At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson, a young slave woman, fearing for her infant son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's. From this rather simple premise, Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels.
On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery: reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and a surprising, unusual solution. Yet, it is not a mystery novel.
Seething with the undercurrents of antebellum southern culture, the book is a savage indictment in which the real criminal is society, and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes.
Written in 1894, Pudd'nhead Wilson glistens with characteristic Twain humor, with suspense, and with pointed irony: a gem among the author's later works.
When a TV reporter is injured in a Dallas-bound jet crash, she enters a world of mistaken identity and political intrigue in this action-packed romantic suspense novel.
The crash of a Dallas-bound jet isn't just a tragedy for TV reporter Avery Daniels; it's an act of fate that hands her a golden opportunity to further her career. But it also makes her the crucial player in a drama of violent passions and deadly desires. After plastic surgery transforms her face, Avery is mistaken for the glamorous, selfish wife of Tate Rutledge, the famous senatorial candidate and member of a powerful Texas dynasty.
As she lays helpless in the hospital, Avery makes a shattering discovery: someone close to Tate planned to assassinate him. Now, to save him, she must live another woman's life — and risk her own.