Showing results by narrator "Andrea Bates" in All Categories

For John Carver, a simple Celtic woodworker, life is a struggle to feed his family. Then one summer day, as he walks past a near-dead alder tree, lightning strikes. With the shattered tree lying all around him, Carver pulls himself up and decides to make the best of it - he takes the usable pieces to his workshop. From the shards of that dead tree John creates three boxes. Then the unexplained happens - shortly after handling one of them, John's touch brings his young son back from the brink of death.

Though they work independently and at times are oceans apart, their ties to each other remain strong. They're related by blood or bond - this group of men and women in law enforcement, government intelligence, and the military who do what others cannot to serve, defend, and protect. Chief Of Police Mitch Turner is finally getting close to getting the evidence he needs to prosecute crime boss, Christopher Rossington.

It's Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for Samantha Sweet and the crew at her pastry shop, Sweet's Sweets. After baking a zillion pumpkin cookies, ghostly cupcakes, and an all-black cake for a young witch's wedding, the gang is looking forward to a gala costume party at the neighborhood bookshop. But when one of the guests is murdered and a rare book vanishes—practically in front of their eyes—the evening takes a whole different turn and Sam finds herself in the midst of another mystery.

Samantha Sweet and Beau Cardwell are getting ready for their September wedding, with the whole Sweet clan about to show up for the celebration.

Dealing with her mother may turn out to be the least of Sam’s problems when an unwelcome visitor walks into her pastry shop - Sam’s old heartthrob, the charmer Jake Calendar. Jake wants money for a Hollywood get-rich-quick scheme and he wants Sam to finance the deal. Can Sam convince him that the answer is "no"? Or will he sabotage the plans for her wedding?

Is there a serial killer in Taos? It’s the height of the wedding season at Sweet’s Sweets and Sam has all she can do to stay ahead of the rush of bakery orders. Plus, her side job - breaking into houses - isn’t allowing much summer time off either. Not to mention that her mother is pressuring Sam and Beau to set a wedding date. When Sam encounters two older women who then die suddenly, it appears that there may be a serial killer on the loose.

Dracula begins with the journal of Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor on the way to Transylvania to give information to the mysterious Count Dracula about his new estate in London. Dracula takes the young man prisoner, and Jonathan sees many strange and evil things in the castle before escaping and fleeing into the night. He later decides that he must have been mad.

Two things are weighing on Samantha Sweet's mind this summer - organizing the Sweet Somethings chocolate festival and tracking down information on the mystical carved wooden box that came into her life nearly two years ago, changing her forever. At last she believes she has located the person who can give the answers.

Revenge is often a cold dish, but in the tiny northern New Mexico town of Sembramos emotions are running decidedly hot. When two men convicted of murdering a local girl are released from prison after serving only a few years, their convictions overturned, the town's old pain rises to the surface and tempers flare. Samantha Sweet has her hands full with Easter at Sweet's Sweets, while her husband, Taos County Sheriff Beau Cardwell, is charged with keeping order among the two hundred residents of Sembramos.

It's a freezing January day when Samantha Sweet finds herself facing the unpleasant task of going back to her old job of breaking into houses. Meanwhile, a customer who's just a little bit too nice seems to be worming her way into Jen's confidence. Sheriff Beau, on the other hand, is dealing with a car-crash-turned-murder, and somehow it all seems to tie together in a great big sticky situation.

When a woman walks into Samantha Sweet’s pastry shop, claiming to have amnesia, it’s a puzzle that seems to have nothing to do with Sam’s new commission for a fantastic one-of-a-kind order of chocolates, although "Jane Doe" seems to know a lot about that. Sam calls Sheriff Beau to solve the mystery of who this stranger is and where she belongs. But Beau’s attention is occupied by other things: nearly his entire force is out sick with some kind of flu bug, and now a murder far from Taos requires his full attention. “Jane’s” forgotten memories become vitally important....

Samantha Sweet learns that an Irish great-uncle left her an inheritance, so she and Beau change their honeymoon plans and go to the Emerald Isle. Will the gift be something lavish and wonderful? Or is there no pot of gold waiting for Sam? Meanwhile, before Sam fully has the answers to her questions, a new mystery presents itself when a local charter boat is found adrift near the rocky Irish coast, its occupants missing. The family of the captain wants answers and when it looks like a group of Americans might be implicated, the Galway homicide detective in charge of the case enlists Beau’s help.

Samantha Sweet's life is a little crazy right now, beginning with her daughter's wedding, which coincides with Sam's receiving a huge new contract for her chocolate factory. The day after the wedding, someone takes a shot at Sam, and she discovers the bad guys are back.

After Godiva's son Torch buys a condo in Las Vegas, his grandmother Flossie and great uncle Sterling decide to pay him a visit. When the old vaudeville magicians drag him to the Pageant of Peacocks starring sexy Mara the Magnificent, it's love at first sight. The romance blossoms, but when Torch returns from a meeting in LA, Mara seems cold and distant. Torch turns to his mother, the advice columnist, for a helping hand.

The Bone Man is Vicki's fourth novel in the Tally Whyte homicide counselor series. A tale of suspense and mystery, The Bone Man takes Homicide Counselor Tally Whyte from Boston and Martha's Vineyard to New Mexico and Chaco Canyon in search of a dead friend's murderer and a carving known as The Blood Fetish.

This adventure novel begins in an old underground mine in the North Cascades of Washington, next to the Canadian border. Danger, romance, and intrigue follow Sara and Brad through the Idaho Primitive Area and the treacherous canyon of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. They sometimes stray from their work plans to search for a lost gold mine or prospect for gemstones in the rugged Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.

The Assassin's Wife is a thrilling tale of political intrigue set in current America. A jealous, deranged husband assassinates the president-elect of the United States two weeks before inauguration, and, for the first time in history, a vice-president-elect must step up and take the oath of office. Madison Hemsley-Tarlton, a war hero and former governor, will be the new president...if she can stay alive long enough.

When a normally meek Bay Area insurance agent suddenly turns into a voracious, homicidal maniac with an uncontrollable appetite, doctors quickly determine that the cause must be a brain parasite that can only be extra-terrestrial. Now, San Francisco Police detectives Karen Hall and Yuri Markov are on a mission to end this wave of violence before more citizens become infected.

Dead bodies, suffering souls – Freddie didn’t mean to kill the mugger – she barely had time to think. But when it was over, her boyfriend was in the hospital and the teenaged assailant was dead. Now, trying to cope with aggressive reporters, inquisitive cops, concerned relatives, and her own nagging conscience, Freddie finds one source of solace: the strength and comfort offered by Mike Danken, an ex-cop-turned-minister.

After young Richard's mother dies, he overhears the wealthy family friends, Ashton and Iris Burke, saying that they could not take him into their home. He is later adopted by the Johnsons, but hates the working class life that he endures throughout his childhood. After serving in the military, Richard goes to college where he studies architecture, the same profession as Ashton Burke.

When NewPro Stock collapses, Taylor and her husband Alan lose millions, forcing them to sell their home and business. But they're not going down without a fight. They're determined to track down the elusive Edward Brand, the mastermind behind the enormous fraud. Taylor and Alan are about to learn two hard facts: A man who doesn't want to be found can be extremely dangerous...and in the world of high-level scams absolutely nothing is what it seems.