Showing results by narrator "Mary Ann Jacobs" in All Categories

Between the Dark and the Daylight explores the concerns of modern life, of the overworked mind and hurting heart. These are the paradoxical - and often frustrating - moments when our lives feel at odds with everything around us. Only by embracing the contradictions, Chittister contends, may we live well amid stress, withstand emotional storms, and satisfy our yearnings for something transcendent and real.

A .38, a nip of gin, and sensational legs get Depression-era private investigator Maggie Sullivan out of most scrapes - until a stranger threatens to bust her nose, she's hauled in on suspicion of his murder and she finds herself in the cross-hairs of a crime boss with connections at City Hall.

When a man offers 1940s private investigator Maggie Sullivan twice her usual fee to look into a "possible" jewelry theft from his hotel safe, she’s skeptical - until a maid’s body tumbles out of a trash can and a jeweler known for high quality fakes is murdered. Does a hotel guest who vanished without a trace hold a piece of the puzzle? Or, does it have to do with the Polish count and his family fleeing the start of WW2 in Europe?

It's 1910 and Anna Lewis is praying that God will help her become a premier watercolor artist of the lush beaches of Carmel, California. When a man strides down the beach and stops to face the ocean, Anna sketches him into her painting. Was it a mistake? Anna thinks so when he tells her he doesn't have spare change to purchase her work. Spare change indeed! But while she seeks God's leading for her art career, she'd better keep her day job as nursemaid to two rambunctious boys.

Days before the Pearl Harbor attack plunges the US into World War II, private eye Maggie Sullivan is hired to find a missing engineer in Dayton, Ohio. Has Gil Tremain been kidnapped, or has he turned traitor to his employer and, maybe, his country? As Maggie pieces together his last movements, she finds there are secrets the man’s ex-wife and his employers don’t want uncovered.

After inheriting a house in Seattle, Jax O'Connell is living the life of her dreams as a glass bead maker and jewelry designer. When she gets an offer to display her work during a bead shop's opening festivities, it's an opportunity Jax can't resist - even though the store's owner is the surliest person Jax has ever met. The weekend's events become a tangled mess when a young bead maker is found dead nearby and several oddball bead enthusiasts are suspects.

When Depression-era private eye Maggie Sullivan is invited to dine with a millionaire, she doesn't expect the first course to be a gun in her face. It draws her into a gold-plated web of theft, revenge, double crosses, and murder. A big-time swindle has made fools of some of the city's wealthiest businessmen. The man behind it has vanished. When Maggie begins asking questions, he reappears - dead in the river. But she's already learned too much. Someone's out to silence her too.

The Weight of Salt is a gripping story of love and courage. It is 1906, and 15-year-old Angelina Pirrello is devastated by an unexpected and startling event that will forever alter the course of her life. Known as the Cigar Capital of the World, an influx of immigrants arrives in Ybor City, Florida, seeking work. 

Ever wonder why being the independent woman we are told we should be oftentimes simply leads to us battling our problems alone, or worse, competing with other women? Why, at every single baby shower, so many women share their harsher tales of labor and delivery in unnecessary one-upmanship? Why most women are left with feelings of unworthiness? Join women from different backgrounds as they come together to share their own experiences of pain, perseverance, and encouragement, firsthand and in heartwarming detail. We hope that through their stories, you find you are not alone.

Sassy salon owner Marla Shore is giving grumpy Mrs. Kravitz a perm when her client dies in the shampoo chair. If that isn't enough to give her a bad hair day, handsome Detective Vail suspects Marla of poisoning the woman's coffee creamer. Figuring she'd better expose the real killer before the next victim frizzes out, Marla sets on the trail of a wave of wacky suspects. Her theory regarding whodunit gels only after she looks for the culprit closer to home.

Hairstylist Marla Shore volunteers for Taste of the World, a fundraiser sponsored by Ocean Guard. It is a decision she soon regrets. First Chef Pierre's rum-soaked bananas Foster goes up in flames, making her wonder if sabotage caused the incident. Her suspicions deepen as more chefs drop off the roster and Ocean Guard's attorney is murdered. Does the lawyer's death relate to an estate being managed by the group?

Tattoos. Unwed pregnancy. Giving up on shaving…showering…and employment. These used to be signatures of a trashy individual. Now they’re the new norm. What happened to etiquette, hygiene, and self-restraint? Charlotte Hays, Southern gentlewoman extraordinaire, takes a humorous look at the spread of white trash culture to all levels of American society.

In a suburb on Boston's North Shore, a catatonic little girl is found behind a dumpster. She is a mystery. As social worker Debbie Gillan pieces together the puzzle of the child's identity, she discovers the child had disappeared two years earlier along with a twin sister. She also discovers Hannahwhere, an alternate world that is both a haven and a prison. Life-altering trauma becomes the key to unraveling the truth about the children, about Hannahwhere, and about Debbie herself.

The scent of herbs and pines, the startling blue of the sea. The brilliant white of cliffs tumbling into the depths. The sound of pounding surf, the chiming of church bells. The sight of mountain peaks that break the clouds, the chill of an alpine breeze. All this, and more, is the Italian Riviera. Pinned between the mountains and the sea, on a steeply-sloped crescent of land stretching from the French border to Tuscany, the people of the Italian region of Liguria - commonly known as the Italian Riviera - developed a character and unique way of life.

The Vanhorn sisters want her to learn the fate of their father, who vanished more than 25 years earlier in Dayton, Ohio’s, catastrophic 1913 flood. They believe he was murdered. They think they know the killer. But before Maggie can question the suspect, he winds up dead. With a nip of gin to cheer her and a Smith & Wesson for company, Maggie follows a trail all but obliterated by time. It leads her to a local politician with bigger ambitions - and possibly secrets to hide. 

Many said Matt Yoder was the most handsome Amish bachelor in the county, maybe even the country. When he contacted Jane and asked her to return to the community where she grew up, she was convinced all her prayers had been answered. She'd always dreamed of marrying Matt and having a large family. Her dream turned into a nightmare when she discovered he asked her to come home to help him select a bride. He was tired of being single and declared he would be married by Christmas. He had narrowed his search to five women and was having trouble deciding between them.

When a wealthy theater owner is killed by a falling art glass chandelier, glass beadmaker Jax O’Connell’s boyfriend, Detective Zachary Grant, quickly determines it was no accident. Jax and her friend Tessa try to carry on with a charity fashion gala at the theater, but with only a few days before the big event, they have to scramble to keep things from falling apart. The emcee quits, and to make matters worse, Tessa’s daughters are suspects in the murder.  

When the pain first hit, she ignored it and continued racing across the parking lot toward the food court. But within moments she realized something was terribly wrong as her wobbly legs gave out and she dropped to the ground. The last thing she remembered as she started to fade away was the guy in the Grateful Dead T-shirt who held her in his arms and promised he'd never let her go.

An aged photograph of a dead man hanging from a tree...Deaths in a nursing home that may not be as natural as they appear...Clues showing a 70-year-old suicide could be murder...Sinister small town secrets, decades old, finally revealed...Feisty Livy Crowe, single-and-loving-it owner of the nostalgia shop, Better Days, has to deal with all of these and more, including her mother's slow deterioration in a senior residence that might be a crime scene, a very awkward romantic triangle, and murders old and new that threaten even Livy herself...

Crime-solving sleuth Em Johnson and her uncle, Louie, owner of the famous Tiki Goddess Bar on Kauai, head for the Cocktail Shake Off Competition in Honolulu. What is supposed to be a fun trip to a mixology contest turns weird when Louie's legendary "Booze Bible" is stolen and Em's ex-husband winds up dead - with Em the number-one suspect.