mystery and detective stories

Three people -- a suburban housewife, a talented documentary photographer, and a detective -- living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn't recede...and that desperation and hunger can lurk behind even the prettiest facades.

Twelve-year-old Elodie journeys to Two Castles in hopes of studying acting but instead becomes apprentice to a dragon, who teaches her to be observant and use reasoning, thus helping her to uncover who is plotting against the ogre Count Jonty Um.

A wealthy industrialist's son was believed to have faked his own kidnapping, but Cole and Pike find it was no fake. The boy and his secret girlfriend have been taken by professional border kidnappers who buy, sell, and steal victims like commodities. When Cole goes undercover to try to buy the hostages back, he himself disappears. It is up to Pike to retrace Cole's steps.

Detective Alex Cross is thwarted at every turn while he attempts to investigate the abduction of the president's son and daughter and also discovers a deadly contagion released in the capital's water supply that foreshadows a larger, more devastating attack.

"As 200,000 fans pour into town for Race Week, a body is found in a metal drum near Charlotte Motor Speedway -- a discovery that has NASCAR crewman Wayne Gamble urgently seeking out Tempe at the Mecklenburg County ME's office. Twelve years ago, his sister, Cindi, then a high school senior and aspiring professional race car driver, disapeared along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette, who was linked to a group of right-wing extremists. The FBI joined the investigation, but it was soon terminated. Is the body Cindi's? Or Cale's? Tests reveal that a toxic substance was in the drum with the body -- just as another disappearance occurs. Who is orchestrating the mayhem behind the scenes at NASCAR -- and what government secrets might have been buried more than a decade ago?"--back cover.

Combat veteran John Puller, now working as an investigator for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, tries to solve the murder of an Army man and his Pentagon contractor wife in their isolated rural home.

During a bone-chilling snap of record cold weather, a series of enigmatic drowning deaths of young men frightens a small summer resort community on Long Island's Shinnecock Bay. Local college professor Deacon Kane, still recovering from the accidental drowning of his only son years ago, is implicated in the deaths. Kane befriends a hypnotically alluring bartender named Colette and quickly continues his brutal, alcoholic spiral downward with little regard for self-preservation. The police want to know Kane's connection to the young men who have died. But as it becomes clear that Kane himself may not know the extent of his own involvement, it is apparent that something dark and sinister is at work in Southampton.

NYC Lt. Eve Dallas investigates the death of a young actress with the assistance of her husband Rourke and Detective Peabody.

When the son of a wealthy, politically powerful family is found dead, London constable and sorcerer's apprentice Peter Grant investigates this case, which is linked to a rogue magician known as the Faceless Man -- and which takes him deep within the deadliest subway system in the world.

When disaster strikes his older brother Charlie, who once fell under the sway of a deeply disturbed cult-like figure, Jay Ehrlich is drawn back into his brother's past of secrets, terror, and lies.