Showing results by narrator "Sarah Pesek" in All Categories

The Superior Club is where Fort Lauderdale’s wealthiest - and snobbiest - come to play. But for Helen Hawthorne, it’s all work and no play. As a customer care clerk, it’s her job to cater to the clients’ every little whim and take care of their every little problem.

Still on the run from the long arm of the law, Helen Hawthorne has found employment as a maid at Fort Lauderdale’s Full Moon Hotel, picking up after clueless tourists and keeping her head down. But staying discreet gets a bit more difficult when Helen opens the hotel dumpster and discovers the dead body of a fellow hotel employee. Then a hotel guest is murdered in the shower, and Helen’s no-good ex-husband Rob arrives in town in search of the money the court said he deserves.

At the Pampered Pet Boutique in Fort Lauderdale, the wealthy owners need a muzzle more than their beloved pets. On her way to deliver a freshly groomed Yorkie, Helen discovers client Tammie Grimsby stabbed to death with a pair of grooming scissors. As Helen sniffs around both the boutique and a growing list of pure breed suspects, she knows that her bark will have to be worse than her bite if she’s going to put the collar on a killer.

After all she’s endured with her own marriage, divorce, and subsequent flight from alimony, Helen Hawthorne getting a job at Millicent’s Bridal Salon is ironic in the extreme. The newest client is Kiki, a wealthy witch who’s making her daughter's wedding day all about Kiki. When Kiki is found smothered to death with her daughter’s wedding dress, the cops seem to think Helen is responsible. Now, Helen must prove her innocence before the bride and groom read their wedding vows—and the police read Helen her rights.

Still living under the radar in Fort Lauderdale due to her refusal to pay her ex-husband’s spousal support, Helen Hawthorne’s latest workaday job might just be the lowest rung on the employment ladder - telemarketing. While Helen is conducting a phone survey with the wealthy Henry “Hank” Asporth, Helen is convinced she heard a murder being committed. With no solid proof, Helen is driven to find out what really happened with Hank and the mystery woman. But if she’s not careful, she just might end up holding a dead line of her own.

From clinical sexologist Dr. Arlene Krieger comes a collection of nonfiction short stories for adults that explore love and relationships - the most thrilling and complicated quest in the world. Written with compassion and humor, Sex: From the Couch explores the irrational, passionate, and occasionally bizarre nature of love. Krieger’s stories will make you laugh, cry, and gasp - sometimes with subverted expectations, other times in uncomfortable recognition of the pitfalls of adult relationships.

Ever since he survived a suicide attempt, New York artist Stan Foster has not been himself. Plagued by amnesia and a head full of visions of death and destruction that fuel his ever-more disturbing work, he claws his way through a life he doesn't recognize in search of his true identity. What he finds leads him to believe he is Satan, spit out from the bowels of hell to live among the mortal inhabitants of earth. Is he delusional, or is there truth behind this troubling revelation? One woman can help him find out.

An overachiever who is driven by an ambition to succeed, Samantha Harrison has set out to be the first woman president in United States history. With her devoted husband Ben behind her, she begins her campaign with Zachary Watts, a determined campaign manager with questionable ethics. As her campaign begins to take shape, Samantha is forced to deal with a crumbling home life as she continues her quest to hold the highest office in the land.

Helen and Phil discover dark undercurrents of corruption behind the facades of cute beachfront businesses, as well domestic secrets. Helen and Phil have to solve this crime soon—before they’re all up a creek without a paddle.

Helen Hawthorne and her new husband, Phil Sagemont, are a PI team. To catch a jewel thief on a luxury yacht, Helen goes undercover as the ship’s new stewardess, serving drinks to snobs, scrubbing floors, and cleaning up after seasick passengers. While Helen is cruising the Bahamas, Phil has to catch a sexy gold digger who may have killed her elderly husband for his fortune.

Husband and wife PI team Helen Hawthorne and Phil Sagemont are hired by Trish Barrymore, who is divorcing her no-account accountant Mort. When Mort is found dead, Trish is the main suspect. She wants Helen and Phil to find out who killed Mort Barrymore—and more importantly, kidnapped Justine, the couple’s pedigreed Chartreux show cat. Helen goes undercover as an assistant to a woman who shows prizewinning Persians. Under the primping, posing, and purring, cat shows are a high-pressure world, and now the stakes are life and death.

Everybody’s got their coping mechanisms. Val Fremden is no exception. But when her longtime boyfriend Tom Foreman takes off without even saying goodbye—well, that’s just the kind of thing that can make a good woman go bad. Out to track down Tom or die trying, everyone Val meets seems like a potential suspect. Especially her new coworker, Gary. Ever since he showed up, women around town have begun disappearing. And the macabre clues left behind at each woman’s last known address keep Val on the run like a chicken with its head cut off.

Planning for a rainy day has never been Val’s forte. But when a storm brews up right in her own backyard, Val’s forced to get off her lounge chair and spring into action. A shady, ham-fisted developer’s threatening to knock down Val’s favorite beach haunt, along with all the precious memories held within its shabby walls. With the owner’s signature on the bill of sale, the plan seems like a done deal. Or is it? Something fishy is going on at the beach, and it’s going to take all the wits Val can muster to put a pig-headed developer out to pasture.

Val knows she can’t solve all the world’s problems, so she’s settled on two: smashing every tacky figurine on the planet…and ridding the universe of her boyfriend’s hideous vinyl recliner.

When Val tries to revive her old writing career, story ideas prove as elusive as a moment alone without her boyfriend Tom breathing down her neck. Tom’s moved in, and Val’s itching to move out–at least temporarily. A last-minute getaway to the country seems like the perfect solution for dissolving her writer’s block. But a fateful fish fry ends up inspiring a whole different kind of dead end.

Nail guns have always terrified Harvey Beckett, and now she knows why. Harvey loves sharing the parking lot of her bookstore with the hardware store across the way, but when an unruly customer is killed in the lot one night, she begins to wonder if the men who own the store are responsible. A few inquiries and a bit of spying later, and Harvey and her best friend find themselves with nowhere to run.

When the local librarian is found dead among the stacks, the rumors about her reputation reach a fever pitch, but Harvey Beckett can’t let a fellow book-lover’s name be sullied. But when she drags her friends and her dogs into the investigation, she finds that it’s more than just rumors she has to contend with.

Harvey Beckett has just finished a quiet meal after shoveling the sidewalks around Main Street when the body of the new bartender in town is discovered behind the bar. When Harvey begins to look into the victim's pseudonym, she finds out far more than she bargained, enough to put her in real danger.

It's Autumn, bookstore owner Harvey Beckett’s favorite time of year, and she's most excited about two things–her bookshop's float in the annual Harvest Parade and pumpkin everything. But when her best friend Mart finds the body of her running coach and high school gym teacher behind the bleachers one fall morning, Harvey becomes enthralled in a mystery that uncovers their quaint town's darkest secrets.

The streets of St. Marin’s are decorated for Christmas, and Harvey Beckett has decided that she’ll host Santa Claus at her bookstore, reviving a town’s long-standing tradition. But on the first day of the holiday season, a man stumbles into Santa’s lap and dies, threatening the holiday spirit . . . and bringing a slew of questions that Harvey can’t resist trying to answer.