Quartet

A collection of short fiction.

• Black and White and Red all Over
• Skin Trade
• StarPort
• Blood of the Dragon

Quartet is the 2001 Boskone book by Guest of Honor George R. R. Martin. It is a sampling of his work, with three stories and one teleplay.

In Black and White and Red all Over, George Martin takes his readers back to turn of the century New York. Follow the mystery that surrounds the killing of an elderly whore. Did Jack the Ripper do it? Is she really dead? Who then does cub reporter Kate Hawthorne apparently stumble across a few years later? What role have the gangs of New York in the investigation reopened by veteran reporter Henry Munce? And who is Ned Cullen, besides a charming rogue? This is an unfinished novel.

Sprinkled in the background are the "colorful" men that controlled yellow journalism in New York: Pulitzer, Hearst, Bennett and Teddy Roosevelt, before he was President of the United States.

In "Skin Trade," something is killing the citizens of a dying industrial town. As Private Investigator Randi Wade searches for answers, she is surprised when she uncovers links between these killings and the death of her father twenty years before. And then she finds out why these people are being killed.

In Starport, a television screenplay, aliens meet Chicago’s finest as the Earth joins the Harmony of Worlds. Follow the first few days of Charlie’s promotion to detective and the furor surrounding security arrangements for a visiting alien ambassador to Earth. Unfortunately, Fox turned down this proposed series. This is the first time that it has been published for George’s fans to read!

In "Blood of the Dragon," Hugo winner in 1997 for Best Novella, we trace the growth of Dany from a frightened pawn to a woman and leader in control of her own destiny. As a child she was sold by her brother to support his ambitions to reclaim their family’s throne. "Blood of the Dragon" is part of George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Fire and Ice.