From the New York Times bestselling author of Always and Blackberry Winter: “An intoxicating blend of mystery, history and romance, this book is hard to put down.”—Real Simple On the eve of World War II, the last surviving specimen of a camellia plant known as the Middlebury Pink lies secreted away on an English country estate. Flora, an amateur American botanist, is contracted by an international ring of flower thieves to infiltrate the household and acquire the coveted bloom. Her search is at once brightened by new love and threatened by her discovery of a series of ghastly crimes. More than half a century later, garden designer Addison takes up residence at the manor, now owned by the family of her husband, Rex. The couple’s shared passion for mysteries is fueled by the enchanting camellia orchard and an old gardener’s notebook. Yet its pages hint at dark acts ingeniously concealed. If the danger that Flora once faced remains very much alive, will Addison share her fate? Fans of Downton Abbey should rush to pick up this novel.

Camille must save Orleans in this high-stakes sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller.

A girl experiments with the occult to keep her family together in this psychological thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of Dark Corners. In a quiet house in the London suburb of Manningtree, fifteen-year-old Pup and his emotionally damaged older sister, Dolly, have become closer than ever since the death of the their mother. Pup’s bookish obsession with witchcraft gives their disordered life a sense of purpose. Dolly isn’t sure what to expect from the talisman Pup makes her, until their father brings home a vulgar new wife. Then, Dolly, resentful and suddenly empowered, makes a deadly wish—the first of many. In a depressed neighborhood on the other side of town, a paranoid hermit has been questioned in a series of brutal murders. Lately, he’s taken to living in a tunnel behind a fort of mattresses, where he keeps his knives. Soon, his life and the lives of Pup and Dolly will converge. As one of them struggles toward something close to sanity, the other two will descend even further into darkness. “Only Rendell can show us how chillingly easy it is for ordinary people to slide into criminal behavior,” and in The Killing Doll, the tumble is relentless (Oprah.com). “Rendell, who perfected the art of the truly suspenseful psychological thriller” is a three-time recipient of the Edgar Award, and the author of numerous bestsellers (The Boston Globe).

This riveting biography brilliantly explores the short, intense, and passionate life of the country girl from Normandy, who at thirteen fled her brute of a father to go to Paris. Almost overnight she became one of the most admired courtesans of the 1840s—the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas fils’ The Lady of the Camellias and Verdi’s La Traviata. With her aristocratic ways, elegant clothes and signature camellias, Marie was always a subject of fascination at the opera and the boulevard cafés. Her death at twenty-three from tuberculosis created such an outpouring of sympathy in the press that Charles Dickens, who was in Paris at the time, was amazed. “Everything is erased in the face of an incident which is far more important,” he wrote, “the romantic death of one of the glories of the demi-monde, the beautiful, the famous Marie Duplessis.”

Orphaned at fifteen when her mother is fished from a river in rural Sussex, Camellia discovers a cache of letters among her mother's effects, and realises that the past she has always been so sure of is a tissue of lies. Devastated, she runs away to London and tries to lose herself among the dangers and temptations of the metropolis, but her past won't stay buried forever...

Hardy camellias reward the gardener with striking and profuse blooms when the rest of the garden sleeps. This encyclopedia is the definitive guide to these beautiful and varied flowering plants.