High Society Fiction

After his grandfather passes away, Richard Blackwood travels East to collect his stubborn Granny Zinnia and bring the grieving widow back home. When a passionate encounter with a childhood acquaintance ends in a refused marriage proposal, Richard returns to Little Creede with a wounded heart.

Probably the most famous of Edith Wharton's novels, Ethan Frome contrasts sharply with her usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she herself belonged and whose strengths and weaknesses she understood so well. Ethan Frome is a keenly-etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a 19th-century New England village.

It’s clear that in today’s era of fiscal constraints and political gridlock, we can no longer turn to government alone to tackle towering social problems. What’s required is a new, more collaborative and productive economic system. The Solution Revolution brings hope - revealing just such a burgeoning new economy where players from across the spectrum of business, government, philanthropy, and social enterprise converge to solve big problems and create public value.

A Mystery Thriller Set in Post-War London During the Early 1920s Step into the shadowy corridors of post-war London, where secrets whisper through every alley, and danger lurks just beyond the gaslit streets. "Poison in the Shadows" is a masterfully crafted English murder mystery that weaves a tale of deception, high society scandals, and an unforgiving quest for the truth. When Dr. Billings, an earnest assistant to the famed poison specialist Sir Ernest Lambert, receives an urgent call in the chill of an early 1920s night, he is thrust into a labyrinthine mystery. A masked dancer has been ...

Beneath the glamour, beyond the wealth, a shadow lurks... In the world of high society, appearances are everything but behind the luxury lies a web of deception. When a scandal threatens to shatter the pristine image of the elite, secrets that were meant to stay hidden come creeping into the light. As a determined investigator delves deeper into the mystery, the façade of elegance begins to crack, revealing dangerous alliances, forbidden affairs, and a truth too powerful to ignore. In a society where silence is currency and reputation is king, will justice prevail, or will the shadow of ...

On a ravaged street overlooking a cemetery in Beirut's Christian enclave, we meet an eccentric young man named Pavlov, the son of a local undertaker. When his father meets a sudden and untimely death, Pavlov is approached by a colorful member of the mysterious Hellfire Society - an anti-religious sect that, among many rebellious and often salacious activities, arranges secret burial for outcasts who have been denied last rites because of their religion or sexuality.

London, 1952: Forty-six-year-old Elizabeth Dalloway feels she has failed at most everything in life, especially living up to her mother, the elegant Mrs. Dalloway, an ideal socialite and model of perfection until she disappeared in the summer of 1923—and hasn’t been heard from since. When Elizabeth is handed a medal with a mysterious inscription from her mother to a soldier named Septimus Warren Smith, she’s certain it contains a clue from the past.

A murder mystery book set in the busy city of London during the early 20th century. The story revolves around the baffling case of a prominent Member of Parliament, Jacob Remy, whose sudden disappearance sends shockwaves throughout the city. Life takes a nefarious turn when he is discovered dead in his office, prompting an in-depth investigation that uncovers a tangle of deceit, hidden letters, and a suspicious will that challenges the tranquility of London society. Navigating the Shadows of Wealth and Power An eclectic array of characters, right from Remy's diligent secretary Chambers to ...

Dieses Dornröschen ist aufgewacht ... in einem Albtraum! OLIVER: Normalerweise locke ich Frauen mit Amnesie nicht in eine Ehe. Aber ich nehme an, es gibt für alles ein erstes Mal. Wenn mir die Frau meiner Träume in den Schoß fällt, kann ich nicht anders, als mich zu fragen, was sie in dieser Position noch so alles tun kann. Sie ist hier. In meinem Haus. Meiner Gnade ausgeliefert. Und sie denkt, dass wir das ganze Jahrzehnt, das wir getrennt waren, ein Liebespaar waren. Briar und ich waren immer eine unerledigte Angelegenheit. Jetzt ist es an der Zeit, das Geschäft zu besiegeln.

'I would be most unhappy to think that any part of this memoir should be cut on grounds of 'decency', for those bits are essential....' So begins the lively true story of aristocrat and travel writer Roderic Fenwick Owen. Born in 1921, Fenwick Owen had an extraordinary life, which careered between some of the biggest moments in history and took him to the ends of the earth, meeting (and even living with) some of the 20th century's most well-known people along the way, including Eisenhower, Jackson Pollock, Christopher Lee and Sean Connery.

A romantic adventure book set in the South Pacific during the late 19th century. Following a shipwreck, Mabel Miller, a disillusioned socialite from San Francisco, finds herself on the vibrant yet dangerous island of Kaahlanai with a small band of survivors, including Captain Gray and the Gray family. Initially seeking a break from her monotonous lifestyle, Mabel embarks on a journey that takes her far beyond her wildest dreams. Upon their ship's destruction by fire and subsequent arduous days at sea, the survivors finally land on Kaahlanai. They initially face both the harsh realities of ...

Naive young Masha Mironova arrives in Moscow at the turn of the century with a modest inheritance and a determination to shed her provincial Siberian upbringing. As soon as she alights in Moscow, she becomes Columbine, a reckless and daring young woman with eccentric outfits and a pet snake worn as a necklace. Columbine soon discovers the Lovers of Death - a small group of poets who conduct seances to determine death's next chosen lover. The string of suicides resulting from the group have drawn attention, and gentleman detective Erast Fandorin investigates.

A woman is found murdered in her bathtub, and the murder has been made to look like a suicide. But a strange symbol found at the crime scene leads the local police to call Commissaire Adamsberg and his team. When the symbol is found near the body of a second disguised suicide, a pattern begins to emerge: Both victims were part of a disastrous expedition to Iceland over 10 years ago where a group of tourists found themselves trapped on a deserted island.

Inspector Hector Salgado is a transplanted Argentine living in Barcelona. While working on human trafficking case, Salgado’s violent temper got the best of him and he beat a suspect within an inch of his life. Ordered on probation, he fled to Argentina to cool off for a few months. Now he’s back in Barcelona and is eager for another big case. But his boss has other plans. He assigns Salgado to a routine accidental death: A college student fell from a balcony in one of Barcelona’s ritzier neighborhoods. As Salgado begins to piece together the life and world of the victim, he realizes that his death was not all that simple....

Agnes Wilkins is standing in front of an Egyptian mummy, about to make the first cut into the wrappings, about to unlock ancient (and not-so-ancient) history. Maybe you think this girl is wearing a pith helmet with antique dust swirling around her. Maybe you think she is a young Egyptologist who has arrived in Cairo on camelback. Maybe she would like to think that too. Agnes Wilkins dreams of adventures that reach beyond the garden walls, but reality for a 17-year-old debutante in 1815 London does not allow for camels....

The young aspiring poet Alexander Pope crosses paths with the coquettish Arabella and man-about-town Lord Petre at a masquerade ball. It's 1711, and the fashionable citizens of London, weary of recent political and social upheaval, are intent on simply pursuing enjoyment. But society in general is not accepting of any attraction that can't restrain itself behind at least a veneer of respectability, and Arabella and Lord Petre's intense attraction is both unacceptable and dangerous.

Trinity Academy’s gold-plated secret society is about to be turned upside down. Seventeen-year-old Sam Evans plots revenge on her ex-bestie, Jessica, who happens to perch at the top of the Society’s social ladder - and helped put Sam’s dad in jail. Sam may no longer be cool enough to be invited to rush the Society, but she’s tech-savvy enough to know how to use it in her plan.

In this sequel to Stalking Susan, TV reporter Riley Spartz pursues a curious story of a bride left at the altar and finds herself caught in a dangerous missing-person case. When Riley Spartz sees a want ad reading “Wedding Dress for Sale: Never Worn,” her news instincts tell her that the backstory might make an intriguing television sweeps piece. The groom, Mark, last seen at the rehearsal dinner, never showed up for the wedding, humiliating his bride, Madeline—and her high-strung, high-society mother—in front of 300 guests.

Lady Georgies und Darcys Flitterwochen werden von einem Mord getrübt… Der neue Fall der charmanten Cosy-Krimi-Reihe von Rhys Bowen. Georgie ist entzückt, als Darcy ihr aus heiterem Himmel Flitterwochen in einer Luxus-Villa in Kenia vorschlägt. Erst als sie dort ankommen, ahnt sie, dass er eigentlich mit einem Auftrag dorthin geschickt wurde. In London gab es einige spektakuläre Diebstähle und man vermutet, dass der Dieb aus Adelskreisen stammt und nach Kenia geflohen ist.

Writing in the grand American tradition of Annie Dillard and Barry Lopez, Donovan Hohn is an "adventurous, inquisitive, and brightly illuminating writer" (New York Times). Since the publication of Moby-Duck a decade ago, Hohn has been widely hailed for his prize-winning essays on the borderlands between the natural and the human. The Inner Coast collects 10 of his best, many of them originally published in such magazines as the New York Times Magazine and Harper's.