Terror places its stamp on a woman unwittingly caught up in a dangerous game in this gripping thriller from the author of A Collection of Strangers. Jennifer Burch is just a small-town midwestern girl trying to stay afloat in New York City with her husband, a struggling playwright. But an odd request from her Uncle Baxter promises some relief. Always the black sheep of the family, he's asked Jennifer to hand-deliver one of the letters he left with her when he last visited—and he's sent her $300 for her trouble. Since they could use the money, Jennifer complies. But the man she gives it to is soon found dead, stabbed in the lobby of her own apartment building. Asked to deliver another letter for some more money, Jennifer's suspicions grow. Something happened a long time ago in Central America that connects Baxter to the letter recipients. And now they're fearing for their lives. Jennifer's had enough, but her husband hasn't. He thinks...

A love triangle shapes this intricate murder mystery from the popular twentieth-century author of the Rachel Murdock series. When a policeman shows up at her door one morning, Doris Chenoweth is sure her husband, Sargent, is home—but she's wrong. He's been found dead in his car at the edge of a reservoir. With no one else to turn to, Doris calls her elderly uncle Chuck, knowing he has no real reason to help her since they've fallen out of touch. But to Doris's relief, Chuck comes to her aid, armed with his law degree. Acting as her attorney, he delves into her husband's affairs—business and romantic. The revelations come fast and furiously, pointing to infidelity, shady stock investments, and a betrayal of the worst kind. And when Chuck realizes Doris has secrets of her own—ones that could land her in jail—he must determine which is a greater motive for murder: love or money . . . Praise for Dolores...

An elderly woman drugged, a young woman killed, and the cat's the sole witness...When Rachel Murdock and her sister Jennifer receive a call for help from their favorite niece, Lilly, in Breakers Beach, CA, they quickly hop a train from Los Angeles to see her — but not before collecting their prized cat Samantha in a picnic basket and bringing her along for the ride. Samatha, it turns out, is an heiress, the inheritor of a fortune left by a wealthy relative, and so the attempt at the cat's life, made right after they arrive, comes as a shock. The cat survives, but unfortunately, Lilly, murdered soon thereafter, is not so lucky.By the time the police arrive, the clues are already falling into place. The source of Lilly's trouble is revealed to be a gambling debt incurred during an attempt to cheat at bridge, and the suspects in her slaying quickly pile up. But then another corpse is discovered, buried in the nearby sand, and it becomes clear...

Native American lore infuses a southwestern mystery featuring the indomitable Rachel Murdock and her cat, Samantha. The notes—short and sharp—seem to strike at the heart of each recipient's insecurities and darkest secrets. Signed "Kachina," they've been sent to a group of friends who met in college, including Rachel Murdock's goddaughter, Gail. When Gail wants to unmask the letter writer by inviting the group to her house in Arizona, she asks Rachel for help. Unable to resist, Rachel scoops up her cat, leaving her sister behind on a tour through the Southwest. As the seven friends reconnect, familiar grievances and new resentments emerge. And when one woman—as prickly as the cacti dotting the desert landscape—is killed by a rattlesnake bite, the party takes an even darker turn. A thunderous storm soon washes out the roads, and the group is left on their own with a dead body and a murderer in their midst. Now Rachel must use...

The beloved author of the Rachel Murdock Mysteries introduces an amateur sleuth who knows murder is never academic—especially when it comes to love. Professor Pennyfeather is on his way to the desert town of Superstition to help a former student, now an army man. Tick Burrell is a charming troublemaker who's got himself in a bit of a bind. He's due to inherit a fortune when he marries, but until then, his aunt, Martha Andler, holds the purse strings in her iron grip. And now that Tick's engaged for the third time, he wants Pennyfeather to help him convince Martha his intentions—and his bride-to-be—are serious. But Superstition has become a hot destination for Tick's exes, both of whom want to win him back. One is a flighty gold digger; the other a striking and sharp-witted beauty. And his no-nonsense fiancée is in the Women's Army Corps. When Tick's aunt is found axe-murdered in her hotel room, Pennyfeather must decide who...

Two teenagers fresh out of stir set their sights on what looks like easy money in Dolores Hitchens's Fools' Gold (1958)--and get a painful education in how quickly and drastically a simple plan can spin out of control. The basis for Jean-Luc Godard's film Band of Outsiders, Fools' Gold is a sharply told tale distinguished by its nuanced portrait of a sheltered young woman who becomes a reluctant accomplice and fugitive. This classic novel is one of eight works included in The Library of America's two-volume edition Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman.

"It had been timed and planned perfectly." A convicted killer and the detective escorting him to prison aboard a Pullman train are the victims of a mysterious double assassination. When the detective is posthumously accused of corruption and criminal conspiracy, his widow embarks on a campaign to clear him, and soon finds herself enmeshed in an ever more complex web of deception and violent danger. Master suspense writer Dolores Hitchens sustains an atmosphere in which no one, whatever their social class or walk of life, is entirely to be trusted.

"Are you trying to tell me you don't want the job, Mr. Sader?": It started as a missing persons case and grew more puzzling with the discovery of another strangely coincidental disappearance. Private eye Jim Sader finds himself deep in a multilayered intrigue revolving around oil and real estate and the sleazy underpinnings of Long Beach, California, in the 1950s. Many consider this Dolores Hitchens' best novel.

"You're playing with a child's life": The search for a kidnapped boy leads private detective (and ex-alcoholic) Jim Sader through a labyrinth of well-hidden family secrets and into the heart of an elaborate and malevolent deception. Sleep with a Slander is a novel in the classic hardboiled tradition, tough, compassionate, and tautly told.

"The fact is that during the last year I have killed three young people": A pleasant waterfront community in California is subjected to a series of seemingly random killings, the victims all children. Dolores Hitchens' intricately plotted novel explores a town's collective terror, as the inhabitants slowly come to realize that one of their neighbors is engaged in a terrible and protracted campaign of murder for motives impossible to guess. The Watcher expertly explores the resulting mood of anguish and mutual suspicion, and the vulnerability of the young people who are the inexplicable targets of violent evil.