FICTION · WOMEN DETECTIVES
Elaine Viets
"Helen, where the hell are you?"
— from Murder between the covers, 2003
Most acclaimed
Murder Unleashed
Unscrupulous bankers, abandoned homes, and a cold-blooded killer on the loose: Mags Rogers and her wire-haired dachshund, Baxter, digg up the dirt in the second scintillating novel in New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown’s delightful new series featuring some doggedly determined canine sleuths and their intrepid human companions. Settling into ranch life outside Reno, Nevada, with her gregarious great-aunt Jeep Reed and Jeep’s German Shepherd, King, former Wall Street trader Mags doesn’t miss the cutthroat world of investment banking—because its destructive tentacles have reached westward to the Silver State. The foreclosure crisis has taken a huge bite out of the local real estate market, where rows of homes sit unsold and forsaken—but not empty. A group of squatters, including desperate single mothers with children, are living under the radar in the houses on Reno’s Yolanda Street—without water or electricity. Big-hearted real estate broker Babs Gallagher enlists Jeep and Mags to start a community outreach program, but that means going up against uncaring utility companies, corrupt officials, ruthless politicians—and a merciless murderer. When a former banker is found brutally slain in one of the abandoned homes, the notion of “cutthroat business practices” takes on a whole new meaning. Baxter, King, and some other canine detectives leave no bone of contention buried as they help their human charges untangle a string of murders rooted deep in the heart of Red Rock Valley’s prominent citizenry. Though Reno deputy—and Mags’s unofficial significant other—Pete Meadows uncovers evidence of blackmail, shady real estate ventures, and rumors of lost treasure, the killer seems to hold all the cards in a city of gambling and sin. Luckily, Mags, Jeep, and Babs still have a few tricks up their sleeves. As nefarious sexploits and backroom backstabbing reverberate throughout the county, the dogs are officially off the leash—and on the hunt for a killer. Along the way, they encounter curious coyotes, human kindness and treachery, and a long-buried stash of riches.
Fire and Ashes
2003
In 2005 Michael Ignatieff left his life as a writer and professor at Harvard University to enter the combative world of politics back home in Canada. By 2008, he was leader of the country's Liberal Party and poised--should the governing Conservatives falter--to become Canada's next Prime Minister. It never happened. Today, after a bruising electoral defeat, Ignatieff is back where he started, writing and teaching what he learned. What did he take away from this crash course in political success and failure? Did a life of thinking about politics prepare him for the real thing? How did he handle it when his own history as a longtime expatriate became a major political issue? Are cynics right to despair about democratic politics? Are idealists right to hope? Ignatieff blends reflection and analysis to portray today's democratic politics as ruthless, unpredictable, unforgiving, and hyper-adversarial. Rough as it is, Ignatieff argues, democratic politics is a crucible for compromise, and many of the apparent vices of political life, from inconsistency to the fake smile, follow from the necessity of bridging differences in a pluralist society. A compelling account of modern politics as it really is, the book is also a celebration of the political life in all its wild, exuberant variety.
Catnapped
The one thing celebrity Trish Barrymore and her no account accountant husband, Mort, can agree on in their bitter divorce is shared cat custody. But when Mort is found brained by a mahogany cat tower, and Justine, their pedigreed Chartreux show cat, goes missing, Trish calls on Helen and Phil. Despite a ransom note from the catnapper, Trish is still the prime murder suspect in the eyes of the police. As they await the post Mortem, it's up to Helen and Phil to find the feline filcher and let the cat out of the bag. Discovering that Mort had some shady dealings within cat show circles, Helen goes undercover as an assistant for a woman who shows prizewinning Persians. But Phil is not buying Trish's cat that swallowed a canary act, he thinks she might be staging the whole catnapping. As Helen and Phil get deeper into a high pressure world of primping, posing, and purring to collar a killer, they get caught up in a cat and mouse game where the stakes are literally life and death...