A Lick of Frost begins one month after the events of Mistral''s Kiss. The opening chapters show Merry and her guards Rhys, Galen, Doyle, Frost, and Abeloec in a conference room, being questioned about the charges of rape against Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec. King Taranis has brought the charges on behalf of the woman allegedly raped by the aforementioned fey. The meeting ends badly, with Taranis losing what little control he had on his sanity, and one of the officers of Taranis'' guard, Sir Hugh, telling Merry that he is going to force a vote among the nobles of the Seelie court to choose a new king, and he wants Merry to take Taranis'' place. When Merry and her guards get home after taking a trip to the hospital (as Doyle and Abe got badly hurt from Taranis'' attack), they call Aunt Andais to tell her of all that has happened- specifically the offer to rule the Seelie Court. Andais believes Merry already agreed to rule and abuses one of her guards (Crystall) in a sadistic rage. Eventually, Merry and her men convince Andais otherwise, but she still continues to abuse the guard in reaction to many of them leaving to join Merry. The series of mirror-calls end, and Merry finalises the coming together of her, Ash, and Holly for later that night. Night comes and Holly and Ash arrive, along with all of the Red Caps in tow. Jonty, a Red Cap that helped Merry fight in Mistral''s Kiss, sheds a tear as Merry tells him she would bring the Red Caps into their power. She catches the tear on her finger and consumes it. This brings on the remaking of Maeve Reed''s house into a sithen. Those of faerie who stand in that room with no faerie dog to keep them grounded, crumple to the floor. Some of the crumpled men are revived by one of the dogs, but Frost stays down. The creation of the sithen (faerie land) allows the ring of fertility on her finger to flare to life and Merry realises that she is pregnant with twins. Each twin has three fathers like in the story of Ceridwen. A phantom image of Merry''s children appear by their respective fathers, Rhys, Frost, Galen, Doyle, Mistral, and Sholto. There is also a dimmer phantom image of a 3rd child (that has the potential to be born after the twins). Frost turns out to be the sacrificial king for the creation of the new sithen. Merry prays for him not to die, and he turns into a white stag and runs off. Merry runs to one of the gardens of her sithen to be alone and grieve the loss of Frost. While out there, Taranis (using illusion to appear as one of her guards) knocks her out and takes her to his bedroom back at the Seelie Court. It is assumed that he rapes her, and then believes he fathers her children. Hugh, some others at the Seelie Court, and Doyle (in dog form) sneak her out of the bedroom and into a press conference where she tells the press that Taranis made the Seelie woman (Lady Catarin) believe that it was Rhys, Galen, and Abe who raped her. However, it was all just an illusion of Taranis'' making and the woman was in fact raped by other Seelie nobles working with him. Merry also tells them that she is pregnant, and that Taranis kidnapped and raped her. The book ends with Merry in an ambulance with Doyle, continuing to mourn Frost and her current situation. She is on her way to the hospital to treat the concussion she received from Taranis and to take a rape test.

A Lick of Frost

Eddie Coyle is an aging, low-level gunrunner for a crime organization in Boston, Massachusetts. He is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of a driving a hijacked truck in New Hampshire. Eddie had been driving the truck for Dillon, a convicted felon and career criminal who is well connected to the syndicate. Coyle has refused to give Dillon up to the authorities in exchange for leniency. Coyle''s last chance to avoid a prison term is a sentencing recommendation from ATF Special Agent Dave Foley, who demands that Coyle become an informer in return. A gang led by Jimmy Scalise and Artie Van has been pulling off a series of daring day-time bank robberies with pistols supplied by Coyle. One of Coyle''s sources for the pistols is a young gun runner, Jackie Brown, who is involved in a deal to supply military submachine guns for other clients. When taking the delivery of the pistols, Coyle finds out about the submachine guns and sets up Jackie for Foley. Jackie is apprehended by Foley and his agents and realizes he has been double-crossed by Coyle. Coyle feels he has fulfilled his end of the deal, but Foley puts the squeeze on Eddie, demanding more information for his cooperation. Acting on a tip, Foley and their agents are able to arrest Scalise and Van''s gang in the commission of a robbery. A desperate Coyle approaches Foley with the only information of value he has, the identity of the gang pulling off the bank robberies, but it is too late for Eddie as Foley has already made the pinch. Scalise believes that he has been double-crossed by Eddie and the head of the syndicate is angry because one of his relatives was arrested as part of the gang. The syndicate boss wants Coyle killed, and Dillon gets a contract for a hit on Coyle, which he carries out. Dillon, who has had to live with the chance that Coyle might have given him up to the authorities to avoid prison, has been an informer for Foley and it is he, not Coyle, who has fingered Scalise and Van. When Foley asks his informant Dillon for information on Coyle''s murder, Dillon demurs.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

A young girl named Matilda Wormwood is gifted with precocity but her wealthy, dimwitted parents are oblivious to their daughter''s prodigous skills and view her as foolish and idiotic. Aggravated by the rude behavior of her mother and father, Matilda constantly pulls pranks on her family as discipline for their misdeeds, such as pouring Superglue into her father''s hat or hiding a parrot in the chimney, tricking the family into thinking there is a ghost in the house. Eventually, Matilda begins schooling and encounters a loving, sweet schoolteacher named Miss Jennifer "Jenny" Honey, who is astonished by her unbelievable intellectual abilities and wants to move her into a higher class, but the school''s hostile headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, who disciplines the pupils with abusive physical punishment, refuses. Miss Honey also tries to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood about Matilda''s supreme intelligence, but they don''t believe her. Matilda quickly develops a particularly strong bond with Miss Honey over time after a classmate''s practical joke on the headmistress leads Matilda to discover her secret telekinetic powers by using her mind to tip over a glass of water containing a salamander on Miss Trunchbull. They gather frequently at the teacher''s tiny cottage in the forest and converse, where Miss Honey recounts her traumatic childhood experiences with Matilda that had been wreaked by her maliciously abusive aunt, whose guardianship she was forced to live under after the mysterious passing of her father Magnus. Stunned to learn that Miss Trunchbull actually was the aunt in question, Matilda devises a scheme in order to help Miss Honey earn her proper inheritance, which the aunt had seemingly stripped her of, and develops her telekinetic gift through practice at home. During a lesson that Miss Truchbull is teaching Matilda telekinetically raises a stick of chalk against the black-board and poses as Magnus''s spirit, demanding that Miss Trunchbull provide his daughter with the wages that she needs by name. Petrified by this, Miss Trunchbull flees from her house, which is later discovered to rightfully belong to Miss Honey by her father''s will, and her niece moves into it from her cottage. Matilda is re-positioned by the new headmaster to the sixth grade level of schooling, where she discovers that she is no longer capable of accessing her powers of telekinesis, and Miss Honey theorizes that it is probably because Matilda must mandatorily use more of her knowledge at school after skipping several grades. Matilda continues to meet with Miss Honey at her home regularly, but one day arrives home to discover her parents hastily packing to go on the run from the police who have discover her father''s deceptive practices in the automotive industry. Matilda asks permission to live with Miss Honey, to which her parents agree, thus providing her with a more loving home.

Matilda

In this book, told in first-person narrative, the lead character—an unnamed Catholic priest—volunteers to playtest a new type of computer game for a relative. Called Duke and Duchess (though the title is changed to God Game at the end of the book), it puts the player in the role of God for a small swords and sorcery world. However, after a violent lightning storm, the narrator discovers that the game''s crude CGA graphics have become live video, and that he is now responsible for the inhabitants of a small, but very real, world somewhere else in space and time—a world that threatens to run away from his control and into total chaos. Cast, reluctantly, into the role of God, the narrator, not to be confused with the narrator''s author who also provides commentary, the priest strives to create peace between the two warring sides. He finds that both sides pray to him or to the Other Person, aka, God. His closest ally in trying to create this peace is Ranora, an ilel - something of a cross between a fairy and an angel- who has been assigned to the Duke, but dances wherever she wishes to go. The priest finds that it is "hell being God," as most of his characters, even when obeying, create further problems for him. Minor characters want to be major ones, then change their mind, and since he is not God, and lacks omniscience, he cannot always predict that outcome of his directives. There is comic relief provided by groups of dissidents who try to sabotage god''s plans, which are always smote by "divine" wrath. At times, characters cross Planck''s Wall to speak to him directly in his home, and he finds evidence that they were actually there, not mere figments. Finally, he is able to broker peace and thinks he can walk away from the game, but when he turns his back, those opposed to peace strive to undo all his good work. Ranora crosses the Wall to implore him to return, and it takes a miracle to save the Duke''s life, for the bad guys have convinced the Duchess he needs to be sacrificed in a pagan ritual. The minor characters will get their prayers answered as they become major ones and learn how much the Lord Their God loves them.

God Game

At-mun, a young African prince, lives a peaceful life until a raid on their village by slavers kills his father, the chief. At-mun is kidnapped and sold in America. Now called ''Amos'', he is sold to a man named Caleb Copeland, and though the Copeland family do not treat him badly he rejects his slave status and determines to earn his freedom. He comes to an arrangement with Copeland, but when Caleb dies in debt the arrangement is disregarded, and so Amos is sold again to a man named Ichabod Richardson. Richardson teaches Amos about tanning, and he becomes a skilled worker. He is now about thirty. Amos works for Richardson for four years, then buys his freedom. He marries a woman named Lily, whose freedom he also buys; but she dies a year later. Amos is sad that she died, yet happy she died a free person. Later he marries another African woman named Lydia, and it takes three more years to save up her freedom price. Lydia dies a year later. Again, Amos is sad she died but happy that she died free. He marries a younger woman named Violet, and he buys freedom for her daughter too. Amos moves to Jaffrey, New Hampshire to start his own tanning business there, and does so despite opposition. Eventually Amos saves up enough money that he buys his own land and he builds a house and a barn. At one point Amos becomes very angry with his wife, who has taken money from him. He climbs a mountain and doesn''t leave until he gets an answer from God. Eventually he receives his answer and climbs back down, then forgives his wife as she is sorry for stealing his money. She had done it to keep him from helping a woman named Lois who needed help to keep her children from being taken away. She was lazy and wouldnt support her children,but Amos had pity on her. He decides against helping her and keeps the money. Amos goes to buy the land that he has always wanted. They buy the land and they build a house before winter. They also build a place where Amos can work as a tanner. At this point in his life, he is 80 years old. The book is based on the life of the real Amos Fortune, who was born free in Africa in around the year 1695 and who died free in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in 1801.

Amos Fortune, Free Man

One year after the Formics were defeated and the Battle School children have returned to Earth, Ender is still unable to go back to earth because there would be wars over which country would keep Ender to use for their own ends. Ender is offered the Governorship of the first human colony to be planted on one of the Formics'' former worlds, a planet that will eventually become known as Shakespeare. His sister Valentine decides to accompany Ender on his journey because she is sick of being controlled by her older brother, Peter, and because she wants to restore the relationship with Ender that she had lost when he left to go to Battle School. On their way to the Shakespeare colony, Valentine begins writing her History of the Bugger Wars books while Ender has an unspoken power struggle with the Captain of the ship, Admiral Quincy Morgan. Once the ship lands on Shakespeare, Ender, who had spent much of his trip learning the names and lives of the colony''s residents, takes charge of the colony and wins the colonists over. Ender resides as Governor for a few years in Shakespeare. Near the end of his time as governor, Ender and a young boy from the colony named Abra go to find a site for a new shipment of colonists. Ender wants the new settlement to be far enough away from the other settlements that there will not be competition between them right away, and so they can develop separately. In the process of finding a location for new settlement, Ender stumbles upon what seems to be the equivalent of a note from the Formics. It is a structure made to look like a game he used to play in Battle School. When Ender goes to investigate the structure, he finds the living pupa of a Formic Hive Queen that is fertilized and prepared to make hundreds of thousands of offspring upon its own maturation. The find leads Ender to write his first book as the Speaker for the Dead. It is a book titled The Hive Queen and it tries to look at the Formic wars and their eventual destruction from the point of view of the Formics. Later, Peter Wiggin, nearing the end of his life and knowing that Ender wrote the story, asks him to write one for him for when he dies. This book becomes known as The Hegemon. After this, Ender resigns as Governor of Shakespeare and leaves the colony for another called Ganges. The leader of Ganges is Virlomi. Here he encounters Randall Firth who believes himself to be the son of Achilles de Flandres, and even refers to himself by the name Achilles. Randall spreads propaganda accusing Ender of Xenocide in an attempt to discredit Virlomi and get revenge against Peter Wiggin, who he believes is responsible for his father''s defeat. Randall tries twice to meet with Ender and discredit him somehow. On the second visit his plan is to cleverly provoke Ender into killing him so that people will see how violent and dangerous he is, but Ender does not attack. Instead Ender tries to convince Randall that he is not Achilles'' son, but that he is in fact the son of Bean and Petra; hence where he gets his gigantism from. Eventually, Ender manages to convince Randall of his parents'' identity by allowing Randall to brutally defeat him in a one-sided fistfight, the entire time asserting that he could never hurt his friends'' child. Randall ends up changing his name to Arkanian Delphiki amidst his guilt for Ender''s horrifying wounds. After Ender heals a bit, he, Valentine, and the Hive Queen pupa board a star ship to go to a new place.

Ender in Exile: Ganges

Canopus, a benevolent galactic empire centred at Canopus in the constellation Argo Navis, colonise a young and promising planet they name Rohanda (the fruitful). They nurture its bourgeoning humanoids and accelerate their evolution. When the Natives are ready, Canopus impose a "Lock" on Rohanda that links it via "astral currents" to the harmony and strength of the Canopean Empire. In addition to Canopus, two other empires also establish a presence on the planet: their ally, Sirius from the star of the same name, and their mutual enemy, Puttiora. The Sirians confine their activities largely to genetic experiments on the southern continents during Rohanda''s prehistory (described in Lessing''s third book in the Canopus series, The Sirian Experiments), while the Shammat of Puttiora remain dormant, waiting for opportunities to strike. For many millennia the Natives of Rohanda prosper in a Canopean induced climate of peaceful coexistence and accelerated development. Then an unforeseen "cosmic re-alignment" puts Rohanda out of phase with Canopus which causes the Lock to break. Deprived of Canopus''s resources and a steady stream of a substance called SOWF (substance-of-we-feeling), the Natives develop a "Degenerative Disease" that puts the goals of the individual ahead of those of the community. The Shammat exploit this disturbance and begin undermining Canopus''s influence by infecting the Natives with their evil ways. As Rohanda degenerates into greed and conflict, the Canopeans reluctantly change its name to Shikasta (the stricken). Later in the book, Shikasta is identified as Earth, or an allegorical Earth. In an attempt to salvage Canopus''s plans for Shikasta and correct the Natives'' decline, Canopean emissaries are sent to the planet. Johor is one such emissary, who takes on the form of a Native and begins identifying those individuals who have not degenerated too far and are amenable to his corrective instructions. Johor then sends those he has successfully "converted" to spread the word among other Natives, and soon isolated communities begin to return to the pre-Shikastan days. But without the SOWF and Shammat''s influence over the Natives, Canopus is fighting a losing battle and the planet declines further. By the Shikastan''s 20th century, the planet has degenerated into war and self-destruction. Johor returns, but this time through Zone 6 Lessing elaborates on the Zones in the next book in the Canopus series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980).="Stade/> Lessing elaborates on the Zones in the next book in the Canopus series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980)." "nb"=""nb"" Zones="Zones"/> from which he is born on the planet (incarnated) as a Shikastan, George Sherban. As Sherban grows up he establishes contact with other Canopeans in disguise and then resumes his work trying to help the Shikastans. But famine and unemployment grow, and anarchy spreads. On the eve of World War III Sherban and other emissaries relocate a small number of promising Shikastans to remote locations to escape the coming nuclear holocaust. The war reduces Shikasta''s population by 99% and sweeps the planet clean of the "barbarians". The Shammat, who set the Shikastans on a course of self-destruction, self-destruct themselves and withdraw from the planet. The Canopeans help the survivors rebuild their lives and re-align themselves with Canopus. With a strengthened Lock and the SOWF flowing freely again, harmony and prosperity returns to Shikasta.

Shikasta

Dimension hopping Harold Shea, having returned home to his psychological practice, is visited by the malevolent enchanter Malambroso, an enemy of Shea and his partner Reed Chalmers who has also discovered the secret of transdimensional travel. Having been thwarted in his attempt to steal Chalmers'' wife Florimel in previous adventures, the enchanter attempts to subvert Shea into aiding him. Rebuffed, he threatens vengeance, which he shortly puts into practice by kidnapping Voglinda, the young daughter of Shea and his wife Belphebe of Faerie. In their search for their daughter, Harold and Belphebe find Malambroso has been residing in their world for some time, and from reading material discovered in his abandoned dwelling discover that he had become a fan of the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Reasoning that it is this alternate vision of Mars to which their foe has fled with the girl, they determine to travel there themselves by means of the symbolic logic formulas originally devised by Chalmers. Accordingly, they outfit themselves for the journey, or rather, de-outfit themselves, much to Belphebe''s embarrassment; Burroughs'' Barsoomians go about largely naked. Arriving on Barsoom, the Sheas seek out the aid of the royal family of the city-state of Helium, which includes Burroughs'' protagonist, the transplanted earthman John Carter. Carter is not present, but they manage to obtain an audience with his father-in-law, Mors Kajak, jed (king) of Lesser Helium. Kajak turns out to be somewhat sour on earthmen, including his own son-in-law, presenting a picture of them very different from that of Burroughs. He regards Carter as something of a blowhard, claiming impossible prowess in battle, and Ulysses Paxton, the other earthman resident on Barsoom, as a rabble-rouser, advocating Terran ideas of equality and freedom unwelcome to the heirarchical, slave-owning Martians. Kajak suggests they seek guidance from Paxton''s old mentor Ras Thavas, the so-called "master-mind of Mars," formerly villainous and still somewhat amoral. Thavas consents to aid the couple in return for some professional help from psychologist Shea; having previously had Paxton transplant his brain from his original aged body into a young and virile one, he has had difficulty adjusting to changed societal expectations, not to mention the youthful urges of his new form. With his assistance it is discovered that Malambroso has sought refuge in the one Barsoomian city-state that has shown itself receptive to Paxton''s ideas – Zodanga, the traditional foe of Helium. Together, the Sheas and Thavas succeed in tracking down Malambroso, first on thoat-back to Zodanga, and then by flier to the Great Toonoolian Marshes, with a stopover in Ptarth when their flier is damaged in an air skirmish. Over the course of their journey, Shea counsels the irascible genius successfully. Barsoom is found to be somewhat divergent from the romantic world written of by Burroughs. While the beasts are generally multi-legged, as described, the number of their limbs tend to be fewer than reported. Aside from in the medical area, the superior technology of the Martians has likewise been exaggerated, more comparable to that of Earth''s nineteenth century than the futuristic vision portrayed in the novels. And as for Barsoomian honor, vaunted as much by Thavas as it had been by Carter, they are quickly disillusioned when a Zodangan makes a crude pass at Belphebe. On the other hand, Thavas provides something of a corrective to the jaundiced Kajak''s view of Carter, who in his experience is a genuinely charismatic leader who can exact pledges of a defeated foe and make them stick. He attributes his own reform to Carter''s influence. The final battle is between Harold and an assassin hired by the enchanter to do his dirty work; they prove fairly evenly matched swordsmen until Thavas, with his superior mental powers, makes the hired killer believe he is confronting six Harolds rather than one. The assassin then abandons the conflict, and Belphebe shoots Malambroso with her bow. Voglinda is safe, as the villain had grown somewhat fond of and paternal toward his captive while on the lam from the Sheas. Thavas uses his medical skills to save the life of the enchanter to keep Belphebe out of trouble with the law (a sword duel is considered a fair fight by Barsoomians, while a shooting death is murder). The recovering Malambroso abandons his vendetta; having become smitten by his Barsoomian nurse, he forswears his previous infatuation with Florimel. Satisfied, the Sheas depart, though not (immediately) to their home dimension; their pursuit has been costly, and they need to return their rented flier to Zodanga to recover their deposit on it, and resell the purchased thoats they had left there.

Sir Harold of Zodanga

This book is the third in the Enchanted Forest series, told from the witch Morwen''s perspective. Morwen is having trouble with people who believe that magic should follow traditional forms, specifically one Arona Michealear Grinogion Vamist. Morwen''s cats find a large rabbit named Killer as well as the burned-looking splotches that a wizard''s staff leaves in the forest, despite the spell on the forest that should prevent it. They then find the wizard Antorell, who tries to escape but is subdued by the cats and then melted by Telemain. Morwen then finds that Killer has eaten one of the magical cabbages in her garden, and has turned into a donkey. Throughout the story, Killer acquires additional spells and changes form. Morwen and Telemain immediately go to the castle of King Mendanbar and Queen Cimorene, who is pregnant. At the castle, Mendanbar and Telemain discover that the sword at the heart of the forest''s magic is missing, allowing the wizards free rein in the forest. Morwen, Kazul, Telemain, Cimorene, Killer and two of Morwen''s cats must undertake the journey to the headquarters of the Society of Wizards, who stole the sword. Telemain teleports the group twice towards their destination. The next teleport fails and Telemain is unconscious. Killer carries Telemain as they make their way through a swamp. They find a tower occupied by a fire-witch, Brandel. Using Brandel''s magic mirror, they try to contact Mendanbar, and find that they cannot because of a problem at his end. Kazul decides to go home and back up Mendanbar. The next morning, again with Brandel''s mirror, they find that the sword is not at the headquarters of the Society of Wizards as they assumed, but at the house of Vamist. With the help of the cats, Morwen and Cimorene manage to recover the sword. Telemain teleports them back to the forest. The group realizes that they accidentally brought Vamist along. A battle has also occurred between the dragons and wizards. The wizards encased the castle in a magical bubble, and Mendanbar is missing, presumed inside the castle. As with the bubble shield spell in Searching for Dragons, the only way to break it is with the sword of the King of the Enchanted Forest, and the only one who can wield the sword is the King or his heir. Morwen and Telemain move the spells on Killer onto Vamist, returning the rabbit to his natural form. Cimorene hides the sword in the forest so the wizards cannot find it. She takes her baby and hides in an outer region of the forest. The dragons put up a second bubble around the castle, which only they can take down, so that the wizards can''t enter the castle either. The characters wait for the day Cimorene''s child is old enough to wield the sword and rescue Mendanbar.

Calling on Dragons

After arriving at his London club at 10:30 am precisely,which he has been doing every morning for many years, Sir Eustace Pennefather, a known womanizer whose divorce from his current wife is pending, receives a complimentary box of chocolates through the post. Disapproving of such modern marketing techniques, Sir Eustace is about to throw away the chocolates in disgust but changes his mind when he learns that Graham Bendix, another member of the club whom he hardly knows, has lost a bet with his wife Joan and now owes her a box of chocolates. Bendix takes the box home and, after lunch, tries out the new confectionery together with his wife. A few hours later Joan Bendix is dead, whereas her husband, who has eaten far less of the chocolate, is taken seriously ill and hospitalized (but later recovers). The police can establish a few facts beyond any doubt: that the parcel was posted the previous evening near The Strand; that the poison that was injected into each of the chocolates is nitrobenzene; and that the accompanying letter was typewritten on a piece of stationery from the manufacturers of the chocolates but not composed or sent by them. Quite soon in the police investigations it becomes evident that the intended victim was Sir Eustace himself rather than the innocent Joan Bendix: No criminal could have predicted Sir Eustace giving away the box of chocolates to a man he hardly knew who just happened to be present when it was delivered. However, at a loss as to the further details of the crime, Scotland Yard conclude that the sender must have been some maniac or a fanatic trying to rid society of one of its most immoral members. Worthy pillars of society including a barrister, a writer of detective novels, and a female author, the members of Roger Sheringham''s Crimes Circle go about individually solving the case. After a week has passed, they present their findings on consecutive nights to their colleagues. Not surprisingly, they come up with various suspects: Sir Eustace''s estranged wife; the father of a young lady whom Sir Eustace intended to marry after his divorce got through; one of Sir Eustace''s discarded mistresses; and some more. While these discussions are going on, the murderer seems to feel safe with no need to cover up their tracks any further. At the very end of the novel, however, there is no doubt as to the identity of the perpetrator.

The Poisoned Chocolates Case

The Thief Lord follows the story of two brothers, Prosper and Boniface (Bo), who run away to Venice, Italy after their mother''s death. They are taken in by a group of orphans who live in an abandoned movie theater - the Stella, and are led by a proud "orphan" named Scipio, who declares himself the Thief Lord. He appears to steal valuables from wealthy homes and palaces and the orphan gang sells them to a sly old shopkeeper, Ernesto Barbarossa. The runaway boys'' aunt and uncle figure out where they are and set a detective, Victor Getz, on their trail. Victor recognizes the boys on the street and manages to initiate a conversation with innocent little Bo, to find out where they stay. When the rest of the children see him, they cause a distraction and run away, taking his wallet with them, from which they discover his identity. In his search for the theater, Victor visits the home of Dottore Massimo, the owner of the Stella, where he sees Scipio, who immediately leaves to warn the others. When Victor arrives at the Stella, the children ambush him, tie him up, and lock him in the boys'' bathroom. During an argument, Victor tells them the truth about Scipio. When Prosper confronts Scipio, he learns that Scipio is indeed Dottore Massimo''s son, and all the loot he "stole" from wealthy houses was actually stolen from his own home. Furious, Prosper leaves and tells the others what he has learned. While they are gone, Victor escapes, leaving a note that he will not reveal their location if they do not steal the precious lion''s wing. The children leave that night to steal it and meet Scipio inside Ida Spavento''s house. When they are in an ensuing argument, Ida comes back from a walk and demands to know who they are, using an old revolver. When they explain, Ida tells them the story of the wing, which came from a magical merry-go-round. It has the ability to change a person''s age. She agrees to let them have the wing if they let her accompany them to the exchange, in hopes that she can find the wonderful merry-go-round. The next night, all of the children go for the deal except Hornet and Bo. They join Ida and Scipio, meet with the Conte and his sister, Morosina, and make the exchange, but narrowly escape being shot when they try to search for the merry-go-round. When they return to the theater, Hornet and Bo are gone, leaving a note that there were police at the door. They angrily confront Victor, who swears he did not do it and informs them that the lire they received are fake. While searching for Hornet and Bo, they find her at an orphanage and a disguised Victor and Ida manage to get her out. They spend a restless night at Ida''s house, but Prosper cannot sleep and wanders outside, where he meets Scipio. The two return to the island to demand payment, but end up locked up in a stinking stable there, and are forced to spend the night on the island. Meanwhile, Victor receives a phone call from Esther, informing him that she had Bo, but that he had run away from them and she no longer wants anything to do with him. Victor finds Bo at the Stella and takes him back to Ida''s, where they find Prosper missing. On the island the next morning, Scipio and Prosper meet the Conte and Morosina, who are both young children, having gotten the merry-go-round to work. Scipio demands a ride and comes off an adult, looking very much like his father. Just as he gets off the merry-go-round, Barbarossa arrives, and demands a ride on the merry-go-round. However, while Barbarossa becomes a five-year-old boy, he accidentally breaks the merry-go-round, infuriating the Conte. Scipio and Prosper leave after promising the Conte that they will not talk about the merry-go-round, and is forced to give the Conte all the money in his shop safe as repayment. The next day, when everyone at Ida''s home finds Prosper, Scipio, and Barbarossa they do not recognize Scipio or Barbarossa and Prosper cannot explain, but Ida understands what happened. Scipio sets up a meeting between Barbarossa and Esther,to which Barbarossa consents to live with after learning that Esther is rich. Esther adores Barbarossa and his manners and decides to adopt him. Prosper, Bo, and Hornet decide to live with Ida and go to school, while Mosca and Riccio live in an abandoned warehouse. Scipio decides to work for Victor and sends his father a letter saying that he is safe and happy, but will not come home. Eventually, he and Prosper take another trip to the Isola Segreta only to find that the Conte and Morosina have disappeared. Esther eventually catches Barbarossa stealing her jewelry and other possessions and sends him off to boarding school, where he becomes a menacing bully; he forces other children to do things for him like his homework, encourages them to steal, and intimidates them to call him "The Thief Lord".

The Thief Lord

In order to save the future, undercover SpecOps investigator Thursday Next attempts to convince her son Friday to join the ChronoGuard. To complicate matters, she''ll have to deal with renegade apprentices, ruthless corporations, and a sting operation from the Cheese Enforcement Agency. The title First Among Sequels was met with stiff resistance from Fforde''s publishers because it had ''sequel'' in the title, and it was felt that telegraphing the ''sequelness'' of the book might be a bad move. It was decided, however, to capitalise on the fact that this was a series - a sort of ''Have you discovered Thursday Next yet?'' approach to marketing. First Among Sequels is the first part of a new four-part Thursday Next series, which is reported to be continued with One of our Thursdays is Missing in 2011. The title is a parody of First Among Equals, which is the title of a best-selling Jeffrey Archer novel, but also comes from the English translation of the Latin phrase primus inter pares. It is traditionally used to describe the position of the British Prime Minister, since in the British Constitution the position of prime minister has no official existence, and the office holder is simply the ''most powerful'' of the Queen''s advisors in Cabinet.

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