In the court of Henry VIII, there are many secrets—and some people will kill to keep them hidden.Susanna Dallet is the daughter of a Flemish painter and wife to a philandering husband, living in the court of Henry VIII. When her husband is murdered, Susanna is suddenly left with a household to provide for and nothing to her name. Her days of anonymity are over when Susanna finds that guild rules preventing women from working do not apply at the king’s court, and she manages to secure a position as a miniature-portrait painter. Before long, she has not only made a name for herself, she is close to those who surround Princess Mary. But even in this lofty company, Susanna is not safe. An old manuscript that she has inherited turns out to hold the keys to an age-old mystery, and the forces that claimed her husband are closing in. As danger looms, Susanna joins with Robert Ashton, secretary to Henry’s cunning and ruthless adviser Archbishop Wolsey, and together they must fight a fearsome society in league with a demon.Combining heartpounding action, sly humor, romance, and supernatural twists, The Serpent Garden is the story of a creative and resourceful woman who unwittingly finds herself in a dangerous—and deadly—game of hide-and-seek.

The Serpent's Garden is a crime/thriller about the macabre and mysterious murders of five female graduate students at UCLA. A charismatic but controversial philosophy professor has been falsely charged and convicted of the ritualistic murders. All the women were found posed and clutching a Bible; the murderer left several clues including coins wedged in the victim's eyes bearing a crucified serpent, an open Bible, a novelty snake, and an eight-inch crucifix buried in the victims' birth canal. Professor Chance Carpenter ends up on death row because of a rush to judgment orchestrated by the diminutive FBI agent Laura Lamb. Her ambitions and nefarious secrets cause her to cross the thin blue line and also become a serial killer. She is captured but manages a miraculous escape from the confines of Quantico's FBI headquarters and heads west on a revenge crime spree of her own. She is now on the lam; her crimes are featured in the tabloids and a new dance craze is named after her. College kids are doing the "Laura Lamb". The true killer of the UCLA coeds, however, has blended in with average "Joe College". The thriller follows a trail of evil, surprise, and suspense.

Thomas Doane's thorough examination of Old and New Testament Biblical myths and legends, drawing parallels to stories belonging to older traditions, such as those of ancient Egypt. The central purpose of the text is to unite, in a single compendium, analysis of all the Bible myths which bear resemblance to earlier tales. Doane's system is practical; the myths are recounted, examined and compared against their apparent forebears in chronological order. The purpose is to demonstrate that religions share much in common with one another; while their themes and the names of figures change, the character of the tales and legends remains similar or even identical across centuries of lore. At the outset, Doane acknowledges that very little of this book is entirely original; what is special and unique to this work is its arrangement, and the systematic, readable manner in which the subject is tackled. Each chapter is amply annotated, that the reader may consult both the Bible and surviving texts of other religious works, plus previous scholarly researches into ancient mythologies. Perhaps most controversially, Doane focuses upon the tale of Christ. His birthplace, the events in which he was involved, the subject and message of his sermons, and his untimely death upon the crucifix are shown to mirror aspects of previous stories concerned prophets or holy men of other religious traditions.