Ray Lawless, prominent defense attorney and father of Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless, tries his biggest case yet defending an accused serial murderer and arsonist whom the media has dubbed "The Fireman." Ray's client is eventually convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, though he proclaims his innocence to the end, and a few days later, he kills himself in his cell. But someone in The Fireman's life can't let go, and, blaming Ray for the man's death, plots a meticulous revenge. Both Jane and her brother Peter, who is already under terrible stress because of a troubled marriage, feel the heat of the avenger's plan. But Jane is intimately familiar with danger, and she's never been one to shrink from a fight. With the help of her best friend Cordelia, Jane sets out to discover why this person is so determined to undo her family. When she begins to dig into The Fireman's life, the puzzle unravels, leading Jane to a final confrontation with someone bent on making the Lawlesses pay, perhaps with their lives. Immaculate Midnight is a taught, dynamic installment in an award-winning series.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

Like other fictional characters, female sleuths may live in the past or the future. They may represent current times with some level of reality or shape their settings to suit an agenda. There are audiences for both realism and escapism in the mystery novel. It is interesting, however, to compare the fictional world of the mystery sleuth with the world in which readers live. Of course, mystery readers do not share one simplistic world. They live in urban, suburban, and rural areas, as do the female heroines in the books they read. They may choose a book because it has a familiar background or because it takes them to places they long to visit. Readers may be rich or poor; young or old; conservative or liberal. So are the heroines. What incredible choices there are today in mystery series! This three-volume encyclopedia of women characters in the mystery novel is like a gigantic menu. Like a menu, the descriptions of the items that are provided are subjective. Volume 3 of Mystery Women as currently updated adds an additional 42 sleuths to the 500 plus who were covered in the initial Volume 3. These are more recently discovered sleuths who were introduced during the period from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1999. This more than doubles the number of sleuths introduced in the 1980s (298 of whom were covered in Volume 2) and easily exceeded the 347 series (and some outstanding individuals) described in Volume 1, which covered a 130-year period from 1860-1979. It also includes updates on those individuals covered in the first edition; changes in status, short reviews of books published since the first edition through December 31, 2008.

Nihilism seems to be per definition linked to violence. Indeed, if the nihilist is a person who acknowledges no moral or religious authority, then what does stop him from committing any kind of crime? Dostoevsky precisely called attention to this danger: if there is no God and no immortality of the soul, then everything is permitted, even anthropophagy. Nietzsche, too, emphasised, although in different terms, the consequences deriving from the death of God and the collapse of Judeo-Christian morality. This context shaped the way in which philosophers, writers and artists thought about violence, in its different manifestations, during the 20th century. The goal of this interdisciplinary volume is to explore the various modern and contemporary configurations of the link between violence and nihilism as understood by philosophers and artists (in both literature and film).

Boxed set, USA TODAY BESTSELLING SERIES BOOK 1: DEATH BY CHOCOLATE Lindsay Powell's only secret is the recipe for her chocolate chip cookies, but she is surrounded by neighbors with deadly secrets. Suddenly Lindsay finds herself battling poisoned chocolate, a dead man who isn’t very dead and a psycho stalker. Lindsay needs more than a chocolate fix to survive all this chaos. BOOK 2: MURDER, LIES AND CHOCOLATE Rodney Bradford comes into Lindsay's restaurant, eats her brownies, and drops dead on her sidewalk. On the positive side, sales skyrocket for the special dessert Lindsay calls Murdered Man's Brownies. BOOK 3: GREAT CHOCOLATE SCAM When Rick’s SUV is blown up in his driveway, Lindsay appears to be his only heir. But before his estate is settled, poor orphan Rick has more relatives than a lottery winner. Are these people really related to Rick, or was he actually an alien stranded on earth when the mother ship left without him?

From internationally bestselling author Iain Pears comes the seventh in his Jonathan Argyll series -- an intriguing mystery of love, loss, and artistic license. For newlywed and Italian art theft squad head Flavia di Stefano, the honeymoon is over when a painting, borrowed from the Louvre and en route to a celebratory exhibition, is stolen. Desperate to avoid public embarrassment -- and to avoid paying a ransom -- the Italian prime minister leans hard on Flavia to get it back quickly and quietly. Across town, her husband, art historian Jonathan Argyll, begins an investigation of his own, tracing the past of a small Renaissance painting -- an Immaculate Conception -- owned by Flavia's mentor, retired general Taddeo Bottando. Soon both husband and wife uncover astonishing and chilling secrets, and Flavia's investigation takes a sudden turn from the search for an art thief to the hunt for a murderer.

Imagining Adoption looks at representations of adoption in an array of literary genres by diverse authors including George Eliot, Edward Albee, and Barbara Kingsolver as well as ordinary adoptive mothers and adoptee activists, exploring what these writings share and what they debate. Marianne Novy is Professor of English and Women's Studies, University of Pittsburgh.

Big truck, big dog, big hair, bad attitude. Roxy Abruzzo is a loud-mouthed, sexy, independent-minded niece of a Pittsburgh Mafia boss trying to go (mostly) straight. She'd like to stay completely out of her uncle Carmine's shady dealings, concentrate on the architectural salvage business she runs, and keep her rebellious teenage daughter on the straight and narrow. But Roxy knows where all the good intentions in the world usually lead ...

Patrick Dawlish is used to solving crimes, not being suspected of them—until now, in this Golden Age British mystery from the Edgar Award–winning author. Patrick Dawlish has to admire Marion Ard’s persistence. After first writing and telephoning, she shows up on his doorstep, begging for his help. Marion is convinced that a strange man has been following her for the last seven months. Tired of the police ignoring her pleas, she has turned to Dawlish as a last resort. But Dawlish and his wife are leaving on a much-needed holiday the following morning. All he can do is ask his friend Tim Jeremy to shadow her for the next few days. Weeks into the cruise, Dawlish gets a letter from Tim. Not only was Marion being followed, but she’s disappeared. And then, her body is found—in a trunk in Dawlish’s home. Catching the next flight back, Dawlish finds himself in a position he’s never been in before—the prime suspect in a murder. With Tim missing, it becomes clear that someone has put into motion the perfect plan to take him down, but it’s never smart to count Dawlish out . . .

As the Queen of the Red Carpet, Joan Rivers has been eyewitness to Hollywood's most heinous crimes (okay, so they're fashion-related). And in this über-stylish mystery, she enlists her no-holds-barred, slightly blonder literary counterpart, Maxine Taylor, to solve a crime of a different sort. When a gorgeous young actress dies on the Red Carpet, some in Tinseltown call it bad publicity. Max calls it murder. The Academy Awards®. It's Hollywood's biggest night, and there's no star better equipped than the tart-tongued Max Taylor to hold court on the glamorous Red Carpet. Sharing the dish with her daughter, Drew, the calls-it-as-she-sees-it entertainer has parlayed this star-studded annual gig into television's most-watched pre-show event. And tonight, Max has landed a real coup—an exclusive interview with Halsey Hamilton, a fabulous, young, paparazzi-trailed Oscar nominee. But not even Max, who's seen her share of celebrity train wrecks, is prepared for an incoherent Halsey, straight out of rehab, to stumble up to the mic, slur a few cryptic words, and drop dead at the hem of Max's stunning Michael Kors gown. To Hollywood, the starlet's demise was tragic but inevitable. To Max, it looks more like a perfectly calculated crime. After all, she alone heard Halsey's final whisper—a clue that leads Max to the pricey rehab clinic Wonders. With a weakness for nothing more disturbing than artificial sweeteners, Max nonetheless goes undercover and embarks on a twelve-step investigation into murder. Once inside the luxury clinic, Max's list of suspicious players expands faster than the Jolie-Pitt family: Burke Norris, a professional cad and Drew's ex-fiancé; Halsey's father, who is still making money off his dead daughter's fame; Halsey's jealous younger sister; and Rojo Bernstein, a tattooed karate hipster who knew the troubled fallen star much better than anyone suspected. Now it's left to Max to unravel the sordid motives and find Halsey's killer while upstaging an over-the-top Hollywood memorial service and funeral where the ill-fated actress was buried in, of all things, a tacky designer knockoff! And you thought the Oscars were all swag bags and Jimmy Choos? Hah! Honey, it's murder. In Murder at the Academy Awards®, Joan Rivers delivers a very smart, bracingly funny, and pitch-perfect reflection of a Hollywood only she would dare to reveal—all seen through the eyes of an indomitable, high-end amateur sleuth who isn't asking "Who are you wearing?" but rather "Whodunit?"