Murphy's Law by JoAnn Ross released on Nov 24, 1988 is available now for purchase.

In the "brilliant novel" (The New York Times) V.S. Naipaul takes us deeply into the life of one man — an Indian who, uprooted by the bloody tides of Third World history, has come to live in an isolated town at the bend of a great river in a newly independent African nation. Naipaul gives us the most convincing and disturbing vision yet of what happens in a place caught between the dangerously alluring modern world and its own tenacious past and traditions.

Riverbend was a quiet little town, the kind of place where one day was just like all the rest and nothing ever happened. Occasionally the stagecoach rolled through, but it never stopped, because no one ever came to Riverbend and no one ever left. The day the stagecoach stood motionless in the center of town, Sheriff Ned Hardy knew something was terribly wrong. What was the mysterious substance on both coach and horses? It would not come off. Soon it was everywhere in the tidy little village. Something had to be done, and Sheriff Hardy aimed to do it.

Young Arthur trains with a wooden sword in preparation for the day when with the help of the magic sword, Excalibur, he will rule over a united Britain. The trainer is his uncle, Merlyn Britannicus, and he also teaches him justice, honor and the responsibility of leadership.

River's Bend, a country romance. Leslie Hillerman, an artist in her midthirties devastated by divorce, moves in as the caretaker of River's Bend, a charming old farmhouse set on a river. She comes in search of solitude and healing but finds more than just trees. This is a warm, gently humorous tale of a city woman coming to live in the country about eccentric country people, their dogs, and an unlikely middle-aged love affair. It's rife with ghosts be they broken hearts or the kind that go bump in the night mysteries, and the healing powers of the river. Dreaming of love's return, Leslie discovers that love can be waiting in plain view and yet be completely out of sight.