National Network for Equitable Library Service

July 1100 and Jerusalem has fallen to the Crusader armies. Amid the ensuing chaos a priceless holy relic is entrusted to English knight Geoffrey Mappestone. But the relic is said to be cursed, bringing death and destruction to whoever posesses it. And down the ages the relic continues to wreak its havoc.

Panther Burn, exiled from his Northern Cheyenne tribe, senses war on the horizon as he sadly watches his Suothern Cheyenne brothers abandon their anscestral customs and become slaves to the culture of the white men. Jubal Bragg, haunted by an Indian ambush, leads a vicious band of frontier militia men. When a sequence of malevolent events brings these two men face to face, they engage in a tragic struggle over the lands of the western frontier.

The eminent Sir Lockwood Hamilton, a Member of Parlaiment, is murdered and his body is found on Westminster Bridge. Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte are just beginning to investigate when yet another member of Parlaiment is murdered and discovered on the same bridge. The Pitts find one connection between the men--they both voted against female suffrage. Before another politician is killed, the Pitts must find the murderer among an assortment of angry suffragates, anarchists, and scoundrels.

Guardians are humans with powers beyond those of ordinary people, such as controlling nature or knowing a person's deepest desires. In 18th century London, Gwynne Owens believes she did not inherit supernatural powers. Yet, her first kiss with an alluring Scotsman, Duncan Macrae, is accompanied by terrifying visions of great catastrophe. Nevertheless, when asked by the Guardian Council to marry this dangerous laird of a Scottish clan, she dutifully agrees. Her marriage--wich surprisingly unlocks her hidden powers--is the only wat to avert disaster for both England and Scotland.

Ozick takes us to the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s, as New York fills with Europe"s ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees. Rose Meadows unknowingly enters this world when she answers an ambiguous want ad for an "assistant" to a Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. Rosie, orphaned at eighteen, has been living with her distant relative Bertram, who sparks her first erotic desires. But just as he begins to return her affection, his lover, a radical socialist named Ninel (Lenin spelled backward), turns her out.

The Great Depression continues to sweep across the land where the Brazos and Navasota rivers meet, taking with it the hope of many poor black farmers. One of these farmers, young Cleveland Webster, labors on property belonging to rich white man John Cheney. He must watch helplessly as the powerful "Mr. John" forecloses on farm after farm, including his parents', and turns his attention to Ruby Lee, Cleveland's wife.

Following A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness, As Sure as the Dawn continues the chronilcles of Hadassah, a Christian slave woman living during the height of the Roman Empire.

The holy city of Jerusalem has fallen. By the mercy of God, Hadassah, a young Christian girl survives famine, the deaths of her entire family, and unspeakable atrocities. And in Germania, a heroic young chieftain named Atretes battles the Romans with unmatched fury. It is prophesied tha Atretes will drive the Romans from his lands, and someday meet a dark complexioned woman from an exotic land whom he will come to love.

In Rutland Place, a lost locket becomes the key to deadly secrets that lurk behind the opulent facade of one of London's most exclusive neighborhoods.

Both beautiful and headstrong, Amelia Cynster has decided to marry the man of her dreams. Lucien Ashford is handsome and sexy--but Amelia is tired of waiting for him to make the first move. So slowly, carefully, she begins to lay her trap.