98. The House of Lanyon

By Valerie Anand

In Exmoor, England Richard Lanyon always resented the fact that his father was a tenant farmer working for aristocratic affluent Sweetwater clan. Richard wants to be free by owning his land not slaving for someone else to gain the profits of his toil; as the case with his recently deceased dad. Ambitious, he will shape the future through his son.

His goal seems achieved when he arranges for his offspring Peter to marry wealthy Liza Weaver. However, Peter loves Marion Locke and his fiancée loves someone else. Neither are pleased with the arrangement, but both accept the inevitably of their marriage as they understand their duty to family. Meanwhile the widow Richard is attracted to Marion. While his brokenhearted son and equally despondent daughter-in-law struggle together, Richard has a dark secret that fosters a deep guilt that haunts his gut and a fear that if revealed THE HOUSE OF LANYON will topple like a deck of cards.

97. Lord John and the Hand of Devils

By Diana Gabaldon
Rated: 4 Stars


This book contains a short story titled Hellfire and two novellas. Hellfire has finds Lord John swearing vengeance in London for a murdered government official, leading him to a deconsecrated abbey where members of the political elite indulge their basest desires.

The first Novella pits Lord John against a succubus that plagues his Prussian encampment, and combines humor with military strategy and supernatural myth. And the second Novela finds Lord John investigating the cause of a cannon explosion in the English countryside that results in a fellow officer's death.