Past Malice

Archaeologist Emma Fielding encounters murder and mystery on the site of an old English Abbey in this second "rip-snorting good mystery" (Aaron Elkins) written by a real-life archaeologist.

Archaeologist Emma Fielding is beginning to doubt the wisdom of spending her summer vacation in England helping friends excavate a 12th-century abbey, especially after they uncover an all-too modern skeleton in the nearby medieval graveyard. But it’s the second discovery—of a murdered graduate student recently missing from the dig—that suggests to Emma that Marchester isn’t exactly the quiet riverside town in appears to be. And when a member of the town’s neopagan community shows up, claiming that the site is a sacred spot for Wiccans, Emma knows that conflicting interests and intentions may have driven someone to murder. There are dark passions and lethal secrets buried here, heinous crimes that shake the conflicted community to its core, and it’s up to Emma, an outsider far from home, to delve into a past that too many people—including her friends—would do anything to hide.

The past's blood stains the present

The opportunity of a lifetime awaits archaeologist EmmaFielding in the Berkshire foothills of Western Massachusetts: the chance to study the eighteenth-century diary of Margaret Chandler, the accused witch and murderess whose home Emma excavated only months before. However, the three other Shrewsbury Foundation fellows she must share the premises with are a disturbingly odd bunch, and before too long one of them is dead.

But Emma can find no solace in the bleak beauty of thesurrounding wilderness, for there are dark secrets encoded in Madam Chandler's writings, and shocking parallels between an ancient slaying and the strange, brutal demise of her colleague.When the killer strikes again, Emma realizes her own life isat stake. And suddenly there is no choice left: she is driven to investigate bloody crimes past and present -- before her own death becomes a footnote in a chilling, three-centuries-old story.

It's a deadly winter for archaeologist Emma Fielding as she tracks a killer in an old New Hampshire hotel, in this fifth mystery from real-life archaeologist Dana Cameron.

Archaeologist Emma Fielding should be on top of the world. Her teaching job secure and home life stable, she arrives at an archaeological conference at a famous old New Hampshire hotel, having outrun the winter storm that's paralysing the East Coast. A rising star in the field, she's in the midst of friends she's known all her life, celebrating the work of Professor Garrison, a venerable legend in the field.

 When Garrison is found dead on the iced-over lake outside the snow-bound hotel, however, Emma realizes that everyone has something to hide, including herself. While the police determine whether Garrison's death was an accident, suicide, or murder, Emma's intimate knowledge of her colleagues hasn't prepared her for what they're concealing, even from themselves. Emma is also forced to face the fact that the dead man was no friend of hers (or her grandfather Oscar) and that everyone-colleagues, police, and herself included-wonders why her view of him is so very different.

The presence of Emma's old flame Duncan brings up bitter memories she'd rather were left buried deep in the past: Duncan wants something from her and Emma can't tell whether it is an opportunity to rekindle their relationship or a way to ensure her silence permanently. Professional jealousies and infighting would be enough added to Garrison's mysterious death, but a series of thefts and attacks in the isolated hotel make the stranded archaeologists ask whether a vengeful ghost has returned, practiced criminals are targeting the conference, or one of their own number has finally succumbed to an array of deadly temptations.

Brilliant, dedicated, and driven, archaeologist Emma Fielding finds things that have been lost for hundreds of years -- and she's very, very good at it. A soon-to-be-tenured professor, she has recently unearthed evidence of a seventeenth-century coastal Maine settlement that predates Jamestown, one of the most significant archaeological finds in years. But the dead body that accompanies it has embroiled Emma and her students in a different kind of exploration. With her reputation suddenly in jeopardy -- due to the ruthless machinations of a disgruntled rival -- and a second suspicious death, heartbreakingly close to home, Emma must unearth a killer among the relics. But that means digging deep to get to dark secrets buried in the heart of the archaeological community -- which, in turn, could bury Emma Fielding.

Just when everything is going beautifully for archaeologist Emma Fielding -- a position at a respected university, a beautiful home in New England, and the warm love of a devoted husband -- her world starts to crumble. What begins as a series of seemingly innocent gestures -- the anonymous delivery of gifts and flowers to Emma's family and friends -- soon progresses to secret, sadistic acts designed to destroy her reputation, her character, and her career.

Someone has instituted a brilliantly insidious campaign of personal terror against Emma Fielding, and she is certain she knows who it is: a cunning and dangerous enemy whom everyone but she believes is dead. But with no proof, no clues, and no allies, Emma will have to fight alone in the dark to rescue a life being rapidly reduced to ashes . . . if she can survive long enough to do so.

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.
 
Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.
 
Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.
 
Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?
 
Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii.  And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.

Just as 200,000 fans are pouring into town for Race Week, a body is found in a barrel of asphalt next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The next day, a NASCAR crew member comes to Temperance Brennan’s office at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner to share a devastating story. Twelve years earlier, Wayne Gamble’s sister, Cindi, then a high school senior and aspiring racer, disappeared along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette. Lovette kept company with a group of right-wing extremists known as the Patriot Posse. Could the body be Cindi’s? Or Cale’s?

At the time of their disappearance, the FBI joined the investigation, only to terminate it weeks later. Was there a cover-up? As Tempe juggles multiple theories, the discovery of a strange, deadly substance in the barrel alongside the body throws everything into question. Then an employee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention goes missing during Race Week. Tempe can’t overlook the coincidence. Was this man using his lab chemicals for murder? Or is the explanation even more sinister? What other secrets lurk behind the festive veneer of Race Week?

In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world's most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling—a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown's most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.

As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object —artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon—a prominent Mason and philanthropist —is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations—all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown's fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.