ON THE BEACH  Structural Readers stage 5
There has been a nuclear war. People not killed by bombs are now being killed by nuclear radiation, which will remain in the world for many years. The story is set in Melbourne, Australia. People are still alive there because the radiation has not yet reached the city. It is mostly in the north. But it is slowly coming south.
Elf ranger Drizzt Do'Urden and his gifted warriors go in search of a missing member of their own band in this latest fast-moving fantasy adventure from bestseller Salvatore (Servant of the Shard, etc.). In the previous episode of the Paths of Darkness series (of the Forgotten Realms umbrella series), Wulfgar the barbarian fought a demon, was possessed and supposedly killed. Now it turns out that not only is he alive but he is in need of the type of assistance at which his friends excel.
Nero Wolfe and sidekick Archie Goodwin attempt to solve three puzzling cases of murder: in one, a person's questions lead to his death; another finds a man killed in a soundproof office; and in the last, a baseball rookie is removed from the lineup through murder.
Jack McEvoy is a Denver crime reporter with the stickiest assignment of his career. His twin brother, homicide detective Sean McEvoy, was found dead in his car from a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head--an Edgar Allen Poe quote smeared on the windshield. Jack is going to write the story. The problem is that Jack doesn't believe that his brother killed himself, and the more information he uncovers, the more it looks like Sean's death was the work of a serial killer.
They were best friends, driven by one shared vision - to rule the world of virtual reality games. Cill, hard-edged and beautiful, Var and Benny, brains and business acumen, and Bart, the genius behind the idea. Their newest invention, developed to transport the player into a fantastical virtual world, is just about to be launched. Then, suddenly, Bart is found brutally killed, defeated by their own game. Their close-knit group is torn apart. Who could have engineered a virtual death with such devastating consequences?
