Böcker av Gabriel Fw Koch

Marlowe Black, a WWII combat veteran, walks the streets of New York with a PI license to serve justice, a .45 automatic and his fists to enforce it, and a steely determination to solve a case...regardless of the consequences. When a stranger's body mysteriously lands in his office after a long Fourth of July weekend, Black is determined to learn why, regardless of what New York City cops say or do. As bullets fly, he hunts the killer through a maze of government agents, missing Russian gold coins, Nazi SS fugitives, dangerous greed, and women worth fighting for and knowing intimately. But to succeed, Black must right an old mistake, make a heart-wrenching discovery, and wrestle with a decision to adhere to personal principles of honor that will force him to look beyond love and death. Beholden paints a grim picture of American city life, corruption, and death. And with a morally insecure protagonist and an irresistible love interest, this hard-boiled detective novel promises to be darkly satisfying.

Thirteen-year-old Emma Walker has a plan. She must find a buried antique sword she learned about from an old map she found tucked in the back of an ancient book, sell the sword, and use the money to get herself and her mother out of poverty. The sword, crafted from a dragon's tooth and a scale from the center of the beast's breast, controlled the pirate Dragon Sanglant, living hundreds of years in the past, has a different plan for her. It draws Emma back in time where she learns that on the night of her father's fatal accident her fate became tangled with the sword, elves, a dragon and other creatures associated with the enchanted blade. On the reverse side of the map, Emma reads a notation about the sword's location, that it lay buried between yesterday and tomorrow. The obverse side shows a diagram of an ornamental sculpture garden, but not its name or location. However, Emma is not the only person interested in the sword. A strange middle age couple somehow learned she had the map and were determined to get to the sword before she could and claim it. Emma finds an ally in her quest when she befriends a girl form school. The girl's father, an old friend -- Mr. Rothstein -- of Emma's father, is an expert on ornamental gardens. Emma shows him the map, allowing him to copy it to help him search for it online. Once he feels he has found the garden, he becomes willing to help Emma locate and visit the garden if she can convince her mother she should go. After some cajoling, Emma, with the assistance of and assurances from Mr. Rothstein, her mother agrees to allow Emma to travel to South Carolina where Rothstein located her mystery garden. Halfway through the journey south they stop for the night. Emma spies the strange middle age couple at the same motel and nearly panics. When they leave the following morning, she forgets her map on the nightstand. Emma learns she lost the map after they reach their destination Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Mr. Rothstein calls the motel but learns that no one found it. Later that night, Emma sees the middle age couple outside the motel they stay in. Certain she will lose the sword too, she and Joan decide to enter the garden and search using the innocuous clue "Between yesterday and tomorrow." Unfortunately, the middle age couple are there too, but what they read, Emma overhears is different from what she read on the back of the map. Ready to give up, Emma confronts a sculpture shaped like three people in one. In the middle is a woman her mother' age, in front of her is a boy Emma guesses to be eight, and behind her is an old woman. At the base of the sculpture, she spots a sign that reads "Between Yesterday and Tomorrow." Hearing the middle age couple approaching, Emma, with Joan alongside her, frantically digs behind the sculpture, stopping when she feels the hilt of a sword. The couple interrupts, demanding that Emma give them the sword. Emma bravely grasps the sword to claim it, feels Joan put her hands on her shoulders, and as she pulls the sword from the earth, the world around her shimmers and disappears. When she can see again, Emma discovers that along with Joan she stands on a narrow pier surrounded by dense fog. The only sound she hears is water lapping the wooden structure and a longboat tied at the end. Moments later, they both hear a sound like distant wind that approaches steadily. Suddenly a giant red dragon's head breaks through the mist and Joan nearly panics. Emma hears a voice in her