Pharaoh Farrow, private investigator in a distant future, wants to leave the dismal little planet where his old ship, the Hilda, has suffered through expensive repairs. Very expensive repairs. His pockets are empty and he'd like to get a few supplies before he goes. It's the only reason he agrees to meet the nervous little man who has a job for him. Unfortunately, before the morning is over...
Human life has outgrown Earth, and the survey team of the ES Valgard is searching nearby star systems for new worlds to colonize. No team has found one where human life could survive...until now. The scans from orbit as well as the probes launched to its surface tell Andy and Cory that the bonus for finding such a world is almost theirs. But when they set their feet on the ground they discover...
Four short stories: "Prickly Rose and Creeping Periwinkle" ~~ Something haunts an abandoned barn on the land that Tony bought. "Endless Night" ~~ Should she open the door? "To the Place Where I Belong" ~~ Someday the road will lead me home. "Why Mama Bought a Telescope and Looks at Stars" ~~ Maybe Mama should not have yelled at Elsie about the good-for-nothing boys. At least those boys lived...
She saw the man standing on the bridge, a tall thin shadow in the last glimmer of dusk. Maybe she should have left and run back home, but she just stood there, even as he came slowly off the bridge and walked toward her.
The widow Twyla Bumblebird does good works. She’s on the Modern Art Museum Committee for the Old Masters Wing, the Garden Club’s Downtown Beautification Committee, and the Opera Committee. The mayor and business owners recognize the importance of the widow's generous efforts on behalf of Plumbagoville, and have been willing to overlook her eccentricities, such as her personal campaign to end...
Married life does not mean a quieter life for Errol Waring, reformed cat burglar and jewel thief, who now lives in a house with three generations of women and a robot with a mind of its own that somehow remembers things Errol has chosen to forget. Complications multiply when his friend Harcourt’s time traveling mirrors suddenly reappear and Errol follows his haunted robot through them to a...
His name is Pharaoh Farrow, and he lives a thousand years after human life has spread to the stars and joined non-human life in the rowdy commerce of the galaxy. Maybe someday he’ll retire to that sheep farm he’s always talking about, but until then he works as a private investigator, earning just enough to keep his old ship repaired, food in his belly, and beer in the cooler. When a wealthy...
Errol Waring buys a house on the edge of town and gets more than he expected. Someone is living in the basement, a strange little man named Iven Harcourt. Harcourt has arrived through a space-time warp of his own invention, and he leads the unsuspecting Errol back through it to far away places and dangerous adventures where Errol's only desire is to find his way back home to the woman he loves.
Four short stories, including... When I Dream of a Cambrian Sea: Is it an abandoned mine? Or something older? Baby's Breath: Don't speak of Millie in the past tense. All Highways Look the Same in the Rain: Doesn't matter where you are. The Bugs We Haven't Met Yet: Colonization might be easier than we think.
The Jovayan have kidnapped Pharaoh Farrow's friend, Myra Gregorson. That was their first mistake. In exchange for her life they demand that he rescue one of their people from Galtero Max, a heavily guarded prison planet with a reputation for no escapes. That was their second mistake. Pharaoh has no choice but to agree. Posing as one of the prisoners he begins to hunt for the Jovayan who could...
Where is Agatha Shafer Thornfelder? Did she go for a walk and forget her way home? Or is she somewhere down in the cellar with the spiders, the steamer trunks, and a closet full of old clothes? No one he talks to knows where she is, and Detective Cameron Murphy can't remember a case more puzzling than this one.