Dare Or Die

“Filled with quirky, witty, and down-to-earth characters….It is a joy.” —Tulsa World Death is the uninvited guest at a Broward’s Rock gala thrown by bookstore owners and sometime sleuths Annie and Max Darling in Dare to Die—the 19th captivating whodunit in Caroline Hart’s much adored Death on Demand series. A Grande Dame of mystery, Hart’s wonderfully evocative, multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Award-winning novels will delight Diane Mott Davidson and Lillian Jackson Braun fans—and Dare to Die is a wonderful display of the skill and imagination that moved a Los Angeles Times reviewer to declare, “If I were teaching a course on how to write a mystery, I would make Carolyn Hart required reading.”

Now a Netflix original series starring Austin Abrams and Midori Francis! A whirlwind holiday season romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. “I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.” 16-year-old Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on her favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. Dash, in a bad mood during the holidays, happens to be the first guy to pick up the notebook and rise to its challenges. What follows is a whirlwind romance as Dash and Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City. But can their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions, or will their scavenger hunt end in a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions? Co-written by Rachel Cohn (GINGERBREAD) and David Levithan, co-author of WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON with John Green (THE FAULT IN OUR STARS), DASH & LILY'S BOOK OF DARES is a love story that will have readers scouring bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

WHO COULD PLOT A MURDER BETTER THAN A MYSTERY WRITER? At Annie Laurance’s Death On Demand bookstore on Broward’s Rock Island, South Carolina, murder most foul suddenly isn’t confined to the well-stocked shelves. Author Elliot Morgan’s abrupt demise during a weekly gathering of famous mystery writers called the Sunday Night Regulars is proof positive that a bloody sword is sometimes mightier than a brilliant pen. With Annie is the unenviable position of primary police suspect, the pretty young mystery maven and her wealthy paramour, Max Darling, embark on an investigation into a classic locked-room mystery with high stakes. For failing to unmask a brutal and ingenious killer could mean prison for Ms. Laurance. While success could mean her death. “Irresistible! [Carolyn] Hart drops big names from the mystery world like murderers drop clues and Annie and Max are the most endearing new pair of sleuths since Tommy and Tuppence!” – Nancy Pickard

When a simple round of truth or dare spins out of control, three girls find it's no longer a party game--it's do or die. It all started on a whim: The game was a way for Tenley Reed to reclaim her popularity, a chance for perfect Caitlin "Angel" Thomas to prove she's more than her Harvard application. Loner Sydney Morgan wasn't even there; she was hiding behind her camera, as usual. But when all three start receiving mysterious dares long after the party has ended, they're forced to play along, or risk exposing their darkest secrets. How far will Tenley, Caitlin, and Sydney go to keep the truth from surfacing? And who's behind this twisted game? Set against the backdrop of Echo Bay, an isolated beach town haunted by misfortune, Truth or Dare is the first book in the Truth or Dare series, and will keep readers in suspense from beginning to end.

Chapter I. AN ARRIVAL. One of the earliest scenes I can remember with perfect distinctness is this. My sister and I, still denizens of the nursery, had come down to take our tea with good old Rebecca Torkill, the Malory housekeeper, in the room we called the cedar parlour. It is a long and rather sombre room, with two tall windows looking out upon the shadowy court-yard. There are on the wall some dingy portraits, whose pale faces peep out, as it were, through a background of black fog, from the canvas; and there is one, in better order than the others, of a grave man in the stately costume of James the First, which hangs over the mantel-piece. As a child I loved this room; I loved the half-decipherable pictures; it was solemn and even gloomy, but it was with the delightful gloom and solemnity of one of Rebecca Torkill's stories of castles, giants, and goblins. It was evening now, with a stormy, red sky in the west. Rebecca and we two children were seated round the table, sipping our tea, eating hot cake, and listening to her oft-told tale, entitled the Knight of the Black Castle. This knight, habited in black, lived in his black castle, in the centre of a dark wood, and being a giant, and an ogre, and something of a magician besides, he used to ride out at nightfall with a couple of great black bags, to stow his prey in, at his saddle-bow, for the purpose of visiting such houses as had their nurseries well-stocked with children. His tall black horse, when he dismounted, waited at the hall-door, which, however mighty its bars and bolts, could not resist certain magical words which he uttered in a sepulchral voice--

"Wang, do you really want to fight?" "It seems like Dark Night's hands are rubbing against its chest in excitement, and it won't be able to wait any longer." Boss, as long as you give the order, we will kill our way out and kill every single one of those 20,000 warlord knights! " As soon as the topic of war was brought up, Cang Jue could no longer hold himself back.