Academy of the Dead
Page 23
"I'm not so sure. There's a directory in every phone kiosk in Prague."
"And no one vandalizes them?"
"Not usually. But there's one at Prague airport that's missing the page with the names starting with Eis."
Ken stirred his coffee. "Eis for Eisler, I imagine."
Matt grinned. "I've been writing to all the Eislers I can find, asking if they're related to a Hana Eisler who lived in Prague at the start of World War Two. I gave Hana's date of birth and hinted that there's a legacy involved, possibly for them. Surprise, surprise, everyone replied, and one of them says Hana Eisler is a distant aunt, and she's still living in the city."
"So you are going to Prague again?"
"Of course I am. I've arranged to phone Hana at her relative's house this evening, to see when we can meet." He gave a big grin. "All of a sudden Zoé's playing Smetana and Dvorak on her flute. She says it's more exciting than French music, and her next concert will be a selection of Czech music. But she's still upset about Martin Smith. She says he was such a good conductor of her orchestra, and they can't find a replacement."
Ken looked worried. "I hope Zoé isn't going with you. It sounds dangerous over there. That farming couple might still be on the warpath."
"Zoé insists on going with me."
"Are you sure she's well enough to travel?"
"She's fine now."
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The present
Masaryk Railway Station Prague
Czechoslovakia
HANA SITS on the platform bench, waiting for the Englishman and his wife to arrive. They are bringing the brooch she left at the Helios Academy when she was just a child. She has the precious music in a shopping bag at her feet. She recalls waiting here with these same papers many years ago. A different lifetime. Some of the trains are red and some are blue, and they are all electric now. No longer do they leave a plume of smoke as they approach from around the hill. The trees are taller, and modern buildings and the new road obscure some of the view, but the scene is much the same.
She must remember to thank the Englishman for reminding her of this treasure, and for offering to go through it with her. She wonders why she left everything in the church for so long. Maybe the trauma of wartime Prague blotted out the memory. The woman who helped conceal them in the war is dead, but the papers were still in the hiding place behind the wooden confessional. Some of the pages are badly stained, but they are easy enough to read. She has been looking through them, and is surprised that Papa did not tell her about the Mozart compositions, and the short pieces by Smetana and Dvorak. But the greatest treasure of all is the collection of violin concertos by her great great-grandfather, Vasek Tesar.
Her feet feel damp from the slush on the road. If these papers are valuable she will be able to buy good boots. She feels excited that Vasek Tesar is to be famous at last. She is proud to be part of his family. If only Papa could be here.
For a moment she frowns. Something has been spilt on the platform. The dark patch looks like blood, but it is probably only oil. She shakes her head wryly. The stain left by the dying captain may have gone, but other memories have stirred her heart. Poor Kitty, taken away with the music case, taken away to Terezín. Lovely Papa, beaten to death in the street outside the family home, and his body left for the neighbors to stare at.
A dark shadow falls across her face. A man and a woman stand with the sun behind them. "Hana?" says the man. "My name is Matt Rider, and this is Zoé."
Hana bursts into tears, a mixture of sorrow for the past and happiness for the future. The woman is expecting a baby.
THE END
Please tell your friends on social media about this book
Latest books by Christopher Wright and other authors, and updates are on:
www.northviewpublishing.com
More books on next pages
Please Note
Not all distributors stock eBooks that are based on older work that is in the public domain (out of copyright); not even our North View Publishing titles that have been abridged and edited by us to make a much more readable book for today. The original writer's storyline is never changed. You may need to look in the site belonging to your dedicated eBook reader, or download the app or program to read our books on a smartphone, tablet or PC if you find them on a different site. Every published title is out there somewhere, but for reasons beyond our control, not always in your favourite format or from your favourite distributor.
More books on the following pages:
HANDS OF THE TRAITOR
A Matt Rider thriller #1
Christopher Wright
New Edition
Private investigator Matt Rider wants to find out if his grandfather killed Sophie Bernay, and uncovers an appalling international secret. Domestic Chemicals, a New York company owned by the Heinman dynasty, made poison gas for Nazi Germany. And now the past is back to haunt them - like the bloated corpse Frank B Heinman saw rising to the surface in the East River as a boy. Matt Rider in England and Frank Heinman in New York are on a collision course. The ex-president of Domestic Chemicals will make sure no one stays alive if he sees them as a danger to the company. Matt Rider just wants the truth. Hands of the Traitor is the first Matt Rider detective thriller.
SHROUD OF THE HEALER
A Matt Rider thriller #2
Christopher Wright
New Edition
Archbishop Valdieri from New York is impatient to get the Pope to the Clinic of the Little Sisters of Tourvillon in Avignon, France, for treatment. The surgeons at the American-owned clinic are eager to treat the Pope, but the Archbishop suspects there's a problem. Matt Rider, an English PI, is on holiday in Avignon with his girlfriend Zoé. They get talking to a local nurse in Avignon. She tells them that all is not well at the American clinic up on the hill. Matt thinks the nurse is crazy -- until her husband calls with devastating news. To investigate the clinic, Matt needs some bugs and a phone tap. But he doesn't know that the national security forces are involved, and he doesn't know that one of the surgeons will soon want Zoé dead. Shroud of the Healer is the second Matt Rider detective thriller.
ACADEMY OF THE DEAD
A Matt Rider thriller #3
Christopher Wright
New Edition
Matt Rider is made an offer that seems too good to miss. Go to Prague, find some priceless music manuscripts -- and share in a fortune. Unfortunately, even for a confident backstreet PI, the clues are rather thin on the ground. All Matt knows is that a young Jewish girl called Hana Eisler had the manuscripts in Prague in 1942. Using old records from the Helios Music Academy in England, Matt tracks Hana's movements to a Nazi concentration camp in the Czech Republic. And there the trail seems to end. The American violin teacher at the Helios Academy claims to know something about Hana's family. And so does the Academy dean. Matt decides to contact Hana in a séance. Taking place in England and the Czech Republic, Academy of the Dead is an exciting hunt for lost treasure. There are big stakes to play for -- and maybe not everyone can be trusted. Academy of the Dead is the third Matt Rider detective thriller.
Brand New Publication
EYES OF THE INNOCENT
A Matt Rider thriller #4
Christopher Wright
Matt and Zoe's baby, Jack, needs urgent treatment in a New York specialist hospital. Before treatment can start, Baby Jack is snatched. Has Jack been taken for ransom, for body parts, or by a powerful sect for indoctrination? An ex-cop offers to help, as does Simon Urquet (from Hands of the Traitor) and Archbishop Stephen Valdieri, now ex-Archbishop Stephen Valdieri (from Shroud of the Healer). Finding the baby still alive means a race against time. Zoe thinks that her mother's instinct will lead them to baby Jack, but she has to admit that she and Matt are, in her words, chasing the wild goose. Matt believes he has the answer, annoyed with himself for not putting the clues together sooner. But even that lead seems to finish at a dead end. And all the time the clock is ticking because Jack i
s not getting his urgent treatment -- assuming he's still alive! Eyes of the Innocent is the fourth Matt Rider detective thriller.
SHOUT IN THE DARK
Christopher Wright
New Edition
A thrilling chase through Europe as the Vatican and a neo-Nazi faction hunt down an ancient relic with a value greater than human life -- a relic that threatens the traditions of the Christian Church. Sturmbannführer Kessel killed to get his hands on the relic in wartime Rome. An elderly Jew risked his life to return it to a religion that was not his own. And today, Kessel's son wants it back -- to destroy the Christian Church and change the face of Europe. Someone is needed to probe the darkened web of evil. Into this explosive situation steps young priest Marco Sartini, once married, and still suffering the trauma of bereavement. The Vatican Security Services have found the perfect bait...
EAGLE OF DARKNESS
Christopher Wright
New Edition
Martin Kramer's ambition is to become a deputy director of the CIA. But he brings the threat of nuclear war when he launches Operation Oracle, a personal campaign of hate against Israel. Sam Bolt gets caught up in Kramer's plans when he meets the mysterious Panya Pulaski from Unity Through Faith, a group trying to bring peace between Christians, Jews and Muslims in order to get aid and medicine to the Middle East. Sam is in trouble. With his children in care, and his partner missing with the lottery winnings, he is suspected of murder. And a relentless newspaper reporter refuses to leave him alone. When Sam hears of a wartime Gestapo officer buried in a Berlin cellar, he reluctantly flies to Germany to investigate. The body holds the key to an ancient prophecy that could blow Kramer's plans sky high. But all Sam wants is his children back. Eagle of Darkness -- a chilling chain of events running through America, England and Germany, coming to a gripping finale in the Red Mountains of Egypt.
THE FANSHAWE MURDER
Guy Thorne
Violet Milton is working as a shorthand typist in New York when she inherits the largest paper mill in Europe. Feisty Violet decides to take over the running of the English company, and is warned by a well meaning employee that something mysterious and dangerous is being manufactured in secret in a hidden part of the factory.
This story was written in the 1920s when political correctness in fiction was not even on the horizon, and a villain was often physically disabled or disfigured to make him or her appear more villainous. Note that the physical descriptions of the characters are from the original book. This is an old fashioned story of murder, industrial mayhem, and a weapon of mass destruction -- with a touch of romance.
THE AIR PIRATE
Guy Thorne
This book has been abridged and edited for today, with an added author biography. Writing in 1919, popular author Guy Thorne looks into the future, to the 1930s when massive seaplanes will be flying around the world, and small private aircraft are everywhere. Without warning, a high speed seaplane attacks two of these huge transatlantic flying boats and kidnaps the fiancée of the British Chief of the Air Police, the Scotland Yard of the air. The Chief, Sir John Custance, sets out to track down and destroy the Air Pirates, and recover his fiancée, Constance Shepherd, Connie, a popular singer on the London stage. With expert assistance from a Japanese bodyguard, the trail leads the Chief to the lonely Lands End peninsular of South West England. Quoting a press report from the book, we read: "Sir John, though barely thirty years of age, is an official in every way worthy of his high position, an organizer of exceptional ability and a pilot of practical experience. Press and public are perfectly well aware that it is owing to his personal exertions that our magnificent transatlantic airliners are no longer stricken down by the Night Terror of the immediate past."
WHEN IT WAS DARK
Guy Thorne
Abridged Edition
Published in conjunction with
White Tree Publishing
This book has been abridged and edited for today, with an added author biography.
"I, Joseph of Arimathea, took the body of Jesus, the Nazarene, from the tomb where it was first laid and hid it in this place."
A press report on this discovery just outside Jerusalem says: "There now seems no shadow of doubt that the disappearance of the body of Christ from the first tomb is accounted for, and the Resurrection as told in the Gospels did not take place. Joseph of Arimathea here confesses that he stole away the body, probably in order to spare the Disciples and friends of the dead Teacher, with whom he was in sympathy, the shame and misery of the final end to their hopes."
This is proof, welcomed by many, that Jesus was not who he claimed to be, the Son of God, but was nothing more than a good teacher who was treated cruelly by those in authority. Churches quickly empty. Over a year, society begins to break down around a world with no traditional standard to live by.
A young curate, a journalist, and a music hall singer who is the mistress of a famous man, put their lives in danger as they set out to discredit the discovery, believing that a wealthy, militant atheist could be responsible for the hoax -- if indeed it is a hoax. This story by popular fiction writer Guy Thorne was first published in 1903. Dan Brown was definitely not the first writer to imagine the Christian faith under threat from archaeology!
Coming Soon
THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS
Guy Thorne
This book has been abridged and edited for today, with an added author biography. A wealthy Brazilian businessman has bought a large area of open ground in the south of London on which he erects three gigantic masts. Working secretly with a large gang of Chinese labourers he then constructs a fantastic city on top -- which he claims is a pleasure palace. But is he running from some enemy, and is the city really for his own protection? Thomas Kirby, a journalist, sets out to discover the secret of the City in the Clouds. Novelist Guy Thorne wrote this book in 1921, and although he is looking forward a few years, this is not science fiction. It is a straightforward adventure romance based on a massive structure built in London with advanced engineering on an unlimited budget.
Coming Soon
THE SECRET SEAPLANE
Guy Thorne
This book has been abridged and edited for today, with an added author biography. It is the outbreak of World War I, and while at Oxford University, John Lothian has his eye on Ida MacArthur. Before romance can blossom, John is sentenced to six months in prison for theft. On his release a college friend recruits him into the secret service. A huge seaplane has been developed by the British in secret, and John Lothian, with the help a petty thief he met in prison, has to help fly the beast in preparation for an attack on the German base of Friedrichsland, where it turns out that Ida MacArthur is being held prisoner. A type of Boy's Own story from 1916, with added romance and some fairly graphic violence!
MISS FERRIBY'S CLIENTS
Florence Warden
This book has been abridged and edited for today. Welton Keynes sees a job as male secretary advertised by Miss Ferriby of The Lawns in London. On the way to the interview he is warned by neighbours that several young men employed in that house have disappeared. Ignoring the advice, he takes the job, but it is not long before Welton Keynes realizes something strange and dangerous is taking place in Miss Ferriby's house. There are her mysterious clients, wealthy men and women coming to attend her séances. Although the large house is well kept, there seem to be no servants apart from the footman who is strangely out of place in that role. Welton decides to explore behind the locked doors. What he discovers signs his death warrant, unless ...
This is an old fashioned story of murder, robbery and séances, with a touch of romance. It was written in 1910 when political correctness in fiction was not even on the horizon, and the main villain was often physically disabled or disfigured (as here) to make him or her appear more villainous. Note that the physical descriptions of the characters are from the original book. It's how writers of popular fiction generally wrote, and what their readers read. Be warned: Miss Ferriby
will carry on living in the some dark corner of your mind long after you have finished the story.
Latest books and updates on
www.northviewpublishing.com
Return to Contents