Showing results by narrator "C. J. Critt" in All Categories

At 44, Eve Mozell has a wonderful husband and a creative job. She also has a temperamental teenage son, two headstrong sisters, and a demented old father. As she deals with her family's frequent crises, her days overflow with lengthy phone calls. She is never far from a dial tone. But as her father begins to die, Eve is tempted to disconnect and to sort out her feelings for this difficult man.

When a local farmer - known for his severe treatment of migrant workers - turns up savagely murdered, Judge Deborah and her new Deputy Sheriff husband soon wade into a quagmire of exploitation. But as murders mushroom, the two uncover secrets that threaten both their community and their new life together.

Uncommon Clay delves into the intriguing world of the Nordans, a deep-rooted family of talented yet cursed North Carolina potters. Judge Knott is filling in for another judge who suffered a mild stroke. When she decrees that the divorcing Nordan couple split their valuable earthenware collection, the husband winds up dead, in his own kiln! Many people have motives and the clay wheel swirls with suspects.

Killer Market takes the quintessential steel magnolia to the hub of North Carolina's massive furniture industry. Deborah soon gets caught up in the whirl of the International Home Furnishings Market and finds herself a suspect in a high-power murder case. The feisty judge must use her courtroom experience and intuitive skills to strip through layers of deception if she is to clear her own name. Maron draws from her own rural southern roots to craft her trademark authentic settings and characters.

At the annual Harvest Festival carnival, while everyone else is playing games and having fun, someone commits murder. As Deborah investigates, she must struggle to win a carny's confidence while a dark web of dangerous secrets begins to unravel.

Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755) is regarded by most as a two-bit hick town, filled with one-bit hicks. But Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon seeks to change that with her latest scheme - a charity golf tournament! This presents a bit of a challenge, since no one in Maggody plays golf and there is no course. But when the prize for the first hole-in-one is announced - a top of the line bass boat - nearly everyone in town quickly develops a profound interest in the sport...including a killer.

When it comes to writing nerve-jangling thrillers, R.L. Stine is the master. His wildly popular books have attracted thousands of young people. The Thrill Club is his hair-raising tale of a teenager who writes horror stories everyone loves - until the stories start coming true.

Margaret Maron's mysteries starring Judge Deborah Knott have built a loyal following since debuting with the Edgar Award-winning The Bootlegger's Daughter. The series' 18th entry finds Deborah and her husband, Deputy Sheriff Bryant, teaming up with Lt. Sigrid Herald to track down a killer on the loose in their small North Carolina town. But as the hunt for the culprit gets more intense, they uncover long-hidden secrets that cast their investigation in a whole new light.

Alice Rogers, an elderly widow, is dead, found murdered in the Arizona desert. It's easy enough to pin the killing on the teens caught driving her car across the Mexican border, but Sheriff Brady isn't about to let it go at that. Alice was something of a free spirit, with a penchant for Scotch, the glitter of Las Vegas, and a romance with a man twenty years her junior. Her hot-tempered daughter Susan suspects Mom's boyfriend—her former handyman who moved in instead of moving on.

Sheriff Joanna Brady is the law in Cochise County, and she will never allow her personal trials to interfere with the job she was elected to do - especially now that death has invaded Bisbee, Arizona, and has shattered the small desert town's fragile peace.

New York Times best-selling author Margaret Maron’s meticulously crafted Judge Deborah Knott mysteries display the work of a master. In the series’ 17th entry, Deborah and Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant are on their way to New York City for a belated honeymoon. Once in the city, however, they get swept up in a mystery involving a stolen package and a murdered doorman.

Alexandra Barnaby got the brains in her family. The little gray cells certainly bypassed Barney’s younger brother, Wild Bill. Truth is, Alex has been bailing her brother out of trouble since they were kids. Not that Bill's a bad sort. More that he acts first and thinks later. Unfortunately, this time around, Wild Bill will be Dead Bill if Alex doesn't find him in time.

As she looks for a missing taxi driver, Carlotta’s investigation sends her traveling the pub route with a bunch of blarney-loving geezers whose devotion to the Emerald Isle has gotten them involved in a deadly mix of Boston-Irish politics.

It's the last race of the season, the wheels are smoking, and the temperature is rising at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Alexandra Barnaby is NASCAR-driver Sam Hooker's raceday spotter, his eye-in-the-sky, telling Hooker when to pass and when to let off the gas. From her vantage point high above the grandstand, she's also seeing goings-on in the infield that will change her life.

Claire Malloy - Arkansas bookseller and widowed mother - after a long courtship has finally said "I do" to her swain, Lieutenant Peter Rosen. Now they are on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt. That is, Claire is on her honeymoon - accompanied by Caron, her teenaged daughter, and Inez, Caron's best friend and frequent partner in adventure. Peter is mostly away on various mysterious consultations with equally mysterious government agencies for his new mysterious job.

Three daughters and their husbands are pulled into a tangle of love, jealousy, and fear when their father, Larry Cook, grows too old to manage the family's fertile thousand-acre farm. As each couple struggles with their own tragedies and challenges, they know their father is judging them in light of the weighty inheritance that hovers within their reach.

In Up Jumps the Devil, fast-moving progress is threatening to forever destroy the leisurely, heart-warming pace of Colleton County, North Carolina. District Court Judge Deborah Knott sees trouble brewing when plans for a new interstate highway start pushing up property values. Deborah finds herself calming the combatants with down-home wit, but when the squabbles escalate to murder, Deborah is forced to search for a killer uncomfortably close to home.

Stephanie Lowe decides Maine schooner captain and pirate descendent Ivan Rasmussen deserves to be called Ivan the Terrible. The house she just bought from him is falling apart and possibly haunted. He complains about her fish-eye stew and burnt chocolate chip cookies. He makes fun of her hair after she's had to comb it while using a toaster as a mirror. And on top of all that, he has the nerve to be charming, handsome, and overboard in love with her.

There's a new boy at Shadyside High School, and he's stolen the hearts of all the girls. Good-looking, athletic Ross Gabriel is the kind of guy that every girl wants to date - including best friends Janie, Eve, and Faith. They've even made a bet on which one of them he'll go out with first. Ross dates a lot of girls - and one by one, they're all murdered. It looks like going out with Ross means flirting with a gruesome and horrifying fate.

When Amy Klasse loses her TV job to a dancing chicken, handsome veterinarian Jake Elliott rescues her with an offer to be his receptionist. Jake just can't resist a damsel in distress, and Amy certainly doesn't mind Jake's charming sincerity. Then, the job-stealing chicken suddenly disappears and Amy is suspected of foul play. Amy and Jake search for clues to prove her innocence. But will Jake be able to show Amy that love, too, is a mystery worth solving?