"It's love at first sight when Penelope Kite sees Le Chant d'Eau--The Song of Water--the stone farmhouse tucked high in the hills above the Luberon valley, complete with a garden, swimming pool, and sweeping mountain vistas. For years, Penelope put her unfaithful ex-husband and her ungrateful stepchildren first. Since taking early retirement from her job in forensics at the Home Office in England, she's been an unpaid babysitter and chauffeur for...

"What's the best way to purge an unfaithful husband? Become a spy for British Intelligence, of course. Desperate to get out of London, and determined to help the war effort and stop thinking about her philandering husband, Fiona Figg volunteers to go undercover. At Ravenswick Abbey a charming South African war correspondent has tongues wagging. His friends say he's a crack huntsman. The War Office is convinced he's a traitor. Fiona thinks he's a pompous...

Maggie Browne and the members of the St. Rose Quilting Bee are back, attempting to solve a mystery as they work on their quilts. Sometime Bee member Candy Breckner is at the Palo Verde Care Center to recover from an auto accident; with two broken legs, she cannot manage on her own. Maggie and the Bee decide to visit, taking her a lap quilt they've made especially for her. Candy breaks down when she sees them, saying that she's afraid there's an "angel...

"Fans of golden-age mystery fiction, you're definitely in for a treat. This novel has it all: skillful writing, a drum-tight plot, and snappy, witty dialogue. The Circular Staircase is about Rachel Innes, a well-to-do woman of a certain age. Her Pittsburgh manse is in need of an overhaul, so she decides to spend some time at the country home of a friend to escape the hustle and bustle of the remodeling process. But what appears at first to be a quaint...

"For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a woman's throat. She watched on as the body crumpled. Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Mrs. McGillicuddy's friend Jane Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there are no other witnesses, no suspects, and no case. How could there be, with no corpse...