In Paris, in Washington, and in Greece in a fabulous villa, an innocent American becomes a bewildered, horror-stricken pawn in a game of vengeance and betrayal. She is Catherine Douglas, a woman caught in a web of four lives intertwined by passion as her handsome husband pursues an incredibly beautiful film star...and as Constantin Demeris, a legendary Greek tycoon, tightens the strands that control them all.

The only three females in a group of new residents, the women quickly become roommates and friends, face long hours, a frenetic work pace, and unwanted advances from male colleagues. One becomes involved in unsavory underworld activities, another employs questionable medical skills that are overlooked by the male administrators who value her other services, and another tries to forget a lost love.

It was his first big murder case - and one of the bloodiest and most violent crimes LAPD detective Danny McGuire would ever encounter. Andrew Jakes, an elderly multimillionaire art dealer, had been brutally murdered in his Hollywood home, his lifeless body tied to his naked young wife. Raped and beaten, the lovely Angela Jakes had barely survived the attack herself. Gazing into her deep, soulful eyes, Danny swore that he'd find the psychopath behind this barbarous act.

Elizabeth Roffe, only child of one of the world's richest men, has it all; beauty, intelligence, innocence and youth. But when her father dies, she discovers that she has inherited not only his vast pharmaceutical company, with offices and factories all over the world, but also an unspeakable terror that threatens to destroy the business. As she struggles to save the company that took her family four generations to build, she realizes that she herself is the target of an unknown assassin.

The first entry in Leslie Stewart's diary read: "Dear Diary; This morning I met the man I am going to marry." It was simple, optimistic statement, without the slightest portent of the dramatic chain of events that was about to occur. The Best Laid Plans takes listeners inside two of America's most powerful and ruthless institutions: the world of politics with it's scandals, corruption, and cover-ups; and that of newspaper publishing, where it is not unusual to use the power of the press to destroy lives - or bring down heads of state - in pursuit of a story or to settle a score.

The conservative party's newest superstar, Alexia De Vere has worked hard to realize her political ambitions. The brilliant and ruthless wife of wealthy aristocrat Teddy De Vere, Alexia relishes her power and the control it gives her to shape and destroy lives. Yet success has also demanded sacrifice. Her daughter, Roxie, a bitter young woman confined to a wheelchair after a failed suicide attempt, blames Alexia for ruining her life. Alexia's dashing son, Michael, is risking the family's good name to jump-start his entrepreneurial dreams.

As the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to an Iron Curtain country, Mary Ashley becomes the target of a mysterious murder plot. The action races from Washington D.C. to Buenos Aires, from Paris and Rome to Bucharest, as Mary struggles against her unseen assassins and the apparent treachery of the men she trusts.

Two dazzling tales of intrigue and suspense from international best-selling author, Sidney Sheldon. In The Stars Shine Down, beautiful young Lara Cameron has relentlessly pursued power and success until she'd created an international empire. But now a rejected lover bent on revenge threatens to destroy everything she's struggled for. Taut and gripping, The Naked Face finds brilliant psychoanalyst Judd Stevens stalked by a mysterious murderer while fighting to clear his own name

The young, beautiful, and relentless Lara Cameron has amassed international wealth and power, with equal success in affairs of the heart. But an angry ex-lover has vengeance in mind - a motive that could cost Lara the empire she struggled a lifetime to build. Setting the stage in Scotland and Nova Scotia, maestro of mystery Sydney Sheldon lures his readers down a chain of intrigue through Chicago, New York, London, Rome, and Reno.

Harry Stanford, one of the world's wealthiest man, dies mysteriously while cruising his yacht along the rugged coast of Corsica. Immediately following Stanford's funeral in Boston, a lovely young woman identifies herself as the tycoon's daughter and heir to a share of his estate. When the well-respected Stanford family looks into the identity of the unexpected heiress, they uncover a world of blackmail, drugs, and murder that leads them through the Italian Riviera.

In his eagerly anticipated memoir, America's premier storyteller shares the story of his own life in a frank and revealing book that rivals any of his fictional tales. Sidney Sheldon is truly an entertainment legend: Author of over a dozen best sellers, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and creator of some of television's greatest hits, he has lived a singularly fascinating life.

Hanson died quickly - with a knife in his back. Carole was next - covered with acid and tortured to death. Now it's Judd's turn - a New York pschoanalyst, he'd known them both. Two faceless executioners on a murderous mission, searching for a secret which is unknown to Judd. Not safe at home or at work, Judd feels his professional grip slipping while he faces constant threat of imminent attack. To whom can he ultimately turn?

The Sands of Time is the tale of four nuns who are abruptly forced to flee the secure environment of their Spanish convent and face a hostile world they long ago abandoned. Suddenly these four women find themselves pawns in a violent struggle between the outlawed Basque underground movement, led by the charismatic Jaime Miro, and the Spanish army, under the command of the vengeful Colonel Ramon Acoca, who is bent on destroying all of them

A young American au pair, Charlotte Clancy, vanishes without a trace in Mexico City. The case is left cold, but its legacy will be devastating. A decade later, Los Angeles is shaken by a spate of violent murders. Psychologist Nikki Roberts is the common link between the victims, her patients at the heart of this treacherous web. When someone makes an attempt on Nikki’s life, it’s clear she is a marked woman. Nikki makes a living out of reading people, drawing out their secrets, but the key to this shocking pattern eludes her.

For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia.

In Paris, in Washington, and in Greece in a fabulous villa, an innocent American becomes a bewildered, horror-stricken pawn in a game of vengeance and betrayal. She is Catherine Douglas, a woman caught in a web of four lives intertwined by passion as her handsome husband pursues an incredibly beautiful film star...and as Constantin Demeris, a legendary Greek tycoon, tightens the strands that control them all.

Elizabeth Roffe, only child of one of the world's richest men, has it all; beauty, intelligence, innocence and youth. But when her father dies, she discovers that she has inherited not only his vast pharmaceutical company, with offices and factories all over the world, but also an unspeakable terror that threatens to destroy the business. As she struggles to save the company that took her family four generations to build, she realizes that she herself is the target of an unknown assassin.

This is a love story of great beauty and great tenderness, the kind of love story that entangles the listener in the lives of the characters, so that after the story is over, one continues to live with those characters. And fortunately, the listener will not have to say farewell to these characters, since it is the first in a series that will tell the story of three Californian families over the course of the 20th century.

East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.

A beautiful Jane Doe with no memory of who she is or how she got to the bottom of a treacherous ravine; and a psychiatrist who joins her on her search for her identity. Dr. Phyl Forster was intrigued by the lovely woman who had been recovered from a San Francisco hillside and taken to the hospital where Forster was a resident psychiatrist. When Jane Doe regained consciousness, Dr. Phyl was at her side. It was then she realized that the patient had lost all memory.

In 1866, tragedy strikes the exclusive Windfield School when a young student drowns in a mysterious accident. His death and its aftermath initiate a spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many lives. From the exclusive men’s clubs and brothels that cater to every dark desire of London’s upper class to the dazzling ballrooms and mahogany-paneled suites of the manipulators of the world’s wealth, one family is splintered by a shared legacy.

With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable saga of crime and corruption, passion and loyalty continues to stand the test of time, as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld. A #1 New York Times bestseller in 1969, Mario Puzo's epic was turned into the incomparable film of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the original classic that has been often imitated, but never matched.

Young Billie Ames naively fell for the exciting pilot Moss Coleman at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during World War II. Within a few months, she was pregnant, married, and traveling across the country to Austin...to the 250,000-acre spread known as Sunbridge and into the tantalizing world of the Texas rich. In a vast land dominated by the industrious Colemans, Billie fights to maintain control of her life and her marriage.

An experienced psychologist, Maggie carefully maintains emotional distance from her patients. But when she meets a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself, her professional detachment disintegrates. Cut off from her family in India, Lakshmi is desperately lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage. Moved by her plight, Maggie treats Lakshmi in her home office for free, quickly realizing that the despondent woman doesn't need a shrink; she needs a friend.

Mary Doyle arrives in Dublin in 1913, doomed, she fears, to a life of domestic service. Instead, however, she finds herself deeply affected by the social and political turmoil of a fledgling nation struggling for independence. Suddenly, all that was once inevitable is no longer a certainty as she is embroiled in the very heart of the Easter Rising.

One afternoon in 1839, Emily Lowry’s husband vanishes from Wreckers’ Cay, an isolated island off the coast of Key West where he tends the lighthouse. As days stretch into months, Emily has no choice but to take charge of Wreckers’ Cay and her husband’s duties tending the light to support her three children - and a fourth on the way. Unexpected help arrives when a runaway slave named Andrew washes up on their beach. At first, Emily is intensely wary of this strange, charming man, whose very presence there is highly illegal. But Andrew proves himself an enormous help and soon wins the hearts of the Lowry family.

In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.

Here is the story of Tom and Betsy Rath, a young couple with everything going for them: three healthy children, a nice home, a steady income. They have every reason to be happy, but for some reason they are not. Like so many young men of the day, Tom finds himself caught up in the corporate rat race - what he encounters there propels him on a voyage of self-discovery that will turn his world inside out.

Set in 19th-century California, Destiny’s Embrace introduces listeners to ranch owner Logan Yates, who must come to terms with his true feelings for Mariah Cooper, his beautiful, headstrong housekeeper. But just as Logan decides to make Mariah his own, her former lover reenters her life. Now Logan will have to show Mariah that the passion they share has been written in the stars.

2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...

In Paris, in Washington, and in Greece in a fabulous villa, an innocent American becomes a bewildered, horror-stricken pawn in a game of vengeance and betrayal. She is Catherine Douglas, a woman caught in a web of four lives intertwined by passion as her handsome husband pursues an incredibly beautiful film star...and as Constantin Demeris, a legendary Greek tycoon, tightens the strands that control them all.

Elizabeth Roffe, only child of one of the world's richest men, has it all; beauty, intelligence, innocence and youth. But when her father dies, she discovers that she has inherited not only his vast pharmaceutical company, with offices and factories all over the world, but also an unspeakable terror that threatens to destroy the business. As she struggles to save the company that took her family four generations to build, she realizes that she herself is the target of an unknown assassin.

The first entry in Leslie Stewart's diary read: "Dear Diary; This morning I met the man I am going to marry." It was simple, optimistic statement, without the slightest portent of the dramatic chain of events that was about to occur. The Best Laid Plans takes listeners inside two of America's most powerful and ruthless institutions: the world of politics with it's scandals, corruption, and cover-ups; and that of newspaper publishing, where it is not unusual to use the power of the press to destroy lives - or bring down heads of state - in pursuit of a story or to settle a score.

The only three females in a group of new residents, the women quickly become roommates and friends, face long hours, a frenetic work pace, and unwanted advances from male colleagues. One becomes involved in unsavory underworld activities, another employs questionable medical skills that are overlooked by the male administrators who value her other services, and another tries to forget a lost love.

A young American au pair, Charlotte Clancy, vanishes without a trace in Mexico City. The case is left cold, but its legacy will be devastating. A decade later, Los Angeles is shaken by a spate of violent murders. Psychologist Nikki Roberts is the common link between the victims, her patients at the heart of this treacherous web. When someone makes an attempt on Nikki’s life, it’s clear she is a marked woman. Nikki makes a living out of reading people, drawing out their secrets, but the key to this shocking pattern eludes her.

The conservative party's newest superstar, Alexia De Vere has worked hard to realize her political ambitions. The brilliant and ruthless wife of wealthy aristocrat Teddy De Vere, Alexia relishes her power and the control it gives her to shape and destroy lives. Yet success has also demanded sacrifice. Her daughter, Roxie, a bitter young woman confined to a wheelchair after a failed suicide attempt, blames Alexia for ruining her life. Alexia's dashing son, Michael, is risking the family's good name to jump-start his entrepreneurial dreams.

Harry Stanford, one of the world's wealthiest man, dies mysteriously while cruising his yacht along the rugged coast of Corsica. Immediately following Stanford's funeral in Boston, a lovely young woman identifies herself as the tycoon's daughter and heir to a share of his estate. When the well-respected Stanford family looks into the identity of the unexpected heiress, they uncover a world of blackmail, drugs, and murder that leads them through the Italian Riviera.

Toby Temple is a superstar, the world's funniest man. He gets any woman that he wants, but under the superstar image is a lonely man. Jill Castle is a sensuous starlet. She has a dark and mysterious past and has an ambition even greater than Toby's. Together they rule Hollywood.

The young, beautiful, and relentless Lara Cameron has amassed international wealth and power, with equal success in affairs of the heart. But an angry ex-lover has vengeance in mind - a motive that could cost Lara the empire she struggled a lifetime to build. Setting the stage in Scotland and Nova Scotia, maestro of mystery Sydney Sheldon lures his readers down a chain of intrigue through Chicago, New York, London, Rome, and Reno.

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is David S. Landes' acclaimed, best-selling exploration of one of the most contentious and hotly debated questions of our time: Why do some nations achieve economic success while others remain mired in poverty? The answer, as Landes definitively illustrates, is a complex interplay of cultural mores and historical circumstance.