Showing results by narrator "Elisabeth Ashby" in All Categories

Six months have passed since Delaney McPhearson went missing. And during that time, things have not been going well for Jake Rogan. He's been heading up the search for Laney. Every lead he's run down has only led to frustration and disappointment. But now, a situation has developed that steals his attention. And that's not the only thing that is being stolen—children are disappearing across the globe. Jake has a new mission and a new goal—to find those children.

This compelling and compassionate mystery takes place in the quirky island town of Key West, Florida, where 21-year-old Jillian Dougherty, a newly graduated Boston nursing school student away from home for the first time, finds herself completely absorbed into the island's homeless population. Meet the island inhabitants that live under the bridges, behind the hedges, and on the edge of sanity in this tourist-island mecca.

Pregnant at fifteen after gleefully losing her virginity to pansexual neighborhood strongman Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, she is robbed of her baby by a pack of nefarious nuns and her embittered papa has her sterilized without her consent (legal in 1935). With the help of a besotted Francis and her top-secret meatball recipe, a devastated Bella embarks on a riotous quest through Depression-era Coney Island sideshows, the tawdry world of peek-a-boo striptease routines, a queer mob marriage, and a tasty collection of wisdom-filled recipes to find her lost child, herself, and maybe even true love.

Long before Delaney McPhearson learned of her destiny, a brave group of women defended a heritage that would one day aid us all. The history of the forces working to protect the world extends far beyond the time of Delaney McPhearson. One of the first tests of those chosen to defend the good in the New World dates back to one of the uglier times in American history: the Salem Witch Trials.

Marcy Kendrick is a cop with a body count. A successful detective in LAPD Homicide, she is infamous for one thing: killing three serial killers before they could be brought to trial. Marcy knows her actions were in self-defense, but her coworkers can't help wondering if she is on some kind of vendetta—because Marcy's own mother was brutally murdered by a serial killer. Is this her way of getting payback? Adding to the pressure on Marcy, her ex-husband, Jordan Brasswell, has just been promoted over her, and seems determined to keep her under a microscope.

"You’re just too sensitive!" "That didn’t happen. You must be imagining things." "I don’t remember saying anything like that. You must have misunderstood me." Do these phrases seem familiar? Perhaps a little too familiar? If you hear them often, you might be a victim of abuse - gaslighting. It might mean that someone is manipulating you, making you not trust yourself. Someone is trying to take control of your life.

When Joanie Crea is found strangled on the grounds of the crumbling Grandgeorge estate, Sheriff Red Hammergren faces a chilling mystery as dark as the dense forest surrounding the crime scene. All eyes turn to Derek Grandgeorge, the reclusive heir with a penchant for wearing a green jacket—even in the sweltering Minnesota summer.

In a trio of popular gender rituals—sorority rush, beauty pageants, and the Confederate Pageant of the Natchez (Mississippi) Pilgrimage—young white southern women have readily ditched contemporary modes of dress and comportment for performances of purity, gentility, and deference. Clearly, the ability to "do" white southern womanhood, convincingly and on cue, has remained a valued performance. Based on ethnographic research and taped interviews, Southern Beauty goes behind the scenes of the three rituals to explore the motivations and rewards associated with participation.

Martin Drummond will stop at nothing to find Maeve Leander and her family. But the threat Martin offers pales in comparison to the world ending cataclysm that is now on the horizon....

LAPD Homicide Detective Marcy Kendrick is feeling the heat. Struggling to recover from the recent murder of her lover, she also has to deal with ex-husband Jordan, now her boss, who seems determined to make her life as difficult as possible. And Jordan is piling on the pressure thanks to a string of Marcy's cases going cold. She needs a win—and fast. Then heiress Audrina Dixon is brutally killed with only her fourteen-year-old twin sons as witnesses. But the boys, traumatized by what they have seen, seem to have developed a rare form of mutism.

Negative, broken, lie-filled sentences fill your head as you work, play, and go about your life. These scripts are sidelining you, maligning you, harming you. What if there were another way? What if your life didn't have to be defined by what others say? Or even by what you say to yourself over and over? What if you knew that beauty and life are yours to be found and you finally danced in the freedom that awaits you? There is more for you, friend—so much more.

Caroline McAlister, college professor and lifelong skeptic, is reeling from the loss of her father and her marriage. Her once promising career has come to a standstill. When her father bequeaths the family cabin to her, it comes with a ghost who haunted her childhood. When she discovers a century-old journal in the attic, she awakens the voice of Carson Quinn. The journal reveals Carson's love for the same hollow that enthralled Caroline growing up. A little sleuthing uncovers rumors that the kind, curious boy in the journal grew up to murder his brother.

In a community full of supernatural powers, 18-year-old Jewel longs for a life of normalcy. But nothing in her life is ordinary. And suddenly she discovers she's more abnormal than she ever realized - complete with a past she never knew existed. Once a goddess from ancient Greece, Jewel is the main reason everyone has their special abilities.

In the late 1960s, Patsy Channing, a stunningly beautiful young woman, was suspended from the venerable Mississippi State College for Women for breach of conduct. The resulting scandal reached all the way to the Columbus courthouse, and the press ate it up. But Patsy's story starts long before that, living with a preoccupied and troubled mother in Memphis, Tennessee. Music becomes her ticket out and a vehicle for the one thing she covets most—a chance to be crowned Miss America. In Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen, Julie Hines Mabus provides a peek into that world.

Panic grips LA as a cop killer stalks the streets. So far, three officers from the Downtown Precinct have been murdered and there are no clues as to who is doing this or why. Detective Marcy Kendrick and her partner Angel are assigned the case. The dead cops' friends and partners at the Precinct insist they have no idea why the victims were targeted.

LAPD detective Marcy Kendrick and her partner, Angel Reyes, are called to investigate the brutal sex murder of an up-and-coming starlet. A calling card has been left at the crime scene. This was the work of a professional, Alejandro 'El Gato' Gómez, an infamous drug lord who has evaded LA police for over a decade. Gómez has a right-hand man, a mysterious assassin known as El Mariachi de los Muertos. The assassin, for reasons unknown, is on a murderous rampage across LA. The bodies are piling up. But why?

In the company of the "inquisitors," Xerak, Grunwold, and Vereez, the three newly appointed mentors rediscovered the Library of the Sapphire Wind, and, within it, revelations that transformed the young people's pasts into a vast tangle of lies and half-truths. But there are still questions to be answered. Before they are done, Meg the retired librarian, Teg the archeologist-turned-mage, and the multi-talented, ever surprising Peg will deal with kidnappings, betrayal, arcane artifacts, romantic intrigues, and the inescapable reality that past lives cast long shadows.

Fifty-something Kathleen used 23andme to identify her biological mother, who is rumored to have a child with a priest. Kathleen believes that her father is Angie's great-uncle Ed, a beloved monsignor. Couldn't it be one of the other seven priests in the family? Despite initial reluctance, she is drawn full force into the mystery. Angie visits archives around Wisconsin, creating dossiers on the potential priest fathers. Kathleen discovers articles online with tantalizing clues hidden in plain sight.

Wanda's multiple affairs are revealed within the context of a twisted game that sends everyone in search of golden keys that just might unlock their ability to use matchmaking powers. This game has many rewards that could elevate you to great success while at the same time this game has many risks that can degrade you into grand failure. Are you sure that the key that you have will unlock a magnificent world of pleasantries or an unpredictable world of wickedness?

No one is at all sure what a book wraith might be, but whatever it is definitely has the battered tomes in the Library of the Sapphire Wind very worried indeed. Figuring out what a book wraith could be is hardly the least of the challenges that the newly formed House of Rough Diamonds will face as the motley assortment of members-including three women who are literally "out of this world"-attempt to secure ownership of the Library.