Mr. Wickstead has died under a tree limb. The villagers are certain that his death had to do with a treasure he dug up last spring. But why was he in the wood on a frigid night? And what of the claw marks on the limb? And what was that treasure? As per usual, the town's animals know more than the Big Folk.

Annabelle Conroy, an honorary member of the Camel Club, is also a con artist who has swindled forty million dollars from casino king Jerry Bagger, the man who murdered her mother. As Stone and the Camel Club circle the wagons to protect Annabelle from Bagger, a new opponent arises. One by one, men from Stone's shadowy past are turning up dead.

The recently-divorced Alison just can't stop day-dreaming about the stunningly handsome yet technically married NYPD homicide detective Bobby Crawford - until her ex-husband turns up dead. And now that's she's being dragged into another murder investigation - this time, involving the Mob-boss parent of a student - Bobby might be the only man she can trust with her life.

[Canadian author]. The small town of Promise Falls is shocked when one of its families, the Langleys, is shot to death one night - and none more so than the Langley's next door neighbours, Jim and Ellen Cutter. The town has more than its share of secrets - and Jim Cutter, failed artist turned landscaper, need look no further than his own home and his wife Ellen's past to know that things aren't always what they seem. But not even Jim and Ellen are ready to know that their son was in the Langley house the night the family was murdered.

Michael Ryan is the author of a runaway bestseller,"Space Coast", but its publication coincides with his wife's murder in a bank raid. Ten years later he's back to face the ghosts of his past and try to write his second novel. He discovers the grim truth behind his wife's murder and encounters the strangest of smalltown behaviour.

Thanks to her new job as travel writer for the New York magazine "The Good Life," recently widowed Mallory is zipping around Orlando, on the lookout for quirky attractions like alligator farms and pirate-themed diners hidden amid the glitzy theme parks. But she's not prepared to find a cranky journalist speared to death in the Bali Ballroom - or to find herself a suspect in his murder. With her trip coming to a close, Mallory has no choice but to figure out if one of her fellow travel writers is a killer.

Agatha Raisin is easily persuaded to help the vicar of a nearby village publicize the church fete -- especially when the fair's organizer, George Selby, turns out to be a gorgeous widower. Agatha brings out the crowds for the fete, all right, but there's more going on than innocent village fun. Several of the offerings in the jam-tasting booth turn out to be poisoned, and the festive family event becomes the scene of two murders.

On a rainy night in South London a gun is fired into a car which swerves onto the pavement, killing the person at the bus stop. One life is wiped out and three more changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger, an ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth.

[Canadian author]. Owen is traveling across the American Southwest in a Winnebago as apprentice to the older Max, a master thief. They steal only from rich Republicans, but they have attracted the attention of the Subtractors, who steal from other thieves. As they go Owen begins to realize that what he values most is what can do him the most harm.

[Canadian author]. A Polish immigrant is beaten to death in Dublin. Outrage in both Ireland and Poland puts pressure on the Gardai to solve the case. And Inspector Matt Minogue, of the disbanded specialist Murder Squad, is suddenly back in demand.

A Yuletide dinner in West Brompton should have been a festive occasion, until the host, wealthy Stephen Whitfield, dropped dead before the second course. Now Mrs. Jeffries and the busy sleuths must rally in support of their Inspector - especially since the clues are harder to find than a silver sixpence in a plum pudding.

For Carmela Bertrand, a New Orleans shop owner who can turn any scrapbook into a treasure, this Halloween will feature more than the usual scares. On her way home from a ghoulish gathering, Carmela finds the dead body of a model - and is then attacked herself. Her leads are many, including animal teeth marks on the deceased's neck. And as the witching hour draws closer, Carmela must find what's lurking in the shadows - or get the fright of her life.

Kent, Midsummer 1195: a body is found in the undergrowth. Which of the victim's many enemies loathed him enough to resort to murder. Josse d'Acquin, driven by his love for the Abbess Helewise, knows that he has no choice but to investigate.

The first job the ruthless hitman called Quarry ever got was to infiltrate a college town and eliminate a professor whose affair with one of his beautiful, young students is the least of his sins.

Things are finally looking up for Mickey Haller. He's back in the courtroom, inheriting a case from murdered Hollywood lawyer Jerry Tadashi. But as he prepares to defend the studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover, Mickey learns that he's next, after Tadashi, on a killer's list. But Harry Bosch, who is after that killer, doesn't mind using Mickey as bait.

An injured man in a psychiatric prison ward tells Kay Scarpetta that his injuries were sustained in the course of a murder that he did not commit. Is Bane a criminally insane stalker who has fixed on Scarpetta? Or is his paranoid tale true, and it is he who is being spied on, followed and stalked by the actual killer?

Soap opera actress Alexis Peterson's career takes a nose-dive when Marcy Blanchard is hired as the head writer. Marcy has been holding a grudge for years - and is ready to take her revenge. So, when Marcy's found dead, bludgeoned to death with her Emmy, no one is surprised that Alexis is the prime suspect.

Natasha may have stolen the spotlight - and Sophie's husband - but Sophie is determined to rob her of the prize for the Stupendous Stuffing Shakedown. But Sophie's search for the perfect turkey takes a basting when she stumbles across a corpse - and when the police find her name and photo inside the victim's car.

After ten years abroad John Sutter returns to Long Island's Gold Coast for a funeral. But his ex-wife Susan has also returned. And, although Susan's ex-lover, the mafia don Frank Bellarosa, is long dead, Frank's son Anthony has also arrived. Anthony intends both to draw John back into the violent world of the Bellarosa family and to exact revenge on his father's murderer - Susan Sutter.

Multiple Amber Alerts for missing girls bring Detective CeeCee Gallagher onto the case of a serial child abductor and murderer. Gallagher and her partner race against time to save the girls' lives and apprehend the killer before he can strike again.

1097: Hugh de Payens, his young sister Eleanor and his close friend Godefroi of St. Omer join an army en route for the Holy Land. Like others caught up in the crusading fervour, they don't realize the depth of hardship, treachery, and bloodshed they will have to endure.

Three of Egypt's leading scribes die violently, victims of poisoning. Amerotke, Chief Judge of the Halls of Two Truths, must hunt for the Poisoner of Ptah - a cunning opponent who seems intent on spreading his death-dealing powers.

Rome, 314 AD: When two prostitutes are found murdered, it is feared that a notorious killer, the Nefandus, has returned. Empress Helena turns to her trusted agent, Claudia, and commands her to find the truth about Nefandus.

January 1304. Oliver Scrope, a powerful manor Lord based in Mistleham in Essex, is holding something Edward, the King of England, wants. In 1291 Lord Scrope assisted in the defense of Acre against the Saracens, seized some treasure from the Templars, and managed to escape. He then cruelly murdered a wandering religious group in the village of Mordern. Now a mysterious bowman, Sagittarius, has appeared and is dealing out sudden death to the people of Mistleham. It is left to Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, to reach Mistleham before bloody mayhem and murder get out of all control.

Charlie Moon and his irascible aunt Daisy, a Ute shaman, combine their talents with old-fashioned detective work to hunt down the killer of a wealthy rancher's daughter who has been mauled beyond recognition.

No one expects to read their own obituary. Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin never knew five short lines could be so menacing - someone wants him dead and he has only seven days to find out who. Then a mutilated female corpse washes up on the Waterloo Beach and another soon after. A loose serial killer does no good for Harry's already morbidly preoccupied state, but between the elegant coroner Ceri Hussain and the endearing cleaner Gina, he finds enough distraction. But not all distractions are good. Juliet May, ex-wife of gangster Casper May and Harry's former lover, sweeps back into his life with unforeseen consequences.

It's an "impossible" crime - a member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit killed inside a locked autopsy room populated only by the dead and to which only four PCU members had a key. To make matters worse Bryant and May are stuck in a van miles away in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak snowstorm. Now, with Sergeant Janice Longbright in charge at headquarters, Bryant and May must crack the case by cell phone while trying to stop a second murder without freezing to death. For among the line of snowed-in vehicles, a killer is on the prowl, a beautiful woman is on the run from a man who seeks either redemption or another victim, and an innocent child is caught in the middle.

The corpse of a young woman is found bludgeoned, frozen and burnt to death. Then the post-mortem reveals that she recently gave birth. And evidence suggests that the baby may still be alive. Detective Kate Farrer must find the missing newborn it it's going to have any chance to survive.

Defence barrister Geoffrey Mason, an amateur jockey, becomes involved in a sinister web of threat and intimidation when a fellow rider is murdered -- with a pitchfork through the chest -- and the evidence points, overwhelmingly, to champion jockey Steve Mitchell.

Lieutenant Jonathan Stride has never forgotten the case that made him join the police force. In the 1970's, Laura, the sister of Stride's girlfriend, was murdered. The killer was never found. Tish Verdure, an old friend of Laura's, has returned home and is convinced that the killer was a local boy. Stride is convinced that Tish is hiding a secret from the past and this secret could have shattering consequences.

What if one of the Ancient World's greatest libraries was buried in volcanic ash and then re-discovered two thousand years later? What if you were the one who discovered a document that could shatter the foundations of the Western World - and were then forced to confront terrifying enemies determined to destroy you and the secret you had learned?

When a French archaeologist arrives in 1830s Istanbul determined to track down a lost Byzantine treasure, the local Greek communities do not take it kindly - the man seems dangerously well-informed. Yashim Togalu is enlisted to investigate, but when the archaeologist's mutilated body is discovered outside the French embassy, it turns out there is only one suspect: Yashim himself. Recommended.

In a city struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a disgraced CIA agent and a young Iraq War veteran with a "psycho" discharge and an unusual talent join forces to catch a killer and thwart a plot that could plunge the world into an apocalyptic war

Hired to find a boy gone missing in Doraville, North Carolina, Harper Connelly and her brother Tolliver head there - only to discover that the boy was only one of several who had disappeared over the previous five years. All of them teenagers. All unlikely runaways. All calling for Harper.

In 1811, murder has jarred London's elite. The sons of prominent families have been found at dawn in public places, their bodies mutilated and strange objects stuffed into their mouths. Although Sebastian St. Cyr is distracted by his seemingly doomed relationship with actress Kat Boleyn, the oddness of these murders nags at him-and he becomes determined to track down the assassin, even at the risk of his own life. Recommended.

British Prime Minister Adam Lang's term ends in tatters after he sided with America in an unpopular war on terror. Now Lang is in Martha's Vineyard, finishing his memoirs. After his ghostwriter washes up dead on the island's deserted shore, a replacement is flown in. The new ghost, accustomed to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities, slowly begins to realize how out of his depth he is - and how truly dangerous this new position is. Recommended.

Adam Chase is passionate and misunderstood, a fighter. When narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, he disappears for five long years: not a clue, not a trace. Now, he's back and nobody knows why - not his family or the cops, not the women he left behind. But Adam has his reasons. When more bodies surface, Adam must unravel a web of deceit and violence so dense it staggers the imagination. Old secrets rise, lives collapse, and more than one person crosses the brink -- an Edgar award winner.

A Louvre art expert is found dead in a secret Roman studio in front of a Caravaggio unknown to the art world. Nic Costa is distracted from solving this mystery when his young wife is killed by a suspect he is pursuing. Costa can't touch the man - he's protected his palazzo by a fleet of lawyers and a cult known as the Ekstasists. Costa attempts to learn more about the Ekstasists - and finds himself led right back to Caravaggio.

After a close encounter with a bomb, Dalziel recuperates in the quaint seaside resort of Sandytown where a pair of powerful landowners have very different plans for putting the resort on the map. Since only one of the two plans can ever come to fruition, the other is eliminated by the process of brutally murdering its proponent. This brings Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe to Sandytown. Dalziel now has better things to do than lie around getting healthy.

An ancient, violent crime clan, a possibly corrupt law enforcement structure, gunmen of all stripes and shapes, and deranged evangelicals all rear their ugly heads -- and all will live to rue the day they targeted Bob Lee Swagger's daughter. It's what you call your big-time bad career move. And all of it is set against the backdrop of excitement and insanity that only a weeklong NASCAR event can bring to the backwoods of a town as seemingly sleepy as Bristol, Tennessee.

Elizabeth Pike returns home from work to find a letter from her lover on the coffee table - and a gun in her husband's hand.

Cheverell Manor, a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, is now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. After investigative journalist checks in to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed and is found murdered two days later, Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate. As they probe the lives and backgrounds of those connected with the dead woman - the surgeon, members of the manor staff, close acquaintances - suspects multiply all too rapidly. New confusions arise, including strange historical overtones of madness and a lynching 350 years in the past. Then there is a second murder.

Eve Duncan is still reeling from the disappearance of her daugheter Bonnie and she enlists the psychic abilities of Dr. Megan Blaire to find her. But is Bonnie still alive - and can they reach her in time?

Struggling screenwriter Maggie Mars gets a break -- her latest script is actually getting filmed and she's on set to give advice. Maggie learns that it is a mistake to tell the lead actress that she is playing her character all wrong. This becomes apparent when the actress has her head bashed in and Maggie is the first to come to mind when the police think of suspects.

The bones of murdered women start surfacing in L.A.'s Bird Marsh. All are prostitutes except the most recent victim; a brilliant young musician from the East Coast, employed by a wealthy family to tutor a musical prodigy. Conveniently - perhaps ominously - the victim's blueblood employers are nowhere to be found, and their estate's jittery caretaker raises hackles.

Local reporter Philip Dryden joins the Territorial Army on exercise in an empty Cambridgeshire village. Shelling reveals a hidden cellar beneath the old pub. And inside the cellar hangs a skeleton, a noose around its neck. Two days later a man is pulled from the reeds in the river near Ely, with no idea who he is or how he got there. But he knows the words 'Jude's Ferry' are important, and he knows he is afraid.

While decorating the Pennyfoot's ballroom for a Christmas reception, Cecily sends her husband Baxter and stable manager Samuel into the woods to cut some fresh boughs of holly for the ballroom. An hour later their one-horse open carriage returns with the horse, the holly...and the unwelcome gift of a dead body. Baxter and Samuel are nowhere to be found.

Three thieves' widows decide to continue their late husbands' latest burglary.

When Brad and Ashleigh Lyon re-visit San Francisco, a cutting-edge robot teddy bear is found at a murder scene. Now the bear-making couple must try their crafty hands at fur-ensics.

1911: Ursula Marlow, struggling to maintain control over her father's textile empire, finds her business trip to Egypt interrupted by two violent deaths. The first victim is her new friend, Katya-the mysterious wife of a wealthy Russian financier. Then when a young woman dies in a fire in one of Ursula's factories just days later, she returns to investigate and discovers the woman was already dead before the fire started.

Dedicated, intuitive, and utterly obsessive, DCI James Langton is ruthless in his pursuit of a gang of illegal immigrants, the murderers of a young prostitute. When one of them nearly kills him, Anna Travis nurses his wounds and bears the brunt of his frustrations, putting her own life and career on hold. But then one of Anna's own cases - the seemingly motiveless murder of a quiet, studious woman - turns out to be linked with Langton's, and Anna becomes the gang's next target.

Nothing is easier than falling in love with an old girlfriend, as ethically challenged attorney Victor Carl finds out when he hooks up again with a femme fatale who is definitely bad for his health. Back in the day, Julia agreed to marry Victor. Then he ran off to marry Dr. Wren Davis. Now her husband has been murdered, Julia is incriminated, and there are big bucks at stake - and Victor is on the case!

Rod Troy is in pre-WWI Vienna, covering Austria for the English press. Back home his brother Freddie joins the CID at Scotland Yard as a detective-sergeant. The Jews leave Vienna - and Troy asks for time off from Special Branch to return to his true calling - murder.

A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa. Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client's survival becomes more important to her than her own career -- or safety. In pursuit of Issa's mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Freres, a failing British bank based in Hamburg. Annabel, Issa and Brue form an unlikely alliance -- and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the "War on Terror," the rival spies of Germany, England and America converge upon the innocents.

Tom Fletcher has left the police force to work as a PI in Cambridge. An enigmatic message from his missing father leads Tom to a conspiracy involving a high-tech American company and an officially-suppressed story from the Second World War. A long-disused USAF base is the key to the disappearance and murder of a young physics student who was working in a hostess bar.

Plus-sized reporter Kate Gallagher decides to report for duty at Body Blast, a boot camp-style fitness program. But then her roomie is discovered with a broken neck at the foot of the climbing wall. It is not the first suspicious accident at the camp. Another woman recently fell to her death during a Wilderness Challenge. Kate knows that losing weight is hard, but now it looks like it is turning into mortal combat.

A collection of stories, including a never-before-published novella featuring Baltimore P.I. Tess Monaghan.

Jill Clark, new to a New York City exclusive dating service, is warned that other women have died on their dates -- and that she could be next. Struggling against a death trap closing in around her, she has a powerful ally in former NYPD detective Frank Quinn.

Marianna and three other young women in a big-city attorney general's office witness a young coed's body thrown from a car. When their boss finds out that their presence at the scene might jeopardize the prosecution, Marianna takes the fall, exiled to a job inside an ivy-walled private college - where the murdered girl had been a student. Suddenly Marianna is in the eye of the storm alone as a vicious killer strikes again...and again.

Callum Hughes has been labelled by the press, by his classmates and most of all by the family of the boy he stabbed, as a killer and a psycho. Roger Gough has been labelled a victim. He is described by everyone the police question as a sporty, funny and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. But things are rarely so black and white. The coroner, Martha Gunn, understands the pain of loss and the importance of justice for the dead. When Callum is found dead in his cell two days after his arrest, it is accepted that he could not cope with his new environment and killed himself. Was such a timid and intelligent boy really capable of motiveless murder?

A deputy sheriff was shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. From what can be seen on the cruiser's tape recorder of the killers, it is believed that they were a couple of Boston-based drug runners who had been stopped by the deputy on their way from Canada down to Boston. Which is what brings Gunther and his team to the investigation - an attempt to shut down the major drug running operation.

When a top research institute is broken into and vandalized, the police believe that it is animal rights activists taking things a step too far until they discover one of the institute's eminent scientists, Tim Devon, brutally murdered. Dr.Steven Dunbar, working for the Sci-Med Inspectorate, an elite government agency is sent to investigate. Was the attack on Devon and the institute really the work of extremist activists or is something far more sinister going on?

Sharon McCone is hired by her husband's security firm to track down "the ever-running man," a shadowy figure who has been leaving explosive devices at their various offices. She doesn't have to search for long. When McCone narrowly escapes an explosion at the security firm's San Francisco offices, she catches a glimpse of his retreating figure. The ever-running man is dangerously close - and anyone connected to the firm seems to be within his deadly range. To complicate matters, McCone is forced to question her intensely private husband, Hy, about his involvement in some of the firm's dark secrets. The history of corruption may jeopardize their marriage, but uncovering the secrets of the firm may be the only way she can save her husband's life, and her own.

Francis Hancock is sheltering from the Luftwaffe bombers in St. Paul's Cathedral -- their principal target. A young girl also sheltering there goes mysteriously missing. And then some of those charged with protecting the building are murdered.

When the body of a local handyman known for his flirting is found in her quilt shop, murdered with a pair of quilting scissors, Nell Fitzgerald finds herself drawn into the case - and drawn to the handsome police chief. As a pattern of clues begins to emerge, one of the prime suspects is Nell's ex-fiance, whose arrival in Archers Rest seems suspicious. The ladies of the quilting circle continue to piece together their quilts as Nell unravels the mystery.

Spenser knows something's amiss the moment Dennis Doherty walks into his office. The guy's aggressive yet wary, in the way men frightened for their marriages always are. So when Doherty asks Spenser to investigate his wife Jordan's abnormal behavior, Spenser agrees. A job's a job, after all. Not surprisingly, Spenser catches Jordan with another man, tells Dennis what he's found out, and considers the case closed. But a couple of days later, all hell breaks loose, and three people are dead.

When Spenser's old nemesis Rugar-the Gray Man-arrives at a wedding held on a private island, Spenser realizes that something is amiss. A storm, a kidnapping, and murder tear apart what should be a joyous occasion, and Rugar is seemingly at the center of it all. The only thing is that the sloppy kidnapping is not Rugar's style - as Spenser knows from past encounters.

A spate of elaborate murders in Washington D.C. have the whole East Coast on edge. They are like nothing Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. With each murder, the case becomes increasingly complex. There's only one thing Alex knows: the killer adores an audience.

Tokyo, 1946: the Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers and detectives, with their changed identities and false names, are facing a second purge and realize they can trust no one, least of all each other. Meanwhile a fight has broken out for control of the city's black market.

[Canadian author]. A seance goes wrong and a woman is so frightened her heart stops. The Surete du Quebec's Chief Inspector Gamache, however, believes it to be a murder. Winner, Agath Award for Best Novel. ____Penny, Louise.THE MURDER STONE. Hodder, 24.95 tp [UK ed]. The Finney family arrive at the Manoir Bellechasse to hold a memorial retreat in memory of their late father. Old secrets and bitter rivalries surface, a body is found, and the family has another member to mourn. A guest at the lakeside hotel resort, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache suddenly finds himself in the middle of a murder inquiry.

Rebus is required by law to retire - but how can he go with Ger Cafferty still at large on the streets of Edinburgh. And what will happen with Siobhan Clarke after he's no longer there?

Mike Mackenzie is a self-made man with too much time on his hand and a bit of the devil in his soul. He decides to rip off one of the most high-profile targets in the capital -- the National Gallery of Scotland. But, of course, the real trick to is to rob the place for all it's worth whilst persuading the world that no crime was ever committed.

Tres Navarre and his new wife Maia have come to Rebel Island in South Texas to celebrate their honeymoon and new future. But then a corpse is found shot dead in room 12. And when a second corpse turns up, Tres is returned to a long-ago summer spent on the island. And now a monster hurricane is about to hit, cutting them off from the mainland and leaving them trapped on a flooding island with the hotel's remaining guests brutally dying one by one.

When the town's beloved pharmacist is found floating face-down in his hot tub, Callie suspects foul play. But while she feels like her investigation is leading her nowhere, someone else seems to think she knows too much. All signs point to a con game gone dangerously wrong. Now it's up to Callie to catch a killer - before she winds up being fitted for her own casket.

Three murders in just as many weeks in the quiet rural town of Bluestream is unheard of. It's also no coincidence. and it's not over: Detective Virgil Flowers is about to be pulled into the middle of a killer's violent personal vendetta.

Bodyguard Charlie Fox's client Simone Kerse has just become a lottery millionaire and Charlie was supposed to keep Simone's troublesome ex-boyfriend at bay and help her track down the father Simone had never really known - a relatively low-risk job. But Simone's father has secrets in his past that are about to come back and haunt him - and the arrival of his long-lost daughter may be the catalyst that blows his whole world apart.

In the midst of a Manhattan snowstorm, Hammer halts the violent robbery of a pair of college sweethearts who have stumbled onto a remarkable archaeological find in the Valley of Elah: the perfectly preserved femur of what may have been the biblical giant Goliath. Hammer postpones his marriage to his faithful girl Friday, Velda, to fight a foe deadlier than the mobsters and KGB agents of his past - Islamic terrorists and Israeli extremists bent upon recovering the relic for their own agendas. A week before his death, Mickey Spillane entrusted a substantial portion of this manuscript and extensive notes to his frequent collaborator, Max Allan Collins, to complete.

Bara Weidenauer has found a box of military medals that once belonged to her father, a beloved war hero. Eager to know the story behind these precious trinkets she enlists Katharine Murray's help. But as Katharine digs deeper into Weidenauer family history, she discovers that everything Bara believed about her father may have been a lie. And when Bara's ex-husband is found shot to death, Bara's world turns to complete chaos.

Criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker must defend Samara Moss - young, petite and sexy as hell - who is accused of having stabbed her husband in the heart. Because she'd married the elderly billionaire when she was an eighteen-year-old former prostitute, Samara appears to be the cliched gold digger. But Jaywalker knows all too well that appearances can be deceiving.

Thea and her spaniel Hephzibah are keen on their new house-sitting commission in Blockley and its opportunities to explore the Cotswold villages. With only the minor hindrance of checking up on the client's mother in the adjoining house, it promises to be the perfect getaway. But Granny Gladys Gardener is a force to be reckoned with -- and why has an alarm been set that goes off every time Granny goes out? Thea's concerns turn to something more sinister when the arrival of her daughter, trainee policewoman Jessica, prompts the discovery of a body.

It's AD 670 and the Council of Autun is meeting to discuss serving a final blow to the Celtic Church. The entire Council is in danger when a conflict between two delegates results in the murder of the chief delegate from Hibernia. As a web of sinister intrigue spreads, Sister Fidelma and Brother Eadulf arrive in Autun to act as advisors to the Irish delegation and to solve the sinister puzzles.

Peter Tyler appears to have it all - a loving wife, a powerful Wall Street job, a sprawling house in the suburbs. But in a moment of weakness he indulges in a one night stand with a beautiful trader. A few weeks later his house is broken into and his wife brutally murdered. When the police discover his infidelity he becomes their prime suspect.

Three Christmas mystery novellas from Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine, & Leslie Meier -- plus bonus holiday recipes!

1242 AD: Europe is in flames and King Louis of France is determined to stamp out the heretic Cathars. Petroc's mentor can no longer ignore his Cathar roots and heads for Languedoc and war.

After Lt. Ackland is flown home from Iraq with serious head injuries he finds himself prone to sporadic bouts of aggression. He attracts the notice of the police after a customer annoys him in a Bermondsey pub. They're investigating three gay murders in the area which seem to have been motivated by extreme rage. Under suspicion, Ackland's forced to confront his issues.

When LAPD cops Hollywood Nate and Bix Rumstead find themselves caught up with bombshell Margot Aziz, they think Margot is a harmless socialite, stuck in the middle of an ugly divorce from the nefarious nightclub-owner Ali Aziz. What Nate and Bix don't know is that Margot's no helpless victim: the "femme fatale" is setting them both up. But Ms. Aziz isn't the only one with a deadly plan.

Christy Pickering's eighteen-year-old daughter is dating Jerry Bethlehem, a man twice her age. Christy sensed something shady and sinister about him, so she hired a private investigator to look into his past. But the PI isn't returning her calls. Repairman Jack learns there's a very good reason for the unreturned calls: The PI is dead, a victim of a bizarre water-torture murder. As Jack delves into Bethlehem's past, who and what Bethlehem is will have a devastating effect on Jack's life and future.

Maggie O'Neill reluctantly volunteers to care for her bedridden, oh-so-perfect sister, Mel, but strange spirits threaten to divert her attention. Then a friend of Mel's loses her husband to a dreadful fall, and the police call it an accidental death. Maggie's not so sure, and sets her second sights on finding a first-degree murderer.

Meg has been volunteered to organize the annual Caerphilly Christmas parade. It is proving every bit as difficult as Meg feared it would be. Then her nephew Eric, wide-eyed and ashen-faced, whispers, "Meg, something's wrong with Santa." The local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role, has been murdered.

Glassblower Emmeline Dowell finds herself accused of murder after a priceless stained glass collection is stolen and the owner is killed. And since the police chief is also her boyfriend, she needs to crack the case fast-before their relationship is permanently shattered.

When a wealthy widow hires Agatha because she's convinced a member of her family is trying to kill her, Agatha is intrigued - especially when the widow drops dead after high tea at the manor house. Who in this rather sterile house, complete with fake family portraits, could have hated the old lady enough to poison her?

Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path in home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing professor, she wonders if she can finish the house -- without getting finished off in the process.

It takes a lot to spook ex-FBI agent Saxon, but with a serial killer on the loose in Dublin, this is going to be a Halloween like no other. The beaten body of a wealthy businessman has been discovered literally frozen in the basement of his home, while across town the house of his friend has been burnt to the ground -- with his friend inside it.

Detective Ron Shade is on a trail that will lead him through the seediest parts of the Chicago underworld as investigates the death of a former lover.

Michael O'Shea, a member of Ireland's Guards, is also a sociopath. Shay he becomes a member of the NYPD as the result of an exchange program. Paired with an unstable cop nicknamed Kebar for his liberal use of a short, lethal metal stick called a K-bar, the two unlikely partners become a devastatingly effective force in the war against crime. But Shay does not that Kebar has sold out to the mob to help his sister -- the rape and beating that left her in a coma pushed an already unstable mind over. And Shay's own dark secret are about to boil over and onto the streets of New York.

A rookie detective goes undercover on the internet dating scene to draw out a serial killer targeting single women in Manhattan.

Shane Scully is asked to help investigate the case of a small-time crook doing life in California's Corcoran State Prison for the murder of his mother. The convict says his confession was coerced - and Shane isn't prepared to dismiss this after learning the original homicide detective was Brian Devine, a ruthless cop with whom Scully has a bad history. But the case is abruptly shut down by an LAPD deputy chief, and Shane begins to suspect that for unknown, perhaps political, reasons the prisoner really may have been framed by the police.

Inspector O returns from a mission abroad to find his new police commander waiting at his office door. There has been a bank robbery - -the first ever in Pyongyang - -and the commander demands action, and quickly. Yet someone in the North Korean leadership doesn't want Inspector O to complete his investigation. But why?

When Dixie Hemingway discovers the dead body of a mansion gate-keeper, she leaves the corpse to be found by somebody else - she's had her fill of homicide investigations. But that someone else sees Dixie leaving the scene of the crime, and the bullet that killed the man could have come from a gun she owns.

1926. Aspiring archaeologist Laetitia Talbot's joy at snaring a place in the excavation of an ancient church in Burgundy is dimmed by the tragedy of her godfather Daniel's violent death in Burgundy. But when Letty receives a posthumous encoded message, she begins to believe that Daniel's death was not a random act. Her investigation into Daniel's murder sends her on a journey into the orbit of a privileged French family harboring its own damning secret and into ancient Celtic mysteries and one sacred truth kept through the ages.

On a frigid, windswept island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers discover the wreckage of a Soviet strategic bomber that disappeared with its crew more than fifty years ago while carrying two metric tons of weaponized anthrax. The Covert-One team is dispatched, but others reach the frigid, windswept island first.

Beautician Marla Shore puts down her curling iron and books passage on a cruise ship with a killer on board.

The bodies of three young girls are discovered in the woods of Bemidji, Minnesota, the result of barbiturate poisoning. Unable to identify the victims, the local police turn to the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Profiler David Rossi learns that the girls disappeared more than ten years ago from Georgia. Further investigation reveals that the perpetrators have been involved in a cycle of kidnapping and murder for close to twenty yearsaand are about to start again.

Holly the malamute trainer isn't the only Holly Winter in town. There's Holly number two, a dog hater. And now a third H.W. has shown up. Unfortunately, this last one is a corpse that Holly number one discovered while searching for a missing husky.

A package bearing no return address arrives at the Anthropology Department of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, where a shocked staffer discovers a genuine shrunken head inside. At first it's considered a grisly relic from the past, but soon Gil Grissom and his team of crime scene investigators discover it's really evidence of a gruesome modern-day murder.

Captain Nathan Dixon has been chosen to command the Company A Army Rangers, a new Joint Task Force Sierra. Sierra has been chosen to conduct anti-terrorism operations in the Philippines and Indonesia.

A no-nonsense detective is on the trail of the sharpest and deadliest criminal mind he has ever encountered: a serial robber who murders any and all witnesses in cold blood.

Charlie has it in his head that he's going to get hitched. That is, unless Charlie's irascible aunt, her sixteen-year-old niece, and their visions of a dead woman - her throat slit from ear to ear - have anything to say about it.

Gothenburg Detective Inspector Erik Winter is faced with two seemingly unrelated sets of perplexing crimes. The investigation of a series of assaults and a string of child abductions take Winter to "the flats", the barren prairies of rural Sweden whose wastelands conceal crimes as sinister as the land itself. Recommended.

On a late August day in the foothills of the Cascades, five bicyclists climb into the hot, dry air, the breeze of their movement cooling their overheated bodies, the stress of a workweek slipstreaming behind them. But another group has entered the park, too. They're in cars, for pleasure and for vengeance.

A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women at some of England's most well-known pubs - including one torn down eighty years ago. With the public on the verge of panic and their superiors determined to shut the PCU down for good, Detectives Bryant and May must rise to the occasion in defense of two great English traditions - the pub and the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

In Minnesota detective Maggie Bei wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a gunshot and finds that her home has become the scene of a violent crime. As her partner Jonathan Stride works the case, the mutilated body of a young woman is found and a connection between the crimes begins to emerge. Recommended.

Three novellas featuring Lord John Grey.

When a building inspector is found drowned in a bucket of liquid clay slip, potter Carolyn Emerson's husband Bill is the prime suspect. It's up to Carolyn to clear his name and not let the real killer give her the slip.

What would you do if a long-buried book was unearthed from beneath your 1823 fixer-upper -- a book containing your name written "in blood"? That's the mystery Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree faces in the midst of her latest old-house renovations. Now Jake is putting aside her hammer and fixing to find someone who has the blueprint for a perfect murder. Complete with Home Repair Is Homicide Repair Tips!

Lily Bard heads to her hometown of Bartley for her estranged sister's Christmas Eve wedding. But there is something in the air besides holiday cheer-there's murder. And Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister promises to love, honour, and obey a killer.

Cicero's year as consul is spent combating a violent conspiracy to overthrow the state. But all the while the power of Caesar is growing, and Cicero must decide if it is justifiable to use illegal means toward the end of preserving the Republic.

When an ex-BBC correspondent is found dead, DI Bill Slider's investigation is complicated by the reappearance of his old enemy Trevor Bates, aka The Needle. Now on the loose and issuing death threats against Slider, he is almost as much a distraction as trying to find a spare moment to marry Joanna before their baby is born.

Bailey Ruth Raeburn is delighted that her unique position as a ghost makes it possible for her to lend a helping hand, sometimes seen and sometimes not. And if anybody needs a little help, it's Kathleen, the pastor's wife. There's a dead man on her porch, and once the body is discovered, the pastor is sure to become a suspect. Uncharitable people might call it meddling, but Bailey Ruth knows Kathleen needs her help!

The death mask of the poet Dante is to be exhibited at the premiere of a new film, Inferno. But when unveiled it has been replaced by the death mask of the film's star. Footage of the murder appears on the internet and the Carabinieri send Nic Costa and his team to San Francisco to investigate the murder and to try to recover Dante's mask. But in California the mystery only deepens.

Intelligence operative Sean Dillon stops Caspar Rashid at Heathrow Airport - and is pulled into danger. The man's daughter has been kidnapped by Rashid's own father and taken to Iraq to be married to one of the Middle East's most feared terrorists.

When a member of the family who gave Ali Reynolds a generous scholarship for her education decades earlier suddenly asks her for a meeting, Ali wonders what it can mean. Before she can satisfy her curiosity, though, Ali receives another startling call: a friend's teenage daughter has disappeared. Ali offers to help, but in doing so, she unknowingly begins a quest that will reveal a deadly ring of secrets, at the center of which stand two indiscriminate killers.

[Vancouver author]. Pristine water - hidden for millions of years, untouched by pollution, and possessing natural healing powers - is found miles under Antarctic ice. The scientists who make this astonishing discovery stand to win worldwide acclaim and earn billions. While people around the world line up for a taste of the therapeutic water a cluster of new cases of mad cow disease explodes in a rural French province. Dr. Noah Haldane and his World Health Organization team are urgently summoned.

Sabrina Galloway, one of the top scientists at EcoEnergy, discovers that someone has tampered with the production process and an eco-disaster is imminent with toxic waste leaking into the Florida waterways and Gulf of Mexico. Her attempts to expose the lethal secret make her a target of silent, faceless enemies, some of whose identities reach into the White House itself.

8 cars are trapped by a heavy snowfall and a fallen tree on a lonely stretch of Norfolk coastal road. A couple of hours later one of the drivers is found murdered -- except that no one had an opportunity to commit the murder and there are no footprints in the snow. Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine find this made all the more disturbing by the corpse that washed up on the beach only hours earlier, a man who appeared to have died from a human bite on his arm.

This year Cecily has a cracking surprise for her guests - Christmas crackers. Once the crackers pop, one lucky guest will discover a beautiful pearl brooch. But when two crackers go astray, things turn less than jolly. A mysterious fire has broken out in an upstairs room, killing the mood-and two guests. And at the bottom of it all: one of the missing Christmas crackers.

FBI special agent Peggy Weaver was ten years old when her best friend was abducted while they were riding their bikes through their small hometown in Tennessee. Peggy ran and escaped, but Samantha didn't. Now, twenty-five years later, pornographic photos of ten-year-old Samantha have turned up as evidence in one of Peggy's cases, a clear message from a man who's never paid for what he did, and Peggy knows that this time she isn't going to run.

Corporal Jill Matthewson, the only female military police officer assigned to Camp Casey in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, is missing. The investigative team of George Sueno and Ernie Bascom is dispatched from 8th Army headquarters in Seoul to help the 2nd Infantry division locate her. In the course of their investigation they discover a concealed murder, rampant black marketeering and corruption, crooked officers, rioting Korean civilians, and the wandering ghost of a schoolgirl run down by a speeding army truck.

Nora McKee and her lover Alex Kincaid are hiding out on the island of Aruba. But a desperate rescue mission lands them in a town ruled by corruption and fear, where trusting the wrong person could be deadly. As they race to uncover a conspiracy, a powerful enemy moves ever closer.

Reuben Maitland, once head of the UK's most elite forensic unit, is now forced to accept jobs from some of London's most hardened gangsters. But now he is forced to put aside his grudges and help his ex-colleagues. Someone is raping and killing women in London and they are stuck for leads.

Archaeologist Louise Cantor refuses to believe her son Henrik killed himself. She is shocked to learn he'd contracted HIV and was obsessed with the theory that JFK's brain disappeared prior to the autopsy. A letter and photograph from Henrik's girlfriend in Mozambique takes her to Africa. There Louise sees fear in every face, even unexpectedly in the patients at the clinics set up by an American businessman.

When an unidentified body is found in the peaceful town of Brattleboro, local police and the Vermont Bureau of Investigation both appear at the scene. But before investigator Joe Gunther can begin to gather evidence of murder, a family emergency sends him to his hometown, where the lives of his mother and brother have suddenly been threatened. Gunther reaches out to a network of police officers who know him only by name and reputation as he attempts to discover the source of this imminent danger. Meanwhile, his investigative team chases an elusive murderer who has no apparent ties to the victim.

Bologna in August: unbearable heat, an empty city. Claudia is in a hurry to return home from her work as a waitress and shed the skimpy uniform she hates. Tomas is a young man on his way to Amsterdam with his girlfriend, Francesca. Aldo is a husband and father anxious to get to an apartment filled with guilty secrets. All three have an urgent need to be somewhere else, but instead they are trapped in an elevator in a deserted building on a holiday weekend...and one of the trio is a serial killer.

Sharon McCone retreats to her ranch in California's high desert country to contemplate her future until a chance encounter with a troubled, highly secretive Native American woman distracts her. A murder and traces of violence at a deserted resort lead her across the desert and into Nevada, and finally to a remote and isolated ranch.

At midnight in the deserted gardens of the shopping plaza, a stranger lies dead beneath the village Christmas tree; the only witness to the shooting is a little child. But when the police arrive, summoned by an anonymous phone call of feline origin, both the body and the child have disappeared. As police scramble for leads, the grey tomcat, his tabby lady, and their tortoiseshell pal, Kit, launch their own unique investigation. Together Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit face their most heartbreaking case yet as they care for the child who may be the killer's next target.

New Haven police reporter Annie Seymour has a talent for running into trouble. So it should come as no surprise when her co-worker's bachelorette party at a local club quickly turns into a crime scene. What is surprising is that the dead club manager in the parking lot happens to be Annie's ex-husband-and the bullet shells around his body match the gun she has in her car.

Ten years ago Michael McLoughlin was a policeman investigating the brutal murder of a young woman - but he is still haunted by the affection he felt for the victim's mother, Margaret. Now, retired, he encounters another woman who has a lost a child. He tries to determine if the death was accident, suicide or murder. Meanwhile Margaret returns to Dublin to confront her past.

Magdalena is a woman from DI Charlie Priest's past, who comes very much to the forefront of his present when her lifeless, broken and battered body is found. The one identifying feature is the tattoo on her buttock - Property of the Pope. But who is this Pope and did he want to make Magdalena his possession even in death? And what about the recent spate of incidents that have left several influential members of the community with tarnished reputations and, in one case, dead? Were they just heading for a fall, or is there a vendetta, a nasty game, afoot?

Though Christmas approaches Thomas Pitt's sister-in-law, Emily Radley, is called from London to be with her dying aunt in the county of Connemara on the western coast of Ireland. The violent storms there that ravage the coast keep alive the painful memories of an unsolved murder and the unsettling fears that a killer may still live among the residents of the lonely Irish town. Emily, hoping to cheer everyone up a bit, sets out to unmask the culprit. Her Christmas gift nearly wraps itself when a lone shipwreck survivor washes up onshore and brings with him the key to solving the terrible crime.

Two holiday novels provide the perfect combination of mystery and murder mixed with a generous helping of Yuletide cheer. A CHRISTMAS GUEST and A CHRISTMAS SECRET in one volume.

A preacher is stabbed to death in a Tennessee motel. The suspect is a waitress at a strip club. Defense attorney Joe Dillardas too burnt out to defend anyone he knows in his heart is guilty. Then he meets the vulnerable Angela - accused, incriminated by circumstantial evidence.

The priest at a Catholic funeral mass brings the chalice to his lips-and falls over dead. Detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas confirms that the consecrated wine contained potassium cyanide. A search of the victim's sparsely furnished room reveals little - except for a carefully hidden religious medal with a mysterious inscription, and a couple of underlined Bible passages. The autopsy reveals more: faint scars of knife wounds, a removed tattoo-and evidence of plastic surgery, suggesting that 'Father Flores' may not have been the man his parishioners had thought.

Sano Ichiro and his wife Reiko must learn what Sano's own mother was doing on the night when a burning kimono ignited a blaze that nearly destroyed the city. The shogun gives Sano just three days to find out.

Sano Ichiro and his wife Reiko travel to the island of Ezogashima in search of their 8 year old kidnapped son. But they find the whole province, including their son, held hostage by Lord Matsumae. Matsumae will not relent until someone confesses to the murder of his wife. Sano Ichiro must solve the murder to obtain his son's release.

A hardened gunman heads down to Mexico to help an old army buddy rescue his wife from kidnappers -- but then winds up trapped in a hostage hotel himself.

The body of a woman with her throat ripped out is discovered on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester, where a mysterious black cat has been sighted. Soon DI Spicer finds himself hunting a killer dubbed the Monster of the Moor, a creature whose stealth and savagery has the whole north west in terror.

Illinois senator Lyle Simmons discovers his wife's brutally bludgeoned body and immediately phones his attorney, former DA Philip Rotond. Then the senator's estranged daughter arrives hurling shocking allegations of murder at her father, despite a roomful of well-heeled witnesses who can provide Simmons with an alibi. Meanwhile, D.C.'s rumor mills and spin machines shift into high gear as speculation swirls around a tabloid- and TV-ready prime suspect: Jonell Marbury, a dashing lawyer turned lobbyist at a powerful K Street firm-and the last person to see the victim alive.

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus doesn't get the appeal of the year-round Christmas shop. But when three such holiday houses pop up within two blocks, she's assigned to rate them anonymously. Easy enough, Josie thinks, until she realizes that shoppers at one store are finding a strange-even deadly-secret ingredient in their holiday cake. And Josie must get to the bottom of it all before someone else becomes a Christmas spirit.

When last we encountered Ed Eagle, he had been the target of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by his wife, Barbara, the ultimate black widow. But when Barbara escapes from police custody, Ed knows that not only will his life be in danger but also the life of his new girlfriend, and, of course, of any rich man unlucky enough to be lured into Barbara's web. To add to his troubles, Ed has taken on a new client, Don Wells, who may or may not have murdered his own wife and son.

Big city journalist Randall Wilkes returns to the Tennessee hill town where he grew up, taking a job ghost-writing an autobiography for a boyhood friend who is now a former governor. Then Randall finds his friend's mother murdered, hanged by the neck from a bridge over the town landmark called Damnation Falls. Then there is a second, and a third death in the family.

When Danny Cartwright is wrongly charged with the murder of his best friend, he will stop at nothing to exact revenge against the four men who put him behind bars.

A shady book publisher and a showgirl with an artistic streak have to escape both the cops and the Mob after publishing a made-up account of a robbery at a Mob-run nightclub.

Doll restorer Gretchen Birch and the other Phoenix Dollers can hardly wait to open their doll museum. But when an out of town dollmaker meets her own maker, the Dollers' dream come true will soon prove more of a nightmare.

Windsor Castle, 1861. For the second time in over twenty years, Irish barrister Patrick Fitzgerald has been summoned by the Queen. But on the way the royal coach is violently overturned, nearly killing him and his brilliant young ward, Dr. Georgiana Armistead, niece of the late Dr. Snow, a famed physician who'd attended none other than Her Majesty. Fitzgerald is sure of one thing: the Queen's carriage was not attacked at random - it was a carefully chosen target.

Las Vegas police behaviorist Susan Pulaski harnesses the autistic skills of Darcy O'Bannon to unravel the numerological mystery behind a ritualistic serial killer. The murderer is choosing victims with guilty secrets, leaving behind parts of their bodies and obscure mathematical formulae written in blood.

Cotton Malone is pitted against a sinister East European dictator in a dangerous race for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. The solution to an ancient puzzle lies buried with the mummified remains of the conqueror.

Sam Falconer has a vanished man to find, a museum display of shrunken heads to protect, and - as a near-fatal chases proves - her own skin to save. For Sam, like the Oxford antiquities she's tracking, it seems the secrets of the past are not easily escaped.

When Annie leaves the safety of her old bank job to become the full-time manager of her boyfriend's restaurant, what's meant to be the first day of the rest of her life might be the last day of someone else's.

24 of Block's earliest shorts stories and 3 novellas.

FBI Profiler Ulysses Grove hunts a vengeful psychopath committed to fulfilling his destiny as history's greatest serial killer. How do you trap a murderer who chooses his victims with care, plans their murders with painstaking precision, and studies the most notorious slayers?

A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of northern Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder - four men who know exactly who the children are, and where their desperate mother is waiting patiently by the phone for news of her children's fate. In a ranching community increasingly populated by L.A. transplants living in gaudy McMansions, the kids soon find they don't know whom they can trust among the hundreds of retired Southern California cops who've given the area its nickname: "Blue Heaven."

Two decades after the murder that shattered her world, FBI agent and forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick confronts her father's killer face to face. But the inmate who is scheduled to be executed for the crime is not what she expected. Heightening Sydney's unease, she receives a photograph sent to her by a man just prior to his suicide, causing her to question everything she believed about her father.

13 short stories from a group of 13 debut crime/mystery/suspense authors whose books were published in 2007. The graduating class includes such rising stars as Robert Gregory Browne, Toni McGee Causey, Marcus Sakey, Derek Nikitas, Marc Lecard, JT Ellison, Brett Battles, Jason Pinter, Bill Cameron, Sean Chercover, Patry Francis, Gregg Olsen, and David White. Each story is introduced by the author's Killer Year mentor, some of whom include Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen and Jeffrey Deaver, with additional stories by Ken Bruen, Allison Brennan and Duane Swierczynski. Laura Lippman and MJ Rose contribute insightful essays.

Suzanne, Toni, and Petra lose their husbands but find independence when they open the Cackleberry Club. Then their cozy cafe becomes the scene of a crime when a lawyer dies with a secret on his lips and egg on his face. A religious cult and Suzanne's past could put her own life on the line.

Charlotte LaRue, owner of New Orleans' Maid for a Day cleaning service, is swept into jeopardy when an uninvited guest arrives on her doorstep, and then turns up dead. Now Charlotte is on the list of murder suspects, and finding the answers means doing a little snooping herself.

Karen Sharpe, in order to recover from having been a crime victim, works simple fraud and theft cases in West Yorkshire CID. But then a young pregnant woman is murdered and Karen is drafted onto the squad to deal with the victim's 6 year old child.

As the Four Musketeers race to save Porthos's servant from the gallows, they run afoul of Cardinal Richelieu, who is investigating a far more serious matter - a plot against the life of the King.

Tekreth, Guardian of the Door of Sobeck, fell off the roof and died. Amerotke is dispatched to see if this death connects with others along the Sobeck Road, the imperial highway stretching south.

A year after suffering a brutal attack homicide cop Nan Vining rejoins the Pasadena PD, only to confront a murder case that strikes close to home. A slain policewoman is discovered, her body bruised, her throat slit. Vining is troubled by baffling visions that haunt her waking hours. Could they be, as her daughter insists, messages from beyond the grave? Digging deeper into the murdered officer's past, Vining is set on the trail of a ruthless killer whose methods and madness recall those of her own attacker.

Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Amos Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man he believes is after her two million dollar trust. Walker goes to Bairn's apartment, only to be ambushed by cops. A murder has taken place, and the victim is Fuller's daughter. Walker and the cops assume that Bairn is the murderer, but Walker has no idea what he is getting into. Walker is led to a meeting with a casino owner, who tells him Bairn owed money to a loan shark. The loan shark tells Walker that he is not the only one after Bairn. Soon Walker finds himself on the run from crooked cops and vile gangsters.

As full-time owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, Betsy Devonshire has become skilled at weaving suspicious threads. But when one of her regulars unwittingly becomes involved in a deadly delivery of exotic antiquities, Betsy fears something is seriously warped.

Four friends from racing school have gone their separate ways since the day, 10 years ago, a car crash left a girl dead. But now a hit and run has a journalist asking questions, and the four know the truth is about to come to light.

Adrian Monk is on a roll - solving murders as fast as they come, and not counting his Wheat Chex until they're in the bowl. But when his therapist, Dr. Kroger, leaves for Germany, Monk can't tie his shoes, forgets how to swallow, and loses track of his blinking. Desperate, he follows Kroger to Germany where he sees a man with six fingers. The man responsible for his wife's death - or was it just his imagination? Now Monk has to deal with his phobias and the unfriendly polizei to find his man.

Identity theft, elder abuse, betrayal of trust and the breakdown of caregiving institutions bring Kinsey Millhone into direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Solana Rojas is not who she seems. With an identity she stole that gives her access to private caregiving jobs, she preys on the weak and the dependent. Will Kinsey realize what is happening in time to intervene?

Many years ago, Jack Swyteck saved Theo Knight's life. Theo grew up on the streets of Miami's roughest neighbourhood and lost his mother to a violent crime. By the time he was a teenager, he was on Death Row for a murder he didn't commit. Jack was the lawyer who proved him innocent. Now a successful bar owner, Theo has turned things around. But he needs Jack's aid again, this time more than ever. An escaped convict from the old neighbourhood shows up at Theo's back door, asking for help. In return, he'll finger the man who murdered Theo's mother. But the answers aren't so simple, and soon Theo's own life is in danger.

Wall street predator and billionaire Carl Trudeau is not pleased when a jury finds his chemical company guilty of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst "cancer cluster" in history. And the appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court will fail unless ... Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice, and position him for the next election.

When a member of Molly Pink's crochet group is suspected of murder, it's up to Molly and her pals to pick up the dropped stitches and catch a killer.

Sheila Malory's old friends Charlie and Jo Hamilton run a popular riding school in the quiet English town of Taviscombe. When Charlie is found dead in his stables from a blow to the head, with only his horses as witnesses to his final moments, the entire community is shaken. Especially since Charlie's is just the first in a series of shocking and suspicious deaths. Mrs Malory is on the case, but the trail of clues, from an unlucky horseshoe to a lethal electric fence, proves to be anything but a smooth ride.

Bob Lee Swagger helps Japanese war veteran Philip Yato track down a lost military sword. Then a maniac, claiming to be a samurai, murders the Yato family and steals the sword. Swagger goes into action.

White House executive chef Ollie Paras has to put her own interests on the back burner when a kindly electrician is electrocuted to death, and the first Lady's nephew dies in an apparent suicide less than 24 hours after cleaning shrimp with Ollie. Ollie suspects something fishy is going on. she'll have to watch her back - and find a killer unlikely to be pardoned.

Ex-television journalist Ali Reynolds just wants a break from excitement. In the midst of a remodel, the last thing she expects is a murder investigation that will stop the construction on her home. But when the savagely murdered body of stay-at-home mom Morgan Forester is found, Ali's contractor Bryan is the prime suspect. Bryan swears he has nothing to do with his wife's murder -- but as the investigation progresses Ali seems to be the only resident of Sedona who believes him.

TV producer Sonya Iverson is working on a celebrity-driven story when she argues once too often with her boss. Fighting to save her job, Sonya digs deeply into the complicated family tale behind the founding of a society thrift shop. Hilda Woodruff rules the family's publishing empire - and the family - with an iron fist. Yet she cannot control her dilettante son or overly-ambitious nephew. And she is newly threatened by a dark secret from her past - a secret Sonya Iverson is about to uncover.Somehow, it all links back to the little thrift shop started by Hilda Woodruff's mother and run to this day by an old family friend. The murder of that old family friend makes Sonya's "the stars go shopping" story hot news.

The autumn of 1897 began well, but within days Rose McQuinn lost two precious things - her fiance Jack Macmerry, and her dog, Thane. It seems that Thane's real owners have been found. But when Rose tries to return the hound to the Staines family she is called upon to discover the identity of a blackmailer and thief. The family's tragic past colours Rose's search for the truth and plunges her into ever more dangerous waters.

Kevin Kilpatrick went to prison for two murders to protect his family from the real killers. His daughter asks Sam Carew, the detective who put him away and now a builder, to help clear his name. Sam doesn't realize agreement means confronting one of the most ruthless and sadistic crime families in the country.

The bushwhack killing of a deputy sheriff in Lincoln County and the brutal murder of the deputy's wife in Santa Fe bring Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his Mescalero Apache son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, back together in a double homicide investigation that is soon linked to a major drug trafficking scheme and the cold-blooded slaughter of two women in Albuquerque. Due to retire at the end of the month, Kerney calls upon Clayton to find Brian Riley, discover what triggered the murders, and give him the ammunition he needs to bring a multiple murderer to justice.

Two lovers, both diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, escape from an Oregon mental institution and go on a killing spree. The only ones with a hope of stopping them are FBI agent E. L. Pender and psychiatrist Dr. Irene Cogan.

15 year old Lucia Moberg lifts a CD out of a store in a shopping mall - and when she and her dad get into their car, there is a tap at the window. The next second her father's brains are on the dashboard. So begins the story of the ruin of her mother, whose home life is shrouded in darkness, a mysterious and menacing motorcycle gang, the real-to-life female cop out to crack the case, who is facing her own family's collapse, and the struggle for Lucia to piece together some semblance of a normal teenage life.

As a single mom working as a paralegal and attending law school at night, Nina Reilly has her hands full fighting for custody of her young son Bob and overseeing a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her mother. But when a woman falls to her death off a bridge near Big Sur and witnesses disappear, Nina suspects there is more to the "accident" than the authorities are saying. With the help of homicide cop Paul van Wagoner, she rushes to uncover the truth.

When a horrifying attack leaves one of the four members of the Women's Murder Club struggling for her life, the others fight to keep a madman behind bars before anyone else is hurt. And Lindsay Boxer and her new partner in the San Francisco police department run flat-out to stop a series of kidnappings that has electrified the city: children are being plucked off the streets together with their nannies - but the kidnappers aren't demanding ransom.

Summoned to a remote village from the hidden lamasery where he lives, Shan must save a comatose man from execution for two murders in which the victims' arms have been removed. He discovers the suspect is not Tibetan, but Navajo. The man has come with his niece to seek ancestral ties between their people and the ancient Bon.

Wenda's body was found posed on a memorial bench in the cemetery, her packed luggage at her feet, as if ready for a journey. 20 years later Neanna went to Atlanta looking for information on the unsolved mystery. But now Neanna's missing and her friend Fran goes looking for her. Neanna's also found dead, apparently of suicide. Fran turns to attorney Avery Andrews for help.

MI5's Liz Carlyle has been transferred to Counter-Espionage. She learns of a Russian government plot to silence a Russian opponent of Putin who lives in London.

Things are going well for Decius Caecilius Metellus. He is Praetor Peregrinus, which means he has to judge a case or two, but those cases are outside of the City. His cases will be those dealing with foreigners, and all of Italy is his province. His first stop is Campania, "Italy's most popular resort district." Decius and his wife, Julia, are happy for a change of scenery. But the good times end when, in a town near Vesuvius, a priest's daughter is murdered. Decius must find her killer and keep the mob off a young boy who everyone blames but he believes to be innocent. Decius may have acquired more prestige, but he's also acquired more trouble.

Decius Caecilius Metellus, this year's magistrate for cases involving foreigners, thinks he is merely visiting one of the local sights when he takes a party to visit the Oracle of the Dead, a pre-Roman cult site located at the end of a tunnel dug beneath a temple of Apollo. He quickly learns that there is a bitter rivalry between the priests of Apollo and those of Hecate, who guard the oracle. When the priests of Apollo are all killed Decius is caught squarely in the middle of multi-factional strife.

When Sadie and her sexy partner Zack stumble on evidence of a chilling cult ritual in an abandoned meth lab, Sadie comes face to face with an evil spirit, unlike any she's ever seen before. And it's no coincidence that a bundle of stolen cash turns up at her next crime scene just in time to convince a biker gang that Sadie made off with their money. She knows the threads are connected, but how? [BC author].

It begins with a shocking betrayal, a brutal ambush, and the murder of a friend. Bodyguard Atticus Kodiak is about to discover that he's been falsely identified as one of The Ten - a short list of the world's most wanted assassins. And to survive, he's going to have to become exactly what they're accusing him of being: a stone-cold killer. "Yes, you are. You have only to meet your first victim...."

Austin homicide chief Lieutenant Dan Reles finds his past catching up with him when his deadbeat father, a Mafia legbreaker who has spent the last twenty years on the run, shows up on Dan's doorstep. Sam Zelig, a sociopathic godfather with limitless resources and boundless rage, forces Dan to choose between the town he's sworn to protect, his new family, and his father. In the process he faces trial by fire, bullets, bridge embankments, and one very angry woodchipper.

Original stories featuring otherworldly investigators trailing uncanny criminals across fantastical realms. Includes such luminaries as Simon Green, Laurie King and Sharon Shinn, and features a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story from Charlaine Harris.

With a long list of ethereal clients who need her help, Savannah lawyer Brianna Winston Beaufort's career choice is beginning to haunt her. An already dead businessman needs Bree's help to find his murderer and prove his innocence against the charge of greed, which comes from the mightiest hand of the law, the Celestial Court. And the verdict in this case could put Bree's life on the line-as well as her client's afterlife.

A young woman in the New York City "work hard, play hard" singles scene finds herself the object of a deadly obsession. Her stalker is watching, planning. He's got his proposal worked out, the ring, even their happy home already bought.

When Sister Agatha is enlisted to track down the estranged niece of a very wealthy man, she sees a chance to relieve the monastery of its financial woes. But what seemed at first to be a simple investigative task could turn out to be her deadliest mission yet.

A terminally ill ex-con comes to Burke with an extortion scheme. A small-time degenerate he knew in prison claimed he buried the body of a 13 year old girl three rich men raped, tortured and murdered 30 years ago. Burke see a chance for the two things he lives for: money and revenge.

Maisie Dobbs accepts an apparently straightforward assignment from an old friend to investigate certain matters concerning a potential land purchase. The inquiry takes her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season. But mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of petty crimes suggests a darker criminal element at work.