At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson a young slave woman, fearing for her infant's son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's. From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels. On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery: reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom...

Florist Bretta Solomon is none too happy to attend a funeral for which her shop provided the flowers or an event at the Parker Greenhouse that is turned upside down by the brutal murder of a greenhouse assistant.

Country rock star Jonathan Van Castle is back on the road and back in the spotlight. Fleeing ecstatic fans at a small-town stop in the Missouri Ozarks, he lands at the mercy of a singularly unimpressed widow, Lil O'Malley Ryan. Jon is intent on reviving his career and gaining custody of his children from a scheming ex-wife. Lil is trying to rebuild her life and hang on to her livelihood amid the always well-meaning and often-exasperating advice and...

As part of an art class assignment, high school junior Kate unwittingly sketches a wanted murderer, propelling her into instant celebrity and extreme danger while her parents fret and police provide constant protection.

"Shaken by her parents' divorce and discouraged by the growing chasm between herself and her serious boyfriend, Nikki Werner seeks solace at her uncle's farm in a small Missouri hamlet. She'll spend the summer there, picking up the pieces of her shattered present so she can plan a better future. But what awaits her at the ancestral farm is a past she barely knows. Among her late grandmother's belongings, Nikki finds an old notebook filled with handwritten...

Beautiful and beguiling Florida Jones is a small-town Missouri Ozarks success, with her thriving business, spirited young daughter, and engagement to a wealthy sought-after bachelor who promises to give her the wider world she yearns for. Then an unexpected visit from the mother who abandoned her sparks a tragic accident, unearths family secrets, and leaves her dependent on the very woman she loathes-as well as the ex-lover who long ago threw her...

Thirty-year-old Celebrity journalist Ann Roth has one last chance to prove herself. She is different from the other reporters at Famous, the L.A. magazine, where she has her dream job interviewing stars like Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie. She values her ethics-she doesn't pick through people's garbage, doesn't print rumor and gossip, doesn't try to pervert the truth. But when her editor tells her she's too nice, that what he needs is a killer...

"From Percival Everett--a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards--comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby...

It is 1954 when a mental patient who calls himself Roy Rogers finds a body in the hospital record room. His investigation leads him to the murder of Marcia Weinhart. Twenty years earlier, authorities found her mutilated corpse lying on the alter of St. Adrian's Catholic Church. Roy, his friend Harry and dog Bullet move after "lights out" through the buildings and grounds of the Sunrise Mental Hospital. As they examine the case, Roy comes to better...

"Long-time residents of Promise Lodge welcome a wave of newcomers that includes a pretty potter who's come to help an expectant couple, and a hard-working dairy expert ready to manage the herds on the expanding Burkholder farm. Then there's Isaac Chupp, the handsome, charming son of a notoriously unyielding Bishop from nearby Coldstream. Isaac has recklessly rebelled against his dat, and his bad boy reputation precedes him. Now he seeks a fresh start,...