A collection of fifteen short mystery stories which deal with a mysterious benefactor, a young woman in hiding, switched cars, an unusual job listing, a secret test for suitors, and a stolen emerald

"The double kidnapping of the daughter of a famous Hollywood actress and the young son of the Secretary of the Treasury is only the beginning! Gary Soneji is a murderous serial kidnapper who wants to commit the crime of the century. Alex Cross is the brilliant homicide detective pitted against him. Jezzie Flanagan is the female supervisor of the Secret Service who completes one of the most unusual suspense triangles in any thriller you have ever read"--Publisher....

The irascible husband of Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody demonstrates again why he has been nicknamed "father of curses." Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, Emerson is awarded instead the "pyramids" of Mazghunah-countless mounds of rubble in the midst of nowhere. Nothing in this barren spot seems worthy of interest-until someone gets killed. The dead man is an antiquities dealer murdered in his Cairo shop. When a sinister...

Lady Camilla Tressilian lives with her companion and secretary, Mary Aldin, at Gull's Point. As the late summer approaches, Lady Tressilian is hosting a series of guests. Tennis player Nevile Strange has brought his beautiful young wife Kay to Gull's Point to meet the woman who helped raised him. As it happens, Audrey, his ex-wife, arrives for her annual visit. No one can quite understand why either party would agree to this rather awkward reunion,...

Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown children. She was tired of attending her Garden Club meetings. She wanted to do something good for her country. So, naturally, she became a CIA agent. This time, the assignment sounds as tasty as a taco. A quick trip to Mexico City is on her agenda. Unfortunately, something goes wrong, and our dear Mrs. Pollifax finds herself embroiled in quite a hot Cold War--and her...

It was the silly season and a Monday at that, and Kinsey Millhone was bogged down in a preliminary report on a fire claim. Something was nagging at her, but she couldn't pin it. The last thing she needed in the morning mail was a letter from her bank recording an erroneous $5,000 deposit in her account. Kinsey had never believed in Santa Claus and she wasn't about to change her mind now. Resigning herself to a morning of frustration, she phoned the...

11:05 p.m. Convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the Commonwealth of Virginia's electric chair. His death is not the only newsworthy event on this cold December night. Three hours after young Eddie Heath goes out to buy a can of soup, his nude, grotesquely wounded body is found propped against a dumpster. The two events seem unrelated until chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta remembers that Waddell arranged his victim in a strikingly...

Like the city of New Orleans itself, Claire Laurent is a vibrant beauty laced with a mysterious elusiveness. The founder of French Silk, a fabulous lingerie company, she has fought hard to make it a worldwide success. Then a TV evangelist attacks French Silk's erotic sleepwear as sinful. And when he is killed, Claire becomes the prime suspect. District Attorney Robert Cassidy knows Claire is damning herself with lie after lie about the murder, even...

Jacko Argyle dies in prison after being convicted for the murder of his mother, but when Dr. Arthur Calgary proves the boy's innocence old wounds from the rest of the family are opened, and Dr. Calgary wonders if one of them is the real murderer.--

Tor Kelsey, an undercover security operative for the British Jockey Club, is assigned to protect guests on "The Great Transcontinental Mystery Race Train," individuals whose safety is imperiled by real-life murder and mayhem.