Showing results by narrator "Emily Sutton Smith" in All Categories

Sisters Amy and Zoe grow up in Oklahoma, where they are homeschooled for an unexpected reason: Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first.

In the 1950s, the alluring Rebecca Blaine ruled Long Island’s Gold Coast from Cadieux House, a gift of love from the brilliant architect Marius Cadieux. Today, as architect Wren Fontaine restores the house, she becomes immersed in a seventy-five-year-old murder, as well as fresh killings that echo it. To make it even more complicated, Cadieux was an important mentor to Wren’s father, who isn’t happy about Wren “fixing” the home. Wren must think back to her childhood, when the elderly Cadieux gave her a riddle. She knows she must solve it to understand the house—and stop the killings.

Carly has a complicated personal life. She's been the mistress of famous artist Nelson Carter for the past five years. Now Nelson has finally left his wife Amanda, but instead of committing to Carly, he's indulging in a series of one-night stands. She has had enough and is about to leave him when a vicious attack on Amanda means Carly has to put her plans on hold to care for Nelson's traumatized ten-year-old son, Jake. Only when Amanda is released from the hospital can Carly finally move on with her life. But then a frightened Jake confides a disturbing secret—"That's not my mom".

Tanis Archer is facing a miserable twenty-fifth birthday. She's a part-time barista in her sixth year at Dallas Community College. Her life is going nowhere, fast. Literally. Because on her way to work, she loses control of her car and is killed in a horrific crash. That should have been the tragic end of her story. But days later, she wakes up on a cold morgue slab…and soon learns that miraculous resurrections have brutal side effects. For starters, there are people around her who look as if they are decomposing from the inside-out, victims of their rotting souls.

In this candid oral history of a presidential tenure, author Brian Abrams reveals the behind-the-scenes stories that illuminate the eight years of the Obama White House through more than one hundred exclusive interviews. Among those given a voice in this extraordinary account are Obama’s cabinet secretaries; his teams of speechwriters, legal advisers, and campaign strategists; as well as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who fought for or against his agenda. They recall the early struggles of an idealistic outsider candidate and speak openly about the exacting work that led to cornerstone legislation.

Even the most incorruptible juror can be unwittingly influenced by others' opinions in the digital age, but more sinister forces are at work: Jury tampering has reached all-time highs. Unexpected verdicts are coming down more and more often, indicating that shadowy groups may be blackmailing jurors - and leaving the American justice system in shambles. Is impartiality even possible anymore?

Cole and Warren must split up. Cole travels to Tokyo as the ramifications of her article shock the world and her fame nearly drowns her. Meanwhile, Warren travels back to Washington DC to pursue an investigation of his own.

Cancer stole everything from Ceelie - her peace of mind, her self-image, perhaps even her 23-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Without the support of Darlene, her quirky elderly friend, she may not have been able to endure so much loss. So when Darlene’s own prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can’t refuse her seemingly impossible request - to find a WWII paratrooper named Cal, the father who disappeared when Darlene was an infant, leaving a lifetime of desolation in his wake.

It has been 15 months since Eva and Angela lost their thrill-seeking husbands in a scuba-diving accident. Both women are trying to navigate their way through the grief, but neither one is making much progress. But then Eva gets a life-changing phone call. Before Brent and Wes died, they had signed up for a race of a lifetime - an ultra-marathon in beautiful New Zealand. Eva begs Angela to run the race with her in their husbands’ place, and Angela finally agrees, hoping to finally understand her husband's choices.

Arriving in Little Havana in Miami, Cole creates a list of potential victims while Warren tracks down an old confidential informant. Desperate to reach a reclusive financier, Cole then makes an unusual friend, who leads her on a wild-goose chase through Miami. All the while, news is breaking around the world that implicates Cole and Warren in the killings, and a mysterious pair has followed them to Miami.

Intelligence analyst and former FBI special agent Brooke Fairfax is on the run. Not from anything sinister, but from her past. She's hiding from Declan O'Roark after he proposed a question she simply wasn't ready to answer. Within hours, Declan tracks her down, desperate to save the relationship. Then Brooke and Declan meet a suspicious man outside a Washington, DC, neighborhood bar. Terror begins to unfold just as Brooke realizes the man's intentions.

Char Hawthorn, college professor, wife and stepmother to a spirited fifteen-year-old daughter, loves her family and the joyful rhythms of work and parenting. But when her husband dies in a car accident, the "step" in Char's title suddenly matters a great deal. In the eyes of the law, all rights to daughter Allie belong to Lindy, Allie's self-absorbed biological mother, who wants to girl to move to her home in California.

Four years after having her heart shattered, Meg Tanaka is finally over her good-for-nothing ex. By focusing on her career and helping her loved ones navigate their lives, Meg has recovered from—or at least buried—the hurt Aiden caused. Unfortunately, her old resentment rushes to the surface the moment she finds out he's back in town. Aiden Howard has made a lot of mistakes in his life, but never one as bad as choosing his medical career over the love of his life. Still unable to get over losing Meg, he's come home with one mission: earning her forgiveness.

For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a listener as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success.

In Bucak's dreamlike narratives, dead girls recount the effects of an earthquake and a chess-playing automaton falls in love. A student stops eating and no one knows whether her act is personal or political. A Turkish wrestler, a hero in the East, is seen as a brute in the West. The anguish of an Armenian refugee is "performed" at an American fund-raiser. An Ottoman ambassador in Paris amasses a tantalizing collection of erotic art. And Greek God Apollo confronts his personal history and bewails his Homeric reputation as he tries to memorialize, and make sense of, generations of war.

Young architect Wren Fontaine lands her dream job: restoring Greenleaf House, New York’s finest Gilded-Age mansion, to its glory days. But old homes have old secrets: Stephen Greenleaf—heir to what’s left of his family’s legacy—refuses to reveal what his plans are once the renovation is completed. And still living in a corner of the home is Stephen’s ninety-year-old Aunt Agnes who’s lost in the past, brooding over a long-forgotten scandal while watching Wren with mistrust.

On an island in Maine, four siblings arrive at their sprawling, old summer place for the Fourth of July. It's the Willoughbys' first summer without their parents, and their beloved house is falling apart. When a substantial offer is made on the estate, the two brothers and two sisters are forced to confront issues they had hoped to keep hidden. An homage to the layers and limits of the family bond, North Haven explores the shifting allegiances between siblings as they contend with their inheritance.

From his position behind the pulpit, Reverend Peter Taylor has a unique view of his affluent congregants. By and large, they appear respectable and morally upstanding, but they have their share of troubles - and perhaps even more than their share of sins. Liza Howard is a notorious Jezebel who seduces young and old alike, and who now has her sights set on Judy Bennett’s son, despite his engagement. Meanwhile, Judy hides her own family secrets behind her relentless judgment of others.

With an old friend in mortal danger and the Dragon King demanding her presence, vampire hunter Morgan Bailey is stuck between a rock and a volcano. Jack's gone AWOL, her nemesis is running amok with a magical book, and soul vampires are snacking on steampunk enthusiasts. Not to mention Morgan still has a price on her head.

Maggie Thomas doesn't know the first thing about being a private eye. She quickly discovers that running her uncle's faltering Miami Beach P.I. agency is nothing like watching detective show reruns. Even the private eye app on her iPhone can't help. But Maggie's first case is surprisingly easy...or so she thinks until she stumbles upon a dead body. With whizzing bullets, car chases, and spandex-clad bodybuilders, Maggie wonders if she's in over her head.