Lee Thayer

"Matthew Mercer and Harris Sandler are best friends who have plum jobs as senior staffers to well-respected congressmen. But after a decade in Washington, idealism has faded to disillusionment, and they're bored. Then one of them finds out about the clandestine Zero Game. It starts out as good fun--a simple wager between friends. But when someone close to them ends up dead, Harris and Matthew realize the game is far more sinister than they ever imagined--and that they're about to be the game's next victims. On the run, they turn to the only person they can trust: a 16-year-old Senate page who can move around the Capitol undetected. As a ruthless killer creeps closer, this idealistic page not only holds the key to saving their lives, but is also determined to redeem them in the process. Come play The Zero Game--you can bet your life on it."--Publisher's description.

> Peter Clancy and his faithful retainer will long remember their drive through Wiggar's beloved England. It was perfect. No crime, not even a misdemeanor - unless the clandestine love affair they observed at the Goodhue-Lanford party might be so considered. Because the Sandford girl was appealing and the man obviously sophisticated, Peter could not shake off some sense of responsibility. This was heightened when, back in San Francisco, Wiggar discovered the same man lurking near the old Goodhue mansion. Because of their drive through the Shakespeare country, Peter's first thought was "and one cried Murder!' " >Here is a new mystery centering in those two perennial partners in crime detection, Peter and his man Wiggar, and presenting one of the most baffling problems in the author's long series of popular mystery novels.

Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857January 6, 1944) was a teacher, an author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of her day, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism." She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies. She is best-known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company, which was listed number five among the top 100 works of twentieth-century American journalism by the New York Times in 1999.

> Last Trump, first published in 1937 as part of the Red Badge Mystery Series, features private detective Peter Clancy, assisted by his servant Wiggars. The setting is a small cruise ship, and Clancy must determine who among the passengers is the perpetrator of a series of murders aboard the ship.