Elaine Kagan Book order

The crime fiction canopy's a broad one, with room to give shelter to writing of all sorts, as editor Lawrence Block shows with At Home in the Dark: "Some of these stories have one or both feet planted in another genre. James Reasoner's story is a period western, Joe Lansdale's is bleakly dystopian, and Joe Hill's novelette slithers through a little doorway into another world. "And now that I've singled out those three, I suppose I should go ahead and list the rest of the gang: N. J. Ayres, Laura Benedict, Jill D. Block, Richard Chizmar, Hilary Davidson, Jim Fusilli, Elaine Kagan, Warren Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Ed Park, Nancy Pickard, Thomas Pluck, Wallace Stroby, and Duane Swierczynski. "If you're looking for a common denominator, two come to mind. They're all dark stories, with nothing cozy or comforting about them. And every last one of them packs a punch. "Which is to say that they're all very much At Home in the Dark--and we can thank O. Henry, master of the surprise ending, for our title. 'Turn up the lights,' he said on his deathbed. 'I don't want to go home in the dark.'"

It Was Love At First Sight. He was a bad boy, an irresistible ex-con from the wrong side of the tracks. She was a nice middle-class Jewish girl--smart and quiet, prettier than she even knew. Will and Jenny shared a passion that defied their backgrounds, and when Jenny got pregnant, they planned to elope. But on the big day something went terribly wrong...and after the baby was born, Jenny gave her up for adoption, to a nice couple who called her Claudia and raised her as their own. Now Claudia is all grown up. While she loves her adoptive parents, she is haunted by dreams of her "other mother." Curious to discover the truth, Claudia begins a search that will lead her to the avenues of Manhattan and the mountains of California--to a man and woman separated by fate and time whose love for each other still burns strong...

"A BIG COMPELLING NOVEL...UNFLINCHINGLY REAL... INTIMATE IN A COMPLETELY DISARMING WAY." --Detroit News Pete Chickery is dead. It was sudden, it was violent, and it was by his own wife's hand. Why would Jessie Chickery, the prettiest, most enviable "girl" in her fortysomething set, take the life of the charming, sexy husband she obsessively loved? Everyone loved Pete. All the guys he grew up with--and their wives. Especially their wives, his wife's best friends. They are home-loving Ellen, tough-talking Tee, New York actress Frances, Jessie's sister Anne, and Pete's sister Anita--and now each tells the untold story of how Pete meant the world to her, how he made her feel adored, special, and satisfied. He was everything to everyone, but he wasn't enough--or he was just too much of a good thing.... "ONE OF THOSE BOOKS THAT IS HARD TO LEAVE BEHIND." --The Washington Post Book World "KAGAN'S KEEN EAR FOR DIALOGUE SERVES HER WELL....SHE PITCHES IT JUST RIGHT." --The Raleigh News & Observer