Showing results for "Twisted Threads" in All Categories

After leaving a decade ago, Angie Curtis has been called back to Harbor Haven, Maine, by her grandmother, Charlotte, who raised her following her mother's disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder. The bright spot in Angie's homecoming is reuniting with Charlotte, who has started her own needlepointing business with a group called the Mainely Needlepointers.

Dr. Margaret Richter has it all. She’s rich, thanks to her best-selling self-help books. She has a beautiful home in Cape Cod overlooking the beach. And she has a monthly book club that everyone is dying to get invited to. Literally. Because behind the crystal wine glasses, the fine linens and the catered hors d'oeuvres lies a tangled web of secrets, of deceit, of murder. No member of the book club is innocent—and many are guilty. And the person with the most to hide is Margaret Richter herself.

Lifeless body, hidden clues, and a hidden murderer. Jane Donovan's ordinary trip to the fabric store takes an unexpected turn. When she comes upon the lifeless owner. With just scissors and a keen eye, Jane must find the identity of the murderer concealed in the cloth. Jane and Bruce team up to unravel the mystery. They find riddling messages and secret codes that the victim left behind. The victim's relatives and neighbors are gradually coming to suspect each other as a result of these enigmatic messages. The victim, sensing peril, leaves a trail of mystery. With her sharp sense and salon ...

Lucas Davenport confronts an old nemesis, now a powerful U.S. senator, in this thrilling #1 New York Times-bestselling new novel in the Prey series. Lucas Davenport had crossed paths with her before. A rich psychopath, Taryn Grant had run successfully for the U.S. Senate, where Lucas had...

Akira Hamada is driven by past failure. Two years earlier, she had a chance to kill her greatest enemy - Kaito Mitsui. Instead, the Yakuza boss forced her to become an assassin in his employ. Now, Akira carries out the bloody business of the notorious crime syndicate and hates herself more each day. When Mitsui hears that his sister’s murderer will be on the cruise ship Starfish, he immediately tasks Akira with eliminating the man once and for all. This is what Akira has trained for, but a series of strange events on the ship tests her resolve and shows her a way to redemption.

Disinfectants, detergents, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and homicides – everything a human being needs to clear his or her lot and start fresh in life, clean and pure, and it all waits at the press of a finger. Some of us love a good disaster, but we watch from a safe distance and it always happens to someone else… somewhere else… never here. Never us. Scratch a moment, since you itch, and listen to the incessant rasp of a gathering legion. It twitters. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of pests, here find a restive horde, and of plagues, ten.

He’d made mistakes...more than a few and probably didn’t deserve the second chance he’d been given. But he was going to do everything he could to prove himself worthy of it. And now with Jansen’s arrival to the canyon...one more person in addition to himself and his grandfather with ties to the island...the stakes were even higher. Ray didn’t have a single doubt that a number of individuals were wondering where he’d disappeared to. With luck it would stay that way...but if it didn’t he probably wouldn’t be around to worry about it. He’d arrived on the island with a ...

Boogeymen, banshees, werewolves, and vampires; all figments of horror drawn upon parchments of fable, each the scrawl of individual phobias revisited by trembling quills dipped into inkwells of collective nightmare. Despite vaguely amusing caricatures, these monstrous legends probably developed from grisly human origins. Even now, your secret devil whispers into the blackout parts of your mind. Listen. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of hidden dominions, here encounter endless landscapes, and of phantoms, flights.

While the vast majority perishes in quiet anonymity, a tour of any national monument quickly reveals countless names carved into stone. These names generally identify three classes of people; scribe, conquered, and conqueror. Indeed, if anything, life is an endless series of contests, large and small, but these stone-graven records typically ignore the latter for the former. Pause a reflective moment to ponder the future – anticipate all the boastful elite to be immortalized there. Seeking grandeur in concrete, granite, and marble, they will tell. Such twisted threads weave life’s ...

Everyone loves a good joke, but nobody enjoys being subjected to the fun. Pranks are an especially childish form of delight, perhaps because they are the ultimate expression of prurient sadism, which we must disavow as civilized adults. We, the same civilized adults who teach our beloved youth the art of warfare while stockpiling an obscene surplus of thermonuclear weapons. Now that is funny! So, tease a guilty moment to titillate your secret sadist today. Giggling, it whispers. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of pranks, here find countless examples, and of pranksters,...

Several of the best human hypocrisies are immortalized in catechisms. We say “violence never solved anything” when history repeatedly teaches us otherwise, and once we prematurely labeled an entire, global war as “The War to End All Wars” long before we recorded its half-formed outcome. Dynasties fall. Empires rise. In marble, granite and concrete, we immortalize these events, large and small, and we celebrate the human beings named heroes there. Rightly so. Pause a moment before The Wall – let your finger trace names in stone. From pits of despair and summits of glory, they ...

Within realms of the unknown, superstition stalks. Primitives see god in a rainbow, but they also suspect a deadly serpent beneath every unturned stone. Ignorance and fear sometimes unite to inspire us or spare us, but more often this demonic duality serves to light the torches of enraged mobs. Fearlessly now, step away from the staid, known world that shelters you. Venture into lands of conundrum and enigma to witness ciphered matters of mind. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of answers, here find many startling propositions, and of mysteries, twelve.

Rascals, rapscallions, villains, and varlets; all terms of a bygone era intended to describe the guy in the black hat, that perverse character of low virtue and strayed morality who forever ties the distressed damsel to cold, steel rails. Gasp! Within fictional fantasies, they are always guys and damsels, and they must wear black. In reality, we still mostly read about bad ‘guys’, but the women tend to fight back now, often with devastating effect. Tonight, the devil laces thigh-high boots over fence-net stockings before taking a turn through town. Be warned and beware. Such twisted ...

Tabloids invite us to gorge ourselves on tales of epic personal failures, and so many of us eagerly oblige. Guilty pleasures, we savor these stories most satisfactorily with a garnish of sex scandal, a dash of fiscal malfeasance, and a generous dollop of social corruption. Cup your ears and shade your eyes now. Peer into the gloom of your neighbor’s windows to eavesdrop. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestries. Of tragically flawed characters, here find deplorable examples, and of losers, legions.

Champions come in all shapes and forms. The same is true of cowards. In fact, most notable acts of heroism are not the results of well-considered, carefully laid plans. Rather, these are often spontaneous yet deliberate demonstrations of selflessness occasionally on display when normal human beings must confront life-threatening risk. Take a deep, calming breath now before you dare gaze into the face of death. Trembling, heed its heckling catcalls. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestries. Of redemptions failed or delivered, here find disturbing variations, and of heroes, none.

Mothers no longer name their sons ‘Adolph’. Almost everyone knows why. Though all innocent babes do not develop into monsters, all monsters develop from innocent babes. We prefer fiction to reality, because thoughts of the former easily yield to denials of reason, while the latter only reminds us of our common origins in the primitive. Steal a private moment now and listen to your inner voice. It whispers. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of depravity, here find endless expositions, and of monsters, seven.

A silly titmouse once sang sweetly to describe love as “a many-splendored thing”. Perhaps this is so for some. For others, love’s terrible spectacle shines in its many violent twists and unexpected turns. Each feckless angle of its affection or disaffection invariably leaves a disfiguring blemish that renders exquisite facets of character from alternating impacts of tragedy, disaster, triumph, and ecstasy. Steal a secret moment now and listen to your heart. It confides. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of love, here find endless variations, and of lovers, nine.

To date, all indications tell us we are the only intelligent form of life currently inhabiting our Milky Way Galaxy. Aliens may survive in government laboratories, but they are naturally difficult to record with any convincing fidelity. Yet yesterday’s far-out conspiracies too often become today’s startling headlines given a bit of unwanted exposure. Pause one moment now to take note of a shadow-bound summons, but beware. Your paranoid shade whispers. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of sinister phenomena, here find abundant evidence, and of aliens, eleven.

Within each human being lingers a mischievous child, but each of us also cages an unformed primitive. We keep our individual id-monster within the tempered bars of civility, yet it remains our secret delight of a darkened, unobserved evening and we make it our fondest fetish at every available opportunity. No matter how mightily we struggle, history scrawls with endless tales of failed self-control, so each scandal both titillates and disgusts depending upon personal sensibilities. Indulge your inner-beast. How it roars! Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of abnormalities...

While we collectively fear wild animals and muggers, most contemporary plagues come in the guise of unavoidable corporate logos and unforgettable commercial jingles. This new and most modern form of disease presents symptoms that include unhealthy obsessions, unwise compulsions, and preprogrammed responses. Visualize anything except the latest fad slogan while engrossing yourself in a moment of hysteric interest, and then pause to think - if you can. Such twisted threads weave life’s strange tapestry. Of fascinating grotesqueries, here study endless cases, and of afflictions, fourteen.