Who would want to kill Tomaso Rainaldi, an elderly, unassuming violin-maker in the quiet Italian city of Cremona? For his friend and fellow violin-maker Gianni Castiglione, the murder is as mysterious as it is shocking. Rainaldi had few possessions, no enemies and little money. No one - least of all the police - can fathom a motive for murdering him. All he really had was an obsessive love of violins and an encyclopedic knowledge of them. But what if he knew more than anyone else - not just about famous violins, but about missing violins? Ones of the caliber of the fabled Messiah, Stradivari's most sublime creation, the Mona Lisa of the music world. A violin now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford - and worth millionsâ?¦ Aided by his friend, policeman Antonio Guastafeste, Gianni starts to investigate the dead man's affairs. Affairs that reveal an appointment in Venice with the eccentric and exceedingly rich violin-collector Enrico Forlani, and a... Views: 16
Nick Paleologus is summoned to the unyielding bosom of his family to
help resolve a dispute which threatens to set his brothers and sisters
against their aged and irascible father. Michael Paleologus, retired
archaeologist and supposed descendant of the last Emperors of Byzantium,
lives alone at Trennor, a remote and rambling house on the Cornish bank
of the Tamar. A ridiculously generous offer has been made for the
house, but he refuses to sell despite the urgings of his children, for
whom the proceeds would solve a variety of problems. Nick
accomplishes little in the role of mediator, but the stalemate is soon
tragically broken. Only then do Nick and his siblings discover why their
father was bound at all costs to reject the offer and what may really
be the motives of the prospective buyer. Their increasingly
desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict
with an unseen and unknown enemy, who seems as determined to force them
into a confrontation with their family's past as he is to conceal his
own identity. Late in the day, perhaps too late, Nick realizes
that the only way to escape from the trap their persecutor has set for
them is to hunt him down, wherever - and whoever - he may be. But the
hunt involves excavating a terrible secret from their father's
archaeological career. And once that secret is known, nothing will ever
be the same again. Views: 16
More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA Views: 16
Eric Johnson has been writing to his mail-order bride for months, and at long last, the day she's due to arrive has come. Only, the young lady who comes off the stagecoach isn't at all what he expected. She's homely in appearance, and she has an orphan child with her.However, he is a man of his word, so he's going to marry her. He had enjoyed their correspondence over the past year, after all, and really, initial impressions aren't everything. But when the preacher pronounces them husband and wife, he finds out she's the wrong lady.Caroline Benton's just as shocked as he is, not realizing she'd gotten off at the wrong town and followed the wrong man home. Why, oh why, didn't she think to ask him his name? Now she and the orphan child she brought with her are stuck in a strange town with a man who'd been waiting for someone else.She can't imagine he's at all happy to be paired up with her for the rest of his life. Not only is she rather unattractive, but she doesn't know the first... Views: 16
At St. Stephen's Academy, the students are on the verge of revolt. While the younger boys plot an insurrection, the older ones are preoccupied with sneaking out-of-bounds, thrashing each other, tearing each other's clothes off-or some combination of the three. Morgan Wilberforce, for one, can't take it any longer. Everything Wilberforce touches turns to disaster in his desperate attempts to fight off desire, boredom, and angst. He knocks himself unconscious tackling the unattainable Spaulding on the rugby pitch, his headmaster detests him for crimes committed years ago, and even his closest friends are subjecting him to physical tortures normally reserved for juniors. When an accident at the boarding school leaves him with more suffering than he could have fathomed, he finds himself alone and adrift. And the workaday charms of cricket practice, Victorian pornography, canings from classmates, and fumbling with the pub-keeper's daughter can only do so much to mend a broken... Views: 16
We may remember their equations and discoveries from school, but do we remember who the men behind the maths were? From the theories of Pythagoras (and did you know he ran a secret brotherhood that studied maths, music and gymnastics?) to coining the term 'Googol', "Fom 0 to Infinity in 26 Centuries: The Extraordinary Story of Maths" is packed full of fascinating stories and amazing facts from ancient times to the modern day. Views: 16
Addison Harrington is used to leading a pretty wild life. After all, you don’t get to be a werewolf and be normal. So when he finds himself face to face with Cassidy Owens, a non-werewolf female at a pack party, he becomes a little intrigued in the human species. As the lunar week approaches, Addison finds himself drawn to Cassidy. But his werewolf lifestyle could spell trouble for them Views: 16
Ellie Barton has spent her young life living in the dilapidated manor house with her elderly father. Her duty is to her aristocratic lineage, something of which she is often reminded by those few people around her. But Marlford, the local village founded by her grandfather, is in decay - subsidence from the old salt mines is destroying the buildings, the books in the memorial library are mouldering, and old loyalties and assumptions are shifting. When two idealistic young men decide to squat in the closed wing of the house, they show her a world much wider than Marlford, and Ellie begins to feel trapped beneath the unbearable weight of history and expectation. Views: 16
*** FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR J. ROBERT KENNEDY *** IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST SCANDALOUS AFFAIRS IN THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE'S HISTORY. AND ONE TEMPLAR KNIGHT PLAYED A PIVOTAL ROLE. When a woman arrives at Sir Marcus de Rancourt's new home, claiming to be a cousin of his late brother-in-law, he and his fellow Templars are forced to fight off her pursuers before knowing the truth of her crime—accusations of adultery by her husband. Swearing she is innocent, Sir Marcus and his trusted sergeant agree to seek out the truth, while his squires remain behind to protect her. But soon after arriving in Paris, they discover that nothing is as it seems, and more is going on than they could have possibly imagined. USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy once again takes history and twists it to his own ends, delivering a pulse-pounding page-turner filled with enough mystery, intrigue, action, and humor, to... Views: 16
The Agatha Award–winning author of Grilling the Subject returns to the Cookbook Nook in Crystal Cove, where the annual Renaissance Fair serves up a helping of crafty courtiers, damsels in distress, and medieval murder . . . Views: 16
