As I read Karla’s Choice, a famous quote from The Godfather reverberated in my head: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part III. George Smiley, of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold fame, is retired and living in Oxford, no longer one of…

One October can be a summer month in South Georgia. Temperatures in the nineties, leaves still green and locked onto the trees; humidity so thick that a small fish could swim in it. And the gnats were everywhere. I’d forgotten about the gnats. I left my bags in the beat-up old Fiat I sometimes referred…

One Wednesday, 21 June 1815 3 Bruton Place Mayfair, London, England The four o’clock hour of the morning The damning words folded in on themselves as the paper crumpled in Lady Petra’s fist. Flames danced merrily in the fireplace until one log split under the crushing heat, sparks flying like the spitting of an angry…

Plum and Cherry have been best friends ever since growing up in the same Canadian trailer park together, even giving each other nicknames after the streets they lived on. But then Cherr’s dad hit the patent jackpot and moved her family away to a wealthier part of Port Dalhousie. Perhaps more fatally for the girls’…

Columbia Jones is living every writer’s dream. An acclaimed author of blockbuster bestsellers, she’s wrapping up the tour for her latest novel in Denver, Colorado, while surrounded by adoring fans. When one figure in the audience of her book talk abruptly stands up to leave, however, she falters and faints. Later, she and her people…

Losing his parents sent York College student Billy Anderson into a tailspin. Even though he eventually managed to pull himself together, he can’t help still feeling haunted by their senseless deaths. His dad was a cautious driver but had suddenly veered off the road to crash into a tree near their hometown of Sudbury, Pennsylvania,…

Marcia Clark brings her prosecutorial experience, thorough research, and thriller writing skills together to create what is destined to be a classic in the true crime genre. Trial by Ambush is the first in-depth investigation into the trial of Barbara Graham, a petty criminal who found herself on trial for murder in 1953. She participated…

When Ruby Young impulsively decides to flee Baltimore for Boston, finding a cheap furnished apartment in practically no time at all feels like an answered prayer. While she does her due diligence – learning that the previous owner died unexpectedly from an overdose, hence the availability and affordability – the last thing she expects is…

I’m a goody two shoes. I’ll admit it. As a kid, I followed the rules, colored inside the lines. I put all 64 Crayola crayons back in the box when I finished drawing my five-legged ponies and rainbows instead of scattering them all over the play rug like a philistine. I knew the difference between…

The mystery genre comes with an intrinsic promise of twists, turns, mayhem—a literary roller coaster ride! Anyone can show up at any time. Anything can happen. But what if all the characters in a mystery or suspense novel are confined to one specific place? Unable to leave to find help or gather information… and no…