DCC Bob Skinner has a failed marriage on his hands, and a death on his conscience, but little time to deal with either as he faces the biggest challenge of his career within the secret corridors where dark power is wielded. As his hunt develops, he goes to the very top - the Prime Minister - lest he himself becomes collateral damage.
DCC Bob Skinner has witnessed the aftermath of murder countless times. Yet nothing could have prepared him for identifying the strangled bodies of his wife's beloved parents, killed at their lakeside cabin in New York State. Driven by cold rage, Skinner quickly muscles in on the investigation, and soon he's found links with three other cases where the killing is too professional to be the result of a burglary gone wrong. But can he penetrate the multiple layers of intrigue to unearth the killer?
In one week, the Board of Inspectors is coming to Rotten School, and if everything isn’t up to their standards, the school will be shut down. But Bernie Bridges is too busy scheming to worry about that. When he sees Sherman Oaks, his archenemy, charging everyone to play his video game, Bernie comes up with a brilliant plan to make money. He’ll organize a game where everyone acts out the characters from the video in real life. The game wil be played for a fee, of course. But chaos breaks loose--just in time for the inspectors’ big visit!
While Hervey plans his escape from the Spanish, his memories turn to 1812, when as a young cornet he was part of Wellington's victorious army as it pushed its way north through Spain towards the Pyrenees. But first, the British had to storm the fortress where he is imprisoned now: Badajos - a fortress of huge strategic importance - where French resistance was at its most fierce and most bloody...
1817 and 1818 have not been good years for Matthew Hervey. His beloved wife Henrietta is dead and he is no longer in the Sixth regiment. Now he is kicking his heels in a corrupt and unruly England far removed from its once glorious past. 1819 sees Hervey in Rome with his sister Elizabeth where a chance meeting with man of letters Percy Bysshe Shelley leads him to rethink his future.
