An Old Chaos (A Latouche County Mystery)


Book Description

When a landslide kills six people and destroys several expensive homes, Madeline Thomas, principal chief of the Klalos, and geologist Charlie O Neill know something is rotten in Latouche County: the land should never have been built on. Sheriff s investigator Rob Neill uncovers a suppressed hazard warning and evidence of payoffs to county government, with the help of librarian Meg McLean. Rob leads an investigation that implicates local development bigwigs and county personnel, including his boss and mentor, the sheriff. Meanwhile someone will stop at nothing, even murder, to keep the cover-up covered up. Cop, librarian, nurse, sheriff, and even an Indian chief they are all viewpoint characters in Sheila Simonson s engrossing new mystery, An Old Chaos. Expanding our view of the microcosm of a rural Columbia Gorge town introduced in the critically praised Buffalo Bill s Defunct, Simonson portrays heroism as well as corruption in high and low places. And human fallibility s potential for diasaster is joined by the landscape s; as the eponymous Wallace Stevens poem says, We live in an old chaos of the sun.




Call Down the Hawk


Book Description

Jane August, an artist who’s “a refugee from a wealthy family,” is visiting her estranged father and his fifth wife on the Columbia River Gorge. Doing a good turn for a wine maker from neighboring Hawk Farm, she is swept into a morass of family secrets and betrayals—in both the cozy farmhouse and the palatial estate. Call Down the Hawk centers on two victims, Frank August and Bill Hough (pronounced Hawk), both of whom enjoy conflict for its own sake. Hawk Farm, in the flood plain of the Columbia, is one focus of trouble, with the recent suicide of Hough and his daughter’s trial by fire as a soldier in Afghanistan. Another is the August mansion on the bluff above, when Jane August’s father vanishes amid charges of his bank’s fiscal malfeasance. Undersheriff Rob Neill is called to the scene when a bulldozer in the orchard uncovers Frank August’s corpse. Until Chief Madeline Thomas of the Klalos clears the murk of violence from the land, Rob won’t be able to uncover the truth.




The Publishers Weekly


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Library Journal


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Meadowlark


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When Lark agreed to run a writers' workshop, she didn't bargain for murder. Lark Dodge has been dragooned into helping Bianca Fiedler, heir of Hollywood stars turned organic farmer, run a workshop for science writers, a.k.a. journalists. When one of the farm managers is found dead and covered with ice cubes in a bin used to store broccoli, it would be prudent to cancel the workshop, but Bianca insists it’s too late, and Bianca tends to get her way. While it seems likely that one of the farm’s quirky inhabitants must be guilty, Lark and her husband Jay find themselves trapped in a hunt for the killer.




Lady Elizabeth's Comet


Book Description

Elizabeth Conway's greatest ambition is to discover a comet. Unfortunately, she is the eldest of eight daughters of an earl, so her relative expect her to take her rightful place in Society. The heavenly bodies she views through her telescope hold far more fascination for Elizabeth than any mere male, although her perpetual beau, dashing Lord Bevis, would change that if he could.When Tom Conroy, a distant cousin and the new Earl of Clanross, appears after a year's delay, Elizabeth offers him a cool welcome. He is a dull stick and ill-mannered to boot. Yet he is the only man who has shown respect for her astronomical work, and his concern for her younger sisters' welfare reveals a different side to him. Then his heir, Elizabeth's cousin Willoughby, appears with the obvious intent of making a match between his lovely but silly sister and Clanross--and with making as much mischief as he can. Lord Bevis presses his suit with Lady Elizabeth, until she agrees, at long last, to marry him. She resists making an announcement, though, until he tells his somewhat traditional father that he will not only be marrying an heiress but her telescope.Elizabeth discovers a comet. Clanross proclaims his pride in her accomplishment, but Lord Bevis's reaction is far more traditional. Willoughby introduces a beautiful woman into the mix and the twins further complicate it. Distraught, confused, perhaps even heartbroken, Elizabeth faces the question of what to do with the rest of her life. And what to do about Clanross, whom she just might love.







The Open Secret of Ireland


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Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes


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The Annotated Alice


Book Description

A fully annotated and illustrated version of both ALICE IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS that contains all of the original John Tenniel illustrations. From "down the rabbit hole" to the Jabberwocky, from the Looking-Glass House to the Lion and the Unicorn, discover the secret meanings hidden in Lewis Carroll's classics. (Orig. $29.95)