Until that day, my "career" as a very lonely German Dunnettie had lasted six years. It began with a voucher and ended up with reading and re-reading the first three books of the German Edition of the Lymond Chronicles (and for a long time nothing else). When I decided to do something against my poor English, it was no question which books I would choose.
Stepping out of the bookstore four weeks later, I was really proud about my decision of facing this challenge. After fifty metres, the first one, Game of Kings was out of the bag and in my hand, and I began to read the introduction by Dorothy Dunnett while walking. Of course, the German editor had left this part of the book out.
After another fifty metres I stopped again, for I had found a very strange sentence: "After the last of the six books had been published....."
Well, I must have given quite a funny impression: standing somewhere in the middle of the street, the book in my hand, reading the sentence again and again, while some people were curiosly watching me. Six books? I could not believe it.
After running back into the bookstore I found out that only the first three books of the Chronicles had been translated into German, and that there existed more stories about Francis Crawford of Lymond. And another five weeks later I could discover the rest of the books I had come to know six years before.
Kathrin, Germany