A boy rides a bicycle down a dusty road. But in his mind, he envisions himself traveling at a speed beyond imagining, on a beam of light. This brilliant mind will one day offer up some of the most revolutionary ideas ever conceived. From a boy endlessly fascinated by the wonders around him, Albert Einstein ultimately grows into a man of genius recognized the world over for profoundly illuminating our understanding of the universe. Jennifer Berne and...

In Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon's first novel in the Commissario Brunetti series, readers were introduced to the glamorous and cut-throat world of opera and to one of Italy's finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli - then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor. Now, many years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to the illustrious La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca. As an opera superstar, Flavia is well acquainted...

"As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless, already bored with her new assignment to the cold case squad. She misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter and the sense of urgency of hunting a desperate killer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Kovac is having an even harder time adjusting to Liska's absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than most of...

Irene Stenson's brief friendship with the privileged Pamela Webb ended when Irene left town after her parents' murder-suicide rocked the town, but when Pamela summons Irene back with a cryptic message, Irene returns to find Pamela dead and a decades-old scandal resurfacing.

The murderer has been named the "Cremator" because of the condition in which he leaves his victims. It is Kate Conlan's job to deal with the only witness ... a teenage runaway with a dubious identity and a murky past.

Technology may be different in 2060 New York, yet the city is still a place of many cultures and great divides. And as ever, some murders receive more attention than others -- especially those in which the victim is a prominent businessman, found in his Park Avenue apartment, tied to the bed -- and strangled -- with cords of black velvet ... It doesn't surprise Lieutenant Eve Dallas that Thomas Anders's scandalous death is a source of titillation...

"In Jane Haddam's One of Our Own, Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and police consultant, returns for his final case-a surprising murder and an attempted murder, which threaten the safety of his Philadelphia neighborhood. A mysterious black van is spotted by several people at various times in the area around Cavanaugh Street, Philadelphia's Armenian-American enclave. Presumed by some to be related to the increasing ICE raids around the area, the...

A tale spanning a traumatic single day follows Liz Pike, who awakens in her small-town home to discover her husband frantically preparing for what he claims is an IRS audit. She soon realizes, however, that he has discovered the truth about her affair with another man.

Middle school history teacher by day, bandit with heart of gold by night. Allison Murrieta plagues evildoers, stealing back their ill-gotten gains and donating her profits to charity. But when she witnesses a bloody execution, she becomes a target for a ruthless hitman as well as for a curious public who wants to know her true identity.

"Your situation is always ambiguous, isn't it, Guido?", his father-in-law, Count Orazio Falier, observes of Donna Leon's soulful detective, Guido Brunetti, at the beginning of her superb 28th Brunetti novel, Unto Us A Son Is Given . "The world we live in makes that necessary," Brunetti presciently replies. Count Falier was urging his Venetian son-in-law to investigate, and preferably intervene in, the seemingly innocent plan of the Count's best friend,...