‘Tis the season in Briar Creek, and this year festivities become fatalities in the newest Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Fatal First Edition. During the most wonderful time of the year, famous author Helen Monroe arrives in Briar Creek to be the writer in residence, but her “bah humbug” attitude excludes her from the many holiday celebrations the town residents enjoy. To try to spread some Christmas cheer, library director Lindsey Norris invites the new writer in town to join her crafternoon club. Helen politely refuses and when an altercation happens between Helen and another patron, Lindsey begins to suspect the author has been keeping to herself for a reason. Another newcomer, Jackie Lewis, reveals she’s visiting Briar Creek to be near Helen because she believes they are destined to meet. Having dealt with a stalker in the past, Lindsey feels compelled to tell Helen about Jackie, as she suspects that Helen is unaware her “number one” fan is in town. When Jackie’s body is later discovered in the town park beneath the holiday-light display with a copy of Helen’s latest manuscript in her hand, the reclusive novelist becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her self-proclaimed mega-fan. Helen’s frosty demeanor melts when Lindsey offers her help, and now the librarian and her crafternoon pals must prove the author innocent before "The End" becomes Helen's final sentence.

Christmas 1923. It's the first Christmas without Aunt Agatha and Violet is having a hard time finding the will to be bright or young. Her brother, Victor, is determined to cheer her up, so he arranges a party between friends to brighten their holidays. When a body is discovered, Detective Inspector Jack Wakefield is on hand. Their romance may be a off-kilter, but he knows them well enough to be sure neither twin killed the victim. So just who killed this person and why? In finding the killer, will Jack and Violet also discover just what the future holds for them?The Violet Carlyle Mysteries 1- Murder & The Heir2- Kennington House Murder3- Murder at the Folly 4- A Merry Little Murder*5- Murder Among the Roses6- Murder in the Shallows 7- Gin & Murder 8- Obsidian Murder 9- Murder at the Ladies Club 10- Wedding Vows & Murder11- A Jazzy Little Murder12- Murder by Chocolate *There are two short stories that fall between A Merry Little Murder and Murder Among the Roses. They are: New Year's Madness and Valentine's Madness.

Although Kelly Knowlson firmly thought her newly remarried ex-husband, Evan, would return to her, did she set him by the fire, egg nog by his side, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS in his hands, and put a bullet in his head? By the time the police show up, the body is gone, so of course Kelly is the prime suspect. Between molding cheese balls and salmon mousse for a holiday dinner, suburban sleuth Susan Henshaw fits in a little yultetide detecting to discover if Kelly Knowlson iced her ex. And if not, who would dare send such an uncharitable Christmas greeting...'

Former dancer Lindy Haggerty finds drama, scandal, and catfights when she works at the International Ballroom Competition in Atlantic City where rival studios, determined dancers, and vibrant costumes are no match for murder. Reprint.

It is an Edwardian Christmas, and the Pennyfoot Hotel is all dressed up. But when one of the guests turns up dead, owner Cecily Sinclair Baxter realizes it is not only the Pennyfoot that is back in business—the hotel's Christmas curse is, too... The Pennyfoot halls are decked with boughs of holly, a magnificently decorated tree graces the lobby, and the hotel's bookings are finally looking up. Owner of the Pennyfoot, Cecily Sinclair Baxter is in high holiday spirits until disaster strikes, threatening to ruin yet another Yuletide. Her chief housemaid Gertie McBride has found a man's body in the hotel laundry room—with a woman's scarf wrapped around his neck and a note in his pocket from the hotel's new maid. Cecily is determined to track down the culprit, but with multiple suspects icing her out of crucial clues, she realizes this killer may be more slippery than most. With Christmas right around the corner, it is up to Cecily to prevent this holiday season at the Pennyfoot from turning out more fatal than festive.

It's almost Christmas in Misty Hollow... but it's not going to be very merry this year! A massive snow storm has the folks in Misty Hollow all hunkered down and that's what Darcy Sweet would like to be doing too. Only she can't! A late night visit from the ghost of a young boy bouncing a red ball draws her into another mystery. A man and his son are dead... murdered in their car... and their mother is missing. Did she commit the awful deed - or is someone else to blame? With very little to go on can Darcy, along with Jon, solve this puzzling mystery and will the snow storm abate in time for them to spend Christmas with their family? Pick up Darcy's latest adventure to find out! Have Yourself a Merry Little Murder is the twenty-seventh book in the Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery series. If you love cozy mysteries with paranormal, and a touch of romance you'll love the Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery series. BONUS Story Included: Mystery takes a Leap - A Connor and Lilly Mystery (Short Read)

The Fairy Tale Cupcakes crew helps two professional football players in knead when the athletes are suspected of murder and their dream of opening a bakery is crushed, from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay. Professional football players Keogh Graham and Tyler Matthews want to open a Fairy Tale Cupcakes franchise. They’re spending the off-season in Scottsdale working in Mel’s bakery, learning about the business and how to bake show-stopping cupcakes. The popular athletes bring a boom of customers to the store as football fans flock to see the friends mixing batter and piping icing. Everyone’s excited the athletes are pursuing their dream of owning a bakery—except for those who fear the players will ditch football for fondant and retire early from professional sports. The angry naysayers include their team owner and Keogh's sports agent, along with some very vocal fans. When the owner of their team, the Arizona Scorpions, is found dead on the floor of their new bakery following an argument with Keogh, the pros become prime suspects. As the investigation heats up, Mel and the rest of the cupcake bakery crew must step up and prove their franchise owners are innocent before it’s game-over for the new bakers.

People are dying to get their hands on a rare, valuable book in the newest Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Plot and the Pendulum. Briar Creek Library director Lindsey Norris and her husband, Sully, are at a popular library conference in Chicago to hear book restoration specialist Brooklyn Wainwright give a keynote address. After the lecture, Lindsey looks under her seat and finds a tote bag containing a first edition of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, inscribed to Alfred Hitchcock. Brooklyn determines the novel is one of a kind and quite valuable, so Lindsey and Sully return the book to the conference director, not wanting to stir up any trouble. But just hours after the pair boards the train back to Connecticut, rumors that the Highsmith novel has gone missing buzz amongst the passengers, and they soon find the conference director murdered in his private compartment. And worse—the murderer planted the book in Lindsey and Sully’s room next door, making them prime suspects. Now, they must uncover the murderer and bring them to the end of their line, before they find themselves booked for a crime they didn’t commit. Featuring a cameo by a beloved character from the New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle's Bibliophile series!

The sixteenth century was a turning point for both law and drama. Relentless professionalization of the common law set off a cascade of lawyerly self-fashioning – resulting in blunt attacks on lay judgment. English playwrights, including Shakespeare, resisted the forces of legal professionalization by casting legal expertise as a detriment to moral feeling. They celebrated the ability of individuals, guided by conscience and working alongside members of their community, to restore justice. Playwrights used the participatory nature of drama to deepen public understanding of and respect for communal justice. In plays such as King Lear and Macbeth, lay people accomplish the work of magistracy: conscience structures legal judgment, neighbourly care shapes the coroner’s inquest, and communal emotions give meaning to confession and repentance. An original and deeply sourced study of early modern literature and law, Communal Justice in Shakespeare’s England contributes to a growing body of scholarship devoted to the study of how drama creates and sustains community. Penelope Geng brings together a wealth of imaginative and documentary archives – including plays, sermons, conscience literature, Protestant hagiographies, legal manuals, and medieval and early modern chronicles – proving that literature never simply reacts to legal events but always actively invents legal questions, establishes legal expectations, and shapes legal norms.

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.