A Playdate With Death


Book Description

Smart, witty mystery from the author of Bad Mother and Love and Treasure... Public defender turned stay-at-home mom Juliet Applebaum is a “smart and fearless” (Sue Grafton) sleuth whose previous adventures have been praised as “compelling” (Publishers Weekly) and “entertaining” (Booklist). In A Playdate with Death, she’s back in top form—taming tantrums, battling boredom, chasing clues… No one ever said motherhood was a walk in the park, but Juliet Applebaum is doing her best. She’s been showing up (more or less) on time to pick up her daughter from preschool. She’s trying (in vain) to discourage her two-and-a-half-year-old son’s interest in firearms. And in between planning playdates and playing dress up, she’s even managed to fit in some much-needed kid-free time, working out with a personal trainer at the local health club. It’s going well. She’s losing weight. She’s even happy—until her trainer commits suicide. A charming, cheerful aspiring actor, Bobby Katz seemed to have it all—and Juliet just can’t believe he died at his own hand. She suspects that there’s a much more sinister explanation—and that it may lie with Bobby’s parents, who never told him he was adopted. Or with his grieving fiancee, a recovering addict who just fell off the wagon. Or with his birth mother, a woman he had recently started to look for—who had gone to great lengths to ensure that she would never be found. Always up for a task that will get her out of the house, Juliet keeps running down secrets—until, at last, she runs into the truth… Ayelet Waldman is the author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Red Hook Road, Daughter's Keeper, and other acclaimed works, as well as the Mommy-Track Mysteries, including such titles as The Big Nap and Death Gets a Time-Out.




Playdate with Cody


Book Description

"JJ and his friend Cody are having their first playdate! Join them as they color, ride bikes, learn how to share toys, and more!"--




The Playdate


Book Description

TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED. . . . In a quiet London suburb, a group of mothers relies on each other for friendship, favors, and gossip. But some of them shouldn’t be trusted, and others have dark secrets. When Callie moved into her new neighborhood, she thought it would be easy to fit in. The other parents have been strangely hostile, though, and her frail daughter Rae is finding it impossible to make friends. Suzy, with her rich husband and her three energetic children, has been the only one to reach out, although their friendship has recently felt inexplicably strained. Now the police have suggested that someone dangerous may be living in their neighborhood, and the atmosphere feels even more toxic. Then there’s the matter of Callie’s ex-husband, and the shocking truth behind their divorce . . . a truth that she would do anything to hide.




Playdate With Death


Book Description




Sequels


Book Description

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.




Mansions of the Dead


Book Description

BURY THE CORPSE, MOURN THE DEAD, Sweeney St. George concedes that having lunch in Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery might be a bit macabre. Yet the graveyard fits her interests as an art professor with a specialty in cemetery statuary and mourning jewelry. And although she doesn't yet realize it, this historic burial ground is one of the last places on earth her favorite student, Brad Putnam, scion of a famous Boston family, sees before someone murders him. AND TRACK DOWN A KILLER... Because of her expertise, the Boston police ask Sweeney to help them track down the antique jewelry found with Brad's body. Her investigation soon leads to chilling information about the influential Putnams, an earlier death, and Brad's secrets. Complicating everything is her attraction to Brad's rakishly charming older brother Jack. Now, Sweeney St. George is about to walk a dark and dangerous path...where passion can be dangerous and where a killer waits. "Sarah Stewart Taylor has a deft touch with atmosphere, especially if you like graveyard trivia." -Charlotte Observer www.minotaurbooks.com




O' Artful Death


Book Description

Newcomer Sarah Stewart Taylor delivers a compelling and atmospheric cozy mystery that introduces Sweeney St. George, an art historian in Boston with a special interest in the art of death. Sweeney becomes interested in Byzantium, Vermont, an art colony that flourished in the late nineteenth century, when she comes upon a photograph of the striking gravestone of a girl who drowned, and may have been murdered, in 1890. The stone is in a tiny cemetery surrounded by other beautiful, if unremarkable, headstones, some dating back hundreds of years. But the unsigned sculpture that marks this young woman's grave is of extremely high quality and the artist is unrecognizable. Sweeney is soon hooked, not only on the mystery of who created the beautiful sculpture but also on the details of the events surrounding the girl's death. When the friend who showed her the gravestone invites Sweeney to visit his relatives in Byzantium for Christmas, she jumps at the chance, knowing full well that the girl's murder has achieved the status of mythology in the town and hoping she'll be able to uncover new information. But by the time they arrive, her interest in the girl and the sculpture has gotten around town and, in fact, seems to have disturbed a killer. For not long after Sweeney arrives, one of the girl's descendants is murdered, shot and left lying in the cemetery. Taylor has written a remarkably accomplished debut mystery in the traditional cozy vein, and she's sure to win over legions of fans with O' Artful Death.




Judgment of the Grave


Book Description

As gravestone expert Sweeney St. George tours burial sites of the Civil War, she stops to watch a battlefield reenactment in Massachusetts. There, she meets Pres Whiting, a boy whose family is in the gravestone business. When Pres discovers a dead man in a Revolutionary War-era British soldier's uniform, Sweeney and Cambridge homicide detective Tim Quinn jump on the case. While they search for clues regarding the dead body, Sweeney and Quinn investigate other strange events. While Sweeney looks into the 1775 disappearance of militiaman, Quinn looks into a current missing persons case with alarming ties to the past. As they try to uncover how their own investigations are related to the body found in the woods, Sweeney and Quinn get a little too close for comfort -- to each other and to murder.




Daughter's Keeper


Book Description

How much would you sacrifice to save someone you love? When Olivia, wild-haired and headstrong, makes a terrible mistake, she must turn to the person least likely to help--her mother, Elaine. Motherhood was a role that Elaine never embraced and her best never amounted to much. But now Olivia faces prosecution for a naïve connection to a drug deal and she needs Elaine more than ever. As the days count down and Olivia's future hangs in the balance, Elaine must decide just how much she is willing to give for a second chance with her daughter. With Daughter's Keeper, Ayelet Waldman has crafted a redemptive journey at once highly emotional and unbearably suspenseful, as Olivia and Elaine's struggle builds to a beautiful, heart-wrenching climax. In this luminous, gripping novel, Waldman brings to life the tensions and the tenderness that forge the unshakeable bond between parent and child. Daughter's Keeper reveals the unlimited boundaries of forgiveness and the sacrifices we make for love. "A powerhouse novel of complex emotions so compelling that when I finished the book, I started over again."--Amy Tan "In Daughter's Keeper, Ayelet Waldman shows that the power of love, even when prickling with thorns, can ultimately provide what the criminal system cannot: a hard-fought, hard-won second chance."--Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil "Waldman's passion and affection for her characters shine through."--Publishers Weekly "Waldman has written Daughter's Keeper with enough intelligence, tenderness and craft to shape outrage into a story that is both moving and enthralling." --Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and You Shall Know Our Velocity! "Ayelet Waldman has brought the war on drugs home, and has shown us just how close to home it can come....She looks past headlines and into the heart. What she finds there is hope for us all." --Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina




Zara's Big Messy Day (That Turned Out Okay)


Book Description

Young readers will join Zara, a clever, responsible, and sometimes anxious seven-year-old girl, in learning a fun and simple breathing exercise to help them mindfully manage their big messy emotions and find peace and calm in any situation. Like a lot of kids her age, Zara sometimes struggles with managing her emotions when confronted with stressful situations. Written by a mother-of-five and celebrated meditation guide Rebekah Borucki, Zara's Big Messy Day will help your child deal with everyday stress in simple but impactful way. Guided by Zara’s mother, both Zara and the reader will learn a kid-friendly breathing technique—a short visualization meditation—that will help them find peace and calm in any moment. And the best part: they'll learn to do it on their own after reading the book just one time! Zara’s Big Messy Day is used by teachers, guidance counselors, and social workers in elementary school cirriculum nationwide to teach students mindfulness and self-regulation. Get free gifts: You'll also get free access to downloadable coloring pages, an exclusive guided meditation for kids, and more! Just use the website link found inside the book to download your exclusive gifts. Praise for Zara's Big Messy Day: “Zara beautifully offers mindfulness for kids and adults alike.” — Rachel Ricketts, activist and author of Do Better “Friends, I cannot recommend these books enough. Get Zara for you, your kids, your nieces, your nephews... They’re just so beatitful!” — Jennifer Pastiloff, author of the National Bestseller, On Being Human