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: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African-American woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie--and the dead woman herself. Maddie's going to find the truth about Cleo's life and death. Cleo's ghost, privy to Maddie's poking and prying, wants to be left alone. Maddie's investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life--a jewelery 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 the man who shares her bed, a black police officer who cares for Maddie more than she knows.'

    Beyond the glittering court of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour at Versailles, lies Paris, a capital in the grip of crime. A police officer disappears and Nicolas Le Floch, a young Breton police recruit, is instructed to find him. When unidentified human remains are found it becomes a murder investigation. As Paris descends into Carnival debauchery it is Le Floch's skill, courage and integrity that will help him unravel a mystery which threatens to implicate the highest in the land.

    But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey.Agatha isn’t the only passenger on board with secrets. Her cabinmate Katharine Keeling’s first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit. Nancy Nelson—newly married but carrying another man’s child—is desperate to conceal the pregnancy and teeters on the brink of utter despair. Each woman hides her past from the others, ferociously guarding her secrets. But as the train bound for the Middle East speeds down the track, the parallel courses of their lives shift to intersect—with lasting repercussions.Filled with evocative imagery, suspense, and emotional complexity, The Woman on the Orient Express explores the bonds of sisterhood forged by shared pain and the power of secrets.

    They served together in the war as part of a shadowy unit called the Magic Men.Max is still on the circuit, touring seaside towns in the company of ventriloquists, sword-swallowers and dancing girls. Changing times mean that variety is not what it once was, yet Max is reluctant to leave this world to help Edgar investigate. But when the dead girl turns out to be known to him, Max changes his mind.Another death, another magic trick: Edgar and Max become convinced that the answer to the murders lies in their army days. When Edgar receives a letter warning of another ‘trick’, the Wolf Trap, he knows that they are all in danger…

    Anson House, Greyminster, Staircase No. 3. How can Flavia de Luce resist such an urgent plea? After all, examining a dead body sounds like a perfectly splendid way to spend a Sunday. So Flavia hops upon her trusted bicycle, Gladys, whose rubber tires hiss happily along the rainy road, and arrives at her father’s mist-shrouded old school. There, a terrified boy leads her to the loo where, sitting in a bathtub, is what appears to be a statue. But, no: To Flavia’s surprise, the thing is in fact a naked dead man. Save his face, he seems to have been carved out of copper. Never one to shy away from the macabre, Flavia gets to work—only to find that when an investigation begins with a metallic cadaver, ever more curious twists are to be expected.

    Before she goes, a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger, and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world, because the game that can be played with them is too powerful....

    This casebook promises twists and turns with a pair of lady sleuths with sharp wits and Holmesian intelligence. The Complete Hester Lynton Mysteries includes - The Puzzled BridegroomIt was just another ordinary day when private tutor Hester Lyton boarded a steam train from Paddington to London. But this would be no ordinary journey.Within just a few short miles. the amateur detective has held two menacing convicts at gun point, acquired an inquisitive assistant by the name of Ivy Jessop, and embarked on an investigation into the case of a missing governess. Teaming up together, Hester and Ivy must combine their Sherlock Holmes style intellect with their feminine wiles, to solve a series of mysteries that have defeated lesser minds.Over the course of three adventures, Hester and Ivy find themselves up against a spate of murders, confused identities, missing people, thieves and forgeries.The Soho AnarchistThe Victorian detective Hester Lynton and her sharp-minded assistant Ivy Jessop are back for another series of dazzling adventures.In London a mysterious package with a deadly secret has landed on Hester's desk. In the suburbs, a woman is plagued by a series of pranks which hint at the supernatural. And in Islington, a medium claims to have the power to access the thoughts of her client's dead relatives, as well as the money in their pockets.Can Hester find the elusive Soho Anarchist before another bomb is blown? Will she unearth the secret of Greystones Villa and identify its tormentor? And will she unveil the true identity of Madame Valland and the secrets of her supernatural powers?The Wayward HusbandIn her latest baffling case, a complex and unusual tale involving a certain Mrs Bramming leads Hester and Ivy into the most dangerous case of their career.Meanwhile, when a famous writer loses a valuable manuscript, and enlists Hester's help to find it, an eminent doctor appears to be involved in the inexplicable events. But how? And why? Some mysteries are baffling even to Victorian London's greatest detective. The Complete Hester Lynton Mysteries is a dazzling collection of Victorian mystery stories that are perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes, G W Calkitto, and the Raffles series.