An MPM Celebration

  I Love a Rainy Night With Anne's boyfriend Joe off in Europe on a grant, it seems like the perfect time for she and her colleague Kevin to finally write that English textbook they've been thinking about. The old mansion his parents recently bough in Pennsylvania seems like the perfect place. And at first, Grayhaven does seem like the perfect place. With his recently divorced Aunt Bea playing housekeeper for them, and her new boyfriend Roger O'Neill picking intellectual fights, they have a friendly quartet in residence. But soon Bea and Anne are puzzled by the strange noises echoing from Kevin's room at night...and then by what they see at his door...Everyone has their own theory about what's happening, from ghosts to psychic forces but the truth is far stranger than anything any of them could conjecture...

  Amelia Peabody #2 (Just Like) Starting Over Amelia and her beloved Emerson seem to have settled into dull routine. The birth of their son Ramses has forced them into English domesticity, and the weight of ordinary life far away from their Egyptian calling is taking its toll. It is then that Lady Baskerville, a friend of Emerson's from long ago, appeals to them to take on the dig site whose curse was apparently responsible for her husband's death. As the bodies mount up, it's up to Amelia and Emerson to engage in a little friendly rivalry to discover whether it's a flesh-and-blood murderer or an ancient curse devastating the little company...

  Daydream Believer Left penniless by her father's death, Marianna Ransom must make her own way in life. Beautiful and kind, but hopelessly naive, her attempts at independence lead to disaster. At her lowest ebb, the Dowager Duchess of Devenbrook steps in. Wealthy, beautiful and kind, the Dowager claims Marianne is actually the long-lost daughter of the famed, murdered spiritualist David Holmes, whom she loved as a son. But the privileges suddenly showered on Marianne come at a cost--she is expected to present the spirit of her purported father to the grieving woman. As if that were not bad enough, ghostly visitations do seem to grace her attempts. As the anniversary of the man's death approaches, something dangerous seems to stalk the halls of Marianne's new home...and it seems to be stalking the woman she has come to love as a mother...

Listening: Magic    Laurie Carlson has the winter-in-Chicago blues, with a recent breakup under her belt and a dissertation still to write. So the plea to visit the family home in Maryland, the lovely Idlewood, is easy enough to acquiesce to. The letter's concerns about her great-aunt Lizzie and her worrying behavior aren't really alarming, after all--Lizzie has always been eccentric. But Laurie sees mysterious lights and hears haunting music in the forest surrounding Idlewood, and Lizzie has taken to sleepwalking in the snow. Are there really fairies in the woods, or is a more human malice at work?  Spoilers below:

                                                            Listening: I Was Made for Lovin' You Recently widowed Pat Robbins and her teenage son Mark are intrigued by the neighbors who move in to the house next door--a twin to their own beloved mid-nineteenth century American Gothic. Their relationship starts roughly when Mark's interest in lovely young Kathy is repulsed by her stern father. But when something ghostly takes a malevolent interest in Kathy, the families draw together to try and unravel whatever grudge the two old houses have been brooding over for centuries...

                                            Listening: Mama Can't Buy You Love Caught between spending the summer with her lovable but aggravating family or taking on a vaguely-described job with a billionaire in Arizona, fledgling anthropologist D.J. Abbott chooses the latter. But gentle, benevolent Hank Hunnicutt has a propensity for wild conspiracy theories, a pack of conmen living in his luxurious mansion, and a mysterious discovery out in the desert he won't talk about. And when he disappears, it's only D.J., Hank's sarcastic secretary Mike, and one or two others who take it seriously enough to be alarmed...What is it, exactly, out there in the desert that someone would resort to such lengths to hide?

                                                                             Listening: Come Sail Away When American Carla Tregallas unexpectedly inherits a manor house in Cornwall, her first intention is just to sell it and move on with her well-planned life. But one glance at a photograph pulls her across the sea to spend the summer exploring her ancestral home and the stories it holds. Not least is the legend of the aquatic demon, who returns every two hundred years to claim a bride from the Tregellas family. And with the two hundred year mark approaching, and seaweed mysteriously appearing in her room, it looks like Carla might be the next intended victim. Unless, of course, there's something a little more earthly going on...