MER is the fifth volume of THE STEWARD series, an epic contemporary tale in which folklore and fantasy enmesh with physics and forensics. Ellen Doyle must accept two facts. Firstly, she is named heir to the Stewardship of the hidden Grand Portal to the Multiverse, which unfortunately doesn't come with instructions. Secondly, and perhaps more unsettling, many of the creatures of myth and folklore are real--some of whom hide in plain sight. Strange things happen to Ellen and the people around her. Some go missing; some die. The authorities investigate, frustrated at the scarcity of evidence. An earnest young detective is smitten with Ellen, a potentially dangerous distraction that threatens to compromise the integrity of the growing number of baffling cases. Life for all involved will never be quite the same. Ellen and her friends withstood the trials and tribulations they faced in Volumes 1 through 4 of the series (Domaine Delafaire, Realms of Possibility, Alas The Best Laid Plans, and Storm Haven). Yet, in karmic irony, she will now be called upon to meet the more significant and most personal challenges she could imagine, with an entire realm and its unaware inhabitants at risk, the renown festive holiday destination, the water world, MER. How can an entire realm suddenly be at risk, and only a handful of perplexed people be aware? How can organized-crime threaten realms of the Multiverse with such perverse and rampant drug addiction? Is this a long-term strategy to create and control an immense black market, or a far more subtle and sinister bid for ultimate power? Perhaps even worse, will the steadily increasing frequency of necromantic incidents herald a resurgence of roaming legions of ravenous deceased, led by another Lord of the Dead? Ellen Doyle, Steward of the Grand Portal of the Realm of Man, there's a call for you . . .