Sometimes a mouse just has to bust out and do something big. That's why Marvin (also known as "Merciless Marvin the Magnificent") decides it's time to lead Raymond the Rat and Fats the Fuse out of their cozy lair at the back of the movie theater and on to greater glory. Enough of stale popcorn and left over candy! It's time to go in search of...cheese!
A weather balloon carrying military information apparently crashes in Switzerland and Bellamy of US Intelligence is despatched to locate the witnesses and swear them to secrecy. However, on his arrival he discovers that the truth is far more terrifying.
Dedicated young psychologist Dr. Jeremy Carrier is unschooled in the ways of violent crime and incalculable evil - until his life is irreversibly touched by both. When his romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut short by her kidnapping and brutal murder, he is left emotionally devastated and being warily eyed by police seeking a prime suspect in the unsolved killing. To escape the pain, he buries himself in his work. But when more women turn up murdered in the same gruesome fashion as Jocelyn, the suspicion surrounding Jeremy intensifies and the only way for him to prove his innocence is to follow the trail of a cunning psychopath.
Wolfe continues the saga begun in Nightside the Long Sun with this curious mix of science and medieval culture in which gods possess people and robotic police patrol mysterious underground passageways. Patera Silk, a young cleric, attempts to ransom his parish buildings from creditors; in the process he uncovers a larger conspiracy involving the government of Viron and even the gods he worships. Emerging from the underground with his new knowledge, he finds himself chosen as leader ("Calde") of the masses and is simultaneously arrested.
It is the dawn of World War II, and Neville Chamberlain believes he has bought "peace for our time" from Adolph Hitler, who has just seized Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The English are alarmed by the huge German army, while the soldiers that would defend London don't even have steel helmets. For many, compromise and appeasement seem to be England's best defense.
