Never underestimate a librarian. Fifty-something Edinburgh librarian Shona is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, but has a deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which she thinks gives her alma mater a bad name. Impeccably educated and an accomplished linguist, mathematician, martial artist, and musician, Shona is selected by Marcia Blaine herself to travel back in time for a crucial mission in Venice. Finding the city afflicted by what appears to be a new outbreak of the plague, Shona soon encounters the Cornetto family of gondoliers. Lately, a number of their passengers have met a watery fate. Coincidence? Unlikely. She dons a mask, goes undercover and seeks inspiration in the library. But the mystery only deepens. Why do the Cornettos seem so flaky and their explanations wafer-thin, even as they proclaim their innocence? What is going on at the printworks? Shona’s powers of deduction, dissection and prowess as a swimmer are put to the test as she realises that a bitter feud is at play. Can Shona unravel the tapestry of lies and get to the truth? It’s a race against time, but it would be a mistake to underestimate a librarian.

A librarian with deceptively dangerous skills is sent back in time to Tzarist Russia in this “laugh-out-loud farce” and homage to Muriel Spark (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Never underestimate a librarian. Comfortable padded and in her middle years, Shona McMonagle may look bookish and harmless, but her education at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls has left her with a deadly expertise in everything from martial arts to quantum physics. It has also left her with a bone-deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, that scurrilous novel that spread scandalous untruths about the finest educational institution in Edinburgh. Shona’s skills, her deceptively mild appearance, and her passionate loyalty make her the perfect recruit for an interesting new project: time travel to Tzarist Russia, prevent a gross miscarriage of romance, and—in any spare time—see to it that only the right people get murdered. It’s a big job, but no task is too daunting for a prefect from Miss Blaine’s. “A delightful addition to the ranks of comic crime.” —The Guardian, UK

Never underestimate a librarian. Intelligent cosy crime with razor-sharp wit and an unlikely hero, for fans of P.G. Wodehouse and Muriel Spark "So funny." Lynne Truss Shona McMonagle is back, once again personally selected by Marcia Blaine, founder of her alma mater, the Marcia Blaine School for Girls – this time for a crucial mission involving time travel, Macbeth, the Weird Sisters and a black cat. Unsure which version of history she’s in – and fully aware of Shakespeare’s egregious inaccuracies - Shona tries to figure out who she’s here to save. But between playing the Fool and being turned into a mouse, things don’t always go her way. Shona’s expertise in martial arts is put to the test as family tensions rise and fingers are pointed for murder. Can Shona unravel the mystery in time to complete her mission? Never underestimate a librarian!

Never underestimate a librarian. "Audacious, witty and fun." Herald Intelligent cosy crime series with razor-sharp wit and an unlikely hero, for fans of P.G. Wodehouse and Muriel Spark Intrepid, fifty-something librarian Shona McMonagle, erstwhile Marcia Blaine Academy prefect, finds herself in an isolated French mountain village, where she must solve a mystery involving the mayor, the cheesemonger, the soprano Mary Garden, and even Count Dracula himself. Shona has been personally selected by school founder Marcia Blaine to travel back in time for this important mission in fin-de-siècle France – a curiously Gothic setting. But she finds it all very confusing. Why, for example, have so many people been torn to death by wild animals, what are Maman and the mayor up to, and is the reclusive aristocrat really suffering from toothache? It’s a race against time to solve the mystery. It is also a very tall order – but as Shona is wont to remind herself: Never underestimate a librarian!

First published in 1936 and adapted for the screen as The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, Ethel Lina White's suspenseful mystery remains her best-known novel, worthy of acknowledgement as a classic of the genre in its own right. Then the rhythm of the train changed, and she seemed to be sliding backwards down a long slope. Click-click-click-click. The wheels rattled over the rails, with a sound of castanets. Iris Carr's holiday in the mountains of a remote corner of Europe has come to an end, and since her friends left two days before, she faces the journey home alone. Stricken by sunstroke at the station, Iris catches the express train to Trieste by the skin of her teeth and finds a companion in Miss Froy, an affable English governess. But when Iris passes out and reawakens, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. The other passengers deny any knowledge of her existence and as the train speeds across Europe, Iris spirals deeper and deeper into a strange and dangerous conspiracy.

Originally published: Great Britain: Doubleday, 2016.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

[This text] provide[s] coverage of the writing process for today's visually oriented students. The text also included a wealth of rhetorical strategies that instructors and students found accessible and helpful. [It] reinforces these strengths with enhanced coverage of many important topics such as analyzing the rhetorical situation, evaluating sources, avoiding plagiarism, and developing visual literacy.-Pref.

The latest book in the Sunday Times bestselling phenomenon that is the Inspector McLean series, from one of Scotland's most celebrated crime writers. The charred remains of an elderly woman are discovered in a burned out gamekeepers cottage, hidden away in woodland to the west of Edinburgh. What is at first assumed to be a tragic accident begins to take on a more sinister aspect as Detective Inspector Tony McLean digs deeper. There is far more to the victim than her humble surroundings suggest . . . Praise for James Oswald: 'The new Ian Rankin' Daily Record 'Creepy, gritty and gruesome' Sunday Mirror 'Crime fiction's next big thing' Sunday Telegraph

When a member of the Police Scotland team fails to clock-in for work, concern for her whereabouts is immediate ... and the discovery of her burnt-out car in remote woodland to the south of Edinburgh sets off a desperate search for the missing woman. Meanwhile, DCI Tony McLean and the team are preparing for a major anti-corruption operation - one which may raise the ire of more than a few powerful people in the city. Is Anya Renfrew's disappearance a co-incidence or related to the case? McLean's investigations suggest that perhaps that Anya isn't the first woman to have mysteriously vanished in these ancient hills. Once again, McLean can't shake the feeling that there is a far greater evil at work here ...