Showing results by author "Patricia McLinn" in All Categories

TV journalist Elizabeth “E.M.” Danniher will tell you she committed two sins: She didn’t stay young, and she made an enemy of a powerful news executive - her ex. She used to break national news. Now, her top story as the "Helping Out!" reporter at dinky KWMT-TV in Sherman, Wyoming, is getting a defective toaster repaired.

Far from the publishing world that once defined her, Sheila Mackey has found a new life, a new home, and a new love. The love has four legs, a plumey tail, and a lot of fur. Meet Gracie the rescue collie. Too smart for her own good - certainly too smart for Sheila's good, when Gracie discovers a dead body during a dog park gambol. Especially since Sheila delves into mysteries surrounding this dead body...only to discover the new guy at the Torrid Avenue dog park is a barely retired cop. Not good for an amateur sleuth with a big secret of her own that she intends to keep.

Valerie Trimarco is very pregnant, very lost, very alone, and very stuck in a Wyoming snow storm. Her car is jammed in a Wyoming ditch, with contractions coming faster and harder…when her white knight in a cowboy hat arrives. Ranch foreman Jack Ralston's job is to handle anything that needs handling with cool, quiet competence, including a baby who's decided to enter the world right now.

Matty's up to something - Dave knows that much. Just as he knows that Matty needs help, so of course he'll provide it. Doing what's best for Matty is second nature. Even when it comes to marrying her in name only. Although he can't resist one hot-blooded kiss after the "I dos" - a kiss as fiery as the flame-red Indian Paintbrush that's always reminded him of Matty.

Lisa Currick was once as bright and open as the sunny Bur Marigold wildflower of her native Wyoming. That's how New York City Detective Shane Garrison has remembered her since she figured in his first investigation eight years ago. But when he arrives in her hometown determined to resolve the final element of that case, he discovers the girl he's remembered has become a very different woman. Once open-hearted and artistic, Lisa has put all that aside for a life of order and discipline. And Shane wants to know why.

Life has changed for TV journalist and intuitive sleuth Elizabeth Danniher. But one thing hasn't changed -- murder still creeps down the road to Sherman, Wyoming. Elizabeth’s life is taking another major turn, and her Caught Dead in Wyoming fellow investigators discover what’s over the horizon in each of their lives. The latest death involves an off-season dude ranch and its staff, ardent rivals in a quest for buried treasure, a wildlife whisperer who seemed to know no enemies, and legends and exploits of long dead outlaws.

That’s right, Thurston Fine, the egotistical anchor at KWMT-TV is the first person deputies want to talk to when his self-described biggest fan is found dead. What’s Elizabeth Margaret Danniher to do? The station’s in an uproar, heading for a train wreck, and desperately needs her experience and leadership. At the same time, here’s an intriguing puzzle right in front of her…which might free or condemn her greatest enemy. In TV news, cross talk between the anchor and reporter is supposed to elicit new and interesting information.

Sheila agrees to soothe Clara’s nervousness, by accompanying her friend to the 20-year class reunion for North Bend County High. Nostalgia, good memories, old friendships - this should be fun, right? Ah, but grudges, old rivalries, and long-buried secrets also arise. And before the festivities wrap up, there’s one old classmate dead, another being questioned, and enough suspicion to cover several more. Sheila and Clara have their hands full, especially with Sheila wondering about her relationship with ex-policeman Teague O'Donnell.

Far from the publishing world that once defined her, Sheila Mackey's plan to escape to a quiet life in small-town Kentucky keeps hitting bumps in the road—and some of those bumps are dead bodies. Sheila and her friend Clara take on investigating a death that's colder than a cold case, because few in Haines Tavern, Kentucky, think it was a murder in the first place. Suicide? Accident? Murder? And Sheila is finding it harder and harder to protect her secret past, especially from Teague O'Donnell, who's shifting from a fellow dog lover to possibly much more.

The executive who’s responsible for widely hated changes at the biggest grocery store in Haines Tavern, Kentucky, arrives for a tour...and doesn’t leave alive. Sheila and Clara are on the scene - buying dog treats, of course - and on the case. Can they pick out the ingredients for the right solution?

In the television production world, a body brace is used to shift the weight of the camera to the operator's shoulder. This allows for smoother shots than might be obtainable by handheld operation. Braces also reduce stress on the arms, which reduces tiredness and muscle cramps during filming. And, at the small-town Wyoming TV station KWMT, cameras are older and bulkier than those used in network news-gathering.

Sheila’s settling into life in Haines Tavern, Kentucky. Sure, she has secrets to keep, but things are rolling along nicely. Trips to the dog park with her rescue collie Gracie, meeting her friend Clara and Gracie’s friend LuLu. Preparing for more work on her house by another dog park acquaintance, former cop Teague O’Donnell. And regular, relaxing yoga classes at the Beguiling Way studio...until Sheila and Clara encounter a new twist when someone murders their instructor.

Sheila Mackey has a secret. To the world, she’s author of a blockbuster book. Her wily great-aunt, the actual author, orchestrated this mutually beneficial masquerade. Now the aunt’s retiring and Sheila must draft Act Two of her own life. This cruise is supposed to be the perfect time to do that. Crossing the Atlantic on the Diversion, Sheila finds a dead body on deck. She realizes she knows a whole lot more about the interactions of the victim and suspects than the ship’s officials do.

Official consumer advocate and unofficial investigative reporter Elizabeth Margaret Danniher, her KWMT-TV colleague Mike Paycik, rancher Tom Burrell, and their supporting staff of idiosyncratic sleuths take on another mystery. A ranch foreman is found dead - and for most in Cottonwood County, the reaction is...good riddance.

One of their own becomes a target.... A voice on the phone says Jennifer’s best friend has tragically died in a fall at a national park. Her certainty that it was no accident starts TV reporter Elizabeth Danniher, with friends Mike, Tom, and Diana plus the rest of the Caught Dead in Wyoming crew, on an investigation that moves faster - and closer to them - than any of them could ever expect. They’ve barely had time to catch their breath since solving recent homicides; now one of their own becomes a target as they race time and a murderer before this hot roll burns them all.

Authors Love Readers, hosted by USAToday bestselling author Patricia McLinn, is a conversation between authors about how and why they create stories. With questions contributed by readers. Quite a few podcasts are out there for aspiring and established writers, both on the craft and the business. This podcast, though, is for readers. The goal is to have authors on the show who write in all sorts of fiction genres. As a reader, it doesn’t matter which path to publication an author takes – independent, traditional, hybrid and other combinations. That’s not going to matter on Authors Love ...

Elizabeth Margaret “E.M.” Danniher finds house hunting in Cottonwood County, Wyoming difficult, but deadly? That she never expected. In television, a cold open rolls before the credits, pitching the viewer into the news story. That’s how Elizabeth and her cohorts feel after she finds a body in a house for sale. A victim with a hidden history, few suspects, and the sheriff’s department not happy having Elizabeth - and amateur sleuth thorn in their sides - as the closest thing they have to a witness. Mike, Diana, Tom and the rest jump in to dig in.

Elizabeth "E.M." Danniher, until recently a top-flight national TV journalist, is regaining her footing after a dizzying demotion to tiny - and entirely foreign to her - Sherman, Wyoming. But her equilibrium faces a major challenge. The apparently accidental death - under the hooves of bucking bulls - of a rodeo producer preparing for Sherman’s annual Fourth of July Rodeo catches the attention of Elizabeth and her KWMT-TV colleague Mike Paycik. Not only is it a major story about the region’s biggest event, but it’s being outrageously mishandled by the station.

"There’s a body in my bed. A dead body." The call from a friend staying at Sherman’s newest - okay, only - B&B starts Elizabeth Margaret “E.M.” Danniher on a twisting, turning journey where appearances not only deceive but turn deadly. When her TV reporter friend Wardell Yardley comes to visit, they take a weekend trip to Yellowstone Park and encounter a surprising set of people including a team-building group from social media mega force VisageTome, a mysterious older couple, and someone from Elizabeth’s childhood.

A man in a wheelchair goes missing in rough country in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming. Amateur sleuth Elizabeth “E.M.” Danniher and KWMT-TV colleague Mike Paycik immediately join the search organized by local rancher Thomas Burrell. But soon, they’re on a search of a different kind - a search for the truth amid western mysteries.