Concrete, Steel & Paint tells the complex story of men in prison, victims of crime, and an artistic partnership that helps break down barriers between them. As prisoners, victims, and victim advocates collaborate on a mural about healing from crime, their views on punishment, remorse and forgiveness collide, sometimes harshly. But as the project progresses, mistrust begins to give way to surprising moments of human contact and common purpose. The...

Homicide Sergeant Matthew Payne is used to murder, but lately there's been an awful lot of it in Philadelphia. A gangland shooting in a popular tourist location has left six dead, most of them innocent bystanders, and days later the body of a headless Latina turns up in the Schuykill River. Everybody assumes they're not related, but Payne can't shake the hunch that there's something more to it--and that hunch leads him far from the City of Brotherly...

The Camilla Rose that Morgan Philadelphia Homicide Sergeant Matt Payne had known as a teenager was beautiful and brilliant -- how was it possible she'd jumped to her death from her own balcony? Her brother tells Payne she'd tragically been battling a lifetime of mental demons, and there is plenty of evidence of it, but still -- something just doesn't sit right. The more Payne digs, the more complications he discovers. Reputations are on the line here,...

The American Film Theatre's Philadelphia, Here I come! presents an ingenious glimpse into the stock-taking of young Gareth "Gar" O'Donnell on the eve of his emigration to America.

It's 1793, and there's an invisible killer roaming the streets of Philadelphia. The city's residents are fleeing in fear. This killer has a name--yellow fever--but everything else about it is a mystery. Its cause is unknown and there is no cure. This powerful dramatic account by award-winning author Jim Murphy traces the devastating course of the epidemic. An American Plague offers a fascinating glimpse into the conditions in American cities at the...

Mervyn begins to get sick, and fearing a forced trip to the hospital (a death trap), he decides to hide himself in the old Welbeck mansion. Welbeck leaves Mervyn to die, and Mervyn eventually wanders out into the street and collapses. Mervyn is, discovered by Dr. Stevens sitting on a bench. He is suffering from yellow fever, and since Dr. Stevens has pity on him, is, invited into the Stevens household.

The Discovering Vintage series takes you back in time to all of the timeless classic spots each city has to offer. The books spotlight the charming stories that tell you what each place is like now and how it got that way from classic restaurants to shops to other establishments that still thrive today and evoke the unique character of the city. They're all still around—but they won't be around forever. Start reading, and start your discovering...

"Vibrant. . . . Completely engaging. . . . A unique blend of poetic language and graphic depictions of the injustices suffered by African Americans in the post-Civil War period."— Booklist (starred review)

Diane McKinney-Whetstone's stunning historical novel, Lazaretto, begins in the chaotic back streets of post-Civil War Philadelphia as a young black woman, Meda, gives birth to a child fathered by her wealthy white

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New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline delivers a knockout stand-alone thriller featuring a young federal prosecutor who risks her life to bring down the kingpin of a conspiracy responsible for murders in West Philly.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Allegretti goes to meet a confidential informant and finds herself facing a loaded 9 mm Glock semiautomatic weapon, wielded by a panicky teenager. Violence is the last thing this neophyte

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Clyde Shelton is a brilliant planner and inventor. One night two robbers invade his Philadelphia home and brutally kill his wife and daughter, almost killing him. When the killers are caught, Assistant DA Nick Rice is assigned the case. Nick makes a deal with one of the killers to testify against his partner for a 10 year plea bargain prison sentence. Clyde doesn't want Nick to make the deal, but Nick says the deal is done. The other killer gets the...