A game of Scrabble has serious consequences.

A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger.

Mrs. McDoogle had a bugle, But she couldn’t play a note.

Emma nervously entered the classroom and found an empty desk while she felt the burning power of a hundred sets of eyes staring. She expected the teasing and giggles, but she didn’t expect silence.

Mimosa Mitchell was an 85-year-old “pillar of the community” and matriarch of one of the most prominent families in Petunia Springs.

If there was one thing Alex knew about JP by now, it was that the elaboration of a keenly held opinion wouldn’t be far away. And so it proved.

‘What shall we do with the body?’ The other one rubbed his chin. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?

That wasn’t the third thing I did that made me look suspicious. It was the suitcase.

Zena could hardly believe that she was on a plane, gazing down over the North Island. Everything she knew about New Zealand came from Luke’s photographs and postcards: sparkling lagoons, snow-capped mountains and silver ferns.

Over the next three years, they became a couple. Not romantically, but as close and valued companions who shared their hopes and ambitions, their fears and regrets, their successes and disappointments.