Best of
Adult-Fiction

1968

Of Love and Dust


Ernest J. Gaines - 1968
    There he encounters conflict with the overseer, Sidney Bonbon, and a tale of revenge, lust and power plays out between Marcus, Bonbon, Bonbon's mistress Pauline, and Bonbon's wife Louise.

The Salzburg Connection


Helen MacInnes - 1968
    Very early one morning, half-hidden by the swirling mists, he sets out alone to discover the secret of the lake - and unleashes a series of violent reactions - and violent deaths ...

Search for the Star Stones


Andre Norton - 1968
    With his companion Eet, a strange feline mutant with phenomenal mental powers, he soon discovered that the stone in the ring was actually a Zero Stone—an alien device left behind by an ancient vanished race—and it was the key to powers beyond human imagination.              Murdoc and Eet had to solve the secret of the Zero Stone, and very quickly, because very greedy and dangerous people wanted that ring, and wouldn’t hesitate at a second murder to obtain it. Publisher’s Note: Search for the Star Stones was originally published in parts as The Zero Stone and its sequel Uncharted Stars. This is the first time both novels have appeared in one volume.

Miss One Thousand Spring Blossoms


John Dudley Ball - 1968
    Dick Seaton is a shy, handsome American whose business takes him to Japan to close a very big deal. In violation of a timeless taboo, Dick and Kanno spend slow, tantalizing days falling in love. Then Dick discovers that Kanno’s love was paid for by his businessmen hosts. Sensing his rage and hurt, Kanno flees in confusion. And, too late, Dick realizes the truth—that she really loved him. Now, a stranger in a strange, exotic land, he must find her—and seduce her back into his life. Love her for a night… and you will remember her for a lifetime.

The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear


Kin Platt - 1968
    A twelve-year-old boy with a psychological speech defect gradually develops a schizophrenic withdrawal after moving from Los Angeles to live with his mother in New York following the divorce of his harsh and detached parents.

A Mass for the Dead


William Gibson - 1968
    In reflecting on them he in turn makes it a tribute to parenthood and a dedication to his own children. Gibson's language is striking in its poignancy. Despite the title, this is not a religious work, but a work of love from a child to parent and from the child-become-parent to his own children. Interspersed between the reminiscences of his parents and his childhood, Gibson inserts achingly beautiful epistles to his children for their guidance about life and parenting.

Adventures of an Elephant Boy


Leonard Wibberley - 1968
    Pangloss became the President of the Best of All Possible Nations (any resemblance to the U.S.A. being wholly intentional), he sent to Asia for an elephant boy—to be the President’s personal guest and see for himself how every citizen of BAPN was able to pursue his own personal quest for life, liberty and happiness. So it was that Hari Ranjit Singh was torn from his quiet village life on a tributary of the Ganges and catapulted into horrendous adventures halfway around the world and back again, where he could rejoin his beloved elephant, Golden Lotus, on the banks of the peaceful river.Conceivably this startling novel can be read profitably for story alone—but only conceivably. It is satire indeed, and Swiftian at that—highly pertinent to our times and sharpshooter-sure.

The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer: Special Edition for Young Readers


Geoffrey Chaucer - 1968
    Kent and Constance Hiatt. The charming illustrations are by Gustaf Tenggren. Included are prose versions of several tales, such as The Wife of Bath's Tale, Patient Griselda, The Black Rocks of Brittany, The Tale of Chanticleer, and the Pardoner's Tale, and in modern nonsense verse, The Rime of Sir Topas.

Hunter's Green


Phyllis A. Whitney - 1968
    I was caught upon a chessboard, a helpless pawn in a game of life and death, and the green rook was hunting me. That tall rook of green-black yew who had it in his power to destroy the king and end the game..." When Eve North returns to Athmore after three years' separation from her husband Justin, she finds the great estate-and Justin himself-vastly changed. Eve too has changed. She knows now the mistakes she made in her marriage in the past, and she now dares to win back the love of her own husband. Like another Eve, she wanders into the gardens of Athmore, unsuspecting. Yet she has reason to fear. Justin's brother Marc had once before placed her in a compromising position in that place of secrets-the green velvet room. Justin had believed Marc and never forgiven her. Now Marc waits for her at Athmore. Then, too, she has been warned that Justin has made up his mind at last to divorce her in order to marry Alicia Daven-the cool, serene Alicia whose quiet assurance comes from generations at Grovesend, and who has always taunted the American Eve with her tempting of Justin. Old Daniel-just before he is sent to his death-tries to warn Eve. It is he who carved from the green-black yew a topiary garden, one of the marvels of Athmore. The dark trees are clipped into the shape of chessmen, at a game forever in play. The black rook stands poised in readiness, like a hunter ready for the kill, challenging the white king. Daniel cries to Eve, "It's the black rook's play!"--but he dies before Eve can learn his fateful meaning. Eve finds herself entrapped on a chessboard of evil, unsure of her next move, yet aware that the black rook will move again-this time to destroy her.