Historical House Mysteries

Established early in the last century as a memorial to O. Henry, this annual collection has consistently offered a remarkable sampling of contemporary short stories. Each year stories are chosen from large and small literary magazines and a panel of distinguished writers is enlisted to award the...

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...

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...

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...

Trap of Gold Weatherton finds the dream of a lifetime, a vein richer in gold than he ever cared to imagine. He knew he had more than he needed, but he almost lost his senses - and his life - as the fever began to take control of him. Hattan's Castle Every plan Jim Daniels tries, including murder...

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!...

September 1940 is finally drawing to a close. With London having endured the Blitz for nearly a month, people are calling for vengeance: Britain should retaliate even harder with their own bombing campaign in enemy territory. But once again the night heralds more destruction. At Custom House, anxious residents dutifully head to the nearest public air-raid shelter as the warning siren wails. When dawn brings the all-clear people disperse, but one man remains - he's dead, stabbed through the heart.

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.

Everyone knew the kind of girl Jean Timberlake was -- ask anybody in the sleepy surf town of Floral Beach and they'd say Jean was wild, looking for trouble. But she certainly wasn't looking for murder. She was found dead on the beach seventeen years ago, and a rowdy ex-boyfriend named Bailey...

Can food lead Tara Taneja to love?Tara Taneja lives in the small town of Siyaka; she runs a Mathematics Tuition Centre and works at her grandfather's sweets shop, Lallan Sweets.Nikku Sabharwal, her long lost best friend and crush, returns to Siyaka after many years. Sparks fly between them, as...

In the third installment of this witty Regency romcom series, a headstrong chaperone is torn between following her rigid principles or her heart. Despite his many responsibilities, there is nothing Leopold Sloane, the 11th Duke of Debden, takes more seriously than the safety of those he loves...

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...

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...