Thomas Hardy's first literary masterpiece, Far From the Madding Crowd is the story of free-spirited Bathsheba Everdene, whose bold independence attracts the attention of three suitors: the frugal shepherd Gabriel Oak, the lonely farmer William Boldwood, and the dashing young soldier Sergeant Francis Troy. Each man unsettles Bathsheba's life in some way, complicating her ideas of courtship and passion, and threatening to upset her quiet community....

Newspaperman Jim Qwilleran and his two cats, Koko and Yum Yum, investigate a suspicious fire which killed a woman in her nineties. The 20th volume in the series, the novel introduces a new character, a swearing parrot.