Roland Evans-Jones thought by lending an 1889 work by a minor American Impressionist to an upcoming art exhibition, the value of his painting might increase by a few thousand dollars. But when pages from the artist's journal are found wedged in the frame - and they tell of a double murder committed by one of the dominant painters of that era - Roland knows he has something sensational on his hands.Using clues provided by the painting and the journal, Detective John Flynn, now-former garden club president Liz Phillips, and Roland set out to see if there are, indeed, two bodies buried behind a modest house in the Boston suburb of Hardington.What they find is something no one could have expected, and thus begins twin tales: one of the lengths to which the descendants of an artist will go to protect a legacy; and another of illicit riches being made today through robocalls and phone scams.The attraction between Liz and Flynn is more evident than ever as events in their lives sweep them toward an unknown future.Murder Brushed with Gold is the sixth entry in a series that includes A Murder in the Garden Club and A Murder at the Flower Show.
Since she went straight, Annie Kincaid’s been applying her genius for fine art forgery to her own faux finishing business in San Francisco. She hasn’t seen the inside of a jail cell since she was seventeen, although sometimes it takes all of her arts—fine or otherwise—to keep it that way… Annie knows that art security can be inadequate, but it’s crazy to think that an Old Master painting could be hanging unguarded in the local columbarium where she’s doing restoration work. Still, when she gets a tip that the chapel’s copy of Raphael’s exquisite La Fornarina might be the real thing, Annie has to take a look. And when she runs into a certain sexy art thief on the premises, alarm bells go off in her head as well as her heart. Tired of being an art world pariah, Annie hopes that if she can help return the masterpiece to Italy, she’ll finally be redeemed. But when murder enters the picture, Annie realizes that it won’t be so easy to put things at the cemetery to rest… INCLUDES ART TIPS!
An internationally acclaimed Russian floral designer is found murdered in a Boston hotel ballroom. Who killed her? And why?Valentina Zhukova is a glamorous, globetrotting floral designer; the “Queen of Negative Space” and “Vladimir Putin's favorite flower arranger”. But in the hours before the opening of the prestigious International Floral Design Alliance conference in Boston, someone stabbed her and then hung her body from a massive floral design.Six weeks after solving the murder of the Executive Director of the New England Botanical Society, Lieutenant Victoria Lee and young, computer-savvy Detective Jason Alvarez are again plunged into a world where flowers and horticulture can be grounds for homicide. They quickly learn that Zhukova was both more and less than the woman she seemed. The proud granddaughter of a World War II hero, she was also an ardent nationalist who toed the Kremlin line, and someone who relished inflicting on those around her. Who killed Zhukova? With an international cast of suspects, Lee and Alvarez – aided by suburban garden club president Liz Phillips – find few who knew her will mourn her death. Murder in Negative Space takes you into a world where 'amateur' designers are deadly serious about their work.
New York City, 1950. Cantor Gold, art smuggler and dapper dyke-about-town, hunts for a missing masterpiece she’s risked her life to bring through the port of New York. She must outsmart the Law that wants to jail her; outrun the dockside gangsters who would let her take the fall for murder; and outplay a shady art dealer, his lover, and a beautiful curator who toys with Cantor’s passion. Through it all, Cantor must stay out of the gunsights of a killer who’s knocking off rivals for the missing masterpiece—and stay alive to solve the mystery of her stolen love: Sophie de la Luna y Sol. A Cantor Gold Crime Novel.
A Valentine's Day getaway is on the rocks when a young winemaker discovers a body at an alpine resort in this delightful cozy mystery. When Parker Valentine decides to take a weekend getaway with her boyfriend Reid, a ski trip seems like the perfect choice. Between hitting the slopes and persuading the resort's wine director to sell her mulled wine, Parker is eager to mix business with pleasure. But her plans are muddled when she finds the resort owner's body on a treacherous portion of ski trail near the resort. As a result, not only is Parker's romantic weekend thrown into chaos, but now that the owner has died, her business deal is due for a frosty reception, and her life might be in danger as well. After a series of unfortunate mishaps befall Parker, she realizes that whoever killed the resort owner might want to tie up loose ends. Parker's going to need all of the investigative skills at her disposal to catch a killer before they put her on ice.
Who killed Sally Kahn? There hasn't been a murder in 15 years in tranquil, affluent Hardington, Massachusetts. But someone pushed a moderately wealthy 65-year-old widow down her basement stairs, and then tried to make it look like an accident. Two people will work - together and independently - to find the murderer. John Flynn, a retired Boston Police Department detective with an outstanding record, will lead the official investigation. He will solve the murder despite the best efforts of Hardington's police chief, who cannot abide the idea of a murderer on the loose in his bucolic town and so who arrests the first likely suspect. Liz Phillips has a life centered on her garden and her garden club. Sally Kahn was one of her best friends and it is Liz who found the body. But Liz is a lonely woman, her daughter married and living far away, and her husband constantly on the road. Liz will help solve the murder by using intuition, asking questions, and knowing her town. Their quest to find Sally Kahn's killer will lead Liz Phillips and Detective John Flynn into an unfamiliar world of email inboxes and wireless Internet routers, hazardous waste disposal and the economics of tearing down houses to build 'McMansions'. Their search will also take them through an emotional landscape of adultery and the simmering resentment between 'townies' and the new-money affluent.
It is the 830s; a time of warring Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, declining monastic standards and outbursts of fear of divine retribution. Elmstow Minster – a community of nuns in the Kingdom of the East Angles – has been recently established to atone for the execution of a young prince. The minster is torn between two camps – pious nuns and those who have no intention of giving up their worldly ways. These ungodly women are supported by powerful, degenerate donors, who treat Elmstow as an aristocratic whoring nest. The abbess of Elmstow has been humiliated by the influence wielded over her minster by these rich patrons and plots revenge. Two naked bodies are discovered, hanged together. A young, introspective priest, Father Eadred, is sent to Elmstow to spy on the declining standards and against his wishes becomes entangled in the task of uncovering the guilty. He challenges the traditional approach of using an ordeal of hot iron to identify the culprits. Instead, he has the novel idea of exploring the evidence. He faces significant opposition, including an attempt on his life. Eadred is befriended by a hermit monk who becomes the only person with whom he can talk about his detection. Further murders will take place. As Eadred moves closer to the truth the situation is thrown into further disarray when the minster is attacked by the neighbouring kingdom. Can they be saved and the final culprit revealed?
“The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned mystery series now being published.”—Entertainment Weekly When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad’s housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child—and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers’s cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew’s death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds—and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making. . . . Praise for Well-Schooled in Murder “George is a master . . . an outstanding practitioner of the modern English mystery.”—Chicago Tribune “A spectacular new voice in mystery writing.”—Los Angeles Times “A compelling whodunit . . . a reader’s delight.”—Daily News, New York “Like P.D. James, George knows the import of the smallest human gesture; Well-Schooled in Murder puts the younger author clearly in the running with the genre master.”—People “Ms. George may wind up creating one of the most popular and entertaining series in mystery fiction today.”—The Sun, Baltimore
Parisian P.I. Aimée Leduc strives to clear the name of a childhood friend, now a policewoman, who's charged with shooting her partner Aimée Leduc is having a bad day. First, she comes home from work at her Paris detective agency to learn that her boyfriend is leaving her. She goes out for a drink with her friend Laure, a police officer, but Laure’s patrol partner, Jacques, interrupts, saying he needs to talk to Laure urgently. The two leave the bar, and when they don’t return, Aimée follows Laure’s path and finds her sprawled on a snowy rooftop, not far from Jacques, who is bleeding from a fatal gunshot wound. When the police arrive, they arrest Laure for murder. No one is interested in helping Aimée figure out the truth. As she chases down increasingly dangerous leads in the effort to free her friend, Aimée stumbles into a web of Corsican nationalists, separatists, gangsters, and artists. Could Jacques’s murder and Laure’s arrest be part of a much bigger cover-up?
Trying to leave painful memories behind her, Chloe Ellefson is making a fresh start. She's the new collections curator at Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor ethnic museum showcasing 1870s settlement life. On her first day, Chloe meets with an elderly woman who begs her to find a priceless eighteenth-century Norwegian ale bowl that had been donated to the museum years ago. But before Chloe can find the heirloom and return it to her, the woman dies in a suspicious car crash. Digging up the history and whereabouts of the rare artifact quickly turns dangerous. Chloe discovers that someone is desperately trying to cover up all traces of the bowl's existence—by any means necessary. Assisting Chloe is police officer Roelke McKenna, whose own haunting past compels him to protect her. To catch the covetous killer, Chloe must solve a decades-old puzzle...before she becomes a part of history herself. Praise: "Clever plot twists and credible characters make this a far from humdrum cozy."—Publishers Weekly "This series debut by an author of children's mysteries rolls out nicely for readers who like a cozy with a dab of antique lore. Jeanne M. Dams fans will like the ethnic background."—Library Journal "Information on how to conduct historical research, background on Norwegian culture, and details about running an outdoor museum frame the engaging story of a woman devastated by a failed romantic relationship whose sleuthing helps her heal."—Booklist "Old World Murder is strongest in its charming local color and genuine love for Wisconsin's rolling hills, pastures, and woodlands...a delightful distraction for an evening or two."—New York Journal of Books "A wonderfully-woven tale that winds in and out of modern and historical Wisconsin with plenty of mysteries—both past and present. In curator Chloe Ellefson, Ernst has created a captivating character with humor, grit, and a tangled history of her own that needs unraveling. Enchanting!"—Sandi Ault, author of the WILD Mystery Series and recipient of the Mary Higgins Clark Award "Propulsive and superbly written, this first entry in a dynamite new series from accomplished author Kathleen Ernst seamlessly melds the 1980's and the 19th century. Character-driven, with mystery aplenty, Old World Murder is a sensational read. Think Sue Grafton meets Earlene Fowler, with a dash of Elizabeth Peters."—Julia Spencer-Fleming, Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author of I Shall Not Want and One Was A Soldier "Museum masterpiece."—Rosebud Book Reviews "A real find...5 stars."—Once Upon a Romance
