Books published by publisher BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB

Switched at birth by a young slave woman attempting to protect her son from the horrors of slavery, a light-skinned infant changes places with the master's white son. This simple premise is the basis of Pudd'nhead Wilson, a compelling drama that contains all the elements of a classic 19th-century mystery: reversed identities, a ghastly crime, an eccentric detective, and a tense courtroom scene. First published in 1894, Twain's novel bristles with suspense. David "Pudd’nhead" Wilson, a wise but unorthodox lawyer who collects fingerprints as a hobby, wins back the respect of his townspeople when he solves a local murder in which two foreigners are falsely accused. Witty and absorbing, this novel features a literary first — the use of fingerprinting to solve a crime. This gem was Twain's last novel about the antebellum South; and despite its frequent injections of humor, it offers a fierce condemnation of racial prejudice and a society that condoned slavery.

No One beast has so captured people's imagination as the mysterious unicorn. Inspired by the medieval Unicorn Tapestries, Marianna Mayer has uncovered a wealth of love and legend associated with this fascinating creature, certain to delight his legion of fans. From A for apple-the fruit of knowledge and, like the unicorn, the symbol of ever-renewing life-to Z for zephyr, the gentle breeze that ruffles the unicorn's mane, this unique collection offers page after page of beautiful flowers, fair knights, proud maidens, magical herbs, and sinister serpents-all part of the unicorn's powerful myth. As he did in "The Unicorn and the Lake," Michael Hague has brought these enchanting legends to life, along with the splendor of medieval courts and the magic of a time when unicorns were real.

A French bishop who works in the New World, solicits three cardinals at Rome to pick his candidate for the newly created diocese of New Mexico. One of the cardinals, a Spaniard named Allende, alludes to a painting by El Greco taken from his family by a missionary to the New World and lost, and asks for the new Bishop to search for it. The novel ends with the demise of Archbishop Latour in Santa Fe.