A librarian who just came into money dies in a New York hotel room, and justice is overdue: “Full of fun and delightful people. A really terrific plot” (Chicago Daily News). With a seven-hundred-dollar inheritance in her pocket, small town librarian Harriet Bascom went to the track. By the time she left she had thousands—enough to live life the way she had always wanted: with champagne, music, and love. The champagne and music flow freely once she arrives in New York City, but it’s love that brings trouble. When she discovers her beloved has a terrible secret, she makes the mistake of being alone when she confronts him about it—and doesn’t even scream when she dies. Harriet is one of the three thousand women who disappear in New York each year—the women Hildegarde Withers wants to know more about. Unhappily retired, this former elementary school teacher is hungry for action. Investigating Harriet’s case—and the three other ladies who follow her into death—will provide all the action Miss Withers could ever want. Four Lost Ladies is part of the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries series, which also includes The Penguin Pool Murder and Murder on the Blackboard.

Edgar- and Agatha-nominated author Colleen Barnett here updates her essential reference for readers and writers of mystery, examining women who detect, women as sleuths, and the evolving roles of women in professions and in society.

A Lost Lady is a novel by American author Willa Cather, first published in 1923. It centers on Marian Forrester, her husband Captain Daniel Forrester, and their lives in the small western town of Sweet Water, along the Transcontinental Railroad. However, it is mostly told from the perspective of a young man named Niel Herbert, as he observes the decline of both Marian and the West itself, as it shifts from a place of pioneering spirit to one of corporate exploitation. Exploring themes of social class, money, and the march of progress, A Lost Lady was praised for its vivid use of symbolism and setting, and is considered to be a major influence on the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It has been adapted to film twice, with a film adaptation being released in 1924, followed by a looser adaptation in 1934, starring Barbara Stanwyck. A Lost Lady begins in the small railroad town of Sweet Water, on the undeveloped Western plains. The most prominent family in the town is the Forresters, and Marian Forrester is known for her hospitality and kindness. The railroad executives frequently stop by her house and enjoy the food and comfort she offers while there on business. A young boy, Niel Herbert, frequently plays on the Forrester estate with his friend. One day, an older boy named Ivy Peters arrives, and shoots a woodpecker out of a tree. He then blinds the bird and laughs as it flies around helplessly. Niel pities the bird and tries to climb the tree to put it out of its misery, but while climbing he slips, and breaks his arm in the fall, as well as knocking himself unconscious. Ivy takes him to the Forrester house where Marian looks after him. When Niel wakes up, he's amazed by the nice house and how sweet Marian smells. He doesn't't see her much after that, but several years later he and his uncle, Judge Pommeroy, are invited to the Forrester house for dinner. There he meets Ellinger, who he will later learn is Mrs. Forrester's lover, and Constance, a young girl his age.

Many bibliographers focus on women who write. Lawyer Barnett looks at women who detect, at women as sleuths and at the evolving roles of women in professions and in society. Excellent for all women's studies programs as well as for the mystery hound.

The New York Times bestseller—for fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Tattooist of Auschwitz! Three women. One daring mission. 1946. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Inside is a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal. In this riveting story inspired by true events, Pam Jenoff weaves a tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances. Don’t miss Pam Jenoff’s new novel, Code Name Sapphire, a riveting tale of bravery and resistance during World War II. Read these other sweeping epics from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff: The Woman with the Blue Star The Orphan’s Tale The Ambassador’s Daughter The Diplomat’s Wife The Kommandant's Girl The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach The Winter Guest

A sharp-witted Manhattan schoolteacher tackles eight little mysteries in this collection from the author of The Puzzle of the Happy Holligan. When not teaching third graders, middle-aged singleton Hildegard Withers enjoys sipping orange pekoe tea, reading Sherlock Holmes stories, and tending to her tropical fish. And from time to time, she also helps her friend, Insp. Oscar Piper, with some puzzling cases . . . “The Riddle of the Lady from Dubuque”: Miss Withers goes undercover at an affluent dinner party, but murder cuts the evening short. “The Riddle of the Yellow Canary”: Hildegarde races to prove a young songwriter’s death was a homicide and force her killer to face the music. “The Riddle of the Blue Fingerprint”: A mahogany wardrobe for sale at a local auction house contains a peculiar surprise: the body of a man Miss Withers was hired to find. “The Riddle of the Doctor’s Double”: A doctor pays a house call to a sick patient on Riverside Drive, but the housekeeper thinks she just let him in, so . . . who is upstairs with her boss? “The Riddle of the Twelve Amethysts”: Miss Withers investigates a curious case of blackmail involving packages containing the violet gemstone. “The Riddle of the Black Museum”: A baffling locked-room murder sends Miss Withers on a field trip to the NYPD’s famed collection of apprehended weapons. “The Riddle of the Green Ice”: Apartment hunting in New York can be killer, but Miss Withers wasn’t expecting a robbery and a shooting, too. “The Riddle of the Snafu Murder”: After a possible spy uses her name in bars around town, Hildegarde’s search for answers leads her to a Greenwich Village murder. Her style may be eccentric, but Miss Withers is as clever as they come. If you enjoy reading these cases, be sure to check out any of the full-length mysteries in the series like The Penguin Pool Murder, Murder on Wheels, or Murder on the Blackboard. Praise for the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries “One of the world’s shrewdest and most amusing detectives.” —The New York Times “Hildegarde Withers remains incomparable and inimitable.” —Anthony Boucher

DIVOn a gloomy old California estate, the Cameron heirs confront greed, madness, and murder/divDIV In the heyday of silent cinema, Cameron Heights was billed as the “California Wonder Town.” A sprawling development of lavish bungalows, its streets were named after film stars, its houses decorated with Hollywood finery. Fifteen years later, it’s a ghost town, and the spirit who rules over it is more disturbing than any horror that has ever haunted the silver screen./divDIV /divDIVElderly eccentric Joel Cameron has more money than he knows what to do with, and heirs too greedy for words. One Christmas, they convene at Cameron Heights, hoping to have the old man declared mad and the inheritance divided accordingly. But when part of the house goes up in flames—taking old Joel with it—there arises the question of who set the fatal fire, and which family member will be left with nothing but ashes./div

“One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great sense of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, well-knit process of reasoning, and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact.”—Dorothy Sayers From the Jacket: Fair blew the wind from France, and the Channel steamer Isle of Jethou rolled a bit in the stiff south-westerly breeze. But the rough crossing didn’t upset the mysterious passenger who had locked himself into his cabin as soon as he boarded the boat at Guernsey. The same desire for seclusion had manifested itself on the boat-train to Waterloo, for the guard had been presented with a pound-note to reserve a compartment for Mr. Mystery. But did he travel alone? For at Waterloo the gentleman from Guernsey was a pretty genuine corpse. Death on the Boat-Train is a first-rate detective story, once again featuring the coldly clever scientific mind of Dr. Priestley, John Rhode’s brilliant creation.