She said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake—and never saw him again. Now, at fifty, she finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Especially the chance to be with Jake.… In returning to her hometown of Colville, Washington, to her parents’ house, her girlhood friends and the garden she’s always loved, she also returns to the past—and the choices she made back then.Back on Blossom Street:There’s a new shop on Seattle’s Blossom Street—a flower store called Susannah’s Garden, right next door to A Good Yarn. Susannah Nelson, the owner, has just hired a young widow named Colette Blake. A couple of months earlier, Colette had abruptly quit her previous job—after a brief affair with her boss. To her dismay, he’s suddenly begun placing weekly orders for flower arrangements!Twenty Wishes:Anne Marie Roche wants to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, her life’s not what she’d expected—she’s childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle’s Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, there’s a feeling of emptiness. On Valentine’s Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrate…what? Hope, possibility, the future. They each begin a list of twenty wishes, things they always wanted to do but never did. Anne Marie begins to act on her wishes, and when she volunteers at a local school, an eight-year-old girl named Ellen enters her life.

    As a rank amateur who just thinks he can help, this Ames alter ego quickly becomes embroiled in the search for a missing NYU coed. He moves from one scrape to the next, all while trying to escape a life of periodic alcoholism, dead-end relationships, writer’s block, and hours of Internet backgammon. Bored to Death was originally published in McSweeney’s Issue 24 and is the centerpiece of Ames’s collection of essays and fiction, The Double Life Is Twice as Good. Bored to Death Artwork © 2009 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.

    Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

    

    

    Turned out of their home by the ruthless pit owner, Fern and her mother Wynne are forced to seek a new life in Cardiff. Whilst Wynne finds work in a factory, Fern attends the local school. But here she is bullied and is soon selling flowers outside Cardiff Central station to help make ends meet. When her mother is taken from her in an influenza epidemic, Fern has no one to protect her from her violent and possessive uncle. She longs to escape from the brutality and squalor around her and make something of herself. But with no money and her only friend away at sea, there seems little hope of her ever leaving her life of poverty behind, let alone finding the love she so yearns for.

    I just want to shoot somebody."--Mike Hammer Everybody loves a mystery, and nobody solves them like Mike Hammer. While other detectives bend and manipulate the law, Hammer holds it in total contempt, seeing it as nothing more than an impediment to justice, the one virtue he holds in absolute esteem. Now, the no-holds-barred private eye returns, along with his gorgeous secretary, Velda, and a collection of New York City characters, in two fully dramatized "theater-of-the-mind" audio adventures. "Dangerous Days" and "Oil and Water." "Dangerous Days" - When Hammer rescues a crazed young woman clad only in a medical gown, he's flung into the shadowy world of secret ops and international terrorism. New York is the target, and Mike Hammer is the only man who can prevent a massive catastrophe. But will he find out who the real enemy is before it's too late? "Oil and Water" - The one woman Mike Hammer might have married is back in town. But when she's murdered after making an appointment with her ex-lover, Mike winds up investigating a massive conspiracy involving a powerful oil company. Hammer thinks he's close to the truth, but has he been played for a sucker all along? Narrated by Stacy Keach, the acclaimed actor who starred in the original Mike Hammer TV series, these new mysteries are written by the writers of that show and enhanced with a full supporting cast, sound effects, and music. Even the show's jazzy theme song is back to set the gritty tone for each episode.

    Heiress Elena Marks needs proof of her layabout husband's infidelity before she can begin divorce proceedings. When the undercover work Stone sets up turns dirty - and catastrophic - leaving the errant husband dead and the mystery woman gone without a trace, Stone must clear his own good name and find a killer hiding among the glitterati of New York's high society. Reckless Abandon: Stone Barrington is, once again, right at home in New York City; but this time he is joined by the tenacious Holly Barker from Orchid Blues, the lady police chief of Orchid Island, Florida. In Reckless Abandon, Holly finally makes it to Manhattan, hot on the trail of an evil fugitive from her jurisdiction. Stone is, well, glad to see her, right up until the moment when her presence creates a great danger to both of them - and to their surprise, she becomes the pursued, not the pursuer.

    The villagers are friendly and she is made aware of the mystery surrounding the previous ownder of her house, Ben Thornton. As Frances brings both the ancient house and its magnificent apple tree back to life, she finds out more about the house and its previous occupants - and at the same time begins to rebuild her own life.

    30 pages of summaries and analysis on The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith.This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    When it comes to deeply unqualified guardians of the moral high ground, it would be tough to find many that equaled Black Jack Justice and his erstwhile partner, Trixie Dixon, girl detective. But they will learn the hard way just how serious the sender was, and that in the end, only Dead Men Run.The his and hers private detectives of Decoder Ring Theatre’s long-running radio mysteries return to two-fisted prose adventure, delighting long-time fans and new readers alike with the classic, hard-boiled feel of their exploits.

    A cross-eyed baseball pitch...A kid-lover tumed kidnapper...A watermelon stabbing...A trapeze artist's inheritance...These are just some of the brain-twisters included. Try to crack the cases along with him--the answers to all the mysteries are found in the back!

    

     LOCATION: The mountains of New England. POTENTIAL VICTIMS: The brothers of Gamma Theta Theta, the most elite fraternity on campus, seem to be on the receiving end of all of Firth's biggest (and most dangerous) problems. SUSPECTS: The members of the frat may seem like brothers to everyone else, but Gamma Theta Theta insiders know that within the ivy-covered walls the boys are definitely not one big happy family.... This mission requires your immediate attention. This message will be erased in five seconds.

    Morton's first two unforgettable novels in one volume: The House at Riverton plus The Forgotten Garden.