deaf ears, and they are reunited with Shimmer and Indigo, who were also captured in disguise. The Butcher himself arrives, accompanied by a strange dragon. Suspicious of them after hearing their warnings about the Nameless One, he takes a personal hand in their interrogation, which is interrupted by the discovery of the Boneless King himself in his current form, who proves impervious to all manner of attack, except for living fire, an ancient chemical substance which can burn in water that was buried in his tomb. However he manages to release his soul as his body is burned and possess the Butcher. The group takes advantage of the distraction to overpower their guards, while Monkey and Shimmer assume their true forms. However the Boneless King, whose men do not realize has possessed the Butcher, casts a spell that renders them unable to fly. Civet breaks away, declaring that she has paid her debt to Shimmer and the Inland Sea dragons. She creates a diversion by destroying the jars containing the living fire, causing a mass of confusion with the resulting fires, but dying amidst the flames as she had envisioned. Shimmer and her companions are able to escape, as the Boneless King’s spell requires him to keep them in sight. They are pursued by the Boneless King and Pomfret, and are again struck by the flightless spell. Just as a fight is about to ensue on the ground, the Smith and Snail Woman’s mountain arrives, forcing the Boneless King to retreat. The Smith and the Snail Woman are informed that the Nameless One has escaped and brought up to speed. The Smith recognizes Baldy’s cauldron as the greatest masterpiece of his grandmother, the Serpent Woman and one of the Five Masters. He agrees to try to fix it, informing them that a soul trapped within the cauldron gives it its power. In the forge, the group assists the Smith and the Snail Woman by working the bellows. They get the cauldron hot enough to the point where when it is struck on an anvil, the trapped soul within is released and escapes. Determined to mend the cauldron, they try their best to get the fire as hot as possible, but to no avail. Thorn realizes what needs to be done, and climbing onto the hearth, jumps into the cauldron, fusing his soul into it and becoming the cauldron himself. Shimmer is distraught, but the Snail Woman realizes what Thorn has done, and encouraged, they put in a final effort that manages to fix the crack in the cauldron/Thorn. Shimmer then tries to take Thorn back to restore the Inland Sea, but is refused by the Smith, who reveals that he and his wife plan to use Thorn in their fight against the Boneless King with the aid of the two remaining masters, the Unicorn and the Lord of the Flowers. Shimmer, Indigo and Monkey manage to steal Thorn back by disguising him as a hammer. The three return to River Glen to boil away the Inland Sea using Thorn, but are ambushed by the Boneless King who has rescued his giant white dog and is assisted by Pomfret, still unaware that he is no longer the Butcher. In recognition of their repairing the cauldron, the Boneless King imprisons them instead of killing them. As he flies off on Pomfret, Monkey and Shimmer see Thorn give a flash of light, seeming to communicate to them that things will work out and giving them hope. |
Dragon War | Laurence Yep | null | The Boneless King captures Shimmer, Monkey, and Indigo. They manage to escape and attempt to retrieve Baldy's cauldron, in which Thorn's soul is now sealed. However the Boneless King turns the tables on them and traps them in an underground cavern beneath Egg Mountain where he was formerly imprisoned with the river poisoned and cavern sealed up. Indigo figures out that water is the exclusion to the barrier spell as the river can flow in, so transformed into ice versions of themselves, they are able to escape. Returning to the Boneless King's tomb disguised as soldiers, they find that he has finished his excavation and left. The three catch up to where the pack train is camped for the night, but are unable to bluff their way past the pickets and are forced to transform into horses. They discover that some of the guardsmen and horses have been poisoned from drinking the river water and that the pack train is transporting the stone soldiers that were found in the Boneless King's tomb. Still disguised, they accompany the pack train on its journey. On the way, mysterious gases emitted by the statues follow the pack train, arousing such resentment and fear from the population such that "the countryside was almost ready to rise in rebellion" by the time they reach the capital, Ramsgate. The pack train is nearly attacked by villagers at the capital's gates, but is saved by reinforcements. The statues are buried in a pit on the palace grounds. The three manage to follow the Boneless King disguised as guardsmen to the harbor and onto the flagship of his war fleet, necessitating a change in disguise to being sailors. Determining that Thorn is in the captain's cabin, they manage to convince the Boneless King's puppet wizard Horn to let them in, but rouse his suspicions and that of his massive white dog Snowgoose, who he had rescued from his island. Unable to retrieve Thorn in time, they transform into fleas and hide on Snowgoose's collar. Able to smell them but unable to determine where they are, Snowgoose gets so upset that the Boneless King loses patience with her and has her locked in a storeroom. They leave and return to the deck just as the fleet sets sail. Pomfret arrives after the fleet is underway to relay intelligence of the dragon army gathered at the Hundred Children, an archipelago formed from an undersea mountain chain. He also recognizes that the strange, deep sea creatures that suddenly attack the fleet are illusions cast by dragon mages, resulting in the Boneless King dispelling them. The fleet is confronted with a wall of fire as it nears the Hundred Children. As the Boneless King attempts to disperse it, Shimmer makes her move to rescue Thorn, but she and Monkey are captured. At that moment the dragon army advances towards the fleet despite counterattacks on the vanguard with a flammable liquid that can burn in water. As the Boneless King prepares to use the cauldron to boil the ocean, Shimmer and Monkey escape and leap into the sea. Along with Indigo in dragon form, they are chased by Pomfret and marines transformed into alligators. They are nearly captured while attempting to lose their pursuers within the caves of the Hundred Children which Shimmer played in when she was younger, but by using the buoyancy properties of the needleweed juice that Indigo has been carrying all this time, Pomfret and the marines are rendered helpless as they are carried to the surface. As they make their way towards the dragon army which has been forced to retreat and given 24 hours to surrender, Shimmer tries to convince Indigo to seek safety on the mainland. However Indigo adamantly refuses to go and vows to continue on with Shimmer, as Shimmer is “the only thing” she has ever loved given her rough existence, aided by Monkey’s suggestion that she may have a role in carrying out Civet’s prophecy. Catching up with the dragon army, on the way to Sambar’s palace they are met by badly injured members of Shimmer’s clan, who insist on escorting her. At the palace, Shimmer confronts her uncle, offering the dream pearl as temporary collateral for Baldy’s cauldron and better treatment of the Inland Sea dragons, and asking for help in rescuing Thorn. News is then received that the krakens have begun a large scale invasion, capturing the other forts and forges and forcing the Inland Sea dragons to flee. Sambar has a change of heart and vows to fight alongside Shimmer, who will direct the effort against the Boneless King while he handles the krakens. Indigo devises a plan to use the exotic creatures found in Sambar's larder to terrify the humans, enabling to her to exact some payback on the kitchen staff who formerly mistreated her and earning the respect of the Inland Sea dragons who help her out. After Shimmer's band of dragons is assembled, they receive intelligence on the Boneless King's dispositions from a mage named Bombax who spied on the humans in the form of a gull. It reveals that the Boneless King has erected a series of prefabricated forts on the Hundred Children, and that he is at one of the forts with Thorn and Pomfret. After Indigo observes that the defenses are oriented towards the east, Shimmer decides to use the dream pearl to cast an illusion augmented by the Grand Mage Storax's fog bank, while the other dragons hit the fleet from the west and Monkey rescues Thorn. When they are in position, Shimmer casts a great illusion of a dragon army approaching from the east, but the dream pearl physically drains her and nearly claims her life. Monkey is forced to destroy it to save her as Storax and his fellow mages create a fog illusion to mask that of the fake army. Monkey then infiltrates the fort where the Boneless King is and impersonates Pomfret, succeeding in getting the real Pomfret attacked by a second flame bird that the Boneless King had deployed. During its pursuit of Pomfret, this flame bird sails among the warships gathered in the channel, setting them ablaze and crippling the fleet. Monkey rescues Thorn just as the dragons begin their attack. They infiltrate the forts disguised as humans and disposing of the living fire bombs and sinking the remaining ships. He returns to the battle after leaving Thorn with Shimmer and Indigo, during which the unleashing of the exotic creatures of Sambar's larder on the forts proves the last straw for their garrisons, resulting in their surrenders. After it is over however, it turns out that Pomfret was able to steal Thorn back disguised as Monkey. Shimmer, still exhausted from using the dream pearl, along with Indigo and Monkey set off in pursuit. They catch up to Pomfret, who is transporting the Boneless King, Horn, and Snowgoose. He flies into Ramsgate, which has erupted in revolt, and is chased all the way to the palace. There, faced with a revolt of his own ministers, the Boneless King openly declares himself for who he is, offering greater rewards to Pomfret who throws his lot in with him. The Boneless King then unleashes the stone statues from his tomb that were buried in the palace grounds, which suddenly brought to life, begin to attack his enemies. Monkey uses clones of himself to distract them and get them to attack each other, just as the Smith and Snail Woman arrive and lend their assistance. Leaving them to deal with the statues, Monkey, Indigo and Shimmer to chase after the Boness King. Inside the palace, they realize that Thorn bears a striking resemblance to the last king before the Butcher, Emerald III, making him the crown prince. They confront the Boneless King in the throne room where they fall into an ambush, with Shimmer and Monkey getting bound with magical iron collars while Indigo is turned into a bronze statue. The Boneless King decides to send them all back to "before there was time...back to when nothing had form or shape", from which not even he himself could escape. While he casts the spell, Pomfret tries to convince Shimmer that he was right, based on the vision of him as the king of all the dragons that he as seen in the World Mirror, which was found in the Nameless One's tomb and reflects the possibilities that could have been and could be, but does not make predictions. With Monkey's help, Shimmer gets Pomfret to see that if the Boneless King rules the world, all possibilities are revealed to be a wasteland with no signs of life. As Pomfret has a change of heart, the Boneless King finishes summoning the portal to before time then turns on him and binds him. As he begins to have Shimmer dragged into the portal, Pomfret, realizing the magnitude of what he has done, with a final effort throws himself at the Boneless King, carrying them both into the portal chased by Snowgoose. The Boneless King's spells are dissipated, freeing Monkey and Shimmer and restoring Indigo. The news is broken to Lord Tower, the chancellor, that Thorn the crown prince is trapped in the cauldron. The Smith and the Snail Woman agree to help restore Thorn, taking a sample of one of the Boneless King's stone statues to study. The war between the dragons and humans over, Shimmer and her companions are later accompanied by the Inland Sea dragons and many humans from Ramsgate to River Glen, where the Inland Sea waters are boiled away with the cauldron. They then travel to the site of the Inland Sea, where its waters are poured out from the cauldron and restored. The Lord of the Flowers arrives and restores Ebony's tears, after which Indigo decides to join Shimmer's clan as she has lived among dragons for most of her life, being transformed into one by Storax. The Smith and the Snail Woman reappear with the news that they cannot fully restore Thorn to his human form, but can attempt to turn him into some form which will keep him as both part-cauldron and immortal, to which Thorn agrees, felt as a tingling when the cauldron is held. The Lord of the Flowers then reappears with Monkey's master, the wizard known as the Old Boy, who reveals that he left Thorn in the village of Amity as an infant. After he helps the Smith and the Snail Woman, Thorn is brought back in human form, but makes creaking sounds when he bends his joints. He is convinced to and agrees to assume the throne. Sambar later arrives following his victory over the krakens and bringing material aid and labor to help restore the Inland Sea. Disappointed that Thorn as the cauldron has been changed back, he accepts Thorn's pledge of friendship between the dragons and the humans. Monkey then departs the Inland Sea just before the arrival of the dragon King of the Golden Sea, from whom he had stolen his magical rod. |
Kagerō Nikki | Michitsuna no Haha | null | Kagerō Nikki focuses on the development of Mother of Michitsuna's relationship with Fujiwara no Kaneie ("the Prince") and how these experiences affect her. The diary entries detail events of particular emotional significance, such as when Kaneie visits other women while she stays at home taking care of their son ("the boy"). Mother of Michitsuna's deep feelings for Kaneie are apparent in the way her words take on a tone of inner anguish as Kaneie's visits dwindle. In an attempt to find solace, Mother of Michitsuna makes various pilgrimages to temples and mountains of religious importance. She often desires to become a nun, but the effect that act would have on her son’s future plagues her mind, and prevents her from ever taking Buddhist vows. Towards the end of the diary, she finally reconciles herself to her separation with Kaneie and devotes herself to caring for her son and adopted daughter. |
The Legion of Space | Jack Williamson | 1,947 | The Legion is the military and police force of the Solar System. It was created to keep the peace after the overthrow of the "Purples", a dynasty that ruled all humanity for generations. John Ulnar, a young graduate of the Legion academy, shares a surname with the Purples but is an enthusiastic supporter of the Legion. A weapon called AKKA was used to defeat the Purples. Using a space/time distortion, it erases matter from the Universe -- any matter, of any size, even a star or a planet. The secret of AKKA is kept in one family, descended from its creator, and is passed down from mother to daughter. One of the Legion's most important tasks is to guard the current Keeper, a beautiful young woman named Aladoree Anthar. Through the machinations of his uncle, a powerful politician with a hidden agenda, John Ulnar is assigned to Aladoree's guard force at a secret fort on Mars. When she is kidnapped by a huge alien spaceship, John and the three other survivors of the guard force follow her kidnappers to a planet of Barnard's Star. They crash-land and must battle their way across a savage continent to the sole remaining citadel of the Medusae. John Ulnar's uncle and his nephew have allied with the Medusae as a means to regain their empire, and have kidnapped Aladoree to ensure that AKKA is not used against them. The Medusae, however, turn on the Purples, seeking to destroy all humans and move to the Solar System, as their own world, far older than Earth, is spiraling into Barnard's Star. John Ulnar and his companions rescue Aladoree, but the invasion of the Solar System has already begun. The Medusae conquer the Moon, set up bases there, and bombard Earth with gas projectiles. John, Aladoree, and their companions land on on a ravaged Earth. Fighting off cannibals maddened by the gas, they build AKKA and destroy the Medusae fleets (and Earth's Moon as well). |
Will | null | null | The latest incident – mooning the girls' school bus – lands him in the deputy principal's office. He could be suspended or expelled, but instead Will's concerned English teacher, Mr Andrews, makes a suggestion that he thinks will solve the problem. Will is to help out with the school musical, playing guitar in the band. For Will, the new punishment is ten thousand times worse than expulsion. Will doesn't know anyone in Year 11 who voluntarily takes part in school musicals, and even the prospect of meeting girls from Lakeside Girls' is not enough to make it worthwhile. The musical is definitely just for band geeks and try-hards. At the first audition and rehearsal, Will's fears are confirmed. But he's about to learn that stereotypes are not always what they seem. Year seven trombone playing geeks can be wiser than their years, hot girls like Elizabeth are not just in the musical to pretend they are stars on Australian Idol, and rugby-playing jocks like the new guy, Mark, can sing and dance – and they can be gay, too. Will thinks he can get through the eight weeks of the musical by staying in his bubble and not feeling anything. This technique has worked for the six months since his dad died (a fact that is revealed later in the book), but Will finds out that suppressing his grief and his emotions cannot work forever. Things come to a head just as the performances are about to start. |
The Black Curtain | Cornell Woolrich | 1,941 | The story concerns a man with amnesia, named Frank Townsend. He cannot remember anything from the previous three years of his life. As it turns out, he may be a convicted murderer. He struggles to find a loophole in the overwhelming evidence. |
Necropolis: City of the Dead | Anthony Horowitz | 2,008 | Scarlett Adams' school tutor group is taken on a trip to St Meredith's Church where she sees a vision of Matthew Freeman, who leads her to the door with the pentagram etched into it. There, she is transported to the Ukraine, inside a monastery where she is captured by monks who worship the Old Ones. She is taken to the leader of the monastery, Father Gregory, who tells Scarlett of the Gatekeepers and the Old Ones. He and his followers built the monastery around the door in order to catch any of the Five for the Old Ones should they come through. Scarlett is taken to a cell, and that night she has a dream about a dragon and a strange neon sign that says "SIGNAL ONE". Later, she escapes by attacking the monks and returning through the door. She returns to St Meredith's, but her eighteen-hour long disappearance has sparked a media storm. In Peru, at Professor Chambers' hacienda, Matt finds out who Scarlett is through the media storm and decides that he should go back to London with the rest of the Five and his friend Richard Cole. However, later that night, a man named Ramon brings the diary belonging to St Joseph of Cordoba, claiming that he feels remorse for helping Diego Salamanda decode the diary. The diary contains the locations of twenty-five doors around the world that serve as portals to other doors. After studying the diary using his skills of reading old maps he learnt at university, Richard says that there are doors in Tuscany, Lake Tahoe, Cuzco, London, Ukraine, Cairo, Istanbul, Delhi, Mecca, Buenos Aires, the Australian outback, Antarctica and Hong Kong. Scott Tyler confirms Ramon's truthfulness by reading his mind, but the hacienda is then attacked and set on fire by strange zombies who kill Ramon with a fence post. Although their Inca allies arrive and finish off the zombies, Professor Chambers is mortally wounded and dies. Matt decides that the Five should split up so that the Old Ones cannot capture them all in one shot, and he, Jamie and Richard go to find Scarlett while Pedro and Scott go to the hidden Inca city of Vilcabamba to stay. In London, Scarlett is trying to get back to her normal life, but can't when she notices strange men following her. She receives a strange phone call from her friend Aidan, who persuades her to go to Happy Garden, a Chinese restaurant, for a Chinese man wants to see her. However, the restaurant is destroyed by a bomb. She unwillingly goes to Hong Kong for her father, who works for Nightrise. Matt, Richard and Jamie arrive in London and nearly cross paths with Scarlett, but are held up by an accident orchestrated by the shape changers working for the Old Ones. They go to the Nexus headquarters where Matt realises Ramon's arrival at the hacienda was a trap laid by the Old Ones to stop them from getting to England before Scarlett left for China. Matt theorises that Ramon was hypnotized to give the diary back to the group to create the idea of using one of the doors to get to Hong Kong. There would be agents waiting to immediately capture them once they emerged through the Hong Kong door, so they decide to fly to Macau to seek help from one of the Nexus' contacts before taking a boat into Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Scarlett arrives in Hong Kong, being looked after by a Mrs Cheng, who claims her father is away on urgent business. Scarlett meets the sinister Chairman of Nightrise at The Nail, Nightrise's Hong Kong headquarters, who gives her an ornate jade necklace, which is in fact a tracking device. Whilst in Hong Kong, strange and ominous things start happening around her. A person trying to give her a letter disappears in a swarming crowd, and the people that she meets stare at her intently. Mrs Cheng and Karl, the chauffeur, seem robotic and lifeless, and the smog surrounding Hong Kong is thickening. Scarlett follows a trail of clues telling her to go to The Peak and over there, two agents kill Mrs Cheng, who is revealed to be a shape-changer who is one of the Old Ones in human form. Scarlett is then taken to Lohan Shang-tung, whose agents have just helped her escape the Old Ones, and when the building is attacked by Old Ones and Police, they help her to escape again. She is then disguised as a boy, and pretends to be the son of a couple who are boarding a ship departing Hong Kong to Macau, where she will meet with the other Gatekeepers. However, her father, Paul Adams, stationed at the jetty, finds her and hands her over to the chairman, who recaptures her believing that it will help her, and keeps her at Victoria Prison. A dream call by Scarlett wakes a dragon (a metaphor for a typhoon), which starts to move towards Hong Kong. Matt, Jamie and Richard had arrive in Macau where they meet Han Shang-tung, who reveals himself as "The Master of the Mountain", the leader of the White Lotus Society, a Triad based in Macau and Hong Kong. Shang-tung explains that Scarlett has been taken prisoner by the Old Ones who plan to turn Hong Kong into a necropolis, a city of the dead, by using poisonous gases mixed with the pollution from mainland China that will suffocate and kill the residents there. Shang-Tung believes Scarlett is a reincarnate of a goddess and has had his people watch over her all her life. He agrees to help them after affirming that Matt and Jamie are indeed part of the Five with a test: climbing a sword ladder. Later that night Richard, Matt and Jamie travel by boat to Hong Kong and come under attack by the Hong Kong police (under the control of the Old Ones) after they are betrayed by the captain. In the struggle, Matt loses Richard and Jamie, arriving in Hong Kong alone. He sees people dying in the street because of the pollution, and recognizes several of the Old Ones' servants. Matt makes his way to Wisdom Court, where Scarlett's father now resides. Once there Matt lets himself be captured by the Chairman after being betrayed by a despondent Paul Adams, attempting to barter him for Scarlett. However, Adams is killed and Matt is taken to the same cell as Scarlett in Victoria Prison where they share their experiences. Matt reveals that his being captured was in fact a plan he had made with her father. He knew that the only way to get near her was to be caught, so he had contacted Lohan and his men earlier, telling them of his plan, and then Scarlett's father had agreed to call Nightrise in order to turn in Matt, even at expense of his own life. Matt also explained that he knew the Old Ones would think it was amusing to see two of the Five briefly imprisoned in the same room, before they were imprisoned in different rooms in different sides of the world. Because their powers are strengthened when together they begin to think of escaping. The meaning of "Signal One" is then explained. It is part of the Hong Kong Observatory warning system on the intensity of typhoons. To the Chinese, typhoons are also known as the dragon's breath, explaining the dragon Scarlett had been dreaming of in the Gatekeeper's dream world. She has the ability not just to predict, but to control weather conditions. It is also revealed that Scarlett knew of the typhoon and the power it would bring. Richard and Jamie find Lohan and he bands together his men to rescue Scarlett and Matt under cover of the rising storm Scarlett has made and take the prison, where he followed Matt to when he was being captured. The impending storm is creeping higher up the scale. Jamie knows that Scott will be able to feel the danger Jamie is in, and that he will try and use the door that leads to the Tai Shan Temple, which will undoubtedly be guarded. The group, along with Scarlett, who diverts the storm from them while it destroys everything around them, run to the temple to kill the guards protecting it before Scott arrives, which would result in his death or capture. At The Nightrise headquarters, a wooden sampan picked up by the typhoon smashes into the Chairman's office and ironically kills him; he despises naval craft. Meanwhile, Lohan's men kill all but one of the Old Ones' agents, who is wounded but hides. Scott and Pedro travel through the door and the last Old One agent aims at Jamie, but Scott pushes him out of the way and the bullet hits Scarlett in the head, rendering her unconscious. Without Scarlett to hold the typhoon back, it unleashes its full strength on them and disintegrates the temple. Jamie and Scott, Richard and Scarlett, Pedro, and Matt and Lohan dash through the door moments before the temple is destroyed, escaping the typhoon. Then the storm finally abates, revealing Hong Kong completely destroyed (although all the pollution was swept away). All of the Five are separated all over the world with their partners, due to having no preassumed destination decided between all of them, also it is said that since the door collapsed as they were going through it, one final trick was played on them. Meanwhile, Chaos, the King of the Old Ones, prepares to commence the war to conquer the planet and wipe out humanity. *Necropolis signifies a change in the structure of the narrative of The Power of Five series, with two character's tales being told side by side. It also sees the Gatekeepers actively seeking each other for the first time. *All five children have turned fifteen between Nightrise and Necropolis but, although Matt mentions his own birthday occurred while he was in Nazca, it is not explicitly mentioned if the Five were born on the same day. *This is also the first novel in the series which prominently features a somewhat divine opposition against the Old Ones, with the introduction of the Librarian. The Librarian's role is brief and never elaborated upon, but it is made clear the Librarian has vast power. It is obvious he is there to combat the Old Ones. This makes a significant change because in the first three novels the Old Ones had seemingly invincible power and the Five had to face them themselves with no help. *The final chapter of Nightrise, which introduced modern day Scarlett, is significantly revised in this novel. Scarlett's disappearance having occurred beforehand. *Pedro, who could not speak a word of English previously in the series, has apparently learned a sufficient amount of the language for communication purposes in the four months since the events of Evil Star. Again, this is not explicitly referred to in the narrative. *In Raven's Gate, Matt claimed he never smoked when Claire Deverill came over for dinner. However, in Necropolis, when he introduces himself in his diary, he claims that he had smoked with Kelvin Johnson but withdrew after his arrest. Of course, Matt hated and feared Deverill, and so may simply have lied to her. It is unlikely he would have felt any compunction about doing so. |
Judas Country | Gavin Lyall | 1,975 | Roy Case, an ex-Royal Air Force military transport makes a threadbare living flying charter cargo flights around the Mediterranean in an old Beechcraft Queen Air. His dreams of having his own airplane and own charter company rapidly fading due to age and lack of money, but at least he is flying. However, conditions rapidly spiral out of control when he lands in Cyprus. Not only did his employers go bankrupt, leaving him stranded and without pay, but his plane is impounded, he is mugged by mysterious assailants on a dark back street, and is trailed by an Israeli Mossad agent. When he finds that the cases clearly marked “champagne” that he was supposed to be flying to Lebanon contain machine guns instead, he suspects that things are going to get a lot worse. When Case's friend Cavitt shows up, fresh from an Israeli prison, together with a mysterious Austrian archaeologist and his even more mysterious daughter, the plot thickens with hidden Crusader treasure, Lebanese gangsters, betrayal and murder. |
Duel of Dragons | Gael Baudino | 1,991 | The story picks up a few weeks after Suzanne has returned to Los Angeles from Gryylth. Silbakor has returned with her and poses as statuette in a glass paperweight. Though she carries Silbakor around with her and can return to Gryylth at will, she finds she cannot bring herself to do it. One night, she has a dream that Solomon Braithwaite has risen from the grave and is trying to tell her something. The following day, she gets a phone call from Helen Addams, Solomon's ex-wife. She too had the dream and wanted to know what its meaning was. Suzanne visits her that night, and while there, they are attacked by the White Worm, Silbakor's antithesis. They flee on Silbakor and arrive in Gryylth to find that eighteen months have passed. Suzanne takes on her familiar persona of Alouzon. Helen takes on the persona of Kyria, a sorceress, but she finds herself battling between her own vitriolic personality and Kyria's more peaceable personality. The Gryylthians and the Dremords have made peace and are working together to make it through a difficult winter. Word comes that the town of Bandon has been destroyed by unknown means. When Alouzon and Kyria examine the wreckage, they see that modern weapons had been used: fighter jets, helicopters, napalm, rockets, machine guns, and bombs. The leaders conclude that the new land of Vaylle is responsible and decide to send a team to explore the new land and learn if they are responsible. Alouzon leads the team, consisting of soldiers from Gryylth and Corrin, Kyria, and Helwych, a Corrinian sorcerer, across the ocean. Landing, they find that Vaylle is an idyllic pacifist nation that worships a God and a Goddess: Solomon and Suzanne. Its king is a lame man known as King Pellam. There, they decide to split up: Helwych will stay behind in the capital city, and the rest of the party will continue across the mountains. When the party gets close to the mountains, Marrget, one of their party, is kidnapped by the Greyfaces, who are nameless and faceless soldiers in uniforms and gas masks. Following, the party finds themselves in a larger version of the Blasted Heath. When they split up, the Heath tests them with the embodiment of their worst fears. Alouzon and Kyria finally track down the source of the attacks: the Spectre, who embodies Suzanne's worst subconscious feelings about both war and Solomon Braithwaite. Alouzon and Kyria battle the Spectre, with Kyria striking a decisive blow using her memories of being Solomon's wife. In the aftermath, Helen's persona dies and Kyria's takes over for good. Alouzon flees on Silbakor and is attacked by the White Worm. Falling off Silbakor, she wakes up in Los Angeles, but in Alouzon's body, not Suzanne's. |
Dragon Death | Gael Baudino | 1,992 | The story picks up just after the end of Duel of Dragons. Alouzon is still in Los Angeles, and her party back in Vaylle is returning from the mountains with news of what has happened. Alouzon returns to Helen Addams' house and sees Helen's and Suzanne's bodies being carried from the wreckage. While Alouzon works on understanding the nature of her predicament, Helwych has returned to Gryylth with stories of Vaylle's treachery and sorcery. Using lies and manipulation, he maneuvers Gryylth's and Corrian's kings into sending a massive war fleet across the sea to Vaylle while he remains behind, ostensibly to guard Gryylth. When the kings arrive in Vaylle with their warfleet, Helwych erects a barrier across the sea to keep them out of Gryylth and conjures up 20th century troops and arms to consolidate his power and frighten the population. The Spectre also begins sending Grayfaces and modern weaponry into Gryylth to battle Helwych for power. When Alouzon is attacked in a park by supernatural beasts, members of her team discover a gateway from Vaylle to Los Angeles and come to her aid. Realizing this is the way to circumvent Helwych's barrier, Alouzon brings an army from Vaylle to Los Angeles and through another gateway, located in Solomon's old office at UCLA, into Gryylth. As Kyria battles Helwych, and the Gryylthian and Corrinian armies battle the Greyfaces in Gryylth, Alouzon engages the Spectre and the White Worm in a running battle through downtown Los Angeles that winds up at Solomon's grave. When they arrive there, Solomon's corpse rises from the ground and battles the Spectre to a standstill. While they battle, Alouzon sees a white tower that mirrors one in her dreams. Entering it, she finds the Grail and realizes that whatever higher power allowed the creation of Gryylth has put a choice before her. She can let Gryylth continue the way it has, or she can become more than its protector: she can become its goddess. Alouzon chooses to become goddess of Gryylth. With that choice made war in Gryylth comes to an end and the land is healed. |
The Killer Inside Me | Jim Thompson | 1,952 | The story is told through the eyes of its protagonist, Lou Ford, a 29-year-old deputy sheriff in a small Texas town. Ford appears to be a regular, small-town cop leading an unremarkable existence; beneath this facade, however, he is a cunning, depraved sociopath with sadistic sexual tastes. Ford's main outlet for his dark urges is the relatively benign habit of deliberately needling people with clichés and platitudes despite their obvious boredom: "If there's anything worse than a bore," says Lou, "it's a corny bore." Despite having a steady girlfriend, Ford falls into a sadomasochistic relationship with a prostitute named Joyce Lakeland. Ford describes their affair as unlocking "the sickness" that has plagued him since adolescence, when he sexually abused a little girl, a crime for which his elder foster brother Mike took the blame to spare Lou from prison. After serving a jail term, Mike died on a construction site. Lou blamed a local construction magnate for Mike's death, suspecting he was murdered. To exact revenge, Lou and Joyce blackmail the construction magnate to avoid exposing his son's affair with Joyce. However, Lou double-crosses Joyce: He ferociously batters her, and shoots the construction magnate's son, hoping to make the crimes appear to be a lovers' spat gone wrong. Despite the savage beating, it's revealed that Joyce survives, albeit in a coma. Ford builds a solid alibi and frames other people for the double homicide. However, to successfully frame others when the evidence starts to go against him, he has to commit additional murders. These only increase suspicion against him however, and his mask of sanity begins to crumble under the pressure. |
The Great Escape | Paul Brickhill | 1,950 | The book covers the planning, execution and aftermath of what became known as The Great Escape. Other escape attempts (such as the Wooden Horse) are mentioned as well as the postwar hunt for the Gestapo agents who murdered fifty of the escapees on Hitler's direct order. Much of the book is focused on Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, also known as "Big X", including his capture, early escape attempts, and planning of the escape. All the major participants and their exploits are described by Brickhill. Among these are Tim Walenn, the principal forger, who 'gave his factory the code name of "Dean and Dawson", after a British travel agency'; Al Hake, the compass maker; Des Plunkett, the ingenious chief map tracer, who made a mimeograph for reproducing maps; and Tommy Guest, who ran a team of tailors. Major John Dodge, who was related to Winston Churchill, was one of the escapees. The German officers and guards (called 'goons' by the prisoners) included teams of 'ferrets' who crawled about under the huts looking for signs of tunnels. They were carefully watched by teams of POW 'stooges', one of whom was Paul Brickhill, 'boss of a gang of "stooges" guarding the forgers'. In the end, seventy-six men escaped. Seventy-three were recaptured and fifty of those were shot by the Gestapo. Four of the remaining twenty-three later tunnelled out of Sachsenhausen, but were recaptured and chained to the floor of their cells. One of them, Major John Dodge, was released to secure a cease-fire. The book is dedicated "to the fifty". In the aftermath of the escape, according to Brickhill, 5,000,000 Germans spent time looking for the prisoners, many of them full time for weeks. |
The Code of Romulus | Caroline Lawrence | 2,007 | The story begins with Flavia Gemina, the protagonist of the book, arguing with her tutor, Aristo. Flavia insists that she is a detective, though Aristo doubts there is such a word. Aristo says that if Flavia can solve the mystery of who has been stealing rolls from Pistor the Baker, then they will not do maths for a month, just read stories. However, if Flavia fails, she can never mention the word "detective" again. Flavia and her friends realise that the theft must be an inside job, and decide to find out more about the baker's household. They make friends with the baker's younger son, Porcius, who shows them around the bakery and introduces them to his family and the slaves who work there. He also shows them his "Circus Minimus", where he races mice. Nubia is especially interested in the donkeys who turn the millstone. The next day they split up to follow the different suspects. Lupus follows Porcius and his brother to school, Nubia follows his sister to the temple, and Jonathan follows the slave Teneme to the granary, while Flavia talks to the slave Tertius, the bakery accountant. He shows her the magic square puzzle, the Sator square, which eventually leads her to the solution of the mystery. Flavia and Nubia attend a secret pre-dawn gathering of Christians and unmask the well-meaning thief, but promise not to tell on condition the stealing stops. |
Dustbin Baby | Jacqueline Wilson | 2,001 | When she was a few minutes old, April was abandoned by her mother in a dustbin behind a local pizza restaurant. She was discovered by a young waiter there and named April by the hospital as she was found on April Fool's Day. She was fostered by Patricia Williams, but only lived with her a short time before being adopted. April's first stop on her fourteenth birthday is Pat's house. She finds that she remembers little of it and Pat remembers little of her. However she does befriend one of Patricia's new foster children Tanya - a character seen before along with Pat in another of Jacqueline Wilson's books, Bad Girls. April then visits the graveside of her adoptive mother, Janet Johnston. Janet committed suicide a few years after adopting April, while battling depression stemming from her husband's affairs and the break-up of her marriage. April subsequently tells readers of the time she lived a residential care home called Sunnybank Children's Home, run by a man and woman, Little Pete and Big Mo respectively. Here, April is befriended by a much older girl called Gina. But, sooner or later, Gina calls upon April to "help" her friends in a series of burglaries after dark. April was bullied mercilessly by another resident, Pearl, until April took drastic action against the bullying by pushing Pearl down the stairs, causing Pearl grievous bodily injury and, consequently, April's removal from the home. After leaving Sunnybank April was taken to Fairgate, a school for learning-impaired children. Here April stayed for five years and formed a close bond with her history teacher Miss Marion Bean, and a friendship with a girl called Poppy, who has Down's Syndrome. Marion begins to bond with April and refers her to be moved to a mainstream school. Here April make new friends, Hannah and Cathy, and Marion with the help of social worker Elaine (which could be a reference to Tracy Beaker's social worker) decides to foster her. The story ends with April meeting the pizza boy, Frankie, who discovered her in the dustbin the day she was born and resolving the fight she had with Marion at the start of the story. |
The Wizard of London | Mercedes Lackey | 1,005 | As an acting prequel to the Elemental Masters series, this book details the past of Alderscroft, the powerful leader of the wizardry world in England, and his rise to power within magical society. Alderscroft is present in all the Elemental books that take place in England in varying degrees due to his role as the head of the Exeter Club/Magic Circle. This novel also introduces the concept of Talents or the Talented, which are likened to psychic abilities. As described in the book, some people will only have very small amounts of power while others will be able to gain full mastery of their abilities. The most powerful have equal standing with Elemental Magicians. By training their powers, very powerful Talents can manifest a psychic avatar and become a Warrior of Light. Avatars' appearance is based on historical and mythological imagery. Some Talented are able to acquire a familiar, an intelligent animal that shares a psychic link to them. Isabelle and Frederick Harton run a school for Talented children and children whose parents live abroad. An unusual household of Indian servants aids them. During the beginning of the novel, they acquire two new students, Sarah Jane Lyon-White and Nan Killian; both children show signs of Talent. The danger begins when Sarah begins to develop powers as a medium; she and Nan are lured into a trap set up by an Elemental Magician. Isabelle is forced to reconnect with her Elemental Magician friends; she is reluctant to do so due to her romantic past with the leader of the Elemental Masters, Lord David Alderscroft. Lord Alderscroft is in danger as well, as his mentor Lady Cordelia has aligned herself to an Ice Elemental and has plans to take David’s body to secure her goal to create an icy empire. To secure her goal, Cordelia has convinced David that he should distance himself from people and teaches him the power of Ice. The result has David looking down at his peers and isolating himself in the belief he is doing 'right'. The Hartons take the school to the countryside to better protect Sarah from any more attacks. Sarah, Nan and Isabelle encounter Puck, who warns them of impending danger. A chance encounter with David, leads Isabelle to realise that David is connected with this danger. As Cordelia is about to spring her trap on David, she in confronted by Puck, the Hartons and company. With their help, David is able to break Cordelia’s hold on him. Enraged, the Ice Elemental takes Cordelia as punishment for her failure. The novel ends with David becoming the patron for the school and starting to repair the gaps in his life. |
The Waxworks Murder | John Dickson Carr | 1,932 | The body of a young woman, who has been stabbed in the back, is found floating in the Seine River. The body of another young woman, with a knife in her back, is found in the arms of a wax figure, the "Satyr of the Seine", in a local wax museum. All available clues lead directly to the infamous "Club of the Silver Key", where aristocratic masked club members mix and mingle in the darkened rooms in search of adulterous entertainment. Henri Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle must penetrate the club and make sense of the few clues before Bencolin arrives at the solution and makes a very surprising wager with the murderer. |
The Problem of the Wire Cage | John Dickson Carr | null | Arrogant and obnoxious Frank Dorrance is engaged to pretty young Brenda White and frankly admits he plans to marry her for her money, or rather her guardian's money. An impoverished local solicitor is simply in love with Brenda and believes that to approach Brenda would be foolish—until the body of Frank Dorrance, found strangled near the centre of a clay tennis court, leaves the field clear. However, there was only one set of footsteps on the soft clay surface, those of the victim. The victim's arrogance gained him many enemies during his lifetime, and a number of them are on hand in the vicinity with both motive and opportunity, but the authorities are finding it difficult to prove that anyone at all could have killed Frank Dorrance. Gideon Fell must take a hand and explain a number of unusual clues, including a picnic basket heavily laden with dirty dishes that mysteriously vanish. It is not until the murder of a second victim, a trapeze artist, that the crimes are brought home to their perpetrator. |
The Enchanter | Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov | 1,986 | The story is essentially timeless, placeless, and nameless. The protagonist is a middle-aged man who lusts after a certain type of adolescent girls. Infatuated with a specific girl, he marries the mother to gain access to her. The mother, already sick, soon passes away, and the orphan girl now is in his care. He takes her on a tour. On their first night, she is terrified when she is exposed to his “magic wand”. Shocked at his own monstrosity, he runs out on the street and is killed by a car. None of the key persons is named; it is just "the man", "the widow" (also "mother", even "person"), and "the girl". Only the viewpoint of the man is presented, - we learn close to nothing about the views of his victims. He is conflicted and tries to rationalize his behavior, but is also disgusted by it. “How can I come to terms with myself?” is the opening sentence. He makes his moves like a chess player. But once he seems to have reached his goal, he is startled by her reaction. The conflict is not resolved but by his destruction. |
To Wake the Dead | John Dickson Carr | null | Christopher Kent is a wealthy young man who has made a thousand-pound bet with his friend Dan Reaper that he cannot start at Johannesburg without a penny in his pocket and meet his friend at the Royal Scarlet Hotel in Piccadilly in London, England, some weeks later. Twenty-four hours before the deadline, Kent is in front of the hotel, penniless and not having eaten for a day, and decides to order breakfast and charge it to a room in the hotel. After he's finished breakfast, the hotel staff ask him to go and wake up his "wife" because a previous guest has left a valuable bracelet hidden in the room. Upon arrival at room 707, the group is met by a "Do not disturb" sign upon which has been scrawled "Dead woman"; Kent lets himself in and finds, unsurprisingly, the strangled body of his cousin Josephine. When Kent asks master detective Gideon Fell to extricate him from his predicament, Fell must also solve the murder of Josephine's late husband Rodney, which had happened two weeks earlier. The first murder had taken place at the country home of Sir Gyles Gay; Sir Giles had acquired it from the estate of its architect, Ritchie Bellowes, and maintains Bellowes' drunkard son as a hanger-on in the household. Sir Gyles had invited a number of Kent's friends and relatives for a house party where young Bellowes entertained the party with a demonstration of his photographic memory. Late one night, while extremely drunk, Bellowes sneaks into his former home and claims to have seen a man dressed as a hotel attendant, "wearing a uniform such as you see in the big hotels like the Royal Scarlet". Bellowes passes out and is found in the morning about the same time as the strangled body of Rodney Kent is discovered. There are a number of mysterious clues and indications, including a defaced photograph of the house party enjoying itself at a "fun fair", the fact that all the coins (but not the bills) are missing from the dead woman's purse, and two valuable bracelets, one with a mysterious Latin expression carved into its face. But it is a surprising and violent confrontation in a darkened cemetery that allows Gideon Fell to conclusively identify the murderer. it:Destare i morti |
The Nine Wrong Answers | John Dickson Carr | null | Bill Dawson is a broke young Brit sitting in the waiting room of a lawyer's office in New York City. He overhears Larry Hurst and his girlfriend Joy Tennant discussing with the lawyer the prospect of Larry becoming sole heir to the large estate of his uncle Gaylord Hurst, providing that Larry returns to England immediately and visits his uncle at least once a week. Larry, however, is convinced that his uncle wants to murder him. Larry and Joy ask Bill to witness Larry's signature, invite him for a drink, and propose that Bill impersonates Larry for six months for the sum of ten thousand dollars. Bill agrees; Larry is almost immediately poisoned. Bill escapes and takes the next flight to England to complete his end of the agreement. Upon arrival at Gaylord's flat, Bill soon learns that Hurst and his manservant Hatto are both practised sadists whose plans certainly included the psychological torture of Larry; however, Bill is soon found out. Hurst, not to be cheated of prey, offers Bill a bargain; continue to meet once weekly for three months and keep the ten thousand dollars he has already received. Bill agrees, and almost immediately there is an attempt on his life with a clever trap—then another, that lands him in the hospital. Finally, after another death, Bill confronts the villain in a dramatic conclusion that takes place in a reconstruction of the sitting room of Sherlock Holmes and that reveals a very surprising tenth answer to the book's events. it:Nove risposte per nove problemi |
The Bride of Newgate | John Dickson Carr | null | Miss Caroline Ross, in order to inherit a fortune, must be married but, in the London of 1815, such a marriage would turn control of the funds over to her husband. She therefore marries Dick Darwent, a convicted murderer who is to be hanged in Newgate Prison the next day, who agrees to the marriage so that Caroline will settle money upon his mistress, the actress Dolly Spencer. However, when it is learned that Dick has succeeded to the title of the Marquis of Darwent, his trial is invalidated; a peer must be tried by the House of Lords. The commutation of his sentence means that he has made a deadly enemy in the form of Sir John Buckstone, a brutal dandy who is one of Caroline's suitors. Darwent has been framed for murder by a mysterious figure known only as "the coachman". He must sort out his domestic arrangements, which include his wife and mistress under one roof, prove himself innocent of the murder of which he was convicted, and reveal the identity of the evil figure behind his problems. |
Sepulchre | Kate Mosse | 2,008 | In 1891, Léonie Vernier is a young girl living in Paris until an invitation from her uncle's widow Isolde prompts a journey to the Carcassonne region with her brother, Anatole. Unknown to her, her brother and Isolde have been carrying on an affair, and he is being pursued by Isolde's jealous former lover, Victor Constant. For a while, they live an idyllic lifestyle in the country. However, Constant discovers where they are staying and sets out to exact his revenge. In the present day, an American, Meredith Martin, is in France to research the life of Claude Debussy for a biography she is writing. She is also trying to find out more about her biological mother. During the visit, she uncovers information that links her lineage to that of Léonie Vernier and discovers the truth about the events in Carcassonne during that period in history. Most of the action takes place in the Domaine de la Cade, a stately home in Rennes-les-Bains, which in 1891 is owned by Léonie's deceased uncle Jules and his wife Isolde of whom Anatole later marries. The house in Meredith's timeline has been repurposed as an upmarket hotel. There are also parts of the book that are situated in Paris at the same time as well as neighbouring towns and villages in the Carcassonne and the City of Carcassonne. The story features heavy reference to the occult and tarot readings, and the stories of Léonie and Meredith are brought together by a series of visions that are related to the tarot and a small church, known as a Sepulchre in the grounds of the Domaine de la Cade. Several of the major characters in Mosse's novel Labyrinth make cameo appearances in Sepulchre. |
A Countess Below Stairs | Eva Ibbotson | 1,986 | Anna is a charming child who sees the good in everything and everyone: her cousin Sergei, her younger brother Petya, and all of her multiple governesses. She has lived her whole life being pampered and adored by her father, fussed over by the servants, and cosseted by her mother. However, she is forced to flee Russia after the Bolsheviks seized power and her father dies in The First World War. Forced to depend on the charity of her governess, Pinny, Anna decides to take a position as a housemaid at Mersham, home of Rupert Frayne, Earl of Westerholme. She keeps her decision a secret from her brother and cousin, telling her ailing mother she has been invited to stay at the country manor. The moment Anna arrives at Mersham, the staff resent her employment as they immediately realize she is nobly born. Despite their concerns, Anna proves herself hard-working and intelligent. As her fellow employees grow to love Anna, a message is received from the Earl that he is returning to Mersham from service in the war. Having made a promise to his late older brother, Rupert is bringing home a rich fiancee to help fulfill Mersham's many debts. Upon meeting Anna, her grace and high spirits are obvious to him, and the two get along very well. When Muriel Hardwicke, Rupert's fiancee, arrives, everyone is first compelled to love her. Soon afterward, Mersham's inhabitants and neighbors begin to realize that Muriel is a selfish, rude, vain and nasty young woman, despite her flawless appearance. She is unfriendly to the staff, the dowager, the dog, and even to good family friends the Minna, and Viscount Byrne, bluntly insulting their daughter, the Honorable Olive, and her disability (One leg is shortened due to a bad case of tuberculosis of the hip). Out of love and respect for Rupert, those Muriel offends suffer in silence, not wanting to ill-wish the Earl's bride. Learning of Muriel's deeds later, Rupert is angry and realizes he did not ever truly love her, just as he falls in love with Anna. Nonetheless, he is a man of his word and will not jilt Muriel. Meanwhile, Anna finds it harder to conceal her identity as a countess as she grows closer to the young earl. Eventually he learns of her identity while purchasing jewels for Muriel(she rejects his first gift of a Arabian mare), and his first instinct is to dismiss her from service. Speaking to Anna, Rupert sees she is miserable having heard of his plans to let her go and he cannot stand to sadden her further. He then knows she is of noble birth, but is still unaware of how high class she is. At a fancy-dress ball held in Muriel and Rupert's honour by the Byrnes living nearby at Heslop, Anna is asked to serve drinks because of her Russian nationality which would be helpful for some Russian guests. A school friend of the youngest Byrne boy, Henry, turns out to be Anna's younger brother, Peter. Unknowing of Anna's employment as an under-housemaid, he greets her and introduces her to all present as Countess Grazinsky. Her friends among the guests are not surprised and they act as if she was a guest to the house all along, for Peter's sake. Anna and Rupert share a dance, and spectators realize that the wedding in three days is between two people very wrong for each other, though nothing can be done for Rupert and Anna. The pair go outside, despite Anna's protests, and each confess their affections but accept that they have no future together. They return to the ball, and after several more dances Anna slips away into the night and sits in the wood to let off her feelings. A short while later, her cousin the Prince Sergei Chirkovsky finds her after running from his own problems and they confide in each other. The two cousins are embracing when Rupert sees them from the shadows and jumps to the conclusion that they are eloping together. He returns to the ball and goes on with the wedding. News from the ball reach Mersham's kitchens and the butler, Cyril Proom, finally decides to take action as is his nature. He acquires a large sum of money and uses it to convince Melvyn and Myrtle Herring, first cousins of Rupert, to carry out a favour. The distasteful Herrings and their estranged teenaged sons show themselves to be insane genetic mutations to Dr Lightbody, a good friend of Muriel who studies Eugenics. He is so upset that he stops the wedding at the last possible second, and Muriel is introduced to the Herrings. She is appalled that she nearly married into such a 'tainted' family, and elopes with Dr Lightbody. In London, Anna receives word and her depression lifts. Days later, a letter arrives from Mersham claiming that she still owes five days of work to the house. It also assures her that the Earl is out of the country. Before leaving, the woman carrying her family's fortune arrives at long last and her family begins to catch up on some of their old life. Anna's first job back at Mersham involves serving at the table for a small dinner party. Walking into the room, she is surprised when Rupert is present and he voices his anger in her direction. She lets out a defiant,long-winded reply and bursts into tears. Rupert stands up to comfort her, much to the surprise of his guests. The couple is married the following summer. |
Uncle Target | Gavin Lyall | 1,988 | The Palestinian-dominated Royal Jordanian Army's 17th Armored Brigade has revolted with Syrian assistance, and has seized the southern part of Jordan, including the port city of Aqaba. However, the major concern for the British Army is that a prototype main battle tank on trials in the Jordanian desert has gone missing. After a terrorist attack in London fails, British military intelligence discovers that the tank is hidden in the ruins of an ancient Crusader fort near Wadi Rum. SAS-trained Major Harry Maxim, who formerly trained the Jordanian Army, is the ideal candidate to send in a commando raid to destroy the tank before it can fall into rebel (and thus Soviet) hands. However, the mission is botched when Maxim's helicopter crashes, and Maxim, an infantryman with no Armoured experience, decides that the best chance for the survival of his small team is to attempt to drive the tank across a hundred miles of rebel held desert to the presumed safety of Saudi Arabia. |
The Crocus List | Gavin Lyall | 1,985 | Former SAS Major Harry Maxim, reassigned from Number 10 Downing Street back to the Ministry of Defence after the demotion of his boss George Harbinger from the post of private secretary to the Prime Minister, is part of a security detail at Westminster Abbey for a state funeral. The guest list includes the Queen of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States, as well as numerous other heads of state of various NATO member nations. Political tensions with the Soviet Union are at an all time high over Berlin, and Maxim is worried that the gathering would be an all-too-tempting target. He is right. Shots are fired, and a low-ranking British civil servant standing next to the President is killed. The assassin kills himself before he can be apprehended and is found to be carrying an old Soviet sniper rifle. All fingers point to the KGB. However, Maxim is far from convinced, and his investigation into the shooting takes him from London to Washington DC, (where he is reunited with MI-5 liaison officer Agnes Algar), and from there to New York, the American Midwest and finally to East Berlin, as he unravels a conspiracy of massive proportions, which threatens to overthrow not only the British government, but all hopes for peace in Europe. |
Hexwood | Diana Wynne Jones | 1,993 | The Sector Controller, who is responsible for overseeing Earth, among other worlds, receives a message that tells him that a mysterious machine called the Bannus has been activated (against orders) at Hexwood Farm Estate near London by the man who was responsible for maintaining the facility. Somehow, the Bannus has trapped both that man and an entire maintenance team inside the Estate. Following instructions in case of such an accident, the Sector Controller sends a message to the Reigners, the five people who rule the galaxy. In a wood, an amnesiac boy meets an android. The android, who is called Yam, tells him that his name is Hume, because he is a human. In a small village near London, a teenage girl, Ann Stavely, recovers from a serious fever. While ill, she talks with the four voices in her head: The King, The Prisoner, The Boy, and The Slave. Through her window, she witnesses some mysterious comings and goings at nearby Hexwood Farm Estate; a van, with a symbol like a pair of unbalanced scales on the side, pulls up and people go in, but they do not come out again. After many different people go in, but none come out, Ann becomes curious, and is determined to find out more. The next day, greatly recovered, she explores the tiny woods beside Hexwood Farm. When she enters it, she finds that the woods have expanded, and she encounters a futuristic chamber with a famished, exceptionally tall and skeletal man - Mordion Agenos - inside. He claims he has been asleep for centuries, but Ann knows she saw him enter Hexwood Farm just a few days ago. Mordion creates a boy from a pool of his and Ann's mingled blood, and sends him off on his own into the woods. The boy appears to be Hume, who we have already met in Chapter 1. Ann is horrified by Mordion's callous attitude and tells him that he must look after Hume - after all, he created him. Ann visits Mordion and Hume several times in the woods over the next few days. While she is in her own town, she and her brother see more and more people appearing to enter Hexwood Farm Estate and still none ever emerge. During one of her visits to Mordion and Hume, she helps Hume recover Yam from what looks like a future, ruined Hexwood Farm, where they encounter and escape from armored men armed with crossbows. Yam then tells Mordion, Ann, and Hume that they are all in the field of the Bannus, which warps time and space in order to run scenarios for some mysterious purpose. This is why things seem to be happening out of order. Later, we meet the five Reigners, tyrants who have ruled the galaxy for over a thousand years. They are very concerned about the Bannus, which, before they seized power, was used to pick new Reigners. Reigner Two and the Reigner's Servant (Mordion) have disappeared while trying to deactivate the Bannus. The remaining Reigners go to Earth (Reigners Four and Five alone, but then Three and One go together) to turn off the Bannus, but they too get caught in the Bannus' field of influence, forget who they are, and find themselves in the huge forest, which is somehow the little wood beside Hexwood Farm. When Reigner One and Reigner Three come to Earth, they take a girl from one of the major guild houses (who works in their basement, managing costuming for when the Reigners or their servants need to travel to a distant world) as a luggage-carrying assistant. This assistant, Vierran of House Guarantee, is a young woman in her twenties who considers herself a friend of the Reigner's Servant, Mordion Agenos. The Bannus, a cyborg designed to pick new Reigners, who the current Reigners cheated and locked away, is playing with the minds of all the characters and running scenarios in order to determine who the next five Reigners should be, while getting his revenge on the current Reigners. The Bannus has confused several of the characters as to who they are in order to run these scenarios. Vierran and Ann turn out to be different representations of the same person, Vierran of the House of Guaranty. Mordion Agenos is the Reigners Servant, and by looking after Hume, is making up for when he was a child and failed to protect other children in the Reigners care. Hume turns out to be Merlin, and "Ann's" brother is discovered to be Fitela, a dragon-slayer mentioned in "Beowulf". Yam, in a cunning twist, turns out to be the Bannus itself; by getting Mordion to repair him, he was returning himself to full power. Several other characters in the book turn out to be other legendary figures of note, the Reigners all get their comeuppance, and Mordion and Vierran are selected by the Bannus to be two of the five new Reigners. |
Finding Violet Park | Jenny Valentine | 2,007 | Lucas Swain is a sixteen year old whose father left five years ago under mysterious circumstances. Lucas is now living with his mother Nicky, his brother Jed, and sister Mercy. In the beginning of the novel Lucas is going to the Apollo cars cab shop to get a cab so he can get home. Then he sees an urn inside the cab shop and a mysterious name runs through his head, Violet. He then starts having an obsession with Violet because he is sure that she has something to tell him about his missing father. Lucas then starts fantasising about what it would be like to be old. How he wants to act, where he wants to be buried, and whether his father is dead. Then he thinks of his grandmother Pansy, or the family medium, who he asks to get Violet from the cab shop. Later the person known to Lucas as Tony Soprano or the cab shop owner came by to give Violet “back” to Pansy. Norman, Pansy’s husband, almost ruining the plan by shouting out the random things he does because of the small strokes that he has. Later Lucas goes home to a worried/frustrated mother and a caring family friend and more whose name is Bob. Bob later tells Lucas that he and Pete were writing a book about violet and where she used to live. Shocked, Lucas decides to investigate more into violet. Later Norman, Jed, and Lucas are walking their dog Jack, Norman has a brilliant moment and tells Lucas as much as he can about pete and violet before the next stroke kicks in. Later Nicky decides that to get rid of Pete’s memory, they should get rid of his things. That is when Lucas finds Petes pocket watch and knows something isn’t right. Lucas and Nicky get into a fight about abandoning Pete’s memory but Lucas finds the crucial piece of evidence to show somethings wrong even though Nicky doesn't want to hear it. After more searching Lucas finally finds something that shocks him. His father is still alive, living under a completely different alias. |
The Damned Utd | David Peace | 2,006 | Told from Clough's point of view, the novel is written as his stream of consciousness as he tries and fails to impose his will on a team he inherited from his bitter rival, Don Revie, and whose players are still loyal to their old manager. Interspersed are flashbacks to his more successful days as manager of Derby County. Described by its author as "a fiction based on a fact", the novel mixes fiction, rumour and speculation with documented facts to depict Clough as a deeply flawed hero; foul mouthed, vengeful and beset with inner demons and alcoholism. |
The Sleeping Sphinx | John Dickson Carr | null | Donald Holden, upon his release from the British Armed Forces, discovers that he has been announced as dead more than a year ago, which may complicate his love for the beautiful Celia Devereaux. When he announces the mistake to her, they are reconciled, but strange things have been happening to the Devereaux family. Celia's sister Margot died in mysterious circumstances more than a year ago, after an evening of spooky games during which each guest wore the death mask of a famous murderer. The London offices of a fortune teller have been abandoned, but someone still uses them. And someone or something has been moving the coffins around inside a sealed mausoleum. Some people think that Celia has inherited the family taint of hysteria, but it takes the combined efforts of Donald Holden and Gideon Fell to explain Margot's death and the moving coffins. it:La sfinge dormiente |
Patrick Butler for the Defense | John Dickson Carr | null | James Vaughan and Hugh Prentice are the two junior partners of the law practice of Prentice, Prentice & Vaughan and its senior partner, Hugh's uncle Charles Prentice. Hugh and his fiance Helen are in Hugh's office, which is littered with detective stories; a French-speaking Arab who calls himself Abu of Ispahan arrives and asks for an appointment to discuss a private matter. Helen leaves, and Hugh must deliver a brief to famed defense lawyer Patrick Butler. Since Abu wishes to deal with no one except "Meester Pren-tees", Hugh asks him to wait for forty-five minutes; before Hugh leaves, Abu announces "All my troubles have been caused by your gloves." Hugh goes down the hall to speak with James Vaughan. When they hear a scream, both rush back to Hugh's office to find Abu stabbed; he has just enough time and breath to gasp "Your gloves" in French before he expires. Hugh immediately enlists the help of Patrick Butler, who is accompanied by the upper-crust Lady Pamela de Saxe. The three, with occasional assistance from Helen, embark upon a series of breakneck escapes from the police and Hugh's strait-laced uncle while they gather evidence (including the beautiful stage magician Cécile Feyoum, Abu's widow). In the course of the evening, Hugh falls out of love with Helen and into love with Pam, and at the night's climax Patrick Butler calls everyone together and reveals the name of the murderer, and the meaning of the gloves. |
The Dead Man's Knock | John Dickson Carr | null | In a little university town in the U.S. state of Virginia, surrounding Queen's College, Professor Mark Ruthven and his wife Brenda are arguing furiously because she is about to leave to meet her lover. Before the night is over, young and voluptuous Rose Lestrange will apparently walk into her bedroom and stab herself with a razor-sharp dagger—at least, that's what the police say, because the windows and door are securely locked and bolted from the inside. But Rose was being blackmailed. Is the blackmailer the same person who's been playing vicious pranks around the College's grounds, and also the murderer? Is the key to how the murder room was locked and bolted from the inside to be found in a locked-room mystery novel plotted by Wilkie Collins? It takes Dr. Fell to sort out the lies and reveal the surprising truth. |
Castle Skull | John Dickson Carr | null | Maleger is a stage magician whose feats of magic are so mysterious and hideous, and his stage presence so evil, that his act frightens unwary children and many adults. In 1912, he purchases the famous Schloss Schadel—Castle Skull, on the banks of the Rhine, and transforms the ruin into a nightmare that is appropriate for its terrifying history (including scenes of torture, insanity and suicide). Twenty years later, one of Maleger's few friends is seen running about the battlements of Castle Skull—he has been shot three times in the chest, but was still alive when the murderer poured kerosene on him and ignited it. Maleger was traveling alone on the train to his castle; several days later, his body was fished out of the Rhine. Maleger's friend Jérôme D'Aunay, a Belgian financier, hires Parisian detective Henri Bencolin and his associate Jeff Marle to investigate these deaths and the strange goings-on at a house party staying at a villa across the river from Castle Skull. |
The Last Jew | Noah Gordon | null | The year is 1492 and Spain is in the grip of the Inquisition. The Church has sponsored anti-Jewish feeling, culminating in the expulsion by royal edict of the entire Jewish community from their homes of many generations. Those that have not converted are forced to leave. However, 15-year-old Yonah Toledano has been left behind. He has lost family members to the troubles, both his father, a celebrated Spanish silversmith, and his brother. On a donkey named Moise, he journeys, remaining a Jew, growing to manhood across Spain to escape his fate. |
A Company of Swans | Eva Ibbotson | 1,985 | Harriet Morton lives in Cambridge with her widowed father, the intolerant Merlin Professor of Classics at the University, and her frugal Aunt Louisa, who wishes her to marry an uninteresting entomology professor named Edward Finch-Dutton. After her father bans her from attending school, believing women should not be highly educated, the only freedom allowed to her are ballet lessons at Madame Lavarre's school. One day, a lesson is visited by Sasha Dubrov, a famous ballet master who asks Harriet to join his company for a tour of South America, which will begin in Manaus. Although she wants to accept, her father refuses to let her join the tour, and instead bans her from ballet lessons when she suggests the idea. Shortly after this incident, Harriet joins Edward Finch-Dutton, Aunt Lousia and the rest of the Trumpington Tea Circle on a tour of Stavely, an old stately home which is beginning to fall into disrepair. While there, she leaves the group to explore the maze in the grounds, within which she meets Henry St. John Verney-Brandon, the son of the estate's owner, reading a book entitled "Amazon Adventure". Henry tells Harriet about his own desire to travel to the Amazon, and about the book's owner - an unnamed Boy who lived in the estate many years ago, and whom Henry, hearing the tales of the nurse the two shared, idolizes. Harriet, who has decided to run away to join the ballet company, promises Henry that she will search for the boy in Manaus, where he is thought to live. Harriet then runs away by pretending to visit her friend Miss Betsy Fairfield, cancelling the visit at the last minute without her aunt's knowledge. She joins the Company and they practice for a week in Century Theatre before leaving for Manaus, where they will perform Giselle, Swan Lake, Fille Mal Gardee, and Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker). On the first night in Manaus, Harriet's performance attracts the attention of Rom Verney, a wealthy Englishman who Harriet soon correctly suspects is The Boy Henry mentioned. The pair meet at a party Rom throws in his capacity as chairman of the Opera House trustees, and are instantly attracted to each other. The next day, Harriet confirms that Rom used to live at Stavely, and asks him to help out there "for Henry's sake", which angers Rom - who recalls his past as the youngest son of Stavely's former owner, who, upon his father's death, was ousted by his half-brother Henry, and left by his fiancee Isobel who then married Henry. Meanwhile, in England, the elder Henry Brandon is dead, having committed suicide after bankrupting the estate, leaving Isobel widowed and penniless. She then recalls Rom, and decides to travel to Manaus to enlist his help. She is joined on the steamer by Edward Finch-Dutton, sent by Harriet's father, who has discovered her deception, to bring her back to England. Isobel is delayed when Henry develops measles and the pair are forced to stop while he recovers. Edward travels on to Manaus to find Harriet; however, the ballet company form a plan to stop him. With Rom's help, they convince Edward that ballet is a perfectly respectable career, and he should convince Harriet's father to let her continue on the tour. However, Edward is then outraged when he sees Harriet dancing at a gentleman's club - which she does only to save her friend Marie-Claude from being seen at the club by her fiancee's cousin. Edward decides to kidnap Harriet and take her back to England, but she escapes with the help of Rom - who has realized the misunderstanding after seeing the elder Henry Brandon's obituary. Forced to abandon the ballet to avoid Edward, Harriet takes refuge in Rom's house, where, at her request, they become lovers. While Harriet believes that Rom will shortly leave her, Rom intends to propose to Harriet, but is disturbed by her occasionally distant attitude, which he believes is distress at being forced to abandon her promising ballet career. Harriet returns to Manaus to say goodbye to the ballet company as they leave for the next stop on the tour, and returns to Rom's house to find Henry waiting for her there, who informs her that his mother plans to marry Rom. She leaves without saying goodbye to Rom, and returns with the ballet company to England, intending to travel on to Russia and perform. However, she is captured by her father and locked in the house as punishment for many months. After Harriet has given up all hope, Rom finally tracks her down, having been searching since the day she disappeared. He pretends to be a doctor in order to smuggle her from her aunt's custody, and then tells her that he intends to marry her and make her the mistress of Stavely, which he has now purchased. He forces her father to give his permission, intimidating him in front of his students, who then rebel against their most boring teacher. In the epilogue, the pair are happily married with three children, and Henry, who has inherited part of the estate from Rom, intends to return to the Amazon and fulfill his dream of becoming an explorer. |
The Man With the Iron Heart | Harry Turtledove | 2,008 | June, 1942: SS "Reichsprotector" Reinhard Heydrich barely survives an assassination attempt in Prague (in reality, Heydrich was killed. This is where the story makes its first turn.) February, 1943: Shortly after the fall of German-held Stalingrad, Reichsprotector Heydrich meets with Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel (S.S.). Foreseeing Germany's probable defeat, Heydrich convinces his superior to begin preparations for a possible partisan campaign should German forces lose the war. Two years later, Allied forces have conquered Germany. With the Nazi government having surrendered, Heydrich's forces begin a series of attacks against the occupying forces, using car bombs, anti-tank rockets, and suicide bombers. The terrorists assassinate Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev and American general George S. Patton. Though occupation officials quickly become aware of the campaign, they are unable to find any quick solutions to it. The American military attempts to tighten security in their sector, while the NKVD spearheads a ruthless suppression of German civilians, including deportations and reprisal killings. As the casualties mount, Americans at home begin to question the effort. An Indiana housewife, who is informed that her son died on occupation duty, turns against American policy and forms an organization agitating to bring American soldiers home. Her Congressman, a Republican, uses the issue to launch attacks against the Truman administration and is soon joined by other members of his party. In Germany, a truck bomb destroys the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, killing several officials and forcing a postponement of the trials of Nazi war criminals. In Berlin, dozens of Soviet officers are killed at a New Year's Eve party when the insurgency succeeds in poisoning their drinks using wood alcohol. Though the demonstrations in America grow, the Soviets respond by tightening their crackdown further. Undeterred, Heydrich continues his campaign. The American attempt to establish democratic institutions is thwarted when a mortar attack at a rally kills Konrad Adenauer, while the recapture of German nuclear physicists (during which Werner Karl Heisenberg is killed) leads Heydrich to a supply of radium that he uses in a dirty bomb which contaminates the American residential compound in Frankfurt. The Americans and the Soviets enjoy small successes against the insurgency, but the spectacular destruction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Westminster Cathedral and St. Paul's Cathedral in London by truck bombs further erodes Western resolve to remain in Germany. In the United States, the Republicans win the midterm Congressional elections of 1946. Now in control of Congress, they increase pressure on President Truman to withdraw American forces, refusing to fund their further presence. Though American officers appreciate the need to remain, discontent grows with the enlisted ranks, as many draftees begin staging protests demanding to be returned home. Another attempt to convene war-crimes trials against the Nazi leadership in the Soviet sector is frustrated when a C-47 Skytrain loaded with explosives crashes into the courthouse, killing the judges and staff inside. With American troops now being withdrawn in increasing numbers, the latest attack finally brings about a degree of cooperation between the Soviet and American counterintelligence services. At a meeting the Soviets turn over a Holocaust survivor who worked as a slave laborer constructing the bunker system Heydrich is using. He leads American forces to the bunker where the insurgent leader is hiding, and Heydrich dies while trying to escape. This success does not end the insurgency, however; Joachim Peiper takes over and orders the hijacking of three civilian airliners. While the Soviets remain committed to the occupation and to crushing the resistance, the Americans and British complete their withdrawal, leaving the Nazis ready to reemerge. |
The Man Who Could Not Shudder | John Dickson Carr | null | Martin Clarke is celebrating his acquisition and refurbishment of an old stately home by inviting a number of guests to stay for the weekend. The house has an unsettling history; two decades ago, the butler, a frail man of over 80 years, was killed when he uncharacteristically decided to swing back and forth from the chandelier, which then fell and killed him. Another report features a chair which leaps off the wall at the viewer. Clarke's guests have been selected as a cross-section of "ordinary, skeptical human beings" and have been invited to investigate the rumours of ghostly hauntings. The weekend begins when, as the guests are entering the home, one woman screams and claims that something has clutched at her ankle—something "with fingers". The host immediately tells the story of a former owner of the home whose death was met with such suspicion of witchcraft from the servants that the body lay as it fell for days, and the servants reported that something seemed to clutch at their ankles. The weekend is off to a spooky start but proceeds spectacularly when three witnesses agree that a gun jumped off the wall and killed a seated guest, with no hand holding it. Famous crime-solver and debunker of impossible crimes Gideon Fell is called in to explain matters and does so in a way that leads to a spectacular and fiery finish. |
The Black Spectacles | John Dickson Carr | null | In the small English village of Sodbury Cross, pretty Marjorie Wills is suspected of having poisoned some chocolates in the local tobacco-and-sweet shop, using a method pioneered by historical poisoner Christiana Edmunds. Her uncle, wealthy Marcus Chesney, believes that eye-witnesses are unreliable. He avers that to observe something, then to relate accurately what was just seen, is impossible. In order to prove his statements, he sets up a test; three witnesses are invited to witness some staged events not only in their view but in that of a movie camera. After the events, it is planned that they will answer a list of ten questions. Marcus Chesney takes a principal role in the staged events and, during them, is fed a large green capsule containing poison by a masked and disguised figure wearing black spectacles. Amazingly, the three witnesses cannot agree upon the answers to any of the questions and no one can identify the murderer. It seems as though Chesney very carefully set up the ideal conditions for someone to murder him and escape, but Gideon Fell, upon viewing the movie film, can answer all ten questions plus the eleventh—who is the murderer? it:Occhiali neri (romanzo) |
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming | Daniel Handler | 2,007 | The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming is about an irate latke at Hanukkah who escapes from being boiled in a hot frying pan. He runs into various Christmas symbols (such as fairy lights, a candy cane and pine tree) who are all ignorant and uneducated about the customs of Hanukkah. The latke attempts to educate these people about the history and culture surrounding the Jewish holiday, but his attempts are always in vain and he runs away from each encounter in a fit of frustration. |
Till Death Do Us Part | John Dickson Carr | null | Dick Markham is engaged to Lesley, but he doesn't really know much about her. When they attend a cricket match in the little English village of Six Ashes, they stop at the associated fete and Lesley insists on seeing the fortune teller. She is apparently unaware that the fortune teller is being played by Sir Harvey Gilman, the Home Office pathologist and expert on crime. After her visit, Dick visits Sir Harvey, who is apparently about to tell him something unpleasant about his fiancee when he is shot—accidentally, by all reports, and certainly non-fatally—by Lesley. Later that night, Sir Harvey tells Dick that Lesley is really a murderess who has poisoned three husbands using a mysterious method of death that seemingly must be suicide, whereby the victim injects himself with hydrocyanic acid. Later that night, Sir Harvey dies in a locked and sealed room, seemingly after having injected himself with hydrocyanic acid. Gideon Fell is called in to assist the police investigation. It is soon discovered that "Sir Harvey" is actually a confidence man named Sam De Villa, and his revelations about Lesley are untrue, but this doesn't answer other important questions. What is the significance of a box of drawing pins found scattered beside the corpse? Who fired a rifle into the murder room in the early hours of the next morning? It takes another murder before Dr. Fell reveals the identity of the murderer and the method by which the room was locked. it:Un colpo di fucile |
The House at Satan's Elbow | John Dickson Carr | null | Garret Anderson, a historian, has enjoyed an unexpected financial windfall when one of his historical biographies is turned into a smash-hit musical. At loose ends, he agrees to visit an old friend's family home in Hampshire, England to bear witness to some unusual happenings. A missing family will is at the heart of matters, but things are also complicated by someone who is playing the role of the ghost of Mr. Justice Wildfare, 18th century hanging judge and family ancestor. When the head of the family is shot with a blank cartridge by a shadowy figure who vanishes through a locked window, and is later shot again, this time more seriously, Gideon Fell is called in to explain the bizarre events and bring them home to the criminal. |
A Place Called Here | Cecelia Ahern | 2,008 | Sandy Shortt has been obsessed with finding things which have been lost, since her childhood rival Jenny-May Butler went missing. Having worked for the Garda, the police force of the Republic of Ireland, she left her job to start an agency which looks for missing people. A man named Jack Ruttle asks Sandy for help looking for his younger brother Donal, who went missing the year before. She agrees, never expecting to become missing herself as she discovers the world where everything which has ever been lost goes to, a place called Here. Jack goes on a search for Sandy believing that she is the key to finding his brother but learning more about her personal life than he should. Meanwhile, Sandy's possessions keeps getting lost from Here but found in this world. Something is bound to happen but the both of them have yet to know what it is. |
Burned | Ellen Hopkins | 2,007 | Pattyn is seventeen years old and is the oldest of seven girls in a Mormon household. Her father is an alcoholic who beats her mother, believing a wife must succumb to her husband's actions. Her mother believes her duty is to make as many children as possible, especially a boy to carry on the family name, just as her husband wishes. But Pattyn's mother only conceived seven girls, named after famous generals: (youngest to oldest) Georgia (George Patton), Roberta (Robert E. Lee), Davie (Jefferson Davis), Teddie (Theodore Roosevelt), Ulyssa (Ulysses S. Grant), Jackie (Jack Pershing), and Pattyn (George Patton). It is hinted that Pattyn deeply disagrees with the strict Mormon lifestyle she's lived throughout her childhood, as well as the expectations that will be held of her as a woman according to her Mormon community, and wishes to break free and gain the freedom to become her own person with her own take on life. She appears to also hold a resentment of her alcoholic father and oppressed, submissive mother, and having to care for her six younger sisters during their father's alcohol-induced rages. Pattyn is unable to take the stress going on in her home, and begins to question her role in life, especially through her father's eyes. Eventually, she starts to experiment with dating Derek behind her parents' backs, then leading to her getting caught drinking with her boyfriend in the desert, by her drunken father. Derek, her boyfriend, leaves her for another girl who is more experienced, whom Pattyn later on punches in the face in rage. Pattyn becomes openly defiant and talks back to her parents and pastor, lashing out and releasing all of the built up emotions and objections she's held for her Mormon lifestyle for a number of years. As a punishment, she is sent away to live with her Aunt Jeanette in eastern Nevada, for her mother is finally expecting a son and does not need to handle the stress Pattyn creates. As Pattyn stays with her aunt, Aunt Jeanette, who tells Pattyn to call her "Aunt J", continues, she finds love from her aunt and a boy named Ethan, who studies at UC Davis and is described by Pattyn as "beautiful". Ethan's father, Kevin, was once Aunt J's high school sweetheart, but after he received a threat with a gun and a beating from Aunt J's brother (Pattyn's father) for not being Mormon, they were forced to separate. During the time Pattyn lives with her aunt, she learns how to love and how to be self-confident, and finds out that there is more to life than just religion, as she thought before. Pattyn is led to believe in God the way her aunt believes in him. Aunt J explains that one does not need "a Mormon husband to meet you at heaven's gates and pull you in", and believes that with love—true and forever love—heaven's gates will open wide. Ethan becomes a dream come true to Pattyn, loving her even though she does not believe that she's beautiful. He teaches her the true meaning of love: Towards the end of the summer Ethan and Pattyn don't know what to do after Pattyn receives letters regarding Jackie (the next oldest sister) receiving beatings as a stand in for her pregnant mother. They do not confide in Aunt J in fear that she will contact the authorities. At the end of the summer, Pattyn returns to her family and receives her first beating after defying her father. |
In a Lonely Place | Dorothy B. Hughes | 1,947 | The novel is a noir set in post World War II Los Angeles. Dix Steele, the main character, is an ex-airman who roams the city at night. He offers to help a detective friend solve the case of a serial killer. Eventually, however, actress Laurel Grey and the detective's wife discover that Steele himself is the murderer. and exposes the misogyny of American society at that time. |
The Secret Servant | Gavin Lyall | 1,980 | Former SAS Major Harry Maxim is assigned to Number 10 Downing Street as a special assistant to George Harbinger, private secretary to the Prime Minister, following the suicide of his predecessor with the British Secret Service. Maxim is assigned to protect Professor John White Tyler, Britain's premier military strategist on nuclear weapons policy and famed war hero (as well as an insatiable lecher). Tyler’s many enemies, including local pacifists, leftists, and radical students, as well as the KGB will do anything, perhaps even murder, to keep Tyler from addressing a NATO summit in Luxembourg. However, are various events surrounding Tyler related? Such as a hand grenade thrown through the door to the Prime Minister's residence, or the death of a Czech defector? Assisted by MI-5 liaison officer Agnes Algar, Maxim must uncover a horrific secret from Tyler's wartime past in order to prevent a massive foreign relations disaster, as well as keeping Tyler alive. |
The Conduct of Major Maxim | Gavin Lyall | 1,982 | Former SAS Major Harry Maxim is assigned to Number 10 Downing Street, where he works under George Harbinger, private secretary to the Prime Minister. Maxim is asked by a former colleague to assist Corporal Ron Blagg, who has gone AWOL from the British Army after assisting MI6 in a botched undercover operation. However, Maxim soon discovers that both MI6 and a shadowy Sovbloc service are looking for Blagg, with deadly consequences. Maxim's efforts to assist Blagg are stymied by a web of deceit and suspicion among the various offices and agencies within the British government, until he uncovers a secret from the darkest days of World War II so threatening to the leadership of the German Democratic Republic that they will kill to preserve it. The various settings for most of the action, housing projects in South London, a small rural town in Germany, and a fading port town in Humberside, are described in rich detail. |
Jason and Marceline | Jerry Spinelli | 1,986 | Jason Herkimer, the main character of Space Station Seventh Grade, is now in ninth grade. His relationship with his friend Marceline McAllister has developed into a real romance. The only trouble is that Jason isn't quite sure what to do with a girlfriend. His friends insist that the main function of a girlfriend is to make out, but Marceline says there's more to life than that. |
Chosen | Ted Dekker | null | Chosen is a book created by Ted Dekker. It is in the Circle series, and Elyon, (God) lost many of the forest to Teeleh (Satan). Evil is seeming to win, and the Horde, a group of humans with rotting flesh (the devil’s minions) are taking over much of the Forest. Thomas Hunter needs to raise an army of over 10,000 Forest Guard to stop the Horde. The general of the Horde is Qurong, and he wants to vanquish all seven forests and destroy all the water loving humans. Qurong has been supplied with information from a traitor of the Forest Guard. The traitor insists that the enemy Guard is building their forces rapidly, and Qurong insists that they are nothing important. Qurong’s major disagrees, telling him that the young are very crafty and aren’t to be taken lightly at all. However, Qurong has the Forest Guard tricked, since the Guard thinks they will attack from the East, and the Guard is putting many of their forces there. He, however is going in from the West, and will annihilate the Guard and take them by surprise. The Horde will attack within four days, and the Guard has to be ready to fight them and win at all costs. Meanwhile, in the Forest, a dozen of the strongest recruits are going to play a game Thomas Hunter called football. This game called football was from Hunter’s dream of some other land. The football was Horde hair, and that hair was given to Thomas by Johnis’ father, Ramos. Johnis’ mother was killed while going out in the desert to go look for a medicine for Johnis, who was struck with a fever. She went without an escort, and she was presumed dead. Ramos, in an outrage, goes out to the desert and kills several Scabs (members of the Horde) in a fit of anger, and takes their hair and ties it up and gives it to Thomas. Johnis hadn’t recovered from that incident, and he went and tried out to be a Forest Guard. However, he was dismissed because of his size. So Johnis went and sat on the sidelines. He watched the teams play football, 12 people on each team, and armed with sticks. When football started, Silvie was the first one to go and get the ball. Then, the lines of the football teams collided with their sticks hitting each other. Jackov, then swung at Silvie, but she ducked and he then, the ball flew up in the air, and into the mess of people attacking each other. Then, the ball came out of the pile of people attacking each other, and it rolled towards Johnis. Johnis hides the ball around his waist, and then Thomas called everyone to stop. He promised a horse to whoever found his Horde ball. Thomas knew already that Johnis had the ball, but he was trying to make a point. Many people weren’t doing anything, but Jackov tried to find the ball, but he couldn’t until Johnis shows him the ball. They fight, and Jackov is on his knees. Then, the crowd cheers wildly for Johnis. Thomas Hunter then chooses four people to lead the Guard, they are Billos, Silvie, Darsal, and surprisingly, Johnis, who doesn’t know what to say, but eventually agrees and says yes to the calling. After the choosing, the Chosen ride out into the desert. Johnis had to get food, which included taro root, sago cakes, and fruits. As they were riding they heard the noise of something unusual, and Johnis saw a figure with red eyes with wings. Johnis thought he had seen a Shaitaiki. Then the group rode on quickly, but they were arguing. All of a sudden, they saw some of the Scabs. Johnis, once again, had second thoughts about becoming one of the chosen ones. The four eventually killed all 5 of them. After that, they came to Igal point. You could see so much from that point. As they were talking along the way, Silvie’s horse then smelled something weird. There was at least 20 Horde, and Johnis could say only one thing, and that was to run. As Johnis was fleeing, he heard something say “This way! Over here!” It was a fuzzy white bat creature. He followed the creature into a crevice, and he discovered it was a Roush. The two Roush introduced themselves as Michal and Gabil (The names sound like Archangels Michael and Gabriel). The three conversed for a little while, and Johnis found out he might die because Gabil had told him that most chosen ones ended up dying. Gabil wanted Johnis to promise him that Johnis would stay alive long enough to find the Lost Books of History. Johnis promised, but he thought it sounded weird. Meanwhile, at the Horde camp, Qurong was angered at the loss of the assassins. Qurong wants Johnis dead because Thomas Hunter thinks Johnis could save the people; Johnis dead will devastate Hunter. In the forest, Thomas was worried about the four chosen ones. Mikil and Thomas are worried about the recruits, and that they are not probably strong enough to go fight the Horde. Over in the desert, Johnis was unsure. Johnis knew he had few qualities that seemed actually good to make him a good leader. Johnis wanted to leave them and go back the way he came. Johnis knew a passage that he could take, thanks to a Roush. Everyone looked at him strangely when Johnis said Roush; Billos then said the Johnis was mad. The group argued for a long time, but Darsal said she was the oldest, and that they were going back. Then the Shaitaiki appeared again at the cliff. Then, Billos was taken, and Darsal then wanted to save him. Johnis knew that he wasn’t dead, and he too wanted to save him. Meanwhile in the forest, Thomas was still pacing around in the war room. There was no sign of them, and it was dark. Then, Ramos, Johnis’ father, appeared in the room. He wasn’t happy with the fact that they didn’t know where his son was. Thomas then called Mikil to gather 100 of the best fighters, as they were going to leave soon. As the three were riding out in the desert, Darsal had second thoughts about going to go save Billos. Johnis wanted to save Billos. Johnis then said something stupid, and that was to follow him to hell, and their destiny was to ride out into the desert and save Billos. Silvie and Darsal disagreed still. Johnis told them about the story with the Roush, and that seemed to make them agree, but Darsal, as Johnis thought, took over the group. Then after riding, they got some sleep, and Johnis told them more about the encounter with the Roush. At the same time, Billos was with the Horde. He was being taken to Qurong in the morning, and he was scared. Then, as he was alone, something was cutting in the canvas tent. Billos thought it was Darsal. He couldn’t tell what it was, but he wasn’t in the tent anymore. In the morning, Johnis and Silvie were awake. None of them knew where Darsal had gone. Then Darsal had appeared behind them, and the Johnis realized that he was starting to become like a Scab. So was Silvie. The morning after that, Johnis couldn’t move. Johnis felt like a total idiot. Nobody disagreed. When they slept that day, Johnis slept on the book. He had a cut on his head from Jackov, and the blood mixed with the Book of History wasn’t a good thing. Meanwhile, at the Horde camp, Qurong wasn’t happy due to the fact that the prisoner Billos was missing. Qurong, though, was busy talking to the traitor, who supplied Qurong with tons of information. Thomas Hunter was at Igal Point, and recently found Billos’ extra horse and water from the horse. Thomas thought the three went out in the desert, but his general advised that only fools would do such a stupid thing. Ramos then thundered through the desert and then saw Thomas and asked if there was any sign of the four. Thomas replied that there was no sign of them so far. Ramos wanted an expedition set up, and Thomas did too, but by then the four would have all been Scabs. Ramos was panicking, because he wanted his son to survive. He was mad at Thomas for not heading up an expedition for his son. He did not want to lose his son too, like he lost his wife to the Scabs. Thomas reminded him that Ramos’ daughter was going to be without a father is Ramos went. Ramos, who was very unhappy, then thundered away on his horse. Thomas asked if Ramos was a sergeant, the reply was yes, and that Thomas said that he is a captain, and that he gets his honors. Johnis was getting ever so closer to becoming a Scab, and so were Darsal and Silvie. Johnis, while sleeping, had a nightmare with a beast, possibly Teeleh (the devil.) Johnis wanted to wake up from this nightmare. Then his dream changed to something peaceful, but then again to the same nightmare. Then he woke up, and Silvie was in terrible shape. He woke her up too, and him and Darsal. They rode along, until they saw an oasis, with palm trees and water. As the three were drinking water, Johnis saw the Roush, and Darsal and Silvie believed. (In a way, just like Doubting Thomas, he saw and believed.) As they were chatting, Silvie saw a rock, which told them about a path to the Dark One beyond the blue. Silvie ducked her head in water, and saw something. Johnis and Darsal did the same and dipped their heads underwater. They saw an image of some man beast with the Books of History. The three had an argument; Darsal went by herself, and Johnis and Silvie another way, to the second Lost Book. The two talked a lot as their horses were riding out into the desert, and both were scared. At the same time, Darsal was lost. Then, something had killed her horse. Something was attacking her, and things were cutting her. She blacked out. At nightfall, Johnis and Silvie rode for several hours before falling asleep. When Johnis woke up, Silvie was showing him something strange in the sky. They were Shaitaiki bats, and there was red coming from them. Something wasn’t right, and they prepared to go after them. Silvie noticed something bizarre. The bats were perched on something black, which seemed as if the whole world was at an edge; Johnis knew that it must have been the Black Forest. Johnis and Silvie then rode to the Black Forest. Surprisingly, the bats were perched on branches, and they let Johnis and Silvie pass by. As they were riding into the forest, they heard several screams. They went into the stadium and in the center of the field, and there was a wheel, and strapped to it were Billos and Darsal. The bats were flying into the bleachers, and Johnis knew it was a trap. As Johnis and Silvie gazed, something approached Johnis, and it was Teeleh. When the bats slapped the two back to consciousness, Darsal was sorry, and Billos was thinking Johnis came to die with him (He had lost his mind). The two were going to be drowned in water, and Johnis wanted to stop them. He told Teeleh that he would tell him where the Book of History was, and Teeleh eventually let them go. Meanwhile, Johnis promised to stay alive, and Johnis heard a legend that Teeleh was a beautiful creature created by Elyon, in fact the most beautiful. Now Teeleh was an ugly creature. (In relation to the Bible, Lucifer was a beautiful angel created by God, until he disagreed with God, and became known as Satan.) Then, after the other three had ridden out, Johnis refused to give Teeleh the location of the book, and Teeleh was infuriated. Johnis constantly kept on refusing, and Teeleh was getting angry. Then, Johnis was attacked and was knocked out subsequently. Then, as Silvie and the other two were riding out into the desert, the bats were attacking them. Silvie too, was captured, and she was blacked out. When she awakened, she and Johnis were on the same wheel, tied, just like Billos and Darsal were. The two were sobbing, and in tears. Johnis revealed the location of the books. Teeleh retrieved his two books. Overhead, in the desert, Gabil saw the two other chosen ones, Darsal and Billos, who had entirely lost their minds. Gabil had those two bathed in Elyon’s water so they could regain their minds. Gabil told them that they will go back, but Billos disagreed. Darsal agreed because Johnis saved them. Gabil told them that he knew what the black bats had feared the most. Qurong was readying his forces for a battle against the Forest Guard. The traitor knew that it was all ready, and Qurong was as ready as he has ever been. Meanwhile, a Shaitaiki bat gave his name to Johnis, and that bat’s name was Alucard. As they were talking, a fire broke out, and every bat was frantic, including Alucard and the toughest bats. In the sky, Gabil and the other two chosen were watching. They started attacking the bats. After that, they had found Johnis and Silvie and poured the healing water over them. Then, Johnis told them that they were going after the books. Meanwhile, Thomas was talking with Mikil about this fire from the western horizon, and it doesn’t seem good. Mikil thinks that those four are dead, and Thomas doesn’t think so. Mikil in response is ordered to take 10 of the best fighters, and extra water, and only 1 day out. Johnis, meanwhile, remembered something Alucard told him, and it was that the lair of Teeleh was below. He saw something, and he knew this was Teeleh’s lair. Johnis was going by himself, and Darsal gave Johnis a match. Johnis went down the stairs and in a room, against his own wishes. The room was filled with books, and other objects. Johnis thought this must have been the library or Teeleh’s room. Johnis then found the two Books of History. Johnis then went up the stairs and then, suddenly, dozens and dozens of Shaitaiki had appeared and were going to take those books back. The Chosen ones stood together, and Johnis truly saw Teeleh for the first time. Teeleh, perched on a branch high, ordered the bats to attack the chosen ones, and rip them limb from limb. Then, dozens and dozens of Roush appeared to take the bats on. The bats and the Roush clashed into battle, and Gabil told them to go to the pool, and to the forest, and don’t stop until they had reached the forest. As the four were riding out, the bats were killing the Roush. Meanwhile, Qurong saw smoke, and thought it was black magic. The traitor knew that a slaughter then would be coming up. Qurong knew it was the Forest Guard’s slaughter would be coming. Later that day, at the stadium, Marie, Thomas Guard’s daughter said that they were found. At first, Thomas didn’t believe it, but he saw four cacti, and the four chosen ones. A crowd was gathering. Then, Ramos, Johnis’ father, appeared, and was so overjoyed. Each of them became a sergeant. During the celebration, Michal told Johnis more about the 7 Lost Books of History and that there were now 6 Black Forests, since Johnis had destroyed the smallest forest. Johnis wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about the Books of History, or about the black forests, and after the short conversation, Michal left. Shortly after, Silvie approached Johnis with something from Michal the Roush. It was Johnis’ mother’s ring. Johnis knew that meant that his mother was alive, and not dead. She was taken hostage, and possibly now she was a Scab. Then, Billos approached Johnis and told him that Billos knew that Johnis deserved more respect than any other one of the chosen. Johnis thought that they should all make a vow. They all vowed to get the 5 Lost Books of History, and destroy the enemies fulfill their destiny. |
Written in Blood | null | null | The Midsomer Worthy Writer's Circle, a group of amateur novelists, invite celebrated author Max Jennings along as a special guest. However, host Gerald Hadleigh is vehemently opposed to the idea but refuses to explain why, so he is promptly overruled by his peers. After the somewhat uncomfortable event, Hadleigh's companion Rex St. John is tricked into departing, leaving Hadleigh alone with Jennings. The next morning Gerald is found savagely murdered with a candlestick, his corpse stripped and all his clothes stolen, with no sign of Max. |
Infidel | Ted Dekker | null | Stretched to their limits and celebrated as heroes, the chosen will wish they had never been given that thankless task of finding the seven lost Books of History before the Dark One can. Martyn, a new Horde general, emerges and lures Johnis into the Horde city, Thrall, to force him into betraying Thomas. Once there, the chosen four are all caught by the Horde and Johnis is forced to strand Thomas into the desert to die. In the end, Johnis, Silvie, Billos, and Darsal are able to save Johnis' mother, retrieve three of the Lost books of History, and recruit the Dark Priest of Teelah's daughter into becoming a member of the forest. |
Perfidia | null | null | The novel opens with five-year-old Maddy and her mother, Anita, leaving her father, a Jewish professor at Dartmouth College. The two hit the road and travel extensively before settling in New Mexico. Hard-drinking and promiscuous Anita strikes up a casual relationship with an aging hippie named Wilkie. She becomes pregnant shortly thereafter and converts a derelict house into a lucrative art gallery/tourist trap. Anita later gives birth to a boy she names Billy. The relationship between the mother and daughter becomes inexplicably strained after the birth. Anita becomes increasingly neglectful of Maddy and clearly favors her son over her daughter. The relationship permanently sours when Anita takes up with Lion, a long-haired drug addict. Lion overdoses and young Maddy, afraid and not knowing what to do, leaves Lion alone in the house. Anita bitterly blames Maddy for his resulting death. Anita, who has become a full-blown alcoholic (who self-righteously swears off drugs), runs through a string of boyfriends, including psychiatrist, Ellery. She begins physically abusing Maddy as well. Things take a violent turn in the house. Anita, depressed over turning forty, loses control of the art gallery. She is enraged by Maddy's decision to return to New Hampshire to attend college and attempts to stab her daughter with a broken tequila bottle. The two women struggle over the weapon; Maddy wrests it from her mother and stabs her in self-defense, hitting her jugular vein. Anita dies from massive blood loss. Maddy is put on trial. She opts for a trial by judge. The judge sympathizes with Maddy's plight but finds her guilty of manslaughter. She is sentenced to four years in prison. While Maddy is in prison, she forms a sexual relationship with her cellmate, Lucille, and begins corresponding with Ellery's semi-estranged son, Keith. (Ellery and his wife have taken custody of Billy, who wants nothing to do with Maddy.) When she makes parole, she moves in with Keith. She gets a job against his wishes and becomes pregnant. Maddy and Keith soon break up. Buying a car, Maddy begins to travel from place to place much like Anita had in her youth. At the end of the novel, Maddy reveals that she has legally changed her name and that she has given birth to her child. |
Emmeline | Judith Perelman Rossner | null | In 1839, thirteen-year-old Emmeline Mosher lives on a farm with her family in Fayette, Maine. Times are hard so when Emmeline's paternal aunt suggests that she go to Lowell, Massachusetts to support her family by working in the factories Emmeline dutifully leaves home. When she arrives in Lowell, she is sent to live in a boarding house for young female mill-workers. Emmeline is a good worker. However, she is unable to befriend any of the other girls who look down on her due to her country ways and her relative youth. Lonely, Emmeline is easily seduced by the Irish-born husband of the factory owner's daughter. She becomes pregnant, although she is not immediately aware of her condition. The embarrassed boarding house landlady contacts Emmeline's aunt who lives in the neighboring town of Lynn, Massachusetts and evicts her. Fearful of Emmeline's parents' reaction, Emmeline's aunt and uncle help her conceal the pregnancy. They send letters and Emmeline's savings (which they pass off as her regular salary) to her parents. They also arrange to have Emmeline's unborn child adopted. Emmeline gives birth to what she believes to be a girl; her aunt refuses to tell her what the sex of the child is or any other information about the baby in the belief that it will be easier for Emmeline to give the baby up that way. Emmeline returns home shortly thereafter. Part two of the book picks up more than twenty years in the future. Despite numerous proposals, a middle-aged Emmeline has never married or moved out of her family's home, a fact that chagrins her father. She does have a tight circle of friends, though, socializing primarily with two sisters of a widower who proposed marriage to her. One day, Matthew Gurney, an itinerant worker, rolls into town. He and Emmeline share a strong immediate attraction. Matthew proposes to her and Emmeline eagerly accepts. They marry with Emmeline wearing her sister-in-law's wedding dress and move into a house that they build themselves. Emmeline's aunt comes to visit after the wedding. She instantly recognizes Matthew and forces him to admit that he is twenty-one years old, not twenty-six as he originally claimed. At that moment, Emmeline realizes that she gave birth to a boy, not a girl, and that she has married her son. Her aunt tells her father who immediately disowns her. Word quickly spreads throughout town. Matthew deserts Emmeline, who is soon excommunicated by the preacher at her church. Emmeline spends the rest of her long life on the fringes of the town, ignored by all, and tries to subsist on what she can grow herself. A neglected old woman, she dies during a particularly harsh winter. |
The Mad Hatter Mystery | John Dickson Carr | null | A young newspaperman, Philip Driscoll, is gaining notoriety by writing up a series of bizarrely inconsequential crimes in which various hats are being stolen and returned in unlikely locations; he ascribes the crimes to "the Mad Hatter". Driscoll's uncle, Sir William Bitton, is infuriated to have lost two hats in three days. He meets with Gideon Fell to discuss his possession of the manuscript of an unpublished story by Edgar Allan Poe. During the meeting, it is learned that Philip Driscoll has been found murdered at the Tower of London, with Sir William's oversized hat pushed down over his ears. After sorting out the comings and goings of Sir William's household and other visitors to the Tower, Gideon Fell must determine the fate of the manuscript and of the murderer. it:Il cappellaio matto ja:帽子収集狂事件 |
The Devil in Velvet | John Dickson Carr | null | Cambridge Professor of history Nicholas Fenton, in the England of 1925, makes a bargain with the devil and is sent back in time to Restoration London in 1675 to solve a murder that is about to take place, in the body of Sir Nick Fenton. Fenton soon finds himself in love with the intended victim, Sir Nick's wife Lydia, and resolves to alter the course of history by preventing her murder. Fenton's mastery of 20th century swordsmanship makes him a fearsome antagonist in 1675, so much so that he becomes known as "the devil in velvet". Also involved in the action is a woman who has also sold her soul to the devil and travelled back in time, and Fenton finds himself torn between the two women. He must not only solve the approaching murder before it happens, but come to terms with Sir Nick's romantic and political entanglements—and even void his deal with the devil. |
Death Turns the Tables | John Dickson Carr | null | Mr. Justice Ireton believes that, when presented with circumstantial evidence about a crime, he can unerringly penetrate to the truth. He also believes that he can pay off handsome Anthony Morrell to break off his engagement with the judge's daughter Constance, in the hopes that Constance will marry the judge's assistant Fred Barlow (which would very much displease wealthy society girl Jane Tennant, who loves Barlow). However, there are a few problems that will stand in the way of that arrangement; notably, that the judge is broke and Tony Morrell cannot be bought off, although he is known to enjoy exacting revenge for slights both real and imagined. When Morrell is found dead in the Iretons' seaside cottage, a great deal of circumstantial evidence points to the judge, who cannot think of how to divert suspicion. It takes Gideon Fell to make sense of some very unusual pieces of evidence, which include a piece of chewing gum and an overstuffed pillow marked "Souvenir of Canada", and determine how Tony Morrell met his death. it:Il giudice è accusato |
The Testament Of Gideon Mack | James Robertson | 2,006 | The main story of The Testament is set within a framing narrative which concerns a publisher who recollects the "strange disappearance" of the novel's main character, Gideon Mack, and the discovery of Mack's "last testament". The testament itself comprises the main narrative. It recounts the life of its author, a son of the manse (meaning the son of a minister of the Scottish Kirk), who has followed in his father’s steps, eventually becoming minister to the small town of Monimaskit. Since Gideon does not, however, believe in God as such, he becomes increasingly disillusioned with his existence, until an accident sends him tumbling into a local gorge. Believed to be dead, he emerges three days later, claiming to have met and conversed with the Devil, who has confirmed several of his doubts. After scandalising and alienating his friends, the parish, and the Kirk at large, Gideon once again disappears, leaving his written account for posterity. The epilogue to the novel is presented as the report of the freelance journalist who first brought the manuscript to the publisher’s attention. He interviews several of the inhabitants of Monimaskit who were mentioned in Gideon’s testament. |
Berserk | Ally Kennen | 2,007 | Wouldn't it be cool to have a killer as penfriend? 15-year-old Chas is fascinated of this idea. He impersonates his mother and writes to a man, called Lenny, who is in a death row in the USA, because he allegedly had killed a teenager. The Man is from Chas' home town in England. And he actually writes back. A risking game! But that's not all. Chas steals a truck with his friend - only for fun. But the prison, in which the crazy teenagers land, isn't any fun. But he still gets letters by Lenny from America. Just before Chas was released from prison, he is told that Lenny was acquitted because of the absence of proof and that he is on the way to England. What started as game evolved into a nightmare: Lenny wants to pay an old bill. When Chas and his friends realize that THEY are the goal of vengeance, it is nearly too late... |
No Jumping on the Bed! | Tedd Arnold | null | Walter's father finds him jumping on his bed and warns him not to do it: "One day it’ll crash right through the floor." Walter tries to go to sleep but hears his friend Delbert in the apartment above jumping on his bed. Walter decides to have just one more jump himself, but instead keeps jumping higher and higher until the floor starts to crack. He and his bed fall into Miss Hattie’s apartment where he lands in her plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Walter and his bed continue to fall, along with Miss Hattie and the spaghetti, into Mr. Matty's apartment where he is watching monsters on his television set. Miss Hattie falls into Mr. Matty's lap, while Walter lands in his fish tank. The next stop for Walter's bed and the ever-growing crowd is Aunt Batty's apartment where her stamp collection gets scattered all over the floor. Aunt Batty and her stamps join the group as it falls into the next apartment, knocking over a castle of toy blocks that Patty and Natty have been building. Patty, Natty, and Fatty (their cat) are added to the group as it falls down into Mr. Hanratty's apartment where he is painting a picture at his easel. Walter, Miss Hattie, Mr. Matty, Aunt Batty, Patty and Natty, Mr. Hanratty, the cat, the paint, the spaghetti, the television, the fish, and various toys now land in Maestro Ferlingatti's apartment where he and his string quartet are practicing. They too join the tumbling crowd who all end up safely in the dark and quiet basement of the building. Walter is back in his bed and realizes that it has all been a dream, but he promises himself that he will never jump on his bed again and hopes that Delbert will learn his lesson as well. Then Walter hears Delbert jumping on the bed again, followed shortly by Delbert falling through Walter's ceiling. |
A Mercy | Toni Morrison | 2,008 | Florens, a slave, lives and works on Jacob Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American and fellow laborer on the Vaark farm, relates in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a smallpox plague that destroyed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England on a ship for the new world to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark accepts a young Florens from a debtor in the hopes that this new addition to the farm will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery. All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in a new and alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous, ultimately proving to be the turning point in her life. Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing the relationship between men and women in early America that often ended in female victimization. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison often describes their progress in Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands the significance of the title, "a mercy." |
The Chocolate Touch | null | null | John Midas is a very greedy young boy who only loves to eat candy, especially chocolate. His parents keep trying to get him to eat healthy meals, but all he wants to eat is chocolate, to the point where he must take nightly doses of a vitamin tonic to keep nourished. John has to find a way to continue eating chocolate without being noticed. One day, John happens across an unusual coin lying on the sidewalk, about the size of a quarter. One face depicts a fat boy, and the other is inscribed with his initials, "J.M." Shortly thereafter, he encounters a candy store he has never seen before, which is further mysterious considering the owner knows John's name immediately and claims that the strange coin is the only kind of money he accepts. John uses the coin to purchase a large box of chocolates. That night, in bed, John opens the box to dejectedly discover that it contains only one small chocolate ball, with an exquisite flavor.When John wakes up he brushes his teeth only to find his tooth paste turned to chocolate. What starts out as a dream come true quickly becomes uncomfortable, as John becomes thirstier and thirstier, sicker and sicker, and begins longing for the good, wholesome foods his parents always wanted him to eat. John complains of the condition to his father, who take him to the family doctor, where his condition is revealed, although the doctor thinks it is some rare disease. Discomfort turns to nightmare, as John tries to console his weeping mother with a kiss, only to turn her into a chocolate statue. Finally considering someone else's good above his own, John tracks down the storekeeper of the candy shop, and he tries to set things right. The mystery of the shop is is not explained that in the ending, when John as part of his reformed self, feels he should be grateful to the store owner for undoing all of John's damage, runs back to the candy shop only to find an empty lot where the store once stood, though it is highly possible that he cannot see it due to him overcoming his greediness.]] |
Tenderness | Robert Cormier | 1,997 | Eric Poole is a convicted teenage serial killer. Lorelei "Lori" Cranston is a troubled 15 year old girl. Their lives intersect as they both search for "tenderness." The word tenderness itself is disputed as it is never clearly defined but is implied to be the struggle between love, lust, and the need for both, though it later becomes clear the definition of "tenderness" is quite different to both Eric and Lori. Lori is described as a beautiful girl with a very mature body at a young age. Consequently she must constantly deal with the wanted, and unwanted, sexual attention she receives from men. Her father was struck by a car when Lori was only two, leaving her and her mother to fend for themselves. They live on the east coast and are constantly moving. Her alcoholic mother has a history of troubled and abusive relationships. Her mother's latest ongoing relationship is to a man named Gary, who also has a sexual interest in Lori. Upon arriving in a new town Lori's mother begins working as a waitress, drinking so much she forgets Lori's birthday. This causes Lori to feel sad, yet remain in denial about her mother's problems, finding excuses and rationalizing her mother's behavior. Lori decides to run away leaving her mother a note in which Lori says she'll be staying with friends for a while. Though Lori admits that the friends mentioned in the note are a lie, she feels that she has successfully tricked her mother into believing they are real simply because her mother never asks about them, though other characters in the book imply that Lori's mom does know she has run away and simply does not care. As a little boy in New England, Eric Poole already exhibited symptoms of a sociopath. In accordance with one of the traits on the MacDonald Triad (used in identifying early characteristics of sociopaths), Eric tortured small animals, namely kittens. He does not feel any remorse and instead feels he is controlling the feline population in his neighborhood. Eventually, he moves from torturing kittens to killing his aunt's canary. Once sparked, his enjoyment in killing soon becomes a fixation, and he seeks to move on to larger prey, namely people. Eric is described as a tall, slender, blond, blue eyed and charming boy of 15 when he commits his first murders, He has no trouble luring in his victims with his innocent smile which he practices in the mirror. Though the book does not clarify whether or not they were murdered first, Eric is tried for murder as a juvenile and convicted for murdering only his mother and stepfather, whom he hates. He explains he murdered his mother in resentment for marrying his stepfather. Because Eric burned his arm with cigarettes and purposefully broke his own arm with a hammer, he managed to convince people he was abused by his parents. Yet he did not manage to fool everyone, especially Jake Proctor, a detective, who keeps a close eye on him throughout the book. There are three more of Eric's victims: all female, slender, with dark-hair and eyes. Eric describes the feeling of murdering girls with these specific characteristics as tenderness — tenderness associated with sexual desire. When Eric meets Lori, he also feels tenderness for her — tenderness to protect her. On his 18th birthday Eric is released from the juvenile criminal facility. His release causes a controversy in the community causing a media circus outside the facility. It is during a broadcast of his release that Lori first sees Eric and her fixation begins. During his stay in the facility, he kept to himself as much as possible and became known as "the Ice Man." One day, as he is on the verge of raping and killing another inmate, he changes his mind at the last minute and instead instructs him to stop bothering another inmate known as "Sweet Lefty." Sweet Lefty is indebted to Eric and comes into play later in the story, as he helps Eric out in various situations. Also, during Eric's stay in the facility, he meets Maria Valdez, whom he calls the Senorita. She fits the description of his preferred victims and he soon feels the need to have "tenderness" with her. Days before his release she gives him her phone number and he begins making plans to meet with her. Once out of the facility he moves in to his aunt's house in Massachusetts where the media circus follows, as well as Lori. One day Eric spots Lori on the front page of a newspaper, where she is known simply as "Ms. Anonymous." Lori's face sparks a memory about Eric's fourth and possibly last murder. Soon after receiving his driver's license Eric begins his planned road trip to find the Senorita, Maria Valdez. However, Lori is hiding in the car's back seat. Once he realizes Lori is in the back seat he agrees to drop her off at the next town but instead shows Lori the time of her life before he attempts to kill her at night. After shopping and going to a diner, Lori falls asleep at a motel where Eric tries to kill her, but he finds himself unable to do so. Lori wakes up and realizes what has occurred, and she seems happy. The next day at a carnival Eric meets the Maria. He attempts to murder her but Lori steps in and warns him that it's a set-up. Eric goes to a river nearby with Lori and goes on a boat where Lori falls and drowns. She makes an attempt to take Eric with her. The cops arrive and think Eric killed her, they incarcerate him. The book closes with Jake Proctor feeling guilty that it took the life of an innocent girl to lock Eric up and with Eric crying over his loss. |
Lucy Gayheart | Willa Cather | 1,935 | On Christmas holiday away from her piano studies in Chicago, Lucy Gayheart is ice skating in her hometown of Haverford, Nebraska. Harry Gordon, the most eligible bachelor in town, joins her. Later she takes the train back to Chicago - he is with her until the Omaha stop. In a prolepsis, she recalls going to a performance by Clement Sebastian and later to an audition with him - she has one scheduled for her return. Back in Chicago then, she goes to a concert by the same artist. The next day she goes to his place for a singing practice, and meets his valet Giuseppe. She will replace Sebastian's accompanist, James Mockford, whilst the latter is convalescent. During these practice sessions, Clement Sebastian seems distant. Once he gets a call asking for money, which must be from his wife. On another occasion, he goes to Madame Renee de Vignon's funeral; later he goes into that same Catholic church again. Sebastian goes off to Minnesota and Wisconsin on a tour with Mockford. Lucy feels dejected. However, she gets a telegram from Sebastian telling her to come to his studio the following day - this cheers her up. However, when she returns to his studio, she asks him if he ever got pleasure out of being in love. He says, "N-n-no, not much," then asks her "Why? -- Do you?" She replies, "Yes, I do. And nobody can spoil it." This embarrasses her—she worried that it exposed her love for him and she leaves abruptly. He manages to meet her again at Auerbach's (the studio where she studies and also gives lessons) and calms her fears. Later, both Lucy and Sebastian are depressed; the latter takes her to dinner and tells her about Larry MacGowan, a friend from his school days who died recently. The next day he tells her he loves her but is old enough to be her father so will not act on his love. He says that she is not really in love with him, only growing up and "finding things." Later, when Sebastian is off on an Eastern U.S. tour, Harry visits her and they go to operas and museums together. Although she seems appreciative and making an effort to be nice, she finds his visit stressful. She rejects his proposal for marriage, saying that she loves someone else. Sebastian finally comes back briefly; Lucy is to go to New York City to be his accompanist in the winter, after he tours Europe. Meanwhile she has to rehearse, and she will take up Sebastian's apartment as her studio. On his departure she cries. Later she receives a letter from her sister Pauline which says Harry has gotten married to Miss Arkwright. Professor Auerbach asks Lucy what she wants to do in her future—accompany other singers or get married to Harry (whom he briefly met). He implies that it is difficult for a female accompanist -- "For the platform they always have a man." -- thus, a female accompanist would only be for rehearsals. This discourages Lucy. In September, Professor Auerback reads in the newspaper that Sebastian and Mockford drowned in Lake Como, near Cadenabbia. Lucy returns to Haverford. No one knows why she has returned and there is some gossip about it with some saying that Professor Auerbach had fired her. Harry is very glib with Lucy whenever he meets her. She feels depressed, and her only solace is sit in the orchard. When her sister Pauline wants to remove it to make more money growing onions and potatoes, she throws a tantrum, Pauline gives in, and it is not cut down. Later she visits Mrs. Alec Ramsay, an elderly lady and old friend, who has been asking after her and plays the piano there. At night she sometimes has nightmares. She then goes into the bank in another attempt to talk to Harry, but again he sends her away glibly. Mr. Gayheart has bought tickets for the opera. The performance seems humdrum to Lucy, but she is very impressed with the soprano's performance. The soprano had obviously seen better days and a better opera company than her present traveling opera company, but yet she gave a wonderful performance. "The wandering singer had struck something in her that went on vibrating; something that was like a purpose forming, and she could not stop it." The day before Christmas, the thought comes to her -- "What if -- what if Life itself were the sweetheart? It was like a lover waiting for her in distant cities -- across the sea; drawing her, enticing her, weaving a spell over her." This cheers her up and the next day, she writes to Professor Auerbach and inquires about returning to her job with him in Chicago again. He replies that she can come in March, when her replacement, the current teacher, leaves. Meanwhile, Pauline has heard that Lucy may have had a love affair with a singer who died. In late January, Pauline announces that she has two piano students for Lucy. Lucy refuses to teach them. In the ensuing argument, Pauline indicates that their father has made financial sacrifices and gone into debt to finance Lucy's musical education in Chicago. She also indicates that she has heard talk about Lucy and Sebastian and that the gossip is that Harry threw Lucy over when he found out about the two. After this, Lucy leaves the house carrying her skates. She finds it hard going due to a recent snowfall and decides to catch a ride with whoever passes so that she can return. However, Harry is the person who appears. When she asks for a ride, he pretends he is too busy to take her back to her house and drives past her. She reaches the area that she and her friends had always used for skating. However, the river has changed its course since she last skated there and the shallow part that froze solid is no longer there. Lucy is so angry at Harry for driving past her that she does not notice any change in the river. When she skates toward the center, the ice cracks and she falls through. One of her skates catches on a submerged branch of a tree that had fallen in during the spring flood last year. Her body is found by her father and other locals. This book is written from Harry Gordon's point of view and includes his reflections. Twenty-five years later, in 1927, Mr. Gayheart is brought back from Chicago, where he died in a hospital. Pauline had died five years earlier, so he was the sole remaining member of the family. Many people turn up at the funeral. Harry had become chummy with Mr Gayheart after Pauline's death and they would often play chess together. It is revealed in Harry's thoughts that he had regretted his hasty marriage and that it had been in retaliation for Lucy's rejection. When she returned to Haverford, he realized that he still loved her, but still wanted to punish her for rejecting him so he avoided her and tried to distance himself from her, even though he knew she wanted contact. "He knew that if he were alone with her for a moment and she held out her hands to him with that look [of pleading], he couldn't punish her any more -- and she deserved to be punished." He blamed himself for her death. Harry had given Mr. Gayheart a mortgage with the Gayheart farm as surety in the last years of Mr. Gayheart's life. Mr. Gayheart had been unable to repay the mortgage, so Harry now owned the farm. He ponders on the footprints made by Lucy at 13 in a concrete sidewalk when it was newly laid. He tells his bank assistant Milton Chase that he can have the farmhouse to live in, provided that Chase makes sure that nothing happens to the footprints. He says that Chase will inherit the farm when he dies. |
Fine Things | Danielle Steel | 1,989 | The plot follows Bernard Fine, a fictional character in his 30's who has recently been promoted to senior vice-president of Wolff's Department Store in his home town of New York. Although enjoying his life, Bernie is sent to San Francisco to open a new Wolff's store. Bernie gets a new outlook on life when he meets little Jane O'Reilly, and soon after falls in love with her mother, Liz O'Reilly, a resident in California. After forming a relationship and marrying, Liz becomes pregnant with their first child, only to develop cancer shortly after the birth, given only a short amount of time to live. When Liz dies, Bernie is left with the responsibility of two children, and must take a new lease and have new experiences throughout his life. |
The Firebrand | Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1,986 | As the destruction of Ilium approaches, Kassandra foresees catastrophe and does all in her power to prevent it but is not listened to. Helen is abducted by Paris. This disaster is foreseen by Kassandra.Paris is her twin, and she has a psychic link to her brother, even when he was living in exile. Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Achilles soon follow with an army, and the war for Troy is begun. As these happenings spin out of control, Kassandra rediscovers the ancient worship of the Snake Mother and takes up residence in the Temple of Apollo, the god who has replaced her goddess. There she is assaulted by Khryse, a priest disguised as Lord Apollo himself. The priestess sees through his trick and fights him off. Khryse, angry and rejected, spreads the rumor throughout the city that Kassandra is cursed for refusing the love of Apollo. Ultimately, it is Kassandra herself (donning the mask of Apollo) who puts an end to Akhilles’ bloodthirsty reign of terror. Her arrow finds its mark in his unprotected heel. Rather than allowing a legend of the Styx to bring down the great hero, Bradley gives us a much simpler solution: a poison-tipped Amazon arrow. Feminism has seemingly triumphed over male chauvinism—for a time, broken by the brutal rape of Kassandra and her foster-daughter, who is about three at the time, Honey. The Fall of Troy comes and goes. Kassandra suffers her horrifying fate as the concubine of Agamemnon but is freed at last by Klytemnestra, her master’s wife and murderer. She makes her way back Asia Minor, where in the desert, she hopes to recreate a kingdom of old—one ruled by a powerful queen, as it should be. |
Mixed Blessings | Danielle Steel | 1,993 | After the wedding of Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas, Diana comments that they will make a baby on their honeymoon. However, after the honeymoon period is over, she is still not pregnant. After repeated attempts, the couple both have to question their willingness to have a baby. The second couple consists of Charlie Winwood and Barbie Mason. The latter does not share Charlie's dreams of having a large family to raise in their house. After Charlie discovers he is sterile, he is forced to question his marriage, and his wife, who shares none of his dreams. The final couple is Pilar Graham, a successful lawyer from Santa Barbara, California and Brad Coleman, nineteen years older than she and father of two grown children. They are happy together until Pilar begins to alter her views on whether she should have a baby with Brad. |
Out of Order | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | null | Cape Cod's resident detective Asey Mayo has a long history with millionaire Bill Porter, owner of Potter Motors. Bill's men's club, the Hybrid, has a long history of funny bets on the night of the big football game, but when Bill Porter's enemy Harper Dixon bets Bill $50,000 that Asey Mayo couldn't "solve his Aunt Eugenia's grocery order", Asey must take a hand on behalf of his old friend, and returns from Jamaica to a New England blizzard. While approaching the Dixon home, he collects an assorted gang of characters and takes them to the Dixon's for safety. After they arrive, the group is locked in a powder room by a mysterious figure with a bright-red manicure. Upon their release, they discover Aunt Charlotte Dixon, drowned in her washbasin while in the process of shampooing her hair. When Asey Mayo learns that Aunt Eugenia's grocery order is the last thing she wrote before her death, he realizes that there is more at stake here than a bet. |
The Crimson Patch | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | null | Mr. Myles Witherall, retired New Englander, decides on a whim to take an inexpensive tourist bus to the little town of Skaket, and thereby gets involved in the movements of an escaped killer. Meanwhile, a young married couple of artistic antecedents find that Skaket's inhabitants have turned violently against them, just before they find the body of Rosalie Ray, radio personality, dead in her bed, murdered with a whale lance. It takes Asey Mayo's knowledge of Skaket mores, a session of bric-a-brac destruction with wilful ingenue Laurie Lee, and the breaking of a clever alibi before Asey can pinpoint the killer and administer justice personally. |
The Tinkling Symbol | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | null | The little Cape Cod town of West Weesit has been rocked by four suicides from the same location, now known as "Suicide Cliff". Last month, Kay Francis was the latest body to be found at the foot of the cliff. Her father, Dave Truman, had already been depressed because his business had failed and his wife had left him. A number of witnesses in a neighbouring house see him come out on the porch with a gun and aim it at himself, and they assume the resulting shot is another suicide. But when it is learned that Dave had in fact been stabbed in the back, Asey Mayo takes a hand and soon becomes a target for a determined shooter. In between, he sorts out some local Cape Cod entanglements and learns the meaning of a dying clue left by Dave Truman -- "ink" -- and what the tinkling bell around the neck of Sully the cat has to do with anything. |
Deathblow Hill | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | null | Between two neighboring Cape Cod houses there is a chain link fence topped with barbed wire to signify the feud between the two halves of the Howes family. The disappearance of the fortune left by ancestor Bellamy Howes has divided Suzanne from her eccentric relative Simon. The fence has kept them apart, but now there are mysterious things happening at both homes -- unexplained ransackings, unexplained prowlers wearing yellow handkerchiefs, and two near stranglings. When wealthy Benjamin Carson is strangled and left on the doorstep of one of the two houses on Deathblow Hill, Asey Mayo is called in to set to right both little mysteries (such as Bellamy's ships-in-bottles collection) and large mysteries like a tidy murderer. |
Sandbar Sinister | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | null | The picturesque village of East Pochet in Cape Cod is not its usual self when Elizabeth Colton drives into it; the previous evening, a bootlegger dumped two hundred cases of liquor offshore, and the whole town reaped the windfall. At some point during the boozy celebrations, however, a bearded mystery writer ended up dead in the boat house at the Sandbar estate. Asey Mayo must figure out the comings and goings of a number of interested parties before he puts together the meaning of a mysterious fire in the living room and a tube of salve and solves the crime. |
The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | null | Eve Prence is the glamorous and publicity-seeking owner of the famous Cape Cod Tavern, and uses her publicity to keep the Tavern filled with famous and/or wealthy guests. She has a house-full the night she's found at the bottom of the grand staircase, claiming somebody had tried to kill her. The following day, she is found with a knife in her ribs. Asey Mayo must work out the meaning of clues like a pair of antique pistols that contain a pair of antique daggers, and what exactly the blind boy on the scene of the crime heard, and a pair of dirty indentations on a windowsill before bringing home the crime to a surprising figure. |
By Love Possessed | null | null | Arthur Winner Jr., an attorney in a small American town. The time is roughly contemporary. The novel follows Arthur through 49 hours of his life, with flashbacks to prior events that tell us more about Arthur, his acquaintances, and his community. Many of the more significant characters, including Arthur Winner Sr., the protagonist's father, are dead at the time of the novel and are only seen in these flashbacks. Arthur Jr. is a partner in the small law firm founded by his father and Noah Tuttle. As a young man, Arthur married Noah's daughter, Hope Tuttle; they had two children, a son and a daughter, who are now grown. Hope died after giving birth to their daughter. Arthur is now married to a younger woman named Clarissa, who had been his daughter's tennis coach. The law practice currently consists of Arthur, Noah, and another man named Julius Penrose. It is said that Arthur had a brief but intense affair with Marjorie Penrose, Julius' wife. Two cases preoccupy Arthur during the course of the novel. One concerns the probate of the estate of Michael McCarthy. The other is the arrest of Ralph Detweiler for rape. He is also called on to deal with a new pastor in the Episcopal Church, who is asking him to take a role in the leadership of the parish. He also meets with a friend of Marjorie's, a woman who wants to discuss converting to Catholicism. Many years ago, a trolley line had been built in the town. Noah Tuttle had encouraged his clients, including Michael McCarthy, to invest in it. The trolley company went bankrupt, however, due to the rise of the automobile. Noah handled the bankruptcy case and, to the amazement of all, managed to return some money to the investors. The novel, however, begins to hint at a darker side to Noah's brilliance. He ridicules an elderly woman for wanting to move some of her funds from bonds into stocks. He bristles at the suggestion that the endowment of the parish could be transferred to management by the dioceses. During a hearing supervised by Arthur, Noah has an outburst when questioned about the assets of the McCarthy estate. Meanwhile, Ralph Detweiler, a young man, has been accused of what would now be called “date rape," and is dealing with the pregnancy of another. He flees to New York, whereupon his distraught sister Helen commits suicide. Arthur examines the records that Helen has been maintaining and discovers that Noah has been embezzling from the trusts that he managed. This was the source of the money from the bankruptcy settlement. Noah embezzled $200,000 from the "Orcutt bequest" and has since been manipulating the money in his trusts, robbing Peter to pay Paul while attempting to replenish the funds. Arthur also learns that Julius Penrose has been aware of the embezzlement for some time. Julius urges Arthur to keep quiet, hinting that he is aware of Arthur’s affair with his wife, and that he is grateful that he has been silent about that. Arthur contemplates his position, where there are no good choices. He says: “Life, that has unfairly served so many others, at last unfairly serves me”. |
Dwellers of the Forbidden City | David "Zeb" Cook | 1,981 | The adventure begins when the player characters hear reports of bandits waylaying and attacking caravans in a jungle region. Most of the ambushed merchants and guards have been killed, but the few who have returned alive tell fantastic stories about deformed plants and deadly beasts in the jungle. The stolen goods taken from the caravans provide an impetus for the characters to enter the jungles in search of this lost treasure. After a long and perilous journey, the player characters encounter some friendly native people and are invited to stay in their village. The characters learn from the village's chief about the dangers of creatures called the yuan-ti and their servants, the tasloi, and that these creatures recently kidnapped the chief's son, taking him into the jungle. The chief and village shaman tell the player characters about a "forbidden city" in the jungle which they believe houses the ghosts of their dead enemies, and they supply the characters with guides to show the party the way to this forbidden city. The adventuring environment in this module allows for both action and intrigue. The player characters can recruit allies from the various power groups and factions within the city, namely the bugbears, mongrelmen, and bullywugs, or else help pit these factions against each other for their own benefit. |
The Killings at Badger's Drift | Caroline Graham | 1,988 | In the fictional village of "Badger's Drift", the elderly Miss Bellringer insists that her friend, Emily Simpson, did not die of a heart attack as her doctor claims, but was in fact murdered. An autopsy soon proves her right, as a mix of red wine and hemlock is found in the dead woman's system. While the village descends into panic, the murderer strikes again, claiming the life of Mrs. Rainbird, before leaving her corpse to be discovered by her son Dennis, a local undertaker. As Barnaby investigates, aided by Sgt. Gavin Troy, he uncovers a connection between an older crime and the current killings at Badger's Drift. |
Lód | Jacek Dukaj | 2,007 | The protagonist of the novel is Benedykt Gierosławski, a Polish mathematician and notorious gambler, collaborating with Alfred Tarski on his work on many-valued logics. The Ministry of Winter's officials visit Gierosławski and make him embark on a Transsiberian journey to find his lost father, who is said to be able to communicate with Lute. During his journey Gieroslawski finds out that he is caught in a political intrigue, brought about by rivalry between two palace factions, liedniacy (conservatives and Siberian entrepreneurs backing the idea of "frozen Russia") and ottiepelnicy (mostly revolutionaries aiming for a literal and political "thaw"), supported also by the Tsar. He also meets Nikola Tesla in disguise, who has conceived a technology for manipulating and eventually destroying the Ice and has been hired by the Tsar to relieve Russia from the Winter. During the journey and upon his arrival in Irkutsk Gierosławski discovers that various political forces, including Followers of St. Marcyn, a sect worshiping the Ice led by Rasputin, followers of Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov, who strive for assuring human immortality, and Siberian industrial potentates, are interested in his person and that Józef Piłsudski, in this reality leading a group of Sybiraks and Siberian separatists fighting for Polish independence, may possess knowledge about his father. |
The adventures of Jonathan Gullible | Ken Schoolland | null | Jonathan is a boy, who lives in a small town. All the people in his village he considers boring, and often he dreams about going to adventure. One day, when he is playing around in his boat, a storm takes him away to another land, where he starts to learn about the country's strange (and misguided) laws and regulations. |
The Jester | James Patterson | null | The Jester is a novel focusing on a young man named Hugh, beginning in the year 1096. He is living in a time of unrest, when nobles treat peasants like himself as dirt. The region is ruled over by a tyrannical ruler named Baldwin. Seeking freedom, he joins the Crusades. However, when they manage to invade one of the Turk Cities, he sees the horror around him, and decides he cannot face it. He passes a church, where he sees a priest being beaten, and kills the men attacking him. At the now dead priest's side lays a staff, which Hugh decides to carry with him from then on. Hugh flees the Holy Land, returning to his home village of Veille du Pere, to find his wife kidnapped, his son Phillipe dead (whom his wife Sophie gave birth to after he left) and his inn destroyed. Townsfolk say the attackers wore no colors except for black crosses sewn onto their tunics, and were dishonored knights who seemed to be looking for him alone. Half mad with grief, he wanders into the forest, then goes to search for Sophie who he believes is still alive and being held captive in the dungeons at Treille. In the woods, he attacked by a boar which although he kills, wounds him badly. He is saved by Emilie, a woman who reminds him of Sophie. She turns out to be highborn, the daughter of the King of France, though he does not learn of this until much later. Hugh's plan is to infiltrate the castle of Lord Baldwin at Treille. With Emilie and the jester (at Boree) Norbert's help, he adopts the pretext of a Jester. After winning his Lord and the Lord's crowds' ear, he soon finds that his wife was never in Treille, with Baldwin. He travels to Borée to see Emilie once more. Winning Anne (Emilie's mistress)'s ear, he eventually finds that his wife, Sophie was in the dungeon of Borée all along, and that Anne had been lying to him. Killing three of the Tafurs (the guards of Anne which turn out to be the dishonored knights who took his wife), Hugh runs back to Veille du Pere. By then he is sure men are hunting him, but he knows not for what. The Tafurs launch an attack on Veille du Pere, but Hugh and his friends had prepared traps, and so killed all of them but one. This one attacks Hugh before his escape, and breaks his staff, but not the object within, which turns out to be the Holy Lance that pierced Jesus Christ's side as he lay on the cross. Peasants flock to the spear, so Hugh marches on Treille and takes Baldwin prisoner. Next he marches on Borée, but try as they might, they could not take it. Finally the leader of the Tafurs, "Black Cross" attacks Hugh and his Peasant army, but they rebuff them, Hugh killing Black Cross as they did so. Stephen (Anne's evil husband who had recently returned from the Crusades), threatened to kill Emilie, but a plot by Hugh and Anne save her. Stephen runs into the castle with Hugh in pursuit, Anne eventually killing Stephen with the Holy Lance. Emilie turns out to be the daughter of the King of France, and Hugh and Emilie get married, living well from then on. |
Brain Wave | Poul Anderson | null | At the end of the Cretaceous period the Earth moved into an energy dampening field in space. As long as Earth was in this field all conductors became more insulating. As a result almost all of the life on Earth with neurons died off, causing the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The ones that survived passed on their genes for sufficiently capable neurons to deal with the new circumstance. Now in modern times the Earth suddenly moves out of the field. Within weeks all animal life on earth becomes about 5 times as intelligent. The novel goes through the triumphs and tribulations of various people and non-human animals and groups on earth after this event. The book opens with a lyrical description of a rabbit stuck inside of a trap becoming able to reason his way out. This is a common theme in the book. Animal traps are based on the idea that the animal cannot reason their way out of them. When the animals get the ability to reason they start escaping. Institutions which seemed to be vital to human society, such as a money economy and centralized government, disappear in North America, while Africans, with the assistance of chimpanzees, overcome colonial rule and Chinese rebel against the Communist government. However, some of the means by which people cope with the "Change" are inventing new anti-scientific religions such as the Third Ba'al or adopting pseudo-science. As humans develop interstellar travel, they discover no other races are as intelligent as they; other races developed pre-Change intelligence, and there was no environmental pressure to select for higher intellgience after that. |
Silent Honor | Danielle Steel | 1,996 | In August, 1941, Hiroko migrates to the United States from Japan, as she has an uncle, aunt, and cousins living there. Upon first arrival, she settles in well and continues to lead a regular life, however, on December 7, 1941 — Pearl Harbor is bombed, thus making them an enemy in their community and across the USA, as they are considered foreigners. Ordered to stay by her father, she remains occupied in California, however, the military are ordered to remove all Japanese citizens, and she ends up being put in a detention centre, having to fight to stay alive. |
Parnassus on Wheels | Christopher Morley | null | Parnassus on Wheels is Morley's first novel, about a fictional traveling book-selling business. The original owner of the business, Roger Mifflin, sells it to 39-year-old Helen McGill, who is tired of taking care of her older brother, Andrew. Andrew is a former businessman turned farmer, turned author. As an author, he begins using the farm as his Muse rather than a livelihood. When Mifflin shows up with his traveling bookstore, Helen buys it—partly to prevent Andrew from buying it—and partly to treat herself to a long-overdue adventure of her own. The first of two novels to be written from a woman's perspective, as well as the prequel to a later novel (The Haunted Bookshop), Parnassus on Wheels was inspired by David Grayson's novel, The Friendly Road, and starts with an open letter to Grayson, taking him to task for not concerning himself (except in passing) with his sister's opinion of and reaction to his adventure. |
Singularity | William Sleator | null | Sixteen-year-old identical twins Harry and Barry learn that their mysterious great-uncle has died, and his house and possessions now belong to their mother. The brothers travel to Sushan, Illinois to examine the house and its contents. Inside the cobweb-filled home, the rivaling brothers find mysterious animal skeletons and other odd objects. Outside Uncle Ambrose's residence, Harry and Barry find a small metal-reinforced building, which according to the accompanying keys, is called the "playhouse." When the twins explore the playhouse, they discover that the properties of time are altered inside, and the playhouse may explain the eccentricities of their great-uncle. When their quirky and cute neighbor Lucy enters their lives, competition between the twins escalates, and Harry makes a decision that will change the nature of their relationship forever. |
Poison In Jest | John Dickson Carr | null | Jeff Marle, who plays a sidekick role in other Carr novels, is visiting a friend at the Quayle mansion in western Pennsylvania. Although various members of the Quayle household hate each other, all are united in hatred of the paterfamilias, Judge Quayle. A few moments after being introduced to Marle, Judge Quayle collapses after having been poisoned. More than one poison is used in murder attempts in the household; strange shadowy figures are seen prowling the halls at night, and there is a creepy story about a marble hand that was broken from a statue of Caligula which apparently creeps around the house on its own. After the first two deaths, a young friend of the family, Rossiter, takes a hand in detecting, with the aid of Jeff Marle; Rossiter identifies the murderer. |
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