Showing results by narrator "Emily Ellet" in All Categories

Antonia Bingham, chef and proprietor of the Windmill Inn, is looking forward to baking goodies for her customers and relaxing after a busy summer. But when a Labor Day visit by two slick Wall Streeters ends with their gruesome deaths in a summer rental house, Antonia gets pulled into the investigation. Soon she's wading through social media, the local nightclub scene, and other unfamiliar haunts of the young and glamorous, all while managing her inn and restaurant.

Few in the community of Whisper Canyon have actually met Jace Daring, a handsome recluse who lives at Aspen Crossroads, the farm at the edge of town. But that doesn't stop the rumors about the multiple women who live with him. He must protect the truth - that his farm-to-table restaurant will provide new livelihoods for women rescued from human trafficking - or he risks the safety and futures of those relying on him. But he can't do it alone.

Most believers support the idea that the Almighty sends mankind messages through angelic thoughts, actions, and interventions. Many believers also admit that the workers of iniquity throw obstacles in the pathway of spiritual seekers. Though the angelic hierarchical structure put forth in The Daystar Letters: Unmasking Screwtape’s Trade Secrets is fantasy, it lends itself to some useful insights about the workings of these two opposing powers, one real and the other supposititious.

What they can’t see can hurt you. In Myra’s world, some people can flicker—become invisible—at will. The ability to flicker is a burden, not a gift. Flickerkin are viewed with suspicion by the ruling Plats: an invisible person might be a spy, a traitor, an assassin. Flickerkin discovered in New Heart City, the Plat capital, can be put to death. Myra, who is part Flickerkin, has never dared to use her inherited power.

Mandy Dyer is more than ready to give up her second career as an amateur sleuth. After all, she has an in-demand dry cleaners to run! But when her cousin Laura comes in and asks for Mandy’s help locating a coat she lost in a restaurant, Mandy can’t say no. Besides, it seems like a fairly harmless investigation—until a hit-and-run driver nearly takes Laura out. And when Mandy heads to Laura’s apartment to cheer her up while she heals from a broken leg, Mandy is suddenly attacked by an unknown assailant.

Learning her dear friend and valued customer Thelma Chadwick is dead is one thing, but when Denver dry cleaner Mandy Dyer discovers the sweet old woman left her a cryptic message and a bag of clothes that Mandy has never seen—nor cleaned—she is awash in suspicion. Thelma knew Mandy had a hand in solving mysteries in town—Was she asking Mandy to use her sleuthing skills to find her killer? And if so, were the unusual buttons that covered the dresses Thelma left in her care some kind of clue?

There’s nothing unusual about a young bride entrusting Mandy Dyer with her wedding dress. Mandy runs a dry cleaners—her customers bring in gowns all the time. But when Mandy realizes the bride-to-be is marrying her womanizing ex-husband, she sees red—especially when she discovers the bride stabbed to death in her bridal suite. With Larry as the prime suspect, Mandy is up to her neck in her ex’s dirty laundry once more. Only this time, the stink of it is even worse.

Mandy Dyer is happy to see her straitlaced customer Ardith Brewster suddenly bringing a fresh, fun new wardrobe into Mandy’s Denver dry cleaners. When Ardith confides she’s got a new man in her life—someone she met at Mandy’s open house, no less—Mandy is delighted for her . . . until Ardith turns up dead. Mandy is sifting through her customers, trying to find someone who matches Ardith’s mystery beau’s well-heeled description, when suddenly another customer is killed.

As a writer, activist, and theology student, Lyndsey Medford was used to critiquing unsustainable medical, environmental, economic, and social systems from a theoretical perspective. But when her autoimmune disorder roared out of remission, she discovered that her own body's systems lived at the very real vortex of all those systems' dysfunction.

When Det. Stan Foster shows up at Mandy Dyer’s dry cleaning shop, Mandy hopes her one-time boyfriend has come back to win her heart. Instead, he soothes her ego by asking for her help with his homicide investigation. But if Stan thinks she’ll walk away from the case after answering his inquiry, he’s dead wrong. Because these days, Mandy is as famous for her amateur sleuthing skills as she is for her freshly pressed clothes. Mandy’s investigation puts her in touch with a colorful cast of characters, from Betty the Bag Lady to Harpo the Mime.

When Mandy Dyer inherits her uncle’s dry cleaners, she knows she’ll be dealing in some pretty grimy business. But when a homeless woman brings in a bloody suit, suddenly Mandy has a foul mess on her hands. Did the suit belong to a murderer—or his victim? Now Mandy is sharing clues with a hunky homicide detective—and trying to discover a little dirt on the killer herself. With one man dead and a potential witness missing, returning this suit to its rightful owner isn’t going to be easy—until Mandy figures out how to make the killer come clean.

Dry cleaning entrepreneur Mandy Dyer has a spotless reputation as a business owner—and as a part-time amateur sleuth. Yet when the body of her sleazy business rival is discovered hanging from a conveyor belt in her cleaning plant, Mandy is the lead suspect. So much for making a good impression on sexy homicide detective Stan Foster. But Mandy isn’t the kind to turn away from a tough spot. Instead, she begins searching for the real culprit, starting with the colorful cast of characters she calls her employees.

Mandy Dyer is feeling the heat—and not just because she’s the owner of Dyer’s Dry Cleaners. When she discovers that her dear friend Kate Bosworth has been strangled by a vintage scarf, Mandy has a real mess on her hands. Days earlier, Kate had brought an antique gown into Dyer’s for a cleaning. The dress was a 1920s Fortuny that Kate claimed was worth thousands, but she’d gotten for a steal—and it may have cost Kate her life.

A Christmas Anthology of several of the best Christmas Novellas you have never heard from authors who were prolific in their time. Including the author of the Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms series, the Little Bear children's series, Charles Dickens & Howard Hughes' award winning novelist/playwright brother.

Rachel Miller is a lawyer and mother of two who’s just as comfortable in a courtroom as she is on the sidelines of a soccer field. Sure, her marriage is on autopilot, her parents are overly involved, and the other suburban moms are just a little bit catty. But if you ask Rachel, life is good. That is until her world is upended when racy photos of her and her high-school boyfriend, the famous actor Jack Bellow—along with his love letters to her—are published in a tabloid, unexpectedly thrusting Rachel into the spotlight.

When wealthy, impulsive summer girl Margot meets hardworking and steady local girl Thea in the summer of 1967, the unlikely pair become fast friends, working alongside one another in a record store and spending every spare moment together. But after an unspeakable incident on one devastating August night, they don’t see one another for ten years…until Margot suddenly reappears in Thea’s life, begging for help and harboring more than one dangerous secret. Thea can’t bring herself to refuse her beloved friend—but she also knows she can’t fully trust her either.

Lilla is on her next mission as a Sybil, when she must travel to the Pada world following the trail of a ruthless murderer. Navigating deadly politics turns increasingly difficult when the Teryn emperor goes missing. Now the Teryn empire is heading towards civil war, and Lilla must uncover who is behind the conspiracy before it's too late. Unfortunately, her success depends on the Proud Pada.

Glenna’s heart sinks just as her boots sink in the mud, when she sees how horrid planet Raghild is. But there is no turning back now. She must forge onward to meet the despised charlatans, aka, mages—the only ones able to help her get rid of the corruption that’s killing her. The sooner she finds the mages, the sooner she can rid herself of the deadly corruption, and of the pesky mage who somehow sneaked his way into her heart.

Starting high school brings big changes for Immie and Jack, who’ve been everything to each other ever since Jack crashed his skateboard into Immie’s yard when they were seven years old. All of a sudden, a game-winning goal catapults Jack into star status with the soccer team, and Immie is meeting new girl friends whose questions are making her wonder about the identity of her father for the first time in her life.

The thing the machines consume is us. Ready to lease out your mind? Or pay for your next meal with involuntary ads? The Closet Full of Time collection contains five short stories that speak to that sinking feeling that we're serving the machines instead of the other way around. That our inventions are taking things we can’t afford to lose.