Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a respite in the French countryside, are instead caught up in a case that turns both bewildering and intensely personal. After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Russell and Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes' son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian's house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat. Holmes rushes after Damian while Russell, slowed down by a recent injury, stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian's studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes' granduncle, the artist Horace Vernet. It's an odd mix of treasures and clutter, including a tarnished silver lamp with a rotating shade: an antique yet sophisticated form of zoetrope, fitted with strips of paper whose images dance with the lantern's spin. In the same crate is an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph, slowly realizing that each entry is built around an image--the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view. Russell is troubled, then entranced, but each entry she decodes brings more questions. Who is the young Indian woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets--or the threat hovering over the house? The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. And it seems increasingly urgent that Russell figure out how the journal and lantern are related to Damian--and possibly to Sherlock Holmes himself. Could there be things about his own history that even the master detective does not perceive?

Palace intrigue, dark magic, and terrifying secrets drive the beautifully written standalone novel Fire Dance, set in the world of Last Song Before Night. Espionage, diplomacy, conspiracy, passion, and power are the sensuously choreographed steps of the soaring new high fantasy novel by Ilana C. Myer, one woman's epic mission to stop a magical conflagration. Lin, newly initiated in the art of otherwordly enchantments, is sent to aid her homeland's allies against vicious attacks from the Fire Dancers: mysterious practitioners of strange and deadly magic. Forced to step into a dangerous waltz of tradition, treachery, and palace secrets, Lin must also race the ticking clock of her own rapidly dwindling life to learn the truth of the Fire Dancers' war, and how she might prevent death on a scale too terrifying to contemplate. Myer's novel is a symphony of secret towers, desert winds, burning sands, blood and dust. Her prose soars, and fluid movements of the politically charged plot carry the reader toward a shocking crescendo.

This volume investigates the artistic development during the Qing Dynasty, the last of imperial Chinese dynasties, and shows the importance of opera and playwriting during this time period. Further analysis is dedicated to the development of scroll painting and the revival of calligraphy and seal carving. A General History of Chinese Art comprises six volumes with a total of nine parts spanning from the Prehistoric Era until the 3rd year of Xuantong during the Qing Dynasty (1911). The work provides a comprehensive compilation of in-depth studies of the development of art throughout the subsequent reign of Chinese dynasties and explores the emergence of a wide range of artistic categories such as but not limited to music, dance, acrobatics, singing, story telling, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, architecture, and crafts. Unlike previous reference books, A General History of Chinese Art offers a broader overview of the notion of Chinese art by asserting a more diverse and less material understanding of arts, as has often been the case in Western scholarship.

"First published in the United Kingdom in 2015 by Lantana Publishing Ltd."--Copyright page.

A compassionate memoir about a father’s relationship with his children, the healing power of a small act of kindness, and the proof that love is everlasting. Love you, Dad. Miss you so much. Steph. A brokenhearted daughter scribbled those words on a sky lantern before sending it off to her father in heaven who had passed away. Halfway across the country, Steph’s lantern landed in Matt Mikalatos’s yard. As a father of three daughters, Matt could not let that heart-wrenching note unanswered, so he posted an open letter to her on his blog, which went viral overnight. Little did he know how that small act of kindness would lead him to the real Steph and change his family’s life in remarkable ways. A poignant and lyrical account of the beauty and wonder found in domestic life, Sky Lantern shows how the miraculous events that followed Matt finding the sky lantern in his yard—and the widespread and lasting impact his letter had—prove that the bond between a parent and their child can last forever.

Twelve-year old Jake Herndon's school sleepover takes a shocking turn when a dangerous organization invades. He escapes along with two classmates only to be thrust on a forty-eight-hour fight for survival, uncovering a mystery dating back to the Civil War and an incredible secret about Jake's family.

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