Witchcraft...or murder? 1763. With the end of the French and Indian War and a new king on England's throne, it seems the colonies have entered a peaceful and prosperous new era. And though the fashionable ladies of Boston might find Bracebridge altogether too peaceful to be stimulating, young widow Charlotte Willett likes it just as it is. But the calm of the little village is about to be shattered by a wealthy stranger who bursts into flame by the side of the road--and then disappears! The townspeople begin muttering about witchcraft and the devil's hand, casting suspicious glances at a local Frenchman. But Charlotte, who has a keen interest in human nature, and her neighbor Richard Longfellow, gentleman farmer and scientist, have more earthly speculations about the merchant's disappearance. Was it murder, or an elaborate scheme? And, with two mysterious deaths to follow and a tavern full of superstitious rabble, will Charlotte and Longfellow uncover the answers before it's too late?

A Wicked Way to Burn (Bracebridge Mystery)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Miles, Margaret

Mystery

Crimeline

Lust, deceit, and murder bloom in old New England....Spring, 1764. While the specter of smallpox stalks colonial Boston, much of the city seeks refuge in the burgeoning countryside. Restful, bucolic Bracebridge is one such haven, and young widow Charlotte Willett and her neighbor Richard Longfellow, scientist and gentleman farmer, host a handful of guests undergoing the generally accepted procedure of inoculation.Yet shortly after the quarantine begins, one of the patients is found dead and Charlotte and Richard are thrust into a whirl of rumor, conjecture, and fear. What, if not smallpox, caused the patient's untimely demise? Has the distraught physician in charge something to conceal? And who might have risked contagion to commit murder? Before these questions can be answered, another shocking death occurs.Now, as some superstitious townsfolk blame both the Pox and the Devil, Charlotte and Richard are determined to follow logic and reason to the all too human source of the problem. But can they arrive at the truth before another victim is claimed?

Too Soon for Flowers (Bracebridge Mystery)

Bantam]

The dead tell no tales.... It is the summer of 1765, and Charlotte Willett is enjoying the balmy languor of Bracebridge with her cultured neighbor, Richard Longfellow. But their peaceful routine shatters with the arrival of Richard's elegant friend from abroad. Known as Il Colombo--the Dove--Gian Carlo Lahte is an Italian singer who soon holds the local ladies spellbound. Not even Charlotte is immune to his charms. Though he seems to carry more than a hint of scandal with him, on the day he arrives tavern talk in Bracebridge turns to a more homegrown mystery: a corpse found on the Boston road--his body reeking of liquor, his identity unknown. Charlotte can't help but wonder why Signore Lahte is so shaken by the sight of the victim--and why the dead man's boots and buttons are quickly stolen! As she and Longfellow ponder these matters, further arrivals transform their rustic oasis into a stage for turbulent drama--where any player's performance could be a deadly swan song....

No Rest for the Dove

A winter of discontent...January 1766. A dangerous mishap brings young widow Charlotte Willett unexpectedly to bleak and marshy Boar Island, a few miles from the village of Bracebridge and home to two eccentric elderly women. Some say that arrogant, unpopular Alexander Godwin — the only villager to regularly call upon the island's two residents — hopes to inherit the cavernous house when its owner finally passes on. But when Alexander is brutally murdered after the town's annual winter fête, Charlotte and her neighbor Richard Longfellow can't help but wonder who among Alexander's detractors might be responsible. Is his death connected to his activities on Boar Island — or to the unearthly trickery rumored to take place there? Could the rivalry over a beautiful young woman have sparked a more dangerous passion? And will the answers reveal themselves before death strikes Boar Island again?

A Mischief in the Snow

The Vaughan Pride (LIN) (Linford Romance Library)

Romance

Linford Romance

Augustine's Confessions is one of the most powerfully evocative autobiographies of the Christian West. It recounts the complex experiences through which this formative theologian came to renounce the compulsive sexual practice of his youth, reinvesting his attention and affection in a disciplined spirituality. The Confessions is explicitly about desire, longing, passion - physical and spiritual - constantly both, and both most evidently when Augustine most intended to distinguish spiritual from physical. It is an erotic text, preoccupied with bodies, pleasures, and pains. It narrates Augustine's desperate attempt to get, and to keep, the greatest degree of pleasure. Even his conversion to Catholic Christianity is narrated as a seduction to continence, and the model of spirituality he articulated relied intimately and profoundly on his sexual experience. Desire and Delight explores the erotics of asceticism as described by Augustine, noticing the gendered foundation of his model of spiritual aspiration. Going beyond the tormented, self-conscious Augustine of conventional interpretations, one discovers in this book a man impelled by the eros that defines human beings as such: the pursuit up the scale of pleasures to the ultimate Pleasure. The pursuit is analyzed here in text, context, and subtext, with such intellectual and emotional engagement that the Confessions becomes a "text of pleasure."

Desire & Delight: A New Reading of Augustine's Confessions

Biographies & Memoirs

Crossroad

In this book, Margaret Miles proposes that the richest human life develops two interdependent qualities: enjoyment and generosity. By discussing the books that have taught her this, Miles shows that it is not enough to read books in the best possible light (as she was trained to do), but that they must also be read critically.

Reading for Life: Beauty, Pluralism, and Responsibility

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Bloomsbury Academic

Spout Press gets authors to "blink" in this unique anthology of sudden fiction.  "blink" is a gathering of thirty-eight authors, united by their ability to use a moment to stand for the whole—creating forty-one short stories of under one thousand words each.  Authors represented in the anthology include nationally-known writers Jim Heynen, Jonis Agee and Jim Northrup.

Blink : Sudden Fiction by Minnesota Writers

Colburn, John

United States

Spout Press

Witchcraft...or murder?1763. With the end of the French and Indian War and a new king on England's throne, it seems the colonies have entered a peaceful and prosperous new era. And though the fashionable ladies of Boston might find Bracebridge altogether too peaceful to be stimulating, young widow Charlotte Willett likes it just as it is. But the calm of the little village is about to be shattered by a wealthy stranger who bursts into flame by the side of the road--and then disappears!The townspeople begin muttering about witchcraft and the devil's hand, casting suspicious glances at a local Frenchman. But Charlotte, who has a keen interest in human nature, and her neighbor Richard Longfellow, gentleman farmer and scientist, have more earthly speculations about the merchant's disappearance. Was it murder, or an elaborate scheme? And, with two mysterious deaths to follow and a tavern full of superstitious rabble, will Charlotte and Longfellow uncover the answers before it's too late?

A Wicked Way To Burn

New York: Bantam Books, 1998

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