Nancy Drew is called to New York by her Aunt Eloise to solve a missing-person case. The granddaughter of her elderly Chinese author neighbor, Mr. Soong, has been kidnapped. The search is on, first by disguising Nancy''s friend George Fayne as the missing Chi Che, and then pursuing a lead at Chi Che''s place of employment, a book store, where Nancy encounters its suspicious owner. Nancy decides to visit the store again but as she goes along the sidewalk, Nancy is knocked-out by a falling vase which hits her on the head. While Nancy is unconscious, Bess and George take up the mystery and a red haired man is quickly arrested. A series of clues lead the girls to Hong Kong, where Nancy''s boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, joins the action. Nancy foolishly follows "Chi Che" on board a plane, and is herself kidnapped. Ingenious Nancy uses her lipstick to signal for help on the plane windows. After her rescue, she follows more clues to an international smuggling ring, and, utilizing a disguised George once again, forces the thieves out of hiding and has the chance to finally locate the missing girl.

The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island and revolves around the Church of Starry Wisdom. The cult uses an ancient artifact known as the "Shining Trapezohedron" to summon a terrible being from the depths of time and space. The Shining Trapezohedron was discovered in Egyptian ruins, in a box of alien construction, by Professor Enoch Bowen before he returned to Providence, Rhode Island in 1844. Members of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an avatar of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal. Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area. The Shining Trapezohedron is a window on all space and time. Described as a "crazily angled stone", it is unlikely to be a true trapezohedron because of the Old Ones'' penchant for bizarre non-Euclidean angles. It was created on dark Yuggoth and brought to Earth by the Old Ones, where it was placed in its box aeons before the first human beings appeared. After the passing of the Old Ones, during the final stages of the lower Triassic period, the trapezohedron was salvaged from the ruins of their cyclopean cities by the serpent people of Valusia. Eventually, after the bloody extermination of the serpent people at the hands of the advancing pre-human hordes of Lomar, the device found its way into the possession of the primitive men of Lemuria, Atlantis and in later cycles the Pharaoh Nephren Ka of Egypt until at last it was unearthed and brought to New England. After the death of Robert Blake, who came to grief after discovering the Shining Trapezohedron and deciphering texts about it from ancient evil cults, the artifact was removed from the black windowless steeple where it was found by a Dr. Dexter and thrown into the deepest channel of Narragansett Bay. It was expected to remain there, under the eternal light of the stars, forever; yet, Robert Bloch''s sequel, "The Shadow from the Steeple", proved that Nyarlathotep had cheated Dexter, forcing him to peer into the stone and throw the stone into the bay, where the eternal darkness of the depths gave the Haunter the power to remain perpetually free; it used this power to merge with Dr. Dexter and make him one of the world''s leading nuclear scientists-in charge of atomic investigation for warfare. Nyarlathotep appears in this story as the "three-lobed burning eye", a huge bat-winged creature, with a burning tri-lobed eye appearing unseen from the Trapezohedron. Blake realizes the horror can only travel in the dark. When a storm and power blackout envelop the city, he scribbles down his findings, concluding the story with his terrified record of what he can only glimpse of the approaching beast. "I see it-- coming here-- hell-wind-- titan-blur-- black wings-- Yog-Sothoth save me-- the three-lobed burning eye..." Lovecraft indicated in his letters with then-young writer Robert Bloch, that the character Robert Blake was an intentionally thinly veiled gesture at killing off one of his friendly correspondents. In 1936, Bloch published story that continued the professional fun, in which Blake did not actually die, but was possessed by Nyarlathotep, and kills off a character based on Lovecraft.

The Haunter of the Dark

The story opens with the narrator in a frenzy about an apparent tragedy that has just befallen his household. His wife has apparently died, as he makes repeated references to her being laid out on a table, presumably lifeless. The narrator proceeds to make an attempt to relate the story to the reader in an effort to make sense of the situation. The narrator is the owner of a pawnshop, and one of his repeated customers was a young girl of sixteen who always pawns items to earn money to advertise as a governess in the newspaper. The narrator could see that she was in a dire financial situation, and he often gave her much more for her pawned items than they were reasonably worth. The narrator slowly develops an interest in the girl, and his interest seems at least marginally returned. The narrator investigates the girl''s background, and finds that she is at the mercy of two greedy aunts. The aunts were arranging her marriage to a fat shopkeeper. Once the shopkeeper proposed marriage to the girl, the narrator countered with his own proposal. The girl decided, after much deliberation, to marry the narrator. The narrator''s marriage started out cordially enough, but his miserly ways were taxing to his young wife. A dearth of communication and disagreements about how the pawnshop should be run eventually resulted in arguments, ending with the narrator''s wife storming out of the house. She returns, having nowhere else to go. The narrator''s wife makes a habit of leaving during the day, and eventually it is discovered that she is visiting Efimovich, a member of the narrator''s former regiment. The narrator''s wife eventually confronts the narrator with the details that she learned from Efimovich: details about the narrator''s shameful departure from his regiment. The narrator is unfazed, and his wife continues her visits to Efimovich. One time, the narrator follows his wife to Efimovich, bringing a revolver. He listens in delight to a verbal duel between his wife and Efimovich, and eventually he bursts in and reclaims his wife. The narrator and his wife return home. They retire for the night separately. In the morning, the narrator opens his eyes to see that his wife is standing over him with the revolver pointed at his temple. He simply closes his eyes again, and he is convinced that he conquered her with his readiness to accept death. She does not shoot, and the narrator buys her a separate bed that day. That same day, she also contracts brain fever. The narrator spares no expense for his wife''s medical care, and she slowly recovers. Throughout the entire winter the narrator watches his wife furtively, and a watershed moment happens when she begins to sing in his presence. The narrator kisses his wife''s feet and promises to be a changed man. He recounts the story of his shame in the regiment, and he promises to take her to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Several days later, the narrator leaves the house to make arrangements for passports. When the narrator returns home, he is met with a crowd of people outside his house. His wife had committed suicide: she had jumped out of the window while holding an icon. The narrator is convinced that he was only five minutes too late, even though it was ultimately his narcissistic love that drove his gentle wife to suicide.

A Gentle Creature

The book''s omniscient point of view, Littlest One, affectionately called Littlest, is out on a dark night. As she and her mentor, Fastidious, stealthily sneak into a woman and her dog''s home and collect memories. At their home, the Heap, Fastidious complains about her curious student to Most Ancient. Thin Elderly and Fastidious decide that Thin Elderly will become Littlest''s mentor, while Fastidious is assigned to a modern house. Littlest is part of a small sub-colony of dream-givers. Through touching, they gather fragments such as colors, words, sounds, and scents. They then combine the fragments to become dreams, and give the dreams to humans, and sometimes pets. The giving of dreams is called the bestowal. The next night, Thin Elderly and Littlest go back to the woman''s house. On the way, Thin Elderly explains to be gentle in the touching, and not to delve, on the grounds that a dream-giver who picks up menacing fragments of the memory''s "underside" becomes a Sinisteed, a horselike creature, which are transformed dream-givers who inflict nightmares. Thin Elderly gladly discovers that Littlest has the "gossamer touch"; the ability to gather and bestow with great subtlety. The woman reveals that she is to take an angry 8-year-old boy named John into her household and must learn to deal with the troubles in his life. A young dream-giver named Strapping is introduced. His home, assigned as a mild punishment, is a dilapidated and messy apartment owned by an unhappy occupant, a thin, sad woman who lived there alone. As he bestows a dream on the lonely woman, she cries out her son''s name, John, which reveals that she is John''s mother. When John arrives at the woman''s home, he displays his anger by acting contemptuous of his surrounding. The caretaker, for her part, displays only kindness. At the dream-givers'' Heap, Most Ancient reports that the Sinisteeds are gathering, intent on a particular victim. That night, Littlest and Thin Elderly experience a Sinisteed at work. It inflicts John with a nightmare. He cries out in his sleep, whereupon the woman calms him by reminding him of a happy moment of his past. Littlest and Thin Elderly then gather comforting fragments to help strengthen him after the nightmare. During the day, Strapping''s assignment, the young woman, speaks on a telephone, asking to have a receptionist''s job and salary. She tells the listener to tell her son that he will be back home soon; that she loved him; and that she dreamed of him last night. Littlest, that night, decides she must touch the dog, seeking to derive fragments from him. Thin Elderly protests, as they are advised not to touch living creatures, but allows her to do so. Littlest notices how tender John was to a pink seashell, to Toby, and to a chrysalis he had found, in which is growing a butterfly. She gathers fragments from Toby, and bestows them as part of a dream. The young woman (Strapping''s assignment) begins working in a school. She reflects on how bad her old life was for her son, John, because of her abusive husband, Duane. She now has hope of making friends, which Duane had not allowed her to do. Thin Elderly is proud of Littlest''s bestowal, because John is happy in his dreams. Littlest explains that the fragments she collected had a bit of a story in each one, which she put together in her mind. Strapping is satisfied with his work. Strapping discovers he has a liking and a hope for the woman. Accordingly he gives her dreams of hope, and of a better future with her son. John tells a story to the old woman about a young boy who ate dog food, having been ordered to do so by his father, who had seen the boy run naked through the house and urinate on the floor. The father had accused the son of behaving like a dog, and so given him dog food for all his meals. The woman realizes that John is telling a story about himself, explaining his past abuse and his own harsh behavior. That night, Littlest and Thin Elderly discover that a Horde of Sinisteeds intend to inflict nightmares on John and his caretaker. The two dream-givers respond by bestowing strengthening dreams. They are nearly killed in the stampede of the Horde, but are able to counteract the nightmares and strengthen the humans. This is the story''s climax. John enters school, and has become a much happier child. Littlest''s dreams and the old woman''s care have helped him begin to heal. Littlest is commendeded for her work. She learns that she is to be reassigned; a possibility not hitherto considered. She wishes to remain assigned to John, whom she has come to love and cherish, but is told by Thin Elderly that dream-givers are not permitted to generate human emotions. Littlest One''s experience with the boy have helped her grow more mature, and as a result she is given the name Gossamer and given a new dream-giver, New Littlest One, to train.

Gossamer

The magician Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded for twelve years on an island after Prospero''s jealous brother Antonio (helped by Alonso, the King of Naples) deposed him and set him adrift with the then-3-year-old Miranda. Gonzalo, the King''s counsellor, had secretly supplied their boat with plenty of food, water, clothes and the most-prized books from Prospero''s library. Possessing magic powers due to his great learning, Prospero is reluctantly served by a spirit, Ariel, whom Prospero had rescued from a tree in which he had been trapped by the witch Sycorax. Prospero maintains Ariel''s loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude. Sycorax had been banished to the island, and had died before Prospero''s arrival. Her son, Caliban, a deformed monster and the only non-spiritual inhabitant before the arrival of Prospero, was initially adopted and raised by him. He taught Prospero how to survive on the island, while Prospero and Miranda taught Caliban religion and their own language. Following Caliban''s attempted rape of Miranda, he had been compelled by Prospero to serve as the magician''s slave. In slavery, Caliban has come to view Prospero as a usurper and has grown to resent him and his daughter. Prospero and Miranda in turn view Caliban with contempt and disgust. The play opens as Prospero, having divined that his brother, Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island, has raised a tempest which causes the ship to run aground. Also on the ship are Antonio''s friend and fellow conspirator, King Alonso of Naples, Alonso''s brother and son (Sebastian and Ferdinand), and Alonso''s advisor, Gonzalo. All these passengers are returning from the wedding of Alonso''s daughter Claribel with the King of Tunis. Prospero contrives to separate the shipwreck survivors into several groups by his spells, and so Alonso and Ferdinand are separated, each believing the other to be dead. Three plots then alternate through the play. In one, Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunkards, whom he believes to have come from the moon. They attempt to raise a rebellion against Prospero, which ultimately fails. In another, Prospero works to establish a romantic relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda; the two fall immediately in love, but Prospero worries that "too light winning [may] make the prize light", and compels Ferdinand to become his servant, pretending that he regards him as a spy. In the third subplot, Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that Sebastian can become King. They are thwarted by Ariel, at Prospero''s command. Ariel appears to the "three men of sin" (Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian) as a harpy, reprimanding them for their betrayal of Prospero. Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies'' path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him. In the conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso. He also forgives Antonio and Sebastian, but warns them against further betrayal. Ariel is charged to prepare the proper sailing weather to guide Alonso and his entourage (including Prospero and Miranda) back to the Royal fleet and then to Naples, where Ferdinand and Miranda will be married. After discharging this task, Ariel will finally be free. Prospero pardons Caliban, who is sent to prepare Prospero''s cell, to which Alonso and his party are invited for a final night before their departure. Prospero indicates that he intends to entertain them with the story of his life on the island. Prospero has resolved to break and bury his magic staff, and "drown" his book of magic, and in his epilogue, shorn of his magic powers, he invites the audience to set him free from the island with their applause.

The Tempest

Hawkeye Pierce returns to live in Crabapple Cove, Maine near the town of Spruce Harbor. Having left the Army, Hawkeye is established to be working for the Veterans Administration. In May 1954 he is laid off. At this point, Hawkeye doesn’t have much money in the bank, is 31 years old, and has three children: Billy, Stephen and Karen. The day he’s released, Trapper John McIntyre comes to visit and sets Hawkeye’s future in motion. Trapper John, a Lieutenant in the medical organization of Maxie Neville in New York City, arranges for further thoracic training for Hawkeye, first in the East Orange VA Hospital in New Jersey, then at St Lombard’s in Manhattan from July 1954. After two years Hawkeye breezes through the Thoracic Boards. At the end of his training in June 1956, two Spruce Harbor locals, Jocko Allcock (the man who was responsible for Hawkeye being fired by the VA) and “Wooden Leg” Willcox (the local fish magnate) come to visit Hawkeye to set him up in practice—by betting favorably on the outcome of his operations. The first operation with Trapper John’s assistance (upon Pasquale Merlino) is a success, and thanks to his superior training Hawkeye becomes the local surgeon. As time goes by, Hawkeye is given more patients by the local general practitioner of note, “Doggy” Moore; goes into private practice with ex-Spitfire pilot Tony Holcombe and plots the eventual reuniting of the Swamp Gang. By 1959 Hawkeye has lured Trapper John, Duke Forrest, and Spearchucker Jones into his net, and thanks to the proceeds of the “Allcock-Willcox” syndicate, a new “Finestkind Fishmarket and Clinic” is set up along with the new Spruce Harbor General Hospital. Duke returns to Georgia from Korea, and takes a course in urology. Hawkeye Pierce then invites him up to Spruce Harbor, Maine to join him and a new friend, Tony Holcombe in private practice. Duke immediately turns up in Maine with his bloodhound, Little Eva, and joins Hawkeye in persuading Spearchucker to become the local neurosurgeon. Duke and his family move into Crabapple Cove next to Hawkeye and Mary Pierce. Pierce''s home, "Port Waldo", is (real-life) Waldoboro, and the FinestKind Clinic is just up Route 1 in Rockland. "Crabapple Cove" is Broad Cove, in Bremen, just down the Medomak River from Waldoboro Village. Richard Hooker (Hornberger) owned an old farmhouse on Heath Point. The reader will note Wreck Island, Thief Island, and other Muscongus Bay landmarks in the book. It is possible that the Pierce family is modeled after the (real-life) Spear family, who had a number of different branches in the area, in the 1950s.

M*A*S*H Goes to Maine

The story opens with the funeral of Kilty Larkin, father of Tomas and grandfather of Conor. Amidst the ancient Irish Catholic mourning process, Conor has a vision of the town storyteller who tells Conor of the history of the Fenians, a rebel group from the early 19th century. This stirs the fire of rebellion in the now 12 year old Conor Larkin, and sets him onto the path for freedom for his Irish people. Soon after this, Seamus O''Neill, Conor''s best friend, began school in town under a Protestant named Mr. Ingram. Conor, needed at home, helped his father in the fields, until he became an apprentice at a black smith shop. As the years passed the boys became friends with Mr. Ingram, who taught them of the power of books and the history of their Irish forefathers. Seamus goes to college in Dublin, and Conor heads to Derry, in the province of Ulster. Here he moves into Bogside and witnesses the extent of the disaster that has befallen the Irish people. Bogside is in tatters and in a state of despair that has stricken them since before the potato famine in 1845 and 1852. Held down by the Protestant reign in Derry''s labor unions, the Catholics are dying slowly without hope. It is here in Derry where Conor discovers other like-minded Irish tired of the oppression of the Catholics by the British and Protestants. This small group, with the support of the few Irish politicians, will become the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the roots of Sinn Féin, and the whisper of freedom throughout Ireland.

Trinity

The opening of the novel is set a short while after the 1833 emancipation of the slaves in British-owned Jamaica. The protagonist Antoinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre). As the novel and their relationship progress, Antoinette, whom he renames Bertha, descends into madness. The novel is split into three parts. Part One takes place in Coulibri, Jamaica and is narrated by Antoinette. Describing her childhood experience, she includes several facets of her life, such as her mother''s mental instability and her mentally disabled brother''s tragic death. Part Two alternates between the points of view of her husband and of Antoinette following their marriage and is set in Granbois, Dominica. One of the likely catalysts for Antoinette''s downfall is the suspicion with which they both begin to view each other, fuelled by the machinations of a supposed relative of Antoinette''s, Daniel Cosway (Boyd). Antoinette''s old nurse Christophine''s constant mistrust of the husband and Rochester''s unwavering belief in Daniel Cosway further aggravates the situation, added in when he becomes unfaithful to her. This increased sense of paranoia tinged with the disappointment of their failing marriage unbalances Antoinette''s already precarious mental state. The shortest part, Part Three, is once again from the perspective of Antoinette, now known as Bertha, as she lives in the Rochester mansion, which she calls the "Great House". It traces her relationship with Grace, the servant who is tasked with ''guarding'' her in England. It also traces her even more disintegrating relationship with Rochester as he hides her from the world. Making her empty promises to come see her more, which only become less as he adventures off with relationships with other women, eventually with Jane Eyre. Narrating in a stream of consciousness, Bertha decides to take her own life as she believes it to be her destiny.

Wide Sargasso Sea

While recovering from their victory against the Empire at Endor, the Rebel Alliance intercepts an Imperial probe containing a distress call for the Emperor. The message details a lizardlike race of aliens invading the Outer Rim planet Bakura. With Palpatine dead and the Imperial Navy scattered, Luke Skywalker volunteers to lead a force to intercept the alien invasion and save Bakura. Upon arrival, the Rebel Alliance forces ally with the remnants of the Imperial garrison to repel an invasion by the reptilian Ssi-Ruuk race under the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium, which seeks to establish a beachhead in the larger galaxy. The Ssi-Ruuk seek to harvest a supply of life forms, whose life energies power their advanced technology through a process known as entechment. The Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker especially intrigues the Ssi-Ruuk, because they believe his Force powers could allow the Ssi-ruuk to entech beings from a distance. Obi-Wan Kenobi appears to Luke and underscores the danger of the Ssi-Ruuk if they get into the greater galaxy with this technology. The Ssi-ruuk themselves cannot sense the Force, but they know of it through a captured human, Dev Sibwarra, who is Force-sensitive but untrained (his mother was killed by the Ssi-ruuk) and has been brainwashed into furthering the Ssi-ruuvi agenda. On a personal level, Luke finds himself consistently distracted by one of Bakura''s senators, Gaeriel Captison, and by the nascent attraction forming between them, despite her religious objections to the Jedi Order. Princess Leia and Han Solo also struggle to find some time together and hash out their newly-formed relationship. Leia, putting diplomatic feelers out into a world that ''joined'' the Empire only three years ago, discovers that Bakura chafes under Imperial rule — as do some of the Imperials, notably ranking officer Commander Pter Thanas — though Imperial governor Wilek Nereus is too crafty to let dissension spread too far. Finally, Leia must find a way to cope with the revelation given to her on Endor — that Darth Vader is actually her father, Anakin Skywalker — when she is visited by his spirit, who begs for her forgiveness. In the end, Nereus attempts to turn Luke over to the Ssi-ruuk in exchange for their retreat, but though the kidnapping succeeds, Luke manages to fight them off and escape. He is also able to free Dev of his brainwashing and decides to take him on as an apprentice, but Dev is injured during the escape and later dies of his wounds. The joint Rebel-Imperial force turns back the Ssi-ruuk, and during the chaos, Bakuran resistance cells overthrow Nereus; in his absence, Bakura decides to join the Rebel Alliance. Commander Thanas defects as well, although he first destroys the Rebel cruiser-carrier Flurry. New Republic Intelligence later referred to the battle as the "Bakura Incident", and believed that it would be best if the New Republic attempted to prevent widespread public knowledge of the Ssi-Ruuk, advice that was taken controversially at best. In addition, Luke finally makes his breakthrough with Gaeriel, though he must shortly leave her when the Alliance forces depart at the end of the novel, to continue the ongoing fight against the Empire.

The Truce at Bakura

On a special mission for the Ranger Corps, Will, his friend Horace, and the Ranger Gilan travel to Celtica, a neighbouring country to Araluen . They discover that all the people are gone. Will and Horace wonder if all the villagers have been slain or captured, but Gilan believes that the evil Lord Morgarath devised a plan to cross the mountain pass. If that were true, and the King wasn''t warned, the country would be destroyed. Gilan rides to warn King Duncan, and Will and Horace begin to follow a straggling Wargal force. On their way, they come across a girl named Evanlyn, who claims to be a maid to a lady of the Araluan court, but is actually the Princess herself. When the three of them follow the Wargals they discover that a gargantuan bridge is in the process of being built across The Fissure for their war party to cross. They also discover that the King''s army will be trapped on the Plains of Uthal, because the plans that Halt captured were merely a ruse. Will burns the bridge with Evanlyn''s help. Will and Evanlyn are taken captive by a group of Skandians ruled by Jarl Erak. Horace was able to escape. After, he tells the King and his aides about what is going to happen, the army starts to get prepared for the army that is supposed to attack them from behind, Halt is sent to take care of them with a force of cavalry and archer units (an archer and pikeman). In the middle of the battle, Morgarath calls a truce and challenges Halt to a duel, but Duncan forbids it. Then, unexpectedly, Horace challenges Morgarath to single combat. About to be defeated by Morgarath, Horace then, in a last-ditch attempt to win the battle, throws himself into the path of the battlehorse, in order to throw it off-balance. He is successful, but only manages to wind Morgarath. Morgarath is confident that he is going to win by a last powerful stroke of his broadsword, but Horace blocks it with the double-knife defence that Gilan taught Will and stabs Morgarath to win the battle. The Wargals become harmless as soon as Morgarath dies and the mind domination is broken. The Skandians escape with Will and Evanlyn. Halt tries to rescue them by launching a one-man assault, but it was too late. Halt promises to rescue Will.

The Burning Bridge

When Cassie Dasent was a little girl, her grandmother would tell her of what became to her mother: she was taken by a polar bear king to be the daughter of the North Wind, who expected the girl to become the bear''s wife when she grows up. But one day, the North Wind''s daughter meets Cassie''s father and falls in love with him. When the polar bear king comes to get the woman, she refuses him but comes up with a bargain for him: if she has a daughter, the daughter will be his wife. He agrees and allows his would-be wife to marry the man she loves. The North Wind, furious at his adopted daughter, seeks her out, and when he finds her, she had given birth to a daughter (Cassie). Cassie''s mother begs for her father to take her and leave her husband and child alone, and the North Wind blew her far away, where she was captured by trolls. Years later, Cassie is eighteen, and she has accepted the story as a nice way of saying her mother had died. She lives at the Eastern Beaufort Research Center in Alaska with her father and fellow researchers Owen, Scott, Liam, Jeremy, and pilot Max. While out on the ice, Cassie spots a large polar bear, but when she plans on tranquilizing and tagging him, he vanishes into the ice. Upon telling her father Laszlo of this, he decides that she must go to live with her grandmother in Fairbanks. It turns out the story about her mother was true after all. Determined to find the bear and prove the story isn''t real, Cassie plans to go out after him, only to find that the bear had found her. He tells her to marry him in exchange for the release of her mother, who is alive. Cassie reluctantly agrees. The polar bear (who is referred to as "Bear") takes Cassie to his elaborate ice castle, where the latter learns that he is a "munaqsri," a transporter of souls. He is currently the only munaqsri for the polar bears, and tells Cassie that there must be more of their kind for everything to be in balance. That night, while Cassie is in bed, she is confronted by what she thinks is an intruder who tells her that he is Bear and adds that it is their wedding night. She chases him out, and upon finding out from Bear that the intruder was truly him, she finds out that they are to have children together. Though she initially plans on leaving, Cassie decides to stay, knowing that her father lied to her about her mother dying. Weeks later, the polar bear birth season arrives, and Cassie is left alone in the castle as Bear sets out with souls for the cubs. After a while Cassie grows bored and Bear allows her to visit her home again. Upon returning home, Cassie finally meets her mother Gail (short for Abigail), who is traumatized after all those years with the trolls. After spending only a few days there, Cassie returns to Bear with information on bear den sites she received from Owen. Also, she takes with her more gear than before, including birth control pills, which she uses on their wedding night. Despite this, Cassie winds up pregnant, realizing that Bear "magicked" her into becoming this (he referred to her use of the pills as a "chemical imbalance.") Feeling betrayed, Cassie waits until evening before turning on her flashlight and seeing his face. She discovers him in his human form, as a man with dark skin and white hair. Bear wakes up and sees what she is doing. He ends up having to be sent to marry the princess of the trolls; it was part of the bargain to release Cassie''s mother (Cassie must also not see his face whatsoever). He leaves Cassie alone. Cassie is determined to go out after him, despite her pregnancy.

The novel is set around the time of its publication and follows Lucifer Clarence Dye, freshly exposed as a US intelligence agent following a bungled operation in Singapore (where a Chinese operative Dye had been trying to recruit instead died of a freak heart attack during a routine polygraph test.) Having just been released from a three-month term in a Singaporean jail in exchange for an official US apology (and a large bribe), Dye is cashiered by the small, independent agency Section 2 and is immediately offered a job by an eccentric young man, Victor Orcutt. A self-proclaimed genius, Orcutt has decided to address the then-topical challenge of urban decay; however, his immodestly named "Orcutt''s First Law" states that "Before things get better, they must get much worse." Dye''s assignment is, therefore, to "corrupt me a city." The city in question is Swankerton, a fictional settlement on the Texas Gulf Coast where Victor Orcutt Associates has been hired to aid the election of a "Reform" slate to city offices. Swankerton hardly needs corrupting, being practically afloat on a cesspool of vice and depravity already; the "Reform" poobahs are if anything worse than the current leadership, which is knee-deep in drugs, gambling, whores, and worse, and is backed by a New Orleans mob boss, Giuseppe "Joe Lucky" Lucarelli. Nevertheless, Dye and Orcutt''s other operative, semi-disgraced ex-police chief Homer Necessary, dive right in. Alternating chapters flash back to Dye''s past: his childhood as the ward of Tante Katerine, White Russian madam of Shanghai''s best whorehouse, his adoption by Gorman Smalldane, war correspondent, and their internment by the Japanese, his marriage to the daughter of the head of Section 2 and his subsequent recruitment, and the violent rape and murder of his wife during an attempt by an enemy organization to coerce information out of his father-in-law. The rest of the main story deals with Dye''s budding romance with Orcutt''s assistant, the ex-prostitute Carol Thackerty, his meteoric ascent through the rotten power structure of Swankerton, and his conflict with Ramsey Lynch (née Mongomery Vicker,) the New Orleans mob''s representative in Swankerton and brother of Gerald Vicker, whom Dye had caused to be dismissed from Section 2 on suspicion of spying for China while Vicker was his subordinate at its Hong Kong station. After his efforts begin to draw attention, Dye is ordered out of the limelight by his former employers, a request he places himself in additional danger by refusing.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

By Carolyn Keene

The Haunter of the Dark

By H. P. Lovecraft

A Gentle Creature

By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Gossamer

By Lois Lowry

The Tempest

By William Shakespeare

MAS*H Goes to Maine

By H. Richard Hornberger

Trinity

By Leon Uris

Wide Sargasso Sea

By Jean Rhys

The Truce at Bakura

By Kathy Tyers

The Burning Bridge

By John Flanagan

Ice

No Author Listed

The Fools in Town are on Our Side

By Ross Thomas