Vintage Mystery

In post-WWII San Francisco, Dune House is an oddity-a sprawling, heavily gated mansion with no telephone, no radio, and no electricity. The city is abuzz when it learns that Julia Paget, the rich, reclusive mistress of Dune House, is conducting a search for her long-lost heir. When newly engaged Lark Williams visits Dune House to find the truth, Julia Paget forbids her from leaving. As Lark plans her treacherous escape, she uncovers several unnerving secrets. The tragic drowning of Julia Paget's sister decades earlier. An enigmatic cousin named Benson Drew. Opera music being sung outside underneath the moonlight. The mysterious photograph that could reveal the most shocking secret of all-But first, she must get out of Dune House alive!

They call themselves the Big Five and a Half. In the aftermath of World War II, six high school students-rich, ambitious, handsome-are groomed for ultimate success by their teacher, Mr. Northcliffe. At their farewell picnic in Mariposa, they plan to throw a splendid reunion in ten years' time on Christmas Day-to see who is the most successful of them all. The day of the reunion finds the Big Five and a Half in disarray-one divorced, one in prison... and almost all of them unhappy. Life has not turned out how most of them had hoped. On Christmas morning, a mysterious man in a Santa Claus suit visits individuals in the group with a tempting treat. It turns out that the Big Five and a Half were groomed well... for ultimate death!

When Olive Wallace offers to take several friends and relatives on a once-in-a-lifetime bus tour through post-WWII Europe, they all jump at the chance-even though Olive can be petty, demanding, and judgmental. But do they really care about seeing the wonders of Europe-the magnificent Roman temples and the majesty of Carcassonne, an ancient, fortified city in southern France-or are they just trying to stay in Olive's good graces? Olive Wallace, after all, is extremely wealthy. And she is extremely outspoken about who she intends to leave her money to-or not leave it to-when she dies. Olive changes her will on a whim, and every person on the trip knows it. On a bridge near Avignon, Olive is accidentally bumped into the river-or was she pushed? Days later, she is suspiciously nudged down the steps at the Nimes Colosseum. When Olive suffers a third accident in the narrow cobblestone streets of Carcassonne, she becomes convinced that somebody-one of her closest friends, perhaps-is out to murder her!