Bøger af Richard Benyo

The once-prosperous town of Mauch Chunk, knocked out of prominence by the demise of King Coal, seemed ready to explode. Then the first corpse was discovered. From a state cop who rebuilds dead steam locomotives to a guy who lived his life out of a science-fiction novel by A.E.van Vogt, from a lawyer who wants to raise ferocious pigs in his backyard to a little girl who stalks the night, from a crusading newspaper editor to a half-dozen professional wrestlers, Mauch Chunk appears to no longer be dead--merely a haven for dead bodies. And what's up with that hit-man from Baltimore and the Mafia widow from Hazleton who owns a chain of bakeries. Mauch Chunk brings together a colorful cast of unlikely characters attempting to keep out of the way of each other and failing spectacularly.

It's 1956 in eastern Pennsylvania and Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk are about to join to become Jim Thorpe, PA. As part of the July 4 celebration, a soapbox derby race is scheduled for the always-dangerous Fisher's Hill. The South Street Gang gets to work on their racer, only to have it destroyed by the competition. They regroup and create a unique entry with which they hope to go up agains the richest kid in town. In typical fashion, nothing goes exactly as the gang hopes.

When Virginia Wheeler's early-morning run through the Stanford Hills is interrupted by the discovery of the body of a young Chinese woman, her modern high-tech world is shattered by the emergence of a ghost from the past-the often-inept terrorist Yerky, who was responsible for the death of her brother during the 1960s, is back in her life, whether he knows it or not. Little by little, and then faster and faster, Virginia is sucked into a rapidly evolving plot by Yerky to re-establish his shaky reputation within the world-wide terrorist network. All clues to Yerky's next terror target lead to San Francisco's Chinatown, where Virginia encounters Ah Fook, master of a shadow society within the heart of the city, and where Yerky's trail leads to a standoff inside the peak of the famed Transamerica Pyramid. Always a step ahead of justice, Yerky attempts to fulfill his terrorist plot by bringing it home to Virginia's quiet neighborhood in Palo Alto.

When Bob Capek's mother is killed in a hit-and-run accident in 1956, his father moves the family from Virginia back to his hometown of Mauch Chunk a small town in the middle of the eastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal region. From the moment Bob boards the train, the life he knew before comes to an end - and another, more harrowing one begins.