The author of Murder at Westminster Abbey and Murder at Hatfield House is back with an absorbing and surprising new Elizabethan Mystery… 1559. Elizabeth has been on the throne for six months, and life in England seems newly golden. But for the Royal Court, murder and betrayal are foretold in the stars.... Kate Haywood, the young queen’s personal musician, has been keeping busy playing for a merry round of summer parties where famed astrologer Dr. John Dee and his fantastic horoscopes are all the rage. However, Elizabeth’s favorite stargazer fails to predict the discovery of a skeleton in the queen’s garden—and that the victim’s identity will call his own innocence into question. When the doctor’s pupil is the victim of a second murder, the concerned queen enlists her trusted Kate to clear the accused killer of wrongdoing. But will the stars align to light Kate’s path through a tangled thicket of treachery to save Elizabeth’s prized astrologer and protect the queen from those who threaten her reign?

A USA Today bestseller! “[Penrose] mixes well-thought out mysteries, early forensic science, great details of the era and a slow burning attraction creating a compulsive read.” —The New York Public Library A thrilling new mystery novel from the acclaimed author of Murder at Queen’s Landing, perfect for fans of Deanna Raybourn and Anne Perry! In the fifth installment of Andrea Penrose’s acclaimed, atmospheric mystery series, the upcoming marriage of the Earl of Wrexford and Lady Charlotte Sloane promises to be a highlight of the season, if they can first untangle—and survive—a web of intrigue and murder involving the most brilliant scientific minds in Regency London… One advantage of being caught up in a whirl of dress fittings and decisions about flower arrangements and breakfast menus is that Charlotte Sloane has little time for any pre-wedding qualms. Her love for Wrexford isn’t in question. But will being a wife—and a Countess—make it difficult for her to maintain her independence—not to mention, her secret identity as famed satirical artist A.J. Quill? Despite those concerns, there are soon even more urgent matters to attend to during Charlotte and Wrexford’s first public outing as an engaged couple. At a symposium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, a visiting botanist suffers a fatal collapse. The traces of white powder near his mouth reveal the dark truth—he was murdered. Drawn into the investigation, Charlotte and the Earl learn of the victim’s involvement in a momentous medical discovery. With fame and immense fortune at stake, there’s no shortage of suspects, including some whose ruthlessness is already known. But neither Charlotte nor her husband-to-be can realize how close the danger is about to get—or to what lengths this villain is prepared to go . . .

Young Victorian widow, Charlotte Richmond, has lately found herself tripping over the occasional corpse, but surely the festive season, beginning with a christening party, can't present the same hazard? Oh yes, it can....There are some strange incidents and a death, apparently from natural causes, that leaves Charlotte puzzled and anxious over questions that seem to have no answers. Over Christmas, however, she does manage to learn a surprising amount about medieval gardening, some unusual and unpleasant ailments, London property values, and how to conduct a rat-hunt. As if that isn't enough, Charlotte encounters someone who may know far too much about her unorthodox upbringing in Australia, and Florence Nightingale keeps making an offer that she insists Charlotte can't refuse. To cap it all, Boxing Day finds the resourceful Charlotte in a garden dedicated to a long-dead queen, fighting for her life and armed only with what is possibly the least likely weapon ever.

In this memoir-turned-cookbook, Alice B. Toklas describes her life with partner Gertrude Stein and their famed Paris salon, which entertained the great avant-garde and literary figures of their day. With dry wit and characteristic understatement Toklas ponders the ethics of killing a carp in her kitchen before stuffing it with chestnuts; decorating a fish to amuse Picasso at lunch; and travelling across France during the First World War in an old delivery truck, gathering local recipes along the way. She includes a friend's playful recipe for 'Haschiche Fudge', which promises 'brilliant storms of laughter and ecstatic reveries', much like her book.

Queen Elizabeth’s chief musician Kate Haywood must unmask a thief and murderer in this Elizabethan Mystery Novella from the author of Murder at Westminster Abbey… 1560. Whispered speculations drift through the shadows of Windsor Castle. Who are the Queen’s suitors? Who is her heir? To distract her political enemies from gossip, Queen Elizabeth stages a masquerade ball… Tasked with organizing the lavish preparations, Kate, the Queen’s musician, is overjoyed when her dearest friend, Lady Violet, arrives at court, eager and willing to help. Accompanied by her demanding mother-in-law, Violet welcomes any opportunity that will rescue her from the attentions of her husband’s mother. But just days before the masquerade, one of the Queen’s guards is found dead in front of the chamber that holds her most precious jewels. With no sign of foul play, the court believes the man perished from natural causes, but Kate suspects otherwise. And when Her Majesty’s pearl pendant necklace, an heirloom from her mother, Anne Boleyn, disappears on the night of the ball, Kate must once again play sleuth to uncover the culprit’s identity among the aristocratic masked merrymakers… “Amanda Carmack’s talent for creating a richly drawn setting, populating it with fully realized characters, and giving them a tight and engaging narrative is unparalleled.”—New York Times bestselling author Tasha Alexander INCLUDES A PREVIEW OF MURDER AT WHITEHALL

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.

The Skeleton Detective puzzles over the theft of an ancient bit of bone—and a student’s murder—in this novel by the Edgar Award–winning author of Switcheroo. Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver would prefer to keep his mind on his beautiful new bride Julie during their English honeymoon, but one intrusive question will not stop nagging at him: Who would want to steal a thirty‐thousand‐year‐old parieto‐occipital calvarial fragment? Yet someone has lifted this chunk of prehistoric human skull from a musty museum in Dorchester. Then, thirty miles away, an archaeology student is murdered, increasing tension and suspicion at a dig that had already seethed with suspicion, rivalry, and mistrust. Could there be a connection between a hot bone and a cold‐blooded murder? Gideon is called on by the police to apply the unique skills for which the media have named him “the Skeleton Detective,” and he reluctantly agrees. Before he is done, his sleuthing will lead him to another murder and will—in the most literal and terrifying manner imaginable—sic the dogs on him, putting Gideon himself, and Julie as well, in mortal danger . . . Murder in the Queen’s Armes is a suspenseful, fun-filled whodunit by the author of the Alix London and Chris Norgren series—a celebrated master who “thoroughly understands the art of the murder mystery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Murder in the Queen’s Armes is the 3rd book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Bestselling author Astrid Scholte returns with a thrilling adventure in which the dead can be revived . . . for a price. Now in paperback. Ever since her sister, Elysea, drowned, seventeen-year-old Tempe's been looking for answers. And for a price, Tempe will finally get them . . . from her dead sister. On the nearby island of Palindromena, the research facility, once paid, will revive the dearly departed for a period of twenty-four hours before returning them to death. It isn't a heartfelt reunion that Tempe is after, though. Elysea died keeping a terrible secret, one that has ignited an unquenchable fury in Tempe: finally, she'll know the truth about their parents' deaths. Instead of answers, Elysea persuades Tempe to break her out of the facility to embark on a dangerous journey to discover the truth and mend their broken bond before Elysea's time runs out. Complicating matters, they're pursued every step of the way by two Palindromena employees desperate to find them before the secret behind the revival process and the true cost of restored life is revealed.