When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money - and murder. The character of Lydia...

As the author of over forty works-including over a dozen novels and over a dozen books of poetry as well as collections of short stories and short fictions, works of literary criticism, and collections of her essays and reviews-Margaret Atwood is indisputably Canada's best-known contemporary author. Edited by J. Brooks Bouson, this volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on the Canadian writer.--Publisher description...

Detective Kurt Wallander searches for the link between "four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman [who] are found with their throats slit in a convent in Africa ... [and] in Sweden, a birdwatcher [who] is skewered to death after falling into a pit of carefully sharpened bamboo poles."--Jacket.

CRIME & MYSTERY. Detective Jack Murphy Is Back-on the trail of a criminal mastermind who kills for profit and tortures for pleasure. In Jack Murphy's experience, the killers who blend in are the hardest to catch. But none are as elusive-or efficient-as Mr. Smith. A man of average height, weight and build, Mr. Smith is as ordinary as his name. Which makes it easy for him to get close to his targets. To kill without conscience. To use every weapon at...

In a northern California town, two teenage brothers go into the woods one day, but only one comes back. Twenty years later, the older brother, Oren, an ex-investigator for the Army CID, returns home for the first time. His first morning back, Oren hears a thump on the front porch and finds a human jawbone in fornt of the door. It is not the first such object, his father tells him. Josh is coming home...bone by bone. Using his investigative skills,...

A Hercule Poirot Mystery.

Minneapolitan Mira James has been taking it easy since college graduation—too easy. Due to a dead-end job and a cheating boyfriend, the Twin Cities have lost their charm, and Mira decides to begin a new life in rural Battle Lake. Right away she is offered jobs as an assistant librarian and part-time reporter, and falls into an unexpected romance with a guy who seems to be the perfect man until he turns up dead between the reference stacks her

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Detective Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are tasked with protecting, Cameron Clay, the Gazette's most hated columnist in New York City, after he begins to receive anonymous death threats. Death threats are a regular hazard for Clay, who has hurled insults and accusations at every boldfaced name in the five boroughs, but the latest ones carried a more sinister tone.

Three youngsters visiting their grandparents during summer use a clue to retrieve a treasure hidden on their grandfather's farm.