Cleveland & Ohio
If the Gods were real, could you believe?
Hitra, high priestess of Revestre, already has enough on her hands: political upheaval, a distractingly attractive male servant, and an upcoming harvest festival. But when a column of flame from the heavens sends a city into tumult, it upends more than just her schedule. Now, Hitra must deal with a religious schism, ethnic strife...and a God growing out of control.
"An innovative slant on a fantastic religion, its worshippers and divinities!"
Mary A. Turzillo, Cosmic Cats and Bonsai
"Even in a conflict on the scale of Gods, Vibbert masters the art of making small things matter."
Lorelei Esther, illustrator, The Kitra Saga
"Creative, quirky, fun, Vibbert delivers a wild new take on divine gods and their petty squabbles in The Gods Awoke!"
Tobias S. Buckell, Crystal Rain
It is August, 1645, one year since York fell into Puritan hands. As the city suffers through a brutal summer heat, Bridget Hodgson and Martha Hawkins are drawn into a murder investigation more frightening than their last. In order to appease God's wrath--and end the heat-wave--the city's overlords have launched a brutal campaign to whip the city's sinners into godliness. But for someone in York, this is not enough. First a prostitute and her client are found stabbed to death, then a pair of adulterers are beaten and strangled. York's sinners have been targeted for execution.
Bridget and Martha--assisted once again by Will, Bridget's good-hearted nephew--race to find the killer even as he adds more bodies to his tally. The list of suspects is long: Hezekiah Ward, a fire and brimstone preacher new to York; Ward's son, Praise-God, whose intensity mirrors his father's; John Stubb, one of Ward's fanatic followers, whose taste for blood may not have been sated by his time in Parliament's armies. Or could the killer be closer to home? Will's brother Joseph is no stranger to death, and he shares the Wards' dreams of driving sin from the city.
To find the killer, Bridget, Martha, and Will must uncover the city's most secret sins, and hope against hope that the killer does not turn his attention in their direction, in The Harlot's Tale by Sam Thomas.
Don Robertson was a true Clevelander. He was born and raised in Cleveland, and after stints in the Army and one year at Harvard, he returned to Cleveland and attended Case Western Reserve University for one year. He then became a reporter and columnist for The Plain Dealer (1950-1955 and 1963-1966), The Cleveland News (1957–1959), and The Cleveland Press (1968–1982). He wrote 18 published novels, most of which took place in Cleveland and the fictional town of Paradise Falls, Ohio. Robertson is probably best known for his trio of novels featuring Morris Bird III: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread (1965), The Sum and Total of Now (1966), and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened (1970).
Stephen King was a big fan of Don Robertson, and he acknowledged that Robertson was one of his influences. In 1987, King published Robertson's novel The Ideal, Genuine Man through his Philtrum Press. In this later novel, Robertson tells the story of Herman Marshall, a retired truck driver who tries to cope with his wife's cancer and his own feelings of growing old.
1st edition; inscribed by author; dust jacket suffers some minor scrapes. VG/VG