Showing results by narrator "Alyssa Bresnahan" in All Categories

A Simple Tale is the moving account of Maria Poniatowski, an aging Ukrainian woman who was taken by the Germans for slave labor and eventually relocated to Canada as a displaced person. She struggles to provide her son, Radek, with every opportunity, but his eventual success increases the gulf between him and his mother. The Hunters, the second novella, is narrated by an American academic spending a summer in London who grows obsessed with the neighbors downstairs.

Living in a quiet suburb of Washington, D.C., Marsha is nine years old in the summer of 1973. While the nation’s attention is focused on the breaking Watergate scandal, her quiet neighborhood is going through its own upheaval. Looking back as an adult, she remembers it as a time when her father’s abandonment of his family becomes entwined with the arrival of a new neighbor and the death of a boy who lives down the street. Deeply disillusioned by the changes in her life, Marsha takes it upon herself to find the boy’s murderer, which sets off a chain of tragic events.

Even though Brandon Carlyle's acting career seems to be stalling, it hasn't stopped an anonymous fan from becoming a malicious stalker. Hoping to get away from it all, he returns to his Texas hometown for some peace and quiet. But when he meets a sexy journalist, he isn't sure if she's the woman of his dreams, or the woman of his nightmares.

Moving deftly between present and past, the novel follows Lena's day-long escape from her residential home with her troubled 12-year-old niece. While this odd couple takes refuge on a honky-tonk southern California beach, Lena's widowed mother, Ella, goes in search of them. In the process, Ella relives her own life's dreams and disappointments: her marriage to a sweet, loving shoe salesman; her discovery of Lena's handicap and her aching attempts to give her daughter a "normal" childhood.

Kate Martinelli has seen her share of peculiar things as a San Francisco cop but never anything quite like this: an ornate Victorian sitting room straight out of a Sherlock Holmes story - complete with violin, tobacco-filled Persian slipper, and gunshots in the wallpaper that spell out the initials of the late queen.

Never has Mallory faced as many surprises as in the case before her now. It seems cut-and-dried at first: a burglar has been caught in the act and killed by an ice pick-wielding homeowner. Except that the homeowner turns out to be the most famous lost child in NYPD history, missing for almost 60 years, thought to have been kidnapped following the massacre of her family: five siblings, father, stepmother, nanny, and housekeeper, nearly the entire household wiped out...with an ice pick.

A college class gets more than it bargained for when Harper gives a demonstration of her uncanny talent. Instead of just finding one body in an old grave, she finds two: the original occupant and a recently deceased girl whom Harper had tried, and failed, to find two years previously. To dispel suspicions about her innocence, Harper sets out to find the killer - only to find yet another body in the same grave.

A century after environmental and economic collapse, the people of the Coast Road have rebuilt their own sort of civilization. Enid of Haven is an investigator who, with her new partner, Teeg, is called on to mediate a dispute between households over an old building in a far-flung settlement at the edge of Coast Road territory. The investigators' decision seems straightforward - and then the body of a young woman turns up in the nearby marshland. Enid wants to find out who killed her, even as Teeg argues the murder isn't their problem.

Greek mythology has portrayed Medea as an evil enchantress who first helps Jason and the Argonauts steal the Golden Fleece, and then uses her magic to seduce Jason into marriage. The Dawn Palace is Medea’s story, elegantly rethought and retold by award-winning author Helen M. Hoover.

The Fall of the Sparrow is the story of a family's struggle to heal itself after the violent death of its oldest daughter. At the heart is Alan "Woody" Woodhall, a classics professor at a small mid-western college, whose beloved oldest daughter, Cookie, is killed during a terrorist bombing. Woody finds himself standing in the cemetery where Cookie is buried, convinced that life has taught him all the lessons he has to learn.

A string of shocking murders has occurred in a small community outside of San Francisco, each victim an innocent child. For Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide, and her partner Alonzo Hawkin it's going to be a difficult case.

In Nothing Like a Dame, theater journalist Eddie Shapiro opens a jewelry box full of glittering surprises, through in-depth conversations with twenty leading women of Broadway. He carefully selected Tony Award-winning stars who have spent the majority of their careers in theater, leaving aside those who have moved on or occasionally drop back in. The women he interviewed spent endless hours with him, discussing their careers, offering insights into the iconic shows, changes on Broadway over the last century, and the art (and thrill) of taking the stage night after night.

Author John Dickinson's debut novel is a welcome addition to the flourishing genre of medieval fantasy. Phaedra, a young noble, has reached the age of marriage, and is waiting for the man who appears in her dreams. When he finally arrives, she leaves her home and family to join him. But Phaedra is unprepared for the consequences her new union brings.

Rosa is an illegal immigrant from Mexico City who sells herself on the streets of Houston while dreaming of a career in modeling. Traci is a blonde beauty obsessed with becoming head cheerleader and securing her future for a good marriage. On the surface, no two 14-year-olds could appear more different. Three-time Newbery Honor-winner Gary Paulsen brings his immense talents to this rich story of a chance encounter between two young women, each seeing her life mirrored in the eyes of another.

At the height of the Cold War, words are weapons and secrecy reigns. These are challenging times to be a writer and a wife, as Nell Benjamin knows only too well. One bright November day in 1963, the dazzling young president arrives in Texas and Nell receives a phone call that overturns the world as she knows it. In the shocking aftermath, whilst America mourns, Nell must come to terms with both a tragedy and a betrayal that shatters every illusion of the man she thought she knew better than anyone else.

Welcome to America. On the East Coast, homes are being swallowed by the ocean; on the West Coast, California is engulfed with wildfire. But for one family, the impending environmental disaster is the least of their worries. Party girl Cat just impulse-purchased a snake; her pious brother Cooper is wrestling with a tic bite; and their mom Ottilie has resorted to cooking with crickets. Everyone is drinking too much – and the bugs seems to be disappearing. It seems as if it's anything but blue skies ahead...

As their beloved Black Sheep member Lucy Binger prepares to tie the knot, the closely knit group decide they need a weekend to unwind before the big day. Suzanne Cavanaugh has just the spot-her friend Amy lives in a luxury New England community on Osprey Island, renowned for its famous cliff walk and spectacular ocean views, and she would be happy to host the knitters. Shortly after their arrival, however, the idyllic setting turns into a crime scene.

Maggie Messina knows that knitting is not only enjoyable, it also calms both the mind and soul. She's happy to visit two sisters, Holly and Rose Piper, and teach them some simple stitches, while the rest of the Black Sheep knitters tag along. Dana Haeger has known the young women since they were children and is the closest thing to family the Pipers now have. Dana is especially concerned about Rose, who has been easily overwhelmed ever since a car accident many years ago.

A Laurel Wreath and Aspen Gold Award winner, CBA best-selling author Delia Parr is acclaimed for her enthralling historical romances. In Love’s First Bloom, Ruth Livingston’s life changes drastically in 1835. When her father—a New York City pastor—is accused of murdering prostitute Rosalie Peale, Ruth flees with Rosalie’s daughter to a New Jersey village. There Ruth lives quietly as Widow Malloy. But when brash newspaper reporter Asher Tripp arrives, Ruth fears the newsman may discover her secret.

Mario Alfieri, the world's most famous tenor, is preparing to make his debut at the Met. As he rents a house facing Gramercy Park, he discovers a pale young woman hiding in its music room. Her love and secrets soon mesmerize the great man. Set in turn-of-the-century New York, this is a tale of passion, intrigue, and murder.