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The Carpathian Assignment is a vampire story like no other. It takes place where it all began and with the one vampire with whom it all began. Rich in descriptive detail about place and time, the reader is transported to the Transylvanian city of Bistritz in 1896. Jonathan Harker has not yet come visiting, but he’ll arrive about the middle of the story. You see, this is the back story of Bram Stoker’s tale, told from the point of view of the people who lived in the mountains, towns and farmlands near the ancient castle of Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia and Count of Transylvania.
Have you ever wondered how Count Dracula managed to survive in Transylvania for nearly four centuries before he met his end at sunset, on a mountain road in the Carpathians? Did you want to know more about the three wives who lived with the Count all those centuries? Did it seem incredible that Jonathan Harker’s friends could manage to kill the most ancient and dangerous vampire and sorcerer in the world without any local help? Bram Stoker’s masterpiece left many questions that The Carpathian Assignment will answer. Aficionados of Balkan vampire mythology and newcomers alike will revel in the detailed and historically based pages of this novel.
Located in the remote province of Transylvania in late nineteenth-century Hungary, Bistritz is a quaint provincial city nestled in the Carpathian mountains and forests. For one looking forward to a quiet retirement, the pretty Baroque town seems ideal. Such are the thoughts of Kálváry Istvan, a recently widowed and retired cavalry colonel as he arrives to take up his last assignment as Chief of Police in the Spring of 1896.
Istvan’s expectations are dashed almost immediately upon his arrival. He learns his predecessor’s sudden and unexplained disappearance, along with his wife, was the reason for his appointment. The authorities in Budapest also neglected to mention a manhunt underway in the district lead by Gábor Kasza, a brilliant young investigator from the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie. Kasza’s superiors suspect a serial killer haunts the streets of Bistritz and the surrounding Carpathian farms and villages.
Applying the latest methods of detection in the new field of scientific, deductive reasoning, and psychiatry, Istvan and Kasza suspect the Roma, a persecuted minority making their home in a hidden village in the thick forests of the Carpathian Mountains. While investigating the strange activities of the Roma, the detectives find that the isolated mountain people of the Carpathians have a different explanation for the killings. They point to the abandoned, ancient castle towering over the Borgo Pass. And they fearfully whisper a name: Dracula.
Have you ever wondered how Count Dracula managed to survive in Transylvania for nearly four centuries before he met his end at sunset, on a mountain road in the Carpathians? Did you want to know more about the three wives who lived with the Count all those centuries? Did it seem incredible that Jonathan Harker’s friends could manage to kill the most ancient and dangerous vampire and sorcerer in the world without any local help? Bram Stoker’s masterpiece left many questions that The Carpathian Assignment will answer. Aficionados of Balkan vampire mythology and newcomers alike will revel in the detailed and historically based pages of this novel.
Located in the remote province of Transylvania in late nineteenth-century Hungary, Bistritz is a quaint provincial city nestled in the Carpathian mountains and forests. For one looking forward to a quiet retirement, the pretty Baroque town seems ideal. Such are the thoughts of Kálváry Istvan, a recently widowed and retired cavalry colonel as he arrives to take up his last assignment as Chief of Police in the Spring of 1896.
Istvan’s expectations are dashed almost immediately upon his arrival. He learns his predecessor’s sudden and unexplained disappearance, along with his wife, was the reason for his appointment. The authorities in Budapest also neglected to mention a manhunt underway in the district lead by Gábor Kasza, a brilliant young investigator from the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie. Kasza’s superiors suspect a serial killer haunts the streets of Bistritz and the surrounding Carpathian farms and villages.
Applying the latest methods of detection in the new field of scientific, deductive reasoning, and psychiatry, Istvan and Kasza suspect the Roma, a persecuted minority making their home in a hidden village in the thick forests of the Carpathian Mountains. While investigating the strange activities of the Roma, the detectives find that the isolated mountain people of the Carpathians have a different explanation for the killings. They point to the abandoned, ancient castle towering over the Borgo Pass. And they fearfully whisper a name: Dracula.
AUTHOR: Chip Wagar
An American in Vienna
Andy Bishop's quest begins promisingly when he leaves Columbus, Ohio, in 1914 after graduating from the University of Notre Dame. In Austria-Hungary, his goals are threefold: make contact with distant Austrian relatives, practice his nascent journalistic skills, and discover why his aristocratic ancestor, Matthias zu Windischgrätz, immigrated to America so long ago. The scenery changes drastically as Andy witnesses the last stand of imperial Austrian society. He arrives just three weeks before the assassination of the Kaiser's nephew, the Habsburg Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie. This event sparks the fateful slide toward world war and chaos for both family and friends. Andy's fateful decision to remain in the doomed Habsburg Empire after the war begins-and his irresistible attraction to a young Austrian countess-lead him to Budapest, Rome, and finally Paris, as Europe is convulsed by the greatest war since the defeat of Napoleon. Told from the perspective of Andy Bishop, An American in Vienna presents historical insight into the Austrian court, royal society, and the demise of a once-powerful empire as it becomes embroiled in the Great War.
An American in Vienna
Andy Bishop's quest begins promisingly when he leaves Columbus, Ohio, in 1914 after graduating from the University of Notre Dame. In Austria-Hungary, his goals are threefold: make contact with distant Austrian relatives, practice his nascent journalistic skills, and discover why his aristocratic ancestor, Matthias zu Windischgrätz, immigrated to America so long ago. The scenery changes drastically as Andy witnesses the last stand of imperial Austrian society. He arrives just three weeks before the assassination of the Kaiser's nephew, the Habsburg Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie. This event sparks the fateful slide toward world war and chaos for both family and friends. Andy's fateful decision to remain in the doomed Habsburg Empire after the war begins-and his irresistible attraction to a young Austrian countess-lead him to Budapest, Rome, and finally Paris, as Europe is convulsed by the greatest war since the defeat of Napoleon. Told from the perspective of Andy Bishop, An American in Vienna presents historical insight into the Austrian court, royal society, and the demise of a once-powerful empire as it becomes embroiled in the Great War.
ABOUT
Chip Wagar is a practicing attorney in New Orleans where he has lived since 1976. He grew up in the Adirondacks region of upstate New York in Glens Falls as the oldest of four children. He attended the Austro-American Institute in Vienna during his college years at the George Washington University where he was graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs. At George Washington University and the Austro-American Institute, Chip studied Central and Eastern European politics and history including the Soviet Union.
After graduation from college, Chip came to New Orleans to attend Tulane University School of Law from which he was graduated cum laude in 1979. By then, he had developed what proved to be a life-long attachment to the City of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Region where he has lived ever since. Chip Wagar has been a civil litigation trial lawyer for over 30 years and now concentrates his practice in medical malpractice and products liability. He has two adult children, Will and Sarah, who also live in the New Orleans area.
Exciting New Podcast On ITunesDescription These podcasts are primarily for non-military listeners who want an explanation of the basic aspects of military logistics, tactics and strategy in the context of world-changing conflicts to better understand who we are today and why. We take time to explain the basic tenants of military planning and improvisation to help understand the decisive mistakes or brilliant strokes of the leaders who won or lost the conflict in simple terms that even people with no military background at all can understand. Above all, we try to tell the story in a way that is both entertaining and educational
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Above all, this is a story about people trying to live their lives in a time of radical change and even chaos. The main characters in An American in Vienna meet in unique circumstances and the love story that evolves against the background of this special time and place is inevitably affected by their environment. It is their story that gives the time and place its life force and, hopefully, recreates the feeling of what it was like to live then and there that a history book could never do.
Traces of the monarchy can still be seen today in Vienna – A clockmakers shop taken by the author in 2010.
During the time period of An American in Vienna, the emperor (or “kaiser” in German) was Franz Josef who had become the absolute ruler of his family’s empire as an 18 year old in 1848. His 68 year reign as emperor and king is exceeded only by the 72 year reign of France’s King Louis XIV among monarchs of Europe. He ruled five years longer than Queen Victoria, a contemporary of Franz Josef for much of his life, who died in 1901. His reign was so long and his personal hold on the affection of his people at the end of his reign so great that most of his subjects could neither recall nor imagine life without him. It is the funeral of the 86 year old monarch in November 1916, during the First World War, that begins the story of An American in Vienna. You can watch excerpts of this fascinating event, with all its sad pomp and majesty as the procession makes its way through central Vienna at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKrhLVe6hXo. |
