The story starts in 1885, Grimsby, England. Marianne is the illegitimate daughter of a once wealthy English woman and a Danish father, who left her mother not knowing that she was pregnant, and promising to return to England one day. Marianne''s mother is dangerously ill and on her deathbed, gives Marianne some money, telling her to search for her father in Denmark. Marianne''s mother dies, poor and friendless, living in squalid surroundings in Grimsby. And so Marianne starts the perilous journey to Skagen, Denmark to find her father. The journey is long and hard, and finally she arrives at Skagen, now penniless and destitute, and foreign, unable to speak Danish, only to find that her father, Lars Christensen, has been dead for years! So that was the reason why he did not return for her mother! Marianne is stranded in Skagen with nowhere to go, and so is forced to stay with a poor fisherman''s family as a servant. They live in a horribly dirty house with grime on the walls and windows, where the children are covered with lice, the mother suffers from post-natal depression, the father is a drunk and they have barely enough food to live on. Nevertheless, Marianne works and lives there in exchange for a little bit of food and lodging. Marianne is afraid to tell anyone of her birth, fearing that they will despise and ridicule her, as everyone did in London. However, she befriends a girl called Hannah, who is also an illegitimate child. She is surprised at how everyone in Skagen accepts Hannah into society and does not seem to mind about her origin. She is still afraid to tell anyone, even Hannah, about her birth, though. She discovers that her father had a brother, who still resides in Skagen! So now she has an uncle! She contemplates on telling him about her existence, however, she decides against it on finding that he has a reputation for being a very strict man. She is afraid that he will despise her birth, even though they are family. She becomes close friends with his son, and grows to treat him like a cousin, although he himself is unaware that they are related. She falls in love with a young fisherman named Peter, but her love for painting and rumours about her friendship with a French painter, separates them. They come together again at the end, and Peter proposes. She accepts but, saying she wants to carry on learning to paint. She is also reunited with her father, who was really the man she thought was her uncle.

Between Two Seas

After the victory in Thessaly which ended the first book of the trilogy, Child of a Dream, Alexander and his army march towards the East. The first step of the expedition is to free the Greek cities from the Persian domination in order to establish a strong and unite Pan-Hellenic League. Once that is achieved, the target is the Persian Empire itself and its immense Asian territory. During his military campaign the Macedonian army records numerous victories, including those against the city of Tyre, the Towers of Giza and the legendary Halicarnassus. And it is in the midst of this campaign that Alexander meets the only opponent he believes worthy of his utmost respect: Memnon of Rhodes, the commander of the Greek mercenaries of the Persian army. He struggles in the attempt to defeat Memnon fair and square on the field, but the two end up stalemating each other with strategic cunning. Alexander''s friends then suggest to end the confrontation between the two men by ordering to poison the mercenary; Alexander is however disgusted by this outrageous idea as he reckons his opponent is worthy of being defeated with respect and the only way for that to be possible is for Alexander to beat him on the battle field. However, Alexander''s friends do carry out the order without Alexander''s approval or knowing and Memnon is poisoned within a few weeks. The mercenary''s death represents an anti-climactic end to the fantastic strategic battle between the two. After Memnon''s death, Alexander claims his former wife: the beautiful Barsine. The two grow close, which makes Leptine jealous of their relationship. After the Macedonian army finally defeats Darius, thank to a tactically perfect charge, Alexander becomes the sovereign of the greatest Empire ever existed. But the young king is certainly not satisfied: he heads towards Egypt and, after defeating the Tyrian naval force that was attempting to block his way into the country, he finally makes it to the land of the Pharaohs. Here, he is proclaimed Pharaoh and he founds the first of his cities: Alexandria. Finally, he crosses the Libyan desert and after a long and hard journey, he reaches the Oasis of Siwa, where the Oracle of Ammon lies. This tells him that he is not a mere human, but the son of Zeus himself.

The Sands of Ammon

Narrated by Mello it recounts the first time L worked with Naomi Misora, searching for clues and trying to prevent the next victim of a psychotic serial killer, who is able to make murders look like suicides. The plot also has an interesting backstory to the orphanage from which L came from, Wammy''s House, and the relationship between Naomi Misora and Raye Penber. The serial killer just happens to be and old aquantance of L''s, one of his original successors: B (Beyond Birthday),who ran away from Wammy''s house shortly after A''s (the first of L''s succecers)suicide . This tragedy, along with B''s shinigami eyes drove him over the edge and started committing murders. B became the most famous serial killer in L.A., and L''s leading case. Hearing about the murders, L recruited Naomi Misora (a former F.B.I. employee and current friend of L) to help in the case. During the case, she meets a detective named Rue Ryuzaki (B posing as an alias of L) ,she keeps close contact with L during her time working with Ryuzaki.Since the first three murders have already occurred Ryuzaki and Misora study the scenes for any missing clues. They solved the various puzzles, which led them to the address of a victim or show them the name of the victim who was next. At Backyard Bottomslash''s (the third victim''s) house they found a clue to the next victim''s whereabouts: a hotel in Pasedena. They deduced that the victim''s initials would be B.B. again ,since the were two people in the hotel who had those initials (Blackberry Brown and Bluesharp Babysplit ). In rooms 1313 and 404, respectively. They paid off the patrons and put them up in very nice suites.They both went to the different rooms(Misora in 1313,and Ryuzaki in 404). Misora starts to think, she pieces everything together and realizes who Luxaky is and that he was using her for fun and testing her intelligence. She rushes down the stairs to find that Ryuzaki (BB/Rue) has lit himself on fire. He was barely alive, so she decided to turn him in. He went to the hospital and survived with ony mild burns. He was sent to prison, and some years later died of a heart attack, supposedly one of the criminals killed by Kira. Later, while waiting at a bus stop,s he saw a man than looked a little like BB, he leaned over to her, she thought he was going to hug her, instead he tried to attack her but she managed to kick him down the nearby subway stairs. She felt guilty and went to check on him. She helped him up and he shook her hand and held it for a few seconds. He walked away but looked back a little, sucking on his thumb. (it was obviously L ,although she didn''t really notice)

Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases

Danny is an aging hipster in New York City who has fallen on hard times. He doesn''t have a real career and he has a habit of burning bridges with old friends. His cousin Howard presents him with an opportunity to come to eastern Europe and help convert an old castle into an alternative resort. Danny has a troubled relationship with Howard. Many years before, when they were children, he cruelly left Howard stranded deep in a cave for days, traumatizing him badly, and ruining much of his childhood. But Danny is desperate for money so he decides to work for Howard, and travels to the castle, severing his relationships with his New York world. He plunges himself into the strange environment of the castle and puts himself at the mercy of the cousin he betrayed many years before. It soon becomes clear that this castle is a deeply strange place with a dark history that isn''t entirely finished. It has secret passages, bizarre inhabitants, and seems to operate by different rules from the outside world. Danny, cut off from his familiar New York world, is unsure whether the castle is haunted or his own perceptions are becoming increasingly distorted. He thinks that his cousin may be out to get him and the castle may be a giant trap. When Danny attempts to escape from the castle he encounters a series of mysterious roadblocks. No matter what he does, fate seems to be directing Danny back to the castle, and towards a final confrontation with his cousin Howard. Together, they end up trapped deep within the bowels of the castle, where they are forced to re-enact the traumas of childhood. Together they must figure out a way to escape and survive.

The Keep

When dogs and men suddenly disappear, and strange screams fill the night, fantastic stories of vengeful ghosts are almost believable. It is these strange happenings which bring Frank and Joe Hardy to the Pocono Mountains to help their father''s friend, a retired police captain, solve the mystery of Black Hollow. But when the Hardy Boys and Chet Morton arrive at Captain Thomas Maguire''s cabin on the edge of the hollow, he has disappeared. In the woods the boys find only a few slim clues: a flashlight bearing the initials T.M., a few scraps of bright plaid cloth, and two empty shotgun shells which had been fired recently. Frank and Joe are determined to find the captain, despite Chet''s misgivings after a night of weird and terrifying screams. Neighbors of the missing man insist that the bloodcurdling cries are those of a legendary witch who stalks Black Hollow seeking vengeance. Strangely, it is a small puppy that helps the boys disclose a most unusual and surprising set of circumstances, involving a mute boy, an elusive hermit, and a fearless puma trainer.

The Clue of the Screeching Owl

On his birthday, a boy receives a set of 25 toy soldiers and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg, having been the last one cast from an old tin spoon. Nearby, he spies a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She too is standing on one leg and the soldier falls in love. That night, a goblin among the toys angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off the ballerina, but the soldier ignores him. The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill (presumably the work of the goblin) and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat and its passenger wash into a storm drain, where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll. Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish. When the fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table top before the ballerina. Inexplicably, the boy throws the tin soldier into the fire. A wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed at once but her spangle remains. The tin soldier melts into the shape of a heart.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

After being fired from his job as an LA homicide detective for being drunk on the job, Jesse Stone is hired as chief of police for the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts. Stone, who already has a penchant for drinking, really begins to hit the bottle after he discovers his wife, actress Jenn Stone, having an affair with her agent. They divorce, and after his drinking leads to his termination from the LAPD he decides to get as far away from his now ex-wife as possible. Despite showing up to the interview intoxicated, he is hired for the job in Paradise. He later learns that this is because the corrupt Board of Selectman chair, Hasty Hathaway, is looking for a lush that they can push around. They get more than they bargain for in Stone. The novel begins with Stone’s cross country road trip to Paradise during which the disintegration of his marriage is detailed through flashbacks. Shortly after arriving in Paradise, he meets Jo Jo Genest while responding to a domestic dispute. Genest is a huge body builder, who assists local gangsters in a money laundering operation and also provides muscle for Hathaway. During the confrontation, Stone kicks Genest in the groin. Soon after, Genest proceeds to taunt Stone by vandalizing a police car and murdering the station cat as well as writing the word "slut" on both. Along with being the Board of Selectman chair, Hathaway is also a wealthy bank owner and leader of "The Freedom’s Horsemen", a local militia group. It is Hathaway who orchestrates the payoff and termination of the previous police chief, Tom Carson, after Carson learns of the money laundering operation. Carson then moves out west. Hathaway later becomes concerned that Carson will talk and dispatches corrupt police officer Lou Burke to kill Carson. Hathaway also orders Jo Jo Genest to murder his mistress, Tammy Portugal, after she demands he leave his wife for her. However, Genest can’t help but leave his calling card by writing the word "slut" on Tammy’s corpse to further taunt Jesse. Jesse begins to investigate Tom Carson’s murder, and discovers that Lou Burke had traveled out west at the time of the homicide. He responds by suspending Burke while he continues to investigate. Fearing that Jesse is learning too much, Hathaway orders Genest to kill him, but Genest convinces Hathaway to let him kill Burke instead. Hathaway agrees, and Genest throws Burke off a cliff in an attempt to make it look like suicide. While all these events are taking place, Genest organizes a weapons deal between Hathaway’s militia and gay Boston mob boss Gino Fish. When Fish rips off Hathaway, he responds by blaming Genest and demands that he get his money back. Genest doesn’t like this at all, and responds by sending nude Polaroids of Hathaway’s wife (and town slut), Cissy, to her priest, town selectmen and others. When the priest calls Chief Stone about the photo, Stone confronts Cissy about it. Cissy admits to having an affair with Genest, among others, and confirms that he took the photos. She also reveals that Genest confessed murdering Tammy Portugal to her. Stone then arrests Genest. Later that evening, Cissy tells her husband what she confessed to Chief Stone and Hathaway panics. He organizes the militia and convinces them to storm the police station, kill Chief Stone and free Genest, whom he intends to kill also. During the standoff, Chief Stone refuses to release Genest and the militia retreat when local and state police arrive. Hathaway is then arrested. The novel also details Jesse’s relationship with local DA, Abby Taylor. They begin a sexual relationship, but she becomes frustrated with him and breaks it off by the end of the novel. His relationship with her and his Scotch consumption are basically attempts to forget Jenn. However, Jenn does not make this easy as they talk regularly on the phone. Jenn becomes fearful for Jesse’s life as the events in Paradise unfold and she realizes she still loves him. The novel ends with Jesse coming home to find Jenn in his apartment.

Night Passage

Edward Baltram, a college student living in London, gives his best friend Mark a sandwich laced with a hallucinogenic drug for a joke. After Mark, still high, falls to his death from a window, Edward is wracked with guilt and depression &mdash; worsened by daily letters from Mark''s mother cursing him as a murderer. In search of his father, Jesse, Edward sets off for Seegard, the family home, away from the harsh reality of London. As Edward progresses through the novel, he revives somewhat, thanks to the love of his eccentric father and his extended family of supportive women. He eventually finds, however, that he must come to terms with Mark''s death. Meanwhile, Edward''s stepbrother Stuart Cuno decides to give up his studies and goes in search of the "pure" life of an aesthete, to his family''s bewilderment. Stuart has ''sexual feelings'' for thirteen-year-old Meredith, the son of Thomas and Midge McCaskerville. While Edward seeks redemption and Stuart salvation, Midge is having an affair with her husband''s best friend, Harry Cuno - stepfather to Edward and father to Stuart. Her passionate love affair comes to a head after two years when she is disgraced publicly and falls unexpectedly in love with Stuart. Left with a difficult decision, Midge turns to Edward for support.

The Good Apprentice

The plot of Gone with the Wind revolves around a pampered Southern woman named Scarlett O''Hara, who lives through the American Civil War and Reconstruction. The Wind Done Gone is the same story, but told from the viewpoint of Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett''s plantation and the daughter of Scarlett''s father and Mammy; the title is an African American Vernacular English sentence that might be rendered "The Wind Has Gone" in Standard American English. Cynara''s name comes from the Ernest Dowson poem Non sum qualís eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, a line from which ("I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind") was the origin of Mitchell''s novel''s title as well. Sold from the O''Haras, Cynara eventually makes her way back to Atlanta and becomes the mistress of a white businessman. She later leaves him for a black aspiring politician, eventually moving with him to Reconstruction Washington, D.C. The book consciously avoids using the names of Mitchell''s characters or locations. Cynara refers to her sister as "Other", rather than Scarlett, and to Other''s husband as "R" instead of Rhett Butler. Other is in love with "Dreamy Gentleman" (Ashley Wilkes), although he is married to "Mealy Mouth" (Melanie Wilkes). The magnificence of the O''Haras'' house, Tara, is reduced to "Tata" or "Cotton Farm", and Twelve Oaks is renamed for its builders, "Twelve Slaves Strong as Trees".

The Wind Done Gone

The former Visser Four inadvertently discovers the Time Matrix and uses it to rewrite history to make the Yeerk domination of Earth much easier - America is now a technologically inept, genocidal empire; Jake is a neo-Nazi who demands to be called "Supreme Leader" by the other Animorphs, and Rachel is in a re-education camp to be "taught her place", her role on the team now being filled by Melissa Chapman. None of the Animorphs are aware of the change, as this is, to their minds, what life has always been like, Visser Four having changed events before their births. The Ellimist and Crayak have formed a temporary truce in order to stop Visser Four, and they send the Drode to offer the Animorphs, having restored their true memories and line-up, a Hobson''s choice; they can refuse the opportunity to track down Visser Four, and the timeline remains as it is, or they can defeat Visser Four and return the timeline to how it originally was... for the price of one of their lives. The Animorphs of course have no choice but to accept, and set out to stop Visser Four''s rewrite of time. The Animorphs pass through many historical events, including the Battle of Agincourt, Washington''s crossing of the Delaware (in which, as Marco and Cassie predicted and feared due to his previous actions against Crayak, Jake is killed in the crossfire), the battle of Trafalgar (in which Rachel, Marco, and Ax are also "killed", but not really due to the only required life, Jake''s, being taken), and finally Princeton University a short time after 1932. It turns out that the American colonists lost to Britain and the Hessians, and France won the battle of Trafalgar, leading to the U.S. and England having to make peace with Napoleon Bonaparte. The United States - or rather, whatever the country is called now - is still under British control. However, Visser Four had made a mistake. Although originally planning to kill Albert Einstein at Princeton, his own meddling in the past had changed the future so that Einstein was not at Princeton at this time (still in Germany). Furthermore, Cassie and Tobias make the discovery that Rachel, Marco and Ax have been resurrected, and thus the remaining five Animorphs realize that the Ellimist''s conditions allowed that only one Animorph could be killed; with Jake''s death, the rest of the Animorphs are essentially immortal, albeit just for the duration of their mission. Visser Four begins to rapidly leap through time and space in order to shake the Animorphs off, but when he is unable to lose them, he directs the Time Matrix to the Normandy Landing. After navigating through the time-altered battle (including an Adolf Hitler who is a harmless jeep driver and the French and Germans on the same side), the Animorphs close in on Visser Four, whose host body (John Berryman) has been fatally injured. Visser Four abandons John''s body, and Marco kills the Yeerk. Cassie, much to her chagrin, asks John where and when his parents met, and the Animorphs direct the Time Matrix to San Francisco in 1967 to prevent John''s parents from ever having met. But when they get there, they start to debate the morality of their intended actions; maybe history would be better somehow if they didn''t cut off his life. However, they accidentally distract his mother, so she never meets his father and they never have to make the choice. With John never being born, he was never infested by Visser Four, who in turn never found the Time Matrix, and the events of this story never actually took place; Jake returns to life, as the Animorphs were never actually at the Delaware crossing. Despite the reset, the group remembers everything, even after they go home, due to Drode having buffered their memories and personalities.

Elfangor''s Secret

Seventy-eight year-old Jeff Baker has revolutionized the world by inventing the ultimate method of information storage and allowing free use of it with no profits going into his own pocket. Because of this generous act, he is chosen by the European Union to be the first recipient for rejuvenation technology, which will leave him with the body of a young man. As part of the deal, he will support the re-election of the EU president. Jeff''s son Tim has a fairly typical frustrated life as a rich teenager, living with his famous father and distant mother. Tim is extremely happy when he starts going out with gorgeous Annabelle. She likes him, but she has a troubled home life and Tim''s drink problem reminds her of her father. Jeff comes home from the rejuvenation in his 20-year-old body. Energized by his new youthfulness, he has a series of affairs. Reconnecting with his son, Jeff reveals to Tim that the reason he gave away the information storage technology was so his hated ex-wife could not get any royalties. The amazing act of charity he is famous for was motivated by spite, not goodwill. But Jeff find himself attracted to Annabelle, and while giving her a ride home after Tim got too drunk at a school dance, they start a tawdry affair behind Tim''s back and fall in love. Their passionate relationship is only a secret for a short time before Tim finds them in bed together. His life falling apart, Tim runs away to live with his Aunt (Jeff''s sister), stops drinking and doing drugs, and makes friends with his mother. Eventually he finds a new romantic interest in Vanessa, one of his classmates. Jeff and Annabelle are happy together, traveling around the world, meeting celebrities, even experimenting with a ménage à trois. However, they are sad that they have hurt Tim, who gets seriously injured in a jet-ski accident, providing a catalyst for Jeff to re-enter Tim''s life. Jeff and Annabelle both attend a controversial EU conference in London so Jeff can speak supporting the EU. Tim and his friends join a massive and violent protest in the streets below the conference. As the riots begin, concerned for Tim''s safety, Jeff changes his mind about supporting the EU and leaves the conference to charge through the riots to find his son. Impressed by this act, Tim finds it in him to forgive his father and Annabelle. In the end, Jeff is dying because the rejuvenation treatment is not yet a properly functional technology, and it is failing him. After impregnating Annabelle with a second genetically improved child, a girl this time, he begins a live broadcast, where he reveals the lies of the EU government and rescinds his support for the presidential campaign. He dies surrounded by his family and loved ones.

Misspent Youth

The novel features the story of Dray Prescot, an English sailor of Lord Nelson''s navy, and his miraculous teleportation to the planet Kregen. There he is trained as an agent for the mysterious Savanti, an apparently benevolent secret society devoted to improving the lot of humanity among the many intelligent species of Kregen. Among the benefits conferred on him is immersion in an apparently miraculous pool, Kregen''s equivalent of the Fountain of Youth, which heals all wounds and confers a greatly extended lifespan on the bather. During Prescot''s sojourn among the Savanti an offhand reference is made to the continent of Gah in Kregen''s opposite hemisphere, whose distasteful customs are an obvious dig at another sword and planet series, the Gor series of John Norman. Prescot falls from grace among his hosts for supplying forbidden aid to Delia, princess of the island empire of Vallia, who has been brought to the Savanti as an injured supplicant. Defying their decision not to help her, he takes her to the healing pool and cures her. In consequence, he is banished back to Earth. Later, he is returned to Kregen through the agency of the Star Lords, an even more mysterious group of apparently god-like beings, whose motivations are unknown, but apparently in opposition to the human Savanti. Prescot becomes a pawn in the Star Lords'' schemes, sent willy-nilly to various locations on the planet to serve their ends and capriciously returned to Earth when his task is done or he manages to offend them. Despite this handicap he usually rises to a position of power in whatever society he is thrust into. Thrown back into contact with Delia, he is even able to renew and further his relationship with her. Important locales introduced in this novel include the hidden city of the Savanti, the northern plains of the continent of Segesthes, and the city state of Zenicce on the same continent.

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Between Two Seas

No Author Listed

The Sands of Ammon

By Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases

By Ishin Nishio

The Keep

By Jennifer Egan

The Clue of the Screeching Owl

By Franklin W. Dixon

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

By Hans Christian Andersen

Night Passage

By Robert B. Parker

The Good Apprentice

By Iris Murdoch

The Wind Done Gone

By Alice Randall

Elfangor's Secret

By K. A. Applegate

Misspent Youth

By Peter F. Hamilton

Transit to Scorpio

By Kenneth Bulmer