Life changes at the speed of light After Lisa makes a disastrous pickup for Operation Quickline, the top-secret courier group that she and her partner Sid Hackbirn work for, she realizes it's time for her and Sid to get married. They're already re-building their house and have merged their assets. Sid's given up sleeping around. But then the two have to take custody of Sid's son, Nick, after the boy's mother dies. Suddenly becoming full-time parents to an almost adolescent is hard enough. There's also getting a grieving and clingy Nick settled, planning a wedding with Lisa's mother intent on going hog-wild, and even finding someone to take care of the pets. Sid's and Lisa's lives have gotten far more complicated than either imagined. And that's not counting their little side business. Thanks to the bad pickup, Sid and Lisa are ordered to find a missing operative and get embroiled in an arms-trading scheme. Worse yet, Nick figures out all too quickly that his dad and Lisa don't have a normal job, and it's not long before the spy business becomes a family thing, assuming they all can stay alive long enough.
Who knew collecting cheap serigraphs could cause such trouble? Dancer and aspiring actor Donna Brechter thinks that driving around Delilah Sperling is just the job she needs to be self-supporting and living away from her parents. But Mrs. Sperling isn't just any older woman. She's blind and a private investigator with a nose for murder. When Mrs. Sperling's housekeeper, Glen Weir, picks up a counterfeit print, Mrs. Sperling has Donna drive her and Glen to confront the gallery owner, Josh Stein. But they find Stein dead in his stockroom, instead. Mrs. Sperling "finds" a client and takes on the chase to find Stein's killer and the party behind the counterfeit prints. Could it be Stein's soon-to-be ex-wife? What about his closest competitor? Then there's the flamboyant clothing designer. The suspect list grows. But then Donna finds herself face to face with the man of her dreams, who happens to be Mrs. Sperling's courtesy nephew. Donna is tongue-tied, yet does her best to help her boss. Because while Mrs. Sperling may not be able to see, she's an expert at sniffing out a killer.
When past, present, and future collide Robin Parker does not know what to make of her brother Dean's discovery in the old English castle, namely a strangely modern room with a young woman named Elizabeth inside dressed like she's from the 17th Century. The equipment looks like it could be a suspended animation set-up, and when Robin sends herself to the future from one of the modules, she realizes that Elizabeth has been on suspended animation for almost 500 years, put there by a "magician" named Roger. The three escape the room with a portable time machine in hand, but it's soon clear that Elizabeth is not up to life in the 21st Century. Robin is also dying to travel back in time, so she makes the decision to take Elizabeth back to England in the 1640s, with Dean in tow. They land in a village similar to Elizabeth's home so as to avoid Roger finding her again. What they don't realize is that there's another traveler from the future - one who is determined to take Elizabeth at all costs.
When the unmentionable stalks the pueblo It starts when the inheritance that Lavina Gaines was to receive is stolen by her brother Timothy. Then an old Indian healing woman is murdered. Winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox wants to find the person responsible for Mama Jane's death, but is also occupied with another killer - the measles. When Lavina's friend Julia Carson dies trying to rid herself of a pregnancy, Lavina asks Maddie's help finding the man responsible for Julia's child. Soon after, Lavina is killed and her murder bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Mama Jane's. The only motive Maddie can find involves Julia's death, which is not the sort of thing one talks about. Not only that, Lavina’s nether garments are missing. How does a proper lady in 1872 get the answers she needs to stop a killer determined to stop her first?
From the popular romantic serial fiction blog - a story of two people desperately trying not to fall in love with each other. Mark just happened to be the newly inaugurated President of the U.S. and Sharon was terrified of being in the public eye. Add in relatives and friends, and there's a conspiracy afoot unlike any other in Washington, DC.
From the popular romantic serial fiction blog - a story of two people desperately trying not to fall in love with each other. He's the newly inaugurated president of the United States. She's one of his top aides. Both Mark Jerguessen and Sharon Wheatly have many good reasons why they do not want that kind of relationship. Mark is a little busy running the country, and he has some secrets from his tragic past that could put Sharon in danger. Sharon has already had her time in the public eye and wants nothing more to do with it. The problem is, she comes from a high-powered, extremely talented family. Her older brother Michael is a rock star. Her younger sisters all excel in their fields. Sharon is pretty talented, herself, speaking ten different languages fluently and skilled in working with governments. She loves high-powered guys. But it's not the right time, never mind that Mark's sister and Sharon's colleagues are all conspiring to get the couple together.
A night of chaos leads to more murders Physician and winemaker Maddie Wilcox has always despaired of how violent Los Angeles is. But one night, in October 1871, the pueblo explodes in a riot and eighteen Chinese men are lynched. Shaken to her core and frustrated that she couldn't have done more to stop the violence, Maddie throws herself into her work, grateful that her three Chinese field hands were safe on her rancho that most terrible of nights. Until one of them is found strangled in her vineyard. At first, the murder seems like a random act against the scapegoated Chinese. Then a second of the three Chinese hands is murdered in the same way. Is the killer acting out against the Chinese, in general, or only those working on Maddie's rancho? And if the latter, what does the killer expect to get? A distinctive boot print and a bit of jewelry are all Maddie and her friends have to go on, as Maddie continues to battle the usual panoply of injuries and rampant diseases that plague the pueblo. Surrounded by prejudice, daunted by her own limitations, Maddie's hold on her passions starts slipping. Can she keep her temper in check long enough to find the killer?
Finally, it's real love... Now what? Lisa Wycherly's surprise birthday party ends in a terrifying disaster when she's kidnapped off the street. Her partner, Sid Hackbirn, is so devastated that he loses his interest in sleeping around - the one thing keeping the two of them apart. The kidnapping gets messy enough when it comes to light that the kidnappers got the wrong target. There's also a defecting KGB agent playing games with the CIA, who are involved with the Colombian kidnappers. Then Lisa's recovery sets in motion a whole other set of challenges as she and Sid deal with her trauma and try to get the KGB agent under control, only to find that Sid's randy past will continue to haunt them. The only thing worse? Figuring out how to be a couple.
It's October, 1870, and once again, violence has errupted on the streets of Los Angeles. This time, City Marshal gets into a gunfight with his deputy Joseph Dye, and is severely wounded. Fortunately, winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox is on the scene to take care of the marshal. But the next day, she finds that the marshal has been smothered in his bed. The morning after the marshal's death, red paint is splashed all over the front porch of his home, and a list of his sins posted on the front.The list of people with grievances against the fiery-tempered marshal is long. But then another prominent citizen has his sins posted and house front splattered. Maddie takes an interest in the vandalism in the hopes of finding Marshal Warren's killer. But she soon finds out that she is up against a killer driven by a profound longing, and who is prepared to do the worst to keep that most basic of human desires: a home.
The color of passion is Blood Red. For Freddie Little, it is not only the color of the family heirloom ruby necklace, it is the color of his deep love for his wife, Kathy Briscow Little. When Kathy wears the gem to a gala party, relatives and friends start seeing red. But only one is angry enough to kill Freddie's father. Freddie remains oddly reluctant to search for his father's killer, and Kathy gets worried that perhaps the killer is far closer to them than they thought. Freddie's mother, Gloria, takes up the chase, aided and abetted by his sister Honoria. Freddie feels all too relieved when the police arrest a couple of former laborers at the family business. But then his Uncle Stephen is killed and the police have good reason to believe that the shooter was the same person who killed Freddie's father. Worse yet, Kathy's younger brother is kidnapped, and then there is the daring burglary of Freddie's apartment while everyone is asleep inside. Already feeling the weight of his new role as family patriarch, Freddie works to squeeze in investigation among all the other demands on his time. There's help from Honoria and her friend Ivy. Freddie's dear friend Lowell provides disturbing evidence about Freddie's father. But it's Freddie's demons that get the better of him and it takes almost losing Kathy to bring him to his senses and a renewed sense of purpose. With luck, it will be in time to save all that he holds dear.
A deadly amateur, a top-secret formula, and full mating plumage. In the sixth Operation Quickline story, operatives Lisa Wycherly and Sid Hackbirn are sent undercover at a small arts college in Wisconsin. The job is to find out who is stealing a top-secret chemical formula being developed by someone on the faculty. The catch is that no one knows who the developer is, let alone who is stealing the formula or even how. The other catch is that Lisa's cover is as an English professor and Sid's is as an older student, which means the two aren't working side-by-side. With their relationship still at an impasse, Lisa sees an opportunity to find out just how good she is on her own. Faculty politics are rank enough, not to mention the food in the Faculty Dining Room. There's also trying to figure out which, if any, of her colleagues has been working with the KGB. Then managing three wet-behind-the-ears fellow operatives. The one thing Lisa can't do is let on just how much in love she is with her gorgeous Basic Composition student.
She was someone no one would suspect Heading for a simple pickup in Stateline, Nevada, Lisa Wycherly was nervous. She and Sid Hackbirn, her partner in Operation Quickline, had been asked to not hide behind their usual aliases, but work as themselves. After all, Lisa's hometown was just across the state line in South Lake Tahoe, and thanks to her good girl reputation in town, odds were good no one would pick her as an undercover counter-espionage operative. But it was Sid who first ran into an old friend from high school - his teacher and former lover Della Riordan, who was murdered shortly after leaving Sid. Then Lisa found a small box filled with cocaine instead of the coded instructions she'd been expecting from the pickup. Sid got tagged as the main suspect in Riordan's murder, and took full advantage of all the women who threw themselves at him as a result. With Sid cutting a randy swathe through the female population on both sides of the state line, the last thing Lisa needed was her parents coming home early from a trip. The only thing worse was finding out that her father's store might be at the center of a drug ring, let alone harboring a spy selling secrets to the other side. With a crooked cop bent on setting Sid and Lisa up for the murder and an enemy agent spying on them, keeping their secret from Lisa's family will be almost as hard as staying out of jail.
When no one can see the cry for help Undercover operatives Sid Hackbirn and Lisa Wycherly face many of the usual problems of newlywed parents, including raising their son, Nick, a pre-teen dealing with a pack of girls chasing him and an exploding appetite. But they also get a more ticklish job than usual - protecting one of the engineers working on a satellite with some new capabilities. What makes it ticklish is that the engineer is Sid and Lisa’s good friend Esther Nguyen, and not only do they need to protect her from anti-nuke protesters and even the KGB, Sid and Lisa need to draft Esther and her almost husband Frank into the ultra top-secret Operation Quickline, and then train them. Add Sid’s aunt suddenly moving to Los Angeles, that their good friend’s wife is dying, and a host of parents who can’t deal with Sid, Lisa, and Nick all having different last names, and it’s no wonder Lisa finds adjusting to being a wife and mother harder than she imagined. And she’s not the only one quietly screaming for help.
They only thought they knew what they were getting into. It was September, 1982. Broke and desperate, Lisa Wycherly thought she was signing on as simply a secretary for wealthy freelance writer Sid Hackbirn. Okay, it was a live-in position, which was weird. But even though Lisa believed sex belonged in marriage, and Sid believed in free love and slept around, she went for it. However, Lisa soon noticed that things around Sid's house were a little odd, and the oddities were a little too planned to be mere eccentricity. Sid had warned her that he could be dangerous to know. Lisa stayed on only to find that Sid was really an undercover operative for a super-secret organization called Operation Quickline, and that she had been recruited, as well. Soon she was ditching tails, picking up packages, and fighting off bad guys. As much as her life had been turned upside down, she was about to turn Sid's life upside down, too. And he had no idea it was coming.
In this sequel to a beloved fairy tale, an all-too convenient accident supposedly kills a young king and his family. Steffan and Ella and their children are, however, very much alive, but forced into hiding lest Steffan's cousin, Queen Lanicia, wipes them out. Claiming to be a merchant fallen from the new queen's favor, Steffan takes up farming in a small village. He and Ella raise their growing, and expanding, family, keeping their secret while forming friendships and building the support Steffan will need to regain his throne. Fortunately, there is just a bit of magic helping them along. But will it be enough?
Settling the Present, Finding the Future, Chasing the Past Robin Parker, her brother Dean, and Elizabeth, the young woman they tried to rescue in But World Enough and Time, have come home just in time for Elizabeth to give birth to Dean's baby girl. It looks like Donald Long, a time traveler from the future, will not be chasing them. At least, Roger York, another time traveler, has told Robin that they are safe enough. Now, Robin has plenty of work to do to acclimate Elizabeth to life in the Twenty-First Century. Elizabeth is feeling overwhelmed. Dean is determined to step up and do what he needs to do to support his new little family. Robin is feeling lost and longing to time travel again. When Dean insists on making good on his promise to marry Elizabeth by taking her to Las Vegas, Robin is worried. But the lights of The Strip are not half the problem. Donald Long shows up, and he's making the worst kind of trouble. Robin flees with the timetron, only to discover that things are just as bad as Roger had told her. Maybe even worse. And there is one more trip into the past that will hopefully set Donald right.
There's always a way in... Jannie Miller finds people. The only person she can't find is her mother, who supposedly perished in a tornado, but is deep in hiding from Jannie's abusive father. When Jannie's ex-boyfriend, FBI agent Brent Mikkelson, hires Jannie to find Tanya Coleman, a young witness to a vicious murder, he unwittingly drags Jannie into the violence. Set in Los Angeles, Jannie soon suspects that Tanya might have more to her than anyone would guess. She's been working for Wheeling Corp., a think tank that only pretends to be benevolent. When Jannie gets too close, her mother comes out of hiding to warn Jannie off, but then accepts her daughter into the ragtag group of ethical computer hackers intent on bringing Wheeling down. It's not just Wheeling's unethical behavior. The group has discovered that the think tank is writing a virus that could bring the American economy to its knees. It's a race against time and a hired assassin, as Jannie comes to know a mother who never really abandoned her and faces a boyfriend who couldn't be there for her.
It doesn't mean they're not out to get you Lisa Wycherly and Sid Hackbirn find themselves up against a relentless enemy and about to get the shock of their lives in book nine of the Operation Quickline series. First, there's the wedding. Not Sid and Lisa's, but her cousin Maggie's, where Sid and his son, Nick, raise all sorts of eyebrows. Then there's the attempt on Sid's life. Then Sid and Lisa's good friends are recruited into their top secret organization. Then there's Lisa's sister being jealous, and a new house getting close to being ready, and Sid and Lisa's own wedding to work on, and Nick bringing home every bug there is at his new school and sharing it with his parents. Being highly-trained top secret counter-intelligence agents will only help so far as the circles of family complications ripple outward. Sid and Lisa try to cope with the multiple surprises as they train their two friends and track down a ruthless killer determined to take both of them out.
In December, 1924, there were plenty of people who wanted to see Frank Selby dead. He was a cad when it came to women. His illegal trade in booze could have made him the target of mobsters.. But it was his laziness that made Kathy Briscow the main suspect in his murder. Kathy, an ambitious secretary at Healcroft House, Publishers, was doing Selby's work for him, including editing The Old Money Story, by dilettante millionaire Freddie Little. Freddie had good reason to believe that Kathy was innocent. But getting the police to look at Frank's wealthy cousin Percy was going to be all but impossible. And there were other suspects, such as Frank Selby's former secretary, who had been fired without cause, not to mention competing rum runners, or even Mr. Healcroft, the head of the publishing house. So Freddie and Kathy join forces to dig up the evidence by combing the streets and speakeasies of New York City, only to become targets, themselves, for a killer with an obsession
Some secrets are better kept In the exciting sequel to Bring Into Bondage, socialite author Freddie Little and his editor and not-so-blushing bride Kathy Briscow are happily enjoying their newly-married bliss when Freddie's sister, Honoria, finds a dead body in her apartment. Honoria had taken the young woman in as a favor to a friend but it soon becomes clear that the favor caught up. Honoria goes into hiding and Freddie and Kathy take up a chase that will lead all three of them across the country and into a conspiracy that, no matter how unbelievable, could get them all killed.
The stage is set for a major undercover operation Three students have been murdered on a university campus in Kansas. Sid Hackbirn, Lisa Wycherly, and their son Nick Flaherty are sent in as the Devereaux family to find the killer. The local police can’t know that the three students were also KGB moles finishing their training to assimilate into American society. Lisa poses as a theatre student to protect the KGB operative overseeing the student moles. Sid takes on teaching history to coordinate with the rest of their team. Between faculty politics, Sid’s chauvinistic colleagues, and Lisa and Nick getting cast in a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, there are plenty of suspects and little time to check them out. With the help of their teammates, Sid and Lisa take on one of their most challenging cases yet.
One inoffensive drunkard. So many reasons to kill him. A bold shooting ends the life of Mr. Hewitt, the buggy manufacturer on a cold night in December, 1872. Physician and winemaker Maddie Wilcox is particularly puzzled, since it was clear that Mr. Hewitt was soon to die of his own dissipation. Nonetheless, she is drawn into searching out his killer by the grieving widow. Maddie soon finds out that there were several people who might have been offended by Mr. Hewitt, including those hoping to bring the Southern Pacific railroad to Los Angeles. As Maddie battles the usual winter colds and her own homesickness, the local men begin vying for her affections. Soon, Maddie realizes that she is searching for a killer determined to win the prize, no matter what the cost.
In Los Angeles in 1870, life was cheap and water could cost you everything. Then, the most powerful man in town was the Zanjero, or water overseer. And he was often the most corrupt, as well. When Zanjero Bert Rivers turns up dead in the irrigation ditch, or zanja, leading to young widow Maddie Wilcox's vineyards, Maddie has the odd feeling he was murdered. Then the undertaker's wife, Mrs. Sutton, confirms that Rivers was shot, and not just hit on the head. Maddie finds herself drawn into finding the killer, first to see justice done, and then to save the skin of the one person she knows did not do it - the town's most infamous madam, Regina Medina. Maddie quickly discovers that Mr. Rivers was not the kind, upstanding civic benefactor he presented himself as, but a most despicable man who preyed on the weak and vulnerable, and cheated everyone else. With nearly everyone having a reason to kill the zanjero, Maddie stumbles on more than a few secrets and the terrible truth about the people she thought were her friends.
The only thing more dangerous than understanding each other is the trip they're on The worst has happened. There's been a leak in the courier system that is Operation Quickline, and Lisa Wycherly and Sid Hackbirn are sent to plug it. This is no straight-up investigation. The two are being used as bait for a complex trap. Lisa and Sid make their way around the country, starting in Washington, DC. Lisa eats her way through Manhattan, Sid puts up with rides at DisneyWorld, Florida. But the tension really ratchets up in New Orleans, when Lisa is spotted by a pair of thugs determined to kill her. The trail of dead bodies grows, but something else is happening. Sid and Lisa learn not just to accept each other, in spite of their very differing values. They try to understand each other, which means learning about their childhoods and how they became the people they are. Surviving the challenges to their respective values is hard enough. The bigger challenge will be to stay alive long enough to return home to their normal lives.
Lisa Wycherly's secret life as a spy has always made things tricky for her social life. When her boyfriend, George Hernandez, proposes, she shocks everyone, including herself, by accepting. And no one is less thrilled by the news than Lisa's boss and housemate, Sid Hackbirn. Not that he's saying so, of course. The new situation complicates their latest case - trying to follow and capture a double agent that is trying to bring down Operation Quickline, the ultra-secret espionage agency that Sid and Lisa work for. Then Sid gets kidnapped and rescued. George starts to resent Lisa not telling him everything that's going on in her life. Lisa is ready to give up on men altogether, only to find that Sid has another bombshell to drop on her. Confused and frustrated, Lisa has to keep her head together long enough to work the case - which soon blows up into the worst of all possible nightmares.
The Malice Domestic anthology series returns with a new take on mysteries in the Agatha Christie tradition—original tales with a theatrical bent! Included are: Preface, by Ellen Hart The Rock Star, by Frances Aylor Perfectly Awry, by Anne Louise Bannon The Ghost in Balcony B, by Michele Bazan Reed Drama-Rama Flip Flop, by Cindy Brown It’s Not O.K. Corral, by M. E. Browning Mary-Alice Imagines Her Life as a Movie, by Karen Cantwell The Ghost of Hamnet, by R. M. Chastleton When the Wind is Southerly, by Leone Ciporin Raising Cain, by Carla Coupe Death of Another Hero, by Susan Daly The Stars Are Fire, by Phillip DePoy Death Plays the Palace, by Margaret Dumas The Homicidal Understudy, by Elizabeth Elwood No Final Act, by Daryl Wood Gerber Deus Ex Machina, by B. J. Graf The Nine Deaths in Hamlet?, by A. P. Jamison Heat Wave, by Maureen Jennings Thus With a Kiss, by Margaret Lucke Such Tricks As These, by Jaquelyn Lyman-Thomas Final Curtain, by Sharon Lynn The Mask, by Cheryl Marceau The Ultimate Tie-Breaker, by Deborah Maxey True Crime, by Adam Meyer A Star Goes Dark, by Raquel V. Reyes Not Your Lolita, by Merrilee Robson A Death in Shubert Alley, by Lee Sauer Dance on Fire, by Shawn Reilly Simmons Missed Cue, by Lynn Slaughter You Know How Actresses Are, by C. M. Surrisi Five Words, by Elaine Togneri Ask Fred the Usher, by Arthur Vidro Death Takes a Bow, by Mo Walsh Deal With the Devil, by James Lincoln Warren Method for Murder, by Carol L. Wright
Some secrets are better kept In the exciting sequel to Bring Into Bondage, socialite author Freddie Little and his editor and not-so-blushing bride Kathy Briscow are happily enjoying their newly-married bliss when Freddie's sister, Honoria, finds a dead body in her apartment. Honoria had taken the young woman in as a favor to a friend but it soon becomes clear that the favor caught up. Honoria goes into hiding and Freddie and Kathy take up a chase that will lead all three of them across the country and into a conspiracy that, no matter how unbelievable, could get them all killed.
The Malice Domestic anthology series returns with a new take on mysteries in the Agatha Christie tradition—original tales with a theatrical bent! Included are: Preface, by Ellen Hart The Rock Star, by Frances Aylor Perfectly Awry, by Anne Louise Bannon The Ghost in Balcony B, by Michele Bazan Reed Drama-Rama Flip Flop, by Cindy Brown It’s Not O.K. Corral, by M. E. Browning Mary-Alice Imagines Her Life as a Movie, by Karen Cantwell The Ghost of Hamnet, by R. M. Chastleton When the Wind is Southerly, by Leone Ciporin Raising Cain, by Carla Coupe Death of Another Hero, by Susan Daly The Stars Are Fire, by Phillip DePoy Death Plays the Palace, by Margaret Dumas The Homicidal Understudy, by Elizabeth Elwood No Final Act, by Daryl Wood Gerber Deus Ex Machina, by B. J. Graf The Nine Deaths in Hamlet?, by A. P. Jamison Heat Wave, by Maureen Jennings Thus With a Kiss, by Margaret Lucke Such Tricks As These, by Jaquelyn Lyman-Thomas Final Curtain, by Sharon Lynn The Mask, by Cheryl Marceau The Ultimate Tie-Breaker, by Deborah Maxey True Crime, by Adam Meyer A Star Goes Dark, by Raquel V. Reyes Not Your Lolita, by Merrilee Robson A Death in Shubert Alley, by Lee Sauer Dance on Fire, by Shawn Reilly Simmons Missed Cue, by Lynn Slaughter You Know How Actresses Are, by C. M. Surrisi Five Words, by Elaine Togneri Ask Fred the Usher, by Arthur Vidro Death Takes a Bow, by Mo Walsh Deal With the Devil, by James Lincoln Warren Method for Murder, by Carol L. Wright
Lisa Wycherly's secret life as a spy has always made things tricky for her social life. When her boyfriend, George Hernandez, proposes, she shocks everyone, including herself, by accepting. And no one is less thrilled by the news than Lisa's boss and housemate, Sid Hackbirn. Not that he's saying so, of course. The new situation complicates their latest case - trying to follow and capture a double agent that is trying to bring down Operation Quickline, the ultra-secret espionage agency that Sid and Lisa work for. Then Sid gets kidnapped and rescued. George starts to resent Lisa not telling him everything that's going on in her life. Lisa is ready to give up on men altogether, only to find that Sid has another bombshell to drop on her. Confused and frustrated, Lisa has to keep her head together long enough to work the case - which soon blows up into the worst of all possible nightmares.
In December, 1924, there were plenty of people who wanted to see Frank Selby dead. He was a cad when it came to women. His illegal trade in booze could have made him the target of mobsters.. But it was his laziness that made Kathy Briscow the main suspect in his murder. Kathy, an ambitious secretary at Healcroft House, Publishers, was doing Selby's work for him, including editing The Old Money Story, by dilettante millionaire Freddie Little. Freddie had good reason to believe that Kathy was innocent. But getting the police to look at Frank's wealthy cousin Percy was going to be all but impossible. And there were other suspects, such as Frank Selby's former secretary, who had been fired without cause, not to mention competing rum runners, or even Mr. Healcroft, the head of the publishing house. So Freddie and Kathy join forces to dig up the evidence by combing the streets and speakeasies of New York City, only to become targets, themselves, for a killer with an obsession
From the popular romantic serial fiction blog - a story of two people desperately trying not to fall in love with each other. He's the newly inaugurated president of the United States. She's one of his top aides. Both Mark Jerguessen and Sharon Wheatly have many good reasons why they do not want that kind of relationship. Mark is a little busy running the country, and he has some secrets from his tragic past that could put Sharon in danger. Sharon has already had her time in the public eye and wants nothing more to do with it. The problem is, she comes from a high-powered, extremely talented family. Her older brother Michael is a rock star. Her younger sisters all excel in their fields. Sharon is pretty talented, herself, speaking ten different languages fluently and skilled in working with governments. She loves high-powered guys. But it's not the right time, never mind that Mark's sister and Sharon's colleagues are all conspiring to get the couple together.
It's October, 1870, and once again, violence has errupted on the streets of Los Angeles. This time, City Marshal gets into a gunfight with his deputy Joseph Dye, and is severely wounded. Fortunately, winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox is on the scene to take care of the marshal. But the next day, she finds that the marshal has been smothered in his bed. The morning after the marshal's death, red paint is splashed all over the front porch of his home, and a list of his sins posted on the front.The list of people with grievances against the fiery-tempered marshal is long. But then another prominent citizen has his sins posted and house front splattered. Maddie takes an interest in the vandalism in the hopes of finding Marshal Warren's killer. But she soon finds out that she is up against a killer driven by a profound longing, and who is prepared to do the worst to keep that most basic of human desires: a home.
A night of chaos leads to more murders Physician and winemaker Maddie Wilcox has always despaired of how violent Los Angeles is. But one night, in October 1871, the pueblo explodes in a riot and eighteen Chinese men are lynched. Shaken to her core and frustrated that she couldn't have done more to stop the violence, Maddie throws herself into her work, grateful that her three Chinese field hands were safe on her rancho that most terrible of nights. Until one of them is found strangled in her vineyard. At first, the murder seems like a random act against the scapegoated Chinese. Then a second of the three Chinese hands is murdered in the same way. Is the killer acting out against the Chinese, in general, or only those working on Maddie's rancho? And if the latter, what does the killer expect to get? A distinctive boot print and a bit of jewelry are all Maddie and her friends have to go on, as Maddie continues to battle the usual panoply of injuries and rampant diseases that plague the pueblo. Surrounded by prejudice, daunted by her own limitations, Maddie's hold on her passions starts slipping. Can she keep her temper in check long enough to find the killer?
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