~Trapped in the explosive aftermath of Lockerbie, Lark pursues a killer from London to wild Wales.~
In London for a booksellers’ conference, Lark shares a small flat with Ann Veryan, an English teacher from Georgia. While Lark pursues collectible books, Ann explores London for the first time. They’ve struck up a friendship with Milos Vlacek, a Czech refugee waiter from the conference hotel. On their way home from a matinee of Macbeth at the Barbicon, Milos is stabbed on the Underground. Minutes earlier he had given Ann a manuscript to carry for him in her huge needlepoint purse.
What do you do if you’re a foreigner trapped in a British police investigation? Lark sends for husband Jay, who was coming over for a police conference. She also mails a copy of the Czech-language manuscript to her father, who has a colleague capable of translating it. Milos is not dead, but his injuries are grave. When Lark’s landlady is murdered, police suspicion of Lark and Ann intensifies. Jay may arrive to find his wife in the Old Bailey. Clearly Lark has to Do Something.
Questions abound. Who is Milos? Why was he stabbed? What’s in the manuscript? Who would kill an inoffensive elderly Englishwoman in her own hallway? When Milos, still very ill, goes missing, Lark and Ann venture out into the English countryside to find him--with explosive consequences.
~Sometimes it takes a little extra to sell a house. Especially one that's haunted.~
Natalie Dane is struggling. Against the advice of friends and family, she embraced selling real estate, a career that's gone nowhere fast. In fact, the owners of her agency have issued an ultimatum: sell the McAdoo House or clear out your office. The problem? The structure in question is over one-hundred-years old, seriously run down, and, according to potential buyers, has an odd feel to it. Enter Simon Grayson, a man with questionable experience in haunted houses and talents no sensible person should trust. Worse, he's clearly oblivious to Nat's figure flaws, an attitude that flatters as much as alarms her. Focused on saving her career and struggling with low self-esteem, she has used her busy days as an excuse to avoid men. Simon, with his easy smile and blatant compliments, could easily break down her emotional barriers. She knows she'd be smart to avoid him. But times are hard, and Natalie is desperate--so desperate that she hires the guy in spite of his charm and good look.
Can Simon work his magic not only on the house, but on the woman trying to sell it? And what will happen when the job is done and it's time for him to ride his Harley into the sunset?
~There's more to marriage than being in love…~
A Behind the Ranges story.
Luke and Katie Savage, newly married and at the end of a danger-filled and arduous journey, finally reach Boise City, where her family awaits them. They both are tired and ready to rest. Katie is excited because Christmas is next week and they'll spend it with her family. Luke isn't sure he's ready for a family celebration, especially when everyone--perhaps even Katie--is a stranger to him. Holidays should be happy events, but when you're odd man out, it's hard to get into the spirit of the season. But Katie loves him, so Luke will do his best.
~A woman running from her fiancé. A man trying to come to terms with his past. In search of solitude, they end up finding each other.~
A shocking betrayal by the man she thought she loved is forcing Shawna Carlton to make some critical life choices. All she craves is peace and quiet this holiday season. The isolated cabin in the Mt. Hood National Forest seems perfect for reflection. But that’s before she discovers she has a woman-hating neighbor, and the old fishing cabin is home to more than just layers of dust.
Dr. Gregory Harris has his own heart-rending reasons for seeking solitude during the holiday season. What he doesn’t need is a noisy, helpless, forest-challenged city girl moving in next door. Before he know it, he’s chopping her wood, building her fires and letting her use his modern plumbing.
Fresh from the pain of lost love, can two people who sought solitude in the vastness of a forest, begin to heal together?
~Maggie always accompanies her little brothers on Halloween to keep them safe. But even big sis can be tricked.~
Though Maggie Redmond expects to get a wannabe jack o' lantern when she drives her twin brothers to The Pumpkin Patch, she actually winds up with more. Brendon Fletcher, handsome grandson of the owner, can't take his eyes off her. Naturally she's thrilled when he calls her later, asking if he can tag along while she takes the boys trick or treating. Can this be true love? Maybe ... but only if they survive the plans a nefarious black cat has for them.
~A thief and a con artist, Aria, is the only hope for a world that is fast losing its magic to the Black Orb.~
~Lark Dailey's Independence Day holiday turns tragic when her host succumbs to a poisoned cocktail.~
Lark Dailey faces a weekend at the mountain lodge of her mother’s mentor, poet Dai Llewellyn, without enthusiasm, but Lark’s detective-lover Jay finds the proximity of a notorious pot-farm interesting. The setting, a remote Sierra lake, is idyllic, perfect for canoeing and wind-surfing, not to mention fireworks. Neither Lark nor Jay expects the Fourth of July to end in murder.
Surrounded by old friends, ex-lovers, devoted servants--and someone who does not love him--the poet collapses. He has been poisoned by tincture of larkspur in his Campari. The irony is not lost on Lark, whose bookstore is called Larkspur Books, nor on Jay, who is tapped to investigate.
Jay’s investigation is complicated by the murder of two key witnesses and by bizarre embellishments in all three killings. The embellishments suggest that something less straightforward than greed is driving the killer, something like madness. The tangle of suspicion widens to include not only the poet’s weekend guests but even Lark’s charming, book-loving clerk.
Lark worries that her mother, who comes to town after the San Francisco funeral, may be in danger too, because someone does not like poets, and Mary Dailey, a noted poet, is Llewellyn’s literary executor. Her co-executor may have his own reasons for wanting to control the relics of Dai Llewellyn’s past. As Jay awaits a search warrant, a cocktail party of survivors gathers to honor Lark’s mother, and Lark determines to crash it in time to prevent another poisoning. Unfortunately, she’s not sure who the murderer is.
