One Step At A Time

by Brenda Adcock

  Harriett Markham and her lover, Jess Raines have finally settled into a comfortable relationship together following a harrowing and disturbing case when their peaceful life is interrupted by a plea from a high school friend of Harriett’s, who has been arrested for the murder of a fellow teacher. Their investigation drags them both into a past they’d rather forget and forces them to acknowledge their seemingly perfect life might not be quite so perfect to the rest of their family.

  Every family has secrets they’d prefer to not share, even with the people they love most. A trip to Harriett’s home town re-opens old wounds for both Harriett and Jess that will either force their families together again or rip them apart forever.

  ISBN 978-1-61929-374-8

  eISBN 978-1-61929-375-5

  Redress of Grievances

  Harriett Markham is a defense attorney in Austin, Texas, who lost everything eleven years earlier. She had been an associate with a Dallas firm and involved in an affair with a senior partner, Alexis Dunne. Harriett represented a rape/murder client named Jared Wilkes and got the charges dismissed on a technicality. When Wilkes committed a rape and murder after his release, Harriett was devastated. She resigned and moved to Austin, leaving everything behind, including her lover.

  Despite lingering feelings for Alexis, Harriett becomes involved with a sex-offense investigator, Jessie Raines, a woman struggling with

  secrets of her own. Harriett thinks she might finally be happy, but then Alexis re-enters her life. She refers a case of multiple homicide allegedly committed by Sharon Taggart, a woman with no motive for the crimes. Harriett is creeped out by the brutal murders, but reluctantly agrees to handle the defense.

  As Harriett’s team prepares for trial, disturbing information comes to light. Sharon denies any involvement in the crimes, but the evidence against her seems overwhelming. Harriett is plunged into a case rife with twisty psychological motives, questionable sanity, and a client with a complex and disturbing life. Is she guilty or not? And will Harriett’s legal defense bring about justice—or another Wilkes case?

  **Recipient of a 2008 award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, the premiere organization for the support and nourishment of quality lesbian literature. Redress of Grievances won in the category of Lesbian Mystery.**

  ISBN 978-1-932300-86-4

  Gift of the Redeemer

  Jourdaine Troyce is the commandant of the Guardians, her entire life spent training to kill, literally, anyone that poses the slightest threat to her emperor or the royal family. Killing is as natural as breathing.

  Ambreen Prins is a pacifist by nature, killing only as a last resort as she and her young companions fight against the tyranny of the emperor.

  Rowan Shayne is the captain of an Intergalactic ship crewed by all the misfits the Fleet can’t put anywhere else. They aren’t expected to do great things. They’re not even expected to function well enough to do their jobs.

  Alec Travers is one of the best fighter pilots the Fleet has ever seen, especially when flanked by her two closest friends, creating what they call The Furies. But being posted to Captain Shayne’s ship of misfits, out where there are no enemies to fight, is stifling. All she and the other Furies want is to get out there and take down the enemy. Whoever that enemy might be.

  Heartbreak, treachery, evil, and the need for justice bring these four together on an adventure to discover the gift of the Redeemer, and the heroines they are destined to become.

  ISBN: 978-1-61929-360-1

  eISBN: 978-1-61929-361-1

  The Heart of the Mountain

  Lucinda “Lu” Calder is an experienced miner, sent to investigate possible irregularities at Brushy #3, a coal mine owned by her stepfather, in eastern Kentucky. Acting as a transfer from another mine in the West, she is hired as a general miner and mechanic. As the first, and only, female miner at Brushy #3, she puts up with some distrust and hazing from her male counterparts to test her mettle.

  One of the first people she meets is an attractive woman in personnel named Regina Kinlaw. Regina is the single mother of a nine-year-old daughter, who is relentlessly curious. When Regina’s van breaks down, Lu stops to assist and is drawn to the young woman. Even though Regina seems stand-offish and secretive, something about her intrigues Lu. But she has a job to do and can’t allow herself to be distracted by wishful thinking.

  The area surrounding Brushy #3 is a close knit, rural community and Lu finds herself thrown into situations that bring her into more frequent contact with Regina than she planned. They also bring her into contact with a man who believes Regina is his future wife and resents the time Regina spends with Lu. It’s a situation that jeopardizes Lu’s mission, and eventually her life.

  ISBN: 978-1-61929-330-4

  eISBN: 978-1-61929-331-1

  Untouchable

  Dr. Emma Rothenberg is the most feared professor at Overland University beause of her failure rate. Laramie “Ramie” Sunderlund is a senior art major, desperate to earn three lousy English credits to graduate. Thrown together in a battle of wills, the two women grudgingly establish a measure of respect for one another during one long semester.

  Emma is a lonely woman of forty-five who occasionally risks her career with dangerous liaisons. Ramie faces unwanted advances from Rothenberg’s graduate assistant, resulting in an assault that threatens her future as a sculptress.

  Relieved when the semester ends and Ramie leaves to recuperate at home, Emma is suddenly faced with the fact that she misses the woman with curly blonde hair and deep blue eyes who occupied an aisle seat on the third row. She was also a young woman half her age, virtually a child. The notion of anything between them is ridiculous.

  When Ramie returns to the university a decade later as the artist-in-residence, Emma is shocked that the younger woman seems interested in actively pursuing her. Against the objections of parents, friends, and colleagues, and despite their own reservations, what are these two very different women willing to sacrifice to find the happiness both are seeking?

  ISBN: 978-1-61929-210-9

  eISBN: 978-1-61929-209-3

  In the Midnight Hour

  What happens when you wake up to find the woman of your dreams in your bed? All-night radio hostess Desdemona, Queen of the Night draws her listening audience with her sultry, seductive voice, the only thing of value she possesses. During the day she becomes an insecure, unattractive woman named Marsha Barrett, living in a world with too many mirrors. She is comfortable with her obscurity until she meets Colleen Walters, a tall, attractive woman hired to expand her listening audience by selling Desdemona to new markets. When she wakes up in bed with Colleen after a night at a club, Marsha is terrified. A woman like Colleen would never go to bed with a woman like Marsha. She might dream about such a thing, but in the harsh reality of daylight, it would never happen. Beauty is only drawn to beauty and Marsha refuses to believe beauty could ever be drawn to anyone who looks like her. Just as she begins to believe happiness may be possible, the past returns determined to destroy them.

  ISBN: 978-1-61929-188-1

  eISBN: 978-1-61929-187-4

  The Chameleon

  Six years ago Detective Christine Shaw left her happy life and a good job in Texas to follow her libido to New York City. She’s still a cop, but her stewardess girlfriend has flown the coop and Chris hasn’t been able to fill the void. Everything in her life begins to change when she and her partner are assigned to a high profile case.

  The murder of Broadway star Elaine Barrie propels Chris into a whole new world. A fan of the murdered actress since she was a teenager, Chris isn’t prepared for the secrets she uncovers during their investigation, including her attraction to the daughter of her number one suspect.

  Was the victim any of the personalities witnesses describe, or was the real person a chameleon, satisfying the expectations of each person she met?

  ISBN 978-1-61929-102-7

  eISBN: 978-1-61929-103-4


  The Game of Denial

  Joan Carmichael, a successful New York businesswoman, lost the love of her life ten years earlier. Alone, she raised their four children, always cherishing her deep love for her wife. Her memories of their life together come back even stronger as one of their daughters prepares to marry. Joan and her four adult kids fly to Virginia to meet the groom’s family and attend the ceremony at the small horse farm owned by the mother of the fiancé.

  Evelyn “Evey” Chase, also a widow, has secrets in her past, and her memories of her dead husband aren’t pleasant. She’s concerned about meeting her future daughter-in-law’s family, certain that she and her three kids will have little in common with the wealthy New Yorkers.

  Besides, the thought of two women in a relationship bringing up a family together makes her uncomfortable, even though her daughter-in-law assures her that lesbianism is not hereditary or catching. When the two women meet they are drawn to one another in a way neither anticipated, and the game of denial begins. Evey fights her attraction and doesn’t realize the effect she has on Joan. Joan tries to shake off her feelings, seeing them as a betrayal to the memory of her wife. Besides, isn’t Evey Chase straight? After Evey and Joan share an intimate moment at the wedding reception, they are both emotionally terrified and Joan flees. Will Joan overcome the feeling of betraying her former mate and stop denying her desire to be happy again? Can Evey finally face her past in order to accept the love of another woman and the desire to live the life she had once dreamed of?

  ISBN: 978-1-61929-130-0

  eISBN: 978-1-61929-131-7

  The Sea Hawk

  Dr. Julia Blanchard, a marine archaeologist, and her team of divers have spent almost eighteen months excavating the remains of a ship found a few miles off the coast of Georgia. Although they learn quite a bit about the nineteenth century sailing vessel, they have found nothing that would reveal the identity of the ship they have nicknamed “The Georgia Peach.”

  Her rescue at sea leads her on an unexpected journey into the true identity of the Peach and the captain and crew who called it their home. Her travels take her to the island of Martinique, the eastern Caribbean islands, the Louisiana German Coast and New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812.

  How had the Peach come to rest in the waters off the Georgia coast? What had become of her alluring and enigmatic captain, Simone Moreau? Can love conquer everything, even time?

  ISBN 978-1-935053-10-1

  Available in print and eBook formats

  Pipeline

  What do you do when the mistakes you made in the past come back to slap you in the face with a vengeance? Joanna Carlisle, a fifty-seven year old photojournalist, has only begun to adjust to retirement on her small ranch outside Kerrville, Texas, when she finds herself unwillingly sucked into an investigation of illegal aliens being smuggled into the United States to fill the ranks of cheap labor needed to increase corporate profits.

  An unexpected visit by her former lover, Cate Hammond, and the attempted murder of their son, forces Jo to finally face what she had given up. Although she hasn’t seen Cate or their son for fifteen years, she finds that the feelings she had for Cate had only been dormant, but had never died. No matter how much she fights her attraction to Cate, Jo cannot help but wonder whether she had made the right decision when she chose career and independence over love.

  ISBN 978-1-932300-64-2

  Available in print and eBook formats

  Reiko’s Garden

  Hatred…like love…knows no boundaries.

  How much impact can one person have on a life?

  When sixty-five-year old Callie Owen returns to her rural childhood home in Eastern Tennessee to attend the funeral of a woman she hasn’t seen in twenty years, she’s forced to face the fears, heartache, and turbulent events that scarred both her body and her mind. Drawing strength from Jean, her partner of thirty years, and from their two grown children, Callie stays in the valley longer than she had anticipated and relives the years that changed her life forever.

  In 1949, Japanese war bride Reiko Sanders came to Frost Valley, Tennessee with her soldier husband and infant son. Callie Owen was an inquisitive ten-year-old whose curiosity about the stranger drove her to disobey her father for just one peek at the woman who had become the subject of so much speculation. Despite Callie’s fears, she soon finds that the exotic-looking woman is kind and caring, and the two forge a tentative, but secret friendship.

  When Callie and her five brothers and sisters were left orphaned, Reiko provided emotional support to Callie. The bond between them continued to grow stronger until Callie left Frost Valley as a teenager, emotionally and physically scarred, vowing never to return and never to forgive.

  It’s not until Callie goes “home” that she allows herself to remember how Reiko influenced her life. Once and for all, can she face the terrible events of her past? Or will they come back to destroy all that she loves?

  ISBN 978-1-932300-77-2

  Available in print and eBook formats

  Tunnel Vision

  Royce Brodie, a 50-year-old homicide detective in the quiet town of Cedar Springs, a bedroom community 30 miles from Austin, Texas, has spent the last seven years coming to grips with the incident that took the life of her partner and narrowly missed taking her own. The peace and quiet she had been enjoying is shattered by two seemingly unrelated murders in the same week: the first, a John Doe, and the second, a janitor at the local university.

  As Brodie and her partner, Curtis Nicholls, begin their investigation, the assignment of a new trainee disrupts Brodie’s life. Not only is Maggie Weston Brodie’s former lover, but her father had been Brodie’s commander at the Austin Police Department and nearly destroyed her career.

  As the three detectives try to piece together the scattered evidence to solve the two murders, they become convinced the two murders are related. The discovery of a similar murder committed five years earlier at a small university in upstate New York creates a sense of urgency as they realize they are chasing a serial killer.

  The already difficult case becomes even more so when a third victim is found. But the case becomes personal for Brodie when Maggie becomes the killer's next target. Unless Brodie finds a way to save Maggie, she could face losing everything a second time.

  ISBN 978-1-935053-19-4

  Available in print and eBook formats

  Soiled Dove

  In 1872, sixteen-year-old Loretta Digby fled her home in Indiana to escape an abusive step-father. Rescued from the streets of St. Joseph, Missouri by brothel owner Jack Coulter, she turns to the only work available. By twenty she became a much sought after prostitute catering to St. Jo's most influential men and dreaming of the day she can leave her past behind and start her life anew. Working with teacher, Hettie Tobias, who is traveling west for a teaching position in Trinidad, Colorado, Loretta and Amelia leave their former lives behind. In the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside Trinidad, Clare McIlhenney has been struggling for years to make her father's dream of owning a cattle ranch in the west come true. Working with a few ranch hands and her foreman, Ino Valdez, Clare has slowly built the ranch over the last twenty years while overcoming everything that should have stopped her.

  In the spring of 1876 Loretta and her friends arrive in the dusty Colorado town. Her first meeting with Clare McIlhenney is less than inspiring. When Clare is injured, over her strenuous objections, Ino hires Loretta as a temporary cook and housekeeper for the ranch. Over the next few months, Clare struggles with her unwanted attraction to the much younger woman, unable to forget the events of her past that led to the deaths of everyone she had been close to. Determined to never lose anyone else, Clare closed off her emotions and became a distant and disliked stranger to everyone around her.

  Will Loretta be able to keep her past a secret and find a new life?

  Will Clare open herself up to loss yet again and put her own prejudices behind he
r? In a story of the struggles in a harsh and unforgiving time will the two women find peace at last?

  **Recipient of a 2011 award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, the premiere organization for the support and nourishment of quality lesbian literature. Soiled Dove won in the category of Historical Romance.**

  ISBN 978-1-935053-35-4

  Available in print and eBook formats.

  The Other Mrs. Champion

  Sarah Champion, 55, of Massachusetts, was leading the perfect life with Kelley, her partner and wife of twenty-five years. That is, until Kelley was struck down by an unexpected stroke away from home. But Sarah discovers she hadn’t known her partner and lover as well as she thought.

  Accompanied by Kelley’s long-time friend and attorney, Sarah and her children rush to Vancouver, British Columbia to say their goodbyes, only to discover another woman, Pauline, keeping a vigil over Kelley in the hospital. Confronted by the fact that her wife also has a Canadian wife, Sarah struggles to find answers to resolve heremotional and personal turmoil.

  Alone and lonely, Sarah turns to the only other person who knew Kelley as well as she did—Pauline Champion. Will the two women be able to forge a friendship despite their simmering animosity? Will their growing attraction eventually become Kelley’s final gift to the women she loved?