Le Coeur de Telenko

Telenko, a New York taxi driver, spends his days ferrying around the dregs of society in one of the city’s roughest neighborhoods. He has an obsessive fear of dying like a guy he saw in a film, who’d hear his heart stop every 15 beats.
Because Telenko himself has a tired heart. He has a minor case of tachycardia and the odd extra systole, not helped by his stressful job and the constant abuse from his wheelchair-bound wife, Martha: “You don’t divorce a wife in a wheelchair, Telenko!”
She’ll get what’s coming to her, no doubt. Just like that slut who just got in his taxi who’s fooling around with some other guy right under her decrepit old husband’s nose.
So he decides to kill Martha.
But you gotta have some guts to kill your wife in cold blood. Especially when she’s got a nasty surprise in store…

A monstrous sea serpent is terrorizing the Fjördland, destroying one fishing boat after another, eating all on board, and keeping the Vikings from going on their pillaging expeditions. All hope seems lost until a stranger with a dark past and a score to settle with the gods shows up and offers to hunt down and slay the Krökken for a thousand silver talents. Soon a ragtag group of would-be monster hunters boards a drak and, against a divine, ominous Nordic background of lakes and mist and mountains, sets sail on a perilous mission not all will survive.

Lord Nelson, Lady Nelson and Jade continue to enjoy their ménage à trois as they travel to Africa. Their boat is savagely attacked by the natives as they go up river, deeper into the heart of this vibrant but mysterious continent. But is this just an act of pure brutality? Or is there another reason, perhaps one connected to that black pearl that Jade wears in her ear, a pearl that exactly matches that of their goddess? This is the beginning of a second cycle of the grippingly exotic adventures of Jade, the mistress of the eminent Lord and Lady Nelson.

Paris, 1843. The incredible case brought by Count Skarbek against the rich art dealer Northbrook continues, with new revelations surging forth by the day. The judge seems to have decided in favor of Skarbek—alias Louis Paulus, the famous painter who disappeared more than a decade before—when yet another shockwave is sent through the courtroom, in the form of composer Frederic Chopin, who has his own take on this tale of murder and double-crossing.

Our story starts in Washington, 1870. Matthew Montgomery has an important post at the Ministry of Defense. He’s rather an inflexible man who always respects the rules, which is why he warned his daughter, Helen, not to leave with that idiot, Glover. Of course, she did it anyway, and now she wants to come back and expects to be pardoned. But when Matthew arrives home the night of his Helen’s return, he opens the door to find his wife and daughter slaughtered in the hallway, and a strange star engraved on his daughter’s breast. His whole life is turned upside down. Traumatized, he starts out on the trail of the killers, with just one clue to help him on his way: a name – Jason Cauldry, from Topeka. Matthew wants to know why some stranger came such a long way just to etch that damn star onto his daughter’s body, so he sets off on a long journey, crossing the Appalachian mountains and the Mid-West, all the way to Topeka. But what will he find there?

Hot on the heels of the assassination of the Mayor of Barcelona, incidentally right after he’d handed over incriminating evidence of all the town’s bigwigs to the journalist Lucia Lopena, Cébes steps up to the mark. And he’s as corrupt as corrupt can be. Within a few days, Lucia is kidnapped. And I think we all know why. At the heart of all this upheaval, remains the “Double Eagle,” the coin that Jazz was blackmailed into obtaining in the previous chapter. He’s beginning to realize the implications of the recent events in his life, and so he goes out looking for one thing, and one thing only… not power, not money… revenge.

Three missing, one dead… When English lords start dropping like flies, the Empire is unhappy. Especially in British India—known as the Raj—where so much is at stake. Alexander Martin, the brave-but-prickly Ayesha, and the considerably less brave Warren Longfellow continue their investigation, but it soon becomes clear that there are some in Bombay who have no interest in seeing old stories resurface. Can the unlikely trio break through the smoke screen in time to save the next target?

In a future age where robots take care of most of the more tedious tasks, humans have a lot of time on their hands. So what to do with it? Well, obviously, they’re going to watch the Norman K. Barron show! Norman is a handsome and heroic policeman, whose dealings have already cost the life of his partner, who has now been replaced by Oshi Feal, a young recruit fresh out of police school. But nothing could have prepared Oshi for this kind of mission, where unexpected developments are a must… After all, you gotta keep the viewers happy!

Africa is becoming increasingly volatile, with the black population rallying in the wake of the goddess Anaktu, embodied by Jade. But Jade has started to resist Anaktu’s hold on her mind and body, finally remembering her past and the ones that she once loved. It’s too late now to save them, but she will have her revenge. In the same place, but another time, Kim Nelson pursues her quest for the treasure that is rightfully hers, seeking the rare wisdom of prophets and submitting to ever more haunting visions of a past that is not her own.

All of France is in a tizzy as Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor of the French People draws near, and the most pressing issues at court revolve around seating arrangements, optimal viewing of the ceremony and the Pope’s traveling entourage. This isn’t to say that scheming and shenanigans have taken a backseat, however: a heartbroken young lady seeks poisonous revenge, a redheaded Squirrel gets caught by an Ant, the sinister priest is back… and in the midst of all this, the two men with the masks finally decide to meet face to face.