Event planner Liv Montgomery is full of yuletide cheer—but it’s hard to remain festive when someone’s out to slay Santa in the second Celebration Bay mystery. It’s Liv Montgomery’s first Christmas out of Manhattan and in Celebration Bay. They’ve got a tree to rival Rockefeller Center’s, but this year’s holidays are turning out to be a disaster. As the small town’s event planner, Liv wants everything to be perfect. Unfortunately, the local Christmas shop has been replaced by the gaudy Trim a Tree—complete with tacky ornaments and a new replacement Santa who isn’t spreading any cheer. At the town’s annual Celebration of Lights, Trim a Tree is the only shop left unlit. Liv, furious, goes to investigate, and discovers something even less festive—the store’s new Santa has been murdered. Small-town gossip begins to stir, and Liv must clear the name of the previous town Santa just in the nick of time before the real killer ruins Christmas.

THE STORY: In June 1942, a young, rather callow Eric Bentley is introduced to Bertolt Brecht, one of Germany's leading playwrights now exiled in Santa Monica, California. Brecht is looking for an English translator who will spread his fame in Ameri

The sole witness to an elderly couple's murder is an eight-year-old boy, struck dumb by the trauma, and courtroom revelations place his life in jeopardy as well. By the author of State v. Justice.

About the book The Lucia Rider consists of three novellas, each self-contained. The novellas were inspired by a city or by a countryside or by a folklore, where the author was living or visiting.

The Seductions of Biography is an important volume which sheds new light on a flourishing literary form, the biography. In postmodern culture, new methods and intentions emerge, as well as new obstacles, towards our understanding of biography as a genre. This book provides a thorough exploration of this genre, from a wide range of postmodern perspectives. The Seductions of Biography brings together a number of essays which reflect in culturally critical as well as autobiographical terms on current themes and practices of contemporary biography. Issues addressed by these essays focus on the postmodern dilemma itself--as new voices from excluded communities make themselves heard in biographical works, the decentralization of new issues, such as gender, ethnicity, and sexuality, becomes problematic. Contributors question the responsibilities a biographer has, both to the subject and the public, and consider also questions of morality and taste; for example, is it fair to use private tapings made by your subject's analyst? And how much do we really need to know about Eleanor Roosevelt's sex life? The impact of sexuality on our reading of public figures is addressed, as well as other issues which explore the popular and provocative nature of biography. Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging in scope, The Seductions of Biography will appeal to biographers, historians, cultural critics, and the vast population of avid biography readers. Contributors: Kwame Anthony Appiah, Clark Blaise, Marilyn L. Brownstein, Blanche Wiesen Cook, John D'Emilio, Jeffrey Louis Decker, Michael Eric Dyson, Diana Fuss, Marjorie Garber, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Hayden Herrera, Maurice Isserman, Barbara Johnson, William S. McFeely, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Richard J. Powell, Phyllis Rose, Doris Sommer, Marita Sturken, Sherley Anne Williams, Jean Fagan Yellin

It’s July Fourth and the citizens of Crescent Falls are ready to celebrate the occasion. The public park has been transformed into festival central with food tents sponsored by local churches, music provided by the high school band, and a carnival midway with games and a dunking machine. Amateur sleuth Adelaide McBride and her fiancé Vernon Dexter are ready to work a shift at the ice cream tent, sponsored by their church. The newly formed Crescent Falls Auxiliary Police Force, made up of volunteers, will be keeping the peace. But when a murder victim is found in the woods adjacent to the park, the celebration comes to an abrupt halt. Chief of Police Daniel McBride already has a missing person’s case on his hands. Reverend James Preston mysteriously disappeared a week ago and all efforts to find him have failed. Now, Daniel is faced with the brutal murder of a woman he recognizes as Felitia Mason, an out-of-town escort. To make matters worse, days later a skeleton is unearthed in the mayor’s back yard and the town librarian is attacked in the same manner as the escort. As Daniel tries to unravel both twisted cases and find justice for the victims, he has no idea the price some of those involved will have to pay.

In the distant future, the human race is almost extinct, and the promised land of Nanak stands as a sole reminder of man's past. Ruled by a Judge and divided over an heir, the city falls into a bloody war of succession. The battle ends with a group of Nanakites defeated and exiled to the land of Shur. Fueled by a religious prophesy about a savior and a return to the Promised Land, the Shurites hold fast to their belief of an inevitable homecoming. Yet, one thousand years pass and the prophesy remains unfulfilled. Shur develops into a city controlled by two opposing ruling bodies: a dominant theocratic council led by the Elders and a renegade secret guild of protectors led by the anti-religious Joshua. Undercut by Joshua's efforts to weaken the grip of the Temple, the Elders are blessed with a miracle in the form of lost scriptures. The ancient writings proclaim Joshua's closest friend, an influential councilman, as Shur's savior, which reignites religious fervor. Obliged by friendship, yet understanding the need for social reform, Joshua finds himself torn between his loyalty and his convictions. On his actions hinge the fate of a people who have been waiting one thousand years for a return to the Promised Land.

A memoir of growing up in a dysfunctional family in the United States during the 1970s and 80s, Lora Lee describes how she responded to a chaotic world by closing in on herself and building a shell around her, a shell which is cracked open when she endures cancer treatment for the second time and is forced to take stock of her life up to that point. Goodbye Mommy explores our relationships with our families, whether completely dysfunctional, adoptive, or more conventional, but the book's real importance lies beyond that in the way it raises the question of how far our families, upbringing and traumas suffered can seriously affect our health, both immediately and in later life. Lora Lee's story is honestly told, without being mawkish or self-pitying. Her recovery from breast cancer provides a happy and hopeful ending.

Manchester 1976. The oldest living Victoria Cross holder, and the last survivor of three friends who went to do their duty for Queen and country in the Boer War, collapses at a Remembrance Sunday service. A young newspaper reporter is assigned to cover the story and, as a result, is treated to a unique first-hand insight into life before and during the siege of Ladysmith, in a long forgotten war fought over three quarters of a century earlier.