Traditional Women

For an instant the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder. Helplessly, she stared out of her carriage window as a man remorselessly tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Miss Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there were no suspects, no other witnesses… and no corpse.

Some days, police chief Arly Hanks can't help but see Maggody, Arkansas, as little more than a cesspool of poverty, ignorance, and incest—the kind of glorified trailer park that gives the South a bad name. But hey, it's home. So when silver-tongued televangelist Malachi Hope swoops into town, with a revivalist laser light show and plans to build a Christian theme park, Arly worries her beloved, if crazy, neighbors are about to be swindled. But it's Malachi who should be terrified.

Undeterred by world war and enemy submarines, Amelia Peabody, grandmaster Elizabeth Peters' indomitable archaeologist-sleuth, once again sets sail for Egypt, where ghosts of an ancient past and specters of a present-day evil hover silently over an inscrutable land.

Bestselling author Lucy Pym is initially thrilled to be invited to lecture at Leys Physical Training College. The girls are eager to learn about psychology, her pet subject, and she finds herself inspired by their discipline, humour and determination. However, a tragic accident in the gymnasium reveals a darker side to the school, and unexpectedly Miss Pym finds she must draw on her psychological expertise to trace who, of all these wholesome girls, has violence on the mind.

Carole is thrilled with the coming wedding of her once-estranged son, Stephen. She finds it odd, though, that the parents of the bride have no interest in arranging the wedding, and seem terrified at the prospect of publicizing it. Things turn deadly intriguing when the father of the bride disappears at the engagement party, only to be found brutally murdered the following morn.

Train enthusiast Francis Humphreys took his last breath while relatives and neighbors visited downstairs. But if everyone was downstairs, who could have stolen into Uncle Francis's study, killed him, and escaped? Mrs. Jeffries will have to lend her downstairs common sense to this upstairs murder mystery.

Vintage kitchenware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has been estranged from her high school best friend Kathy Cooper since they were teenagers, but she never knew what turned Kathy against her. After fireworks at a Fourth of July picnic, Jaymie discovers the body of her former friend in the park. On the ground nearby is Jaymie's own Depression-era glass bowl, broken in two.

Merry Folger is more than ready for a romantic vacation with her fiancé, Peter, when fate - and her police chief father - intervenes. Twenty-one-year-old Jay Santorski never should have drowned in the frigid waters off the Nantucket shore. What was the athlete, Harvard scholar, and part-time scalloper doing out alone in the storm-churned bay? At her father's insistence - and over Peter's objections - Merry returns to the island to investigate.

Nothing ever happens in Maggody, Arkansas, population 755. Aside from handling the occasional barroom brawl or exploding still, Chief of Police Arly Hanks spends her days sipping coffee and squashing flies. She returned to Maggody two years ago, licking her wounds after a bad Manhattan divorce, and she fell backward into the role of sheriff. From Hizzoner the Moron to Ruby Bee Hanks, the people of Maggody are all crazy in their own ways, and that craziness is about to turn deadly.

Nestled in the hills of the Cotswolds, the village of Duntisbourne Abbots is a well-kept secret. When Joel Jennison is found slaughtered in the same field where his brother’s corpse had lain ten weeks previously, a whole community falls under suspicion. Was it a family feud? An act of revenge?

The Amelia Butterworth Mysteries is a series of three novels featuring Amelia Butterworth teaming up with Ebenezer Gryce. Miss Butterworth is a nosy high-society lady whose wealth and lack of family give her plenty of free time in which to solve several Victorian-era crimes.

Madeline Island was perfect for a romantic getaway until Emily found a dead lawyer. Now she’s a murder suspect. Luckily, Emily’s good at multitasking. While writing a travel article on the stunning Northwoods island, she must track down a killer. She has no choice. Blood stains found in Emily’s car made her the prime suspect. Clues lead to her boyfriend’s long-lost Ojibwe uncle who died in mysterious circumstances, a will that enrages his family, and events in the island’s fascinating history. Romance fizzles when Chet refuses to help find the killer. Why? Is his family involved? ...

Matt Montana is the favorite son of sleepy Maggody, Arkansas. With the voice of an angel and a smile as charming as that of the devil, he's made a name for himself under the bright lights of Nashville and become one of the most famous faces in country music. Meanwhile, Maggody has sunk into the worst recession in years. So when Matt announces that he's returning home to play a benefit concert, the locals do everything they can to cash in on Montana fever. The oddballs of Maggody smell a payday, and not even murder can stop them from cashing in.

Suzanne, Toni, and Petra lost their husbands but found independence - and, in each other, a life raft of support, inspiration, fresh baked goods, and their own business. But when the Cackleberry Club cafe opened its doors in the town of Kindred, who'd have guessed that the three women would be working a double shift as amateur sleuths?

Using a premise pulled from the headlines - the very real vulnerability of students and teachers - the best-selling author of the Mary Russell mysteries delivers a contemporary novel of psychological suspense. The various presenters at a local school career day prepare for a day in class, not knowing that someone with a thirst for revenge is in their midst.

Mulbridge House stood deep in the woods at the heart of Oakwood, Ohio, long before the passing of Augusta Mulbridge. Yet suddenly everyone in town seems to have a stake in its fate: the greedy heirs, eager to tear it down for a tidy profit; the local preservationists, determined to maintain it as an historic site; and the angry neighbors, staunchly opposed to the construction of a modern subdivision. Even Charley Carpenter is forced to admit that her beloved shop could use an infusion of the estate's treasures.

When Lori Shepherd returns from her trip to America, she is shocked to hear that Prunella "Pruneface" Hooper has been killed. This is the first murder in the village of Finch in more than a century, and everyone is in an uproar. Before the town implodes in the wake of this scandal, Lori sets out to solve the murder. Unfortunately, nearly everyone in Finch had a reason to want Mrs. Hooper dead.

A weekly dinner party. Ten amateur sleuths. The Tuesday Night Club murders. On a quiet Tuesday in St Mary Mead, a group of friends gather for dinner. A policeman, a clergyman, a solicitor, an author, an artist, and an unassuming lady with a shrewd gaze – Miss Jane Marple. Conversation naturally turns to crime. Each recounts a seemingly unsolvable mystery. Each thinks they know the answer. But it’s the one they least expect who understands the true nature of each wicked act.

AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND DIGITAL... Secret Father: A Sweet Romance by renowned storyteller Suz deMello. When Linda Travers was fourteen, Dave Madsen, then age seventeen, rescued her from a snowy death. They later met at an end-of-term party at their college and lost their virginities to each other before Dave left the country. And now...Despite spending her teenage years mooning over Dave, Linda Travers has moved on with her life. Being left pregnant and alone will force that on a gal. Age twenty-five, she lives in their hometown with their six-year-old, Mac. Then Dr. Dave Madsen ...

Inspector Agnes Lüthi, a Swiss-American police officer in Lausanne, Switzerland, has just transferred to the Violent Crimes unit from Financial Crimes to try to shed all reminders of her old life following her husband's death. Now, on the eve of the worst blizzard Lausanne has seen in centuries, Agnes has been called to investigate her very first homicide case. On the lawn of the grand Château Vallotton, at the edge of Lac Leman, a young woman has been found stabbed to death.