Depression Era

Amanda Lawrence, a charming, sheltered New York socialite, falls in love with Jonathan Dartland, a part-Apache mining engineer who belongs to the vastness of the Arizona desert. Amanda responds to his strength and self-reliance, but has nothing and nobody to guide her when she follows him to the grim town of Lodestone.

Katie Gallagher isn’t looking for love—at least not for herself. Her dad is dead, and she feels responsible. Her mother and sister are alone in St. Louis, and Katie wants to find a man who’ll love and care for them and make them a family again. Zeb Harlow has no time for a wife. His home life is in shambles, his mother and brother are in danger, and he sees no way out. When tragedy strikes their small rural community, concern escalates to terror. Zeb and Katie band together to locate the guilty parties before another crime can occur. Will their joint effort be in vain? Will the ...

Time traveling from the Orwellian world of 2032 is forbidden. But this doesn’t stop Emma, twin brother Ethan, and their special friend Zak from hijacking a time machine — destination 1932. Four years earlier, at the age of seventeen, they embarked on a failed mission to save the life of Jack Kennedy. Now they are attempting to exhume Franklin D. Roosevelt. His political life and the future of American democracy drowned in the swamp lands of Washington D.C. that steamy, violent night of the Bonus March Massacre. The squatter camp is a “Hooverville”— a chaotic quilt of canvas, ...

In the midst of a rising tide of teen anxiety, mental health expert Katie M. Wirig presents a groundbreaking resource tailored to both teens and parents. With over 30% of adolescents reporting heightened feelings of insecurity and anxiety, "Parenting Teens In The Anxiety Era" is a vital roadmap for families seeking to build resilience and emotional well-being. This comprehensive guide delves deep into the complexities of teen anxiety, offering actionable strategies derived from real-life success stories. As a seasoned mental health professional, Wirig provides an insightful and ...

In depression era Mercy’s Gate, Martin is struggling to keep it together for his students, his business, and his town. But there are no prospects for Christmas and no cheer in a small town dying from the inside out - until Ollie and her mysterious “Uncle Rasper” jump off a passing freight train and become squatters in Martin’s potato barn. Are these two bums con artists out to fleece the good people of what little they have left? Or are they the spark this small town needs to rekindle the spirit of Christmas? Ollie’s just passing through. Mercy’s Gate’s one Main Street is no ...

My child has been stolen from me, and I will do anything to get her back, no matter how long it takes! Thirteen years ago, Eve Mitchem's younger sister, Alice, was abducted from outside of their Atlanta home. Even though Eve had only been nine years old at the time, she was held accountable for not watching out for her. Now she's grown, all she wants to do is forget the past, marry her fiancé, and move on with her life. But her mother's erratic behavior has been causing her some concern. Even after all these years, Dana Mitchem still mourns for her absent child. She can't understand how ...

Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do? If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score.

There are many theories as to why the United States and then much of the world entered into a long period of price deflation, high unemployment, and an overall significant economic downturn, which we now call the Great Depression. People always wonder why this horrendous event occurred and there is no simple answer to this question. It was a perfect storm of events that came together and brought about an inevitable plummet in the lives of millions.

Universally regarded as the ultimate adventure/fantasy film, 1933's King Kong continues to amaze audiences with its involving story, its compelling characters, its incredible special-effects, and its magnificent music. Yet for some, there is also a deeper and darker side to Kong; a film and monster whose alleged allegories have fascinated students and scholars for nearly a century. For many, Kong means many things, from the noble savage defeated by modern civilization, from the plight of the Black man to the plight of the common man, to the ascending sexual freedom of a new kind of woman ...

With mysterious serial murders putting peaceful Lexington, Alabama, on edge, Jessie and Hubert Wiggins’ steadfast calm and devotion to each other reassures everyone that faith will see them through. But Jessie and Hubert have paid a terrible hidden cost to maintain their devout facade and respectable standing. Nothing can allay the guilt they feel—or stop the growing distrust between them.

After twenty years in a loveless marriage, Evelyn Henderson will do anything to escape her stifling suburban life. She boards a train for Reno, Nevada, a former frontier town that’s booming thanks to “six-weekers”: women from all walks of life who take up residence there just long enough to secure an uncontested divorce—a right they don’t yet have in their home states.

Since childhood, identical twins Leona and Fiona Dunbar have been getting in—and out—of trouble by pretending to be each other. Yet underneath, they couldn’t be more different. Outspoken Leona lives to break rules, have a good time, and scandalize their respectable hometown of Lexington. Fiona is a seemingly demure churchgoing girl who is the apple of her domineering, widowed mother Mavis’s eye. But together, the twins have fooled teachers, boyfriends, bosses, racist police—and most importantly, straitlaced Mavis.

Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens - even, possibly, a beloved athlete.

Veteran bootlegger. Prolific bank robber. Kidnapper extraordinaire. Ruthless criminal mastermind. With a nickname as hardcore as George “Machine Gun” Kelly's, it should come as no surprise that such terms are frequently associated with him. Eighty-six years may have come and gone since his death, but this Depression-era mobster's name and legacy are still as relevant as ever. You will learn about Machine Gun Kelly like never before.

When Works Progress Administration editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work. Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

Aaron Platt has spent every day of his life breaking his back to scrape a living from the rocky, played-out fields of the Adirondack farm he inherited from his sadistic father. One winter morning, he follows footprints in the snow to his barn and discovers a man freezing to death in a horse stall. What unfolds between the two men, past and present, is a brisk, gritty depiction of crime and punishment. But their harrowing story is more than that, exposing the shocking hypocrisy of the people who live in the nearby bucolic town.

Birdie Jennings dreams of a big life beyond her small town of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky—beyond her mundane job tying tobacco leaves at Wrights Factory, beyond her position as the baby of the family. Her life changes when she meets smooth-talking Jimmy Walker. Jimmy makes big promises for an exciting life together, and Birdie is quickly swept off her feet. But some short years after they marry, Jimmy disappears without a trace, leaving Birdie hurt and alone with their two toddlers. Out of money and out of options, Birdie moves back home with her overbearing mother.

When the skies dried up, Gloria thought it was temporary. When the dust storms rolled in, she thought they would pass. But now the bank man’s come to take the family farm, and Pa’s decided to up and move to California in search of work. They’ll pick fruit, he says, until they can save up enough money to buy land of their own again.

A veteran of the Great War, Jesse Cole is grateful for the quiet life he now leads. But when his closest friend runs afoul of local criminals Frog and Squirrel Fenley, Jesse is forced to spin his moral compass and enter a violent and volatile underworld. There he encounters corrupt lawmen, hired assassins, and a dark family secret that will upend all he once knew. Complicating matters are Texas Ranger Amon Atkins—who arrives to investigate the Fenleys just as their empire is threatened by a deadly new competitor—and the green-eyed, raven-haired Adaline, a love Jesse thought he’d lost forever.

Pretty Boy Floyd was a perplexing character as abhorred as he was revered. To the feds, Pretty Boy Floyd was a venomous, manipulative scoundrel who was egregiously lionized as an antihero with a heart of gold. A career bank robber supposedly associated with up to 40 bank robberies, his face would soon be plastered on the 1934 poster of the FBI's Most Wanted alongside John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Alvin Karper.