Late one night Fiona and Jack, after a long day in the sun, were sound asleep when they were suddenly awakened by wild, frightening, almost bloodcurdling screams. Although Fiona is much braver than Jack, she, on this occasion, was very much alarmed while Jack was very calm. He had heard those screams before. They were made by a barred owl, also frequently referred to as a hoot owl. The owl seemed to scream these words, "Whoooooo cooooooks for youuuuuu? Whoooooo cooooooks for youuuuuu?" According to an old wives' tale common to the South Carolina coastal area, this owl arrives screaming in the neighborhood on the night when someone has just been murdered in the vicinity. The fact that on one particular night the owl arrives screaming its best when no one seems to have been murdered nearby provides a very important clue that helps our investigators identify the killer.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.

This collection dives into the Halo universe from the perspective of those who fought and died to save humanity—and those who vowed to wipe it out.

Trudell "Tru" Becket finds herself in a bind when her library in lovely Cypress, South Carolina, is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless "technological center." She decides to rescue hundreds of books slated for the town dump, and along with her best friends-coffee shop owner Tori Green and author Flossie Finnegan-Baker, sets up a secret bookroom in the library's basement. When the town manager, who was behind the big push for the library's transformation, is crushed by an overturned shelf of DVDs, Tru becomes the prime suspect. Faster than you can say "Shhhh!" Tru quickly finds herself on the same page with a killer who would love to write her final chapter. -- adapted from publisher info.