After Tarver Elementary School's unpopular principal is murdered, PTA secretary and mother of two, Beth Kennedy, puts aside bake sales and class trip fund-raisers to catch a killer. When members of the PTA become suspects, she realizes solving this murder will not be as easy as ABC.

The shocking discovery of a strangled prostitute in the Templar chapel throws the Order into disarray. Alongside the corpse is a purse containing thirty pence-the same amount of silver Judas received for betraying Christ. Is the murder revenge for a Templar brother's betrayal? Has one of their own broken his vow of chastity? The Order's preceptor turns to Bascot to determine whether an outsider is seeking to dishonour the Templars or a murderer walks among their ranks.

FBI agent Ren Bryce, a hunter of dangerous killers, is forced to confront both personal and professional traumas when someone close to her is murdered. Someone is determined to destroy her life. Ren must catch a killer before he catches her.

Jane Austen and her brother Henry are in Brighton for the restorative power of the ocean when the lifeless body of a beautiful young society miss is discovered in the bedchamber of none other than George Gordon--otherwise known as Lord Byron. It falls to Jane to pursue this puzzling investigation and discover just how 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know' Byron truly is. And she must do so without falling victim to the charming versifier's legendary charisma, lest she, too, become a cautionary example for the ages.

Carsely's Christmas festivities are threatened when a self important officer with the Health and Safety Board, rules that some of the traditional practices are unsafe. The Carsely Ladies' Society mobilizes to try to put a stop to the meddling - only to find that someone has literally put a stop to the official with a kitchen knife. There are so many suspects, Agatha Raisin doesn't know where to start.

Forensic investigator Theresa MacLean questions the official theory after Jillian Perry is found dead in the woods, leaving behind a husband of three weeks and a young daughter. There is nothing to suggest that she did not purposely wander into the forest and succumb to the freezing weather. She comes to believe that Jillian's young daughter may be in danger of meeting a similar fate.

Peter Solomon, philanthropist, Mason and mentor to Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, has been brutally kidnapped. Langdon must accept an invitation into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom if he has any hope of saving Peter.

32 year old Mags Rogers, with her wirehaired dachshund Baxter, comes to her great-aunt's sprawling Nevada Ranch to reassemble her life. But someone has pipe-bombed Red Rock Valley's pumping station, and Deputy Pete Meadows links the sabotage to a string of local murders. He comes to the ranch when human bones are dug up in the barn. The dead man's ring identifies him as an elite Russian military officer from the late 1800s, apparently knifed to death.

Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of "linguate fritte."

It's Valentine's Day at TenHuis Chocolade, but Lee is getting no love from detective Derrick Valentine. He's looking for one of their new employees-an abused woman who Lee and her Aunt Nettie have been hiding. But when Valentine meets his own sticky end, it's Aunt Nettie who is suspect. Now, Lee has to free Nettie of guilt without exposing their innocent guest-and find a killer with a heart that's definitely not made of chocolate...

A movie-inspired pirate fever has struck Warner Pier. TenHuis Chocolade is raking in the booty and selling out of chocolate treasure chests, pirate hats and ships. A mischievous band of pirates begins boarding boats out on Lake Michigan, and the town couldn't be more amused by the mysterious buccaneers. But when a body washes up on shore, the pirates' antics stop being so entertaining.

The members of South Carolina's Sweet Briar Ladies Society sewing circle are as loyal and close-knit as the day is long. But when the richest and meanest woman in town turns up murdered, the new Yankee librarian Tori Sinclair finds that some threads can bind dangerously tight.

A bus accident lands Reacher in a small South Dakota town. In a place where no one can be trusted, one cop puts his faith in Reacher. Reacher is hired to protect a witness who is the only hope the police have to convict a brutal crime ring. In the middle of a deadly winter storm, a sleepy town is in the epicenter of a brutal struggle between order and chaos. The clock is ticking and zero hour is approaching.

A New Orleans mansion is being converted into a haunted house for tourists, and scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand has been enlisted to help. No sooner does the project begin than someone winds up dead.

Eliza and her KEY News colleagues investigate a murder on an estate. Among the sprawling architectural masterpieces, picturesque gardeners' cottages, and lush, rolling landscape, the glorious mansion is actually a giant "puzzle house," filled with ingenious clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains, and frescoes that lead them from one suspicious locale to another - and, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.

Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez has returned to the the Fair Isles to introduce his fiance Fran to his parents. When a woman's body is discovered at the renowned bird observatory there, with feathers threaded through her hair, Jimmy has only Fran to help him -- the autumn storms have isolated the island from the mainland.

Harlan Coben's first novel, now back in print. No sooner had supermodel Laura Ayers and Celtics star David Baskin said "I do" than tragedy struck. While honeymooning on Australia's Great Barrier Reed, David went out for a swim-and never returned. Now widowed and grieving, Laura's search for the truth will draw her into a web of lies and deception that stretches back thirty years...

When high powered lawyer Ken "the Lip" Lipinski is found dead from a suspicious overdose, florist and amateur sleuth Abby Knight finds it hard to swallow that his opposing counsel and her old boss is the murderer.

Defense attorney Mickey Haller must change stripes and prosecute a high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. New DNA evidence has exonerated the convicted killer, but Haller knows he is guilty. As the killer manipulates the media he and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch try to locate a runaway eyewitness reluctant to testify after so many years.

At the Society for the Preservation of Pennsylvania Antiques, fundraiser Eleanor "Nell" Pratt solicits donations, and sometimes solves crimes. When a collection of George Washinton's letters is lost on the same day that an archivist is found dead, it seems strange that the Society president isn't pushing for an investigation. Nell goes digging herself, and soon uncovers a long, rich history of crime.

A young mother, Sandra Gilles, leaves her daughter with a friend at the Columbia Road Flower Market and disappears. Shortly thereafter, her husband, a Pakistani lawyer, is killed. Scotland Yard detective Gemma James happens upon the scene in time to witness the investigator making a mistake. When Duncan and his trusted sergeant, Doug Cullen, see Gemma's name in the report, they decide to take the case. Working together again, Gemma, Duncan, Doug, and Melody Talbot must solve it before the murderer can get his hands on the real prize, Naz and Sandra's daughter. Recommended.

Arthur Beauchamp follows his wife, the leader and first elected member of the Green Party to Ottawa. He is thus available after a delegation of government officials from Bhashyistan is blown sky high on Bronson Avenue and the shares of a Calgary-based oil company drop like a stone. He is only too happy to jump to the defence of the missing suspected assassin. Recommended.

The hot toy of the Christmas season is the Tiny Teddy, and a few local stores in Moosetookalook have the only remaining supply. Liss's plans to hold a twelve shopping days of Christmas festival to lure consumers to town receives a setback when a toy store owner is murdered.

When a woman is found murdered in the park-her identity as inscrutable as the blood-red symbol on the tree above her body-Winter's search for her missing child leads him from sleek McMansions to the Gothenburg fringes, where "northern suburbs" is code for "outsider" and the past is inescapable-even for Sweden's youngest chief inspector.

DI Wesley Peterson pieces together the murder of Dr. James Dalcott and discovers his victim had been harboring strange family secrets. Meanwhile, an archaeologist uncovers a number of suspicious skeletons. Between the murder and the bodies, it leads to the questions: Just who were the children evacuated to Tailors Court during WWII, and where are they now?

It is Samhain - the Blood Harvest. Nonbelievers call it Hallowe'en. The night when eight Nashville teenagers are found dead, with occult symbols carved into their naked bodies. It's a ritual the killers believe was blessed by Death himself.When children are victimized, emotions always run high, and this case has the public both outraged and terrified: a dangerous combination. Recently reinstated homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson knows she has to act quickly, but tread carefully. Exploring the baffling culture of mysticism and witchcraft, Taylor is immersed in a darkness that threatens to unbalance the order of her world, and learns how unchecked wrath can push a killer to his limits.

It's Halloween, and Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, is haunted by murder. In the town of Excelsior, Minnesota, Leona Cunningham, owner of a popular microbrewery, is a practitioner of Wicca, the nature-based religion often mistaken for black magic. But that doesn't bother the thirsty crowds. Then, after one too many pints, a local blames Leona for the series of "accidents" that have happened in the town. When he ends up dead without a mark on his body, Leona's the main suspect. But Betsy's on the case, and that spells trouble for the killer.

Hannah Swensen takes time away from her busy Christmas season when Larry Jaeger, operator of a kitschy carnival taking place in the middle of the village green, is found dead in his own office.

Arthur Bryant, John May, and their team of proud eccentrics have been given only one week to hunt down a murderer they've already caught once - and who is now luring them down into the darkest shadows of the London Underground.

Captain Thomas Forsyth's tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he is badly wounded by a roadside bomb. The army is his life. Six months of recuperation is a daunting prospect but not as bleak as never rejoining his regiment. Tom returns to Lambourn, his childhood home, where his mother is a racehorse trainer and the "First Lady" of racing. Never having seen eye to eye with his parents, Tom does not expect a hero's welcome but even he is not prepared for the reception that awaits him.

Four years ago, assassin Court Gentry was betrayed by his handlers in the CIA. Now, an old comrade returns to haunt him, and to force him on a mission against his will. With his ruthless employers on one side, his former friends on the other, and a doomed mission ahead, Court Gentry would kill to get out of this one alive.

Coroner Jenny Cooper investigates the case of two young Muslim students who vanished seven years ago - sufficient time for her to declare them legally dead. The police had concluded that they had fled to Pakistan to traffic in the atrocities of Islamic fanaticism. But as her official inquest progresses, Jenny detects the unmistakable stench of corruption.

Police officer Desiree Mitry is under a huge amount of pressure to catch the Dorset Flasher, who has been terrorizing the wealthy dowagers of the Dorset Historic District every weekend. She becomes convinced that her man is Augie Donatelli. After the two have engaged in heated public quarrels, Augie turns up dead. Now Des will need Mitch Berger's help proving she wasn't the killer.

1999, mid-winter, and the US Army is secretively trying to remove an aeroplane from the Vatnajokull glacier. By coincidence two young Icelanders become involved--but will pay with their lives. Before they are captured, one of the two contacts his sister, Kristin, who will not rest until she discovers the truth of her brother's fate. Her pursuit puts her in great danger, leading her, finally, to a remote island off Argentina.

1326. In France, King Edward II's estranged wife Queen Isabella shames him by refusing to return to England and humiliates him further by flaunting her adulterous relationship with the king's sworn enemy, traitor Sir Roger Mortimer. When the king hears she has betrothed their son to the daughter of the Count of Hainault, all England fears an invasion of Hainault mercenaries. Meanwhile the Treasurer of England's life is threatened. He has made many enemies in a long political life, and Sir Baldwin and Simon must do all they can to find the would-be assassin before he can strike.

NYPD'S Conor Baird investigates the Hell's Kitchen murder of a criminal defense lawyer with rumored Mafia ties. He starts with a sexy, unfaithful widow who stands to inherit millions, and is led him to a sorrowful, intriguing Albanian woman he can't resist.

In the misty folds of Appalachia, young Least grows up cursed by her mother's cruelty and blessed by her neglect, and turns to the wisdom of the land, to voices she alone can hear, to legends left by native Indians, and to the arts of divination and healing. But the time comes when Least has to choose between a doting suitor and her childhood magic, between his church and her spirits. Now, as her life enters its final chapter, her world has been invaded by a violent criminal with a chilling plan, and Least must break long-held promises, draw on long-buried powers, and face a darkness no one else can even see.

Dara Barr, documentary filmmaker, and her righthand man--a six-foot-six, 72-year-old, African-American named Xavier--head to Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, to tackle modern day pirates. Once they start filming, though, they find a whole lot more than they bargained for.

A collection of 3 stories featuring legendary lawman Carl Webster (The Hot Kid and Up in Honey's Room).

Former Detective Karin Schaeffer has nothing left to live for after serial killer Martin Price destroys all she holds dear. Even when he's locked away in prison, the shadow he casts over Karin's life keeps her in constant darkness. Then a policeman brings news to her door: Price has escaped. Karin knows where he's headed because of the message he left behind last time, scrawled in blood, on her bathroom mirror - You are next.

A journalist is murdered in the northern Swedish town of Luelea. Crime reporter Annita Bengtzon suspects the killing is linked to an attack against an air base in the late sixties. Her investigation draws her into a spiral of terrorism and violence centred around a small communist group called The Beasts.

Shot in the head by an unknown assailant Sharon McCone lies in a hospital bed, conscious but almost totally paralyzed, trying to break out of her body's prison and sorting through the clues her colleagues discover about the attack.

Almost immediately after wounded Wilf McLauchlin, a celebrated WWII Canadian spitfire pilot, returns home to a hero's welcome, a series of bizarre murders erupts in his hometown. Wilf finds himself trying to solve them and wondering if he is somehow causing them. How is this possible? Wilf follows his own trail back to when he was shot down over Germany in the last days of the war and makes the shattering connection.

Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting. The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen. Convinced that Ashton Prince played a bigger role than just ransom delivery boy, Spenser enters into a daring game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. But this is a game he might not come out of alive.

Pulled out of a family celebration, Detective Alex Cross gets awful news: A beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Vowing to catch the killer, he quickly learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington, D.C.'s wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim . . . The hunt for the murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in.

DI Charlie Priest is called off gardening leave to the opening of a local shopping and conference centre. Someone has defaced the plaque being unveiled with an obscenity. He is drawn into the enquiry just as the upstart mayor who pushed through construction of the shopping centre is found dead.

Malcom Fox works for the Complaints and Conduct department -- the department of Edinburgh cops that investigate other cops. He's given the case of Jamie Breck. Jamie is dirty, but no one can prove it. Fox learns that there is more to Breck than anyone thinks. A vicious murder soon proves that this knowledge is dangerous. Recommended.

Lady Julia Grey and her detective husband hurry to India to aid an old friend, the newly widowed Jane Cavendish. Living on the Cavendish tea plantation with the remnants of her husband's family, Jane is consumed with the impending birth of her child--and with discovering the truth about her husband's death. Was he murdered for his estate? And if he was, could Jane and her unborn child be next?

After a former minister dies suddenly upon his return to Emerald Springs, his memorial service is cut just as short. Aggie Sloan-Wilcox, wife of the current minister, knows why. The poor old guy was murdered. But who in this bucolic village could be capable of such a crime?

New Yorker Gwen Silver inherits her uncle's Nashville Jewish deli. Soon after she takes over a long-time customer, on Kosher Karaoke Night, bites into his brisket and bites the dust. It's food and it's poisoning, but Gwen doesn't buy the coroner's finding of food poisoning. She investigates.

Atticus comes to a secluded Georgian town in the former USSR looking for his friend and neighbour Bakhar Lagidze. But Bakhar and his entire family, except for Bakhar's 14 year old daughter have been murdered. To rescue her Atticus must enter a lethal web that stretches from Russia to Istanbul, from Dubai to Las Vegas.

Toronto, 1975: on a rainy summer night, a woman is raped and very nearly murdered, but for the intervention of two drunken vigilantes who kill her attacker before fleeing the scene. The only clue the police have about their identities is a slab of Crisco shortening found on the victim.

Virgil Flowers gets a call to investigate a murder at a resort for women only, a place to relax, get fit, recover from plastic surgery, commune with nature, and while it didn't start out as place mostly for those with Sapphic inclinations, that's pretty much what it is today. Virgil finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer. Then he finds there was a second, seemingly unrelated murder the year before. And that there's about to be a third, definitely related one, any time now.

Summer, 1545. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen to repel a French invasion. Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims of "monstrous wrongs" committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant, Barak, journey to Portsmouth.

The ghost of Sylvia Whichcote is haunting Jerusalem and Fran Oldershaw claims to have seen the dead woman. Desperate to salvage her son's reputation, Lady Anne Oldershaw employs John Holdsworth, the author of "The Anatomy of Ghosts" to investigate. His arrival in Cambridge disrupts an uneasy status quo as he glimpses a world of privilege and abuse, where the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the master, Dr Carbury, ever could. Holdsworth finds himself haunted by Maria, the ghost of his dead wife, and by the ghost of Elinor, the very much alive master's wife. He must find Sylvia's murderer or the hauntings will continue.

Thea Osborne is apprehensive about her latest house-sitting commission: a wintery month in an isolated farmhouse with only an assortment of animals, including her loyal spaniel Hepzie, for company. Thea meets some of the local characters: the unappreciated au pair from Bulgaria and the elusive Kate from a neighbouring farm. But then the weather turns extreme, and so do events. When she stumbles across a man lying dead in a snow-filled field, Thea is once again at the heart of a mystery.

Law inforcement personnel categorize murderers on a scale of twenty-five levels of evil--from the naive opportunists starting out at Level 1 to the organized, premeditated torture murderers who inhabit Level 25. Steve Dark heads an elite unnamed investigation unit assigned to hunt down the world's most dangerous killers and a new category of killer is being defined.

Ex-assassin Oliver Stone is given the mission finding those behind a bomb detonated in Lafayette Park as an attack on the President and the British Prime Minister. With nowhere else to turn, Stone enlists the help of the only people he knows he can trust: the Camel Club. Yet that may be a big mistake. In the shadowy worlds of politics and intelligence, there is no one you can really trust.

In Jackson Square in the French Quarter, a tarot card reader told Polly Deschamps she would be a success. Thirty years later, Polly has become a respected professor of literature with good friends and her own home- a safe life for her and her two daughters. But now Butcher Boy, released on his seventeenth birthday, is shaking the snow from his boots and heading south for New Orleans.

Monsieur Pamplemousse gets an urgent summons from the director of Le Guide, after someone launches a full-scale smear campaign targeting Le Guide's credibility as France's premiere restaurant and hotel guide. Someone has been spreading rumours among the staff and infiltrating the company files - awarding hotels prizes for bedbugs, and praising egg and chips signature dishes. Even Pommes Frites has become a victim of the assault. It could all spell ruin for Le Guide, but Pamplemousse is on the case.

Master puppeteer Rupert Porson arrives in the humble hamlet of Bishop's Lacey in a broken van but leaves -- mid-performance, no less! -- in a hearse. Turning her brilliant mind away from mixing concoctions in her chemistry lab and nimbly avoiding her tormenting sisters, Flavia de Luce pieces together clues to solve what she believes is a murder.

Just as Inspector Witherspoon's staff prepares for the long-awaited wedding of Betsy and Smythe, a Yuletide murder falls in the Inspector's lap. A middle-aged spinster has been killed in what her murderer hoped would look like a random crime. But the Inspector's investigation reveals a web of lies, intrigue, and long-buried secrets. With uncooperative witnesses, sulking relatives, and a second Christmas wedding, a simple investigation seems unlikely. And the household will have to put aside its holiday spirit to save the Inspector's reputation.

Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright returns home to San Francisco to teach a bookbinding class. Unfortunately, the program director Layla Fontaine is a horrendous host who pitches fits and lords over her subordinates. But when Layla is found shot dead, Brooklyn is bound and determined to investigate, evaen at the killer tries to close the book on her for good.

Jack Reacher falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire Nebraska county into submission. The Duncans want Reacher gone - and it's not just past secrets they're trying to hide. They're awaiting a secret shipment that's already late - and they have the kind of customers no one can afford to annoy.

It's Christmas time-and when manager and head barista Clare Cosi finds a red suited body in the snow, she adds solving Santa's slaying to her coffeehouse menu. Soon a few clues convince her his death was something more than a mugging gone awry. With Clare's NYPD detective boyfriend distracted by his own cold case, Clare discovers on her own that Santa had a list that he was checking twice- and the folks on it were not nice. But Clare had better watch out, because if she fails to stop this stone cold killer, she may just get the biggest chill of her life.

Sisters Bernadette and Libby are hired to cater a birthday bash for a prize pedigreed pug called Trudy. All goes well for the five pugs and their masters until Annabel Colbert, heiress to a toy company, drinks a glass of poisoned wine and falls face first into her soup.

A senior federal protection officer named Corte is given the task of protecting Washington DC police detective Ryan Kessler from Henry Loving, a seasoned, ruthless "lifter" hired to obtain information using whatever means necessary. The assignment soon escalates into a fast-paced duel between Corte and Loving, a dangerous volley of wits and calculated risks.

Imagine answering your cell phone to a mysterious voice that gives you three minutes to confess your sin. If you don't, he'll blow the car you're driving to bits and pieces. So begins a nightmare that grows with progressively higher stakes.

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.

Rancher and sometimes Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon gets the call when the widow Montoya starts fussing about witches. She swears there is a brood lurking on the oil company land adjacent to her property, harassing her with carcasses of dead animals. When no one takes her seriously, she takes matters into her own hands with disastrous results. By the time Charlie arrives, it is too late to save her. He knows he can't bring her back, but that does not mean he can't help the widow get her revenge after all.

Investor Samuel Reed attributes his success to the fact he can 'remember the future'. He makes a wager with Charlie Moon's best friend, Granite City Chief of Police Scott Parish, that Parish can't keep him alive. With the predicted time and date, Moon thinks he can keep Parish alive, but Moon's best plans go awry when instead of one homicide on his hands, he ends up with two.

It is summer and life is good for Simon Waterford. He has inherited his father's top class yard and soon he is to marry Mariana, his beautiful girlfriend. Mariana has a secret that could wreck her hopes of marriage. Geoff knows the secret and is planning to tell Simon. On the way back from the races a brawl ensues that leaves Simon with a wounded face and Geoff dead on the floor. Mariana is relieved as her secret is safe for now.

When a young woman is strangled on a Florida beach and there's an obvious culprit with no alibi, Detective Cab Bolton can't shake his suspicion that an innocent man was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

FBI Agent Kelly Jones may never do fieldwork again, after losing her lower leg. But now, in the slums of Mexico City, she's about to encounter an old and twisted enemy.

Days after failing to arrive for a secret meeting with the Federal Reserve chairman, FBI agent Michael Hennessy's body is found at the base of a cliff. But was it suicide or murder? A call from the chairman sends Gage hunting for the truth. As a desperately ill U.S. president prepares to hand over power to his vice president - a man in the thrall of religious extremists - Gage follows a trail of deceit and terror to a conspiracy that threatens to plummet the world into chaos.

Michael and Molly Graham are at Blackpool, England for the annual seafaring days celebrations. The lively crowds, colourful costumes are a perfect cover for murder. They become involved in looking for a murderer after a local troublemaker is found stabbed to death.

Travis Boyette watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted a local football star for a murder that Travis committed. Now, 9 years later and suffering from an inoperable brain tumor, Travis decides to do what's right and confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they're about to execute an innocent man in four days?

Lightning-struck sleuth Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver take a break from looking for the dead to visit the two little girls they both think of as sisters. But, as always happens when they travel to Texas, memories of their horrible childhood resurface. To make matters worse, Tolliver learns from his older brother that their father is out of jail and trying to reestablish contact with other family members. Tolliver wants no part of the man - but he may not have a choice in the matter. Soon, family secrets ensnare them both, as Harper finally discovers what happened to her missing sister, Cameron, so many years before. And what she finds out will change her world forever.

Discovering that she has a young grandson, a wealthy woman in Adelaide, Oklahoma, decides to change her will to leave the bulk of her fortune to the young boy - an alteration that stuns the rest of her family. But a scrooge of a determined heir makes sure she never signs the new document. When she is found dead, it's up to that irrepressible spirit Bailey Ruth, on assignment from Wiggins and Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, to protect a little boy, foil a murderer, and save Christmas. There's only one teeny hitch: how can Bailey Ruth figure out which family member was desperate enough to kill when everyone has a motive?

22-year-old Cherry Pye, a pop star since she was 14 - is about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Ann DeLusia is her undercover stunt double, portraying Cherry whenever the singer is too "indisposed" - meaning wasted - to go out in public. So it is Ann who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott. Now the challenge for Cherry's handlers (uber-stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker-wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry's public - and from Cherry herself.

Wolf Hadda has risen from humble origins as a woodcutter's son to become a hugely successful entrepreneur. Then suddenly he is thrown into prison and retreats into silence. Seven years later prison psychiatrist Alva Ozigbo makes the breakthrough. Wolf begins to talk and under her guidance gets parole, returning to his rundown family home in rural Cumbria. But now that the Woodcutter is back, he wants truth -- and revenge.

California, 1985 - four children and young teacher Anne Navarre make a gruesome discovery: a partially buried female body, her eyes and mouth glued shut. Tasked with finding the killer, FBI investigator Vince Leone employs a new and controversial FBI technique called "profiling" which plunges him into the lives of the four children, and the young teacher whose need to uncover the truth is as intense as his own. But as new victims are found, Vince and Anne find themselves circling the same small group of local suspects, blissfully unaware that someone very near to them is a murderous psychopath.

A woman is found hanging from a beam in her summer cottage. It appears to be a suicide, but a tape of a seance that the woman attended prompts Erlendur to give the circumstances a closer look.

An examination of the genre, by its queen.

The scents of the season overflow from the kitchen and the country club's halls are decorated with festive displays thanks to Cecily's dear friend Madeline. But when one of Cecily's candlesticks disappears, she realizes someone is lacking in Christmas spirit. But petty thievery seems the least of Cecily's problems after she learns a former employee has been found dead in her duck pond.

Three years ago, Detective Karin Schaeffer wanted to die when a madman murdered her family - and she would have if her partner, Mac MacLeary, hadn't pulled her back from the edge of the abyss. Now they are married, with a toddler son, and Karin is learning to live again. Then Mac's parents are slain in a brutal home invasion - and Mac vanishes.

Sueno and Bascom of Military Intelligence must go back to the founding of Itaewon, Seoul's red-light district, to solve the mystery of a dead soldier, a missing girl, and several murdered Korean gangsters.

Soon after Judge Deborah Knott arrives in Wrightsville Beach for a conference of North Carolina judges, she stumbles upon the body of one of her colleagues. After another judge is found murdered, it becomes evident that Deborah herself may be the killer's next target.

It's Christmas in rural North Carolina's Colleton County and Judge Deborah Knott is looking forward to a family celebration when a tragedy clouds the holiday season. A beautiful young cheerleader dies in a car crash and the community is devastated by her death. Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant soon learns that her death was not a simple accident, and more lives may be lost unless he and Deborah can discover why she died.

1967, Holloman CT : Chief of detectives Captain Carmine Delmonico and his team have twelve murders to solve -- all occuring on the same day. The town is home to prestigious Chubb University and the munitions giant Cornucopia, and it soon becomes clear that espionage is playing a role in the puzzle the overtaxed police force must solve.

Seven stories featuring Rumpole at Christmastime.

91 year old Ptolemy Grey has been all but forgotten-by his family, his friends, even himself-as he sinks into a lonely dementia. Then he meets Robyn, his niece's 17 year old lodger, who challenges him to interact more with the world. However, this new activity pushes Ptolemy into the fold of a doctor touting an experimental drug that guarantees Ptolemy won't live to see age ninety- two but that he'll spend his last days in feverish vigor and clarity. With his mind clear, what Ptolemy finds-in his own past, in his own apartment, and in the circumstances surrounding his grand-nephew's death-is shocking enough to spur an old man to action, and to ensure a legacy that no one will forget.

As Sharon McCone struggles to regain control over her body, her relationships are suffering. Her husband is impatient with her refusal to accept help and some of her colleagues doubt her abilities after the accident. But when Sharon's friend from physical therapy goes missing, she must call upon those closest to her to find out the truth behind the disappearance. The investigation soon points to issues of national security and proves to be the most dangerous and critical case yet for Sharon and her colleagues.

A prison tomcat has arrived bearing an important message for the local cops from a state prisoner. Joe Grey and his feline pals, smelling a rat, soon discover that the messenger comes with a personal agenda. But that's not the only secret they sniff out. Their new neighbour, Maudie, is hiding something about her son's killer, who has followed her.

All the Fairchilds are spending the Christmas holidays on idyllic Sanpere Island. While the Reverend Thomas Fairchild recuperates from surgery, his caterer wife, Faith, rejoices in the rare family-time together. But Faith's high spirits are dampened when she discovers the body of a young woman in an antique sleigh in front of the Historical Society. The victim, a teenage drug addict, was beloved by many - and her untimely death rocks the tight-knit island community. Meanwhile, local spinster Mary Bethany finds a newborn baby boy in her barn on Christmas Eve, along with a note left in the basket and an alarming amount of cash. As Faith tries to locate the child's mother, she realizes his abandonment may be connected to the dead teen's last days - and that, like death and life on Sanpere, evil and redemptive goodness are also intertwined.

Detective Alex Cross is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington, DC's most corrupt figures: a dirty congressmen and scheming lobbyist. Next, the elusive marksman begins picking off other crooked politicians, sparking a blaze of theories-is the marksman a hero or a vigilante?

C. I. Gamache is called to investigate a murder in Three Pines. The village is in chaos when a man has been found, bludgeoned to death, and there is no sign of a weapon, a motive, or even the dead man's name. Gamache and his colleagues, Inspector Beauvoir and Agent Isabelle Lacoste, start to dig under the skin of the peaceful haven at Three Pines. They unravel a trail of stolen treasure, mysterious codes, and a shameful history that sheds light on the victim's identity and also points to a terrifying killer. Recommended.

Ten days before Christmas, as an icy wind cuts through London, wealthy James Wentworth feels not joy but grief. His reckless son, Lucien, has been lured into a deadly world of drugs and wild passion. Wentworth's only hope, he believes, is his old friend Henry Rathbone, who volunteers to search for the prodigal son. Rathbone knows nothing of the sensation-obsessed underworld where Lucien now dwells, but he acquires two unexpected new companions who do: Squeaky Robinson, a reformed brothel-keeper who now works in Hester Monk's medical clinic, and Crow, a mysterious slum doctor who turns no one away, however undeserving.

A Navy team on a humanitarian mission to Africa is attacked by Islamic insurgents, in the latest Dan Lenson thriller.

The police said it was an accident, the dead woman's sister said it was murder... and that she knows who did it. Nameless isn't certain, but the more he learns about Nancy Mathias's life, the more inclined he is to accept the likelihood of murder - especially as the players still alive become more and more distasteful. Combine that with the situation Jake Runyon, one of the agency's partners, is facing as he searches for a young man who is either a murderer or a victim, and life at their San Francisco detective agency has everyone on edge.

The first victim is attacked in her home, tied to her bed, forced to watch every unspeakable act of cruelty, but is unable to scream. The second murder is even more twisted. Signed, sealed, and delivered in the victim's throat with the nursery rhyme "There will be more". For detective Jack Murphy, no one plays rougher than Jack especially when the killer's pawns are the people he loves.

First it was a limo driver shot through the neck with a crossbow. Then it was a high-priced escort found stabbed through the heart with a bayonet. Random hits, thrill kills, murderers with a taste for the finer things in life-and death-are making NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas angry.

Tara Chace is ready for a desk job, but before her replacement can be chosen, there's one last job for Queen and country. Soon Chace is on the ground in Tehran leading an extraction team toward a high-profile defector. But obtaining him is one thing, getting him out of the country will be another.

NYPD homicide detective Cassandra Maldonado has never seen anything like the hauntingly brutal murder of FYSHBone, a rap superstar and media mogul. Cassandra's instincts tell her that Sabio Guzman, Bone's risk-addicted celebrity lawyer, is keeping secrets worth killing for. With the Feds, the city's biggest loan shark, and a vicious music tycoon all out to silence Sabio for good, the heat Cassandra feels for him is destined to bring explosive bad news.

An anthology featuring the great women detectives: Loveday Brooke, Dorcas Dene, and Lady Molly of Scotland Yard as well as the great female criminals of the era, Robin Hood mastermind Four Square Jane and the villainous murderer Madame Sara.

A highly trained, heavily armed paramilitary force calling itself the Third Position Army enters the Jefferson Club, a private resort for the super rich, and takes everybody hostage. "Mickey" Hennessey, head of security for the Jefferson Club loses his entire team and only he makes it out of the club alive. Now he's outside while his kids are trapped inside, hostages of the Third Position Army who are putting seven of the ten richest men on "trial" for their crimes against humanity, live on the internet for the world to see.

An old neighbour arranges to get together with attorney Brady Coyne for a drink. It's an uneventful evening but the next day Brady gets a call from Nichols' ex-wife. She's standing in her ex's hotel room, Nichols is lying dead on the floor of his room and she needs Brady's help. But this savage murder is only the first and Brady is soon trying to find the connection between these long ago friends and the savage murders dogging their family.

Marissa Gray, shortly after returning to her home town, is nearly killed when her car slides down an embankment. Believing that someone is trying to kill, but unable to convince anyone else, she begins to dig into the town's past.

Professional thief Sugar does time for a vicious rape he didn't commit -- he was involved in a jewelry store heist at the time and refuses to use it as an alibi. When he gets out he learns there was more to the heist than what he was told.

Ho was a revered sensei, but when his dismissive arrogance causes the death of a beloved student, he renounced not only his possessions but also his role as a master, and now roams the streets in search of a way to atone. Drawn by his presence, a group of homeless men forms around him. The group is thrown into turmoil when it is learned that the building -- in which one them has hidden his prized paperback book collection -- is slated for demolition.

On Josie's latest assignment, her former teacher, now working in a lingerie shop, is in need of some serious support when a customer is found murdered. Unfortunately, the teacher's alibi is flimsier than the camisoles she sells, so Josie will need to bust out her sleuthing skills to expose the real killer.

It was 1921 when Lord Peter Wimsey first encountered the Attenbury emerald. The recovery of the gem in Lord Attenbury's most dazzling heirloom made headlines--and launched his career as a detective. Now it is 1951 and Lord Peter has just shared the secrets of that mystery with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Vane. Then the new young Lord Attenbury--grandson of Lord Peter's first client--seeks his help again, this time to prove who owns the gigantic emerald that Wimsey last saw in 1921.

Murder comes to Mark Twain country, on the Mississippi. Luckily, Delilah Dickinson and her literary travel agency are on hand to solve it.

Phyllis Newsom is playing house sitter to a quaint bed-and-breakfast on the Texas Gulf Coast, near the annual Just Desserts competition. But Phyllis and her boyfriend Sam soon discover that in this bake-off, you can get knocked off.

An omnibus edition containing the three novels jointly written by Lawrence Block and Donald E. Westlake, out of print for nearly five decades.

DI Hazel Micallef is still recovering from back surgery when a body is found in a nearby lake, snagged under several feet of water. But the first installment of a story just published in the local paper describes such a discovery -- with too much detail to be coincidence.

The body of a teenage Indian boy found on land belonging to the Gunderson ranch is just the beginning. When a second teen is killed, the crime moves even closer to home for Mercy. The Iraq veteran is no stranger to death, but these murders are deeply personal, recalling all too clearly a childhood marred by violence and tragedy. The local sheriff seems strangely apathetic, so Mercy throws herself into an investigation that is driven by a desire for justice.

St.Thomas, the college north of New York where Alison Bergeron teaches, has had its share of scandals, so when a Resident Director goes missing they keep it quiet by tapping Alison as a replacement. A stay in the dorms is like hard time and she will do anything to avoid it. Her way out: Find the reluctant resident and drag him back. Luckily she doesn't have to look further than the drugs he's hidden to get her boyfriend Detective Boddy Crawford on the case.

Revenge is sweet at Donut Hearts, where owner Suzanne Hart serves hot coffee, delicious treats, and a heaping of justice to the morning rush.

Melanie Turner has made quite a name for herself remodeling historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. But now her reputation may be on the line. At her newest project, a run-down Pacific Heights mansion, Mel is visited by the ghost of a colleague who recently met a bad end with power tools. Mel hopes that by nailing the killer, she can rid herself of the ghostly presence of the murdered man-and not end up a construction casualty herself...

The ladies at the Cackleberry Club cafe are busy preparing for Halloween. But someone's jumped the gun on the tricks. As mayoral candidate Check Peebler leaves the cafe, he is struck with a crossbow arrow and killed instantly. And when another murder occurs on the historical society's Quilt Trail, the Cackleberry Club needs to sniff out the bad egg - before he strikes again.

The most dangerous of the terrorists who threaten western civilization is the Emir, a sadistic killer who has masterminded the most vicious attacks on the west and eluded capture. Now the Campus is on his trail.

A movie shoot provides the perfect backdrop for murder. 60-something Charlotte LaRue and her Maid for a Day service are there to clean up.

After an English professor-and old friend of her mother-is found dead in a cider house, orchard owner Meg Corey starts to wonder: Could her own mother have committed murder?

Forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon has tried to put the past behind her, establishing herself as head of the River Trail Museum of Natural History. Late one night at the museum, Diane hears terrified cries and finds an injured man-a former coworker from her time as a human rights activist in South America. Left with a body, a bone, and a cryptic message, Diane has to dig back into her past with World Account International, before the next human rights abused are hers...

Iran is weeks away form acquiring nuclear weapons and has every intention of using them to strike first. Only Tommy Carmellini and Jake Grafton can stop a nuclear nightmare.

As chief of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, a joint venture of the state and federal governments and MIT, Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could shut down her new facility and ruin her personally and professionally.

What happens when a reality TV series gets a true dose of reality? A staged prank for a hit scare show has gone horribly wrong with an actor now dead and production halted indefinitely. As the graveyard shift of Sin City's best crime scene investigators digs deeper behind the scenes, more questions than answers pile up.

A Scrooge steals presents right from under Sophie Winston's family Christmas tree. Then her sister-in-law's father shows up with a diva girlfriend just a month after his separation. More than one person is thinking of committing a merry murder - until it actually happens! With many under suspicion for the deadly deed, can Sophie find the murderer and restore the Christmas spirit before it's too late?

The killer harnesses and steers huge arc flashes with voltage so high and heat so searing that steel melts and his victims are set afire. When the first explosion occurs in broad daylight, reducing a city bus to a pile of molten, shrapnel-riddled metal, officials fear terrorism. Lincoln Rhyme, a world-class forensic criminologist known for his successful apprehension of the most devious criminals, is immediately tapped for the investigation.

February 1304. A mysterious assassin prowls the narrow streets of London just as the city comes to terms with the fall from power of Walter Evesham, Chief Justice in the Court of King's Bench. Accused of corruption, Evesham has sought sanctuary to atone for his sins. Evesham's clerk is found cruelly murdered, and then Evesham himself is discovered dead in his abbey cell. Sir Hugh Corbett is ordered to investigate. As Corbett traces the ancient sins that hold the key to discovering the killer's identity he must face his most cunning foe yet.

Owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth Betsy Devonshire heads for the Minnesota north woods to renovate an old cabin. But beneath the awful linoleum is something even uglier- the skeleton of a Nazi. Betsy's investigation yields the site of a former German POW camp, a mysterious crocheted rug, and an intricately designed pattern of clues to a decades-old crime.

The Texas based oil field exploration company, AG Striker, finds an ocean of oil bigger than the entire Saudi Arabian deposit and Striker's lease for the area gives them control of the field and essentially Equatorial Guinea. They enlist the CIA and a military company called Hadrian to overthrow the existing government in Equatorial Guinea and replace it with a puppet that they can control. A document called the "Hadrian Memorandum" provides Striker's power and ownership of the field and the state. US president Nicholas Marten and LAPD homicide detective Nicholas Marten and a brave few strive to uncover what is really going on.

California and Adrian Monk are in a financial crisis when he's fired by the SFPD and finds his savings are gone. Bob Sebes, the leader of Reinier Investments, swindled his clients, including Monk. When a key witness is killed, Monk is convince that Sebes, under house-arrest, did it. Being jobless and broke, Monk can devote all of his obsessive energy to solving this latest mystery.

April, 1988 - a month before Kinsey Millhone's 38th birthday. A young man enters her office and tells her that, 21 years ago, he stumbled on the burial of a little girl that had gone missing. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the child's remains and finding the men who killed her. But Kinsey discovers that the young man has an uneasy relationship with the truth. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?

Tanner is in the coastal swamps of Georgia, hunting for the man who may have killed his friend. But soon he finds himself caught up in a running battle against a ring of brutal sex slavers for whom human life is a cheap commodity. Tanner must overcome soul-blackening corruption and confront the most inhuman degradation if he's going to make them pay.

It is Holy Week in Seville and the heat is rising. A murderer is on the loose and visiting academic Maria Gutierrez can see something in his ways that the police are missing. The Angel Brothers, two controversial modern artists, are found dead in a killing that emulates a famous painting, and an old lady remembers the atrocities of the Civil War. Maria was supposed to be an observer to the police investigation, but her own past in the city soon puts her one step ahead of the cops--and in the killer's sights.

Deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound, Merlin, step from shadow into light . . . and into an encounter with mystery.

A serial killer has claimed two victims in one week. The killing spree has just begun. As the death toll rises so does the brutality of the Flesh Collector. NYPD profiler Lee Campbell joins a frantic pursuit that leads into a dark world of secrets and pain.

It was 1997 when Boston investigators Kenzie and Gennaro first located the missing Amanda McCready and brought her home. Amanda was four. Now she is 16 and missing again. Haunted by the past, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most, following a 12-year trail of secrets and lies down the darkest alleys of Boston's gritty, blue-collar streets.

Small-town Sudoku expert Liza Kelly flies to Los Angeles to appear on TV. But when a celebrity is found dead, she has a far more serious puzzle to solve.

Joe Grey finds signs of murder behind an empty house, a murder scene, minus the victim. As he, Dulcie, and Kit follow the killer's trail among four houses whose owners are on vacation, they discover that more murder has been planned for the small, close-knit neighbourhood. They uncover evidence of conflict among the residents and multiple signs of breaking-and-entering, although nothing valuable seems to be missing.

Magdalena is banking when three armed Amish men burst into the bank and start shooting. She collapses, leaving her unprepared husband Gabe to manage the chaos at her popular PennDutch Inn. When questions arise over whether the bandits were really Amish men, Magdalena springs back into action. Because they may be armed, but they may not be Amish...

As a lawyer in turn-of-the-century Washington D.C., when Ben Corbett is asked by President Roosevelt to return to his home town to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan there, he cannot refuse. When he arrives in Eudora, Mississippi, Ben meets the wise Abraham Cross and his beautiful granddaughter, Moody. Ben enlists their help, and the two Crosses introduce him to the hidden side of the idyllic Southern town. Lynchings have become commonplace and residents of the town's black quarter live in constant fear. Ben aims to break the reign of terror - but the truth of who is really behind it could break his heart.

She's worked through all the days of the week, scrubbing up both messes and murderers in the village of Long Farnden. But crime is a persistent stain, and when Lois's daughter's boyfriend is left for dead in a ditch, Lois must follow a twisted path that leads to arson, local delinquents, secret assignations, and blackmail, before she can discover who has been tinkering with the truth.

Japan 1701. A woman is brutally attacked within a bamboo prison as clouds swirl around her head. Meanwhile, at Edo Castle, samurai detective Sano Ichiro is suspicious of his old rival, Yanagisawa, who has been oddly cooperative since returning from exile. As Yanagisawa's true motives begin to emerge, Sano's estranged uncle comes to him for help. His daughter has disappeared, and he begs Sano and his wife Reiko-who once suffered through the kidnapping of their own son--to find her before it is too late.

Georg Polger takes over a prestigious tranlation firm when his boss dies. With it he inherits the project of translation of military construction plans for combat helicopters. One night he discovers his beautiful colleague Francoise photographing the plans -- and then she disappears. When he discovers he is being followed, he sets out determined to learn the truth.

After Serbs tore their communities apart, a group of Croatian villagers discover the identity of the Englishman who they believe betrayed them by deceiving them during a deal to supply arms. With revenge in sight at last, they hire a professional killer from London to track him down, but is the story as simple as they think?

On a beautiful summer afternoon, four-year-old Scott Henderson walked onto a jetty over a lake in Black Ridge, WA, and never came back. His father's world changed horribly and irrevocably that day. Now, three years later, John's fragile new life is shaken once again when he receives an e-mail from a stranger claiming to know the truth. Against his better judgment, John returns to Black Ridge, unwittingly unleashing a terrifying sequence of events that threatens to destroy what remains of everything he once held dear.

The controversial new Suulutaq gold mine has put additional stress on Kate Shugak's family, friends and community. So it's almost a relief when Kate finds a body. This she can handle. Until the identity of the body vanishes, too.

It seems like just another quiet night at Elaine's. Stone Barrington and his former cop partner, Dino, are enjoying some pasta when in walks former client-and all around sad sack-Herbie Fisher...with a briefcase containing $14 million in cash. Herbie claims to have won the money on a lucky lotto ticket, but he also says he needs a lawyer-and after a single gunshot breaks the window above his head and send diners scrambling, Stone and Dino suspect Herbie might need a bodyguard and a private investigator, too.