A Thoroughly Southern Mystery #5 Long ago, the cozy southern town of Hopemore, Georgia fell on dark times after the murder of a little girl shook its easygoing citizens, sending one man to prison and changing the lives of two young boys forever. Years later, residents all settled back into their routines, the suicide of one of the town’s most beloved teachers, Dwanye Evans, brings Hopemore’s dark past back into the present. Southern lady, county magistrate and co-owner of the local nursery, MacLaren Yarbrough knows how to keep busy—and that’s not even counting her rather large extended family—but now she’s ready to add amateur sleuth to the list. It’s not that she doubts the reasons the police give for Mr. Evans’ suicide; she just can’t help but wonder if someone drove him to it... In this sleepy Southern town where ‘crime,’ is usually no harsher than a speeding ticket, McClaren may need to seek out the criminal herself if she plans to discover the hidden truth... “This series is a winner.” –Tamar Myers “As Southern as Sunday fried chicken and sweet tea... Come for one visit and you’ll always return.” –Carolyn Hart

Like other fictional characters, female sleuths may live in the past or the future. They may represent current times with some level of reality or shape their settings to suit an agenda. There are audiences for both realism and escapism in the mystery novel. It is interesting, however, to compare the fictional world of the mystery sleuth with the world in which readers live. Of course, mystery readers do not share one simplistic world. They live in urban, suburban, and rural areas, as do the female heroines in the books they read. They may choose a book because it has a familiar background or because it takes them to places they long to visit. Readers may be rich or poor; young or old; conservative or liberal. So are the heroines. What incredible choices there are today in mystery series! This three-volume encyclopedia of women characters in the mystery novel is like a gigantic menu. Like a menu, the descriptions of the items that are provided are subjective. Volume 3 of Mystery Women as currently updated adds an additional 42 sleuths to the 500 plus who were covered in the initial Volume 3. These are more recently discovered sleuths who were introduced during the period from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1999. This more than doubles the number of sleuths introduced in the 1980s (298 of whom were covered in Volume 2) and easily exceeded the 347 series (and some outstanding individuals) described in Volume 1, which covered a 130-year period from 1860-1979. It also includes updates on those individuals covered in the first edition; changes in status, short reviews of books published since the first edition through December 31, 2008.

School psychologist Skye Denison has been waiting forever for her happily-ever-after with police chief Wally Boyd. But her bliss threatens to unravel on the very first day of their luxurious honeymoon cruise, when Skye becomes convinced that she has glimpsed her mother on board! Surely even momzilla May wouldn’t have manipulated Wally into booking the same trip that her knitting group is taking…or would she? May’s possible presence can’t cool Skye and Wally’s ardor on their personal Love Boat, but discovering knitting expert Guinevere Stallings as she lies dying from a stab wound leaves them untangling the clues of yet another murder investigation rather than getting tangled in the sheets. Since Skye found the body, she’s considered a top suspect, but she’s far from the only one. Guinevere’s imperious ways needled nearly everyone, and she left an impressive number of enemies. It’s up to the crafty newlyweds to figure out which of the wronged parties was angry enough to cast Guinevere off…permanently.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

After Princess Regina, a former supermodel, is outed in the tabloids for gaining weight, someone tries to kill her. She suspects her royal husband wants to be rid of her now that she's fat. Stalked by the mysterious assassin, she seeks refuge with the only person she can trust: her long-estranged foster sister, Rev. Cady Stanton, a right wing talk show host who has romantic and weight issues of her own.

"From the prize-winning biographer--the fascinating, little-known story of a Victorian-era murder that rocked literary London, leading Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and Queen Victoria herself to wonder: can a novel kill? In May 1840, Lord William Russell, well known in London's highest social circles, was found with his throat cut. The brutal murder had the whole city talking. The police suspected Russell's valet, Courvoisier, but the evidence was weak. And the missing clue lay in the unlikeliest place: what Courvoisier had been reading. In the years just before the murder, new printing methods had made books cheap and abundant, the novel form was on the rise, and suddenly everyone was reading. The best-selling titles were the most sensational true-crime stories. Even Dickens and Thackeray, both at the beginning of their careers, fell under the spell of these tales--Dickens publicly admiring them, Thackeray rejecting them. One such phenomenon was William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, the story of an unrepentant criminal who escaped the gallows time and again. When Courvoisier finally confessed his guilt, he would cite this novel in his defense. Murder By the Book combines the thrilling true-crime story with a illuminating account of the rise of the novel form and the battle for its early soul between the most famous writers of the time. It is a superbly researched, vividly written, fascinating read from first to last"--

Few bands embodied the pure excess of the Seventies like Queen. Theatrical, brilliant, even mercurial – there has never been another band like them, or a frontman like Freddie Mercury. Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid Concert is the stuff of legend and 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are the Champions' have become anthems at sporting events around the world. With one of the most iconic videos ever, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ achieved even greater recognition through inclusion in the movie Wayne's World. Their 1981 Greatest Hits album has sold more than 25 million copies to date. Queen were one of the biggest Eighties stadium rock bands of the Eighties but the death of frontman, songwriter and producer Mercury at the start of the Nineties brought the band to a premature halt. This book tells the full story of the band and its members from pre-Queen to post Freddie.