The fourth and final book in the USA Today bestselling Magnolia Steele Mystery series. Magnolia Steele has nothing left to lose. Her once-beloved father has been unmasked as a criminal, her mother is dead, and her two closest allies—her boyfriend and her sister-in-law—have broken her trust. Worse, the serial killer who has tormented her since her return to Franklin has escalated his behavior. Everyone around her encourages her to run away or hide, but Magnolia is determined to stand her ground. She intends to identify the serial killer herself, even if she has to burn every last bridge to do it. Her one lead is the apparent link between her father and the murders. Unsure of whom to trust, she forms a temporary alliance with a detective who’s on the outs with the Franklin police force. Together, they dig into the past for clues, but Magnolia doesn’t limit herself to secondary sources. Her father is still in town, very intent on a reunion, and her brother might finally be ready to talk about their shared past… As the situation escalates, Magnolia discovers that she has inherited her mother’s steel backbone. It will help her distinguish friend from foe, and it might just be her best hope for surviving her curtain call.

'Been reading this on m'olidays. It's perfectly ridiculous & also v funny...' - Dawn French 'Curtain Call To Murder positively explodes with the double-entendres and vicious wit that has become his trademark.' DAILY EXPRESS A murder on stage. A cast full of suspects. Can dresser to the stars Jayne unravel the mystery? It is opening night at the London Palladium, and tensions are running high amongst the feuding cast of "Leopard Spots." Amongst them are an ageing lothario, a national treasure, an amateur psychic and a comedian-turned actor all vying for the spotlight. When an on-stage accident forces an unexpected intermission, it is clear only to dresser to the stars Jayne that the drama has turned deadly. Can she step out of the wings and identify the killer before it is too late? Or will murder make an encore... Discover the year's most entertaining, devious and fabulous mystery from author, actor and comedian Julian Clary

Jasmine Cline is a small town veterinarian falling in love. When her first date turns into something more sinister, Jasmine's curiosity can't be contained. Travel through an inviting autumn landscape, an apple pie romance and see if you can solve the mystery before she does.

A new ghoulish mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of A Ghostly Light featuring Mel Turner, a ghost-whispering contractor. Mel Turner can’t resist the chance to bring the Crockett Theatre, a decrepit San Francisco Art Deco movie palace, back to life. But there’s a catch for Turner Construction: Several artists are currently squatting in the building, and they aren’t the only ones haunting the once-grand halls of the historic theater.… When one of the squatters is found dead, the police department has a long list of suspects to investigate. Meanwhile, Mel and her fiancé, Landon, are remodeling an old house for themselves, and Mel finds being on the other side of a home renovation project more challenging than she expected. When Mel discovers that the former owner of the Crockett Theatre died under mysterious circumstances, and that there just might be a connection to the ghost haunting her own attic, the case takes a new turn—one that could bring down the curtain for the last time.

There are hundreds of biographies of filmstars and dozens of scholarly works on acting in general. But what about the ephemeral yet indelible moments when, for a brief scene or even just a single shot, an actor’s performance triggers a visceral response in the viewer? Moment of Action delves into the mysteries of screen performance, revealing both the acting techniques and the technical apparatuses that coalesce in an instant of cinematic alchemy to create movie gold. Considering a range of acting styles while examining films as varied as Bringing Up Baby, Psycho, The Red Shoes, Godzilla, and The Bourne Identity, Murray Pomerance traces the common dynamics that work to structure the complex relationship between the act of cinematic performance and its eventual perception. Mining the spaces where subjective and objective analyses merge, Pomerance offers both a deeply personal account of film viewership and a detailed examination of the intuitive gestures, orchestrated movements, and backstage maneuvers that go into creating those phenomenal moments onscreen. Moment of Action takes us on an innovative exploration of the nexus at which the actor’s keen skills spark and kindle the audience’s receptive energies.

With the wine harvest behind them, things had just started to calm down for Maggie and Laurent in their French village of Saint-Buvard when a team of food industry entrepreneurs and celebrity judges arrived to put on a contest to decide in a blind taste test which country makes the best chocolate éclairs—the Brits, the Americans, the Germans or the French. When one of the contestants ends up stabbed to death, the suspect is Maggie’s close friend. Maggie will need to find a way past the woman's obvious motive and the damning circumstantial evidence to help her friend—without putting herself or Laurent in the hot seat in the process.

From police jargon to medical terminology, from the coarse language of death row to literary euphemisms, over 5,550 words and terms associated directly with death and dying are defined in this unique dictionary. The entries have been collected from 65 cultures, nine religions and 20 fields of study, including archeology, cryonics, theology, theater and the military. Definitions are identified (e.g., archaic, obsolete, slang) and, when appropriate, the occupation it is most closely connected to and variants of the expression are provided. The appended thesaurus gives commonly used words and the terms that are synonymous with them.

Every great play needs a drama queen. Preferably alive. The French city of Avignon is known for many things: its Papal Palace, the annual summer theater festival, its Medieval bridge of nursery rhyme fame…and now murder. When a popular actress is killed during Avignon's famous summer theater festival, all the evidence points to the police needing a fast resolution--regardless of the truth. It will be up to Maggie to find the killer who wanted the city’s most popular actress dead—and before he turns his attention on her. As Maggie desperately scours this beautiful medieval city for clues to uncover the killer's identity, it soon becomes clear that failing will put her center stage with her most ruthless adversary yet--with the final curtain about to come crashing down on everything she holds dear.

1955: London, England and Hong Kong, China Devon Stone, best-selling author of murder mysteries, receives a cryptic note from beyond the grave. Is it a warning or a clue to a murder? A startling murder on a Star Ferry in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour takes place at almost the same time as a suicide is discovered in London. These two events are connected...but how? Veronica Barron, an American actress friend of Devon Stone’s, returns to the London stage to great acclaim, but at what price? An opera singer in Hong Kong is transformed by the role of a lifetime, albeit in a very deadly and violent way. A volatile father-son dynamic is the catalyst for a devastating and heart-breaking revelation. But once he solves one crime, Devon Stone comes to the realization that the mystery is not yet over. With multiple storylines that converge in unexpected ways, along with scenes of graphic violence, scenes of humor, and a touch of romance, we will discover that devious deceptions and lies prove that one can never be certain about who, or what, someone might be.