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?

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?

Former diplomat Leona Robin wonders if she made a mistake moving to rural Texas. Her son loves it here, but in a place where it's normal for a prize bull to have his own pet pig and hay bales are raining from the sky, Leona wonders how she'll ever fit in. That is, until she's thrown right into local preacher Ralph Maybeath's arms. Is this love? Maybe, maybe not.

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.

There is a special bond between people and their pets. This charming novella reminds dog lovers of all ages of the lesson that no pet lives forever, so you must cherish and love the pet while you can. The story is about a dog named Maddie, who must endure many difficult events in her life as she moves among a series of owners.

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.

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.

I've always thought that Matlacha (say Mat-la-SHAY), the funky Pine Island Florida fishing village cum art colony, would be a perfect setting for a mystery when along comes Jessie Murphy, the perfect gal to sort out the riff from the raff of it all. You've got to love this lady - a Goodwill fashion queen who comes across as a ditzy airhead and whose best buddy is a gargoyle named Gar. Jessie's taken time off from her job, thrilled to be rekindling the flame of romance with her treasure-hunting guy, Will Rolins, who adores her.

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.

Linda thought her parents had died when she was an infant, leaving her to be raised by her grandparents. She treasures the highchair she used as a child as a symbol of their unconditional love. But when a man shows up at the bank and claims to be her father, Linda searches the Internet and is stunned to learn of a long-buried family tragedy and an unspeakable crime.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Cookbook author Mattie Carrington, Pine County's one and only celebrity, narrowly escapes being burned to a crisp when her kitchen explodes. Then someone tries to poison her. Luckily, Sheriff Cas Larkin is on the case. But when Cas visits the secluded cabin Mattie rented to finish her next book, he finds her nearly dead. With no signs of foul play and just as many clues, Cas is getting more "help" than he needs from the eagle-eyed locals as he tracks an experienced killer with the patience and skill to watch... and wait.

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.

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.