The story centers on Sherman McCoy, a wealthy New York City bond trader with a wife and young daughter. His life as a self-regarded "Master of The Universe" on Wall Street is destroyed when he and his mistress, Maria Ruskin, accidentally enter the Bronx at night while they are driving to Manhattan from Kennedy Airport. Finding the ramp back to the highway blocked by trash cans and a tire, McCoy exits the car to clear the way. Approached by two black men whom they perceive—uncertainly, in Sherman''s case—as predators, McCoy and Ruskin flee. Having taken the wheel of the car, which fishtails as they race away, Ruskin apparently strikes one of the two—a "skinny boy". Peter Fallow, a has-been, alcoholic journalist for the tabloid City Light, is soon given the opportunity of a lifetime when he is persuaded to write a series of articles about Henry Lamb, a black youth who has allegedly been the victim of a hit and run by a wealthy white driver. Fallow cynically tolerates the manipulations of the Reverend Bacon, a Harlem religious and political leader who sees the hospitalized boy as a projects success story done wrong. Fallow''s series of articles on the matter ignites a series of protests and media coverage of the Lamb case. Up for re-election and accused of foot-dragging in the Lamb case, the media-obsessed Bronx District Attorney Abe Weiss pushes for McCoy''s arrest. The evidence consists of McCoy''s damaged car, which matches the description of the vehicle involved in the alleged hit and run, plus McCoy''s evasive response to police questioning. The arrest all but ruins McCoy; he loses his job, his wealthy friends desert him, and his wife leaves him and takes their daughter. Hoping to impress his boss as well as an attractive woman, Shelly Thomas, Assistant District Attorney Larry Kramer aggressively prosecutes the case, opening with an unsuccessful bid to set McCoy''s bail at $250,000. Released on bail, McCoy is besieged by demonstrators who are protesting outside his $3 million Park Avenue co-op. Fallow hears a rumor that Maria was at the wheel of McCoy''s car when it allegedly struck Lamb, but Maria has fled the country. Trying to smoke out the truth, on the pretense of interviewing the rich and famous, Fallow meets Maria''s husband, Arthur, at a pricey French restaurant. While recounting his life, Arthur has a fatal seizure, as disturbed patrons and an annoyed maître d'' look on. Maria is forced to return to the United States for his funeral, where McCoy confronts her about being "the only witness". Fallow, hoping also to talk with Maria, overhears this. Fallow''s write-up of the association between McCoy and Maria prompts Assistant D.A. Kramer to offer Maria a deal: corroborate the other witness and receive immunity—or be treated as an accomplice. Maria recounts this to McCoy while he is wearing a wire. When a private investigator employed by McCoy''s lawyer, Tommy Killian, discovers a recording of a conversation that contradicts Maria''s grand jury testimony, the judge assigned to the case declares the testimony "tainted" and dismisses the case. As the epilogue, a fictional New York Times article informs us that Fallow has won the Pulitzer Prize and married the daughter of City Light owner Gerald Steiner, while Ruskin has escaped prosecution and remarried. McCoy''s re-trial ends in a hung jury, split along racial lines. Kramer is removed from the prosecution after it is revealed he was involved with Shelly Thomas in a sexual tryst at the apartment formerly used by Maria and McCoy. It is additionally revealed that McCoy has lost a civil trial to the Lamb family and, pending appeal, has a $12 million liability, which has resulted in the freezing of his assets. The all-but-forgotten Henry Lamb succumbs to his injuries; McCoy, penniless and estranged from his wife and daughter, awaits trial for vehicular manslaughter. In the novel''s closing, Tommy Killian holds forth:

The Bonfire of the Vanities

In 1665, Captain Charles Hunter is hired by the Governor of Jamaica, Sir James Almont, to lead an expedition to the island fortress of Matanceros. It is there that a galleon, supposedly containing treasures untold, is awaiting protection across the Atlantic for safe travel back to Spain. Almont is excited about the possibility of reward in this venture, though his secretary Mr. Robert Hacklett is less than enthusiastic, calling Hunter a pirate. Hunter gathers his crew in Port Royal and sets sail to capture the ship in its own harbor. Mere days into the journey, their ship, the Cassandra is captured by a Spanish Warship commanded by none other than Cazalla, the infamous Spaniard who commands Matanceros. After a daring escape from their cell, Hunter and his crew reboard their ship and continue on their way before Cazalla can retaliate. Upon their arrival at Matanceros, Hunter, Black Eye, Lazue, Sanson, and the Moor all make their way behind the fortress. Traversing up skyward cliffs, rough jungle foliage, and deadly animals, the crew comes to see that Cazalla has docked under the suspicion that Hunter is still on his way to the island. The privateers manage to make their way around the village and soldiers occupying it long enough to set their traps. After a short duel between Hunter and Cazalla, the traps are sprung, and a slice to the throat kills Cazalla. The Cassandra appears and the crew takes their captain, his mates, and the galleon out to sea. After a few days, the treasure inside the galleon, El Trinidad, is accounted and split between the two ships. Soon afterward, Hunter discovers he is being pursued by the warship commanded by Bosquet, Cazalla''s second-in-command. He is chased to Monkey Bay, where he narrowly evades capture with the aide of Lazue''s eyesight. The warship is unable to follow due to the sun''s glare on the ocean. Here Hunter waits until a few days later, the crew notices the signs of a terrible storm: a hurricane. Using the genius of Don Diego, their cannons are armed and aimed for a mere two defensive shots. Upon their departure, however, the warship has disappeared. Celebrating their surprise escape, a few miles out to sea, the warship is seen coming on their stern quickly. With Hunter aboard El Trinidad, the ship took massive damage from cannon fire until the two were in perfect alignment. The aimed cannons fired upon the warship, merely damaging it with the first shot and seeming to miss entirely on the second. However, after a moment of inactivity, Hunter realizes that the second shot actually landed a devastating blow and the attacking ship explodes with geysers of water shooting into the air. Moments later, there is little evidence of the warship. Victory evades the two ships, however, as it begins to rain and storm. The El Trinidad and the Cassandra, helmed by Sanson, are separated by fierce winds and strong currents. After the storm abates, Hunter finds the El Trinidad beached on a strange island. A few hours later, they see the island is inhabited by cannibalistic natives, who nearly capture the niece of Governor Almont. On their way back to Port Royal, the crew suffers yet another misfortune when their ship is attacked by a Kraken. After it had killed many and damaged the ship, Hunter manages to mortally injure the beast. Their path is finally clear to Port Royal. Upon their arrival, a courier gives message that Almont is gravely sick and Hacklett has taken charge as Governor. Hunter is arrested and put to trial, with Sanson betraying his captain and lying for the court. Hunter is sentenced to be hanged and placed in prison. With the aid of the sickly James Almont, Hunter is sprung from prison and kills the men who sentenced him, save for the judge himself who gives Hunter a pardon. Hacklett is shot in the groin, and Sanson sends word that he alone knows where the other half of the treasure is. Hunter turns the man''s own crossbow against him and kills Sanson and throws his body overboard letting the sharks eat his body, yet is never able to find Sanson''s treasure.

Pirate Latitudes

Eyvind is a young Viking man who wishes to be a Wolfskin (a berserker warrior of Thor) like his brother. Somerled, a quiet boy of the same age, befriends Eyvind and binds him to loyalty with a blood oath. After becoming a Wolfskin, Eyvind voyages to the Isles of Light with Somerled, his brother Eirek, Somerled''s brother Ulf (the leader of the expedition) and many others. The Vikings quickly establish a peace treaty with the native island folk and build a settlement. Then Ulf is murdered sadistically, suspended by ropes from a cliff''s edge to die of exposure, leaving his position to Somerled- who immediately breaks the treaty. He sends out the Wolfskins to destroy the small army mustered by the natives in retaliation. Eyvind, seeing that the army is composed of the very young and the very old, suffers a breakdown brought on by the moral crisis. The native princess and priestess, Nessa, finds him and cares for him, healing his wounds and coldness of spirit. Alone in a hidden cave, with only an old priestess for company, the two young people fall in love. But Eyvind is soon faced with another crisis: he must face Somerled with newfound proof that the current ruler killed his own brother. In the Viking hall, Eyvind''s accusations are smothered with violence and he is imprisoned, despite the efforts of his few remaining friends to help him. Finally, Nessa creates and brings to the hall a harp made out of Ulf''s bones, with Ulf''s voice (magically restored) as the final voice of truth that cannot be ignored. Somerled is banished from the Isles, bound by an oath to Eyvind to live as long as possible, and Eyvind stays in the Isles.

Wolfskin

The book tells the story of Simplício, a naïve and near-sighted man who lives alongside his brother Américo, an ascending politician, his cousin Anica and extremely religious aunt Domingas, and wishes to be able of seeing again one day. A friend of his, old man Nunes, takes him to Reis, an optometrist who is able to make very powerful lenses; however, none of them are able to make Simplício see again. Reis then suggests Simplício to go see a friend of his, an unnamed Armenian wizard who makes magical lenses. Simplício is finally able to see again, but the Armenian tells him that if he looks to someone or something for more than three minutes, he would see the evil enclosed on them. However, Simplício does not pay attention to the Armenian''s warning, and starts seeing the evil parts of all things, and considered to be crazy, becomes a recluse. Simplício accidentally destroys the "evil" lenses one day, and returns to see the Armenian — this time he gives to Simplício new lenses that makes him see the good parts of all things. Being seduced and ludibriated, after many mishaps Simplício finally obtains the "sanity" lenses, and is able to live happily again. gv:A Luneta Mágica pt:A Luneta Mágica

A Luneta Mágica

Candidia Maria Smith-Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, is unaware that she''s a Homo post hominem, mankind''s next evolutionary step. Hominems have higher IQs, they''re stronger, faster, more resistant to illness and trauma, and have quicker reflexes. Their eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell are superior as well. By the time the narrative opens, Candy has acquired a high school education, some college, and learned karate, having achieved her Fifth Degree Black Belt, from her neighbor, 73-year-old Soo Kim McDivot, who she is led to believe is merely a retired schoolteacher. McDivot, whom she calls "Teacher", is actually the discoverer of the H. post hominem species, and has identified and continues to mentor and lead a group of them, the AAs. As part of her karate training, she has learned to release her hysterical strength, which permits brief bursts of nearly superhuman activity. With international relations rapidly deteriorating, Candy''s father, publicly a small-town pathologist but secretly a government biowarfare expert, is called to Washington. Candy remains at home. The following day a worldwide attack, featuring a bionuclear plague, wipes out virtually all of humanity (i.e., Homo sapiens). With pet bird Terry, a Hyacinthine macaw, her "lifelong retarded, adopted twin brother," who tends to "parrot" Candy''s words even before she speaks, she survives the attack in the shelter beneath their house. Emerging three months later, she learns of her genetic heritage and sets off to search for others of her kind. First the hunt turns up "Adam," a cheeky, irrepressibly punning, multitalented 13-year-old boy, who immediately sets out to win Candy''s heart; next, Rollo Jones, a middle-aged physician with a broad history of survival-in-the-wilds experience ranging from a stint in the Peace Corps to mountain climbing; and finally, Kim Mellon, an early-20s mom whose background is in computer engineering with Lisa, her six-year-old daughter. Rollo reveals himself as a sociopath, whom Candy is forced to kill defending Terry and herself. Adam, Kim, and Lisa join Candy''s quest for the AA community. As part of the search, Adam reveals that he is an ultralight aircraft pilot. Later he teaches Candy to fly. Thereafter, an ultralight engine failure separates Candy from the others. After getting it running again, she spots a contrail, which leads her to Vandenberg Space Shuttle Launch Complex, where Teacher and the AAs are laboring to preflight a shuttle, renamed the Nathan Hale. They''ve identified those who wiped out mankind, the Bratstvo, translated as the "Brotherhood," a cabal of H. sapiens, working from inside the Russian military to destroy all H. post hominems. As insurance, they''ve placed a doomsday device in geosynchronous orbit, a Strontium-90 bomb whose fallout will render Earth uninhabitable for 200 years. At this point, however, the AAs'' plans have come unstuck: They''ve modified the Hale to reach geosynch orbit, though it''s a one-way, suicide voyage for the crew; but the miniature robot handler they''ve built to penetrate the bomb-carrying rocket and disarm the doomsday device isn''t up to the task. Candy realizes, with her small size and hysterical strength training, she''s the only one who can get inside the warhead chamber and disarm the bomb. Despite the fact that it''s a suicide mission, she volunteers. Meanwhile, as Adam, Kim, and Lisa search for Candy, Terry begins relaying her thoughts, though initially they don''t realize that''s what they''re hearing. Arriving in orbit, Kyril Svetlanov, thought to be a Bratstvo defector, kills Harris Gilbert, the mission commander. Kyril turns out to have been a double agent, whose job ultimately was to sabotage the mission, but he doesn''t know about Candy''s karate skills. She breaks his neck and assumes responsibility for completing the mission. Navigating across to the bomb-carrying rocket in a spacesuit, she disables the warhead. Then she resets the navigational computer to land on the dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base and tries to secure herself against a bulkhead in preparation for the stresses of reentry. As the missile begins to power-up for reentry, Adam finally realizes Terry is in fact relaying Candy''s thoughts; that somehow she is in fact in space, about to attempt reentry in a non-human-rated vehicle, and that she''ll soon be landing at Edwards. He, Kim, and Lisa arrive as the missile is touching down, just in time to extract her, resuscitate her, and treat her injuries. The author has left a number of threads trailing at the conclusion, some of which are followed-up on 25 years later in a sequel Tracking, serialized in Analog Science and Fact magazine in the summer and fall of 2008.

Emergence

Here Be Dragons (1985) is the first of Penman''s trilogy about the medieval princes of Gwynedd and the monarchs of England. England''s King John uses his out-of-wedlock daughter Joanna as a negotiating tool by marrying her to the Welsh king Llewelyn to avoid war between England and Wales. Joanna and Llewelyn''s marriage is marred by resentment from Llewelyn''s illegitimate son, Gruffydd. Joanna gives birth to two legitimate children, Elen and Davydd. Growing animosity between the English and Welsh results in Joanna having to act as a diplomatic intermediary between her husband and her father, and the situation deteriorates when Gruffydd is taken hostage by John and narrowly escapes execution. Joanna becomes determined that her own son, Dafydd, will be his father''s heir as ruler of Gwynedd, disregarding the Welsh law that all sons should receive equal shares of their father''s inheritance. Family disagreements lead Joanna into an affair with William de Braose, whom she has met earlier in the story when he was a hostage in Llewelyn''s household. Their affair is discovered and William is executed. Joanna is placed in secluded captivity, but at the end of the book Llewelyn comes to find her and offers her forgiveness.

Here Be Dragons

The protagonist of Kipps is Arthur "Artie" Kipps. In Book I ("The Making of Kipps") he is raised by his aged aunt and uncle in New Romney, on the southern coast of Kent. He attends the Cavendish Academy ("a middle-class school," not a "board school") in Hastings, in East Sussex. "By inherent nature he had a sociable disposition," and Kipps befriends Sid Pornick, the neighbor boy. Kipps falls in love with Sid''s younger sister Ann, and Ann gives him half a sixpence as a token of their love when at the age of fourteen he is apprenticed to the Folkestone Drapery Bazaar, run by Mr. Shalford. But the Pornicks move away and Kipps forgets Ann. He becomes infatuated with Helen Walshingham, who teaches a wood carving class on Thursday nights. When Chitterlow, an actor and aspiring playwright, meets Kipps by running into him with his bicycle, their encounter turns into an inebriated evening that leads to Kipps''s being "swapped" (dismissed). But before he leaves Mr. Shalford''s establishment, Chitterlow brings to his attention a newspaper advertisement that leads to an unsuspected inheritance for Kipps from his grandfather of a house and £26,000. In Book II ("Mr. Coote the Chaperon"), Kipps fails in his attempt to adapt to his new social class while living in Folkestone. By chance he meets a Mr. Coote, who undertakes his social education; this leads to renewed contact with Helen Walshingham, and they become engaged. But the process of bettering himself alienates Kipps more and more, especially since Helen has in view taking advantage of Kipps''s fortune to establish herself and her brother in London society. Chance meetings with Sid and then Ann (now a house servant) lead to a decision to abandon social conventions (and his engagement to Helen) and marry his childhood sweetheart. In Book III ("Kippses"), the attempt to find suitable lodging precipitates Kipps back into a struggle with the "complex and difficult" English social system. Kipps and Ann quarrel. Then they learn that Helen''s brother, a solicitor, has lost most of their fortune through speculation. The loss of most of Kipps''s money leads to a happier situation, however, when Kipps opens a branch of the Associated Booksellers'' Trading Union (Limited) in Folkestone, and they have a son. The success of Chitterlow''s play, in which Kipps had invested £2000, restores their fortune, but they are content to remain shopkeepers.

Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul

While Shadowmaster Sushin maintains control over higher ranked chosen, Tal and Milla travel through the Castle''s depths where they encounter the Freefolk, a group of the servant class Underfolk who possess a great hatred for all the Chosen. They also meet Lector Jarnil, a famous teacher. Tal and Milla learn more about the intricacies of Castle politics, including that Sushin, a Shadowmaster of the Orange, is the Dark Vizier of the Empress. He deals in unsavory matters and commands others under the authority of the Empress. They also learn that the Veil is maintained by the seven Keystones which lie at the top of each of the seven towers. Most of the Chosen leave the Castle due to the Day of Ascension. To prevent the Veil from failing, Tal, accompanied by the Freefolk leader Crow, climb the Red Tower and defeat the deadly Keeper. They also solve a puzzle of tiles to prevent any alarms from ringing out. Eventually they reach the Red Keystone and discover Lector Jarnil''s cousing Lokar trapped inside. As Tal and Crow prepare to depart, they are assaulted by numerous unbound Spiritshadows. Tal is able to construct a miniature Veil in time to hide them, but accidentally binds Adras, his Spiritshadow, into it. As they near the Freefolk base, Crow injures Tal and flees with the Keystone. Tal recovers the keystone and Lokar convinces Tal to go to Aenir and consult the Empress to free Lokar. While Tal and Crow climb the tower, Milla returns to Odris by the labryinth of underground tunnels below the Castle. On her way, she discovers the skeleton where her Primary Sunstone partially originated. Scrutinizing it closer, she notices a long Violet fingernail, which she puts on. Knowing that she will give herself to the Ice, she breathes the Tenth Pattern to assure the completion of her task of getting a Primary Sunstone. On her way, she is attacked by Arla and a band of Shield Maidens for bringing Odris. Milla accidentally kills Arla with her talon. She is then judged by the Crones, who will decide her fate. After reviewing Milla''s thoughts and dreams, the Crones debate and decide to attack the Castle to stop the Spiritshadow trade and save the Veil. The Crones choose Milla to lead the attack.

Above the Veil

The Gates are passageways through space and time that can, if misused, destroy entire civilizations. Such cataclysms had happened in the past, most recently to the qhal, a species that at one time had enslaved other races, including humans. The Union Science Bureau had dispatched a hundred men and women on a one-way mission to destroy the Gates, closing them behind them as they traveled from one world to the next. Morgaine is the last survivor of that band. In Vanye''s world, they had been opposed by an evil ancient being whose knowledge of the Gates rivals Morgaine''s own. The creature had taken over the body of Chya Roh, Vanye''s cousin, then fled through the Gate of Ivrel to the land of Shiuan. There, he had amassed an army by promising men and half-breed qhal a way out of their dying world. It had taken all of Morgaine''s guile to force a passage for her and Vanye through the Gate of Shiuan into a third world, but they were powerless to stop Roh from following with his forces. Being two against a hundred thousand, they are forced to flee into the forests of Azeroth, finding shelter with friendly villagers. Eventually, the natives call on their qhal lord for guidance. Morgaine meets with Merir, lord of Shathan, and receives grudging permission to travel where she wills. The invading army came through the Master Gate. Morgaine heads to Nehmin, where the Gate''s controls are located, but on the way, they are attacked. She is seriously wounded, but manages to flee. Vanye is captured by humans led by Fwar, who has a grudge against him. Before he can be tortured overmuch, Vanye is seized by the khal, who resent Roh''s power over them. They want any information of the Gates that the prisoner may have. However, Roh is informed and rescues his cousin. Vanye finds the camp deeply divided: Fwar''s barrowlanders resented by the more numerous marsh people, both groups hating and despised by the khal, nominally led by Hetharu, but themselves split into factions. Roh barely maintains control over the rabble because of his knowledge of the Gates, or Fires as they are called in this world. Knowing the situation to be unstable, Roh tries to leave quietly with Vanye and Fwar''s band, but the khal are alerted and pursue. It is a close race, but some of them reach the shelter of the forest, where the few barrowlanders not caught and killed by the khal are dispatched by Roh and Vanye. Vanye guides Roh to Merir, but the lord of Shathan has no news of Morgaine. Merir decides that they must go to Nehmin for answers. There, Vanye finds Morgaine, recovered from her near-fatal wounds. The guardians of Nehmin have ignored her counsel, distrusting her motives, and now they are under siege. At last, Morgaine forces them to recognize not just the immediate danger, but the ever-present temptation of the power of the Gates; they agree to close them after she and Vanye depart, even though they are their main defense against the horde. Before she leaves, Morgaine offers her assistance against their common enemy. In the desperate fighting, Hetharu and Shien, his main khal rival, are killed. With Fwar already dead, the enemy is left leaderless; the various factions unexpectedly turn on each other, ending the threat. There remains only Roh to trouble Morgaine. Even though the Gates will be shut down, he has the knowledge to reactivate them. Vanye has discovered first-hand that the Roh he knew and admired had not been killed when his body was taken over. Gradually, that Roh has regained control, or so Vanye believes. Morgaine is not entirely convinced, but allows Roh to remain alive (though under watch) when she and Vanye enter the Fires and leave Azeroth forever.

Fires of Azeroth

Mists of Avalon is a generations-spanning retelling of the Arthurian legend, but bringing it back to its Brythonic roots (see Matter of Britain). Its protagonist is Morgaine, who witnesses the rise of Uther Pendragon to the throne of Camelot. As a child, she is taken to Avalon by High Priestess Viviane, her maternal aunt, to become a priestess of the Mother Goddess and witnesses the rising tension between the old Pagan and the new Christian religions. At one point, she is given in a fertility ritual to a young man she will later learn is Arthur, her half-brother. Unbeknownst to Arthur, Morgaine conceives a child, Gwydion, later called Mordred, as a result of the ritual. After Uther dies, his son Arthur claims the throne. Morgaine and Viviane give him the magic sword Excalibur, and with the combined force of Avalon and Camelot, Arthur drives the invasion of the Saxons away. But when his wife Gwenhwyfar fails to produce a child, she is convinced that it is a punishment of God: firstly for the presence of pagan elements (a stance which Morgaine deeply resents), and secondly, for her forbidden love for Arthur''s finest knight Lancelet. She increasingly becomes a religious fanatic, and relationships between Avalon and Camelot (i.e. Morgaine and herself) become hostile. When the knights of the Round Table of Camelot leave to search for the Holy Grail, Mordred seeks to usurp the throne. In a climactic battle, Arthur''s and Mordred''s armies square off, and in the end Avalon and Arthur are magically removed from the circles of the world. It is Morgaine alone who lives to tell the tale of Camelot.

The Mists of Avalon

The Russian soldier Grischa escapes from a German prison camp and attempts to return to the family home. After his escape he becomes involved with a group of outlaws, including a young woman, Babka, who dresses as a man and has been prematurely aged by her traumatic experiences. Grischa and Babka become lovers. When he leaves, she gives him the identity tag of a former lover, Bjuscheff, so that if he gets caught he will be mistaken for a deserter and not be sent back to the prison camp. She follows him at a distance in case he ever needs her help. Grischa is eventually captured. Being illiterate, he does not realise that calling himself Bjuscheff worsens his plight, as he has been unable to read the notices saying that all deserters must hand themselves in to the occupying German army within three days or face execution as spies. Only when he is condemned to death does he realise what has happened, and he reveals his true identity. The local German authorities send for his former prison guards, and having confirmed his true identity, they send for advice to Schieffenzahn, the chief administrator on the eastern Front. Schieffenzahn orders that the original error must be ignored, for the sake of discipline. Grischa is therefore sentenced to be shot. There follows a power struggle between the local military authorities and the administrators. The old general sees it as a point of honour not to give in to Schieffenzahn''s order. Although he fails to convince Schieffenzahn face to face, the latter thinks better of it afterwards and rescinds the execution order. However, a heavy snowfall has brought down the communication wires, and the telegram of reprieve is never sent. In the meantime, Babka hatches a plan to poison the prison guards, whilst Lieutenant Winfried, the general''s nephew, tries to find alternative ways of getting Grischa out of prison. Both plans fail because Grischa himself is tired of the struggle and refuses to leave, preferring to face execution rather than continue as a pawn in the larger game. The book is a satire, focusing on the way in which innocent men are sacrificed in war, one irony being that the authorities spend more time and energy on the niceties of Grischa''s case than they do on trying to save their own soldiers from their fate.

The Case of Sergeant Grischa

Lt. Eve Dallas is celebrating the shortly-to-start vacation of Summerset, Roarke''s majordomo, when he trips over the cat and falls down the stairs, breaking his leg. As Eve and Roarke are giving him first aid, Eve is tipped by Nadine Furst to a location that turns out to contain a dead body stuffed into a recycle bin. Nadine was sent a set of candid images of the victim, a young, pretty woman, and a final image of her dead body, clearly posed in a formal portrait setting. Also included: a note indicating plainly that the woman is the first victim, with more to follow. Eve assembles her usual team, including Roarke, to track down the killer before he can strike again. However, while taking some time to tend to affairs at Dochas, the shelter that he funds as a charitable project, Roarke meets with a new employee, a social worker, who informs him that she used to live in Dublin at the same time that he was a baby, and that she had given shelter to Roarke and his mother—a different woman than the abusive person that he grew up calling his mother. Roarke''s researches show that the social worker is probably correct,and that his father Patrick Roarke killed his mother when she tried to leave him. Roarke is upset over this turn of events and is reluctant to share his feelings with anyone. Eventually, Eve gets him to talk to her desiring to help him through the nightmare of pain. The next day, Roarke hurries off to Ireland to find explanations from the surviving associates of his late, criminal father while Eve is busy investigating the second victim. He learns about his mother''s surviving twin sister Sinead and visits her in Ireland where Eve joins him. Together they head back to New York where Eve is called to report to the crime scene of the third victim, who is the sister of Crack, one of Eve''s acquaintances. Eve traces the evidence found in the van to kidnap the victims and finally determines that Gerald Stevenson, a sociopath who is affected by his mother''s death is the perpetrator. She assigns Detective Baxter and Officer Trueheart to survail the pub the killer frequents. They believe Stevenson is not going to show up and decide to call it a day when Trueheart is kidnapped. The story ends with Eve and the team capturing Stevenson a.k.a. Steve Audrey and rescuing Trueheart. Eve rejoices when she learns that Summerset is finally gone on vacation.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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The Bonfire of the Vanities

By Tom Wolfe

Pirate Latitudes

By Michael Crichton

Wolfskin

By Juliet Marillier

A Luneta Mágica

No Author Listed

Emergence

By David R. Palmer

Here Be Dragons

By Sharon Penman

Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul

By H. G. Wells

Above the Veil

By Garth Nix

Fires of Azeroth

By C. J. Cherryh

The Mists of Avalon

By Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Case of Sergeant Grischa

No Author Listed

Portrait in Death

By Nora Roberts