Southern California

The tenth novel in the Alexander Wright Murder Mystery Series has our hero, Alex, entwined in a civic lesson of greed and unethical underpinnings. If you think politicians can be corrupt, this is a local-level example of corruption and greed. It may be thought of as a victimless crime, but greed is only a gateway drug to worse. As bad as that seems, Alex is still able to hit the prime surf spots of Southern California, the envy of the world, and advance his love life and family life. Although a chronological series installment, Town for Sale can stand on its own just like the other nine ...

For twenty years Alex Wright, the Laguna Beach surfing real estate appraiser, has believed that his parents died in a freak auto accident on their way home from a weekend in Palm Springs. Now he learns that they were killed, mob-style, with single bullets to their heads. Why would they deserve to die this way? Meanwhile, Alex’s wife, Rachel Fix, is not adjusting well to the settled life of wife and mother. She is drawn back to the excitement of celebrity and fame that she enjoyed during her ten years on the pro surfing tour. So begins the seventh story in the Alex Wright Mystery saga. ...

The Blackrock Connection refers to a network of entities, individuals, and events that have been linked to the controversial fires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles. This connection is not merely a conspiracy theory but a complex interplay of economic interests, environmental policies, and corporate strategies that has raised significant concerns among residents and activists alike. Understanding this connection requires delving into the history of the region, the stakeholders involved, and the implications of their actions on both the community and the environment.

Alex Wright’s life as a surfing real estate appraiser in Laguna, California turns dark. In the months that follow the tiki torch march in Charlottesville, Virginia, first the wife of his dog grooming friend, Samantha, is brutally assaulted for no reason other than her same-sex marriage. Then two weeks later a seventeen year old high school student is murdered possibly because he is Jewish. Alex feels the need to deal with these crimes, and to attempt to end hatred in Orange County, California. Follow his path to solving these crimes and gather support for his newest crusade. This is the ...

After a few months of living with her boyfriend, Greg, Jill Gardner is still getting used to sharing such close quarters, but she's got no hesitation about joining him for a weekend at South Cove's most luxurious resort. While Greg and his college pals celebrate their buddy's upcoming wedding, Jill intends to pamper herself in style. But when the groom is found floating facedown in the pool, Jill must find the killer fast, or she might not have a boyfriend to come home to anymore....

With a touch of swagger and cockiness, Phelps describes his personal experiences in the Southern California dating world while exposing dysfunctional and sometimes bizarre behavior among the multitude of serial daters in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. If you’ve been happily married for 30 or 40 years this book may not be for you. However, if you’ve been in the dating marathon for years or recently new to the musical chairs of dating as a mature adult, you will be sure to relate. Phelps delivers an entertaining, somewhat shocking and thought-provoking look at single life of middle-aged women ...

The policy of manifest destiny increased tensions with Mexico in the 1840s. Mexico's northern half formed the western border of the territory bought in the Louisiana Purchase. Naturally, notions of the United States expanding to the Pacific Ocean alarmed Mexico, which held what is today the west coast of the United States. However, Mexico first came to regard American expansion as a serious problem with the immigration of Americans into its northeastern territory.

Sacred Sites is a singular and memorable account of the evolution of the Southern California landscape, reflecting the riches of both Native knowledge and Western scientific thought. Founded on meticulous research, Suntree offers a rare and poetic vision combining Western and indigenous thinking to create an ever-deepening sense of a place and its people.

She’s in for the ride of her life… All Deirdre wants to do is trail ride. Her modest, rural neighborhood is a horsewoman’s dream—despite rumors that it’s haunted by the horseback-riding Black Witch of Fairy Glen. For Deirdre, those rumors have always been handy for keeping outsiders out. But now, something very real—and much more sinister—is menacing her personal paradise. A real-estate mogul wants to build fireproof mega-mansions on the ridgeline, bulldozing through Fairy Glen to get to the top. Does he have anything to do with the dead bodies showing up around the ...

In a suburban LA neighborhood, neighbors keep wary distance and at times collide, propelled by desire, fury, and mischief. Precocious Korean-American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; an aging gay horror novelist fights loneliness; and a white mother and her adopted Vietnamese daughter deal with lifelong anger issues.

At the age of thirty-nine, Alice Chang suddenly finds herself living in the last place she expected: her mother’s house. But in the face of divorce, eviction, and the recent death of her father, she doesn’t have a choice. Watching as her mother thrives in a new job and meets younger men at the local gym, Alice struggles, reflecting on her parents’ marriage, her relationship with each of them, as she adjusts to being single again for the first time in twenty years. Then she finds her father’s old journal...and uncovers a shocking family secret.

It’s Christmastime in the quiet Los Angeles County city of Vista Beach, home of computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson. The magic of the season fills the air as residents enjoy school concerts, a pier lighting ceremony and the annual sand-snowman contest. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Rory plans on painting ornaments to sell at the local craft fair and joining in on the holiday fun. But she finds the season anything but jolly after the house across the street is torn down, revealing a decades old crime. Past meets present when her father is ...

A foster child discovers her mother was a victim. Her father is a criminal. He reappears in her life, wanting to know the last place she saw her mom alive. Can she remember and lead him there? Or will she become another one of November’s Missing? Now the horsewomen of Fairy Glen have not one, but three missing girls in their territory. Horses are the perfect all-terrain vehicle for accessing the remote canyons. Will they find them before it’s too late? Because the girls aren’t the only ones missing. The exotic animal park’s perimeter was breached during October‘s fire. Things are ...

In his latest adventure, Alex Wright, a 32-year old real estate appraiser in Laguna Beach, California, finds himself involved in the murder investigation of a computer geek, Eric Thompson, who has developed a means to steal identities in an undetectable manner. His surfing buddy, Detective Zackery Potrero of the Newport Beach Police Department, is amazed at how Alex can analyze situations and discover leads that were missed by the police and the FBI. With the help of FBI Special Investigator Louis Faulkner, the trio peels away several layers of crime in their effort to solve the mystery.

Southern California is where dreams come true—or so Scarlett Gardner thought. When she moved there and opened the Palm Trees and Page Turners bookshop, she thought her boyfriend and business partner would be part of the story. When he leaves her for a better job, Scarlett finds herself struggling to keep her new business afloat. And that’s not the only thing she has to worry about—she discovers something underneath the pier by her bookshop that she didn’t outline for her life’s story: the dead body of a book-buying customer.

By chance, Madison Harper, best-selling novelist, happens upon the story of three boys that have gone missing in the San Bernardino mountains of Southern California during the past twenty years. The only resolution the authorities can come up with is that they were all killed by mountain lion attacks. She finds their three separate stories intriguing. Research and interviews with their friends and families make her decide that their stories and eventual disappearances become the subject of her next book. The first boy vanished while on a group hike. He couldn’t keep up and was directed to...

Chances are your grandchildren have no idea of the world before cell phones, internet, and digital everything. Written for the author's grandchildren, this book presents vignettes of life before MTV and 24-hour news cycles. At times poignant, funny, and cynical, it's easy and entertaining reminders of a simpler time.

After seven months laying low in Ocean Beach, California, Seattle PI Leo Waterman has finally stopped looking over his shoulder - specifically, for the vengeful band of Washington white supremacists who blame Leo for blindsiding their big plans for America. Where better to disappear with his bodyguard, Gabe, than this laid-back stretch of San Diego heaven? But when Leo finds a boy’s body on the beach, he comes out of hiding to investigate.

A sunny murder mystery set in a Southern California beach town. Chelsea and Ella are two coffee shop workers just trying to prosper in a coastal community. Unfortunately, bodies start to drop on their bit of beach. The two start to pick apart the local secrets in their newfound and sometimes hilarious approach to sleuthing. But their findings are so serious that the police worry for their safety. Can our baristas find the killer without getting burned? Expanded from the previously published Beach Reaper (Episodes 1-20) on Kindle Vella.

It’s never good when you get a phone call in the middle of the night. For Vasily Korsokovach, it’s particularly problematic when the caller happens to be his estranged mother seeking a favor for a family friend. Vasily’s inclination to hang up on her is overridden by his shock that Emelina Korsokovach would even make the attempt to reach out in the first place, so he reluctantly agrees to drive halfway across Orange County on what he’s certain is a wild goose chase. Everything goes right out the proverbial window when Vasily’s off-the-books wellness check gets upgraded to a full-...