The Murders of Richard III (25 page)

Thomas stood unmoving. Car doors slammed and the faint sound of voices came to him through the open windows. The soft, expensive purr of the Rolls engine moved away into the distance.

The voices had not been mellifluous.

Gradually, unpredictably, a malicious smile transformed Thomas's face.

Purely Ricardian. Strangways had spoken in jest, but Thomas had a feeling the joke was on Strangways. Never before had he seen Jacqueline's glasses actually fall from her nose. He knew her well; she had a memory like an elephant and a passion for contrived revenge that would have suited a Borgia. He could see Strangways being whipped around York from Micklegate to the Minster, viewing the remaining memories of Richard the Third and reeling under the remorseless lash of Jacqueline's voice.

A sigh of virtuous satisfaction escaped Thomas's lips, and he went upstairs to pack.

Thursday in London, Jacqueline had said. Thomas had high hopes for Thursday.

Get ready to enter the spellbinding and incomparable world of
New York Times
bestselling author Elizabeth Peters. Experience even more intrigue, suspense, mystery, and thrills from the reigning queen of adventure!

The World of Elizabeth Peters

Althea Tomlinson says she has returned to Egypt to see the sights, and to chaperone a spoiled teenager through this strange and breathtaking desert land. The truth is more complex…and dangerous. Ten years ago, something here brought about her father's ruin and subsequent death—and Althea intends to clear her disgraced parent's name and lay a dark past finally to rest. But there are some mysteries best left buried in the shifting sands. And a devoted daughter's search for answers is stirring up forgotten memories almost too painful to endure, and propelling her onward toward ancient tombs, legendary treasures, miraculous discoveries…and ever closer to her own probable doom!

For Jessica Tregarth, an unexpected invitation to visit her grandfather in England is a wonderful surprise—and an opportunity to open doors to a family past that have always been closed to her. But sinister acts greet her arrival. A stranger tries to steal her luggage and later accosts her in Salisbury Cathedral. Mysterious villains pursue her through Cornwall, their motive and intentions unknown. Jessica's only clue is the antique heirloom she possesses, an ancient ring that bears the Tregarth family crest. And her only ally is handsome gothic novelist David Randall—her self-proclaimed protector—who appears from seemingly out of nowhere to help her in her desperate attempt to solve a five-hundred-year-old puzzle. For something out of the cloudy mists of Arthurian lore has come back to plague a frightened American abroad. And a remarkable truth about fabled king and medieval treasure could ultimately make Jess Tregarth very rich…or very dead.

Dinah Van der Lyn heard the cries for help through her hotel room wall, cries in English in the middle of Beirut. “Help” was the only English word spoken. She thought the men were simply drunk and fighting. Her mistake was the first step on an odyssey of terror that would take Dinah to the fabled cities of Sidon, Tyre, Damascus…

 

And then Jerusalem, racing around its winding streets not knowing if the man she has been following will lead her to safety…or into a deadly trap!

An unexpected “gift” has arrived for Carol Farley this Christmas: an envelope bearing a newspaper clipping and no return address. There, blurred but unmistakable, is a photo of a man missing for years and feared dead—Carol's father. It is a siren calling her to a world she has never known, to a place of ancient majesty and blood-chilling terror. Now, surrounded by towering pyramids of Mexico City's Walk of the Dead, a frightened yet resolute young woman searches for a perilous truth and for the beloved parent she thought was gone forever. But there are dark secrets lurking in the shadows of antiquity, a conspiracy she never imagined…and enemies who are determined that Carol Farley will not leave Mexico alive.

Meet art historian Vicky Bliss. She is as beautiful as she is brainy—with unassailable courage, insatiable curiosity, and an expertise in lost museum treasures that often leads her into the most dangerous of situations.

 

A missing masterwork in wood, the last creation of a master carver who died in a violent tumult of the sixteenth century, may be hidden in a medieval German castle in the town of Rothenburg. The prize has called to Vicky Bliss, drawing her and an arrogant male colleague into the forbidding citadel and its dark secrets. But the treasure hunt soon turns deadly. Here, where the blood of the long-forgotten damned stains ancient stones, Vicky must face two equally perilous possibilities. Either a powerful supernatural evil inhabits this place…or someone frighteningly real is willing to kill for what Vicky is determined to find.

Scotland is Susan's passion and obsession—and the opportunity to join a Highland dig is a dream come true for the young archaeology student. But then a sinister stranger slips Susan a cryptic message in ancient verse—and is later found viciously slain. A mysterious peril has unexpectedly emerged from the mists to haunt Susan, sending her running for her life in the company of handsome, unconventional laird Jamie Erksine. For she has an unseen enemy hiding in the shadows—someone who is going to great lengths to frame her for murder…and to bury Susan, if necessary, in this land she loves.

Ellie is young, rich, engaged, and in love. These are the carefree days before marriage and new responsibility, and anything goes—including house-sitting at eccentric Aunt Kate's palatial estate in Burton, Virginia. Ellie feels right at home here with the nearly invisible housekeepers and the plethora of pets, but she soon realizes that there are disturbing secrets about the local aristocracy buried in a dusty old book she has carried into the mansion. And her sudden interest in the past is attracting a slew of unwelcome guests—some of them living…and some, perhaps not. And the terrible vengeance that Ellie and her friends seem to have aroused against themselves surely cannot be—
satanic
.

Vicky Bliss, a brain with a body like a centerfold, often has a tough time getting people to take her seriously. But when it comes to medieval history, this blond beauty knows her stuff—and she's a master at solving mysteries that turn the art world upside down.

 

Vicky gasped at the sight of the exquisite gold pendant her boss at Munich's National Museum held in her hand. The Charlemagne talisman replica, along with a note in hieroglyphs, was discovered sewn into the suit pocket of an unidentified man found dead in an alley. Vicky vows to find the master craftsman who created it. It's a daring chase that takes her all the way to Rome and through the dusky antique centers and moonlit streets of the most romantic city in the world. But soon she's trapped in a treacherous game of intrigue that could cost her life—or her heart.

A good salary and an all-expenses-paid summer spent on a sprawling Arizona ranch is too good a deal for fledgling anthropologist D.J. Abbott to turn down. What does it matter that her rich new employer/benefactor, Hank Hunnicutt, is a certified oddball who is presently funding all manner of off-beat projects, from alien conspiracy studies to a hunt for dragon bones? There's even talk of treasure buried in the nearby mountains, but D.J. isn't going to allow loose speculation—or the considerable charms of handsome professional treasure hunter Jessie Franklin—to sidetrack her. Until Hunnicutt suffers a mysterious accident and vanishes, leaving the weirdos gathered at his spread to eye each other with frightened suspicion. But on a high desert search for the missing millionaire, D.J. is learning things that may not be healthy for her to know. For the game someone is playing here goes far beyond the rational universe—and it could leave D.J. legitimately dead.

Laurie has finally returned to Idlewood, the beloved family home deep in the Maryland woods where she found comfort and peace as a lonely young girl. But things are very different now. There is no peace in Idlewood. The haunting sound of a distant piping breaks the stillness of a snowy winter's evening. Seemingly random events have begun to take on a sinister shape. And dotty old Great Aunt Lizzie is convinced that there are fairies about—and she has photographs to prove it. For Laurie, one fact has become disturbingly clear: there is definitely
something
out there in the woods—something fiendishly, cunningly, malevolently human—and the lives of her aging loved ones, as well as Laurie's own, are suddenly at serious risk.

A strange twist brings Elizabeth Jones face to face with her idol, the brilliant, eccentric historian Margaret Rosenberg, at the Copenhagen Airport. An even stranger accident makes Elizabeth the esteemed scholar's new private assistant. But luck can go from good to bad in an instant—and less than twenty-four hours later, the great lady is kidnapped by persons unknown. Suddenly desperate in a foreign land, Elizabeth must cast her lot with Rosenberg's handsome, insufferable son Christian in hopes of finding her vanished benefactor. On a trail that leads from modern wonders to ancient mystery, a determined young woman and an arrogant “prince” must uncover shocking secrets carefully guarded in the beautiful Danish city. And they must survive a mysterious affair that is turning darker and deadlier by the hour.

One perfect red rose, a one-way ticket to Stockholm, and a cryptic “message” consisting of two Latin words intrigue art historian Vicky Bliss—as they were precisely intended to do. Beautiful, brilliant, and, as always, dangerously inquisitive, Vicky recognizes the handiwork of her former lover, the daring jewel thief John Smythe. So she takes the bait, eagerly following Smythe's lead in the hope of finding a lost treasure. But the trail begins with a priceless fifth-century chalice that will place Vicky at the mercy of a gang of ruthless criminals who have their eyes on an even more valuable prize. And the hunt threatens to turn deadly on a remote island, where a captive Vicky Bliss must lead an excavation into the distant past—and where digging too deep for the truth could dig her own grave.

The annual Historical Romance Writers convention in New York City is calling to Jacqueline Kirby, a Nebraska librarian who desperately desires some excitement. But all is not love and kisses at this august gathering of starry-eyed eccentrics and sentimental scribes. As far as Jacqueline is concerned, the sudden “natural” death of a gossip columnist seems anything but. And when she's approached by a popular genre star who fears for her own life, the resourceful Ms. Kirby quickly goes back to work…as a sleuth. Because there's a sinister scenario being penned at this purple prose congregation. And when jealousy and passion are given free rein beyond the boundaries of the printed page, the result can be murder.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but the photograph Vicky Bliss has just received gives rise to a thousand questions, and the answers to some of them are deadly. A quick glance at the blood-stained envelope is all the proof Vicky needs to know that something is very wrong. The picture itself is familiar: a woman dressed in the gold of Troy. This isn't the famous photograph of Frau Schliemann, though. The picture is contemporary. The gold, as Vicky and everyone else knows, disappeared at the end of World War II. And because they all know it, they all gather to renew the search. All of them—including the mysterious John Smythe and a very determined killer.