While My Pretty One Sleeps -- Mary Higgins Clark

Neeve Kearny is an up-and-coming boutique owner in the middle of New York City. Her clientele are among the city's elite, and many of them trust Neeve's expertise when choosing clothing from her store. Among these customers is Ethel Lambston, an author with a very out-spoken opinion who is preparing to publish a scathing article about the fashion industry of the city. Without shame, Ethel has made it clear to Neeve and others that her article will be less than flattering for many of New York City's top designers.

When Ethel misses a scheduled appointment to pick up her new wardrobe from Neeve's boutique, Neeve simply thinks Ethel has forgotten the appointment, so she calls to leave a message for Ethel. When nobody answers the phone, Neeve simply determines to drop the wardrobe by Ethel's house, but nobody answers the door. As the days go by and Ethel does not appear, Neeve begins to feel uneasy. She confides her fears in her father, the former police commissioner, who allays her fears with logical reasons for Ethel's absence. Yet nagging thoughts continue to haunt Neeve, and before long, Ethel's body is found in a park, and Neeve's fears are confirmed: Ethel has been murdered!

As Neeve enlists the help of her father and Ethel's new publisher Jack Campbell, she discovers many who have motive to have killed Ethel. First is Ethel's ex-husband, a man from whom Ethel has been receiving a thousand dollars a month in alimony since their divorce over twenty years before; a man who is now in dire financial straits. Second is Gordon Steuber, a designer who stands to lose his grand reputation when Ethel's article is published. Third is Ethel's dishonest nephew who has taken up residence in her apartment since her death, but never reported her missing, and has been found to have been stealing her money. Is one of these men Ethel's killer? Or is there someone else in the shadows who would benefit from Ethel's death?

Angels & Demons -- Dan Brown

Leonardo Vetra, a prominent scientist at CERN -- a veritable mecca of the world's top scientists -- is found dead in his home at CERN headquarters. His murder is gruesome and puzzling, but most confusingly, it opens a frightening past about a secret brotherhood thought to be long-disbanded: The Illuminati. Branded upon the dead scientist's chest is the anagrammatical word "Illuminati." When the director of CERN, Maximilian Kohler, discovers Vetra and the brand, he immediately enlists the help of well-known symbologist Robert Langdon, whose work and research include extensive knowledge of the old brotherhood. What Langdon finds when he arrives at CERN is far more frightening than a mere murder would have indicated, because the motive for the scientist's death revolves around new technology: the technology of antimatter -- a technology with more destructive power than the world has ever before encountered. And most terrifying is the fact that the largest amount of antimatter that had been created at CERN, by Vetra and his daughter Vittoria, has been stolen from its hidden underground vault. And the clock is ticking, for when the clock strikes midnight, the antimatter will explode, and it will take with it two square miles of anything in its radius.

Through a twist of luck, Langon and Vittoria Vetra learn that the stolen antimatter is hidden somewhere deep within the Vatican, where the sacred ceremony of conclave is scheduled to take place for the election of a new pope. Working against time, they go to the Vatican and struggle to learn and follow the centuries-old "Path of Illumination" created by the Illuminati in order to find the antimatter. But the stakes have risen as well. For an assasin has kidnapped the four cardinals who are being considered for the papal throne, and he will kill one of them each hour.

With the help of Camerlengo Ventresca, the Swiss Guard, and ancient documents locked within the Vatican archives, Langdon and Vittoria trek across Rome and back again to the Vatican in a race to save the Catholic Church from it's age-old enemy, the Illuminati; and the people of Rome and the Vatican from certain death at midnight. And before it's over, people will die, truths will be revealed, and betrayal from within the ranks will become apparent.