One call can make a difference. Gage Walker never thought a call to a scene would change his life forever. That was until he met Claire Blake. In the blink of an eye everything changed. Sparks flew instantly, but when the girlfriends and wives of his fellow brothers in blue became targets, Gage wanted nothing more than to protect her. Even if that meant he had to give her up. **Previously in the First Responder Anthology.**

The unflappable Inspector George Gently has become a household name through the hit BBC TV series starring Martin Shaw. These are the original books on which the TV series was based, although the George Gently in Alan Hunter's whodunits is somewhat different to his TV counterpart. He is more calculating, more analytical, and his investigations are even more enthralling. In this title: Following the death of a young musician, George Gently is assigned to the case, mainly because his boss is such a fan of the composer, Walter Hozeley. Things look bad for Hozeley when details emerge of a vicious argument between the composer and the murdered clarinetist, Terence Virtue, who was also Hozeley’s lover. The other musicians who were present at the rehearsal where the quarrel took place soon fall under suspicion when Gently begins to realise that Hozeley may not have been the only one who wanted Virtue dead. As the musicians prepare for a special performance, Gently’s investigation builds to a crescendo and the killer is set to take his final bow.ReviewWell written, well constructed, with Chief Superintendent Gently, of course, doing his stuff as politely and as effectively as ever. The Sunday Times About the AuthorALAN HUNTER left school at 14 to work on his father's Norfolk farm, writing nature notes for the local paper in his spare time. By 1950 he had his own bookshop and, in 1955, wrote the first of 45 Inspector George Gently novels.

Winning the crown was only the beginning.Jacs, now the rightful Queen of Frea, seems to be Queen in title alone. She scrambles to learn the customs and traditions of a Realm she had only read about in books. The Council of Four have her firmly under their thumb, and their ideas for the Queendom are oppressive and outdated. Their knowledge of her mother and Master Leschi's whereabouts is the only leverage they need to make the new Queen dance to their tune.Jacs is determined to find those who were taken from her and do what's right for her Queendom. But in her search for answers, Jacs uncovers a much darker truth from the Queendom's past that will forever change its future.

From the dreaming spires of Oxford, Lewis Gillies drives north to seek a mythical creature in a misty glen in Scotland. Expecting little more than a weekend diversion, Lewis finds himself in a mystical place where two worlds meet, in the time-between-times - and in the heart of a battle between good and evil. The ancient Celts admitted no separation between this world and the Otherworld: the two were delicately interwoven, each dependent on the other. The Paradise War crosses the thin places between this world and that, as Lewis Gillies comes face-to-face with an ancient mystery - and a cosmic catastrophe in the making.

From the acclaimed author of Thin Places, a luminous day book about an unexpected year and finding home. Two days after the winter solstice in 2019, Kerri and her partner moved to a remote cottage in the heart of Ireland. They were looking for a home, somewhere to settle into a stable life. Then the pandemic arrived and their secluded abode became a place of enforced isolation. What was meant to be the beginning of an enriching new chapter was instead marked by uncertainty and fear. The seasons still passed, the swallows returned, the rhythms of the natural world went on, but in many ways 2020 was unlike any year we had seen before. And for Kerri there would be one more change: a baby, longed for but utterly, beautifully unexpected.Intensely lyrical, fragmentary in subject and form, Cacophony of Bone is an ode to a year, a place, and a love that transformed a life. When the pandemic came, time seemed to shapeshift; in Kerri's elegant...

Rain of Gold is a true-life saga of love, family and destiny that pulses with bold vitality, sweeping from the war-ravaged Mexican mountains of Pancho Villa's revolution to the days of Prohibition in California.It all began when Villaseñor's maternal grandmother sat him down in their little home in the barrio of Carlsbad, California, gave him sweet bread and told him the story of their past. Of his mother Lupe, the most beautiful girl in the whole village who was only a child when Villa's men came shooting into their canyon. And of his father Juan and his family, reduced to rags and starvation as they sought escape across the border, where they believed that endless opportunity awaited.Lupe and Juan met and fell in love in California, but they found that the doors to the Promised Land were often closed to those from south of the border. His father was forced to take the law into his own hands, in spite of his wife's objections. With love and humor, Villaseñor...

Acerbic professor Marjorie Summerharp was reborn on Martha's Vineyard -- her mind and acid-tongue sharpened by the island's gentle waves and whispering breezes. So why would she walk into the ocean on a warm June morning, to be swallowed up forever by the hungry, merciless sea? Ex-Boston-cop "J.W." Jackson knows that evil can flourish even in the most serene of settings. And the more he investigates, the more it appears that the mysterious "accidental" death of the renowned local scholar was more premeditated than it originally appeared. But nosing around in a snake pit of academic jealousy, adultery, and bogus religion could prove deadly for the policeman-turned-fisherman...especially when Jackson exposes too many sinister secrets that are well worth killing for.**

Tom Ripley is settled into his estate in the French countryside, quietly enjoying his gardening and planning a trip to North Africa with his beautiful wife. But an odd, vulgar American couple is lurking about the village—and they seem to recognize him. After a string of strange coincidences, Ripley must deploy all of his cruel talents to protect himself and hide a deed from his past. Ripley Under Water (1991) is Patricia Highsmith's final Ripley novel, and one of her most deliciously thrilling and terrifying.

"With a voice that's as comforting as a rock­ing chair and as salty as a fisherman" (Houston Chronicle, of Houston in the Rearview Mirror), Deputy Sheriff Milton Kovak of Prophesy County, Oklahoma, returns. Milt finally gets up the nerve to ask his longtime ladylove, Glenda Sue Rainey, to marry him—only to be rebuffed with no explanation and a good-bye at the door. When Glenda Sue is found dead the next day, brutally murdered, Milt is dazed. Enter Glenda Sue's long-lost daughter, who arrives in town for the funeral with her own little girl in tow. The only problem: little Rebecca is half-black, and the residents of Prophesy County aren't all as open-minded as Milt. As the threat of more violence looms, Milt begins to have strange dreams about Rebecca's safety, dreams whose common feature is the presence of a woman with leg braces. These dreams lead him to Dr. Jean McDonnell, a handicapped psychiatrist, whom Milt enlists to help him find out what happened to Glenda Sue—and why. When sister Jewel Ann announces plans to move herself and her family out of Milt's house and into the home of Harmon Monk, Milt begins to see Dr. McDonnell as having a role to play in his personal life as well. **

Product DescriptionEdgar Award winner Sharyn McCrumb brings you her sixth Elizabeh MacPherson mystery novel.The unsinkable Elizabeth is on tour of England's most famous murder sites, when Rowan Rover, the group leader, is quietly asked to commit murder. He does, of course, but not without misgivings--not the least of which is having Elizabeth MacPherson, canny observer and all-around murder spoiler, on his tail..."Sharyn McCrunb is definitely a rising star in the New Golden Age of mystery fiction. I look forward to reading her for a long time to come."Elizabeth PetersFrom the Paperback edition.From the PublisherI particularly enjoy mysteries that allow me to play thearmchair traveler, following along as the detective visits famoussites or interesting corners of the world. Sharyn McCrumb'sMISSING SUSAN is one of the best examples of this kind ofmystery. In MISSING SUSAN, Elizabeth MacPherson, forensicanthropologist and sleuth, decides to go on a tour of England'smost famous murder sites. She isn't aware that Rowan Rover, thetour guide and Jack the Ripper expert, has been hired to kill atour member -- the obnoxious young heiress Susan Cohen. Throughout the story, we are treated to a travelogue of England'smore gruesome tourist spots, as well as Sharyn McCrumb's drylyhumorous prose. MISSING SUSAN inspired me to take the Jack theRipper tour myself -- and although I didn't encounter any murdersother than those of Jack the Ripper, the atmosphere was decidedlymore intriguing due to this book.--Malinda Lo, Editorial Assistant

A Wager For Land and Wealth Sets Two Friends in Conflict While a Woman's Heart Turns to Revenge in Sweet Fire by Jo Goodman—1852,London; 1869, San Francisco, Samoa and Sydney, Australia—Told all her life that she was plain, Lydia Chadwick knew no man would come courting. So it was with some suspicion that the shy, sweet, San Francisco heiress woke one morning with a tall, dark, dangerously handsome husband she couldn't recall marrying. Lydia had lost her memory, and was desperate to discover if there was truly a love to remember. For as she looked at Nathan Hunter's lean, muscular frame, she longed to abandon herself to the sensual stranger, and believe—if only for a little while—that the possessive passion in his smoky gray eyes was really for her.Business and pleasure weren't supposed to mix, but in this case Nathan Hunter was willing to make an exception. After all, it was in his best interests to keep his new bride's mind off the secrets of her...

Tom Swinton is not looking forward to the summer. His parents are dead, and he is going to have to spend the holidays in his boarding school. But when he receives a mysterious letter inviting him to come to his uncle's farm, he is determined to go, even though he has never heard of this uncle, James Swinton, commonly known as Jack. His uncle seems genial enough at first; but the silver-haired and silver-eyed boy, Kit, who does most of the work about Mundham Farm, is fearful and strange; and the attractive young woman, Zita, who keeps house and prepares mysterious potions, is certainly no ordinary housekeeper. Jack reveals to Tom that he needs his help to protect the farm from unspecified forces, and his principal duty will be to work with Kit to "make the wards" – which is a way of surrounding the farm with some kind of magical protection. Jack explains that the farm can only be properly protected if a Swinton performs this ritual, and since Tom is the last of the line, it...

Desire came like a wildfire to the Colorado hills...to claim a woman's property...and her heart. For six years after her father died, lithe, beautiful Dee Swann held on to Angel Creek valley and her independence. The homestead was hers, and she vowed no one else would ever own it...or her. Then Lucas Cochran came back to Colorado. In the drought-cursed high country, he needed Angel Creek and its cool water to turn his Double C ranch into the cattle dynasty he craved. His ruthless ambition guaranteed he would fight to take it away from the black-haired, green-eyed spitfire who claimed it. But the passion that blazed when Dee Swann and Lucas Cochran met shocked them both. Unbidden, unexpected, their kisses swept them toward a dangerous destiny where dreams might be scattered...men could be killed...or love would be born as wild and unfettered as this glorious frontier.

In Case 61, Nancy and her pals have come to rustic Oakwood Inn to indulge in a chocolate festival fantasy. Add a dash of Brock Sawyer, celebrity taster and one of TV's hottest stars, and you have the makings of a perfect weekend. But the sweet dream turns sour when Brock is rushed to the hospital--poisoned! So Nancy sets to work to find out who would want Brock dead.