Fiction

The Pearly Girls return to solve a high school reunion murder in this sequel to Murder Strikes a Chord.

Event planner Cassidy Jamison and her not-so-helpful sexagenarian staff of Roxie, Kate, Aileen, and Ruthanne are up to their elbows with a high school reunion committee’s constantly changing requirements for an event that must be the most elaborate and memorable at all costs.

When well-known reporter, Darcy Branch, and former cheerleader, Brittany Mahoney, are found dead on her property, Cassidy and the gang have to find the killer before the party’s over. And the more Cassidy and her Chihuahua mix, Elvis, dig for clues, the more deadly secrets they uncover—including one that changes everything she knows about her family’s history.

The Pearly Girls need to solve the case before the Class of 2009 goes down in Ivy Springs history as the deadliest reunion.

For fans of Hannah Whitten and Ava Reid comes a thrilling new fantasy by the author of Spit Back the Bones.

In a village plagued by mysterious deaths, Adelaide Thorn wonders if she is truly touched by the Devil.

The villagers of Rixton—including Adelaide’s father, the vicar—believe her to be the monster responsible for all the town’s tragedies, spurred on by the strange visions and blackouts caused by her chronic illness. Kept locked away except for funerals, even Addie herself begins to wonder if she is the one with blood on her hands.

But when she discovers a peculiar bell nestled in a riverbed, Addie realizes the truth behind her strange visions—they are actually the ghosts of the village’s dead searching for rest. With the bell’s strange power allowing her to see the lost souls and open a doorway to the Rowan Wood where they are trapped, she strikes a deal with the ghost of Bram Avery and the young lord Ransom Black to venture into the hellish purgatory.

As the three make their way deeper into the Wood, each motivated by their own desperate desires, trust turns to betrayal and flawless facades begin to flicker. It may be that the ones Addie has so longed to reunite are those who have been lying to her her entire life.

Winner of the Asian American Writers' Workshop Pages in Progress Prize

"A delightful and perceptive jaunt into the heart of the Indian American community of New Jersey, Edison is a charming, often hilarious novel brimming over with life, laughter, and dreams worthy of the most outrageous Bollywood movies.”
—Chitra Divakaruni, author of Independence and Mistress of Spices

"A sparkling epic worthy of Bollywood's silver screens."
—Kirkus Reviews

Edison is a Bollywood-style epic tale brimming with song and dance, action and comedy, love and pathos, and cameos by dozens of real Indian stars of yesterday and today—a hilariously entertaining masala film in the guise of literary fiction. 

Along the way, we glean bits of Bollywood history and fall in love with an improbable cast of characters that inhabits Edison’s “Little India.” Edison is a wild, romantic, laugh-out-loud love letter to the Indian American community of Edison, New Jersey, where author Pallavi Dixit grew up.

The unlikely star of Edison is Prem Kumar, the hapless youngest son of a titan of New Delhi industry. Obsessed with Hindi movies—what the world calls Bollywood—he is uninterested in joining the family business or marrying the spear-wielding heiress chosen by his father. He runs away to chase his filmmaking dreams in America, but his plans are immediately derailed. Instead, he finds himself crashing on a mattress and working at an Exxon gas station in the Indian immigrant community of Edison, New Jersey.

Although life is not going according to script, Prem finds a happy rhythm in this bewildering setting. When the beautiful and ambitious Leena Engineer bursts onto the scene, she and her grocery store–owning father upend Prem’s short-term plan to do as little as possible, launching him on an epic adventure to make something of himself. Supported by an unruly cast of roommates, aunties, murderous yet orderly mobsters, and film stars at once glamorous and ludicrous, Prem test-drives the role of hero, and along the way, he witnesses around him the transformation of an ordinary suburb into a bustling "Little India."

Gripping, funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful, The Calamity Club is the story of a group of unbreakable women in 1933 Mississippi, as they fight to claim what’s rightfully theirs—Stockett’s first novel since the #1 bestselling phenomenon, The Help.

It’s been over a year since Meg’s beloved mother failed to come home one Christmas Eve. Since then, the eleven-year-old has been one of the unadoptable “big” girls at The Orphan in Oxford, Mississippi. There, in the face of the disdain and cruelty of the chairlady who runs the orphanage, she fights each day to keep her wits sharp and her spirit unbowed.

In the final, sweltering weeks of the summer, Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and opinionated, arrives in Oxford with the unpleasant task of asking her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. Her sister has married into a wealthy, old family and has taken pains to conceal her humble Delta roots. But as the Depression tightens its grip, it becomes clear that her dreams may have been built on an unsteady foundation. With her banker husband worryingly absent, she drifts around his once-grand family home as her imperious mother-in-law clings to a fantasy of bygone days.

When Birdie meets Charlie, a woman with nothing left to lose, their fates—and Meg’s—converge with those of a band of undaunted, disreputable women as they form an audacious plan to take back control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife, where women’s freedom is fragile, and where making an enemy can have calamitous consequences, will the price they pay for their outrageous risk-taking be too high?

Bold, heartwarming, and bracingly funny, The Calamity Club is an unputdownable story about the many ways female agency can be thwarted, and of those determined to take it back, no matter the cost.

Beautiful, smart, and determined Moyo Adegbite has it all...almost.

As a Boston-based Pediatrician, she’s made her parents back in Lagos proud. Now, she’s ready for true love.

To avoid dating all the duds in Boston, Moyo’s research led her to devise a foolproof plan: Join Cupid's Bow, the popular astrology dating app that uses birth charts to match soulmates with a 99 percent success rate. And the app works…until it doesn’t. After discovering the infidelity of a Cupid’s Bow match, Moyo goes on a booze-fueled rant against the app’s creators, filing an irate complaint slamming the planet responsible for her love life—the god, Saturn.

Niyi Bankole was reluctantly named Saturn, and now he’s saddled with a position at Cupid’s Bow, the family business, as one of three matchmakers. But Niyi quickly learns he’s unequipped to be a god. Leaning into his science background to hide his incompetence, Niyi writes an algorithm that seems to work for clients...until Moyo’s complaint triggers damage control. Now, Moyo is contracted to receive a dating coach to walk her through three Cupid’s Bow–assigned dates. Eager to clean up his mess and (secretly) fine-tune his algorithm, Niyi offers to be Moyo’s dating coach.

As they work together, will Moyo find love through the algorithm, as she and Niyi planned, or will she get swept up in one of Saturn’s rings?

One woman chosen by the God of the Sea. A king hellbent on saving his mysterious island home. And a forbidden romance that could destroy them all.

Trapped in a society ruled by men, Margrete, daughter of a nefarious sea captain, accepts that the only way to escape her power-hungry father’s cruel hand is to marry the wealthy Count Casbian. Cunning in her own right, Margrete yearns to craft her own fate, to flee to the sea, and to lose herself to the aquamarine waves that have called to her since birth.

Bash, a devilishly handsome warrior seeking revenge, believes the beautiful daughter of his greatest enemy is the key to breaking a curse inflicted upon his people. On the day of Margrete’s nuptials, Bash kidnaps the bride, whisking her away to an island where he reigns as king. Shielded from the mortal realm, Margrete finds herself on the fabled shores of Azantian—the birthplace of impossible magic... and a keeper of monstrous secrets.

But secrets are not the only thing Margrete finds on the island, and Bash isn’t the heartless rogue she once believed. Unable to hide her feelings, Margrete must choose between a forbidden love and a destiny spun for her by the God of the Sea himself—A god that has set his sights on Margrete... and the potent magic awakening inside of her soul.

Months have passed since the old worlds ended, and Elwyn has yet to find her place in the new one. Her fortunes turn when she’s presented with the opportunity she didn’t know she’d been waiting for: a shot at revenge against the spectral menace whose meddling doomed her closest companions.

Brannon has traded a life of bloodshed for one of incense and mantras, and he regrets the decision. When forced to confront the brutes who shaped him, he becomes more volatile than ever before and seeks out a worthy target for his rage. In setting fire to his past, he might just burn down every bridge he’s built since.

Plagued by guilt for failing his friends and kingdom, Aedyn is desperate for redemption but would settle for distraction. A chance for both arises when he’s recruited for a dangerous mission involving monsters who could crush his heart with their bare hands and a woman who could do the same with a smile.

Together with a friend they’d thought lost forever, a courageous fae warrior, and the embittered ward of their greatest foe, this ragtag group of ruffians ventures to an uncharted land filled with magic and mayhem. If they can uncover evidence of Unseelie plots, they could turn the tides of an inevitable war. If they fail, they might lose everything they cherish.

A king chased by the demons of his past. A merciless god seeking redemption through bloodshed. And the woman whose very existence defies possibility.

It’s been three months since Margrete Wood defeated her depraved father and saved the mystical island of Azantian. But the monstrous creatures released that night have hidden themselves in the human realm, and Margrete and her king set sail to hunt them down.

When disaster strikes on the high seas, Margrete and the crew find themselves stranded on the shores of a new and dangerous island. It’s there that they come across an ancient coin, one that legend claims belonged to a powerful goddess. It signifies the first of three deadly trials that must be completed. If they fail these tests, they forfeit their lives to the very place that traps them.

As Margrete and Bash struggle to survive gruesome horrors lurking around every turn, a mighty god watches. He’s waited centuries for this moment, and in Margrete, he sees the queen he’s been searching for.

Once the third and final coin is found, Margrete and Bash will discover if their love can conquer all… even death itself.

The second book of this exciting fantasy trilogy is perfect for readers who love high-seas adventures, deadly stakes, and steamy romance.

The night the Prince of the East razed her village, Raina Bloodgood’s life changed forever.

Forced into someone else’s war—and into the arms of the Witch Collector, Alexus Thibault—Raina discovered that everything she believed was wrong, and that she was capable of far more than anyone imagined.

Now, the Prince of the East has taken the Frost King as a pawn in his war against the Summerlands, causing Alexus’s life to hang in the balance. To thwart the prince’s endgame and prevent the Tiressian empire from returning to an age of gods, Raina, Alexus, and a band of Northlanders race against the sands of time to reach a mystical desert land where merciless assassins lurk around every corner.

In the midst of tragedy, Raina and Alexus fight to stay together and alive, all while a nefarious presence follows them straight to the jeweled gates of the Summerland queen’s citadel—the City of Ruin. With much to fear, it’s the terror of a past she shouldn't remember that Raina cannot cast from her dreams.

A past that's determined to find her. One way or another.

When defrocked ex-priest, Jimmy Holiday, agrees to help an old friend with his sick daughter, he doesn’t expect the horrors that await him.

The Blackmoor residence rests upon the outskirts of town with a history of magic, mayhem, and death. Jimmy must decide if the young girl, Lucy, is only ill, or if the haunting of the house and her apparent possession are real.

After the house appears to affect him as well with colors of magic dancing before his eyes, rooms warded by a witch, and a ring of power in his voice, Jimmy is met by a transient who tells him he has “the Mark.”

Whatever being “marked” means, Jimmy doesn’t care. All he wants to do is help Lucy. But, helping Lucy means performing the one thing he swore he would never do…an exorcism.

Will he survive long enough to save the child—and his soul?

“Defrocked priest Jimmy Holiday's narrative voice is a strong blend of insightful, self-deprecating, and sincere.” - Publisher's Weekly ★★★★★

Step into the heart of New Orleans, where legends of vampires, witches, spells, and curses are as alive as the city itself. But what if there’s a nugget of truth to the stories?

Alard Fairchild isn’t your average man—he’s a fairy prince from the Kingdoms of Earth and Sky, hiding in plain sight as a poverty lawyer in the French Quarter. All he wants is a normal, human life. That is, until he meets Razi Miller, a hot tourist with a wild side who’s looking for a little adventure—and ends up entangled in something far more dangerous than he ever expected.

After one unforgettable night together, Raz wakes up to find himself magically bonded to Alard by an ancient marriage tattoo. Neither of them knows how it happened or why, but one thing’s for sure: the consequences are far-reaching—and deadly.

As Raz is dragged into a hidden world of legendary creatures and mystical portals between realms, he faces a terrifying new reality: Alard is already betrothed to Meyda, the ruthless Princess of Fire and Ice. Their accidental marriage could ignite a brutal war between the kingdoms, and Raz is now a pawn in a deadly political game.

With danger closing in, Alard and Raz must work together to undo the chaos they’ve unwittingly unleashed. But the more time they spend together, the more they realize the one thing neither of them can control… is love.

Packed with sizzling romance, high-stakes adventure, and dark magic, A Happy Beginning will keep you hooked until the very last page.

Rose never imagined sitting on a throne, but with her sister Eira still in the mountains warding off a curse, she’s stuck playing ruler.

All she wants is to track down the former queen Amelia and get Eira her crown back, so she can have a sword in hand again and explore the blossoming relationship with her best friend, Cal.

When a mysterious wolf shape-shifter tracks her down and reveals there’s trouble in the magical Eral Forest, Rose is confident the former queen Amelia is behind it. Armed with a set of ancient and enchanted weapons, she and Cal travel with him the wolf to seek out the sorceress and set things right.

But while on their quest, Rose and Cal are captured by a clan of ogres, determined to settle a years old grudge against Rose’s family. Discovering there’s more than sorceresses and ogres lurking in Eral who want revenge, their relationship is pushed to the limit.

The fate of Eral lies in Rose’s hands, will she be able to gain her freedom or forever be cursed by destiny?

An umbrella is opened indoors. A black cat crosses your path. Three cigarettes are lit from one match.

These are omens of bad luck that no one takes seriously. But at Van Buren University when these, and other superstitions, are broken… students die.

Sophomore Jerry Williams’ hard-hitting reporting has won awards for Van Buren’s school newspaper. But when he connects a series of campus deaths to bad luck, his editor questions Jerry’s judgment, kills the story, and suspends him from the paper. But the superstition-related havoc continues, and Darla, Jerry’s new girlfriend, barely escapes with her life.

When Jerry digs deeper into the mystery and publishes his findings in the school’s alternative newspaper, the university administration threatens him with suspension for causing a panic. But Jerry’s reporting instincts won’t let him stop. With his friends and everyone else on campus at risk, it’s not like Jerry has much of a choice.

As Friday the 13th approaches, Jerry fears a catastrophe. He must uncover who—or what—is behind these bad luck deaths and determine how to stop it.

A Timeless Love. A Dark Secret. A Dangerous Choice.

Jayne Lyons is about to risk everything to uncover the truth… even if it means losing her heart—and her life—along the way.

Aspiring historian Jayne Lyons has pinned her career on proving that King Richard III was innocent of the murder of the Princes in the Tower. But when she’s unexpectedly thrown back to the 15th century, she finds herself trapped in Richard’s brutal army camp—and falling for the king she’s spent her life studying.

As Jayne becomes Richard’s confidante and mistress, she’s torn between her growing love for him and the dark evidence against him. When he asks her to spy on his enemy, Henry Tudor, Jayne must decide: help the man she loves, or expose the truth and risk everything.

The Medievalist is a gripping mix of time travel, historical romance, and mystery. Will Jayne follow her heart or her duty?

From Examiner’s Recommended Women in Horror comes THE MARKER CHRONICLES by Danielle DeVor. The First Trilogy contains books 1 – 3. Now, for a limited time, save BIG by buying this special bundle deal at a killer price!

Wonderland must always have an Alice, and Eliza Carroll is the next.

Eliza flees her parent’s political machinations only to stumble into another world and the arms of a man named Finn, who declares her the next Alice. Finn, nicknamed the White Rabbit for the form he can shift into, was sent to find the new Alice and bring her to court, for only she can declare whether Red or White reigns. Not to mention he’ll lose his head if he fails.

For Eliza to get home and Finn to survive, they’ll have to navigate two treacherous courts and their growing feelings for one another, while trying to unravel the curse that forces the Carroll women to journey to Wonderland. But a path to freedom for them both may be more than the magic of Wonderland can conjure…even for its new Alice.

A lost king. A deadly bargain. And the ultimate sacrifice.

After losing the love of her life on an island of horrors, Margrete Wood opens a portal to the Underworld. She’s claimed her full powers, becoming a powerful goddess, and she’ll use her new magic to steal Bash’s soul back from the realm of the dead.

Darius, the God of the Sea, has waited centuries for Margrete to return. She’s the reincarnation of the woman he once loved, and he’s hellbent on wiping away Bash’s memory. But the Underworld is filled with ruthless gods and corrupt bargains, and when Margrete makes a deal with the God of Death himself to get her king back, Darius agrees to help—for a steep price.

With monsters of the deep to slay and a death god to appease, Margrete is forced to work with her enemy before time runs out and everything she loves is destroyed. For good, this time.

The Witch Collector comes to the vale every Harvest Moon.
He is never late.
Until now.

Alexus Thibault, the black-cloaked Witch Collector, travels from Winterhold each year to select a witch for service to the Frost King. But this year is different. This year, something far more dangerous threatens the people on the other side of Frostwater Wood, and it rides fast on the Collector’s heels.

Raina Bloodgood despises the Witch Collector, especially since he took her sister away. She has lived in Silver Hollow for twenty-four autumns, and for twenty-four autumns he has passed her by. But why wouldn’t he? She’s a voiceless witch in a land where magick is created by song. What would the Frost King want with a woman like her?

When Raina and Alexus’s lives collide, they face the fury of an enemy hellbent on claiming an ancient magick that will bring irrevocable change to every corner of the continent. That enemy needs one last pawn to tip the balances—the Frost King—and they are determined to have him.

Thrust into an age-old war of fire, ice, and buried gods, Raina and Alexus must become a formidable force of their own, or let the world as they know it, and those they hold most dear, be destroyed.

What if the blood running through your veins holds the power to change everything?

Twenty-two-year-old Cora Moreau has always lived a quiet life in Durango, Colorado—never had a boyfriend, never ventured far from home. But after a life-altering surgery, she uncovers a shocking secret: her blood holds extraordinary, untapped power.

In an instant, Cora's world is turned upside down. Leaving behind her mundane waitressing job, she accepts an offer to work at a high-tech research facility in Spain—only to discover the job is more dangerous and mysterious than she ever imagined.

Assigned to protect Cora is Nick, brooding former military and her father’s trusted ally. But as they navigate the dark secrets of genetic memory and time travel, their relationship intensifies in ways neither expected—sparking a forbidden romance that challenges everything they thought they knew about duty, loyalty, and love.

As they uncover hidden truths, a powerful enemy lurks in the shadows, determined to exploit Cora’s abilities for their own nefarious purposes. With time running out, Cora and Nick must fight not just for survival, but for the fate of the future itself.

The Archivist is a thrilling blend of high-stakes action, forbidden romance, and mind-bending science. Perfect for fans of gripping science fiction and intense love stories, this spellbinding novel will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Myra has spent years hiding—in servitude of the now imprisoned Queen Amelia, and from a lineage she never wanted.

Now that she is freed from Amelia's clutches, Myra is ready for a new start, but the echoes of the past, and the truth of who she is—a direct descendant of Stula, the goddess of death—will only disrupt the peace she wants to find in the kingdom of Oxare.

The kingdom is beautiful, as is the handsome prince Alvis and though his offer to join him at the Golden Palace is tempting, Myra is determined to make her own way.

But when a life on her own becomes too difficult, Myra is forced to accept Alvis' offer and lands in the thick of a plot to free Queen Amelia. To keep the entire realm and her people safe, Myra and Alvis must find out who among the Golden Palace court is the betrayer before Amelia escapes.

But with each passing day Myra feels her connection to Alvis growing stronger, and her past continues to haunt her. Can they protect the kingdom and each other, before Amelia takes her revenge and Alvis finds out the truth?

Elwyn is remarkably unremarkable, and she prefers it that way. What more could a thief hope for than to pass through life unseen?

Perhaps it is a talent owed to the training of the notorious syndicate that reared her, or it may be a gift from her invisible friend—a clever and capricious creature who, unlike most invisible friends, has only grown more real with time.

Either way, it is about to fail her.

Upon absconding to the tiny town of Amblewick in search of a quiet, uneventful life, she catches the attention of two feuding tricksters, each in search of the perfect pawn.

Through either fate or magical machinations, she soon finds herself in the company of a cutthroat assassin, a wayward prince, and a little girl with a chilling secret. Despite their differences, this ragtag group of ruffians just might manage to save multiple worlds…provided they don’t kill each other first.

Tinker Bell, banished from her homeland for doing the unthinkable, selling the hottest drug in Neverland—pixie dust—wants absolution.

Determined to find a way home, Tink doesn’t hesitate to follow the one lead she has, even if that means seducing a filthy pirate to steal precious gems out from under his…hook.

Captain Hook believes he’s found a real treasure in Tink. That is, until he recovers from her pixie dust laced kiss with a curse that turns the seas against him. With his ship and reputation at the mercy of raging storms, he tracks down the little minx and demands she remove the curse. Too bad she can’t.

However, the mermaid queen has a solution to both of their problems, if Tink and Hook will work together to retrieve a magical item for her.

As they venture to the mysterious Shrouded Isles to find the priceless treasure, their shared nemesis closes in. However, his wrath is nothing compared to the realization that achieving their goal may mean losing something they never expected to find—each other.

Only Anna knows the truth about Cinderella: The pauper turned queen wasn't the victim, but the bully.

Anna fled when the castle guards came to arrest her mother and sister on Cinderella’s orders. But leaving them in bondage at the Fairy Godmother’s workhouse? Out of the question. Disguised as a young man and taking the name of Ansel, she’ll do whatever it takes to free her family and set the record straight.

Will, a former royal huntsman, was nearly killed for dissenting Cinderella’s rise as queen in the wake of the sudden death of the king and his son. He hatches a plan to take Cinderella down, and encounters Ansel, who wants revenge just as much as he does.

Drawn together by a common goal and burgeoning feelings neither can ignore, Will and Ansel enact a plan to assassinate the queen. But when that goes awry and buried secrets come to light, they’ll have to choose: continue running from their pasts or accept themselves in order to forge a new future together.

As Nephele, Alexus, and their faithful companions grapple with the devastating loss on Mount Ulra, the threat of Thamaos’s reign rises in the East. To prepare, the crew must strengthen the Northland and Summerland armies, even if it means depending on the one being they never thought would live again: Neri, God of the White Wolf.

Nephele made a deal she can’t escape, a deal that not only ensures the Wolf’s resurrection, but one that forces her to remain at his side, even when he returns North to bolster defenses and destroy any traitors and enemies remaining on his land. The last thing Nephele wants is to spend her days and nights alone with a seductive, arrogant god, but Tiressia’s future depends on Neri being their primary weapon, one only she holds the power to wield.

As Thamaos aims his first wave of destruction at Neri, Nephele finds that not only is the Wolf more difficult to control than she believed, but that he’s far more human than she gave him credit for. With every passing hour, the undeniable passion between them burns brighter, until their fire becomes impossible to resist, and impossible for Thamaos to ignore.

Because the only thing he loathes more than the Wolf roaming Tiressia again, is that there’s a witch at his side, and her name is Bloodgood.

Being tied to the Fae is no guarantee the folk will open their gates to welcome you in.

Believing they’ve earned a place in the Faerie kingdom of Tír na nÓg, Eala, a folklore academic, and her time traveler soulmate, Sionnach, are about to face the harsh reality that mischief and misdirection lurk at the very core of Fae bargains.

When Finnbheara, King of the Connacht Fae, confronts the pair on the threshold of his domain, he declares only Eala, by virtue of her Faerie origins, is welcome into his land of eternal youth. Desperate not to be separated from Sionnach, she agrees to a bargain with the wily king to grant the lovers a future together in the Fae realm.

The only help offered in solving the royal challenge is from the sexy yet duplicitous Faerie, Robber Bright, arrogant commander of the Host of a Thousand Wings…which might be worse than no help at all.

Now, with a looming lunar deadline and dark forces at work against them, Eala and Sionnach must time travel through the magical Veil, taking part in Irish history and folk tales to unravel the truths hidden in Finnbheara’s enigmatic challenge.  

From highly acclaimed urban fantasy author, Joshua Bader, comes the Modern Knights Collection, containing books 1 – 3 including Frostbite, Two Wizard Roulette, and Faceless. Start your adventure today!

Evaluation politics is one of the most critical, yet least understood aspects of evaluation. To succeed, evaluators must grasp the politics of their situation, lest their work be derailed. This engrossing novel illuminates the politics and ethics of evaluation, even as it entertains. Paul Reeder, an experienced (and all too human) evaluator, must unravel political, ethical, and technical puzzles in a mysterious world he does not fully comprehend. The book captures the complexities of evaluation politics in ways other works do not. Written expressly for learning and teaching, the evaluation novel is an unconventional foray into vital topics rarely explored.

Mark Neider, a young Ukrainian-born American IT specialist, finds himself in crime-ridden Yeltsin’s Russia, hot on the trail of wheeler dealers who swindled him out of a small fortune back in New York. In Moscow, Mark survives an aborted coup in October 1993 and encounters a mysterious stranger who claims to have had a hand in the recent constitutional crisis. Tasha, Mark’s Moscow daredevil girlfriend, helps him retrieve the money at a significant body count, but Mark is only allowed to leave the country with 10K, a mere fraction of the loot now in his possession. Tasha and her film scholar aunt hatch a plan. Tasha’s aunt keeps the money while her wealthy Chicagoan ex disburses the equivalent amount to Mark in return for Mark’s interviewing the elderly sister of Greg Davis, an American film director who is the subject of Tasha’s aunt’s scholarly interest. But there’s more than meets the eye to Greg Davis’s sister who takes Mark on a journey he may or may not return from.

In the third installment of the Grace “the Hit Mom” Mysteries, a field trip to the New Haven Aquarium ends in disaster when a creepy chaperone falls to his death in the beluga whale tank…when Grace was the one who was supposed to kill him.

Per usual, Grace Adair is juggling it all—being a full-time mom, part-time lawyer, freelance editor, divinely-contracted assassin—and now, school chaperone.

Her son’s field trip to the local aquarium takes a dive when Eric Egan, a district curriculum administrator, is unceremoniously thrown off the aquarium’s Sea Otter Express into the beluga whale tank. Nobody’s especially upset to see the creep’s body sleeping with the fishes, but Grace is in trouble because Egan was supposed to be her next hit—and she sure wouldn’t have killed him in front of a bunch of first graders.

Now, Grace will have to solve the murder, settle decades-old grudges, and keep her own secrets—all while taking care of her family…and serving as flower girl at her handler Madge’s wedding. As the tasks pile up, Grace isn’t sure if she’ll live to see it all done.

Don't miss out on books 1 and 2 in the series: Wrong Poison and Hound of the Bonnevilles!

The Magnificent Lies of Madeleine Béjart transports readers to 17th-century France, a time when the stage was as full of intrigue as the lives of those who performed on it.

At the heart of this richly imagined historical novel is Madeleine Béjart—a bold, ambitious actress and theatre director navigating the world of French theater alongside legends like Molière, Pierre and Thomas Corneille, and Tristan L’Hermite. Richard Goodkin masterfully weaves history with a tale of ambition, love, and deception. From tangled family ties and secret romances to hidden pregnancies and the ruthless pursuit of artistic success, Madeleine’s life is as dramatic as the plays she brings to life.