Martha Francis

Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown children. She was tired of attending her Garden Club meetings. She wanted to do something good for her country. This first in the series sends Emily on her first case after she successfully persuades a skeptical CIA recruitment officer that she is the best person for the job.

This is the delightfully intimate story of the tenth-century Byzantine princess, Theophano, wife of Otto II, the Holy Roman Emperor. When her husband was killed in battle, Theophano became Regent for her infant son, Otto III, and ruled the Holy Roman Empire for a decade. The novel's rousing climax is one of the great Dark Ages wars of succession, when Theophano's son became a pawn in the hands of the Frankish king.

London today: a world of sex and drugs and designer clothes, where Robert searches for fulfillment in gay clubs. London 50 years ago: Michael enters a secret queer underworld, negotiating the dangers of the law and the closet. Past and present collide when Robert moves into a new block of flats, and discovers that history is alive in his doorstep.

When I walked out of his office after the hottest sex of my life, I thought I'd left Max Douglas behind me forever - along with my favorite argyle socks and my self-respect. The last thing I need is the too-serious, too-sexy former Marine living across the hall from me while he acts as a bodyguard for one of my students. Especially since he fired me from my job tutoring his brother... after we hooked up. I shouldn't want him. I should despise him after the way he treated me. But he's exactly my type: older, experienced, in control...and it's obvious the lust is still mutual.