Showing results by narrator "Johanna Parker" in All Categories

Women are expected to be many things. They should be creative, but not crazy; passionate, but not angry. They should be fertile, feminine and self-reliant, not barren, butch or solitary. Women, in other words, are caught between social expectations and a much more complicated reality. In The Defiant Middle, Kaya Oakes draws on the wisdom of women mystics and explores how transitional eras or living in marginalized female identities can be both spiritually challenging and wonderfully freeing, ultimately resulting in a reinvented way of seeing the world and changing it.

I'm a handyman in the Daniel Boone National Park. My main employer is Mae West at the Happy Trails Campground. When I got a phone call to take down some trees on this guy's property for a side hustle, I jumped at the chance. That's one of the biggest money making jobs around these parts. Unfortunately I got hauled off to jail after I was accused of being part of an illegal logging crew. Simple enough, I gave Sheriff Hank Sharp the name of the man who hired me, only he was found murdered by one of my tools.

If Tipsy Collins learned one thing from her divorce, it’s that everyone in Charleston is a little crazy - even if they’re already dead. Tipsy, a gifted artist, cannot ignore her nutty friends or her vindictive ex-husband, but as a lifelong reluctant clairvoyant, she has always avoided dead people. When Tipsy and her three children move into the house on Bennett Street, she realizes that some ghosts won’t be ignored. Till death do us part didn’t pan out for Jane and Henry Mott, who have haunted the house for nearly a century.

Clairvoyant single mom Tipsy Collins is easing into a post-divorce new normal. She has solved a century-old murder mystery and brought peace to her house. She’s rebuilding her artistic career and co-parenting with her ornery ex-husband. She’s hopeful that her boyfriend is Mr. Right. Mercurial phantom Henry Mott still haunts her house, but he’s become a dear friend. A series of sudden financial and personal setbacks leave her feeling like she’s back to square one, until a new friendship offers unexpected financial salvation.

I haven't seen Stanley Shelton since the flamingo keychain with the campervan key dangled from his fingertips as he ripped the Maserati keys out of my grip after my now-dead ex-husband left me broke and penniless, until now. Stanley claims the Diamond Swamp Mob is after him and that he needs my help. Something about my past, but I didn't take him too seriously until someone was murdered in Stanley's rented room at the Milkery. The person just so happened to have a tattoo I've seen before.

Rita Farmer knows exactly how hard it is to break into the movie business. Acting was the big dream that brought her out to LA in the first place. And while she never made the red carpet, that big dream did turn into a modest profession that kept her and her son afloat. So from time to time she'll lend her talents as a favor.

Rita Farmer knows what it feels like to be flat broke. Even now, when studying to be a lawyer, Rita is so far in debt that she has to scrounge for acting jobs to keep herself and her son afloat. Decked out in police uniform as an extra on a low-budget movie shoot, she wanders into a rough part of town and is pulled into a vicious assault. Rita chases off the two men but doesn't escape unscathed, and the boy they attacked isn't out of danger yet. His injuries could last the rest of his life.

Cameron Cripps Hayman is on vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula, taking a break from life as an amateur sleuth in Metamora, Indiana. With her crew back home, Cameron relaxes by the pool, walks along the beach, and tours Mayan ruins - until her whole trip gets ruined by a murder. She should've known something was up when a little chihuahua started following her around the resort. When Cameron follows the dog to a secluded area of rocks and palm trees, she discovers a new acquaintance lying dead....

When Judge Lundstrom is murdered in her office with her very own gavel leaving her little Pekingese behind, Cam and her crew set out to solve the case. But with Canal Days keeping her team busy, and a falling out between her last two Action Agency members, Cam finds herself searching for a new partner in crime. Josie Jensen, a mobile vet in town for the weekend, fits the bill. Between Josie's keen intuition and her knowledge of the shady bird conservation group that seems to be running the county election for judge, the two of them set out to catch the killer before he flies the coop!

The little canal town is known for its grist mill, antique shops, and bed and breakfasts, not for hosting a parade of noisy motorcycles. Cameron Cripps Hayman's neighbors are up in arms about the Night Hounds Motorcycle Club and even start a petition to get the mayor to ban the new establishment. But the mayor says he doesn't have the power to kick a business owner out, and there's nothing in the town statutes against opening a bar.

More than any other cop in Acapulco, Emilia Cruz has reason to be shaken by the execution-style murders of three law enforcement officers in as many weeks. When her partner Franco Silvio's wife is killed, it's obvious to Emilia that the murders are connected and she could be the cop killer's next target. She expects to join a task force to investigate but is reassigned instead. Her new police unit is a political time bomb championed by Acapulco's ambitious mayor and overseen by a shady union strongman. Corruption and paranoia rule the day.

When Emilia discovers a human finger, sold as a relic of a famous Mexican martyr, it seems to be evidence of a gruesome kidnapping. It also triggers memories of a painful episode Emilia won't share with gringo hotel manager Kurt Rucker. Struggling with her past, Emilia is plunged into danger as she uncovers how many times the finger was bought and sold before ending up in a posh store. Meanwhile, a rare type of heroin connects to a cruise ship murder, promising more drug war violence for Acapulco's already blood-soaked streets.

Terrified by her nightmares of the restaurant fire and shaken by norteamericano hotel manager Kurt Rucker's possible move, Emilia Cruz must catch a violent firebomber and find a missing girl before the iconic beach city is destroyed. Neither investigation is easy, because the influence and impact of Mexico's drug war is everywhere, just like the salt breeze coming off the ocean. Emilia's police work is soon hijacked by savage political rivalries, a corrupt vice cop, and a woman in prison who knows more than she'll say.

Sweeping listeners from the exclusive corners of sorority life in the South to the frontlines of the drug-fueled, slacker culture in Manhattan in the '90s and early '00s, when Elizabeth is forced to acknowledge her role in the death of a friend in order to mend a broken friendship and save her own life, The Drifter is an unforgettable story about the complexities of friendships and the secrets that can ultimately destroy us.

Kaitlyn O'Reilly, an RN, believed that she'd found love with the charming and well-liked surgeon she'd met at work. Landon Goldburg was kind and attentive, and she thought that they had so much in common. Now that they're engaged, the good doctor has quickly become the man of her nightmares. As he grows more controlling and violent, Kaitlyn wants her freedom.

Harper Bayliss, Hollywood's new favorite starlet, is already feeling overwhelmed by the insecurity of her past, a family that controls her every move, and the stresses that come with her job when a brutal attack from a madman takes that stress to a whole new level. But what neither Harper nor her attacker saw coming was that Nick Martell, a heavily muscled ex-marine, would throw himself in harm's way to save her.

Mattie Wallace has really screwed up this time. Broke and knocked up, she's got all her worldly possessions crammed into six giant trash bags and nowhere to go. Try as she might, Mattie can no longer deny that she really is turning into her mother, a broken alcoholic who never met a bad choice she didn't make. When Mattie gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she's never met, she jumps at this one last chance to turn things around.

Spring 1921. The Great War is over, Prohibition is in full swing, the Depression still years away, and Newport, Rhode Island's glittering summer cottages are inhabited by the gloriously rich families who built them.

Once a teenage runaway, Kate Jennings is finally getting her life together. She's moving to picturesque Shaw Island, Washington, to marry the man of her dreams - billionaire Chase Cole. Chase is everything she could want in a man. He's handsome, smart, and funny...so what if he's 30 years her senior? The only trouble is the media won't put to rest the disappearance of his previous wife.

For Brenda Spahn, entrepreneur and businesswoman, wealth was a lifestyle - until a brush with the law threatened to send her to prison. In those dark moments, Brenda made a promise to God.

Spared incarceration, a renewed Brenda glimpsed into the lives of women serving time in one of the worst places in America - the JuliaTutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. What she saw prompted a God-inspired vision. With a heart to help and a will that couldn't be crushed, Brenda fought the system and overcame tremendous obstacles to take ex-cons into her home.