Showing results by narrator "Moore Christina" in All Categories

In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon a stately yellow house and a garden guarded by looming boxwoods. She instantly knew that boxwoods that large - 12 feet tall, 15 feet wide - had to be hundreds of years old. So, as it happened, was the house: Sylvester Manor had been held in the same family for 11 generations. Formerly encompassing all of Shelter Island, a pearl of 8,000 acres caught between the North and South Forks of Long Island, the manor had dwindled to 243 acres.

Although Eric and Andrew have been trying to keep up a semblance of normal life, they know their 13-year-old son, Jack, has been having a tough time of it since they separated. They've been concerned, but now they're terrified - Jack has run away from home. Desperate, Eric and Andrew call on private investigator Jane Lawless, a friend of Andrew's from years ago.

In her years of researching her Amish novels, Serena Miller has gotten to know several Amish families in Holmes County, Ohio. When she was invited to attend the wedding of one of her friend's daughters, she expected it to be a casual affair: Muck out the barn, throw a potluck together, send the bride and groom off on their honeymoon in a buggy with a Just-Married sign hung on the back. But when the young bride shyly brings her a formal, professionally printed invitation, she realized everything she thought she knew about Amish weddings was wrong.

Fifteen-year-old Macey Clare decides to research the history of a burned-out neighborhood barn for a school project. But no one in her beautiful, wealthy town wants to answer her questions about the fire of 1959. When Macey discovers that somebody was actually living in the barn when it burned, she vows to find the truth. Macey and her friends are nearly killed when an arsonist attacks the black church where they have volunteered. Although it’s only a town away, the teens she meets at Good Shepherd have lives she can barely imagine

Frank Carroll has invested years searching for the lost works of local poet Mary Stone Walker, whose mysterious disappearance in 1939 is only rivaled by the beautiful words she left behind. When Frank's single-minded pursuit for Mary's lost poems puts his family in jeopardy, Lydia throws herself into the mystery, hoping to solve it and bring peace back to her home. But as Lydia begins investigating, her son takes action with a plan of his own. One that will bring the family to a breaking point and change Lydia's destiny forever.

So you want to be an explorer? Explorers need courage, like Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world. But for budding explorers out there, the rewards can be great. Neil Armstrong earned lasting fame when he became the first person to set foot on the moon.

Holly Campbell's world has suddenly been turned upside down. Her best friend stands accused of murdering his parents. She knows Cody is innocent, but how can she help him prove it? Holly’s father, the detective in charge of the murder investigation, has forbidden her to see Cody, and he and her mother are too preoccupied with their failing marriage to listen to reason. Cody's strange neighbor wants to help, but the woman gives Holly the creeps. She's supposed to be a psychic, but the things she's asking Holly to do are frightening and very risky.

Pinky and Rex are excited. It’s pumpkin-picking weekend with Pinky’s Grandma and Grandpa. Pinky’s sister and cousin are coming along, too. At Meadowbrook Farm, they’ll pick the perfect pumpkin. Then they’ll take it to Grandma and Grandpa’s and carve it for Halloween. But when Pinky’s cousin arrives, she doesn’t say hello to Rex. Instead she does her best to keep Rex out of the fun. Rex feels hurt. When a terrible thing happens, she feels even worse. How can she and Pinky be best friends again?

Nestled in the picturesque Catskills, the village of Lenape Hollow prepares to celebrate the 225th anniversary of its founding. Freelance book editor Mikki Lincoln has been drafted to update and correct the script left over from the town's bicentennial, which is housed at the historical society. The building is being renovated for the first time since that last celebration. But when construction reveals a shocking discovery - human remains walled up in a fireplace - Mikki shifts focus from cold-reading to solving a cold case.

Adrienne Martini is an award-winning freelance writer. In her candid memoir Hillbilly Gothic, she offers a glimpse at mental illness from a personal perspective, and reveals how the women of her Appalachian family invariably suffer postpartum depression. After the birth of her first child, Adrienne found herself spiraling toward a breakdown that led to her eventual institutionalization.

To prove she has a fun side, ultra-serious Lovey Stutzman accepts her sister’s dare: a buggy ride with Hickory Grove’s most handsome Amish bachelor. But what Lovey can’t accept is Marshall Byler’s claim that he fell in love with her at first sight. Now Marshall must defy everyone’s expectations - including his family’s - to prove his intentions once and for all.

CarolSue and her sister, Louisa, are best friends, but haven't had much in common since CarolSue married Charlie, moved to Atlanta, and swapped shoes covered with Indiana farm dust and chicken poop for fresh pedicures and afternoon bridge. Charlie's sudden death leaves CarolSue so adrift that she surrenders to Louisa's plan for her to move back home. But canning vegetables and feeding chickens are alien to CarolSue. Then Louisa's son, Reverend Gary, arrives with an abandoned infant and a dubious story. He begs the women to look after the baby while he locates the mother.

English teacher and part-time sleuth Amanda Pepper is enjoying Philadelphia’s famous Mummers’ Parade - reveling in costumes that rival Mardi Gras and cheering for a brigade of ornately costumed clowns passing close by. Her festive spirit is shattered, however, when one of the costumed revelers sinks to the ground, and the amateur sleuth finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation in which the prime suspect is a fellow teacher at Philly Prep. Filled with feisty characters, The Mummer’s Curse will keep you guessing....

Peg Toland and her father think they’ve found the perfect vacation spot: a beautiful, uninhabited Mexican island in the sparkling Sea of Cortez. Unfortunately, the locals who live on the coast do not agree. “That is no place to go,” they tell the Tolands with alarm. They will not explain why. Peg and her father should have listened to these mysterious warnings. Shortly after they arrive on the island and set up camp, the untamed landscape and isolation turn into a terrifying and deadly trap.

This best-selling mystery series, from an Anthony Award-winning author, features a unique sleuth. Amanda Pepper is not the usual gumshoe; she teaches English in one of Philadelphia’s most exclusive schools. In a world of old families and solid wealth, Amanda’s cases test her wit, wisdom, and social graces. During a lively discussion of The Awakening at Amanda’s book club meeting, a member, Helen Coulter, vigorously denounces the main character’s suicide as cowardly.

When Amy Johnson drops out of Juilliard to raise her newborn daughter, she never dreams she'll have a second chance to become a concert flutist. For the last 15 years, teaching has provided for the needs of Amy and her daughter Clara. Then a rare opportunity presents itself, and the talented single mom wins the open flute chair in the Minneapolis Symphony.

Nine-year-old Susan has the whole glorious, carefree summer ahead of her. Sometimes she worries that her mother and father aren't happy together, but from her vantage point under the dogbushes, the world is safe and wonderful. Her life begins to change when her friends introduce her to the creepy new city kid, Eugene, who's come to spend the summer. Eugene holds a strange power over the group, a power that Susan feels most profoundly on the night she is forced to play "doctor".

A trip to the museum with Pinky’s dad and his sister, Amanda, puts Pinky and Rex’s friendship to the test. Will their friendship survive when both youngsters set their sights on the same stuffed animal at the museum gift shop?

When Grief first arrives, it is an elephant—so big that there is hardly room for anything else. But over time, Grief becomes smaller and smaller—first a deer, a fox, then a mouse, and finally a flickering firefly in the darkness leading us down a path of loving remembrance.

Maggie Lavchek believes in magic. Magic doesn’t change things. It keeps them the same. Maybe that’s what she was hoping as the plane she had taken from her home in Seattle, Washington touched down on the airstrip in Westport, Connecticut. Maggie’s parents were divorced, and this was her yearly summer visit with her father and his wife Joanna, who had just had a baby. The four of them were going to spend part of the summer at Sawdy Pond, a lakeside cottage in Massachusetts. But from the start Maggie has a feeling things aren’t going to work out.