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The Judgment (A Charley Sloan Novel)
by William J. CoughlinAs winter descends upon Detroit, ace lawyer Charley Sloan is drawn into a case that involves the bizarre murders of small children. Someone is killing them, bathing their bodies and washing their clothes, wrapping them in plastic, and then placing them in the new-fallen snow, laid out like little angels, peacefully asleep. The serial murders seem unsolvable, for the killer is elusive and very clever. Meanwhile, Detroit's powerful police chief, Mark Conroy, asks Charley to defend him against charges that he stole millions from the department's secret cash fund, a fund meant to pay off informants. It's a case that grabs headlines and is fraught with scandal, politics, and graft. Charley has to find the real embezzler before an innocent man is put away and his own career is ruined. Once again, Charley finds himself torn between two big cases that hurtle him into a web of danger and deceit in this novel peopled with a variety of believable, complex characters which offers glimpses into the working and personal lives of lawyers, cops, clergy, public servants and the people, good and bad, they serve.
Dar and the Spear Thrower
by Marjorie CowleyA young boy living 15,000 years ago in southeastern France is initiated into manhood by his clan and sets off on a journey to trade his valuable fire rocks for an ivory spear thrower.
If We Could Hear The Grass Grow
by Eleanor CraigFrom the book: "Each day I saw more clearly what I wanted. To have a day camp for troubled children. And spend one last summer with my children in this house. A final chance to reweave more smoothly the family ties that bound us." It was a summer that will touch your heart. Now, in the same honest, thoughtful style that made her previous book, P.S. Your Not Listening, so successful, Eleanor Craig, gifted family therapist, teacher, and author, tells the wonderfully moving true story of her experiences running a day camp for emotionally disturbed children at her Connecticut home. If We Could Hear the Grass Grow is a funny, sad, fascinating account of what it's really like to cope and communicate with severely antisocial children on a day-to-day basis, deal with their violence, help ease their pain, and free their astonishing often hidden-capacity for love and sharing. Eleanor Craig shows us how these seemingly unreachable children can be reached and, most important, can achieve remarkable growth when handled by a committed, sensitive teacher. Among her "special kids" are: Rodney, the "Big Man," older than his years, tough, uncontrollably aggressive, and as much in need of love as of discipline. Maria, sweet, undemanding, and troubled, one of a large Hispanic family where the father has a history of manic depression and of being physically abusive. She spends much of her time in fervent prayer. Frankie, overweight and immature, who acts out his mother's agoraphobia by refusing to leave her side, day or night. Adam, abandoned by his young, mentally ill mother, and unable to communicate except in comic book babble.
The Moon Is Broken: A Mother's Story
by Eleanor CraigAnn Craig was the perfect daughter-bright, beautiful, loving, giving. At home and in school, with family and with friends, she was a child that any mother could be proud of. Then, as she was about to graduate with honors from an Ivy League university, Ann suffered a mental breakdown. After months at a prestigious psychiatric hospital, she recovered and seemed ready to resume a life destined for success and fulfillment. But instead, she suffered a relapse-only the first of many illusions shattered as Ann's life became a downward spiral of anorexia and drug addiction, ending ultimately in her death. For any mother-helpless and frantically attempting to do something, anything, to help-this would be a nightmare. But for Eleanor Craig, Ann's mother and a famed therapist-teacher who specializes in working with emotionally impaired young people, Ann's troubled life was a heartbreaking irony.
Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2)
by Andrea CremerThis thrilling sequel to the much-talked-about Nightshade begins just where it ended--Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemy, and she's certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer--one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack--and the man--she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.
Pictures In The Dark
by Gillian CrossIt begins with a photo that Charlie takes for school, a striking black-and-orange shot of a wild otter swimming in the river. But wild otters haven't lived there for years. As Charlie tries to figure out where the animal came from, he keeps crossing paths with Peter Luttrell, the younger brother of one of his classmates. Why is Peter so interested in the photograph? Why do the other kids call him "Evil Eye"? And why do the otter tracks lead directly to the Luttrells' yard?
Leprechauns Don't Play Fetch (The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids Holiday Special #4)
by Debbie Dadey Marcia Thornton JonesIn this clever holiday adventure that includes a bonus puzzle and activity section, the Bailey School Kids attempt to find out if the new pet store owner is really a Leprechaun.
The Alpine Christmas (Emma Lord Series #3)
by Mary DaheimChristmas in the town of Alpine means fresh snow, carolers, even a sleigh. But then the discovery of a woman's leg in the lake, along with that of another young woman's nude, half-frozen body, deflates everyone's high spirits. But as Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, follows up on the story, the bits and pieces of the young women who keep turning up start adding up to a murder scheme so sinister it may well land Emma on her own obituary page ...
The Persian Pickle Club
by Sandra DallasIt is the 1930s, and hard times have hit Harveyville, Kansas, where the crops are burning up, and there's not a job to be found. For Queenie Bean, a young farm wife, a highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their quilting skills to good use. When a new member of the club stirs up a dark secret, the women must band together to support and protect one another. In her magical, memorable novel, Sandra Dallas explores the ties that unite women through good times and bad.
Hard Christmas (Cat Marsala #6)
by Barbara D'AmatoFreelance reporter Cat Marsala has done lots of tough investigative pieces lately. Now she would like something a little softer-and a feature story on Christmas tree farming sounds ideal. She's thrilled when Henry DeGraaf, president of the West Michigan Evergreen Growers Association, invites her to spend Thanksgiving at his family farm north of Holland, Michigan, where she can observe the Christmas tree industry up close. With only seven hours of daylight, the work is intense, the team spirit legendary. Cat receives a warm welcome at the DeGraaf farmhouse, especially from DeGraaf's twelve-year-old niece, Nell. Grandmother DeGraaf prepares delicious old Dutch dishes, and Great-Aunt Clara shares with Cat letters written by the first DeGraaf to settle in Michigan. Cat is impressed with the history and tradition of the family, but it's not long before she discovers the terrible tensions that permeate the household. A dark mystery lies over the death of the family patriarch, Henry DeGraaf, Sr, who died in the spring. Walking in the Christmas tree fields when the crop-dusting plane flew over he suffered a fatal asthma attack brought on by the chemicals. He was somehow caught without the orange vest that would have warned the pilot not to spray. While DeGraaf's death could have been an accident, a second death proves without a doubt that a killer lurks in this unlikely pastoral setting where the kitchen table is laden with Gran's casseroles and apple pies, but one of the diners, among either the family or the crew, has evil motives. Cat quickly grows attached to young Nell, who has already suffered so much, having lost both her mother and her grandfather. Now she may suffer again as the DeGraaf family and all that it has stood for is thrust into a cataclysmic situation from which it may never recover Cat's adventure starts as a feature story but ends as a tension-filled search for the answers that can save a family and bring a murderer to justice.
The Seventh Witch (Ophelia and Abby Mysteries #7)
by Shirley DamsgaardSmall-town librarian and psychic Ophelia Jensen hails from a long line of wise and wonderfully gifted women. There's her grandmother, Abby, a talented witch, and her great-aunt Mary, who's about to celebrate her 100th birthday. But as Ophelia learns, when she and Abby travel to North Carolina for the centennial celebration, their family secrets aren't just magickal--they're murderous. Someone in the sweet Southern town wants Abby dead. Could it be a rogue witch in Ophelia's own family? A vengeful local witch desperate to settle a bitter feud decades in the making? Ophelia must use all her talents to save her loved ones--before the witching hour comes upon them, and bad blood turns deadly.
The Witch Is Dead (Ophelia and Abby Mysteries #5)
by Shirley DamsgaardLife is busier than ever for witch Ophelia Jensen. In addition to her day job at the library, she, with the help of her grandmother Abby, is preparing to officially adopt Tink, the young medium she's taken under her wing. So when Ophelia's elderly Aunt Dot, eager for adventure, wants to investigate the murder of a funeral director in the neighboring town, Ophelia tries to say no. But then Tink's dog pulls a skull out of the woods, a skull that may belong to a murder victim. Finding mysterious bones in the woods isn't the only strange thing that's happened to Tink lately. She's been having visions of ghastly ghosts imploring her for help. But before Ophelia can connect the apparitions with the murder, Tink is kidnapped! Ophelia and Abby will have to battle a creepy crematorium owner and an invasion from some modern-day body snatchers to find their protege ... or else they'll have to hold a seance just to speak to her again.
Witch Way to Murder (Ophelia and Abby Mysteries #1)
by Shirley DamsgaardOphelia Jensen wishes she was just your typical, thirty-something librarian. Unfortunately, she's been burdened with psychic powers-an unwanted "gift" she considers inconvenient at best and at worst downright dangerous. Her kindly old grandmother Abby, however, has no compunctions about the paranormal, being a practicing witch with unique abilities of her own. And sometimes the otherworldly arts do come in handy-like when the arrival of a mysterious, good-looking stranger to their normally tranquil corner of Iowa seems to trigger an epidemic of catastrophes, from the theft of bomb-making materials to a murdered corpse dumped in Abby's backyard. Luckily Ophelia and Abby are on the case and determined to make things right. But it'll take more than magick to get out of the boiling cauldron of lethal trouble they're about to land themselves in.
Body Of Intuition
by Claire DanielsCally Lazar, Energy Worker. A "recovering attorney," Cally pulled a U-turn on her career path and set up shop as an alternative healer. Her sensory skills help her find the stress in her clients' auras. But once in a while, what she finds will make her jump out of her skin... KARMA CRIME MYSTERY Cally can read just about anyone's aura. There's the orange halo of health. The yellow of happiness. The pink of love. But this time-working with the widowed Mrs. Snell-Cally sees a bottomless darkness...and hears the voice of her client's dead husband. The town police have already opened and shut the Snell case, calling it a suicide. But Cally senses something more. At a New-Age seminar, she learns that the unfaithful Snell had as many enemies as friends. And as the seminar's attendees uncoil their karma, "out" their inner children, and decompress their distress, the ever-observant Cally hears clues from the mouths of her hypnotized peers. But when another guest is killed, Cally realizes she's not the only one seeing red.
Strangled Intuition
by Claire DanielsCally Lazar attends a party at the home of a woman who is one of her clients, a student at her brother's martial arts studio, and an ex-madam, whose life is full of secrets. During the party, the woman is murdered, and Cally is asked to find the murderer.
Fragments
by James N. DavidsonBrilliant psychologists have assembled in a small college town to conduct a revolutionary experiment that challenges the very nature of identity and individuality. Their subjects are savants, mentally and emotionally challenged individuals, each of whom possesses an amazing gift. One person can calculate calendar dates backward and forward, while another can memorize an entire library or assemble jigsaw puzzles at the speed of lightning. . Each of these very special people is flawed and psychologically handicapped, but what if five such savants are cybernetically linked together to create a sixth composite personality? Can this newly created entity be more than the sum of its parts? At first the experiment yields promising results, but a terrifying secret in the past will transform the project in ways the researchers never anticipated-and infect the newborn intelligence with a catastrophic thirst for vengeance. Soon all of them are at risk to become killers or to be killed. Good intentions and care for safety are overwhelmed by escalating powers, and the struggle to contain those lethal powers and to survive. Tension begins early in the book as a man with the secret power to control others insinuates himself in to the experiment. The suspense mounts rapidly to breathtaking levels. Scientific and emotional thinkers combine efforts to stop the destructive rampage they started. The subjects of the experiments, all with one special gift superimposed on limited intellects, are sympathetically and fascinatingly examined. Each has a part to play in this gripping novel about human and superhuman nature.
In the Country of Country: People and Places in American Music
by Nicholas DawidoffThis is the story of an American treasure that records and evokes the lives of people who often weren't written up in newspapers, but whose experiences of momentous events--the Depression, the Dustbowl, the Second World War--transformed their lives and would be the catalyst for an original American art form: country music. In the Country of Country is an exhilarating transcontinental journey from Maces Springs, Virginia, home of The Carter Family, to Bakersfield, California, where Buck Owens held sway and railway crossings where Doc Watson, Sara Carter, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, and Jimmie Rodgers (The Father of Country Music) first learned to play their guitars, fiddles, and mandolins. Nicholas Dawidoff has traveled to the places where country music first emerged and talked to the musicians, writers, and singers who created this deceptively simple-worded, string- driven, melodic music. Here are indelible portraits of Johnny Cash, behind whose black apparel lies a Faustian dilemma between fame and creativity; Merle Haggard, a man as elusive as he is gifted; Patsy Cline, who would happily curl her girlfriends' hair as she curled their ears with her sailor's mouth; and Harlan Howard, the king of country songwriters. Inherent in Dawidoff's chronicle is a critique of contemporary country music--the pop/rock hybrid known as Hot Country that often stands in sharp contrast to the spirit of old- time country music. In the Country of Country is a book full of wonderful stories that together reveal an underappreciated piece of American culture. The picture captions and end material are present including the notes on Sources, Chapter notes of source interviews, articles and misc materials, bibliography, Discography, Index and credits.
How Do You Lose Those Ninth Grade Blues?
by Barthe DeclementsWill Elsie be able to accept her (beautiful!) new self? Elsie Edwards, star of Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade, is back! She's a whole lot thinner, but not much happier. Sure, she's got a lot of friends now; and she's going out with Craddoc, one of the cutest guys in the whole high school. But even though Elsie looks like "a thin Dolly Parton," she still can't quite believe that Craddoc really likes her. Her insecurity threatens to ruin their relationship. To make matters worse, Elsie's mother just won't realize that Elsie's growing up and doesn't need to be watched over all the time. It all adds up to make ninth grade a lot more trouble than Elsie had counted on.
Liar, Liar
by Barthe DeclementsGretchen Griswald thinks everything about her best friend, Susan November, is neat. Her name, her red, curly hair, her cool clothes. Actually, most of the kids in Gretchen's class are so nice that the class is given a first year teacher, Ms. Cooper. She's not much on discipline. That is, until new kid Marybelle Jackson shaves off a good part of Susan's hair with a trimmer during class. Although Gretchen and her friends are angry with Marybelle, she continues to hang around them, insisting the incident was an accident. She also seems to know a lot about what's going on around school. When Susan suddenly gets ill, it's Marybelle who tells the group that she has hepatitis. With Susan out of school for several weeks, Gretchen feels lost--but Marybelle is anxious to be friends. She tells Gretchen that she saw Susan steal a pair of earrings at the mall. Susan says they belong to her sister, but Gretchen knows that she never lets Susan borrow her things. Whom should she believe? Then Susan and her family begin to treat Gretchen strangely, as though she's a criminal. Gretchen grows increasingly more confused and depressed. She believes she has lost Susan's friendship because of another lie. But what is it? Gretchen's brother says that liars eventually trap themselves in their own webs. With his help, Gretchen weaves a plan that will divulge the truth once and for all. In a surprising twist, the liar is cleverly exposed, but the outcome--and the feelings it inspire--are not what Gretchen and her friends expect in this unforgettable slice-of-life novel.
The Little Cow and the Turtle
by Meindert DejongThe Little Cow finds chewing cud and lying around in the pasture dull. So, she searches out adventure. She meets hobos, carries bicycles for children wandering in the woods, and saves a turtle from an oncoming train.
Angel's Mother's Boyfriend
by Judy DeltonTen-year-old Angel finds plenty to worry about when she learns that her mother's new boyfriend is a clown. When Angel's mother begins acting strangely after her vacation, Angel knows it has something to do with the mysterious letters from Washington, D. C. Soon Angel convinces herself that her mother must be in danger for not paying her taxes! Angel swings into action, scheming to earn bail money and creating escape plans. But when it turns out the letters are actually from Rudy, the charming man Mrs. O'Leary met on her vacation, Angel isn't as relieved as she should be. Besides being a threat to their family, he is after all, a professional clown ... Worrywart Angel and her little brother, Rags, will delight old fans and new readers alike as they face an unusual dilemma with typically hilarious results.
Final Notice (Miss Zukas Mystery #6)
by Jo DereskeLibrarian Helma Zukas usually keeps her home as well organized as the library where she works so she never expected a visit from her elderly Aunt Em to turn her life into chaos and provide her with the makings of a hair-raising whodunit. The moment Helma and her fearless friend Ruth arrive at the airport to pick up the slightly dotty dowager, the trouble begins when the dear lady's purse is snatched. Thinking the incident is safely filed away, they are shocked to arrive home with the recovered purse only to discover the dead body of the would-be thief outside Helma's apartment. Helma can't believe her favorite aunt would be involved in anything unsavory but, with a little investigation, she discovers that Aunt Em's life is not quite an open book. It appears that some dark secrets are about to come to light, and unless Helma can learn the whole story, the final chapters are about to be written as tale of mystery, mayhem...and murder.
The Lone Sentinel
by Jo DereskeTHE LONE SENTINEL Erik knew he was doing wrong. His father had been killed and he'd failed to report it. Instead, he'd gone on alone caring for the beam that was the Lone Sentinel. The beam protected biosote, a strange growth needed by an alien race, the Helgatites. People of the Earth colony on the planet Azure guarded the biosote in return for material and protection provided by the Helgatites. Erik had lived all his life at the Lone Sentinel. But he knew that Trust Control, the overseers of all the sentinels, would not let him stay there alone. He would have to move to the only city on Azure, New Province. What that would be like he knew too well from videos: too many people, too many buildings, too much to fear. Erik carefully followed all the rules by which the keepers of the sentinels lived. But nothing in his instructions prepared him for the arrival of Willa and Augusta, two runaways from New Province, or for the failure of his radio contact with Trust Control and the unexpected arrival of the Helgatites, who'd come, they said, to give the biosote a special treatment. What was he to do about Augusta and her mysterious sister, Willa? And what was it, really, that the Helgatites were doing? Sometimes it takes more than one head to solve big problems. It took all three of them, Erik, Augusta, and Willa, to discover what was really going on at the Lone Sentinel. And the only possible way to solve it involved more danger than Erik had ever thought he might face, even in New Province.
Miss Zukas And The Raven's Dance (Miss Zukas Mystery #4)
by Jo Dereskean invitation to murder A most unusual death has landed Helma Zukas right in the middle of another murder scene. Stanley Plummer had been cataloging a collection of Native American books for Bellehaven's new Cultural Center when his body was found in the Center's ladies room-stabbed through the heart, and clutching a Barbie doll. Miss Zukas is asked by the library to finish the cataloging. Now she's been asked by the victim-in a letter dated the day he died-to get to the bottom of the mystery. Unable to resist the urge to dig into the facts, Helma becomes convinced there's something hidden in the Center that the murderer wants-and it may be worth killing another cataloger to keep it buried...
Miss Zukas and the Island Murders (Miss Zukas Mystery #2)
by Jo Dereske[From The Back Cover] The ever-conscious Miss Helma Zukas -from Bellehaven, Washington, is not one to renig on a promise-even one made hastily. . . and too long ago to possibly remember! So when an anonymous note in the morning mail reminds her of her vow to bring her high school classmates together for a twenty-year reunion, Miss Zukas begins organizing the perfect celebration ... despite some vague and mysterious warnings about dire consequences. But when a secret saboteur disrupts her well-planned reunion trapping Helma and her old classmates on a fogbound island with a murderer in their midst-the intrepid librarian-sleuth takes charge once again. With a dubious assist from her raffish friend 'Ruth, Miss Zukas is determined to close the books on crimes both current and overdue for solution ... before the killer takes the Ilumni out of circulation permanently.