Tony De Vita exposes the idiosyncratic facades of inimitable characters – any veneer of civility, conformity, is peeled back as their behavior exposes the subterfuge that transform an idyllic landscape into an arcane thicket of deceit - and murder. Builders Sal Ridiccio, acrophobic master craftsman and Julius, younger brother who would rather nail a pliant broad than a plywood board. Su, Chinese wife, owner of 'Pointy House' with husband, Skip Meriwether, painter with two ears and poet without a hunchback. Regina, current wife of Julius, steel tipped shoed, with a steel tipped tongue who asserts Julius moves his lips when he reads the back of a cereal box. Melissa, first wife of Julius, redheaded firebrand who is determined to solve murders for ... Trooper Detective John Demetrius. Tagged "Cockeye" for his physical perambulations and cerebral perturbations by partner Tim "Kraze" Kurtz. Lilliputian 'Moe' Brown, brobdingnagian wheeler-dealer - verbally vulgar Blue Mingoe Casino facilitator. Babs and Mandy, 'Moe's' nieces/bodyguards - with more plastic in their revealing bras than in their concealed holsters. Joe Smith, Gooey Pond Park Ranger - Native American Blue Mingoe - who swaps peanuts for his squirrels for chips of his Blue Mingoe Casino.

For fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age, explore the dark side of the alluring world of America’s 19th century elite in this gripping series of riveting mysteries… In glittering Newport, Rhode Island, status is everything. But despite being a poorer relation to the venerable Vanderbilts, Emma Cross has shaped her own identity—as a reporter and a sleuth. As the nineteenth century draws to a close,Fancies and Fashion reporter Emma Cross is sent by the Newport Observer to cover an elite house party at Rough Point, a “cottage” owned by her distant cousin Frederick Vanderbilt that has been rented as an artist retreat. To her surprise, the illustrious guests include her estranged Bohemian parents—recently returned from Europe—as well as a variety of notable artists, including author Edith Wharton. But when one of the artists is discovered dead at the bottom of a cliff, Rough Point becomes anything but a house of mirth. After a second murder, no one is above suspicion—including Emma’s parents. As Newport police detective Jesse Whyte searches for a killer, Emma tries to draw her own conclusions—with the help of Mrs. Wharton. But with so many sketchy suspects, she’ll need to canvas the crime scenes carefully, before the cunning culprit takes her out of the picture next . . . Praise for Alyssa Maxwell and her Gilded Newport Mysteries “Another entertaining entry in this cozy series.” —Library Journal on Murder at Beechwood “Maxwell’s second entry has a credible mystery, solved by a female detective who’s likeable.” —Kirkus Reviews on Murder at Marble House

For fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age, explore the dark side of the alluring world of America’s 19th century elite in this gripping series of riveting mysteries… In glittering Newport, Rhode Island, status is everything. But despite being a poorer relation to the venerable Vanderbilts, Emma Cross has shaped her own identity—as a reporter and a sleuth. As the nineteenth century draws to a close, Fancies and Fashion reporter Emma Cross is sent by the Newport Observer to cover an elite house party at Rough Point, a “cottage” owned by her distant cousin Frederick Vanderbilt that has been rented as an artist retreat. To her surprise, the illustrious guests include her estranged Bohemian parents—recently returned from Europe—as well as a variety of notable artists, including author Edith Wharton. But when one of the artists is discovered dead at the bottom of a cliff, Rough Point becomes anything but a house of mirth. After a second murder, no one is above suspicion—including Emma’s parents. As Newport police detective Jesse Whyte searches for a killer, Emma tries to draw her own conclusions—with the help of Mrs. Wharton. But with so many sketchy suspects, she’ll need to canvas the crime scenes carefully, before the cunning culprit takes her out of the picture next . . . Praise for Alyssa Maxwell and her Gilded Newport Mysteries “Another entertaining entry in this cozy series.” —Library Journal on Murder at Beechwood “Maxwell’s second entry has a credible mystery, solved by a female detective who’s likeable.” —Kirkus Reviews on Murder at Marble House

Nikki, a junior high school student, and her friends go on a picnic at Crescent Point Valley. During the picnic, Jyoti, Nikki's roommate and best friend, goes hiking on a nearby hill on her own. Later, her body is found floating in the pool below the waterfall. The accident turns out to be a case of murder. In a bid to bring justice to Jyoti, the brave and adventurous Nikki, once again, defies all odds to unearth the identity of the killer. In the process, she makes a startling discovery and becomes embroiled in a series of mysterious murders, kidnappings, corporate crime and black magic. Who killed Jyoti and why? The mystery unfolds in layers, with its surprising twists and turns. Murder at Crescent Point makes for a fast-paced, action-packed thriller.

Cielo Drive cuts like a beautiful scar along the bottom of a V-shaped canyon in the hills of Bel Air, off of Benedict. In February, 1969, as she looked out on it from the red farmhouse at 10050 Cielo she and her husband Roman Polanski had just rented, Sharon had no way of knowing that she only had 6 months to live. On the night of August 9th, members of "The Manson Family" would invade that house and murder Sharon and three of her closest friends. But strangely, half a year earlier, she'd had a brush with a different killer. It happened after her younger sister Patti, then 11, looked across at the ominous Spanish-Moorish estate Sharon called "The Haunted House." In "Restless Souls," their remarkable memoir, Alisa Statmen and Brie Tate write that Patti then hiked down and across Cielo, walking up to No. 1436 Bella Drive. There, she encountered an open gate where white pillars bore the name: Falcon Lair. Once the home of Rudolf Valentino, it had been purchased in 1953 by the fabulously wealthy heiress Doris Duke. The wrought iron gates were open when Patti wandered inside. Suddenly, she heard, the caretaker yell, "This is private property!" Startled, she turned and lost her balance, skinning her knee, when just then, a black limo pulled in. A tinted window went down and a tall woman in back lowered her sunglasses to ask who she was. Once she ID'd herself as Patti, whose sister Sharon lived "across in the red barn," Doris knew that this wasn't just any child. She was the sibling of the hottest young star in town. So Doris snapped to the caretaker, "Stop being such an ogre and bring Patti in, so we can clean those scraps. And get me the Polanski's phone number." Later, the Duke staff was bandaging Patti's knee when Sharon arrived, "nervously chewing her lower lip" and apologizing to the blond billionaire who was the 3rd richest woman in the world behind Queen Elizabeth & Queen Juliana. But by then, Sharon Tate was Hollywood royalty herself; her husband Roman, coming off "Rosemary's Baby," was a kind of cinematic prince. So why was she nervous? What would make her bite her lip in the face of a woman whose caretaker's aggressive warning had caused her little sister to draw blood? Since Sharon was killed that summer, we'll never know. But one thing is clear: this wasn't the first time Sharon Tate had been pulled into Doris Duke's orbit. 2 1/2 years earlier, one of Sharon's closest friends, Eduardo Tirella, had been violently killed after Doris crushed him under a two-ton station wagon. At the time, all of Eduardo's friends suspected he'd been murdered. The brutal stabbing of Sharon Tate is the tragic tale of a young woman of great promise cut down in the prime of life. But the same could be said for Eduardo, whose own Hollywood career was just catching fire, when he told the possessive, heiress he was leaving her, just minutes before she ran him down outside the gates of her Newport, RI estate. Because she had the money and power, Doris Duke succeeded in effectively erasing his death from the narrative of her troubled life. For more than 50 years, the real truth behind what happened at Rough Point in 1966 has been hidden. Until now!

The "Kentucky Tragedy" was early America's best known true crime story. In 1825, Jereboam O. Beauchamp assassinated Kentucky attorney general Solomon P. Sharp. The murder, trial, conviction, and execution of the killer, as well as the suicide of his wife, Anna Cooke Beauchamp -- fascinated Americans. The episode became the basis of dozens of novels and plays composed by some of the country's most esteemed literary talents, among them Edgar Allan Poe and William Gilmore Simms. In Murder and Madness, Matthew G. Schoenbachler peels away two centuries of myth to provide a more accurate account of the murder. Schoenbachler also reveals how Jereboam and Anna Beauchamp shaped the meaning and memory of the event by manipulating romantic ideals at the heart of early American society. Concocting a story in which Solomon Sharp had seduced and abandoned Anna, the couple transformed a sordid murder -- committed because the Beauchamps believed Sharp to be spreading a rumor that Anna had had an affair with a family slave -- into a maudlin tale of feminine virtue assailed, honor asserted, and a young rebel's revenge. Murder and Madness reveals the true story behind the murder and demonstrates enduring influence of Romanticism in early America.

Hollywood agent Charlie Greene gets tangled up in a world of holistic intervention, out-of-body experiences, and murder in this thrilling paranormal mystery Hollywood literary agent and single mother Charlie Greene heads out of town to fog-bound Moot Point, Oregon, to meet a client, reclusive New Age author Jack Monroe. But Charlie barely has time to sample a veggie meal and bond with Jack’s bronze Buddha statue before she runs into trouble: Local gossip Georgette Glick and her Schwinn bicycle have just been found under the wheels of Charlie’s Toyota—which makes Charlie the prime suspect in Georgette’s murder. Luckily, Moot Point sheriff Bennett discovers that Glick was shot, not run over, so Charlie is in the clear. But there are still too many unanswered questions. Who delivered the fatal bullet to Glick’s head? And why was the seventy-eight-year-old riding her bike on a night with zero visibility in the first place? Alongside Sheriff Bennett, whose interest in Charlie seems decidedly more than professional, she resolves to find the murderer among the town’s eccentrics, who include the suspiciously nongrieving widower, a holistic veterinarian, the victim’s terrified neighbor, and a Byronic artist whose painting of a century-old local shipwreck matches the one in Charlie’s recent nightmares. With the killer still at large, Charlie may be tempting an out-of-body experience of her own in this quirky and suspenseful novel.

Against her better judgement, Rina Martin accepts an invitation to a country house hotel with a sinister reputation and looks forward to leaving when she is joined by DI MacGregor, but a blizzard prevents their departure and then Edwin Holmes, grand old man of psychic research, is found murdered in his bed.

The stars predict a wedding-day disaster, but San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti never expected murder. Julia Bonatti is alarmed by the astrological signs looming over Geneva Leary's wedding day, but nobody asked Julia's opinion and being a bridesmaid means supporting the bride no matter what. Even with the foreboding Moon-Mars-Pluto lineup in the heavens, no one's prepared for the catastrophes that strike: a no-show sister, a passed-out wedding planner, and a lethal shooting in the dead of night. With anger and grief threatening to tear the Leary family apart, Julia is determined to understand how such a terrible tragedy could have occurred. As she digs deeper into the family's secrets, her astrological insights lead her to some rather unexpected conclusions. Praise: "Di Marco crafts an intricate, twisting plot and layers on the astrological details that fans of psychic mysteries so enjoy."—Booklist

The most pivotal and yet least understood event of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated life involves the brutal murders in 1914 of seven adults and children dear to the architect and the destruction by fire of Taliesin, his landmark residence, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Unaccountably, the details of that shocking crime have been largely ignored by Wright’s legion of biographers—a historical and cultural gap that is finally addressed in William Drennan’s exhaustively researched Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders. In response to the scandal generated by his open affair with the proto-feminist and free love advocate Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Wright had begun to build Taliesin as a refuge and "love cottage" for himself and his mistress (both married at the time to others). Conceived as the apotheosis of Wright’s prairie house style, the original Taliesin would stand in all its isolated glory for only a few months before the bloody slayings that rocked the nation and reduced the structure itself to a smoking hull. Supplying both a gripping mystery story and an authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, Drennan wades through the myths surrounding Wright and the massacre, casting fresh light on the formulation of Wright’s architectural ideology and the cataclysmic effects that the Taliesin murders exerted on the fabled architect and on his subsequent designs. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association