Washoe County Library System

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details and the paper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt was tried before...

The place: central Florida. The situation: a sensational murder trial involving a rich, white teenage girl--a twin--on trial for the horrific murder of her toddler brother, and the sequestered jury deciding her fate. . Two of the jurors sequestered (she, Juror C-2; he, F-17), holed up at the Econo-Lodge off I-75. As the shocking and numbing details of the crime and its surrounding facts are revealed during a string of days and seemingly endless court...

"Michael Robertson has delighted mystery readers and Sherlock Holmes aficionados everywhere with his charming and innovative Baker Street mystery series, where brothers Reggie and Nigel Heath are charged with answering letters to Sherlock that arrive at their law office, located at 221B Baker Street. In the exclusive London suburb of Hampstead Heath, Rory McSweeny--a true national hero, having led the England cricket team to successive international...

"A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U.S. legal system. The story's focal point, known only as Juror Eight, is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not...

As treasurer of WinterFest, Lee McKinney Woodyard is getting tired of the egos, arguments, and last-minute mix-ups, especially when the guest juror of the art show shows up drunk, a situation that gets worse when her husband discovers that the visiting dignitary has been murdered, in a mystery set in the luscious if deadly world of chocolate.

After a man dies in a shooting incident, his wife files a lawsuit against the company that manufactured the gun. Her lawyer argues that the firm in question knew the shop which sold the weapon was not following federal regulations. As the case goes to trial, the firearm manufacturer takes no chances on the outcome, and they hire Rankin Fitch, a "jury consultant" who makes it his business to see that he knows enough about the jurors to be able to guarantee...

"From internationally bestselling authors James Murray and Darren Wearmouth comes The Stowaway, a suspenseful masterpiece that leaves a cruise ship stranded at sea with a serial killer hiding aboard... Two years ago, Maria Fontana was the deciding vote on a jury that set alleged serial killer Wyatt Butler free. Now, she and her family are enjoying vacation on a two week long transatlantic cruise. But when passengers are discovered brutally murdered...

"A radiant reflection of contemporary fiction at its best, The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006 features stories from locales as diverse as Russia, Zimbabwe, and the rural American South. Series editor Laura Furman considered thousands of stories in hundreds of literary magazines before selecting the winners, which are accompanied here by short essays from each of the three eminent jurors on his or her favorite story, as well as observations from all twenty...

As a follow-up to her 2002 "New York Times" #1 bestseller "The Right Words at the Right Time," Thomas presents 101 new first-person stories that are at once universal and strikingly personal. As this anthology proves, the "right words" can be found anywhere -- the pages of a dusty old songbook; the pulpit of a neighborhood church; the wreckage of Ground Zero, a hand-stitched sampler hanging on a wall; and a child's simple expression of love.