Showing results by narrator "Carol Herman" in All Categories

In the waning years of the 19th century, Bessie Daniels grows up in the small town of Hot Springs in western North Carolina. Secure in the love of her father, resistant to her mother's desire that she be a proper Southern belle, Bessie is determined to forge her own way in life. Or, as her Cherokee great-grandmother Elisi puts it, to be a whistling woman. Life, however, has a few surprises in store for Bessie....

Angeline Sims is no shrinking violet. She’s tough, opinionated, bossy, and she’s got a bone to pick with nearly everyone in her life. Set in the fictitious Eastern North Carolina small town of Shelbington, Angeline has been given a terminal diagnosis, with mere months left to live. Upon learning of this news, her adult children and grandchildren come home for one last visit.

After Bessie and Fletcher Elliott lose all their money when their bank fails at the beginning of the Great Depression, Fletch is forced to seek employment elsewhere in order to sustain their struggling farm on Stone Mountain, North Carolina. Fletch’s brothers, Jim and Tom, working in a coal mine in Beacham, West Virginia, convince Fletch that there is money to be made as a miner, so he and Bessie move to Beacham in hopes of a temporary measure that will enable them to keep their farm.

When a floatplane mysteriously explodes above the Alaska wilderness, investigators begin digging into the lives of the five passengers and the pilot. Was the target of the bomb the US senator in the midst of a hotly contended reelection campaign or her husband, a corporate raider with no shortage of enemies? Or could the bomb have been meant for the cannery owner involved in a contentious divorce, or the refuge manager who had a long list of adversaries, including one who vowed to get even with him?

In the second decade of the 20th century, major world events resonate even on secluded Stone Mountain where Bessie Elliott lives with her husband Fletcher. There's a great war, one that takes away many young men, including Bessie's kin, some never to return. Bessie's role of healer intensifies as she treats those suffering from the Spanish flu and tries to keep it from spreading further on her mountain. She defends a young woman who's in the middle of a controversy that threatens to tear her community apart.

In the mid-1920s, Bessie Elliott and her husband Fletcher take in their six-year-old nephew John. They are determined to give him a warm and secure home on Stone Mountain, a place where he will feel loved and know he is always welcome. Having a child brings many changes to their daily life and even more for John, but it isn't long before he feels completely at home with his aunt and uncle.

While picking out a new suit for an upcoming TV appearance to promote her latest novel, celebrated mystery writer Iris MacKenzie has an unfortunate altercation with her ex-husband’s very pregnant new wife. When video footage of the incident goes viral, Iris’ career comes crashing down around her. Her publisher drops her, her literary agent drops her, and even her lawyer--who happens to be her own son--drops her.

Aging Georgia beauty queens - Leigh, Tara, and Victoria - are at it again! When they arrive at a restaurant for a meeting with a potential client (whom they've designated Pop Tart) for their budding private eye firm Tiara Investigations, they find the man dead - face down in a bowl of salsa. What's going on? The man was only concerned about his daughter's husband's fidelity, but this death has all the trappings of murder.

Seventy-nine-year-old wealthy Jewish widow Esther Kellerman lives in a small suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio. Esther thinks she has a pretty good life. She plays bridge, reads for her book club, and routinely drives her Cadillac DeVille into the mailboxes of her neighbors. Her latest mailbox mishap leads her to the doorstep of some mysterious new residents of her neighborhood. As she introduces herself to Sarah, the elderly woman who answers the door, Esther soon realizes that there’s something wrong with her.

In the dawning years of the 20th century, Bessie Daniels leaves her home town of Hot Springs and travels east over the mountains to live with her new husband Fletcher Elliott in the Broad River section of North Carolina. In 1906, they purchase 400 acres of the old Zachariah Solomon Plantation which includes a small house with a shack beside it, a branch of Cedar Creek and a row of dilapidated slave cabins... And ghosts.

Six months since being placed in a retirement home by her daughter, Millie Holt's routine water aerobics class takes a harrowing turn when she discovers her charming instructor, Scott, lifeless in the pool. As shock ripples through the group, suspicions brew—Scott's death seems far from natural. He was too vibrant, too full of life. Yet, without a shred of evidence indicating foul play, the truth remains elusive.

When her neighbor is shot and killed in his hunting blind, 66-year-old widow Gertie Johnson seizes the opportunity to move on with her life by investigating his death. Gertie is abetted (and hindered) by her grandson Little Donny, man-hungry best friend Cora Mae, and word-of-the-day challenger, Kitty. It doesn't help that Chester's death has been ruled an accident by the sheriff of this backwoods community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Or that Sheriff Blaze Johnson happens to be Gertie's son.

Molly’s Memoir is a journey through the life and times of a woman who is raised by a Seneca Indian after she is abandoned on the porch of a log cabin in the hills of West Virginia. Growing up in the isolated Monongahela Mountains, she learns about love, faith, and of the craft of healing with medicinal herbs.

There is a special bond between people and their pets. This charming novella reminds dog lovers of all ages of the lesson that no pet lives forever, so you must cherish and love the pet while you can. The story is about a dog named Maddie, who must endure many difficult events in her life as she moves among a series of owners.

Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson fears a serial killer is murdering women on Kodiak Island. A woman was found floating in the boat harbor in May. In October, an off-duty trooper stumbled upon the body of an 18-year-old girl in the woods, and later that month, two young boys discovered the bones of Deanna Kerr entwined in a pile of kelp on the beach. When a park ranger discovers the body of a fourth woman, Patterson calls the FBI for assistance, and FBI Special Agent Nick Morgan flies to Kodiak to aid in the investigation.

Former diplomat Leona Robin wonders if she made a mistake moving to rural Texas. Her son loves it here, but in a place where it's normal for a prize bull to have his own pet pig and hay bales are raining from the sky, Leona wonders how she'll ever fit in. That is, until she's thrown right into local preacher Ralph Maybeath's arms. Is this love? Maybe, maybe not.

When small town girl Bonita Faye's abusive husband, car salesman, and fishing guide Billy Roy is killed, she begins an adventurous new life that takes her from Poteau, Oklahoma to Paris and back again in a story of murder and redemption...and more murder...stretching over three decades.

Southern small-town retired library director Evelyn Williams finds herself suddenly unretired when her corrupt replacement is summarily dismissed by the library’s board. When Evelyn returns for her first day back on the job, she’s appalled at the state she finds the library in. Books are misplaced. Tables are overturned. And to make matters worse, most of the library staff fails to show up on her first day back.

"I’m a Stranger Here” could be the song title guiding Lizzie Baker’s life. In the five years she spent on Brown Mountain during the Civil War, Lizzie wanted nothing more than to find the light that transported her back in time and return to the 20th century. While fleeing from bushwhackers in 1864, Lizzie, her friend Abbie Collins, and fiancé Josh Hampton encounter a light Lizzie believes is hers. Hoping to get to safety, she pushes Abbie into the light, expecting Josh to follow. She and Abbie wake to find that this is not the Brown Mountain they remember.

Welcome to six of the most amazing fantasy stories you'll ever hear. This volume includes five full-length fantasy stories plus an exclusive bonus short story.