Science Fiction. 3035 words long. Views: 8
SUMMARY:
A fierce, exquisitely dark novel that plunges us into post-World War II Occupied Japan in a "Rashomon"-like retelling of a mass poisoning (based on an actual event), its aftermath, and the hidden wartime atrocities that led to the crime. On January 26, 1948, a man identifying himself as a public health official arrives at a bank in Tokyo. There has been an outbreak of dysentery in the neighborhood, he explains, and he has been assigned by Occupation authorities to treat everyone who might have been exposed to the disease. Soon after drinking the medicine he administers, twelve employees are dead, four are unconscious, and the "official" has fled . . . Twelve voices tell the story of the murder from different perspectives. One of the victims speaks, for all the victims, from the grave. We read the increasingly mad notes of one of the case detectives, the desperate letters of an American occupier, the testimony of a traumatized survivor. We meet a journalist, a gangster-turned-businessman, an "occult detective," a Soviet soldier, a well-known painter. Each voice enlarges and deepens the portrait of a city and a people making their way out of a war-induced hell. "Occupied City" immerses us in an extreme time and place with a brilliantly idiosyncratic, expressionistic, mesmerizing narrative. It is a stunningly audacious work of fiction from a singular writer. "From the Hardcover edition." Views: 8
SUMMARY:Friday 3rd June, 1927 Dear Alec, 'Careful what you wish for, lest it come true' is my new motto, and here is why. I was summoned to Dunfermline, that old grey town, in the matter of a missing heiress. She had flounced off in a sulk over forbidden love and I, suspecting elopement, was loath to take the job of scouring guesthouses to find the the little madam and her paramour. Before I could wriggle out of it, though, there was a murder in the mix - or was it suicide? I had hardly begun to decide when it happened again. Then I was sacked. Actually sacked! By two separate people, and both dismissals in writing. And that's not even the worst of it, darling: matters here are careering downwards much in the style of a runaway train. Please hurry ' or who knows where it might end, Dandy xx Views: 8
After coming to the realization that her husband is trying to Gaslight her, Neslie decides to exact revenge on both her soon-to-be ex and his mistress. When she arrives at the other woman's apartment to put a bullet in his brain, she discovers somebody has already beat her to the punch. Did somebody hate Neslie's ex as much as she did, or is there a bigger conspiracy afoot? A suspense-filled Christmas short from the author of FOOTPRINTS IN THE BUTTER and the bestselling Ellie Bernstein mystery series. Views: 8
It has been four years since Darian saw his village sacked and burned by barbarians. Taking refuge with the Hawkbrothers, he soon finds his life's calling—as a Healing Adept. But even as he learns the mystical ways of this ancient race, Darian cannot escape the dangers threatening his future. Another tribe of barbarians is approaching. The time has come...to stand up and fight. Views: 8
