Showing results by narrator "Petrea Burchard" in All Categories

With Leafy Hollow in a deep winter freeze, landscaper Verity Hawkes is all out of funds. Setting up a private investigator business seems like the best way to indulge her fantasy and make a few bucks. But she never expected her first case would turn the whole town against her. As she investigates a shady, million-dollar crossword competition, even her detective boyfriend sides with her neighbors in thinking it’s legit. But when the contest seems to connect with scruffy dog walkers and a missing investment advisor, Verity hopes she can solve the clues....

Nine years have passed since Ana Koehl had sex with her pot-addicted anesthesiologist husband; seven since she began an affair with a gonzo journalist. She's gratified by her work as a book doula but burdened by her belief that she need always be on call. Her elderly mother's birthday greeting is an inflation-adjusted calculation of the cost of raising Ana in a mice-infested house, her brother has hijacked the will of their recently deceased starchitect father, her adult child is changing rapidly before her eyes, and her best friend advocates for the truth in lies.

Ringmaster – Rin, to those who know her best – can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. With the scars of World War I feeling more distant as the years pass, Rin is focusing on the brighter things in life. Like the circus she’s built and the magical misfits and outcasts – known as Sparks – who’ve made it their home. Every night, Rin and the Fantasticals enchant a Big Top packed full with audiences who need to see the impossible.

Someone is siphoning funds from billionaire Zachary Barron's currency hedge fund. Intent on prosecuting the thief to the fullest extent of the law, he hires Katerina "Kat" Carter, the best forensic accountant in the business, to follow the money trail. Both are shocked when it leads to Zachary's father, Nathan. And he's just the tip of the iceberg. Nathan belongs to a shadowy organization with global ties and unimaginable resources.

Previously published as ShadowMan. There is something terribly wrong in Sanctuary City. When Maggie Bychowski starts her new job as a police officer in Sanctuary City, the small northern California town appears as bucolic as its name. But three young girls are beginning to find out that their beloved home town has a dark, writhing underbelly. When Shadowman, an online fantasy character, starts luring local girls into doing his deadly bidding, Maggie is the only one who can save the town from a powerful evil that threatens to destroy everyone and everything in its path.

The women of The Homegrown Café Book Club are over 40, single, and loving it. Fate, however, has a different plan with a younger man for every last one of them.

Cendrine West can't catch a break. She's close to landing a new job, and things are getting cozy with sexy sheriff Tyler Gates. All that changes when she is kidnapped by renegade witch Aunt Pearl, who is hell-bent on avenging a friend's untimely death. It's Las Vegas or bust...for all the wrong reasons. Rocco Racatelli is a hunky Vegas kingpin - and the next mob target. Lady Luck has dealt him a losing hand and he wants revenge. When Aunt Pearl is a little too eager to help, project Vegas Vendetta quickly escalates into an all-out mob turf war.

On fraud investigator Katerina Carter's trip to a remote island aboard a luxurious yacht, she suspects the boat's slick and charming owner is hiding a dark secret. With her cunning instinct for sniffing out malevolent cons, Kat tries to warn her friends that something is very wrong with their host and that his moneymaking scheme smells fishy. And why is she the only one who thinks he's not being completely honest? While exploring the island, Kat and her friends research the rumors of a sinister cult, the Aquarian Foundation, and search for buried treasure.

After her husband's death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys because there are too many hard memories on that strip of land, including the memories of meeting her husband on the set of an iconic horror movie, being cast as an extra, watching herself get killed on screen, and scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate curse...until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter sneaks away to visit her grandfather, legendary horror-movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi is forced to face her past.

Matilda Case never thought of herself as a hero. But because she is galvanized-and nearly immortal in her stitched, endlessly healing body-she doesn't have much of a choice. Even if she doesn't want to save the world, she's the only one capable of traveling in time to do so. But her rescue attempt hasn't gone as planned. She's stuck in an alternate universe, and her world is in danger of disappearing.

A Hollywood movie shoot comes to town and journalist Cendrine West is eager for a scoop. Her witchy family also wants in on the action, but shenanigans with the stars soon turn to Tinseltown tragedy. Bodies are piling up faster than a coven's worth of curses, and everything points back to Cen's starstruck family. They will stop at nothing in their quest for supernatural stardom, even if that means meddling in a murder investigation. The witches have created one spell of a mess and given the killer a chance to get away with murder.

While coping with teenage moodiness can be difficult under any circumstances, it can be especially challenging if a teenager has a serious mood disorder. This concise book is the definitive guide to understanding and getting effective help for adolescents with depression, designed for parents and other adults in contact with afflicted teens.

Jovie is adrift. She’d been feeling alone ever since her best friend, Micah, left her behind for a new group of friends—but when Micah went missing last fall, Jovie felt truly lost. Now, months later, the search parties have been called off, and the news alerts have dried up. There’s only Jovie, biking around Far Haven, Washington, putting up posters with Micah’s face on them, feeling like she’s the only one who remembers her friend at all.

Neil Gaiman is one of the most widely known writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He often attributes this eclecticism to his "compost heap" approach to writing, gathering inspiration from life, religion, literature, and mythology. Readers and listeners love to sink into Gaiman's medieval worlds—but what makes them "medieval"? Shiloh Carroll offers an introduction to the idea of medievalism, how the literature and culture of the Middle Ages have been reinterpreted and repurposed, and how the layers of interpretation have impacted Gaiman's own use of medieval material.

Verity Hawkes is a shut-in. After two years bunkered in her apartment, the only thing that gets her out is the disappearance of her beloved but eccentric aunt. As she takes over her aunt’s landscaping shop, she’ll need to go from hoarder to horticulturist in a hurry.... Her new home of Leafy Hollow is quaint, except for her most obnoxious client. When a series of freak accidents kills the customer, all signs point to Verity as the killer.

Diamonds, danger, and a deadly secret... A Katerina Carter Fraud Thriller. Private investigator and forensic accountant Katerina Carter uncovers a sinister connection between blood diamonds and organized crime. Then two company employees are brutally murdered and her investigation becomes much more dangerous than she had ever imagined. Can she can stay alive long enough to expose the real criminals...or will her first case be her last? Buy this audiobook today!

Verity Hawkes misses her recluse lifestyle, but she’s finally starting to settle in as Leafy Hollow’s resident landscaper. At least until a village-wide cupcake battle helps turn one new visitor from a skeptic to a corpse in record time. When her friend’s crush shockingly confesses to the crime, Verity is once again asked to investigate.... Potential clues come in as fast as the suspects: A documentary film director, a wacky artist, and a feral-cat enthusiast, to name a few. It turns out everyone in town has skeletons in their closet - even her new friends.

A catalyst for change can take many forms. For author Erin Burrell, that life-altering moment began with a jarring knock at the door. A solemn detective delivered the news that a loved one had died. The grief and heart-splitting loss sent her groping for answers. In her search, she was drawn toward an unexpected path - towards the metaphysical. After reading several books about psychic mediums, Erin wondered if she too might be able to connect with her deceased loved one.

Verity Hawkes’ new life in Leafy Hollow almost feels whole. All the self-taught horticulturalist lacks are her Aunt Adeline and a stable relationship. Just when the second missing piece seems like it might be falling into place, Verity’s sleepy town welcomes back an all-too-familiar killer…. Suspicions run rampant when a body is found at the base of Pine Hill Peak, and the mother of Verity’s best friend is the number one suspect. To keep the wrong woman out of prison, Verity must rub shoulders with an arsonist, a hunky lawman, and a pair of dueling pastry chefs.

A shocking revelation. A long-buried secret. An old mystery reappears.... Verity Hawkes' new life as Leafy Hollow's resident landscaper and part-time sleuth is just about perfect. She has a new love interest, a new home - even a new pet. The last thing she needs is a reminder of her troubled past. So, when her estranged father shows up with a plea for help, her first instinct is to throw the cad out. Until he reveals scandalous new details that threaten to tarnish the memory of her deceased, and beloved, mother.