Slaying Is Such Sweet Sorrow

File "M" for Murder Librarian and former New Yorker Catherine Penny has already sleuthed out the truth behind a deadly house fire since settling in the tiny English town of Far Wychwood. But nowhere is too far for painful memories to find her when her ex-husband, who left her single in her sixties, arrives with his new lady love to attend a family affair. Catherine can't avoid him at the awards ceremony honoring their son-in-law, Peter, who is a shoo-in for a prestigious appointment at Oxford's Mercy College. But the shock of Peter not being chosen is matched only by who is: pompous, womanizing scholar Edgar Stone. And when Stone is found murdered, Peter's guilt seems hardly academic.... Patricia Harwin, who introduced a "charming, compassionate" (The New Mystery Reader) heroine in Arson and Old Lace, shows once again why an American woman in an English town can unearth a whole lot of trouble.

Catherine Penny is stunned when her talented son-in-law, Peter, is passed over for a prestigious appointment at Oxford University in favor of a pompous womanizer, who turns up dead, with Peter the prime suspect in his murder.

How long can someone survive in a cold, damp cave without food or water? How was diphtheria treated in 1886? Can Botox kill? Can DNA be found on a knife years later? How are mummified corpses identified? How long does it take blood to clot when spilled on a tile floor? What happens in death from electrocution? As a consultant to many novelists around the world and to the writers of such popular TV shows as Monk, Law & Order, House, and CSI: Miami, D. P. Lyle, M.D., has answered many cool, clever, and oddball questions over the years. Forensics and Fiction: Clever, Intriguing, and Downright Odd Questions from Crime Writers is a collection of the best of these questions. The answers are provided in a concise and entertaining fashion that will keep you wide awake so you can read "just one more."

A murder mystery featuring Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne August 1939, the last hot days of a perfect English summer as the certainty of war descends. Newlyweds Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne are determined to spend these last days of peace quietly in their new house in a sleepy Sussex village - a honeymoon of sorts. But fight against it as he might, for Edward it turns out to be a busman's holiday. When poet Byron Gates is bizarrely murdered after the village fete - executed, in fact, his head chopped off on a wooden block - Edward is asked to investigate. Alas, murder is not yet done with Verity and Edward, for even in the hallowed studios of Broadcasting House, murder dares to rear its ugly head. Before Verity can take up her new foreign posting, there are more deaths and the intrepid couple embark on one of their most dangerous investigations to date. Praise for David Roberts: 'A gripping, richly satisfying whodunit with finely observed characters, sparkling with insouciance and stinging menace' Peter James 'A really well-crafted and charming mystery story' Daily Mail 'A perfect example of golden-age mystery traditions with the cobwebs swept away' Guardian

Never was there a tale of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo... But true love never dies. Though they're parted by the veil between the world of mortals and the land of the dead, Romeo believes he can restore Juliet to life, but he'll have to travel to the underworld with a thoroughly infuriating guide. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, may not have inherited his father's crown, but the murdered king left his son a much more important responsibility---a portal to the Afterjord, where the souls of the dead reside. When the determined Romeo asks for help traversing the treacherous Afterjord, Hamlet sees an opportunity for adventure and the chance to avenge his father's death. In an underworld filled with leviathan monsters, ghoulish shades, fire giants, and fierce Valkyrie warriors, Hamlet and Romeo must battle their way through jealousy, despair, and their darkest fears to rescue the fair damsel. Yet finding Juliet is only the beginning, and the Afterjord doesn't surrender souls without a price...

As a photographer I am always aware that faces ... especially eyes ... have a story to tell. As a writer, I often call up the visual image to lead me into a descriptive narrative. When I photographed these children in 1971, their faces had a story to tell. I believe I have that story in my novel, "Such Sweet Sorrow." This suspense thriller is set in the hills of East Tennessee. The story begins when a rural school teacher's seven-year-old student, Donna-Dean Silcox, says she has been told not to come home from school. This situation ultimately leads to the discovery by the County Sheriff, of an "outlandish" murder. The Sheriff quickly endears himself to the child, to the teacher, and to the reader. This piece of Southern fiction keeps you turning pages through cliff-hanging chapters.

What if Romeo and Juliet had not died? What if their plan had succeeded and they had run away together? Sweet Sorrow, Bitter Joy, set in Edwardian England, shows the young couple, with the help of a well-meaning but imprudent local vicar, escaping to start their new life together. With their feuding families reeling over the relationship between the two youngsters and the abrupt killing of another young man in the heat of the moment, circumstances are stacked against the adolescent couple from the start of their union. The shocking reaction of the feuding families leaves a bitter aftertaste in the wake of the departure of the two young people, revealing the hypocrisy of those who care more for reputation than for relationships. The two women of Stonewick Park, the lady of the house and the nurse, share the tale of young love overshadowed by recklessness and the pressure of outside influences. It is not a story of the star-crossed lovers, but of the star-crossed mothers who must cope with the loss of their children. In the end, it is the unconditional, eternal love of mother and child that conquers all.