The summer of 1273 is peaceful for most of England, except in the village of Tyndal, where Martin the cooper has been poisoned at the local inn. Martin had enough enemies, so the killer could be anyone. It could be his usual whore, who is about to be tossed aside for another woman; it could be the innkeeper's niece, who has secret reasons for fearing him; or perhaps it's the blacksmith, a man whose temper might have exploded when he was mocked once too often.This crime has naught t...

On a spring evening in 1140 Shrewsbury, the midnight matins at the Benedictine abbey suddenly reverberate with an unholy sound—a hunt in full cry. Pursued by a drunken mob, the quarry is running for its life. When the frantic creature bursts in to claim sanctuary, Brother Cadfael finds himself fighting off armed townsmen to save a terrified young man.Accused of robbery and murder is Liliwin, a wandering minstrel who performed at the wedding of a local goldsmith's son. The cold ligh...

The winter of 1139 will disrupt Brother Cadfael's tranquil life in Shrewsbury, as raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester. Among them are two young orphans from a noble family and their companion, a young Benedictine nun. The trio, never reaching Shrewsbury, has disappeared somewhere in the wild countryside.Cadfael fears for these three lost lambs, but another call for help sends him to the Church of Saint Mary. A wounded monk by the roadside will surely die...

Outside the pale of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in September of the year of our Lord 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But inside the pale, what troubles Brother Cadfael is a proud, secretive nineteen-year-old novice.Brother Cadfael has never seen two men more estranged than the Lord of Aspley and Meriet, the son he coldly delivers to the abbey to begin a religious vocation. Meriet, meek by day, is so racked by dreams at night that h...

When one of her company falls ill on a return journey to Tyndal, Prioress Eleanor accepts lodging at a nearby manor. There, Master Stevyns’ wife is having an affair with the groom, while a local widow acts more the lady of the manor than the lady herself. The master’s eldest son and spouse are obsessed with sin and heaven, while his youngest son, bound for the church, unexpectedly returns with more interest in lute playing than the priesthood. It is no surprise when someone’s throat is cut...

Caught in a frightening web of espionage, two determined friends search for truth and a way out.Nella Killian, widowed when her husband’s plane was shot down during the London blitz, returns home to Wales determined to build a normal life for her young daughter. But when she inadvertently uncovers evidence that raises questions about the death of a young American soldier, Nella becomes the enemy’s next target. Fearing for the safety of her family, Nella must make a courageous choic...

Contending valiantly against the Nazi threat in war-torn Europe, two sisters unite to thwart a sinister plan, in this third book in Elyse Larson’s Women of Valor series.When Marge Emerson uncovers a diabolical Nazi plot she is secretly reassigned to a medical post in France. There she meets a conscientious objector whose outspoken belief in God challenges her own fragile faith. When David shares his desire to return to Europe after the war and build an orphanage for Germany’s homel...

"Let us hesitate no longer to announce that the sensual passions and mysteries are equally sacred with the spiritual mysteries and passions," wrote D. H. Lawrence inWomen in Love, his masterpiece heralding the erotic consciousness of the twentieth century. Lawrence explores love, sex, passion, and marriage through the eyes of two sisters, Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen. Intelligent, incisive, and observant, the two very different sisters pursue thrilling, torrid affairs with their lov...

The France they have known is crumbling around them. Two courageous women face danger and betrayal under Hitler’s tyranny.Giselle Munier and Jean Thornton are more like sisters than cousins, having spent many summers together. But when war breaks out, their lives diverge. Jean joins the American Red Cross and is assigned to a sprawling military hospital in Wales. Giselle, active in the French Resistance, has been betrayed and arrested by the Nazis. Hearing of her cousin’s plight, J...

Every schoolchild knows the story of how Pocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith, but that’s not the whole story.The Native American princess Pocahontas was born near the end of the sixteenth century as the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Powhatan confederacy. It was Pocahontas, known as Matoaka by her clan, who interceded on behalf of John Smith in 1608 and then persuaded her father to bring food to the starving colonists at Jamestown.In 1614, after learning the...

Alternating between nineteenth-century England and present-day New York, this is the story of renowned British painter J. M. W. Turner and his circle of patrons and lovers. It is also the story of Henry Leiden, a middle-aged family man with a troubled marriage and a dead-end job, who finds his life transformed by his discovery of Turner's The Center of the World, a mesmerizing and unsettling painting of Helen of Troy that was thought to have been lost forever.This painting...

More than one hundred years ago, a sensitive woman naturalist, nature lover, and accomplished artist began to chronicle all that she encountered while walking and cycling around the countryside of her native England and neighboring Scotland.Besides noting the flora and fauna, she included poems and quaint folk sayings, saints' days, mottoes, and tidbits of history. Follow along with her month by month as she chronicles the summer thunderstorms and the first hard frost, notes Lady D...