4.1 Boys and Dolls “He who is not allowed to sit begins to understand the weight of every step.” — The Great Pmurttii 1951, New York, Brooklyn A cramped back office, full of papers, files, and rent books. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, dust, and the dry heat of a boiler somewhere deep in the building. A wooden desk sat against the wall. Victor Kane’s father was on the phone. Young Victor Kane sat cross-legged on...

Part Three: Towering Problems 3.1 Four-Star StableWhen Harris awoke in the stables, he was startled to find himself lying on a stone floor, wrapped in his own coat. It had not all been a dream; after all, they had crossed through an archway into another land. He looked across the stable and saw that the pile of straw where Victor Kane had spent the night was empty. His employer was never a man for sleeping, judging by the...

Prologue: The Mad King of Manhattan Francis Close Hall Institute for Psychiatric Medicine - New York. After twenty years as a homicide detective in the New York Police Department, Gabriel Devlin thought he had seen everything. In this case he was not so sure. The corridor outside the cell smelled faintly of disinfectant. “That’s him,” said the doctor. “The King himself.” Devlin looked through the peephole in the door and...