1632 Snippets
Death Lives In The Water – Snippet 26
Death Lives In The Water - Snippet 26 -23- Meals at Morey's for the next many days were a trying affair for Jim, Harry, any of the state troopers who might need sustenance, and poor Martin Rutledge. Most of the population of Harper's Landing managed to drop in for at least one meal a day, and after being berated by nearly all of them, Jim and Harry took to eating their meals at the jail when Jen brought over Harve's food. Jen was her usual cheerful self, dispensing food and conversation equally between prisoner and captors, deftly avoiding...
Legions Of Pestilence – Snippet 25
Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 25 Claudia looked at the big Benedictine monk who was currently her amanuensis. "My confessor, Father Malaspina, assured me that one of the benefits of this marriage, making it acceptable in the eyes of Mother Church, was the possibility that I might convert my heretical husband to the true faith. He based this hope on the conversion of the grand duke's former tutor Nihusius by the Jesuits at Cologne." Bonifacius looked at the door rather than at the grand duchess. "We at Schwarzach have been acquainted with...
Death Lives In The Water – Snippet 25
Death Lives In The Water - Snippet 25 -22- Jim sat at his desk, trying to write a report, the kind he had written dozens of times before during his career as a police detective. But this one, this was the hardest, because he had become attached to these people in a way he never before had allowed himself. He had prided himself on his reserve, his distance, and now he was paying the price of failure. Strangely, this deep caring and sorrow was a price he was happy to pay. There is little joy in providing solace for the pains of others when your...
1637 – The Polish Maelstrom – Snippet 59
This book should be available now so this is the last snippet. 1637 - The Polish Maelstrom - Snippet 59 It all made quite a bit of sense, actually. At least, if you accepted Gustav Adolf's basic premise, which was that he could spare enough troops from the war against the Ottomans to seize some Polish territory and--hopefully; this was more complicated and uncertain--overthrow the existing regime of the PLC and replace it with a more congenial one. If nothing else, he was bound and determined to abase that branch of his own Vasa family that...
Legions Of Pestilence – Snippet 24
Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 24 "Aldringen?" Wettin exhaled with surprise. "That's... Really, that's a brilliant choice. If I were still a field commander, mind you, I'd prefer not to be facing off against Aldringen. But with Franz von Mercy out of the picture--if Aldringen is going to be facing off against someone, I'd far rather see him in Lorraine opposing the French than also working for Ferdinand III with the prospect that he might be facing Gustavus some time soon." "Yes, I'm sure that's really convenient for the USE military," Mike...
Death Lives In The Water – Snippet 24
Death Lives In The Water - Snippet 24 -21- "Death -- even now I cannot write about it." Jim tossed his pen onto the desk. How could he do justice to the horror of four headless, mutilated corpses, tossed into the air as they pulled the Mustang out? Apparently, when the Mustang had slid nose first into the opening at the center of the pond, mud and muck had poured in around it, sealing the opening. Gary Miller's foot had been severed at the juncture of the frame and the partially open driver's door. Tissue samples found in the hinges told a...
1637 – The Polish Maelstrom – Snippet 58
1637 - The Polish Maelstrom - Snippet 58 The emperor was not unkind, however. So his response was to beam down at his daughter and say: "I most certainly did." Gently, he pried her loose. "But I also have business with Colonel Engler." Kristina had not expected her father to actually dote on her, so she returned readily to her chair. Gustav Adolf now bestowed an equal beam of approval on Thorsten. "Brigadier Engler, I should say." Thorsten felt that hollow feeling in the stomach that invariably accompanies the realization that no good deed...
Legions Of Pestilence – Snippet 23
Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 23 Chapter 11 Everyone is Feeling so Cooperative and Enthusiastic April 1635 Nancy, Lorraine Unser volck ist dermassen obedient und behertzt gewesen, das ich es nicht genuch beschreiben kan." "Newspapers," Doña Mencia de Mendoza announced happily. "Frankfurt on top." The lady-in-waiting cum shrewd political advisor deposited the pile in front of the queen in the Low Countries. As a response to the Irish colonels' raid upon Pechelbronn -- ostensibly, at least -- the King in the Low Countries has proclaimed his...