Showing results by narrator "Johanna Parker" in All Categories

June wedding bells are ringing! Cameron Cripps Hayman is the matron of honor, and her five furry good boys are all ushers, so what could go wrong? The day before the wedding, the new pastor is found hanging from the choir loft. It's ruled a suicide by the police, but Cam and her Action Agency suspect foul play. Cam's police-officer husband warns her to not stir up trouble where none exists, but when the pastor's home is ransacked, it's clear to Cam that she was murdered.

Things are always odd and strange in Metamora, but when the proprietor of the curiosity shop, Odd and Strange Metamora, hosts a spring carnival showing off his collection of oddities, the day goes right in the garbage - or rather, out of the garbage when a raccoon overturns a trash can in the middle of town scattering human bones around the park. When it's discovered that the remains date back over a century, rumors start to run as rampant as the pack of furry bandits taking over the town at night.

The whole town has turned up for the Winter Festival, and Cameron has even managed to get television coverage and an Olympian to host the inaugural games. But the local Native American Council isn't happy about the ski course set up on the earth mounds built by their ancestors and pickets the downhill skiing event. Just when Cameron thinks things couldn't get worse, a night of hot cocoa and an ice-carving competition turns deadly. Ice picks make good murder weapons, and the festival's Olympian host won't be going out for any more medal wins.

Cam is taken aback when she stumbles upon a murdered neighbor behind her sister's shop, Dog Diggity. The timing couldn't be worse, as it's only a week until the store's grand opening during Canal Days, the biggest festival of the year. When the police arrest her handyman, Cameron knows they have the wrong suspect, so she and the rest of her Metamora Action Agency set out to crack the case.

After a hurricane attacks the Crystal Coast, Ruby Mae Jewell, along with her friends and family, will have to deal with more than just the wreckage of harsh weather. When history of the notorious pirate Captain "Bonny" Ann Bonnet catches up to the present, murder and mystery soon follow. Rue discovers that the storm and the discovery of her ship right off the shores of her home area are no coincidence, and she must race to claim the cursed treasure before anyone else gets hurt. Sounds like a good time to call in her friend Charli Goodwin from Honeysuckle Hollow.

In this cozy novella, Quinn Daly and Eric Olafson, the co-proprietors of The Shakespeare Shop, are still processing the fact that they met and befriended Shakespeare's ghost the previous spring. Now it is fall, and they are planning fun activities for the shop, including a Halloween party in which everyone will dress as a Shakespearean character. But when they learn that an anonymous local is planning to auction off a remnant of a manuscript allegedly written in Shakespeare's own hand, they are skeptical and disbelieving.

This short novella introduces two proprietors of an All-Things-Shakespeare shop. Their devotion to the Bard, along with their frequent invocation of his words, brings them to the attention of his ghostly spirit, still roaming the Earth and seeking those who would be uplifted by Art. Shakespeare has an urgent mission after he makes contact: he has determined that a murder has been committed in his name, and he vows to apprehend the blackguard responsible for the deadly deed before the killer can strike again.

Six chefs are preparing to compete in an outdoor tent at Storyton Hall for prizes that will boost their careers - but is there someone who can't stand the heat? It looks that way when one of the contestants is found dead in a pantry packed with two centuries' worth of cookbooks, among other treasures and rarities. Could there be a connection to other recent events in town, like tampering with the costume of a local mascot? Jane isn't sure, but after someone serves a second course of murder, the kitchen must be closed and the killer must be found.

Georgia "Cussy" Hollingsworth thought she’d left small-town drama behind when she traded Kentucky for city life. But when her beloved uncle dies under suspicious circumstances, she's pulled straight back to the last place she wanted to be—right into the middle of a horse and cattle ranch she never asked for and a murder she can't ignore.

August is a loner and prefers it that way. He only took the marriage wager to gain breathing room from his overbearing older brother. Besides, the wagon train still has a long journey before it reaches Oregon. Maybe he'll meet someone who turns his head. Felicity longs for love and family, someone to choose her above all. After a wagon train accident robs her of her voice and leaves her dependent on the kindness of strangers, she finds herself in August's care. And she can't help falling the spell of a man who shows a deep well of kindness and anticipates her every need.

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories turned Norman Maclean into a late-in-life literary phenomenon and then a household name after the success of the Hollywood film based on the title story. Yet fewer know of Maclean's lifelong struggles to reconcile very different parts of himself: the revered teacher and writer in the intellectual hub of Chicago and the Montana man compelled by the wildness and traumas of his home state and family, including the tragic Mann Gulch fire and the murder of his brother.

Beneath the black waters of the Louisiana bayou hides a world of dark mysticism. A world steeped in superstition and the decay of family legacies. A world Rhiannon LeBeau thought she'd left behind fifteen years ago after a summer of tragedy and horror. But following the death of their mother, Rhiannon LeBeau and her younger brother Rhett find themselves drawn back to their crumbling ancestral home deep in the sugarcane farms of Terrebonne Parish. A place full of family secrets and lost memories that will force both siblings to come face to face with the demons of their past . . . and present.

Rachel never wanted to travel into the wilderness. The westward trail has stolen everything from her. Her home. Her family. Her husband. Now a match made out of necessity has trapped her in a marriage with a man she can't stand. Owen likes Rachel about as much as his horse likes a burr under its saddle. She's bossy and stubborn with an independent streak a mile wide. And a baby on the way. He can't help feeling responsible for the prickly mother-to-be. A marriage of convenience is the right thing to do. But that doesn't mean he has to like it.

This high-profile case has everyone vying for glory—the LAPD, OC Sheriff's Department, and the California Bureau of Investigation. But young FBI Agent Constantine 'Con' Striker wants nothing to do with it. Fresh off the high of capturing the Ashley Madison Killer, Con's personal life is in shambles. His mother is unraveling, crying out for his long-deceased father, and his twin sister Valerie has mysteriously vanished.

Jessica Fischer wants nothing more than to build her law practice in small-town Ashton, Georgia. She's well on her way when the local town hero, football coach Frank "Tripp" Wishingham III, hires her to represent him in a paternity suit. Coach is everything Jessica despises—arrogant, sexist, entitled—but it's her job to make him look good in public. This is made doubly difficult when her burgeoning relationship with a local reporter gets in the way of telling the truth.

One of the oldest cities in Texas, Galveston has witnessed more than its share of tragedies. Devastating hurricanes, yellow fever epidemics, fires, a major Civil War battle, and more cast a dark shroud on the city's legacy. Ghostly tales creep throughout the history of famous tourist attractions and historical homes.