<div><B>Suffering from amnesia, a young pharmaceutical executive discovers she&rsquo;s the victim of a hypnotist</B><BR /><BR /> Megan Phillips wakes up on the fourteenth hole. Her clothes are grass-stained, her back is aching, and the last two days are a total blank. She&rsquo;s not hungover&mdash;she doesn&rsquo;t drink&mdash;her mind has simply been erased. Desperate for answers, she turns to her puzzle-addicted neighbor, Gus Bilinski, a frustrated genius who spends his time learning Persian for fun. He refers her to an unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr. Henrietta Snooks, who believes the symptoms are unmistakable: Megan has been hypnotized.<BR /><BR /> But who would want to hypnotize her? How has the hypnotist taken control of her, and what does he want her to do next? And most importantly, just what fun did she miss during her two days of amnesia? The answers, Megan fears, may cause her to lose what&rsquo;s left of her mind.</div>

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Your Eyelids Are Growing Heavy

<div><B>A human lie detector sets off in search of a revolution</B><BR /><BR /> There are 1,500 hand grenades in Alabama&rsquo;s Styx River, and none of them work. Rebels are attacking UN peacekeeping forces in Burma and Honduras, but just when the battle gets started, they find their guns don&rsquo;t fire. Someone is selling defective weaponry to violent men around the globe, and the United Nations needs to find him. In a world where even the good men are liars, it will take Shelby Kent to see the truth.<BR /><BR /> Shelby is the world&rsquo;s only human lie detector, a psychic who sees a buzzing red aura around anyone&mdash;including her husband&mdash;who tells a lie. Shelby is happy to use her unique powers for the sake of world peace, but she&rsquo;ll find that unthinkable evil lies behind this strange scheme, and clairvoyance is no protection against a madman with a gun.</div>

Liars and Tyrants and People Who Turn Blue

<div><B>The stars of the Metropolitan Opera search for a crazed killer who plans to bring the company down.</B><BR /><BR /> They find the tenor dangling from a water pipe, hanging by his own suspenders. His corpse is still warm. Naturally, the opera&rsquo;s manager doesn&rsquo;t stop the production. A dead chorus tenor isn&rsquo;t enough to close them down, and the show must go on. But there are 139 singers left in the chorus&mdash;and someone intends to kill them all.<BR /><BR /> Poisoning, strangling, and rigged trapdoors are just a few of the methods at the killer&rsquo;s disposal. The opera posts guards backstage, but the slayings continue, forcing the Met&rsquo;s two fading stars, Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar, to band together and save the opera they love so much.<BR /><BR /> A Chorus of Detectives is the 3rd book in the Opera Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

A Chorus of Detectives

<div><B>History&rsquo;s greatest tenor hunts a killer at the Metropolitan Opera in this &ldquo;hilarious&rdquo; and &ldquo;thoroughly delightful&rdquo; mystery from a Shamus Award nominee </B><B>(<I>Publishers Weekly</I>).</B><BR /><BR /> Giacomo Puccini has always been a flirt. When he isn&rsquo;t writing the most popular operas the world has ever known, he has an eye for the ladies, and he doesn&rsquo;t care if his wife, Elvira, knows it. But after the composer participates in a harmless bit of chitchat with a servant girl, Elvira explodes with jealousy, driving the girl from the house and spreading lies so terrible that the innocent young woman takes her own life. Puccini is left shattered, driven nearly to suicide, and only Enrico Caruso can save him.<BR /><BR /> The legendary tenor lures Puccini to New York to premiere his new opera on the Metropolitan stage. At first, all goes well. But when a member of the Metropolitan family is found murdered, all signs point to Puccini as the killer. To avert a real-life tragedy, the great Caruso takes on the most challenging role of his career: detective.<BR /><BR /> A Cadenza for Caruso <I>is the 1st book in the Opera Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</I></div>

A Cadenza for Caruso

<div><B>A grisly quadruple slaying drags Marian Larch into a shadowy government cover-up</B><BR /><BR /> Marian Larch is tired of murder. This NYPD veteran has seen the worst the city has to offer, and she&rsquo;s not sure she can stand another day. Temporarily assigned to the chaotic Ninth Precinct, Larch is saddled with a callous lieutenant and a partner who can&rsquo;t stand working with a woman. Just coming to work every day is becoming a trial&mdash;but it&rsquo;s about to get a whole lot worse.<BR /><BR /> In the concrete jungle of Alphabet City, East River Park is a rare strip of green. When four well-dressed men are found there, handcuffed together and shot through their eyes, it&rsquo;s up to Larch to find their killer. They were employees of a top-flight tech firm with ties to the US government, and their deaths were meant as a warning. But who was the warning intended for? Answering that question will show Larch that as rotten as the Big Apple can be, it has nothing on Washington.<BR /><BR /><I>You Have the Right to Remain Silent</I> is the 4th book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

You Have the Right to Remain Silent

<div><B>A headstrong young soprano must solve a murder to save her friend</B><BR /><BR /> The Metropolitan Opera has no time for illness. So when its principal baritone succumbs to a head cold on the eve of <I>Carmen</I>, house diva Geraldine Farrar doesn&rsquo;t hesitate to recommend a replacement: the hungry young American Jimmy Freeman. He&rsquo;s raw, talented, and desperately in love with her&mdash;something she doesn&rsquo;t mind at all. But when Freeman is passed over in favor of Philippe Duchon, a legendary baritone fleeing World War I, the young man is shattered, and the stage is set for tragedy.<BR /><BR /> A throat spray laced with ammonia destroys Duchon&rsquo;s vocal chords, finishing his career once and for all. But who poisoned his spray? While everyone in the company loathed Duchon, Freeman and Farrar are the obvious suspects. To clear their names, the thoroughly modern prima donna who brought flapper-style to the Metropolitan stage will kick up her heels and get to work.<BR /><BR /><I>Prima Donna at Large</I> is the 2nd book in the Opera Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

Prima Donna at Large

<div><B>When their unforgiving lender is murdered, a group of young jewelry associates jumps to a variety of deadly conclusions</B><BR /><BR /> When the partners of Ellandy Jewels accepted a loan to keep their store afloat, they had no idea that Vincent Farwell would make their lives a living hell. The rich old miser is as unforgiving as a loan shark, and he never misses a chance to remind them that they&rsquo;re in his debt. Finally, Vincent demands full repayment of the loan&mdash;$1.5 million&mdash;in two weeks. He&rsquo;ll get his money in blood.<BR /><BR /> When Vincent is found dead in his study, everyone with interest in Ellandy is a suspect. To find the real killer, the six associates will have to figure out just who can be trusted.</div>

But He Was Already Dead When I Got There

<div><B>A pair of impossible murders leads Marian Larch to a ring of hired assassins</B><BR /><BR /> Virgil is a businessman, and his product is murder. With operatives scattered across New York, he needs only a few thousand dollars and a photo to erase an unsuspecting citizen from the earth. Virgil&rsquo;s business is boutique, exclusive, and highly confidential. None of his killers know his face. None of them even know his last name. The system is perfect, unbreakable&mdash;until Virgil crosses Marian Larch, the toughest detective in the New York Police Department.<BR /><BR /> A retired businessman is shot with a silencer while riding a crosstown bus, and no one sees the gunman escape. A similar murder occurs on a packed subway car, but this time a witness gets a glimpse of the shooter. Larch doesn&rsquo;t know it, but she&rsquo;s just stumbled onto the strangest cases of her career. And while the invisible hitman will lead her to Virgil, the kingpin of murder won&rsquo;t go down without a fight.<BR /><BR /><I>Fare Play</I> is the 6th book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

Fare Play

<div><B>In her last week on the force, a strange robbery draws Marian Larch into a backstage murder case</B><BR /><BR /> A madman points a gun at the NYPD&rsquo;s Marian Larch, and prepares to pull the trigger. She charges, disarming him before he can fire the shot. The gun skids to the feet of Agent Curt Holland, who presses it against the madman&rsquo;s head and blows him away. It was the right move, but that doesn&rsquo;t make it legal. To save Holland&rsquo;s career, Larch testifies that she was the one who fired the final shot. She doesn&rsquo;t care what happens; she doesn&rsquo;t want to be a cop anymore.<BR /><BR /> Even when Internal Affairs rules the shooting a righteous kill, Larch plans to quit at the end of the week. But a lot can happen in seven days. When an actress friend asks Larch for help after her Broadway theater is robbed, NYPD&rsquo;s toughest female detective stakes out the Great White Way&mdash;and discovers a highly theatrical murder.<BR /><BR /><I>The Apostrophe Thief</I> is the 5th book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

The Apostrophe Thief

<div><B>An unscrupulous antiques dealer asks a murderous favor of an old friend</B><BR /><BR /> In the city of Pittsburgh, Amos Speer is the king of antiques, and as heir apparent to his international empire, Earl Sommers is his prince. But Sommers is keen-eyed, ruthless, and not above cheating to stay on top. He steals from the company whenever he gets the chance, and has a standing invitation to Mrs. Speer&rsquo;s bed. But when old man Speer turns on his former prot&eacute;g&eacute;, doing everything he can to drive him out of the business, Sommers&rsquo;s thoughts turn to something truly priceless: revenge.<BR /><BR /> An old friend appears at Sommers&rsquo;s doorstep, stinking of whiskey and intending to kill himself. Before he does, Sommers persuades him to undertake one last job: getting rid of Amos Speer. It should be the perfect crime&mdash;but Sommers is about to learn there&rsquo;s no such thing as a simple murder.</div>

First Gravedigger

<div><B>A playwright searches the theater for a crazed saboteur </B><BR /><BR /> Sylvia Markey sits in her dressing room, holding her cat&rsquo;s head in her hands. Just the head&mdash;the body is nowhere to be found. This gruesome act of violence was committed just a few minutes before curtain, and Sylvia has no time to grieve. She collects herself, and gets ready to perform. She makes it halfway through the second act before her nerves get the best of her, and she vomits onstage. As the run continues, so does the sabotage, and the unknown troublemaker attacks actors, vandalizes the set, and hurls acid at one of the designers. To playwright Abigail James, the meaning is clear: Someone is trying to murder her play.<BR /><BR /> The police do all they can, but it will take someone who understands theater to unravel the mystery. This is a matter of revenge&mdash;and Abigail will settle it backstage.</div>

The Fourth Wall

<div><B>To find a blackmailer&rsquo;s killer, Marian Larch investigates the extortionist&rsquo;s victims</B><BR /><BR /> A. J. Strode would kill for command of House of Glass, the corporation that controls everything from plate-glass windows to fiberglass insulation, and he nearly has it within his grasp. Only three stockholders&mdash;a violinist, a helicopter pilot, and a mercenary&mdash;stand between the businessman and his goal. But no matter how much Strode offers, they refuse to sell. And when money doesn&rsquo;t talk, he turns to blackmail.<BR /><BR /> Strode invites his three targets to his townhouse, intending to close the deal once and for all, but his plan backfires. When Strode is found in his library with three knives buried in his chest, the case falls to Marian Larch, a no-nonsense NYPD detective who&rsquo;s hardly prepared for the brutality she&rsquo;ll find inside House of Glass.<BR /><BR /><I>He Huffed and He Puffed </I>is the 2nd book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

He Huffed and He Puffed

<div><B>A cutthroat Manhattan custody battle leads to kidnapping and murder</B><BR /><BR /> Rita Galloway is leaving a puppet show when a stranger sprints up to her and snatches her son, Bobby, from her arms. She screams for help, and Bobby is able to wriggle out of the man&rsquo;s grip, but the would-be kidnapper escapes without a trace. It would be just another ordinary Manhattan street crime if it weren&rsquo;t for Rita&rsquo;s estranged husband, heir to one of the wealthiest corporations in New York City. Rita&rsquo;s convinced he paid to have his son kidnapped and will stop at nothing until he has the boy.<BR /><BR /> When NYPD lieutenant Marian Larch is assigned to keep an eye on Bobby, she&rsquo;s not surprised when the conflict turns bloody. And when people connected with the case begin dying, she finds herself dragged into the spotlight&mdash;and worries she may be the next victim.<BR /><BR /><I>Full Frontal Murder</I> is the 7th book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

Full Frontal Murder

<div><B>When a television writer is murdered, three women join forces to find his killer</B><BR /><BR /> After years churning out schlock for television, Rudy Benedict is afraid his job will kill him if he doesn&rsquo;t leave Hollywood soon. He&rsquo;s wrong. He&rsquo;ll make it all the way to New York before he dies. After a few weeks of fruitless work on his new play&mdash;an expos&eacute; of Hollywood&rsquo;s seamy underbelly&mdash;Rudy is found dead on the floor of his apartment, poisoned.<BR /><BR /> The cops are baffled. Who would bother killing someone with so little talent? At first, it looks like the real target was Kelly Ingram, a gorgeous actress on the verge of her big break, but NYPD detective Marian Larch isn&rsquo;t convinced. Looking for answers, the two women reach out to Rudy&rsquo;s mother for help unraveling the mystery&mdash;but Mrs. Benedict may have an appetite for murder.<BR /><BR /><I>The Renewable Virgin </I>is the 1st book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

The Renewable Virgin

<div><B>A clumsy robotics researcher scrambles to cover up a double homicide</B><BR /><BR /> Despite his name, King Sarcowicz is hardly regal. A rumpled scientist, he spends every waking minute in his lab, tinkering with the robots he thinks will make human soldiers obsolete. It seems impossible that this gentle soul could create a killing machine, and in fact, he never will. Long before his robot is operational, King himself will become a killer.<BR /><BR /> Working late in his lab, King commits a pair of clumsy blunders that lead to the deaths of two of his fellow scientists. In shock, he disappears into the streets of New York. When he&rsquo;s finally confronted by NYPD detective Marian Larch, he lies to save his own skin. To discover what caused the tragedy in King&rsquo;s lab, Larch will have to do more than outsmart this brilliant scientist&mdash;she&rsquo;ll have to think like him too.<BR /><BR /><I>Good King Sauerkraut </I>is the 3rd book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.</div>

Good King Sauerkraut

<div><B>A widow returns to Boston to aid a family plagued by death</B><BR /><BR /> Gillian stopped being a Decker when her husband, Stuart, died, and she considers herself lucky to have escaped. The Deckers are ruthless, a family of power-hungry backstabbers who live for profit and sneer at love. Stuart was different, but even he obeyed his older brother Raymond like he was a god. Since she lost her husband, Gillian has tried to forget his family, until a notice in the paper brings it all rushing back. Raymond is dead, and the Decker empire is being washed away by blood.<BR /><BR /> When Raymond&rsquo;s widow begs Gillian to come to Boston and help her prove that her husband was murdered, Gillian can&rsquo;t deny her. Raymond was the fourth Decker to die in the last few months, just a few years after his son was kidnapped and killed. Someone is trying to wipe out the Deckers, and if Gillian doesn&rsquo;t tread lightly, she may join her husband in death.</div>

Barbara Paul
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Books By Barbara Paul (16 Books)