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Sarah Jane Fearing, the sole offspring of a father who desperately wants a male heir, has grown up in the imposing mansion of one of England's most influential banking families. At the centre of Sarah's world stands her uncle Frank, the only relative who seems to have escaped the straitjacket of ponderous respectability. Frank's rebellions afford Sarah delight and hope, until his extravagant lifestyle leads him deeper into dept and into a disastrous marriage. Frank's wedding to a coldly ambitious woman produces the family's longed-for Male scion, but the parents fall to quarrels and then to murder.

On October 7, 1949, dark-haired starlet Jean Spangler kissed her five-year-old daughter good-bye and left for a night shoot at a Hollywood studio. "Wish me luck," she said as she crossed her fingers, winked, and walked away. She was never seen again. The only clues left behind: a purse with a broken strap found in a nearby park, a cryptic note, and rumors about mobster boyfriends and ill-fated romances with movie stars. Drawing on this true-life missing person case, Megan Abbott s "The Song Is You" tells the story of Gil "Hop" Hopkins, a smooth-talking Hollywood publicist whose career, despite his complicated personal life, is on the rise. It is 1951, two years after Jean Spangler s disappearance, and Hop finds himself unwillingly drawn into the still unsolved mystery by a friend of Jean who blames Hop for concealing details about Jean s whereabouts the night she vanished. Driven by guilt and fear of blackmail, Hop delves into the case himself, feverishly trying to stay one step ahead of an intrepid female reporter also chasing the story. Hop thought he d seen it all, but what he uncovers both tantalizes and horrifies him as he plunges deeper and deeper into Hollywood s substratum in his attempt to uncover the truth. In the tradition of James Ellroy s "The Black Dahlia" and Joyce Carol Oates s "Blonde, The Song Is You" conjures a heady brew of truth and speculation, of fact and pulp fiction, taking the reader on a dark tour of Tinseltown, from movie studios, gala premieres, and posh nightclubs to gangsters, blackmailing B-girls, and the darkest secrets that lie behind Hollywood s luminous facade. At the center of it all is Hop, a man torn between cutthroat ambition and his own best intentions.

A woman locked in her past and the fierce knight determined to set her free...Amanda Scott returns readers to the fourteenth century Scottish Borders, when men battled sword against sword and the hills echoed with the thunder of a thousand hooves.Unfit for marriage? Young, fair, yet mistrustful of men, Amalie Murray harbors a secret--one that could keep her single for life. At the coronation of the King of Scots, she overhears the plotting of a terrifying act...and virtually falls into the arms of Sir Garth Napier. Moved by her plight, Garth knows she now desperately needs protection--especially from her own stubbornness. Their unexpected passion and desire make Garth coax the truth out of Amalie, and make him more determined than ever to keep her safe. For though Amalie may be an "inappropriate bride," she's a woman he would gladly die for.

Former Korean War POW Hackberry Holland is Sheriff of a broken-down border town in south Texas. When the bodies of nine Asian prostitutes are found executed and buried behind a run-down church, they represent not just a bizarrely complex mystery, but also a test of his ability to face down the forces of evil. Hackberry discovers a web of corruption and violence, and right at the centre a Biblically-inspired hit-man known as the Preacher. With his soul and body still tormented by his experience of captivity, is Hackberry a match for a deranged killer who believes God is on his side?

A show-stopping performance ... With dashing Scotland Yard detective Alec Fletcher at her side, Daisy Dalrymple is enjoying a splendid performance of Verdi's Requiem featuring her neighbour Muriel Westlea's celebrated sister, Bettina, when what emerges from the star's gifted vocal chords is literally a dying gasp. The doomed diva was notoriously difficult and had more than her share of enemies, including a philandering tenor, a burly Russian bass and even her own vocal coach husband, with whom she had a turbulent relationship. Did one of them poison the singer? Or was it someone determined to see that Daisy's investigation ends on as bitter a note as Bettina's last performance ...?

Growing up on the thriving plantation called The Meadows, Lillian Booth cherishes the brightest, happiest dreams.... Lillian's world is full of grand parties, of sunshine and promises, as thrilling as the fairy tales Mama spins for her and her little sister, Eugenia. No one, not even her cold, stern Papa and her Bible spouting sister Emily, can crush her spirits -- until the day Emily reveals the shattering secret at Lillian's birth, a secret Mama sadly cannot deny. Still Lillian refuses to believe Emily's hateful claim that she is evil, a curse...even when sweet, gentle Eugenia loses her fragile hold on life, and Mama retreats further into her fantasies. But when tragedy befalls her best friend, the one boy whose tender heart mirrors her own, Lillian comes to believe Emily's grim words. Meekly, she endures her penance, finding a strange solace in the endless repetition of prayers in a room stripped of all comforts. Lillian's heart is torn anew when, in a drunken haze, Papa subjects her to the most brutal degradation. Then Papa loses The Meadows in a card game, and Lillian is faced with a new and terrifying prospect. Arrogant, handsome playboy Bill Cutler will return the plantation -- if Lillian will marry him! Now Lillian must leave her girlhood home behind, and make a bold new beginning as the mistress of a hotel called Cutler's Cove...

As Mouse bluffs and charms her way into the engrossing affairs of the Crossway Theatre she meets handsome actor-manager Rex and young stage director Brice. When, with her close friends Molly and Lilian, she shelters from a storm, the three girls meet rich, enigmatic Zelle, and this leads to a momentous outing to a Suffolk village pageant. While dealing with the effects of her first love, illicit relationships, and uncertain friendships, Mouse makes a series of difficult choices. Only when a reunion makes her reflect on these does she realise how powerfully that shared summer affected them all.

This book is a collection of psychological insight that are the main characterization of Perter Robinson novels. Since the creation of fictional Chief Inspector Alan Banks, Robinson has built a reputation for readable novels that probe the dark side of human nature, Robinson develops the personality of his characters in detail. He relates their lives outside their workday. Chief character Alan Banks has relocated to Yorkshire from London seeking some measure of piece. Robinson has developed a close knit group of characters whose lives intersect away from their jobs. He has well developed plots with the aha moment at the end.

Cora Cash has grown up in a world in which money unlocks every door. Her coming-out ball promises to be the most opulent of the gilded 1890s, a fitting debut for New York's 'princess'. Yet her fortune cannot buy her the one thing she craves - the freedom to choose her own destiny. For Cora's mother has her heart on a title for her daughter, and in England - where they are bound, to find Cora a husband - impoverished blue bloods are queuing up for introductions to American heiresses.

Erica and Simon Dunmore have been happily married for fifteen years. The only thing that casts a shadow over Erica's happiness is her failure to have a baby and Simon realises he would do anything to provide her with the child she so desperately craves.

When a new doctor arrives in the backstreets of Leicester, the locals are outraged by his rudeness and hostility. One of the first to encounter his abruptness is young Aidy Nelson but when she gets a job as his secretary she gets to know him and realises that behind his gruff manner lurks a man with a sorrowful past and secrets to keep.

On any given day in London, all Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, wants to do is relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist another chance to unravel a mystery, even if it means trudging through the snow to her townhouse next door. One of Jane's former servants, Prudence Smith, is dead - an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison.

What would you do? When Deborah reluctantly helps her beloved husband, Neil, end his life and conceals the truth, she is charged with his murder. As the trial unfolds and her daughter Sophie testifies against her, Deborah, still reeling from grief, fights to defend her actions. Twelve jurors hold her fate in their hands - and if found guilty she will serve a life sentence. But is the assisted suicide of a person you love murder?

Following unsettling exploits in the Auvergne, Reverend Francis Oughterard and his companions try to resume a life of moderate respectability. But the events have cast a long shadow and soon they find themselves once again in the grip of sinister repercussions. Who is the menacing blackmailer stalking a previous blackmailer and the bishop? Can the bishop survive the threat of being 'outed'? Why is there a body in the polyanthus bed and can Lavinia Birtle-Figgins be as dippy as she seems?