The Crooked Maid by Dan Vyleta (16-Jan-2014) Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012HULH98/?tag=2022091-20

Smoke: A Novel

(Readers of the Harry Potter series and Jonathan Strange a...)

Readers of the Harry Potter series and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are sure to be mesmerized by Dan Vyleta’s thrilling blend of historical fiction and fantasy, as three young friends scratch the surface of the grown-up world to discover startling wonders—and dangerous secrets.       “Dan Vyleta writes with intricacy and imagination and skillful pacing; never once would I have considered putting his book down. In the manner of both a Dickens novel and the best young adult adventure stories (the Harry Potter series among them). . .his ending, which I wouldn’t dare reveal here, is a real firecracker.”—Jennifer Senior, The New York Times     Welcome to a Victorian England unlike any other you have experienced before.  Here, wicked thoughts (both harmless and hate-filled) appear in the air as telltale wisps of Smoke.   Young Thomas Argyle, a son of aristocracy, has been sent to an elite boarding school.  Here he will be purged of Wickedness, for the wealthy do not Smoke.  When he resists a sadistic headboy's temptations to Smoke, a much larger struggle beyond the school walls is revealed.  Shortly thereafter, on a trip to London, Thomas and his best friend witness events that make them begin to question everything they have been taught about Smoke.    And thus the adventure begins... You will travel by coach to a grand estate where secrets lurk in attic rooms and hidden laboratories; where young love blossoms; and where a tumultuous relationship between a mother and her children is the crucible in which powerful passions are kindled, and dangerous deeds must be snuffed out in a desperate race against time.

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The Quiet Twin THE QUIET TWIN BY Vyleta, Dan ( Author ) Feb-14-2012 THE QUIET TWIN THE QUIET TWIN BY VYLETA, DAN ( AUTHOR ) FEB-14-2012 By Vyleta, Dan ( Author )Feb-14-2012 Paperback

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The Quiet Twin: A Novel

( Vienna, 1939. Professor Speckstein's dog has been bruta...)

Vienna, 1939. Professor Speckstein's dog has been brutally killed, the latest victim in a string of unsolved murders. Speckstein wants answers-but these are uncharitable times, and one must be careful where one probes ... When an unexpected house call leads Dr. Beer to Speckstein's apartment, he finds himself in the bedroom of Zuzka, the professor's niece. Wide-eyed, flirtatious, and not detectably ill, Zuzka leads the young doctor to her window and opens up a view of their apartment block that Beer has never known. Across the shared courtyard, there is nine-year-old Anneliese, the lonely daughter of an alcoholic. Five windows to the left lives a secretive mime who comes home late at night and keeps something-or someone-precious hidden from view. From the garret drifts the mournful sound of a trumpet player, and a basement door swings closed behind the building's inscrutable janitor. Does one of these enigmatic neighbors have blood on their hands? Dr. Beer, who has his own reasons for keeping his private life hidden from public scrutiny, reluctantly becomes embroiled in an inquiry that forces him to face the dark realities of Nazi rule. By turns chilling and tender, The Quiet Twin explores a dystopian world of social paranoia, mistrust, and fear-and the danger of staying silent.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608198081/?tag=2022091-20

The Crooked Maid: A Novel

( Vienna, 1948. The war is over, and as the initial phase...)

Vienna, 1948. The war is over, and as the initial phase of de-Nazification winds down, the citizens of Vienna struggle to rebuild their lives amidst the rubble. Anna Beer returns to the city she fled nine years earlier after discovering her husband's infidelity. She has come back to find him and, perhaps, to forgive him. Traveling on the same train from Switzerland is 18-year-old Robert Seidel, a schoolboy summoned home to his stepfather's sickbed and the secrets of his family's past. As Anna and Robert navigate an unrecognizable city, they cross paths with a war-widowed American journalist, a hunchbacked young servant girl, and a former POW whose primary purpose is to survive by any means and to forget. Meanwhile, in the shells of burned-out houses and beneath the bombed-out ruins, a ghost of a man, his head wrapped in a red scarf, battles demons from his past and hides from a future deeply uncertain for all. In The Crooked Maid, Dan Vyleta returns to the shadows of war-darkened Vienna, proving himself once again "a magical storyteller, master of the macabre" (David Park).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160819809X/?tag=2022091-20

The Quiet Twin

( In Nazi-occupied Vienna, a string of unsolved murdersha...)

In Nazi-occupied Vienna, a string of unsolved murdershas thrown the residents of one apartment building intoa state of uneasy watchfulness. Anton Beer, a young doctorwho has made a study of forensic psychology, is asked by theretired Professor Speckstein to investigate. It is an unwelcomerequest: Speckstein’s job is to spy on the building’s residentsfor the Nazis, and Doctor Beer has his own reasons for keepinghis private life hidden from public scrutiny. When Beerdiscovers a paralyzed young woman in a neighbour’s apartment,his life is further complicated. The woman is unable totalk and deathly ill, and Beer, whose own wife has recently lefthim, smuggles her into his home to nurse her in secret. As the story unfolds in propulsive, gripping prose, DanVyleta captures the atmosphere of paranoia and suspicion thatwas part of encroaching Nazi culture, and explores our disturbinginstinct in times of threat to turn a blind eye to uncomfortablerealities. The darkest mystery at the heart of this astonishingnovel reveals itself to be not a question of whodunit somuch as the temper of a diseased society in which every person’sactions are infected by the possibility of evil.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155468904X/?tag=2022091-20