Running with Scissors covers the period of Burroughs''s adolescent years, beginning at age 12 after a brief overview of his life as a child. Burroughs spends his early childhood in a clean and orderly home, obsessing over his clothes, hair, accessories, and having great potential, with his parents constantly fighting in the background. When his parents separate and his mother begins to second-guess her sexuality, Burroughs is sent to live with his mother''s psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. The doctor lives in a rundown Victorian house located in Northampton, Massachusetts. He lives with his wife as well as his biological and adopted children and some of his own patients, where rules are practically nonexistent and children of all ages do whatever they please, such as having sex, smoking cigarettes and cannabis, and rebelling against authority figures. For example, Dr. Finch feels that, at age 13, children should be in charge of their own lives. However, the dysfunctional issues that occur in the Finch family are outdone by the psychotic episodes frequently experienced by Burroughs''s mother. The Finch house is a parallel universe to the home he came from. It is filthy, with cockroaches roaming around the uncleaned dishes, Christmas trees left up until May, stairs that Burroughs is afraid to walk up because he thinks that they will collapse under him, and nothing off limits. Eventually, Dr. Finch comes to believe that God is communicating to him through his fecal matter. When Hope, Dr. Finch''s second oldest daughter, believes her cat is dying, she keeps it in a laundry box for four days until it dies. Burroughs''s mother is shown as emotionally drained, excessive, self-centered, and ultimately incapable of being a parent. She has a lesbian relationship with a local minister''s wife, which is revealed to a young Burroughs when he accidentally walks in on them while he skips school. When this relationship ends, Burroughs''s mother starts another with a teenage and affluent African-American woman. This relationship is tumultuous and unstable. At one point, they have a mental patient named Cesar live at their house. He attempts to rape Burroughs while he''s sleeping, but is unsuccessful (when this patient goes to live with the Finches later in the book, he pays one of the Finches'' daughters for oral sex and then is forced from the home). His mother''s biggest psychotic episode happens when she and Dorothy (her partner) move everything out of their house, and attack Burroughs when he tries to intervene. This later ends with a "road trip" and events leading to Burroughs''s mother being restrained on a bed. Burroughs tells Dr. Finch''s adopted 33-year-old son, Neil Bookman, that he is gay. From the age of 13 to 15, Burroughs has an intense and open sexual relationship with Bookman, which begins when Bookman forces the young boy to perform oral sex on him. Neither his mother nor any member of the Finch family is bothered by their relationship. Burroughs begins to enjoy exacting power over Bookman by threatening to charge him with statutory rape. Bookman is obsessed with the young boy, even though Burroughs has problems with their relationship (going in phases of needing the affection of Bookman to wanting to humiliate or get away from him) which only infatuates Bookman more. Bookman eventually leaves Northampton and is never heard from again by Burroughs or the Finches, even after they try everything in their power to find him. Burroughs forms a close relationship with Dr. Finch''s daughter, Natalie, who is one year older than he is, even though at the beginning of the book, he dislikes her. They do everything together from finding jobs to running under a waterfall. They finally leave the Finch household together. At the end of the book, when Burroughs is living in his own apartment with Natalie, he is asked to choose between his mother and Dr. Finch when she accuses the doctor of raping her. The relationship between his mother and the doctor had been turbulent ever since a scene at a motel, where Dr. Finch''s abnormal therapy methods reached a point at which they could possibly be interpreted as sexual assault. He still considers Dr. Finch''s family and his mother to be his family, and he cannot bring himself to choose sides, although he is fairly certain that Dr. Finch did rape his mother. The book ends with Burroughs leaving Massachusetts and moving to New York City.

Running with Scissors

Midge is sent to stay with her Uncle Brian at Mill Farm in Somerset while her mother is on tour with the orchestra. She comes across a small winged horse which is trapped and injured: her first introduction to the hidden world of the "Royal Forest", an impenetrable thicket on a hill within the farm boundaries. Meanwhile, all the tribes who live in the forest, the Ickri, Naiad, Wisp, Troggles and Tinklers, unite to send a group to search for the missing horse, Pegs. The adventures of the group demonstrate the dangers posed to the Various by the Gorgi world, as Lumst is killed by the ferocious tomcat Tojo. While Midge is accepted by the queen and her advisers as the saviour of Pegs, despite the news she brings of her uncle''s plan to sell the forest land, Scurl and his archers believe that she is herself a danger to the tribes and intend to kill her. At the climax of the novel the archers attack the farm when Midge and her cousins are there alone. Throughout the novel Midge senses another presence, the girl in the photograph on the kitchen wall: it is Celandine, who once lived at the farm and was thought mad for believing she had seen fairies. The story of Celandine is told in the second book of the trilogy, and the bond between her and Midge is explored in Winter Wood.

The Various

The Hardy boys learn a case of counterfeit money is somehow intertwined with a national security case their dad is working on. Frank and Joe help prevent 14-year-old cyclist Ken Blake from getting killed in an accident. As they help the boy up they see he is delivering an envelope to Victor Peters, a name that means something to the Hardys later on in the book. The Hardys learn that their friend Chet Morton has been tricked when asked to make change for what turned out to be a counterfeit twenty dollar bill, something that the police later confirm is becoming more common in their town of Bayport. Later, Joe is awakened by a clattering sound and sees a mysterious figure bicycling away from the Hardys'' home. While investigating the disturbance a note is found that reads, "Drop case or else danger for you and your family." The Hardy boys are not sure if this threat refers to the counterfeiting case that Frank and Joe are investigating or another case their detective dad, Fenton Hardy, is trying to solve. The Hardys go with Chet, who wants to apply for a job at Elekton Controls, a missile-development company, but are told by Mr. Markel, one of Elekton''s security guards, that there are no openings. Before leaving, they notice a bike that looks similar to the one ridden by Ken Blake and that is likely to have been used by the person who left the threatening note. Mr. Docker, an Elekton maintenance man, tells them that Ken does odd jobs for the company, but that he is not there at that time, even though Joe is certain he saw Ken looking out an adjacent old watermill''s window at them. The Hardys, their girlfriends, Iola Morton and Callie Shaw and Chet go nearby to have a picnic but an arrow is shot at them with an attached note reading, "Danger. Hardys beware." The Hardy brothers receive a gift of a motorboat they call The Sleuth, and show it to their friend, Tony Prito. Tony says the construction supply yard he is working at for the summer has become the latest to receive counterfeit money used to pay for lumber by a boy matching the description of Ken Blake. The Hardys take The Sleuth to the mill to investigate and find the mill wheel starting and stopping. Soon, they are attacked and left without gas in their new boat. They recover and get back to investigating by finding Ken who says he thinks someone has used his bike the same night that Joe saw someone bicycling from the Hardy''s home. Markel and Docker pull Ken away and then a suspicious vehicle leaves Elekton. Later, the same suspicious vehicle gets away before an explosion at Elekton. Frank and Joe are terrified that their dad is inside the burning building. He was in the building but survived the explosion revealing that he was there to stop the attack after realizing there is a pattern to similar type attacks going on around similar companies in the United States. Eager to learn more from Ken, the Hardys soon find that Ken has been released from Elekton. The Hardys find him at a boarding house and he explains that the bricks and lumber bought with the counterfeit money were being used for a project at the mill. Frank and Joe return to the old mill and realize that the wheel mill is set up to act as a signaling device for the people living inside; an electric-eye stops the flow of electricity to the wheel. It acts as a warning to those inside that someone is approaching the mill. Going inside the mill at a time when they know no one else is there, they discover a secret room hidden by the lumber bought with counterfeit money. In the secret room, they find the tools used to make the fake money, but before they can get away the villains return to the mill. Frank and Joe escape through a tunnel but are captured by Docker and Markel. Victor Peters arrives and these three villains reveal that Docker shot the arrow at the girlfriends and Markel used the bike to deliver the note to the Hardys'' home. Docker and Markel also explain that, without the knowledge of Victor Peters, they allowed another villain, Paul Blum, into Elekton to attack the place, which is the case that Fenton Hardy was investigating. Blum reveals that he is working for other countries who wish to stop United States missile development. Frank and Joe take advantage of an opportunity and overtake the villains. The book ends with the police arresting all the villains and the expectation of the Hardys'' next case when "they were called upon to solve the mystery of The Missing Chums."

The Secret of the Old Mill

The novel is a continuation of the story in The Ship From Atlantis, telling of Prince Gwalchmai''s star-crossed love for Princess Corenice of Atlantis in her various reincarnations, along with his centuries-delayed quest to secure aid and settlers to shore up the faltering empire established by his father and refugees from the fallen kingdom of Arthur in the New World. The story opens with Gwalchmai''s reawakening after centuries in suspended animation. The Britain he finally reaches is a prostrated land transformed into England by its Saxon conquerors, with his father''s exile long forgotten and his countrymen incapable of undertaking any sort of colonization project. Guided by his reincarnated lover, he seeks aid unsuccessfully, his travels taking him from Viking-age Europe to the far-eastern empires of the Chinese and Japanese, and ultimately back to Europe again as it approaches the Renaissance. He is abetted down through the centuries by the magical ring of his godfather Merlin, responsible for his longevity, and by Corenice. Highlights include the hero''s visit to Faerie, his service as a companion to Joan of Arc, and his final revelation in Iceland of the secret of the New World to a Genoan, merchant, Christopher Columbus.

Merlin''s Ring

A young boy called Michael,travels with his parents around the world on the yacht Peggy Sue after his parents lose their jobs at the brickworks and decide to sail the seven seas. Michael''s parents teach him what he would have normally learnt at school and he has a secret log that he writes in. They travel from England to Africa, South America and Australia. He is on lookout one night when Michael and his dog Stella Artois are washed overboard, near Papua New Guinea. They awake to discover that they are stranded on a desert island that is shaped like an elongated peanut in the Pacific Ocean. While Michael is struggling to survive on the island, food is regularly left for him. To his surprise, he learns that an elderly Japanese man called Kensuke is also living on the island. Kensuke helps Michael to survive. He sets guidelines that Michael thinks are just annoyances, until Kensuke saves him from a jellyfish after warning him never to go in the water. Michael teaches Kensuke English, and Kensuke teaches Michael how to paint, how to fish and where to find the best food and water. He is eventually revealed to be a doctor and survivor of World War II, and he believes that his family died in Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was dropped there on August 9, 1945. Over time Kensuke begins to understand how Michael feels and how he misses his family. Together they build a beacon that can be lit to signal to ships, but for a long time they see no sign of any ships. Later, however, Michael witnesses a Chinese junk and he consults Kensuke as to whether or not he should light the beacon. Kensuke recognizes the ship as that of poachers, and he and Michael rush to gather all the orangutans into the cave to protect them from the threat that lies in the ship. They nearly succeed but cannot find one particular orangutan, the one Kensuke calls Kikanbo his. The ship arrives and they hear gunshots. When the ship leaves, they discover that some gibbon monkeys have been killed but that Kikanbo is still alive. The next time they see a ship it is not the poachers, and they both light the fire. The crew on the ship see the fire and change direction, heading towards the island. When the boat is closer, Michael sees that the boat is the Peggy Sue, with his parents on board. Kensuke decides at that point, despite thinking otherwise earlier, that he will not be sailing home with Michael; he says "This is my place. This Kensuke''s Kingdom. Emperor must stay in his Kingdom, look after his people. Emperor does not run away. Not honourable thing to do." Kensuke tells him to keep everything a secret until ten years have passed, when Kensuke will be dead. Michael runs out to the beach where the ship had landed and is reunited with his parents. Four years after Michael''s secret log is published, he receives a letter from Kensuke''s son (who is still alive). Michael goes to Japan to visit him a month later.

Kensuke''s Kingdom

The novel traces the life of Stanley Brack, captivated by model aircraft as a child. He enters MIT, and in a memorable scene, is interviewed by the head of the School of Aeronautical Engineering, a legendary German aerodynamicist. His main concern is unexpected. "From your hair and general coloring," he said slowly, "I thought you might perhaps be Jewish." Brack reassures him that he and both his parents are Baptists and of Scots-Irish descent. "We have to be careful," the professor confides; "The aircraft industry is one of the few they haven''t managed to take over yet," and congratulates Stanley on his acceptance into the course. The incident turns out to be one of many in which Brack swallows any thought of protest and goes along to get along. After graduation, he joins Amcraft, the Amalgamated Aircraft Corporation, in Los Angeles. It is a manufacturer of aircraft components that is just about to unveil its first complete airplane, a transport. The company is run personally by Dave Humbler, "president, founder of the company, chief engineer&mdash;big wheel number one. Real nice guy, Dave," a colleague explains. (Resemblances can be seen to the Douglas Aircraft Company.) Brack rises through the ranks and grows with the company. After the war Amcraft acquires the services of Gunther Rausch, "a spoil of war" and a rocket expert from Peenemünde. His presence gives the company an edge in picking up missile work. Rausch is brilliant but arrogant and Brack detests him. Nevertheless, as the book draws to a climax, he makes common cause with him in an effort to perfect a guided missile. Brack is the project manager, and the project is in trouble and behind schedule. He pressures a friend and colleague into conducting some dangerous rocket tests with Rausch. Rausch is tense and jittery and gives coworkers an impression that he is concealing personal inexperience in conducting such tests. There is an explosion, and Brack''s friend Sim suffers terrible injuries: physical and chemical burns and lung damage that leaves him close to death. Brack''s fiancée, a witness, tells Brack that Rausch was panicky during the test and "never stopped fiddling with the switches... he was like some hot-head whose car won''t start but who keeps on turning the ignition switch." She thinks Rausch could have caused the explosion (a concern which ultimately turns out to be unfounded). Brack furiously argues with Rausch, then debates with his superior about the project''s future and who should lead it. Brack convinces his superior to let him continue as leader. As the discussion closes, his superior says "Okay, it''s all settled." But he adds "One other thing&mdash;I''m firing the girl." Brack''s protest sticks in his throat; "ashamed, he looked at his feet, and then he nodded." The book closes with Brack and Rausch standing together literally arm in arm, watching the conclusion of a successful missile test. "Did you see it, Gunther?" Brack says. "Yah," breaths Rausch, "Just like a star. A shooting star." "And we made it," says Brack, proudly, as the tale ends. The New York Times reviewer says that "the question arises... whether Brack is to be regarded as an all-wool idealist pursuing heroically his destiny despite any and all distractions tossed in his way. Or is he a less desirable type, possessed of the ability to abandon all pretense to ethical conduct in his ambitious pursuit after self-advancement?" Although the Times calls it an "absorbing narrative," to a modern reader much of the interest lies, not in the broad story outline, but in the dozens of little details and circumstantial touches which bring times, places, and situations&mdash;not well documented elsewhere&mdash;to life.

The Gadget Maker

In June, 1943 patrol officer Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert, a former boxer and a member of the Los Angeles Police Department is caught up in the Zoot Suit Riots. Bleichert comes to the rescue of Officer Lee Blanchard, who is in the middle of the rampage between American servicemen and Mexican zoot suit gangs. Together they apprehend a wanted criminal, Don Santos, and take refuge in an abandoned home while waiting out the riot. They size each other up as boxers and cops and Blanchard tells Bleichert of his plans to eventually be promoted to Sergeant while Dwight continues his mundane job as a radio car patrolman in the Bunker Hill section of L.A. The story continues three years later, in November 1946, as Bucky is invited to fight in a boxing match against Lee in hopes it will help raise support for a political bond issue and a pay raise. After realizing that his fathers'' health is failing and to prove he can still fight he decides to take up the offer, have a friend make a bet against him with his money and lose on purpose to put his father in a retirement home. He also meets Kay Lake, a former artist who lives with Lee. After the fight he is transferred to Homicide-Warrants Division as a reward and partnered with Blanchard. Lee. Buckey and Kay begin to spend time together. On January 15, 1947 while Bucky and Lee are on a stakeout they see a commotion on the corner lot of 39th street and South Norton Avenue, where they discover the mutilated body of Elizabeth Short. Dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the press, the case shocks the public, overwhelms the LAPD and hits Lee especially hard. During his investigation Bucky observes a mysterious young woman named Madeleine Sprague, a wealthy and promiscuous socialite who resembles Elizabeth Short, at a lesbian bar. Bucky follows her over the course of many nights, eventually questionning her and the two begin an affair. While the case continues on in circus fashion, Lee, becoming more emotionally detached begins taking bezadrine and acts erratically, collecting his own copies of the Dahlia case evidence and storing them in an El Nino hotel room. Lee eventually disappears after a confrontation with police superiors. Bucky, who is simultaneously juggling two relationships, also suffers a series of personal setbacks: breaking up with Madeline, romantic tension with Kay, and blowing an assignment for the D.A, resulting in demotion from the Warrants Bureau. He then sets out for Tijuana searching for Lee. During his trip he learns of Lee''s fate and returns to L.A. to marry Kay. Two years pass, and with Bucky''s detective career destroyed and his marriage quickly deteriorating, he transfers to the Science Investigation Division of the force and becomes a lab technician. While working with his old case supervisor Russ Millard during a suicide investigation of a wealthy businessman, he happens to notice a painting of a clown. He uncovers some clues and people associated with Elizabeth Short, piquing his curiosity about Madeline Sprague and her family. His obsession with Short and Madeline destroys his relationship with Kay, who leaves him when she finds out. As his life spirals out of control, his obsession taking its toll, he finally discovers the truth behind the murder of Short and its connection to the Sprague family, as well as Lee''s disappearance. The novel ends with Bucky on a plane to Boston, where he and a pregnant Kay will try to rebuild their relationship.

The Black Dahlia

The plot centres around Bobby Zha, a Sergeant at the fictional SFPD Chinatown station in San Francisco. The claimed shooting of a burglar by eleven-year-old Natalie Persikov conflicts with Zha''s intuition on the matter, but before he has a real chance to investigate he is shot himself. After meeting the Jinwei hu (the nine-tailed fox of the title) while dead, Bobby wakes up in a hospital. However, there are a few surprises for him on waking; not least that apparently he isn''t Bobby Zha anymore. The doctors tell him he''s in New York, not San Francisco; he was never shot; and that he''s Robert Van Berg, sole survivor of a car crash that killed both his parents and put him into a coma since he was seven. Now adult and sole inheritor of his family''s considerable fortune, Bobby wastes no time in getting back to the West Coast to investigate. In between looking into the case of his own murder, finding out what really happened at the Persikov''s house and following up the leads from his contacts among the homeless of San Francisco, Bobby becomes increasingly concerned over his own identity. Changing identities at a whim&nbsp;— an FBI agent, a CIA investigator, a special forces agent direct from the White House&nbsp;— he questions his old acquaintances about Sergeant Zha, finding out more about himself than he ever knew. The novel is set "a few years in the future", and frequently references Soviet author Mikhail Bulgakov. Grimwood notes in the Acknowledgments that "the choice of Persikov for Dr Misha''s surname is entirely intentional."

9tail Fox

The Given Day is a historical novel set in Boston, Massachusetts and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The story has two main characters: Aiden "Danny" Coughlin, an ethnic Irish Boston Police patrolman, whose father is a prominent detective and captain in the department; and Luther Laurence, a talented African-American amateur baseball player from Columbus, Ohio. The novel starts at the end of World War I, when union organizing activities are high across the country. The year is 1918 and the BPD patrolmen have not been given a raise since 1905; they are working for below-poverty level wages. The Boston Social Club (BSC) is the fraternal organization of the BPD patrolmen and its members begin to discuss their grievances and possible actions. Due to his family''s high status and reputation in the police department, Danny is reluctant to attend BSC meetings . His partner, Steve Coyle, is able to get him to attend some meetings where the BSC hopes to join the American Federation of Labor, a national union. BPD Captain Thomas Coughlin (Danny''s father), FBI agent Rayme Finch, and a Department of Justice lawyer, the young J. Edgar Hoover, assign Danny to infiltrate the Roxbury Lettish Workingman''s Society in promise of his detective''s stripes. Danny is told that they may be collaborating with other radical cells to plan a national revolt on May Day. As Danny is undercover attending meetings with the Letts, he begins to identify with some of the principles they preach. He soon is elected as the vice president of the BSC. Luther Laurence and his pregnant wife, Lila, move from Columbus to Tulsa, Oklahoma to start a new life closer to some of her relatives in the Greenwood District. Laurence and his friend Jessie earn some extra money running numbers for a local bookie and gangster, Deacon Skinner Brocious. When Jessie gets caught skimming from Deacon, a deadly confrontation ensues. Laurence has to leave his wife in Tulsa and flees to Boston, where his uncle sets him up with the Giddreauxs, an African-American couple who lead the Boston chapter of the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In Boston Laurence gets work as a handyman and servant in the home of police Captain Thomas Coughlin. While working for the Coughlins, Laurence becomes close friends with Nora O''Shea, an Irish immigrant and servant. She was taken in by the Coughlins five years earlier, when the captain found her shivering in the streets on Christmas Eve. Nora and Danny had a love affair, which ended when he discovered a dark secret from her past. She has become engaged to his younger brother, a rising attorney. Laurence is manipulated by Lieutenant Eddie McKenna, best friend to Captain Coughlin and godfather to Danny. Delving into Luther''s past, McKenna has discovered that he is running from the deadly altercation in Tulsa. Laurence has been earning his board at the Giddreauxs'' home by renovating an old building as the new NAACP headquarters in Boston. McKenna forces him to obtain NAACP membership information and to build a secret chamber in the new headquarters. When the Coughlins discover Nora''s secret, she is banned from their household. Laurence is banned after being caught spending time with her and giving her food. Danny''s involvement in the BSC takes him away from his family as well; his father is particularly opposed to Danny''s new "radical and Bolshevik-like" views. Nora, Danny, and Luther form a close friendship when each finds that the others are the true friends to count on for dealing with their individual hardships. Nora is on her own just as she was five years ago, the men of the BPD are counting on Danny to lead them to a fair wage and working conditions, and Laurence is trying to escape McKenna''s clutches and make it back to his wife and child. The story culminates in the historical Boston Police Strike, which is precipitated by the police commissioner''s refusal to allow the nascent police union''s right to affiliate with national labor organizations, or to exist. In the chaos of the strike, Laurence saves Danny''s life. By this time Danny had reunited with and married Nora. Luther reconciles the difficult situation he had run from in Tulsa, and succeeds in returning there to join his wife and recently born child in the Greenwood District. (This is before the area was destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.)

The Given Day

During Prince Pompadore of Pumperdink''s eighteenth birthday celebration, his birthday cake explodes, revealing a magic scroll, a magic mirror, and a doorknob. The scroll warns the prince that if the he doesn''t wed a "proper princess" within seven days, his entire kingdom will disappear. The prince, along with the kingdom''s wise elephant Kabumpo, set off on an adventure to the Emerald City so Pompa can marry Princess Ozma, the only "proper princess" the Elegant Elephant can think of as worthy of his prince. Meanwhile, Ruggedo the Gnome King (Thompson "corrected" Baum''s spelling of "Nome") finds Glegg''s Box of Mixed Magic while tunnelling under the Emerald City. After he brings a wooden doll, Peg Amy, to life, and makes Wag the rabbit the size of a man, Ruggedo turns himself into a giant. This means that Ozma''s palace gets stuck on his head, and in a panic he runs off to Ev with it. After many adventures in the strange lands of Rith Metic, the Illumi Nation, and the Soup Sea, Pompadore and Kabumpo arrive in the Emerald City to find Ozma missing. They set off to find her and eventually meet up with Wag and Peg Amy. The group reaches the edge of the Deadly Desert and is hijacked by the Runaway Country, a piece of land that has feet. It carries them over the desert to Ev. Eventually, Peg Amy is revealed to be a princess, and Pompadore marries her.

Kabumpo in Oz

Dana Halter is an American woman in her early thirties who at the age of four suffered an infection which left her profoundly deaf. Since then, she has been able to master her life astonishingly well: she has acquired an academic degree and teaches at a school for the deaf in San Roque, likely analogous to Santa Barbara, California. Her boyfriend, Bridger Martin, is a "hearie", a man a few years younger than herself who creates special effects for the film industry. Out of love, Martin has gone to great lengths to accommodate her disability. For example, he has taken a course in sign language to be able to communicate with her as best as possible. William "Peck" Wilson is an American raised in Peterskill, New York who is angry with society for failing him. Once a promising young restaurateur, he enters into a sour marriage, has a child with his wife, becomes dependent on his father-in-law''s money, and is eventually dumped by his wife. Subsequently, his life takes a turn for the worse, he has to serve a short prison sentence. When he is released from jail, he moves to Marin County, California, takes up a criminal career of stealing others'' identities and spending these identities'' money to furnish his elaborate tastes. One such stolen identity belongs to Dana Halter, the deaf woman. Peck believes Dana is a man, and now has a driver''s license and a credit card in "his" name. He lives together with an attractive Russian gold digger called Natalia and her daughter by a former lover. He has made Natalia believe that he is a physician. Peck and Natalia live a luxurious life at the expense of Dana Halter. After Dana Halter is put in jail on a charge perpetrated by Wilson in her name, she and Bridger Martin are irate. They decide to track down the identity thief, and a cross-country chase ensues that ends in Peterskill, New York.

Talk Talk

In June 1826, the Sultan Mahmud II disbands and slaughters the Janissaries, once elite troops of the Ottoman Empire but long an unruly element beyond the control of the Sultan or anybody else. Ten years later, the new Westernized corps which replaced the Janissaries are to perform a military exercise. Ten days before the event, four officers disappear; subsequently, one officer is found dead. The general entrusts Yashim the eunuch with solving the mystery. Meanwhile, the Sultan''s newest concubine is murdered and the Sultan''s mother''s jewelry stolen. Yashim must simultaneously investigate three different cases. The cases bring Yashim in and out of the palace, to various embassies, a mosque, and the alleyways and streets of Istanbul. To solve the cases, Yashim employs the assistance of a Polish ambassador and the wife of a Russian ambassador. He discovers that the cases are related, and that they not only involve a plot for revenge by surviving Janissaries hidden somewhere but also the power struggle between the palace eunuchs and the military''s extreme pursuit of democratization. In the end, Yashim, against all odds, succeeds in preventing several conspiracies.

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Running with Scissors

By Augusten Burroughs

The Various

No Author Listed

The Secret of the Old Mill

By Franklin W. Dixon

Merlin's Ring

By H. Warner Munn

Kensuke's Kingdom

By Michael Morpurgo

The Gadget Maker

No Author Listed

The Black Dahlia

By James Ellroy

9tail Fox

By Jon Courtenay Grimwood

The Given Day

By Dennis Lehane

Kabumpo in Oz

By Ruth Plumly Thompson

Talk Talk

By T. Coraghessan Boyle

The Janissary Tree

By Jason Goodwin