A missing brooch. A face set in cement. This is not your average music festival. Lewis Sinclair, a stalwart and tender country musician, is about to take the stage with his band, the Gentlemen Cowboys, at the premier U.S. country music festival when his girl dumps him for the Cowboys’ shifty manager. When that same manager ends up at FallFest’s walk of fame with his handprints—and his head—in cement, Lew finds himself on the top ten most wanted list instead of the music charts. With the help of his loyal Cowboys and the close-knit festival staff, Lew must clear his name before the killer gets away—or strikes again.
Murder is juicier with a side of barbecue sauce. Private Investigator Tori Swenson gets a strange accidental death case that looks like murder at one of her uncle’s drive-ins and decides it’s time to get revenge on her estranged family. Pretending to want a reunion, she appears at her uncle’s party to secretly investigate them. When her uncle suddenly dies, Tori’s case takes a sinister turn that makes her a suspect in her uncle’s death and the killer’s next target. To uncover who dethroned the barbecue king, Tori will have to face her own fiery demons while pursuing a killer who wants to make dead meat out of her. For fans of Knives Out and the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.
A 2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal Winner A 2024 IPPY Award Silver Medal Winner “A pitch-perfect combination of action, mystery, and humor.” —Anthony Award-winning author Gigi Pandian for Jove Brand Is Near Death “Fans of both superheroes and pulp noir are sure to love Crawford’s action-packed dialogue and descriptions.” —Library Journal, for Heroes Ever Die The King is Dead, and the Game is Afoot. The hit TV show, The Lands Beyond, has become a cultural phenomenon, influencing fashion and baby name trends. Its creator, R. R. Reynard, masterminds the story each season, pitting the cast against each other in a toxic, kill or be killed, environment. But Reynard has even greater ambitions. He’s formed a feudalistic society of superfans who are willing to do anything to rise in the ranks and be officially canonized as a character on The Lands Beyond. With the show set to enter its final season, the cast, crew, and superfans attend a convention at the historic Chateau D’Loire. While holding court, Reynard is murdered, and the notebook holding all the secrets, twists, and endings disappears. Enter Ken Allen, former D-list actor turned private eye. As the body count rises, Ken discovers the stakes are far greater than just a television show. And the fantasy neophyte is about to learn that all is fair in love and war in The Lands Beyond. For readers who love fun mysteries like the Spenser Series by Robert B. Parker, the Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich, and the M Murder Series by Anthony Horowitz.
From politics and war, to jeans and sneakers: a look at America’s influence on the world from an international perspective On the day after 9/11, foreign newspapers ran headlines announcing “We Are All Americans Now.” Though the sentiment was not new, it was also not quite the same as when Henry Luce announced in 1941, the inauguration of what he called “the American Century,” during which the US was to raise all men “from the level of the beasts to what the Psalmist calls a little lower than angels.” When America suddenly emerged as a global power in the postwar period, the world—with pockets of resistance from France, Russia, and Japan in particular—was happy to be remade in the US image. America dazzled, and sometimes intimidated, older, staler, less innovative cultures. The affluence it placed on display was something to which most other countries aspired, and it was this fantasy that helped win the Cold War. Fast forward to today and the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, days before a possible financial default by the US government, calling for a de-Americanized world. A context for Peter Conrad’s grand tale is, inevitably, politics, war, and commerce, but for the most part he draws on his brilliant repertoire of cultural skills to assess, surprise, invigorate, and delight us with his kaleidoscopic presentation of the movies and music, jeans and sneakers, food and refrigerators, novels and paintings that have shaped so much of the world in our lifetimes.
A decade of crime, treachery, and adventures of the Medellin Cartel. Andrew Richard Barnes survived crashes, gunfire, treachery, and betrayal and still lived to tell the tale. Snowbird explores the heinous crimes and dangerous expeditions of the man who flew the first cocaine shipment for the Medellín Cartel into the United States. As a young pilot with a family at home and little money to spare, Barnes was easily coerced by promises of wealth to make these daring excursions. After his first trip in 1977, he realized there was no going back and continued the dangerous flights for over a decade. William Norris sits down with Barnes as he recounts his experience smuggling drugs for the Columbian cartel. As a pilot himself, Norris includes anecdotes of aircrafts and flying intertwined with Barnes’s captivating drug smuggling adventures.
Drawing on decades of research, Karabel shines a light on the ever-changing definition of "merit" in college admissions, showing how it shaped--and was shaped by--the country at large.
"This cheerful little road novel, published in 1919, is about Claire Boltwood, who, in the early days of the 20th century, travels by automobile from New York City to the Pacific Northwest, where she falls in love with a nice, down-to-earth young man and gives up her snobbish Estate."
The story of a young, recently widowed ex-Army major and architect, Hayden Chart. He strives mightily to find personal meaning in Florence. Beautiful fellow American Dr Olivia Lomond is a budding scholar who tempts him to make his mind grow in appreciation of art and history. But earthy, honest Roxanna Eldritch,home town girl and reporter sent to Europe to cover the 1950 Holy Year in Rome, improbably wins Chart's heart in the end
In a family like that, you won’t need enemies. In the waning days of the Catskills hotel era, Stanley and Rachel Roth, the owners of the Cuttman Hotel, were practically dynasty—third generation proprietors of a sprawling resort with a grand reputation. The glamorous and gregarious matriarch, Rachel. The cunning and successful businessman, Stan. Four beautiful children. A perfect family deserving of respect and loyalty. Or so it seemed. Fast forward forty years. The Roths have lost their clout. When skeletal remains are found on the side of the road, the disappearance of Trudy Solomon, a coffee shop waitress at the Cuttman in 1978, is reopened. Each member of the Roth family holds a clue to the case, but getting them to admit what they know will force Detective Susan Ford to face a family she’d hoped never to see again.
Looking for a new lease on life, Nellie find herself on the dead beat. Milo is dead. And Nellie Bly has to write his obituary. Not exactly what she was hoping for when she left her post as the local weather girl in Kansas for a posh Southern California beach side community. But as more and more upstanding citizens of La Joya turn up dead in ghastly ways, Nellie and her pals at the Coastal Crier join forces with Detective Wendy Nakamura to follow the murderous trail of a ruthless cartel that traffics in endangered wildlife. When Nellie’s eccentric landlady, former B-movie actress, Dame Catherine Cavendish, begins to drop hints that threaten to bring to light the dark secrets of the village, unsettling incidents begin happening at the Cavendish estate, endangering the motley crew of scribes. Greed, betrayal, vengeance, gangsters and old Hollywood glamour make for great copy—if Nellie can stay alive long enough to meet her deadline. Dead on My Feet is a quirky tongue-in-cheek adventure that will leave you breathless.
