“[We] can’t get enough of Christie’s plush and murderous thrills.” —Entertainment Weekly From the Queen of Mystery—this all-new collection of stories about love gone horribly wrong will get your heart racing. Love can propel us to our greatest heights . . . and darkest depths. In this new compendium of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love—crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly deceits. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all at the ready to solve tantalizing mysteries. In “The Face of Helen,” a night at the Royal Opera could reach a fatal crescendo for a woman caught in a dicey love triangle; “Finessing the King” delivers a curious ad in the personals that could mask sinister intentions; who’s in danger of getting stung in “Wasps’ Nest” depends on rounding up suspects and solving a murder—before it even happens. These are just a few of the tales in this collection featuring essential reading that Christie fans old and new will simply love to death.

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** A promising young attorney and a dedicated family man, Michael Fletcher seemed to have it all. But in the summer of 2000, Michael found himself standing trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, Leann. The verdict--guilty of second-degree murder--would leave friends, family, and the public at large scrambling to make sense of a twisted and frightening series of events that ended in the brutal killing of Leann Fletcher. What could possibly have led Michael Fletcher to commit such a gruesome act? As a college student, Michael Fletcher married the girl of his dreams after a three-year courtship. It seems like a fairy-tale romance come true: a match made in heaven. So why would a man with no history of domestic violence murder his devoted wife right after he told her how much he loved her? Why would Michael shoot Leann in the back of the head, not only killing her but also the child that she was carrying inside her? According to prosecutors, Fletcher has been involved in an extramarital affair with a beautiful judge for two years. Was his relationship with respected District Judge Susan Chrzanowski enough cause for him to murder his wife in cold blood? Raising even more troubling questions, the startling discovery colored Leann's already shocking murder with shadings of sex, political scandal, and deadly betrayal.

The first of his peerless novels of Cold War espionage and international intrigue, Call for the Dead is also the debut of John le Carré's masterful creation George Smiley. "Go back to Whitehall and look for more spies on your drawing boards." George Smiley is no one's idea of a spy—which is perhaps why he's such a natural. But Smiley apparently made a mistake. After a routine security interview, he concluded that the affable Samuel Fennan had nothing to hide. Why, then, did the man from the Foreign Office shoot himself in the head only hours later? Or did he? The heart-stopping tale of intrigue that launched both novelist and spy, Call for the Dead is an essential introduction to le Carré's chillingly amoral universe.

2012 Australian Romance Readers Awards Finalist: Favorite Historical RomanceCareer diplomat Alec Halsey has been elevated to a marquessate he doesn't want and Polite Society believes he doesn't deserve; his lover has decided she won't marry him after all and the suspicion he murdered his brother still lingers in London drawing rooms. So returning to London after seven months' seclusion may have been a mistake. Alec's foreboding deepens when a nobody vicar drops dead at a party-political dinner; he witnesses the very public humiliation of an up-and-coming portrait painter, and his rabble-rousing uncle Plantagenet is bashed and left for dead in a laneway. When the vicar's true identity is revealed, Alec suspects the man was poisoned. But who would want a seemingly harmless man of God murdered, and why?ALEC HALSEY MYSTERY series book 2Character-driven amateur sleuthNon explicit (mild violence)Story length 102,000 wordsREVIEWSLucinda Brant is the queen of Georgian Historical Mystery just as Georgette Heyer was the queen of Regency Romance. What these two authors have in common, besides being superb writers, is their ability to weave historical information into the plot so that the reader is transported effortlessly to another time and place. Lucinda Brant gets 5 stars from me, and I can't wait to read the other books in the Alec Halsey series! Anne B for Readers' FavoriteLucinda Brant has a beautiful writing style and a careful grasp on the social mores, political environment and tangled affairs of the aristocracy of Georgian England. Her characterizations are layered and complex. The mystery is intricately woven into an absorbing plot. Lucinda Brant is a gifted writer and Deadly Affair is highly and enthusiastically recommended for lovers of historical mysteries! Jill MacKenzie InD'Tale magazine

The story begins when prominent Beverly Hills psychiatrist, Dr. Joel Steiner, is shot and killed by an unknown intruder, on Steiner’s luxury yacht, the Sirocco. LAPD Det. Joe Kellermann and his partner, Det. Rick Ramirez, begin an immediate investigation into Dr. Steiner’s murder. Supposedly, “happily married,” the detectives soon learn Steiner was having a secret affair with one of his patients: a mystery-woman, know only as “Rita.” Upon further investigation, the mistress Rita Chandler, is found living in a beach-front bungalow on P.C.H. in Malibu. During the interrogation, Miss Chandler reveals that her affair with Steiner had become the ultimate fatal attraction. He was totally obsessed with her. When she tells him the affair is over, primarily because she has fallen in love with another man, Steve Ryan, he loses it; in a fit of rage he tells her: “If I can’t have you...nobody else will!” Steiner even threatens to kill her. A scene with Steve Ryan reaffirms Miss Chandler’s testimony that after the break-up, Steiner constantly spied on her, stalked her, made obscene phone calls, etc., finally forcing her to leave her Santa Barbara apartment. At the end of this scene, we are shocked, when Ryan reveals that Rita Chandler is HIV-positive. She has AIDS. In a scene, following, Kellermann’s superior officer, Capt. Frank McElroy, already has a list of four possible suspects: Rita Chandler, her boyfriend, Barbara Steiner, the “grieving widow,” and Steiner’s business partner, Dr. Sydney Zellman. This scene ends with a surprise visit from Diana Marlowe, from the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s office. She is here to see Kellermann with vital information concerning the Steiner case. Miss Marlowe reveals that about three months prior, Rita Chandler came into her Santa Barbara office and filed a complaint against Steiner. As incredible as it sounded, Miss Chandler was positive, Steiner had injected her with the deadly AIDS virus. Pregnant (with Steiner’s child) she had an abortion. Upon further investigation, the D.A.’s office learned that Steiner was treating three AIDS patients, including a gay man, named Larry Mosely. Genetic analysis of the virus that infected Miss Chandler, was shown to be identical to Mosely’s. Dr. Steiner was arrested, arraigned and released on $200,000 bond. His trial was scheduled to begin in a matter of weeks. Miss Marlowe explains, word “leaked out” of the D.A.’s office; Mosely’s gay and HIV status became public. He was suing Steiner for doctor-patient confidentiality. Kellermann immediately adds Larry Mosely to his possible-suspect list. Within 48 hours later, Kellermann is informed by Beverly Hills detective Gregg Juarez, that Diana Marlowe has been reported missing. She walked out of her hotel and hasn’t been seen since. This is followed by a $50,000 ransom hoax, perpetrated by an ex-con, Marlowe had “sent-up.” A sequence of events follows, wherein the detectives try to “flush out,” Larry Mosely. They learn that Mosely is “holed-up” in an L.A. Skid Row hotel. In the interrogation scene that follows, we see that Larry Mosely is dying. As the detectives wait for the hotel elevator to take them back to the first floor lobby, they suddenly hear a single gunshot from Mosely’s room. They discover he has committed suicide. Ten days after her disappearance, Diana Marlowe’s body is discovered in an Echo Park self storage locker; a single bullet wound to the chest. A ballistics report states that the weapon Mosely used to kill himself with, was the same one used to murder Miss Marlowe. The big break in the case comes when Bill Bradshaw, with the Los Angeles D.A.’s office contacts Kellermann. He states that a man, Tony Lesniak, being held prisoner a the Men’s Central Jail, has vital and important information concerning Dr. Steiner’s murder. For that information, Lesniak wants the D.A.’s office to cut him a deal. Lesniak states emphatically that on two separate occasion

Preorder the BRAND NEW instalment in the gripping Hopgood Hall cozy mystery series A local gossip is about to get her just desserts! Life at Hopgood Hall is never boring, but Alexi Ellis hopes that there will be no more murders for the time being – she’s solved four already and is getting a reputation in the local area for being bad luck. So when local gossip Polly Pearson arrives at Hopgood hall, Alexi knows this can only mean bad news. Polly has made it clear that she dislikes Alexi, and has campaigned for her to leave Hopgood Hall forever – so what could Polly want? Then Polly reveals that her partner, Gerry has been found murdered in her B&B and that she is the main suspect! Alexi, her partner Jack and Cosmo the cat are all left speechless. More so when Polly begs Alexi for help improving her innocence. But Alexi isn’t sure she wants to help this spiteful gossip. Is she really innocent or as deadly as the police believe her to be? Praise for E V Hunter: 'If you want to dip your toe into the cosy crime genre then this is the book for you! It is incredible. I loved every word and Cosmo the cat is just hilarious' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review 'A Date To Die For would make a fabulous early evening television series. I really enjoyed it and look forward to much more from E V Hunter'⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review 'The author certainly knows how to grab the reader's attention and draw them into what proves to be one heck of a story'⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review

He pulled her to him in a fierce, sweaty embrace, and breathed into her parted lips. Set it up for me to see them, honey. Do it for me and I'll... take care of you... The set-up was cash - enough cash to kill for. But something went terribly wrong. And afterwards, blood had to pay for blood.