Blue Murder

Celia and Alice share everything - their secrets, their hopes and now their increasing horror that a killer is on the loose, abducting schoolgirls just like them. Three bodies have been found, each shrouded in hand-woven fabric. From within the depths of a police investigation, clues start to emerge. As Alice and Celia discover the truth, danger is closer than anyone knows. Who can be trusted at a time like this? "Cry Blue Murder" is a haunting and poignant psychological thriller that pushes the boundaries of trust and betrayal, from two exciting new voices in Australian young adult fiction.

APRIL, 1861. As the Confederate cannon opens fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War begins. A rebel officer on a courier run to the telegraph office, is murdered in a historic Charleston graveyard and his pouch of secret despatches stolen. How did he come to be there? Is it the work of a Union spy? Former Charleston Police Inspector and now Confederate Officer, Major Hugo Legare is assigned to the case. Meanwhile the civilian police arrest a young Jewish soldier, Simon Mendoza, and charge him with murder and espionage. The evidence against Mendoza is dangerously strong and anti-Semitic incitement fills the newspapers, feeding the fires of suspicion and bigotry. But Major Legare is not convinced. There are holes in the police case against Mendoza. Legare and his associate, scapegrace Irish nobleman Captain James Redmond, quickly turn up more than a few skeletons in the dead man's closet as well as a plethora of new suspects including a Boston abolitionist, the beautiful daughter of the city's most wealthy citizen, and one of their own brother officers. But while Legare hunts the killer through the gaslit streets of old Charleston, more bodies start piling up. Legare and Redmond must race against time to stop more murders and recover the vital documents which could change the course of the whole war.

A fiery crash at a remote air force base in the Azores archipelago takes the lives of five USAF airmen and a civilian farmer. Captain Jim Welch joins the ensuing accident investigation. After a finding of pilot error, it is determined that the crash was no accident. Absent a logical explanation, a criminal investigation begins. Several suspects surface each having motive, means and opportunity. A briefcase found at the crash scene leads Welch and Alberto Zagame, an irascible local lawyer, through a complex web of evidence and relationships as the investigation unfolds on two continents. An apparent suicide is thought to provide answers, but an autopsy reveals that death also to be murder. The protagonist grasps the connection, and is certain he knows who the killer is, but not that he can prove it. He is very nearly another murder victim before the truth is revealed in a confrontation with the killer. The main characters are introduced in the early chapters, and flash backs examine their personas. Relationships are rooted in the aerial combat arena of WW II and the culture of pre war America. As the criminal investigation winds to its climax, a penetrating overview of the military justice system of the era is offered. History, mystery and romance along with an introduction to the islands beauty and Portuguese culture are all captured in this saga.

Tea-Maven Theodosia Browning brews up trouble in the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs. Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede. But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor's lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death. His wife, Meredith, is beside herself with grief and begs Theodosia and Drayton to stay the night. But Theodosia awakens at 2:00A.M. to find smoke in her room and the house on fire. As the fire department screams in and the investigating sheriff returns, Meredith again pleads with Theodosia for help. As Theodosia investigates, fingers are pointed, secrets are uncovered, Reginald's daughter-in-law goes missing presumed drowned, and Meredith is determined to find answers via a séance. All the while Theodosia worries if she's made a mistake in inviting a prime suspect to her upscale Lavender Lady Tea. INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS!

Two Dead MenIn London's fashionable Chelsea, a Halloween bash goes terribly wrong. Emmeline Wardle, daughter of a frozen foods baron, throws a party which results in the demise of two university schoolmates. Handsome golden boy Trevor Parsons is dead. So is pasty computer nerd Clive French. Both died on the Wardle estate within minutes of one another, and both died the same way - an axe to the skull. Given the social connections of all involved, New Scotland Yard sends a real baron to investigate: Chief Superintendent Anthony Hetheridge, also known as Lord Hetheridge, ninth baron of Wellegrave.Two Prime SuspectsThis time around, Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield and her partner, Detective Sergeant Deepal "Paul" Bhar, have their work cut out. Bhar must contend with Emmeline Wardle, a spoiled blonde with a penchant for the finer things, including a certain illegal white powder. Kate must decide if Kyla Sloane, model-pretty and delicate, is being truthful about the events of that fateful night. And if Kyla's connection to a former lover of Bhar's means nothing - or everything.Lord & Lady Hetheridge, Book TwoReturn to the world of Ice Blue in Blue Murder, the second of the Lord & Lady Hetheridge series. In addition to solving the double murder in Chelsea, Anthony Hetheridge plans on proposing marriage to Kate for the second time. He has the ring. Now all he needs is the proper moment...

Equal parts Sherlock Holmes and P.G. Wodehouse, Charles Finch's debut mystery A Beautiful Blue Death introduces a wonderfully appealing gentleman detective in Victorian London who investigates crime as a diversion from his life of leisure. Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison. The grand house where the girl worked is full of suspects, and though Prue had dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by the motive for the girl's death. When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence Smith? Or was it something else entirely? And can Lenox find the answer before the killer strikes again—this time, disturbingly close to home?

The New York Times Bestselling series. Anthony Hetheridge, ninth Baron of Wellegrave, Chief Superintendent for New Scotland Yard, never married, no children, no pets, no hobbies, and not even an interesting vice, will turn sixty in three weeks. With the exception of his chosen career, too sordid for his blue-blooded family to condone, his life has been safe and predictable. But then he meets Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield - beautiful, willful, and nearly half his age. When Hetheridge saves the outspoken, impetuous young detective from getting the sack, siding with her against Scotland Yard's powerful male hierarchy, his cold, elegantly balanced world spins out of control. Summoned to London's fashionable Belgravia to investigate the brutal murder of a financier, Hetheridge must catch the killer while coping with his growing attraction to Kate, the reappearance of an old flame, and the secret that emerges from his own past. Fall in love with Ice Blue, book #1 in the New York Times bestselling Lord & Lady Hetheridge mystery series. From the Author: Ms. Jameson would like to thank all her readers for their loyalty, patience, and kind words. The two questions new readers always ask are, "Will there be more Hetheridge--'Blue'--books?" and "What else have you written?" Regarding question one, will there be more Lord & Lady Hetheridge ("Blue") books, the answer is yes. When asked when she plans to end the series, she replied, "Never." She is already at work on book #5, Blue Blooded. Regarding question two, what else has she written, please try the Dr. Benjamin Bones cozy mystery series. Set in wartime England beginning in September 1939, this nostalgic, romantic series follows the amateur sleuthing of Dr. Bones, a native Londoner, in his adopted Cornish village, Birdswing. Book #1, Marriage Can Be Murder, and book #2, Divorce Can Be Deadly, are available now. Also available is Dr. Bones and the Christmas Wish, a charming novella about love lost and love found.