A professor and a graduate student search for a campus killer in this Golden Age mystery from the author of Nine Times Nine and "a fine craftsman" (Ellery Queen). Anthony Boucher was a literary renaissance man: an Edgar Award–winning mystery reviewer, an esteemed editor of the Hugo Award–winning Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a prolific scriptwriter of radio mystery programs, and an accomplished writer of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. With a particular fondness for the locked room mystery, Boucher created such iconic sleuths as Los Angeles PI Fergus O'Breen, amateur sleuth Sister Ursula, and alcoholic ex-cop Nick Noble. On the quiet Berkeley campus, a visiting professor has been murdered. Someone stabbed Dr. Hugo Schaedel through the heart with an ice pick, and the only clue found on the scene is a strange symbol scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper. Research fellow Martin Lamb is intrigued by the case and mentions it to his Sanskrit professor, John Ashwin. Together they hope to deduce who did the deed, but with no clear motive, it won't be easy. They'll need to quickly comb the campus for clues and hit the books—before the killer hits again . . .

It is November of 1880, and the future looks promising for Annie and Nate Dawson. Nate’s law practice is taking off. Annie has made the transition from pretend clairvoyant to a successful financial consultant, and as a couple, they are looking forward to spending their first Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays together. For Robert Livingston, the owner San Francisco’s newest grand emporium, the holidays are shaping up to be a dismal failure if he can’t figure out how to stop whoever is stealing from his department store, the Silver Strike Bazaar. When he hires the Dawsons to investigate, Annie and Nate discover that behind the doors of Livingston’s “Palace of Plenty,” nothing is quite what it seems. Pilfered Promises, by USA Today bestselling author, M. Louisa Locke, is the fifth full-length historical mystery in the cozy Victorian San Francisco mystery series featuring Annie and Nate Dawson and their friends and family in the O’Farrell Street boarding house. Locke’s shorter works, found in Victorian San Francisco Stories, Vol 1 and 2 and Victorian San Francisco Novellas, feature minor characters from the series.

?? Named a 2025 Kansas Notable Book ??Winner of the Midwest Book Award for Cover DesignBefore The Porcelain Menagerie, Jillian Forsberg introduced readers to the dazzling and dangerous world of 18th-century Europe in The Rhino Keeper—a sweeping tale of wonder, obsession, and the fragile line between curiosity and control.Based on the true story of a Dutch sea captain who toured the continent with an Indian rhinoceros named Clara, The Rhino Keeper brings to life an age when science, art, and spectacle collided in breathtaking—and sometimes perilous—ways.2022 — College student Andrea Clarkson uncovers a centuries-old mystery in Holland: strange documents, a carved rhinoceros on an ancient grave, and a secret buried deep beneath the earth. What she finds will challenge her understanding of history—and of herself.1740 — Ship captain Douwemout van der Meer possesses what no European has seen in generations: a living rhinoceros. Together, he and Clara travel across Europe, thrilling peasants and queens alike. But when devotion turns to obsession, and admiration to fear, Douwe must face the limits of his own wonder.Among those enchanted by Clara is a young artist named Johann Joachim Kändler, whose porcelain creations capture the creature’s grace—and whose ambition will one day take center stage in Forsberg’s companion novel, The Porcelain Menagerie.Narrated by Caroline Hewitt, The Rhino Keeper evokes the marvel of discovery and the danger of desire. Continue the journey with The Porcelain Menagerie, also from History Through Fiction—where the artist who sculpted Clara’s likeness becomes the master of a court built on fragile beauty.