A hard-boiled newsman and a sharp-witted sheriff team up to solve a murder mystery in Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis's suspenseful and disturbing story of death and violence in a small coal-mining townPhil McGovern, the sports editor of an Ohio newspaper, cannot help envying his friend Dick Coffee. Dick travels all over the world reporting on wars, labor strikes, and revolutions; wins Pulitzers; and has a beautiful wife, Margaret, from whom Phil tries to keep his distance because he fears he could fall in love with her too. But when tragedy strikes and Margaret needs him, Phil accompanies her to Winston, a mining town on the West Virginia border, to identify Dick's body.No one knows what Dick was doing in Winston. No one knows if he jumped or was pushed off a cliff. With the inquest delayed and people saying Dick drank heavily and kept company with a local woman, Phil joins forces with Sheriff Sam Fields to determine if Dick was on the trail of another...

Before, during, and after World War II, three generations of men make their mark on the world in acclaimed author Dorothy Salisbury Davis's vibrant, thought-provoking novel that scrutinizes the conscience of men in a time of crisisAs Europe slides toward war, the faculty of a midwestern university fight a crusade of their own—the campaign against Communism. The local publishing magnate has accused economics professor Jonathan Hogan of being a Red, and the scholar is forced to defend himself in front of the university's elders. They spare him, for Hogan is no Communist—merely a free thinker, open and honest in an age when conformity is the norm. When war threatens the United States, he is one of those whom his country will need most.Jonathan goes into civil service during the war, advising the government on the economic impacts of the conflict. His son Marcus takes a different route, studying surgery in an attempt to heal those whom the savagery of war has maimed....

Praised by the New Yorker as excellent, this mystery novel that features a cat as a murder suspect launched the acclaimed literary career of Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury DavisFor generations, bitter old Andy Mattson terrified the children of Hillside and puzzled his adult neighbors. How did the scowling old codger, who seemed to spend his life stroking his cat on the front porch, support himself? How did he pass the days? And why did he die such a gruesome death?The police find Andy dead on his sofa, covered in blood, eyes wide with fear. The most likely suspect is the dead man's cat, a howling beast that resembles a trapped badger. But as Chief of Police Waterman digs into the strange death, he finds that beneath Hillside's sunny surface runs a river of hate. An old man was murdered, and it seems many people in town had motives to commit the crime.

Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis delivers a spine-tingling novel, hailed by the New York Times as beautifully written, about an upstanding small-town spinster whose life is overturned by a shocking murder When other young women left the little town of Campbell's Cove to acquire culture, see the world, fall in love, and marry, Hannah Blake stayed at home, taking a job at the bank and fighting for control of the library board. Overshadowed by the more stylish and popular women in town who seem to block every attempt she makes to improve her life, Hannah remains alone—an increasingly bitter woman whose frustration threatens to erupt into violence when something wonderful happens: One of her rivals is strangled to death.Now Hannah finally has an opportunity to soar. But as the townspeople's suspicions tighten around her, Hannah finds that life in the spotlight is not as glorious as she had imagined.

Hailed by Mary Higgins Clark as one of the best mystery-suspense writers, Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis presents a spellbinding tale of passion and deadly deceit that begins with a dying man's mysterious last wordsFather McMahon is struggling to write a sermon when a boy runs into his office. A man in his tenement is dying, the boy says, and it is too late for a doctor or the police. In the basement of the apartment house, Father McMahon kneels beside the blood-soaked man, who has been stabbed with a knife. The man asks for no absolution. He wants to talk of life, not death, and takes to his grave the identity of his killer—and his own.No one in the neighborhood—not his lover or his friends—knows the man's real name, where he came from, or why someone would want to kill him. But in his final minutes, he reveals one clue that sends Father McMahon, a cop, and a wealthy young woman down New York's dark streets, where a killer is waiting to...

The final novel in Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis's Julie Hayes mystery series takes the amateur sleuth from the mean streets of Manhattan to Ireland in search of the father she never knewJulie Hayes is finally making it as a reporter—with a column at the New York Daily under her own byline—when her husband, Jeff, tells her he has fallen in love with another woman and wants a divorce. Blinded by anger and hurt, she flees their Chelsea apartment. Before the night is over, she will be lying bound and gagged on the floor of a trailer, the victim of a sexual assault by two masked men.Now a tabloid headline herself, Julie tries to help the police search for her assailants. But she is not the same woman anymore. She decides it's time to uncover her mysterious past.Her birth certificate lists her father as Thomas Francis Mooney. Born in Ireland, whereabouts unknown. But danger stalks Julie across the Atlantic, where she is caught up in seething IRA...