But an application for a summer teaching job--an application which required a birth certificate--put to an end the ordered calm of Paul's progress and turned his life into a nightmare.For he learned that he, Paul Burgess, was in reality Paul Mathry, the son of Rees Mathry, a convicted murderer who was not only alive, but even then serving the fifteenth year of a life sentence.Profoundly shaken, Paul left home and wandered--drawn slowly, surely, to Stoneheath. And from the moment he saw those great forbidding walls, and realized fully that within them his father was buried alive, Paul Mathry became a man possessed.If his father was guilty, why had he not been hanged? Was it possible that for fifteen years an innocent man had endured unspeakable degradation and mental torture?Paul plunged into the past, immersed himself in the facts of the trial and the lives of the witnesses. The closer he came to the truth, the more he was threatened and pressured from high places. The name Mathry had made him a marked man--and he suffered.At their own risk a few people befriended him, offered him help. One, above all, believed in him--Lena Andersen--grave, lovely Lena, whose own ordeal reassured him, whose unspoken love sustained him in his long, hectic, agonizing drive for justice and his father's freedom.The impact of Beyond This Place is tremendous and readers will remember it vividly--and with pleasure--for a long time.(from inside jacket flap)

     In an elaborate house known as the Cloisters, Maud Wainwright rules supreme. The queen of society in the small town of Beverly, she has a table long enough to seat one hundred, and she keeps an iron grip on the guest list. Her right-hand woman is Pat Abbott, a local girl who is beautiful, innocent, and kind. Pat has no idea how cutthroat high society can be, but she’s about to get a deadly first lesson.   Pat has fallen head over heels in love with Maud’s son, Tony, a clever young rake with a single flaw: his vicious, gold-digging wife. At the same time that she is dangerously infatuated with a married man, Pat’s world is turned upside down by a series of attacks on the estate—and a truly shocking murder. To save Tony and Maud, Pat must find the killer. But the list of suspects is as long as one of Maud’s guest lists: When a woman has room at her table for one hundred friends, she’ll have more than her share of enemies.   “Anyone who aspires to become a writer,” said the New York Times, “could not do better than to study carefully the methods of Mary Roberts Rinehart.” The Great Mistake is a classic example of the golden age murder mystery at its best.

    Her redheaded niece is just glad that the hospital's murderer prefers blondes. First published in 1940.

    When Miss Marple comes to dinner, she proves that simply by observing human nature in the sleepy village, she is easily able to unravel the mysteries put forward by the other diners.

    And once again Davis goes outside the profession of criminology for his set-up. Last time it was a newspaper; this time it is a doctor and a young mathematician, brought together to create an indecipherable cipher for war use. Danger hovers, striking twice to prevent their success; there are suspects galore, for the work is going on in the midst of a strangely assorted houseparty, snowbound. A story with atmosphere, suspense, originality -- which make one overlook some loose threads when the solution is finally reached. [from Kirkus Reviews]

    Little did they know that an ancient feud, a charge against their uncle, and a mysterious stranger in the town would motivate them to unite as family and friends to unravel a mystery. “This fun story of healing, unity, and love is a delight to read. This is exactly the kind of gentle, inspiring literature that builds strong writers, strong minds, and strong hearts.”—Jenny Phillips