Maria Grazia Griffini Books

Mr Shaitana was famous as a flamboyant party host. Nevertheless he was a man of whom everybody was a little afraid. So, when he boasted to Poirot that he considered murder an art form, the detective had some reservations about excepting a party invitation to view Shaitana's private collection.

In one tragic moment everything changed. Her daughter's life. Her marriage. Her world.

After the wedding of Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas, Diana teases that they will make a baby on their honeymoon. But long afterward, she is still not pregnant. As Diana and Andrew wait out each month only to be bitterly disappointed, they are forced to question just how much they are willing to go through to have a baby. Charlie Winwood dreams of a house filled with children. His bride, party-girl actress Barbie Mason, has other ideas. When he discovers he is sterile, Charlie has to rethink his deepest values -- and his marriage to a woman who shares none of his dreams. After ten years of living together, Pilar Graham, a prominent Santa Barbara attorney, marries Judge Brad Coleman, who is nineteen years her senior and father of two grown children. They are happy with their comfortable life together, à deux, until Pilar begins to wonder if she will someday regret not having a baby with Brad. Are they crazy to begin now -- with Brad about to become a grandfather and Pilar with a busy career, and in her early forties, possibly putting herself at risk? Through the lives of these couples, Danielle Steel shows us the mixed blessingswe face as we build our families and live our modern lives. She touches us with the triumphant people who prevail, their victories, their defeats, their tragedies and joys, their compromises, their lives.

La Londra vittoriana nasconde accuratamente i suoi peccati e i suoi segreti. Solo il tenace ispettore Thomas Pitt riesce a portarli alla luce, con la determinazione del segugio di razza e l'aiuto di un'arma segreta: sua moglie Charlotte. Figlia di ottima famiglia, Charlotte svolge per conto del marito indagini delicate nei salotti della buona borghesia, arrivando dove un poliiziotto non potrebbe mai avere accesso. In questa raccolta, che comprende tre dei casi più complessi dell'ispettore, si rivela tutta la bravura di Anne Perry, autrice amatissima dai giallisti di tutto il mondo per la sua capacità di ridar vita a un'epoca affascinante e torbida come quella della Londra dell'Ottocento.

Fin da bambina, Cassie ha sognato di pilotare un aereo, nonostante la disapprovazione della famiglia, proprietaria di un campo d'aviazione. Ma Nick, il giovane socio del padre, segretamente innamorato di lei, l'asseconda e l'aiuta a diventare una provetta pilota. Cassie, però, sposa un astuto industriale che, sfruttando la sua bravura, la trasforma in una celebrità, con all'attivo record mondiali e imprese rischiose. Nel frattempo - siamo negli anni Quaranta - Nick parte per la guerra e Cassie realizza di non essere felice...

On the eve of Sarah Whitfield's 75th birthday, she stands at the window of her chateau in France, waiting for her family to join her. Her memories take her back to the 1930s in New York, to her early marriage and subsequent shameful divorce. She is persuaded by her parents to join them on a trip abroad in the growing turmoil of pre-war Europe.There she meets Wiliam, Duke of Whitfield. Older than Sarah, and fourteenth in line to the British throne, he sparks her intellectual curiosity and makes her laugh. They make their home in a beautiful crumbling French chateau until they are parted by the war. Afterwards they are able to return to the chateau and establish the jewel collection which leads to the House of Whitfield, jewellers to the crowned heads of all Europe. Together they produce a family of four, each of whom is drawn into the family business.JEWELS is the story of a great house of gems, a rare family, and an extraordinary marriage. Once again, Danielle Steel explores the lives of people facing challenges we recognise as our own, against the backdrop of war, passion and international intrigue.

In her 39th best-selling novel, Danielle Steel tells the story of three college roommates—Mary Stuart, Tanya, and Zoe—who reunite after twenty years at a ranch in Wyoming. Once inseparable, they have since built separate lives, each finding success in their careers and new roles as mothers and wives. By chance, they each find themselves alone for a few weeks one summer, grappling with their pasts and presents. At the ranch, they seek courage, healing, and truth, but pretense now clouds their once-honest friendship. Mary Stuart, married to a Manhattan lawyer for twenty-two years, hides her loneliness behind volunteer work, haunted by guilt over her son’s death. Tanya, a rock star with fame and fortune, grapples with unfulfilled dreams of motherhood and relationships marred by exploitation. Dr. Zoe, a single mother and AIDS clinic doctor in San Francisco, is busy with her demanding career and her adopted two-year-old, but unexpected news forces her to reconsider her future. Despite their changed lives, the bond of friendship remains strong. Their time at the ranch serves as a catalyst for healing, allowing them to confront old wounds, reveal long-buried secrets, and either renew or replace love. Steel’s narrative explores the profound meaning of friendship through shared truths and personal dramas.

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully adapted versions are shorter with the language targeted at upper-intermediate learners (CEF level B2). Was it just a weak heart and too much sun that killed her, or has one of Mrs Boynton's many victims found revenge? By chance, the great detective Hercule Poirot has some useful information, but is it enough to find the killer? He has 24 hours to solve the case.

With all the qualities that P. D. James’s readers have come to expect: a masterly psychological and emotional richness of characterization, a vivid evocation of place and a credible and exciting mystery. When the notorious investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, books into Mr. Chandler-Powell’s private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring, long-standing facial scar, she has every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week’s peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset’s most beautiful manor houses and the beginning of a new life. She will never leave Cheverell Manor alive. When Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder – and a second death occurs – even more complicated problems than the question of innocence or guilt arise. From the Hardcover edition.

When Commander Dalgliesh is persuaded to visit the Dupayne, a private museum on the edge of Hampstead Heath, he has no idea that he will return a week later under very different circumstances. One of the family trustees has been horribly murdered and Dalgliesh is called in to investigate.