The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang - Book (Spoilers)

The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang

Spoilers throughout the post

    First of all, I want to say that I can relate to this book. A brief synopsis of the book: a Chinese-American family goes bankrupt and the dad goes around collecting his children so he can go back to China to reclaim the family land stolen by the Communists. My family is Taiwanese and we also have 3 children; during the entire book I worry about what if the same thing happened to us? Would we have enough money to go back to Taiwan? Will we have anywhere to go back to?

Each chapter of the book is from the point of view of a different character. In the Wang family there is Charles, Barbra, Saina, Andrew, and Grace.

    The chapters are each numbered with Chinese characters instead of numerals. Also there's some conversations in Chinese that are in pin yin so you might need to get someone to help you translate if you don't know Mandarin. 

   Charles Wang – Chinese name Wang Da Qian. Family fled to Taiwan away from the Communists when he was young. He went to school at National Taiwan Universitu. Before senior year, his parents sent him to America with “a list of fertilizer manufacturers” to help earn the family fortune back. Instead, he got into the cosmetics industry and grew big. He married his first wife May Lee who was a model. They had a house in Bel-Air. May Lee died getting onto a helicopter to view the Grand Canyon in order to rekindle their marriage after the third child was born. After the death of his first wife, Charles married Barbra who he knew back in Taiwan.

   Barbra – Chinese name Hu Yue Ling. Full Taiwanese, her family worked in the University where she met Charles. She always had a crush on him. One summer she decided to work on her appearance and lose some weight but when school started back up, Charles had already left for America. After awhile, one of her classmates heard from Charles that he was going to be marrying a model. When she had heard about May Lee’s death, she took all of her parents’ savings and flew to America to find Charles.

   Saina – The oldest child and daughter lives in Helios, New York by herself. She lived in Manhattan for a while as an artist until she had a failed show and her then fiancé, Grayson, cheated on her and got another girl pregnant. Saina moved to Helios as a personal exile from society and also away from everything that reminded her of Grayson. But he came looking for her saying that the other girl lost the baby and Saina was the only one for him. After being together for awhile, his son was born. She found out that Grayson had lied to her and he went back to his baby-mama. Besides Grayson, Saina was dating Leo – a local – who took her back after Grayson left.  

   Andrew – The second child and oldest son. Goes to school at Azusa Pacific University and wants to be a comedian. He believes in waiting to find love before having sex. He has his car repossessed the day everything happened. As Charles goes around picking up the children, they stop in New Orleans and he meets the thirty-five year old Dorrie who not only gets to him to have sex but also to stay in Louisiana with her instead of going to New York with his family to get Saina. After a few days of being with Dorrie he realizes that they don’t love each other (blinded by the sex) and he leaves her behind. Andrew goes around the state trying to figure out what to do and finally performs a comedy routine that goes well. He ends up having to fly to Beijing when their father ends up in the hospital.

   Grace – The youngest child and daughter. She is away at boarding school in Santa Barbra. She’s only able to pack up the basics of her possessions when she finds out. Grace is in the teenage rebellious stage and she wants to be a fashion designer. Grace is the first one to be picked up by the dad and is on the journey the longest.

   Charles has about $10,000 stowed away in cash and that is the money the family uses to travel across the country. At one point, they stop at one of his factories (and break in) to pick up a shipment of some cosmetics for a small town general store that Charles personally helped kick start. Unfortunately, the products had melted by the time they reached the destination. Another stop along the way was to New Orleans where one of Charles’s longtime friend Nash lives. This is where Andrew leaves the journey. And somewhere in North Carolina the family get into a car crash. They get a rental car and Grace drives the entire way to New York while her dad and stepmother sleep. 

Keep scrolling to see how the book ends.

If you don't want to know then the post ends here for you.

You have been warned.

After getting to Saina's house, Charles leaves Barbra and Grace there to fly to Beijing by himself and find his land. When he gets to his land he finds out that his grandparent's friend had been pretending to be him (Charles Wang) for years and had already claimed the land. But the impostor is a gambler so he gambled the deed to the land away. Charles gets into a fight with the man and ends up in the hospital - as a result of the fight and the mini strokes he has been suffering from.

The three children and Barbra all fly to Beijing to see Charles in the hospital. The book ends with Charles dying while surrounded by his family and his last words are "Daddy discovered America!" This was his way of saying that he found his place in America and was able to prosper. 

It was a happy-sad ending. I cried a lot afterwards and wished the book were longer so I could find out what happens when the kids get back to the States. 

The Girls by Emma Cline - Book (Spoilers)

The Girls by Emma Cline

There will be spoilers in this post and it will be clearly marked.

This book is loosely inspired by Charlie Manson and his "girls".

I was very sad when the book ended where it did. It didn't feel like anything was resolved. The story is about Evie who meets this group of people the summer before she goes to boarding school. They live on a ranch together and don't believe in worldly possessions and they share their clothes and food. They go dumpster diving in town because they don't have any money since most of the people are runaways from life or family. The book has four parts and each part starts with a short narrative of present day and then the chapters will be about Evie's time with this group of people.

The group is led by Russell Hadrick who convinces them that they can all love each other and he loves all of them. Most of the girls there probably didn't get enough love/attention in their own lives so they thrive when they are with Russell. Russell is all about putting out a record because he wants to share his message with the world and he believes he is the next big thing. He relies on Mitch Lewis, a musician, to get him a record deal and help him along.

Evie is drawn to the group by Suzanne, one of the girls there. She understand Russell's message but isn't as mesmerized by him as the other girls are. Evie spends the summer going off to the ranch to visit the group and eventually stay there when she gets in a fight with her mother.

It ends with something big happening with the group, Evie goes off to boarding school, and how she's dealing with life now.

START SPOILERS

SPOILERS BELOW

SPOILERS START HERE

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

The whole story leads up to a major crime that happens with the group. Turns out, Mitch "betrays" Russell and doesn't get him a record deal. (Mostly because the recording session with Russell went horribly.) Russell plans revenge by "suggesting" to Suzanne and some of the other girls to go to Mitch's house and make a statement.

Evie tags along because she's attached to Suzanne but is kicked out of the car on the way to Mitch's house. When the group gets to Mitch's house, Mitch is not there but his ex-girlfriend, her child, the groundskeeper, and the groundskeeper's girlfriend are all sleeping. Suzanne and the girls take the people sleeping in the house and brought them to the living room eventually killing them one by one.

I thought the ending was kinda terrible. Evie wasn't there, she was afraid that the group would come to find her and she would some how get into trouble. She also goes to boarding school and everything eventually returns to semi normal. She makes friends, she enjoys life. (That's all it says about this.) Now that she has had this experience, she can tell when a girl hasn't had enough attention in her home life because she will crave the attention of others. The book ends with Evie seeing a man walking towards her and thinking he is here to get her. Turns out it was just a stranger taking a walk. THE END

SPOILERS OVER

THE SPOILERS HAVE ENDED

SPOILERS END HERE

THERE'S NO MORE SPOILERS

I wish there had been more to the book and it hadn't ended where it did. That's all I can say right now.

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena - Book SPOILERS

 The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

when the spoilers part starts there will be bold letters stating "start spoilers" and "end spoilers"

 I'm ashamed to say, I definitely judge a book by its cover. And by the first page/paragraph/sentence of chapter 1. I was debating between reading this or The Girls (which I received in my August book of the month box) and this book jumped out to me right away.

First sentence:

"Anne can feel the acid churning in her stomach and creeping up her throat; her head is swimming".

Yup, I definitely want to find out what happened to her (next sentence "she's had to much to drink"). I'm hooked!



First of all, I thought it was going to be a drama novel with a small bit of who-dunnit mystery involved. Also I thought there was going to be murder but you find out at the end of the first chapter that it's a kidnapping.

Now about the characters involved. No spoilers yet but we will be revisiting the characters in the the spoilers section.


Anne and Marco Conti - They are the parents of the missing child Cora.

Richard and Alice Dries - Rich parents of Anne. Richard is the step father.

Cynthia and Graham Stillwell - Anne and Marco's next door neighbors.

A short plot summary: Cora goes missing while Anne and Marco are over at Cynthia and Graham's apartment for a dinner party. The entire book is finding out what everyone is hiding, where the baby is (if she's even still alive), and who took the baby.

SPOILERS START HERE

BEGIN SPOILERS

START SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS BELOW

SPOILERS

I cannot reiterate enough that there will be SPOILERS below. The end of the spoilers will be marked with an "end spoilers"

































Everyone wants to know who did it. Marco set up the kidnapping but Richard set Marco up. Cora is fine and alive.

Details:

The Conti family are over at the Stillwell apartment until after 1am. They go home and find their 6 month old daughter missing from her crib. They were checking on her every 30 minutes.

Anne - She has a dissociative condition where she sometimes blacks out and doesn't remember what she has done. Also has postpartum depression. She doesn't remember anything during the time she checked on her daughter at 11pm. She only remembers breast feeding, the baby being fussy, and slapping the baby.  (She ends up killing Cynthia at the end for something else)

Marco - He set up the whole thing with his friend Bruce Neeland (whose real name was actually Derek Honig). Marco had planned to hand the baby over to Derek briefly after 12:30 and Derek would call asking for a 2 million dollar ransom about 12 hours later.

Something goes wrong and a package arrives a few days after asking for 5 millions. Marco goes alone because he knows the baby will be there nice and safe. When he gets there, there is an empty car seat and he gets hit over the head and blacks out. Marco and Derek had become friends over the (doesn't say how long) and after Marco asked Richard for money and was denied, Derek suggested fake kidnapping Cora so they can both get money from it.

Richard - Turns out he was having an affair with Cynthia (yes, Anna's neighbor). It's implied that he was the one who set Derek up with Marco because he ended up with all the money and the child. Richard's assistant was the one taking care of the child while it was missing.

Alice - She's pretty innocent throughout all this. She's the one who tells Anne that her stepfather was cheating with Cynthia.

Cynthia - Came onto Marco during the party at the beginning of the book. Turns out she and her husband Graham like to watch her having intercourse with other men and they film it. They have hidden cameras all around to record whenever she's with someone else. They end up having video footage of Marco taking the baby out to Derek in the garage.

Graham - Graham is against giving the video footage to the police because he would get into trouble for filming people without their consent.

Video footage: Showed Marco going into the house at 12:30 to "check on the baby" but then he comes out at 12:33 and brings Cora into the garage where Derek is parked in a Prius.

END SPOILER

SPOILERS ARE OVER

NO MORE SPOILERS

END OF SPOILERS

YOU CAN READ AGAIN

END SPOILERS

I think that's everything anyone would want to know about the book. I finished reading it in four house. I could not put it down.

Siracusa by Delia Ephron (Book) Spoilers

Siracusa by Delia Ephron

There will be spoilers in this post but it will be clearly marked.

 So I got this book Siracusa (by Delia Ephron) in my August Book of the Month Club shipment. (Link here) And I started reading it right away and it took me about a week to finish. The chapters are each told by a different character in the story.

Short description of plot: Two couples and one daughter go on a vacation to Italy and something dramatic happens at the end.


Longer description:
 The four main adult characters and the one teen character are: Finn, Taylor, Snow, Michael, and Lizzie. Side adult character Kath.

 Details about each character:
 -Finn: used to date Lizzie, married to Taylor, father of Snow. He is a restaurant owner.

 -Taylor: Married to Finn, mother of Snow. She works with the mayor's office in Portland, Maine on the city's tourism. She babies Snow and believes her to have extreme shyness syndrome. Can "decipher" what her daughter is trying to say even when no words are used.

 -Snow: a shy teenager, she goes through a transformation throughout the book - or maybe she was already like that but didn't show her true self until Italy.

 -Michael: Married to Lizzie, having an affair with Kath (you find out in Michael's first chapter about her so this isn't really a spoiler). He's written plays and is currently writing a play.

 -Lizzie: Married to Michael, used to date Finn. I think she's a freelance writer for newspapers and stuff but I don't really remember. She's the one who plans the Italy trip for the two couples.

 -Kath: Having an affair with Michael, she's the hostess at a restaurant Michael goes to frequently (where they met).

The story:
 The five main characters go to Italy on a vacation together, Rome is nice, Siracusa is next. Michael and Lizzie rekindle the romance in their relationship. Taylor is overprotective especially when Snow starts to be more engaged in her surroundings because of Michael (but Taylor not so secretly loves this). Snow is weird but that's the point. You're not supposed to be able to figure out what she's thinking. A mysterious thing that all of the online reviews mention happens. But you'll have to read the spoilers below to find out what it is. The spoilers will be clearly marked when it starts and ends. There will be some final thoughts afterwards. You'll see the "end spoilers" if you keep scrolling

SPOILERS!!

SPOILERS BELOW!!

SPOILERS!!

SPOILERS STARTING NOW!!

 Kath shows up on the trip. She surprises Michael in Siracusa. She used his plane miles by using her spare key into his office and accessing his password and other information. She gets a room at the same hotel as the rest of the group. And she makes him buy her a ring as a sign of commitment.

 Snow, who has been smitten with Michael this trip (not sure if romantic or as a father figure), finds out about the affair and allegedly pushes Kath onto the rocks by the sea. No one knows for sure but Kath is definitely dead.

END SPOILERS!!

SPOILERS OVER!!

END OF SPOILERS!!

YOU CAN READ THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!

Final thoughts:
 I like when a book has chapters each based on a different day (like Dracula's journal format) or each is a different character narrating like this book is. It gives us multiple points of view of one situation and we can see how each of the characters interpret the situation.
 I can totally see the author writing this book from Snow's point of view. Her thoughts should be quite interesting since she barely speaks throughout the book.

Sherlock Holmes: The Crooked Man

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - The Crooked Man

A few months after Watson's marriage, Holmes visits Watson to help with the end of a case.

Story: Colonel James Barclay and his wife Nancy were heard fighting. They have never had a disagreement. The coachman tried to break down the door to the room they were fighting in. It was locked from the inside but the key was no where in the room. The colonel was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood and the wife was fainted on the couch.

Result: Henry Wood was competing with Colonel Barclay for Nancy's hand at the time. During the Indian Mutiny, Henry volunteered to go out for help, Barclay gives Henry directions straight into an ambush. He was taken and tortured (thus deformed.)
Henry saw Nancy the night of the incident and followed her home. He saw her fighting with her husband and climb in through the window. The Colonel went into shock and collapsed at the sight of Henry

Sherlock Holmes: The Reigate Puzzle

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - The Reigate Puzzle

April of '87, a strenuous case concerning Baron Maupertuis left Holmes ill. More than once, he had spent 4-5 days awake at a time working on the case that the police of three countries had failed.
Watson took Holmes to Reigate in the country to visit Colonel Hayter and to let Holmes have a little fresh air.
They happened to visit the day after there was a break in at one of the other residents. And the night they arrived, there was a shooting. Involved were the feuding families of Acton and Cunningham.

Result: Cunninghams robbed Actons looking for a deed to the land. Their coachman, William Kirwan, was shot because he followed his employers (a father and son team) and witnessed them robbing the Acton's library. They both made up a story to cover their tracks about the shooting.

Sherlock Holmes: The Musgrave Ritual

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - The Musgrave Ritual

Watson tells Holmes to organize his papers. Holmes pulls out a box with "a crumpled piece of paper, an old fashioned brass key, a peg of wood with a ball of string attached to it, and three rusty old discs of metal."
It's from one of his earlier cases about the Musgrave Ritual. His college acquaintance, Reginald Musgrave, came to him with a case: His butler,  Brunton, disappeared after being caught looking through family papers. Brunton asked for one week before leaving the job. But he disappeared a few days before the week was up.

Result: The Musgrave Ritual is an initiation for young men of the family to join the estate. It goes like so:
"Whose was it?"
"His who is gone/"
"Who shall have it?"
"He Who Will Come."
"Where was the sun?"
"Over the oak"
"Where was the shadow?"
"Under the elm/"
"How was it stepped?"
"North by ten and by ten, east by five and by five, south by two and by two, west by one and by one, and so under."
"What shall we give for it?"
"All that is ours."
"Why should we give it?"
"For the sake of the trust"

Holmes figured out that they were directions and it lead to a cellar. Brunton's dead body was in it.
Earlier, they had fished a bag of metals and stones out of the pond. It turned out to be the crown of Charles the Second.
Ancestor Sir Ralph Musgrave was the right hand man of Charles the Second. He was protecting the crown until the king could get it but died before then. He created the ritual as a way to remember the location.

Sherlock Holmes: The "Gloria Scott"

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - The "Gloria Scott"

This is Holmes' first case, he shows Watson a note:

"The supply of game for London is going to steadily up [it ran]. Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders for fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life."

The client was his only friend in college, Victor Trevor. Holmes was invited to vacation with Victor in his home in Birmingham. He uses his deduction skills to wow and shock Sr Trevor causing him to be cautious around Holmes.
On the day that Holmes left, a drunken sailor comes to visit. Sr Trevor went above and beyond to appease him.
Two months later, Victor goes to see Holmes to tell him that the sailor, Hudson, is "the devil." He drinks and acts like he owns the place. And his father has fallen ill and is in his deathbed.

Result: Sr Trevor died and left his son a letter with the story. His real name is James Armitage, he was being transported on Gloria Scott as a convict. They overthrew the crew and just as they were escaping from the ship it blew up. He and his friend Evans changed their names and both prospered. Hudson, the only survivor of the explosion did not prosper. He went around blackmailing all the escapees.

The real message behind the note was actually this:

"The supply of game for London is going steadily up. Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders for fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life."

Sherlock Holmes: The Stock-Broker's Clerk

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - The Stock-Broker's Clerk

Watson had moved out of  Baker Street after he married Miss Morstan from the Sign of Four case.
One day, Holmes visits him with the client Mr Hall Pycroft. Mr. Pycroft tells his story:
He used to have a job at Coxon & Woodhouse  but was laid off. After months of looking he finally found a job at Mawson & Williams, a stock-broking firm.
A man, Arthur Pinner visits him and offers him a much better job with his brother Harry Pinner. Pycroft visits Harry and discovers that they look exactly the same except for the hair color. Pycoft is given menial tasks and asked to report in occasionally. He notices that Pinner is only there in the completely empty office building except during the appointed time. He calls Holmes once he realizes that both brothers have the exact gold tooth filling with a peculiar mark on it.

Result: The Beddington brothers, famous forger and cracksman used Pycoft's new job and writing sample to impersonate him at the Mawson job. One kept Pycroft distracted during those days while the other one robbed the bank.

Sherlock Holmes: The Yellow Face

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - The Yellow Face

A man comes calling, Grant Munro, tells a story about his wife Effie Hebron. She had a husband and child in America. They both died of yellow fever.
Grant says he and Effie were super in love. She even signed over all her money to him. One day, she asks him for money and a few days later, new people move into a nearby cottage. The woman is extremely rude to him. He tells his wife and later that night he catches her sneaking out.
Next day, he sees a yellow faced man from an upstairs window. Then his wife walks out of the house. She begs him not to go in and she wouldn't lie to him again. A few days later, he comes home early and catches her there. He goes in but it was empty inside.
Holmes says to go back and telegram when the occupants come back to the house.

Result:
The face is actually Effie's child wearing a mask. Turns out her first husband was African and since the child was darker than the dad, she couldn't admit to it still being alive. Grant accepts the child and tells Effie should should have had more faith in him.
Holmes' theory was that the man was the surviving husband and was blackmailing her. Turns out he was wrong. He tells Watson to reference this case whenever Holmes needs to be humbled.

Sherlock Holmes: Silver Blaze

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Silver Blaze

Background:
The horse Silver Blaze, owned by Colonel Ross, goes missing a few days before the Wessex Cup
The trainer, John Straker, is the ex jockey. He is married and lives very close to the stables.
Also working there are 3 lads and they watch over the 4 horses in the stable.
One of the lads stay up each night keeping watch while the other two sleep in the loft above the barn.

Case:
Two of the lads go up to the house to eat dinner. The third one, Ned Hunter, stayed at the stables keeping watch. The made, Edith Baxter, went to bring food to the barn and a man stops  her. He is described as gentlemanly and was holding a cane. He bribed her, wanting information about the top two horses, Silver Blaze and Bayard.

The next morning, Mr Straker (the trainer) and Silver Blaze were both missing. Straker's coat was found on a bush and him dead a few yards over. He had suffered a heavy blow to the head,  was covered in blood, and had a huge gash on his leg. He was also holding a red and black cravat which belonged to the stranger from the previous night. There were hoofprints where the struggle took place.
The stranger was later identified as Fitzroy Simpson and arrested.

Result:
The trainer bet against his own horses and wanted to make them lame with a small cut to the leg. The horse knocked him down by accident. Simpson merely wanted information on the horse because he bet against them too.

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

A young woman, Violet Hunter, visits Holmes because she received a peculiar job offer. She usually works as a governess and when she went into the agency, there was a man (Jephro Rucastle) there who told her she would be perfect for the job. He said she wouldn't have to take care of the child that much and that she would mainly be hired to do certain things (wear specific dresses, laugh at his jokes, sit by the window while reading a book). But most important, she has to cut her long hair.
Holmes forms a theory about the job but tells her to take it anyways. A few weeks after taking the job, she messages for them to go meet her. She tells them about the strange things that have happened while at this job. When she sits by the window reading, she is never allowed to look out the window. So when she brought a mirror to peek behind her, she saw a man there. The owners of the house asked her to wave him away. She never had to read by the window again after that. Another strange thing was that the dresses she had to wear fit her perfectly. And that in the bottom drawer of the wardrobe in her room, there was a braid that looked exactly like the one she had cut off before accepting the job.
But most peculiar of all, the way to the attic was locked and when looking from outside, one of the windows were clearly shuttered. She investigated before sending for Holmes and encountered a scary creature behind the shuttered room in the attic.

Result: Turns out the man outside(Mr. Fowler) was the betrothed of the family's daughter (Alice). They hired Miss Hunter who resembled Alice to convince Mr. Fowler to go away and that Alice no longer wished to see him. The night that Holmes arrived, Mr Fowler devised a plan to rescue Alice, with success. Miss Hunter later became the principal of an all girls school.

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

Described as a very peculiar case. Alex Holder of the bank Holder & Stevenson of Threadneedle street was visited by a nobleman. The noble offered up his beryl coronet (a jeweled crown of sorts) as collateral for a loan of £50,000. Holder gave up his own money for the loan.
He took the crown home, told his kids Arthur and Mary (adopted niece). He woke up in the middle of the night to see his son holding a twisted up crown with three of the jewels missing. The son was arrested.

Result:
The daughter had run away with the neighbor/friend, Sir George Burnwell.
She had handed the crown through a window to him which the brother had witnessed. Arthur chased Sir George and fought for the crown, thus twisting it. A piece broke off and Sir George got away. The son didn't want to say anything in order to protect Mary.



Here's a picture of a jeweled coronet I found online

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

This case is about Lord St. Simon's marriage and his wife Hatty Doran's sudden disappearance after the wedding.
During the ceremony, Hatty was seen dropping her bouquet when walking down the aisle. A man picked it up and handed it back  to her.
After the ceremony a woman, Flora Millan, caused a scene while they were walking into the wedding breakfast. Hatty wasn't there to witness the ruckus but she disappeared after excusing herself from the table.

Result: The man was her ex-fiance, Francis (Frank) Hay Moulton. They promised themselves to each other but he wanted to wait until he had money before getting married. He went off to make money and news came that he died at a miners' camp. When Frank appeared at the wedding, she felt that her duty was to Frank so she left to be with him.
After the reveal, Lord St. Simon left in anger.

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

Summer of '89, not long after Watson's marriage. 7am, Mr. Victor Hatherley, a hydraulic engineer comes to see Watson because one of his thumbs came off.
Story: Hatherley describes himself as an orphan and a bachelor, the exact thing Colonel Lysander Stark is looking for in an employee for the job. He demanded full secrecy for the job. That night, they drove around in a carriage for awhile and went to a house of Germans. He was asked to look at a hydraulic press. While trying to fix it, he comes to the conclusion that the press isn't being used for what they said it was used for. Lysander tries to murder Hatherley in the press but he escapes with the help of the woman in the house. Lysander cuts of Hatherley's thumb during his attempt to escape from a second story window.

Result: The Germans were making counterfeit coins (it is assumed) with the press. The house was on fire and the criminals escaped by the time that the police arrived.