The main story of The Testament is set within a framing narrative which concerns a publisher who recollects the "strange disappearance" of the novel''s main character, Gideon Mack, and the discovery of Mack''s "last testament". The testament itself comprises the main narrative. It recounts the life of its author, a son of the manse (meaning the son of a minister of the Scottish Kirk), who has followed in his father’s steps, eventually becoming minister to the small town of Monimaskit. Since Gideon does not, however, believe in God as such, he becomes increasingly disillusioned with his existence, until an accident sends him tumbling into a local gorge. Believed to be dead, he emerges three days later, claiming to have met and conversed with the Devil, who has confirmed several of his doubts. After scandalising and alienating his friends, the parish, and the Kirk at large, Gideon once again disappears, leaving his written account for posterity. The epilogue to the novel is presented as the report of the freelance journalist who first brought the manuscript to the publisher’s attention. He interviews several of the inhabitants of Monimaskit who were mentioned in Gideon’s testament.

The Testament Of Gideon Mack

The First Four Years derives its title from a promise Laura made to Almanzo when they became engaged. Laura did not want to be a farmer''s wife, but consented to try farming for three years. Laura and Almanzo, whom Laura calls Manly, begin married life on his tree claim in the snug house Manly built. Laura keeps house and Manly tends the land and the stock, and they go on frequent pony rides together. At the end of the first year, just as the wheat is ready to harvest, a freak hailstorm destroys the entire crop, which would have brought them three thousand dollars and paid off their debts on farm equipment and the building of the house. Faced with mounting debt, Manly decides to mortgage the homestead claim. He and Laura will have to live on it as a condition of the mortgage, so they rent out the house on the tree claim and Manly builds a small home on the homestead claim. Their daughter Rose is born there in December. At the end of the second year, they share the harvest of the wheat crop with the tree claim''s renter, and make enough money to pay some of their smaller debts. During the third year, both Laura and Manly contract diphtheria, and Manly suffers a complication which leaves him permanently physically impaired. The renter decides to move away, and as Manly can no longer work both pieces of land, they sell the homestead claim and move back to their first house. Laura receives an opportunity to invest money in a flock of sheep. The wool from the sheep repays Laura''s initial investment with enough left over only for the interest on their debts. Meanwhile, the wheat and oats grow well, but are ruined just before harvest when several days of hot wind dry them irreparably prior to harvest. At the end of the third year, though farming has not yet been a success, Laura and Manly agree to continue for one more year, a "year of grace", in Laura''s words, since they have no other prospects and Manly believes they just need one good year to turn things around. Unfortunately, hot winds again ruin the next planting of wheat and oats. Their unnamed son is born in August but dies a few weeks later. Finally, their house is destroyed by fire. Despite this, the book ends at the close of the fourth year on an optimistic note, with Laura feeling hopeful that their luck will turn. In reality, debt and the hot, dry Dakota summers drove Laura and Manly from their land; they managed a very successful fruit and dairy farm in Missouri, where they lived comfortably until their respective deaths.

The First Four Years

There are two interconnected plots that unfold simultaneously in this novel; one is set in the present, and deals with Bob Lee Swagger and Russ Pewtie, while the other is set in 1955, and deals with Bob Lee''s father, Earl, and the events leading up to his death. This book catches the reader up with Bob Lee about five years after the events in Point of Impact. He now has a daughter who is four years old, named Nikki, and he has married Julie Fenn, the widow of his fallen spotter, Donnie Fenn. He is living happily, if not humbly, in Arizona, trying to avoid the notoriety he gained during the events in Point of Impact. A young man approaches him with a proposition. This young man''s name is Russ Pewtie, the grown son of Bud Pewtie, who as described in Dirty White Boys was responsible for the death of Lamar Pye. Russ is a writer, and wants to write a book about Bob Lee''s father, who was gunned down one night in 1955, near Bob''s home town of Blue Eye, Arkansas, by Lamar''s father, Jimmy. As Russ and Bob Lee probe into the details surrounding Earl''s death, there are some startling revelations, including a conspiracy to keep these details hidden, which give deeper insight into the history of Bob Lee. The plot involves several of Hunter''s signature interconnecting characters (who appear in various roles in more than one of his novels). These include Sam Vincent, the former Polk County prosecutor who appears in Point of Impact, and Frenchy Short, the CIA agent and Earl Swagger protégé who appears in The Second Saladin, and also in the later Earl Swagger novels Hot Springs and Havana. Part of the connection between the novel''s two time periods is the role of Sam Vincent in the prosecution of the murderer of a young black girl in 1955, and the re-investigation of that case in the present. Vincent''s feelings about race relations in the two periods, the contrasts between them, and his struggle to reconcile the two, are very well drawn.

Black Light

After saving a young woman from her rogue bodyguards, Angel is hired by a big Hollywood studio head, Jack Willitts, to guard the girl in question; his daughter, Karinna. Angel is persuaded when his co-workers point out there is rent to deal with, and Cordelia even convinces Jack to give her a job (Unfortunately, it is as a tour guide rather than an actress). Angel takes Karinna to several popular nightspots, writing her off as a spoiled brat. Cordy believes Angel is getting too close to the case, but the situation soon worsens. Karinna gets into trouble while Angel and company are being tracked by an unknown creature, trying to destroy anything getting in its way. Angel eventually finds himself trapped in a supernatural struggle for power and immortality, as an Irish magician, Mordractus, reveals that he has been tracking Angel. Mordractus is attempting to summon a powerful demon, but the spells are draining his life energy, and he will soon die unless a way of surviving is found. Knowing that Angel is immortal, yet retaining a soul, Mordractus attempts to steal Angel''s ''essence'' to allow him to duplicate that feat, but Angel escapes and Mordractus is banished to Hell.

Close to the Ground

There are four disabled children in a sort of asylum called Bin Linnie Lodge (The Bin to the nurses,or Bin Linnie to the locals of the village) with unique disabilities. They are all given the letter G (standing for Gemini) followed by a number 1-4. However they were given unique names by a nurse they loved, Mrs. Murdoe, Based on their disability. A boy with two layers of skin rather than the usual 7 is named X-Ray, a girl with miniature wings on her back is called Chicken Angel, a boy with weak pulmonaries is called Cough Cough and another girl with no eyes is called Lights Out, or Lolo. As they are kept away from society, they have different names for usual things. The book opens with one of the children''s most hated nurses, Tin Lid, taking away Lolo’s “Pippi” (From context, it is a doll but it seems to also mean child). When Lolo resists, Tin Lid calls in the “Leapords” (Security) to “Trank” (Sedate) her. It is revealed that Tin Lid works for a man called Doctor Dearly, who runs the Bin. The children hate him because Dearly made Mrs Murdoe “go takeaway” (In this instance, it means he sacked her, but it in others, it means dying). Mrs Murdoe then became a spirit guide for the children, along with a law-abiding moose’s head called Moose (As he doesn’t move for them, the children refer to being tired as “moosed” or “moosed out”) and a fast cat called Jack. It’s also revealed that there were other children once, but eventually, they all died and went to the “Sky Boat” (Heaven). Their death was forbade by warts appearing over their bodies (“lumpies”) At one point, a child with two heads is mentioned, but not exposited on. All of the children live their lives in near-identical ways, watching a TV movie called the Natural World, (A running plot point is a leopard attacking a group of monkeys), and looking out of a window, (which isn’t allowed, so they have to hide it) named The Weather Eye. Meanwhile, in the city outside the Bin, a young man named Nail meets a girl called Natalie while trying to steal from her shop. They strike up a relationship, because of each others hatred of society. They do jobs to and from the Bin. Cough Cough is getting weaker, and eventually, slowly goes blind. He has warning against Dearly, saying he is trying to kill them all. He reveals that he has given each of them a syringe and is keeping several pills. The others do not believe him until Dearly takes away books and TV, saying it is bad for their eyes. Dearly exposits to X-Ray that he plans to take one of his eyes and transplant it to CC. However, this is postponed due to X-Ray regurgitating on Dearly. When X-Ray tells CC about this, he explains that he has stashed away four syringes and enough pills to kill all of the nurses, he tells them to escape. Eventually, CC dies during an operation on his eye. X-Ray eventually finds out that CC poisoned himself with some pills and when he explains his theory to Chicken Angel, she tells him that they helped him. Angry, he forgets to hide the Weather Eye, and when Tin Lid sees, she also discovers a diary that CA has been writing in, a coloured pencil to write with, a book and a clock that Lolo calls “Maiden China” (She mishears CC saying what’s written on it earlier on, Made in China). As Tin Lid is about to “trank” Lolo, X-Ray, stabs Tin Lid with her syringe and runs away with CA and Lolo. Meanwhile, Nail and Natalie visit the Bin, Nat finds the children and stows them away in the back of their van. Nat later tells Nail, and listens to the children’s tales of horror inside the Bin. After convincing Nail to take the children to the ocean (where they think they will find the “Sky Boat”) they set out, with Nail still worried that they will be arrested for abduction, paedophilia and possibly murder if they do not cure Lolo’s case of the “lumpies”. On the way, they find Mrs Murdoe’s son, a chief ranger, and X-Ray and CA both get the lumpies. The book ends with them reaching the ocean, and holding hands, waiting for death.

Angel Blood

The prologue of Radiant Shadows shows Devlin, the high court''s Assassin, agreeing to shelter a spectral girl name Rae in faerie without his queen''s knowledge. It then skips forward about a century, to show the high queen, Sorcha, ordering Devlin to kill a baby halfling, the child of the Gabriel, along with a warning that it should "never enter faerie". The novel then cuts to the present day, to Ani, the halfling whose life Devlin spared, as she tries to fit in with the other hounds, but cannot, due to her father''s protectiveness and her mortal blood. Devlin, meanwhile, has been told by Sorcha to stay in the mortal world to keep an eye on her son, Seth. Devlin and Ani meet at the crows nest, where she drains his energy and he leaves with a taste of her blood. Ani is different from other hounds, due to her ability to feed on both emotions and touch, and mortal and faery. Irial, the former dark king, has been performing tests to identify what about her is different and introduce it to his court to strengthen them. This also, however, draws the attention of Devlin and Sorcha''s other sister, Bananach, the essence of war. She tells Ani that she has to kill Seth and Niall, or give Bananach her blood. Ani can do neither, and is soon found by an unclaimed steed. Ani, Devlin and the steed -which Ani names Barry, short for Barracuda- leave the state to get away from Bananach. In faerie, meanwhile, Rae, who is a dreamwalker, enters Sorcha''s dream and gives her a way to watch Seth in the mortal world. Unfortunately, she becomes obsessed with this, and without her rulership faerie starts to dissolve. Bananach pays a visit, and starts killing members of the high court. Scared, Rae contacts Devlin through a dream and informs him of this turn of events. Devlin and Ani return to huntsdale only to find that Bananach has killed Ani''s sister Tish. Ani demands that they should then kill Bananach, "breath for breath", but Devlin informs her that neither of the twins can be killed without killing all of faerie. Bananach later goes to stab Ani, but Irial throws himself in front of her, taking the wound that would be hers. The knife dissolves inside him, poisoning him, and Bananach says that he will not last the fortnight. Irial tells his successor and love interest, Niall, that he "wishes he hadn''t been king when they met", referring to Niall''s backstory as revealed in Ink Exchange, then Ani, Devlin, Rabbit and Seth leave for faerie. Devlin was injured in the fight, and Ani allows him to drink her blood, healing him and binding them together. With Seth returned to faerie, Sorcha awakens, and together Devlin, Ani and Rae form the shadow court to balance the high court. (This, however, leaves the dark court out of balance, this will presumably be remedied in the final book, Darkest Mercy.) They also seal the veil between the mortal and faerie worlds so that one cannot return to the mortal world without both the High and Shadow court''s help. it:Radiant Shadows

Radiant Shadows

Alvin and Arthur stay at a boarding house where mixed-blood children are cared for by Papa Moose and Momma Squirrel. While there, Alvin uses his knack to cleanse the mosquitoes and disease from a well. A young woman, whom the people call Dead Mary, sees what he has done and asks him to come with her and heal her mother, who has yellow fever. Because Alvin heals her, the Yellow Fever spreads throughout Nueva Barcelona, averting an impending war with the United States over slavery. As the fever spreads, people begin to suspect Papa Moose and Momma Squirrel because Alvin has been healing everyone he can, radiating outward through the city. Alvin is then approached by La Tia, an African woman, who wants him to help all the slaves and the displaced French to escape Nueva Barcelona. He reluctantly agrees. Alvin''s brother, Calvin, at the behest of Alvin''s wife, Margaret, comes to help. Calvin raises a thick fog while Alvin uses his blood (magic he learned from the Red Prophet Tenskwa-Tawa) to construct a crystal bridge across lake Ponchartrain to the north. Arthur helps Alvin with the bridge. While the escapees flee north, they take food and provision from plantations along the way and free any slaves they find. Alvin goes to Tenskwa-Tawa on the other side of the Mizzippy to ask for safe passage through the Red Man''s lands, so they can escape the pursuing army. Alvin and Tenskwa-Tawa put on a show by holding back the Mizzippy river to allow the exodus of people from Nueva Barcelona to cross, while the pursuing army can do nothing but watch. Calvin leaves with Jim Bowie and Steve Austin to conquer the Mexica. Verily Cooper is sent by Margaret to seek out Abe Lincoln and get his help for figuring out what to do with all the runaways when they reach the Noisy River Territory. Alvin discovers that Tenskwa-Tawa has been collaborating with La Tia to create a volcanic eruption under the Mexica, who are becoming increasingly threatening. Alvin sends Arthur to initiate the eruption and warn his brother Calvin, who ignores the warning but still manages to escape. Bowie and several others leave with Arthur. The people travel through the Indian lands using the greensong, which allows them to move more quickly. When they reach the Noisy River territory, Abe Lincoln and Verily Cooper have decided to create a new county so they can appoint their own judges that will resist the law to return slaves to their masters. There Alvin starts to build the crystal city he saw in a vision. He realizes that not everyone has to have maker skills, but can contribute in their own way—felling trees, digging the foundation, etc. But all is not well. Calvin and Bowie arrive and decide to stay.

The Crystal City

"Blood Oath" opens with an Army Ranger task force in Kosovo, conducting surveillance on a group of Serbians as night falls. The Rangers watch as a mysterious figure attempts to bargain with the Serbs, trading a bag of cash for a mysterious case with US Army markings. However the deal goes bad and the Serbs attack the figure. As the fight progresses, one of the soldiers sees the fight between the figure and a Serb up close, and realizes what he is seeing: a werewolf and a vampire, in a fight to the death. Twenty hours later, Griff is escorting Zach Barrows to the Smithsonian Institution. There, Zach meets the mysterious figure: Nathaniel Cade, a vampire bound by a blood oath to serve the President of the United States. Agent Griff is retiring, and brings in Zach to take over after Zach is found fooling around with the president''s daughter. Through various flash-backs, we find out about Cade''s past: as a young man, he served on a whale hunting vessel in 1867. His ship was attacked by a vampire, killing all on board but leaving Cade, who turned to a vampire himself. He was captured and sentenced to death, but spared by President Andrew Johnson, who in turn had him bound by voodoo to the Office of the President. As Zach begins his first day, he and Cade are dispatched to the Port of Baltimore. ICE agents have found a shipping container holding a horrible discovery: various body parts, all hanging on hooks in a grim meat locker. After interrogating the driver, Cade tells Zach that they are on their way to find Johann Konrad Dippel, the real-life Dr. Frankenstein. Konrad is an alchemist from Germany, and is currently over 350 years old, due to having discovered the Elixir of Life. His Elixir can bring dead tissue to life, and make it so strong just one of his creations killed dozens of people before being stopped. Konrad had been arrested in Nigeria by Cade in 1970; however, Konrad performs a service to the United States in 1981 and as a result is set free, as long as he does not practice his evil medicine again. Cade and Zach confront Konrad, who denies any involvement with the dead body parts. However, after Cade and Zach leave, Konrad moves to a secret lab and proceeds to demonstrate that he has not given up his diabolical work at all. Cade leaves Zach to tail Konrad while he finds an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to attend. At the A.A. meetings, Cade is able to draw strength from the humans, as they all struggle with desire for the drink, even if they have different thirsts. As Cade leaves, he is stopped by Tania, a female vampire he failed to help in the past. While neither will admit it, their shared history gives them both the closest thing to feelings for each other that vampires can feel. As Zach is tailing Konrad, he is followed by a mysterious black car. With Cade''s assistance, they ambush the black car and find Helen Holt, a former CIA agent who now works for a dark organization referred to as Shadow Company. The Shadow Company began during the Cold War, and has since delved into darkness so deep that the conspiracy theories about President John F. Kennedy and Roswell are nothing compared to the truth of what they truly do. As Cade and Zach dig deeper and deeper into the truth behind the body parts and their connection to Konrad, they find back-stabbing and double-crosses waiting for them at every turn, with their search finally ending in a terrifying showdown with the Other Side that takes place in the heart of the nation''s capital.

Blood Oath

The plot centers on a case of mistaken identity between a pair of identical twins, which in his afterword Jin Yong acknowledges resemble some works of William Shakespeare (cf. Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors). The protagonist, who refers to himself as "Gouzazhong" (狗雜種; literally means "the mongrel dog", a colloquialism for "bastard"), first appears as a young beggar living on the streets of Kaifeng, searching for his lost mother. He witnesses a fight between several wulin pugilists and meets the Shi couple and members of the Snowy Mountain Sect (雪山派). An accident causes him to be taken away from Kaifeng by a martial artist called Xie Yanke, to Xie''s secluded home on Motian Cliff. Xie Yanke, who is frequently bothered by Gouzazhong, decides to teach him martial arts. Gouzazhong learns qi cultivation techniques under Xie Yanke''s tutelage for six years. Gouzazhong is unaware that Xie Yanke actually harbours ill intentions towards him and has been teaching him the wrong methods, in hope that Gouzazhong will sustain internal wounds and die eventually. At the same time, the leader of the Changle Sect, Shi Potian (whose real name is Shi Zhongyu), mysteriously disappears. The greater part of the novel deals with the complications that arise as Gouzhazhong is mistaken to be Shi Zhongyu, not only by members of the sect (for ulterior motives), by also by Shi Zhongyu''s parents, the Shi couple, Shi Zhongyu''s lover Ding Dang, and members of the Snowy Mountain Sect. Although the two bear a splitting resemblance, their characters cannot be more different: Gouzhazhong is simple, honest and clever, while Shi Zhongyu, the son of the Shi couple, has a bad reputation as a lewd and sly womaniser. In the process Gouzhazhong acquires consummate martial arts skills. Gouzazhong is hounded by members of the Snowy Mountain Sect who mistake him for Shi Zhongyu, who had molested A''xiu, the granddaughter of the Snowy Mountain Sect''s leader. He acquires A''xiu as his girlfriend after various episodes, during which the misunderstandings are resolved. The novel culminates in an episode when the leaders of various sects are coerced into going to a secluded island by a pair of mysterious, highly skilled messengers to celebrate the Laba Festival by eating Laba congee. The story then leads to a surprising conclusion: revelations on the island and more revelations concerning Gouzhazhong''s true parentage.

Ode to Gallantry

The novel is set in a world that is tidally locked. Thus one side of the planet is always in light, and the other in darkness. Science rules on the dayside, while magic holds sway in the night. Powerful magical entities live on the night side of the planet, and for the most part the entities'' magical powers emanate from distinct loci. Jack of Shadows (a.k.a. Shadowjack), the main character, is unique among the magical beings in that he draws his power not from a physical location but from shadow itself. He is nearly incapacitated in complete light or complete darkness, but given access to even a small area of shadow, his potency is unmatched. Jack''s only friend, the creature Morningstar, is punished by being trapped in stone at the edge of the night, to be released when dawn comes. His torso and head protrude from the rock, and he awaits the sun that will never rise. Jack seeks "The Key That Was Lost", Kolwynia. The Key itself and the consequences of its use parallel Jack''s progress in his own endeavors. Ultimately, the Key will be responsible for Jack''s salvation and his doom. Fleeing the dark side, Jack gets access to a computer and uses it to recover Kolwynia. This makes him unbeatable, but not all-powerful. Having made a mess of ruling with his new powers, he seeks the advice of Morningstar, who advises him to destroy The Machine at the Heart of the World, which maintains the world''s stability, and set it rotating. The novel ends with Jack falling, perhaps to his death, but Morningstar has been freed by the world''s turning and rushes to rescue him. The fate of this ambiguous hero is left untold, with Jack wondering, as he falls, if Morningstar will reach him in time.

Jack of Shadows

Alvin marries Peggy, and they conceive a daughter (not born by the end of the book). Alvin, Verily Cooper, Arthur Stuart, and Mike Fink are joined by John James Audubon, a French-speaking painter of birds. This group go to a Puritan-dominated place near Boston and end up confronting the witch laws. Meanwhile, Peggy has gone to the Crown Colonies - slave states that ruled by the Stuart dynasty in exile - in an attempt to free the slaves. We learn the story of Purity, a Puritan girl whose parents were hanged for their knacks, which are considered witchcraft by the Puritans. Purity meets Alvin''s band and Arthur Stuart tells her the whole story of their travels. Purity goes away convinced they are witches and tells a local witcher, Quill, who is evil and twists her words against her and the boys. Quill intends to hang them as well as Purity. Alvin whisks away Arthur Stuart, Mike Fink, and Audubon by leading them into the greensong that lets them run hundreds of miles without tiring, but turning back without the others en route. Alvin gives himself up to the men sent to bring in the "witches" while Verily hides for the moment. Quill has both Purity and Alvin running in tight circles to wear them down - a semi-legal form of torture, intended to make them confess to witchery. Verily comes by and loudly scolds Quill in front of the crowd, saying it''s inhumane. At the trial, Verily Cooper makes a case for overturning the witchery laws: in all previous witch trials, it was the witcher who brought up any connection with Satan, while the defendant had been too beaten down to resist. The judge, John Adams, is sympathetic, but realizes that a sudden overthrow of long-kept laws will cause social instability. However, based on Verily''s evidence, he suspends the licenses of all witchers in New England for alleged misconduct; since, to reinstate their licenses, a witcher would have to prove his claims in a normal court, and since this is impossible, it effectively ends the practice of witch trials while leaving the laws on the books. Calvin has come back to America from France with Honoré de Balzac, the French boy-writer. The two meet up with Peggy and Calvin gets himself in serious trouble.

Heartfire

Stanislaus Demba, an honest, well-intentioned student with little money at his disposal, is desperately in love with Sonja Hartmann, an office girl easily impressed by young men with money&mdash;a superficial young woman who, by common consent, is not worthy of his love and adoration. When Demba learns that Sonja is about to go on a holiday with another man, he tries to sell some valuable old library tomes which he has borrowed but never returned to a shady antiques dealer so that he can offer Sonja a more expensive trip. The prospective buyer of the books, however, calls the police, and Demba is arrested. While he is being handcuffed Demba jumps out of an attic window and makes his escape. It is nine o''clock in the morning, and Demba embarks on his odyssey by furtively wandering around the streets of Vienna while hiding his handcuffed hands under his overcoat. His two immediate aims now are (a) to get rid of his handcuffs by some means or other without being caught by the police and (b) to raise the money necessary for a trip to, say, Venice, Italy. People who realize that he is unwilling to show his hands either believe he is some kind of freak with a deformity or a dangerous criminal carrying a pistol. Throughout the first part of the novel, Demba repeatedly refers to "his hands being tied", but everyone&mdash;including the majority of readers&mdash;assumes that he is speaking metaphorically. There is a twist ending to the novel.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Testament Of Gideon Mack

By James Robertson

The First Four Years

By Laura Ingalls Wilder

Black Light

By Stephen Hunter

Close to the Ground

By Jeff Mariotte

Angel Blood

No Author Listed

Radiant Shadows

By Melissa Marr

The Crystal City

By Orson Scott Card

Blood Oath

No Author Listed

Ode to Gallantry

By Louis Cha

Jack of Shadows

By Roger Zelazny

Heartfire

By Orson Scott Card

From Nine to Nine

By Leo Perutz