Mystery Books
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True Evil: A NovelA Southern doctor is pulled into a terrifying ring of murderous secrets in this powerhouse thriller from the New York Times
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Courting Trouble (Rosato & Associates Series)Anne Murphy is the redheaded rookie at the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates, and one morning she wakes up to front-
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The Burnt House (Decker/Lazarus Novels)At 8:15 A.M., a small commuter plane carrying forty-seven passengers crashes into an apartment building in Granada Hills, Calif
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Sea of Terror (Stephen Coonts' Deep Black, Book 8)Two massive ships are on a dual path to destruction. One is a freighter carrying nuclear materials to Japan; the other, a cruis
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Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser NovelFor almost forty years, Robert B. Parker's inimitable private investigator Spenser has been solving cases and selling million
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A is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, No. 1)READ THE SENSATIONAL BLOCKBUSTER THAT STARTED IT ALL!Take it from the top in #1 New York Times bestsell
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A Darker Place: A NovelCalled "one of the most original talents to emerge in the '90s" by Kirkus Reviews, award-winning author Laurie R. King deli
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Mystery Movies
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Jacob's LadderA Vietnam vet, back at home in New York City, finds himself losing his grip on reality, in a horrifying way; only his friend can h
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The OrphanageOrphanage, The (WS/DVD)The Orphanage centers on Laura (Belén Rueda) who purchases her beloved childhood orphan
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MementoPoint blank in the head a man shoots another. In flashbacks, each one earlier in time than what we've just seen, the two men's pas
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The Butterfly Effect (Infinifilm Edition)Butterfly Effect, The (DVD)Ashton Kutcher stars as a man who has lost track of time. From an early age, crucial
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Vanilla SkyA renowned womanizer meets his match in his best friend's girlfriend. Just as begins to develop feelings for her, his last girlfri
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Mystery Authors
Book reviews - The Party At No 5
The Party At No 5
Author: Shelley Smith
Mrs. Rampage lives alone in a large house full of her precious belongings.
With her daughter living the other side of the world, she is persuaded by friends that she ought to take a companion into her home.
Begrudgingly she accepts a well-mannered lady, Mrs. Roach, to keep her company, who has a view to assist her where necessary.
With few possessions of her own, Mrs. Roach is in desperate need of a place to stay, but she soon has her own ideas about how things should be run under Mrs. Rampage’s roof.
With Mrs. Rampage protective of her multiple antiques and family heirlooms, the pair’s initially amicable relationship soon turns sour...
Before long, both are miserable, but feeling desperate, and with nowhere to go, Mrs. Roach makes it her duty to stay...
The senility of Mrs. Rampage is soon questioned and the lives of both her and Mrs. Roach become entangled in catastrophic circumstances.
The Party at No.5 subtly shocks and effortlessly transcends from humour to horror.
Praise for The Party at No.5
“...This is one of Miss Smith’s most telling tales, maneuvered with a sort of inexorable malice while altering its mood from light amusement to horror and then to a fiercely poignant finale. A very good piece of work indeed.”
— New York Herald Tribune
“Often subtle and interesting … earns high marks as an understated study in intimate domestic evil.” — Anthony Boucher, New York Times
“[This] inverted mystery is a novel of dreadful credibility, brilliantly written and exercising an uncanny power of dividing the reader’s sympathies.” — San Francisco Chronicle
Praise for Shelley Smith
'Brilliant' – The Observer
'Stylish Thriller' - The Daily Herald
‘Beautifully Written' – The Spectator
'Miss Shelley Smith is among the most distinguished of those writers who have abandoned the detective story for the crime novel. . . The story maintains its tension to the end . . . What she has set out to do is done superlatively well.' -Times Literary Supplement
Nancy Bodington was born in 1912. Under the pen name of Shelley Smith,she wrote 15 crime and detective novels between 1942 and 1978. Smith is best known for The Ballard of the Running Man and its 1963 film adaption starring Laurence Harvey and Lee Remick.