Showing results by narrator "Nancy Bober" in All Categories

It's Christmas Eve, and as Sara waits for her husband and son to arrive home to Blue Hydrangeas, their Cape Cod bed and breakfast, a blizzard threatens to close the bridges, stranding all travelers to and from the Cape. As she prepares for the holiday, unexpected visitors arrive, all sharing the common bond of grief. Sara is determined the storm and sadness will not spoil Christmas, and ensures Santa will find his way to two fatherless children far from home.

Losing Helen is a first-person narrative essay by Carol Becker of a daughter's profound journey through the many phases in the process of losing her 98-year-old mother. As an only child, she must assume complete responsibility for the often absurd but necessary planning that illness and death require. At the same time, she must struggle with her overwhelming grief and confusion, trying to make sense of her mother's life and her own. As she gradually comes to accept the inevitable loss, she focuses instead on finding ways to ensure a dignified and respectful passage.

A severe thunderstorm has hit Curly Bay, causing major damage to the Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue. Fortunately, a wealthy patron is interested in hosting a fundraiser to help offset the costs. As Courtney and Mrs. Throgmorton organize the event, Courtney starts to feel she’s being sabotaged at every turn.

Courtney Cain’s life is turned upside down when she loses her job at a prestigious ad agency and finds out her own fiancé was the one who let her go. She’s ready for a change, and when she finds an opening at the Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue, it seems like the perfect fit. Until a prize winning Pom disappears on the very first day and Courtney is in the firing line! The finger is pointed at her, and she has to get to the bottom of the case before her life is turned upside down once again.

Despite feeling content with how life has changed since moving to Curly Bay, Courtney's days still seem peppered with problems. Not only have mice overrun Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue, her clients are cancelling left, right, and center because they want to enroll the services of a famous pet-stylist setting up shop in the town.

Helen has worked hard for her success. Now, after the prim-and-proper real estate agent’s husband ditches her for a younger model, she finds herself back in her small New England home town. Smarting over her husband’s betrayal, a messy night out brings further humiliation when Helen face-plants on the sidewalk…only to be rescued by her old nemesis, Alice.

Courtney Cain is ready to settle into a home of her own now that she knows for sure she’ll be staying in Curly Bay. She loves her job at the Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue, and a home will mean she can participate in the foster program she helped start at the shelter.

Courtney is delighted that the Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue finally has a full-time volunteer in Ms. O’Donnell’s friend Linda. But Linda quickly proves to be more of a hindrance, and perhaps something even more heinous. Courtney is certain she witnesses Linda committing murder. The police insist she has a rock-solid alibi, but Courtney knows there must be more going on.

Courtney is excited for the upcoming Community Christmas event. All the charitable organizations in town are being invited to participate, and they’re guaranteed to get the extra funding they’re always needing. Of course, the work of the shelter never ends, and Courtney is inundated with a fresh flood of feisty canines that she’s trying to foster. But when a wealthy patron is found dead, festivities are thrown into a flurry! Who would commit such a yucky yuletide crime?

Courtney is caught up again, this time with a scaly trail of clues to follow. Despite a soggy challenge at the animal rescue center, and the imminent arrival of her parents for Thanksgiving celebrations, our amateur sleuth cannot escape her unquestionable gift of uncovering foul play in Curly Bay!

Fall is in full swing, and Courtney Cain is getting ready for the Apple Jubilee with the rest of Curly Bay. Until an unexplained robbery puts the festivities in jeopardy! The Jubilee festival will be a great opportunity to get publicity for the animal shelter, and she’s looking forward to participating. When the iconic Admiral Apple costume goes missing, the entire Jubilee is compromised.

Sophia Keegan is 14 years old in 1930s Massachusetts. She likes the dark, and she craves adventure and freedom from social constraints. But when she meets a ghostly child on a beach and stumbles onto a dangerous bootlegging gang, it isn't long before she's fighting to save her family and her sanity. Now Sophia must protect her family from the deadly gang of rum runners who will stop at nothing to silence her. And she must uncover the riddle of the ghostly child who haunts her dreams and invades her thoughts before it is too late.

Courtney Cain is thrilled when interim mayor Bridget Powers asks for help with her campaign. Bridget wants to really make a difference for the people of Curly Bay, and Courtney is completely behind her. Delighted to take on another exciting challenge, alongside the ones she has at work, she jumps in with both boots. When Bridget’s campaign is tainted by her mayoral opponent's murder, however, Courtney knows she has to help find the real killer!

Courtney thinks she might finally be able to give the Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue the true makeover it deserves when she hears about a community development project that’s holding a contest, but when a body turns up, she can’t help but get to the bottom of it one more time! A community development project fills Courtney with visions of expansion. If she can just find the time to put together a good presentation, she’ll be able to help many more cats and dogs in Curly Bay. But she also has some stiff competition with the proposed new community center in town.

Courtney is always happy to take on new volunteers, and she’s thrilled to take on a high school student named Mason. He’s not too thrilled about the idea at first, but things change for him once he realizes how important the shelter work is. Soon enough, he’s even getting the shelter involved at football games! Courtney is so happy, but an unexpected death puts a big damper on all the great PR that Mason has helped bring in. Courtney doesn’t know how, but she’ll have to find a way to prove that Mason and Rosie the shelter dog are innocent.

It’s almost Christmas, and Courtney is trying to come up with great ways to promote the shelter. Through a lucky connection, she gets the chance to bring the adoptable pets to the local news station to be on TV!

Courtney Cain is used to seeing dogs that are sad or upset when they first arrive at the shelter, but she’s never met one quite like Ruthie the Bloodhound! Ruthie does nothing but howl mournfully when she’s in her cage, and when she’s not crated, all she does is run away. Courtney is particularly concerned since the Curly Bay Lake has been drained for repairs, and there are some very dangerous areas at the park where the dog could get hurt. The lake seems to be the only thing the citizens of Curly Bay can talk about, especially the mysterious legend of the lake phantom.

The Curly Bay locals swear that winter’s going to be a cold one, but Courtney is warmed by the thought of a Books and Barks charity event at the local library. That is, until the donation money takes a walk, and the prime suspect ends up dead!

The summer of 1889 was proving to be a strange one for Detective Inspector Rudyard Bloodstone and his partner. They had a sexual pervert loose. The man didn't actually harm women but threatened them at knife point, fondling them, and ultimately stealing their stockings. Far more serious were the murders of influential men, which appeared random other than they were all killed by arsenic poison. Never had he and his partner had cases with so little workable evidence.

Courtney is up to the challenge when one of the most prominent clients of the Curly Bay Pet Hotel and Rescue wants her to throw a birthday party for her dog. Electrical problems both at the shelter and at home stall some of the party-making plans, and so does Patrick Murray, the only electrician in town.