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The Mystery of the Ruby Queens (Connie Blair, Book #12)
by Betsy AllenIN THE HEART of historical Philadelphia, within the shadow of Independence Hall, Connie Blair solves one of the most baffling mysteries she has ever encountered. Connie is sent on a research assignment by the Reid and Renshaw Advertising Agency to an old mansion which is being restored to its original Colonial character. Caroline Calder, the eccentric late owner of the mansion, willed a valuable set of six porcelain figurines to her niece, Maryanne Jessup. But the figurines have disappeared. Everyone except Maryanne insists that the unpredictable Miss Calder simply disregarded the terms of the will and gave the Ruby Queens, as she did other possessions, to someone else before she died. Connie decides to go along with Maryanne's theory and help find them. Through a curious circumstance, Connie discovers a clue that the Ruby Queens had been well hidden in the mansion, and only recently removed. Convinced that the Ruby Queens have been stolen, Connie does some careful sleuthing, in which she is aided by Happy Wallace, a handsome architectural student from the University of Pennsylvania. In her efforts to locate the figurines and apprehend the culprit, Connie faces many dangerous and exciting situations before the pattern of this intriguing mystery finally becomes clear.
The War Angel
by Michael SalazarElite Air Force Special Forces Pararescue Team operative Jason Johnson returns, taking on another impossible mission--this time in Afghanistan.
Critical Space
by Greg RuckaThe acclaimed author of Shooting at Midnight has penned a thriller like no other -- the no-holds-barred story of a bodyguard with the ultimate assignment: protecting a woman who also happens to be the most hunted killer in the world. Code-named Drama, she is a lightning-fast death machine -- a hitwoman sought by intelligence agencies around the world. Drama kills as easily as she breathes and the last time she and Atticus Kodiak met, they barely escaped each other alive. Atticus Kodiak has a reputation as one of the toughest bodyguards in the business. He's used to picking his assignments and calling the shots. But all that changes when he is forced to take on Drama as a client -- the last person he ever imagined would need his protection. This time, Drama is the one who is running from a killer. She needs Atticus's help, and she won't take no for an answer. To prove it, she abducts a high-profile member of the royal family whom Atticus has sworn to protect. He will do almost anything to get the woman back. But what Drama needs from him will destroy his reputation -- and siding with her means he can never turn back. From New York's Russian enclaves to the Swiss Alps and the Caribbean, Atticus becomes Drama's protector, and her only hope for survival as she tries to outlive and outrun her bloody past. But once immersed in Drama's high-stakes, covert world, Atticus breaks a cardinal rule: He gets to know Drama as a woman rather than just a client -- and it's a bond that could cost them both their lives. For the men hunting Drama are capable of unspeakable violence -- of sins that make Drama's own look like the acts of an amateur. And they will stop at nothing to see her dead. A masterful work by one of the most unique voices in the field, Critical Space combines high-voltage, high-tech action with swift, terrifying brutality. The result is Greg Rucka's most explosive thriller to date -- a powerhouse of a novel destined to become a classic of modern suspense.
The Secret Parts of Fortune: Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms
by Ron RosenbaumOne part intellectual and one part private eye, Ron Rosenbaum takes readers into "the secret parts" of the great mysteries, controversies, and enigmas of our time, including: the occult rituals of Skull and Bones, the legendary Yale secret society that has produced spies and presidents, including George Bush and George W. Bush; the Secrets of the Little Blue Box, the classic story of "Captain Crunch" and the birth of hacker culture; the "unorthodox" cancer-cure clinics of Tijuana; the Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal; the unsolved murder of JFK's mistress. Also including sharp, funny cultural critiques that range from Elvis to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Bill Gates to Oliver Stone, and J. D. Salinger to the Zagat guide, The Secret Parts of Fortune is a vital record of American culture.
The Vampire's Violin
by Michael RomkeyListen to its haunting, angelic sound After centuries of life, the Vampire has just two passions left: blood and music. The blood of innocents is plentiful and easily attained—it is his other passion that torments him. Many years ago he owned and lost a violin that sang with the voice of the angels. Now this unearthly monster will do anything to press the instrument once more against his neck. As it summons a hellish creature of the night Maggie O’Hara was a talented if unremarkable violinist—until the day her grandfather gives her a violin he had brought home from World War II. For fifty years the magnificent instrument sat untouched in an attic, but from the moment Maggie hits the first note, her playing is transformed. With this remarkable violin in her possession, all of her dreams are eerily becoming reality. But she has no way of knowing that a nightwalker is tracking her down—and that he has every intention of taking back, through bloodlust and terror, what is rightfully his. . . . THE VAMPIRE’S VIOLIN
The Night Ferry
by Michael RobothamA young policewoman breaks all the rules to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of the best friend she betrayed in this stunning follow-up thriller from the author of Suspect and Lost. Ali Barba, a Sikh detective with the Metropolitan Police, is recovering from injuries sustained in the line of duty when she receives a letter from her estranged friend, Cate, imploring her to come to their high school reunion. Alarmed by the urgent tone of the note, and eager to make amends for her unforgivable past behavior, Ali goes to the reunion. Cate is pregnant, but before Ali has the chance to congratulate her, Cate hurriedly whispers, "They want to take my baby. You have to stop them." It is the only hint of Cate's troubles Ali manages to get. As they are leaving the reunion, Cate and her husband are run down by a car and killed. The mystery darkens when it is discovered that Cate had faked her pregnancy by tying a pillow underneath her dress. All Ali has to go on is a file in Cate's desk that contains two ultrasound pictures, letters from a fertility clinic, and various papers that seem to confirm the unborn baby's existence. As she puts together the pieces, her search takes her to Amsterdam and into the company of some very unsavory people on both sides of the Channel who'll do anything to thwart her investigation. A gripping thriller and a searing tale of the search for redemption, The Night Ferry is Michael Robotham's finest novel yet.
The Betrayal Game
by David L. RobbinsSet during the Cuban missile crisis of 1961, this what-if thriller forces readers to question what "could have" happened--maybe even what "should have" happened--in the weeks before the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Scorched Earth
by David L. RobbinsFrom David L. Robbins, bestselling author of The End of War and War of the Rats, comes a novel of searing intensity and uncompromising vision. Part mystery, part legal thriller, it is a story of crime and punishment set in a small southern town during one brutal, hot, and unforgiving summer that lays bare the potential of the human heart to hate and, ultimately, to heal. Scorched Earth. The inhabitants of Good Hope, Virginia, haven't felt the cooling effects of rain in weeks. The crops are withering. The ground is parched. There is no relief in sight. With the town a tinderbox waiting to explode, all it takes is a spark to ignite all the prejudice, the rage, and the secrets that are so carefully kept hidden. And then, in the midst of the terrible heat, a tragedy occurs. A baby is born and dies in her mother's arms. The child, Nora Carol, is buried quickly and quietly the next day in a church graveyard. It should have ended right there-but it didn't, for Nora Carol is of mixed race. The white deacons of Good Hope's Victory Baptist Church, trying to protect the centuries-old traditions of their cemetery, have the body exhumed. That night the church is set ablaze, and the sole witness is the only suspect-Elijah Waddell, Nora Carol's father. Nat Deeds, a former prosecutor and an exile of Good Hope, is pressed into service as Elijah's attorney. With a politically savvy prosecutor and a vindictive sheriff aligned against him, Nat knows it will be nearly impossible to get Elijah acquitted. But Elijah refuses to accept a plea. As the evidence mounts, Nat begins to suspect there is something his client isn't telling him, and the next revelation turns Good Hope into a powder keg: a body is found in the ashes of the church. Now Elijah is accused of murder, and the case is no longer a matter of winning or losing, but of life or death. The only way Nat can save his client is to scratch and claw for any shred of evidence, even if he has to bend the law to find it. As the summer heat intensifies and passions reach their boiling point, Nat must navigate through the incendiary secrets kept by friends and neighbors, by the guilty and the innocent, to an act of justice that has nothing to do with the law.
The Perennial Killer
by Ann RipleyOn location in Colorado for her syndicated television show, Gardening with Nature, filming alpine butterflies and avalanche lilies, Louise Eldridge can see why this beautiful terrain is as precious as gold. Then the pure Rocky Mountain air is fouled by the discovery of elderly rancher Jimmy Porter's body, shot to death and draped like a coyote carcass over his own backyard fence. Louise soon discovers a staggering list of suspects, since Jimmy's plan to sell his 13,000-acre ranch to a government preservation program left a lot of family, friends, and competitors with much to lose. Throw in a second death, a closed nuclear plant, a CIA investigation involving Louise's husband, and a bullet hole in her cowboy hat, and Louise suddenly realizes she's onto a killer as hardy as the native skeleton weed-and seemingly as indestructible.
The Garden Tour Affair
by Ann RipleyEverything's coming up corpses. . . . Louise Eldridge is taking her popular television show,Gardening with Nature,on location to film a garden tour at the historic Litchfield Falls Inn. It's a weekend in the country that promises rest, relaxation, and some of New England's most beautiful gardens. But the local grapevine whispers of warring lovers, botanical scams, academic scandal, and family finagling. The tension is so thick you can hardly cut it with a scythe. And then the uneasy group of assembled guests begin to meet with the most unfortunate of accidents. Suddenly Louise suspects that someone is playing Grim Reaper in the Litchfield Falls paradise. How many more guests--including one nosy garden show host--are about to be cut down?
Death of a Political Plant
by Ann RipleyAnn Ripley's horticultural heroine, Louise Eldridge, enchanted mystery lovers of all varieties in Death of a Garden Pest and Mulch. Now she returns in a witty new tale of muckraking, murder, and deeply buried--and very dangerous--secrets. Louise's TV show, Gardening with Nature, has made her a celebrity, sweeping her from lawn-mower commercials all the way to the president's National Environmental Commission. Not that Louise is about to get her hands dirty in the mudslinging campaigns of an election year. As usual, her main concerns are right in her own backyard. Here, in Washington's suburban Sylvan Valley, she is subject to an unwelcome infestation of houseguests that threatens to crowd out her houseplants. Least welcome of all are three bossy busybodies in town for the Perennial Plant Society convention, who fete Louise as official "Plant Person of the Year" but press her to slash back the sweetgums and swamp oaks that give her beloved garden its pristine air. Her grin-and-bear-it mood is lightened, however, by the arrival of an old flame. Twenty years ago, in the first bloom of youth, Louise fell heavily for Jay McCormick's crooked smile and crusading charm. Now, he's an investigative journalist looking worriedly over his shoulder. Jay confides that he's come on two distinct undercover missions. One is to ensure that his ex-wife, a high-powered political lawyer, doesn't cheat on the rules for custody of their young daughter. Around the other, he raises an impenetrable thicket of secrecy. But Jay's cover is blown when he surfaces, a nibbled corpse, in a neighbor's ornamental fishpond. Who put him there? And what was the mysterious story he was investigating? Only Louise can unearth the trail that leads from a missing computer to a pistol-packing intruder trampling her purple-spotted toad lilies to evidence hidden where only a hardcore gardener could find it. Soon she's digging up enough dirt--social, marital, and political--to uproot some of Washington's top players... if she doesn't get herself nipped in the bud first. Ripening suspense, a thorny plot, and plenty of gardening tips make Death of a Political Plant a perfect bouquet of murder, mystery, and mayhem.
Dead Line
by Stella RimingtonMI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland and several heads of state will attend. The Syrians have learned that two individuals are mounting an operation to disrupt the peace conference in a way designed to be spectacular, laying the blame at Syria's door. The source claims that Syrian Intelligence will act against the pair, presumably by killing them. No one knows who they are or what they are planning to do. Are they working together? Who is controlling them? Or is the whole story a carefully laid trail of misinformation? It is Liz's job to find out. But, as she discovers, the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined. The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake and the conference deadline is drawing ever closer.
The Sempster's Tale
by Margaret FrazerDame Frevisse is in London to recover gold from the coffers of the murdered Duke of Suffolk and give it to her cousin. Frevisse's co-conspirators in this secrecy are seamstress Anne Blakehall and her lover, a Jewish trader smuggling the gold through Anne's shop. But their mission is jeopardized when a crucified body is discovered, supposedly scarred with Hebrew letters, stirring up anti-Semitic sentiment in the populace.
Firefly Cloak
by Sheri ReynoldsThis housecoat, painted with tiny fireflies, becomes totemic for Tessa Lee, providing a connection to her past and to the beautiful mother she lost. Seven years later, when word arrives that her mother has been spotted working at a tourist trap on a seaside boardwalk not far from where Tessa Lee lives, she sets off on a dangerous journey to try to recover what has been taken from her. Steeped in the rich Southern atmosphere for which Sheri Reynolds has long been hailed, Firefly Cloak is a vivid coming-of-age novel of family, loss, and redemption.
The Side Effect
by Bob ReissIt's the night the President has resigned. In a Manhattan town house, the head of Lenox Pharmaceuticals, the world's most powerful drug company, lies dead. Through the morning darkness, security chief Mike Acela drives his BMW to the scene. Mike's job has been to defend the Chairman against all enemies. But this street-smart, battle-hardened former FBI agent is about to find out how little he knows about his mentor, his job, or the dangers swirling all around him. Somewhere within Lenox's global web of government contracts and cutting-edge medications, the Chairman kept a terrible secret. A secret that has already started changing the world. To find out how the Chairman really died, Mike must uncover the truth behind Project HR-109. But what the Lenox scientists discovered is worth killing for. And the killing has just begun.
The White Gates
by Bonnie RamthunWHEN TORIN SINCLAIR’S mom gets a job as the town doctor in Snow Park, Colorado, Tor can’t wait to learn to snowboard. But on Tor’s first night there, a member of the high school snowboarding team dies. “It’s the curse,” everyone whispers. Tor’s new friends Drake and Raine explain that there’s an old Native American curse on the doctors of the town. Snow Park can never get a doctor to stay. Tor and his friends must piece together a mystery involving an old mine, a Ute curse, the entire snowboarding team—who just might be blood doping in order to win competitions— and an attempt to save the wild river otters of Colorado. But to complete the puzzle, will Tor have to ride the deadly White Gates? And how will he survive the avalanche that follows? From the Hardcover edition.
Rosa
by Jonathan RabbIn the last days of the First World War, socialist revolution swept across Germany, sending Kaiser Wilhelm into exile and transforming Berlin into a battleground. But for Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner and his young assistant, Hans Fichte, the revolution is a mere inconvenience. Four women from the slums of Berlin have turned up dead, all with identical markings etched into their backs, and Hoffner and Fichte have spent the better part of six weeks trying to crack the bizarre case. Things take a troubling turn when the political police begin to show an interest in Hoffner's investigation. Hoffner has no idea why the Polpo would want to get their hands dirty with a serial murderer, until he is shown the lifeless body of Rosa Luxemburg, the same eerie markings on her back. Rumors abound that Rosa, one of the leaders of the suppressed socialist uprising, was assassinated by an angry mob, but the pattern carved into her back tells a different story. In his remarkable new thriller, Jonathan Rabb paints a vivid, unforgettable picture of a city and a people poised between the chaos of the First World War and the darkness to come, a time when political thugs, petty thieves, and charismatic leaders rushed to fill the void left behind. Into this gap steps Hoffner, who, while battling his own personal demons, is still determined to find out who is preying on the women of Berlin, even as he gets drawn deeper into the mystery surrounding Rosa's death. Hoffner's search for the killer leads him on a dark and twisted journey through the battle-scarred streets of the city, where he soon discovers that nothing is as it appears. And while he finds allies in unexpected places, he is met at every turn by men who will stop at nothing to keep him from finding out the truth about Rosa. A genuine mystery at the time, Rosa's fate has continued to prompt speculation to this day. Rabb's taut political thriller imagines one strikingly real possibility. With his first two novels,The Overseer and The Book of Q, Rabb proved that he had a talent not only for writing suspenseful narratives but for illuminating the darkest corners of history as well. With Rosa, his finest work, he brings to life a world capital on the brink of chaos, a tragic revolutionary who both inspired and enraged, and a compellingly complex, world-weary, deeply flawed but brilliant inspector named Nikolai Hoffner.
Taking Lives
by Michael PyeMartin Arkenhout, a seventeen-year-old Dutchman travelling across the States, kills his young American travelling companion, Seth Goodman, and adopts his identity. Some months later he takes - and takes on - other lives, adopting another passport, set of credit cards and identity. A decade and many lives later, now back in the Netherlands, he kills and becomes a young British art historian, Christopher Hart, and follows his plans to go to Portugal. But Christopher is being followed from London by Costas, another art historian, investigating the disappearance of a series of valuable prints from a priceless book, and before he leaves the Netherlands, Martin runs into his own mother on a tram. In the confusion of the moment he identifies himself as Hart, and for the first time Martin's series of seamless killings and identities runs into trouble.
Death and the Arrow
by Chris PriestleyA gripping historical mystery, full of 18th century atmosphere. Fifteen-year-old Tom lives in the murky city of London where he helps his father run a print shop. Among the customers is wise old Dr. Harker, a retired physician and seafarer, whose patient demeanour and fascinating tales endear him to Tom. Both Tom and Harker become intrigued by a murder in the city where the victim is pierced by an arrow and left holding an illustrated card of “Death and the Arrow. ” The mystery deepens after more “Death and the Arrow” victims are discovered, and Tom cannot rest until he has uncovered the truth behind the murders. This atmospheric venture into the eighteenth-century will fascinate and engage readers ten-years-old and up.
The Astral Alibi
by Manjiri PrabhuIf you like your crime in a foreign clime, join Sonia Samarth and her Stellar Investigations Detective Agency as they confront a rash of baffling misdeeds plaguing the city of Pune, India–and solve them as only they can, with a unique combination of traditional Indian wisdom, modern-day detection, and ancient astrology. The Astral Alibi After a slow start to the New Year, Sonia Samarth’s crime-solving services are in high demand. There’s the bride whose arranged marriage may include murderous in-laws, the theatrical team whose death scene was no act, and the deceptively happy couple whose stars foretell domestic danger. Good thing Sonia has her opinionated assistant, Jatin, to help–except that even he may be caught up in the unlawful fray. Fortunately, it takes more than a few misguided souls–not to mention a preposterous proposal from the world’s most notorious diamond thief–to rattle this yoga-practicing, astrologically inspired sleuth.
The Stone Child
by Dan PoblockiWhat if the monsters from your favorite horror books were real? Eddie Fennicks has always been a loner, content to lose himself in a mystery novel by his favorite author, Nathaniel Olmstead. That’s why moving to the small town of Gatesweed becomes a dream come true when Eddie discovers that Olmstead lived there before mysteriously disappearing thirteen years ago. Even better, Eddie finds a handwritten, never-before-seen Nathaniel Olmstead book printed in code and befriends Harris, who’s as much an Olmsteady as he is. But then the frightening creatures of Olmstead’s books begin to show up in real life, and Eddie’s dream turns into a nightmare. Eddie, Harris, and their new friend, Maggie, must break Olmstead’s code, banish all gremlins and monster lake-dogs from the town of Gatesweed, and solve the mystery of the missing author, all before Eddie’s mom finishes writing her own tale of terror and brings to life the scariest creature of all. From the Hardcover edition.
Anne Perry's Christmas Mysteries
by Anne PerryTwo holiday novels provide the perfect combination of mystery and murder mixed with a generous helping of Yuletide cheer. A CHRISTMAS GUEST When her daughter and son-in-law plan a Christmas vacation to Paris sans hers truly, Grandmama Mariah Ellison travels to the chilly, windswept Romney Marshes to spend the holiday with old friends. But when the body of a fellow guest is found lifeless in bed, Grandmama senses foul play and takes it upon herself to assume the role of amateur detective–uncovering startling truths about the victim . . . and herself as well. A CHRISTMAS SECRET Dominic Corde is thrilled to “fill the robe” as substitute vicar in the village of Cottisham while the Reverend Wynter is away on a Christmas holiday. Upon arrival, Dominic and his wife, Clarice, wonder how they will be received by the congregation. But the Cordes soon discover that they have more dire matters to worry about. It turns out that the Reverend Wynter isn’t on holiday at all–and that something very sinister has transpired.
A Woman's Eye
by Sara ParetskyCrime is common ground for the twenty-one women writers in this extraordinary collection of contemporary mystery fiction. The voices here include professional crime solvers who take you from the mean streets of V. I. Warshawski's Chicago in a case of music and murder. . . to the California freeway where Kinsey Millhone's beloved VW skids into a shooting. . . to the gang-held turf of Sharon says mum's the word. And then there are mothers, grandmothers, battered wives, and social workers -- ordinary women in extraordinary situations whose voices reveal contemporary life as seen through a woman's eye. From the opening tale of a girl down-and-out in London and what she steals from a corpse. . . to the final story of a summer vacation in the Berkshires, complete with romance and sudden death. . . this unique collection brings us great mystery writing that engages both our intellects and our hearts.
The Celebutantes: To the Penthouse
by Antonio PagliaruloIT’S SUMMER IN the city for Madison, Park, and Lexington Hamilton. Only, these triplet heiresses have more on their plate than hot-tubbing and the Hamptons. The Royal Crown Society of America is one of the most exclusive private clubs in the country and the triplets have secured membership. Even more exciting is that pop-art It girl Tallulah Kayson will unveil her newest masterpiece at their very own inaugural luncheon. But when they run into Tallulah’s mysterious boyfriend, Elijah Traymore, hitting on their friend Coco McCaid, something doesn’t feel right. And when Elijah plunges to his death from the hotel penthouse, that feeling is confirmed. Elijah was pushed, and judging from the limited edition pink cell phone found at the scene of the crime, Coco McCaid needs a very good lawyer. From the Trade Paperback edition.
47th Street Black
by Bayo OjikutuThe prize-winning debut of an incendiary new voice in contemporary American fiction, 47th Street Black is the story of JC and Mookie, whose rise in the gangster-driven ghettos of Chicago is as swift as it is brutal. In the early sixties, 47th street is the heart of black Chicago, where recent migrants from the South come to move up in the world. JC and Mookie are high school dropouts, playing stickball in the street when they stumble upon the dead body of the area's black liaison to the mafia. Where others would run, Mookie sees opportunity, and in no time he and JC are working for Salvie, the local boss. Within a year, they are the most infamous figures on 47th Street, best friends and partners with flashy cars, clothes, and women. As they alternate telling their stories, the balance of power shifts: smooth, charismatic Mookie becomes the de facto leader and small, violent JC the enforcer--roles that send JC to jail for a murder they commit together. In the 15 years he's away, JC gains an education and a resentment he can't control, while Mookie gains power over the entire South Side. By the time JC is paroled, both the neighborhood and the two men's lives are on an inexorable path to an explosive confrontation with simmering injustice.