Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.

After their home in Davenport, Iowa, is burned to the ground, Luke and Doris move to a home gifted to them by their friend, Hercules. Much to Doris's shock, the home that Luke chooses for them is the now-defunct Andrews' farm. Doris is resilient and decides to make the situation work. Their first night in Cape Girardeau is met with murder and accusations against Hercules. With Mary and Luke by his side, they ward off would-be mercenaries, plotting to kill Hercules and anyone standing in their way. This book is part of the Darkness series, and represents the fourth installment. Read in order...

Darkness: A Slave’s Story is a fictionalized account of not just one slave’s life, but the tribulations and misery of many American slaves. Darkness cannot comprehend why she is a slave, simply because of the color of her skin. Throughout her childhood she vows to one day have what she believes her white masters have: a life free from suffering. Because of her rebellious nature, she is sold at auction to a brother and sister on a lone hemp farm and learns what it’s like to live and work alongside a white family. When one of her owners head off to fight for the Union during the Civil ...

Mahala: the Darkness Saga is the prequel to Darkness: A Slave's Story and the sixth book in that series. The latest addition to the saga takes us back to the beginning where Mahala's mother, Trini, is a young slave on a farm owned by an elderly couple, Ebenezer and Corabelle Smith. The Smiths have decided to free their slaves and gift their farm to them upon their deaths. Trini, her husband, Scotty, and the other slaves wait with mixed feelings as events unfold and change their somewhat comfortable lives forever. After her birth, Mahala is sold to Zeke and Mary Jennings, who raise her as ...

Luke's Justice is the fourth book in the Darkness: A Slave's Story saga. The Knox family soon discovers that living on the former Andrews' Farm, now the Knox Farm, is fraught with peril. Luke is a full-time deputy now at the sheriff's office in Cape Girardeau, working closely with Sheriff Magnus Jonsson. With Mary by his side, their skills prove invaluable to the sheriff. But a new problem arises in the form of a vigilante group, convinced that the law does not protect the rights of the white townspeople. Luke is forced to make hard sacrifices between his job and the values he was raised ...

From the author of Darkness: A Slave’s Story comes the fifth sequel, The Enslavement of Mary. Mary, the Native American best friend of Doris has left to fight alongside the Sioux and Cheyenne in Montana. Fighting her last battles with Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, she realizes this is no longer the life she desires and attempts to make her way home. Little Alice Knox receives word from Mary’s deceased mother, She Bear Speaks, that Mary is injured and facing death and needs their help. Luke and Little Alice, guided by She Bear Speaks, leave seven-month pregnant Doris behind in an attempt...