His gift is a rare talent; his art celebrates an important American legacy. But it's born from a torment that might make him as dangerous as he is irresistible. Wealthy, beautiful and sophisticated, Cassandra Westbrook collects exquisite art objects with a connoisseur's fine taste and a rich woman's whims. She always dominates an art auction – until a mysterious artist named Thomas Warrior bids against her for a set of Native American ledger drawings....

Widowed van driver Bob Naylor is prodded into joining the Chichester Writers' Circle by his teenage daughter. Bob writes limericks and jingles, and fears he will be out of his class among the literati. But the members of the circle come from all walks of life and practice many forms of writing, from fantasy to household hints. There seems to be nothing about any of them to incite a serial killer. However, there is an arsonist in their midst, burning...

Timothy Schaffert has created his most memorable character yet in Essie, an octogenarian obituary writer for her family's small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn woman. Either way,...