Search Results for: who

Duke Dorian Hawkmoon’s quest to destroy the Dark Empire of Granbretan leads him onto the path of a man who possess a rare ring that allows men to travel through time. Hawkmoon uses this ring to travel to a far future New Orleans, where he must battle the Pirate Lords who possess the Great Sword of the Dawn, which can end the Dark Empire once and for all.

Chief Inspector Martineau and Sergeant Devery have every motive for finding and pursuing a killer who murdered their friend and colleague Inspector Robert McQuade, especially as it now appears that the same person may have Martineau in his sights. But what does all this have to do with a crooked stockbroker and a man who is trying to frame the Chief Inspector for taking bribes? And could the investigation be putting his family in jeopardy?

‘Maurice Procter’s Chief Inspector Martineau is one of fiction’s best policemen’ New York Times

The Plumber’s men are swift workers, who take murder in their stride. But who is the Plumber himself – the brains behind the highly organized and disciplined gang terrorizing Granchester? And how, in a town where everyone is too scared to open their mouths for fear of being the next target, will Detective Inspector Martineau break up this tightly woven network?

This is the strange tale of Horty, a little boy who ran away from home and took refuge in the bizarre world of the carnival. With him went his favourite toy – an old jack-in-the-box whose jewelled eyes sparkled and shone, hypnotic in their brilliance.

And among the freaks and oddities of the sideshows he found friends – ‘jewel’ people like him, who tried to protect him from the terrible secret of his existence .

University Challenge is one of the world’s top quiz shows, enjoyed by millions, both participants and observers. But Discworld fans may feel that not many questions cover the real questions in Life, for example, Who or what could be seen as the inspiration for the near-tragic accident from which nanny Ogg is saved only be a special willow-reinforced hat made for her by Mr Vernissage of Slice? And give a plausible origin for Mrs Rosie Palm, proprietor of the famous House of Negotiable Affection in the Shades.
Each Faculty at the Unseen University has provided a set of questions, and answers are included for those who are not sure how the poisonous effects of quicksilver fumes are an occupational hazard of magic-users.
The questions have been compiled by Mr David Langford, who knows quite as much – and arguably more – about the Discworld as its Creator, and Terry Pratchett has provided an Introduction.

A painter has vanished: normally an event of no importance, but Théo is the heir to a fortune, and so Inspector Gautier of the Sûreté is put on the case. Then a shady art dealer is murdered. A dealer who had acquired three paintings under dubious circumstances, from a minor artist who died in similarly dubious circumstances.

But why is it that so many people want to gain possession of the paintings now – a princess, a Greek millionaire and even, in a roundabout way, Théo?

Dirk Wallace is handed a simple assignment – find out who’s blackmailing Mrs Thorsen’s daughter. Before long, Wallace realises that he’s up against some very organised crime.

And when things turn nasty, there’s only one thing to do. Wallace and his assistant quit the Acme Detective Agency and go it alone. There’s a score to be settled. And Dirk Wallace doesn’t want to have to play by the rules.

The machine that controlled all life wouldn’t tolerate any interference. People who refused to be regulated had to be disposed of – isolated, driven insane, murdered. A small group of men had dedicated themselves to fighting this Frankenstein of man’s technological achievement. Secretly they laid plans to destroy the machine and all its works including the millions of people who had accepted their robot-like existence.

Either way, the human race was doomed!

In search of the Aureate Cities, Captain Rovic had brought the Golden Leaper halfway round the World. Weathering hurricanes and mutiny, he meant to do what no other ship’s master had done: circulate the globe and return to riches and glory. Then, on a distant barbarous island, Rovic met a shipwrecked traveler who claimed to have come on an even longer voyage. But who could believe his tale – of a ship that sailed between the stars?

Scott Hamilton is a professional thief, one who would never turn down an opportunity to steal something really worthwhile – in this case, a priceless collection of Ming Dynasty jade statuettes, whose owner is a man with a private army; a man rich enough to be above the law.

Hamilton’s accomplices are the charming and tough Gunilla von Mayenfels, who is a girl with an interest in jade, and the odious and unreliable Kosky. And the result of their attempt combines triumph and disaster in equal measure.

It started as a routine tail – shadowing an oily hustler who’d been courting a well-healed matron. But the assignment soon led Donald Lam to a sleazy hotel room with a sexy barfly.

And now she’s left him high and dry with a pair of corpses dumped in his lap. Suddenly he’s the cops’ prime suspect. And it’ll take some fancy footwork to sidestep the law – and the real killer, who intends to leave Bertha Cool partnerless.

It was the easiest £3,000 Nelson Ryan had ever made – but suddenly he realised he was being played for a sucker. A telephone call, seemingly innocent enough, led him to the murder of a Chinese call-girl who talked too much. It also pitched him straight into the teeming, sordid night life of colourful Hong Kong.

From now on, Ryan would stick at nothing to get the killer who’d crossed him up.

The Weirdest Drinking Establishment in the Universe

Gavagan’s Bar – presided over by Mr. Aloysius P. Cohan, bartender. Where you will meet such not-so-regular customers as:

Councilman Maguire, who brought his own leprechaun with him from Ireland. Mrs. Vacarescu and her husband Putzi, the were-dachshund. Mr. Murdoch, who borrowed a very small dragon to rid his apartment of mice and lost it. And assorted witches, magicians, devils, dryads, and the occasional demigod.

Behold the horned demon of the snows…
Who calls himself Klittichorn and schemes o destroy all Akahlar. With the power of the changewinds he can control the mighty storms that alter man and creature alike.

Beware his evil minions…
Who seek the beautiful Storm Princess in the Kudaan Wastes – lands that teem with frightful monsters and Storm Riders from the Inner Hells.

Run like the wind…
Or stand to fight with magic. For the fate not just of this but of all worlds is in the balance.

Tarra Khash is a Hrossak, a barbarian from the steppes beyond the River Luhr. A fearless adventurer, Tarra roves Theem-hdra in search of his next fortune, his next drink, and warm, willing females to share his bed. The Hrossak is a most fortunate man, for he has faced more than one god during his travels and – so far – has escaped unscathed.

Seeking to avenge the murder of a beautiful young woman of the half-mystical Suhm-yi race, Tarra joins forces with her husband, now the last of his kind. Each worships a moon-god, and together their faith and Tarra’s weapons wreak a terrible vengeance on those who stole the treasure of the Suhm-yi.

Eager for wealth, Tarra is trapped by a wily old man who has lured him into plumbing the depths of a treasure-filled cavern guarded by golden statues of the Great God Cthulhu. But Cthulhu’s treasure is not easily plundered, and Tarra nearly loses his life to the monstrous forces of the Elder God.

Many men have met the lamia Orbiquita, but none have lived to tell of her extraordinary powers of love-making – until Tarra Khash, who treats her as a woman wants to be treated and thus earns her forgiveness and his life. Alas, others who assume her to be weakened by her love for Tarra Khash are not so lucky!

Arpazia is the aging queen who paces the halls of a warlord’s palace. Cold as winter, she has only one passion-for the mysterious hunter who courts the outlawed old gods of the woodland. Coira is the princess raised in the shadow of her mother’s hatred. Avoided by both her parents and half forgotten by her father’s court, she grows into womanhood alone . . . until the mirror speaks, and blood is spilled, and the forest claims her.

The tragic myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, stolen by the king of the underworld, is woven together with the tale of Snow White to create a powerful story of mothers and daughters and the blood that binds them together, for good or ill. Black queen. White maid. Royal huntsman. Seven little folk who live in the forest. Come inside, sit by the fire, and listen to this fairy tale as you’ve never heard it told before.

Once upon a time there was a mirror, and a girl as white as snow. . .

The gods of Poseidonis – or Atlantis – were powerful and real. Now they were determined to destroy the kingdom ruled by the father of Prince Vakar, the one man whose mind they could not read. The only way to save the kingdom was to discover that thing which the gods feared most.

To find it, Prince Vakar set out across the largely unknown world where dangers multiplied with every league. There he found savage countries and strange people – the wild Amazons; a voluptuous, ensorcelled queen; a too-charming girl who was half-horse, half-woman; dangerous magicians who ruled hordes of headless slaves; and the Gorgons, who could paralyze their victims at a glance.

Behind was his ambitious brother, determined that Vakar must fail. Even closer were unknown enemies set on his trail by the suspicious gods.

And to add to his troubles, Vakar had no idea of what he sought!

Once, not so long ago, A warlock named Vond built an empire in the southern part of the Small Kingdoms. Vond is gone, but his empire survives under the rule of a seven-person Imperial Council and a young regent named Sterren. The Empire of Vond was hardly trouble-free after Vond’s departure. Its neighbors are understandably wary of further expansion, there are questions about how Vond’s magic became so potent, and so on. Most of the World, though, doesn’t care — Vond is off there in the southeastern corner of the World, far away from anywhere important.

But one day a dockworker named Emmis watches a Vondish ship arrive in Ethshar of the Spices and finds himself hired as native guide and aide to someone who claims to be Vond’s ambassador plenipotentiary to the overlords of the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars.

But who is the Vondish ambassador, really, and what is his true business in Ethshar? And who has followed him to the city?

An archaeological party in Mesopotamia found a chest of stone tablets in an unknown script. Disaster struck every man who worked on the tablets, every man save one. The stranger who offered his services to the archaeologists claimed to read the ancient unknown symbols, but the stranger vanished together with the tablets and the mystery deepened.

The stranger’s claims had not been exaggerated. Incredible events began to take place in unlikely places, as the-man-who-knew slowly gained a mastery of over the Power Tablets. Like all megalomaniacs he over-reached himself and the power of the tablets took over. He no longer controlled them… They controlled him. The vengeance of the ancients was slow and terrible to behold.

The Thing was the worst part of their vengeance… a supernatural monster striding like a colossus over the trembling ground. Man’s weapons failed to stop it. Only the courage of three priests stood between humanity and annihilation.

A murderous, charismatic theatre owner . . . and a deadly new role…

‘Suspense enough to spare’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘A fantastic recommendation for readers who enjoy classic Hitchcockian thrillers’ BOOKLIST


When Rosaleen Wright was found hanging, a note beside her body, the police are sure it is suicide. But her best friend Jane cannot believe it. Rosaleen was full of vitality and wit – and the note had no signature. Instead, Jane suspects Rosaleen’s boss, New York theatre impresario Luther Grandison.

Grandison is rich, powerful and charismatic, but Rosaleen’s letters to Jane show a completely different man. One who is duplicitous, greedy – and dangerous. A man who would kill to protect his secrets.

Jane is determined to find out the truth – and takes the ultimate risk when she gets a job with Grandison’s company, and finds herself up against one of Broadway’s deadliest actors in a desperate play for the truth.

When the milkman alerts police to two bodies at the fashionable Hampstead home of Andrew and Kim Light, it seems obvious who the deceased are . . . until Mr Light walks through the door.

Just who is the other man? Is Andrew Light as innocent as he’d like to appear, or does his smooth lawyer’s manner hide a cruel and callous character? As the investigation develops, it becomes clear that there are far more sinister forces at work, and a frightening character has infiltrated the fashionable world of Hampstead.

Mahali’s rulers for generations were the water witches, who could feel the ebb and flow of precious water in their very bones. Then there was a coup, and control of Mahali’s water passed to an impersonal computer network.

It was Deza’s father who hit upon the scheme. Dressing his daughter in ceremonial garb, he passed her off as the last surviving member of the royal house. With tricks and illusions she and her father moved toward the centres of power.

But it’s the nature of a con artist to go too far . . .

The time: 1979

The place: a top-secret US Air Force base in the Cotswolds

The actors: carefully selected, healthy-living personnel

The missions: long-range reconnaissance flights

The problem: is there any connection between these flights and the growing menace of a strange blood-cancer disease that is spreading through the world? Several of the more intelligent and intuitive realise that there is. There are those who retain their integrity, and doing so, lose their lives; and there are those who live silently in their knowledge, condemned to lives of emotional death.

Suppose… a man who was blasted into our time from the future arrived without any clothes?
Suppose… a man who craved the love of beautiful women got too much of it?
Suppose… a conscientious young realtor refused to rent a floor in an office building because it didn’t exist?
On such faintly horrifying, delightfully absurd speculations are some of these stories founded. With a keen satiric touch William Tenn uses his insight into contemporary life as a springboard into an absolutely believable, if slightly wacky, future.