Carolyn G. Hart3.0 Retired reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins--better known as "Henrie O"--is called in by an old lover, arrogant media tycoon Chase Prescott, to investigate a murder plot against him.
Аарон Элкинс0.0 It is the kind of news that would normally send champagne corks flying at the Seattle Art Museum. A famous French art collector wants to give the museum an original Rembrandt! So why isn't Chris Norgren, curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art, smiling? Perhaps because the gift seems too good to be true. And there are conditions that make Chris nervous: The collector is the elderly Rene Vachey, one of the world's more controversial eccentrics. The Rembrandt has come out of nowhere - in fact, from a Paris junk shop - with no known history of ownership. Vachey will let Chris examine the painting, but he's not allowed to make scientific tests before he officially accepts the painting for the museum. Could the whole episode be a cruel hoax? Chris knows that if he authenticates the painting and it's a fake, he'll have embarrassed both himself and his museum. But if he rejects Vachey's gift, and the Rembrandt turns out to be real, he'll also look like a fool and Seattle will have lost a magnificent art treasure. Chris flies to France to leave a look for himself. The trip, which comes at an inconvenient time in Chris's shaky love life, soon takes a sinister and deadly turn. Chris must use all his wits and expertise in a perplexing quest for a killer, the evaluation of a painting that might or might not be a Rembrandt, and the untangling of a complex man's many-layered past. Old Scores is rich with European ambiance, fascinating art lore, and a compelling, insider's view of a rarefied world that few of us ever see. It is the work of a master.
Joan Hess0.0 Chief of Police Arly (Ariel) Hanks is still hiding out in her hometown of Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), the land of moonshine and Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill, country roads and Nashville on the radio, cheatin' hearts and, well, maybe murder. It all starts when Matt Montana, country music's number one superstar of the year, decides it's a great PR move to come home to Maggody for the holidays. For a town in the grip of a recession, the news means Christmas is bringing a savior. Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan, the mayor's wife, quickly sets up the Matt Montana Official Souvenir Shoppe, the amply endowed Dahlia Buchanan drives tourists around in the "Matt-mobile, " and beer costs two dollars a bottle at the Matt Montana Hometown Bar & Grill. Only one thing is missing: Aunt Adele, Matt Montana's one and only living relative. The elderly lady has mysteriously disappeared from the local nursing home, and Arly - even with the loan of the Fayetteville's PD's tracking dog - can find neither hide nor hair nor corpse of her. Now Arly gets to peek behind the scenes at a singing star's very private life to discover the manager who isn't above using blackmail, the wife who may be willing to kill to keep her man, and the pretty young singer who is giving Matt Montana an achy breaky heart. Is one of them a killer? Why has Dahlia Buchanan confessed to murder? What did happen to Aunt Adele? And what does moonshiner Raz Buchanan's pig Marjorie have to do with it all? Since Arly is the smartest, spunkiest, most off-beat sleuth in the Ozarks, it's up to her to save Christmas and restore order to the wacky, delightful community of Maggody, where anything can happen - and usually does.
Рошелл Майер Крич0.0 "No cause for alarm," says Detective Jessie Drake on the evening news. "Be alert and wary of unfamiliar faces, lock your doors. We have several leads..." But as the newly appointed departmental spokesperson, Jessie knows full well that there are no leads. At least no sane leads. Just insane clues, left by a serial killer who is as playfully clever as he is cunningly dangerous. Five victims have been murdered thus far. Five different neighborhoods. The only link between them is the cause of death: each died by a lethal injection of curare. The police are stymied. Not since Spider Woman has anybody used curare, blow dart poison, as a murder weapon of choice. As the odd and mystifyingly obscure clues mount, something begins to click in Jessie's mind. Why do some of the bodies have bank deposit slips and money attached to them while one bears a parking ticket, of all things? Jessie can't quite put her finger on the connection. It's something from her childhood, something so familiar....Suddenly, Jessie figures it out, and she is stunned by the killer's twisted brilliance: the game he is playing is all too real. The gameboard is the city of Los Angeles and the winner claims his prize in blood.
Margaret Maron0.0 Deborah Knott may have lost the district election, but a bigoted judge's sudden death - and some old-fashioned political horse trading - have won her a governor's appointment. True to Southern form, her swearing-in is followed by a raucous reception that brings out every elderly aunt and cousin in the county. Unfortunately, Lu Bingham, the force behind WomanAid, is at the reception, too. Not only has she come to collect the leftovers for her daycare center, but she's also there to collect on one of Deborah's more extravagant campaign promises. Before Deborah can say, "If elected..." she is committed to putting her muscle where her mouth was, spending weekends with an all-woman crew as the group attempts to build its first house for a needy single mom. Old stereotypes die hard. Herman Knott, one of Deborah's numerous brothers, has to be hectored and cajoled before he'll give reluctant permission for his daughter and novice electrician Annie Sue to wire the house. Nor does it help that the county building inspector is a swaggering chauvinist nit-picker who's more interested in scoring with the young women than scoring their work. Chaos erupts before the house is even half-finished. On the same rainy summer night that Herman collapses on the side of the road from an apparent heart attack, Annie Sue is found battered and half-naked in the deserted structure. Has she been raped? Who left her in that condition? And whose blood is that on Deborah's own hammer? Dwight Bryant, an old childhood friend (and a bit of a good ol' boy), is a modern and efficient police detective, but it is Deborah who must judge whether dark secrets in her own family have led to murder. And if so, reveal the darkermore troubling reasons why.
Кэти Хоган Трочек0.0 From her time on the Atlanta police force, Callahan Garrity, house cleaner and private investigator extraordinaire, has excelled at mopping up messes -- of all kinds. But she has no idea what she's getting into when she agrees to work for infamous antiques dealer Elliot Littlefield.
The first day on the job she and her crew discover the bloodied body of a young woman in a bedroom -- and are soon on the trail of a priceless Civil War diary stolen by the killer. As if two crimes aren't enough, deadly serious collectors, right-wing radicals, and impulsive teenagers make the case even more difficult to tidy up ... and more dangerous.
Nevada Barr0.0 Fleeing New York to find refuge as a ranger in the remote backcountry of West Texas, Anna Pigeon stumbles into a web of violence and murder when fellow park ranger Sheila Drury is mysteriously killed and another ranger vanishes.
Jan Burke0.0 In the bestselling tradition of Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky--a new mystery series featuring Irene Kelly, reporter, amateur sleuth, and woman of today. When a veteran reporter is killed while trying to solve a murder that occurred in 1955, Irene Kelly attempts to find out who silenced her comrade--and quickly becomes the killer's next target.
Deborah Crombie4.0 A week's holiday in a luxurious Yorkshire time-share is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But the discovery of a body floating in the whirlpool bath ends Kincaid's vacation before it's begun. One of his new acquaintances at Followdale House is dead; another is a killer. Despite a distinct lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised dramatically when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon who enjoys homicide a bit too much.
Sharan Newman4.0 Catherine LeVendeur is a young scholar come to conquer her sin of pride at the Convent of the Paraclete, famous for learning, prayer, and its abbess, the fabled Heloise.
When a manuscript the convent produced for the great Abbe Suger disappears, rumors surface saying the book contains sacrilegious passages and will be used to condemn Heloise's famous lover, Peter Abelard.
To save her Order, and protect all she holds dear, Catherine must find the manuscript and discover who altered the text. She will risk disgrace, the wrath of her family and the Church, and confront an evil older than Time itself--and, if she isn't careful, lose her immortal soul.
With Death Comes As Epiphany, the first in the Catherine LeVendeur mystery series, medievalist Sharan Newman has woven dark mystery and sparkling romance into a fascinating and richly detailed tapestry of everyday life in twelfth-century France, and one of the most moving love stories of all time: Abelard and Heloise.
Эбигейл Паджетт0.0 When someone tries to kill a deaf, four-year-old boy found in the dusty canyons of Southern California, child abuse investigator Bo Bradley vows to save the boy and unearth the truth.
Барбара Д'амато0.0 In 1968, Dr. John Branion was found guilty of murdering his wife in their posh Chicago home. After exhausting his appeals, he evaded authorites by fleeing to Africa. He was finally captured in 1983--but his case was far from over. It would take another seven years for Dr. Branion to prove that he was innoent--and that those who prosecuted him had known it all along.
Альзина Стоун Дейл0.0 Revised for the 1993 centennial celebration of the birth of Dorothy L. Sayers, this biography describes a life profuse with literary products as rich and varied as her past.
Майкл Джеральд0.0 Poisoning occurs in over half of Agatha Christie's many novels and stories. In fact, she used a larger number and broader selection of poisons and medicines, for a wider variety of purposes, with greater frequency, ingenuity, and scientific accuracy than any other detective fiction writer. Yet very little has been written on the use of drugs, poisons, and chemicals in Christie's fiction. The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie entertainingly and authoritatively fills this gap. Michael Gerald explores the use of poisons and drugs in Christie's fiction not only to commit murder and suicide but also to incapacitate a victim, alter behavior, treat disease, or support addiction. He also analyzes her views, as expressed in her fiction and autobiography, on drug addiction, tbe health professions, the value of medicines, and scientific discoveries. Especially valuable is Gerald's exhaustive listing of all drugs, poisons, and chemicals mentioned in Christie's novels and stories, with references to the work(s) in which each appears and the ways in which each is used. Other tables list all the novels and short stories and the chemicals that are used in each. Throughout, the properties of all drugs are clearly explained so that the reader needs no special scientific or medical knowledge. The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie illuminates the fictional uses Christie made of her real-life experiences as a hospital drug dispenser and as a provider of nursing care. It will be of interest to fans and scholars alike.
Ларри Сегрифф, Эд Горман, Мартин Гринберг0.0 As told from the viewpoints of the writer, editor, and critic, Robert Bloch, Lawrence Block, Charlotte MacLeod, Margaret Maron, Bill Pronzini, and others present an inside look at the world of mystery fiction. Overview covers everything from psychological suspense to PI novels to traditional mysteries. Over 300 illus.
