Jean Van Hamme - Böcker

Largo Winczlav, born in Yugoslavia, is an orphan. Thousands of miles away from his native town, one of the richest men in the world will change his destiny. He has the same name as him, only slightly different: Winch. This man, Nerio Winch, wants to find an heir to his empire. He adopts Largo and, when Nerio disappears in dramatic circumstances, Largo inherits the biggest conglomerate of multinationals ever owned and managed by a single man. He is now worth 10 billion dollars, which is not to everybody's taste...

Suzan Fitzroy is in Sweden, where her adopted father is filling in for the American Ambassador. The most exciting prospect on her agenda is the Nobel Prize ceremony. But her quiet life in Stockholm is disrupted when the mysterious Orion, the secretive anti-terror agent, contacts her: he has another job for her. The simple task turns into something much more complex, and before long Suzan is deeply involved in a conspiracy that has links to her past-and to her heart.

Adopted daughter and principal collaborator of James Fitzroy, roving ambassador, special correspondent for the American Secretary of State in Europe, Susan is a clever, multilingual young woman, in full bloom and perfectly happy in the eyes of an attentive father. But this too-perfect happiness hides many faults, sorrows and mysteries. Trapped by her past, Susan will have to play her most dangerous role in a life already rich with adventure: Lady S, high-class spy in a diplomatic environment. This two-volume book includes "Na Zdorovie, Shaniouchka!"

Largo's best friend, Simon Ovronnaz, is being targeted by the secret services of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Simon and his girlfriend are wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned. After a very flawed trial, Simon is condemned to death and transferred to the infamous Fort Makiling. Blissfully ignorant of his friend's fate, Largo is enjoying a romantic adventure at the top of the world, while the plot against him deepens dangerously.

A veritable secret war for power takes place behind the scenes in big financial groups. One of the most common methods of attack is the takeover bid: a would-be buyer offers to acquire all available shares of a rival at a determined price in order to control it. The W group is attacked by FENICO, a business conglomerate. As if this were not enough, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service also takes on Largo Winch. Will he lose his entire fortune? This two-volume book includes "Business Blues".

This two-volume book includes "HA".H : Largo Winch gives a cocktail party to launch his foundation for war orphans when a waiter brings out one of his colleagues' severed head on a tray. He has been murdered by the drugs traffickers Largo is after. In a matter of hours, the billionaire's life is turned upside down. Dutch Connection : Two policemen are shot down as they arrest Largo Winch and he is charged with the murders. On top of that, he is accused of being part of the international heroin trade. Largo flees to Paris and ends up in the homeless community, with little hope of escaping the dire fate that awaits him : a lifelong jail sentence...

A plane from a South American company crashes in the jungle and only half of the passengers and crew survive. Businessmen, a university professor, a steward, an aging movie star, a banana republic general, a young boy and his nanny... All these varied personalities will have to find a way to unite and work together to survive. But who should they listen to? Who should they follow? Who can they trust? And is relief even on its way?

The triads of Hong Kong are about to be introduced to the Tao of the Billionaire. Largo has disappeared. His friends and employees are trying to find him while they keep the W Group ticking, but no one seems to know what has happened to him-not even the Chinese authorities. It will be up to the billionaire, locked in a cell with a corpse as his only companion, to escape on his own before he can begin reassessing who are his allies and who are his enemies. KEY SELLING POINTS: *More than 10 million French-language copies sold*Two feature-length films starring Tomer Sisley as Largo Winch, with Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Stone, were released in France in 2008 and 2011.*Hugely popular series that has been translated into at least 8 languages The 12th adventure of the reluctant tycoon! Largo Winch is a rare breed of man: a multi-billionaire who distrusts money. Being rich does have advantages, but it also brings headaches, troubles, conspiracies, murder attempts and other despicable behaviour in competitors and underlings. Largo has to stay on top of it all...

XIII has freed a country, exposed a traitor, reunited with his wife and found his father. As he deals - somewhat against his will - with the aftermath of the revolution in Costa Verde, Sean Mullway recounts for him his family's history: Irish immigrants, remorseless Mafiosi, Mexican gold, and three silver watches. New answers will also bring new questions and a whole new set of potential enemies just as old ones come back to the fore.

An abandoned airfield in 1993: Two women exchange a 50-year-old letter. The year 1943: The crew of the Lancaster S-Snowwhite is dropping bombs on Germany. Seven men, so young and yet so old before their time. Seven dwarves for old Snow White, and their story of the war. The terror of night missions, the flak, the enemy fighters, the mid-air collisions...Death that strikes anywhere, any time, and the love you seek and latch onto desperately to feel alive while you can...

Largo Winch has been hoodwinked, framed and sent to jail. His enemies are celebrating their victory after taking control of his TV station. His friends are either in prison or in mortal danger - But Largo wasn't born a billionaire. He knows how to fight dirty, and now he's going to have to strike back at the circle of crooks, pimps and murderers who came after him-before they kill all potential witnesses, including his own employee, Sarah Washington.

A man shoots himself in front of Largo, live on TV. He was a guest on a financial talk show who had lost his company because of a Group W decision. Shocked by the knowledge that he is indirectly responsible, Winch becomes an object of hatred for the nation, and his two best friends abandon him. When suspicions arise that shady dealings led to unnecessary restructurings, he launches an investigation to identify the real culprits.

Accused of murder and hated by an entire nation, Largo is hiding in Canada and feeling very much alone. But his friendships are stronger than his circumstances, and soon he's able to counterattack against the various factions that are trying to bring him down. Greedy lawyers, crooked CEOs, murderous accountants, all pitted against the orphan turned billionaire - In the end, only the smartest and strongest will prevail - for such is the Law of the Dollar.

What better place to forget the murky world of international spies than - Washington, amid the murky world of politics? Suzan, still her adopted father's assistant, is now working at the White House, where she becomes the unwilling central figure in a nefarious plot to discredit the president of the United States. After bodies start turning up, Suzan's life is turned upside down once again, leaving her no choice but to run. Will she ever be able to stop?

A proposed deal between one of Winch's companies and a Chinese group would require that the young billionaire come sign the contract himself in Hong Kong. But there is a problem: In his youth, Largo tangled with Chinese justice in occupied Tibet. He escaped from prison with the help of a Chinese arms smuggler, whose triad later helped rescue Simon from a Burma prison. But that help came with a price, and the triad will one day call in their favour.

Jason McLane is on holidays with Jones at some friends' in Central America, when a peculiar priest offers him startling news: He may very well be a married man! And because nothing is ever simple in XIII's life, his apparent wife is none other than the leader of the democratic guerrillas in neighbouring Costa Verde, Maria De Los Santos-currently awaiting execution in a maximum security fortress. Time for the amnesiac to put his skills to good use again- for Maria.

Captured and imprisoned in the Roca Negra fortress, XIII is being tortured by the sinister Colonel Peralta. But, for all his pain and suffering, he's also in the same building as Maria, the woman who may be his wife. And they have plenty of dedicated, resourceful friends outside - as well as at least one traitor. Still unsure of his past, Jason McLane will have no choice but to become the man known as El CascadorA" to clean up Costa Verde once and for all.

Called back to the USA by the frantic government, McLane and Jones discover that General Carrington has kidnapped Wally Sheridan, President of the United States! Holed up in a secret base he's turned into a fortress, Carrington intends to put Sheridan on trial on live TV and expose him as the Number I of the conspiracy. To do that, he's going to need XIII's help in bringing in his main witness: the Mongoose!

Suzan and her father are taking a well-deserved break in the south of France. But their holidays are cut short when several men burst into the house and kidnap James Fitzroy. What Suzie doesn't know is that the attackers are actually CIA operatives: The Agency is offended by the existence of an unofficial European counterterrorist outfit. But in their attempt to use Lady S. to draw her employers out, it's the American spooks who may be made the fools -

In the middle of the night, a man runs through the narrow back alleys of Venice. Three men are after him. He breaks into a travel agency, where he faxes Winch a hastily scribbled message before being gunned down by his pursuers. The person who hands Largo Winch the fax in New York is also killed. The message says only: Beware of the doge. Our millionaire businessman hero thinks his friend, the gorgeous Charity, could be in trouble and heads for Italy. They are invited to a masked ball, where they indeed meet a doge. A Renaissance-era term for the chief magistrate of the former republics of Venice and Genoa.

Two of Largo's employees have been killed in his headquarters in New York. His friend Charity has been kidnapped in the middle of the Piazza San Marco. His only lead is a mysterious message: Beware of the Doge - As the bodies start piling up, Largo - aided by the beautiful Domenica - turns the Serenissima upside down to find the young woman and unravel the truth before it is too late. Balls, duels, boat chases, revenge - Ah, Venice!

Simon-Largo's friend-has been cast as the lead in a new TV series, Golden Gate.A" It's produced in part by one of Group W's subsidiaries. When the investigator sent by Dwight Cochrane to examine irregularities in the funding of the series disappears, Largo takes matters into his own hands and heads to the city by the Bay. But what will he find? An innocuous example of bad television? A case of tax evasion? Or - worse?

A renowned physicist and the head of MI5 battle threats to the Empire and solve extraordinary mysteries across the globe. The 28th adventure of Blake & Mortimer, the most distinguished duo of gentlemen-adventurers! Ages 10+

1848. In Ottoman-occupied Montenegro, young doctor Vanko Winczlav is one of the leaders of a popular uprising. Betrayed, wanted by the authorities, he flees the Balkans for the United States in the company of a Bulgarian refugee, Veska, whom he marries to allow her to enter New York legally. So begins the history of a family closely entwined with that of a still new country going through many transformations.

1910, Oklahoma. Thomas Winczlav, Milan's son, sees his life turned upside down when he learns he is the heir to the O'Casey distilleries - a colossal fortune he'll have to share with his twin sister Lisa, who lives in France. As the First World War begins, a sometimes naive, often flighty Tom will do his best to run his new business; meanwhile, the aviation-obsessed Lisa will carve herself a place in the skies of Europe, dominated by a certain Red Baron.

The Marduk expedition has returned victorious to Norlandia, bearing a precious sample of Uradium. Now the professor can test his revolutionary U Ray's potency when combined with the miracle ore. But Austradia, the old enemy, won't take this lying down. So the dastardly Captain Dagon didn't succeed in stopping Marduk from finding the Uradium deposit? No matter! The Imperial Austradian Army will simply take possession of it in a military operation - and who cares if that's where Prince Nazca's people live?

1965. The growing financial empire of the Winch family is now in the hands of Nerio, Tom's young son. And Nerio, who stands barely above five feet, whose schoolmates always despised because his only friend was the son of his African-American nanny, whom women never so much as looked at ... thirsts for power. Meanwhile, back in a Montenegro now under the boot of Yugoslav dictator Tito, is born little Danitza, great-great-grand-niece to one Vanko Winczlav...

The two-parter Professor Sato's Three Formulae was the last Blake and Mortimer adventure written by Jacobs, and its second part would only be completed years after his death by Bob de Moor. A story set in Japan in the author's time, where the advanced technologies on display look more like foreshadowing than science-fiction. The third album in this collected edition, The Francis Blake Affair is a pure spy thriller, the sort that Jean Van Hamme does so well - a descent into Hell for Blake and an unquestionable success that ensured Blake & Mortimer would live on. Finally, the bonus material explains in detail the circumstances of how Van Hamme and Ted Benoit took over the series.

This sixth volume of the collected edition introduces the second creative team assigned to the new adventures of Blake & Mortimer: Andre Juillard and Yves Sente, who would take turns with Jean Van Hamme and Ted Benoit. The first album of the new duet was The Voronov Plot, a spy thriller set in Russia in which our heroes try to avert a bacteriological war. The next year, Benoit and Van Hamme's next creation came out: The Strange Encounter, a time travel story that returns to the science fiction aspects of Jacobs's stories - much to the fans' joy. Finally, the 24 pages of bonus material tell all about the masterstroke from Sente - whose script was the first he'd ever written!