Showing results by narrator "Margaret Strom" in All Categories

Opera singer Roma Toscano may have a crippling case of stage fright, but she certainly is stirring up drama in Autumn Vale, New York, as she prepares for an upcoming performance at Merry's Wynter Castle. With her flamboyant style and flirtatious personality, Roma attracts fans as well as critics, including the town's postmistress - and Merry's bitter foe - Minnie Urqhart. But Roma and Minnie's heated rivalry goes cold after Merry discovers Minnie dead at the post office.

Fifties are the new forties and I'm living my best life ever. I may have a few more aches and pains, graying roots, and couple extra pounds, but I also have two quirky best friends who always have my back, business is booming, and my love life has never been better or hotter. That is until my sweetie Ezra Holden invites me home for Christmas to meet his family. The season is full of surprises in Ezra's hometown, like a missing cousin, a case of mistaken identity, and a slew of painful memories—none of them my own.

The yarn retreat group visiting scenic Vista Del Mar has already planned their own activities, so part-time dessert maker and retreat host Casey Feldstein is looking forward to a stress-free weekend. But the rustic locale is also playing host to a mindfulness retreat for Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneurs along with a flock of bird-watchers, and soon everyone at the resort is getting wound up. And when Casey discovers the dead body of one of the tech gurus on the rocky shore of the Pacific, she begins to suspect that what looks like an accident is actually a calculated murder.

They say that one's home is one's castle, but when it comes to Wynter Castle, Merry would like it to belong to someone else. But until a buyer bites, she could use some extra dough, so she decides to take in renters. The idea pans out, and Merry's able to find a handful of tenants eager to live in a real castle. The only problem is that most of them are crumby, tea-swilling old biddies.

If you're an emotional overeater, you may turn to food to cope with stress and sadness, enhance joy, and bring a sense of comfort. But over time, overeating can cause weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, and many other health problems. In 50 More Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, you'll find 50 more mindful and healthy activities to help you replace your need to overeat.

Here is the essential guide to kick-starting a career you love in any job market. There is an epidemic in this country, one that continues to spread despite fluctuations in the economy. A dishearteningly large number of people dislike what they do for a living. In this revised and updated edition of I Don’t Know What I Want, but I Know It’s Not This, career coach Julie Jansen shows how anyone unhappy with their employment - or lack of it - can implement a real and satisfying career transformation.

Casey Feldstein has her hands full with preparations at the Vista Del Mar hotel on the scenic Monterey Peninsula as another yarn retreat begins. The retreaters will be thrown for a loop this time, learning the trendy art of arm knitting and finger crocheting. But not everyone is enthusiastic about trying something new, and Casey is forced to come up with an alternative craft for her less adventurous pupils. Things go from worst to worsted when a travel writer from a neighboring retreat group is found dead in his room among a sea of feathers.

Forgotten on the outskirts of quaint Lenape Hollow, Feldman's Catskill Resort Hotel has outlasted its heyday as a popular tourist destination and now awaits demolition. But once Mikki is hired to edit a revealing memoir by Sunny Feldman, the doomed resort quickly ends up back in the spotlight. Unfortunately, everyone's attention shifts to Mikki when a body is discovered at the demolition site. Seen arguing with deceptive entrepreneur Greg Onslow right before his shocking death, the editor has no choice but to spell out exactly why she isn't guilty of murdering him.

For my birthday, my best friends Gilly and Pippa signed us up for a weekend at the Central Midwest Spa Convention. Yay. Massages, fine dining, maid service, and best of all, as long as we attend a few workshops, the weekend is a tax write-off. It should be all sunshine and roses, right? Wrong. My former intern at Belliza Beauty aka the Job Stealer, Carmen Carraway, is a featured presenter. Yuck. Throw in an ex-boyfriend, a number one fan, a brewing scandal, and a dead body, and my relaxing birthday weekend is DOA.

July 4th is a big deal in Locust Point - the parade, the fireworks, and the eagerly anticipated annual River Regatta. And this year local celebrity Holt Dupree will be in town, riding high on his recent draft pick for an NFL team. But not everyone loves football, and not everyone is a fan of Holt Dupree.

With plans for a new performing arts center at Wynter Castle taking up all her time, baker Merry Wynter has been all but unaware of the fringe group compound near her small town - until a street preacher accosts her with taunts of doom and damnation. Worried that some of her close friends may have been lured in by the group and its charismatic leader, Merry begins digging into the ministry - and soon suspects they may have ties to the recent death of a young woman and the disappearance of many others.

Life at 60 isn't quite what Kay Carrera expected. She's working as a skip-tracer for a PI who is desperate to land his own reality TV show. She has a new roommate who arrived with more than the usual amount of baggage. And her attempts at knitting are less than stellar - way less than stellar. Worse, the cataract surgery that restored her sight has also delivered an unexpected and disturbing side-effect. Kay sees ghosts. And when the dead turn to her for help, she just can't say no.

It's been years since Bernie and Libby's parents became estranged from Ada Sinclair's side of the family - though the reasons for the rift are lost to history. The sisters, however, are intrigued when Ada makes contact. She tells them about the long-ago deaths of her father and his business partner, which happened within hours of each other - and were both ruled accidental.

Everyone is enchanted by Olive’s new puppy - even an initially wary Taco. Thinking she might want to add a furry friend to her own home, Daisy convinces Kay to go with her on a whirlwind tour of shelters, rescues, and breeders. But puppy loves comes to an abrupt end when the two women find well-known animal advocate Prucilla Downing dead in a pile of broken trophies and slashed fur coats.

David Driver isn't the only one buried in his grave. Kay's friend Olive has a family feud on her hands over who should have inherited the only remaining plot in their family section of the cemetery. When a cousin finally gives in and agrees to relocate her son's casket, the cemetery staff discover there's an extra body in the plot.

A narrowly escaped tragedy has Suzette thinking about filling in the old pond at the rear of her property—or even selling off that section of land entirely. Kay’s friend and neighbor has tried to keep the remaining portion of the family farm as unchanged as possible, but pond restoration is an undertaking too expensive for her budget.

Mr. Peter has lived across the street long before Kay moved into her house, and over the decades, the collection of old washing machines, lawn mowers, and refrigerators in his front and back yard has reached the point where it's nearly impossible to find the front door. The man is an eccentric recluse, but how can anyone dislike a kindly person who loves old pottery and dinnerware, and slips Taco, the cat, chicken sandwiches every chance he gets? Evidently someone disliked him - disliked him enough to kill him.

Donations are pouring in for the charity yard sale, but as Kay and her friends sort through the glassware and gently used appliances, they discover a real skull in a box of old Halloween decorations.

On a wintery vacation with the kids, Kay and the judge stumble across a barn fire. What appeared to be an accidental blaze turns out to be arson, with the charred timbers hiding a dead body. Adding sleuthing to her holiday itinerary, Kay finds herself investigating and ghost-hunting the murder with two new kindred spirits.

The stroke of midnight brings murder. What could be more magical than a black-tie Christmas party where those attending will socialize and rub elbows with the most prominent lawyers and judges in the state? Kay is enjoying the food, the wine, the conversation - and a dance with Judge Beck to the music of an elegant string quartet. But when she finds a dead body in an upstairs bathroom, Kay’s fairy-tale evening hits a sour note. Is the murderer a jilted lover? A rival for a lucrative position? A disgruntled client?