Merrivale Holds The Key

Enemies at every turn in this medieval mystery thriller perfect for fans of D. V. Bishop and S. J. Parris. Florence, 1342. A city on the brink of chaos. Restored to favour at court, King's Messenger Simon Merrivale accompanies an English delegation to Florence, the powerful centre of European finance, to negotiate a loan to offset King Edward III’s chronic debt. A top secret plot, one to decide the fate of European control. But the delegation has another purpose: to set up an Englishman, Henry Stapledon, Bishop of Dorchester, as an anti-pope in Rome. If they can succeed, they will undermine the papacy and strike a hammer blow to French support across Europe. But one devastating betrayal will shatter their hopes. When disaster strikes, Merrivale finds himself alone, isolated and with a dozen different factions out for his blood. With no way to go but forward, he must plunge back into the seething torrent of Florence’s cutthroat streets, and dangers greater than any he has ever faced before, if he is to survive.

The struggle over land has been the central issue in Zimbabwe ever since white settlers began to carve out large farms over a century ago. Their monopolisation of the better-watered half of the land was the focus of the African war of liberation war, and was partially modified following Independence in 1980. A dramatic further episode in this history was launched at the start of the last decade with the occupation of many farms by groups of African veterans of the liberation struggle and their supporters, which was then institutionalised by legislation to take over most of the large commercial farms for sub-division. Sustained fieldwork over the intervening years, by teams of scholars and experts, and by individual researchers is now generating an array of evidence-based findings of the outcomes: how land was acquired and disposed of; how it has been used; how far new farmers have carved out new livelihoods and viable new communities; the major political and economic problems they and other stakeholders such as former farm-workers, commercial farmers, and the overall rural society now face. This book will be an essential starting place for analysts, policy-makers, historians and activists seeking to understand what has happened and to spotlight the key issues for the next decade. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

Like Patrick in Space Race and Matthew and Alison in Earthborn, Steven is a visitor from Ormingat, living on Earth with his family for a designated number of years. But Steven is not merely an observer, he is an arranger, a facilitator with the power to direct attention away from any Ormingatriga who needs protection. When his earthly son Jacob is born with a fatal immune deficiency, Steven requests help from Ormingat in order to save his life and as a result the boy survives, but grows up surrounded by a protective shield without friends. When Steven is forced to tell Jacob of his identity and involve him in his work, Jacob resents his father's imposition. Then comes the debacle of the Derwents' accident and Nesta's flight from home, which both bring undesired publicity and the danger of detection to the Ormingat aliens. Steven, summoned to return early to the mother planet, does not want to go. If he returns he must abandon his earth wife, Lydia. And where does all this leave unhappy Jacob who makes contact not only with Mrs Dalrymple but also Nesta's family in York? A strong conclusion to the trilogy, uniting the plots from the earlier books - with a surprising and dramatic finale.

The novel, which takes place in the 1920s Hawaii, spends time acquainting the reader with the look and feel of the islands of that era from the standpoint of both white and non-white inhabitants, and describes social class structures and customs which have largely vanished in the 21st century. The novel deals with the murder of a former member of Boston society who has lived in Hawaii for a number of years. The main character is the victim's nephew, a straitlaced young Bostonian bond trader, who came to the islands to try to convince his aunt Minerva, whose vacation has extended many months, to return to Boston. The nephew, John Quincy Winterslip, soon falls under the spell of the islands himself, meets an attractive young woman, breaks his engagement to his straitlaced Bostonian fiancee Agatha, and decides after the murder is solved to move to San Francisco. In the interval, he is introduced to many levels of Hawaiian society and is of some assistance to Detective Charlie Chan in solving the mystery.