Historical House Mysteries

July 1861. On Independence Day, the citizens of Washington, DC, are celebrating as if there isn't a war. But the city is teeming with green Union recruits while President Lincoln and his War Department are focused on military strategy to take Richmond in Secessionist Virginia in order to bring the conflict to a swift end. Manassas, Virginia, near Bull Run Creek, is in their sights. The very next morning, as Congress convenes once more, a dead body is found hanging from the crane beneath the unfinished dome of the Capitol.

With the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter, the Civil War has begun - and an invasion of Washington, DC, from Secessionist Virginia seems imminent. As the population evacuates, the president is in desperate need of men to defend the capital. Lincoln's trusted aide, Adam Speed Quinn, and Senator Jim Lane hastily assemble a motley crew and garrison them in the East Room at the White House. As dawn breaks with no Rebel strike, a single act of violence intrudes within the White House. One of the Frontier Guard lies dead in the oval library, throat slit ear to ear. There is a murderer among them.

All that history knows of Grace Plantagenet is that she was an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV and one of two attendants aboard the funeral barge of his widowed queen. Thus, she was half sister of the famous young princes, who–when this story begins in 1485–had been housed in the Tower by...

From the best-selling author of The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White, a daring reimagining of one of the most tumultuous moments in our nation’s past Stephen L. Carter’s thrilling new novel takes as its starting point an alternate history: President Abraham Lincoln survives the...

Left with only a muddle-headed butler, a bossy cook/housekeeper, and a couple of energetic maids, Lady Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton has enough problems on her hands. Not only is she struggling to upkeep the sprawling Manor House and vast acres she inherited, she must also take care of her numerous tenants, while coping with the inconveniences and sacrifices of wartime England. Fortunately Sitting Marsh is far removed from the bombing going on in London and other cities. That doesn't mean that peace prevails in the tiny village.

When her first novel, Adored, was published, critics and readers alike agreed that Tilly Bagshawe had put the glamour back into the blockbuster, giving it a fun, sexy, and totally modern new spin. Now Bagshawe is back with another intoxicating tale of ambition, backstabbing, and unbridled...

The life of a mail-order bride was no breeze. It seemed to Laurie Bonnet she couldn't do even the simplest thing right. She couldn't make a cup of coffee fit for a dog, so how was she going to help her man in a war over his land? When things get too tough, Lauire decides to flee back home. On...

One unidentified skeleton. Three missing men. A village full of secrets. The best-selling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna brings us a sparkling—by turns funny and moving—novel about a young American woman turned amateur detective in a small village in Southern Italy...

Ireland. AD 672. The Feast of Beltaine is approaching, and the seven senior princes of the kingdom of Muman are gathering at Cashel to discuss King Colgú's policies. Just days before the council meets, Brother Conchobhar, the keeper of the sacred sword, is found murdered. Sister Fidelma and her brother, Colgú, fear that the killer had been trying to steal the sword that symbolises the king's authority to rule.

1965 - the heyday of rock & roll. Northern Lights are tipped to become as big as The Beatles. But after a gig in Newcastle, lead singer and creative genius Gerry Crowther vanishes into the foggy night. Later, his body is recovered from the River Tyne. Now, almost 20 years on, teen singing sensation Trudi Bell dominates the charts. As she prepares to release a new album, her manager, Lew Pattison, receives a demo tape from an unknown songwriter.

Down the Pogonip Trail Jeff Kurland didn't have a gun. Jeff Kurland didn't have a chance. The rancher knew that even as he scanned the cabin for a weapon, any weapon. He was trapped with a killer who had a pistol in his hand and a bounty on his head. And outside, the pogonip swirled and fell, an...

Bowdrie Passes Through Ride with the legendary Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie as he takes up the cause of Josh Pettibone, a stubborn loner who faces the hangman's noose. Bugs Tatum wants Pettibone's land--and he's willing to do anything to get it. But Bowdrie can not rest until justice is served!...

When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin. But after a week of partying, she starts the only job she can get...working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders On her first solo night shift, Lou wakes to discover that she has been locked in her room, and is being held hostage. With no one to turn to but the other residents–all of them dangerous criminals–Lou is forced to rely on her own resources.

Intrepid reporter Charlotte "Charlie" James arrives in Paris in 1938 eager to make a fresh start, but little does she know the trouble that awaits her... Charlie James is chasing her first big scoop as correspondent for British-based newspaper The Times, and she needs to prove to her boss that...

Leaving behind 1950s London, Nathan becomes bound to Wake, a teenager from Essex travelling with other yteenagers aboard the ship Tarantula. Through their strange connection, Nathan experiences Wake’s youthful energy and social world, even as the mysterious glow that marks him deepens in power and danger. Meanwhile, the manipulative presences of Mayzee and Danie press harder, pulling Nathan toward darker realms of psychic transformation and control. Around them, the tragic Geelong family and Wake’s companions on the Tarantula circle the mystery, testing loyalties and shattering certainties.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST From the acclaimed author of My Cat Yugoslavia: a stunning, incandescent new novel that speaks to identity, war, exile, love, betrayal, and heartbreak The death of head of state Enver Hoxha and the loss of his father leave Bujar growing up in the ruins of Communist...

The "kind of thriller you want to savor as you turn the pages" (New York Journal of Books), set at the height—and in the heart—of Soviet power, with intricately plotted machinations, secrets and surveillance, corrupt politicos and puppet masters in the Politburo, and one devastating weapon...

In this gripping follow-up to her sensational debut, Haunted Ground, Erin Hart delves into Ireland's mysterious peat bogs to create a stunning tale of deception and murder. Pathologist Nora Gavin arrives at a desolate industrial site in the Irish midlands, a place known as the Lake of Sorrows...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Midwives and The Sandcastle Girls comes a spellbinding novel of love, despair, and revenge—set in war-ravaged Tuscany. 1943: Tucked away in the idyllic hills south of Florence, the Rosatis, an Italian family of noble lineage, believe that the walls...

An ancient song composed by King David’s chief musician Asaph, discovered by the Teutonic Crusaders to the Holy Land, returned to Germany, then divided into four fragments and hidden to prevent the fearsome powers of God unleashed if the Song is ever played … This is the legend pursued by the 15-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach and his schoolmate Georg Erdmann in 1700 as they walk the 250 miles from their small town of Ohrdruf to the northern city of Lüneburg to join the St. Michael’s School choir.