Two decades before the Civil War, an eight year- old Southern heiress longs for the love of the father she has never known---but when they meet at last, nothing is as Elsie expects. Can the proud and willful Horace Dinsmore learn to love his only child---a little girl whose first allegiance is to God? Introducing soft cover editions in the Elsie Dinsmore Series with newly designed covers.

Nominated, 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Award in the category of best critical/biographical, Mystery Writers of America Shortlisted, 2024 Agatha Awards - Best Mystery Nonfiction, Malice Domestic Posthumous Winner - 2023 IFCA Book Prize, International Crime Fiction Association Narrative innovation is typically seen as the domain of the avant-garde. However, techniques such as nonlinear timelines, multiple points of view, and unreliable narration have long been part of American popular culture. How did forms and styles once regarded as “difficult” become familiar to audiences? In Perplexing Plots, David Bordwell reveals how crime fiction, plays, and films made unconventional narrative mainstream. He shows that since the nineteenth century, detective stories and suspense thrillers have allowed ambitious storytellers to experiment with narrative. Tales of crime and mystery became a training ground where audiences learned to appreciate artifice. These genres demand a sophisticated awareness of storytelling conventions: they play games with narrative form and toy with audience expectations. Bordwell examines how writers and directors have pushed, pulled, and collaborated with their audiences to change popular storytelling. He explores the plot engineering of figures such as Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Alfred Hitchcock, Dorothy Sayers, and Quentin Tarantino, and traces how mainstream storytellers and modernist experimenters influenced one another’s work. A sweeping, kaleidoscopic account written in a lively, conversational style, Perplexing Plots offers an ambitious new understanding of how movies, literature, theater, and popular culture have evolved over the past century.

Violet faces several challenges as she runs Samaritan House, a mission for the poor, including helping two orphaned children, dealing with the return of an old enemy, and understanding the mystery surrounding a new resident.

Vi is confident that her problems have been resolved, but mistrust and misunderstanding lead to one of the most difficult challenges of her life. The happiness of her new family is at stake, and if Vi doesn't act wisely, hearts will surely be broken.

‘An entertaining book we can all enjoy… highly informative and amusing.’ Daily Mail ‘Full of valuable insight…this is a must-read for those looking to nail their next interview.’ Publishers Weekly How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? explores the new world of interviewing at A-list employers like Apple, Netflix and Amazon. It reveals more than 70 outrageously perplexing riddles and puzzles and supplies both answers and general strategy for creative problem-solving. Questions like: Today is Tuesday. What day of the week will it be 10 years from now on this date? How would you empty a plane full of Skittles? How many times would you have to scoop the ocean with a bucket to cause sea levels to drop one foot? You have a broken calculator. The only number key that works is the 0. All the operator keys work. How can you get the number 24? How many dogs have the exact same number of hairs?

This book asks the big questions that really make you think about yourself and your place in the world. What is the secret of happiness? Can computers think? What is reality anyway? Stretching your brain and firing your imagination, the bright, dynamic spreads will set your mind racing off along different tangents and into new realms of discovery. From personal questions about thoughts and dreams to the wider questions of life, the universe, and everything, this is a journey like no other.

When nine-year-old Nicholas Benedict is sent to a new orphanage, he encounters vicious bullies, selfish adults, strange circumstances - and a mind-bending mystery. Luckily, he has one very important thing in his favour: he's a genius.