Foreign Mystery

Sergeant David Wolf has put his Special Forces days long behind him, settling down as a cop in the small ski resort town of Rocky Points, Colorado. He's a good cop who's seen bad days before, but none quite like this. As if narrowly escaping an attempt on his life, his addict ex-wife being back in the picture, and complications to his all-but-certain appointment to sheriff weren't enough, he's just received word that his brother has committed suicide in the Alps of Italy.

Martin Friedrich, a German philosopher, is cycling through an intersection on his way to give a lecture when a speeding car strikes and kills him. Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter - an Austrian-born cockney Jew, whose parents were interned during the war as enemy aliens - stands over the body of Friedrich, contemplating the age-old question: who did it?

On the vacation of a lifetime in Egypt, an elderly French couple are brutally murdered. Days later, a meticulously planned kidnapping takes place on the streets of Paris. Amelia Levene, the first female Chief of MI6, has disappeared without a trace, six weeks before she is due to take over as the most influential spy in Europe. It is the gravest crisis MI6 has faced in more than a decade. Desperate not only to find her, but to keep her disappearance a secret, Britain’s top intelligence agents turn to one of their own: disgraced MI6 officer Thomas Kell.

It begins when the strangely marked body of a young prostitute is found just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. A similarly disfigured corpse of an American nun turns up. Then an Arab boy. As the list of victims grows, their only apparent connection is the bizarre markings on their bodies, it appears that Israel is facing its first serial murder case.

This collection gathers the finest pieces from the "Appreciation of Foreign Literature" column. It includes works by influential contemporary writers from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, and Japan, with a focus on the United States and Japan.

With his career stalled and the office abuzz about his soon-to-be-ex-wife's indiscretions, Ottawa bureaucrat Charlie Hillier is desperate for a change. So when the chance at a posting to the Canadian embassy in Havana comes up, he jumps at it, grateful to get as far away as he can from his ex and his dead-end job at Foreign Affairs headquarters. At first, exotic Havana seems just the place to bury his past and start anew, but he didn't count on finding a couple of kilos of cocaine under his bedroom floor, or the kidnapping of a fellow diplomat....

Ottawa bureaucrat-turned-diplomat Charlie Hillier is back. Having barely survived his first posting in Havana, Charlie is eager to put what he learned there to good use. And it isn't long before he's thrust into a fresh case - a technical writer from Toronto in a Moscow jail on dubious drug charges. Charlie has barely put a dent in the brick wall that is the Russian legal system when the jailed man turns up dead; the official explanation: suicide. And just when evidence to the contrary is discovered, the body is "accidentally" cremated by the authorities.

Newspaper mogul Mylocent Winecroft is eager for his knighthood. But after journalist Henry Henderson almost decimates this prospect, Henderson is promoted to foreign correspondent and promptly dispatched to Morocco. Caught in the whirlwind of mad monkeys, deep-fried snails, and a lack of booze, Henderson loses his marbles while searching for the Gujat tribe and their black magic.

China, June 1918. When the explorer Frank Meyer suddenly disappears from a ferry on the Yangtze River, American Vice-Consul Samuel Sokobin is tasked with finding the missing man. By the time Sokobin receives the case, four days have passed since Meyer was last seen on the vast river. With no clues to guide his search and fearing failure in his new post as a man of rank, Sokobin heads upriver with Mr. Lin, a Chinese interpreter he's never met. The investigation soon turns deeply personal for Sokobin, who can't help but conflate Meyer's fate with that of his own daring younger brother.

Ein verdeckter Treffpunkt des US-Geheimdiensts in Syrien wurde Ziel eines Anschlags. Noch bevor das dort stationierte Einsatzteam seinen Auftrag ausführen konnte, verwandelten Terroristen den Unterschlupf in ein Blutbad. Anti-Terror-Agent Scot Harvath trägt die Verantwortung für das Desaster. Fieberhaft sucht er nach den Drahtziehern. Es gibt einen Saboteur in den eigenen Reihen und Harvath muss ihn finden.

Jamie Monroe has always played it safe. That is, until her live-for-the-moment best friend, Tristan, jets off to Italy on a student exchange program. Left alone with her part-time mother and her disabled brother, Jamie discovers that she is quite capable of taking her own risks, starting with her best friend's hotter-than-hot older brother, Sawyer.

When John Mordred leaves MI7, marries the woman he loves, and settles down to a relatively humdrum lifestyle, it ought to be a brave new start. But he and his wife have formerly been top-level spies, and they find the readjustment harder than they anticipated. When - courtesy of a friend, and apparently out of the blue - they’re offered an all-expenses-paid holiday in Malta, it seems the answer to both their prayers. Sunshine, relaxation, and romance. Just what the doctor ordered.

This dramatic story gives an insight into the effects of war on individuals. We tend to see "war" as a whole and from a faraway distance. Here, you take a look at the raw and real situation of events. You get to know the characters and understand how the war affects their lives. Though it's fictional, it reflects on real events happening to people.