Family Mystery

John Hart creates a literary thriller that is as suspenseful as it is poignant, a riveting murder mystery layered beneath the southern drawl of a humble North Carolina lawyer. When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface and he sees his own carefully constructed facade begin to crack.

Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond. But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.

The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and odd jobs. Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne’s involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult.

How far would you go to cover up a murder? Fifteen years ago, Alice Garland was looking forward to graduating and getting married with her boyfriend Bill Becker. But when Bill sexually abused her, Alice couldn’t face the shame associated with such an incident. What Alice did next is what got her sister, Samantha in trouble. Now, both girls were living in a world of shame. They didn't know who to turn to, but they knew one thing for sure...Father Eli could help them.

In Danielle Steel’s powerful new novel, four trauma doctors - the best and brightest in their field - confront exciting new challenges, both personally and professionally, when given an unusual opportunity. When an unspeakable act of mass violence galvanizes them into action, their temporary life in Paris becomes a stark turning point: a time to face harder choices than they have ever made before - with consequences that will last a lifetime.

Small-town romance with faith, humor, and more than a dash of danger! A woman in jeopardy, a cowboy turned small-town cop grieving his fiancée, and a relationship too real to be fake… Escape to Cowboy Crossing, where people care about each other, romances are sweet and swoony, and six cowboy brothers with hot Irish blood fall in love when they least expect it. When her foster siblings are in danger, former policewoman Jessie Ashford makes sure their temporary home in a small town far from their home place is fortress strong. After her ex shot at her, her heart is just as tough and secure...

Four years ago, Brynn left Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favorite teacher—a story that made headlines after the teacher’s body was found by three Saint Ambrose students in the woods behind their school. The case was never solved. Now that Brynn is moving home and starting her dream internship at a true-crime show, she’s determined to find out what really happened.

I’m busy carving a name for myself in the mafia underworld, and I don’t have time for the women who chase after me and wanna tie me down. They can get in line for the wildest f*ck of their lives and then they can get lost. I trusted the Sanatores and they ran their mouths. Six years in jail was a long time to plan my revenge, and now nobody will stop me from getting the payback I deserve. Not the bastards who are out to kill me, not the women who want to find out if the rumors about the size of my… ego are true. Nobody. Until I set eyes on her.

The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes. Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list?

Cam Jansen and her friend Eric are spending the day at the amusement park. They take Cam’s aunt and uncle with them through the scary haunted house. Plastic skeletons hang from the ceiling. A large black form jumps out of the shadows of a dark room. Everyone has a wonderful time until they get hungry and thirsty. When Cam’s aunt tries to pay for some snacks, she discovers her wallet is no longer in her purse. Will Cam be able to solve the mystery of the missing wallet with her amazing photographic memory?

In the picturesque town of Flaxton, the Radcliffe family presents a picture of flawless unity. "The Perfect Family," a spellbinding novel by Jacquie Underdown, invites readers into a labyrinth of shadowy secrets that could shatter this family's polished veneer. Matt and Nikki, the embodiment of marital tranquillity, weave through their days, blissfully ignorant of the menacing undercurrents threatening their harmony. Little do they know that danger hides in plain sight, casting ominous ripples through their placid lives. High-fliers Anthony and Belinda, graced with success and affluence, ...

Cedar Grove is abuzz with excitement as the Halloween Festival draws near, but for Lila Harrington, owner of the Harrington Inn, the holiday takes a chilling turn. Strange creaks echo from the empty upper floors, shadowy figures flit through the halls, and a mysterious history of tragic lovers haunts the property. When one of her guests is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Lila’s unease turns to determination. With her best friend Jane by her side and her clever beagle Barkley sniffing out clues, Lila dives into a mystery that blurs the lines between the supernatural and the all-...

An unsent letter in a first-edition copy of Charlotte's Web leads to a hunt for treasure in this heartwarming middle-grade mystery from the author of The Mother-Daughter Book Club. Now that Truly Lovejoy's father has been injured by an IED in Afghanistan and is having trouble finding work back home, the family moves from Texas to tiny Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire, to take over Lovejoy's Books, a struggling bookstore that's been in the family for 100 years.

Walking past Suzannah and Glenn Archers house on Merton Street, you'd think they have it all with their gleaming white-bricked house and emerald green front lawn. They appear so in love: their home is full of ripples of laughter and the clinking of wine glasses. They're always celebrating something with their siblings and two grown-up daughters, Zara and Emily. They look like the perfect family. But are they?

Margot and Myron Spielman move to a new town, looking for an escape from the long shadow of their past. But soon after they buy Rawlingswood, a foreclosed mansion rumored to be haunted, they realize they’re in for more of the same…or worse. After a renovation fraught with injuries and setbacks, the Spielmans move in to the century-old house, and their problems quickly escalate. The home’s beautiful facade begins to crumble around them when their teenage son uncovers disturbing details of Rawlingswood’s history - a history of murder, betrayal, and financial ruin.

Livia Andersen was a woman who held her family together with a quiet smile and an iron will. It’s been months since her death and her children and grandchildren she leaves behind continue to grapple with the shifting changes in their lives now that she’s gone. For some of them it is about far more than adjusting to her absence in their lives. Trisha Andersen doesn’t do anything without careful deliberation. She can’t remember the last time she made plans involving a man that had her questioning her own judgment. Maybe it’s the simple fact that she’s never made plans with a man ...

Warren Bullock always thought he was a decent person. But lately he's been haunted by a sinister voice in his head urging him to commit unspeakable acts of violence against the people around him.

Laura Amy Schlitz delivers this Horn Book Fanfare and Laura Amy Schlitz delivers this Horn Book Fanfare and Cybils Award-winning best-seller that whisks 11-year-old Maud Flynn from a cold New England orphanage and into the stately mansion of three wealthy spinsters. After the Hawthorne sisters adopt her in 1909, they tell her she's their secret child. She must remain indoors at all times and must never stand in front of windows. Maud doesn't mind their restrictions. But she does wonder what could possibly require such secrecy.

In his three novellas, In Short Measures, Strong Conspirators, and Sally Forth, Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love - and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity - what are one's obligations toward one's spouse, one's family, and one's heart?

Barbara G. Tucker is the author of six novels: A Family’s Journey Trilogy: Traveling Through, Cross Road, and Legacy, published by OakTara Press The Unexpected Christmas Visitors, Bringing Abundance Back, and now, Long Lost Family, the first in the series of mysteries "Long Lost Stories" Bringing Abundance Back She has also published Leading in a Strange Land: Studies in Daniel and Leadership. She is the co-author of Exploring Public Speaking, a Creative Commons licensed textbook, and editor of an academic journal. Barbara lives in a community in Northwest Georgia outside of Chattanooga, ...