At the 37th libel suit Thurlow Potts has brought to court to protect the family name, the family's beleaguered lawyer Charlie Paxton loses the case. Thurlow seems driven beyond reason to protect the million dollar shoe business of his mother, Cornelia Potts, known to the press as the 'Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe.' But some people in the courtroom think Thurlow should be taken seriously, including Ellery Queen, who is looking on while waiting with his father, Inspector Queen of the New York Police Department, for another case. Afraid Thurlow will make good on his threats, Paxton begs Queen for help. Paxton's fiancee is Thurlow's sister, and she secures Queen an invitation to dinner, where Queen meets the extended and unusual Potts family. But before the meal ends, Thurlow challenges his younger brother to a duel, and not one, but two murders ensue. For the twin victims, and for Queen who must now solve the crimes, the fairytale is over. From his first appearance in print in 1929, Ellery Queen became one of America's most famous and beloved fictional detectives. Over the course of nearly half a century, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, the duo writing team known as Ellery Queen, won the prestigious Edgar Award multiple times, and their contributions to the mystery genre were recognized with a Grand Master Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. Their fair-play mysteries won over fans due to their intricate puzzles that challenged the reader to solve the mystery alongside the brilliant detective. Queen's stories were among the first to dominate the earliest days of radio, film, and television. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which the writers founded and edited, became the world's most influential and acclaimed crime fiction magazine.

Brash, sexy, investigative journalist Margo Ross runs her hip news program with wit and intelligence. Tipped off that Albert Einstein might have been murdered by a group of right-wing militarists, Margo pursues the scoop of her life, tangling with a network of clues and an outlandish cast of suspects.

Simone Purdy is a manipulator of the nicest kind with the best of motives: to keep order among her post-college circle of friends, all established couples.

THE SILENT WALL Matty Matthews has been to the town of Forza d'Aguil before. Stationed there with a small group of soldiers during WWII, it was here that Matty fell in love with Rosanna. It was a sweet, short-lived affair until the soldiers unexpectedly got orders to pull out. Matty never got to say goodbye. Now he's back in Sicily, drawn to the mountain town after all these years. But the citizens of Forza d'Aguil are easy to offend, and when Matty inadvertently crosses Pino, the mafioso sabotages his leaving. Trapped in Forza d'Aguil, hemmed in on all sides by the oppression of the town and its silent citizens, he's stuck in the middle of mafia country with no way out. He has only the help of the innkeeper Vinciguerra, a man he can't understand, and the passion of the sweet Sophia. Or is she part of the sinister web, too? THE RETURN OF MARVIN PALAVER Marvin Palaver dies at the worst possible moment in life, just when he is coming out even with his nemesis, fellow scrap seller Sidney Minsk. He is so close. The contract is signed and Sydney has just bought back his own scrap, the deal of a lifetime. Marve knows happiness supreme. But as the tears of joy make his eyes swim, there comes a bump in his chest, and he is dead before he hits the floor. But death doesn't stop Marvin. His masterful schwindel must be complete. So Marve finagles his way back to the material plane for a bit of artful ghosting. Sidney has hidden the contract away, confident that he's the only one who knows about it. All Marve needs to do is get him to reveal it--he should live so long

Colour illustration by Kirwan.

Jimmy Gallivan is a glum fellow in jail, with three weeks to go on a seven-year term for attempted murder, when he's caught up in a massive jailbreak. He doesn't want to leave, but another con forces him to come along. Gallivan gradually realizes the whole jailbreak was meant to get him out, but he doesn't know why. Why him? Why couldn't they wait three weeks until he'd be released anyway?

KILL THE BOSS GOOD-BY Tom Fell, the boss, is gone, and Pander has temporarily taken over the rackets in town. He's got some ideas of his own how the bookies should be operating. The business needs some fresh blood. Then Fell is back, back from his rest at Desert Farm where Dr. Emilson has been treating him for manic depression; back with Cripp, his right-hand man. Fell knows he's been gone too long, that Pander has stepped in and made some changes. Pander thinks he's got the big bosses behind him, but what he doesn't know is that Fell may be manic, but he knows what he wants--power. And nobody is going to stop him from taking it. MISSION FOR VENGEANCE Eight years ago they were running guns, then something went wrong and they were all running for their lives. Farret spent some time in a South American prison but now he's back and out to even the score. One of the four betrayed him, and Farret knows you got to keep the score even on these things. John Miner owns a ranch and is engaged to Getterman's daughter, Jane. He's the first to find out about Farret. But Farret isn't interested in Miner yet. First he's got to settle with Lena; and after that, Metz. And if it isn't Metz who set him up, Getterman is next. But sooner or later, it all comes down to Miner. Miner brought him into the group--and his is the biggest score to settle of them all.

GIRL IN A BIG BRASS BED Lobbe wants his painting back. Goering confiscated it when the Nazis raided Rotterdam. But now, years later, it has been located, and the German government wants to return it. So Lobbe sends his assistant Manny deWitt to Munich to fetch it. The painting is Vermeer's "Apple Girl," Lobbe's prized possession. The mission seems easy enough. But as deWitt soon discovers, those who have the misfortune to come in contact with the elusive Vermeer seem to experience an early and unpleasant death. The sooner he gets the painting and gets out, the better. If only it were that simple. THE SPY WHO WAS 3 FEET TALL This time Lobbe sends Manny to a recently emerged African nation called Motana. It's deWitt's job to negotiate the contract to build a road through the country. As usual, Lobbe doesn't muddy the waters with too much information for deWitt. But this time, everyone seems to be up on the project but him. Yum Lee, the Chinese emissary who also wants the contract, is one step ahead of him. Inge, Lobbe's delightful niece, is strictly undercover. And then there's his ubiquitous taxi driver, Baby, who is much more (or less) than what he seems. Just what the hell is so important about this road anyway? CODE NAME GADGET As gadgets go, it was supposedly a fairly large one, large enough to fill a medium-sized factory. Manny's mission is to buy it for his boss Lobbe before the competition beats him to it. The mission takes him to England under the eccentric guidance of a pilot named Max Garten, and into the unexpected arms of Meghan Bushmill. Together, the three of them form a kind of team as they try to figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys--and if it even makes any difference anymore. Because whoever has the gadget can destroy the world, and even Lobbe may not be able to buy his way out of that one.

Death By Deadline is a mystery thriller that takes you deep into the heart of local TV News, with heroes, villains, and a look at how the battle to be first with a story can climax in unbelievable catastrophe. Can local news kill people? That's the essential question as the author takes you through a mosaic of politics. the underworld, government, and the life of a big city as seen through the prism of courageous journalists and their corrupt and devious counterparts. Death by Deadline is a story of murder, mayhem, and hope. accompanied by unforgettable characters, and some of the most unusual newsroom humor that you will ever read. This is not for the fainthearted, but is IS for people who want to walk the fine line between solid reporting and the tragedy of journalistic deceit. The people are not real. Can it happen? Maybe, on some dark day in the future, unless it is too late. "Too late" is a real possibility. But in the meantime, the thread of corruption, sexual tension, heroes and villains fighting an internal struggle, produces a newsroom full of tightrope walkers in a novel with so many surprises, that the reader must be prepared to face the unthinkable.

At the most outrageously inopportune moment, the little Negro puppethead - Kinky Friedman's keyholder, talisman and surrogate Pinocchio-like son - goes missing, and the Curse of the Missing Puppethead takes effect. In a desperate effort to find the missing puppethead, Kinky mounts his most intense and entertaining investigation ever. Anyone and everyone is a suspect in Yorick's disappearance, even the Village Irregulars. When Lexie, a beautiful and exotic escapee from Winnie Katz's Lesbian Dance Class, enters Kinky's life, the curse takes a dramatic and hilarious turn for the worse. Kinky discovers that, until he find his big puppethead, his little puppethead will also be missing in action. As Kinky's personal and professional lives begin to spiral downward, he leaves no rock unturned and no clue unpursued in a furious effort to recover the puppethead. Just when it appears that he may have found the first real clue to Yorick's whereabouts the Curse of the Missing Puppethead shifts into high gear, and Kinky's college friend, Nick "Chinga" Chavin, is falsely charged with the hit-and-run murder of a child. And not just any child, but the young son of Big Jim Gravotta, the Butcher of Staten Island. Curse of the Missing Puppethead is crime solving, mystery writing, romantic encounters, friendship and a unique philosophy of life bundled into a wildly entertaining novel by an original and unique talent.

The People from Heaven , John Sanford's most ambitious and searing novel, completes his Warrensburg Trilogy, digging beneath the bucolic surface of a small-town to expose the hatred at its core. "A sacred book, majestic in its rebukes of those who violate the breath and origin of humanity while professing faith and going through the motions of holiness." Carl Sandburg The people of Warrensburg are divided by the arrival of a nameless Black woman. Her few allies call her America Smith, while the town's most prominent citizens try to drive her out. This clash results in rape and murder. Sanford punctuates this spare plot with poetic episodes from the nation's past, rooting the characters' actions in the violence of the nation's founding. He tells the story with an artistry of language that led the Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature to describe him as America's "most outstanding neglected novelist." This new edition of Sanford's literary masterpiece features an introduction by Jack Mearns, author of John Sanford: An Annotated Bibliography. The other books in the trilogy are Make My Bed in Hell and The Old Man's Place. John Sanford (1904-2003) was a screenwriter and author who wrote 24 books. A one-time member of the Communist Party, he and his wife, the ground-breaking screenwriter Marguerite Roberts, refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and were blacklisted in Hollywood for nearly a decade. "Only a warm-hearted and perceptive author who believes in the potential worth of humanity could have conceived the powerful conflicts, the trenchant syllables here. The fact that it succeeds in provoking an examination of national conscience as well as of person attitude also suggests its worth." New York Herald Tribune "Sanford's technique is arresting and every page has a savor and quality of its own." The New Republic

"The Frontier Garrison" is the first English translation of "Az elõretolt helyõrség" by the Hungarian novelist Jenõ Rejtõ (1905-1943), originally published in 1939 under the pen name of "P. Howard." The translator, Balint Kacsoh (a university professor) also annotated the edition. The preface provides biographical data of Jenõ Rejtõ in historical and literary context. The genre is fiction; elements of action, adventure, mystery, and comedy are mixed in the story. It is suitable for young readers and adults. Synopsis: Action and adventure are mixed with a healthy dose of offbeat humor in this P. Howard classic, set in the second half of the 1930s. Harrincourt is dishonorably discharged from the French Naval Academy for a prank. He realizes that his carefree behavior put the livelihood of his widowed mother and teenage sister in jeopardy. To secure their financial future, he pays the premium on his life insurance policy and joins the French Foreign Legion destined to Africa, where his death "in the course of professional duty" would be all but guaranteed. While in basic training in Oran, he unwittingly becomes mixed up in murder and espionage and encounters the ghost of a murdered woman who has a penchant for singing. In short order, his unit is dispatched to a frontier garrison established to support French colonial expansion into equatorial Africa. Rival foreign powers, however, attempt to thwart the French plans and Harrincourt finds himself in the crossfire of international intrigue and falls in love with the beautiful woman whose haunting ghost follows the legionnaires as they march through the deadly Sahara. It is up to Harrincourt to save the day and uncover the secret of a mysterious watch, even if it might mean foregoing the death benefit his insurance policy would pay to his family.

THE MEN FROM THE BOYS Marty Bond had been a famous cop in New York. But that was before he was "retired" from the force. Now he's a house dick at a crummy hotel, pimping, rousting, drinking too much. His stomach is killing him, and it comes as no surprise when the doctor says it might be a tumor. Knowing he must have cancer, Marty starts to plan a quicker exit. That's when his stepson comes to him. An auxiliary cop working the streets, Lawrence thinks there was something fishy in a meat seller who cries robbery one minute, then changes his mind the next. Marty tells him to forget about it. But the kid investigates anyway, and is almost beaten to death. Now Marty figures it's time to take Lawrence's suspicions seriously. But what can an ex-cop on the skids do when all he has left are a few old skills, a cynical heart, and the little time remaining?

An attack on Ed Koch, U.S. Senator Anson Hubbard, and his bodyguards--linked to the Senator's support of the research into the Nazi gold in Swiss bank accounts--forces the mayor into a race against time to uncover the conspiracy in order to save the Senator's life.

The elderly detective Drury Lane is aided by Patience Thumm in the investigation of the mysterious death of a corrupt state senator

Boris Akunin has been hailed as Russia's answer to both Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his beloved Fandorin mystery series. After five years spent abroad building up a business as something of a private investigator, the handsome, stuttering Fandorin is back in Moscow--and in for a case that entangles him with the highest echelons of Romanov royalty. Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow with three of his children for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, who is fated to become the last Emperor of Russia. During an afternoon stroll in the park, Georgii's daughter Xenia is dragged away by bandits, only to be rescued by an elegant gentleman and his Japanese sidekick. The passing heroes introduce themselves as Erast Petrovich Fandorin and Masa, but panic ensues when the party realizes that four-year-old Mikhail has been snatched in the confusion. A ransom letter arrives from an international criminal demanding the handover of the Count Orlov, an enormous diamond on the royal scepter which is due to play a part in the coronation. Can the gentleman detective find Mikhail in time? The Coronation is a fantastically entertaining and deftly plotted take on the hostage novel, not to be missed.

Poetry. Art. In the back of BILL, Bill Berkson writes: "The words and title for BILL popped out of a juvenile detective novel Tom Veitch gave me around 1980. Instantly, just flipping through this little illustrated book occasioned an emergency. The editorial imagination went to work. Soon, having typed a series of short sentences, paragraphs and stray phrases towards the bottom edge of unusually thin 8 1/2" by 11" sheets... I set aside the twenty-or-so pages and forgot about them." The story was then shelved in a manila folder for 25 years. Berkson revisited the story in 2006 and decided the blank pages needed artwork. With the help of Mac McGinnes, it was decided that artist Colter Jacobsen would be a perfect fit. Jacobsen found inspiration for the project in a collection of postcards dating from early the 1900s through the 1980s. With a slow and deliberate attentiveness he began a series of drawings: "I felt I was responding to another time, nearer to when I was born, a time thirty years before I was born, and recontextualizing these times into images for today." Within a year, the new BILL emerged, "a fresh creation, in its present splendor."