Bøger af Susan Alexander

Professor Margaret Spence Eliot thought life was finally beginning to settle down after a year of personal upheaval that included getting married, accepting a new position at Oxford and having some other adventures.Then she meets Jersey Jones, a new media celebrity famous for her cable TV show, Jersey Jones and the New World Order. Jersey has come to England to interview Maggie's friend Stanley Einhorn, the hi-tech venture capitalist.Jersey is entranced by the Cotswolds and announces she wants to produce a mini-series she's going to call Jersey Jones and the Old World Order. To Maggie's astonishment, her husband Thomas agrees to let Jersey and her crew come and film at Beaumatin, his Cotswolds estate.Maggie is torn between irritation and amusement until a murder occurs and one of Thomas' staff is arrested for the crime. And Maggie decides that it will have to be the Old World Order to the rescue.(Limited adult language)

It's snowdrop season and Maggie Eliot is on a mission.The previous summer three people she knew died. The coroner ruled the first a suicide, the second a murder and the third an accident. Around the same time as the deaths, a number of very valuable snowdrops disappeared.Maggie is convinced that all three victims were murdered and that she knows who was behind both the killings and the snowdrop thefts. It was Nat Marsh. A highly regarded personage in the world of galanthophiles, as snowdrop collectors are called, Marsh is famous for breeding and propagating the small white flowers. He auctions his rarest specimens on eBay for hundreds of pounds and is rumoured not to be above poaching a new discovery. Believing that others are as unscrupulous as himself, Marsh also keeps the location of his own snowdrop garden a closely-guarded secret.Her husband Thomas, who is the 28th Baron Raynham, accuses Maggie of being a crackpot when she voices her suspicions. The police detective she knows, Inspector Willis, also has no time for her concerns and even Maggie must admit she has no real evidence to back up her beliefs.But Maggie has embraced the Raynham family motto: Numquam cede. Never give up. She is determined to find justice for Marsh's victims and in the process recover the stolen snowdrops. Whatever it takes.

Seven thousand, six hundred fairy lights, a rare snowdrop, and murder.It's Christmastime at Beaumatin, the Cotswold estate of the Barons Raynham. Oxford Professor Maggie Eliot is looking forward to spending the festive season there with her husband Thomas, who is also the current baron.Unfortunately, Thomas' daughter from his first marriage, Constance, has chosen to have a Christmas wedding at Beaumatin. Constance hates Maggie and is doing her best to ruin her holiday. First she has invited her Swedish fiancé's family to stay, which requires Maggie to act as hostess to ten houseguests who are not only strangers, but also not all fluent in English. Then Constance asks a smarmy society reporter and his distinctly odd photographer to cover the wedding. Include a veritable forest of Christmas trees and thousands of fairy lights and Thomas is predictably grumpy and in no mood to be sympathetic to Maggie's difficulties or hear about an unusual snowdrop she has found blooming in the estate's gardens.Then one of the wedding guests is murdered and the police decide Thomas and Maggie have the strongest motives for the crime. Maggie knows she was not the murderer and is convinced that Thomas is innocent as well. But with larceny, infidelity and blackmail complicating her efforts to identify the actual killer, Maggie is afraid it may just be her worst Christmas ever.

It is high summer in the Cotswolds and Maggie Eliot would be enjoying the season more if only she were less stressed out. There is the book she is writing whose deadline is approaching. There is the project of creating a database of the plants in the gardens of her husband Thomas' estate she needs to finish in time for his birthday. There is the imminent descent of two of Thomas' children for a holiday in the country. And finally there is her nagging feeling that Thomas really ought to meet her family back in her native Boston and vice versa. Then a tragedy occurs which makes her other concerns seem trivial. Soon after, some valuable snowdrop bulbs go missing from Rochford Manor, home of Lord and Lady Ainswick, along with six bulbs of Beaumatin's Blonde, a new yellow snowdrop Thomas has bred. When she discovers a brutal murder, Maggie decides it is linked to the missing snowdrops and that she knows who is behind both the killing and the thefts. But the police have a different suspect and Maggie admits she has no evidence to back up her beliefs. Thomas is also impatient with her "crackpot" theory and Maggie must choose between alienating her husband and biding her time until she has the proof she needs to bring the perpetrator to justice. There is the book she is writing whose deadline is approaching. There is the project of creating a database of the plantings in the gardens of her husband Thomas' estate she is trying to finish in time for his birthday. There is the imminent descent of two of Thomas' children from his first marriage for a summer holiday in the country. And finally there is her nagging feeling that Thomas really ought to meet her family back in her native Boston and vice versa. Then a tragedy occurs which makes her other concerns seem trivial. Soon after, quite a few valuable snowdrop bulbs go missing from Rochford Manor, home of Lord and Lady Ainswick, along with six bulbs of Beaumatin's Blonde, a new yellow snowdrop Thomas has bred. When she discovers a brutal murder, Maggie becomes convinced it is linked to the missing snowdrops and that she knows who is behind both the killing and the thefts. But the police have a different prime suspect and Maggie admits she has no evidence to back up her beliefs. Thomas is also impatient with her "crackpot" theory and Maggie must choose between alienating her husband and biding her time until she has the proof she needs to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Caffeine-fuelled, hormonally enhanced, kick-ass divorce attorney Eve Paxton is handling some of the most difficult cases of her career and she needs to be at the top of her game. Which is a challenge given that her office manager is having a mid-life crisis, her bookkeeper is dating a rival solicitor, and she is breaking in her own new associate. At the same time, her son Tommy's firm is facing a sexual harassment suit and her investigation is not going to make her many friends among the #metoo contingent.So is this the right moment for Eve to start dating someone? Or to even think about a relationship? So he kissed her. What was she? Fifteen years old? And it probably didn't mean anything anyway.A Closet Romantic is the third and final volume of the Eve Paxton trikogy.

Professor Maggie Eliot is getting married, even though she has serious qualms. They're not about Thomas, the man she is marrying. She admits she is completely besotted. They're more about the getting married bit. However, Thomas' attitude is, "Let's get married. Then we'll sort out whatever still needs sorting." Of course, Thomas has had practice. He is a widower and also the 28th Baron Raynham, who lives at Beaumatin, his estate in the Cotswolds. Maggie will live there too, at least when she's not at Oxford. The wedding occurs, but within weeks, things begin to go terribly wrong. Thomas becomes attracted to a young magazine writer who bears a striking resemblance to his first wife. And the editor of the book Maggie has produced during a sabbatical year decides to sensationalise the work and use her married name to generate publicity and spur sales. Then a body is found buried in Beaumatin's famous gardens. When a second body is discovered, the police decide that Maggie had motive, means and opportunity for both murders and focus their investigation on her. Maggie knows she didn't kill anyone, even though she may have had to shoot a few people in the past, and suspects she is the victim of some elaborate plot. But what is its purpose? And who is behind it?

Maggie Eliot is learning the truth of the adage, "No good deed goes unpunished." To help a friend, she has agreed to host a group of American botanists who are touring the Cotswolds during snowdrop season. If only it were not for the relentless rain, which has left much of southern England under water and forced Maggie's visitors to extend their stay for several days. With her husband Thomas grumpy about having to undertake some unwelcome estate planning, Maggie can expect no support when one guest breaks her ankle and another is caught snowdrop poaching. Then one of the party dies suddenly and makes Maggie's other problems seem trivial. It looks like it was a heart attack, but the police insist on an autopsy to confirm the cause of death. When another guest dies suspiciously, Maggie is forced to entertain a house party that may include a double murderer.

Professor Maggie Eliot has returned to her position at Oxford after a sabbatical year and is finding it difficult to balance the demands of her job with being a newlywed. Then, before she has the time to see if she can adjust, the wife of her friend and colleague Stephen Draycott is found dead, the victim of a bathtub slip and fall.Kitty Draycott had recently left her husband and claimed to have a new boyfriend, whose identity no one seems to know. But even before that, Kitty had a reputation with men. A great many men. When the police decide Kitty's death was no accident, Maggie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation with no shortage of suspects, while her friends in the Church Ladies' Guild find they have quite a few reasons to gossip about the newest member of their circle.

Maggie Eliot, Appleton Fellow for Global Issues at Merrion College, Oxford, is having an eventful sabbatical year. She has overcome writer's block, fallen in love and gotten married. She is now enjoying summer with her husband Thomas, who is also the 28th Baron Raynham, at Beaumatin, his Cotswolds estate. Thomas takes Maggie to visit St Margaret's House, a residence for Benedictine nuns suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. There she meets Meg, who volunteers at the residence. Meg gives Maggie a sealed envelope and asks her to keep it safe but not open it. Maggie reluctantly agrees to keep Meg's secret. Then Maggie finds Meg murdered in the St Margaret's chapel. Another murder follows and the police think Maggie may know the man the media are calling the "Gloucestershire Garrotter." When Maggie at last opens Meg's mysterious envelope, what she finds inside could well explain the murders. And she can only hope that the killer's identity is discovered before she becomes his next victim.

Maggie Eliot Raynham is afraid that she has bitten off more than she can chew. She has agreed to review and update a card catalogue of garden plants. One hundred and thirty years of garden plants. The project was mischievously proposed by her husband, Thomas, and the records pertain to the gardens of Beaumatin, his estate in the Cotswolds.Maggie has hardly started her task when billionaire hi-tech venture capitalist Stanley Einhorn literally crashes into her life. Two days later a second accident results in Stanley's becoming an uninvited houseguest, along with his posse-Axe Man, May Lin and Dobby. Then one of his entourage is killed and, shortly afterwards, a second death occurs. It looks like someone is trying to murder the troublesome billionaire and is either extremely incompetent or cold-heartedly callous.With two down and two to go, and the police baffled, all Maggie wants to do is solve the crimes so she can get back to her own Heraclean labour.

Maggie Eliot has a problem. The American academic is supposed to be writing a book during a sabbatical year from her position at Oxford and has come down with a bad case of writer's block.Her friend Anne arranges for Maggie to borrow a cottage in a picturesque village in the Cotswolds, where she can write without distractions. When even this fails to do the trick, Anne decides what Maggie needs is a complete break and convinces her friend to accompany her to a snowdrop study weekend. The small white flowers have been selling at stratospheric prices and Anne wants to see what all the fuss is about.So off they go to Rochford Manor, home of Lord and Lady Ainswick and their famous snowdrop garden. The two women encounter an odd assortment of supposed galanthophiles-as snowdrop fanciers are called-and hear the first rumours of a priceless snowdrop called "the Ainswick Orange." On a visit to a neighbouring snowdrop garden, Maggie meets Lord Raynham, a widower as well as the 28th Baron. However, while she is admittedly attracted to the man, in the end she decides it is all way too Jane Austen for her and that it is unlikely she will ever see him again.Exploring the Rochford Manor gardens the next morning, Maggie and Anne discover a brutal murder. The corpse's outstretched hand holds a gardening trowel that points to a hole from which a snowdrop has been removed. Lady Ainswick confirms that the Ainswick Orange has been stolen.When a second murder is committed and the police become fixed on Lord Raynham as a suspect, Maggie and Anne join forces with Lady Ainswick to solve the crimes on their own. They discover that several members of the group do indeed have secrets they are trying to hide. But does that make one of them a killer? And what has become of the Ainswick Orange?

Someone is trying to kill Maggie Eliot. She is sure of it. First she is forced to stop when her car gets a flat tire and someone shoots at her. A poacher, the police decide. Next there is the SUV that forces her off the road and only luck saves her from a fatal crash. A joyrider, the police conclude. Then a woman is fatally poisoned at a church fete when she drinks from Maggie's glass by mistake. However, the victim is universally disliked and the police are fixated on their own prime suspect.At least Maggie's old friend Tim believes she is truly in danger. He sends an investigative team to Beaumatin, the Cotswolds estate where she lives with her husband, which creates its own problems.Then a tragedy occurs. With Tim's men baffled and the police still sceptical that Maggie is the target, Maggie decides she needs to find out who wants her dead on her own. Before another innocent person is hurt.

This exciting legal thriller features Karen B. Clark, who finished law school at Harvard only three years ago but is already a stereotypical "burned-out" lawyer. Weary of life in New York City, bored by the work at her Wall Street law firm, and fed up with her two-timing boyfriend, Karen impulsively takes off for a lawyers' convention in Chicago. There she meets another young woman named Karen B. Clark, whom Karen calls "K.B." K.B. has just finished law school and is about to begin her legal career in the small town of Walden, Wisconsin, where a law firm has hired her, sight unseen. When both Karen and K.B. are injured in separate mishaps, Karen awakens in a hospital, where she's been identified as K.B. After learning that the real K.B. is dead, Karen decides to seize the moment and turn her life around. She'll take K.B.'s place and try life as a small-town lawyer. In Walden, Karen relishes her new existence and begins a sizzling romance, but she soon uncovers terrible secrets that lead her to fear for her life.

Meet Eve Paxton, New Yorker transplanted to London and kickass divorce attorney to the rich and famous-at least as long as she's had her coffee and hormone replacement therapy.Eve's clients are not the only ones who have problems. It's time for the annual meeting of Eden Partners, the company Eve founded with Adam Adamchuk, her ex--ex-partner, ex-lover, ex-cohabiter. Eve still owns half of Eden and she's finding that there's more than one snake lurking in what once was her own personal paradise.Eve soon has her hands full with gender-bending rock stars, party girls with allergies to silicon, super models caught in the wrong hot tub, Vietnamese mail order brides, flirtatious ambassadors and adulterous football strikers. At the same time, she's unexpectedly able to see Adam get his comeuppance at last. Which is what she wants-or does she?Contains adult language.

It is obvious to Father Bob that the Occupy London movement is coming to an end and soon the protestors will be forced to leave the great square in front of Saint Paul's. The self-styled clergyman has been enjoying the notoriety of the past weeks and is looking for a way to extend the status quo for himself as well as the small band of young followers he has attracted.Then he meets a mysterious Egyptian who makes Father Bob an interesting offer. The stranger points out that not all of the 1% are in the City of London. Just as many of the privileged elite live in the country on their walled estates. He proposes that Father Bob take his group to the countryside and continue their protests there. The Egyptian will provide some vans, a place to camp and money for food and fuel.The Egyptian goes on to tell Father Bob about the current mania for snowdrops. The small white flowers are selling for hundreds of pounds for a single bulb, while school budets are gutted and health care is cut back. He suggests that Father Bob call himself and his followers the Snowdrop Crusade.Meanwhile, Professor Maggie Eliot has managed to break through her writer's block and finish the book she was committed to writing during a sabbatical year from her position at Oxford. The American academic has been supported in her efforts by Thomas, the new man in her life, who also happens to be the 28th Baron Raynham.With her book complete, Thomas asks Maggie to spend the remaining time of her sabbatical at Beaumatin, his Cotswolds estate. He also invites her to accompany him to the annual Snowdrop Ball. At the event, where the Snowdrop Crusaders are also demonstrating, Maggie meets Carlos Castillo, a Mexican shipping magnate who envisions creating a global market for British snowdrops. However, Maggie is suspicious of the man and decides to find out if the Mexican really is who he claims to be.Before the evening ends, a deadly fire breaks out. Did the Snowdrop Crusaders start the blaze? Soon after, Maggie and Thomas find the bodies of two of the young Crusaders dumped on Raynham land. Maggie believes there is a connection between the murders and the Mexican. But what could it be? And just who is Carlos Castillo?The Snwodrop Crusade is the sequal to The Ainswick Orange.

Oxford professor Maggie Eliot is looking forward to enjoying her summer vacation with her husband Thomas at Beaumatin, his estate in the Cotswolds.Then she makes a distressing discovery and has a fight with Thomas, who accuses her of not living up to her responsibilities as the wife of the twenty-eighth Baron Raynham.Maggie is still trying to make peace with her husband when Thomas' daughter Constance arrives for a visit, along with her husband Nils and Sigismund Lösch, the head of a Swiss pharmaceutical company. Lösch is interested in one of Beaumatin's snowdrops which contains a high concentration of a chemical used in one of his company's drugs.Constance hates her father's second wife and goes out of her way to be disagreeable, while Lösch turns out to be more than slightly eccentric.When a priceless family heirloom, disappears, Thomas blames Maggie, who is certain Constance is behind the loss. Before she can clear herself, one of the estate's staff is found dead. Although it looks like natural causes, the body was moved after the man died. But by whom? And why?

Eve Paxton, New Yorker transplanted to London, is a kickass divorce attorney to the rich and famous. At least when she's on her game. But lately she's been more than slightly off, to the consternation of her colleagues at Paxton's, her law firm.Eve has turned down several lucrative clients on the basis she simply did not like them. She's put on some weight and the diet her office manager Joseph has her on has done nothing for her joie de vivre.Her friend Anne says it's time she had a man in her life again. Is she right? And is the candidate Anne's proposing the right man for her?Eve doesn't know and isn't sure she's in any state to make a good decision. Her daughter Catherine is having an affair with one of her professors, who happens to be married. Her son Tommy is infatuated with a gorgeous Russian Eve worries is just after his money. And Eve herself is being stalked by the unhappy husband of a celebrity whose divorce she is handling.But it's what Eve has decided to do with her hair that's her biggest problem. And it's costing her sleep, friends and professional credibility. But Eve is determined and willing to let the chips fall where they may.

Here's an exciting mystery with a twist. It features a stay-at-home mom who reinvents herself as a savvy sleuth. Alison Ross has chosen to temporarily abandon her demanding career as a lawyer so she can spend more time at home with her two young children. She'd like to find a part-time job, but because "the law is a jealous mistress," requiring a full-time commitment, her search for part-time work has led nowhere. Early one morning, Alison stumbles across a dead body at her daughter's nursery school. Because she saw the school janitor making a hasty exit, she reluctantly becomes enmeshed in the police investigation. When the police charge the janitor with the murder, Alison has doubts about his guilt and decides to find out what really happened. Could this be the part-time job she's been trying to find? Pursuing the real killer while she juggles life at home with her husband and kids, Alison uncovers a host of shocking secrets in the quiet suburb of East Winnette.

To Oxford professor Maggie Eliot, it seems everyone she knows is pregnant. The women in her husband's family. The daughters of her friends. Her colleagues and her colleagues' wives. Too old to have children herself, Maggie finds the situation raises issues she thought had long since been resolved.Then two murders occur at her Oxford college and neither victim is a likely homicide candidate. Does someone have a grudge against the school? A fellow professor is arrested and he begs Maggie to help prove he is innocent. Although she despises the man, Maggie reluctantly agrees to investigate. Together with a feisty private detective, she discovers many things that confirm her opinion of her colleague, but no evidence that indicates his guilt.At the same time, Maggie has her own problems. She is being stalked, her books burned and her home in Oxford vandalized. Could these events have any connection to the murders? Maggie is determined to find out.

Professor Margaret Spence Eliot is behind in the work she needs to finish before she begins her new position as the Weingarten Fellow at Merrion College, Oxford. With the new term starting in just a few days, she has shut herself in her rooms so she can prepare without distractions.However, before she can catch up, she discovers the body of a visiting professor in Oxford's Botanical Garden. A few hours later, a member of Merrion's staff is found murdered in the rooms of the same colleague.Complicating things is the reappearance of Crispin, who works for a secretive government agency run by a friend of Maggie's. Crispin has helped Maggie in the past and their relationship did not remain platonic. He refuses to tell Maggie why he has come to Oxford and Maggie is finding it difficult to keep the man at a distance.So why are people being killed at Merrion? And what do the murderers want with her? Just how much can Maggie tell her husband Thomas before he demands that she return to the safety of Gloucestershire? And if Maggie does flee back to the Cotswold countryside, will the assassins give up and leave her alone?

When 8-year-old Davi is abducted on Market Street in San Francisco, her mother, lawyer Karen Clark, is gripped by fear. Karen has moved to the city from Chicago hoping to make a "fresh start" after the death of her husband.The abductor, disguising his voice, calls Karen and reveals where he's left Davi. Karen and her friend Abby rush to find Davi, cruelly left alone in a barren parking lot--but unharmed. Karen's panic subsides until she finds a crude note pinned to Davi's shirt: "You're next, Karen."Haunted by the note naming her as the next victim, Karen begins working with SFPD Detective Greg Chan to discover who abducted her daughter--and why. Their only clues are Davi's recall of a brown sofa and the words "RED DIANA."Karen and Greg spend weeks trying to discover the meaning of "Red Diana." Is "Diana" the name of a street in San Francisco? Does it refer to the Roman goddess of the hunt, portrayed in famous works of art? These attempts to find the abductor lead nowhere.Karen searches her brain to think of possible abductors. Disgruntled clients in her past? Weirdos encountered since she moved to San Francisco?In a brief respite, Karen reconnects with Brad, a law-school classmate visiting San Francisco. The feelings they had for each other reawaken, and Karen goes to Brad's room at the Palace Hotel, relishing the intimate time they spend together. But the respite ends, and Karen doubts that she'll ever see Brad again.When Karen and Greg Chan reach a dead end, Karen risks her safety by going forward on her own. She's met someone who promises to lead her to the abductor. In the sumptuous Victorian home of a wealthy entrepreneur who has offered to help her, she discovers the shocking answers she's been seekig.Set in San Francisco, with flashbacks to Chicago and New York, this chilling psychological thriller explores themes like the desire for revenge, the terrible burden of guilt, the tyranny of unethical lawyers and corrupt judges, the love between parent and child, the shattering pain of losing a loved one--and the many routes survivors take to deal with their loss.Featuring a story packed with suspense, an original and compelling storyline, vivid characters, and a satisfying ending, this novel by author Susan Alexander is must-reading.Please note: Karen Clark is also the protagonist in another riveting thriller by Susan Alexander, "A Quicker Blood." The suspenseful story in "RED DIANA" takes place 12 years later.

As this sequel to the author's SPIDER SONG opens, Joanna Bryce and Dina Miller are struggling to create a harmonious life together. And then the process becomes further complicated by murder-Sweet Birch Lodge seems the perfect place to wait out the Spring Blizzard of '98: old; rustic; creepy creaky; home to a bloody ghost or two, no doubt. Or so the weekend guests at the Ashton Arboretum believe, as they prepare for a night of stormy mayhem.In the morning, when the sleep-deprived visitors assemble in the dining room, it gradually becomes apparent that an unfortunate one of their number is absent. Permanently so. Joanna, naturalist at the arboretum, once again finds herself drawn into the world of murder. Although at first not much involved, additional crimes alter that situation drastically.In the end, she and Dina must combat an unknown killer in a desperate effort to rescue someone they love.Exhausted, with nerves stretched thin and anger at the firing point, they also must rescue their failing relationship. Or let it go.Before the story ends, more than one will have sung the Sad Woman Blues.