In the eleventh of the ''Alphabet Murder'' series, Kinsey Millhone is hired by Janice Kepler to investigate the death of her daughter, Lorna Kepler. Lorna had been found dead and badly decomposed ten months earlier in her secluded cabin home. The police at the time suspected it might have been a murder case, but from lack of evidence as to cause of death, the official line was that Lorna died naturally, as a result of an allergic reaction. Now someone has sent Janice a tape of a porn movie Laura apparently made before her death, and Janice, who has coped badly with her daughter''s death, wants Kinsey to find out the truth. Mace, Janice''s husband, and her two surviving daughters, Berlyn and Trinny, seem less keen on the investigation, and Mace and Berlyn, in particular, become positively hostile to Kinsey as she sets out to find out what happened to Lorna. With some help from Officer Cheney Phillips, Kinsey quickly learns that Lorna, who was a receptionist at the water treatment plant by day, had accumulated a modest fortune as a high class prostitute by night. Lorna was a beautiful loner, but had some friends - mainly people who like her tended to be up and about at night. Kinsey finds herself having to abandon her usual day-time routine in order to get herself into Lorna''s world. Lorna''s body was found by Serena Bonney, night-shift nurse and estranged wife of Lorna''s boss at the water treatment plant, Roger Bonney. Serena''s father, Clark Esselmann, is a powerful business tycoon with a number of enemies. She also befriends Danielle, a teenage colleague of Lorna''s in her night-time occupation, who obliges Kinsey by giving her a badly needed haircut. When Danielle is savagely attacked in her home, Kinsey becomes convinced there''s a link to Lorna''s death, and her quest to discover the truth becomes more personal. Meanwhile, Kinsey has a terrifying Mafia-style encounter with a man describing himself as an attorney for a Los Angeles man to whom Lorna was engaged. He asks Linsey to keep him abreast of any developments in the case by giving her a telephone number. Kinsey soon uncovers a variety of secrets: Berlyn actually discovered Lorna''s body, but kept quiet about in order to lift some of Lorna''s money, and also sent her mother the porn video. Leda, the wife of Lorna''s landlord JD, had bugged Lorna''s cabin because she was worried (needlessly, as it turned out) that Lorna and JD were having an affair - and still has the tape. With the help of Lorna''s friend, late-night radio DJ Hector Mereno, Kinsey transcribes a phone conversation Lorna had before her death which seems to have upset Lorna, but she can''t make sense of it until Clark Esselmann is electrocuted in his swimming pool. Kinsey realises that the conversation on the tape is someone telling Lorna the plot - and surmises that having objected to it, Lorna was killed so that the plot could still be carried out. Her suspicions turn to Stubby Stockton, a business opponent of Esselmann''s, and to Roger Bonney, since Kinsey now knows, from Berlyn''s admission of the discovery of the body, that Lorna was already dead when Roger claimed he spoke to her for the last time. He is also the one with the necessary knowledge and access to his father-in-law''s pool to have set up the electrocution. The final link in the chain is when Kinsey, in the course of cleaning up Danielle''s trashed apartment while she''s still in hospital, finds a photo of Lorna and Danielle with Stockton and Bonney. Kinsey talks to Cheney about her suspicions of Roger, but he points out there''s no evidence. Frustrated that Bonney may get away with murder, the final straw is when Danielle dies in hospital. Kinsey phones the secret number and reports that Bonney is the killer. Overcome with guilt, she immediately tries to warn him, but he misunderstands, thinking she has come to confront him with the murder, and stuns her with a tazer. While Kinsey lies powerless on the floor, the Mafia types arrive and escort Bonney away. He is never seen again.

"K" Is for Killer

The book is in four sections: * "The Shadow of Mount Elgon" delves into the history of filoviruses, as well as speculation about the origins of AIDS. Preston accounts the story of "Charles Monet" (a pseudonym), who might have caught MARV from visiting Kitum Cave on Mount Elgon in Kenya. The author describes in great detail the progression of the disease, from the initial headache and backache, to the final stage in which Monet''s internal organs fail and he "bleeds out" (i.e., hemorrhages extensively) in a waiting room in a Nairobi hospital. This part also introduces a young promising physician who becomes infected with MARV while treating Monet. Nancy Jaax''s story is told. Viruses, and biosafety levels and procedures are described. The EVD outbreaks caused by EBOV and its cousin, Sudan virus (SUDV) are mentioned. Preston talks to the man who named Ebola virus. * "The Monkey House" chronicles the discovery of Reston virus virus among imported monkeys in Reston, Virginia, and the following actions taken by the U.S. Army and Centers for Disease Control. * "Smashdown" is more on the Reston epizootic, which involved a strain of the virus that does not affect humans but which easily spreads by air, and is very similar to its cousin the Ebola virus. * "Kitum Cave" tells of the author''s visiting the cave that is the suspected home of the natural host animal that Ebola lives inside of. The book starts with "Charles Monet" visiting Kitum Cave during a camping trip to Mount Elgon in Central Africa. Not long after, he begins to suffer from a number of symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea and red eye. He is soon taken to Nairobi Hospital for treatment, but his condition deteriorates further and he goes into a coma while in the waiting room. He dies, but not before a Doctor named Shem Musoke, attempting to insert a laryngoscope, is infected by exposure to Charles'' blood and vomit. Musoke is one of the few to become symptomatic from a filovirus and survive. This particular filovirus is called Marburg virus. Dr. Nancy Jaax had been promoted to work in the Level 4 Biosafety containment area at USAMRIID, and is assigned to research Ebola virus. While preparing food for her family at home, she cuts her right hand. Later, while working on a dead, EBOV-infected monkey, one of the gloves on the hand with the open wound tears, and she is almost exposed to contaminated blood, but does not get infected. Meanwhile, Peter Cardinal, a ten-year-old, visits Kitum Cave, gets infected with a MARV relative, Ravn virus (RAVV), and does not survive this infection. Nurse Mayinga is also infected by a nun and elects to visit Nairobi Hospital for treatment, where she succumbs to the disease. A CDC team arrives to collect samples of the virus for study. In Reston, Virginia, less than fifteen miles (24&nbsp;km) away from Washington, DC, a company called Hazelton Research once operated a quarantine center for monkeys that were destined for laboratories. In October 1989, when an unusually high number of their monkeys began to die, their veterinarian decided to send some samples to Fort Detrick (USAMRIID) for study. At the time, it was believed that the virus was Simian hemorrhagic fever virus, a viral hemorrhagic fever harmless to humans but almost always fatal to other primates (see zoonosis). Early during the testing process in biosafety level 3, when one of the flasks appeared to be contaminated with harmless pseudomonas bacterium, two USAMRIID scientists exposed themselves to the virus by wafting the flask. When they eventually tested the samples with known Level 4 agents, only EBOV reacted with the unknown samples. They decided not to tell anyone about their exposure, but they did secretly test their blood every day. After one of the monkey house staff members becomes ill with nausea and violent vomiting, USAMRIID is given permission to send in a team to euthanize all the monkeys at the facility and collect tissue samples. They later determine that, while the virus is terrifyingly lethal to monkeys, humans can be infected with it without any health effects at all. This virus is now known as Reston virus (RESTV). Finally, the author himself goes into Africa to explore Kitum Cave. On the way, he discusses the role of AIDS in the present, as the highway they were on, sometimes called the "AIDS Highway," or the "Kinshasa Highway" was where it first appeared. Equipped with a Hazmat suit, he enters the cave and finds a large number of animals, one of which might be the virus carrier. At the conclusion of the book, he travels to the quarantine facility in Reston. The building there was abandoned and deteriorating. He concludes the book by saying EBOV will be back.

The Hot Zone

Milkweed is set in Warsaw, Poland, during World War II. The main character Misha--who acquires multiple last names throughout the plot--is introduced to a band of thieves when he meets Uri, a fellow thief who act as his guardian. Peter D. Sieruta noted, “Misha’s early days with Uri are almost carefree”. While out stealing with Uri, Misha witnesses German invaders “Jackboots” capture Poland. He describes the Jackboots as “magnificent” and later states that he wants to become a Jackboot. Shortly after Poland is captured, Uri decides to create a false identity for Misha, “which Misha gratefully adopts to fill the void that is his past”. This fabricated background states that Misha is a Gypsy born in Russia to a large and old family. His mother was a talented fortune teller, he had “seven brothers and five sisters,” and a beloved “speckled mare” named Greta. In this story bombs and hateful, polish farmers separate Misha’s family until he winds up as a orphan in Warsaw. After running away from a Jackboot, Misha ends up in a garden where he meets Janina. Misha describes Janina as a “little girl,” who reveals she is also Jewish. Janina invites Misha to her seventh birthday party and without knowing what birthday cakes are, Misha panics- thinking that they were trying to “burn down the cake”- and blows out the candles and runs away with a part of the birthday cake. With Jackboot control over Warsaw tightening, a curfew is established and “stupid” Misha ends up getting his earlobe shot from being out past curfew. City conditions worsen with low food supplies, people losing their houses including Janina and her family, loss of electricity, and Jews are being harshly prosecuted. Eventually all Jewish people in Warsaw including Misha, Janina, and the gang of boys are moved into the ghetto. Janina''s uncle Shepsel describes their new living conditions as if living in a "closet". News goes out that Himmler, a prominent Jackboot, is coming. One day, a parade of Jackboots passes, and Misha tries to catch the attention of the ugly, unresponsive man who he thinks is Himmler, but instead is knocked to the ground by Buffo, a man who enjoys killing Jewish children. Once Uri reassures Misha that the man he saw was in fact Himmler, Misha decides that he no longer wants to be a Jackboot.Each night Misha steals by slipping through a hole in the wall that is “two bricks wide”. His friend Janina wants to mimic him, so she begins following him on his stealing expeditions. As time passes, the conditions of the ghetto worsen. One day as Misha is “walking along,” Uri appears. Uri, who has been gone for a long time, warns Misha that deportations are coming, and that all of the people will be cleared out of the ghetto. Some time later, an old man appears advising the people that there is no resettlement, and instead the Jews are going to be taken away and killed. That night, Janina’s father Mr. Milgrom tells Misha that when he and Janina go out to steal, they need to run away. Janina and Misha stay in Poland though because Janina refuses to leave and kicks Misha when he tries to convince her to leave the ghetto. Since the Jews are being taken away street by street, it takes some time to clear all of the people out of the ghetto. One night when Misha and Janina return from stealing, the hole in the wall is gone. Without a way into the ghetto, Misha dashes through the crowd of Jackboots and Jews who surround the train station Stawki Station with Janina behind him. They make their way into the ghetto to find the room where they had lived deserted. Janina runs in desperation to find her father, and Misha loses sight of her in the crowd of people. Following, he sees her thrown into a boxcar by a Jackboot. Misha is hit with a club, and kicked before Uri, who appears to be a Jackboot, shoots him. Misha awakens near the train tracks in a state of confusion. A farmer finds him and takes him to a farm where Misha stays for three years working and sleeping in a barn with the animals and eventually runs away. Not knowing what to do next, he rides on trains, and ends up back in Warsaw where “there [is] rubble and there [is] nothing”. He removes his armband leaving it on the sidewalk. Jack (Misha changes his name when moving to America) talks wildly about his past in the streets for years. Most people try to ignore him, except for a woman named Vivian who stops to listen to his stories. She marries him, but leaves after five months; pregnant. Many years pass, and we find Jack working in a Bag ‘n Go market where he meets his daughter Katherine for the first time. She has her own little girl, Wendy, who calls Jack, her new grandfather, Poppynoodle. Katherine takes him to her home where he lives for the remainder of the novel. Jack still thinks of Janina, although he will tell nobody, and he digs up the milkweed plant and plants it in his own back yard.

Milkweed

Varjak Paw is a small Mesopotamian dark blue kitten who lives with his family in the Contessa''s house on the hill. He is always made fun of because he is not a proper Mesopotamian blue. When a large gentlemen and two mysterious black cats enter the house, Varjak and his grandfather, Elder Paw, know something is wrong. The family is split apart, leaving Varjak to embark on a quest to the city for help. Using a form of secret cat martial arts called "The Way" handed down from his ancestor, the kitten must make his way through the city and overcome obstacles such as angry dogs, gangs of cats, and the mysterious "Vanishings." Varjak, whose amber eyes shun him from his family (as the color of danger), listens to his grandfather''s tales of the Outside. His older brother Julius constantly bullies him. None of his family care to venture into the outside world, for they are happy and contented inside, being fed by the old woman known as the Contessa. One day, a Gentleman appears inside the house with two black cats acting in synchronized motions. The Contessa had died. He seems to take care of the cats, but when Varjak and his grandfather venture outside and his grandfather tells him stories of the mysterious Jalal the Paw, the Gentleman''s two black cats kill him. Varjak runs away into the city, where he meets a black and white cat, Holly, and her best friend, a brown cat named Tam. Varjak learns of the Vanishings, the mysterious disappearances of cats off the streets. He travels with Holly and Tam. In his dreams he is visited by the strange Jalal the Paw, who teaches him of the Way, a lost form of cat martial arts. Varjak runs into a cat gang, Ginger''s gang. He is immediately beaten up. When he travels into the evil Sally Bones'' territory, he learns of the villain and a bit about the Way. The fight between him and the fierce white cat Sally Bones is interrupted by a dog, Cludge. Cludge knocks Varjak out, but wakes up to find that the dog meant no harm, and is even friendly. He befriends Cludge. Which surprised his friends as the dogs were known enemies to cats. Tam disappears and Varjak finds a grotesque toy cat inside a cardboard box, but it has every aspect of a real cat. He and Holly go back to his house, and his family wants Varjak to stay, but soon after Holly gets captured by the Gentleman. Varjak goes upstairs, where he finds dozens of cats inside a large cage, trapped by the Gentleman and his creepy cats. It is found that the Gentleman is taking them into a room and killing them to make toys out of them, although the methods of doing so have never been found (they come back out with glassy fake eyes and collars, with the sound boxes and mechanical movements of a doll, although they look and smell exactly like real cats). Varjak kills one of the black cats by snipping off its collar, the source of the Gentleman''s power, and the other falls. The Gentleman is about to kill Varjak when Cludge jumps through the window and scares the Gentleman off. Varjak is named a hero. His family asked him to come back, but decides to live on the streets and leave his family at the house and outside he decides to start his own gang and try to defeat Sally Bones.

Varjak Paw

The story begins in Nazi Germany, the Third Reich in April 1964, in the week leading up to Adolf Hitler''s 75th birthday. The plot follows detective Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), as he investigates the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi, Josef Buhler, in the Havel, on the outskirts of Berlin. As March uncovers more details he realises that he is caught up in a political scandal involving senior Nazi Party officials, who are apparently being systematically murdered under staged circumstances. In fact, as soon as the body is identified, the Gestapo claims jurisdiction and orders the Kripo to close its investigation. March meets with ''Charlie'' Maguire, a female American journalist who is also determined to investigate the case. They both travel to Zürich to investigate the private Swiss bank account of one of the murdered officials. Ultimately, the two uncover the horrific truth behind the staged murders. The Gestapo is eliminating the remaining officials who planned the Holocaust (of which the German people are not generally aware) at the Wannsee Conference of 1942. This is being done in order to safeguard an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Joseph P. Kennedy by ensuring that the crimes of the Nazi regime are not revealed. Maguire heads for neutral Switzerland with the evidence, hoping to expose it to the world. March, however, is denounced by his ten-year-old son and apprehended by the Gestapo. In the cellars of Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, March is tortured but does not reveal the location of Maguire. Kripo Chief Artur Nebe stages a rescue, intending to track March as he meets with Maguire at their rendezvous in Waldshut-Tiengen on the Swiss/German border. March realises what is happening and heads for Auschwitz, leading the authorities in the wrong direction. The Gestapo catches up with March at the unmarked site of Auschwitz''s completely dismantled extermination camp. Knowing that Maguire has had time to cross the border into Switzerland, March searches for some sign that the death camp was real. As the Gestapo agents close in on him, March uncovers bricks in the undergrowth. Satisfied, he pulls out his gun while leaving the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Fatherland

This is the first novel in the series and introduces the main characters as well as establishing relationships that continue and grow throughout the whole series. Falco stumbles upon a conspiracy in the trading of silver ingots, but not before it claims the life of a young girl (Sosia Camillina) whom Falco meets and is smitten with. Hired by the young girl''s uncle, a senator, to find out who murdered her, and by the Roman Emperor Vespasian, to uncover the conspiracy, Falco finds himself on the next boat to Britain. Once there he meets a lady way out of his class, Helena Justina, daughter of the Senator who hired him. At first sight it is mutual loathing, he hates her class and she hates his prejudice. Finding himself working down a silver mine, acting as a mine slave, Falco learns the meaning of hate, pain and abuse. After being rescued by Helena and a friendly centurion, Falco heads back to Rome, as the reluctant charge of the even more reluctant Helena. Naturally, after spending so much time together, lots of arguments, misunderstandings and denial, Falco and Helena fall in love (subsequently consummated in a horse stable in a public garden). Eventually, Falco sorts out the case, and only has to bring the culprits to justice. However, there is no justice when one of the culprits is Domitian, the Emperor''s very own wayward son. As for the other culprits, only one remains alive, and that person is very close to the girl Falco loves and her senator father. After a final, bloody, retribution is carried out in the climax, Falco is offered the chance to be raised to the upper middle class, the equestrian rank. As an equestrian Falco could marry Helena without bringing her or her family shame, which is something he could never manage on his meagre earnings alone. He refuses, seeing the offer as a bribe to keep the whole conspiracy hushed-up. After realising his mistake and how he must have insulted Helena, he returns to Vespasian and asks for the chance again, and while he is told that his name can be added to the equestrian lists, he must first raise the 400,000 sesterces himself in order to purchase the land to that value which is the qualification for equestrian status. Dejected he returns to his dilapidated tenement in the Aventine Hill and there finds Helena waiting for him. She promises to wait for him for as long as it takes. <!-

The Silver Pigs

The premise involves the married men of the fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the zombie-like, submissive Stepford wives, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends&nbsp;&ndash; fellow new arrivals to Stepford&nbsp;&ndash; turn into mindless, docile housewives overnight. Her husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men''s association, mocks her fears. As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men''s club. She visits the library and reads up on the pasts of Stepford''s wives, finding out that some of the women were once feminist activists and very successful professionals, while the leader of the men''s club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the EPA to inquire about possible environmental toxins in Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife and has no interest in her previous activities. At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee Stepford, but when she gets home she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave, but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from the house on foot, and several of the men''s club members track her down. They corner her in the woods and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town''s women. The men deny the accusation, and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees to this, and they take her to Bobbie''s house. Bobbie''s husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing&nbsp;&ndash; as if to cover screams. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes a knife at her former friend. In the story''s epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, and has given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne (a new resident in Stepford) appears poised to become the conspiracy''s next victim.

The Stepford Wives

Freddy was an intelligent pig that lived on the Bean Farm. To avoid the cold winter at their farm in Upstate New York, the animals decided to vacation in Florida. At first Charles the rooster is prevented from joining them by his acerbic wife, Henrietta. The animals encounter a man and a boy who wished to capture them. The animals scared them off. Later, Charles and Henrietta joined the group again. They also met the man and the boy, with the same results as last time. The animals were also joined by the man''s black dog, Jack. They next passed through Washington, D.C where three senators took them on a tour of the city. At the end of the tour, one of the senators made a speech how pleased he was by the animals'' visit. A few days later, while walking towards Florida, a thunderstorm forced the animals to take refuge in an empty log house. A flock of swallows mention a pile of gold in the area. The animals found the gold but were unable to take it with them, because they couldn''t carry it. After meeting two men who tried to capture Hank, the old horse, and Mrs. Wiggins, a cow, the animals arrived at Florida only to get trapped on an island in a swamp by some alligators. After they escaped the alligators, the farm animals started the long trek northward. Their further adventures included disguising themselves to get past the two kidnappers, returning stolen property to some townspeople, taking the pile of gold with them on an old carriage, and taking the gold back from the man and the boy who tried to steal it before they got back to the Bean farm. Once they got to the farm, they showed Mr. and Mrs. Bean the gold and they all danced merrily.

Freddy Goes to Florida

After John Carter''s arrival, a boat of Green Martians on the River Iss are ambushed by the previously unknown Plant Men. The lone survivor is his friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of Thark, who has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find Carter. Having saved their own lives, Carter and Tars Tarkas discover that the Therns, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods, have for eons deceived the Barsoomians elsewhere by disseminating that the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor is a journey to paradise. Most arrivals are killed by the beasts of Valley, and the survivors enslaved by Therns. Carter and Tars Tarkas rescue Thuvia, a slave girl, and attempt to escape, capitalizing on the confusion caused by an attack by the Black Pirates of Barsoom upon the Therns. During the attack, Tars Tarkas and Thuvia hijack a Black Pirate flier, while Carter fights his way aboard another, killing all but one of the Pirates, and rescuing a captive Thern princess. From the captured Pirate Xodar, Carter learns that the Black Pirates, called the "First Born", also think of themselves as gods, and accordingly prey upon the Therns; and additionally identifies the captive Thern as Phaidor, daughter of the "Holy Hekkador" (high priest) of the Therns. When their flier is recaptured by the First Born and taken to their realm of Omean, Carter is taken before Issus, the self-proclaimed goddess of Barsoom, who dictates the Therns through secret communications which they mistake for divine revelation. Issus takes Phaidor as a handmaiden for one Martian year; whereas Carter is imprisoned, with Xodar as his slave as punishment for being defeated by Carter. Thereafter Carter treats him with honor, and thus gains his friendship. In prison, they encounter a young man later identified as Carter''s son Carthoris, with whom Carter is taken to a series of games wherein the previous year''s handmaidens are eaten by Issus and her nobles. Carter leads a revolt of the prisoners, killing many of the First Born; and upon the suppression of their revolt, he and Carthoris escape via underground tunnels, and give themselves to guards unacquainted with the revolt to be returned to their prison. Upon hearing of the revolt, Xodar rejects Issus’ divinity and joins the others in escape. Upon later abandoning their aircraft, they encounter Thuvia, who describes the capture of Tars Tarkas by the green warriors of Warhoon (a clan rival to his own). Carter goes to rescue Tars Tarkas, but is discovered by his enemies. After a chase, Thuvia is sent on alone mounted while the men attempt a stand against the Warhoons. They are rescued by the Heliumetic navy; but do not find Thuvia. Commanding one of the warships is Carter’s friend Kantos Kan; but the fleet is commanded by Zat Arras, a Jed (chieftain) of the hostile client state of Zodanga, and Carter is suspected of returning from Valley Dor, which is punishable by death. Tardos Mors, the Jeddak of Helium, and Mors Kajak, the Jed of Hastor (the grandfather and father, respectively, of Dejah Thoris, and thus Carter’s in-laws) are absent from Helium, having led fleets in search of Carthoris. Later, Carter discovers that Dejah Thoris may have taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find him. Upon returning to Helium, Carter is tried for heresy by the Zodangans; but the people of Helium do not tolerate this, and Carter is held prisoner for 365 days until his son frees him. Thereafter he goes to rescue Dejah Thoris; but is kidnapped by the Zodangans. Carter refuses Zat Arras’ offer of freedom in exchange for endorsing Zat Arras as Jeddak of Helium, and is imprisoned. After half a (Barsoomian) year, Carter escapes, and embarks to Omean, with secretly raised troop levies, ships, and soldiers lent by Tars Tarkas. Near Omean Carter is challenged first by the Therns; secondly by Zat Arras; and lastly by the First Born, whereupon Carter causes the Therns and First Born to fight one another, and the Heliumetic crews of the Zodangan fleet mutiny in support of Carter. Thereafter the Heliumites and Tharks defeat the First Born, and Issus herself is killed; but Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor are imprisoned in the Temple of the Sun, of whose rooms each opens only once per year. Immediately before their room closes, Phaidor attempts to kill Dejah Thoris, and her success or failure are left unknown. The story is thence continued in the third book of Burroughs’ Martian series, The Warlord of Mars.

The Gods of Mars

Despite the post-apocalyptic scenario, and several action sequences, the book is largely about civilization and symbols. Each of the three sections deals with a different symbol. The first is the Postman himself, Gordon Krantz, who takes the uniform solely for warmth after he loses everything but his sleeping clothes. He wanders without establishing himself anywhere, and acts in scenes of William Shakespeare for supplies. Originally from Minnesota, he has traveled as far West as Oregon. Taking shelter in a long-abandoned postal van, he finds a sack of mail and takes it to a nearby community to barter for food and shelter. His reputation as a real postman builds not because of a deliberate fraud (at least initially) but because people are desperate to believe. Later, in the second section, he encounters a community (Corvallis, Oregon) led by Cyclops, apparently a sentient artificial intelligence created at Oregon State University which miraculously survived the cataclysm. In reality, however, the machine had ceased functioning during a battle; a group of scientists merely maintain the pretense of it working to try and keep hope, order, and knowledge alive. Eventually, in the third section, as the Postman joins forces with the Cyclops scientists in a war against an influx of "hypersurvivalists", he begins to find that the hypersurvivalists are being pressed from the Rogue River area to the south as well. The hypersurvivalists are more commonly referred to as Holnists, after the founder of their ideal, Nathan Holn. Many times through the book, curses are uttered which damn Holn for his actions. Nathan Holn was an author who championed an extreme, violent, misogynistic and hypersurvivalist society. Holn is said to have himself been hanged in the novel, but in the time following what should have been a brief period of civil disorder, followers of Holn prevented the United States from recovering from the limited war, and the plagues that followed. As the story ends, and he comes close to the hypersurvivalist''s southern enemy, he begins to find traces of them, primarily in the symbol that they rally behind: the Bear Flag of California. The final scenes give the impression that the three symbols may rally together in an effort to revive civilization. Another message of the plot deals with the backstory of the post-apocalyptic world: specifically, that it was not the electronics-destroying electromagnetic pulses, nor the destruction of major cities, nor the release of various bio-engineered plagues that actually destroyed society: rather, it was the hypersurvivalists themselves, those who maintained stockpiles of weapons and ammunition and who preyed on humanitarian workers and other forces of order.

The Postman

Sakkara is a superpowers research facility in the heart of the United States. The adolescent superhumans of The Quantum Prophecy return; this time their covers are blown and they are forced to flee to the US in order to protect themselves from attack and publicity. The facility that they hide in is thought to be secret, until its name is known around the world following a terrorist attack in which the supervillain-turned-assassin leaves the word "Sakkara" spraypainted on the wall of an airport after killing dozens of people. Someone among the "New Heroes" or "old heroes" has broken protocol, but everyone is a suspect. As more and more attacks begin to occur, the pattern emerges that they are going after Trutopians. Trutopians are an international organisation designed to give each of its members security and equality, but with reduced comfort and freedoms. It is revealed that they are run by the antagonist of the last novel, Victor Cross, who is really just trying to "take over the world". The "New Heroes" learn more about their power and discover other heroes too. Colin learns that he actually inherited his powers from his mom, Energy, instead of his father, Titan. The heroes then learn that Yvonne was the one leaking information and in the end Solomon Cord, or Paragon, dies from a decision made by Colin.

Sakkara

In January 2007, 31-year-old Beckham, one of the world''s most famous soccer players, at the time playing with Real Madrid, shocked the sports world by signing a five year contract with MLS team LA Galaxy, effective from the end of La Liga 2006-07 season, which was in progress when the announcement was made. In addition to playing football, under the advisement of talent manager Simon Fuller and his company 19 Entertainment, Beckham set out to conquer the U.S. celebrity scene. At this time, Grant Wahl was given unprecedented access to the English player, his inner circle, and team to promote his arrival to the league. To 19 Management''s dismay, Wahl would not relinquish control of his articles or methods of procuring information. As a result, Wahl was able to give a behind-the-scenes account of Beckham''s impact on LA Galaxy. Initially, Beckham had a great financial impact on LA Galaxy drawing sold out crowds, additional owners, additional sponsors, and an increase in sold merchandise. Behind the scenes, Beckham''s management was seeking control over the team and league. Beckham''s designated player status as well as his overall stature and celebrity enabled him to seek preferential treatment including the captaincy, his own parking spot right next to the dressing room, and his own hotel room on road trips. This preferential treatment along with Beckham''s salary (much higher than that of his teammates) greatly affected the team. Ripping the captaincy out of Donovan''s hands had heavy consequences. Both years when Beckham was captain, the team failed to make it to the MLS playoffs. The book also delves into larger issues such as the MLS''s failing structure.

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