New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan must solve one of the most baffling murders in her PI career. When Tess Monaghan agrees to talk to Ruthie Dembrow, she senses she'll regret it. If there's anything Tess has learned in her work both as a newspaper reporter and then as a PI, it's to trust your instincts. Still, she can't deny she's intrigued when Ruthie asks her to investigate the fatal stabbing of her brother, Henry, while...

Pregnant Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan probes the disappearance of a chic blonde green-raincoated dog walker she'd been watching from her comfy prison. Tess also takes in the missing woman's abandoned green-slickered Italian greyhound from hell and unravels a complex scam.

It is a Charm City tradition -- an annual visit to the Baltimore gravesite of Edgar Allan Poe on the renowned author's birthday by a mysterious cloaked figure bearing gifts of three roses and a half bottle of cognac. This year Tess Monaghan witnesses the cherished rite and sees two caped visitors. One leaves his tribute and escapes, the other dies there, felled by an assassin's bullet. Someone wants Tess involved in the murder investigation and leaves...