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The Desert Nurse: A grand love story set in a far-flung theatre of war
by Pamela HartAmid the Australian Army hospitals of World War I Egypt, two deeply determined individuals find the resilience of their love tested to its limits It's 1911, and 21-year-old Evelyn Northey desperately wants to become a doctor. Her father forbids it, withholding the inheritance that would allow her to attend university. At the outbreak of World War I, Evelyn disobeys her father, enlisting as an army nurse bound for Egypt and the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. Under the blazing desert sun, Evelyn develops feelings for polio survivor Dr William Brent, who believes his disability makes him unfit to marry. For Evelyn, still pursuing her goal of studying medicine, a man has no place in her future. For two such self-reliant people, relying on someone else for happiness may be the hardest challenge of all. From the casualty tents, fever wards and operating theatres; through the streets of Cairo during Ramadan; to the parched desert and the grim realities of war, Pamela Hart, author of THE WAR BRIDE, tells the heart-wrenching story of four years that changed the world forever.
The Desert Rats: The 7th Armoured Division in World War II
by G. L. VerneyThe exploits of the Desert Rats Based on official records and personal accounts Traces the division's progress in North Africa, Italy, Normandy and Germany This classic and inspiring account of the progress of the 7th Armoured Division from the sands of North Africa to the cold of wintery Holland and the mud of a German springtime. Based on official records, and written by one of the division's key officers, this book is an outstanding testament to the officers and men of an astonishing unit. The division's reputation was born in the desert. It first went into action against the Italians in 1940 and then, subsequently, fought Rommel's Afrika Korps in Montgomery's successful Western Desert campaign. It was during this period of intense fighting that the division won its affectionate nickname of 'Desert Rats'. From there the division was transported to Italy and, later, Normandy and from then on was almost constantly in battle until the end of the war. The Desert Rats was written with official support, and with the help of most of the division's senior officers, and the author has been able to provide a unique insight into the workings of a formidable unit. The book stands testament to the unique morale of the division and is an enduring story of difficulties overcome. Major-General Verney served as a tank brigade commander in World War II and went on to command 7th Armoured Division in Normandy in 1944.
The Desert Rats: The 7th Armoured Division, 1938 to 1945
by Maj.-Gen. G. L. VerneyThe exploits of the Desert Rats, based on official records and personal accounts traces the division’s progress in North Africa, Italy, Normandy and GermanyThis classic and inspiring account follows the progress of the 7th Armoured Division from the sands of North Africa to the cold of wintery Holland and the mud of a German springtime, providing a unique insight into the workings of a formidable unit.The division’s reputation was born in the desert. It first went into action against the Italians in 1940 and then, subsequently, fought Rommel’s Afrika Korps in Montgomery’s successful Western Desert campaign.It was during this period of intense fighting that the division won its affectionate nickname of ‘Desert Rats’.From there the division was transported to Italy and, later, Normandy and from then on was almost constantly in battle until the end of the war.Based on official records, and written by one of the division’s key officers, The Desert Rats stands testament to the unique morale of the unit and is an enduring story of the difficulties they had to overcome.
The Desert VCs: Extraordinary Valour in the North African Campaign in WWII
by Brian BestIt was not just the searing heat of the day, hot enough to boil an egg on the bonnet of a lorry, or the sand that nestled in every crevice of the body, or the shivering cold of the starlit nights, that the British and Commonwealth troops had to battle in the North African desert it was also the tough and determined Axis forces under their brilliant leader, Erwin Rommel.The actions which resulted in the awarding of twenty-nine VCs in the Desert War included that of stretcher bearer Private Anderson walking alone into the gunfire of the enemy to rescue wounded comrades, not once, but time and time again until he too was shot and killed. Lieutenant George Gunn, who, at Sidi Rezegh, found his troop of the Royal Horse Artillery facing the onslaught of sixty German tanks. One by one the guns were put out of action, the crews killed or wounded. Eventually, only one gun was left, manned by the twenty-nine-year-old lieutenant and his sergeant. Regardless of the odds, Gunn fought on until he too was killed, shot through the head.The fighting in North Africa was not just in the harsh extremes of the rolling desert, but also the barren mountains of Tunisia, and the coastal strips of Libya. In every battle, every maneuver, the terrain was the limiting or enabling feature and it was over that unforgiving ground that twenty-nine men distinguished themselves and were awarded the highest of all gallantry medals, the Victoria Cross.
The Desert War: Book 4 of the Ladybird Expert History of the Second World War (The Ladybird Expert Series #10)
by James HollandPart of the ALL-NEW LADYBIRD EXPERT SERIES.____________Why was North Africa such a key component in Britain's success over Mussolini and his Italian Army?How did they blunt Italy's actions?What challenges did they face?And what new technologies were brought to bear?When fascist dictator Mussolini declared war against Britain he was taking a huge risk . . . Italy lacked natural resources, and Britain and France's wealth.He hoped to create a new Roman Empire across the Mediterranean and into Africa. And with Hitler and the Nazi's by his side he had a great chance of doing so - but what was it that stopped him?Discover the answers and more inside James Holland's The Desert War, the thrilling and accessible account that explains what happened, who the key figures were and the tactics, triumphs and failures on both sides . . .
The Deserter
by Nelson DeMille Alex DeMilleMilitary cop Scott Brodie is the guy you send in when the other guys can't solve a case. Now he's on the hunt for a dangerous ex-Delta Force deserter named Kyle Mercer, and may have met his match.***The brand new novel from America's Greatest Living Thriller Writer.***When Delta Force Captain Kyle Mercer disappeared from his post in Afghanistan, a video released by his Taliban captors made international headlines. But circumstances were murky: Did Mercer desert before he was captured? Then a second video sent to Mercer's Army commanders leaves no doubt: the trained assassin and keeper of classified Army intelligence has willfully disappeared.When Mercer is spotted a year later in Caracas, Venezuela, top military brass task Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor of the Criminal Investigation Division to fly to Venezuela and bring Mercer back to America-dead or alive. Brodie knows this is a difficult mission, made more difficult by his new partner's inexperience and by his suspicion that Maggie Taylor is reporting to the CIA.Tense, exotic and inspired by a real-life story, the new thriller from number one New York Times bestseller Nelson DeMille and his son, screenwriter Alex DeMille is an absolute must read.
The Deserter (Scott Brodie)
by Nelson DeMille Alex DeMille***The first in a new series from America's Greatest Living Thriller Writer.***Military cop Scott Brodie is the guy you send in when the other guys can't solve a case. Now he's on the hunt for a dangerous ex-Delta Force deserter named Kyle Mercer, and may have met his match.When Delta Force Captain Kyle Mercer disappeared from his post in Afghanistan, a video released by his Taliban captors made international headlines. But circumstances were murky: Did Mercer desert before he was captured? Then a second video sent to Mercer's Army commanders leaves no doubt: the trained assassin and keeper of classified Army intelligence has willfully disappeared.When Mercer is spotted a year later in Caracas, Venezuela, top military brass task Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor of the Criminal Investigation Division to fly to Venezuela and bring Mercer back to America-dead or alive. Brodie knows this is a difficult mission, made more difficult by his new partner's inexperience and by his suspicion that Maggie Taylor is reporting to the CIA.Tense, exotic and inspired by a real-life story, the new thriller from number one New York Times bestseller Nelson DeMille and his son, screenwriter Alex DeMille is an absolute must read.
The Deserter (Voyageur Classics #31)
by Michael Gnarowski Douglas LePan Scott RayterA new edition of the classic novel by Douglas LePan. Returned from the ravages of war, met with a city that offers him only despair, a young man finds himself caught between two opposing worlds — the ordered but empty everyday life of “schedules and obligations,” and the hellish chaos of the city’s underside, a dark world of brutality and vice. Gripped with a restless passion for perfection, haunted by a brief and idealized experience of love, the hero of this poetic, experimental novel lives out in a modern context that most universal of myths: the descent into the underworld to experience initiations and ordeals, and the return with new understanding to the upper world.
The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq (Books That Changed the World)
by Lawrence Hill Joshua Key&“Apocalypse Now insanity . . . if this is what one soldier saw in seven months, imagine the sum total of the inhumanity being perpetuated in Iraq&” (Toronto Star). The first memoir from a soldier who deserted from the war in Iraq, and a vivid and damning indictment of the American military campaign, The Deserter&’s Tale is &“destined to become part of the literature of the Iraq war . . . a substantial contribution to history&” (Los Angeles Times). In Spring 2003, young Oklahoman Joshua Key was sent to Ramadi as part of a combat engineer company. It was not the campaign against terrorists and evildoers he had expected. Key saw Iraqi civilians beaten, shot, and killed, or maimed for little or no provocation. After seven months in Iraq, Key was home on leave and knew he could not return. So he took his family and went underground in the United States, finally seeking asylum in Canada after fourteen months in hiding. Detailing the grinding horrors of life as part of an occupying force, The Deserter&’s Tale is the story of a conservative-minded family man and patriot who went to war believing unquestioningly in his government&’s commitment to integrity and justice, and how what he saw in Iraq transformed him into someone who could no longer serve his country. &“Devastating . . . The questions [Key] raises . . . will not go away.&” —Daily Kos &“A tearjerker . . . Lawrence Hill, the award-winning Canadian novelist and journalist who helped Key write The Deserter&’s Tale, does a marvelous job preserving Key&’s authentic voice. The writing is fluid, crisp and compelling. The story is shocking.&” —Montreal Gazette
The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II
by Charles Glass"Powerful and often startling...The Deserters offers a provokingly fresh angle on this most studied of conflicts." --The Boston Globe A groundbreaking history of ordinary soldiers struggling on the front lines, The Deserters offers a completely new perspective on the Second World War. Charles Glass--renowned journalist and author of the critically acclaimed Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation--delves deep into army archives, personal diaries, court-martial records, and self-published memoirs to produce this dramatic and heartbreaking portrait of men overlooked by their commanders and ignored by history. Surveying the 150,000 American and British soldiers known to have deserted in the European Theater, The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II tells the life stories of three soldiers who abandoned their posts in France, Italy, and Africa. Their deeds form the backbone of Glass's arresting portrait of soldiers pushed to the breaking point, a sweeping reexamination of the conditions for ordinary soldiers. With the grace and pace of a novel, The Deserters moves beyond the false extremes of courage and cowardice to reveal the true experience of the frontline soldier. Glass shares the story of men like Private Alfred Whitehead, a Tennessee farm boy who earned Silver and Bronze Stars for bravery in Normandy--yet became a gangster in liberated Paris, robbing Allied supply depots along with ordinary citizens. Here also is the story of British men like Private John Bain, who deserted three times but never fled from combat--and who endured battles in North Africa and northern France before German machine guns cut his legs from under him. The heart of The Deserters resides with men like Private Steve Weiss, an idealistic teenage volunteer from Brooklyn who forced his father--a disillusioned First World War veteran--to sign his enlistment papers because he was not yet eighteen. On the Anzio beachhead and in the Ardennes forest, as an infantryman with the 36th Division and as an accidental partisan in the French Resistance, Weiss lost his illusions about the nobility of conflict and the infallibility of American commanders. Far from the bright picture found in propaganda and nostalgia, the Second World War was a grim and brutal affair, a long and lonely effort that has never been fully reported--to the detriment of those who served and the danger of those nurtured on false tales today. Revealing the true costs of conflict on those forced to fight, The Deserters is an elegant and unforgettable story of ordinary men desperately struggling in extraordinary times.
The Destruction of 6th Army at Stalingrad (Images of War)
by Ian BaxterA pictorial history of the last months of Nazi Germany’s 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.The scale of death and destruction during the Battle of Stalingrad during late 1942 and early 1943 remains unprecedented in the history of warfare.The annihilation of General von Paulus’s 6th Army epitomized the devastating defeat of Hitler’s ambition to conquer Stalin’s Soviet Union. After the successful Operation Blue offensive, the 6th Army reached the River Volga north of Stalingrad in summer 1942. With overextended supply lines and facing steely opposition, increasingly desperate attempts to seize the city repeatedly failed. Slowly 6th Army became encircled. The German High Command attempted several relief attempts, notably Field Marshal von Manstein’s “Winter Storm,” but all were defeated by the tenacity of the enemy and the Russian winter. To their credit, the men of the 6th Army fought to the end, but by February 1943, the last pockets of German resistance were either destroyed or had surrendered.Thanks to a superb collection of unpublished photographs, this entry in the Images of War series provides an absorbing insight into the dramatic events of the last months of the 6th Army’s doomed existence.
The Destruction of 6th Army at Stalingrad (Images of War)
by Ian BaxterThe scale of death and destruction during the Battle of Stalingrad during late 1942 and early 1943 remains unprecedented in the history of warfare. The annihilation of General von Paulus’ 6th Army epitomized the devastating defeat of Hitler’s ambition to conquer Stalin’s Soviet Union. After the successful Operation Blue offensive 6th Army reached the River Volga north of Stalingrad in summer 1942. With overextended supply lines and facing steely opposition, increasingly desperate attempts to seize the city repeatedly failed. Slowly 6th Army became encircled. The German High Command attempted a number of relief attempts, notably Field Marshal von Manstein’s ‘Winter Storm’ but all were defeated by the tenacity of the enemy and the Russian winter. To their credit the men of 6th Army fought to the end but by February 1943 the last pockets of German resistance were either destroyed or had surrendered. Thanks to a superb collection of unpublished photographs, this Images of War book provides an absorbing insight into the dramatic events of the last months of 6th Army’s doomed existence.
The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans
by Charles RoysterFrom the moment the Civil War began, partisans on both sides were calling not just for victory but for extermination. And both sides found leaders who would oblige. In this vivid and fearfully persuasive book, Charles Royster looks at William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson, the men who came to embody the apocalyptic passions of North and South, and re-creates their characters, their strategies, and the feelings they inspired in their countrymen. At once an incisive dual biography, hypnotically engrossing military history, and a cautionary examination of the American penchant for patriotic bloodshed, The Destructive War is a work of enormous power.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Detachment (John Rain Thriller #7)
by Barry EislerWhen legendary black ops veteran Colonel Scott "Hort" Horton tracks Rain down in Tokyo, Rain can't resist the offer: a multi-million dollar payday for the "natural causes" demise of three ultra-high-profile targets who are dangerously close to launching a coup in America. But the opposition on this job is going to be too much for even Rain to pull it off alone. He'll need a detachment of other deniable irregulars: his partner, the former Marine sniper, Dox. Ben Treven, a covert operator with ambivalent motives and conflicted loyalties. And Larison, a man with a hair trigger and a secret he'll kill to protect. From the shadowy backstreets of Tokyo and Vienna, to the deceptive glitz and glamour of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and finally to a Washington, D. C. in a permanent state of war, these four lone wolf killers will have to survive presidential hit teams, secret CIA prisons, and a national security state as obsessed with guarding its own secrets as it is with invading the privacy of the populace. But first, they'll have to survive each other. The Detachment is what fans of Eisler, "one of the most talented and literary writers in the thriller genre" (Chicago Sun-Times), have been waiting for: the worlds of the award-winning Rain series, and of the bestselling Fault Line and Inside Out, colliding in one explosive thriller as real as today's headlines and as frightening as tomorrow's.
The Detective's Undoing
by Jill ShalvisDon't miss the conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis's classic series, The Heirs to the Triple M!Cade McKnight was a loner. A man who liked his horizons open. Then the private investigator met Delia Scanlon. The sexy spitfire drove Cade to distraction, unleashed his tightly controlled emotions and made him feel alive again. But Cade had been hired to find out whether Delia had a true claim to the ranch, not to sleep with his alluring client. Besides, Delia wants things Cade could never give her--a home, a family. And when he discovers the truth about her heritage, it could destroy both their dreams...
The Determined Spy: The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner
by Douglas WallerFrom Douglas Waller, New York Times bestselling author of Wild Bill Donovan, an intimate and expertly researched biography of little-known early CIA leader Frank Wisner, whose behind-the-scenes influence on Cold War policy--and hundreds of highly secret anti-Soviet missions--resonates with the international crises we see today. Frank Wisner was one of the most powerful men in 1950s Washington, though few knew it. Reporting directly to senior U.S. officials--his work largely hidden from Congress and the public-- Wisner masterminded some of the CIA&’s most daring and controversial operations in the early years of the Cold War, commanding thousands of clandestine agents around the world. Following an early career marked by exciting escapades as a key World War II spy under General William &“Wild Bill&” Donovan, Wisner quickly rose through the postwar intelligence ranks to lead a newly created top-secret unit tasked--under little oversight--with overseeing massive propaganda, economic warfare, sabotage, subversion, and guerrilla operations all over the world, including such daring initiatives as the CIA-backed coups in Iran and Guatemala. But simultaneously, Wisner faced a demon few at the time understood: bipolar disorder. When this debilitating disease resulted in his breakdown and transfer to a mental hospital, the repercussions were felt throughout Washington&’s highest levels of power. Waller&’s sensitive and exhaustively researched biography is the riveting story of both Frank Wisner as a national figure who inspired a cadre of future CIA secret warriors, and also an intimate and empathetic portrait of a man whose harrowing struggle with bipolar disorder makes his impressive accomplishments on the world stage even more remarkable.
The Development Of Amphibious Tactics In The U.S. Navy
by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons USMC General Holland M. Smith USMCFROM our entry into the war at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until the Japanese surrender in September 1945, every major offensive campaign launched by the United States was initiated by an amphibious assault. Our landings at North Africa in November 1942, at Sicily and Italy in July and September 1943, and at Normandy and Southern France in June and September 1944 ended in the defeat of the German armies in Western Europe by the Allied Expeditionary Force in May 1945. The Pacific offensive, which began in the South Pacific with the landings at the Solomons in August 1942 and in the Central Pacific at the Gilberts in November 1943, carried us 3,000 miles to the Philippine Islands and 5,000 miles through to the inner defenses of the empire in the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands....Amphibious warfare was the primary offensive tactic in our conduct of global war.The tactics and techniques of our landing operations represent a new and significant development in the art of war. Although military history contains many instances of landing operations conducted by both military and navy forces in all parts of the world, from the early time man first crossed the sea to wage war, the landings were generally either limited in scope and purpose or unopposed. The feasibility of amphibious raids, in which assault forces landed from the sea are withdrawn after limited operations, and of unopposed landings, relying on surprise and conducted for the purpose of subsequent military operations ashore, has long been recognized. Until the recent war, however, the effect of modern defensive weapons was considered too decisive to permit successful assault from the sea. The development of radar, aviation, coast defense guns, torpedoes, submarines, mines, defensive obstructions and obstacles, automatic weapons, highly mobile reserves, and the necessary communication facilities to coordinate and control them seemed to present insurmountable difficulties to amphibious attack.
The Development Of German Doctrine And Command And Control And Its Application To Supporting Arms, 1832–1945
by Major Marvin Knorr Jr. USMCThis thesis describes how German doctrine and command and control evolved in World War II with respect to supporting arms. Structured knowledge of a subject, based on empirical data and experience, contributes to successful practice and future development. The German experience of the Second World War is used to discern the applicable lessons of command and control for understanding the development of modern warfare as it relates to supporting arms.
The Development of British Light Infantry
by James McintyreThe Development of British Light Infantry examines the development of light infantry in the British Army in general and North America specifically. This illustrated history is a must for anyone interested in military history
The Development of British Naval Aviation, 1914–1918 (Routledge Studies in Modern British History)
by Alexander HowlettThe Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) revolutionized warfare at sea, on land, and in the air. This little-known naval aviation organization introduced and operationalized aircraft carrier strike, aerial anti-submarine warfare, strategic bombing, and the air defence of the British Isles more than 20 years before the outbreak of the Second World War. Traditionally marginalized in a literature dominated by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, the RNAS and its innovative practitioners, nevertheless, shaped the fundamentals of air power and contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the First World War. The Development of British Naval Aviation utilizes archival documents and newly published research to resurrect the legacy of the RNAS and demonstrate its central role in Britain’s war effort.
The Development of British Naval Thinking: Essays in Memory of Bryan Ranft (Cass Series: Naval Policy and History #Vol. 38)
by Geoffrey TillThis new book brings together Britain’s leading naval historians and analysts to present a comprehensive investigation of British naval thinking and what has made it so distinctive over the last three centuries, from the sailing ship era to the current day. This new volume describes in depth the beginnings of formalized thought about the conduct of naval operations in the 18th Century, its transformation through the impact of industrialization in the 19th Century and its application in the two World Wars of the twentieth. This book concludes with a review of modern British naval thinking and the appearance of naval doctrine against the uncertainties of the loss of empire, the Cold War, nuclear weapons and the huge changes facing us as we move in to the new millennium. How perceptive and distinctive was British naval thinking? Where did British ideas come from? Did they determine or merely follow British experience? Do they explain British naval success ? The contributors to this volume tackle these key questions in a book that will be of considerable interest to the maritime community around the English-speaking world. This book will be of great interest to all students and professionals with an interest in the history of the Royal Navy, contemporary British maritime operations and strategic studies. This is a commemorative volume of the life and work of the distinguished Professor Bryan Ranft.
The Development of British Tactical Air Power, 1940-1943
by Matthew PowellThis book explores the development of tactical air power in Britain between 1940 and 1943 through a study of the Royal Air Force's Army Co-operation Command. It charts the work done by the Command during its existence, and highlights the arguments between the RAF and Army on this contentious issue in Britain. Much is known about the RAF both in the years preceding and during the Second World War, particularly the exploits of Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands, yet the existence of the RAF's Army Co-operation Command is little-known. Through extensive archival research, Matthew Powell maps the creation and work of the RAF's Army Co-operation Command through an analysis of tactical air power developments during the First World War and inter-war periods, highlighting the debates and arguments that took place between the Air Ministry and the War Office.
The Development of Nuclear Propulsion in the Royal Navy, 1946-1975 (Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World)
by Gareth Michael JonesThis book examines the development of nuclear propulsion in the Royal Navy from the first proposal in 1946 to the start-up of the last core improvement for the first submarine reactor power plant PWR 1 in December 1974. Drawing from unreleased records and archives, the book answers questions around three main themes. Political: what problems were encountered in transferring nuclear knowledge from the USA to the UK in the post-war period, and how much support was there for the development of nuclear propulsion? Military: why was there a requirement to develop nuclear propulsion, and in particular, why submarines? Technical: were the problems associated with nuclear energy fully appreciated, and did the UK have the technical and engineering capability to develop nuclear propulsion? Aside from the political considerations and military motives for developing nuclear propulsion in the Royal Navy, the author focuses on the technical problems that had to be overcome by all participants in the Royal Navy’s development of nuclear propulsion, adding significantly to naval historiography. Providing a critical analysis of the political, technological, operational and industrial issues of introducing nuclear propulsion into the Royal Navy, the author situates his research in the context of the evolving Cold War, changing Anglo-American relations, the end of Empire and the relative decline of British power.
The Development of the German Air Force, 1919-1939
by Harry R. Fletcher Prof. Richard SuchenwirthThe Development of the German Air Force, 1919 to 1939, first published in 1968, written by Professor Richard Suchenwirth, and revised and edited by Mr. Harry R. Fletcher, is one of a series of historical studies written for the United States Air Force Historical Division by men who had been key officers in or outstanding authorities on the German Air Force during World War II.The overall purpose of the series is twofold: 1) To provide the United States Air Force with a comprehensive and, insofar as possible, authoritative history of a major air force which suffered defeat in World War II, a history prepared by many of the principal and responsible leaders of that air force; 2) to provide a firsthand account of that air force’s unique combat in a major war, especially its fight against the forces of the Soviet Union.This series of studies therefore covers in large part virtually all phases of the Luftwaffe’s operations and organization, from its camouflaged origin in the Reichswehr, during the period of secret rearmament following World War I, through its participation in the Spanish Civil War and its massive operations and final defeat in World War II, with particular attention to the air war on the Eastern Front.
The Devil Aspect: A Novel
by Craig Russell"A blood-pumping, nerve-shredding thriller--elegant, edgy, ingenious. Craig Russell conjures not one but two unforgettable settings: Prague between the wars, pulsing with menace, and a Gothic mental asylum, as exciting a house of horrors as I've ever visited. You'll enter both with dread. You'll dwell in them with relish."--A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the WindowPrague, 1935: Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist newly trained by Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The state-of-the-art facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle outside of Prague, though the site is infamous for concealing dark secrets going back many generations. The asylum houses the country's six most treacherous killers--known to the staff as The Woodcutter, The Clown, The Glass Collector, The Vegetarian, The Sciomancer, and The Demon--and Viktor hopes to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon known as The Devil Aspect. As he begins to learn the stunning secrets of these patients, five men and one woman, Viktor must face the disturbing possibility that these six may share another dark truth. Meanwhile, in Prague, fear grips the city as a phantom serial killer emerges in the dark alleys. Police investigator Lukas Smolak, desperate to locate the culprit (dubbed Leather Apron in the newspapers), realizes that the killer is imitating the most notorious serial killer from a century earlier--London's Jack the Ripper. Smolak turns to the doctors at Hrad Orlu for their expertise with the psychotic criminal mind, though he worries that Leather Apron might have some connection to the six inmates in the asylum. Steeped in the folklore of Eastern Europe, and set in the shadow of Nazi darkness erupting just beyond the Czech border, this stylishly written, tightly coiled, richly imagined novel is propulsively entertaining, and impossible to put down.