A teenager poisons her family for the love of her tutor. A woman driven by greed ruthlessly bludgeons eight members of her family.A beautician gangs up with her lover to rob a house, killing innocent women from three generations of a family. A practising lawyer strangles her lawyer husband with the cord of a mobile charger. A friendly and jovial teacher commits at least six murders over fourteen years in a sleepy town down south.DEATH SERVED COLD is a painstakingly researched collection of true, blood-curdling accounts of gruesome murders committed by India’s most dangerous women over the last three decades.These stories explore the dark recesses of the female psyche and challenge popular stereotypes by revealing shocking excesses of sadism and aggression rarely associated with women.

    Howe, engineered by Kim King) Dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to find his missing daughter. Grief-stricken over the death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks. So has the first investigator hired to find her: Jay Becker, Patrick's mentor. Gone Baby Gone (read by Robert Lawrence, directed by Bill Weideman, engineered by Jeremy Spanos) Boston PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro have been hired to find a six-year-old girl who vanished from her home without a trace. Despite enormous public attention, extensive news coverage, and dogged police work, the investigation has gone nowhere. But it's a case rife with sinister circumstances: a strangely indifferent mother, a pedophile couple, a bizarre subculture of homeless parents, and a shadowy police unit with a covert agenda and no qualms about enforcing it. Prayers for Rain (read by Thomas J.S. Brown, directed by Sandra Burr, engineered by Jill Sovis) Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's relationship has hit the skids. But despite their problems, they join forces to close down a predator whose modus operandi seems to put him beyond the law. This killer's insidious murder weapon is within his victim's mind: no smoking gun, no bloody knife, just merciless manipulation that drives his targets to kill themselves.

    But the rhythm of her life is disrupted when attorney Mitchell Reece requests her help in locating a stolen document that could cost him not only the multimillion-dollar case he's defending but his career as well. Eager to get closer to this handsome, brilliant, and very private man, Taylor signs on . . . only to find that as she delves deeper and deeper into what goes on behind closed doors at Hubbard, White & Willis, she uncovers more than she wants to kno--including a plentitude of secrets damaging enough to smash careers and dangerous enough to push someone to commit murder. Yet who is capable of going to that extreme? With her life on the line, Taylor is about to learn the lethal answer. . . ."The characters are well drawn, the plot is fast paced, and the writing avoids totally the usual trappings of blockbusterdom. . . . An intelligently written thriller."--Booklist

    

    In Clouds of Witness Lord Peter-amateur detective, scholar and bon vivant-learns while on vacation in France that his brother, the Duke of Denver is being held for the murder of their sister's fiance, Captain Denis Cathcart. Evidence has been given to show that Cathcart quarreled with the accused-and was subsequently shot. A pistol belonging to the Duke was found on the grounds of his estate, near the scene of the crime. The murder of an elderly member is at the cause of the Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. The club, it has been joshingly said, resembles a morgue. Then, one night, the jest became a reality. The eminent and ancient General Fentiman thought to be napping in the wing chair by the fireplace, is sleeping his last sleep! There is no reason to suspect causes other than natural ones in the death of a man of ninety. He is duly buried and that seems to be the end of him. Soon however matters of money develop-a huge sum of money- which dempends for its disposition on exactly when the old man dies. How long had he been lying in the fireplace chair before his body was discovered? There had been an approximate estimate based on the degree of rigor mortis, but approximations are now insufficient-and Lord Peter finds himself intrigued by the unusual aspect of this particular rigor mortis. As he investigates, other peculiarities also demand answers-such as the lethal quantity of digitalin discovered post-exhumation autopsy! Book Club Edition486 pages

    The eleven novels in The Library of America’s adventurous two-volume collection taps deep roots in the American literary imagination, exploring themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder, and the disintegrating psyche. With visionary and often subversive force they create a dark and violent mythology out of the most commonplace elements of modern life.James M. Cain’s pioneering novel of murder and adultery along the California highway, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), shocked contemporaries with its laconic toughness and fierce sexuality.Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) uses truncated rhythms and a unique narrative structure to turn its account of a Hollywood dance marathon into an unforgettable evocation of social chaos and personal desperation.In Thieves Like Us (1937), Edward Anderson vividly brings to life the dusty roads and back-country hideouts where a fugitive band of Oklahoma outlaws plays out its destiny.The Big Clock (1946), an ingenious novel of pursuit and evasion by the poet Kenneth Fearing, is set by contrast in the dense and neurotic inner world of a giant publishing corporation under the thumb of a warped and ultimately murderous chief executive.William Lindsay Gresham’s controversial Nightmare Alley (1946), a ferocious psychological portrait of a charismatic carnival hustler, creates an unforgettable atmosphere of duplicity, corruption, and self-destruction.I Married a Dead Man (1948), a tale of switched identity set in the anxious suburbs, is perhaps the most striking novel of Cornell Woolrich, who found in the techniques of the gothic thriller the means to express an overpowering sense of personal doom.Disturbing, poetic, anarchic, punctuated by terrifying bursts of rage and paranoia and powerfully evocative of the lost and desperate sidestreets of American life, these are underground classics now made widely and permanently available.

    The two detectives soon find themselves up against institutionalised racism and the worst killers in the USA.

    The controversial follow-up to Into the Bear Pit, this title pulls no punches in discussing the substantial fall-out from the publication of James' first book, the verbal spat with Nick Faldo that led Faldo waging a campaign to have his European Tour colleague removed from the Tournament Committee, and Mark's eventual resignation as Ryder Cup assistant.

    Across the ranchlands and cities of his home state, Rory Yates's discipline and law-enforcement skills have carried him far-from local highway patrolman to the honorable rank of Texas Ranger. A tough case in Waco has jeopardized Yates's chances at promotion, and he decides to take time off to recharge with his family in their small-town hometown, Redbud. He arrives and finds a horrifying crime scene-and a scathing accusation: He is named a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife, Anne, a devoted teacher whose only controversial act ever was deciding to end her marriage to a Ranger. At Anne's funeral, Yates moves the congregation to tears with a beloved hymn. Anne's new husband, Calvin Richards, is there, and Yates has questions that no one else seems to be asking. The investigation is out of his jurisdiction-plus he is a chief suspect-but Rory's drive to learn what happened isn't about self-preservation. For himself, for Anne, his hunt for justice transcends all boundaries. When the killer strikes again, Rory's urgent search bursts across state borders onto the national scene. He risks his badge, his pride, his reputation among everyone he loves, and even the trust of the woman he's recently begun seeing, to pursue the only thing that matters. Yates follows the Ranger creed-never to surrender-into the inferno of the most twisted and violent minds he's ever encountered. That code just might bring him out alive.

    Harlan Coben’s The Stranger is a provocative crime thriller that will leave the reader guessing until its final pages. Set in the comforts of small town suburbia it invokes the theory that nothing is as it seems and sometimes the fairy tale with the white picket fence is just that – a fairy tale. Adam Price learns the hard way that the truth doesn’t necessarily set you free and sometimes it can do more harm than the deception itself. When Adam Price is approached by the stranger at a youth athletics meeting he is ill-prepared for the life-altering information the man presents to him. Learning of his wife’s deceptions from a perfect stranger is even more unsettling than the secrets themselves. That conversation changes the course of Adam’s life forever and when he confronts Corinne her guarded response is puzzling. Then his wife turns up missing and Adam knows the only thing he can do is search for the stranger and get to the bottom of Corinne’s disappearance once and for all. This companion to The Stranger also includes the following: • Book Review • Story Setting Analysis • Story elements you may have missed as we decipher the novel • Details of Characters & Key Character Analysis • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • Thought Provoking /or Discussion Questions for both Readers & Book Clubs • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More! This Analysis of The Stranger fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

    The thriller that introduces Parker. “A brilliant invention”. Played by Lee Marvin in the John Boorman movie. “The funnies call it the syndicate. The goons and hustlers call it the Outfit. You call it the Organization. But I don’t care if you call yourselves the Red Cross, you owe me forty-five thousand dollars and you’ll pay me back whether you like it or not.”This novel was originally titled The Hunter, later retitled Point Blank because of the movie, later retitled Payback because of the other movie.

    Only a New York cop can win it.His claim to fame is finding guns on the bad guys, and Detective Second Grade Brian McKenna has just spotted the beard carrying a piece. What he doesn't know is that he's about to shoot his way into a war with a highly disciplined, well-armed enemy so treacherous, not even the NYPD knows they exist.Exiled from the bright lights of Manhattan for breaking one too many rules, pressured by his girlfriend to quit the job, this is McKenna's last chance to win back his reputation and make the coveted rank of Detective First Grade. But if his moves aren't swift and right, a new breed of criminal-- who has found a leader in an exotically beautiful and ruthless woman-- will own his city.From the savvy and experience of a cop who gave over 25 years of his life to the NYPD comes a stunning novel of undeniable authenticity and unrelenting suspense.

     For important background information, please read the novella CLEVER DECEPTION first. "Seek liberty, Foxy, and you'll find me."Sergeant Alexandra Fox came to America to find the man who had brutally murdered her sister. A man the press called The Escape Artist. Could a British Sergeant fit in with the NYPD? Not if Commander Patterson had anything to do with it.Suspended with only two friends in America-- Chief Brown, a long time family friend, and retired Sergeant Matt "Nobby" Adams, Alex has seven days to find three kidnapped babies, or look for a new job.Her investigation leads her into a world of deception, that turns tragic before it even begins, and a helping hand from the one person she hated the most--The Escape Artist.

    In the beloved tradition of Erle Stanley Gardner, Chastain presents an all-new Perry Mason mystery! When Mason's latest client seems to have every reason to have murdered her husband and no plausible alibi, Mason must employ all his talents at detection to save her from conviction!

    She knows nothing about antiques, yet she has an affection for Salem Street with its charming mix of antique and curio shops. Now elderly dealer Joan Albritton has been found dead, stabbed with an antique dagger. Her neighbors are shocked. Recurring vandalism has them frightened. Ferreting out the facts will take Sharon from the chaotic jumble of the junk dealer's establishment to a museum where San Francisco's most elegant socialites gather. But it is not until she is alone in Joan's dark shop with Clothilde, the headless dressmaker's dummy; Bruno, the stuffed German shepherd; and Edwin, the little boy mannequin in the ornate iron shoes that she will have the chance to discover the murderous secret someone will kill -- and kill again -- to keep.