The trio is journeying to Dread Mountain when they come across a spring. Although initially distrustful of its contents, they drink the water out of thirst, noting a nearby sign saying: "Drink, gentle stranger, and welcome. All of evil will beware." and several oddly shaped rocks encircling the spring. They decided to take a rest there and Lief awakens to find one of the "rocks" unfurling. It reveals itself to be a mammalian flying creature called the Kin, which most Deltorans believe to be extinct. It explains to Lief that the water from the spring makes one dream of whomever one is thinking of during ingestion. The three head to Dread Mountain with the help of the Kin, landing there only to find the mountain thickly overgrown, deserted of its inhabitants, the Dread gnomes, and overrun by beasts. However, the companions find the entrance into the Mountain, and after avoiding the numerous traps the gnomes have set up to repel invaders, it was discovered that there is a monstrous toad named Gellick that was controlling the gnomes. The trio makes a bargain with the head of the gnomes to rid Gellick for them in return for freedom and the emerald that was studded onto Gellick''s head. The fight ends with Lief tossing water from the Dreaming Spring into Gellick''s mouth, as it also has a deadly, paralyzing effect on "those with evil intent". The gnomes thank Lief by making peace with their longtime prey, the Kin, and agreeing to hamper the progress of their common enemy, the Shadow Lord in finding the trio. The companions then continue their journey to the Maze of the Beast.

Dread Mountain

The novel is a bildungsroman about a callow youth named David in rural Mississippi during the late 1930s to early 1950s. He learns of religious, racial, social, and sexual bigotry in the narrator''s ten strongest memories, one memory per chapter. The memories begin with David on a train, escaping the past, hoping for freedom. The story begins with Aunt Mae, a former actress and singer, moving in with David''s white-working-class family in the middle of a small southern town. Aunt Mae becomes sexually involved with a seventy-year-old man, ending when he is arrested on morality charges. From subsequent events David learns he does not get along with the other boys his own age. At this point suggestive of the 1930s Depression, David''s father, Frank, loses his factory job. The family moves to an older house on a hill overlooking the town. The family''s circumstances worsen and Frank becomes frustrated. When the family runs out of money, he buys seeds. His wife insists crops obviously cannot grow in the clay of the hill soil, and he hits her (with his knee) knocking out one of her teeth. She bleeds badly, but it eventually subsides. Subsequently Frank is shipped to Italy to fight in World War II. While Frank is in Italy, a traveling ''revival'' ministry visits town. The traveling preacher teaches that popular dance is a prelude to ''immorality''. The town''s local preacher opposes this incursion and begins a rival Bible-study class. These options divide the town. Through editorials in the newspaper and spots on the town radio station, each side attacks the other. Meanwhile Aunt Mae takes a job in the local propeller factory as a supervisor. At a company dance which she organizes, Aunt Mae successfully entertains by singing. This leads to her being invited to join the hired band, singing for pay. David''s mother goes insane after learning that Frank had been killed in Italy. David and Aunt Mae take care of her, as Aunt Mae pursues singing. At age fifteen David gets a job at the pharmacy in town. There he encounters Jo Lynne, a girl visiting the valley while her grandfather is ill. After seeing a melodramatic movie, David and Jo Lynne date. Clyde, a member of Aunt Mae''s band, is in love with her, and is certain they would get a record deal in Nashville. She leaves for Nashville promising that she''ll immediately send for David and his mother. On strength of this promise, David quits his job. After seeing Aunt Mae off, he reflects on his situation, eventually realizing his mother seems missing. She usually spends most of the day in the yard where Frank planted his failed crop. As he climbs the stairs he steps in blood. He finds his mother collapsed, bleeding from the back of her mouth. The bleeding quells before she dies exhaling one last word — "Frank." Immediately the imperious local preacher arrives announcing he is taking David''s (now dead) mother to an asylum. The preacher pushes past David to go upstairs, and as he climbs the stairs David shoots him through the back of the head. David buries his mother in the yard and uses his remaining money to board a train, hoping to start anew wherever he might be destined for. The book is told entirely from the first person, and the main character is rarely referred to as David. David''s name is mentioned very briefly at the beginning, but later more strongly.

The Neon Bible

Based on characters created by Kix Brooks (as the alter egos of country superstars, Brooks and Dunn), The Adventures of Slim and Howdy is a comic crime novel that chronicles the exploits of a couple of gifted but undiscovered guitar pickin'', honky tonk entertainin'', country singers. It starts with a chance meeting on a used car lot in Beaumont, Texas. Slim and Howdy agree to partner up and ride together. But before they can even get out of town, they incur the undying wrath of Brushfire Boone Tate and a guy named Black Tony. A few days later they arrive in the Texas border town of Del Rio to play at the Lost and Found, a honky-tonk run by their old friend, the widow Jodie Lee. Along the way Slim and Howdy get caught up in a rigged poker game, encounter a snake handler with a do-it-yourself amputation kit, and have a run-in with Los Zetas, the deadly Mexican organized crime gang. Before it''s over, Jodie Lee gets kidnapped, suspects come crawling out of the cacti, and Slim and Howdy have to save the day.

The Adventures of Slim and Howdy

The story takes place during the Earl of Montrose''s 1644-5 Highland campaign on behalf of King Charles I against the Covenanters who had sided with the English Parliament in the English Civil War. The main plot concerns a love triangle between Allan M''Aulay, his friend the Earl of Menteith, and Annot Lyle. Annot is a young woman who has been brought up by the M''Aulays since being captured as a girl during a blood feud against the MacEagh clan (also known as the Children of the Mist). M''Aulay and Menteith are both members of Montrose''s army. Annot eventually marries Menteith after it is discovered that she has aristocratic blood, and was kidnapped by the MacEaghs as a baby. This leads to the jealous M''Aulay stabbing Menteith and then fleeing Montrose''s army. Menteith survives whilst M''Aulay disappears and is rumoured to have been killed by the MacEaghs. Much of the novel is taken up with a subplot involving an expedition into enemy territory by Dugald Dalgetty, an experienced mercenary fighting for Montrose. Dalgetty does not fight out of political or religious conviction, but purely for the love of carnage. However, he is very professional, and remains loyal to an employer to the end of his contract. He gained his experience fighting for various armies during the Thirty Years'' War, then still raging in Germany. Note: He did not fight all thirty years. Dalgetty is regarded as one of Scott''s finest comic characters, however he dominates so much of the story that the main plot is not really developed in detail.

A Legend of Montrose

Lanark comprises four books, arranged in the order Three, One, Two, Four (there is also a Prologue before Book One, and an Epilogue four chapters before the end of the book). In the Epilogue, the author explains this by saying that "I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another", and that the epilogue itself is "too important" to go at the end (p.&nbsp;483). In Book Three, a young man awakes alone in a train carriage. He has no memory of his past and picks his name from a strangely familiar photograph on the wall. He soon arrives in Unthank, a strange Glasgow-like fantasy city in which there is no daylight and whose disappearing residents suffer from strange symbolic diseases. Lanark begins to associate with a group of twenty-somethings to whom he cannot fully relate and whose mores he cannot understand, and soon begins to suffer from Dragonhide, a disease which turns his skin into scales as an external manifestation of his emotional repression. Lanark is eventually swallowed by the earth, and awakes in The Institute, a sort of hospital which cures patients of their diseases but uses the hopeless cases for power and food. Upon learning this, Lanark is horrified and determines to leave. Books One and Two constitute a realist Bildungsroman beginning in pre-War Glasgow, and tell the story of Duncan Thaw ("based on myself, he was tougher and more honest"), a difficult and precocious child born to impecunious and frustrated parents in the East End of Glasgow. The book follows Thaw''s wartime evacuation, difficult secondary education and his scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art, where his inability to form relationships with women and his obsessive artistic vision lead to his descent into madness and eventual suicide by drowning. Book Four sees Lanark begin a bizarre, dreamlike journey back to Unthank, which he finds on the point of total disintegration, wracked by political strife, avarice, paranoia and economic meltdown, all of which he is unable to prevent. During various stages of the journey, during which he meets his author, he rapidly ages. He finally finds himself old, sitting in a hilltop cemetery as Unthank breaks down in an apocalypse of fire and flood, and, his time of death having been revealed to him, he ends the book calmly awaiting it.

Lanark: A Life in Four Books

In 1854, the explorer John Rae found himself at the centre of one of the great controversies of the nineteenth century – the fate of the Franklin expedition. With the British hoping to be first in the race to discover the Northwest Passage, the news Rae brought of starvation and cannibalism among final survivors set off a firestorm that would eclipse his own incredible accomplishments. The true story of the remarkable John Rae – Arctic traveler and Hudson''s Bay Company doctor – Fatal Passage tells a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. When nineteen-year-old Rae set sail for Hudson Bay in 1833, he had little idea of what to expect at the edge of empire. Meeting his first winter at Moose Factory with equanimity, even as members of the crew were dying despite his best efforts, he discovered that the key to successful Arctic life was to learn the survival skills of the native peoples. The hardy Rae, raised in the windswept Orkney Islands of northern Scotland, and a gifted hunter and sailor, would become one of the greatest explorers of his generation. He would survey 1765 miles of uncharted territory, travel 6555 miles on snowshoes and sail 6700 miles in small boats. Building on the work of explorers who had gone before him and aided by only a handful of native people, Métis and Scots, Rae became the consummate Arctic explorer, as much at ease in the wilderness of ice as in London drawing rooms. Ultimately, he solved the two great mysteries of nineteenth century Arctic exploration. Rae discovered both the fate of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, which had sailed from England in 1845, and the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage. The first of these discoveries brought down upon him the wrath of the formidable Lady Franklin, who enlisted the help of Charles Dickens, and orchestrated the erasure of Rae from official Arctic history. In Fatal Passage, Ken McGoogan sets the record straight.

Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot

A year before the novel opens, Peadar and Matty Power, two elderly bachelor brothers, sold a portion of their land to Norwegian fish farmers. However, they resent no longer being able to use the land in question and, one night, they release the entire stock of fish into the sea. In doing so, they set in train a series of events that lead to tragic consequences. For several years, rumours have been rife in the locality that a major industrial project might be located in Ross. This would be very welcome as there is little local employment there. Now, as news of the act of sabotage at the fish farm spreads through the community, fears grow that subversive elements were behind it and that outside investors will be discouraged. The local policeman, Sergeant McMenamin, suspects that the Powers released the fish. However, as concern among the locals about a Republican plot develops into virtual paranoia, he is pressured into changing the focus of his investigation. He turns his attention to a small band of local extremists known as The Sons of Ireland. Their leader is a young man who, for patriotic reasons, has ''gaelicised'' his name from Johnny Conroy to Seagrun Ó Maelchonaire. Several years earlier, Ó Maelchonaire had been part of another Republican group along with a school friend, Michael Carmody. When their activities began to attract police attention, Michael fled to England where he became involved in radical student politics. Now, older and wiser, he has returned to Ross to live a quiet life. He has found a job as a handyman at a local hotel owned by Hubert Kershaw, one of the diminishing number of Protestants still living in Ross. Jenny Kershaw, Hubert''s daughter, is in love with Michael and they are developing a relationship, much to her parents'' disapproval. The day after the fish were released, Ó Maelchonaire visits Michael at the hotel to persuade him to join The Sons of Ireland. Michael refuses and the two part on bad terms. Sergeant McMenamin arrests Michael on suspicion of involvement in the fish release. Anxious to establish his credentials as a serious Republican, Ó Maelchonaire and his followers stage an attack on the local gaol in order to free Michael. They take the reluctant escapee to a hiding place in a local wood. As darkness falls, it is clear that Ó Maelchonaire has no idea what to do next and everyone''s nerves become fraught. In the late evening, Sir Philip Eagan, a local Protestant aristocrat, stumbles upon the small group while out walking his dog. Thinking that the police have found them, Ó Maelchonaire fires his gun into the darkness, mortally wounding Sir Philip. Michael manages to escape and makes his way to the hotel and Jenny''s room. He tells her what has happened and explains that he must flee Ireland. In the final chapter, a year has passed, and we learn how the events of those few days have affected all involved. Michael is living in Paris and earning a living as a folk-singer. Ó Maelchonaire is dead, shot by a British soldier on the streets of Belfast. The hotel has been sold to Benedict Mulcahy, a local politician and Government minister. Sir Philip Eagan''s estate has been turned into a stud farm.

Tread Softly in this Place

Joseph Davidson is a quiet, self-conscious fourteen- year-old boy and a talented artist. His world changes, however, when he is asked to draw a portrait of his mysterious neighbour Tom Leyton, a Vietnam veteran who for thirty years has lived alone with his sister Caroline, raising his silkworms and hiding from prying eyes. Because of this he is the subject of ugly gossip and rumour, much of it led by neighbour Mrs Mossop, who views Leyton’s brief teaching career with suspicion. When Joseph finally meets his reclusive neighbour he discovers a cold, brooding man lost deep within his own cocoon of silence. He soon realises that in order to truly draw Tom Leyton, he must find the courage to unlock the man’s dark and perhaps dangerous secrets. But Joseph has his own secrets, including the pain of his damaged relationship with his absent father and his childhood fear of the Running Man – a local character whose wild appearance and strange manner of moving everywhere at a frantic pace terrified him when he was a small boy. These dreams suddenly return when Joseph is forced to face his fears and doubts regarding Tom Leyton. As Joseph moves deeper and deeper into his neighbour’s world he confronts not only Tom Leyton’s private hell, but also his own relationship with his father, and ultimately the dishevelled, lurching figure of the Running Man.

The Running Man

The Black Company is ordered to march thousands of miles across the Lady''s vast empire to the Barrowland. A small detachment, including the Company''s doctor and historian, Croaker, is flown to Juniper, a run-down port outside the empire, at the request of the local prince, to investigate its magical connection to the Barrowland. By coincidence, Raven, a deserter from the Company, and his ward Darling are living at Marron Shed''s dilapidated hotel in Juniper. Raven has been accumulating money any way he can, including selling dead (and almost dead) bodies to the non-human residents of a mysterious black castle that is steadily growing, fueling the unease of the city''s residents. Shed also desperately needs money, to pay his loanshark Krage. Raven does him a favor by letting him participate in his body-selling venture. When Raven and Shed find out that Shed''s acquaintance, Asa, has been robbing the dead in the underground Catacombs, they follow suit. A minor incident escalates into a life-and-death struggle between Krage and Raven, which the former loses; Krage and many of his henchmen are sold for a hefty sum to the castle. Two of the Lady''s most powerful wizards, Whisper and Feather, arrive in Juniper to investigate the castle and determine that it is an attempt by the Dominator to escape. Ironically, Raven, while trying to protect Darling, had been unwittingly aiding her worst enemy. If the castle gets sufficient bodies to grow large enough, the Dominator will be freed. Once he learns of Raven''s presence, Croaker becomes worried, for he knows why Raven deserted: Darling is the reincarnation of the White Rose, the nemesis of both the Lady and the Dominator. If the Lady ever found out, Croaker and the rest of the Company would be done for. Fortunately, Raven and Darling sail away as soon as the winter ice melts, taking Asa with them, in the ship Raven had built with his ill-gotten loot. Shed continues to have money troubles, forcing him to sell his embezzling cousin and a treacherous lover to the castle, but is finally caught by the Company. Croaker realizes that he cannot risk handing him over to Whisper for questioning, as the Company''s connection to Darling would be revealed, so he fakes Shed''s death. Asa returns to the town shortly afterwards, bringing news that Raven has been killed. Meanwhile, fierce fighting breaks out between the castle''s inhabitants and the Lady''s forces, now including the Lady herself, the rehabilitated Limper, Feather and Journey, as well as the remainder of the Black Company. Feather is slain. In the confusion of the climactic battle, Croaker, Shed, Asa, the Lieutenant and many of the old-time Company members sail away, rightfully fearing that the Lady will learn the truth about Darling. The Company''s Captain dies when he tries in a heroic attempt to save the company by making sure the Lady''s carpet cannot be used to chase them down he does this by flying it on a suicide run into a cliff. The Lieutenant takes command of the Company. At the next port, the fleeing band find Raven''s ship. Croaker determines that their friend had only staged his death and the men begin searching for him and Darling. In the process, they discover that some of the Dominator''s minions had slipped away from Juniper and planted the seed for another castle in a new, more secluded spot. Croaker informs the Lady when she contacts him magically. Back in Juniper, the Lady emerges victorious over her husband. Whisper and the Limper then take an unauthorized side trip to track down the remnants of the Company. The Lieutenant barely gets away in the ship with most of the men, but Croaker, Shed, Silent, Goblin, One-Eye and a few others are left behind. With no other choice, they ambush the Taken and succeed in hurting them badly enough to get away, though Shed is killed. When they link up with the Lieutenant in another port town, they learn that he had found Darling, and Raven had died in an accident immediately prior to his arrival. They become Rebels. The very thing they were fighting, to protect Darling who is The White Rose. They then prepare to spend the next twenty-nine years on the run, waiting for the return of the Great Comet, which prophecies say will signal the downfall of the Lady.

Shadows Linger

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.

Invincible

Khaavren of Castlerock is a young Dragaeran gentleman from the House of the Tiassa whose family has fallen onto hard times. Though lacking an inheritance, Khaavren has a long sword and is "tolerably well-acquainted with its use." On his way to the capital city of the Empire, Khaavren befriends Aerich and Tazendra, nobles from the Houses of the Lyorn and Dzur who also lack income. Khaavren tells them of his plan to join the Phoenix Guards, the new Emperor''s elite personal troops, and his new friends decide to accompany him. The trio arrive in Dragaera City and meet Pel, a Yendi who joined a few days previous. Pel helps the trio sign up and buy their equipment, and quickly befriends them. The four are unusual for Phoenix Guards because most guardsmen come from the militaristic House of the Dragon. The recruits are each paired with a haughty Dragon veteran for their first patrol, but each recruit kills his or her Dragon partner by the end of the night. The group is thereafter only partnered together on patrols and soon becomes inseparable. The group learns of the standing feud between the White Sash Battalion of the Phoenix Guards and their own Red Boot Battalion. They fight a duel and several brawls with members of the enemy battalion. After learning of the White Sash''s failure to apprehend a murderer, Kathana, the group decides to earn glory for their own troop by tracking her down themselves. Unbeknownst to the group, a number of powerful figures in the Imperial Court have a vested interest in the fate of Kathana. Seodra, the Court Wizard, and Lytra, the Warlord, want to manipulate Kathana''s arrest to gain favor from the Emperor. The Imperial Consort, however, is a friend of Kathana''s and wants her protected, as do those who wish her favor. Before setting out, Khaavren''s would-be lover Illista, a Phoenix courtier seeking favor, wrings a promise from Khaavren to prevent Kathana from being arrested. Kathana, a remarkable painter, is charged with killing the Marquis of Pepperfield, who insulted her painting. The Marquis''s son Uttrik, a soldier, desires revenge for his father''s death. Wanting to be rid of both Uttrik and Khaavren, Seodra manipulates Uttrik into challenging Khaavren to a duel, hoping that one would kill the other. Khaavren wins the duel, but spares Uttrik''s life and allows him to join them. Seodra sends an ever-increasing number of thugs to stop the group, but the group manages to reach Kathana''s hiding place: the manor of Adron e''Kieron, a prominent Dragonlord. Uttrik challenges Kathana to a duel. The rest of the group is unsure what to do, unwilling to obstruct the honor of a duel or to abandon their original purpose. They convince the pair to hold their duel in the Marquisate of Pepperfield, hoping to buy time from the journey. The group encounters more thugs and works together, despite its differences, to bypass them. By the time they reach Pepperfield, Uttrik and Kathana have become friends and regret the events that have led them to their duel. Before the duel can commence, however, an invading army of Easterners arrives. The group manages to negotiate a peace agreement with the general of the army, Fenarr, to prevent an invasion. After the Easterners leave, Adron arrives with his army and two of Seodra''s minions, Shaltre and the Duke of Garland, under orders to kill the group. Aerich reveals that Shaltre had wronged his father, the Duke of Arylle, and challenges him to a duel. Aerich kills Shaltre and Garland flees. Adron allows the group to go in peace. Uttrik swears off his duel with Kathana, who vows to turn herself in and accept her fate. The group returns to Dragaera City, but before they can tell anyone of the peace treaty with the Easterners, they are imprisoned. Illista comes to speak to Khaavren, but he finally realizes that she is simply using him for her own ends. Eventually the group is summoned before the Emperor and Khaavren volunteers to be questioned under the Orb, which can detect falsehood. Lytra acts as the inquisitor, however, and tries to manipulate the interrogation to incriminate Khaavren and his friends. Eventually Khaavren is able to get the truth across to the Emperor, who is pleased by the group''s service. He punishes many of those responsible for the intrigues, gives Kathana a very light sentence of service in the Phoenix Guard, and promotes Khaavren to Ensign. Only Khaavren stays in the Phoenix Guard for very much longer, however. Aerich returns to his duchy now that his shame has been removed. Tazendra learns from Aerich that her own family shame was simply a misunderstanding, and she returns to her family estates, making her Aerich''s vassal. Pel enters training to learn the Art of Discretion and become an influential court advisor. Khaavren continues to live in the house they all shared and keeps rooms ready for each of them should they ever return.

The Phoenix Guards

Nick Waters, the protagonist, is in Bunny Starch''s biology class, and she is the most feared teacher in his school: Truman School. At the beginning, Duane "Smoke" Scrod Jr. chomps on Mrs. Starch''s pencil, which she finds amusing. She gives him an assignment of 500 humorous words on pimples.She later reports the incident with a poor view on the boy''s behavior. Word gets out about Smoke''s previous arsons.Therefore, most students believe it was Smoke who started the forest fire on a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp. (Later in the book, it turns out that the Red Diamond Energy Corporation set a controlled fire to prevent the students and teachers from discovering an illegal pirate well on the State of Florida''s land.) Mrs. Starch goes back into the swamp to retrieve an asthma inhaler for Libby, a student of Mrs.Starch, while the bus returns the rest of the kids to school. Everyone expects that Mrs. Starch will return in her car, but she doesn''t come back. While Mrs. Starch is missing, her class gets a strange substitute teacher named Wendell Waxmo, who teaches specific pages on specific days. Dr. Dressler, the school''s headmaster, hired him in the hope that when Mrs. Starch hears about who is teaching her classes, she will come back. Dr. Dressler decides to go to Mrs. Starch''s house to see if she is there; she is not. In Mrs. Starch''s mailbox, Dr. Dressler finds a letter saying that she has been called to a "family emergency." Dr. Dressler checks Mrs. Starch''s file and finds no reference to any known family members that are alive. Nick and Marta just don''t buy this "family emergency" excuse, so they decide to go to Mrs. Starch''s house—located well off the beaten path—to investigate. They find the house filled with taxidermied endangered animals. Soon they are discovered by a mysterious man in his early thirties named Twilly Spree. He takes them away from the house and leaves them to meet Marta''s mom. Meanwhile, Duane Scrod Jr., known by his nickname "Smoke", is also missing from class. The oil company, having found out that arson investigators believed Duane to be responsible for the fire, have stolen Duane''s backpack and placed a lighter in it. When Duane returns, he is mistakenly accused of setting the fire in Black Vine Swamp. This is stressful to the headmaster of Truman school, Dr. Dressler, who has to face the board of directors and worry about the school''s public image. When Detective Marshall comes to arrest the supposed arsonist, Duane dodges out of the office and ran away, causing even more worries for Dr. Dressler. While Detective Marshall is waiting outside Duane''s house for him to return, the detective grows bored and decides to do some research about the torch. He finds that only two stores sell that model, and since one of them is too far away, only one store is left to investigate. Detective Marshall goes to the store and takes the video recording of the torch purchase to the arson investigator, who immediately realizes that Duane was framed by the Oil Company. All charges against Duane are dropped, except for that of evading arrest. Nick and Marta can''t stop worrying about their biology teacher and Smoke''s trouble. They think that Twilly may know something about it. They find the car Twilly was driving and jump into the back seat waiting for the man to return. Twilly takes them to see Mrs. Starch. They discover that she has been caring for a baby panther whose mother was scared off by the oil company with a gunshot. Duane was also in on the secret and Twilly was tracking the mother panther. He knew she was close because fresh scat was always on the ground. In the end, they are roused by Duane to come help find the mother because Twilly found fresh panther poop. They find the panther but the oil company tries to shoot the panther and hits Mrs.Starch. Nick climbs up a tree to give back the lost panther cub and Nick falls twenty feet to the ground. So in the end, the mother panther and baby panther are reunited and Mrs. Starch comes back to teaching(injured) with a great respect for Duane, who spends two weeks in jail for running away from the Detective (who also thinks two weeks is too harsh.) They all find out that Bunny Starch was just rescuing a baby panther and that she is a good person after all. After Nick helps the panther get back to its mother,the story gets out.Everyone sees Nick,Marta,Smoke,and even "mean old" Mrs.Starch in a whole new light. Carl Hiaasen is the author of other notable children''s fiction novels including Flush, in over 2,500 libraries, and Hoot, in over 3,200 libraries. it is amazing

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Dread Mountain

By Jennifer Rowe

The Neon Bible

By John Kennedy Toole

The Adventures of Slim and Howdy

No Author Listed

A Legend of Montrose

By Walter Scott

Lanark: A Life in Four Books

By Alasdair Gray

Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot

By Ken McGoogan

Tread Softly in this Place

By Brian Cleeve

The Running Man

By Michael Gerard Bauer

Shadows Linger

By Glen Cook

Invincible

By Troy Denning

The Phoenix Guards

By Steven Brust

Scat

By Carl Hiaasen