When her favorite customer, a lonely yet charming old man, dies right in front of her, Cassie holds on to the last book he was reading, which turns out to be a rare volume that has great power and she is tasked with protecting it from those who will do evil.

Delaney Nichols, originally of Kansas but settling happily into her new life as a bookseller in Edinburgh, works at the Cracked Spine in the heart of town... When her new friends, also students at the medical school, come to the shop to sell a collection of antique medical books, Delaney knows she's stumbled across a rare and important find indeed. Her boss, Edwin MacAlister, agrees to buy the multivolume set, perhaps even to keep for his own collection....

Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily is rational and driven, while Jess is dreamy and whimsical. Emily's boyfriend, Jonathan, is fantastically successful. Jess's boyfriends, not so...

Cranky Chamber of Commerce receptionist Betsy Dittmeyer is done reading people the riot act. After she's crushed by a fallen bookcase, the next item to be read is her last will and testament--which is packed with surprises. It soon comes to light that Betsy was hiding volumes of dark secrets behind that perpetual frown of hers--and one of them just might have been a motive for murder....

"In the latest entry in Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling series, Tricia Miles learns that nothing kills a good party like a murder. Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, throws a housewarming cocktail party in her new apartment. She even cooks all the food herself, which is quite a feat for someone who previously could not boil water. But when one of her guests is fatally poisoned, Tricia is left to wonder if her cooking...

"Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, is in for a surprise when her ne'er-do-well father, John, comes to town--and promptly becomes a prime suspect in the murder of a woman with her own scandalous past. Even Tricia's faith in the old man is shaken when the Stoneham police break the news that her father is a known con man who has done jail time. But what about bestselling thriller author Steven Richardson? Is it a coincidence that...

It's October in South Cove, California, and the locals in the quaint resort seem to be happily pairing off in the lull before the holidays. Everyone, that is, except for Jill Gardner's elderly aunt, who just dumped her besotted fiancé—and she won't say why.
 
When Jill hosts a talk at Coffee, Books, and More on the topic of elder abuse, all that's really on her mind is lunch. But the topic hits close to home when she discovers...

"An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall. After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She's always avoided dwelling on the...

"A life on the road with best friend Rosie and her beloved camper-van-cum-book-shop, and definitely, definitely, no romance. But when Aria finds herself falling – after one too many glasses of wine, from a karaoke stage – into the arms of Jonathan, a part of her comes back to life for the first time in years. Since her beloved husband died Aria has sworn off love, unless it’s the kind you can find in the pages of a book. One love of her...

"Bookseller Delaney Nichols befriends a Loch Ness monster enthusiast; when he stands accused of murder she'll do whatever it takes to learn who the killer is--and whether Nessie herself is really lurking in the Scottish waters. Delaney Nichols is delighted with her life in Edinburgh, working at The Cracked Spine--a shop that specializes in hard-to-find books and artifacts. With a job she loves, and her fast approaching marriage to devastatingly handsome...