Southern Supernatural

For Max and Sandra Porter, building a family seemed unattainable. But since moving to Winston-Salem and starting a business with the ghost of a 1940s detective, the unattainable did not sound so far-fetched. Over time, they brought two homeless boys into their work and eventually to their home. But this ad hoc family has a lot of unknown histories. Dark secrets that threaten to crawl to the surface. When one of those secrets breaks through, Max finds himself in a fight - not only for his own survival, but for the survival of his family as well.

Just when Pepper Dunn starts accepting her ability to communicate with animals, she’s thrown for a loop - an egg containing a baby dragon winds up on her doorstep. Convinced the creature will grow up to become a destructive force of nature, Pepper gives the dragon to the first person interested in buying - a traveling magician named Mysterio, who claims he can communicate with the dead.

All Pepper Dunn wants is a quiet life in the witchy town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama. But when the Cotton and Cobwebs Festival arrives, her dream goes up in smoke. This year, grandmother Betty is determined to win the award for best magical creature against Melbalean Mayes, the contest matron. To win, Betty needs Pepper’s help. But when Melbalean winds up dead and Betty is accused of the murder, Pepper is thrust into one role she never expected. She must ensure the safety of her town, try to clear Betty’s name, and ensure no one else winds up a victim of the Magnolia Cove murderer.

When a boyfriend from Sandra’s past hires the Porter Agency to investigate a haunted firehouse, Max and Drummond know there’s going to be trouble. Yet nobody is prepared for the twisted path they embark on. A path that takes them into a harrowing murder, a botched curse, and the rumblings of a witch war. But after Sandra’s life is placed in jeopardy, Max throws off the gloves. To save her, he’s ready to take on the toughest witches in all of North Carolina if he must - nothing will stop him when his love is on the line.

Max Porter has had his share of odd cases. That goes with the territory when one of your partners is the ghost of a 1940s detective. But the idea of being hired by a witch coven to save witches seems wrong from the start, and it only gets worse.

Old Relics, New Power Max and the gang are no strangers to battling ghosts, witches and curses. But when they are hired to free a family of witches who have been locked in their mansion by magic, they find themselves on strange ground. After all, helping witches never was in the job description.

Only a handful of people know that Emma Lee Raines, proprietor of a small-town Kentucky funeral home, is a "Betweener." She helps ghosts stuck between here and the ever-after - murdered ghosts. But Emma Lee's own sister refuses to believe in her special ability. In fact, the Raines sisters have barely gotten along since Charlotte Rae left the family business for the competition. After a doozy of an argument, Emma Lee is relieved to see Charlotte Rae back home to make nice. Until she realizes her usually snorting, sarcastic, family-ditching sister is a...ghost.

When she runs into her friend's deadbeat dad at the local deli, undertaker Emma Lee Raines can't wait to tell Mary Anna Hardy that he's back in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, after five long years. Cephus Hardy may have been the town drunk, but he didn't disappear on an epic bender like everyone thought: He was murdered. And he's heard that Emma Lee's been helping lost souls move on to that great big party in the sky. Why do ghosts always bother Emma Lee at the worst times?

A funeral, a ghost, a murder. It's all in a day's work for Emma Lee Raines...especially when the ghost turns out to be someone very dear to her heart. Psychic Debbie Dually is the one who informed local undertaker Emma Lee Raines that she wasn't crazy, she was a Betweener, someone who can communicate with ghosts of the not-so-dearly departed. In fact, she told Emma Lee how she was the only one that could help solve their murders to help them rest in eternal peace. This time Debbie Dually finds herself needing Emma's help. This means solving her own murder.

Foster kid Briar Givhans grew up on the wrong side of the Charleston society tracks. She has no idea who her parents are or where she came from. She showed up as a toddler on the door step of a fire station with a note stuck to her back with just her name and age on it. No one ever claimed her. Now she's an adult and has long since given up on figuring out her true identity. And then Hell's Belles comes knocking on her door.

Troika is loosely based on a real-life experience. A normal day in the Deep South turns into a nightmare, as Chantal discovers that beauty and terror trace the fault lines between life and death. She fights to understand why a good woman, her friend Aida, is stricken with a debilitating illness that steals her mind and reason. When Aida's terrifying visions are revealed, what price does it have when it's shared with Chantal?

Roberts writes stories from a wide variety of locations: "Night of the Hunt" in Hendersonville, North Carolina; "Return of the Bell Witch" in Adams, Tennessee; "The Shenandoah Stage" in New Market, Virginia; "Chain Gang Man" in Decatur, Alabama; "Fort Mountain" in Fort Mountain, Georgia; "Laura" in Campbellsville, Kentucky; and "The Coming of the Demon" in Middleway, West Virginia.