In 1982 in a southern city, David and Sarah, two freshmen at a highly competitive performing arts high school, thrive alongside their school peers in a rarified bubble, ambitiously devoting themselves to their studies--to music, to movement, to Shakespeare and, particularly, to classes taught by the magnetic acting teacher Mr. Kingsley. It is here in these halls that David and Sarah fall innocently and powerfully into first love. And also where, as...

Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely witty one. Vanity Fair features two heroines: the faithful, loyal Amelia Sedley, and the beautiful and scheming social climber Becky Sharp. It also engages a huge cast of wonderful supporting characters as the novel spins from Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies to affairs of love and war on the Continent...

Hannah Swensen, Lake Eden, Minnesota's finest bakery owner and amateur sleuth, discovers a body floating in a health club jacuzzi. When her part-time flame, Detective Mike Kingston, becomes the prime suspect, he recruits Hannah to find out whodunit.

A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.

Ranger, a golden retriever, could have been a great search-and-rescue-dog except for the squirrels--but one day he unearths a mysterious box and finds himself transported back to the year 1850 where his faithful service is really needed by a family traveling west along the Oregon Trail.

"Maggie Adair's first year as a teacher at Downey House was a surprising success. After making the leap from an inner-city school in Glasgow, she's learned to appreciate the mellower pace of the girls' boarding school by the sea. Now engaged to her longtime boyfriend, sweet and steady Stan, Maggie's just got to stop thinking about David McDonald, her colleague at the boys' school down the road. Well, hasn't she? Can Maggie take a leaf out of the Well...

I was winding my way through the mountains in a cut rate rental car, heading south on 395 toward the town of Nota Lake, California, where I was going to interview a potential client. The client's business was unremarkable, at least as far as I could see. I had no idea there was any jeopardy waiting or I'd have done something else. Tom Newquist has died. A detective in the Nota Lake sheriff's office, Tom was tough, honest, and respected by all. He...

A ninetieth-birthday celebration may be ruined by a nefarious killer, in a mystery filled with "believable and lovable characters" (Publishers Weekly).
The town of Tinker's Cove is looking forward to the celebration marking former librarian Julia Ward Howe Tilley's ninetieth birthday. Lucy Stone, Miss Tilley's closest friend, dreamed up the party idea—around the same time she decided she's not getting old without...

"Isadora Bentley believes that happiness is something that flat-out doesn't exist in her life -- and never will. As a university researcher, Isadora keeps to herself as much as possible. She avoids the students she's supposed to befriend and mentor. She lives her own quiet, organized life in her own quiet, organized apartment. And she will never get involved in a romantic relationship again -- especially with another academic. It will be just Isadora...