Showing results by narrator "Grace Conlin" in All Categories

For vibrant, lovely Jean Suttman, the fellowship to study in Rome was the culmination of all her dreams, until she undertook an innocent expedition to the ancient subterranean Temple of Mithra.

She was known for her outrageous one-liners, her ruthless theater criticism, her clever verses and bittersweet stories. But there was another side to Dorothy Parker, a private life set on a course of destruction.

Althea Tomlinson comes back to Egypt as just another tourist, showing the country to a spoiled 17-year-old girl. That's what she tells herself, anyway. Really, though, what drives her is a desire to discover the truth behind her father's disgrace and subsequent death.

Dinah Van der Lyn hears the cries for help through her hotel room wall, cries in English in the middle of Beirut. "Help" is the only English word spoken. She thinks the men are simply drunk and fighting. Her mistake is the first step on an odyssey of terror that will take Dinah to the fabled cities of Sidon, Tyro, Damascus.

Surrounded by towering pyramids on Mexico City's Walk of the Dead, a frightened yet resolute young woman searches for a perilous truth and for the beloved parent she thought was gone forever. But there are dark secrets lurking in the shadows of antiquity, a conspiracy she never imagined, and enemies who are determined that Carol Farley will not leave Mexico alive.

So, a thousand a month, all expenses, the opportunity to spend some time on an Arizona ranch...it was everything a young graduate student trying to prove herself might want. And it was...until Hank suffered an accident, then disappeared.

Wharton's most erotic and lyrical novel, Summer explores a daring theme for 1917, a woman's awakening to her sexuality. Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall lives in the small town of North Dormer, ignorant of desire until the arrival of architect Lucius Harney. Like the succulent summer landscape in the Berkshires around them, Charity's romance is lush and picturesque, but its consequences are harsh and real.

Elizabeth Jones, vacationing from her New York publishing job, is off to do touristy things in Denmark: gawk at the Little Mermaid, stroll in the Tivoli...look for a missing person? The plane ride itself had turned out to be Kismet, introducing Elizabeth to her idol, Nobel Prize-winning historian and famed eccentric Margaret Rosenberg and her long-suffering son, Christian.

It was a dream come true. Susan loved all things Scottish. So, when the opportunity presented itself, there was no question in her mind that she would go on the archaeological dig in the Highlands.

Ellie is young, rich, engaged, and in love. In the carefree days before marriage and new responsibility, she decides to house-sit at Aunt Kate's palatial estate in Burton, Virginia. With its nearly invisible housekeepers and plethora of pets, Ellie feels right at home. But when she opens an antique book about the town's aristocracy, she finds disturbing secrets that extend to her own family.

When attractive American Jacqueline Kirby is invited to an English country mansion for a weekend costume affair, she expects only one mystery. Since the hosts and guests are all fanatic devotees of King Richard III, they hope to clear his name of the 500-year-old accusation that he killed the little princes in the Tower of London. Jacqueline is amused by the group's eccentricities until history begins to repeat itself.

The annual Historical Romance Writers of the World convention in New York City is calling to Jacqueline Kirby, a Nebraska librarian who desperately desires some excitement. But all is not love and kisses at this august gathering of starry-eyed eccentrics and sentimental scribes. As far as Jacqueline is concerned, the sudden "natural" death of a gossip columnist seems anything but.

She may be a best-selling author, but ex-librarian Jacqueline Kirby's views on the publishing biz aren't fit to print. In fact, she's thinking of trading celebrity for serenity and a house far away from fiendish editors and demented fans, when her agent whispers the only words that could ever make her stay: Naked in the Ice.

Following the whim of the Laughing God, the Masque of the Fading Dawn conduct an audacious attack against mon-keigh invaders. Battling to secure their legacy, the troupe put on a performance worthy of remembrance against a backdrop of acerbic remarks from their Death Jester, Adroniel. Intent on a spectacular finale, Adroniel becomes hell-bent on obliterating their unremarkable human foe with deadly artistry, until a strange encounter challenges her role in the final act....

One of the classic works on interior decoration, Edith Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses offers a comprehensive look at the history and character of turn-of-the-century interior design. Co-written with architect Ogden Codman, Jr., this invaluable reference provides us with numerous keen and practical axioms for house design, such as (1) The better the house, the less need for curtains, and (2) the height of a well-proportioned doorway should be twice its width.

In the depths of the watch station Refuge, Captain Karina Arq and the crew of the Fortune's Favour have found something...unusual. Something monstrous haunts the depths of the station, something that knows the crew and their deepest fears...and can bring them to the surface. As horror envelops them, they begin to doubt they can make it through this experience alive...or sane.

One of Edith Wharton's most acclaimed works, The Custom of the Country is a blistering indictment of materialism, power, and misplaced values. Its heroine, Undine Spragg, is one of the most ruthless characters in all of literature, as selfishly unscrupulous as she is fiercely beautiful. As she climbs the class ladder through a series of marriages and affairs, she shows little concern for who she has to step on.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, heir to the throne won by Alexander the Great: she was the most powerful woman of the ancient Mediterranean, and the only person standing between Rome and its dominion over the world. She was wife to Julius Caesar, and bore his only son. After his death she took Mark Antony, Caesar's greatest general, as lover and consort, and as her partner in a vast political enterprise. Together they strove to unite Egypt and Rome under one throne.

When Harriet Mahoney first saw it, Isabel Krug's bed was covered in sheared sheep and littered with celebrity biographies. The unpublished, fortyish, and recently jilted Harriet had fled wintry Manhattan in response to a mysterious ad in The New York Review of Books: "Book in progress? Why not share my Cape Cod retreat? Roomy and peaceful, your life will be your own."

This spare, mesmerizing novel is Edith Wharton's money-can't-buy-happiness tale. Young Stephen Glennard, a lawyer, is poor, but he has an unanticipated gambling chip: a collection of love letters from a scorned, but now famous, lover, the distinguished novelist Margaret Aubyn. To raise money for his forthcoming wedding to another woman, Stephen stoops to selling the letters.