Donada Peters

Set in the harsh Puritan environment of 17th century Boston, The scarlet letter describes the plight of Hester Prynne, an independent-minded woman who stands alone against society. Having given birth to a child after an illicit affair, she refuses to name the father and is forced to wear the letter A for adulteress embroidered on her dress

When their father dies, the Dashwood women--Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne, and young Margaret--are plunged into poverty. Things take a turn for the better when sensible Elinor finds herself falling deeply in love with shy kindred spirit Edward Ferrars. But they are soon split apart when the Dashwoods move to a small cottage on the country estate of distant relatives. There Marianne, an impulsive romantic, is swept off her feet by the seemingly perfect...

Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha has not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream while surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more...Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective...

An isolated beach on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel is the scene of the murder of Guy Brouard, one of Guernsey’s wealthiest inhabitants and its main benefactor. Forced as a child to flee the Nazis in Paris, Brouard was engaged in his latest project when he died: a museum in honor of those who resisted the German occupation of the island during World War II.
It is from this period of time that his murderer may well have come....

When an adolescent boy's mutilated body is found, it doesn't take long for the police to realize that this is the work of a serial killer.

When Robert Smedley is determined to prove that his wife is cheating, Raisin investigations immediately offers to help. Unfortunately for Agatha, Mabel Smedley appears to be the perfect wife, young and pretty and a regular volunteer at church. Although Smedley's case doesn't look promising, Agatha's attentions are diverted when she stumbles across the body of missing teenager, Jessica Bradley. In a sudden gesture of kindness (and good public relations),...

In London, a woman parliamentarian's daughter is kidnaped and a newspaper editor with whom the parliamentarian had an affair receives a call, threatening the girl's life unless he admits paternity. Inspector Lynley suspects the girl is behind it.

Agatha Raisin is feeling miserable--and with good reason. Her ex-husband, James, has abandoned her, and she's been humiliated by an unseemly proposition from John Armitage, her handsome neighbor. So complete is her devastation that Agatha has given up on makeup and taken to wearing the loose cotton dresses and flat, sensible shoes she has always abhorred. But there is light at the end of this dark and lonely tunnel, and its source is Carsely's beatific...

Kay Scarpetta is called to the scene of a psychic's murder where she discovers the fingerprints of the recently executed rapist and murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell on the victim. This is just the beginning. Before long, evidence is tying numerous murders to Waddell. But how can this be? He was put to death in the electric chair--wasn't he?

The corpses are those of a young man and woman. Each met death in a different fashion. Each died violently. For Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley the grisly crime promises to be one of the toughest assignments of his career. The late Nicola Maiden was the daughter of a man Lynley once regarded as his mentor. Now as Lynley struggles to find out if Nicola's killer was an enemy of her father's or one she earned herself, a disgraced Barbara Havers, determined...