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The Mohole Mystery | Hugh Walters | 1,968 | A drilling project in Dudley in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom hits a cavern 20 miles beneath the surface of the Earth and detects strange microbes. UNEXA send Russian Serge Smylov down to search for other forms of life in a rocket-propelled capsule but it is damaged when it hits the bottom of the cavern. Then strange creatures start attacking him... The book, under its US title The Mohole Menace, is mentioned in A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. |
Nearly Neptune | Hugh Walters | 1,969 | The book begins by announcing the death of Chris Godfrey and his three fellow astronauts after a fire and apparent break-up of their spacecraft as it approaches the orbit of Neptune as observed from Earth. The crew have however survived but are stranded as their hypothermia equipment is irreparably damaged. |
The Garden Party | Václav Havel | null | The protagonist is Hugo Pludek, who is an average person from a middle-class Czech family. His parents are worried about his future so they arrange an appointment for him with the influential Mr. Kalabis at the garden party of the Liquidation Office. Hugo does not find Kalabis but instead a sequence of absurd encounters starts. All of the functionaries of the Liquidation Office speak in a degenerated, ideological, content-free language, as is expected from their role in the bureaucratic system. Hugo is intelligent and adaptive, therefore is able to adjust his behaviour. He learns to speak platitudinally, using clichés that do not mean anything real and finally becomes the head of the newly created Central Inauguration and Liquidation Committee. As the result, he completely loses his identity. The play ends when Hugo comes home changed so much that his own parents don't recognise him. Parallels may be drawn between Hugo's new behaviour and the behaviour of many among the Czechoslovak population during the Communist era, who chose to conform to the attitudes of the regime that promoted material gain over culture, individuality, and creativity. One may also argue that the protagonist of this play, in pursuit of his career, has become a cliché himself. |
The Tenth City | Patrick Carman | 2,006 | Alexa goes back to Bridewell to rescue her friend Yipes with Warvold, Armon,Odessa, Murphy, and many others. After the death of Thomas Warvold, Alexa learns that Catherine and Thomas were her parents and her foster parents are Catherine's sister Laura and her husband James Daley. Along this sad, adventurous but still amusing book,Alexa learns to trust in herself and in Elyon. |
Dayworld | Philip José Farmer | 1,985 | Dayworld is the first in the Dayworld trilogy of science fiction novels by Philip José Farmer. The story is set in a dystopian future in which an overpopulated world solves the problem by allocating people only one day per week. For the rest of the six days they are 'stoned,' a kind of suspended animation. The novels focus on a man, Jeff Caird, who is a daybreaker, someone who lives more than one day a week. He is not like most daybreakers; he belongs to a government defying group called the “Immers”. The Immers are a very large and powerful group that works to create a better government. Not all Immers are daybreakers, so to get messages and information from one day to the next, they have daybreakers, like Jeff, to work in every day. The daybreakers of the Immers assume seven different personalities and seven different jobs. They slip from culture to culture, in seven different worlds. As Jeff goes day to day, he runs into problems while working as an Immer and as a daybreaker, and must cover his tracks, all while trying to keep up with his seven different lives, families, friends, and jobs. Eventually the stress makes Jeff unstable, and the Immers must dispose of him to keep the rest of the Immers safe. Jeff, wanting to live, tries to escape the Immers, but there are undercover Immers in every job, area, and government level. Jeff is caught and put in a sort of insane asylum, classified with “multiple personality disorder”, for the legal time before he can be considered “incurable” and killed. But Jeff has an escape plan… |
The Cry Of The Icemark | Stuart Hill | 2,005 | The Polypontian Empire has conquered much of the known world in recent years, much thanks to its fearsome general, Scipio Bellorum. Bellorum has finally decided to invade his small neighbor to the north, the Icemark. After King Redrought sacrifices his entire army to stop the invasion, Thirrin, his daughter, is left alone to save the nation. Thirrin, having just made an alliance with the werewolves by saving their king, must now seek out more allies, as the Icemark and the werewolves alone cannot defeat the Empire. Although they have the support of their vassal, the Hypolitan, more are needed. Thirrin, with the aid of a young warlock, Oskan Witch's Son, must attempt to win over the Vampire King and Queen. They know this will be difficult because of the centuries of distrust and hatred between the two races. Because the Empire hates all that is unscientific and irrational, the Vampires know that if the Icemark falls, the Empire will wipe out the Vampires next. With this in mind, the Vampires reluctantly agree to send aid. On the advice of King Grishmak of the werewolves, Thirrin and Oskan travel to the Hub of the World, to try to ally themselves with the Snow Leopards, led by Tharaman-Thar, who live there. The leopards are as tall as warhorses at the shoulder, Tharaman-Thar even bigger, and are fearsome fighters. With the threat of the Empire again winning the argument, the Snow Leopards choose to fight with Thirrin. The combined forces of the Icemark, the Snow Leopards and the Hypolitan clash with Bellorum's forces. The werewolves have not yet arrived, as a muster of their nation takes several months. The Vampires have also not arrived, as they are stubborn, and are not reliable. While the allies fight brilliantly, the Empire's sheer numbers begin to turn the tide. As the final battle is being waged, which the allies believe will surely end in their destruction, the Werewolves, the Vampires, and many of the creatures from the Land-of-the-Ghosts finally arrive. When they arrive, Thirin is overjoyed. They find a new strength within them to fight the Polypontion Army and defeat them. They use everything in their power to defeat them, and they succeed. In addition, the forces of the Holly King and the Oak King of the nearby forest join the war, as they have made themselves allies with Thirrin. With their numbers, and the sheer terror they inflict, the battle turns into a rout. The vampires, And werewolves pursuit the enemy and kills most of the enemy's army. |
First Contact? | Hugh Walters | 1,971 | Radio signals begin flooding Earth from the vicinity of Uranus and two ships, each with a crew of four are sent to investigate. The signals are traced to an alien spaceship on one of the moons of Uranus. The ships land and all but two enter the alien vessel to converse with the apparently friendly humanoid alien, Vari. One of the two remaining crewmen believe the alien to be malevolent and determines to destroy it... |
Passage to Pluto | Hugh Walters | 1,973 | Chris Godfrey is now deputy-director of UNEXA; he sends his former crew-mates to investigate unexplained perturbations in the orbit of Pluto. They discover that not only are their fuel tanks holed, but a super-dense wandering planet is on course to decimate the Solar system... This was the last of Hugh Walter's 'exploration' novels as his realistic approach could not envisage travel further afield. |
Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake | Jennifer Allison | 2,006 | When Gilda Joyce earns a scholarship to attend Our Ladies of the Sorrows, a private high school for Catholic girls, she discovers that a girl named Dolores Lambert had drowned in the lake near the school a few years ago. In this novel, self-proclaimed psychic investigator Gilda Joyce investigates the mysterious happenings that seems to connect with the drowning of Dolores. Some people say that Dolores walked blindfolded onto a sheet of cracked ice that was overlapping the lake on the eve of Thanksgiving, while trying to get to her house. However, Gilda suspects that someone might have intentionally pushed Dolores into the depths of the lake or made her walk on it. Gilda investigates the drowning of Dolores, and approaches to the truth after eavesdropping, and sneaking into places she was not supposed to be. Eventually, she discovers that Danielle Menory, Priscilla Barkley, and Nikki Grimaldi were members of The Ladies of the Lake, a secret society. In her initiation ceremony, Dolores to find her way to the ruins (where they had the secret club) and she went on the lake and drowned. The girls are eventually punished and Gilda's mother breaks up with her boyfriend Brad. The only downfall is that Gilda'S scholarship was taken away from Our Lady of Sorrows for having failing grades, although it is implied that she was kicked out for revealing that three of the school's most prized citizens were involved in murder, even if it was an accident. |
Darker Than You Think | Jack Williamson | 1,948 | The novel begins with the announcement from an ethnological expedition to Mongolia that among humanity exist people who can turn themselves into animals. However, the expedition's dies of sudden mysterious seizure in the midst of a press conference, just as he was about to provide detailed proof of his assertions. His friend, journalist Will Barbee, suspects his alleged colleague, the fascinating April Bell. Determined to discover the truth, but also attracted by Bell, Barbee finds out that in a past era a war took place in which Homo sapiens defeated werewolves (Homo lycanthropus) - who can, in fact, also turn themselves into various other animals other than wolves. The surviving werewolves continued to live hidden among humans and await the coming of the Child of the Night who will lead them to recover the supremacy. In the secret history depicted in the book, Medieval witch hunting was not a manifestation of blind fanaticism but a means of protecting Homo Sapiens against the resurgence of this very real threat; conversely, modern skepticism and rational disbelief in the very existence of witches were deliberately fostered by these hidden werewolves, as a way of gaining a breathing spell and preparing for their counter-attack. While becoming aware of all this, Barbee is faced with the issue of discovering precisely who and what he is himself, and on which side should he range himself in the coming titanic struggle. |
The Gum Thief | Douglas Coupland | 2,007 | Roger and Bethany The primary plot of this novel involves two characters, Roger and Bethany, employees of a Staples in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The two characters come from very different walks of life. Roger, a middle-aged alcoholic, is coping with an ugly divorce from his wife and the loss of access to his child. Bethany, a goth girl, is dealing with coming of age and working in what Coupland referred to in his 1991 novel Generation X as a McJob. What brings the characters together is a journal that Roger has decided to keep. In the journal, Roger begins to discuss his issues and his pressing thoughts, including a novel he would like to write called “Glove Pond." Bethany finds this journal, and writes a letter to Roger. In the letter, Bethany says they should continue to write to each other, but to pretend that they know nothing about each other outside of the letters themselves at work. After writing letters back and forth, Roger and Bethany strike up a friendship in the letters. Soon, more letters are included in the book from other characters, for instance, from Bethany’s mother, DeeDee, who went out on a date with Roger, and also went to high school with him. Other letters include a letter from Roger’s wife, emails from employees within the store, and more. Interspersed within the main text is the novel within the novel: Glove Pond. As Roger begins to write Glove Pond, different characters in the novel respond to his writing in their letters. The Glove Pond sections are interspersed within the other letters. Glove Pond Excerpts of Glove Pond are scattered throughout the book, presumably appearing as Roger writes them. Glove Pond is a corruption of Edward Albee’s 1962 play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It concerns the two main characters, a couple named Steve and Gloria, and their dinner guests, Steve's younger colleague, Kyle Falconcrest, and his wife Brittany, a surgeon. Roger writes in his diary that Glove Pond was supposed to contain characters such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton—drunk movie stars who engage in witty repartee. This is a fairly accurate description of Steve and Gloria, who are, in fact, a pair of broke alcoholics living in a dusty, neglected home. The plot of Glove Pond follows the dinner interactions between these characters. A reference to Glove Pond is seen in a short scene in the final episode of the TV adaptation of Coupland's jPod. The character of Jim Jarlewski (Alan Thicke) is seen reading a hardcover copy of Glove Pond by Roger Thorpe. |
The Veiled Prophet | Richard A. Knaak | 2,007 | The Veiled Prophet continues Uldyssian's journey toward Kehjan City where his goal is to seek the Mage Clans as allies against Inarius and his Cathedral of Light. The book lays the ground for upcoming Diablo games and novels. Uldyssian plans to reach Kehjan City to convince the Mage Clans to ally against the Prophet (Inarius) and his Cathedral of Light servants. However, things get complicated. Uldyssian renamed his followers as The Edyrem, the descendents of the firstborn: the Nephalem. Serenthia and Uldyssian's brother, Mendeln, helped him control the masses of nearly a thousand Edyrem marching toward Kehjan City, still days ahead. Meldeln had learned from Rathma the ways of the Necromancer and communed with Ghosts who would tell him things as spies at his service. The Edyrem found a few merchant wagons and decided to talk to the influential merchant to seek an audience with the Mage Clans. Only Uldyssian continues the journey to Kehjan City alongside the merchant. Otherwise, Kehjan City would see the approach of a thousand Edyrem as an impending invasion. On their way to the city, a mage and a servant attack the merchant wagons. Everyone is killed, but Uldyssian who fought in vain against a binding spell. Shortly, the mage brought Uldyssian to his sanctum beneath Kehjan City. The mage planned to frame Uldyssian to look like the murderer of the influential merchant so that the Edyrem would be blamed. His monstruous servant kept watch over Uldyssian, while his master left to meet the Mage Clans. The servant was more than what he seemed to be ... it was possessed by Malic, the loyal servant of the Primus. Uldyssian had thought Malic had died at the Church of the Triune all this time, and painfully found out how he had survived. In his hand, the monster held a crystal ... a fragment of the World Stone. He would use it to transfer his soul into a new host. Each host burning away within days or hours. All this time seeking the opportunity to find Uldyssian as his final host. Malic had taken possession of a disfigured man to serve and fuel the powers of one of the Mage Clans members, to put in motion a plan to reach Uldyssian. The monster was nearly possessing Uldyssian. The mage was interrogated by the council of the Mage Clans concerning the dead of the merchant and his guards, as their magic probes made them suspect the mage had something to do with the massacre. When suddenly, the building shook after an explosion. The mage arrived to the scene. Uldyssian was gone. His servant dead. Or nearly dead, for it possessed the mage claiming him as a new host. Uldyssian ran still disoriented through the streets of Kehjan city, and found the Prince Ehmad on his way. The Prince trusted Uldyssian's words and promised an audience with the Mage Clans and nobles. However, Angel Inarius, as the Prophet, had sent many to spread lies across the land, blaming Uldyssian and the Edyrem for the deads of innocents all the way from Toraja to Seram. Inarius invaded Uldyssian's mind using his power to weaken him. They fought, and Uldyssian broke. To Uldyssian, he had failed to defeat Inarius and felt weak before such an opponent. However, the truth was that Inarius was deeply hurt. Uldyssian was much, much more than any mortal. Inarius now feared Uldyssian. He would condemn all of Sanctuary just to destroy him. Even ... accept a pact with the Lord of Terror. More and more events are set in motion to pit and clash the Mage Clans against the Edyrem portraying Uldyssian as a killer of innocent people. And amidst all this conspiracy, lurked the menace of Malic's spirit who could be anyone, within any new host. Trag'Oul and Rathma assist Uldyssian and his brother Mendeln, guiding them. But this is no longer a fight between Inarius and the erydem. The fate of Sanctuary and of many worlds is in peril. Trag'Oul the cosmic dragon can no longer keep Sanctuary cloaked from the High Heavens. The erydem march toward the Cathedral of Light, far to the north and are welcomed by the servants of the Prophet empowered by their master. The erydem are a worthy enemy, but when Inarius himself confronts Uldyssian the whole world of Sanctuary literally trembles as both titans collide as equals. Just as the battle is nearly over, a more dangerous threat looms over Sanctuary ... the Heavenly Hosts arrive by the thousands from a vortex in the sky. Erydem fought Angels bravely, but if that was straining, things get spicy when the Burning Hells open its gate wide open into Sanctuary .... clashing Demon, Edyrem, Nephalem and Angels in utter carnage against each other. Only one may stop the madness.It ends in a breathtaking and unexpected way. When calm settles upon Sanctuary, the five members that compose the Angiris Council arrive to Sanctuary to rule judgement over Inarius and his creations. Imperius, Auriel (female), Malthael, Itherael, and Tyrael. As the five reach a final verdict, Mephisto comes forth to settle a pact with the Angiris Council. Tyrael requests an act from the Demon Lord as proof he will fulfill his end of the pact. Mephisto agrees, with the condition that he and his brothers would be given a prize to take with them to the Burning Hells, Inarius. |
The Rainbow and the Rose | Nevil Shute | null | The story concerns the life of Johnnie Pascoe, a retired commercial and military pilot, who has engaged in a dangerous rescue in a mountainous region of Tasmania. He has crashed his plane and lies injured and unconscious in the house of the child he had been sent to help. Hearing of his plight, Ronnie Clarke, a younger pilot who was taught to fly by Pascoe, offers to try and land a doctor to assist. His efforts do not succeed. Whilst resting at Pascoe's house that night, Clarke dreams of aspects of the life of his former mentor. Pascoe had been a fighter pilot during The Great War and had married an up and coming actress. At war's end, they had become separated and his wife accepted a role in Hollywood—and filed for divorce from there with sole custody of their daughter. A few years later, Pascoe opens a small flying school and is embroiled in an adulterous affair with a local upper-class woman, Brenda Marshall, whose husband is in a mental asylum. Things go awry after the birth of a daughter between her and Pascoe and the woman commits suicide, by deliberately crashing her light aircraft, when she learns that her divorce request from her husband has been refused. In the final part of the story, we learn of Pascoe's later life as a civil pilot—shortly before the story's opening. It seems that he has become enamoured of one of the flight attendants. In a touching scene, Pascoe proposes marriage to this young woman only to learn that she is his daughter by Brenda Marshall. The framing story closes with Ronnie Clarke making a successful attempt at Pascoe's rescue only to learn that Pascoe had died during the night. Like Conrad, Shute often uses a narrator to tell the story; in The Rainbow and the Rose, the narrator periodically shifts from Clarke to Pascoe. |
Beautiful Stranger | Zoey Dean | 2,007 | Beautiful Stranger follows Anna as she goes to New York City in an attempt to get away from the drama in Los Angeles. As she and Sam explore the city, Sam is spying on Eduardo in an attempt to discover why he's been acting so strange lately. Meanwhile a beautiful stranger appears on Anna's doorstep and she cannot escape the drama as Anna discovers that Ben has appeared to move on with another girl. |
Bad Girls | Jacqueline Wilson | 1,996 | 10-year-old Mandy White is mercilessly tormented at school by three classmates: Kim, Melanie and Sarah. After an incident where she is nearly hit by a bus while crossing a road to avoid the bullies, she is kept at home from school and meets Tanya, a lively older girl being fostered by Mandy's next door neighbour. Despite disapproval from Mandy's elderly mother, who is very overprotective of her and treats her as if she were much younger, the girls become fast friends. They dream of a future where they will be older and independent, free from families and foster homes, and can live together and have fantastic adventures. Mandy becomes afraid when she discovers that Tanya is a frequent shoplifter, but decides not to say anything in case they are forbidden from visiting each other. At the end of the book, Tanya and Mandy are caught by police when Tanya steals from an upmarket clothing shop in town. Mandy's mother is initially angry, but realises she has been too strict with her and allows her to get new glasses and restyle her hair so she won't look quite as childish. Mandy also gains a new friend in Arthur, a shy boy in her class who is obsessed with fantasy stories. She greatly misses Tanya, who was taken to a new foster home when her previous criminal convictions were discovered, but the novel ends on a happy note as Tanya (who has dyslexia and hates writing) has with great difficulty written a letter to Mandy, assuring her that they are best friends forever and will one day be free to see each other again as they had dreamed about. Melanie, who in the past was Mandy's friend but had become friends with Kim and Sarah, becomes friends with her again. Tanya makes a brief appearance in another of Jacqueline Wilson's novels, Dustbin Baby. |
Inshallah | Oriana Fallaci | 1,992 | The books switches from character to character, following Italian soldiers in Beirut, flashbacks of their lives before they came to the city, their Lebanese sweethearts, Lebanese Christian and Shi'ite militants, and a group of French nuns. If anyone could be called the protagonist of the story, it would be Angelo, a confused Italian soldier who abandoned his studies of mathematics in order to enlist as a conscript in the Italian army and see war firsthand. Angelo's interest in Mathematics is reflective of Fallaci's lover, the Greek politician and rebel Alexandros Panagoulis, who also studied mathematics at the Athens Polytechnion and attempted to prove mathematical theorems in his own blood whilst in jail. But the real inspirer and leading actor of the novel is "Charlie", to which the author devotes many pages and between the lines attributed the success of the Italian contingent which left Lebanon unscathed. Charlie, a character of course inspired by Captain Corrado Cantatore (multi decorated just for his Lebanese exploits). Cantatore arrived in Lebanon many years before the Italian contingent, as a volunteer in the UN and was probably recruited from the famous Colonel Stefano Giovannone of Italian intelligence. Cantatore grew with Giovannone and when Giovannone left Lebanon, Cantatore had already woven his network that so impressed Oriana Fallaci and assured the safety to the Italians. The commanding Officer of the Italian Contingent, General Franco Angioni, before taking command of the expeditionary unit had served as Chief of Operations of the Army Staff, in charge of the Italian Military personnel serving in United Nations organizations (UNIFIL and UNTSO) in Middle East. Angioni was therefore aware of the peculiar capacity of the Captain Cantatore, and just landed off the ship in the Beirut harbor had given him the task of liaising with all Lebanese factions, under the cover of the press information officer. Cantatore received and accompanied all the journalists who visited the contingent and was the officer who spent more' time overall with Oriana Fallaci who, struck by the extraordinary quality of the Captain, decided to spend with Captain Cantatore in his office (so called "Arab Bureau") the last night in Lebanon of the Italian Contingent. One last curiosity: the code name "Charlie - Charlie" was born from the extraction of aeronautics of Cantatore (he was a pilot of fix wings and attack helicopters). At the arrival of the Italian Contingent, when Angioni asked to choose a Radio call sign distinct from those used in his headquarters (Condor, Eagle, Ruby, etc.). was natural for Cantatore take his initials, just CC, and pronounced phonetically in the alphabet in use among the pilots and control towers. Cantatore, when returned from Lebanon disappeared from the scene, he was great friend of Oriana Fallaci, it seems, he has continued to work for the' Italian intelligence. Angelo finds war not as he expected, and he is shocked at the irrationality and barbarity of the civil war engulfing Beirut. Whilst on guard duty, he meets Ninette, a beautiful Christian Lebanese woman with whom he cannot communicate as she pretends not to speak French for reasons unknown to Angelo. Still, they are attracted to each other and they begin a relationship. Angelo is tormented by the fact that their relationship is primarily physical, and also on his growing reliance on Ninette. While expecting a visit from Ninette, Hizbollah bombs the American marine barracks as well as French paratroopers barracks. Angelo is ordered to photograph the rescue efforts of Italian soldiers, but he is too horrified by the carnage to accomplish the task. On the way back to purchases Ninette an anchor shaped cross with the Virgin Mary inscribed on it to apologize for missing their rendez-vous. Subplots are developed between a group of Italian soldiers billeted in a Catholic monastery and the French nuns, as well as the negotiations between Italian officers and Shi'ite militia leaders. Angelo's friend Gino, a gentle poet, is severely wounded by Khalid Passepartout, a vicious child soldier in the service of the Shi'ite militia "the Sons of God." Gino loses his fingers, and can no longer write poetry. Angelo vows revenge, and during an encounter with Ninette he leaves early to visit Gino in the hospital and tells her that he cannot spend Christmas with her due to Gino's condition. He admits to her that friendship is more important than love to him, and this hurts Ninette who expresses to him in a letter, written in perfect French, that she can no longer see him. Angleo realizes how much he loves Ninette and vainly searches for her throughout the city. French paratroopers vacating a tower in the center of Beirut causes fighting to break out between Amal, a Shi'ite militia and mainly Christian government forces. In the turmoil Passpartout sees Ninette, who he sees in the street after she goes to the Italian post to see if Angelo is all right, and gives her his Kalashnikov, as he wants to run away. After being chastised by his officer and pedophilic lover, Rashid, he returns to Ninette demanding that his gun be returned and accusing her of theft. Despite warnings from passers-by that she will be killed if she returns the gun as she is a Christian, she returns the gun and Passepartout shoots her shouting "Christian! Whore! Spy!" Ninette is buried in a mass grave. Angelo's officer finds out the news, and tells Angelo who is shattered. Angelo again vows revenge, and whilst on guard duty he encounters Passepartout who is wearing Gino's bersaglieri helmet. Through a discussion, Angelo forgives Passepartout for killing his friend as he is only a child, but then rather than running away Passepartout attempts to sell Angelo an anchor shaped cross with the Virgin Mary on it. Angelo recognizes that this was the cross that he had given Ninette. In a fit of rage Angelo realizes that Passepartout killed not only his friend, but his lover, and Angelo kills Passepartout. Rashid finds out that an Italian killed his lover, Passepartout, and vows vengeance. He plans a suicided bombing against the Italian's boats as they plan to leave. The Italian commanders struggle to strike a deal with the Shi'ite militia to avert catastrophe. Angelo discovers by chance in a magazine that Ninette was really an elegant Lebanese woman named Natalia Narakat who had been married to an assassinated political leader, who looked quite a bit like Angelo which is what attracted her to him in the first place. In the interview she states that the meaning of life is contained in the word "inshallah"-- "as God wills"-- there is no rationality, no way to predict the future, just a series of events that are all interlocking but completely incomprehensible when viewed above from human eyes. Angelo is deeply moved and abandons his quest to formulate life in mathematical terms. The French nuns who quartered the Italian troops are raped and murdered by Shi'ite militiamen, who desecrate their church. The novel ends with the Italians departing after striking a deal with a Shi'ite cleric for their safety in exchange for supplies. The Shi'ite promise to give the alcohol and pork to Christian Lebanese, but instead they destroy it. In the final scene Angelo looks across the prow of the boat and sees Rashid's motorboat speeding towards the Italian convoy. |
The Roman Hat Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | The novel deals with the poisoning of a disreputable lawyer named Monte Field in the Roman Theater in New York City during a performance of a play called "Gunplay!". Although the play is a sold-out hit, the corpse is discovered seated surrounded by empty seats. A number of suspects whose pasts had made them potentially susceptible to blackmail are in the theater at the time, some connected with the Roman Theater and some audience members. The case is investigated by Inspector Richard Queen of the Homicide Squad with the assistance of his son Ellery, a bibliophile and author. The principal clue in the mystery is the disappearance of the victim's top hat, and it is suspected that the hat may have contained papers with which the victim was blackmailing the murderer. A number of suspects are considered, but nothing can be proved until Ellery performs an extended piece of logical deduction based on the missing hat and thus identifies the murderer. |
The French Powder Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | The story begins with a model in the ground-floor store window of French's Department Store in New York City who is demonstrating the features of a suite of ultra-modern furniture. When she pushes a button to reveal the folding bed, the bludgeoned corpse of the wife of the owner of the store tumbles to the floor. The murder case falls into the hands of Inspector Richard Queen of the Homicide Squad and his mystery-writing son Ellery. A set of onyx bookends in the private apartments on the top of the store reveal not only bloodstains but grains of fingerprint powder and an unusual assortment of books. Also, an ashtray full of half-smoked cigarettes is an important clue. The suspects include the wealthy victim's family and friends, some employees of the store, and possible members of a drug ring. At the finale of the novel, Ellery Queen performs an extended piece of deduction by creating a list of conditions that the murderer must meet (involving, among other things, the possession of keys). He clears all suspects except one, whose identity is revealed in the last line of the novel. |
Lion of Macedon | David Gemmell | 1,990 | As the story opens, Tamis, a sorceress, is seeing the future. She discovers that only a mixed-blood Spartan called Parmenion can help her. Parmenion is a half-blood Spartan whose mother is from Macedon. He is an accomplished runner and a strategic genius, yet he is despised by the young Spartan nobles. He is forced to kill a love rival in duel, subsequently forcing him to flee to Thebes. There, Parmenion starts a new life as a professional runner, but also gets involved with Thebian rebels attempting to overthrow the Spartan garrison now residing in the city center. This ultimately leads to an extended war between to the two city states, ending with Parmenion crushing the Spartan army, destroying the Spartan legend in the process. Some years later Parmenion is a famous mercenary general, winning battles all around Asia. He is then offered a chance to rebuild the Macedonian army by Philip II of Macedon. Later on the story describes the rise of Macedon under Philip II of Macedon and the birth of Alexander the Great. fr:Le Lion de Macédoine pl:Lew Macedonii |
Tony Hale, Space Detective | Hugh Walters | 1,973 | A series of unexplained disappearances from Lunar City leads to the assignment of Morrey Kant, Serge Smyslov and Tony Hale to investigate. Without any leads, Tony Hale devises a bold solo plan and is himself kidnapped. |
Murder on Mars | Hugh Walters | 1,975 | On a crater on Mars an engineer from Mars Base has been found dead, his spacesuit slashed. Despite having a large number of suspects to interview, Morrey Kant, Serge Smyslov and Tony Hale's questioning flushes out a prime suspect. But Tony doesn't believe they have the right man and hatches a dangerous plan to find the real killer. |
The Caves of Drach | null | null | A multi-billionaire's grandson gets lost in the Caves of Drach in Majorca. The grandfather employs the team of astronauts (who are on holiday) to investigate. The expedition finds him in a huge and airy underground civilization peopled by practically immortal age-old humanoid beings who hail from the stars and took refuge underground when a Terran Ice-age threatened. The 'Cenobians' have a utopian civilization and avoid contact with the surface to keep it that way, and yet their advanced technology could bring an end to famine and disease. |
The Last Disaster | null | null | The Moon's orbit suddenly starts to decay for reasons unknown; discovered when a solar eclipse arrives a few minutes early. The only hope of averting imminent disaster is an experimental anti-gravity device devised by an eccentric, elderly Welsh professor, who disillusioned with mankind, refuses to help... |
The Dark Triangle | null | null | A plane carrying both the UK Prime Minister and US President goes missing over the Bermuda Triangle. Chris Godfrey and company investigate and are captured by strange creatures... |
The Dutch Shoe Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | An eccentric millionairess is lying in a diabetic coma on a hospital bed in an anteroom of the surgical suite of the Dutch Memorial Hospital, which she founded, awaiting the removal of her gall bladder. When the surgery is about to begin, the patient is found to have been strangled with picture wire. Although the hospital is crowded, it is well guarded, and only a limited number of people had the opportunity to have murdered her, including members of her family and a small number of the medical personnel. The apparent murderer is a member of the surgical staff who was actually seen in the victim's vicinity, but his limp makes him easy to impersonate. Ellery Queen examines a pair of hospital shoes, one of which has a broken lace that has been mended with surgical tape. He performs an extended piece of logical deduction based on the shoe, plus such slight clues as the position of a filing cabinet, and creates a list of necessary characteristics of the murderer that narrows the field of suspects down to a single surprising possibility. |
The Greek Coffin Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | After the death of an elderly Greek man who is an internationally famous art dealer and collector, his attorney discovers that his will is missing and notifies the district attorney. When Inspector Richard Queen of the New York Police Force's Homicide Squad and his amateur detective son Ellery are called in, Ellery narrows down the possible location of the will to a single location: the dead man's coffin. When it is exhumed, however, it contains no will but the surprising addition of a strangled ex-convict. Ellery performs an extended piece of deduction in public early on in the novel that concerns a number of used teacups, and is proved wrong. Stung by this embarrassing error, he keeps his deductions to himself for the remainder of the case. Subsequent clues involve color-blindness, a shred of the burned will, two copies of a Leonardo da Vinci painting differing only in skin tone, a thousand-dollar bill, a dead art dealer whose office door was either open or closed and, most importantly, an infinitesimal typing error. Ellery and his father lay a trap, unmasking the murderer— whose guilt will probably have been entirely unsuspected by most readers. |
The Egyptian Cross Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | A schoolmaster in a tiny town in West Virginia is found on Christmas morning beheaded and crucified to a signpost in such a way that his body seems to form the letter "T". The letter "T" is scrawled in blood on the dead man's door. Ellery Queen is on the scene and notes that the letter "T" is also the shape of a "tau cross", or Egyptian cross; this seems to lead to a nearby bearded prophet whose invented religion mixes nudism and Egyptology. The prophet's business manager is missing and suspected of the murder. Ellery cannot solve the crime with the little information he has, but six months later in Long Island, New York, a neighbour of one of his university professors is found headless and crucified to a totem pole in the same way, in the new neighbourhood of the Egyptian prophet and his followers. This corpse is clutching a red piece from a game of checkers. The third victim is a millionaire yachtsman, similarly crucified. Many events turn on the families of the victims and their interaction with the Egyptian nudists, the game of checkers and the smoking of unusually-carved pipes, but the key clue that leads Ellery to the solution is a bottle of iodine that enables him to go on a cross-country chase and hunt down the murderer. |
The American Gun Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | Buck Horne and his faithful horse Injun were once the heroes of many a Western movie in the early days of Hollywood, but when tastes changed, Buck found his talents no longer required. Down on his luck, he went to work in a rodeo exhibition that was appearing in a New York coliseum, giving exhibitions of roping, fancy shooting, and the riding tricks that made him famous. With twenty thousand people in the stands, a group of celebrities including detective Ellery Queen in the boxes, and a full cohort of newsreel movie photographers recording the event for posterity, Buck and forty-one cowboys and cowgirls gallop around the track, whooping and firing their six-guns — until the former movie star is shot in the heart and trampled under the galloping hooves. Suspicion falls on many of the rodeo's performers and staff, and even on some of the celebrities, but one crucial and baffling point must be explained before anyone can be arrested. Even though all 20,000-odd people and the entire arena are searched, and the entire event can be reviewed on film, the specific murder gun cannot be found. Ellery Queen works his way through the details of the murderer's clever plot to set a trap and reveal two astounding surprises — the identity of the murderer and the hiding place of the gun. |
The Siamese Twin Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | Ellery Queen and his father are driving through a mountainous area of the United States on vacation when they are forced by a forest fire to seek shelter in a private home on the top of a mountain. The home soon becomes impossible to escape due to the fire. Dr. Xavier's aerie is host to an unusual assortment of characters, including his family and guests, a pair of teenage boys who are "Siamese" or conjoined xiphopagous twins, the doctor's assistant "Bones", who keeps burying mysterious parcels in the grounds, and another refugee who insists that his name is "Mr. Smith". As the fire creeps towards the top of the mountain, first the doctor and then his brother are murdered. Each victim is found clutching half a playing card, and half of a jack of diamonds seems to indicate that one - but only one - of the Siamese twins is the murderer. The limited circle of suspects includes a kleptomaniac who steals only rings, and a blackmailer. Ellery and his father investigate the murders and battle the fire at the same time. He performs an extended feat of deduction about the handedness of the murderer based upon the torn playing cards. The solution to the crimes is revealed in a dramatic finish when the flames reach the top of the mountain. |
Promised Land | Robert B. Parker | 1,976 | Promised Land, Inc. is a real estate development company with which one of the characters is involved. Spenser also metaphorically refers to Cape Cod as the Promised Land. Spenser is hired by Harvey Shepard to find his missing wife, Pam. He soon locates her, but along the way begins to suspect that Harvey Shepard has been beaten and threatened but will not reveal why or by whom. Spenser suspects he is in danger with a loan shark. After getting fired from Harvey, Spenser is contacted by his wife. She unwittingly becomes entangled in a murder and needs Spenser's help. Spenser manages to get both Harvey and his wife in the clear, and land a dangerous criminal behind bars in the process. |
Requiem for a Wren | Nevil Shute | null | Alan Duncan is a lawyer, recently called to the Bar in England, returning home to his wealthy parents' prosperous sheep ranch in Australia. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and fought as a pilot in World War II before being injured in action and losing both feet in an air crash. His arrival home is marred by the apparent suicide of his parents' housekeeper, a young Englishwoman called Jessie Proctor. Alan realises that this troubled woman must have left her personal papers hidden somewhere in the event that her suicide attempt was not successful. He searches the house and happens upon a small suitcase of letters, diaries and the woman's passport. He is appalled to learn that the woman was, in fact, Janet Prentice - a former Royal Navy Wren and the former girlfriend of his dead brother Bill, and someone for whom Alan had spent considerable time searching immediately after the war. Janet had a "lovely war" in Southern England, until the events around D day, when she lost Bill, her father and her dog in quick succession. Her mother also dies shortly after the war. She believes herself responsible for the deaths of what may have been allies escaping in a German aeroplane. Reading through Janet's diaries, Alan learns that she had come to Australia partly because of him but partly because of a terrible event during the war for which she believed she had to atone. Her revelations help Alan think of ways to face his own future. |
Agaton Sax And the Diamond Thieves | null | null | The Koh-Mi-Nor diamond is stolen and a very clever thief is putting messages about it, in a secret code, in the personal column of the newspaper published by the Swedish detective Agaton Sax. sv:Agaton Sax och de slipade diamanttjuvarna |
Inez | Carlos Fuentes | null | Maestro Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, on the eve of his possibly last performance, reflects upon his relationship with Inez Prada. Though the maestro and the diva had only met thrice in their relationship of nearly three decades, the intensity never fades. Their relationship is characterized by mutual admiration, a sense of independence and ego. Parallel to this, a fable of primeval human male and female union (re-union) is also portrayed, and the two streams blend into one at the climax, which is on the border of realism and fantasy. The maestro's favorite work, The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz often comes up as a backdrop as well as a metaphor. |
The Lord of the Rings | Shaun McKenna | null | The half-Elven maiden Arwen sings the prologue, urging those to whom she sings to trust their instincts ("Prologue" ('Lasto i lamath')). In the region of Middle-earth known as the Shire, Bilbo Baggins, an eccentric and wealthy Hobbit, celebrates his one hundred and eleventh birthday by vanishing from his birthday party, leaving his greatest treasure, a mysterious magic Ring, to his young relative Frodo Baggins ("Springle Ring") . The Ring is greatly desired by the Dark Lord Sauron, who could use it to conquer the world, and must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom in Sauron's country of Mordor. Frodo and his friends Samwise Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took set out along the road that leads out of the Shire ("The Road Goes On"). Meanwhile, the corrupt wizard Saruman also desires the Ring ("Saruman"). At the Inn of the Prancing Pony in the village of Bree, Frodo and his friends sing and dance for their fellow guests ("The Cat and the Moon"). With the assistance of the Ranger Strider, the four Hobbits escape pursuit by the Black Riders, servants of Sauron, and safely reach the Ford of Bruinen ("Flight to the Ford"). Awaiting them at the Elven settlement of Rivendell is Arwen, the beloved of Strider, whose true name is Aragorn, heir to the kingship of the Lands of Men ("The Song of Hope"). Arwen's father, Lord Elrond, calls a Council of Elves, Men and Dwarves at which it is decided that Frodo will carry the Ring to Mordor. The Fellowship of the Ring sets out from Rivendell: Frodo and his three fellow Hobbits, Aragorn, the human warrior Boromir, the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli, and the great wizard Gandalf the Grey. Arwen and the people of Rivendell invoke the holy power of the star Eärendil to protect and guide the Fellowship on its journey ("Star of Eärendil"). In the ancient, ruined Dwarf-mines of Moria, Gandalf confronts a Balrog, a monstrous creature of evil, and falls into the darkness. The Fellowship takes refuge in Lothlórien, the mystical realm of Galadriel, an Elven lady of great power and wisdom ("The Golden Wood", "Lothlórien"). As their journey south continues, Boromir attempts to take the Ring from Frodo; Frodo and Sam flee from the rest of the Fellowship, and Boromir falls in battle. Gandalf returns in time to intervene at the Siege of the City of Kings, where the Lands of Men are under attack by the forces of Saruman and the Orcs of Mordor ("The Siege of the City of Kings"). Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam are joined on their journey by Gollum, a twisted creature who long possessed the Ring and desires to have it for his own again. As they approach Mordor, Frodo and Sam sing to each other about the power of stories ("Now and for Always"). Gollum is moved by their song, but the evil side of his personality asserts itself and he plans to betray the Hobbits ("Gollum/Sméagol"). If Aragorn can defeat the forces of evil and reclaim the kingship of Men, he will receive Arwen's hand in marriage ("The Song of Hope" (Duet)). Galadriel casts spells to protect the forces of good in the final battle ("Wonder", "The Final Battle"). Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach Mount Doom, where the Ring is destroyed when Gollum takes it from Frodo and falls into the fire with it. Aragorn becomes King and marries Arwen ("City of Kings"), but Frodo, wearied by his quest, and the great Elves must leave Middle-earth forever and sail to the lands of the West ("Epilogue (Farewells)"). Bidding farewell to their friend, Sam, Merry and Pippin resume their lives in the Shire ("Finale"). |
The Judas Window | John Dickson Carr | null | James Caplon Answell arranges to visit his future father-in-law, Avory Hume, at his house in London. Hume invites the prospective bridegroom into his strong room that is fitted with sturdy metal shutters and a thick wooden door. The room contains trophies and arrows that relate to Hume's hobby of archery, and they chat about archery while Hume pours drinks from a cut-glass decanter. As Answell collapses, he realizes that the drink has been drugged. When he comes to, he's alone in the locked and bolted room with Hume, who has been fatally skewered with an arrow. The remainder of the novel takes place at Answell's trial for the murder of Hume, and he is being defended by barrister and amateur detective Sir Henry Merrivale. We learn that Hume has set the actions of the plot in motion because he believes that he is having an interview not with the wealthy and blameless man who wants to marry his daughter, but a similarly named relative, Captain Answell, who is blackmailing her (and in a plot development that is extremely frank for the mores of 1938, she is being blackmailed because she posed for "obscene" photographs for her lover). Hume's household has participated to some extent in the activities that have conspired to make Answell look guilty. The decanter with the drugged drink has been replaced with an innocuous duplicate, and some mysteriously disappearing items include a suitcase full of clothing and an ink-pad. But it is the location of a tiny piece of blue feather from the fatal arrow that proves to be the decisive clue that reveals the murderer—it's revealed in the climactic courtroom scene to be hidden in the "Judas window". In the British prison system, a "Judas window" is in the door of a cell and enables the guards to observe prisoners without being seen themselves. But Sir Henry Merrivale points out another Judas window that is in every room, but that no one notices. |
Cloud Boy | null | 2,006 | A lonely cloud boy lives up high in the sky. One day, a butterfly passes by and its beauty gives him a great idea. He soon fashions a butterfly from a fluffy cloud nearby and sends it adrift in the air so that others may see his beautiful creation. Soon Cloud Boy looks down at the earth, seeing even more beautiful and wonderful things. He begins to fashion more clouds in the shapes of what he sees, things like boats, rabbits, and snowmen. Soon, many of the children on the earth see his designs and take great delight in them. It is then that Cloud Boy learns he will never be lonely again as long as there are children below the sky who enjoy his artistic creations. |
The Wood Beyond the World | William Morris | 1,894 | When the wife of Golden Walter betrays him for another man, he leaves home on a trading voyage to avoid the necessity of a feud with her family. His efforts are fruitless, as word comes to him en route that his wife's clan has killed his father. As a storm then carries him to a faraway country, the effect of this news is merely to sunder his last ties to his homeland. Walter comes to the castle of an enchantress, from which he rescues a captive maiden in a harrowing adventure (or rather, she rescues him). They flee through a region inhabited by mini-giants, eventually reaching a city whose custom is to take as ruler when the throne is vacant the next foreigner to arrive. The late king having died, Walter and his new love are hailed as the new monarchs, and presumably live happily ever after. |
The Water of the Wondrous Isles | William Morris | 1,897 | Stolen as a child and raised in the wood of Evilshaw as servant to a witch, Birdalone ultimately escapes in her captress's magical boat, in which she travels to a succession of strange and wonderful islands. During much of the first quarter of the novel, Birdalone is naked, a highly unusual detail in Victorian fiction. She is occasionally assisted out of jams by Habundia, her lookalike fairy godmother. She encounters three maidens who are held prisoner by another witch. They await deliverance by their lovers, the three paladins of the Castle of the Quest. Birdalone is clad by the maidens and seeks out their heroes, and the story goes into high gear as they set out to rescue the women. Ultimately, one lady is reunited with her knight, another finds a new love when her knight is killed, and the last is left to mourn as her champion throws her over for Birdalone. |
The Sundering Flood | William Morris | 1,897 | Osberne Wulfgrimsson and Elfhild are lovers who live on opposite sides of the Sundering Flood, an immense river. When Elfhild disappears during an invasion by the Red Skinners, the heartbroken Osberne takes up his magical sword Boardcleaver and joins the army of Sir Godrick of Longshaw, in whose service he helps dethrone the tyrannical king and plutocracy of merchants ruling the city at the mouth of the river. Afterwards he locates Elfhild, who had fled with a relation, a wise woman skilled in the magical arts, and taken refuge in the Wood Masterless. Elfhild tells Osberne of their adventures en route to safety. Afterwards they return together to Wethrmel, Osberne's home, and all ends happily. |
IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation | Edwin Black | 2,001 | Author Edwin Black describes the thesis of his book IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation in the following way: "[The book] tells the story of IBM's conscious involvement — directly and through its subsidiaries — in the Holocaust, as well as its involvement in the Nazi war machine that murdered millions of others throughout Europe. "Mankind barely noticed when the concept of massively organized information quietly emerged to become a means of social control, a weapon of war, and a roadmap for group destruction.... Hitler and his hatred of the Jews was the ironic driving force behind this intellectual turning point. But his quest was greatly enhanced and energized by the ingenuity and craving for profit of a single American company and its legendary, autocratic chairman. That company was International Business Machines, and its chairman was Thomas J. Watson." Black begins his study with the origins of IBM. In the early 1880s, Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), a young employee at the U.S. Census Bureau, conceived of the idea of creating readable cards with standardized perforations, each representing specific individual traits such as gender, nationality, and occupation. The millions of cards created for each individual counted in the national census could then be sorted and resorted on the basis of specific bits of information they contained — thereby providing a quantified portrait of the nation. Hollerith built a prototype of his counting machine in 1884 and later won a contest for the best automated counting device conducted by the Census Bureau in conjunction with its 1890 census. The Census Bureau saved $5 million through use of Hollerith counting machines — about one-third of its annual budget — and Hollerith and his patented invention gained international renown and customers around the world. By the turn of the 20th Century, Hollerith and his Tabulating Machine Company had achieved near-monopoly status. A rival arose in the next decade, however, and the U.S. Census Bureau abandoned its use of the more costly and slower Hollerith machines for its 1910 census. A disconsolate Hollerith licensed out his patents abroad. In 1910, the German licensee Willy Heidinger established the Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft (German Hollerith Machine Corporation), commonly known by the acronym "Dehomag." The next year, Hollerith sold his American business to industrialist Charles Flint (1850-1934) for $1.41 million. The counting machine operation was made part of a new conglomerate called the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). To head this massive new enterprise, Flint chose Thomas J. Watson (1874-1956), the star salesman of the National Cash Register Corporation. Watson was initially paid $25,000 per year — a substantial salary in the day — plus 1200 shares of stock and a commission of 5% of CTR's after-tax, after-dividends profits. The German hyperinflation of 1922-1923 made it impossible for Dehomag, the German licensee of CTR's technology, to make its scheduled royalty payments to America, with its balance in arrears topping the $100,000 mark. Threatened with bankruptcy and complete loss of his investment, Dehomag chief Willy Heidinger agreed to transfer 90% of the stock in his company to Watson's CTR as a means of settling his debt. The German licensee Dehomag thus became a direct subsidiary of the American corporation CTR. In 1924, following the death or departure of several key figures in the company, Watson assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of CTR and renamed the now-focused company International Business Machines (IBM). The bulk of Black's book details the ongoing business relationship between Watson's IBM and the emerging German regime headed by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler came to power in January 1933; on March 20 of that same year he established a concentration camp for political prisoners in the Bavarian town of Dachau, just outside the city of Munich. Repression against political opponents and the country's substantial ethnic Jewish population began at once. By April 1933, some 60,000 had been imprisoned. Despite the violent and repressive climate emerging in the new ultra-nationalist Germany, business relations between IBM and the Hitler regime continued uninterrupted in the face of broad international calls for an economic boycott. Indeed, Willy Heidinger, who remained in control of Dehomag, the 90%-owned German subsidiary of IBM, was an enthusiastic supporter of the Hitler regime. On April 12, 1933, the German government announced the plans to immediately conduct a long-delayed national census. The project was particularly important to the Nazis as a mechanism for the identification of Jews, Gypsies, and other ethnic groups deemed undesirable by the regime. Dehomag offered to actively assist the German government in its task of ethnic identification, concentrating first upon the 41 million residents of Prussia. This activity was not only countenanced by Thomas Watson and IBM in America, Black argues, but was actively encouraged and financially supported, with Watson himself traveling to Germany in October 1933 and the company ramping up its investment in its German subsidiary from 400,000 to 7,000,000 reichsmarks — about $1 million. This injection of American capital allowed Dehomag to purchase land in Berlin and to construct IBM's first factory in Germany, Black charges, thereby "tooling up for what it correctly saw as a massive financial relationship with the Hitler regime." Black also asserts that a "secret deal" was made between Heidinger and Watson during the latter's visit to Germany which allowed Dehomag commercial powers outside of Germany, enabling the "now Nazified" company to "circumvent and supplant" various national subsidiaries and licensees by "soliciting and delivering punch card solution technology directly to IBM customers in those territories." As a result, Nazi Germany soon became the second most important customer of IBM after the lucrative US market, Black notes. The 1933 census, with design help and tabulation services provided by IBM through its German subsidiary, proved to be pivotal to the Nazis in their efforts to identify, isolate, and ultimately destroy the country's Jewish minority. Black describes the situation faced by German Jews: "Since the advent of the Third Reich, thousands of Jews nervously assumed they could hide from the Aryan clause. "But Jews could not hide from millions of punch cards thudding through Hollerith machines, comparing names across generations, address changes across regions, families trees and personal data across unending registries. It did not matter that the required forms or questionnaires were filled in by leaking pens or barely sharpened pencils, only that they were later tabulated and sorted by IBM's precision technology." On September 13, 1935, Hitler demanded the immediate implementation of a "Law for the Protection of German Blood" which deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited them from having sexual relations with or from marrying Aryans. Machine-tabulated census data greatly expanded the estimated number of Jews in Germany by identifying individuals with only one or a few Jewish ancestors. Previous estimates of 400,000 to 600,000 were abandoned for a new estimate of 2 million Jews in the nation of 65 million. Another German census was conducted on May 17, 1939, when 750,000 census takers conducted interviews with the country's 22 million households, and also millions of factories. The purpose of the census was to identify the number of Jews in Germany and its newly expanded territories and to precisely locate each individual so that the Jewish population could be effectively ghettoized. Ancestral lines had to be documented by each head of household as part of the national census, which dwarfed in size and detail the 1933 Prussian census. As the Nazi war machine spread occupied the nations of Europe, capitulation was followed by a census of the population of the subjugated nations, with an eye to the identification and isolation of Jews and Gypsies. For example, the September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland was followed by an October 14 order of the Special Operations unit of the German Secret Police for a full census of the Jewish population, information which supplemented published information from the 1931 general Polish census. These census operations were intimately intertwined with technology and cards supplied by IBM's German and new Polish subsidiaries, which were awarded specific sales territories in Poland by decision of the New York office following Germany's successful Blitzkrieg invasion. In the case of Poland, the ordered census took place over several days, from December 17 to December 23, 1939. The census was both meticulous and cold-blooded, as Black notes: "Each person over the age of twelve was required to fill out census and registration in duplicate, and then was fingerprinted. Part of the form was stamped and returned as the person's new identification form. Without it, they would be shot. With it, they would be deported." Data generated by means of counting and alphabetization equipment supplied by IBM through its German and other national subsidiaries was instrumental in the efforts of the German government to concentrate and ultimately destroy ethnic Jewish populations across Europe, Black demonstrates. He also notes, in an understated aside, that fully half of IBM's German subsidiary's annual profit — RM 1.8 million — was suddenly generated in December 1939. Black also reports that every Nazi concentration camp maintained its own Hollerith Abteilung (Hollerith Department), assigned with keeping tabs on inmates through use of IBM's punchcard technology. In his book, Black charges that "without IBM's machinery, continuing upkeep and service, as well as the supply of punch cards, whether located on-site or off-site, Hitler's camps could have never managed the numbers they did. Each of the major concentration camps was assigned a Hollerith code number for paperwork purposes: Auschwitz — 001; Buchenwald — 002; Dachau — 003; Flossenbürg — 004; Gross-Rosen — 005; Herzogenbusch — 006; Mauthausen — 007; Natzweiler — 008; Neuengamme — 009; Ravensbrück — 010; Sachsenhausen — 011; and Stutthoff — 012. Upon arrival at the camps in 1943, incoming prisoners would be examined for fitness to work, physical information would be recorded on a medical record, names would be cross-checked with data from the Political Section to determine whether the prisoner was additionally wanted for political offenses. |
Bloodline | Kate Cary | null | Bloodline takes place during World War I. John Shaw, a nineteen-year-old, joins the British Army and is sent to the front lines, in the trenches. He works as a communications officer who listens to German radio feeds and translates what he hears. His regiment commander is a man named Quincey Harker, who is the son of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray from the original Dracula novel. Harker is famous for going on raids in the enemy trenches alone at night, and shows several feats of superhuman strength that seem impossible. He is also shown to be cruel to his men. One night a soldier named Private Smith falls asleep on his watch, and Germans invade the trench. As punishment, Harker orders him to be tied to a wagon wheel on no man's land. Private Smith does not die from being shot or shelled, but appears to die of fear. One night Harker takes John on a night raid to destroy a nest of snipers. However, John gets stabbed in the shoulder with a bayonet. As he passes out, he thinks he sees Harker closely inspecting a large gash in an enemy soldier's throat. Harker carries him back to the trench, which saves his life. John soon becomes very sick with trench fever and believes he is having hallucinations of horrible things involving a hound and beheaded enemy soldiers in no man's land. He is rushed back to England for care. John is cared for by Mary Seward, the daughter of Dr. John Seward, in the old sanitorium owned by Dr. Seward, which was being used as a hospital during the war. Mary remembers seeing John at a garden party several years before, and wants to help him. She reads his journal that he brought with him to the hospital, and learns about the strange and seemingly impossible feats Harker had done. Meanwhile, John is still delirious from the fever, thinking he is still in the trenches instead of back in England. Soon, however, his fever breaks and he becomes lucid. Quincey Harker comes to England, and Lily Shaw, John's sister, invites him to stay at Carfax Hall, John and Lily's house, as thanks for saving John's life. However, Harker begins to seduce Lily, which worries John, as he's seen Harker's cruelty in the trenches. At the same time, Mary and John begin to fall in love, as Mary is John's main nurse at the hospital and they see each other for most of the day. Soon, John is recovered and discharged from the hospital. Harker leaves for London to do some work, and when he returns he tells John that his services are needed there for a few days. While he's gone, he proposes to Mary in a letter. When John returns, he goes to Mary's house with a note left for him saying that Lily and Harker have eloped and gone to Transylvania. Dr. Seward learns of Harker's mysterious nature, and realizes that he is a vampire. With Van Helsing's bag of vampire slaying tools, John and Mary follow Harker to Transylvania. They also read the collection of journals that is the original ' 'Dracula' ' book. John and Mary reach Castle Dracula several days after Harker and Lily. Once there, they learn that Mina, Quincey Harker's mother, is married to Count Tepes, son of Dracula, and that Quincey is Dracula's grandson. It is also revealed that John Shaw is Quincey's half-brother and Lily is John's half-sister, not his full sister as he always thought, who from birth was chosen to marry Quincey. John and Lily's mother, Rosemary Shaw, who was believed to be dead, is also found living at the castle as a vampire. It is all part of a master plan thought up by Tepes to raise the House of Dracul back to power with John and Quincey both united by Lily. Lily is shocked to learn that Quincey is a vampire, but is still determined to marry him, as she still loves him. The day before their marriage, however, she kills herself by jumping out the castle window onto sharp rocks below because she was afraid of becoming a vampire, which was part of the master plan, and knew she would never stop loving Quincey, which would make it impossible to leave him. Meanwhile, Mina turns John into a vampire after convincing him that it is his destiny. A baby is also taken to the castle for Tepes to feed on so he will be strong enough to go to Quincey and Lily's wedding. Once Mary learns of John's transformation, she asks Rosemary Shaw for help escaping, as Rosemary never liked living as a vampire. Rosemary tells Mary where the baby is being kept and about a secret exit from the castle. Then, Rosemary asks to be destroyed because she doesn't want to live with her daughter dead and her son as a vampire. Mary kills her by pounding a stake through her heart. She takes the baby and runs to the courtyard, where the secret exit is. However, she doesn't have the strength to lift the stone lid of the trap door. Surprisingly, Quincey helps her escape by lifting it for her. After Mary's escapes, Quincey goes back to his room. He hears John shouting his name from outside, and looks out the window to see his mother Mina tied to a tree, as Private Smith was once tied to a wagon wheel. The sun comes up and Mina burns to death. John does this because he thinks Quincey killed his mother, Rosemary, when in fact Mary was the one who did it. Quincey then goes to tell his father that he is leaving Castle Dracula forever, but Tepes tries to stop him by attempting to kill him with the sharp end of a wooden chair leg. However, Quincey grabs if out of his hand and stabs it through his father's heart. The book ends with John remaining at Castle Dracula, Quincey going off to live somewhere else, and Mary and the baby, who she names Grace, escaping back to England. |
Men of Bronze | Scott Oden | 2,005 | It is 526 B.C. and the empire of the Pharaohs is dying, crushed by the weight of its own antiquity. Decay riddles its cities, infects its aristocracy, and weakens its armies. While across the expanse of Sinai, like jackals drawn to carrion, the forces of the King of Persia watch . . . and wait. Leading the fight to preserve the soul of Egypt is Hasdrabal Barca, Pharaoh’s deadliest killer. Possessed of a rage few men can fathom and fewer can withstand, Barca struggles each day to preserve the last sliver of his humanity. But, when one of Egypt’s most celebrated generals, a Greek mercenary called Phanes, defects to the Persians, it triggers a savage war that will tax Barca's skills, and his humanity, to the limit. From the political wasteland of Palestine, to the searing deserts east of the Nile, to the streets of ancient Memphis, Barca and Phanes play a desperate game of cat-and-mouse — a game culminating in the bloodiest battle of Egypt’s history. Caught in the midst of this violence is Jauharah, a slave in the House of Life. She is Arabian, dark-haired and proud — a healer with gifts her blood, her station, and her gender overshadow. Though her hands tend to Barca's countless wounds, it is her spirit that heals and changes him. Once a fearsome demigod of war, Hasdrabal Barca becomes human again. A man now motivated as much by love as anger. Nevertheless honor and duty have bound Barca to the fate of Egypt. A final conflict remains, a reckoning set to unfold in the dusty hills east of Pelusium. There, over the dead of two nations, Hasdrabal Barca will face the same choice as the heroes of old: Death and eternal fame . . . Or obscurity and long life . . . |
The Chinese Orange Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | A wealthy publisher and collector of precious stones and Chinese postage stamps has a luxurious suite in a hotel that serves to handle his non-publishing business and the comings and goings of his staff, his relatives, and his female friends. When an odd and anonymous little man arrives and refuses to state his business, no one is surprised; he is locked (from outside only) in an anteroom with a bowl of fruit (including tangerines, also known as Chinese oranges) and left to await the publisher's arrival. When the door is unlocked, though, a truly bizarre scene is displayed. The little man's skull is crushed, his clothing is reversed, back to front, all the furnishings of the room have been turned backwards — and two African spears have been inserted between the body and its clothing, stiffening it into immobility. The circumstances are such that someone has been observing every entrance to the room, and no one has apparently entered or left. The situation is further complicated by some valuable jewelry and stamps, the publisher's business affairs and romantic affaires, and a connection with "backwardness" for seemingly every character. It takes the considerable talents of Ellery Queen to sort through the motives and lies and arrive at the twisted logic that underlies every aspect of this very unusual crime. |
The Spanish Cape Mystery | Frederic Dannay | null | The story begins with a pretty young heiress and her uncle seated outside their summer home on Spanish Cape, escaping the guests at her parents' house party. Suddenly a one-eyed giant bursts onto the scene and kidnaps them, misidentifying the uncle as John Marco, a house guest. The giant removes them both, ties the heiress to a chair in an empty neighbouring home, and disappears with the uncle. Ellery Queen and a friend arrive at the neighbouring home in the morning and release the heiress, but by the time they can return her to her home, Marco has been found on the terrace, strangled, and nude except for an enveloping opera cape. The house party and the household contain many people who had good reason to want the victim out of the way, some because he was blackmailing them. As Ellery is investigating the crime, another household member commits suicide out of sheer desperation at the potential revelation of a dread secret. By the time the uncle escapes his captor and swims to shore, Ellery is ready to reveal the identity of the murderer and the reason for the victim's nudity in a dramatic final scene. |
The Lamp Of God | Frederic Dannay | null | Ellery Queen is asked by a lawyer friend to help protect the interests of a pretty young heiress. They meet her, along with an unpleasant physician who is a friend of her family, as she disembarks in New York from an ocean liner arriving from England. She learns that her father, from whom she has been separated since her toddler years, has died just as she is to be reunited with her eccentric family and inherit her father's fabled hoard of gold. The group drives for hours to reach an ugly and sinister Victorian house called the Black House at nightfall. The Black House, where her father died, is uninhabitable—the group meets the family and beds down in a small stone house next door. When they awake, the Black House has vanished as though it never existed. Ellery must shake off the Gothic trappings and the suggestions of black magic in order to figure out what has happened to the Black House and the gold. |
Dawn | Dean McLaughlin | null | Isak has attempted to explain his foretelling to the priests of the Temple of Center, so that people might be told what to expect, and not to panic when it does. They are unwilling to accept such a bizarre idea. Furthermore, while Isak is innocent of the political implications of the event he describes, the priest are not. If the gods all turn their sight from the world, they must be angry with their representatives. |
The King's Damosel | Vera Chapman | 1,976 | The novel begins with the day of Lynette and her sister Lyonesse's dual wedding to the brothers Gaheris and Gareth, respectively. After the festivities are over, the two sisters are dragged to their bedrooms and prepared by giggling bridesmaids for the first night of their honeymoons. Lynette is miserable, as she is in fact in love with Gareth, her sister's groom, and thinks with envy of them in the next room. She is also terrified of what is about to happen, as it is revealed in a flashback that she was raped by a friend of her father's who was like a mentor to her. She is convinced that Gaheris will know that she is not a virgin, and she will be publicly shamed. However, when Gaheris finally enters the honeymoon suite, he merely comments that he does not want this, either. He sleeps next to her, without touching, and leaves before she wakes. In another flashback, Chapman summarizes the events leading up to the wedding, essentially retelling the corresponding Arthurian legend. In short, the Red Knight, a knight who claims to owe no loyalty to Arthur, attacks Lynette's home in the absence of any male figureheads, essentially holding the household hostage until her older sister, Lyonesse, consents to marry him and make him Lord. Lynette disguises herself as a servant boy and escapes, going all the way to Camelot and pleading with Arthur himself to help her rescue her sister. With the help of Merlin (who had appeared to her once before, after she was raped), she receives the king's blessing, but he only sends one man with her - Gareth, who she presumes to be a kitchen boy. She is quite rude to him, feeling very resentful towards Arthur for his choice. However, Gareth soon proves himself and in the course of rescuing Lyonesse, Lynette realises that she has fallen in love with him. Unfortunately, upon the group's return to Camelot, it is arranged that Gareth shall marry Lyonesse as his reward, and Lynette shall wed Gareth's older brother, Gaheris. After Gaheris' departure, Lynette is worried about what will happen to her - abandoned by her husband, and forced to watch the man she loves in the company of her own sister. Again Merlin intervenes, and Lynette manages to convince Arthur to make her his messenger. She is to go alone ahead of the knights to persuade unruly Lords to swear their allegiance to Arthur; it is dangerous, but she has no fear. Lynette acts so bravely and gracefully in the course of this work that she earns the respect of all those who travel with her (including Guinevere's unlucky admirer, Lancelot). Over the course of the novel, she meets up again with the man who raped her as a teenager and beheads him; she is later haunted by his ghost, but eventually manages to forgive him, thus finally freeing herself from the terrifying black creatures which were released each time she laid a curse upon him. She is also separated from her party in strange lands and kidnapped; she eventually finds her way out through a network of caves with the help of a very peculiar young man named Lucius. Lucius has lived in the dark so long that he is completely blind and very pale, with light blue hair. He was imprisoned along with his mother, who subsequently died, but he met a sort of witch just outside the caves who befriended him, and he is happy with his simple life. Lynette spends a considerable amount of time with the pair, and eventually falls in love with Lucius. She feels simultaneously pleased that he can not see how plain she is, and guilty because she is convinced that he would not want her if he could only see her. Eventually, the witch sadly informs Lynette that Lucius is dying. Lynette is completely horrified, and decides that she will seek out the Holy Grail, so that Lucius can use it to save himself. She sets out with her traveling companions from before, and after a very long and decidedly strange journey, she actually manages to retrieve the Grail. She hurries back with it to Lucius, resolving that she will let him do with it as he pleases. Upon receiving the Grail, Lucius wishes for sight rather than life, so that he can finally see Lynette. Upon opening his eyes, he cries out with delight, telling the startled (and heartbroken) Lynette that she's beautiful over and over. The pair have a little more time together, which Lynette tries very hard to make the best of. Lucius dies, and she and the witch bury him before she sets out once again, to resume her post as the King's Damosel. |
Mandragora | David McRobbie | null | These dolls have been around since 1886. According to the novel, a ship called the Dunarling was carrying 85 passengers wanting to migrate from Scotland to South Australia, but also four dolls, each named and cursed: 'Swith' was cursed with fire (bleeze), 'Agley' with mischance, 'Smeddum' with foulness, and 'Snell' with the final destruction (otherwise referred to as All fa' doon!). These mandrake dolls were set upon the Dunarling by Marie Catherine de Lairgo because she is jealous and wants to get revenge, which she bids the mandrake dolls to do: she was the former 'wife' of one of the passengers, Adam Colquhoun. 100 years after the shipwreck of the Dunarling, two youngsters, Adam Hardy and Catriona Chisholm, discovered the dolls. Along with them were the school bullies, Richard Vernon and Mike Carter, but they did not seem to care much about the finding of Jamie Ramsay's cave, where the dolls were secretly hidden. Richard Vernon and Mike Carter then took two of the dolls. Adam and Catriona form a bond with each other as time unfolds and Adam starts having visions of the past and realised that Catriona looks just like Margaret Colquhoun, the fiancée of Adam Colquhoun. Adam tracks down two of these dolls that were held by Mike Carter and Richard Vernon. These dolls made Mike and Richard insane, saying that they had failed their masters in destroying the town. The dolls possess Mike and Richard into setting fire to the hardware store, crashing a bus and also poisoning a water system with white ant killer. Tam Dubh, the fifth mandrake doll, warns Adam what is going to happen, so he manages to stop the last two events from completely unfolding. Adam then destroys all of the dolls by throwing them over a cliff into the ocean. |
The Last Sin Eater | Francine Rivers | 1,998 | The Last Sin Eater revolves around Cadi Forbes, ten-year old girl who lives in a settlement community of Welsh Americans in the mid-1850s. Cadi carries a heavy burden of guilt and grief because of something that happened the year before. At the beginning of the novel, Cadi's grandmother Gorawen has just died. At her funeral, the village's Sin Eater comes and Cadi does the "forbidden" and makes eye contact with him. The next day, Cadi goes to the river, thinking about how to get rid of the sins that she carries. At that time, a little girl named Lilybet appears, and after talking with her, Cadi decides to visit the Sin Eater in the hopes that he can take her sins from her. Cadi is the only one who can see or hear Lilybet, and her parents and others begin to believe that she is "keeping company with taints" and that the girl is a demon. Cadi seeks out the Sin Eater by talking first to Elda Kendric who is the oldest person in the village. During all of this, a man of God comes to share the word of God, but camps outside the village. Brogan Kai, the self proclaimed village leader tells all of the villagers not to go near the man because of what the man speaks of. Brogan's son Fagan and Cadi go anyway. They are intrigued by the word of God, do not approach the man out of fear. Cadi becomes even more determined to find the Sin Eater, believing she cannot go before the man of God with her sins. Cadi eventually finds the Sin Eater and convinces him to try to take away her sins if she promises to see the man of God and tell the Sin Eater what he says. The Sin Eater performs the ceremony, but nothing happens and no sins are removed. Eventually, it is revealed that the year before, Cadi's little sister drowned after following Cadi to the river and slipping on the log bridge. Cadi is overwhelmed with guilt because of this, and it is tearing her family apart. Cadi thinks that everyone blames her, and sees her mother's distant and withdrawn behavior as proof that her mother hates her. In one scene, Cadi overhears her parents talking and her mother says "it shouldn't have been Elen", implying that she wishes it was Cadi who had drowned. Despite the danger of being caught, Cadi goes back to talk to the man of God because of her promise to the Sin Eater. After listening to him for a time, she opens up to him, pouring out her guilt, and through his guidance comes to accept Christ and is baptized. Cadi shares her newfound faith with Miz Elda, Fagan notices the difference in her and, driven by his own motives to somehow unburden himself from the sins of his father, Fagan visits the man of God with Cadi the next night. Through the man's moving testimony, Fagan, as well, comes to accept Christ. The two children return night after night to learn more from the man, and begin to share what they know with the people around them. Tragedy strikes in the form of Brogan Kai, who kills the man of God, then turns his fury onto his son, Fagan, seriously injuring him. Cadi and Fagan escape, eventually, to Dead Man's Mountain, where the Sin Eater Lives. There, in the safety of his cave, Fagan and Cadi reveal the word of God to the Sin Eater, who is finally relieved of his burden of carrying the sins of so many others. While there, Cadi discovers cave paintings that, once explained by Miz Elda, finally bring to light the dark past of the mountain community and explain the origins of the Sin Eater. In the end, Brogan, Fagan, and the Sin Eater have a showdown in front of the entire village at Elda Kendric's house. Cadi and Fagan, with help from Miz Elda and Iona Kai, reveal the truth to the villagers, and the Sin Eater, named Sim, is free to live as a normal man. During the confrontation, the Kai is injured, and the villagers come to realize he has no power over them other than what they give him. Several come to accept Chirst that day, with others following later. Cadi's mother forgives her, saying she never blamed Cadi for Elen's death, but rather herself. She reveals that it was in fact herself she wishes had died in Elen's place, as she had sent Elen after Cadi on the day she drowned. She calls Cadi by the nickname she used when Cadi was small: "li'l bit of heaven." |
The Atonement Child | Francine Rivers | 1,997 | Dynah is a young Christian college girl at a bible college when rape shatters her life, and then the resulting pregnancy may shatter her faith. As her pro-life fiance suddenly finds abortion acceptable, and her pro-life school informs her that she will be expelled unless her pregnancy disappears, she is forced to wonder about their views of the World and what God has said in the Bible and of her own former pro-life views. At home she finds her family torn apart as her mother admits to an abortion before she had Dynah that made her incapable of having children for several years, and her grandmother admits to an abortion that was forced on her for "health reasons". Dynah is eventually driven to isolate herself so that she can make the decision on her own. As her mother's "Atonement Child", Dynah must come to the decision on whether or not to have her own "Atonement Child". |
Halfway House | Frederic Dannay | null | Joe Wilson was a poor, itinerant salesman with a pretty young wife in Philadelphia. Joseph Kent Gimball was a wealthy, socially prominent New Yorker with an elegant and aristocratic wife. These two very different men were actually the same man, a bigamist leading a bizarre double life. His deception was revealed to the world after he was murdered in his "halfway house," a riverfront shack outside Trenton, New Jersey, that he used as a hideout to switch identities. But who killed him? Ellery Queen, who is drawn into the case to help old friends, puts his finger on the central question: "Who was murdered -- Joe or Joseph?" Queen performs an extended feat of logical deduction from seemingly insignificant clues, such as a number of burnt matches, and finally develops a profile of the killer that can fit only one person in the case. |
The Prince | Francine Rivers | 2,005 | Jonathan. His zeal carried him into battle. His faithfulness won him honor among his people. His humility led him into friendship with the man who would become king in his place. David was a man after God's own heart. But it was the courage and selflessness of his best friend that opened the door to David's rule. A man of honor and deep faith. Jonathan. |
Moonshine | Rob Thurman | 2,007 | Moonshine is the sequel to Nightlife. The plot revolves around Caliban Leandros (Cal), and his older brother, Niko, as they and their friends try to rescue the psychic Georgina from a mysterious gangster. The gangster being Caleb, who incites the brothers to attempt to steal one of a pair of mysterious crowns called the Calabassa. Caleb informs the brothers that the current owner of the crown is an under boss in the Kin, the werewolf mafia, called Cerberus. After the initial meeting with Caleb, a werewolf called Flay is used to contact the brothers with information regarding George. Cal ends up having to work for Cerberus in order to find the crown, and finds that Flay also works for Cerberus under Caleb's orders. Caliban finds the crown, but is attacked by Cerberus. To his surprise, Flay ends up assisting him in killing the Kin boss. After killing Cerberus, the crown is stolen by one of the Auphe, who were thought to have all been killed by the brothers the previous year. The brothers then visit Abbagor, the troll under the Brooklyn bridge, in order to possibly find out about the whereabouts of the other crown. While there, Abbagor tells the brothers that the crown is used to steal from others, and is among gypsies, but then once again shows his tendency towards violence when he attacks Cal and Niko. Caliban discovers he has the ability to tear a wormhole in space, a trait handed down from his Auphe father, and escapes the disaster. Niko also escapes. They then find out that Flay is forced to work for Caleb, who is holding Flay's son Slay as a hostage. They allow Flay to help them in retrieving the crown for that reason. The task to discover the crown's location is then passed to Goodfellow because of his numerous friends and connections, and he discovers the whereabouts of the crown in a gypsy clan in the Everglades. They then go to acquire it. Once back in New York, Caleb contacts them to make the exchange at the werewolf bar Moonshine. Cal, Niko, Goodfellow, Promise, and Flay lead an all out assault on the bar only to realize that Georgina isn't being held there, but they do find Slay. In a twist, they also find Caleb, dead. After Caleb's employer, the most powerful and oldest puck named Hobgoblin or Hob, takes Niko and the crown, the remaining use Flay's wolf sense of smell to track Hob down. They find out that Hob wants the Calabassa and George in order to steal her psychic ability, and Niko's blood is going to be used to steal George's ability. Caliban has an idea from his earlier escape from Abbagor, and, after separating Hob from the others, he opens a portal to Tumulus, the Auphe realm, and throws the evil puck through before sealing it. Once home, Cal and George are talking about their relationship together. George is trying to get Cal to realize that she loves him and wants to be with him, but Cal is reluctant because he feels that he is a danger to her, especially after everything that has happened. The book ends with Cal closing the door on Georgina after telling her to use her ability to look into the future to assure her own safety. |
The Final Deduction | Rex Stout | null | Mrs. Althea Vail tells Wolfe she intends to pay the half-a-million-dollar ransom to the kidnappers, but she wants him to be certain she gets her husband Jimmy back alive and in one piece. |
May Bird and the Ever After | null | 2,005 | May Bird lives alone with her mother and her cat, Somber Kitty (a hairless Rex) on the edge of a wooded swamp in West Virginia. She loves to draw and make believe, and desperately wants to fit in at school but can not seem to figure out how. Most people aren't very comfortable in the woods, but the woods of Briery Swamp fit May Bird like a fuzzy mitten. There, she is safe from school and the taunts and teases of kids who don't understand her. Hidden in the trees, May is a warrior princess, and her cat is her brave guardian. Then May falls into the lake. When she crawls out, May finds herself in a world that is inhabited by things she thought were just in her imagination. She sees many, many ghosts and other amazing creatures. A ghost named Pumpkin, (with a pumpkin head) has pulled her into the Ever After. It is a place few living people have ever seen. Here, towns glow blue beneath zipping stars and the people walk through walls. Here the Book of the Dead holds the answers to everything in the universe. And here, if May is discovered, the horrifyingly evil Bo Cleevil will destroy her. May Bird must get out. This is the beginning of May Bird's daring journey into the Ever After, a haunting place where true friends—and many terrible foes—await her on every corner. She meets Pumpkin, her house ghost/guardian who lives with the Beekeeper Arista in a giant house shaped like a beehive. She is told that she needs to go see the Lady of North Farm, a place no ghost is willing to go. Along the journey May meets new friends and sees new cites full of unimaginable sights. She faces many adventures with characters that you will discover when you read this book. The second book is May Bird Among the Stars and there is a third called "May Bird Warrior Princess" |
Death in Silver | Lester Dent | 1,934 | The Silver Death's-Heads, a gang of criminals who wear silver overalls and masks, have been committing seemingly random crimes for months. They become involved when they attack Paine L. Winthrop, a shipyard owner who has offices in the same building as Monk. When his office explodes, Monk and Ham investigate but are captured while reporting back to Doc Savage. With his other aides abroad, Doc Savage attempts to rescue them and solve the case alone. One of the first things he accomplishes is to deduce the nature of the explosion, which has eluded his aides and the police — it was caused by a three-inch shell. Investigating the deaths of other witnesses to the attack (a fisherman on the river and an aviator flying that day) leads Doc to Winthrop's Shipyards. The Silver Death's-Heads steal some blueprints to hide their secrets while Doc runs into Winthrop's Secretary, Lorna Zane, and efficiency expert, Harry "Rapid" Pace (who has the annoying habit of repeating almost everything twice). Doc leaves Lorna with his cousin Pat at her new beauty salon/gymnasium. Harry leads the Doc to the home of Bedford Burgess Gardner (owner of Transatlantic Lines and Winthorp's chief rival) based on a comment from the gang overheard at the shipyard. Again they run into the gang, and pick up Hugh McCoy, Gardner's Financial Relations Consultant (advising on the merger with Paine L. Winthrop's company) and Pace's rival for Lorna Zane's affections. By questioning an injured gang member, who had been poisoned by his own gang, they find that Monk and Ham are held at the "Indian's Head". Doc browses a telephone directory at an all-night drug store and picks out the "Indian Head Club". When asked he explains that its address is on the waterfront and the Silver Death's-Heads always seem to escape by the river. His deduction is correct and, through stealth and violence, he rescues his aides. They all only narrowly miss being killed when the gang demolish the club with a bomb to destroy evidence. Meanwhile, the Silver Death's-Heads kidnap Pat and Lorna from Pat's salon. Based on a map of New York Harbour found at the club before it exploded and burned down, Doc and Monk go out onto the foggy river to investigate. Diving from the boat, Doc discovers a submerged radio-buoy at a point marked on the map. Further investigation is cut short by a shell apparently fired by an unseen submarine. Ull, the leader of the Death's-Heads (but not the "big brain" behind their plans) sets a trap for Doc with Pat and Lorna as bait. A fake snitch calls Doc with some information but is cut off by a mock attack in another all-night drug store. They make sure to leave clues, especially a trail of footprints in vaseline (from a jar "accidentally" broken in the store), to lead Doc to their hideout. Doc follows the trail using ultraviolet light (because Petroleum jelly glows under ultraviolet light) but approaches the hideout itself in disguise. He is able to penetrate the hideout and successfully avoid the traps set for him but does not manage to rescue Pat or Lorna (as they are not really there). Moving back to the radio-buoys in the river, Doc and aides (along with Rapid Pace and Hugh McCoy) set out in the Helldiver (Doc's submarine). They follow a trail of hidden buoys out into the Atlantic where they are attacked by another submarine (the buoys are intended to guide the villains' submarine down the river to an abandoned sewer that connects to the Indian's Head Club). They are eventually boarded and Doc Savage is apparently killed (this is a common event in Doc Savage stories). The rest are taken in the villains' submarine to their base in an almost derelict rum row ship. Doc, hanging on to the side of the submarine, sneaks aboard the ship, rescues everyone, recovers a lot of stolen goods and escapes in a lifeboat. A fire he started as a diversion causes an explosion (speculated to be either from the fuel tanks or a stockpile of explosives) and the ship sinks as they leave. The big brain behind the plot turns out to be Hugh McCoy, who was also Bedford Burgess Gardner (by using a fake beard). Ham's research showed that "Gardner" had made over $1 Billion in the past year by using the gang to kill off opponents and rivals under cover of random crimes. He would then buy out their companies and make his money through stock manipulation. Rapid Pace, who becomes less cowardly throughout the story, ends up with Lorna Zane. |
Valperga; or The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca | Mary Shelley | null | Valperga is a historical novel which relates the adventures of the early fourteenth-century despot Castruccio Castracani, a real historical figure who became the lord of Lucca and conquered Florence. In the novel, his armies threaten the fictional fortress of Valperga, governed by Countess Euthanasia, the woman he loves. He forces her to choose between her feelings for him and political liberty. She chooses the latter and sails off to her death. |
Twice Brightly | null | 1,974 | For young servicemen who had spent six years fighting fascism, postwar Britain was a drab, oppressive place. For a young and untried army comic keen on the Marx brothers and Jimmy Cagney, a Yorkshire Variety theatre in February was a vision of Hell itself. |
Second Glance | Jodi Picoult | 2,003 | Second Glance follows several characters throughout the book, in Jodi Picoult's typical fashion, flashing back and forth many decades to piece together the story. It is set in Comtosook, VT. The main plot is that an Abenaki land space is planned to be turned into a shopping mall. However, if the Abenaki can prove that an ancestor was buried on the land, it cannot be built on. Ross Wakeman comes to town to stay with his sister. He is the survivor of many varied suicide attempts, which began after his fiancee Aimee was killed in a car accident years ago. He became a ghost hunter hoping to someday encounter her spirit. Comtosook begins to experience many strange phenomena as the result of the threat of development on the sacred land, including water that refuses to boil. With the help of a local detective, Ross uncovers a decades-old murder mystery that helps to prove that the land in question truly is a Native American-burial ground, and in turn is able to save the land from development. But the Native American that was buried there surprises everyone and makes Ross think with parts of his brain that he has not paid attention to in years. |
The John Riddell Murder Case | Corey Ford | 1,930 | Acting in response to an incomprehensibly phrased note in Walter Winchell's gossip column predicting that John Riddell will be murdered at 9:00 that morning, Philo Vance alerts the police and travels with the narrator to Riddell's home, only to find that they are too late. As might be expected from a work of parody, much of the book's humor comes from absurdities and from the ridiculous portrayals of the writings and authors caricatured. Repetition is frequently employed for comedic effect. The fourth wall is broken on several occasions, as when Philo Vance responds to Heath's suggestion that Vance believes that all of the recent best-selling authors are going to be murdered: "'Already there have been thirteen murders, and we're only at'--he glanced down swiftly--'at page 124.'" Philo Vance himself is portrayed as affecting an inconsistently cultured vocabulary and a lazy style of speaking. For example: "I've been evolvin' a rather fantastic theory, and I want to test it a trifle further." |
It's Kind of a Funny Story | Ned Vizzini | null | Craig, the protagonist and narrator, is a 15 year old teenager who lives with his family in an upper-middle class Manhattan neighborhood in New York City. He attends the prestigious Executive Pre-Professional High School, having studied arduously to win admission. Once admitted, however, he becomes overwhelmed by the school's intense academic pressure, as well as his unrequited love for Nia, his best friend Aaron's girlfriend. His stress eventually manifests itself in an eating disorder, depression, use of marijuana, affected sleep habits, and suicidal thoughts. After he stops taking medication prescribed by his psychiatrist, his depression builds up until, unable to fend off his suicidal ideation, he calls 1-800-SUICIDE and is admitted to a nearby psychiatric hospital. He meets many other patients, some friendly, others reclusive or delusional, and is supported and encouraged by his family and school principal once they learn of his hospitalization. Craig meets Noelle, a female patient who coped with a history of sexual abuse by cutting her face with scissors. In isolation from the outside world, and with help from Noelle, Craig confronts the sources of his anxiety and regains his health. During his recovery, Craig experiments with art, specifically stylized maps, and discovers he has a great deal of natural talent and ability. Once Craig has recovered, his counselor suggests he transfer to an art school, a thought that excites Craig. At the end of the novel, having undergone a mental "shift", he returns home. He narrates that his brain now tells him that he wants to "live", and he says he now wants to "do". He then begins to list the things he wants to do, such as eat, sleep, run, walk, kiss, and read, among others. |
The Moral Animal | Robert Wright | 1,994 | To be filled in To be filled in To be filled in To be filled in To be filled in --> |
The Scarlet Thread | Francine Rivers | 1,996 | Sierra Clanton Madrid can't believe her husband Alex would take a new job and uproot the family to Los Angeles without consulting her. Armed with righteous anger, Sierra turns their home into a battleground, even after they make the move. Alex chases success, both business and social, to compensate for his insecurities about his Hispanic immigrant roots. Both Alex and Sierra are so caught up in themselves that neither tries to understand the other or seeks God's will. Soon their perfect marriage lies in shambles. Seeing the need for God, Sierra's mother gives her the journal of a female ancestor and a handcrafted quilt made with a scarlet thread. |
Invincible | Troy Denning | 2,008 | With Darth Caedus ruling both the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant, the Jedi Coalition is now desperate to overthrow the Sith Lord by any means necessary. As the events of the novel proceed, with the heroes of the story attempting to find a way to kill Caedus whenever they get the chance, the entire Second Galactic Civil War culminates to a confrontation over the Coalition's base, prompting the Battle of Shedu Maad. Caedus is distracted by the fact that the Imperial Moffs had manufactured a nanovirus programmed to kill Hapan Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo and her daughter Allana since they are Hapan royalty, which would be bad for the Hapes Consortium, one of the Galactic Alliance's enemies. Jaina Solo, now prepared to face and kill her hated brother, confronts him in one final lightsaber duel aboard his capital ship of the Anakin Solo. Caedus tries to warn her about the nanovirus, going so far as to sheathe his lightsaber in the face of an armed opponent. Jaina however believes that he is attempting to trick her and refuses to believe him, slamming the door shut when Caedus tries to leave and forcing him to fight. The duel continues, with both of them managing to inflict heavy injuries on each other until Jaina manages to cripple Caedus by severing his Achilles tendon, following which she attacks with a final strike which could not possibly be blocked by Caedus in his current condition, but which also leaves her open to a retaliatory strike. However, instead of taking advantage of the opening to drag Jaina into death along with him Caedus chooses to use the last instant of his life to reach out to Tenel Ka and warn her of the danger posed to her and Allana. Jaina realises what he is trying to do an instant before her lightsaber cuts into him, too late for her to stop the killing strike. The guilt associated with Jacen's death continues to haunt Jaina, as a part of her had believed, right until the end, that he could be redeemed. In the aftermath, Ben Skywalker redeems Tahiri Veila of Darth Caedus's darkness, and the Galactic Alliance Guard is disbanded. Luke Skywalker installs Jagged Fel as the Head of State of the Imperial Remnant, and Tenel Ka Djo announces that though she survived the Moffs' nanovirus attack, her daughter didn't. However, in reality, Allana did survive, and Tenel Ka lied about her status so that she wouldn't be targeted for assassination by anyone until she becomes Hapan Queen Mother herself. In the end, with the power vacuum left in Caedus's death, former Imperial Admiral Natasi Daala takes over the Sith Lord's place as the Galactic Alliance's new Chief of State. The novel, and the series, ends with Jaina welcoming Han and Leia's adopted daughter, "Amelia Solo" (Allana in disguise), into the family. |
Little Children | Tom Perrotta | 2,004 | Sarah, who once considered herself a radical feminist, wonders how she allowed herself to be reduced to a common housewife, constantly at the playground with three other highly-judgmental women. Her husband, Richard, is much older than Sarah and a sort of last alternative for her love life; it is even hinted that she married him only because she feared that she would be stuck in her dead-end job and life otherwise. Sarah describes Richard as "under" her expectations. When she discovers his addiction to internet pornography, she is more apathetic than disgusted. Todd is a handsome young father the neighborhood women have nicknamed the "Prom King." One of the other mothers offers a challenge to Sarah: "Five bucks if you get his phone number." While jokingly discussing the bet, Todd and Sarah engage in a kiss that becomes more passionate than the ruse called for. This leads to a convenient affair between the two who "happen" to cross each other at the local pool and "happen" to bring their children to nap together while they have sex on the living room floor. Larry is a retired policeman. He left the force after shooting a black student brandishing a toy gun at a local shopping mall; the guilt became so unbearable that he collected his pension early. Larry, who loved his job and refuses to let go of it, is angry that Ronald McGorvey, a sex offender convicted of exposing himself to children, is allowed to live in his neighborhood, and starts a fanatical one-man vendetta to drive him out. He harasses Ronald and his mother, May, going as far as to light dog feces on fire in the yard of May's home. Ronnie, for his part, finds himself ostracized by the community because of this, and the few dates his mother forces him to go on are ruined when he gives in to temptation and masturbates while watching children. Larry eventually gets into a shoving match with May, who has a stroke that leads to her death. Bertha, a school crossing guard and May's best friend, takes Ronnie to the hospital, where May has written him a note that reads only "Please, please be a good boy." Todd enters into the affair with Sarah primarily because he shares her dissatisfaction with life, particularly concerning his wife Kathy, a gorgeous, long-legged brunette who works as a documentary filmmaker. She resents being the primary breadwinner of their home and continually pressures Todd to follow up on his law school education; Todd, having failed the bar exam twice already, has never had any real enthusiasm for the law, but studies out of deference to her wishes. Kathy later finds out about Todd's illicit affair with the rather plain Sarah, and finds herself more insulted than angry that Todd would go for someone less attractive. The novel ends with Todd and Sarah planning to leave their spouses. But Sarah finds, via a phone call, that Richard has left her for an internet porn star called "Slutty Kay", who goes by her real name, Carla, around her gentlemen callers. Sarah takes her daughter Lucy to the local playground late at night while waiting for Todd, who injures himself while hanging out with some local skaters he's been watching for months. Just when she starts to lose hope, Ronald appears. Much to her own surprise, she finds sympathy for him — until he admits that he has given in to his compulsions and killed a girl. Larry suddenly approaches, ready to kill Ronald, but finds it in his heart to offer his condolence for May's death. Sarah just sits, baffled, wondering how she will raise her daughter, whom she feels she has greatly let down. |
City of Crime | null | null | In City of Crime, Batman investigates the disappearance of a young girl and unravels a labyrinthine conspiracy that stretches from Gotham City's powerful elites to its forgotten poor. In order to save the city he has sworn to protect, Batman will have to face old foes and a new nemesis spawned from its very depths. Noted villains appear in this novel such as Black Mask, Mr. Freeze, and Killer Croc. The universe that this story takes place in is the New Earth Universe |
The Landscape of Love | Sally Beauman | 2,005 | In the summer of 1967, the family friends Dan, Nick and Lucas arrive for a visit. Dan is Finn's boyfriend; Nick is a young doctor; and Lucas is a non-conformist fame-hungry artist and disregards others. Lucas is painting the girls' portraits. When he works on Maisie, she entertains him with tales of the family's past. However, when Maisie tells of having her fortune told years ago, he scoffs and so she doesn't tell him what she saw in the fortune teller's crystal ball. As the family begins to prepare to travel to Gramps's childhood home for their annual visit, their place is enveloped in a brooding sense of impending doom. Maisie (who wanders at night) spies Finn returning home very early in the morning, naked under her dress. Maisie worries that Dan's heart will be broken if Finn has been with Lucas, as she suspects. Before the family leaves on their trip, Stella and her father work on their plan to ask Gramps's wealthy twin brother for a loan to repair the crumbling Abbey. Maisie slips away, spying Lucas furtively leaving for Cambridge on Julia's bike. She wonders if he has stolen it. Maisie then overhears a passionate argument between Dan and Finn, followed by an equally passionate embrace. The house is filled with fear, distrust and despair. Maisie doesn't know what is wrong with her family but decides she must take action to help them. As usual Gramps's brother rebuffs the family's request for a loan, spurred on by his wife Violet ‘the Viper’. However, Maisie acquires money through surprising means. During this transaction she learns that her family fears she will turn out like her deceased father. She does not understand, what does it mean? The story skips more than twenty years later to 1989, and, rather than being a continuation of Maisie’s tale, it is Dan who is narrating. The sense of impending doom turns to suspenseful mystery as Dan reflects back on a tragedy that occurred during the summer of 1967 involving the Mortland family. Lucas is now a celebrated artist planning to show his 1967 portrait, The Sisters Mortland, at a retrospective. Dan is horrified at the thought of stirring up the family tragedy and sorrow. At this, it is learnt that Maisie was the cause of the tragedy, as she had jumped out of a window. It is also learnt by the reader, that Maisie was not a normal girl, but was possibly autistic, though it is not explained clearly in the book. Dan's life is also something of a tragedy. His job as a producer of commercials ends, his father dies, and he lives in a drug-blurred depression. His the current focus of his life is the tragic puzzle of the Mortland event that occurred during that long past summer. Where did it all go wrong? Why did it happen? And how did he lose the love of his life? |
The House That Berry Built | Dornford Yates | 1,945 | This novel is from Yates' series of 'Berry Books', featuring Berry Pleydell, his relatives and close friends. It is the seventh in the series, all of which are period comedy-thrillers. The House That Berry Built charts the Pleydell family's decision to sell White Ladies, their ancestral home in Hampshire, England, and move to Pau, in the South of France. Unable to afford their aristocratic lifestyle in England, and unhappy at social upheavals following the end of World War I, they take refuge in the South of France where they believe traditional values have not yet disappeared. Nostalgic for a vanished world of social events and elegant idleness, Berry and his friends spend their time driving their Rolls and picnicking on the slopes of the Valley of Ossau. Wearied by the daily return journey from their residence at Pau, they decide to acquire some land on the green mountainside, halfway between the thermal spa of Lally and the village of Besse. Much of the novel is a thinly-veiled account of the building of 'Cockade', the writer's own residence between Eaux-Bonnes and Aas in 1934. In the novel, the house is called 'Gracedieu', and like its real-life equivalent it is constructed on a monumental built terrace anchored in the rock and is called "Le Château" by the people of the country. Although it also contains a relatively minor sub-plot regarding the family's investigation of the murder of Sir Steuart Rowley, the novel's principal focus is upon an exceptionally precise description of the building of 'Gracedieu'. The cost of the work, the risks of the construction techniques employed, the whims of the mountain weather, the relations with the local contractor are all carefully detailed. The House That Berry Built comes to an end with the completion of the house and the first signs of the Second World War. It becomes clear, soon after the family move into the house, that the impending war means they cannot remain there. Dornford Yates himself left France for southern Africa for the duration of the war. |
Promise Not to Tell | Jennifer McMahon | 2,007 | In 2002, Kate Cypher, a 41-year-old school nurse, returns home to her Vermont hippie commune where she grew up to care for her aging mother, who is afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. Her first night home, a murder takes place behind her mother's cabin -- the killing is identical to that of Kate's childhood friend, Del Griswold, who was murdered in 1971. Del was a scrappy outcast in life, shunned and taunted as "Potato Girl." Since her unsolved murder, Del had become something of a local legend, supposedly tormenting the townsfolk from beyond the grave. Kate never revealed her close relationship to Del, before or after her death, unable to stand up to those who pitied or reviled Del. Kate is drawn into the investigation of the modern-day crime, and must revisit Del's original murder, and her culpability in it. Along the way, she realizes that someone is playing games with her: leaving cryptic messages that tell her where to go. By following these clues, Kate re-meets many members of the hippie town she grew up in and relives some of the horryifying times during Del's murder |
A Dedicated Man | Peter Robinson | 1,988 | The body of a well-liked local historian is found half-buried under a drystone wall near the village of Helmthorpe, Swainsdale. Who on earth would want to kill such a thoughtful, dedicated man? Penny Cartwright, a beautiful folk singer with a mysterious past, a shady land-developer, Harry’s editor and a local thriller writer are all suspects–and all are figures from Harry’s previous, idyllic summers in the dale. A young girl, Sally Lumb, knows more than she lets on, and her knowledge could lead to danger. Inspector Banks’s second case unearths disturbing secrets behind a bucolic facade. |
Seeker | Jack McDevitt | 2,005 | The story is set approximately 10,000 years in the future, after civilization has expanded to inhabit countless worlds. Alex Benedict and his partner Chase Kolpath specialize in a new active type of space-archeology, involving the examination of abandoned bases and deserted space-craft in search of valuable items. Alex is approached by a mysterious woman who asks him to ascertain the value of a strange cup riddled with archaic symbols. They discover that the cup is a 9,000 year old relic from one of the first Faster-than-light vehicles built, the Seeker. This was a colony ship manned by a faction known as the "Margolians" who were fleeing the then-oppressive society of Earth in hopes of establishing a free world. Records indicate that they succeeded, as the Seeker made several voyages, but they kept the location of their colony world a secret and it remains unknown to the present day. With insight and some luck, Alex and Chase discover who brought this cup back. By retracing the route of these long-forgotten space explorers, they begin to get an idea of where the Seeker was found. With excitement high, they set off in hopes of finding the biggest discovery of the century, the colony of "Margolia". Thus begins an adventure which will take them to the brink of death and the ends of the universe. |
The Dot | Peter H. Reynolds | null | Vashti is a girl who says she cannot draw. When she tells her teacher, she says to "make a mark and see where it takes you." Vashti draws a dot on her paper, and her teacher then says "now sign it." The next week she is surprised to see her dot framed on display in the teacher's office. Seeing her dot, she says "I can make a better dot than that." She then starts drawing elaborate, colorful dots and realizes she is indeed an artist. Later in life she sees a boy who can't draw a straight line. this results in a whole new adventure. Published by Candlewick Press, The Dot is also a film produced by Weston Woods Studios and FableVision. It was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 2006. |
Snuff | Chuck Palahniuk | 2,008 | Snuff follows three men who are waiting to immortalize themselves into pornography history as they wait to bed Cassie Wright, a former porn queen who has fallen into harder times. Each chapter follows a different guy (Mr. 600, Mr. 72, and Mr. 137), as well as Sheila, the female wrangler who dictates who is the next to be filmed with Cassie Wright. As the three men wait, each starts to divulge their true reasons for wanting to be filmed, as well as discuss the sordid history of Cassie Wright and her reason for suddenly dropping out of the pornography industry for a year. As backgrounds, secrets, and would-be children start to appear, the tensions in the room start to rise and in the end the true secrets of her comeback, and who really is Cassie Wright's porn child, are the last things any of them suspect. |
Is Shakespeare Dead? | Mark Twain | 1,909 | In the book, Twain expounds the view that Shakespeare of Stratford was not the author of the canon, and lends tentative support to the Baconian theory. The book opens with a scene from his early adulthood, where he was trained to be a steamboat pilot by an elder who often argued with him over the controversy. Twain's arguments include the following points: * That little was known about Shakespeare's life, and the bulk of his biographies were based on conjecture. * That a number of eminent British barristers and judges found Shakespeare's plays permeated with precise legal thought, and that the author could only have been a veteran legal professional. * That in contrast, Shakespeare of Stratford had never held a legal position or office, and had only been in court over petty lawsuits late in life. * That small towns lionize and celebrate their famous authors for generations, but this had not happened in Shakespeare's case. He described his own fame in Hannibal as a case in point. Twain draws parallels and analogies from the pretensions of modern religious figures and commentators on the nature of Satan. He compares the believers in Shakespeare to adherents of Arthur Orton and Mary Baker Eddy. |
Sitt Marie Rose | Etel Adnan | 1,978 | The novel is divided into two “Times”: “Time I” and “Time II.” Time I offers a description of prewar Beirut with Mounir wanting the female narrator of this section to write the script for his film. As Time I progress the violence that is mentioned as happening in Beirut escalates into what becomes the Lebanese Civil War. At the end of Time I the narrator tells Mounir that she cannot write a film for him given that Mounir repudiates the narrator’s suggestions for film on the grounds that they are too violent and political. Time II is divided into three sections with seven chapters each. One chapter in each section is devoted to relating the events surrounding the death of Sitt Marie Rose from the perspective of one of the narrators. The narrators always follow the following order in each of the three sections: the deaf-mute school children that Sitt Marie Rose teaches, Sitt Marie Rose herself, Mounir, Tony, Fouad, Friar Bouna Lias, and the unnamed narrator from Time I. |
Starcross | Philip Reeve | 2,007 | Protagonist Arthur ("Art") Mumby and his older sister Myrtle are invited to the Starcross hotel on a small and periodically barren asteroid. There, Arthur’s mother Emily suspects that Starcross is built on a piece of Mars which routinely slips through a hole in the fabric of time, and Myrtle then discovers that Sir Richard Burton and his Martian wife Ulla have been changed into trees. Jack Havock, now a British secret agent, appears on the scene disguised as an Indian prince. In the following night they are attacked by the Moobs, a species resembling animated black top hats, which take control of Jack’s crew and other guests, including Emily. Myrtle and Jack escape, but become lost in the deserts of prehistoric Mars. There, they encounter Delphine, one of the guests, a French secret agent determined to find her grandfather’s wrecked ship and create an American-style republic in his name. At the wreck, they discover that Delphine’s grandfather was killed by Moobs, and later learn that the Moobs are native to a time period near the end of the universe, and that they live chiefly by feeding on other species' thoughts. A well-intentioned Moob helps Jack win Delphine’s soldiers to his side, and they return to Starcross. There, the Moobs load Jack's ship with their comrades and plan to take control of the local societies. Art frees Jack’s crew from their influence, and they return to Starcross to discover that Arthur’s mother, having sufficient memory to sate them, has subdued the Moobs. Starcross' owner Sir Launcelot Sprigg and Delphine attempt to overpower the others; but Arthur’s mother changes them into babies. The protagonists enter the future and inspire the Moobs with new thoughts, whereby they are stimulated to greater activity. Thereafter Myrtle, challenged by Jack, determines to study the cold fusion used in space travel; whereas Professor Ferny, a plant-like creature, promises to find a cure for Sir Richard and Ulla's transformation. |
Oath of Swords | David Weber | 1,995 | This novel begins when Bazhell Bahanakson is an exchange hostage in Navahk. While taking the back way out of the palace to meet his friend Brandark, he hears screaming. When he investigates he finds a hradani woman named Farmah being raped by the crown prince Harnak. He attacks Harnak and frees Farmah, smuggling her out of the city with the help of another servant woman, Tala. He sends the women towards Hurgrum, then strikes off in another direction, hoping to draw pursuit away from them. Brandark joins him and together they set off east to try to find work. Unfortunately hradani are not popular in other lands, and they are unwelcome most places they go. The wealthy dwarven merchant Kilthandaknarthas (Kilthan for short) hires them as caravan guards and they travel with him for some time, beating back several attacks by a group of assassins called the Dog Brothers, who are connected to Sharna's church. Harnak, who has been secretly worshiping Sharna (a practice that would be punished by death if he were ever discovered), is the one who arranged for the dog brothers to be sent after Bahzell, though Bahzell and Brandark do not yet realize this, because as long as Bahzell is alive he is a threat to Harnak's position. Eventually Bahzell and Brandark leave Kilthan in a city called Riverside. They stay there for a while, trying to find jobs. Bahzell finds a job as a bar bouncer but was fired after another assassination attempt failed. While walking to the inn where he and Brandark were staying, he again hears screaming, and follows it into an alley where he rescues a noblewoman from the Empire of the Spear named Zarantha. She tells the city guard that she is his employer, saving him from jail. He and Brandark agree to help her, her servant Rekah and her armsman Tothas, who is unwell, to get home. Brandark, with Zarantha's help, begins writing a song in honor of Bahzell, called the Lay of Bahzell Bloody Hand. As they travel there are more attacks by the Dog Brothers. They also encounter more divine intervention in their trip, which Bahzell resents, culminating in a personal appearance by Chesmirsa, the Singer of Light, in an effort to recruit Bahzell for her brother Tomanak. Bahzell, like most hradani, wants nothing to do with any gods, none of whom have done anything for his people in living memory, though Tothas, a follower of the war god tries to convince him otherwise. Shortly after that divine visit Rekah is badly hurt and Zarantha is kidnapped. Tothas explains the background that they had not shared with the hradani before: Zaarantha is a powerful mage, who was sent to be educated in the Empire of the Axe because without proper training Spearman mages generally died before they came into their talents. She plans to set up a mage academy in her native land to give her countrymen the training they need. Someone doesn't want her to make it. She has been kidnapped by dark wizards, who plan to kill her, allowing them to harness her life energy for a magical working. They would prefer to take her home first, as they will get more out of the working if they do it on her own soil. The hradani leave Tothas and Rekah behind, and set off after Zarantha. They meet up with Wencit of Rum, who aids them in the successful attack on the camp. Zarantha was badly hurt in the mind and Wencit needed someone to draw off the army that would chase them. So Bahzell volunteered, and Brandark followed, unwilling to leave his friend. Meanwile, Harnak and the church of Sharna in Navahk have decided this has gone on long enough. They use a human sacifice to raise a demon, which they send after Bahzell, and to enchant a sword to allow Sharna himself to reach through the bearer and strike directly. The demon catches up with Bahzell and Brandark as they flee. Bahzell wins, with Tomanak's help, and finally agrees to take sword-oath as a champion of Tomanak. He and Brandark once again run, eventually entering the lands of the half-elven Purple Lords. Bahzell's compulsion for rescuing people leads him to interfere with a Purple Lord who is in the middle of throwing an entire village out into the wilderness for being short of rent. He kills the Purple Lord, and instructs the townspeople to blame everything on a band of invading hradani to draw the pursuit. Harnak, who is carrying the cursed sword, is also following them, and the Purple Lords end up tracking him, believing him to be the one who killed the lord of the village. Harnak eventually catches up with Bahzell and the two of them do battle. The battle however, is not only between them, but also between Sharna—who has opened a portal to his realm, through the sword, in order to strike out at Bahzell—and Tomanak who fights against him through his champion. Bahzell eventually defeats Harnak. Brandark fought the prince's entire guard, all of whom had been in the grip of the Rage, and was mortally wounded. Calling out to Tomanak, he demands to know why his friend must die. Tomanak tells Bahzell that he can heal Brandark through Bahzell, if he can see Brandark as fully healed. Bahzell is successful and Brandark's fatal wounds heal, leaving him alive and recovering, though missing an ear and two fingers. The two companions then travel to Bortalik Bay, where they receive a message from Zarantha that she is safe and well and that her father has adopted the two hradani, offering them any assistance that her house can provide. Bahzell gets them passage on a ship manned by Marfang Island halflings, and they set off for Belhadan. |
Silence | Shusaku Endo | 1,966 | Young Portuguese Jesuit, Sebastião Rodrigues (based on the historical figure Giuseppe Chiara) is sent to Japan to succor the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor, Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira, has committed apostasy. (Ferreira is a historical figure, who apostatized after torture and later married a Japanese woman and wrote a treatise against Christianity.) Fr. Rodrigues and his companion Fr. Francisco Garrpe arrive in Japan in 1638. There they find the local Christian population driven underground. Security officials force suspected Christians to trample on fumie, which are crudely carved images of Christ. Those who refuse are imprisoned and killed by anazuri (穴吊り), being hung upside down over a pit and slowly bled. Those Christians who do step on the image to stay hidden are deeply shamed by their act of apostasy. The novel relates the trials of the Christians and increasing hardship suffered by Rodrigues, as more is learnt about the circumstances of Ferreira's apostasy. Finally, Rodrigues is betrayed by the Judas-like Kichijiro. In the climax, as Rodrigues looks upon a fumie, Christ breaks his silence: Yet the face was different from that on which the priest had gazed so often in Portugal, in Rome, in Goa and in Macau. It was not Christ whose face was filled with majesty and glory; neither was it a face made beautiful by endurance to pain; nor was it a face with strength of a will that has repelled temptation. The face of the man who then lay at his feet [in the fumie] was sunken and utterly exhausted…The sorrow it had gazed up at him [Rodrigues] as the eyes spoke appealingly: 'Trample! Trample! It is to be trampled on by you that I am here.' |
In the Belly of the Bloodhound | null | 2,006 | This novel follows Jacky Faber upon her return to Boston. In her small sailboat, the Morning Star, she sneaks into port past two British ships. When she is out of sight, she finds a young boy, Jim Tanner, to watch her boat for her. She goes into town to talk with her lawyer, Ezra Pickering. They decide it is best for Jacky to return to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. The school is being rebuilt with bricks after a fire caused when she knocked over a lamp while fighting for her life. The next day, Ezra, Jim, and Jacky take the Morning Star to Dovecote to see Amy, who is in a deep depression. Jacky surprises her by bringing her lunch to her. She tells Amy her story and then the two of them join Ezra and Randall for lunch. The months pass after that. When school starts again, Jacky greets her old friends. Her old enemy, Clarissa, has brought a slave back with her, and Jacky is outraged. After about a month, Higgins comes to the school and becomes head of the serving staff. Months go by, and classes too. One day, all the girls except Amy go on a planned field trip to the shore. Jacky is surprised that Mistress Pimm does not come, and is even more surprised when she realizes that Higgins is not there either. Only Mr. Harrison, the man leading their trip, and his slave Jerome are there. When they are taken to the docks, Jacky refuses to get in the lifeboat to take them to their picnic spot without Mistress Pimm or Higgins. Mr. Harrison then points a gun at her and forces her to get in the boat. The girls are then taken onto a ship and learn Mr Harrison is a man named Colonel Bartholomew Simon, where Clarissa angrily calls him by his more popular name, "Blackman Bart". Clarissa recognizes him as a slave dealer, who often handles transactions with her father's plantation. Blackman Bart informs the girls that they will be sold into slavery in North Africa. While the girls are hysterical, Jacky quickly shoves her seabag full of supplies down into the hold. Jacky organizes the group. She divides the girls into three groups and assigns a leader to each group. The three leaders are Jacky, Dolley, and Clarissa. They find a rat hole into a storage room, and make plans to widen it with Jacky's shiv to escape through. There is a guard at the door to the girls' prison that the crew calls Dummy. Jacky soon finds out that he is actually Hugh the Grand, or Hughie, from the Rooster Charlie Gang on the streets of London. Jacky reveals herself as "Little Mary", now Jacky, and he recognizes her. The next day, a man named Sin-Kay enters the hold. He had posed as Blackman Bart's slave, when they were really business partners. He organizes the girls into an alphabetical line, and is quickly introduced to the wrath of Clarissa. He quickly singles out Clarissa and Jacky as the two "troublemakers". The girls begin to listen to their leaders of their groups, Jacky, Clarissa, and Dolley. Only one girl, Elspeth Goodwin, cannot cope. She becomes hysterical and emotional, begging to be sent home. After a week, Elspeth rats Jacky out as the leader of the girls in a last-ditch attempt to be sent home. Jacky then gets a lashing with the cat-o-nine tails for organizing a hunger strike among the girls. The hunger strike was in response to the requests of the girls (better food and cleaner conditions). As the girls work on widening the rat hole and sneaking supplies through, Jacky bargains with two of the less aggressive sailors, Mick and Keefe. They help get the girls clean water for washing in exchange for Jacky revealing parts of herself. While one girl, Constance Howell, expresses outrage and indignation, Jacky continues to do so, in exchange for every girl getting water to wash with. Jacky also works on spreading superstitious stories through the crew. She has the youngest girl, Rebecca, wake up screaming about seeing a ghost, to scare the extremely superstitious crew. She also tells the sailors that the Captain is planning on killing them. Two riots are also caused during the girls captivity. Clarissa continues to harass Sin-Kay and call him offensive names. The girls run out and cause trouble when he attempts to throw Clarissa overboard. Jacky also sneaks out of the Hold as the "black ghost", and is seen by two sailors. When the sailors become terrified and create pandemonium, Jacky sneaks back in, with the help of Clarissa. Soon, the hole is big enough to escape through. The girls create a 100-second fuse to ignite the powder magazine and aid their escape. They all make it out the hole and make their escape in one of the lifeboats, with the help of Jacky's old friend, Hughie. Shortly after their escape onto the life boat, Hughie dies from an injury he received while protecting Jacky on the ship and Jacky falls ill from a wound on her leg. Jacky wakes up on a Royal Navy Ship, HMS Juno, which is taking the girls back to Boston. Before they get to Boston, the Juno has to make a quick stop in New York, where they meet up with Henry Hoffman, the school's stable boy and fiancé of one of the girls. That girl rides back to Boston with Henry ahead of the others. When word of the girls' rescue and survival comes, everyone is excited and prepares for their return. When the Juno gets there, parents and loved ones, including Jaimy, are waiting. The Juno docks and the girls step off. The last three to get off are Dolley, Clarissa, and Jacky. The book ends with two marines stopping her before she can get off the ship and telling her she is under arrest for piracy. |
Appius and Virginia | John Webster | null | The play is set in ancient Rome in the time of the Decemvirate, from 451 to 449 BCE. In the opening scene, Appius Claudius is offered membership among the Decemviri; he feigns humility and claims unworthiness for the high office, and accepts only when faced with the penalty for refusal, which is banishment. Yet in private conversation with his closest follower, Marcus Claudius, Appius shows that he actually covets the office and its power, and cynically masks his ambition with an outward show of modesty. The play's second scene introduces Virginia, her uncle Numitorius, and her betrother, Icilius. Virginia's father Virginius is away commanding the army of Rome; but Icilius brings word that Virginius has suddenly returned to Rome from the field, spurring his horse bloody as he races directly to the Senate. Appius confesses to Marcus Claudius that he lusts after Virginia, and Marcus encourages Appius to exploit his power to obtain the girl; Appius, he says, can easily exert control over Virginius through his position in the state. Before the Senate, Virginius pleads for money for the hungry troops, warning the Senate that the army is close to mutiny. Appius puts him off, promising help "Hereafter." The Senate breaks up, and Virginius pauses only briefly to see his family before returning to the camp, where he manages to stifle the mutiny by the force of his commanding personality. Virginia is serenaded by musicians she thinks are sent by Icilius; when she learns that they were actually sent by Appius, she rejects his advance. Appius courts her and pursues her with letters and gifts; at first Virginia conceals this from Icilius, but later she reveals all. Icilius meets Appius in private and threatens to kill him if he continues. Appius is outraged by this, and unhappy at the poor results of his pursuit of Virginia. Marcus reveals a bold plan to win the girl: he will use false evidence and perjured testimony to claim that Virginia is not really her father's daughter, but in fact a "bond-slave" belonging to himself. Virginia is apprehended by Appius's lictors while she is shopping in the market. Marcus brings the legal action before Appius, who makes a pretense of impartiality and even of suspicion and hostility toward Marcus — which does not fool Icilius or Numitorius. Appius tries to stage the trial before Virginius has time to return to Rome, but the general shows up for the hearing dressed like a slave. Before the trial starts, Virginia tells her father that she would rather die than be prostituted to Appius's lust. The rigged hearing goes as Appius and Marcus plan: their unctious Advocate presents false documents, and Appius rules in Marcus's favor. Icilius protests, and is taken into custody. Virginius bows to the demands of honor and to his daughter's words, and stabs Virginia to death in the courtroom. There is outrage, and an attempt to apprehend Virginius, but he escapes back to his troops. He confronts the soldiers with the fact of his deed, and once again wins their backing; he leads the army back to Rome. The authorities imprison Appius and Marcus and release Icilius from prison to confront Virginius when the general arrives. Icilius is appalled that Virginius has killed his daughter ("thou hast turn'd / My bridal to a funeral"), and the two have a debate on the intertwined considerations of law and justice and honor. The two men join forces to go to the Senate to confront Appius. Appius and Marcus are produced in chains. Virginius is emotionally drained after the ordeal of his daughter's death at his own hand, and seems ready to pardon Appius. This provokes Icilius. He brings Virginia's body through the streets; the Roman populace, confronted by the sight, becomes passionate for Appius's downfall, and Virginius's resolve is strengthened again. Appius and Marcus are offered swords; Appius uses his to commit suicide, but Marcus lacks the nerve to do the same, and pleads for mercy. He is sent to be executed by the common hangman. The play's comic relief is supplied by soldiers and servants, led by Virginia's servant Corbulo. |
Maske: Thaery | Jack Vance | 1,976 | Long ago, the isolated planet Maske was settled by a religious group. They seized a section of the planet from earlier colonists (the Djan), and named it Thaery. The ship carrying a dissident faction was attacked and crashed across the Long Ocean which encircles the planet. The survivors eventually reemerged as the Waels of Wellas. The members of another faction were exiled to the stony peninsula of Glentlin, where they became the Glints. The Glints became notorious bandits, but were eventually subjugated. However, they are still looked down upon as coarse and belligerent. Some Glints took to sailing, and as "Sea Nationals", claimed sovereignty over the ocean. The orthodox settlers divided Thaery into twelve prosperous cantons. Seeking to maintain their religious purity, the Thariots prohibited all travel to other worlds. Jubal Droad, a young Glint man, goes on Yallow, a rite of passage into adulthood, traditionally spent wandering the land and tending the countryside. He recruits three Djan and spends several weeks repairing a trail. One day, an arrogant Thariot ignores Jubal's urgent warning; he and his Djan escort use the path, causing it to collapse and seriously injure Jubal. When he recovers, his uncle Vaidro gives him a letter of introduction to Nai the Hever, one of the most powerful men of Thaery. He arrives in the city of Wysrod and encounters Nai's daughter Mieltrude and her friend Sune Mircea. He accompanies them to the examination of Ramus Ymph for a vacancy for the high office of Servant. Jubal recognizes his nemesis. During a recess, he informs Nai the Hever, the senior Servant, of certain facts that result in Ramus being rejected. Ramus, as Jubal has deduced, has been off-world, breaking the laws of Thaery. On the strength of Vaidro's letter, Nai the Hever offers Jubal a seemingly lowly position as Sanitary Inspector. Jubal reluctantly accepts and learns, during his training, that he has unwittingly become a secret agent. Nai the Hever is in fact the head of Thaery's intelligence service, and Jubal's uncle Vaidro worked with him before he retired. Ramus Ymph seeks revenge by inducing Mieltrude, his fiancée, into signing a warrant to subject Jubal to severe physical punishment. Jubal escapes from the punishers with the assistance of Shrack, a Sea National acquaintance, and procures a warrant against Mieltrude. After a confrontation with Nai the Hever, Mieltrude's warrant is canceled. Jubal's first assignment is to discover what Ramus is plotting. He follows Ramus to the tourist world Eiselbar and learns that he is trying to raise enough money to purchase a space yacht. Back on Maske, Jubal is called away by a family crisis. Cadmus off-Droad, Jubal's illegitimate brother, has murdered Trewe, their brother and head of the clan, asserting that he had been robbed of his rightful place. The clan gathers and brings Cadmus down in fierce fighting. However, Cadmus's masked chief accomplice escapes, and Jubal is certain that it is Ramus. Without proof though, Nai the Hever is unwilling to antagonize the powerful Ymphs. In fact, Jubal infers that he has become an embarrassment to his superior. Nonetheless, Jubal investigates on his own and finds that Ramus is sailing across the ocean to meet with the Waels. Nai is uninterested, so Jubal is forced to use his own initiative. He pursues Ramus in Shrack's ship. Jubal takes Mieltrude into custody, using his warrant, and brings her along. As the voyage progresses, their mutual disdain for each other begins to weaken. Mieltrude informs Jubal that her engagement to Ramus was purely in order to aid her father's investigation of Ramus. Ramus's mistress, Sune, had forged Mieltrude's signature to the warrant against Jubal. Jubal finds Ramus negotiating with the tree-worshipping Waels for the use of their land in exchange for much-needed food. The Minie, leader of the Waels, allows a disguised Jubal to question Ramus. Jubal gets his evasive enemy to finally admit that he wants to construct large tourist resorts, run by his Eiselbar associates. (Ramus had also wanted to lease Droad land for the same purpose, hence his support for Cadmus.) The Waels are greatly disturbed by the revelation and reject his proposal. They do something to Ramus which leaves him mute and strangely subdued, and insist that Shrack and Jubal take him back with them. During the return voyage, Ramus sprouts bark and leaves, to the awestruck horror of the others. When they reach Wysrod, Ramus runs off the ship, plants his feet in the soil, raises his arms, and to all intents and purposes, becomes a tree. Afterwards, Nai the Hever asks his daughter her opinion of Jubal. She admits that he is not unpleasant, for a Glint. |
The Mystery of the Invisible Thief | null | null | The six Find-Outers are having a chance tea at a local gymkhana with Inspector Jenks and his goddaughter Hilary when a robbery occurs in a nearby large house. The mysterious robber disappears from the scene of the crime without a trace - as if he were invisible and cannot be found. The robbed house turns out to be that of Hilary, so the children have the perfect excuse to investigate as they take the upset girl home. The mysterious thief leaves only a few clues behind - enormous footprints, enormous glove prints, a strange criss-cross mark on the ground, and two torn pieces of paper. The clues do not seem to make any sense. Of all the Peterswood villagers, only policeman Mr Goon and Colonel Cross have feet big enough to fit the footprints, and the thief cannot be either of them. The Five Find-Outers and dog decide that they will find the culprit before Mr. Goon does. Fatty uses his disguises to gather important information, and in doing so outwits Mr Goon, especially when both go at the same time to see Colonel Cross to ask him about his large shoes. Mr Goon disguises himself three times but on each occasion the Find-Outers see through the disguise straight away. The thief strikes again several times, once in Fatty's own shed,and on each occasion the same clues are found - but apparently nobody sees the thief. Finally, Fatty discovers the identity of the thief, and the reason for the enormous footprints. The thief is actually the baker, a small man, who used the boots to give the impression that he was larger than he was, thus planting a false trail and allowing him to use escape options such as climbing out a window and down a drainpipe that would have been impossible for a man of the apparent size of the thief. |
The Garden Party | Katherine Mansfield | null | The Sheridan family is preparing to host a garden party. Laura is supposed to be in charge, but has trouble with the workers who appear to know better, and her mother (Mrs. Sheridan) has ordered lilies to be delivered for the party without Laura's approval. Her sister Jose tests the piano, and then sings a song in case she is asked to do so again later. After the furniture is rearranged, they learn that their working-class neighbor Mr. Scott has died. While Laura believes the party should be called off, neither Jose nor their mother agrees. The party is a success, and later Mrs. Sheridan decides it would be good to bring a basket full of leftovers to the Scotts' house. She summons Laura to do so. Laura is shown into the poor neighbors' house by Mrs. Scott's sister, then sees the widow and her late husband's corpse. She is enamored of the young man, finding him beautiful and compelling, and when she leaves to find her brother waiting for her she is unable to complete the sentence, "Isn't life..." |
Kindred Spirits | null | 1,991 | The book narrates the first meeting between dwarven metalsmith, Flint Fireforge and a young Tanis Half-Elven. While working and living in his hometown of Solace creating jewelry, Flint receives a wondrous summons from the Speaker of the Sun, Solostran who admires Flint's work. Flint journeys to the fabled elven city of Qualinost, where he spends every Spring working on jewelry and projects for the Speaker of the Sun. Foreigners are not allowed in Qualenesti, therefore Flint finds himself an outcast. There he meets Tanis, a thoughtful youth born of a tragic union between elf and man. Flint and Tanis, each being a misfit in their own ways, Flint for being a dwarf and Tanis for being of mixed race, find themselves unlikely friends. |
The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot | null | null | In only their second outing, the Three Investigators are hired by a friend of their patron, Alfred Hitchcock, to find his missing parrot. The boys soon discover that the man's parrot was one of a group of seven, trained by their former owner to each repeat a specific message. The focus of the investigation shifts from finding the single lost parrot to discovering the secret behind these cryptic messages. The boys aren't the only ones who want to hear the dead man's secret. Others, including an infamous French art thief, Huganay, have also concluded that the messages are the key to locating a particularly valuable hidden item. The coded message is as follows, by parrots, in order: :Little Bo Peep: Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find it. Call on Sherlock Holmes. :Shakespeare (Billy): To-to-to-be or not to-to-to-be. That is the question. :Blackbeard: I'm Blackbeard the pirate and I've buried my treasure where dead men guard it ever. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle o' rum! :Robin Hood: I shot an arrow as a test, a hundred paces shot it west. :Sherlock Holmes: You know my methods, Watson. Three Severns (sic) lead to thirteen. :Captain Kidd: Look under the stones beyond the bones for the box that has no locks. :Scarface: I never give a sucker an even break, and that's a lead pipe cinch. Ha-ha-ha! The messages each stand for something. Little Bo Peep's message talks about calling on Sherlock Holmes, and where would you call on him except for Baker Street? So the parrots give an address on Baker Street. Next is Billy, whose stutter actually is the number of the address, to-to-to-be, or rather, 222-B. So the address is a 222-B Baker Street in California. Next is Blackbeard, who states that dead men guard the treasure. Where else but a graveyard could dead men be? So the final address is a graveyard in California at 222-B Baker Street. Once you get to the entrance, follow Robin Hood's instructions for his arrow and go exactly 100 paces west. After this, see if you are at the Severn family's grave, and if it leads to the graves of thirteen unknown men. Past the graves, follow Captain Kidd's instructions to the letter and search under the huge stones for a box with no locks. Pete picks up a piece of pipe with the edges sealed as a weapon from the pile of stones. Later, he thinks of Scarface's message and how they never solved it or used it, and believes that the lead pipe he picked up at the graveyard is the pipe talked about in the "lead pipe cinch" joke. His hunch is correct, and the picture is inside the pipe. fi:Kolme etsivää ja änkyttävä papukaija sv:Tre Deckare löser Papegojans gåta |
The Six Messiahs | Mark Frost | null | The year is 1894, and Arthur Conan Doyle is visiting America on a book tour with his brother, Innes. He is also secretly investigating the disappearance of a number of holy books, on the orders of Lord Gladstone. En route to New York City, there is a mysterious murder of a rare book dealer aboard their steamer. Even more shocking, an elderly priest traveling with them reveals himself as a disguised Jack Sparks, who survived his fall over the Reichenbach Falls but has become a broken man (physically and spiritually). Jack has been experiencing a series of dreams about a "black tower" in the middle of a desert, which has drawn him to America. Identical dreams have also been experienced by four other diverse individuals, some of whom are also investigating the recent thefts of holy books. These include: * Kanazuchi: a Buddhist monk from Japan and a deadly warrior, who travels to San Francisco from Japan and learns that a holy text stolen from his monastery was taken east from California; * Walks Alone, aka Mary Williams: a Native American woman following her dreams west, toward Utah; * Rabbi Jacob Stern: an elderly Talmudic scholar from Chicago and expert on Kabbalah; * Peregrine "Presto" Raipur: an Indian prince and amateur magician; Also included in the mix are: Eileen Temple, English actress and Doyle's former lover, traveling west with her second-rate theatre troupe; and Dante Scruggs, a serial killer recruited by the book thieves. Various characters meet each other along the way, all of them converging inexorably on the mysteriously named "New City" in Utah, a religious community founded by the Reverend A. Glorious Day. The center of the town is a cathedral-sized black stone tower built by the town's residents Jack reveals to Doyle that his criminal brother, Alexander, also survived the fall over the Reichenbach Falls; after the collapse of his earlier plans to bring about the Apocalypse, he has come up with a new one. Working with a team of professional mercenaries from the now underground Hanseatic League, Alexander (now Reverend Day) has commissioned the theft of the holy books from every major religion, hoping to perform a ceremony that will "destroy" God, and allow "the Beast" to enter their world. The City's inhabitants, acting through a mix of religious fanaticism and mind control from Alexander, are unknowningly all meant to be slaughtered inside the tower as part of the ceremony. The action ends with a bloody confrontation in the desert, as Jack, Doyle, and their allies fight their way into the tower to reach Alexander before the "Beast" is summoned, and to stop the massacre of as many townspeople as possible. When the two Sparks brothers come face-to-face again, something unexpected happens: Jack forgives his brother. Alexander collapses, relieved of the burden of his madness and his terrible crimes. Together, the "Six Messiahs," including Alexander, join together and their combined power helps drive the Beast back down. Alexander dies thereafter, and Jacob pronounces a melancholy epitaph for him: "He thought he wanted to destroy God. But in reality, all he wanted to destroy was himself." The world is saved, and Jack is hoisted "back into the light" by his friend, Doyle. |
Empress Orchid | Anchee Min | 2,004 | The novel follows the life of a young Manchu girl named Orchid Yehonala. The story begins with the death of her father who was once a governor of Wuhu. His death left Orchid, her two siblings and her mother in poverty. His family travel to his birthplace Peking with his coffin for burial. Once in Peking, they move in with a distant uncle and his mentally retarded and opium addicted son Ping (also known as 'Bottle'). Orchid gets a chance to better her life when Emperor Hsien Feng issues a decree stating that he is looking for "future mates". Orchid is eligible because she is Manchu and that her father was the rank of "Blue Bannerman". She is chosen as the Imperial consort of the fourth rank. Her official title is Lady of the Greatest Virtue. There are a total of 7 Imperial consorts, and over 3000 concubines within the Forbidden City. Nuharoo is pronounced Empress, ranking her first out of the 7 Imperial consorts. Once in the Forbidden City, Orchid befriends a eunuch called An-te-hai, who is assigned as her servant along with numerous other eunuchs and maids. A friendship begins to form between the two, and she appoints him as her first attendant. As the months pass, Orchid becomes more desperate. The official duty of an Imperial consort is to sleep with the Emperor and produce male heirs, but Orchid has yet to be summoned. Without completing that duty, an Imperial consort risks being unaknowledged for the remainder of her life. Knowing this, Orchid decides to bribe Chief Eunuch Shim in order to gain Emperor Hsien Feng's attention. Her tactic works and she soon becomes the Emperor's favourite consort. During her time as the favourite, Orchid learns more about the current history of China, and the inner workings of the Forbidden City. Later on within the story, Orchid becomes pregnant. She gives birth to the Emperor's first male heir Tung Chih amidst nationwide celebration. However, after the birth of his son Emperor Hsien Feng begins to lose interest in Orchid. Part of this is due to Nuharoo's plot to disrupt Orchid's life. The emperor becomes ill as political situations in China worsen. Foreign powers are beginning to invade China, demanding that the emperor grants them the right to establish trade and port. The weak emperor is unable to defend his empire from the combined strength of the intruding forces and the royal family flees the capital when the enemies approach Peking. Emperor Hsien Feng dies whilst in exile. Nonetheless, Orchid's life is still in danger from Su Shun (a corrupt official) as the Emperor has not yet named an heir. Later on in the novel Orchid persuades Hsien Feng to name Tung Chih as the new Emperor, with herself and Nuharoo as co-regents. Su Shun is named as the head of the Board of Regents. As Su Shun had previously expected to gain more power from the death of Hsien Feng without Orchid's interference, tensions between the two increase. Orchid is now granted the title Empress of Holy Kindness Tzu Hsi. Nuharoo becomes the Empress of Great Benevolence Tzu An. Orchid knows that her new position does not guarantee her safety as she is still restricted by the actions of Su Shun. With the assistance of An-te-hai and Prince Kung Orchid manages to successfully arrest and punish Su Shun and his associates, on the grounds that they had tried to organise a coup d'état. The novel ends with the official burial of Emperor Hsien Feng and the hint of a new relationship between Orchid and General Yung Lu. |
True Grit | Charles Portis | 1,968 | Portis’ novel is narrated by Mattie Ross, a thrifty, churchgoing older spinster distinguished by intelligence, independence and strength of mind. Speaking in 1903, she recounts the story of her adventures many years earlier, when, at the age of fourteen, she undertook a quest to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney. She is joined on her quest by Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn and a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (pronounced "La-beef"). As Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross’ family farm in west central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Chaney is not adept as a farmhand, and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as "trash", and noting that her kind-hearted father, Frank, only hired him out of pity. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Ross takes $250 with him to pay for the horses, along with two gold pieces he always carried. He ends up spending only $100 on the horses. When Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation involving Chaney, Chaney kills him, robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces, and flees into Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) on his horse. Hearing that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous "Lucky" Ned Pepper, Mattie wishes to track down the killer, and upon arriving at Fort Smith she looks for the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district. That man turns out to be Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, and although he is an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie is convinced that he has "grit", and that he is best suited for the job due to his reputation for violence. Playing on Cogburn's need for money, Mattie persuades him to take on the job, insisting that, as part of the bargain, she accompany him. During their preparation, a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf appears. He too is tracking Chaney, and has been for four months, for killing a senator and his dog in Texas, with the hopes of bringing him back to Texas dead or alive for a cash reward. Cogburn and LaBoeuf take a dislike to each other, but after some haggling, they agree to join forces in the hunt realizing that they can both benefit from each other's respective talents and knowledge. Once they reach a deal the two men attempt to leave Mattie behind, but she proves more tenacious than they had expected. They repeatedly try to lose her, but she persists in following them and seeing her transaction with Marshal Cogburn through to the end. Eventually she is jumped by Cogburn and LaBoeuf, who had hid themselves from view and LaBoeuf begins to spank Mattie. Mattie appeals to Cogburn and he orders LaBoeuf to stop. At this point Mattie is allowed to join their posse. Together, but with very different motivations, the three ride into the wilderness to confront Ned Pepper's gang. Along the way, they develop an appreciation for one another. |
Ciske de Rat | Piet Bakker | null | Ciske de Rat ("Ciske the Rat") is the story of eleven year old lonely street child Ciske (Franciskus) Vrijmoeth, who has no friends and is only called "the rat". The setting is in Amsterdam in the 1930s. Ciske has to change school, because he poured ink over his teacher's head. After school, he helps out in a pub, where his mother Marie also works. His beloved father Cor is a fisherman and therefore not at home. The story is told by his new teacher Bruis, who gives him a chance. Ciske groeit op ("Ciske Grows Up") is the second part. Ciske starts a fire at home as he accidentally knocks over a lantern. He meets his father, who wants to get divorced. At school he makes friends with a sick boy called Dorus. One night, Ciske surprises his mother with another man, who beats him. As his mother tears out pages from a book which was a gift from Dorus, who later dies, Ciske gets angry and kills his mother with a knife. He is then arrested and put into jail. His teacher helps him out, and after Ciske saves a drowning boy's life, he is declared a hero and lives together with his father and aunt Jans. In the third part, Cis de man ("Cis the Man"), Ciske is now an adult soldier and fights against the German soldiers in World War II. This part of the book was published in 1946 after the Dutch liberation and is not included in the films. |
Snowball's Chance | John Reed | null | The story begins with the death of Napoleon, the original antagonist of Animal Farm. The animals of the farm, fearing what will become of them, learn that Snowball is alive and well, and Snowball returns to the farm to encourage capitalism. A second windmill is soon built alongside the first, and the two are thenceforth known as the Twin Mills (allegorical of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center), and the animals all learn to walk on their hind legs, something hitherto forbidden by Old Major shortly before the expulsion of Mr. Jones from the farm. Also, in place of the original Seven Commandments, Snowball adopts a single slogan for the animals to live by: All animals are born equal - what they become is their own affair. As time passes, the animals, under the leadership of Snowball, realise the properties of monetary gain, and begin to file lawsuits against neighbouring farms, allowing Animal Farm to gain land and wealth. The revitalised farm also attracts animals from elsewhere in England, who are segregated from the farm animals (a possible allegory for American racial segregation). In an effort to increase their wealth, Snowball proposes to transform the farm into a large fairground named Animal Fair (similar to the development of Coney Island in the 19th Century), and in order to provide power for the fair, the animals drive off a group of beavers and other woodland creatures living by a nearby river, and the beaver-dams are destroyed in order for the farm to exploit the water-supply of the river. Despite the success of Animal Fair, the excessive littering and pollution leaves the farm in a deplorable state, and matters worsen when the Twin Mills are destroyed by the woodland creatures in retaliation for their expulsion from the riverbank (in a manner similar to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center). Snowball counteracts this by declaring war on the now-fanatical woodland creatures, even though Animal Farm is in no position to win the war. |
Dark River | Erin Hunter | 2,007 | In Dark River's prologue, it is revealed that there are hidden caves beneath the moorland. Fallen Leaves, a mysterious cat not seen before in any of the books, enters this cave, meeting a misshapen, old cat by the name of Rock, who explains to him that to be a sharpclaw (an equivalent to the Clans' warriors), he must find a way out of the tunnels and onto the moor. Unfortunately, when Rock asked if it would rain, Fallen Leaves said no, because he was afraid that Rock would make him wait until another day if he said yes. Fallen Leaves enters the tunnels and is trapped in the tunnels then when it does rain he is trapped and drowns and never comes back out ever again. He later helps Jaypaw get out in the end of the book. Also ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice Jaypaw finds a washed-up stick when he is out gathering herbs with his mentor, Leafpool. It has odd scratches on it; some that are crossed out and some that aren't. He doesn't know why, but the stick feels very important to him, to the point that he half drowns himself to save it from the depths of the lake. As he struggles to figure out what it means, he has a dream in which he experiences what Fallen Leaves experienced. Jaypaw then understands what the scratches mean and that the last uncrossed one was Fallen Leaves' mark. Cinderpaw then falls from the Sky Oak, breaking her back leg. He soon discovers that his mentor, Leafpool, is determined to save the apprentice's leg. As the medicine cat's determination begins to border on an obsession, he begins to wonder why. One night, he falls asleep by Cinderpaw and he wakes up in a strange forest. There he meets Cinderpaw, unhurt, who leads him to a camp filled with familiar smells; ThunderClan's previous home in the forest. Cinderpaw describes how she once lived there before the Great Journey and asks Jaypaw to tell Leafpool that she is proud of her, and that she has learned far more than she could have ever taught her. By then Jaypaw is officially confused, but when looking into Cinderpaw's eyes, he sees a series of flashbacks from her previous life. Jaypaw realizes that when Cinderpelt, the former ThunderClan medicine cat, died in Twilight she was reincarnated as Cinderpaw, without Cinderpaw herself knowing it. Jaypaw tells Leafpool what he has discovered and his mentor agrees with him. However, when Cinderpaw wakes she doesn't remember the dream (only that Jaypaw had been able to see in it). Lionpaw becomes best friends with Heatherpaw, a beautiful WindClan apprentice, and begins meeting her at night. Hollypaw discovers their secret and Lionpaw begins to be wary of his "nosy" sister. Afterwards, Heatherpaw and Lionpaw begin meeting in hidden tunnels that no Clan cat has ever seen before (the same tunnels that Fallen Leaves drowned in). They name their play Clan DarkClan, of which 'Heatherstar' is leader and 'Lionclaw' is deputy. They meet together every night they can. Tigerstar, who meets Lionpaw in ghostly apparitions, like he did to Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw, starts teaching him additional battle moves that even his mentor, Ashfur, doesn't know, though Brambleclaw seems to recognize them. When Lionpaw starts to teach the moves to Heatherpaw, Hawkfrost scolds him for showing battle moves to the enemy, and under pressure, Lionpaw must choose between his love of Heatherpaw, and loyalty to the warrior code and ThunderClan. He chooses to remain loyal to his Clan and leaves Heatherpaw, who is extremely hurt and betrayed, though she understands his decision in the end. During a Gathering, RiverClan reveals that their Clan is facing a "small problem" and that they are being forced to live on the island for a short while. Though Leopardstar is fiercely protective of her Clan and refuses to elaborate, Hollypaw knows something is not right, because her friend Willowpaw and the rest of RiverClan are acting extremely nervous. She informs Firestar about her concerns. However, he does not believe this is ThunderClan's problem and refuses to take action. He and the rest of the Clan continue preparing for a battle against WindClan even though it is not certain that a battle will ever occur. Hollypaw heads out to RiverClan on her own. When she arrives, Willowpaw shows her how Twoleg kits (children) are attacking their camp. Hollypaw is kept with RiverClan so she cannot tell anyone about their secret because they think she is a spy. However, her brother Jaypaw has a dream that reveals her location, and Squirrelflight comes to retrieve her. Near the end of the book, all three stories combine: Jaypaw and Leafpool must go to WindClan to take Onestar a message from Firestar about not shedding unnecessary blood in a battle over something that may never happen, while Hollypaw convinces Mousefur and Firestar to do something. When they arrive, Gorsetail's (a WindClan queen) kits (Sedgekit, Thistlekit and Swallowkit) are missing and WindClan blames RiverClan, saying that there will be a battle if RiverClan does not return the kits. Jaypaw and Leafpool return to camp and Lionpaw tells his brother and sister about the tunnels, where he thinks the kits may have gone. They enter the caves, meeting up with the WindClan apprentices Breezepaw and Heatherpaw, who share their motive for being there. Jaypaw is guided by the spirit of Fallen Leaves and the group find the kits behind a boulder that blocked the tunnel. It starts raining and the tunnel floods, but Jaypaw figures a way out just in time and they return the kits, saving the Clans from an unnecessary battle. The tunnel is blocked during the flood, and Lionpaw states that it ended the most important friendship he ever had. |
Capitalist Nigger | Chika Onyeani | 2,000 | Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success: A Spider Web Doctrine (Timbuktu Publishers, September 17, 2000) asserts that the Black Race, is a consumer race and not a productive race. Says the author, Chika Onyeani, "We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for us to believe that we are independent. The Black Race depends on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding, and its clothing." "Despite enormous natural resources," according to the author, "Blacks are economic slaves because they lack the "killer-instinct" and "devil-may-care" attitude of the Caucasian, as well as the "spider web economic mentality" of the Asian." The author is not afraid to use the word 'nigger' in both pejorative or stereotypic senses. He says, "It is not what you call me, but what I answer to, that matters most." |
Day of the Dinosaur | null | null | When the Hardy Boys sign on to help prepare for opening day of the new Bayport museum's dinosaur park, the teenage sleuths discover that a deadly, high-tech saboteur is out to put the museum out of business, forever. |
Copper Canyon Conspiracy | Carolyn Keene | null | Nancy Drew is in Tucson to watch her friend George run in the Cactus Marathon. Among the entrants is Tasio Humada, a Tarahumara Indian from Mexico, who is also running for his life. He has received several death threats, possibly tied to his people's dispute with the lumber mills in his country, and Nancy decides to see him safely back to Mexico. But her help may have come too late. Soon after crossing the border, Tasio is arrested for murder of a powerful logging baron. Meanwhile, Joe Hardy, who also ran in the marathon, and his brother, Frank, head to the sprawling ranch belonging to the family of Cory Weston. For while the threats were directed at Tasio, it was Cory, running at his side, who paid the price, nearly killed by a boulder thrown in his path. As the truth behind the attacks gradually unfolds, Nancy and the Hardys expose a tangle of greed, bribery, and corruption stretching from southern Arizona to the Sierra Madre. |
The Solarians | Norman Spinrad | 1,966 | The novel takes places centuries in the future when humanity has colonized many star systems. Another race, the Duglaari or "Doogs" is slowly conquering human systems, herding the inhabitants into barren areas where they simply starve to death. The two races have approximately equal technologies, and space battles are decided by superior numbers, with the Doogs always having the advantage. The colonists are awaiting the emergence of saviors from "Fortress Sol", the Solar System, which has been closed off to all ships since the early days of the war. Before sealing themselves off with billions of space mines and robot ships, the Solarians, as they are known to the colonists, promised to re-emerge with an answer to the numeric superiority of the Duglaari. Returning from yet another lost system, a fleet commander called Palmer finds that a group of Solarians has contacted his superiors and wishes him to accompany them on a mission. The mission is to journey to the Duglaari home world and end the war. Along the way, he discovers that they are different from any people he has ever known. He was raised in a hierarchical military society, where computers make all important decisions, including the conduct of battles. He is amazed that the Solarians use computers very little, relying on their innate skills to pilot spaceships, navigate, and decide on tactics. They rely on the "Organic Group", the idea that humans have individual talents allowing them naturally to adopt roles in small cohesive groups. One man, stereotypically handsome and charismatic, is Leader. Another takes the role of Gamesmaster, intuitively understanding probability and psychology. The group includes a pair of telepaths, and a mysterious woman who has no specific role, except that the Group is better with her than without. Her role is described as "Glue". Part of her job is to relax their guest and prepare him for his role, which involves offering sexual as well as spiritual comforts. The Duglaari planets have to be approached with care, as the star-drive used to move faster than light has one deadly side effect. Used too close to a star, it will cause the star to explode. For this reason, star systems are defended by ships which tend to shoot first and ask questions later. In addition, star-ships have to be small as the FTL field cannot be more than a hundred meters in diameter, putting them at a disadvantage against defensive ships in a system. Skilfully manipulating the Duglaari psychology, the Solarians gain access to the home world and are taken to see the ruler, who seems to be no more than the mouthpiece for a huge computer system. In appearance the Duglaari are roughly humanoid except for large eyes, fur, and bat-wing ears which move to express emotion. It seems that long ago a Duglaari leader imposed his vision of a uniform, computer-controlled society on the rest of his race, with the effect of breeding Duglaari who most resemble the long-dead dictator in their psychology. Palmer is struck by how much his people have come to resemble the Duglaari because of the war, and how different the Solarians are. For the conference, the Solarians insisted that Palmer dress in a costume they supplied. This is a comic-opera military uniform festooned with gold braid, ribbons and medals. Palmer feels ridiculous, especially compared to the Solarians, who have dressed in costumes of uniform black with only a sunburst emblem on the left breast. He compares them to priests of some dark cult. To Palmer's horror, at the conference the Solarians seem to betray the colonists, boasting that Sol can never be conquered, that weapons capable of destroying the Duglaari will soon be created, but that the Solarians wish to be left alone. They offer to sacrifice the colonies as tribute. The Duglaari ruler responds that they must surrender and cease developing weapons. The Solarians arrogantly refuse. Then the Duglaari ruler announces that by gathering most of Duglaar's fleet together they can overwhelm even Sol's defences, neutralizing the threat. It only remains to liquidate the humans who have brought the matter to the attention of the Duglaari empire. The Solarians announce that unless they are allowed to leave, a nuclear device on their ship will destroy the city. The Duglaari do not believe them, since they had thoroughly scanned and searched the ship. However their instruments now show that the threat is real. In fact it is an illusion projected by the telepaths. The ship is allowed to lift off with a Duglaari escort, positioned so that if the Solarians tried to activate their star drive, they would have a 50% chance of being destroyed, and likewise if the Duglaari chose to attack, they would have a 50% chance of failing to stop the Solarians causing the sun to explode. Thus neither side has an incentive to break the truce. However Palmer spots a weakness in the scheme: once their ship reaches the point where they can safely use the FTL drive, the Duglaari can also safely launch an attack on them, and if they fail they do not risk their homeworld. Despite his disgust with the Solarians he is able to use a trick employed to disengage from fleet actions to allow them to escape. He then retreats to his cabin, hating the Solarians and all they stand for. The Solarians take Palmer to Fortress Sol, behind all its defenses, and tour the system so he can see Earth for the last time. The Duglaari fleet arrives and penetrates the defences, unleashing massive bombardments that destroy all the habitable planets. When all seems lost, a stardrive in a ship on Mercury is activated, and Sol explodes, annihilating the Doog fleet. Suddenly the Solarian scheme becomes clear to Palmer. By goading the Doogs into risking a large part of the fleet, they have destroyed so many ships that from now on, the colonists will always have the advantage. Palmer's humiliation was a necessary part of the deception. He believes that Earth sacrificed itself to save the colonies. He is wrong in one detail, however. In the final chapter, it is revealed that humanity had evacuated the Solar System and is traveling between the stars in massive Space Arks. Faster than light ships cannot be larger than a certain size, but the Arks, proceeding slower than light, can be as big as necessary. In a matter of a few decades, they will reach Alpha Centauri and humanity will reunite to defeat the Duglaari. In addition, with Earth destroyed they will cease looking back to the home world and will conquer the galaxy. |
The Lost Warrior | Erin Hunter | 2,007 | The Lost Warrior opens with narration from Graystripe, a warrior who was separated from his Clan, ThunderClan, after being kidnapped by humans trying to deforest his home. He is then taken in as a house cat by a Twoleg (human) family. He somewhat likes the Twolegs and their kits but he cannot stand to be away from his Clan and his fellow warriors. He makes an attempt to flee but gets lost in Twolegplace and battles with a kittypet named Duke. After being forced to flee the fight, Graystripe is led back to the nest he has been staying in by a female kittypet named Millie he meets, who assures him that losing to Duke is nothing to be ashamed of. The two cats get to know each other better and Millie finds a small forest in the middle of the Twolegplace. She then shows it to Graystripe and asks him to teach her how to hunt and fight after learning of his previous life. After a dream in which he is visited by his deceased mate, Silverstream, and his daughter Feathertail, and another fight with Duke and his allies, Graystripe finally makes the decision to try to return to ThunderClan. In another dream about Silverstream, after Graystripe tells Silverstream that he wishes he could be with her, Silverstream reminds him that his place is with ThunderClan. She also tells him that he already has a traveling companion. Later, Graystripe asks Millie to come with him to ThunderClan, and is taken aback at her refusal. He then leaves for ThunderClan alone. Graystripe ends up getting lost in Twolegplace for days before collapsing from exhaustion. Millie changes her mind and goes out to catch up to Graystripe. Upon meeting him, she discovers him feverish and weak; he even calls her by Silverstream's name. Millie nurses him back to health and asks him about Silverstream. Then the two set off to try to find ThunderClan. What they don't realize is that ThunderClan, along with the rest of the Clans, no longer resides in the forest. |
A Necessary End | Peter Robinson | 1,989 | Violence erupts at an anti-nuclear demonstration in Eastvale, leaving one policeman stabbed to death. At first there are over a hundred suspects, but then things narrow down to the people who live on “Maggie’s Farm”, an isolated house high on the daleside: Seth Cotton, the quiet, strong owner; Mara Delacey, his girlfriend; Paul Boyd, a young drifter with a violent background; Zoe Hardacre, an astrologer; and Rick Trelawney, an artist with strong Marxist leanings. Also among the suspects is Dennis Osmond, a social worker involved with Jenny Fuller, Inspector Banks’s friend. As if this isn’t enough to cope with, Banks finds his freedom hampered by the politically-motivated appointment of an old enemy, Detective Superintendent Richard “Dirty Dick” Burgess, to head the investigation. Finally, warned off the case, the only way Banks can salvage his career is by beating Burgess to the killer. As the two head for a final confrontation, Banks pieces together the full story behind his most tragic case so far. |
The Hanging Valley | Peter Robinson | 1,989 | A faceless, maggot-ridden corpse is discovered in a tranquil, hidden valley above the village of Swainshead. When the identity of the body is discovered, so is a possible connection with an unsolved murder in the same area five years ago. Among the annoyingly silent suspects are the Collier brothers, the wealthiest and most powerful family in Swainsdale; John Fletcher, a taciturn farmer; Sam Greenock, cocky owner of a Local guest house; and his troubled wife, Katie, who knows more than she realizes. When the Colliers use their influence to slow down the investigation, Inspector Alan Banks heads to Toronto to track down the killer. He soon finds himself in a race against time as events rush towards the shocking and haunting conclusion of his fourth case. |
Past Reason Hated | Peter Robinson | 1,991 | The body of Caroline Hartley is found one evening before Christmas by her lover, Veronica Shildon. It is a cosy scene–log fire, sheepskin rug, Vivaldi on the stereo, Christmas lights and tree–but Caroline is naked and covered in blood. Detective Constable Susan Gay is the first detective at the scene. She has recently been promoted to C.I.D. and the case soon takes on overwhelming professional and personal importance for her. DC Gay and Chief Inspector Alan Banks soon find plenty of suspects as they begin to delve into Caroline’s past and the women’s present life: Veronica’s ex-husband, who is a well-known composer; a feminist poet; the cast and crew of a play Caroline was rehearing; and Caroline’s eccentric, reclusive brother, Gary Hartley. Inspector Banks’s fifth case is an ironic, suspenseful tale of family secrets, hidden passions and desperate violence. |
Wednesday's Child | Peter Robinson | 1,992 | When a well-dressed couple, claiming to be social workers, appear at Brenda Scupham’s door, saying they must take her seven-year-old daughter, Gemma, into care after allegations of abuse, Brenda is confused and intimidated enough to hand the child over. But when the couple, Mr Brown and Miss Peterson, fail to bring Gemma home, Brenda realizes she has made a terrible mistake. As the days go by, Detective Chief Inspector Banks begins to lose hope of finding Gemma alive. Then a rambler finds a body in the ruins of an old lead mine, and the two cases begin to converge in a terrifying way, leading Banks to a showdown with one of the most chillingly evil criminals he has ever come up against. |
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