Undertaker Jonas Crow is charged with transporting the coffin of an ex-miner become millionaire back to the mining vein that made his fortune. The funeral should have been a calm affair, but there's an unexpected turn of events: on the eve of his death, Joe Cusco swallowed all his gold, so as to carry it with him for all eternity. Unfortunately, the secret was leaked, provoking the fury of all the miners of Anoki City. They can't just leave such a fortune to be buried while they're sweating their souls away in the mining shafts! As Jonas says, "death never comes alone..."
Undertaker Jonas Crow, along with the English governess Rose and her Chinese maid Lin, have to get the gold-filled corps of old Mr. Cusco back to the mining vein they call 'Red Chance'. They have three days. Three days, a hearse, 50 miles ahead of them, and an entire town of discontented miners to deal with!
It's 1537. Deep in the lost mountains of Jura, a group of fanatical Catholic mountain people track a young Protestant and his guide. Big mistake. The latter is no other than the ex master-at-arms of Francois I, Hans Stalhoffer. After being defeated in an unfair fight, Hans had decided to exile himself from the court. Some years later, the surgeon that saved his life and his young apprentice ask for his help. They wish to travel undercover to Switzerland to publish the Bible in French. The only possible route is to take the infamous Jura Pass. Hans, who is buried in debt and has become a hardened alcoholic, is willing to sacrifice a few days to guide the two men through the hostile mountains. But when the authorities get wind of the scheme, they launch a wide-scale manhunt. Tracked, injured and cold, Hans will have to surpass himself to win the most difficult fight of his life.
A monstrous sea serpent is terrorizing the Fjrdland, destroying one fishing boat after another, eating all on board, and keeping the Vikings from going on their pillaging expeditions. All hope seems lost until a stranger with a dark past and a score to settle with the gods shows up and offers to hunt down and slay the Krkken for a thousand silver talents. Soon a ragtag group of would-be monster hunters boards a drak and, against a divine, ominous Nordic background of lakes and mist and mountains, sets sail on a perilous mission not all will survive.
Asgard, the fallen viking with the iron leg, and Sieglind, a slave girl seeking to change her destiny, trek through the deadly winter landscape with the voracious Krkken in relentless pursuit, struggling to stay alive and to understand why the gods that have already taken so much from them refuse to let up and ease their suffering.
It is the early 1900s and the three Francoeur children are struggling to survive in the slums of Paris. But their lives change forever with the arrival of a mysterious stranger from their father's past. Countess Aristophania Bolt from the Kingdom of Azur claims she has come to help the trio, but between disturbing phenomena-tricks or sorcery?-and invisible threats, it is hard to know whom to trust...
The secret war of Azur is growing in ferocity. Countess Aristophania Bolt is banking on the three Francoeur children to turn the tide, notably by discovering the legendary Aurora Spring. Basile, Victor, and Calixte are determined to prove Aristophania right, but it may be too late-their allies are dwindling, and the Banished King and his minions are closer than ever.
The fate of the secret Kingdom of Azur hangs in the balance, as does that of the world as we know it. Aristophania Bolt is racing against time to thwart the Banished King and find the key to salvation: the Aurora Spring. Along the way, she receives lots of help from the talented if unpredictable Francoeur children. But challenges are mounting, in the form of beguiling foes, a painful past that won't stay buried, and the mysterious Red Mountain, which is polluting bodies and minds. Will their efforts be enough to avoid a future ruled by black Azur?
The Banished King's plans for widespread insurrection and destruction are nearing fruition. Victor and Calixte, on the cusp of finding the miraculous Aurora Spring, have reached a dead end. And Basile appears to have abandoned his family in favor of the enemy camp. With the walls closing in on her and no allies apart from the Francoeur children and her trusted valet, will Aristophania be able to use her powers-and her instincts-to save the Kingdom of Azur?
When an old colonel informs Jonas Crow that the so-called "Ogre of Sutter Camp" is still alive and well, he's not exactly pleased, to say the least. His troubled past from his fighting days in the American Civil War comes back to the surface, forcing Jonas into a man-hunt, and to face his own regrets...
Dr. Jeronimus Quint has an unusual business model that Hippocrates would frown upon: he creates his own patients by injuring people whose lives then depend on him. His latest victims are Jonas Crow, Undertaker, and Rose, his English companion. Without the best medical attention-i.e. Quint's-each might lose a limb, or even die, from gangrene. He's kidnapped Rose and is withholding his sado-surgical skills while Jonas and his cohort Lin pursue him and his captive. With ferrymen and lumberjacks in front, angry lawmen behind, and a leg killing him from within, the Undertaker hopes to survive long enough to make Jeronimus Quint his next customer.
Lin and Rose have gone their separate ways, so Jonas Crow is left alone with his hearse and Jed, his pet vulture. Winter has set in and there's plenty of work to do-plenty of bodies to bury. When a childhood friend, Sid, looks him up and offers him a dangerous job, Jonas eventually agrees to it. Time, however, changes all things, loyalties included. Sid may not be trustworthy, but he was right about one thing-Jonas is the only undertaker in the Old West crazy enough to go after a corpse in Apache territory.
Swept away by the raging waters of the Raheborg along with the armies of Magnus, Kriss miraculously survived. Taken in and nursed back to life by an herbalist and his apprentice, the beleaguered queen must now hurry back across the lake-ocean to appear before the king-or else the law of the Vikings will strip her of her crown, as well as her hopes of one day using her power to rescue Aniel. But the lake-ocean is treacherous to navigate, and before long Kriss finds herself marooned on a strange island...
After Rose Prairie leaves him, Jonas Crow sinks deep into a hole. That's when he's brought on for a special assignment by Sid Beauchamp, a friend in misfortune from his youth and now the sheriff of Tucson: to recover the corpse of Caleb Barclay, enslaved and tortured by the Indians. But things get complicated when it turns out that Caleb wasn't a slave at all, but had married into the Apache tribe, and he was killed by none other than Sid himself. With Sid and his well-heeled bride-to-be at the helm, Tucson seems on the verge of great things... But as a blizzard hits, so do Jonas and Caleb's widow, the fierce Salvaje, and bullets and vengeance storm the winter skies of the Arizona desert.