An American psychologist accepts an invitation to her estranged husband’s isolated English estate in this suspenseful tale by an Edgar Award–winning author. When Eve North returns to Athmore after three years’ estrangement from her husband, Justin, she finds the great and sprawling English estate—and Justin himself—considerably changed. But Eve has changed as well. She knows the mistakes she made in her marriage, is prepared to admit culpability in their separation, and now dares to win back his love. But for all Eve knows, for all she remembers, and for all she’s ready to face, she still enters Athmore dangerously unaware of what awaits her. Athmore has its secrets—and those who protect them, including Justin; his brother, Marc, who once preyed on Eve’s emotions; and Justin’s new fiancée, a cool manipulator who now has everything she wants. Eve’s only ally appears to be the old family gardener who has carved from the green-black yew a topiary garden in the form of a magnificent chessboard as both a masterpiece and a warning. Hunter’s Green is an involving suspense novel from Phyllis A. Whitney, “the Queen of the American gothics” and recipient of an Agatha Award for lifetime achievement (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

Three spellbinding romantic thrillers from the New York Times–bestselling and Edgar Award–winning “master of suspense” (Mary Higgins Clark). Now in one volume: Three of the most haunting novels by the “queen of the American gothics” (The New York Times). Hunter’s Green: When Eve North returns to Athmore, it’s to win back the love of her estranged husband, Justin. But she’s dangerously unaware of the secrets in the sprawling English estate—and the motives of those who protect them, including Justin’s brother, who once preyed on Eve’s emotions; Justin’s manipulative new fiancée; and Justin himself. Eve’s only ally appears to be the old family gardener who has carved from the green-black yew a magnificent chessboard, both a topiary masterpiece and a warning. Dream of Orchids: Laurel York has come to Key West at the request of her estranged father, expecting to heal old wounds with the celebrated author. Instead, she’s greeted with the unexpected: her father’s cold reception, two weird stepsisters, and whispers of a woman’s bizarre death in a greenhouse full of orchids. The only one pleased with her presence is her father’s mysterious collaborator. But in a house of bad blood and family secrets, trusting the wrong person could cost Laurel her life. The Winter People: Manhattan art curator Diana Blake is looking forward to finally meeting her husband Glen’s family. Unfortunately, when she arrives at the lakeside Victorian mansion in the snowy Jersey hills, the greeting is as ice-cold as the frozen Gray Rocks Lake where Glen’s mother mysteriously drowned. But it’s Glen’s twin sister who casts the most sinister shadow. Because it’s here in dark halls of High Towers, where a strange sibling rivalry will draw Diana into a chilling and inescapable game of family secrets. This trio of atmospheric psychological thrillers once again proves why Phyllis A. Whitney “is, and always will be, the Grand Master of her craft” (Barbara Michaels).

A movie star’s suicide draws a young woman into the deadly shadows of a Hollywood scandal in this novel from “a master of suspense” (Mary Higgins Clark). More than fifty years ago, Victoria Frazer and Roger Brandt were the most popular stars of the silver screen—until a notorious and tragic love affair on set in the Appalachians destroyed their lives. It was there, at the foot of Rumbling Bald Mountain in Lake Lure, North Carolina, where Victoria drowned herself, and where Roger would remain—drifting into obscurity as a tortured recluse. Now, a half-century later, screenwriter Lauren Castle has arrived at a Lake Lure resort in the wake of a more recent tragedy: the suspicious death of her husband, a documentary filmmaker who was investigating the legendary Hollywood scandal. Lauren’s husband held the most closely guarded secret of all: She is Victoria’s granddaughter. Only one other person knew her secret, the couple’s close friend, Gordon Heath, whom Lauren is inexplicably drawn to. Now she must solve a mystery that links two generations, has claimed more than one victim, and has yet to reach its deadly and final fade-out. New York Times–bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Phyllis A. Whitney “is, and always will be, the Grand Master of her craft” (Barbara Michaels). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

Part I covers methods and processes for planning and plotting a novel. Part II covers the techniques the fiction writer must master.

A man’s death in the Smoky Mountains raises the suspicions of his estranged wife in this suspenseful novel by a New York Times–bestselling author. Vietnam veteran David Hallam is in Tennessee working as an arson investigator for an insurance company when he sends his wife, Karen, an unnerving note: “If anything happens to me down here, don’t let it pass as an accident . . .” Ten days later, he dies in a fire and the only thing Karen can feel is guilt—for all the years she wasted in an unsalvageable marriage and for the relief she feels at finally having the sadistic and abusive man out of her life. But despite all that transpired between them, Karen leaves New York City for Belle Isle, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, to bury her husband. Once there, Karen can finally put the past to rest—or so she thinks. Instead, she is drawn into a tangled and deadly web of disputed fortune, family jealousy, conspiracy, adultery, and murder. A New York Times–bestselling author and recipient of the Edgar and Agatha Awards, “Phyllis Whitney is, and always will be, the Grand Master of her craft” (Barbara Michaels). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

The wife of a scientist fights for her marriage—and her husband’s sanity—in postwar Japan in this novel by “a superb and gifted story teller” (Mary Higgins Clark). When Jerome Talbot’s brilliant career as an atomic physicist leads him once again to Japan, his wife, Marcia, knows it means yet another long separation, but she hopes to reunite with him soon. Confidently awaiting word to join him, she is blindsided when she receives a letter demanding divorce. Stunned and hurt, she leaves their home in Hawaii to confront Jerome in Kyoto, certain she’ll get an explanation to heal her wounded heart. But when Marcia arrives, she can’t be sure of anything . . . Jerome has become a stranger—obsessed, cruel, unhinged, and resolved never to return home—committed only to his work, which reaches back to World War II. Even more peculiar, he’s living in unusual intimacy with a a close-knit, unnervingly private Japanese family whom Marcia is forbidden to talk to and to whom Jerome seems not only beholden, but enslaved. Marcia resolves to stay in Kyoto until she discovers the secret driving her husband mad—and the truth behind a terrible legacy that could threaten both their lives. A “brilliant, absorbing, [and] moving” novel of romantic suspense by a New York Times–bestselling, multiple award–winning author—who was herself born in Yokohama—The Moonflower is an authentic exploration of life in postwar Japan, as well as a chilling tale of guilt, family secrets, and a marriage at risk in the never-forgotten shadow of Hiroshima (Richmond Times-Dispatch). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A young woman’s search for her biological parents uncovers a secret history of murder and conspiracy. When her adoptive parents die in a train crash in Italy, writer Courtney Marsh becomes more determined than ever to find her roots. She was mysteriously abandoned when she was just an infant, and she never knew the truth about her biological parents. The only clues to her past are a golden unicorn pendant she’s had all her life and a tattered newspaper clipping about an artist who hailed from one of the most prominent yet reclusive East Hampton families. Now, under the guise of a reporter, Courtney has arrived at the Rhodes’s mansion on the dunes. She may be uncertain of her heritage, but she’s as sure as the bracing ocean winds that this family is hiding something. Only the handsome son-in-law of the Rhodes clan, whose marriage is on the rocks, is particularly forthcoming—especially as he grows more intimately fond of the lovely and inquisitive young guest. But the more Courtney discovers, the more she has to fear—because hers is a legacy of murder that has yet to play its final hand. The Golden Unicorn is a novel of buried family secrets in the New York art world from “a superb and gifted storyteller” (Mary Higgins Clark). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

From an Edgar and Agatha Award winner: A mystery writer must solve the puzzle of her past when she meets the South Carolina family she never knew existed. Popular mystery novelist Molly Hunt knows all about the twists and turns of fiction, but real life has thrown her for a loop. Raised by adoptive parents on Long Island, Molly has just made a stunning discovery: She’s the daughter of South Carolina blue bloods and was kidnapped as an infant from their ancestral home in Charleston. Now, she’s heading south to solve the puzzle of her beginnings—totally unprepared for where it will end. At Mountfort Hall, her birth family’s imposing plantation, Molly comes face to face with her past: her neglected twin sister; her reclusive and mentally imbalanced mother; a calculating cousin, now the Mountfort patriarch who has no tolerance for this lovely new intruder; and a resident psychic who sees into a deadly world all her own. It’s only when Molly discovers a letter from her late father that she comes to realize how much danger she’s in—and what it’ll take to escape the shadows of Mountfort Hall alive. “In one of her smoothest suspense novels . . . Whitney combines a dynamic, likable heroine with eccentric characters, romantic entanglements, family ghosts and a charming setting” (Publishers Weekly). It’s everything readers expect from the “Queen of American gothics” (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

From the “Queen of the American gothics”: In turn-of-the-century New York, a strange inheritance lures a vulnerable governess into a trap (The New York Times). Camilla King knows little of her family history, having never met her estranged relatives. Her late father wanted it that way. But when she receives a startling invitation from her immeasurably wealthy and ailing grandfather, Orrin Judd, to return to Thunder Heights, the crumbling mansion on the Hudson where her mother died under mysterious circumstances, Camilla complies, partly out of curiosity for the family she never had, and partly because of whispers of an inheritance. What she finds there is a demanding and unwelcoming tyrant, two wraithlike aunts haunted by an unnamable grief, a cunning idler living off the Judd fortune, and her grandfather’s rigid and suspicious aide. When a series of accidents befall Camilla, she has reason to fear her homecoming may be a carefully designed trap—the same one her own mother fell prey to many years ago. New York Times–bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Phyllis A. Whitney “is, and always will be, the Grand Master of her craft” (Barbara Michaels). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.

"Were they all lying? Misleading me for their own purposes?..." Lacey Elliot has been a woman without a past since the day her mother whisked her off to Charlottesville, refusing for thirty years to speak of her father, her family, or her history. But when Lacey intercepts a desperate letter from an aunt in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Lacey sees her chance to confront the past that has terrified her mother and to fill in the gaps in her own life. Against the charm and colorful, turbulent history of the picturesque town, the violent history of Lacey's heritage is about to repeat itself. As she finds herself drawn to a man intrigued by the town for reasons of his own, old ghosts reappear and danger returns--as a killer walks among them once more.... "Evocative, moving, suspenseful--another surefire winner from the writer who taught all of us how it should be done." --BARBARA MICHAELS PHYLLIS A. WHITNEY IS A WINNER OF THE GRAND MASTER AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FROM THE MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA