Dead Ringer

Charles Ross Little Theatre Mystery Characters: 5 male, 2 female Interiror Set When the Prime Minister drops dead from an apparent heart attack on the eve of a general election, two cabinet members who fear they need his charisma to get reelected hire an out of work actor to replace the deceased. This dead ringer is suppose to fill in until after the election is won, but he grows to like the role until he discovers that the real PM was poisoned. This thriller plunges from early amusing fantasy into murder and dark plots. Its run at the Duke of York's Theatre was very successful.

12 Weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List Basis for the motion picture Dead Ringers directed by David Cronenberg. A spellbinding novel of the bizarre lives and shocking deaths of twin doctors—bound together by more-than-brotherly love, damned together to a private hell of unspeakable obsessions. “An authentic shocker…a novel of eerie power… suspenseful and tough.” —Cosmopolitan

The Gemini Killer targets twins. He takes one. He leaves the other. But one of the survivors has grown up. Eighteen years ago, FBI Agent Rachel Ward's mirror twin was kidnapped. Now, she's coming after the monster who stole her sister, because another twin has been abducted, and Rachel won't let Gemini escape again. In this relentless, edge-of-your-seat thriller, Kate Kessler provides a harrowing look at how the past is never truly put to rest.

They say that blood is thicker than water - but just how far should you go for a sister? When ace lawyer Bennie Rosato's twin sister returns to Philadelphia, she knows that trouble is on the horizon. At the same time, Bennie's law firm is in trouble, so she takes on a potentially lucrative calss action suit to try to save the day. It could be make or break - both for her family and her firm. Then a mysterious stranger appears just in time to help Bennie in the fight of her life, for her life... Full of pace, suspense and laugh-out-loud humour, bestselling New York Times author Lisa Scottoline is back, with one of her strongest books ever.

"Dead Ringer is the true story of the discovery and thwarting of the Italian Mafia's recent effort to join forces with the cocaine cartels of Colombia, as related by three of the case's vital players. Joe Cuffaro is a Sicilian-born member of the Mafia, go-between for Colombian drug lords and the Corleone family in Italy. Leo Fraley became one of Pablo Escobar's top ten smugglers, earning between one and five million dollars per shipment to the United States. Bill Gately, a top U.S. Customs Special Agent, brought the two to justice in spite of federal foot-dragging and inter-agency jealousies. Joe Cuffaro's and Leo Fraley's combined testimony eventually led to the downfall of such as John Gotti of the Gambino crime family in New York, and Pablo Escobar of the Medellin cartel, along with twelve of the highest-ranking mafiosi in Sicily." "Written with the full cooperation of each of the three principals, Dead Ringer is an insider's account of one of the most important and well-publicized drug cases in the history of the United States. Joe Cuffaro and Leo Fraley are currently in the Federal Witness Protection Program."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A new murder victim with an old M.O. puts Mattie Winston on the trail of a killer who gives a grim new meaning to flower power . . . Spring is beginning to brighten Sorenson, Wisconsin, for Mattie and Steve Hurley and their family. While their son Matthew may be in his terrible twos and Steve's daughter Emily a moody teenager, the kids bring light to their lives when their work is dark by its nature—Steve is a homicide detective and Mattie is a medicolegal death investigator, aka medical examiner. They deal in corpses. The latest corpse, a Jane Doe, was clearly an addict, but drugs didn't kill her, at least not directly. She's been stabbed multiple times in a pattern that is disturbingly familiar to Mattie. When she discovers flower petals from yellow carnations stuffed into the stab wounds, she recognizes a very specific M.O.—belonging to a convicted serial killer who's currently serving a life sentence. The details of the flower petals were never made public in the last case, so it can't be a copycat crime. It looks like the wrong man is in prison, and the murderer is still at large. Now it's up to Mattie and Steve to get the case reopened—and catch the real carnation killer . . .

Whilst speaking at a conference, Dr. Lucas McCrae slips the cloth off a cadaver and reveals his best friend. A gang apparently operates a legitimate funeral business and sells body parts to researchers. McCrae teams up with a female cop and a gang member to try and expose a macabre web of corruption which involves law enforcement and politicians.

A puzzling corpse stirs up trouble for a Boston woman visiting her Southern hometown in this cozy mystery by a New York Times–bestselling author. A Burnette family gathering is no small affair, thanks to Laura Fleming’s ever-extending extended clan. Being back in Byerly, North Carolina, gives Laura and her scholarly husband a chance to catch up on gossip about old rivalries and rekindled romances. New love is in the air too, though uncharitable kinfolk speculate that cousin Thaddeous’s girlfriend, mill receptionist Joleen, has an ulterior motive for dating him. Byerly’s mill has long been the town’s lifeblood, but when Laura arrives to try and fix Joleen’s faulty PC, she finds that death has just paid a visit. A stranger’s body lies on the office floor, and the victim bears a striking resemblance to Big Bill Walters. Did the mill’s founder have a doppelganger, or was someone in Byerly’s first family spreading wild oats? Laura isn’t planning to get involved—she’s busy trying to help Aunt Daphine, who’s being blackmailed over a decades-old secret. But the twin mysteries will have other deadly repercussions, unless Laura can see through a killer’s disguise . . .