Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, grow up first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West is the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. Lucille begins to resist...

Balthazar Jones lives in the Tower of London with his wife, Hebe, his one-hundred-eighty-one-year-old pet tortoise, and a few eccentric neighbors. Balthazar is a Beefeater. The white-hot flame of his and Hebe's love has dwindled in the few years since their son died. Their marriage is teetering on the brink of extinction, when Balthazar is unexpectedly tasked with setting up an elaborate menagerie within the Tower to house the many exotic animals...

In Daretana's most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead--killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it's a death at once terrifying and impossible. Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only...

In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.

Eccentric heiress Lady Stella Corsham finds herself wed to the dashing Duke of Huntington, who, she believes, married her for all the wrong reasons, despite his best efforts to convince her that he has fallen in love with her.

"Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution. When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise...

Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in the countryside of the English moors. Here he can be himself, away from social situations that he doesn't always get right or completely understand. On the anniversary of her beloved father's death, Ellie Jacobs takes a walk in the woods and comes across Dan's barn. She is enchanted by his collection. Dan gives her a harp made of cherrywood to match her cherry socks....

On a trip to France, Monk takes a tour through the historic underground world of the Parisian sewers and encounters a catacomb filled with ancient human remains--and one much more recent skull.

Ray Midge is waiting for his credit card bill to arrive. His wife, Norma, has run off with her ex-husband, taking Ray's cards, shotgun, and car. But from the receipts, Ray can track where they've gone. He takes off after them, as does an irritatingly tenacious bail bondsman, both following the romantic couple's spending from Arkansas, down to Mexico, and into Honduras. Along the way Ray meets Dr. Reo Symes, a seemingly down-on-his-luck and rather

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