Showing results by narrator "Carol Herman" in All Categories

It's Halloween 1970, and Erin Lewis can't draw anything scary enough to win the window painting contest at Glosser Bros. Department Store in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The 16-year-old has other things on her mind, like holding a séance at Glosser's to contact her brother, who died a year ago in Vietnam. Will he keep his promise and make contact from the other side? Or will Erin receive an equally shocking message from closer to home?

How can you run a successful annual writers' tea party when your guest author turns up murdered, and when your choice for a substitute speaker might be the prime suspect?

Joshua Frankel is an attorney who pursues justice. Inside or outside the law. When a client says he's being framed for his wife's murder by a government intelligence agency, can Josh help? Is the client telling the truth or is he guilty? How can Josh obtain justice in this case? And can he avoid getting caught when he goes outside the law?

Who killed Polish Lou, the famous Prince of Polka Music? His daughter, musicologist Lottie Kachowski, comes home to the polka heartland of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to find the answer. Lottie has an unbeatable talent for using music to solve crimes, and she does just that on the trail of her father's killer. But the stakes turn deadlier than ever when another polka legend comes to a tragic end. As the danger rises, Lottie recruits her father's wacky girlfriend, Polish Peg, to help her dig deeper into the wild world of small town polka.

Aging Georgia beauty queens - Leigh, Tara, and Victoria - are at it again! When they arrive at a restaurant for a meeting with a potential client (whom they've designated Pop Tart) for their budding private eye firm Tiara Investigations, they find the man dead - face down in a bowl of salsa. What's going on? The man was only concerned about his daughter's husband's fidelity, but this death has all the trappings of murder.

When a letter arrives from a deceased client asking them to retrieve a cheap china doll, the game turns fatal as Martin Davies, Della Rose, and their team find more dead bodies than answers. When the killer decides that Della and Martin are getting too close, the couple needs to find the murderer before their fun comes to a permanent end.

Wealthy Cassandra Lennon has pricked her finger on the spindle of personal tragedy 15 years earlier and isolated herself behind rose-covered walls. They call her the Sleeping Beauty. But this is modern-day Texas and her castle is a ranch. Ellison Stewart is so enticingly attractive to women their knees buckle on first sight, and he hates it. Is he the prince Cassie has been waiting for?

Moving to Oregon as a Mail-Order Bride had never been Abigail’s plan, but when she is suddenly forced from the only home she has ever known, a marriage of convenience may just be the only thing that can protect her. However, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and shortly after Abigail has wed, her new husband drowns while attempting to save the life of a child. Alone and afraid in a town full of lost women, Abigail must search for a new man to protect her from a horrid fate.

Southern small-town retired library director Evelyn Williams finds herself suddenly unretired when her corrupt replacement is summarily dismissed by the library’s board. When Evelyn returns for her first day back on the job, she’s appalled at the state she finds the library in. Books are misplaced. Tables are overturned. And to make matters worse, most of the library staff fails to show up on her first day back.

Olive Sommers didn't set out to solve a murder. But there's no harm in Olive trying to help, is there? She's got her wits, her sister's brains, and especially her 100-pound dog Boo, who gets along with everyone in town - except when she scares smaller dogs, or knocks people down, or eats cheese. But when Boo Radley sniffs out another dead body, Olive learns that murder can happen anywhere, and that small-town quirks can lead to big-time danger.

Samuel Taylor Suit was a dashing figure in West Virginian society - a man who made his fortune distilling whiskey. An investor in the growing railroad industry, he played host to US presidents. And when he fell in love, he fell hard. Rosa Pelham was almost two decades younger than Suit, who courted her unsuccessfully for five long years. Then, in 1883, he found the chink in Rosa’s romantic armor. She dreamed of living in a castle. Suit vowed to build her one if she accepted his proposal. He was as good as his word, and Berkeley Castle became part of West Virginian history.

They came in peace; unfortunately the good folks of Little Lump, Texas, didn't get the memo. They're really embarrassed, especially Gertie, who managed to shoot down several of the alien's space ships with her holy land-to-air rocket launcher. Little did she realize in doing so that she would be unknowingly creating a far bigger danger for Little Lump that could spell doom for them all.

Strange things are happening in Little Lump, Texas and the citizens of this small town think it might be Aliens. Unfortunately they might be right. Is this the end of life as they know it? Not if they have anything to say about it. It's time to praise the lord and pass the ammunition, because these people are determined not to go down without a fight.

This book is for kids and parents who want to enjoy a good bedtime story before bedtime. Little Sammy's story displays courage, adventure, and destiny. Even though Little Sammy was just a worm, he found his way unharmed on his journey.

For two decades, Lisa Livingston has watched her husband drown himself in booze. She's done everything she can to help him or, at least, understand why he can't embrace a sober life. They have, after all, everything they've ever dreamed of. As Jeff's drinking escalates, Lisa must make a decision. But with love in the mix, it's not always as easy as it seems. 99 Bottles is story of a middle-aged woman married to an alcoholic, desperately trying to define and understand herself. What will it take for Lisa to make a change, and what decision will she make?

It was just supposed to be a day at the beach, with some swimming and snorkeling, in the clear blue waters surrounding a small Bahamian island. But then everything changed. Sally was the first to see it - a dark shadow on the ocean floor. Carefully, Sally, Jimmy and their new friend Sandy, swam towards the shape in order to get a better look and were startled by what they saw.

The body of a flashy real estate developer is found in Gator Lake, and the alligator is blamed. The Paradise Palms tennis team must find the real killer before their favorite gator, Big Joe, is hunted down and slaughtered. Packi Walsh's snooping uncovers real estate fraud, irate investors, an affair between a trophy wife and her tennis pro, and a connection between the friendly neighborhood pharmacist and the New Jersey mob. One of them tries to silence Packi by making her gator bait.

Seventy-five-year-old Eugenia Thompson thinks it's time for a change in her life. After losing her husband last year to a short illness, she decides to mortgage her house and open up a cupcake shop in her hometown of Shelbington, North Carolina. What could possibly go wrong, she wonders? Well, for starters, Eugenia's part-time helper calls out sick on opening day, forcing her to hire a temp on very short notice. She then wonders whether her business will succeed when the avalanche of customers she was expecting doesn't materialize.

Amelia has a runny nose. Mommy asks her if she has “snot in her snout”. Little girls don’t have snouts, but animals do. And there are many kinds of animal snouts. Pigs use theirs to root in the ground. Giraffes eat up high. Elephants have long snouts. Platypuses swim with duck snouts. Anteaters go big with their ant-eating snouts. Snouts come in all types and sizes - just like little girls.

Santa Zanni, is a work of narrative nonfiction. It is a collection of interlocking short stories offering a snapshot of California history from 1916 to 1920. It is also humor disguised as social commentary disguised as literature. It falls into the category of creative nonfiction.