“Fans who’ve followed the development of the pair’s professional relationship will gasp in delight at an unexpected invitation that comes in the book’s closing pages.” —Booklist
-
- The Flimflam Affair
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/15/19
Formats: Digital Audy
The Flimflam Affair is the latest charming historical mystery in Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Bill Pronzini’s detective series.
Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services is a fixture in San Francisco at the dawn of a new century. While the future is unclear, Sabina and John know one thing for certain: they will protect their clients from flimflammers, thieves, and murderers, and do whatever it takes to run these dregs of society into the arms of the law.
Sometimes, that requires a subtle touch. Professor A. Vargas, self-styled medium extraordinaire, and his partner Annabelle, use guile and trickery to swindle bereaved men and women eager to contact the spirits of deceased loved ones. John and Sabina must not only unmask these charlatans, but also solve the riddle of an impossible murder in the midst of a séance.
Other cases involve brute force and personal danger. Such as the theft of a burglarproof safe mysteriously emptied of gold bullion. And John’s pursuit of a ruthless gang of counterfeiters, whose leader appears to be a man from John’s past in the Secret Service―a man thought long dead.
Adding spice to these exploits is Sabina and John’s personal relationship, which is rapidly progressing to an exciting new level.
- The Flimflam Affair
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/15/19
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- The Bags of Tricks Affair
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 3/06/18
Formats: Digital Audy
The Bags of Tricks Affair is the latest charming historical mystery in MWA Grand Master Bill Pronzini’s detective series.
A con man always has a bag of tricks, ready to fool the unsuspecting, and almost everyone is unsuspecting until they get taken. When that happens, they turn to Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, to recover their money and what’s left of their dignity, and perhaps even to save their lives.
When one such case leaves Sabina Carpenter the only witness to a murder, the family of the culprit vows to stop at nothing to keep her silent. The threat leaves John Quincannon deeply concerned for Sabina’s safety, but there’s no rest for the wicked and so the crime-solving duo must split up to tackle two separate con games, run by two villains with deadly bags of tricks at hand.
And when Sabina’s life is put in danger, John must rush to save her while grappling with the terrifying realization of exactly how much she means to him.
- The Bags of Tricks Affair
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 3/06/18
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- The Dangerous Ladies Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/03/17
Formats: Digital Audy
For the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, stopping extortionists is not only grand, but excitingly lucrative.
When a pleasant afternoon’s bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention.
The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist’s first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker’s real problem is something he doesn’t want to reveal. That was fine with the detective, and when he was informed that some private letters were involved and Wrixton absolutely needed them back, there was nothing more Quincannon needed in the way of background. As with so many of San Francisco’s elite, the bedroom doors never seemed to stay shut.
That was the easy part; far more difficult was the matter of the dead courier, murdered most foully in a locked room within a locked room, creating a trail that will take John Quincannon through most of San Francisco’s less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise.
The Dangerous Ladies Affair is the next thrilling installment in this charming historical mystery series from MWA Grand Masters Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.
- The Dangerous Ladies Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/03/17
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- Body on the Bayou
-
By Ellen Byron
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 9/13/16
Formats: Digital Audy
The Crozats feared that past murders at Crozat Plantation B&B might spell the death of their beloved estate, but they’ve managed to survive the scandal. Now there’s a très bigger story in Pelican, Louisiana: the upcoming nuptials between Police Chief Rufus Durand and Vanessa Fleer.
Maggie Crozat, inexplicably tasked with being Vanessa’s maid of honor, quickly discovers why everyone else refused the assignment when the bridezilla hands her a long list of duties—the most important of which is entertaining Vanessa’s cousin, Ginger Fleer-Starke, a mysterious woman with dangerous secrets. But just days before the wedding, Ginger’s lifeless body is found on the bayou behind Crozat Plantation. Now the Pelican PD and the Crozats have another murder mystery on their hands.
There’s a gumbo pot full of suspects, including an ex-marine with PTSD, an annoying local newspaper reporter, and Vanessa’s own spark plug of a mother. But when it looks like the investigation is zeroing in on Vanessa as the prime suspect, Maggie reluctantly adds keeping the bride-to-be out of jail to her list of maid-of-honor responsibilities.
- Body on the Bayou
-
By Ellen Byron
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 9/13/16
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- The Plague of Thieves Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/26/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Can the true identity of the Sherlock Holmes imposter be revealed at last?
Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon are no stranger to mysteries. In the five years since they opened Carpenter and Quinncannon, Professional Detective Services, they have solved dozens, but one has eluded even them: Sherlock Holmes or, rather, the madman claiming his identity, who keeps showing up with a frustrating—though admittedly useful—knack for solving difficult cases.
Roland W. Fairchild, recently arrived from Chicago, claims the man is his first cousin, Charles P. Fairchild III. Now, with his father dead, Charles stands to inherit an estate of over $3 million, if Sabina can find him and if he can be proved sane. Sabina is uncertain of Roland’s motives but agrees to take the case.
John, meanwhile, has been hired by the owner of the Golden State brewery to investigate the “accidental” death of the head brewmaster, who drowned in a vat of his own beer. When a second murder occurs and the murderer escapes from under his nose, John sets out to find the trail of the criminals—and to ensure he keeps his reputation for catching them.
But while John is certain he can catch his quarry, Sabina is less certain whether she even wants to catch hers. Holmes has been frustrating but useful and even kind. She is quite certain he is mad but quite uncertain what will happen when he is confronted with the truth. Does every mystery need to be solved?
- The Plague of Thieves Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/26/16
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- West 57
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 11/01/15
Formats: Digital Audy
Meet Julie Chavan.
Julie is trying to rescue the legendary New York publishing house West 57. Everyone else in her life is trying to rescue Julie—her mother, her ex-fiancé, her ex-best friend, and even the ghost of her dead father. They all think they know what Julie needs.
What Julie actually needs is a big bestseller for West 57, but her debut of the year’s hottest book is spinning wildly out of control. Julie is dealing with a dead con artist, an over-sexed London agent, an irresistible young book editor, a drunk author spouting bawdy limericks, and a flying Chihuahua.
The smart thing would be to say goodbye to West 57. Julie’s Hollywood mother wants her in Los Angeles, and there’s nothing keeping Julie in New York—nothing except her whole life. But before Julie can decide where she’s going, she has to decide what she really wants.
Exuberantly funny and emotionally rich, West 57 will make you laugh and cry about love, friendships, and the big choices in life.
- West 57
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 11/01/15
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- Plantation Shudders
-
By Ellen Byron
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 8/11/15
Formats: Digital Audy
Check in for some Southern hospitality in Plantation Shudders, the Cajun Country series debut from Ellen Byron.
It’s the end of the summer and prodigal daughter Maggie Crozat has returned home to her family’s plantation turned bed-and-breakfast in Louisiana. The Crozats have an inn full of guests for the local food festival—elderly honeymooners, the Cajun Cuties, a mysterious stranger from Texas, a couple of hipster lovebirds, and a trio of Georgia frat boys. But when the elderly couple keels over dead within minutes of each other—one from very unnatural causes—Maggie and her family suddenly become suspects in a murder.
With the help of Bo Durand, the town’s handsome new detective, Maggie must investigate to clear her name while holding the family business together at the same time. And the deeper she digs, the more she wonders: are all of the guests really there for a vacation or do they have ulterior motives? Decades-old secrets and stunning revelations abound in Ellen Byron’s charming cozy debut, Plantation Shudders.
- Plantation Shudders
-
By Ellen Byron
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 8/11/15
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- The Body Snatchers Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/06/15
Formats: cpid_11
Drug lords, missing millionaires, corrupt cops. It’s just another day for the Carpenter and Quincannon Detective Services.
Two missing bodies and two separate investigations take the detectives from the heights above San Francisco Bay to the depths of Chinatown's opium dens.
John Quincannon must search a Chinatown opium den for his client's husband, missing in the middle of a brewing tong war set to ignite over the stolen corpse of Bing Ah Kee. Meanwhile, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, searches for the corpse of a millionaire, stolen from a sealed family crypt and currently being held for ransom.
Is there a connection between the two body snatchings? Or is it simply greed? And why is the enigmatic Englishman who calls himself Sherlock Holmes watching so carefully from the shadows?
- The Body Snatchers Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 1/06/15
Formats: cpid_11
-
- The Spook Lights Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 12/03/13
Formats: cpid_11
A debutante's missing body, murder most foul, and weird spectral lights in the fog make for a thrilling gaslight-era tale of mystery and detection.
In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light. The seemingly impossible disappearance of her body creates an even more serious problem for the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services.
Sabina didn't want to take the case, but her partner John Quincannon insisted it would serve as entr├®e to the city's ultra rich and powerful. That means money, and Quincannon loves the almighty dollar—which is why he is hunting the bandit who robbed the Wells Fargo office of $35,000.
Working their separate cases—while Sabina holds John off with one light hand—the detectives give readers a tour of the city the way it was. From the infamous Barbary Coast to the expensive tenderloin gaming houses and brothels frequented by wealthy men, Quincannon follows a danger-laden trail to unmask the murderous perpetrators of the robbery. Meanwhile, Sabina works her wiles on friends and relatives of the vanished debutante until the pieces of her puzzle start falling into place. But it's an oddly disguised gent appearing out of nowhere who provides the final clue to both cases—the shrewd "crackbrain" who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes.
- The Spook Lights Affair
-
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Read by Meredith Mitchell and Mark Peckham
-
Release Date: 12/03/13
Formats: cpid_11
-
- One Heart to Win
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 6/11/13
Formats: Digital Audy
Johanna Lindsey, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, presents a passionate novel of hidden identities, family secrets, and love that transcends a fifty-year feud set in the 1880s in the majestic ranchland of the Montana territory.
Some young ladies marry for money and social standing, a few lucky ones marry for love—but Tiffany Warren is marrying to end a feud. Honoring her mother's promise, Tiffany reluctantly travels west to meet her estranged father and his enemy's eldest son, rancher Hunter Callahan. Once the Warrens and the Callahans are united by marriage, both clans will stop squabbling over a disputed strip of land.
In the chaos of a train robbery Tiffany seizes a golden opportunity. By assuming the identity of her father's new housekeeper she can live with the father she never knew and assess his true character, as well as that of the neighboring cowboy to whom she is betrothed. But, too late, Tiffany discovers that the rivalry between the Warrens and the Callahans has escalated when the Callahans steal the Warrens' housekeeper as soon as she steps off the train!
Now, Tiffany, who is pretending to be Jennifer Fleming, finds herself living in the enemy camp, under the same roof as her fianc├®. All too soon she learns her intended is a handsome, sweet talking charmer whom she has to fight off because he can't keep his eyes—or his hands—off Jennifer. After Tiffany's charade is exposed she refuses to marry Hunter to end the feud. As Hunter goes about claiming his rightful bride-to-be, he knows that although he loves two women—proper, elegant Tiffany as well as spunky, passionate Jennifer—he has only one heart to win.
- One Heart to Win
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 6/11/13
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- The Darkling
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 4/15/13
Formats: Digital Audy
In the 1940s Coden, Alabama, was a hideaway for movie stars—an isolated playground tucked among live oaks and placid bay waters where pleasure and vice could be indulged. By the summer of 1974, Coden's glamour has faded, but it doesn't bother Mimi Bosarge, who is just happy to have a job as a live-in tutor with the wealthiest family in town, the Hendersons. When the Hendersons generously open their arms to Annie, a troubled teenager with no recollection of her past, Mimi's greatest concern is creating a curriculum for the family's new ward. But it soon becomes obvious that something is wrong. Annie seems suspiciously savvy for her young age, and Mimi can't quell the unnerving sense that there is something malicious about the waiflike beauty.
- The Darkling
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 4/15/13
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- How Smart Students Pay for School, 2nd Edition
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 2/22/13
Formats: Digital Audy
In the second edition of How Smart Students Pay for School, there's a valuable new section for military service members, veterans, and their families. Tax numbers are updated for the early 2013 tax filing season. Recent graduates will learn about the new income-based repayment plan, Pay as You Earn.
Getting into college is just as hard as figuring out how to pay for it. In this original audiobook, prospective students and their parents will learn how to think like informed consumers as they make this very important—and costly—decision. National expert, Reyna Gobel, MBA, provides money-saving processes to determine which colleges are right for you, which ones offer the best financial aid package, and how to plan for this expense. You'll learn about 529 plan distributions with insight from a certified financial planner. Returning students learn where to find scholarships and workplace funding while transfer students learn how to graduate faster with tips from an academic counselor. Parents, college-bound students, and returning students will benefit from budgeting advice from an on-campus director of a student money management program. Veterans and their families are coached on state-based education benefits. And if you already have accumulated this debt, there is sage advice on choosing the right repayment plan, taking payment breaks, protecting your credit from unnecessary dings, paying off loans faster, and claiming tax deductions and credits that could lead to thousands in savings.
For anyone who has to pay or repay tuition bills, this is one class you cannot skip!
- How Smart Students Pay for School, 2nd Edition
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 2/22/13
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- The Missing Italian Girl
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
On a sultry night in June 1897, a young Russian by the name of Pyotr Ivanovich Balenov and two young women transport a dead man through the narrow streets of a working class neighborhood in northeastern Paris. They throw the body into the canal and the girls flee to the Latin Quarter to hide with one of the Russian's anarchist "comrades." They do not realize they, too, are being watched. Their subsequent disappearance and the violent acts that follow will set Clarie Martin, a teacher and mother of a toddler, and her husband, magistrate Bernard Martin, on a dangerous quest to rescue them from a vicious killer.
- The Missing Italian Girl
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- A Dog Named Boo
-
By Lisa Edwards
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 9/18/12
Formats: Digital Audy
The last thing Lisa Edwards needed was a new dog. But when she came across an abandoned litter on Halloween, her heart went out to the runt who walked into walls and couldn't steady his feet. Lisa—healing from past abuse and battling constant pain from a chronic medical condition—saw a bit of herself in little Boo. And when he snuggled, helpless, against her, she knew he was meant to be hers. The dunce of obedience class with poor eyesight and a clumsy gait, Boo was the least likely of heroes. Yet with his unflappable spirit and boundless love, Boo has changed countless lives through his work as a therapy dog—helping a mute six-year-old boy to speak, coaxing movement from a paralyzed girl and stirring life in a ninety-four-year-old nun with Alzheimer's. But perhaps Boo's greatest miracle is the way he transformed Lisas life, giving her the greatest gift of all—faith in herself.
- A Dog Named Boo
-
By Lisa Edwards
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 9/18/12
Formats: Digital Audy
-
- Temple Grandin
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 5/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. It wasn't until years later that she was diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that makes communication difficult. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a brilliant scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her world-changing career has revolutionized the livestock industry—each year, half the cattle in the United States are handled in cruelty-free facilities she has designed. She is also a passionate advocate for autism, using her experience to prove that people with this disorder can have "normal" lives.
To achieve this unprecedented success, Temple used a unique ability: she thinks visually, the same way animals do. Because she thinks in pictures, she can see the world as a cow or a dog or a pig might see it. And so she knows that animals raised for food deserve good lives and should be treated with respect. Now she gives them their voices.
- Temple Grandin
-
Read by Meredith Mitchell
-
Release Date: 5/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy