Set in the early 1500s in Renaissance Italy this novel is the story of Andrea Orsini, a peasant boy who rises far and becomes a secret agent for Cesare Borgia, who entrusts him with the most delicate political, military and romantic missions, Orson Welles was cast as Borgia, Tyronne Power as Orsini in the film version.

Peter Court is summoned to Dunbar Manor (the stuff in the house is worth millions) at the request of the lady of the house, Nina Galliard, who submitted to an affair with an unscrupulous Italian society man in a moment of rattle-brained, life-thirsty longing to experience what was missing in her marriage, and now finds herself being blackmailed.Nina Galliard's husband is 20 years her senior, and is so stuffy, conceited, rigid, humorless, controlling, and hypocritical (to name a few...

Judge Matthew Frole is a hated figurehead, a zealot of the code, intolerant, and feared. When he's paralyzed from an unknown poison and eventually dies, his wife and children are all suspects – of a heinous crime.Inspector Norse, first introduced to readers in Door of Death, returns with his expert knowledge and mental acumen to face a mare's nest of issues: the murder of Judge Frole, his deviant family, mistaken identities, and a growing voodoo culture―savage, elemental, and cruel...

Lord Chesterfield was an immortal of his age, synonymous with the art of gracious living and representative of his world at its best in point of culture, international relations, and the social arts. Yet, today's literary world knows him through an extraordinary collection of letters to his illegitimate son―letters of admonition, encouragement and advice, often two thousand words long, revolving around the love and ambitions Chesterfield held for the boy himself as well as letters to those...

Occupants of Greyhouse are slowly and irrevocably being overtaken by an invading current that cannot be expelled. A force that causes a heightening of every mental and sensual power with a corresponding dwindling of all moral scruples. Scary.Dr. Richard Ames is unaware of this danger when he accepts an invitation to visit Greyhouse in order to observe Celia Ballion, it's mistress, who appears to be going crackers. Is it the house that is driving her mad or her husband, Francis Ball...

A new edition of the mid-20th century popular classic of a Spanish nobleman who accompanies Cortez to conquer Mexico.

To every man, joy and grief before night.~Old Norse proverbCount and Countess Falke of Falkenborg are deeply in debt and are about to lose the ancient but respectably shabby family castle when they meet Patricia Morier, a wealthy American heiress, who feels a tingle along her veins when she first sets eyes on the passionate and masterful Count and instantly falls in love. Since the Count doesn't resist their mutual attraction too energetically, Patricia promptly buys the dilapidate...

For five generations, dating from 1753, the ancestral home of the Tolbecken family had grown and the land had dwindled; the house had become a mansion and the land a town block. By the end of the 19th century, not only the land, but the fortune of the Tolbecken family was diminishing, and, fiber by fiber, the roots were snapping, as the tree that supported their old life began toppling toward the earth.The patriarch of the family, Judge Rufus Tolbecken, has pinned a great deal of h...

Jacklin Baron, an artist of great talent, temperament, and beauty, marries an older man of character and refinement never suspecting that the real love of her life, restless and hungry as the sea, would appear on a trip to Paris and awaken her heart, challenging the path she's chosen and changing her life forever. Published in 1929, this early romance written by renown biographer and novelist, Samuel Shellabarger, is dark and sinuous, gradually capturing the attention of the reader as the ...

A young Frenchman and a young Englishwoman are caught in the wild plots and counterplots surrounding the Bourbon conspiracy against Francis I in 16th century France. Complete with rich pageantry, a jealousy-maddened king, an evil nobleman, Sire Francois the Sorcerer, wolf hounds and mad gallops across the French countryside, master story teller and scholar, Samuel Shellabarger has once again created an adventure and suspense story that never falters.Shellabarger's style of writing ...

In underworld parlance, the period between midnight and four in the morning.“A little blarney is the lubricant of life.”Patrick Connelly, a rookie cop with an irreverent attitude and a swell Irish brogue, gets a tough assignment to get the goods on a big dope ring in spite of a doubting chief who believes he's giving the case to an ignoramus with no self-control. Connelly's orders land him on the estate of Bertrand Trenis, where he finds himself surrounded by a slew of susp...

The last gift given Lady Blanche from her beloved father as a token of his love was a silver girdle – “wrought with figures men and beasts” – to be worn by one who knows lonely sorrow and the pain of toil, but also granting the strength to endure and the right of lordship. Lady Blanche dons the silver girdle after discovering that her new husband, Count Raoul de Roche-Bernard, has not been true to his vows and has betrayed her. Though unhappy in her marriage, when the Count leaves for the ...