Download or read book Murder She Wrote The Fine Art of Murder written by Jessica Fletcher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FRAMED? Jessica’s art-viewing Italian vacation is interrupted by a pair of gunmen who steal a painting and kill a retired police officer in the process. Agreeing to help identify the crooks should they be caught, Jessica returns to Cabot Cove and puts the shocking experience behind her. Months later, Wayne Simsbury, the stepson of an old friend, comes to her for help. Wayne’s father has been shot to death. Not only has Wayne’s stepmother, Marlise, been charged with the murder, but Wayne himself claims to have witnessed the crime. Unsure what to do, he has sought out Jessica—the one person his stepmother had always claimed could help with any problem. Now, on top of a seemingly open-and-shut murder case to crack in Chicago, Jessica finds herself back in Italy helping the police make their case against the art thieves—and she faces a looming danger that may connect the Italian killers to the fate of her old friend....

Download or read book Madison Avenue Shoot written by Jessica Fletcher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The residents of Cabot Cove are pulling out all the stops for their 4th of July celebration. After a businessman's body is found on the evening of the fireworks show, Jessica Fletcher pores over a long list of potential suspects.

Download or read book Nashville Noir written by Donald Bain and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jessica Fletcher knows that creativity must be nurtured. So when a young lady from Cabot Cove shows promise as a singer and songwriter, Jessica and a local citizens committee send Cyndi on a scholarship trip to Nashville, Tennessee, where she can benefit from professional instruction. Only weeks later, Cabot Cove is shocked to hear of the cold-blooded murder of a brash country music publisher -- by the young talent Cyndi! And as Cyndi's mother begs Jessica to help her daughter, Jess heads to the country music capital of the world to help the wayward starlet. Jessica finds that the murdered man was no country gentleman, with a list of ex-wives, cheated partners, swindled singers, and stolen songs that has Jessica swinging to-and-fro in the search for a killer. And if she can't uncover the culprit soon, Jessica knows that poor Cyndi will never get the chance for an encore ...

Download or read book Murder She Wrote Panning For Murder written by Jessica Fletcher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jessica?s plans to enjoy a relaxing cruise to Alaska are dashed when her friend Kathy Copeland joins her. Kathy?s sister vanished from the very same vessel on a prior voyage, and though Wilimena often disappeared on flights of fancy, this time Kathy is convinced of foul play. The Copeland sisters had a notorious aunt?the most famous madam in Alaskan history?who, rumor has it, struck it rich during the Gold Rush. It seems the daring Wilimena has gone in search of the treasure, and may have attracted the wrong kind of attention. Suddenly, Jessica?s vacation becomes a challenging investigation. And before she and Kathy are even halfway to their destination, Jessica senses that someone is watching every move they make.

Download or read book Defending Jacob written by William Landay and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A legal thriller that’s comparable to classics such as Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent . . . tragic and shocking.”—Associated Press NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED ORIGINAL STREAMING SERIES • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • Boston Globe • Kansas City Star Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life: his wife, Laurie, and their teenage son, Jacob. Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son—shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob. Andy believes in Jacob’s innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors’ contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy’s family. It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. For Andy Barber, a man with an iron will and a dark secret, it is a test of guilt and innocence in the deepest sense. How far would you go? Praise for Defending Jacob “A novel like this comes along maybe once a decade . . . a tour de force, a full-blooded legal thriller about a murder trial and the way it shatters a family. With its relentless suspense, its mesmerizing prose, and a shocking twist at the end, it’s every bit as good as Scott Turow’s great Presumed Innocent. But it’s also something more: an indelible domestic drama that calls to mind Ordinary People and We Need to Talk About Kevin. A spellbinding and unforgettable literary crime novel.”—Joseph Finder “Defending Jacob is smart, sophisticated, and suspenseful—capturing both the complexity and stunning fragility of family life.”—Lee Child “Powerful . . . leaves you gasping breathlessly at each shocking revelation.”—Lisa Gardner “Disturbing, complex, and gripping, Defending Jacob is impossible to put down. William Landay is a stunning talent.”—Carla Neggers “Riveting, suspenseful, and emotionally searing.”—Linwood Barclay

Download or read book Wanton West written by Lael Morgan and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the time of the gold rush to the election of the first woman to the U.S. Congress, Wanton West brings to life the women of the West's wildest region: Montana, famous for its lawlessness, boomtowns, and America's largest red-light districts. Prostitutes and entrepreneurs--like Chicago Joe, Madame Mustache, and Highkicker—flocked to Montana to make their own money, gamble, drink, and raise hell just like men. Moralists wrote them off as “soiled doves,” yet a surprising number prospered, flaunting their freedom and banking ten times more than their “respectable” sisters. A lively read providing new insights into women's struggle for equality, Wanton West is a refreshingly objective exploration of a freewheeling society and a re-creation of an unforgettable era in history.

Download or read book The Inventor and the Tycoon written by Edward Ball and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Chicago Tribune Noteworthy Book of the Year Nearly 140 years ago, in frontier California, photographer Eadweard Muybridge captured time with his camera and played it back on a flickering screen, inventing the breakthrough technology of moving pictures. Yet the visionary inventor Muybridge was also a murderer who killed coolly and meticulously, and his trial became a national sensation. Despite Muybridge’s crime, the artist’s patron, railroad tycoon Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University, hired the photographer to answer the question of whether the four hooves of a running horse ever left the ground all at once—and together these two unlikely men launched the age of visual media. Written with style and passion by National Book Award-winner Edward Ball, this riveting true-crime tale of the partnership between the murderer who invented the movies and the robber baron who built the railroads puts on display the virtues and vices of the great American West.

Download or read book A Reliable Wife written by Robert Goolrick and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2010-01-05 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways. With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

Download or read book Murder Magic and What We Wore written by Kelly Jones and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fans of Patrice Kindl’s Keeping the Castle or Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer’s Sorcery and Cecelia will adore this funny Regency-era mystery about a determined young woman with a magical trick up her sleeve . . . The year is 1818, the city is London, and 16-year-old Annis Whitworth has just learned that her father is dead and all his money is missing. And so, of course, she decides to become a spy. Annis always suspected that her father was himself a spy, and following in his footsteps to unmask his killer makes perfect sense. Alas, it does not make sense to England’s current spymasters—not even when Annis reveals that she has the rare magical ability to sew glamours: garments that can disguise the wearer completely. Well, if the spies are too pigheaded to take on a young woman of quality, then Annis will take them on. And so she crafts a new double life for herself. Miss Annis Whitworth will appear to live a quiet life in a country cottage with her aunt, and Annis-in-disguise as Madame Martine, glamour artist, will open a magical dressmaking shop. That way she can earn a living, maintain her social standing, and, in her spare time, follow the coded clues her father left behind and unmask his killer. It can’t be any harder than navigating the London social season, can it? “Murder, Magic, and What We Wore blew my bonnet off. Kelly Jones has found a fresh way to share the delights of the magical regency. I truly love this book!” —Caroline Stevermer, coauthor of Sorcery & Cecilia, or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot “A deliciously enchanting adventure full of magic, mystery and delight.” —Stephanie Burgis, author of Kat, Incorrigible

Download or read book A Death in Belmont written by Sebastian Junger and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2006-04-17 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fatal collision of three lives in the most intriguing and original crime story since In Cold Blood. In the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, is rocked by a shocking sex murder that exactly fits the pattern of the Boston Strangler. Sensing a break in the case that has paralyzed the city of Boston, the police track down a black man, Roy Smith, who cleaned the victim's house that day and left a receipt with his name on the kitchen counter. Smith is hastily convicted of the Belmont murder, but the terror of the Strangler continues. On the day of the murder, Albert DeSalvo—the man who would eventually confess in lurid detail to the Strangler's crimes—is also in Belmont, working as a carpenter at the Jungers' home. In this spare, powerful narrative, Sebastian Junger chronicles three lives that collide—and ultimately are destroyed—in the vortex of one of the first and most controversial serial murder cases in America.

Download or read book Holy Fools written by Joanne Harris and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, presents her most accomplished novel yet -- an intoxicating concoction that blends theology and reason, deception and masquerade, with a dash of whimsical humor and a soupçon of sensuality. Britanny, 1610. Juliette, a one-time actress and rope dancer, is forced to seek refuge among the sisters of the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer. Reinventing herself as Soeur Auguste, Juliette makes a new life for herself and her young daughter, Fleur. But when the kindly abbess dies, Juliette's comfortable existence begins to unravel. The abbey's new leader is the daughter of a corrupt noble family, and she arrives with a ghost from Juliette's past -- Guy LeMerle, a man she has every reason to fear and hate. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Download or read book And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks written by William S. Burroughs and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-11-10 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 1944, a shocking murder rocked the fledgling Beats. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, both still unknown, we inspired by the crime to collaborate on a novel, a hard-boiled tale of bohemian New York during World War II, full of drugs and art, obsession and brutality, with scenes and characters drawn from their own lives. Finally published after more than sixty years, this is a captivating read, and incomparable literary artifact, and a window into the lives and art of two of the twentieth century’s most influential writers.

Download or read book The Blood of Emmett Till written by Timothy B. Tyson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draws on firsthand testimonies and recovered court transcripts to present a scholarly account of the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till and its role in launching the civil rights movement.

Download or read book Lady in the Lake written by Laura Lippman and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SOON TO BE A SERIES FROM APPLE TV! A New York Times Bestseller The revered New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel set in 1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman. In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know—everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life. Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl—assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: Cleo Sherwood, a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. If Cleo were white, every reporter in Baltimore would be clamoring to tell her story. Instead, her mysterious death receives only cursory mention in the daily newspapers, and no one cares when Maddie starts poking around in a young Black woman's life—except for Cleo's ghost, who is determined to keep her secrets and her dignity. Cleo scolds the ambitious Maddie: You're interested in my death, not my life. They're not the same thing. Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life—a jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people—including Ferdie, the man who shares her bed, a police officer who is risking far more than Maddie can understand.

Download or read book The House on Sprucewood Lane written by Caroline Slate and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-03-26 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the outside, some families appear to be untouchable. No conflicts within could cause ugliness or bitterness; no external force could shatter their assured, confident aura. The world saw the McQuade family through such a prism -- a slice of suburban perfection, a page-from-a-magazine existence for Melanie and Tom McQuade and their two gifted children. But Melanie's sister, documentary filmmaker Lex Cavanaugh, knows that nothing is as it appears; the truth of any picture lies in the eye of the beholder. And soon an unthinkable crime will shake Lex to the core, challenging everything she has known about her estranged family -- and herself. Lex receives the wrenching news in an urgent e-mail from her nephew, Jared: his ten-year-old sister Calista, a talented gymnast with Olympic potential, has been found murdered. Rushing from her home in London to Melanie's house in exclusive Westport, Connecticut, Lex re-enters a family living out its worst nightmare -- with each of the members cast in the light of suspicion, even among themselves. As the homicide investigation unfolds, a startling, unexpected group portrait reveals itself: Lex's obsessive, controlling sister, her TV-personality brother-in-law, and the intensely unhappy young Jared, in whom Lex sees her childhood self. Sifting through a decade of hidden indiscretions, raw resentments, and buried truths, Lex knows she must unlock the secrets of the past if there is any hope at all for their future. With a fresh voice and an unsparing eye, Caroline Slate has crafted a literary gem that is at the same time a tense, disarming psychological thriller in the tradition of Jacquelyn Mitchard and Ruth Rendell -- a page-turner that exposes the chilling, entangled secrets which may tear one family apart.

Download or read book Hallowe en Party written by Agatha Christie and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 2025-12-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enjoy Agatha Christie's beloved classic, Hallowe'en Party--the inspiration for the major motion picture A Haunting in Venice, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh--with a new introduction by Michael Green, screenwriter of the film. When a Halloween party turns deadly, it falls to Hercule Poirot to unmask a murderer. At a Halloween party, Joyce--a surly thirteen-year-old--boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. Famed detective Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate. Set against a night of trickery and the occult, it's up to Poirot to uncover the real evil presence responsible for this ghastly deed.

Download or read book Mildred Pierce written by James M. Cain and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2010-12-29 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mildred Pierce, noir master James M. Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devasting emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable. Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter.