Everything has come out in the wash for artist Mandy Dyer since she inherited Dyer's Cleaners. Her divorce is behind her, her future is secure, her heart is healed. Mandy's friendship with Kate Bosworth, proprietor of an antique clothing store, dates from their halcyon days of working at street fairs and dreaming great dreams. And the dress Kate wants Mandy to clean hails from another era too, a genuine 1920's Fortuny. Kate calls the creation in blue the find of her career: a ten -dollar purchase worth thousands. Its real cost is her life. Within days Mandy finds Kate murdered in her ransacked apartment, and the memory haunts her. Worse, so does the killer, evidently looking for the Fortuny. Now Mandy is searching flea markets and garage sales to unravel the mystery of where Kate found the dress. But the clues to Kate's death are as slippery as silk--until Mandy realizes that like Kate, the threads of past and present are weaving her destiny. And it's time to face a hard truth, a chilling betrayal...and a murderer's rage.

Just as Laura Carnegie is safely ensconced in Jeremy’s company and his life, she gets distracted by a stolen dress worn by a murdered princess, and her father’s disappearance twenty years before. Can her career and her relationship survive her curiosity? Dead Is the New Black Death of a Supermodel A Dress To Die For

The Talbotts are back again... When Jeanine Talbott's dad remarries, the whole family comes together for a weekend of festivities—that is, until the wedding planner is murdered. This family, unfortunately, is no stranger to mystery or murder. The Talbotts cooperate with the authorities and do a bit of their own sleuthing as well. Adding to the mystery is a cranky wilderness expert, a nosy ranger, and Daniel Boone. Jeanine wanted her dad to have a wedding to die for, but not quite so literally.

"I wish to God you were dead." Little did Ellie Chase know those would be the last words she ever spoke to her estranged mother. When Martha's body was found the next morning, all eyes were on Ellie… who couldn't remember what she'd done that night. So when Tommy Maricci—the man she refused to let herself love— came to her rescue, she couldn't say no. Tommy believed in his former girlfriend's innocence—no matter how damning the evidence against her was. She may have broken his heart, but he took her into his home for protection. Because if Ellie wasn't the killer, someone had set her up. And Tommy refused to let anyone hurt the woman he loved.

The USA Today bestselling author of Unholy Matrimony is back with a new Lucille Mystery! This time Lucille must track down the killer of a diet guru who had a lot more to lose than just a few extra pounds. With her best friend Flo’s wedding approaching, Lucille is desperate to trim down and joins Weigh to Lose, a weight-loss program led by a clipboard-wielding harridan who’s as unattractively thin as she is shrill. When the bossy woman turns up dead with her throat slashed and a tasty-looking cannoli stuffed in her mouth, Lucille figures she got her just desserts. But when the local police come up empty-handed, Lucille sinks her teeth into the mystery and narrows the list of suspects to a husband with a wandering eye, a sexy young Swedish au pair, and a gambler deep in debt to the wrong people. Until one of the suspects becomes the victim of another gruesome murder. Afraid she’s bitten off more than she can chew and worried that she might be next on the killer’s list, Lucille puts her own neck on the line with a wild plan to trap the culprit and tip the scales of justice. “If you want a very funny murder mystery, then this book is for you. I’ve never laughed so hard while reading before.” —Goodreads, on Unholy Matrimony, Book 2 in the USA Today bestselling Lucille Mystery Series

Someone is dressed to kill in the debut Costume Shop Mystery from the national bestselling author of the Material Witness mysteries. No sooner does former magician’s assistant Margo Tamblyn return home to Proper City, Nevada, to run Disguise DeLimit, her family’s costume shop, than she gets her first big order. Wealthy nuisance Blitz Manners needs forty costumes for a detective-themed birthday bash. As for Blitz himself, his Sherlock Holmes is to die for—literally—when, in the middle of the festivities, Margo’s friend and party planner Ebony Welles is caught brandishing a carving knife over a very dead Blitz. For Margo, clearing Ebony’s name is anything but elementary, especially after Ebony flees town. Now Margo is left to play real-life detective in a town full of masked motives, cloaked secrets, and veiled vendettas. But as she soon learns, even a killer disguise can’t hide a murderer in plain sight for long. INCLUDES RECIPES AND COSTUME IDEAS! FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!

July Fourth, "The Star-Spangled Banner," Memorial Day, and the pledge of allegiance are typically thought of as timeless and consensual representations of a national, American culture. In fact, as Cecilia O'Leary shows, most trappings of the nation's icons were modern inventions that were deeply and bitterly contested. While the Civil War determined the survival of the Union, what it meant to be a loyal American remained an open question as the struggle to make a nation moved off of the battlefields and into cultural and political terrain. Drawing upon a wide variety of original sources, O'Leary's interdisciplinary study explores the conflict over what events and icons would be inscribed into national memory, what traditions would be invented to establish continuity with a "suitable past," who would be exemplified as national heroes, and whether ethnic, regional, and other identities could coexist with loyalty to the nation. This book traces the origins, development, and consolidation of patriotic cultures in the United States from the latter half of the nineteenth century up to World War I, a period in which the country emerged as a modern nation-state. Until patriotism became a government-dominated affair in the twentieth century, culture wars raged throughout civil society over who had the authority to speak for the nation: Black Americans, women's organizations, workers, immigrants, and activists all spoke out and deeply influenced America's public life. Not until World War I, when the government joined forces with right-wing organizations and vigilante groups, did a racially exclusive, culturally conformist, militaristic patriotism finally triumph, albeit temporarily, over more progressive, egalitarian visions. As O'Leary suggests, the paradox of American patriotism remains with us. Are nationalism and democratic forms of citizenship compatible? What binds a nation so divided by regions, languages, ethnicity, racism, gender, and class? The most thought-provoking question of this complex book is, Who gets to claim the American flag and determine the meanings of the republic for which it stands?

The dynamic duo from The Politician’s Daughter, Marine Unit Sergeant Petra Minx of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and her Italian friend Carlo, who works for Interpol, return in another grand adventure. With some misgivings, Petra accompanies the mercurial Carlo to his cousin’s wedding in South Africa. The bait: a trip to Namibia and a safari in Etosha National Park. But other people are out there laying bait for unsuspecting young women. Two teenage girls are attacked on their first night in Cape Town. When Petra discovers they have joined a tour to Namibia which includes volunteering in an African village and that her boss’s protégeé, Vicky, has left her job at a local hotel to do community service, her antennae begin to quiver. Her suspicions grow when she meets the reluctant bride, Julia, her stepbrother Florian who trades on his looks to ensnare women, and the phoney priest Father John. Petra is determined to find the girls and foil Florian’s diabolical plans for the future, but can she do it without ruining her holiday, her friendship with Carlo and perhaps her life?

Acclaimed Regency romance from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Amelia Grey Henrietta doesn't want a husband... Miss Henrietta Tweed is convinced that she carries a curse—one that's responsible for killing her previous guardians. So when she's sent to Lucien Trent Blakewell, the fifth Duke of Blakewell and the last man her father trusted to care for her, she knows the only way to save the duke is to persuade him to sign over her inheritance and set her free. Does she? Lucien doesn't believe there's a curse and just wants to get his new ward off his hands by finding her a suitable husband. But as the chemistry between him and Henrietta grows, he is increasingly tempted to fill that role himself. And when suspicious accidents begin to endanger the Duke's life, Henrietta must take drastic measures to save the one man she could love... The Rogues' Dynasty series: A Duke to Die For (Book 1) A Marquis to Marry (Book 2) An Earl to Enchant (Book 3) "Intriguing danger, sharp humor, and plenty of simmering sexual chemistry."—Booklist "Perfectly timed and tuned."—Long and Short of It Reviews "Memorable characters...humor, excitement and great love scenes. I couldn't ask for anything more!"—The Romance Studio "An upbeat plot...sweep[s] readers along at a lively pace in a lusciously spicy romp."—Library Journal

When a boy finds a girl's body in the ditch on prom night...he becomes the primary suspect in her murder. Prom dreams. Prom Screams. Mario Woods is looking forward to one normal night before he graduates. He's spent most of high school riding solo. But when fate lands him a date for prom, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner. Only, prom turns out to be a disaster. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead. All Mario wanted was to go to prom...but somehow, he ended up in hell.