Forelock Holmes and Doctor John Trotson are on the case of a mysterious threat to the princesses on the night of the Galloping Gala! Suspecting that he is out of his depth, Doctor Whooves and his companion Ditzy Do are called in to assist. What can be made of a villain whose cutie mark is a planet rent in twain, and of the amorous desire he shows toward Ditzy? Holmes' boundless confidence is unhindered, but how will he overcome this strange new opponent?
Aaran Vanadyl meets herself before marrying Yale Coates, but is it something they both wish to protect? What of a six year old street walker entrusted to Aaran's care? Nothing is crueler than blackmail, she tells the man who is literally disappearing from reality, but what can she do about it? A kidnapper is filling orders for the sex trade by kidnapping young women and Aaran is put to the task of protecting them! When a stranger threatens the KnightsMage with the ability to cancel all powers, what will become of her when she is placed on a gang's rape list? A mother looks to Aaran for help rescuing her son caught up in an organ-legging operation. These short stories and more...
Was it a bomb or magic? Sector 9 is levelled, hundreds dead, thousands injured and in dire need. While the Alliance of Courts decides how best to curtail costs, Representative Castlegar of Whitegraft charges ex-cop Aaran Coates and android associate Buddy Namiki to prevent another attack.
Number 13 - lucky for horror fans! This award-winning anthology series has now reached its thirteenth spectacular volume and to mark the event, Steve Jones has chosen only the very best short stories and novellas by today's finest exponents of the horror genre. Contributors to this volume include: Gala Blau, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Charles Grant, Glen Hirshberg, Chico Kidd, Nancy Kilpatrick, Paul J. McAuley, Conrad Williams. Also featuring the most comprehensive overview of the year, a fascinating necrology and a list of useful contacts, this is the one book that all lovers of the supernatural and psychological terror will want on their shelves.
More than forty criminal heroes are examined in this volume. They include evil characters such as Dr. Fu Manchu, Li Shoon, Black Star, the Spider, Rafferty, Mr. Clackworthy, Elegant Edward, Big-nose Charlie, Thubway Tham, the Thunderbolt, the Man in Purple, and the Crimson Clown, plus many, many more! The development of these characters is traced across more than two decades of crime fiction published in Detective Story Magazine, Flynn's, Black Mask, and other magazines. The conventions that made these stories a special part of popular fiction are examined in detail.
After Sherlock Holmes retired to the South Downs to raise bees - and of course, study and document their habits with his usual care and precision - Dr. John Hamish Watson reopened a medical practice and continued to live at 221B Baker Street for several years. Finally however, the absence of the excitement of sharing adventures with the great detective and acting as his biographer wore down the good Doctor’s joie de vivre, and he decided to close his medical practice and retire as Holmes had done. He wrote his intentions to his cousin in Scotland, Ainsley Douglass, and received an enthusiastic response with an invitation to come and live with Ainsley and his wife Bonnie. “Our children have families of their own now, and as Bonnie and I are getting on, we find that rattling around in our big house just increases our feeling of loneliness. We would love to have you here, both for your company and, of course, your fascinating recollections of your adventures with Mr. Holmes.
Jane Yolen, the bestselling and award-winning author of The Devil's Arithmetic, returns to World War II and the Holocaust with this timely and necessary novel. It's 1942 in Poland, and the world is coming to pieces. At least that's how it seems to Chaim and Gittel, twins whose lives feel like a fairy tale torn apart, with evil witches, forbidden forests, and dangerous ovens looming on the horizon. But in all darkness there is light, and the twins find it through Chaim's poetry and the love they have for each other. Like the bright flame of a Yahrzeit candle, his words become a beacon of memory so that the children and grandchildren of survivors will never forget the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust. Filled with brutality and despair, this is also a story of poetry and strength, in which a brother and sister lose everything but each other. Nearly thirty years after the publication of her award-winning and bestselling The Devil's Arithmetic and Briar Rose, Yolen once again returns to World War II and captivates her readers with the authenticity and power of her words. Perfect for fans of Markus Zuzak's The Book Thief and Ruta Sepetys's Salt to the Sea.
A Place to Call Home is a story of refugees no community wanted to see anywhere close to them, as if they were good for nothing. It is an epic portrayal of a painful dilemma of thousands of homeless internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were victims of the highly contested and disputed presidential election. The novel is a true, tear-jerking reflection of a botched election in December 2007 and January 2008, which culminated into a postelection violence that brutally killed almost there thousand innocent people. Some were burned alive inside a churchGods territory as they calledwhere they had taken safe haven. About seven hundred thousand people were forcibly removed from their homes; some took refuge at police stations, while others fled to neighboring countries to remain alive. Business premises, vehicles, and other properties worth billions of shillings were destroyed, and domestic animals were stolen. This spate of violence happened at a time when thousands of ethnic militias heavily armed with homemade crude weapons were chanting war slogans and singing traditional war songs everywhere in the country. Loyal to their respective presidential candidates, the militias roamed the streets of towns and villages, making every journey perilous. Enemies who got caught were beheaded, and their heads were paraded or displayed on the main highways. Women were seized and gang-raped by the militias and got infected with the deadly HIV-AIDS virus. Amazingly, communities turned their backs against the combined IDPs who were looking for a permanent settlement, calling them foreigners, invaders, or land grabbers in their own country. Breathing under such horrifying circumstances, all IDPs drawn from various tribes resolved to live together in peace and harmony and to prove to the world that they could live with people from other communities without any problem, in spite of their language and cultural barriers. The idea of living together was instilled in the IDPs by VP Nyandege, who emerged as the leading light in their plight and the quest for what they could call home. VP Nyandege won a special place in fellow IDPs hearts and made them believe that life was worth fighting for. For seven years, these IDPs have been living in squalid conditions or in makeshift camps, waiting to be settled as promised by the ruling elite. The IDPs lived in rough and ready dwellings with no food, water, toilet facilities, social amenities, or sanitation at all. They were living in a world of their own; no laws, rules, or culture to observe. The fate of these IDPs is reminiscent of the Jews when they lived in Europe and were rejected by people in all countries after World War II and consequently had no place to call their home. After seven years in isolated makeshift camps, the IDPs were offered land to settle on by the Biblical Good Samaritan to prove that tribal groups, once sworn enemies, could live together peacefully and harmoniously. And now these IDPs would like to build the countrys first utopia, the same way the Israelis have transformed the desert land of Israel into another biblical Promised Land of Canaan, the land of milk and honey. (This unfortunate event was disseminated throughout the world by the mass media.)
Retired doctor of physics Frank Somers, who is credited with eight rape-murders to date within Orange County under the DA-assigned moniker Checkmate, laughs as he turns away from his home office computer after studying the application requirements for the Orange County Grand Jury. He loudly mocks the county’s highly touted vetting process. “Fingerprints required . . . of course, of course. But no DNA swab. What a fucking joke.” The chink in the application process enables Dr. Somers to be selected for a twelve-month grand jury service where he regularly continues his killings as Checkmate within Orange County. He cleverly uses his jury colleagues and district attorney to partially exercise his psychopathic taunting of authorities. This book is primarily set within Orange County as well as Florida, Mexico, and Jamaica.
