Delancey S Way

The Orangette blogger and author of the best-selling A Homemade Life describes how her husband's decision to open and run a pizza restaurant sparked a first crisis in their young marriage.

Spring 196-, on the campus of the U of C and D--, in crumbling World War II barracks foreshadowing Vietnam -- incoming freshman are driven by testosterone, fear, and a dim sense of obligation to become "men." Draft boards close in. Beautiful co-eds drift doe-eyed under the pine trees on the Quadrangle, circled by upper-class Jocks like so many sharks. Professors profess from the pulpits of various disciplines, a neon mermaid throbs in the night sky at the apex of the L-shaped business district, and the latest Girl of the Month appears like clockwork in brazen glory on the wall above Roger Osborn's Love Candle. In the midst of such perils, what chance has a late bloomer like The Gnat? A budding misanthrope in a black raincoat like Martin Calihan? An accidental housemother like nubile Susan Thurlby -- or a neurotic maiden like lissome Shelley Wencelas, running against her will for Exhibit Day Queen -- or Osborn himself, the reluctant Jock transformed by ruthless publicity into The Freshman Whiz? Osborn doesn't know, but he's determined to think of something -- after all, human relationships are his specialty. And the jungle is waiting. And life. Or death. While nearby, steadfast in his quest for order in the midst of chaos, armed by the concept of duty, his green eyeshade and his trusty stapler, lurks Lawrence DeLancey ...

An operatic, satirical romp through (high and low) Washington -- filled with politicos and pundits, divas and divine spirits -- by the greatly admired author of Time Remaining and the cult classic Mawrdew Czgowchwz ("Bravo, James McCourt, a literary countertenor, in the exacting tradition of Firbank and Nabokov" -- Susan Sontag). It opens with Delancey, a reporter for the "East Hampton Star, being sent to cover the environmental budget wars of the 104th Congress, his copy of Henry Adams's Democracy in hand, for background on the farrago called overnment. It introduces us to le tout de Washington: the socialite (and exiled eighties New York party girl) Anastasia Harrington (a.k.a. Bam-Bam) and her billionaire husband, Max; a senator obsessed with the fall of the republic and with his rogue companion, an ex-hustler and congressional phone-sex virtuoso; the semiretired transvestite ballerina Odette O'Doyle and the diva (operatic and otherwise) Vana Sprezza; and Delancey's new friend, Ornette, a living antidote to the racism of our times, who sympathizes with the sexually profligate President (lovingly referred to as POTUS). From Delancey's trip on the Metroliner where it all begins, to a drink-soaked escapade in Key West, to soirees at the Harringtons' and the Cosmos Club, to the grand finale (an uproarious Venetian bal masque at the Library of Congress), McCourt shows us the pyrotechnic power plays of the nineties, eerily parallel to (but far deadlier than) those portrayed in Adams's chronicle of earlier times. Here is Washington as it should be seen -- upside down, and inside right.

Richard Delancey is soon called into action once more, as Britain prepares for the threat of a new French assault. Disturbing rumors are circulating about Napoleon's new weapons of war: vessels driven by steam-engines, new explosive devices, and, most troubling of all, a French secret weapon named Nautilus, which can travel underwater and attach explosive devices below the waterline. It will take all of Delancey's skill and courage to confront the threats.

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fiction Each year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. (Jon L. Breen), England (Maxim Jakubowski), Canada (Edo Van Belkom), Australia (David Honeybone), and Germany (Thomas Woertche). Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year's compilation, "the best value-for-money of any such anthology." The A-to-Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader: Robert Barnard • Lawrence Block • Jon L. Breen • Wolfgang Burger • Lillian Stewart Carl • Margaret Coel • Max Allan Collins • Bill Crider • Jeffery Deaver • Brendan DuBois • Susanna Gregory • Joseph Hansen • Carolyn G. Hart • Lauren Henderson • Edward D. Hoch • Clark Howard • Tatjana Kruse • Paul Lascaux • Dick Lochte • Peter Lovesey • Mary Jane Maffini • Ed McBain • Val McDermid • Marcia Muller • Joyce Carol Oates • Anne Perry • Nancy Pickard • Bill Pronzini • Ruth Rendell • S. J. Rozan • Billie Rubin • Kristine Kathryn Rusch • Stephan Rykena • David B. Silva • Nancy Springer • Jac. Toes • John Vermeulen • Donald E. Westlake • Carolyn Wheat. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Zeesie feels very grown-up indeed! For on this night, her seventh birthday, Zeesie is going to her first package party with Mama and Papa. She even has a brand new dress and a dollar bill -- her birthday gift -- all for herself! The package party is grand, with great towers of wrapped surprise packages to be auctioned to raise money for other new immigrants to the community. Such wonderful smells, tastes, and sounds, and oh, so much to see... But as Zeesie soon discovers, not everything and everyplace is meant to be explored, and what she does see that night on Delancey Street leaves her with a new knowledge about giving and receiving.