Showing results by narrator "Thérèse Plummer" in All Categories

Air force pilot Caleb Kelly has come back home with one mission in mind: to propose to the woman whose letters and lucky charm helped him survive his deployment in Afghanistan. But when he finds their apartment empty, with a note saying she's left him, he arrives at her mother's house in rural Alabama less than a week before Kourtney is about to marry another man. Now he's out to win her heart again and gets some unexpected assistance from her younger sister, Alex.

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we'd do to survive the coming zombie plague.

Maggie Fitzgerald and Jake West had a beautiful future planned—until he walked out on her five weeks before their wedding. Years have passed, and now Maggie owns a B&B on the Maine coast. Though she’s never forgotten Jake, she’s created a new life far from her Midwest roots. And if loneliness and what-ifs sometimes bubble to the surface, they’re a small price to pay for her otherwise placid and happy existence.

Investigative reporter Zach Wright isn’t thrilled when he’s pulled from an explosive big-city corruption story and sent to a small town to cover a flood. A bad case of burnout and disillusionment don’t help, either. And he’s definitely not planning to fall in love.

Life as a merchant marine is not for the faint-hearted. People are not easy. For Jozzun, living with a bunch of blunt-brained humans is even more difficult. Especially when less-than-legitimate operations go from bad to worse … The human saying “may you live in interesting times” is starting to make sense to Jozzun. He finds himself wishing he’d considered the consequences of signing up to the crew of the Atlanta. The crew are bound for trouble, or perhaps trouble is just bound for them.

Daria was not having a good day, even before she found herself locked up. Betrayed by her brothers-in-arms, Daria barely escaped being killed in the fallout. Without a friend in the galaxy, she finds herself dragged away for something those treacherous bastards did. What else could go wrong in one day? Help is coming, just not the kind Daria was expecting. A dapper gent she’s never met blasting the doors off her cell pulls Daria deeper into the rabbit hole. She must decide whether to fight the charges against her or make a run for her life with her rescuer.

The Angelos Dominion is done playing coy. Their Red Crow lackeys are pulling out all the stops and things are getting dicey. Lombe, Daira, and Jozzun are going to have to figure things out—even if they have to break a few dynasties to do it. There will be chaos, gunplay, killer robots, and…podding? Don’t ask. Seriously, just don’t.

A letter from a dead man catapults Nichelle Clarke into the biggest story of her career...if she can stay alive long enough to report it. Nichelle Clarke needs a big break. With a new job and a new boss, she's under pressure to find a story that will send papers flying off the racks - and money flying in the door. When she learns that the widow of a beloved athlete is entangled in the opioid crisis, Nichelle sets out to track her down. But the story takes a turn when her interview prospect becomes a suspect - for murder.

When Nichelle Clarke is invited to be the maid of honor in her friends' Virginia Vineyard wedding, she looks forward to the celebration. The storybook ceremony has been planned to the tiniest detail, and the rehearsal dinner is going off without a hitch. Until a dead body is found in a barrel of award-winning Riesling. But when the dust settles, the corpse is no longer Nichelle's biggest worry. There is a growing list of evidence pointing to her friend the groom as the killer. Nichelle doesn't buy it, but finds herself the lone skeptic.

When Richmond police find a young woman's bloody remains spread across a candle-lit altar in an abandoned power plant on the banks of the James River, they give crime reporter Nichelle Clarke an all-access pass in exchange for her help. But the information Nichelle gets from the victim's friends only draws her deeper into the mystery. Where did Jasmine come from? The answer trail stops at the front doors of a sprawling compound in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, where Nichelle finds a secretive cult leader and his devoted following.

When a body is discovered in a high-rise in Richmond, Virginia, crime reporter Nichelle Clarke races to the scene. The victim is a brilliant doctor with an unusual past. But before Nichelle can decide what to make of the murder, the local police radio is filled with a dreaded distress call. There is an active shooter at a nearby hospital. The gunman has taken hostages on a patient floor, and gives the police a single demand. He wants to speak with Nichelle. In person.

T.J. had the world in the palm of his hand. He was handsome. Popular in school. Smart. A stellar athlete. The son of superstar pro quarterback Tony Okerson, he seemed destined to follow in his father's footsteps to a career of gridiron glory. That bright, shining dream ends when T.J.'s lifeless body is found on a rocky shoreline near his family's Chesapeake Bay home.

Evelyn Talbot, a psychiatrist at a maximum-security prison in Alaska, studies some of the world's worst serial killers. But she's about to meet her most elusive patient at Hanover House yet: Dr. Lyman Bishop, aka the Zombie Maker, given his fondness for performing icepick lobotomies on his victims. A brilliant cancer researcher, Bishop is either the most cunning psychopath Evelyn has ever encountered - or he is wrongly convicted.

Here, a girl is not supposed to be a woodcutter. Or be brave enough to walk alone. Here, a wolf is not supposed to love to read. Or be curious enough to meet a human. And here, a story is nothing like the ones you read in books, for the witch can make the most startling tales come alive. All she needs is a girl from the village, a wolf from the forest, and a woodcutter with a nice, sharp axe. So take care, little lambs, if you step into these woods. For in the Puszcza, it is always as dark as the hour between night and dawn - the time old folk call the Wolf Hour.

In this gripping follow-up to Melissa Marr’s lush Seven Black Diamonds, Lily and her friends are forced to reckon with the truth of their own lineage and to protect one of their own, no matter what—or who—comes between them. Now that Lilywhite Abernathy is the heir to the Hidden Lands...

Brek Cuttler has it all: a husband she loves, a daughter she adores, a successful law practice. And then one day everything she has ever known disappears. Brek finds herself standing on a deserted train platform, covered in blood. As she tries to comprehend what is happening to her, a man from...

Stylist Jessica Champlin knows it takes more than a darling goldendoodle to save a marriage. She and her ex-husband, investigative journalist Sebastian Hess, had too many irreconcilable differences for even their beloved dog Baxter to heal. So they've agreed to joint custody, and life has settled into a prickly normalcy.

Nobody really believes in a curse. Until you know the people who disappear. Too much coincidence, you look for reason. Too much death, you grasp for something to blame. Carson pulled Delaney out and he died on the side of the road with her mouth pressed to his. Her air in his body. Troy. She told the cops it was suicide. Didn't matter. The lake released her and grabbed another. But when Decker's father dies in a pool of spilled water on their kitchen floor, all Decker can feel is a slow burning rage. Because he knows that Delaney knew that his dad was going to die.

Jolie Benoit left her old life behind to become an agent of the Underlight. Training under Sergeant Wesley Haukon, she's honing her combat skills, all the while coping with the intense sexual attraction she feels for Hauk. She keeps their friendship casual, but when his high school sweetheart transfers into their division, Jolie finds herself grappling with jealousy. The Underlight gave Hauk a purpose, but he can't escape his past completely.

An unexpected clue to the Order of Ananke's diabolical scheme rattles Jolie Benoit, and she turns to Sargent Wesley Haukton for comfort. It's been years since Hauk took comfort from the touch of another person, though his love for Jolie is deep and powerful. Uncomfortable in his skin, scarred by a terrible fire, he is unable to give in to the pleasures that Jolie so desperately wants to grant him. Meanwhile, the Order is lurking in the shadows - and when they strike, the blow is swift and terrible.