An Act Of Foul Play

Sometimes, we find friendship in the most unexpected places. When neighbourhood vandals smash the windows on the family car, ten-year-old Jordy is crushed. His old hand-me-down winter jacket has a big hole in the armpit, but now his parents won't be able to afford the new jacket they had promised him. Many of Jordy's neighbours have also been victims -- including Mrs. Brundle, an elderly woman whose precious lawn ornaments have been destroyed at the hands of the vandals. When Jordy hears that his new hockey teammate, Ryan, is the younger brother of one of the teens picked up for the vandalism, he isn't sure how to feel. But when Ryan shows up wearing a new winter jacket of his own, and it's the very one Jordy had wanted, Jordy is furious. In the end, an unexpected act of kindness from Mrs. Brundle gives Jordy the encouragement he needs to reach out to Ryan. And Jordy discovers that sometimes the best friendships appear when we least expect them.

November 1911. Lady Emily Hardcastle is celebrating her birthday by seeing a play at the Duke's Theatre in Bristol with her maid and confidante, the inimitable Flo. Act One is a triumph. Then Act Two opens with a body on stage--a real one. One of the cast has been brutally murdered during the interval. When other matters get in the way of Inspector Sunderland overseeing the case himself, he asks the ever-resourceful Lady H to keep a watchful eye on the suspects--and his police colleagues. Rustling up some cunning disguises of their own, she and Flo are soon in deep cover among the cast and crew, pulling back the curtain on some shocking secrets and rivalries... The problem is, everyone seems to have a motive, and everyone seems to have an alibi...In this locked-room mystery in which nothing is as it seems, the amateur sleuths need to put on the performances of their lives if they're to stand a chance of shining a spotlight on the truth...

Last night's earthquake has the California Gold Country town of Flat Skunk buzzing; and over her morning mocha, deaf newswoman Connor Westphal is shaping it into a lead story for her local paper, the Eureka! Then her TTY phone brings more sensational news: a twisted corpse has been found on a construction site owned by her rival publisher, Harlan Truax. What was the dead soil engineer doing there at midnight, and was it the quake that toppled him four stories to his death? An act of God--or human malevolence? Connor is soon back in the sleuth business, uncovering Flat Skunk's darkest secrets: from toxic dirt to tainted relationships. But someone's out to stop her, and they're saying it with flowers, verses, menacing e-mail--and a series of murders that could knock the numbers off the Richter scale and silence one lip-reading reporter forever.

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES! Bram Stoker, business manager for London’s Lyceum Theatre, always expects the supernatural to be lurking around the corner. But investigating the murder of a cast member might be enough to make even him lose his head… 1881. When the star and owner of the Lyceum, Mr. Henry Irving, is poisoned on Hamlet’s opening night, it’s up to stage manager Harry Rivers to make sure the show goes on. Fortunately for Harry, Mr. Irving is able to pull through and walk the boards as planned. But when his understudy is killed the very next day, Harry’s boss, Bram Stoker, becomes convinced that foul play is afoot. Mr. Irving has a list of enemies longer than a Shakespearean soliloquy, any of whom would have been happy for the curtain never to rise. It soon becomes clear that nefarious, possibly magical, methods are being employed to shut the play down. With more cast and crew members falling victim to the increasingly dangerous accidents on set, it’s up to Harry and Stoker to figure out which of Irving’s critics has a voodoo vendetta…

Stone Barrington takes down old and new enemies in the latest thriller from perennial fan favorite Stuart Woods. After a rocky jaunt in Maine, Stone Barrington is settling back in New York City when an old client reaches out for help with a delicate matter. A feud they thought was put to rest long ago has reemerged with a vengeance, and reputations—and money—are now on the line. As Stone sets out to unravel a tangled web of crime and secrets, his mission becomes even more complicated when he makes an irresistible new acquaintance. In both the underbelly and upper echelons of New York, everyone has something to hide—and if Stone has learned anything, it’s that history has a way of repeating itself…