The sprinkler washed over the remains of Faith Wesley, one of Lake Forest’s most prominent citizens, leaving few clues to go on—but the brutal murder of society’s privileged requires rigorous investigation. Tom Edison is called in. While he needs to answer to his higher-ups, he also has to deal with a relationship in tatters . . . it’s no wonder he falls prey to an illicit attraction to a close Wesley family friend. Haunted by demons of the past and unresolved challenges in his present, matters complicate further as he comes toe to toe with some of the most powerful people in Illinois and becomes the subject of an internal affairs investigation which reveals departmental corruption and an old unsolved murder case. In the process of his investigation, he uncovers truths about himself, his concept of justice, and ultimately exhumes his own ghosts.

These stories of vampire legends and gruesome nineteenth-century practices is “a major contribution to the study of New England folk beliefs” (The Boston Globe). For nineteenth-century New Englanders, “vampires” lurked behind tuberculosis. To try to rid their houses and communities from the scourge of the wasting disease, families sometimes relied on folk practices, including exhuming and consuming the bodies of the deceased. Folklorist Michael E. Bell spent twenty years pursuing stories of the vampire in New England. While writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Henry David Thoreau, and Amy Lowell drew on portions of these stories in their writings, Bell brings the actual practices to light for the first time. He shows that the belief in vampires was widespread, and, for some families, lasted well into the twentieth century. With humor, insight, and sympathy, he uncovers story upon story of dying men, women, and children who believed they were food for the dead. “A marvelous book.” —Providence Journal Includes an updated preface covering newly discovered cases.

High summer in Acker's Gap, West Virginia—but no one's enjoying the rugged natural landscape. Not while a killer stalks the small town and its hard-luck inhabitants. County prosecutor Bell Elkins and Sheriff Nick Fogelsong are stymied by a murderer who seems to come and go like smoke on the mountain. At the same time, Bell must deal with the return from prison of her sister, Shirley—who, like Bell, carries the indelible scars of a savage past. In Summer of the Dead, the third Julia Keller mystery chronicling the journey of Bell Elkins and her return to her Appalachian hometown, we also meet Lindy Crabtree—a coal miner's daughter with dark secrets of her own, secrets that threaten to explode into even more violence. Acker's Gap is a place of loveliness and brutality, of isolation and fierce attachments—a place where the dead rub shoulders with the living, and demand their due.

A gripping crime mystery that will make your jaw drop. Investigative reporter, Samantha Bell, knows the end is near. But when young women are suddenly being targeted by a mysterious serial killer who leaves little clues behind, Samantha pushes her way into the biggest murder investigation of her life. Four crime-solving women set out on an exhilarating adventure to stop a serial killer before tragedy strikes again. On a mission to tell the story to save her career, nothing is as it seems. Met by terrifying roadblocks, Samantha needs a win. Willing to do whatever it takes, she and her friends risk their lives to work together and sift through the lies and deception that seem to be waiting for them around every turn. Shocking twists and page-turning suspense from beginning to end. It's a race against the clock to catch the killer and just when it seems another victim's life will be claimed, Samantha receives an anonymous message saying she will be the one to solve the case. Suddenly, the game has changed. When someone close to Samantha appears to be the next target, all rules are off the table and anything goes. If you like Melinda Leigh, James Patterson, and Robert Dugoni, you won't be able to put down the pulse-pounding Samantha Bell series.