Introduction: Shakespeare's Christmas (Lily Bard #3) Even in a sleepy Arkansas town, the holidays can be murder. Lily Bard is going home for the holidays. More comfortable in baggy sweats than bridesmaid's frills, Lily isn't thrilled about attending her estranged sister's wedding. She has moved to Shakespeare, Arkansas, to start a new life, cleaning houses for a living, trying to forget the violence that once nearly destroyed her. Now she's heading back to home and hearth--just in time foView Details>

Introduction: Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers &mdash and two very dangerous men &mdash came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke&rsquos world. A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born ... and someone has begunView Details>

Introduction: Casebook of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #3) Twelve Cunningly Fashioned Detective Stories Once a month the Black Widowers club meets to enjoy good food, fine wine, convivial company - and to entertain a guest. Each month the guest provides them with a conundrum - a mystery which has so far proved completely baffling. And so the Black Widowers set to work on the problem - aided and abetted by Henry, their perspicacious waiter, whose powers of deduction never fail to astonish...View Details>

Introduction: Tales of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #1) There were six of them. Professional men and their waiter. They gather at the Milano Restaurant once a month for good food and good conversation. But lately the Black Widowers have added a new entertainment to their meetings. They have begun to solve mysteries, murders, and conspiracies of seemingly impossible dimensions. With all the skills of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot combined, these six men and their ever-faithful waiter, HenrView Details>

Introduction: Asimov's Mysteries, published in 1968, is a collection of 14 short stories by Isaac Asimov, all of them science fiction mysteries. The stories were all originally published in magazines between 1954 and 1967. Four stories in the collection feature the character of Wendell Urth, who is a leading extra-terrologist. Urth is eccentric in that he has a phobia of all mechanical forms of transport. Physically Urth resembles Norbert Wiener. He appears in the stories when he is consulted by an agent oView Details>

Introduction: The Caves of Steel (Robot #1) A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's "Robot" novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arroganView Details>

Introduction: The Devil Went Down to Austin (Tres Navarre #4) Rick Riordan, triple-crown winner of the Edgar, Anthony, and Shamus Awards, brings his fast-talking, hard-living, Texas-hip P.I. Tres Navarre to the heart of the Lone Star State—Austin—to unravel a case so dark, twisted, and deadly, it can only involve family.... Tres Navarre, the P.I. with a Ph.D. in literature, heads to Austin for a laid-back summer teaching gig. But he’s in store for a whole lot more. His big brother Garrett--computer whizView Details>

Introduction: The Last King of Texas (Tres Navarre #3) Multiple-award-winning author Rick Riordan brings back smart-mouthed Texas P.I. Tres Navarre for his most dangerous case yet. If you think the academic world is deadly dull, you're half right.... When a controversial English professor is found shot to death, Tres Navarre — P.I. and Ph.D. — is the only local academic crazy enough to accept the emergency opening at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Police assure him they already have a suspecView Details>

Introduction: The Widower's Two-Step (Tres Navarre #2) Tres Navarre has just hours of apprenticeship time to serve before he can go for his P.I. license. Staking out a musician suspected of stealing a demo tape should be a piece of pan dulce. But his attention wanders just long enough for fiddle player Julie Kearnes to be gunned down before his eyes. He should just back away and let the cops investigate, but backing away has never been Tres's strong point. The missing demo and Julie's murder arView Details>

Introduction: Big Red Tequila (Tres Navarre #1) Everything in Texas is bigger...even murder.Meet Tres Navarre...tequila drinker, Tai Chi master, unlicensed P.I., with apenchant for Texas-size trouble. Jackson "Tres" Navarre and his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, pull intoSan Antonio and find nothing waiting but trouble. Ten years ago Navarre lefttown and the memory of his father's murder behind him. Now he's back, lookingfor answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspiciView Details>