In Washington to support a senator's new literacy initiative, Jessica Fletcher finds the body of the senator's chief of staff during a party at the senator's Virginia home, and embarks on an investigation.

LGBT Mystery Maxwell Thornton isn’t really a people person, but that never mattered to him because he’d lived for his career. After losing a patient during a routine hysterectomy, he’s shaken and afraid to pick up the scalpel again. He resigns his position in the city and takes a job as sole GP in the isolated town of Rainy Dale, Texas, population 1001. Rainy Dale is populated with eccentrics who test his patience and seem to think he’s not only there to treat their illnesses, but that he’s also there to hold their hand and be their therapist. When one of his most annoying patients ends up dead and floating in Maxwell’s pool, he has some explaining to do to the local sheriff. Sheriff Royce Callum is intelligent, determined and more attracted to the new doctor than he would like. He can’t imagine Maxwell is a murderer, but he also can’t exactly ignore a corpse in the sexy doctor’s pool.

Josie Marcus, a mystery shopper and a single mom, goes to uncover the truth behind a hot young designer's murder in the mall's parking lot, not believing that her best friend's husband committed the crime.

The New York Times bestselling author examines the shocking case of a Kansas woman who murdered to become a mother. On December 16th, 2004, a 911 operator in rural Missouri received a frantic call from the mother of twenty-three-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The eight-months-pregnant mother-to-be had been found bleeding on her family room floor—her unborn baby gone. More than 150 miles away, in Melvern, Kansas, Lisa Montgomery proudly showed off “her” new baby, duping many while arousing the suspicions of others. Across the nation, televisions broadcast the first Amber Alert for an unborn child. Here is the true story of the frantic search for a baby born under shocking conditions, of the lucky break that led to the killer, of a tortured history of sexual abuse, and the pain that lingers in two American towns. With the exclusive cooperation of key witnesses and participants, award-winning investigative reporter M. William Phelps reveals what really happened that fateful December day. “The most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since In Cold Blood.” —Gregg Olsen

Shortlist, Goddard Riverside/CBC Young People's Book Prize for Social Justice This critical civil rights book for middle-graders examines the little-known Tennessee's Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Powerfully conveyed through interconnected stories and told through the eyes of a child, this book combines poetry, prose, and stunning illustrations to shine light on this forgotten history. The late 1950s was a turbulent time in Fayette County, Tennessee. Black and White children went to different schools. Jim Crow signs hung high. And while Black hands in Fayette were free to work in the nearby fields as sharecroppers, the same Black hands were barred from casting ballots in public elections. If they dared to vote, they faced threats of violence by the local Ku Klux Klan or White citizens. It wasn't until Black landowners organized registration drives to help Black citizens vote did change begin--but not without White farmers' attempts to prevent it. They violently evicted Black sharecroppers off their land, leaving families stranded and forced to live in tents. White shopkeepers blacklisted these families, refusing to sell them groceries, clothes, and other necessities. But the voiceless did finally speak, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which legally ended voter discrimination. Perfect for young readers, teachers/librarians, and parents interested in books for kids with themes of: Activism Social justice Civil rights Black history

Few episodes in the modern civil rights movement were more galvanizing than the 1964 brutal murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney. As we approach the 40th anniversary of the murders in June 2004, "Murder in Mississippi" provides a timely and telling reminder of the vigilance democracy requires if its ideals are to be fully realized.