Now he bangs out honky-tonk for drunks in a dive in Philadelphia. But then two people walk into Eddie's life--the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past.Shoot the Piano Player is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty: the kind a man owes his family, no matter how bad that family is; the kind a man owes a woman; and, ultimately, the loyalty he owes himself. The result is a moody thriller that, like the best hard-boiled fiction, carries a moral depth charge.

    She was standing as if frozen, her back to me, her hands up to her throat.Then she screamed, a high, tearing scream."The murderer. Oh my God, the murderer. . . ."She grabbed my arm and pointed to the bed, her lips shaking so much that she couldn't speak coherently.I stared down at the bed, while the slow goose flesh pricked up my spine.Lying on the coverlet was a doll, the kind of frivolous doll I had seen dozens of times.But this one was different.It was lying flat on its back on the bed, with its legs straight out and its hands crossed on its breast. The contents of an ash tray had been scattered over it, and a great red gash gleamed across its neck, where its throat was cut from ear to ear... A young crofter's daughter is cruelly and ritually murdered on the bleak Scottish mountainside. In the deceptively idyllic Camasunary Hotel nearby, the beautiful but troubled, Gianetta Brooke cannot seem to escape her pain or her past -- not even in the remote hotel on the Scottish Isle of Skye. When she discovers that her ex-husband has booked into the same hotel, the peaceful holiday for which she had hoped takes on quite another complexion.Very soon Gianetta finds herself tangled in a web of rising fear and suspicion. One of her fellow guests, however, is also hiding secrets... and a skill and penchant for murder. And now the killer only has eyes for Gianetta....

    The summer would hold more than swimming and horseback riding, blueberry pancakes and picnics at the lake, but they didn't begin to guess how much more until Nancy bid for an old trunk at a country auction. The Hollands were vacationing in an old house which had once belonged to a New Hampshire primitive artist whose paintings had lately become fashionable and valuable. A menacing art dealer, Mr. Cummings, was on the trail of yet undiscovered paintings and would stop at nothing to get hold of them. The children were afraid he might even get their marvelous house away from them.

    But when they visit Aunt Annabelle's guest house in Maine, they begin to wonder. . .Why does the sinister guest creep around the top floor when he thinks everyone is asleep? How about the flickering light that appears out of nowhere in a midnight storm? And what can those hoof-beats in the big rock mean?If Janice and Tommy are to help Aunt Annabelle, they must prove that Mountain View House is not really haunted. And there is no time to lose. . .

    The setting and characters are genteel, and the postal props of letters and stamps are used effectively. - The Mystery Lover's Companion, Art Bourgeau

    and Mrs. North OmnibusincludingThe Norths Meet MurderMurder Out of TurnA Pinch of Poison