Defiance
For lovers of World War II History and Romance!
As Hitler’s armies overrun France, Rudolf von Schoenenburg, a young Austrian baron, is living in exile in England. Though his true love, Hannah, is engaged to another man, Rudi and Hannah risk their lives together to help rescue thousands of British Troops from Dunkirk. Their powerful love story develops against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain and an old world being blown to pieces.
Rudi’s family and friends suffer under the nightly barrage of bombs and rockets of the London Blitz while he pilots a British fighter plane in what looks like an impossible defense of the small island. Each night is a desperate fight for survival, each dawn a miracle.
While Hannah spends her days and nights helping to provide early warning of German air attacks, she realizes that every hour of every day is precious. Each moment carries the threat of sudden death. As the world around her changes, should Hannah allow her passion for Rudi to overcome promises she made to her dying father in what seems like another lifetime?
WOMEN’S FICTION
Loving Roxie
Roxie Castro comes to Florence, Italy to help her friend Georgia heal after the death of her husband. While there she decides to chase her dream of being an author, collaborating with the gorgeous Professor Stefano Nae in researching the murder of Princess Isabela di Medici. However, when they begin to delve into her history, strange things start happening to Roxie: panic attacks, the resurfacing of buried memories, and a fear that something from her past has come forward to haunt her future.
The professor's help triggers her powerful attraction to him, and this in turn worsens the attacks.The closer they get to solving the mystery surrounding her past, the more tangled her emotions become. Will discovering Roxie’s secret finally free them to explore their newfound feelings or will it snatch away the one chance they have for a lasting love?
Pieces of Paris
Annalisse and Dennis seem to be living the American dream until Annalisse's secret past and the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome threaten to destroy her family.
This skillfully crafted novel explores the long-term effects of personal tragedy in haunting flashbacks of Annalisse's former life — flashbacks that are interwoven with a passionate romance and reveal a person entirely different from the woman Dennis thought he married.
But as each revelation increases the emotional gulf between them, Dennis's investigation of a toxic waster incident ignites the wrath of a former political ally and an industrial firm that will go to any lengths to cover up a shocking crime.
Can Annalisse reconcile her past and present before it's too late? And can Dennis find a way to save his family and the town they've called home?
GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES
Cankered Roots - New Edition
Couple a a spunky young widow with an even spunkier, rifle-toting grandmother and you have RootSearch, Inc., a genealogy business that frequently turns up murder! Alexandra Campbell (spunky widow) thinks that as they do genealogy for a living, it is high time she finds out her family secret. Something went wrong in her family during her adolescence, changing her mother from a Chicago North Shore matron into an alcoholic and a doting father into a workaholic. The moment she graduated from High School, she was sent to the Sorbonne in Paris with a generous bank account and instructions not to return.
It is now fifteen years since she has seen her parents, and she intends to lay the ghost that has separated her family for good. However, as usual in Alex's unpredictable life, things do not go as planned. After an acrimonious fight with her once beloved father, she leaves with only a wallet-sized photograph of a woman she knows nothing about.
That night, Alex's father is killed. Bewildered and grieved that her family can never be whole again, she soon finds out that she is the chief suspect in the murder. With the unflappable Briggie (rifle toting grandmother, Johannah Brigamina Poulson) at her side, she uses all her new genealogical skills, and (with the help of Briggie's deer rifle) discovers a secret so bizarre that she finally understands why her parents wanted her far away and safe.
Join Alex and Briggie in the first of their hair-raising adventures!
Of Deadly Descent - New Edition
Where do You Start Looking for a Missing Ancestor
Without a Name
With Descendants You Share an Inheritance?
At their last known address—The Argonne Forest, France, 1919.
In their previous adventure, Alexandra Campbell and her business partner, Brighamina Poulson, discovered a branch of Alex’s family that was previously unknown. Because of wicked deeds in days gone by, a soldier in World War I who should have been part of Alex’s family was lost. In fact, he was so lost, he didn’t even know his own name!
Through a series of coincidences (and we all know there are no coincidences in genealogy!) they track their man from France to Oxford, and even give him a name. However, upon their arrival in Oxford, before they even contact the man’s descendants, a member of the family is pushed under a bus right before their eyes! It soon becomes evident that the death was connected to the coming legacy. Who knew they were coming to Oxford with news of a fortune? What role does the mysterious Frenchman Etienne play in the dastardly doings? And what about Charles Lamb, a very eligible bachelor, also an heir to the estate?
Briggie is lost without her deer rifle and can’t keep up on the box scores of her Kansas City Royals baseball team. She doesn’t think much of Oxford, either, and is worried about the effect of this center of secular wisdom on Alex. She is even more worried about Charles Lamb.
Tangled Roots - New Edition
Who's Telling the Truth?
Holly Weston, a teenager locked down in drug rehab, claims she's never used drugs, but that her incarceration is all a plot by her parents. Why? To establish her mental incompetency so she won't discover that they've embezzled the fortune she is about to inherit. Her grandmother, a slightly dotty widow, claims that her father was murdered when she was nineteen, after which she dyed her hair platinum, went to Hollywood, and met Clark Gable (and her husband). Holly's mother, a rigid, disapproving figure, tells Alex and Briggie both her her mother and daughter are lying, forbidding them to dig any further among the family's roots.
What in the world are Alex and Briggie up to now? Holly's counselor has hired them to do a genogram or psychological pedigree, to find where the family secrets are hiding. She is convinced Holly's mother is frightened for Holly. Why does Mrs. Weston refuse to acknowledge her father's murder? What is she so afraid of the RootSearch, Inc. team discovering about her family?
What does the family history have to do with: another murder, Holly's disappearance, and the strange trio of middle-aged men who are following Briggie and Alex and her mother?
Alex accepted this case in order to be back with her mother for a while, now that she has emerged from her rehabilitation. A fifteen year estrangement has rendered them strangers, and she feels it her duty to try to mend the rift. Her mother proves to be "pluck to the backbone" as Alex's British suitor, Charles, says. The four of them soon become mired in Holly's unexpectedly tangled roots, with surprising off-shoots surfacing all over the country. Encountering both danger and new friends, they also take responsibility for a slew of eccentric pets. Amidst the action, Alex's love life takes a turn that both baffles and scares her.
Join our genealogical sleuths as they strive, as always, to find out the real truth that is at the "root" of this family's dysfunction and fear, enabling it to take the first steps to healing.
Poisoned Pedigree - New Edition
What would you do if you were told you had “Bad Blood”?
Hire a genealogist, of course! Kerry McNee, a famous balladeer of Scots-Irish folk music wishes to marry and have a family, but has a superstitious fear of the words an old lady in her Ozarks hometown once whispered: “You should never have children, Kerry. You will pass the bad blood to your children.”
Ke
rry hires Alexandra Campbell and Brighamina Poulson (RootSearch, Inc.) to look into this mystery for her in the wilds of Southwest Missouri. She never dreams she is putting them into mortal danger from individuals who will kill rather than reveal the many secrets that have been held for generations.
No sooner do Alex and Briggie begin their investigation, than violence begins with the murder of the “Keeper,” a woman who knows the past of every resident of the town of Trotter’s Bridge. The genealogists call in reinforcements—Alex’s fiance, Charles, Briggie’s elderly swain, Richard—while Kerry and her psychologist, Daniel, (a former flame of Alex’s who is determined not to let her go) decide to join the hunt for the killer as well.
The danger only escalates, along with major trouble in Alex’s relationships with Charles and Daniel. She is unable to untangle her personal life, as murder has never stalked these genealogists so closely, nor been so nearly successful as it is in the woods and caves of this town that time forgot.
The Hidden Branch - New Edition
Heirs, Heirs, Heirs – Which one of these Armenians is the killer?
Could it be Vazden Mardian, II—the World Class surfing champion, with the piratical eye and the tattoo of an ancient Armenian coin on his arm? The coins belonging to the murder victim were the motive for his murder.
Or was it Henry Arkesian—the fanatical professor with an indefatigable lust for anything pertaining to his heritage? He was angry that the victim was leaving his ancient Armenian artifacts to a museum.
Or, perhaps, Gorgeous George, Henry’s brother—an Orange County Estate lawyer with a penchant for Ferraris and expensive real estate who is forever in debt?
Alex endeavors to keep her mind on the case so that the murderer will not benefit from his crime against Paul Mardian, the billionaire inventor of the pop-top can. Feelings run high amid this passionate, attractive family who live the style of the Orange County, California wealthy. However, while trying to find the perpetrator, she almost loses her life (again), and faces a crossroads in her personal life with a due amount of angst.
Here’s a sample chapter from
The Baron and The Bluestocking
{ 1 }
I KNOW A LADY who would be just what you are looking for,” said Lady Trowbridge to her dinner guest, Christian Elliott, Baron Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury blinked. Could she, Lady Trowbridge, the lovely soul he was certain was the love of his life, be serious?
She gave a gentle smile, as though divining his thoughts. “I am speaking of a teacher for the girls’ orphanage, my lord.”
With difficulty, he channeled his thoughts away from Lady Trowbridge’s desirability into his charitable occupation. “Oh, yes? Perhaps you should tell me about her.”
“Her name is Hélène Whitcombe. She is a gentlewoman in reduced circumstances of about four and twenty. The daughter of my sister’s former vicar at Ruisdell Palace. One of eight children.” She leaned forward, her eyes alight with entreaty. “Her father has recently died, so the family has lost the living. The duke is trying to help members of the family find employment and relocate them. Unfortunately, Vicar Whitcombe had a very small estate.”
He cleared his throat. “You recall that I need someone qualified to teach girls with no education. Someone with a gentle, but firm hand, and a degree of charisma, if possible. These poor waifs from the East End need someone who will be an example to them.”
Lady Trowbridge nodded in understanding. When she smiled at him she resembled an angel. Indeed that was the appellation by which she was known to his best friend. How was he going to bear her absence from his life?
She continued, “I think Hélène eminently suitable. She has helped to raise and teach her younger sisters, and her home was an exceptional place of learning. The parish is a small one, and Vicar Whitcombe spent much of his time teaching his four sons and Hélène. He believed strongly in the education of females.” She gave him her saucy smile. “As do I.”
“What, exactly, is she qualified to teach?” He had his doubts about this Hélène. Why? Perhaps because he wanted someone as perfect as Sophie St. Oswald, Viscountess Trowbridge. She would always be his ideal.
“Reading, certainly. Deportment. Such history as they might find interesting. The basic skills needed to run a home. Her mother is the daughter of a noble French émigré and was hopeless at managing a household. Hélène, as the eldest daughter, saw to most everything from the time she was twelve, I understand.” Lady Trowbridge, having finished her custard, folded her napkin and put it beside the small ramekin.
“She sounds as though she has had a dreary life.”
Frank, her husband, intervened. “I have seen the lady, Shrewsbury. She is a stunner. I am certain all the girls will wish to grow to be just like her.”
Shrewsbury raised an eyebrow.
“She is very vivacious,” Lady Trowbridge said with a small laugh. “I can tell you that she actually poked fun at Frank! I think it would be well worth your while to write to the Duke of your interest. Doubtless he can give you a recommendation. Have you any other ladies in mind?”
“I do not know precisely what progress has been made. Your aunt has been managing that part of the endeavor.” His curiosity was roused. What sort of vicar’s daughter would poke fun at a viscount?
“Splendid! I shall send a note round to Aunt Clarice before we depart. It would be better for her to conduct the interview. You are so handsome you might completely overwhelm the poor lady.”
“Steady on!” said Frank. “You are not meant to be making observations like that in front of your husband, Angel.”
“Well, he is very handsome, Frank,” she said with a twinkle. “But that does not mean that you are not even more so, darling.” Sophie put her hand over her husband’s.
Shrewsbury felt a pang at their jesting. This meal could not be over soon enough. Why had he accepted the invitation to dine, thereby consenting to torture himself? He would always wonder if he had met the lovely Sophie before his friend had, if he had had the first opportunity to court her, if the lady would not be his wife instead of Frank’s.
He remembered the morning he and Trowbridge had actually come to blows during the very short courtship. But Sophie had had eyes for no one but her Gorgeous Frank. She had some ridiculous sense that their souls were bound together and that this binding had taken place in some other sphere before the world was. Too much Wordsworth!
Sophie left them to their port, and Shrewsbury faced his friend alone for the first time since the wedding. “You are a lucky bloke, Trowbridge. And though I hate to admit it, she seems to adore you.”
“Do not be blue-deviled, Shrewsbury. It is true that my angel and I suit one another down to the ground and are happy as grigs, but it will be the same for you when you find the lady who will bowl you over.” He paused to light a cigar. “If you’ll pardon an observation, you have always admired Sophie in the way a man does when he is shopping. You have checked off all of the characteristics she has that you most want. You value her.
“But love is different. Rather more about giving than getting. Loving Sophie has taught me to care more for her needs than my own. Don’t carry around your shopping list, Shrewsbury. Burn it. Allow destiny to take hold of you when you suspect it least. Prepare to be surprised.”
This turn in the conversation was unexpected. Whatever he had learned to expect from Frank, it wasn’t advice about women. Balefully, he supposed his friend had earned the right now that he had Sophie.
Because he would not see them again before they left for Vienna, Shrewsbury bade a hearty bon voyage to his friends that night, offering his hope that they would indeed be able to unearth Herr van Beethoven and obtain an audience with him. “I predict the man will compose a concerto for Lady Trowbridge. You must take her violin with you.”
*~*~*
Months later, when the orphanage-cum-school was prepared and the teaching staff hired and housed in Chipping Norton, Shrewsbury accompanied Lady Clarice Man
ton, Lady Shrewsbury’s excellent aunt, on the two-day drive to the wool market town. Lady Clarice, in her role as chief patroness, had organized a series of teas for the purpose of introducing the patrons to the new teaching staff, a prospect which Shrewsbury dreaded. Despite Frank’s assurance that Miss Whitcombe was a stunner, he envisioned young women with shiny round faces, too plain to have caught the eye of a man searching for a bride. Not that he was searching for a bride . . .
“Mrs. Blakeley will be our hostess today. I have always found her one of those women who run a perfect, comfortable home and who loves to entertain. Her husband has done very well in wool.” Lady Clarice said in her usual competent, if seemingly scattered manner. She worked her fan. “Dear me. It is stuffy in the carriage. I wonder if Sophie and Frank will return for the holidays.”
“You were telling me about Mr. Blakeley . . .”
“Yes, Mr. Blakeley has a woolen mill. He has become another patron of the school. Also, since the Blakeley children are all grown and gone, Mrs. Blakeley is donating the use of two of her best bedrooms and an upstairs sitting room for the use of the four schoolteachers. The beds are large enough for them to share.”
A stout lady, wreathed in smiles, greeted Lord Shrewsbury. “Oh my Lord, such a pleasure to meet you, at last. This idea of yours is excellent! There is a shortage of skilled wool artisans as the demand keeps growing for British woolen goods,” she said, reminding him somewhat of an enthusiastic chicken flapping its wings. “We hope that your orphan girls will train to fill the need.”
“I hope so as well, Mrs. Blakeley. That is the plan. First a good scrubbing, then some filling meals, and finally a bit of schooling and coaching in deportment.”
Her Fateful Debut: A Regency Romance (Three Gentlemen of London Book 1) Page 19