The Socialites's Guide to Murder


Book Description

The hotel was her refuge, but scandal is afoot—and a killer stalks the halls in this charming series debut perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ashley Weaver. It’s 1958 and Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy has not left the Pinnacle Hotel in fourteen months. She suffers from agoraphobia, and what’s more, it’s her father’s hotel, and everything she needs is there. Evelyn’s always been good at finding things, she discovered her mother dead in a Manhattan alleyway fifteen years earlier. Now she’s finding trouble inside her sanctuary. At a party for artist Billie Bell, his newest work is stolen, and Evelyn’s fake boyfriend (and real best friend), movie star Henry Fox, is accused of the theft. But just as Evelyn sets out to prove Henry’s innocence, she finds Billie Bell dead. The murder weapon links the crime to the hotel’s chief of security. But why would he use a knife with his initials on the handle? With her beloved home in disarray, Evelyn joins up with hotel employee (and her secret crush) Mac Cooper to get to the bottom of the case. As Mac picks locks and Evelyn snoops around the hotel, they discover the walls around them contain more secrets than they previously knew. Now, Evelyn must force herself to leave the hotel to follow the clues—but when she and Mac set off to chase a lead, their car crashes and they barely escape with their lives. Someone snipped Evelyn’s brake lines, and now the stakes have become dangerously high. Evelyn’s knack for sleuthing—and her playful imagination—are always hard at work, and she throws an elaborate party at the hotel where every guest is a suspect. But will the killer emerge from the glamorous lineup? If not, Evelyn just might find herself…next in line for murder.




The Socialite's Dark Secret


Book Description

When Karen Anderson offers a lift to Aaron, an African student, waiting in the rain at the bus stop, little did she realize that it awakens a hidden urge to try the exotic. One evening, when her husband is away on business, she ventures into the rough part of the city and picks up a young black man in a bar. They eventually have sex in her home and the start of her quest to seek similar encounters.Set in a mid-Western town in the 1970s, Karen has to contend with racial prejudices of that era where sexual liaisons between white women and black men were not welcomed. A black co-worker, Malik, turns up at her house late in the evening to repair a blocked sink and a nosy neighbour observes his presence. She eventually divorces her husband and marries Malik. Their marriage generates a hostile reaction in the neighbourhood and, one morning, they find a racial slur spray painted across her front window. Unable to take the constant abuse from people when she is seen with a black man, Karen files for a divorce against her husband's will.Still fired by her do-gooder instincts, Karen joins a civil rights organisation as a volunteer. There she encounters Aaron again and they become more than good friends. One evening at a conference held in her town, she meets Justin Green, the organisation's president. After his speech, some members of the organisation gather at the bar for a drink. When the bar closes after midnight, Karen invites Justin for a cup of coffee at her home. In the early hours of the morning, she drives to drop him at his hotel. As he is getting out of the car, he gets shot and the event hits the newspaper headlines because a black civil rights leader was with a white woman at the time of the shooting. After being interviewed by the police, Karen is told to stay in town as she might be a material witness. The police investigation leads to Aaron being rounded up as a suspect and his liaison with Karen is exposed. Karen goes into hiding only to be unwittingly snared into the services of a black pimp.Read the book to know what happens next.WARNING 18+: This book contains material that may be considered offensive to some readers, which includes interracial relationships, graphic language, explicit sex, and adult situations.




Secrets of a Shy Socialite


Book Description

Jena was always “the good Piermont twin,” preferring nursing others over life in the limelight. Seducing her all-time crush was the bravest and definitely the most outrageous thing she’s ever done. What did giving in to her desire bring her? Two adorable baby girls! But the social fallout will be nothing compared to confessing the truth to the unsuspecting father. And how will he react when Jena reveals her most heartbreaking secret of all?




The Socialite's Secret


Book Description

The doctor she can't forget Two years ago, socialite Scarlet Portland spent one wild night with ER doc Luke Edwards. She hasn't forgotten their sizzling heat — it's branded on her mind forever — nor that night's devastating emotional repercussions... Now Scarlet's back in London and back in Luke's life. All she wants is one more chance — to see if the happiness she's only ever felt in his arms was real. But though their chemistry burns hot as ever, will he want her when he discovers the truth?




The After Party


Book Description

"A vintage version of 'Gossip Girl' meets bigger hair." —The Skimm "DiSclafani’s story sparkles like the jumbo diamonds her characters wear to one-up each other. Historical fiction lovers will linger over every lush detail." —People From the bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls comes a story of lifelong female friendship – in all its intimate agony and joy – set within a world of wealth, beauty, and expectation. Joan Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Tall, blonde, beautiful, and strong, she dominates the room and the gossip columns. Every man wants her; every woman wants to be her. Devoted to Joan since childhood, Cece Buchanan is either her chaperone or her partner in crime, depending on whom you ask. But when Joan’s radical behavior escalates the summer they are twenty-five, Cece considers it her responsibility to bring her back to the fold, ultimately forcing one provocative choice to appear the only one there is. A thrilling glimpse into the sphere of the rich and beautiful at a memorable moment in history, The After Party unfurls a story of friendship as obsessive, euphoric, consuming, and complicated as any romance.




Socialite's Nine-Month Secret


Book Description

Pregnant and reassessing her future, she should not be tempted by the man next door… Dive into the second installment in Sophie Pembroke’s Twin Sister Swap duet. SHE WASN’T LOOKING FOR A HERO… When supermodel Willow finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she needs some temporary anonymity from the press. Hiding out in her twin sister’s Cornish cottage seems ideal, until she catches the eye of her delectable yet guarded neighbor, Gwyn. She’s blown away by their instant connection and the security she feels around him. But is revealing her identity—and her nine-month secret—a risk she can take? From Harlequin Romance: Be swept away by glamorous and heartfelt love stories. Twin Sister Swap Book 1: Cinderella in the Spotlight Book 2: Socialite's Nine-Month Secret




A Cold Creek Secret


Book Description

Just back from a tour of duty, all Major Brant Western wanted was a hot meal and a warm bed. What he didn't need was the stunning socialite in disguise who'd just shown up at his family's Cold Creek ranch. Scandal trailed bad girl Mimi Van Hoyt—aka "Maura"—everywhere she went. But once Brant discovered her secret, how could he turn her away? Being stranded in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard was not Mimi's idea of a fun time in the Tetons. Then why was she starting to think this sexy soldier could be more than her shelter from the storm? And the more determined Brant was to protect her and her unborn child, the more she believed that this honorable, irresistible military man was the only man for her.




The Nurse's Secret


Book Description

The unflinching, spellbinding new book from the acclaimed author of The Second Life of Mirielle West. Based on the little-known story of America’s first nursing school, a young female grifter in 1880s New York evades the police by conning her way into Bellevue Hospital’s training school for nurses, while a spate of murders continues to follow her as she tries to leave the gritty streets of the city behind… “A spellbinding story, a vividly drawn setting, and characters that leap off the pages. This is historical fiction at its finest!” —Sara Ackerman, USA Today bestselling author of The Codebreaker’s Secret Based on Florence Nightingale’s nursing principles, Bellevue is the first school of its kind in the country. Where once nurses were assumed to be ignorant and unskilled, Bellevue prizes discipline, intellect, and moral character, and only young women of good breeding need apply. At first, Una balks at her prim classmates and the doctors’ endless commands. Yet life on the streets has prepared her for the horrors of injury and disease found on the wards, and she slowly gains friendship and self-respect. Just as she finds her footing, Una’s suspicions about a patient’s death put her at risk of exposure, and will force her to choose between her instinct for self-preservation, and exposing her identity in order to save others. Amanda Skenandore brings her medical expertise to a page-turning story that explores the evolution of modern nursing—including the grisly realities of nineteenth-century medicine—as seen through the eyes of an intriguing and dynamic heroine. PRAISE FOR AMANDA SKENANDORE’S THE SECOND LIFE OF MIRIELLE WEST “In this superior historical, the author’s diligent research, as well as her empathetic depiction of those subjected to forced medical isolation, make this a winner.” —Publishers Weekly




The Secret History


Book Description

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch. Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality. “A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times




A Plague of Secrets


Book Description

Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky, and Wyatt Hunt return When high-grade marijuana is found on a coffee-shop manager murdered in San Francisco, it suggests that the shop's owner, Maya Townshend, may be behind more than a caffeine fix. But when another murder exposes a drug-buying A-list celebrity and political clientele, a tabloid-fueled controversy takes the investigation into the realms of conspiracy and cover up.