With the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter, the Civil War has begun--and an invasion of Washington, DC, from Secessionist Virginia seems imminent. As the population evacuates, the President is in desperate need of men to defend the capital. Lincoln's trusted aide, Adam Speed Quinn, and Quinn's old friend from the Bloody Kansas conflict, Senator Jim Lane, hastily assemble a motley crew of just over a hundred men and garrison them in the East Room...

When several of the queen's maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that something far more sinister is at work.

"London, 1943. Across the city, prominent figures in science and the military are bursting into flame and being incinerated. Convinced that the Germans have deployed a new terror weapon, a desperate government turns to the one man who can track down the source of this dreadful menace--Sherlock Holmes. The quest for a solution drives Holmes into an uneasy alliance with the country's most brilliant scientific genius, Professor James Moriarty. Only Sherlock...

In her diary, a ten-year-old girl writes about her family's experiences living in Washington, D.C., in 1864-65, during which time the Civil War comes to an end and President Lincoln is assassinated. Includes historical notes.

"Birmingham, 1880. Angelica Chastain has fled from London with her young son, William. She promises him a better life, far away from the terrors they left behind.Securing a job as a governess, Angelica captures the attention of wealthy widower Stanley Hampton. Soon they marry and the successful future Angelica envisaged for William starts to fall into place.But the past will not let Angelica go. As the people in her husband's circle, once captivated...

"'Ruth Bass is SO GOOD at this! In her captivating prequel to Sarah's Daughter she returns us to an earlier time of (mostly) benevolent country folk, furnished with barns, square dances, quilting needles, and dinners of beans and biscuits, capturing the joys and sorrows, the struggles and hopes of the past with absolute authenticity and freshness. (-Judith Viorst, best-selling author).'"--Page 4 of cover.

Fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom's life takes a dramatic turn when, in 1903 Brooklyn, his parents turn their apartment into a factory for making teddy bears; and Joseph wonders whether he will ever see the glitter of Coney Island.

In 1963, pregnant seventeen-year-old Adie Jenkins is intrigued by the diary of a young slave girl who had three illegitimate children with her master; and after she gives birth, Adie starts to wonder if her midwife is the daughter of the woman who wrote the journal.