Bill Napier Boeken

NEMESIS combines the intrigue of Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE with the excitement of a high-tech disaster thriller

A compelling novel of scientific speculation and mystery, in the vein of THE DA VINCI CODE. A research station in Eastern Europe is suddenly bombarded with rhythmic bursts of subnuclear particles from the skies - a pattern so complex that it can only have come from a highly evolved intelligence. The scientists are amazed by the information that the messages reveal: secrets of an alien technology far in advance of our own. Should the signal be acknowledged and contact established? The world's superpowers have other ideas, and suddenly the scientists find themselves at the heart of a global conspiracy - on the run from forces determined to suppress the messages and what they contain. And what will be the effect on a world suddenly faced with unimaginable technological breakthrough...?

When British scientist, Dr Fred Findhorn, is offered a king's ransom by a Japanese corporation to retrieve a briefcase from a Russian military aircraft that crashed fifty years ago, he's naturally intrigued. But finding the briefcase is the start of a deadly race against time as rival groups all stake their claims to its contents - the diary of Lev Petrosian, an East European wartime refugee who worked on the development of the hydrogen bomb. But Petrosian discovered something else - something that could change the course of human history, or put a very sudden end to it...

As an antique map dealer in a small English town, Harry Blake appreciates the quiet life. But when a local landowner asks him to value a 400 year old journal and twelve hours later he is brutally murdered, Harry's peace of mind is shattered. What does the dusty journal contain that is a matter of life or death? Why is someone prepared to pay Harry a fortune to steal it? He turns to marine historian Zola Khan to uncover the mysteries. The trail of the journal leads him into a world of deadly Elizabethan conspiracies, and the thread of history takes him through a thousand years of religious intrigue back to the blood-soaked Crusades. And he finally learns that at stake are millions of dollars and a plan to trigger nothing less than war...

Published between 1828 and 1840, Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula was a tremendously influential, if controversial, work. Napier had been actively involved in the campaigns, turning to history in peacetime, in part to refute Southey's account of Sir John Moore. The first volume had a mixed reception, getting both high praise and bitter criticism from participants in the wars. He published several works rebutting his critics while producing the later volumes. Because of his obvious lack of impartiality, modern military historians treat the work with caution, but it remains widely read in the many editions and abridgements which were subsequently produced. Volume 1 covers the period from the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, which ended war on the eastern front and so left Napoleon free to turn his attention to Iberia, to the aftermath of the death of Sir John Moore, Napier's mentor, at Coruna.

Antikvář Harry Blake obdrží zajímavou zakázku, má ocenit čtyři sta let starý deník odkázaný bohatému velkostatkáři. Nejprve to vypadá, že se jedná jen o kuriózně šifrovaný deník mladého plavčíka, který se roku 1585 plavil se slavnou expedicí sira Waltera Raleigha ve službách královny Alžběty. Když je však Harryho klient zavražděn a jeho vlastní život se ocitne v ohrožení, uvědomí si, že právě otevřel dveře k záhadě, pro kterou jsou jiní ochotni zabíjet… Poté co při svém pátrání požádá o pomoc uznávanou námořní historičkku Zolu Khanovou, objeví Harry ještě něco. Z dešifrovaného textu se postupně vynořují matoucí zmínky o „tajném cíli“, hrozivá odhalení vražd, k nimž docházelo na moři, a nakonec šokující objev: odkaz na místo uložení posvátné relikvie nedozírné ceny, která na více než tisíc let zmizela ze světa. Harry a Zola se vydávají po stopě, jež je zavede k dávnému a velmi nebezpečnému spiknutí, které se táhne staletími a má v rukou nepředstavitelnou moc - může doslova změnit a navždy zvrátit běh dějin.

Bill Napier, geboren 1940 in Perth/Schottland, ist einer der führenden Asteroidenforscher. Im Sonnensystem kursiert ein Komet, der nach ihm benannt ist: Napier 7096.