Showing results by narrator "Laural Merlington" in All Categories

The puppy started it. The poor thing was cold and trembling, abandoned on their front doorstep. Dash, impulsive as always, decides on the spot that they should keep it. But her husband, Andrew, thinks it's the craziest thing he's ever heard. A fight over a scruffy little dog doesn't seem like much of a reason to walk out on your husband of 20 years - but the spat over the puppy is just the last of many straws.

Expertly analyzing a shocking, headline-making case, Rule unmasks the deadly motives inside a seemingly idyllic marriage: a beautiful young wife, a rising star in America's top-ranked computer corporation, and a prosperous husband, the scion of a family building business. With an adorable son and a gorgeous home, the couple seemed to have it all. But a furtive evil permeated their days and nights, dragging them into a murky world of drugs, sordid sex, and con operations. In this realm, one of them would prove to be a virtual innocent, the other a manipulator with no conscience.

Phoebe Hoban, author of definitive biographies of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Alice Neel, now turns her attention to Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund and one of the greatest painters England has produced. Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open is the first biography to assess Freud’s work and life, showing how the two converge.

Ann Rule presents her 8th collection of crime stories drawn from her private files - and featuring the riveting case of a fraudulent doctor whose lifelong deceptions had deadly consequences. Dr. Anthony Pignataro was a cosmetic surgeon and a famed medical researcher whose flashy red Lamborghini and flamboyant lifestyle in western New York State suggested a highly successful career. But no one was safe if they got in his way. With scalpel, drugs, and arsenic, he betrayed every oath a physician makes - until his own schemes backfired.

For years, Monty Carawan has envied his sister's wealth. Spiteful and self-centered, he's convinced that her success came at the expense of his own future. But when the housing market plunges and Candace attempts to disentangle herself from Monty's mess, her brother’s malicious streak brings the family tension to a dangerous boiling point.

Beautifully crafted and driven by warm, vibrant characters, The Mammoth Cheese follows the residents of rural Three Chimneys, Virginia, on their historic journey to re-create the making of the original Thomas Jefferson-era, 1,235-pound "Mammoth Cheese."

From the award-winning author of A Watershed Year comes a heartrending story of unlikely bonds made under dire straits. Holly is a young widow with two kids living in a ramshackle house in the same small town where she grew up wealthy. Now barely able to make ends meet editing the town's struggling newspaper, she manages to stay afloat with help from her family. Then her mother suffers a stroke, and Holly's world begins to completely fall apart.

Books on Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss abound, as countless scholars have labored to uncover the facts behind Chambers's shocking accusation before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the summer of 1948---that Alger Hiss, a former rising star in the State Department, had been a Communist and engaged in espionage.

The newspaper reported the case with relish. Jane (Jinx) Kingsley, fashion photographer and heiress, tried to kill herself after being unceremoniously jilted by her fiance, Leo Wallader. Leo has disappeared - together with Jinx's best friend Meg Harris. But when she wakes from her coma, Jinx can remember nothing about her alleged suicide attempt. Nevertheless, Jinx is convinced that she would never try to kill herself over Leo. Surely it was she who wanted to break the engagement.

Locke, California, 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women suddenly appear out of the mist one afternoon in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River, and their arrival throws the community into confusion. Two of the women are unknown to the townspeople, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor, who had left her behind in China many years earlier and had not yet returned for her.

An English emigre who became America's first professional architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe put his stamp on the built landscape of the new republic. Latrobe contributed to such iconic structures as the south wing of the US Capitol building, the White House, and the Navy Yard. He created some of the early republic's greatest neoclassical interiors, including the Statuary Hall.

Paige Winterbourne is a witch. Not that you'd notice - no warts, no green skin, no cute little wiggle of the nose whenever she casts a spell. No, most of the time she's just a normal 23-year-old girl; works too hard, worries about her weight, wonders if she'll ever find a boyfriend. Okay, so she does have an adopted teenage daughter, Savannah, who wants to raise her black witch of a mother from the dead. And who is being stalked by a telekinetic half-demon and an all-powerful cabal of sorcerers.

Between hosting a haunted house on her lawn, serving on the town’s 400th Anniversary Planning Committee, and prepping for the Fall Festival’s 10k fundraiser, Lilly has her hands full. She doesn’t have time for prickly newspaper reporter Tyler Crane, who’s been creeping around town, looking for dirt on Goosebush’s most notable families...until he’s found dead on the race route moments before the start. An unfortunate accident? Or did Tyler unearth a secret that someone in Goosebush is willing to kill to keep?

Officer Randy Spelling has always wanted to be a cop. The eager rookie comes from a law enforcement family and, at least as far as police department psychologist Dr. Dot Meyerhoff is concerned, the young woman is up to the challenge. But when Officer Spelling mistakenly shoots and kills a pregnant teen, the community is outraged, and the family of the victim demands justice. Feeling protective of the traumatized cop in her care, Dot tries to stop Officer Spelling from her desperate attempts to apologize to the girl's family.

A novel of immense power, Wuthering Heights is filled with the raw beauty of the English moors and a deep compassion for the conflicting destinies of men and women. The novel begins with Lockwood, a tenant who takes up residence close to Wuthering Heights. His landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, proves to be surly, unfriendly, and rude. When Lockwood discovers a mildewed book with the names Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton scratched on its cover, he begins to read, sojourning on a strange tale that proves irresistible. The heart-wrenching story he discovers about stubborn Cathy and wild-as-the-wind Heathcliff has been a favorite since its original publication in 1848.

Jerry Harris was a self-made California millionaire who, at age forty-four, had it all: booming businesses, yachts, a mansion, a beautiful wife, and a voice to rival Elvis. No one who knew this well-liked, generous man could make sense of his sudden disappearance one autumn night. On a final phone call to his brother from his Mercedes, Jerry breathed a muffled oath - then the line went dead.

Acclaimed for her "devastatingly accurate insight" ( The New York Times Book Review) into the criminal mind, Ann Rule has chronicled the most fascinating cases of our time in her best-selling Crime Files series. For this sixth stunning collection, Rule has culled from her private files the most-asked-about homicide cases – riveting accounts of seemingly normal men and women who are compelled by a murderous rage to suddenly lash out at innocent victims.

The images of the burning towers, the heartbroken friends building memorials, the minute-by-minute accounts of the horrors of that day - all are indelibly etched on our collective consciousness. But what of those left behind after 9/11? What have they, and we, learned from the gift of time? In Project Rebirth, a psychologist and a journalist examine the lives of eight people who were directly affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

In a narrative that combines the intensely personal with social, economic, and historical analysis, Susan Jacoby turns an unsparing eye on the marketers of longevity - pharmaceutical companies, lifestyle gurus, and scientific businessmen who suggest that there will soon be a "cure" for the "disease" of aging.

Joy Anderson was innocent, young, and trusting when she met Gabe Venture. An aspiring journalist with worlds to conquer, Gabe came to New Mexico to explore the natural wonders of Lost River Cave, with Joy acting as his guide. Surrounded by staggering beauty they both surrendered to a passion too powerful to deny - and Joy gave herself freely to the most extraordinary man she had ever known.