Anne Perry

"As beautiful as it may be, their friends' country home is not where Lady Vespasia wishes to spend Christmas with her new husband, Victor Narraway. She'd rather pass a relaxing holiday at home with him--especially because Victor, former head of the London Special Branch, seems to be hiding some undercover dealings with the other guests who have gathered in the spacious home. As tensions grow among the couples, the young and beautiful Iris Watson-Watt...

"After her friend gets unceremoniously fired with no references right before the holidays, Gracie takes the recently-vacated job herself to try and figure out what happened, in the latest novel of the series following A Christmas resolution"--

In 1890s London, Superintendent Pitt of Bow Street police station investigates the death of a woman working as a researcher in a vicarage. An autopsy shows she was pregnant. There are three suspects, one of them the vicar, a married man.

In this short story, the New York Times—bestselling author delves into the private lives and personal histories of her "extremely congenial characters" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). It is 1912, and Peter Naylor calls at the home of Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould, longtime friend of Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte. Clouds are gathering in Europe, and the prime minister is considering Thomas to head up the country's intelligence services-the king...

In late June, 1914, Cambridge professor Joseph Reavley learns his parents have died in an automobile crash, and Joseph's brother, Matthew, an officer in the Intelligence Service, reveals the parents were trying to deliver a mysterious secret document to him.

After half a millennium, Tathea prepares for the final battle For five hundred years, Tathea has lain asleep, imprisoned in the forest. Once the Empress of Shinabar, she was pushed out of power when a coup took her husband's life-a tragedy that led to a miracle. While roaming the wasteland, she learned of the unending battle between good and evil, and a book that could stop the demon Asmodeus forevermore.   It takes centuries, but at last the world...

Short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors. An ancient scroll draws a bookseller into a chilling mystery Monty Danforth finds the tin buried beneath a shipment of leather-bound classics. Inside is a millennia-old vellum manuscript written in an unfamiliar but unmistakably ancient language. Danforth tries to photocopy and photograph it, but he ends up with blank images, as though the ink were made of something impervious to modern technology....

"December, 1904. Jemima Pitt, now twenty-two, agrees to act as a "suitable companion" to her friend Delphinia, who is traveling to New York to be married to Brent Albright, toast of New York high society. Jemima is excited about the prospect of a Christmas adventure in a strange big city, but little does she expect to be enlisted on a top secret mission by Brent's brother Harley, to track down Delphinia's estranged mother. After some detective work...