A miraculous healing serum, kept secret by an ancient puzzle and buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great--in a tomb lost to the ages for more than 1,500 years--is the coveted prize for a cunning despot unless Cotton Malone, former U.S. Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer, can beat her to it.

When her fellow charity shop volunteer Gretchen Burkholt is murdered, Dead on Demand Mystery shop owner Annie Darling enlists the help of her husband, Max, to piece together a puzzle involving an overturned kayak, a stolen motorboat, a troubled love affair, and a reckless teenager.

"'Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened. After...

Occasionally, Denver bookman Cliff Janeway has one of those perfect days - he sells a couple of good books and he buys something even better - perhaps a tough-to-find Steinbeck in mint condition. Even the jacket is fine. Working from his store on seedy Colfax Avenue, Janeway doesn't have enough of those days, but he's not complaining. Things are looking up because of his new partner and friend, lawyer Erin d'Angelo. So when Erin asks Janeway for a...

"First, Janet Marsh is told she'll have to wait before moving into her new home. Then she finds out the house has been vandalized. Again. The chief suspect? Una Graham, an advice columnist for the local paper--who's trying to make a name for herself as an investigative reporter. When Janet and her business partners go looking for clues at the house, they find a body--it's Una, in the garden shed, with a sickle in her neck. Janet never did like that...

Traveling to Idaho at the invitation of a wealthy horse trainer, Cliff discovers a stunning collection of first-edition children's classics. The books are valued in the millions, which would be excellent news for their owner--if he hadn't suddenly been murdered. Considering the worth of the books, it's no secret why someone would kill to get near them. But to find out who that someone is, Cliff must pound a trail through the world of horseracing.

"Welcome back to Camino Island, where anything can happen - even a murder in the midst of a hurricane, which might prove to be the perfect crime ... Just as Bruce Cable's Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for the island. Florida's governor orders a mandatory evacuation, and most residents board up their houses and flee to the mainland, but Bruce...