Livre 1

The queen is dead. Killed by Blanche, her own daughter, driven to extreme measures by the bitterness of treachery. The devious sorceress Miranda is still fiercely lusting after Blanche’s lover, Prince Maldoror of the World Below. The sly prince uses the witch’s desire to his advantage, striking a sordid deal with her to help Blanche in her campaign to win back the throne of Middleland that is rightfully hers. Between them, they manage to summon a formidable fighting force unlike any other…

While the subtle games of power, sex and manipulation continue within the palace of Echinapur, the spirit of revolt amongst the townspeople with regard to the English presence comes into full force, suddenly and brutally. Meanwhile, we discover a new and unexpected side to the Maharajah himself, who at last assumes his responsibilities, winning his honor in the eyes of those closest to him. It all comes down to a bloody struggle between the English and the locals, but who will be victorious?

In this eighth volume of “XIII Mystery,” Frank Giroud and Colin Wilson recount the past of Martha Shoebridge, the doctor who saved XIII and diagnosed his amnesia in “The Day of the Black Sun.” Readers will find out what was at the source of her addiction to alcohol, and the life she led before crossing paths with XIII—including an unsuspected link with William Sheridan, the progressive president assassinated by Steve Rowland…

Undertaker Jonas Crow is charged with transporting the coffin of an ex-miner become millionaire back to the mining vein that made his fortune. The funeral should have been a calm affair, but there’s an unexpected turn of events: on the eve of his death, Joe Cusco swallowed all his gold, so as to carry it with him for all eternity. Unfortunately, the secret was leaked, provoking the fury of all the miners of Anoki City. They can’t just leave such a fortune to be buried while they’re sweating their souls away in the mining shafts! As Jonas says, “death never comes alone…”

Within the cool walls of the pavilion of pleasures, Jade instructs Tamila how to use her body to captivate a man. The man in question is the Maharajah and Tamila is the daughter of Raja Singh, a revolutionary who will stop at nothing to chase the English out of India. The more she becomes implicated in the politics of the country, the more dangerous Jade’s games become… she finds herself having to watch her back…

Peaceful country living consisting of leaky roofs, puppet shows, and drinks and arguments at the local tavern is disturbed when a rare species of grasshopper is discovered in a local field, and suddenly environmentalists, politicians, hunters, Big Pharma, union people, mushroom pickers and geriatric anarchists are all loudly fighting for what they believe is the right approach to things. In the midst of all this, one love story may be blooming in spite of a curse, another may be doomed for good and for poop, and questions of paternity arise yet again.

Blanche faces an overwhelming defeat on the battlefield due to the treachery of those she thought closest to her, driving her into exile. She storms onto the scene with vengeance in her heart and a new hardiness born of her disappointments. But her first priority is to save Maldoror from the clutches of the venomous Miranda. This cunning sorceress is cultivating a dangerous collaboration with Maldoror’s pernicious little sister, who is desperately trying to keep her brother away from the World Below so that she can maintain her throne. Things are looking pretty dire for the outcast lovers, in fact, so dire, that Blanche ends up doing the unthinkable…

We’re right in the middle of World War I, deep in the trenches. The soldiers are confronted by unimaginable suffering and violent death on a daily basis. Considered as nothing more than cannon fodder by their superiors, they try desperately to survive. Partly as an act of defiance in the face of hardship, partly as the ultimate irony, the soldiers nickname their regiment after the famous Parisian cabaret club ‘Folies Bergère’. They laugh and joke, they write, they draw, they fight, they die in appalling circumstances, they kill themselves, they lose their minds. And then one of their number is sentenced to death by firing squad… and miraculously survives…