Books To Die For

The world’s most beloved mystery writers celebrate their favorite mystery novels in this gorgeously wrought collection, featuring essays by Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs, Ian Rankin, and more. In the most ambitious anthology of its kind, the world’s leading mystery writers come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, over a hundred authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Agatha Christie to Lee Child, from Edgar Allan Poe to P. D. James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Lord Peter Wimsey, Books to Die For brings together the best of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and for those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover. This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought…I want more!

When a member of an exclusive book club is checked out, spunky librarian Trudell Becket must sort fact from fiction to solve the murder. The Cypress Arete Society is one of the town’s oldest and most exclusive clubs. When assistant librarian Trudell Becket is invited to speak to the group about the library, its modernization, and her efforts to bring printed books to the reading public, her friend Flossie invites herself along. Flossie has been on the book club’s waiting list for five years, and she’s determined to find out why she’s never received an invitation to join. But not long after Tru and Flossie arrive for the meeting, they’re shocked to find the club’s president, Rebecca White, dead in the kitchen. Rebecca was a former TV actress and local celebrity, but was not known for being patient or pleasant. She’d been particularly unkind to the book club’s host for the evening, who also happens to be the mother of Detective Jace Bailey, Tru’s boyfriend. And Rebecca had made it clear that she didn’t think Flossie was book club material. With her boyfriend and one of her best friends wrapped up in a murder, Tru has to work fast to figure out who cut Rebecca’s story short before the killer takes another victim out of circulation....

A radical revaluation of how contemporary society perceives death—and an argument for how it can make us happy. “He who would teach men to die would teach them to live,” writes Montaigne in Essais, and in How to Die: A Book about Being Alive, Ray Robertson takes up the challenge. Though contemporary society avoids the subject and often values the mere continuation of existence over its quality, Robertson argues that the active and intentional consideration of death is neither morbid nor frivolous, but instead essential to our ability to fully value life. How to Die is both an absorbing excursion through some of Western literature’s most compelling works on the subject of death as well as an anecdote-driven argument for cultivating a better understanding of death in the belief that, if we do, we’ll know more about what it means to live a meaningful life.

National bestselling author Lucy Burdette returns to Key West for another delectable dish of secrets, intrigue, and murder. Peace and quiet are hard to find in bustling Key West, so Hayley Snow, food critic for Key Zest magazine, is taking the afternoon off for a tranquil lunch with a friend outside of town. As they are enjoying the wild beach and the lunch, she realizes that her husband Nathan’s dog, Ziggy, has disappeared. She follows his barking, to find him furiously digging at a shallow grave with a man’s body in it. Davis Jager, a local birdwatcher, identifies him as GG Garcia, a rabble-rousing Key West local and developer. Garcia was famous for over-development on the fragile Keys, womanizing, and refusing to follow city rules—so it’s no wonder he had a few enemies. When Davis is attacked in the parking lot of a local restaurant after talking to Hayley and her dear friend, the octogenarian Miss Gloria, Hayley is slowly but surely drawn into the case. Hayley’s mother, Janet, has been hired to cater GG’s memorial service reception at the local Woman’s Club, using recipes from their vintage Key West cookbook—and Hayley and Miss Gloria sign on to work with her, hoping to cook up some clues by observing the mourners. But the real clues appear when Hayley begins to study the old cookbook, as whispers of old secrets come to life, dragging the past into the present—with murderous results.

“A seductive page-turner” about a murderously ambitious cable-news star by the New York Times–bestselling author of Labor Day (The New York Times Book Review). Local weather reporter Suzanne Maretto craves nothing more than to transcend life at her suburban cable television news station and follow in the footsteps of her idol: Barbara Walters. When she concludes that her unglamorous husband is getting in the way of her dream of stardom, the solution seems obvious: Get rid of him. She seduces a fifteen-year-old admirer, Jimmy, and persuades him to do her dirty work. Mission accomplished, Suzanne takes to the airwaves in her new role as grieving widow, in search of a TV deal. If that means selling Jimmy down the river, she’s ready. Maynard’s brilliant, funny, and groundbreaking novel—adapted by Gus Van Sant into the cult classic movie of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman—was first published in 1992 before the era of manufactured stardom and the phenomenon of televised murder trials as entertainment. The book still stands as a razor-sharp satire of celebrity-fixated culture and the American obsession with TV—a novel that imagined the phenomenon of reality television before its creation, with alternately bone-chilling and hilarious accuracy. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Joyce Maynard including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Jake Martin, not your ordinary sleuth, is a divorced, outsourced software engineer, handyman and writer, living in the foothills of Denver with his dog, Fred, a golden retriever. A propane grill explodes at a neighbor's barbeque, injuring a man who later dies. About to be accused of manslaughter, Jake has to prove the accident was really murder. Along the way, he encounters a poaching ring, blackmail and a meth lab, and falls in love with a beautiful game warden.

An epic battle between a boy, a boat, and a shark, with extra material including a fact page on tiger sharks, a black and white diagram of a dory, and a list of suggested reads For his birthday, Christos takes his father's mackerel dory on his first solo trip. He plans to fish and then camp overnight on a local island. But things go terribly, terrifyingly wrong when Christos runs the dory aground on a reef, attracting a 12-foot tiger shark as company for the most harrowing night of his life--a night during which he decides what he would be willing to die for.

A British secret agent has one last chance to bring down a deadly rogue CIA agent in the conclusion to this international thriller series. “This is how it ends. No more running. No second chances.” Time has run out for Ryan Drake. Most of his friends are dead or disappeared. Corrupt CIA Director Marcus Cain is poised to ascend to the highest levels of power, and the shadowy group known as the Circle is causing chaos across the globe. But one shred of hope remains. A message hidden by his mother shortly before her death launches Drake and his sister Jessica on a desperate race against time. But they aren’t the only ones tracking down the answers . . . Meanwhile Drake’s estranged ally, Anya, embarks on a mission of her own, driven by murderous vengeance. The trail of bodies left in her wake attracts powerful enemies, threatening the delicate balance that holds the world in check. A climactic showdown awaits, where Drake must question everything if he is to defeat the enemy within. The epic conclusion to Ryan Drake’s mission from a master of the action thriller, perfect for fans of Robert Ludlum and Vince Flynn. Praise for the Ryan Drake series: “Entertaining.” —The Daily Telegraph “A heart-stopper for anyone who likes plenty of action and explosions.” —Daily Mail