Bøker av Michelle Wright

Would it surprise anyone that a self-indulgent despot like Napoleon Bonaparte could naturally draw the attention of the immortal Judas Iscariot in his alias as Emmanuel Ortiz?A resourceful arms dealer serving the imperialistic Napoleon, Emmanuel begins this latest tale as the fateful 1815 confrontation in Waterloo is set to begin. But this is not the self-absorbed and self-serving version of Judas that pervades the past two Reflections chronicles. The deeper evolution of the most reviled man to ever walk the earth is now firmly in motion, and we find a highly-conflicted former betrayer of Jesus Christ drawn to deeper commitments to his fellow human travelers upon the earth.Still, any adventure involving Judas as Emmanuel Ortiz comes with plenty of intrigue and the heartache that has plagued him for centuries.In the case of Napoleon Bonaparte, what appears to be simply the once-powerful Emperor's sudden fall on hard luck and a terrible miscalculation at Waterloo preceding his final exile to Saint Helena turns out to be on account of other forces at work. Could the 'afterthought' acquisition of an ancient stone covered in cuneiform characters discovered in Egypt during the summer of 1799 be what's actually behind Napoleon's steady unraveling?Despite the ancient 'language key' falling into British hands two years later in 1801, the damage has been done-made worse by a secret about the precious relic the exiled despot failed to mention to Emmanuel once a curse began to manifest itself in Napoleon's presence.While it's too late to change history, is there a way to save a fellow wretched human being from a terrifying fall into permanent insanity? Or, is this the instance where Emmanuel would be wisest to avoid the wrath of the ancients and instead focus on a rare moment of romantic companionship with the beautiful Celine?The answers await discovery in The Rosetta Curse.

If caught, his captors would have killed him but Marvin Doyle was determined to document the truth in case he didn't make it out alive. There was also another reason; Marvin thought the sooner he'd write down what happened the sooner he'd be able erase it from his tortured mind. This is the true story of aerial gunner Sergeant Marvin Doyle, a World War II prisoner of war who kept a secret diary while held captive in Stalag Luft 1, a German prison camp by the Baltic Sea. Marvin was shot down on November 4, 1944 in a B-24 bomber over Mostar, Yugoslavia. He wanted history to know what he and his crew endured for America's freedom. Even more than that, he wanted the love of his life, his wife Anne, to know what happened to him. He had to be resourceful to make this happen. Once he got to Stalag Luft 1 he began to collect the wrappers from discarded cigarette packs, and he wrote his secret diary on the back of 37 of them. He knew if the Nazis discovered his secret diary, he would be put in solitairy confinement or worse, but he knew his experience had to be documented. He detailed the terror of his plane being shot down, the hard parachute landing in which he was injured, his capture by dozens of Germans ready to shoot him on the spot, the overwhelming hunger and the unbearable cold. He detailed being forced to walk miles through a blinding snowstorm to get from one prison camp to the next. He would later talk of his appreciation to his squadron for carrying him when he was injured so the Nazis wouldn't shoot him. He shared how he was haunted by the tail-gunner who froze with fear as their plane was going down and was too scared to pull his chute. He describes eating bugs and drinking vile coffee. And he writes of dreaming of sweet Anne and how he hoped she was waiting for him.Perhaps surprisingly, he didn't write of his hatred for his captors despite the horrific conditions. Instead, he hoped for peace for both sides. He wrote, "I have been in the air and also on the ground and I know how horrible war can be. It is terrible that so many people have to be slaughtered even though they are your enemies." This book also looks at other notable things which happened in Stalag Luft 1 including a hidden radio which allowed prisoners to listen to news broadcasts from Britain and America and allowed them to write a secret newspaper distributed amongst the camp. Especially poignant is his treasured letter from General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, in which he warns about the importance of avoiding war in the future. At the war's end Marshall wrote to Marvin and his fellow servicemen, "Choose your leaders wisely - that is the way to keep ours the country for which you fought. Make sure that those leaders are determined to maintain peace throughout the world. You know what war is. You know that we must not have another. As individuals you can prevent it if you give to the task which lies ahead the same spirit which you displayed in uniform." Sgt. Marvin Doyle wanted history to know the truth about what happened and this is the first time his diary is being publicly released.