Poets and Chess Players: Table of Contents and Front Matter

A nav-page.

Poets and Chess Players is an incomplete WWII spy adventure serial; installments are no longer posting as of June 2024. Graphics are by The Chronicler.

Availability

Poets is being posted as it’s written and will remain available for all subscribers until it is complete. I have plans for a sequel, to be completed before I start posting it; once that goes up (targeting early 2025), I will be removing Poets for edits.

Description

November, 1941, Austria: Viktor Polzin needs desperately to prove his loyalty to his controllers in Soviet intelligence. Matia Echevarria can’t set foot on American soil again until he does a favor for an old friend who’s gone federal. Jeanne Martin wants nothing more than to disentangle herself from the British SIS, but there’s one last thing she owes her handler. Between them all stands the man codenamed MONK, a missing informant who holds the details of the Germans’ new super-heavy tank. As they pursue him into the increasingly shadowy depths of his double life, his trail leads them down a spiraling path that may win them everything they hope for, or crush them all - the Monk included - in body, mind, and soul.

Dedication

To my husband, who told me I had to post it somewhere.

Epigraph

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. 

– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Contents

[Part One]

1. In Which Dr. Haber Sells His Soul

2. In Which Comrade Lieutenant Seleznyov Proposes A Conspiracy (Part One)

   1. (Part Two)

   2. (Part Three)

3. In Which Mr. Echevarria Becomes A Privateer (Part One)

   1. (Part Two)

   2. (Part Three)

4. In Which Comrade Captain Polzin Encounters A Lady (Part One)

   1. (Part Two)

   2. (Part Three)

5. In Which Fox and Wolf Track Together Again (Part One)

   1. (Part Two)

   2. (Part Three)

6. In Which Miss Martin Demonstrates The Use Of A Rifle (Part One)

   1. (Part Two)

   2. (Part Three)

7. In Which Mr. Echevarria Confesses A Certain Distaste For The Swiss (Part One)

   1. (Part Two)

8. In Which Herr Dr. Weiss Conducts A Séance

9. In Which Mr. Echevarria Demonstrates The Use Of A Lockpick

10. In Which The Skepticism of Comrade Polzin Is Sorely Tested

11. In Which Fräulein Löwe Asks The Questions

12. In Which Miss Martin Remarks That Wolves Don’t Eat Each Other

Part One Summary & Part Two Cast

[Part Two]

13. In Which Mr. Echevarria and Comrade Seleznyov Inspect A Hydroelectric Plant

14. In Which Miss Martin Visits The Suburbs

15. In Which Fräulein Löwe Makes An Introduction

16. In Which Comrade Polzin Theoretically Solves Three Problems At Once

    1. Interlude: What Dreams May Come

17. In Which Dr. Haber Tests A Hypothesis

18. In Which Mr. Echevarria Undertakes A Vow

19. In Which The Sun Comes Out

20. In Which Mr. Echevarria Takes Up Birdwatching

21. In Which Frau Liechti Despairs Once And For All Of Respectability

    1. Part Two

22. In Which Comrade Polzin Reviews His Balance Sheet

23. In Which Miss Martin Makes A Deal

24. In Which Mr. Echevarria Recalls That He Is, After All, A Privateer

25. In Which Dr. Haber Proves Himself Useful

26. In Which Some Events Are Beyond Comrade Polzin’s Control

[Part Three]

[Chapter titles coming at the conclusion of Part Two]