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Noah Ellery has managed to avoid any complications or entanglements--that is, until he lays eyes on Elise and realizes there's more to this beautiful woman than meets the eye.

It begins with a terrorist attack. Covert-One operative Colonel Jon Smith is attending a conference in the Hague on infectious diseases, together with leading scientists and political figures from around the world. Without warning, the conference hotel is consumed in a bloodbath. Smith is caught in the crossfire and barely escapes, but not before discovering a picture of himself and two other targets in the pocket of one of the shooters.

For generations, treasure hunters have searched for the key to the Water Pit, the labyrinth of shafts and tunnels that honeycomb Ragged Island. But the Pit is reluctant to give up its treasure, and many will die before its secret is revealed.

A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma--streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast.

Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim.

Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons: the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police's fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit. Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting an interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. Shocked and shaken, he doesn't realize that he's accidentally captured a key piece of evidence. Nick investigates for a story of his own.

Amazing news has spread across the Scottish countryside. The most famous of highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, will be married at last. Everyone in the village of Lochdubh adores Josie McSween, Macbeth's newest constable and blushing bride-to-be.

Mrs. Gillespie, famous for being the best maid in the northwest of Sutherland, is found dead, struck down by a metal bucket. Knowing Mrs. Gillespie's penchant for gossip, Hamish is sure she delighted in finding out her clients' secrets--meaning everyone whose home she cleaned is a suspect.

When local constable Hamish Macbeth calls on Effie Garrand, he is amazed to find the small woman still in residence after a particularly hideous winter. Unfortunately, Effie is also quite delusional, having convinced herself--and everyone else--that local artist Jock Fleming is in love with her and that they are engaged. After a huge fight with Jock, Effie is found in the mountains, poisoned by antifreeze. Now, it's up to Hamish to find the dreamer's killer--before any more nightmares unfold.

When John Heppel, a visiting writer to Lochdubh, first proposes forming a writers' circle, the idea is met with much enthusiasm from local residents. However, once the classes get underway, attendance quickly falters due to one undeniable fact: John Heppel is a long-winded, consummate bore. But is dullness a motive for murder?