The Catherine Wheel

DIVWhen a complicated inheritance case turns deadly, Miss Silver suspects an entire family /divDIVAn advertisement appears in the newspaper, asking for genealogical information from descendants of a certain Jeremiah Taverner, who died in long-ago 1888. It looks like an ordinary notice by a curious scholar, but the question is not nearly as simple as that. The man behind the ad is a Taverner himself: estranged, wealthy, and looking for a suitable relation to name in his will./divDIV /divDIVThe case grows complicated quickly, for there are many who bear the name, several illegitimate relatives aside. Old feuds reemerge now that there is a whiff of money in the air, and the extended family converges to squabble over the cash. It is not long before there is one less Taverner, and Miss Silver, the genteel detective, is called in to find out who put the knife in his back./div

"For Thomas, life's blows have left him stumbling toward an uncertain future. When his reclusive Montana retreat is shattered by yet another loss, he wonders if recovery is even possible. But his brother's death brings an unexpected consequence his nine-year-old niece Catherine comes to live with him and he's forced to focus on her needs instead of being swallowed by his own." -- Back cover.

Moving from Sydney to chilly London to study for the bar by correspondence, Clemency falls for failed actor Christian, a relationship that sheds light on the madness that can infect couples.

"It was a cruel invention, this wheel. A wheel that forced submission from those beneath it..."Young Katherine, born into noble wealth with an insatiable hunger for knowledge, surpasses even her tutors when it comes to learning. But her learning counts for nothing when she meets the only man worthy of her-her heavenly Bridegroom. Trading worldly knowledge for eternal wisdom, Katherine challenges even the emperor himself-and he prepares a cruel invention to break her. Meet this great bride of Christ in the second graphic novel in the Among the Saints series-written to inspire both children and adults.

Originally published in 1952 by Harcourt, Brace and Company.

The appearance of these stories in one volume is an event in our literature. To have built up so distinguished a collection, each story excellent in its own way and each an original departure in relation to the others, is a triumph. --Guy Davenport, New York Times Book Review Miss Stafford's craftsmanship and her mastery of the short story form are by now so well known that it seems superfluous to praise these stories. That they are impeccably done is obvious. --Joyce Carol Oates, Book World She writes about people whom loneliness has driven slightly mad, but also about people who are secure and comforted; she explores childhood and old age, poverty and wealth, tragedy and comedy. The comedy is usually wry... but often moves one to laughter. Above all, Miss Stafford will not be hurried... To me, this book is most solidly achieved. --John Wain, New York Review Of Books Winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this collection of thirty stories includes some of Jean Stafford's best short fiction from the period 1944-1968. Including such favorites as In the Zoo, Children Are Bored on Sunday, and Beatrice Trueblood's Story, the collection offers the work of this popular writer of the 1940s and 1950s to a new generation of readers and critics.

Contains fairy tales from around the world.