Val Tyler Bücher

Alles beginnt mit einem Zeitbeben, das die Zeiten der Menschen und der Hüter durcheinanderwirbelt. Wenn es Zeitvater Tim nicht gelingt, wieder Ordnung zu schaffen, droht die ganze Welt im Chaos zu versinken. In den jahrhundertealten Hütertunneln unter der Erde begibt er sich auf die Suche nach dem Gemetbur, der sagenumwobenen Zeitkammer, die der allererste Hüter gebaut haben soll. Doch was er nicht weiß: Nur mit dem richtigen Schlüssel kann er sich Zutritt zu der Kammer verschaffen, andernfalls wird er das Tageslicht niemals wiedersehen. Als Tid und Sofie das herausfinden, begeben sie sich schnurstracks unter die Erde, um ihn zu warnen. Sie ahnen nicht, dass geisterhafte Schatten und Wrackas dort unten nach ihrem Leben trachten.

An impressively researched, highly readable, invaluable guide to Tolkien's world.

Eastwold, 1670, and local legend tells how on a still night, if you stand on the beach there, you can still hear the bells of the drowned church of St James tolling mournfully beneath the waves. Eastwold, once one of the greatest ports in England, has been fighting a losing battle with the sea ever since it was granted its charter by King John. Bit by bit the waves have eaten the soft cliffs on which it stands, until only a handful of houses remain. But still it sends two MPs to Parliament and rich men from London are prepared to pay well for the votes of the dozen or so remaining burgesses of the town. The voters are looking forward to a profitable by-election, only for the Admiralty's candidate, the unpopular Admiral Digges, to end up in a fishing net, every bit as drowned as his prospective constituency. Is it an accident, as the coroner has ruled, or has Digges been murdered, as the Admiralty fears?

1668. John Grey is now a Justice of the Peace and lives in the manor house he has inherited on his mother's death with his new wife, Aminta. As the village is cut off from the rest of the world by a heavy snowfall, George Barwell is discovered dead in the woods. Grey is called to examine the horribly disfigured body amidst the rumours that the attack has been the work of the Devil as the victim had been cursed by reputed witch Alice Mardike just days before his violent death. As Barwell's father-in-law leads the villagers into kidnapping Alice and throwing her into the millpond to see if she floats as a witch or drowns as an innocent woman, Grey agrees to investigate the murder: his main suspect is the very man leading the witch hunt. But if Grey can't solve the mystery of George Barwell's death within a week, Mardike will be tried for witchcraft - and the sentence has already been decided.

Duke's Company actress Kitty Burgess seems destined for greatness until she disappears after the premiere of Aminta Grey's play, The Summer Birdcage. A fellow actor claims to have seen her forced into a black coach with six horses outside the theatre. Days later, a young woman's body is discovered in Hertfordshire, believed to be Kitty. Aminta and her husband, Sir John Grey, travel to identify the victim, but the body is so mutilated that identification is difficult. However, three clues—a dress, a ring, and a copy of Aminta's script—are found with the body. Back in London, Aminta spots a woman resembling Kitty, but she vanishes into the crowd before Aminta can act. Meanwhile, rumors circulate at court that Kitty was poised to become the king's mistress, with Lady Castlemaine suspected of orchestrating her disappearance and possible murder. As John Grey realizes that proving Kitty's survival is now a shared mission, it becomes clear that her disappearance is part of a larger conspiracy. Kitty may be entangled in a perilous game, potentially facing a deadly role from which escape seems impossible.

The Guardians look after time for all people. Humans always rush around claiming that they do not have enough time, but no one thinks of guarding it. The Guardians do this, and in every region of the world, there is one who protects time for us all. In Greenwich, it is Old Father Tim. When the Wreccas, who populate the Underneath (below ground), send Snot to steal the Tick, their only intention is to wreak havoc on the Guardians who live Topside (above ground). They don't expect Snot to find out that she feels more at home Topside and that she really rather likes Tid (Old Father Tim's grandson) who she has to trick. And little do they know that without the Tick, time will stop forever...

When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study. Since there is no way that a murderer could have escaped, the police conclude that Sir Robert Muntham has killed himself. A distraught Lady Muntham, however, asks Ethelred to conduct his own investigation. Ethelred (ably hindered by Elsie) sets out to resolve a classic 'locked room' mystery; but is any one of the assorted guests and witnesses actually telling the truth? And can Ethelred's account be trusted? In the process, we meet one of Ethelred's own creations, the fourteenth-century detective Master Thomas, who is helped in his investigations of a mediaeval crime at Muntham Court by a small and rather pushy Abbess with a taste for honey cakes ... Is it possible that Master Thomas can shed some light on the twenty-first century case, and on Ethelred's own motives for investigating Sir Robert's death?

John Grey is visited at his London office by Thomas Cade, a shipbuilder, who tells Grey he has evidence that Samuel Pepys is taking substantial bribes in his position at the Naval Office. Grey sends him on his way, telling him he has little chance against such a powerful man as Pepys and then the following morning Cades stabbed body is found in the grounds of Lincolns Inn. Later that day Grey meets up with his benefactor Lord Arlington who tells him the king himself wants Grey to investigate corruption in the Naval Office and it occurs to Grey that by dismissing Cade to his death, he has now lost his best witness and informant. He begins his investigation by questioning the dead man's wife who it transpires was having an affair with Pepys, as were a great many other ladies.