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Hachette UK
Edition details
The Destroyer#77Coin of the RealmThe DestroyerBook 771989
Coin of the Realm
- Writer
- Will Murray
- Series creators
- Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
New Age performer Shane Billiken’s claims are upended when a woman arrives at his Malibu home by reed boat and asks for help returning to her island. Remo and Chiun accompany her across the Pacific, where an effort to protect Moo’s ruler exposes an isolated community’s competing traditions, grievances, and threats.
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Shane Billiken takes in a woman who arrives by reed boat and exploits her as “Princess Sinanchu” of Atlantis. She is Dolla-Dree, Low Moo of Moo and daughter of its ruler, Tu-Min-Ka. Remo and Chiun take her home aboard the *Jonah Ark*. Chiun accepts a commission to end the human octopus cult; he and Remo defeat the cult’s twelve members, but further attacks arise from economic grievance, royal ambition, and separate conspiracies. Dolla-Dree says she poisoned her sister Tuka-Tee to become Low Moo and tries to eat Remo; she also attacks her father and Remo with a knife, but Chiun saves the High Moo. Shane’s mercenaries first mistake Hawaii for Moo, then locate Moo, raid the mines, kill islanders, and steal the coins.
Their explosions trigger collapse of the mined western slope and the island’s broader failure. Chiun attributes the full collapse to generations of overmining; Remo stresses the mercenary explosives. Remo tries to save Dolla-Dree after she says she no longer wishes to live, but she dies. Remo and Chiun return to the United States and discover that Smith’s suspected neighbor is Remo, who bought the house under his CURE alias James Churchward. Shane cannot sell the coins as precious metal and attempts suicide by burning his boat; Remo sinks the boat and Chiun kills Shane, recovering Sinanju’s share. The coins are tin, but Chiun values their Moovian and Sinanju significance.
Characters & places
SpoilersFull articles
- ChiunCharacter
- CUREOrganization
- Folcroft SanatoriumPlace
- Harold W. SmithCharacter
- House of SinanjuGroup
- Maude SmithCharacter
- Remo WilliamsCharacter
- SinanjuPlace
- Sinanju (martial tradition)Lore
- The DutchmanCharacter
Characters 24
Places 20
Organizations 5
Groups 4
Lore 5
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1
A woman arrives at Shane’s Malibu home by reed boat. He first identifies her name as Dolla-Dree, then markets her to his clients as “Princess Sinanchu” and an Atlantean Soul Mate; Glinda leaves.
Chapter 2
Remo kills the guards protecting drug kingpin Pedro Ramirez and kills Ramirez himself; the public report does not describe the actual method.
Chapter 3
Remo celebrates his new standing with Chiun’s egg-lemon soup. Horton Droney assaults the woman on his broadcast, and she stabs him.
Chapter 4
Remo and Chiun visit Horton Droney at New York Hospital and learn that Shane Billiken lives in Malibu.
Chapter 5
Smith is concerned about his unexplained neighbor and missing patient Gilbert Grumley; the narrative also recounts CURE’s origin under an unnamed President.
Chapter 6
Shane’s presentation of the woman as Princess Sinanchu of Atlantis is challenged when Chiun recognizes the Low Moo and speaks with her; she leaves Shane’s house with Remo and Chiun.
Chapter 7
Remo and Chiun agree to honor Dolla-Dree’s request and sail with her aboard the dilapidated Chinese junk *Jonah Ark*.
Chapter 8
At sea, Chiun tells Remo how Moo became an important Sinanju client and how Master Mangko’s expedition reached the drowned realm.
Chapter 9
Smith uses a golf outing to investigate the apparently empty house next to his home.
Chapter 10
Tu-Min-Ka waits for Dolla-Dree while the royal priest Teihotu reports omens and danger associated with the Grove of Ghosts.
Chapter 11
Smith decides to use the County Registry of Deeds to identify who acquired the neighboring property.
Chapter 12
Dolla-Dree tells Remo how her people explain Old Moo’s sinking and the survival of the high realm under the protection of Kai.
Chapter 13
The High Moo receives Dolla-Dree, Remo, and Chiun; Chiun negotiates for Sinanju, and Remo is acknowledged as free.
Chapter 14
After Shane decides that the island and its treasure are real, he hires Dirk Edwards and a mercenary crew to take them.
Chapter 15
Remo and Chiun investigate the Grove of Ghosts, discover the cult’s human deception, and Chiun interrogates the royal priest Teihotu.
Chapter 16
At the registry, Smith finds that James Churchward is the named grantee of the neighboring home, but does not yet connect the name to Remo.
Chapter 17
Remo and Chiun fight the cult in the Grove of Ghosts and pursue its members through an underwater passage; a tentacle catches Remo.
Chapter 18
Smith’s search results for Churchward are blocked, and he decides that he must investigate the house in person.
Chapter 19
Remo and Chiun defeat the last octopus-pyramid formation. Remo reveals that he used a stolen blowgun, prompting Chiun to object to its use and its place in the Book of Sinanju.
Chapter 20
Remo and Chiun bring the defeated cultists back to the village. The High Moo declares the octopus cult ended and confirms Sinanju’s fee.
Chapter 21
Smith hires private investigator Michael P. Brunt under the pretense of recovering a sentimental tea service from Churchward’s empty house.
Chapter 22
Remo wakes on Moo with unusually long fingernails and learns that Chiun intends to take a month-long vacation there.
Chapter 23
Chiun shows Remo the submerged ruins and the royal tomb of Old Moo. Returning to shore, they hear that the High Moo has been attacked.
Chapter 24
Shane and the mercenaries quarrel over food at sea, then attack a passing cabin cruiser, kill its occupants, and take its provisions.
Chapter 25
The captured attacker says he objected to the mine labor and concentration of coins; Chiun verifies that he is not an octopus worshiper, and a mine flood kills him.
Chapter 26
The High Moo refuses Chiun’s account and brutally punishes the dead attacker. Chiun recognizes that a coin found by Remo bears the current ruler’s year of accession.
Chapter 27
A delayed credit-card bill leads Smith to Malibu Marine, where he learns Remo bought a Chinese junk and sailed away with Chiun and a woman.
Chapter 28
After another assault, Chiun questions the captured attacker and concludes that he and the escaped conspirators are not octopus worshipers.
Chapter 29
Smith searches geographic records for “Moo” and “Mu,” but dismisses the latter as a mythical place.
Chapter 30
Remo’s nails and hair change further, and Dolla-Dree explains the islanders’ lore about white men while defending the royal work system.
Chapter 31
Shane’s expedition attacks islanders after mistaking Hawaii for Moo, then discovers its error and retreats.
Chapter 32
Dolla-Dree asks to acquire Remo; a stonefish-spine trap kills a guard, and another guard identifies the metalsmith Uk-Uk as the attacker.
Chapter 33
A room-by-room search at Folcroft reveals that the missing patient Gilbert Grumley has been hiding in the room previously assigned to Chiun.
Chapter 34
Remo hears several independent plots against the High Moo and learns that Uk-Uk plans to exploit them. Chiun finds the High Moo stabbed with a broken bone knife; at Remo’s room Dolla-Dree attacks Remo with a matching knife and her claim that the High Moo is dead exposes her role. Chiun saves the High Moo and he spares his daughter and the other plotters.
Chapter 35
Dirk Edwards’s crew considers killing Shane after their failed expedition, then changes plans when it sees the *Jonah Ark* and hopes to seize treasure.
Chapter 36
Brunt finds no tea service but reports locked boxes in the Churchward house; Smith decides to inspect the property himself.
Chapter 37
Shane’s crew discovers the coin hoard, while Remo organizes a sit-down strike among the mine workers. The mercenaries blast the mines, triggering a broad collapse of the western slope.
Chapter 38
The island’s mined ground collapses. Remo and Chiun reach the junk and try to save the High Moo and Dolla-Dree; she chooses not to live. Chiun and Remo give different explanations for the collapse.
Chapter 39
Chiun connects Remo’s yellow hair and beard to the repeated egg-lemon soup and discards the soup; Remo asks for an explanation.
Chapter 40
Smith learns that the house beside his is Remo’s, bought under Remo’s alias James Churchward, and that Chiun’s locked trunks were mistaken for weapons.
Chapter 41
Shane fails to sell the coins as precious metal, learns Roy Orbison is dead, and attempts suicide at sea. Remo stops the fire, Chiun kills Shane, and the pair recover Sinanju’s share of the tin coins.
Editions & covers
References & notes
Sources 30 references
- stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Destroyer.html
- www.fantasticfiction.com/series/destroyer
- sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/murphy_warren
- www.45cat.com/book/title/created-the-destroyer
- api.publicrecords.copyright.gov/search_service_external/simple_search_dsl?query=TX0002627227
- www.hachette.co.uk/titles/richard-sapir/coin-of-the-realm/9780751559194
- spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=472
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Edition and source notes
The supplied corpus has a 50-block narrative foreword followed by 41 indexed chapter sections; the foreword is treated as prologue, not as a numbered chapter.
The EPUB metadata lists language “ru” while the supplied narrative text is English; no print edition has been authenticated, and the local inventory classifies the source as an unidentified transcription requiring licensed-edition comparison.
The selected text supplies no calendar story year or publisher metadata. This draft reports the supplied witness and does not infer a publication date or authenticate its bibliographic metadata.
Names are the bibliography’s title-level “written by” attribution key, not a verified edition byline. credited_authors is null because no first-edition cover/title page was checked. A creator name in the general franchise metadata must not be treated as proof of sole drafting.
registration-declared first publication: 1989-07-03. CPRS record field is the registrant/depositor-reported first-publication date, not independent retail/on-sale verification; no print copy inspected. Source
Coin of the Realm:
Publisher's description: Hachette supplies only its general series overview here; it characterizes the novels as action-led stories mixing comedy and mysticism.
Presidential clues
No current or succession assessment is available; other retained presidential references remain in context.
Unnamed fictional CURE-founding President (Destroyer 077)
John F. Kennedy (strong qualified series-context inference; unnamed in Book 77)
- The narrator says CURE was the brainchild of a young President when set up in the early 1960s.
- The passage says an assassin was about to end that President’s term prematurely.
- Book 26 states that John Kennedy started CURE and that he secretly selected Smith and arranged CURE’s budget.
strong cross-book inference; not named in the Book 77 passage
Book 77 itself gives no personal name or exact date. Book 26 explicitly attributes CURE’s start and secret establishment to John Kennedy (ch01:p0148, p0150); this supports a strong series-context candidate without changing observed_name from null.
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