The old sailor pulled out a stub of a pencil from a soiled shirt pocket and began to cross out letters on the drink coaster. The circular piece of paper had the words The Brass Monkey in a nice scroll at the top and then a picture of three monkeys in the center, with the additional worlds, see, hear, speak, no evil underneath. He first removed, no evil, and then began to systematically pencil out all the letters in The Brass Monkey which were not contained in see, hear, speak. This left H. E. Rasske on the face of the coaster. An alert waitress soon picked up the empty drink glass and paper coaster returning both items to the bartender. In this manner, word reached Rasske quickly that someone needed to talk to him.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes the gripping story of the murder of a young aristocrat that puts an entire society—not just a pair of murderers—on trial. A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion.

Contains Barry Hughart's three novels concerning Master Li and Number Ten Ox, including the World Fantasy Award-winning, BRIDGE OF BIRDS.

In this, the third book of The Death Master Chronicles, The Supremacy, the focus is on H. E. Rasskes grandson, Hermi. Henri Eduard Rasske Madariaga; schooled and drilled in the expertise of the Death Master regimen since he was eight years of age by his doting grandmother, makes the decision to become an evangelist. Called on at a young age, he tells his grandmother, Sophia Madariaga he will never use the training for its intended purpose. At the urging of his grandmother, he devotes summer school vacation time activity to the study of this expertise, because she feels it will better prepare him for life in the modern world whether he becomes a Death Master or not. Hermi devotes the remainder of his free time to visiting Horse Ranch Mountain. He finds great peace there and forms a tremendous spiritual bond with his grandfather. As he grows to a young adult, he discovers the surprise of his life on one of his visits to the mountain which houses Rasskes cave. After this moving experience, he is confronted with a choice and must make several concessions regarding his schooling and ministerial training.Upon entering the world stage as a minister, he is eventually confronted with another choice. He has grown to a formidable status in the evangelical community at a very young age and discovers he has enemies in that community because of his views and the manner in which he brings the word to his people. In order to protect himself and the love of his life, he finds the Death Master expertise a natural thing to use