Traveling to Europe under strange circumstances, attorney Stone Barrington finds himself at the center of an unusually complex mystery involving two unexpected invitations and an intricate puzzle that leads him into the rarified world of European billionaires.

American freelancer-turned-heiress Penny Nichols is back for more fun and another engaging international romp with her English hero, Jeremy. Pursued by gigolos, gold-diggers, an ex-wife, and highly aggressive salesmen chasing after their millions, Penny and Jeremy decide to take the summer off and sock away most of their inheritance for one year. But they allow themselves one big "splurge" from their wish list-- and that's where all the trouble begins....

"In A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain's unofficial sequel to The Innocents Abroad, the author records his hilarious and diverse observations and insights while on a fifteen-month walking trip through Central Europe and the Alps. "Here you have Twain's inimitable mix," writes Dave Eggers in his Introduction, "of the folksy and the effortlessly erudite, his unshakable good sense and his legendary wit, his knack for the easy relation of a perfect anecdote,...

"A cosmic accident--the "Ring of Fire"--has transported the 20th century West Virginia town of Grantville through both time and space, into the heart of Germany during the Thirty Years War. After fending off attacks from various hostile European powers, the time-lost Americans have allied themselves with the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus to form the United States of Europe. For better or worse, the course of history has been radically altered. Now...

"Europe, 1632. It is a time of upheaval and great change. But none so great as when an unexplained temporal and spatial phenomenon known as the Ring of Fire transports the blue collar town of Grantville, West Virginia, smack dab in the middle of the Thirty Years War. When the dust settles, it becomes clear that the town of Grantville isn't going anywhere, and the can-do Americans of the twenty-first century begin altering the course of history forever....

Annie Gilberti is a divorced mother with a nine-to-five job when she learns her late grandmother was the exiled ruler of a small European country, and Annie is next in line for the crown and to restore the monarchy.