CHILDREN · SCIENCE FICTION
Easton Royce
On Thursday, November the fifth, 1696, most people went to church.
— from Dark Matter
Most acclaimed
Dark Matter
I swore not to tell this story while Newton was still alive.1696, young Christopher Ellis is sent to the Tower of London, but not as a prisoner. Though Ellis is notoriously hotheaded and was caught fighting an illegal duel, he arrives at the Tower as assistant to the renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Newton is Warden of the Royal Mint, which resides within the Tower walls, and he has accepted an appointment from the King of England and Parliament to investigate and prosecute counterfeiters whose false coins threaten to bring down the shaky, war-weakened economy. Ellis may lack Newton's scholarly mind, but he is quick with a pistol and proves himself to be an invaluable sidekick and devoted apprentice to Newton as they zealously pursue these criminals.While Newton and Ellis investigate a counterfeiting ring, they come upon a mysterious coded message on the body of a man killed in the Lion Tower, as well as alchemical symbols that indicate this was more than just a random murder. Despite Newton's formidable intellect, he is unable to decipher the cryptic message or any of the others he and Ellis find as the body count increases within the Tower complex. As they are drawn into a wild pursuit of the counterfeiters that takes them from the madhouse of Bedlam to the squalid confines of Newgate prison and back to the Tower itself, Newton and Ellis discover that the counterfeiting is only a small part of a larger, more dangerous plot, one that reaches to the highest echelons of power and nobility and threatens much more than the collapse of the economy. Dark Matter is the lastest masterwork of suspense from Philip Kerr, the internationally bestselling and brilliantly innovative thriller writer who has dazzled readers with his imaginative, fast-paced novels. Like An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Name of the Rose, and Kerr's own Berlin Noir trilogy, Dark Matter is historical mystery at its finest, an extraordinary, suspense-filled journey through the shadowy streets and back alleys of London with the brilliant Newton and his faithful protege. The haunted Tower with its bloody history is the perfect backdrop for this richly satisfying tale, one that introduces an engrossing mystery into the volatile mix of politics, science, and religion that characterized life in seventeenth-century London.From the Hardcover edition.
Mutiny
Nothing is more terrifying to a seagoing captain than the specter of mutiny, and nothing more riveting than a tale of mutinous deeds. In this fascinating book, Leonard Guttridge provides a casebook of mutinies that have occurred over the past two hundred years, beginning with the mutiny on the Bounty. Peopled with colorful characters and filled with suspense, Mutiny brings these dramatic and often bloody events to life, alternately exciting our horror and arousing our. Sympathy. But this book is much more than a mere collection of stories. With a meticulous attention to historical accuracy, Guttridge examines the world's famous and not-so-famous mutinies - the bloody uprising aboard the Potemkin, the racial disturbances on the Constellation, the rebellion at the Nore, the hijacking of the Storozhevoy, to name but a few - and asks what these incidents, occurring in different navies and in different ages, have in common. His findings are. Both startling and illuminating. In his search for a single definition of mutiny, Guttridge came upon muddy waters. Contrary to popular belief, there is more to mutiny than solely the effort to seize control of a ship. Legal opinions are inconclusive. Some courts have ruled that simple disobedience qualifies. Some military legalists insist that a mutiny must be a cooperative act, others hold that one person can make a mutiny. As a result, the word "mutiny" has been laid. To acts as diverse as the murderous violence of the Hermione's men and the hunger strikes of the Friedrich der Grosse's crew. Guttridge charts a course through controversial if not always incontrovertibly mutinous waters, shedding fresh light on American episodes as widely separated in time as the Somers affair and the Vance tragi-comedy. He claims that discipline often depends more upon the crew's decision to obey than upon the officers' will to lead. Why, then, does. Mutiny occur only rarely in naval history? What are the forces that maintain discipline and sustain morale? And what are the factors that cause sailors to rebel against their officers? Guttridge's answers in this definitive study are sure to fascinate historians and naval leaders alike, suggesting that only communication between all levels of command can prevent mutiny, the greatest naval catastrophe of all.