Bøger af Amanda Desiree

She survived. Her world didn't. Fuala lives on a remote island filled with dangers: famine, natural disasters--and bloodthirsty monsters called duyvils that are separated from her village by a massive wall and kept in check by the powerful but unseen Island King. Her people have survived these threats by forming a close-knit society that values peace and service to one another, but Fuala's adventurous spirit and youthful rebelliousness occasionally threatens the delicate harmony of the village. In particular, she clashes with her uncle Asaya, the island shaman who is responsible for her upbringing, and with the proper Na'aisa, who is both a friend and rival. Only Fuala's devoted younger sister, Isii, whom she once rescued from a duyvil, sees the greatness in her. Then, disaster strikes and the village elders offer Fuala as a bride to placate the Island King. Being selected is presented as an honor, but Fuala knows it is secretly a death sentence. Salvation arrives unexpectedly when pale strangers from afar interrupt the ceremony. They're not conquistadors, or slave traders, or colonizers. They're movie makers. And they've come to find the Island King, a fabled being known as Ka'ang. . . When the outsiders provoke Ka'ang to violence, causing the destruction of the protective wall, the village, and her very way of life, Fuala vows to protect Isii from the monsters now free to roam the island and from the desperate survivors. Inspired by the work of Edgar Wallace and Delos W. Lovelace, In the Shadow of the Skull delivers a thrilling new interpretation of the story of King Kong from the point of view of the native islanders.

"In the summer of 1974, in a derelict Rhode Island mansion called Trevor Hall, a team of scientists taught American Sign Language to a chimpanzee. They affectionately christened their subject "Smithy." His official name was Webster. The Smithy Project ended in tragedy, some believing that a dark presence inside Trevor Hall had been disturbed. Webster was acquired by CSAM, a research lab in California run by the iron-fisted Manfried Teague. CSAM had a reputation for sullen staff, gloomy conditions, and cruel experiments. Despite this, two of Webster's original researchers, Jeff Dalton and Ruby Cardini, followed him west, determined to look after their friend. But another entity followed the chimp as well, and in the waning years of the 1970s, "Webster" became synonymous with a menagerie of inexplicable events, strange social movements, curious legal cases, and chilling courtroom testimonies. All were haunted by the question left unanswered at Trevor Hall: Had Webster not only bridged the gap between man and animal, but between this world and the next?"--

Linguistic researchers and their chimpanzee subject move into an abandoned mansion in 1972 Newport, RI in an ill-fated attempt to study the primate mind.