Showing results by narrator "Kate Forbes" in All Categories

At age 55, Meg's life is too filled with loss for her to remember what magic feels like. All she has left is a yard brimming with plants that are wilting in the scorching Iowa summer - and a bone-deep feeling that she's through with living. Meg has something else too: a bottle of mysterious pills, given to her years ago by an empathetic doctor. He promised that they would offer her dying mother a quick, painless end in exactly 20 days. Though her mother never needed them, Meg does. But a strange thing happens after Meg swallows the little green pearls....

"Harry" Haristeen and her friends and animal companions pursue the threads of a mystery dating back to Virginia's post-Revolutionary past, introduced in A Hiss Before Dying, while their 18th century predecessors continue to struggle with the challenges of the fledgling country.

Jeanne Madison has earned her PhD at 26 and secured funding to find and excavate a treasure-laden 18th century caravel off the Yucatan coast. With her mentor and a handful of graduate students in her corner, she'll find the Luna Azul - or blue moon--by hook or by crook. When a tight budget forces her to hire Captain Gabriel Avery and his rust-bucket, "Fallen Angel", the comely PhD's not sure it won't be the latter.

At any moment a perfect summer day in Crozet, Virginia - nestled within the Blue Ridge Mountains - might turn stormy and tempestuous, as Harry knows too well when a squall suddenly sweeps in. In a blink Harry's pickup nearly collides with a careening red car that then swerves into a ditch. Harry recognizes the dead driver slumped over the vehicle's steering wheel: Barbara Leader was nurse and confidante to former Virginia governor Sam Holloway.

Once a frontier stagecoach stop, tiny Springwater has grown and changed and entered the 21st century. Cattle rustlers may still be stirring up trouble, but now they're high-tech operators in a modern world. Where stagecoaches once rolled along muddy roads, the Internet is now the newest highway in town. But heartbreak is still heartbreak, and love still love, and Springwater still boasts a rich legacy of joy, sorrow, and second chances - as two childhood sweethearts discover when they rekindle a long-ago passion in the place they will always call home.

Sarah Booth just wants the perfect Christmas holiday. Even with the dissolution of her engagement, she refuses to lose her Christmas spirit. But when Theodora Prince - an ex classmate and current Pastor's wife - comes calling with a year-old case and cash upfront, Sarah Booth must find the truth about the boys who ruined last year's Christmas pageant in time to stop them from doing it again.

In this Junior Library Guild selection, Little Rose must brush her teeth, wash her face, and climb into bed while Mama takes a quick phone call. But as the call drags on, waves of uninvited guests pass through the front door. Soon the house overflows with bizarre visitors—from “muscley” men to winking wizards. As Mama continues to ignore the raucous revelry, Rose finally joins the party. But before the uproar gets out of hand, something quite surprising happens.

In 1955, 13-year-old Lyric, her older sister Summer, and their widowed father pack the car. Poor yet hopeful, they move from the hills of Virginia to Flint, Michigan, where "Poppy" plans to find factory work. Once they are in Michigan, Lyric and Summer love the excitement of the city. Lyric makes friends at her new school, but Summer feels like an outcast. Soon, the close bond between the two sisters begins to dissolve. Lyric always knew that Summer was a bit odd, but now Summer withdraws more and more into a fantasy world.

Virginia native Lee Smith has won two O. Henry Awards, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and the Robert Penn Warren Prize for her engaging works. A collection of 14 tales - both new stories and previously published favorites - Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger is sure to delight listeners with its warm humor and unforgettable characters.

Talented author Patricia Sprinkle pens this heartfelt tale about four women struggling to hold on to their hope. Billie never minded taking care of her disabled daughter alone, but now her ex-husband’s checks have stopped coming. Her sister Margaret’s marriage is disintegrating. Mimi’s retirement is being put on hold. And Emerita is a stranger in a new land. Tough times are surely before them, but they won’t have to face the difficulties alone.

In this heartfelt sequel, Ruby McGavin returns to Cardinal, California, with her brother Nash, hoping the fresh start will help him kick a debilitating drinking habit. And Ruby’s not the only one with renewed hope, as saddlemaker Lucas McGavin redoubles his efforts to win her heart - even if Ruby is his brother’s widow. Soon, all three learn that building a better future means first making peace with the past.

In Unpretty - by National Best Book Award finalist Sharon Carter Rogers - a powerful blast rips through a West Virginia art gallery. Although Hummingbird Collins can identify the bomber, she's frightened into silence by chilling messages from a deranged cult member calling himself Number 26. But when she goes missing, an unlikely young man may be the only one who can help her.

The setting is Miami. Rookie cop Tito Morales arrives at the Trianon hotel to investigate a routine disturbance call and, to his shock and horror, watches as a wealthy oil man plunges ten stories and impales himself on a nearby fence. Soon Morales is joined by detective Jimmy Paz, famous throughout the city for solving, or at least providing a plausible solution to, the so-called Voodoo Murders that left Miami burning months earlier.

With help from her friends - the irascible gray cat Pewter, the wise corgi Tee Tucker, and Tally, the exuberant Jack Russell - Sneaky crisscrosses her home state of Virginia hoping to go where no cat since Socks Clinton has gone: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In the tradition of her heroine, Sojourner Truth, she takes her case to the masses. Journeying from the lair of the red-shouldered hawk to the nest of the tufted titmouse, from a pasture full of curmudgeonly cows to the stately halls of Monticello, the tenacious tiger cat even secures the chattering support of Thomas Jefferson’s mice.

At her aunt and uncle’s farm in the summer of 1958, 12-year-old Dawn and her new friend Charlotte create their own private world: Planet Kid. Away from whiny brothers and nosy neighbor boys, they pass one carefree day after another. But as dark secrets from the adult world creep into Planet Kid, Dawn must make some tough choices - choices that could mean life or death for her friend. In this moving, insightful novel, Newbery Honor author Jane Leslie Conly captures both the innocent simplicity and the haunting complexity of growing up.

Two sisters can’t stand to live together, but can’t bear to be apart. One worships the flashy world of Nashville, the other is a devout Pentecostal. One falls into the lap of any man, the other is afraid to even date. One gets pregnant in a flash, the other desperately wants to have a child. This is what’s at the heart of Silas House’s third novel, which tells the story of Easter and Anneth, tragically left parentless as children, who must raise themselves and each other in their small coal-mining town.

A precocious and idealistic poet, Adelaide Piper can't wait to escape her tiny, South Carolina mill town for the freedoms of a prestigious, far-away university. But she's unprepared for the party-school reality that soon leaves her devastated, demoralized, and desolate. And then she remembers the "Jesus freak" who'd been her best friend - until her spiritual transformation.

Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown return with an all-new mystery starring Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, intrepid kitty sleuths Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and Tee Tucker, the ever-faithful crime-solving corgi. This time around, Harry and her animal friends track a killer whose trail has gone as cold as the weather in December.

Though Alice and Greta live on the same mountain, they are about as different as two witches can be. Alice’s outlook is always rosy, just like her clothes. Greta always dresses in poison green, a color as putrid as her personality. Alice uses her magic to help people, while Greta uses hers to make people miserable. Steven J. Simmons’ delightful IRACBC Children’s Choice award winner teaches children some valuable lessons about getting along with others and accepting the consequences of their actions.

Autumn has descended and crops are being harvested all over Crozet, Virginia, ideal conditions for a scenic drive for Harry and husband Fair. Bucolic views are all well and good, but Harry's nose for trouble leads her straight to a cornfield's macabre scarecrow - an all too real murder victim that frightens all but the noisy crows.