Hannah, her sisters and fourteen-year-old niece Julie set sail from Baltimore on a bonding cruise, and have a dramatic first night when Pia Fanucci, a bubbly bartender magician’s assistant whom Hannah befriends, narrowly escapes injury during an illusion. But while Pia may make light of the incident, it’s no laughing matter when Julie suddenly disappears. Has she gone overboard, or is she injured somewhere on the enormous ship? To make matters worse, Hannah meets David Warren, a grieving father whose twenty-two-year-old daughter vanished without trace from an earlier cruise. With claims of a proper investigation proving to be an illusion too far, Hannah teams up with David and Pia in desperation. Can they see through the ship’s smoke and mirrors to reveal the identity of a dangerous sea-faring predator?**

Lights, camera, murder: who wrote dying into Hannah Ives's script? It doesn't take much arm-twisting to persuade Hannah to join the twelve-strong cast of Patriot House, 1774, a reality show recreating eighteen-century colonial life during the turbulent days leading up to the American Revolution. But when Hannah befriends Amy Cornell, a maid on set and the young widow of a Navy SEAL off it, and the crew's dance master is found murdered, events away from the camera become just as dramatic as those on it.About the AuthorMarcia Talley is the author of five previous books featuring Hannah Ives. A winner of the Malice Domestic writing grant and an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel, Ms. Talley won an Agatha and an Anthony Award for her short story "Too Many Cooks" and an Agatha Award for her short story "Driven to Distraction." She is the editor of two mystery collaborations, and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She lives with her husband in Annapolis, Maryland.

A brutal murder draws Hannah Ives into a mystery where to understand the present, she must uncover a dark past.While at Calvert Colony, a life care community centre in Maryland, and at lunch with her friend, retired mystery author and amateur painter L.K. 'Naddie' Bromley and her neighbour Sophia Milanesi, who survived the closing years of the Second World War in a convent in Italy, Hannah meets Filomena Buccho, a personable young Argentine server. Her brother, Raniero, also works at the Colony as chef. But when Masud Abaza and his wife, Safa, move into the community and Masud is found murdered, his head bashed in by a croquet mallet, suspicion falls on Raniero, who has made no secret of his neo-Fascist sentiments. Hannah and Naddie agree to investigate, uncovering old crimes and reigniting ancient quarrels that know no boundaries of place or time.

Hannah Ives is always ready to support others like herself who have been through the gauntlet of fear and uncertainty that a diagnosis of cancer often brings. So when friend and fellow survivor Dorothy Hart asks for help building sets for the Naval Academy's upcoming production of Sweeney Todd, Hannah readily agrees.But it means associating with an old foe -- a vindictive officer whose accusations once nearly destroyed Hannah's home life. And when one corpse too many appears during a dress rehearsal of the dark and bloody musical, Hannah finds herself accused of murder -- and enmeshed in a web of treachery and deception that rivals the one that damned the "Demon Barber."Caught up in a drama as sinister as any that has ever unfolded on stage, Hannah stands to lose everything unless she unmasks a killer before the final curtain falls ...From Publishers WeeklyAgatha– and Anthony Award–winner Talley's predictable fifth Hannah Ives cozy fails to take full advantage of its intriguing premise: the victim is discovered on the set of a navy production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd. Ives, a cancer survivor, quickly becomes the chief suspect, since her fingerprints are found on the hammer used to fatally bludgeon Jennifer Goodall, who was the Naval Academy's sexual assault victim intervention officer. Years before, Goodall had earned Ives's enmity by falsely accusing the amateur sleuth's husband of sexual harassment. Stunned to find herself in cuffs, Ives loses no opportunity, once bail is posted, to seek the truth. Despite references to the Clinton "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward homosexuals and to procurement scandals resulting from the ongoing war in Iraq, the author doesn't make her setting convincing; even the scene describing a visit to the Pentagon memorial for the victims of 9/11 will leave many readers unmoved. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review“[C]ontinues the depth of plot and character we’ve come to expect from this...award-winning author.” (Florida Sun-Sentinel )“THIS ENEMY TOWN is the best yet in Annapolis author Marcia Talley’s Hannah Ives series. The character development is magnificent.” (Washington Woman )“[E]nthralls with real-life characters coping with the extraordinary circumstances of murder.” (Romantic Times BOOKclub )“[A] mystery that will keep you guessing and turning the pages.” (Medina Gazette (Ohio) )“The strongest, most moving novel in the Hannah Ives series.” (Sujata Massey, author of THE TYPHOON LOVER )“A standing ovation for Marcia Talley’s fifth Hannah Ives mystery…A fine addition to one of my favorite series.” (Deborah Crombie, author of IN A DARK HOUSE )“Hannah is as plucky and ingenious as ever - funny, self-deprecating and brave … well done!” (Kate Charles, author of EVIL INTENT )“[The] latest gem in a remarkable series.” (Mystery Lovers Book News )

The bride thought they'd live happily ever after -- until a murderer struck....The guests were off the wall. The would-be groom was off the wagon. And the bride certainly wasn't blushing. Aside from that, it was the perfect occasion: a party for Hannah Ives's widowed father and the younger woman he had suddenly decided to marry. Then the evening takes a strange turn, with a sudden death and disappearance.For Hannah, the stunning turn of events came after a Christmas season slide into anger and confusion. First her father had found a floozy who had already buried three husbands. Then her late mother's jewelry started showing up around the gold digger's neck. Now Hannah, who has just put her life together after a bout with cancer, is desperately searching for her missing father. Because this poor man has either made a terrible mistake, committed a terrible crime, or fallen victim to a killer who seized the moment for murder....From the...

ReviewA cache of love letters lead to murder. When the D.C. Metro train she's riding in crashes, Hannah Ives (All Things Undying, 2010, etc.) winds up with a broken arm and a Garfinkel's shopping bag that belonged to the young man who had been sitting next to her. Feeling like a voyeur when she dips into the bag to see if she can identify the owner and return it, Hannah is soon immersed in a decades-old romance. Fifty-seven love letters and photographs document a 10-year affair between Lilith Chaloux and her married lover Zan. With gentle assists from her husband, her sister, her sister-in-law's husband (a Chesapeake County police lieutenant), internet searches and a snooping instinct second only to Miss Marple's, Hannah not only tracks down the reclusive Lilith, an artist and major-league hoarder, but stakes out the Lynx News headquarters to confront the man formerly known as Zan. In response, her home is burglarized, she's confronted by a seedy lawyer working for the young man who sat next to her on the train--now laid up for serious rehabbing in a D.C. hospital--and she meets Zan's wife, who tells her off in no uncertain terms. Meanwhile, a staffer at Lynx, a former college friend of Hannah's daughter Emily, is murdered, and the seedy lawyer heads for Lilith's cottage, which winds up ablaze, incinerating those 57 love letters and almost costing Lilith and Hannah their lives. If you've a taste for love denied, love reunited and coincidences piled on coincidences, you'll have plenty to swoon over here. -- Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2011Hannah Ives is returning home after a charity luncheon when her train crashes. Luckily, she escapes with minor bumps and bruises, but the man sitting next to her is critically injured, and Hannah does her best to comfort him. When she's released from the hospital, she's surprised to see, included in the personal items returned to her, the shopping bag the injured man was carrying. Hannah has no clue who he is or whether he survived, but she's determined to return the bag, especially after she opens it and finds a bundle of love letters charting the course of a decades-long affair between "Lilith" and "Zan." Hannah, intrigued by the letters, vows to learn more about the lovers. Her innocent investigation soon turns terrifying when Hannah's home is broken into, and someone seems to be stalking her, all of which serves only to make the secret behind the letters more compelling. A keep-'em-guessing plot, plenty of humor (despite the danger), and a whimsical, charming heroine make this one appealing on multiple levels. --Booklist, September 1, 2011 About the AuthorMarcia Talley is the author of five previous books featuring Hannah Ives. A winner of the Malice Domestic writing grant and an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel, Ms. Talley won an Agatha and an Anthony Award for her short story "Too Many Cooks" and an Agatha Award for her short story "Driven to Distraction." She is the editor of two mystery collaborations, and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She lives with her husband in Annapolis, Maryland.

On the banks of the Truxton River lies Gryphon's Gate, a gated community built by Henry Drysdale where the rich and privileged live, work and play. Tempers flare when Henry's ex- decides to develop the adjoining land and environmentalists, developers, residents and the media clash. Then the violence turns ugly--a dead body is found on the golf course and Detective Diane Robards is called in to investigate. Diane's efforts are thwarted at every turn and as she uncovers the secrets behind the serene facade of Gryphon's Gate, she races against the clock to unmask a ruthless killer.