The potential duality of human character and its capacity for dissembling was a source of fascination to the Elizabethan dramatists. Where many of them used the Machiavellian picture to draw one fair-faced scheming villain after another, Shakespeare absorbed more deeply the problem of the tensions between the public and private face of man.Originally published in 1983, this book examines the ways in which this psychological insight is developed and modified as a source of dramatic ...

Seven-year-old Lucy Gibson can barely contain her excitement when she learns that the funfair has come to town and Matt, her mother’s new boyfriend, has agreed to take her. Despite her slight uneasiness in Matt’s company and her upset over her parent’s split, she readily goes off with him one evening, as excited as only a young innocent child can be.The next morning, Chief Superintendent Lambert briefs DS Bert Hook and DS Ruth David on the disappearance of a young seven-year-old lo...

When there is a violent murder at a historic Home Counties golf club, Superintendent John Lambert himself discovers the crime. For the first time in a long career, he finds himself conducting a murder inquiry among people he knows well. The victim is the Chairman of the Golf Club and a prominent local businessman, and it is soon clear that the members of the Club Committee are the chief suspects. They are all prominent members of the local community, and Lambert is saddled with a Chief Con...

Lydon Hall is a house full of character, as the estate agent's literature claims. But its many interesting features should surely not include a corpse in the elegant drawing-room? Is this death the suicide it appears to be? The investigation centres upon a tight-knit village community. Both the glamorous French widow of the deceased and the man who lives rough on the moor after a mental breakdown seem to know more about this death than is at first apparent. Moreover, it gradually emerges t...

Amid the luxurious surroundings of the Wye Castle Hotel and Country Club, a man is found dead on the course. Superintendent Lambert and Sergeant Hook establish fairly quickly how he died, but discovering who killed him proves a more difficult challenge. The golf course and hotel are set in spectacular scenery beside one of England's most beautiful rivers, with Hereford's ancient Cathedral visible in the distance. In May this incomparable valley is at its best, but it is a bizarre context f...

In the Colorado mountain town of Glenwood Springs not far from Aspen artist/photographer Gwyn Sanders discovers a cryptic letter her sister Kelly left behind. The victim of a deadly hit and run Kelly reveals she was sexually involved with her sisters boyfriend and is scared for her life. Both Gwyn and her remaining sister Linda have since married their boyfriends so either of their husbands could be guilty of murder. The sisters received a large inheritance before meeting these men and kno...

Two separate lives, one heartbreaking secretWhen Phyllis Whitsell was just eight months old, her mother died of tuberculosis. At least, that what’s Phyllis grew up being told. But Phyllis never believed it was true. She prayed every night for God to take care of her birth mother, holding onto the hope that she was alive and out there, somewhere.Finally, after years of searching, Phyllis finds her birth mother—Bridget, known locally as Tipperary Mary. But th...

“A stunner, exquisitely plotted and characterized, with Todd’s trademark meticulous backdrop of World War I-era England.”—Strand MagazineThe Great War is still raging when Francesca Hatton’s adored grandfather dies on the family estate in England’s isolated Exe Valley. Among his effects, Francesca is stunned to find an unsigned letter cursing the Hattons and their descendants. Then a stranger appears, accusing her grandfather of murder. Was the loving prot...

The Plymouth Express Affair Agatha Christie - A dead heiress on a train, a murdered recluse, a wealthy playboy slain at a costume ball are but a few of the unfortunate victims of confounding crimes committed in the pages of Agatha Christies The Under Dog and Other Stories, a superior collection of short mystery fiction all featuring Hercule Poirot as the investigator.

Anna Jacobs has done it again, the book was riveting' - 5-star reader reviewCassandra Blake has raised her three motherless sisters. The girls are the pride of their book-loving, impractical father, and not in a hurry to marry. Then the American Civil War cuts off supplies of cotton to Lancashire, the mills fall silent and there is no work. They have an impossible choice: stay and risk starvation or pack up and begin again elsewhere.Cassandra has fallen in ...

From New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd comes a haunting tale that explores the impact of World War I on all who witnessed it-officers, soldiers, doctors, and battlefield nurses like Bess Crawford.Though the Great War is nearing its end, the fighting rages on. While waiting for transport back to her post, Bess Crawford meets Captain Alan Travis from the island of Barbados. Later, when hes brought into her forward aid station disoriented from a head wound, Bess...

Red-faced, red-handed!Octavia Denison has always known exactly what she wants – that is until she’s caught in a compromising position by brooding ex-rock star Jago Marsh. Tavy is mortified…and judging by the gleam in his golden eyes he’s seen everything – and liked it!Used to getting what he wants, millionaire Jago is determined to uncover the identity of the mysterious flame-haired temptress who trespassed on his property…and to satisfy the craving she’s a...