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The Bram Stoker Award-winning author brings a legendary murder mystery to life in this “fascinating, mesmerizing [and] darkly atmospheric” thriller (Diana Gabaldon). In The Murderer’s Maid, acclaimed author Erika Mailman offering a fresh perspective on the Lizzie Borden murders through the stories of two women more than a century apart. In the 1890s, Irish immigrant Bridget Sullivan works as a maid in the Borden household. Trapped by her servitude, she fears for her own safety as she watches the family’s volatile tensions build toward an explosion of violence. In 2016, a Mexican-American woman works a menial job under an assumed name, all to stay one step ahead of the men who want to kill her. The danger Felicita faces is rooted in her family’s deadly past. But she has no idea how far back it truly goes...to a notorious 19th century crime. Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal Award and National Indie Excellence Award
Witch... Some words can kill Germany, 1507. In a time when famine is rife and panic spreading, people resort to desperate measures in order to survive. When a visiting friar suggests that witchcraft is to blame for their failing crops, Irmeltrud sees it as an opportunity to get rid of her burdensome mother-in-law, Güde. Frustrated with having to feed the old woman who brings nothing to the table, she is quick to point the dreaded finger of suspicion. Güde has three days to clear her name, or be led to the stake . . .
Fiction. Looking for a better life, Nora Simms sails from the East Coast to gold rush San Francisco with a plan for success: to strike it rich by trading on her good looks. But when a string of murders claims several of her fellow "women of ill fame," Nora grows uneasy with how closely linked all of the victims are to her. Even her rise to the top of her profession and a move to the fashionable part of town don't shelter her from the danger, and she must distinguish friend from foe in a race to discover the identity of the killer. "WOMAN OF ILL FAME deftly sidesteps all the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold clichA[a¬As you think you see coming as it follows its heroine through the muddy two-fisted brawl that was gold rush San Francisco. The book starts with a bang, and for me it never lets up; I enjoyed the hell out of it"--Tamim Ansary
The native Huchiun people once traversed the lush greenery of the Oakland hills, glimpsing breathtaking vistas as they followed the creeks down to the bay. In 1829, their territory became part of the huge land grant awarded to Mexican soldier Luis Maria Peralta, who in turn lost control of the hills as settlers arrived to harvest the virgin redwood. Although at one time a rustic haven for poet Joaquin Miller, who set up camp where a park now bears his name, the hills proved irresistible to developers. After transit lines reached the hills, promoters held picnics at the end of the line to entice people to buy land. Meadows and windswept hills turned to orchards and, soon after, to lovely neighborhoods. With the scars of the disastrous 1991 firestorm fading, the Oakland hills retain a bucolic beauty, a majestic backdrop for the city of Oakland.
Oakland's Neighborhoods provides a warm, informal guide to how the neighborhoods grew in this early California city. Included are brief histories of each of the 43 neighborhoods, with historical photographs and creative writing by residents about their specific area. Compiled by local history columnist Erika Mailman. Mailman is also the author of Oakland Hills from Arcadia Publishing.
Chet Griffin, convicted computer hacker and San Francisco's fastest rollerblading messenger, was given a simple assignment. But that delivery turned real deadly, real fast. Seems the package he was carrying contained a single computer disk -- worth a cool billion. And everyone, from the Chinese mob to the SFPD, wants to get their hands on it. Now Chet's fighting for his life, trying to clear his name, and wondering what price he'll pay for...
From the bestselling author of The Poppy Factory comes this moving novel that brings together a group of women in ways they could never have imagined. July, 1919. At the Hotel de la Paix in the small village of Hoppestadt, three women arrive at the end of the war, searching for traces of the men they have loved and lost to the battlefields of Ypres in Belgium. Ruby is just twenty-one, a shy Englishwoman looking for the grave of her husband. Alice is only a little older but brimming with confidence; she has travelled all the way from America, convinced her brother is in fact still alive. Then there’s Martha, and her son Otto, who are not all they seem to be . . . The three women in Liz Trenow’s In Love and War may have very different backgrounds, but they are united in their search for reconciliation: to resolve themselves to what the war took from them, but also to what life might still promise for the future . . .
1793. As the Terror begins to cast a great shadow over France, Thomas Pryce, the new Vicar of Deal, crosses the Channel to find the missing parents of his beautiful French wife. Facing grave dangers, he makes his way to Brittany where he not only discovers the fate of his in-laws but also uncovers a plot which threatens to topple the British monarchy. Fighting against a sinister secret society in a race against time, Pryce battles to thwart the plans of a Parisian spymaster and his agents in London. The Fate of Kings is the first in a series of gripping spy thrillers that will engross readers of C.J. Sansom, Dan Brown, as well as the many avid watchers of Poldark and Grantchester. In the first years of the British Secret Service, Thomas Pryce truly is the original James Bond.
We may have eyes that look - but how clearly do we see? This compelling novel of art and adventure, Julia Grigg's debut, is set in the feverish creativity of mid-sixteenth century Italy. Francesco Bassano wants to find out how and why an extraordinary painting was made; the story traces his quest to discover the secrets of the portrait's past. Francesco's journey, his coming-of-age, takes him and his questions to Venice, Verona, Maser and Florence.
HOUDINI HEART harkens back to the masters of suspenseful supernatural horror: Poe, Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, but speaks with a wholly fresh voice. Once caught in its pages, there's no escaping Longfellow's terrible tale. Weeks ago, she was one of Hollywood's biggest writers, wed to one of its greatest stars. The doting mother of their golden child. But now? She's alone, tortured by a horrifying secret no woman could bear. Pursued by those she can't outrun, anguished by a guilt she can't endure, and driven close to madness, she flees to the one place she's ever called home: a small town in Vermont where River House still stands. To a child, the splendid hotel was mysterious and magical and ...