Showing results by narrator "Denice Stradling" in All Categories

1920s, Pasadena, California: People are dropping dead after communion services at Daisy's church; Detective Sam Rotondo has finally professed his love for Daisy; and Daisy sees swaying trees in her crystal ball, a prop in which she doesn't place any faith. But when the crystal ball's image leads Daisy to her client's missing butler, and then a bunch of bootleggers, Daisy unknowingly bumps into the man responsible for the parishioners' deaths. She doesn't recognize him, but he recognizes her and that lands Daisy at the top of his to-be-murdered list.

If you thought the suburbs were boring, think again. Kelly Fordon’s I Have the Answer artfully mixes the fabulist with the workaday, illuminating relationships and characters with crisp, elegant prose, and dark wit. The stories in Fordon’s latest collection are disquieting, humorous, and thought-provoking. They might catch you off guard, but are always infused with deep humanity and tenderness.

The Ku Klux Klan has opened a chapter in Daisy Gumm Majesty's home town of Pasadena, California. Worse, Klan members are harassing Joseph Jackson, the gatekeeper for Daisy's best client, Mrs. Pinkerton. When Mrs. Pinkerton also becomes a target of vicious pranks, Daisy tries to get Detective Sam Rotondo, her new leading man, involved. Sam isn't thrilled. Worse, the bodies are piling up, and now he needs Daisy's help speaking to some of the Klan's victims. That makes Daisy a target, forcing Sam to redouble his efforts and keep Daisy from doing in the Klan with a bucket and baseball bat.

The next-to-youngest Bennett sister, Francie Bennett (blame it on Paris!) is a hard-charging attorney whose boyfriend Dylan Hardy invites her to join him in Paris to help with a client. When Axelle Fourcier left Paris behind after the student riots of 1968, she vowed never to go back. She made a life for herself in America as a professor. But now, a beloved aunt, aged 104, has died and left her an inheritance to be shared with a cousin she never met.

A creature doomed to wander the earth in eternal darkness, he searches the ages for someone to share the endless night of his existence, for that one woman who will recognize the man within the monster.

Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist to folks with more money than sense, can scarcely believe that her best client wants her to get her spiritual control, Rolly, to appear at a séance in a speakeasy. Bad enough that Daisy made up Rolly when she was ten, but now Rolly has to perform at a séance for a bunch of murdering gangsters?

It's 1924, and spiritualist-medium Daisy Gumm joins with friends Flossie and Harold to help Lily Bannister, whose abusive husband nearly killed her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Pinkerton - Daisy's best client - is in a tizzy, insisting Daisy use her (fake) spiritualist talent to end the engagement between her daughter and a most unsuitable man. To Daisy's surprise, the two cases collide, placing her in the middle. Now, Daisy must prove Lily's husband and Mrs. P's soon-to-be-son-in-law are in cahoots with nefarious human traffickers...before it's too late.

Victorian Canada: Touring circuses, seances, and a world powered by steam engines. But in Belleville, Ontario, a twenty-eight-year old spinster, Lavender Fitch, barely scrapes by, selling flowers from her garden at the train station, her position in life greatly diminished after the death of her father, the local apothecary. Then, one day, a glamorous couple step off the train. The lady is a famed spirit medium, Allegra Trout, who has arrived for a public show of her mediumship, accompanied by her handsome but disfigured assistant, Robert.

Mercy Allcutt's imagination is more exciting than her job as secretary to P.I. Ernie Templeton. As usual, she has nothing to do except gaze out the office window overlooking Pasadena and imagine the plots of stories she plans to write someday. Generally, when she watches the alley behind the Figueroa Building, she needs to imagine someone being strangled, but today was different. She calls the police to report the murder, but the corpse is gone before she hangs up the phone.

When Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist to people with more money than sense, is asked by her good friend, Johnny Buckingham, a captain in the Salvation Army, to teach a cooking class for disadvantaged ladies, she's sure Johnny is nuts. She earns her living raising the dead, for goodness sake! The only thing she's ever been able to do in the kitchen is burn things. Yet, she gallantly sets out to teach the class, using a cooking booklet Johnny provided, fully expecting calamity to ensue.

Daisy Gumm Majesty is back and she's up to her ears again. Not only does she have to deal with her husband Billy's declining health and her dog Spike's obedience training, but she's been hired by Lola de la Monica, a fabulously spoiled silent-screen beauty, to be her spiritual advisor on the set of her next picture.

When Elise Bennett, youngest of the five sisters, is invited to spend the long holiday break with her new boyfriend, Conor (from Lost in Lavender) she is thrilled. Who wouldn't be? A remote Welsh manor house, a chance to mix with the clan, long walks on the snowy hillsides - but things are not so simple in the countryside. Not with this family.

There are two types of relationships: fake and real. Chuck and Kate’s used to be real, oh-so-real. But after she broke his heart four months ago, leaving him, it became all just pretense for the sake of their entwined families. With parents who are best friends and business partners, it’s not easy for Chuck and Kate to announce they’ve split up. But with the holidays looming over them, they can no longer keep pretending.

Lise McClendon’s second Bennett Sisters mystery chronicles the traditional hunt for priceless European truffles, the unexpected thrill of romance overseas, the ups and downs of sisterly bonding, and murderous intrigue in the heart of France. The Girl in the Empty Dress is a delicate mix of sisterly laughs and international intrigue, sure to delight cozy mystery fans and armchair travelers alike.

Facing a crossroads - both career-wise and personal - Elise, the youngest of the five Bennett Sisters, does what she does best: She runs away to think. This time, she runs to a farm in Provence that produces heaven-scented lavender for oils. The area is famous for the beautiful purple flower, the symbol of this southern region of France. Her sisters are stumped.

Daisy Gumm Majesty, Pasadena's spiritualist-medium to folks with more money than sense, is talked into playing the role of mean Katisha in her church's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado. As rehearsals progress and Daisy falls into her role, the producer's wife experiences a mysterious decline in health, a cast member claims someone is trying to kill her, and the husband of another cast member is murdered.

The Best Life Stories by Reader's Digest are 150 of the best hand-picked real-life tales of resilience, joy, and hope - all in 150 words or less! Sprinklers are swatting the sidewalk instead of the usual alarm clock bruising my ears today, and I decide to step outside.

Merle Bennett goes back to France - and her Frenchman - in this fifth installment of the Bennett Sisters mysteries. Sure that la belle France will cure all her ills and help her write a novel about the French Revolution, she sets out to prove her theory correct. Pascal, her Frenchman, scoffs at this. As a policeman, he knows France is pretty to look at but not all that pretty under surface. While Merle writes and renovates her stone cottage, Pascal encounters an old enemy, a man he put in prison years before. When Pascal disappears, Merle isn't sure if their relationship is over or something terrible has happened to Pascal.

The Best Life Stories by Reader's Digest are 150 of the best hand-picked real-life tales of resilience, joy, and hope - all in 150 words or less! One evening at home I pulled out a handful of your stories and took them to read in the car.

Some needs are special, they’re not like the rest. They may leave a scar upon your chest. You may look different, have a tube, a scar. But all these things are not who you are. Even though she has a rare syndrome and some major health issues, Lucy is so much more than her “special needs”. Lucy wants you to know that in so many ways she is just like you - special indeed! Lucy’s story is a powerful voice for children with special needs, disabilities, and illnesses.