Frank Carlson Library

A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to the lost apothecary. Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientèle. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. Nella's dark world is no place for her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old...

Gossip runs rampant in the quaint town of Cedar Cove when a Vietnam veteran dies in Peggy Beldon's Bed and Breakfast, Jon Bowman and Maryellen Sherman prepare to get married, and several older widows find love and a little bit of scandal.

Catherine Ling was abandoned in the streets of Hong Kong at the age of four, and was schooled in the art of survival. As a teenager, she came under the tutelage of the mysterious Hu Chang - a skilled assassin and master poisoner. As a young woman, she was recruited by the CIA and is now one of their most effective operatives. Then her old friend Hu Chang creates something deadly and completely untraceable - and the chase is on to be the first to get...

Bath, England, 1892. Celebrated mystery author Lady Amy Lovell is set to tie the knot with a fellow member of the Mystery Book Club of Bath. Amy's great-aunt has offered to host their wedding at her stately manor house. But on the eve of the ceremony, the festive air in the drawing room is marred by Mr. and Mrs. Finch arguing in another room. The next morning at the wedding breakfast, Mrs. Finch falls face-first into her breakfast--dead. When Amy's...

"In the year 1543 of King Henry VIII's turbulent reign, the daughter of a notorious alchemist finds herself suspected of cold-blooded murder. Bianca Goddard employs her knowledge of herbs and medicinal plants to concoct remedies for the disease-riddled poor in London's squalid Southwark slum. But when her friend Jolyn comes to her complaining of severe stomach pains, Bianca's prescription seems to kill her on the spot. Recovering from her shock, Bianca...

The future is looking bright for Cheryl Cooper and her new fiance, Levi Miller. Now that they have decided to make a life together, their biggest problem is how will they tell his family? When the town of Sugarcreek holds a pie-contest fund-raiser and many local business owners are invited to judge, Cheryl worries she may be biased because her best friend and future mother-in-law, Naomi Miller, is a contestant. Still, with the proceeds going toward...

"When Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is invited by Doreen Briggs, one of Charleston's most prominent hostesses, to a Rat Tea, she is understandably intrigued. As servers dressed in rodent costumes and wearing white gloves offer elegant finger sandwiches and fine teas, Theo learns these parties date back to early twentieth-century Charleston, where the cream of society would sponsor so-called rat teas to promote city rodent control and better...

"The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family's restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that helping wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband. Lana's love life soon becomes yesterday's news once the restaurant's property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead--after...

"Sierra Ravenswood is the new part-time employee of the Flower House, a flower shop in Aerieville, Tennessee. Things take a decidedly negative turn when a customer drops dead in the middle of her new bouquet-arranging workshop at the store. When it's discovered he was poisoned by a snack at the event, everyone at the workshop, including Sierra, is on the suspect list. To make matters worse, her boss has gone AWOL and left the store to her for the...