Learning that the new home she is to share with her future husband had been owned by a family that disappeared six years earlier, ex-librarian Roe Teagarden becomes suspicious about a pair of tenants living in the garage apartment, suspicions that soon lead to violence. Reprint
Author of the books that inspired True Blood on HBO and Midnight, Texas on NBC Aurora Teagarden is happily preparing for her wedding to dashing business executive Martin Bartell. As a wedding gift, Martin buys her the house of her dreams: the “Julius house,” infamously named after the family who vanished from the house without a trace six years ago. As Roe sets about renovating and decorating her new home, she’s never felt happier. Then Martin suddenly rents the small apartment on their new property to an old army buddy and his wife, who seem to be more bodyguard than tenant, and Roe is sure her husband-to-be is keeping secrets. To take her mind off her suspicions, she opens her own unofficial investigation into the Julius family cold case. But when an axe-wielding stranger attacks her, Roe must determine whether it’s her husband’s secrets, the mystery of the Julius family’s fates, or both, that have put her own life on the chopping block. #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris has once again brought Southern charm and an engaging mystery in this latest Aurora Teagarden installment. Real Murders, A Bone To Pick, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, and the rest of the Aurora Teagarden series has been adapted into film for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
'A heroine as capable and potentially complex as P. D. James's Cordelia Gray' (Publishers Weekly) Death comes calling on small-town librarian Aurora Teagarden in this entertaining mystery from #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. Going to two weddings - one of a former lover - and a funeral for a member of her disbanded crime study club keeps Aurora "Roe" Teagarden quite busy for a few months. Unfortunately, her personal life seems to be at a standstill - until her fortunes unexpectedly change. After the funeral Roe learns that Jane Engle, the deceased, has named her as heir to a rather substantial estate, which includes money, jewelry, and a house complete with a skull hidden in a window seat. Knowing Jane, Roe concludes that the elderly woman has purposely left her a murder to solve. So she must identify the victim and figure out which one of Jane's ordinary-seeming neighbors is a murderer - without putting herself in deadly danger . . .
'Great bloody fun' Barbara Paul Part-time librarian Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden lands smack in the middle of a baffling murder case in the fifth murder mystery from #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris Roe never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she never wanted to see him dead - especially dropped from a plane right into her own front yard. Luckily, even Lawrenceton, Georgia's finest, know that Roe couldn't possibly be in two places at once, so her name is crossed off the suspect list. But then other strange things happen around Roe, ranging from peculiar (her irascible cat turns up wearing a pink ribbon) to violent (her assistant at the library is attacked) to potentially deadly (her ex-lover is stabbed). Clearly there is a personal message in this madness that Roe must decipher - before it is too late . . . 'Clearly focused plot, animated description of character and sparkling prose commend this breath of fresh air to all collections' (Library Journal)
The riotously funny Lilly, last seen in Chester's Way (Greenwillow), thinks her new baby brother, Julius, is disgusting -- if he was a number, he would be zero. But when Cousin Garland dares to criticize Julius, Lilly bullies her into loudly admiring Julius as the baby of the world.Lilly knows her baby brother is nothing but dreadful -- until she claims him for her own. "Henkes displays a deep understanding of sibling rivalry and a child's fragile self-esteem....Lilly is a superb and timely heroine." -- Publishers Weekly. "
'Harris draws the guilty and the innocent into an engrossing tale while inventing a heroine as capable and complex as P. D. James's Cordelia Gray' (Publishers Weekly) In the eighth book in bestselling author Charlaine Harris's compelling mystery series, Aurora Teagarden, 'a genuine steel magnolia' (Booklist) will have to use all of her southern wiles to investigate a murder within her own family . . . Not just any woman in Lawrenceton, Georgia, gets to be a member of the Uppity Women Book Club. But Roe's stepsister-in-law Poppy has climbed her way up the waiting list of the group - only to die on the day she's supposed to be inducted. What makes Poppy's murder even worse are the rumors of infidelity on both sides of the marriage swirling around town. To find the killer, Roe must determine if the sordid stories are true. Suspects abound, and the things she uncovers make her question her own heart, but her passion for the truth drives her on: into the path of the cold-blooded killer . . . 'Clearly focused plot, animated description of character and sparkling prose commend this breath of fresh air to all collections' (Library Journal) 'Great bloody fun' (Barbara Paul)
#1 New York Times bestseller Charlaine Harris finally returns to her fan-favorite Aurora Teagarden series with All the Little Liars, a fabulously fun new mystery and the basis for a movie from Hallmark. Aurora Teagarden is basking in the news of her pregnancy when disaster strikes her small Georgia town: four kids vanish from the school soccer field in an afternoon. Aurora’s 15-year-old brother Phillip is one of them. Also gone are two of his friends, and an 11-year-old girl who was just hoping to get a ride home from soccer practice. And then there’s an even worse discovery—at the kids’ last known destination, a dead body. While the local police and sheriff’s department comb the county for the missing kids and interview everyone even remotely involved, Aurora and her new husband, true crime writer Robin Crusoe, begin their own investigation. Could the death and kidnappings have anything to do with a group of bullies at the middle school? Is Phillip’s disappearance related to Aurora’s father’s gambling debts? Or is Phillip himself, new to town and an unknown quantity, responsible for taking the other children? But regardless of the reason, as the days go by, the most important questions remain. Are the kids still alive? Who could be concealing them? Where could they be? With Christmas approaching, Aurora is determined to find her brother...if he’s still alive.
The first Aurora Teagarden mystery, from the bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries Lawrenceton, Georgia, may be a growing suburb of Atlanta, but it's still a small town at heart. Librarian Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden grew up there, and she knows more than enough about her fellow townsfolk - including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature. With these fellow crime buffs, Roe belongs to a club called Real Murders, which meets once a month to analyse famous cases. It's a harmless pastime - until the night she finds a member dead, killed in a manner that eerily resembles the very crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal copycat killings follow, Roe finds herself having to uncover the person behind the terrifying game that is casting all the members of Real Murders - herself included - as prime suspects - or potential victims.
The Stahl House: Case Study House #22, The Making of a Modernist Icon is the official autobiography of this world-renowned architectural gem by the family that made it their home. Considered one of the most iconic and recognizable examples of mid-century modern homes in the world, the Stahl House was first envisioned by the owners Buck and Carlotta Stahl, designed by architect Pierre Koenig, and immortalized by photographer Julius Shulman. This 1960 glass-and-steel home in the Hollywood Hills has come to embody the idealism of a generation in search of the American dream. As one of the Case Study Houses designed between 1945 and 1966 under the vision of John Entenza and Arts & Architecture magazine, this was an affordable yet progressive design experiment to address the postwar housing shortage. The result—a two-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot house with glass walls that disappear into a 270-degree panorama of Los Angeles—became Koenig's pièce de résistance. The Stahl House broke rules, defied building codes that discouraged building on cliffs, and expanded the possibilities of residential architecture. The glass walls blurred the boundary between indoors and outdoors. The building seemed to merge with the city itself, the lines of the structure aligning with the geometry of the city's gridded streets. "Los Angeles becomes an extension of the house and vice versa," Koenig said. "The house is just a part of the city." The book shares the never-before-told inside story by the Stahl family's adult children who grew up there and still graciously give home tours to fans from around the world. Through extensive research and interviews, historical information and personal photos are featured. This includes Buck Stahl's initial vision of the home with his own DIY schematic model for how to build on the complicated site. It also includes blueprints, floor plans, and sketches by Pierre Koenig, as well as Julius Shulman's renowned photographs. Additionally, photographs of the house used in high-end, fashion ad campaigns and film and television are also included, cementing The Stahl House's prominence in contemporary culture.
Julius Shulman, one of the great master of architectural photography, is the preeminent recoreder of early California modernism. By 1927, when he was sixteen, Shulman was already using the family Brownie box camera to document his Southern Californis surroundings and experiences; in 1936, his professional career was launched when he sent Richard Neutra some uncommissioned photographs of the architect's Kun House. Shulman went on to document the famous Case Study House Program (architects included Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, and Eero Saarinen) and also the architecure of the 1930s through the 1980s, especially that of Southern California, but also country and worldwide. His subjects included the buildings of R.M. Schindler, John Lautner, Raphael Soriano, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Oscar Niemeyer, among many others. Through his work, Shulman defined the image of Los Angeles and framed the architecture of the time for a global audience. In addition to an overview of Shulman's career and photographic oevre, this book emphasizes Shulman's method of "constructing" photographic views. These contructions, which complemented his innate ability to compose striking photographs, often transcends reality to capture the spirit, time and place of a work of architecture. An analysis of architecture's visual presentation examines not only the media of the era--John Entenza's "Arts & Architecture," for instance--but also the work of Shulman's photographic contemporaries. Joseph Rosa is chief curator of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the author of numerous essays and books, including Rizzoli's "Albert Frey, Architect." He received his architecturedegree from Columbia University and is currently a doctoral candidate in the university's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Ester McCoy was the formost architectural historian of Southern California. Her books include "Modern California Houses, Five California Architects, "and "Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys."