Author: Robert C. Yeager
Publisher: Abbott Press
ISBN: 1458201554
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
History, suspense, romance The Romanov Stone has it all. - New York Times best-selling author Antoinette May Her mothers deathbed revelation that she is a descendant of Nicholas II, Russias last tsar, launches reclusive Kate Gavrill on a bold search for a lost family fortune. But nothing is simple in the tragic history of the Romanov clan. Only by finding the rarest of precious gemsa fabulous, long-missing alexandritecan Kate claim her treasure. At her side as she journeys across continents is Simon Blake, a respected New York gemologist, whose powerful attraction to Kate is undercut by deep fears about her mission. In their daring quest, they confront Colombian jewel thieves, blood-thirsty Ukrainian mafiya, and a sinister cleric trained in mind control, each hoping to seize the Romanov Stone. Haunted by her past, driven by a promise to restore her familys name, Kate gambles all for a prize she may never attain.
The Romanov Stone
Author: Robert C. Yeager
Publisher: Abbott Press
ISBN: 1458201554
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
History, suspense, romance The Romanov Stone has it all. - New York Times best-selling author Antoinette May Her mothers deathbed revelation that she is a descendant of Nicholas II, Russias last tsar, launches reclusive Kate Gavrill on a bold search for a lost family fortune. But nothing is simple in the tragic history of the Romanov clan. Only by finding the rarest of precious gemsa fabulous, long-missing alexandritecan Kate claim her treasure. At her side as she journeys across continents is Simon Blake, a respected New York gemologist, whose powerful attraction to Kate is undercut by deep fears about her mission. In their daring quest, they confront Colombian jewel thieves, blood-thirsty Ukrainian mafiya, and a sinister cleric trained in mind control, each hoping to seize the Romanov Stone. Haunted by her past, driven by a promise to restore her familys name, Kate gambles all for a prize she may never attain.
Publisher: Abbott Press
ISBN: 1458201554
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
History, suspense, romance The Romanov Stone has it all. - New York Times best-selling author Antoinette May Her mothers deathbed revelation that she is a descendant of Nicholas II, Russias last tsar, launches reclusive Kate Gavrill on a bold search for a lost family fortune. But nothing is simple in the tragic history of the Romanov clan. Only by finding the rarest of precious gemsa fabulous, long-missing alexandritecan Kate claim her treasure. At her side as she journeys across continents is Simon Blake, a respected New York gemologist, whose powerful attraction to Kate is undercut by deep fears about her mission. In their daring quest, they confront Colombian jewel thieves, blood-thirsty Ukrainian mafiya, and a sinister cleric trained in mind control, each hoping to seize the Romanov Stone. Haunted by her past, driven by a promise to restore her familys name, Kate gambles all for a prize she may never attain.
Stories in Stone
Author: Stephen E. Nash
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607325039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Vasily Konovalenko’s unique, dynamic, and theatrical sculptures stand alone in the gem-carving world—bawdy but not salacious, political but not diplomatic, boisterous and exuberant yet occasionally sensitive. Stories in Stone offers the first comprehensive treatment of the life of this little-known Russian artist and the remarkable history of his wonderful sculptures. Part art catalogue and part life history, Stories in Stone tells the tale of Konovalenko’s impressive works, explaining their conception, creation, and symbolism. Each handcrafted figure depicts a scene from life in the Soviet Union—a bowman hunting snow geese, a woman reposing in a hot spring surrounded by ice, peasants spinning wool, a pair of gulag prisoners sawing lumber—painstakingly rendered in precious stones and metals. The materials used to make the figurines are worth millions of dollars, but as cultural artifacts, the sculptures are priceless. Author Stephen Nash draws upon oral history and archival research to detail the life of their creator, revealing a rags-to-riches and life-imitates-art narrative full of Cold War intrigue, Communist persecution, and capitalist exploitation. Augmented by Richard M. Wicker’s exquisite and revelatory photographs of sixty-five Konovalenko sculptures from museums, state agencies, and private collections around the world, Stories in Stone is a visually stunning glimpse into a unique corner of Russian art and cultural history, the craft and science of gem carving, and the life of a Russian artist and immigrant who loved people everywhere. Co-published with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, home to the most significant collection of Russian gem-carving sculptures by Vasily Konovalenko in the world.
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607325039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Vasily Konovalenko’s unique, dynamic, and theatrical sculptures stand alone in the gem-carving world—bawdy but not salacious, political but not diplomatic, boisterous and exuberant yet occasionally sensitive. Stories in Stone offers the first comprehensive treatment of the life of this little-known Russian artist and the remarkable history of his wonderful sculptures. Part art catalogue and part life history, Stories in Stone tells the tale of Konovalenko’s impressive works, explaining their conception, creation, and symbolism. Each handcrafted figure depicts a scene from life in the Soviet Union—a bowman hunting snow geese, a woman reposing in a hot spring surrounded by ice, peasants spinning wool, a pair of gulag prisoners sawing lumber—painstakingly rendered in precious stones and metals. The materials used to make the figurines are worth millions of dollars, but as cultural artifacts, the sculptures are priceless. Author Stephen Nash draws upon oral history and archival research to detail the life of their creator, revealing a rags-to-riches and life-imitates-art narrative full of Cold War intrigue, Communist persecution, and capitalist exploitation. Augmented by Richard M. Wicker’s exquisite and revelatory photographs of sixty-five Konovalenko sculptures from museums, state agencies, and private collections around the world, Stories in Stone is a visually stunning glimpse into a unique corner of Russian art and cultural history, the craft and science of gem carving, and the life of a Russian artist and immigrant who loved people everywhere. Co-published with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, home to the most significant collection of Russian gem-carving sculptures by Vasily Konovalenko in the world.
The Russian Empire 1450-1801
Author: Nancy Shields Kollmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191082708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 501
Book Description
Modern Russian identity and historical experience has been largely shaped by Russia's imperial past: an empire that was founded in the early modern era and endures in large part today. The Russian Empire 1450-1801 surveys how the areas that made up the empire were conquered and how they were governed. It considers the Russian empire a 'Eurasian empire', characterized by a 'politics of difference': the rulers and their elites at the center defined the state's needs minimally - with control over defense, criminal law, taxation, and mobilization of resources - and otherwise tolerated local religions, languages, cultures, elites, and institutions. The center related to communities and religions vertically, according each a modicum of rights and autonomies, but didn't allow horizontal connections across nobilities, townsmen, or other groups potentially with common interests to coalesce. Thus, the Russian empire was multi-ethnic and multi-religious; Nancy Kollmann gives detailed attention to the major ethnic and religious groups, and surveys the government's strategies of governance - centralized bureaucracy, military reform, and a changed judicial system. The volume pays particular attention to the dissemination of a supranational ideology of political legitimacy in a variety of media - written sources and primarily public ritual, painting, and particularly architecture. Beginning with foundational features, such as geography, climate, demography, and geopolitical situation, The Russian Empire 1450-1801 explores the empire's primarily agrarian economy, serfdom, towns and trade, as well as the many religious groups - primarily Orthodoxy, Islam, and Buddhism. It tracks the emergence of an 'Imperial nobility' and a national self-consciousness that was, by the end of the eighteenth century, distinctly imperial, embracing the diversity of the empire's many peoples and cultures.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191082708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 501
Book Description
Modern Russian identity and historical experience has been largely shaped by Russia's imperial past: an empire that was founded in the early modern era and endures in large part today. The Russian Empire 1450-1801 surveys how the areas that made up the empire were conquered and how they were governed. It considers the Russian empire a 'Eurasian empire', characterized by a 'politics of difference': the rulers and their elites at the center defined the state's needs minimally - with control over defense, criminal law, taxation, and mobilization of resources - and otherwise tolerated local religions, languages, cultures, elites, and institutions. The center related to communities and religions vertically, according each a modicum of rights and autonomies, but didn't allow horizontal connections across nobilities, townsmen, or other groups potentially with common interests to coalesce. Thus, the Russian empire was multi-ethnic and multi-religious; Nancy Kollmann gives detailed attention to the major ethnic and religious groups, and surveys the government's strategies of governance - centralized bureaucracy, military reform, and a changed judicial system. The volume pays particular attention to the dissemination of a supranational ideology of political legitimacy in a variety of media - written sources and primarily public ritual, painting, and particularly architecture. Beginning with foundational features, such as geography, climate, demography, and geopolitical situation, The Russian Empire 1450-1801 explores the empire's primarily agrarian economy, serfdom, towns and trade, as well as the many religious groups - primarily Orthodoxy, Islam, and Buddhism. It tracks the emergence of an 'Imperial nobility' and a national self-consciousness that was, by the end of the eighteenth century, distinctly imperial, embracing the diversity of the empire's many peoples and cultures.
The Romanov Diamonds
Author: Gordon Donnell
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532059930
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
“Do not let yourself be tempted to pursue the Romanov diamonds. They corrupt all who venture close to them.” A struggling academic is lured into a perilous quest to find a book lost for ten centuries. The last words of a revolutionary lost in the Bolshevik Terror a hundred years earlier warn him of worse to come. He has become a pawn in a scheme involving a priceless hoard of jewels that vanished following the murder of the Russian royal family. Trapped in a world where nothing is as it seems, he must walk a twisted path between the law and the lawless to learn the secret of the Romanov diamonds.
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532059930
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
“Do not let yourself be tempted to pursue the Romanov diamonds. They corrupt all who venture close to them.” A struggling academic is lured into a perilous quest to find a book lost for ten centuries. The last words of a revolutionary lost in the Bolshevik Terror a hundred years earlier warn him of worse to come. He has become a pawn in a scheme involving a priceless hoard of jewels that vanished following the murder of the Russian royal family. Trapped in a world where nothing is as it seems, he must walk a twisted path between the law and the lawless to learn the secret of the Romanov diamonds.
Ambersley
Author: Amy Atwell
Publisher: Amy Atwell
ISBN: 0984968202
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
An heiress in disguise. A duke who doubts his legitimacy. Will secrets destroy their love? Traumatized by a blaze that killed her parents, young Johanna remembers nothing of her privileged past and remains ignorant of the dangers that surround her. She grows up among the servants, where she develops a sense of purpose that helps her survive the betrayal that unmasks her true identity. Once she is forced to take her proper place in Regency society as the highly sought heiress to the Ambersley fortune, she must defy the relatives who would make her a pawn in their struggle for power. When Derek Vaughan inherits the dukedom, his dubious parentage makes it a sacrilege to accept. But touched by the ravaged estate and its destitute staff, he braves a society that once shunned him while he rebuilds Ambersley and guards it from his stepmother's bankrupting clutches. He intends to grant the title to his half-brother when the boy comes of age, but Derek's plans go awry from the moment the gardener's apprentice—once his trusted young friend—is revealed to be not only an heiress of beauty and spirit, but the one woman who may finally capture his heart. Note on the Second Edition: This May 2019 edition of Ambersley has been abridged to remove the “on screen” action of two lovemaking scenes.
Publisher: Amy Atwell
ISBN: 0984968202
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
An heiress in disguise. A duke who doubts his legitimacy. Will secrets destroy their love? Traumatized by a blaze that killed her parents, young Johanna remembers nothing of her privileged past and remains ignorant of the dangers that surround her. She grows up among the servants, where she develops a sense of purpose that helps her survive the betrayal that unmasks her true identity. Once she is forced to take her proper place in Regency society as the highly sought heiress to the Ambersley fortune, she must defy the relatives who would make her a pawn in their struggle for power. When Derek Vaughan inherits the dukedom, his dubious parentage makes it a sacrilege to accept. But touched by the ravaged estate and its destitute staff, he braves a society that once shunned him while he rebuilds Ambersley and guards it from his stepmother's bankrupting clutches. He intends to grant the title to his half-brother when the boy comes of age, but Derek's plans go awry from the moment the gardener's apprentice—once his trusted young friend—is revealed to be not only an heiress of beauty and spirit, but the one woman who may finally capture his heart. Note on the Second Edition: This May 2019 edition of Ambersley has been abridged to remove the “on screen” action of two lovemaking scenes.
Blood Stones
Author: Evelyn Anthony
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504024311
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
The diamond industry explodes in anarchy when a cache of rare gems is discovered in Russia in this intellectual thriller At London’s Diamond Enterprises, a major crisis is brewing: In the tundra of northern Russia, a newly discovered mine is producing a cache of flawless, five-carat red diamonds. These dazzling “blood stones” are beyond price, and powerful jeweler Ivan Karakov is about to sign an exclusive contract with Moscow to sell the gems. He must be stopped before he destabilizes the market and sends the industry plunging into free fall. With the future of Diamond Enterprises at risk, its employees start scrambling for power. Young, ambitious James Hastings—whose beautiful wife, Elizabeth, is his most powerful asset as well as his most dangerous weakness—is sent to Russia to negotiate with Karakov. Chairman Julius Heyderman, haunted by his tragic past and troubled daughter, returns from South Africa to deal with longtime adversary Arthur Harris. Reece, trapped in a relationship he can’t control, is universally hated by all at DE, while Ray Andrews seeks redemption for a terrible mistake and Ruth Fraser sleeps her way to the top in hopes of becoming DE’s first female leader. A riveting tale of greed, betrayal, and industrial espionage, Blood Stones reveals how much people are willing to sacrifice for money.
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504024311
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
The diamond industry explodes in anarchy when a cache of rare gems is discovered in Russia in this intellectual thriller At London’s Diamond Enterprises, a major crisis is brewing: In the tundra of northern Russia, a newly discovered mine is producing a cache of flawless, five-carat red diamonds. These dazzling “blood stones” are beyond price, and powerful jeweler Ivan Karakov is about to sign an exclusive contract with Moscow to sell the gems. He must be stopped before he destabilizes the market and sends the industry plunging into free fall. With the future of Diamond Enterprises at risk, its employees start scrambling for power. Young, ambitious James Hastings—whose beautiful wife, Elizabeth, is his most powerful asset as well as his most dangerous weakness—is sent to Russia to negotiate with Karakov. Chairman Julius Heyderman, haunted by his tragic past and troubled daughter, returns from South Africa to deal with longtime adversary Arthur Harris. Reece, trapped in a relationship he can’t control, is universally hated by all at DE, while Ray Andrews seeks redemption for a terrible mistake and Ruth Fraser sleeps her way to the top in hopes of becoming DE’s first female leader. A riveting tale of greed, betrayal, and industrial espionage, Blood Stones reveals how much people are willing to sacrifice for money.
The Russian Army in the Great War
Author: David R. Stone
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700633081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Book Description
A full century later, our picture of World War I remains one of wholesale, pointless slaughter in the trenches of the Western front. Expanding our focus to the Eastern front, as David R. Stone does in this masterly work, fundamentally alters—and clarifies—that picture. A thorough, and thoroughly readable, history of the Russian front during the First World War, this book corrects widespread misperceptions of the Russian Army and the war in the east even as it deepens and extends our understanding of the broader conflict. Of the four empires at war by the end of 1914—the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German, and Russian—none survived. But specific political, social, and economic weaknesses shaped the way Russia collapsed and returned as a radically new Soviet regime. It is this context that Stone's work provides, that gives readers a more judicious view of Russia's war on the home front as well as on the front lines. One key and fateful difference in the Russian experience emerges here: its failure to systematically and comprehensively reorganize its society for war, while the three westernmost powers embarked on programs of total mobilization. Context is also vital to understanding the particular rhythm of the war in the east. Drawing on recent and newly available scholarship in Russian and in English, Stone offers a nuanced account of Russia's military operations, concentrating on the uninterrupted sequence of campaigns in the first 18 months of war. The eastern empires' race to collapse underlines the critical importance of contingency in the complete story of World War I. Precisely when and how Russia lost the war was influenced by the structural strengths and weaknesses of its social and economic system, but also by the outcome of events on the battlefield. By bringing these events into focus, and putting them into context, this book corrects and enriches our picture of World War I, and of the true strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and successes of the Russian Army in the Great War.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700633081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Book Description
A full century later, our picture of World War I remains one of wholesale, pointless slaughter in the trenches of the Western front. Expanding our focus to the Eastern front, as David R. Stone does in this masterly work, fundamentally alters—and clarifies—that picture. A thorough, and thoroughly readable, history of the Russian front during the First World War, this book corrects widespread misperceptions of the Russian Army and the war in the east even as it deepens and extends our understanding of the broader conflict. Of the four empires at war by the end of 1914—the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German, and Russian—none survived. But specific political, social, and economic weaknesses shaped the way Russia collapsed and returned as a radically new Soviet regime. It is this context that Stone's work provides, that gives readers a more judicious view of Russia's war on the home front as well as on the front lines. One key and fateful difference in the Russian experience emerges here: its failure to systematically and comprehensively reorganize its society for war, while the three westernmost powers embarked on programs of total mobilization. Context is also vital to understanding the particular rhythm of the war in the east. Drawing on recent and newly available scholarship in Russian and in English, Stone offers a nuanced account of Russia's military operations, concentrating on the uninterrupted sequence of campaigns in the first 18 months of war. The eastern empires' race to collapse underlines the critical importance of contingency in the complete story of World War I. Precisely when and how Russia lost the war was influenced by the structural strengths and weaknesses of its social and economic system, but also by the outcome of events on the battlefield. By bringing these events into focus, and putting them into context, this book corrects and enriches our picture of World War I, and of the true strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and successes of the Russian Army in the Great War.
The Romanov Conspiracy
Author: Glenn Meade
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451669453
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 521
Book Description
Since July 1918, no one has been able to solve the mysterious disappearance of Princess Anastasia—until Dr. Laura Pavlov uncovers some haunting clues in this thriller by the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Second Messiah. Dr. Laura Pavlov, an American forensic archaeologist, is about to unravel a mystery that promises to shed light on one of the twentieth century’s greatest enigmas. Digging on the outskirts of the present-day Russian city of Ekaterinburg, where the Romanov royal family was executed in July 1918, Pavlov discovers a body perfectly preserved in the permafrost of a disused mine shaft. The remains offer dramatic new clues to the disappearance of the Romanovs, and in particular their famous daughter, Princess Anastasia, whose murder has always been in question. Pavlov’s discovery sets her on an unlikely journey to Ireland, where a carefully hidden account of a years-old covert mission is about to change the accepted course of world history and hurl her back into the past—into a maelstrom of deceit, secrets, and lies. Drawn from historical fact, The Romanov Conspiracy is a page-turning story of love and friendship tested by war, and a desperate battle between revenge and redemption, set against one of the most bloody and brutal revolutions in world history.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451669453
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 521
Book Description
Since July 1918, no one has been able to solve the mysterious disappearance of Princess Anastasia—until Dr. Laura Pavlov uncovers some haunting clues in this thriller by the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Second Messiah. Dr. Laura Pavlov, an American forensic archaeologist, is about to unravel a mystery that promises to shed light on one of the twentieth century’s greatest enigmas. Digging on the outskirts of the present-day Russian city of Ekaterinburg, where the Romanov royal family was executed in July 1918, Pavlov discovers a body perfectly preserved in the permafrost of a disused mine shaft. The remains offer dramatic new clues to the disappearance of the Romanovs, and in particular their famous daughter, Princess Anastasia, whose murder has always been in question. Pavlov’s discovery sets her on an unlikely journey to Ireland, where a carefully hidden account of a years-old covert mission is about to change the accepted course of world history and hurl her back into the past—into a maelstrom of deceit, secrets, and lies. Drawn from historical fact, The Romanov Conspiracy is a page-turning story of love and friendship tested by war, and a desperate battle between revenge and redemption, set against one of the most bloody and brutal revolutions in world history.
Soviet Life
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Soviet Union
Languages : en
Pages : 340
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Soviet Union
Languages : en
Pages : 340
Book Description
The Lady in Black and Other City Tales
Author: Graham Sykes
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1465303537
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
The short story should enlighten, excite and above all, entertain the reader from an early stage. It is the skill of grasping interest from the outset and retaining such that remains the aim of any writer. THE LADY IN BLACK and Other City Tales collects fourteen short stories set in a different city at a time of particular interest in each chosen destinations history. When better to visit Venice than at the time of Casanova (BECKFORDS VENETIAN AFFAIR) or Vienna in the dying days of the belle epoch of Emperor Franz Josef ? In THE LADY IN BLACK , the mystery of Gustav Klimts last missing portrait is solved in a thrilling journey through the battlefields of the second world war to the present day (and where a particularly chilling twist is revealed at the storys conclusion!). In DUPONTS REVENGE, the French Resistance is reactivated in 1970s Nice to deal with a troublesome neighbour, and in present day Liverpool, a journalist discovers to his cost the consequences of meddling in the affairs of THE TOXTETH VAMPIRE. The futility of Britains celebrity obsession is evaluated in all its puerile glory where, in FALLS ROAD DON JUAN, a Belfast lothario accepts a sexual wager which if won, will see him fifty thousand pounds better off. It is common knowledge that the invasion of Britain by the German war machine seemed inevitable in 1940, but few appreciate the even greater threat to the security of the nation which occurred twenty three years earlier when Winston Churchill ordered tanks into a major British city on the verge of Bolshevik revolution. THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN tells the story of Brennan, the charismatic anarchist who came dangerously close in bringing the worlds greatest Empire to collapse. Britain is again under threat in THE LAST TARGET. Set in a future London on the brink of civil war a young intelligence operative hunts the worlds most elusive assassin on the eve of the reopening of the House of Commons destroyed by Islamic terrorists. Join three middle aged men in a touching tale of lost youth in THE INTERESTING ACCOUNTANT as they attempt to relive old times in modern day Cuba, and in DIET, a young Calgary lawyer finds success in her endeavour to loose weight but at a terrible cost. In FRANKIE AND BENNY a young Scots entrepreneur lives the American dream at the dawn of the twentieth Century in New York and gives the Marx Brothers their first break in entertainment along the way. If the purpose of the short story is to seek a response from the reader, to make them laugh, cry, sulk, shudder, frown or wince, THE LADY IN BLACK and Other City Tales delivers.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1465303537
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
The short story should enlighten, excite and above all, entertain the reader from an early stage. It is the skill of grasping interest from the outset and retaining such that remains the aim of any writer. THE LADY IN BLACK and Other City Tales collects fourteen short stories set in a different city at a time of particular interest in each chosen destinations history. When better to visit Venice than at the time of Casanova (BECKFORDS VENETIAN AFFAIR) or Vienna in the dying days of the belle epoch of Emperor Franz Josef ? In THE LADY IN BLACK , the mystery of Gustav Klimts last missing portrait is solved in a thrilling journey through the battlefields of the second world war to the present day (and where a particularly chilling twist is revealed at the storys conclusion!). In DUPONTS REVENGE, the French Resistance is reactivated in 1970s Nice to deal with a troublesome neighbour, and in present day Liverpool, a journalist discovers to his cost the consequences of meddling in the affairs of THE TOXTETH VAMPIRE. The futility of Britains celebrity obsession is evaluated in all its puerile glory where, in FALLS ROAD DON JUAN, a Belfast lothario accepts a sexual wager which if won, will see him fifty thousand pounds better off. It is common knowledge that the invasion of Britain by the German war machine seemed inevitable in 1940, but few appreciate the even greater threat to the security of the nation which occurred twenty three years earlier when Winston Churchill ordered tanks into a major British city on the verge of Bolshevik revolution. THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN tells the story of Brennan, the charismatic anarchist who came dangerously close in bringing the worlds greatest Empire to collapse. Britain is again under threat in THE LAST TARGET. Set in a future London on the brink of civil war a young intelligence operative hunts the worlds most elusive assassin on the eve of the reopening of the House of Commons destroyed by Islamic terrorists. Join three middle aged men in a touching tale of lost youth in THE INTERESTING ACCOUNTANT as they attempt to relive old times in modern day Cuba, and in DIET, a young Calgary lawyer finds success in her endeavour to loose weight but at a terrible cost. In FRANKIE AND BENNY a young Scots entrepreneur lives the American dream at the dawn of the twentieth Century in New York and gives the Marx Brothers their first break in entertainment along the way. If the purpose of the short story is to seek a response from the reader, to make them laugh, cry, sulk, shudder, frown or wince, THE LADY IN BLACK and Other City Tales delivers.