P.D. Workman's Blog, page 36

And more new releases

Once you have feasted on A Fateful Plateful, maybe you would like something else for dessert! Check out the other new releases below.

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-8fd7e47{flex:1 1 calc(66.7% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Peach Clobber

Sweet peaches, family secrets… and a farm-fresh murder.

A struggling peach orchard, a tangled love triangle, and a suspicious death have farmer Lucy Resnick’s reporter instincts on high alert in the latest Dewberry Farm mystery. Add in old bones, a decades-old disappearance, and loads of delicious peach recipes for a juicy story you won’t want to put down!

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-72f36b7{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Pineapple Podcast

Pineapple Port Mysteries by Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Amy Vansant, is a funny, clean, small-town, female amateur sleuth series, but with all the pulse-pounding excitement of a detective thriller. Every book in the series can be read as a standalone.

Pineapple Podcast is packed full of Pineapple Port surprises!

Charlotte hunts a killer with a curious cookie-cutter calling card who seems to be out to impress the local true-crime podcaster. The work keeps her from concentrating on the fact her boyfriend has been acting strange…it seems Declan is ready to make a few major life decisions.

Meanwhile, Mariska and Darla take over a local restaurant while the owner’s out of town, and can’t help but add a few things to the menu… bad idea, since the owner belongs to a true crime club that roots for the killers…

Mix in an earbud-wearing puppy, a starry-eyed deputy, and white-knuckle action and you’ll find yourself wanting to move to Pineapple Port…again!

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-731b451{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Sister Spy

USA Today Bestselling author Kathi Daley brings you a heartwarming mystery series about finding answers and fostering hope while building friendships and embracing the magic of life by the sea and small town holidays.

Ainsley Holloway had come to Gooseberry Bay to find answers about her past. She’d come to find an explanation for the dreams that haunted her after the death of the cop who’d both rescued and raised her. And she’d come to identify the family she couldn’t remember but knew in her heart she’d once belonged to.

Ainsley hoped that by finding these answers, she’d also find healing. She hoped that once she’d resurrected the memories buried deep in her mind, she’d find peace.

The Cottage at Gooseberry Bay is a series about, not only finding answers, but finding hope.

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-50d1bf2{flex:1 1 calc(66.7% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Black Powers

What happens when a cop eats a radioactive doughnut?

Upon their return from a largely disappointing trip to Florida, Kallie and AB are both expecting a slow week.

However, their expectations are quickly subverted when Zeus asks Kallie for a favor, and AB finds out there are still more radioactive doughnuts out in the city — and one’s been eaten by none other than Officer Max Powers, the same man who’d helped Kallie the night of her Model Middle America audition.

And when Officer Powers becomes his greatest fear — a man with nothing left to lose, wildly desperate to enact vengeance against his brother’s killer — Kallie and AB have new, unpleasant questions to answer: Why was he targeted? How is he connected to the other Alterants? Is there someone else out there with AB’s stolen recipe?

If only they can get him back to his normal self first …

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-c620a1a{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Pie in the Sky

Sweet and sour, creamy and dreamy …

After a lifetime of failure and half-hearted successes, Edith Hennessey is far from content with her life — but she’s still grateful to at least be alive. When her best friend and next-door neighbor, Martha Davidson, is found dead, Edith strives to think of a way to honor her passing.

But finding a suitable tribute is hard, and it’s even harder when her husband is convinced she’s only chasing after an elusive pie in the sky …

Free Download

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-7915acc{flex:1 1 calc(66.7% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Mrs. Hudson & Sherlock Holmes 1-3

Enter a world of mystery and intrigue with this complete series set in Victorian London.

• A House of Mirrors

• In Sherlock’s Shadow

• A Spider’s Web

Meet Mrs Hudson: a young woman whose life is wrecked when her policeman husband vanishes on a routine case. Placed under protection by Inspector Lestrade, Nell Villiers is ripped from her old life and her own secret police work. Instead she must live as a widow, Mrs Hudson, in a safe house: 221B Baker Street.

With the case still unsolved, Nell vows to defy Lestrade and use her skills to discover what happened. She takes a lodger to cover her tracks; a young man called Sherlock Holmes. Before long, they are working together on Nell’s case. And as they work, their relationship – both professional and personal – deepens…

Soon there are two detectives at 221B Baker Street, not one. Nell and Sherlock must fight London’s criminal underworld, from street gangs to high-level espionage, and evade the enemies they make along the way. But Nell, a female detective in a man’s world, must also fight for her career and her independence.

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-b990c7d{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}A Brew Most Bitter

Trouble is brewing.
Paige Palmer spent her entire adult life studying to earn her doctorate in Philosophy, only to be passed over for the job of her dreams. Escaping academia, the wounded young woman wants to leave her painful past behind and experience the real world. She takes a job as barista at a quirky and cozy shop; The Roastery on 33rd, feeling somehow drawn to the charming spot in the quaint New Hampshire town.

The wooden interior walls, worn with age and saturated with the dark, rich aroma of cappuccinos past, beckon to unsuspecting pedestrians, enticing them to enter and indulge in a sip of decadence in the form of a strong brew.

But there are secrets in the Roastery that have been percolating for decades. When a body is discovered in a secret room in the building, Paige’s impatient and tough-as-nails boss becomes increasingly convinced that an in-house investigation will be necessary to catch the culprit.

As clear as the rising hum of an espresso machine at work, the clock ticks away precious seconds as a ruthless killer lurks in the shadows, ready to strike again.

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-e102888{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}100 Reasons for Murder

When Sara Bicknell spots her stolen locket around the neck of a stranger, she turns to former private investigator Kate Reed for advice on recovering the treasured family heirloom. Within twenty-four hours, Sara’s request triggers an inexplicable chain of events—including a homicide, the exposure of a criminal enterprise and skeletons in more than one closet.

Since Kate had contact with the victim hours before the murder, she becomes one of the first witnesses to provide a statement. Shortly after that, at the request of the local police, she joins the investigation as a consulting detective to help solve the case.

As Kate deftly juggles her dual roles—managing her family’s bakery-café and pursuing a series of promising leads—a variety of evidence comes to light. It includes a sterling silver bolo tie, a skull emoji, craft beer from Ohio, present-day rumors, shocking scandals from the past and a man cave stocked with bottles of bleach.

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-522ac02{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Sanctum

A life beyond redemption.

Wait! That’s Wrong. Everyone can be redeemed. Right?

Alejandro needed to feel safe, needed to prove to himself he was worth more than trash left at the side of the road.

He did things we didn’t like, things he felt he needed to do to make it in life. Like a snowball, each event built on the one before, until the nastiness lodged in his soul.

Then his daughter came into his life.

For her sake, can he change?

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-e437e4b{flex:1 1 calc(66.7% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Bacon, Bodyguards, & Ballistics

Reeling with excitement over the opening of a private investigation agency and her budding romance with the sheriff, Piper Sandstone can’t wait to launch her dream career and return to a somewhat normal life. But danger lurks on the horizon—the dirty cops back in Chicago still want her dead. Even if it means putting the people she loves in jeopardy to find her. They are ruthless and on the hunt; no price is too steep for her head.

But Piper’s already in a predicament of prodigious proportions when an art heist at the Bancroft Estates leaves a bodyguard dead… and she and her crime-fighting gal pals are at the center of the crime scene.

Tangled in another mystery in Savory, Alabama, Piper is determined to solve the case with the help of her quirky amateur sleuth friends dubbed the Dentures and Diamonds Crime Squad. These zany retirees traded in their female rock band glory to fight crime, but can they help Piper maintain her cover and catch the killer before she or another Savory resident winds up dead?

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-452cd92{flex:1 1 calc(66.666% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}First to Dough

It never rains but it pours.

Dogwood Donuts shop owner and amateur sleuth, Maggie Sharpe has her hands full with the Spring Fling, and her donut truck is doing a booming business as well.

Things get a bit strange, however, when someone in a truck begins to make a nuisance of themselves at the donut shop. Maggie wonders if the driver of the truck is stalking either her, or one of her employees.

The cherry on the cake for Maggie is that two of her employees seem to be at war with one another, at a time when she needs them to be on top of their game.

When a town councilwoman turns up dead, everyone in town wonders if there’s a connection to Maggie’s Spring Fling, so Maggie is catapulted directly into investigating a murder. Can she get things back on track at the donut shop, figure out the identity of the mysterious truck driver, and solve a murder without crumbling under the stress?

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Glimpse a dark past in Friends Like These

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Published on May 19, 2022 22:32

May 17, 2022

Glimpse a dark past in Friends Like These

May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month. Be sure to check out my post on Celebrating Celiac Disease Awareness Month with Fictional Characters

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

I have just recently begun Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight. You’ve heard this story before… friends who share a horrible secret gather for a weekend reunion. Trapped by a storm, something happens, and one of them is dead. It is up to the police/detective to sort out all of the misleading clues and lies, probe and tease out the mass of secrets covering secrets to get to the heart of the matter.

So far, a good read. I know the basics of their secret, but not all of the details, and so far have no idea how the get-together ended up with one of them dead and at least one more missing. Which one was killed? (The facial damage means that the victim is not recognizable) Which is on the run, lost in the wilderness, or hiding in the shadows? A classic storyline that, so far, is well done.

“Kind of like a horror movie, and you know the Black friend always dies first
in those.”

“No one’s dying,” I said. “Don’t even joke about that.”
Kimberly McCreight, Friends Like These

Six college friends have reunited for a glamorous weekend in the Catskills, a decade after a fatal accident that nearly destroyed them. Keith, once the ringleader of the group, was a handsome charmer on the fast track to success. Now he’s spiraling into addiction and stands at the edge of losing it all. This weekend is the last chance to save him.

But Keith, it turns out, is not the only one who needs saving.

By dawn on Sunday morning, a car has been found deep in the woods—one of the friends is dead, another is missing. When a local detective turns up to investigate, it’s clear the group is hiding something ominous.

Haunted by her sister’s murder years ago, Detective Julia Scutt has her own share of problems. But she’s a skilled detective, and knows a rehearsed story when she hears one. It is up to Julia to untangle a decade-long web of friendship, lies and betrayals to discover the truth. But first she needs to face her own past—including the secrets that could, in the end, offer the key to everything.

A story of unconditional love, obsession, and the sometimes-impossible choices we have to make in the name of loyalty, Friends Like These is a relentlessly twisty, roller-coaster of a novel.

Get your political thriller fix with State of Terror

Flash sale on Immersed in the View and more!

Reg Rawlins Psychic Investigator 13-15

Don’t want to miss it—Don’t You Cry

Celebrate World Book Day with Me!

Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers 1-4

What is Behind Her Eyes

They Came for Him

Their Walls Were Empty

Finding out What She Knew

Get Gentle Angel for $0.99 and other great deals!

Reading about People Like Her

He Drowned in Memory

In suspense with Mother May I

Something could happen in the Blink of an Eye

New release day! Gentle Angel and more

Reg Rawlins 1-12

A deal on Dosed to Death and other books

Gamache Explores The Madness of Crowds

Back to Paranormal – Grey Dawn #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title { font-family: 'Arial', Arial, serif !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; color: #be1e2d !important; font-weight: 600 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a:hover, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title:hover { color: #000000 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp { background-color: #be1e2d !important }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp * { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #be1e2d !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore:hover { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pt-cv-more , #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pagination .active a, .pt-cv-pagination[data-sid='7e4f13eayf'] .active a { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf { text-align: center; }

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Published on May 17, 2022 05:06

May 12, 2022

Celebrating Celiac Disease Awareness Month with Fictional Characters

May is Celiac Disease Awareness month. I have written a couple of blog posts to do with celiac disease or eating gluten-free before:

Today, I wanted to cook something up for some of my characters. What would their favourite gluten-free meals or treats be? So let’s dive in!

.stk-b21fb4c{align-self:center !important}.stk-b21fb4c{margin-left:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-b21fb4c{flex:1 1 calc(56.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Caleb

Caleb from Toxo, Medical Kidnap Files #4 is one of my few characters who actually has Celiac Disease. While he doesn’t always eat what he is supposed to, choosing not to eat gluten-free can make him very sick. One of Caleb’s favourite foods is pizza!

Click the pizza for a gluten-free pizza crust recipe!

.stk-e0752e4{align-self:center !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-e0752e4{flex:1 1 calc(43.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}.stk-40fe78b .stk-img-wrapper{width:100% !important;height:400px !important}

.stk-57bf888{align-self:center !important}.stk-57bf888{margin-left:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-57bf888{flex:1 1 calc(56.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Zachary Goldman

Zachary from the Zachary Goldman Mysteries series definitely does not eat gluten-free. One of his favourite foods is garlic toast. He also eats lots of pizza, pasta, and Thai noodles.

But he and Kenzie (Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers) do enjoy eating ice cream together, and many varieties of ice cream are gluten-free.

How about some homemade ice cream? Click below for the recipe. Just be sure that any add-ins are gluten-free too.

.stk-e6cbee0{align-self:center !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-e6cbee0{flex:1 1 calc(43.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}

.stk-1ccdf64{align-self:center !important}.stk-1ccdf64{margin-left:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-1ccdf64{flex:1 1 calc(56.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Peter Foster

Peter Foster is not one of the main characters in the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series, but he is a recurring character and one of Erin Price’s favourite customers. Peter Foster loves the fact that he can get anything on offer at Auntie Clem’s Bakery because it is all gluten-free.

He and his sisters love being part of the Kid’s Cookie Club at Auntie Clem’s and trying out new varieties of cookies as Erin experiments with new recipes.

Chocolate chip cookies are always a people-pleaser. Give them a try!

.stk-b2de1e7{align-self:center !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-b2de1e7{flex:1 1 calc(43.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}.stk-588afaf .stk-img-wrapper{height:400px !important}

.stk-a3a18a3{margin-left:25px !important}.stk-cb1b869{align-self:center !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.stk-cb1b869{flex:1 1 calc(56.5% - var(--stk-column-gap,0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important}}Vanna Austin

Let’s round out the numbers with Vanna Austin of Pursued by the Past. Is there any chance that her spaghetti and meatballs could be made gluten-free?

Of course!

Most of the recipes that I found used commercial breadcrumbs and noodles, but I tracked these homemade versions down for you.

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Get your political thriller fix with State of Terror

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Published on May 12, 2022 12:19

May 10, 2022

Get your political thriller fix with State of Terror

I hope you had a chance to pick up Immersed in the View, Book #4 in the Parks Pat Mysteries series this weekend! If you didn’t, there may be some other books in my blog post that are still on sale. And, of course, the Parks Pat books are still available at the regular price.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

I am currently reading State of Terror, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny. As you can well imagine, this power team draws on Clinton’s political knowledge and Penny’s experience in writing crime fiction to put together a political thriller that is both detail-rich and keep the plot moving forward.

I am enjoying the backroom details, strong female characters, and believable plot. Vaguely reminiscent of Frederick Forsythe. I was surprised to realize how prolific the Clinton family is. Bill Clinton has written two political thrillers with James Patterson. Hillary Rodham Clinton has also published a number of memoirs and a couple of books with Chelsea Clinton about strong women. Chelsea Clinton has written a number of children’s books on women in various roles. That’s quite a range of work between the three of them!

He almost asked her to let him know when she was safely at her destination. But didn’t. He knew she could not contact him.
He also knew, as did she, that he would not survive the night.
Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton, State of Terror

After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn in, and to everyone’s surprise the president chooses a political enemy for the vital position of secretary of state.

There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate.

As the new president addresses Congress for the first time, with Secretary Adams in attendance, Anahita Dahir, a young foreign service officer (FSO) on the Pakistan desk at the State Department, receives a baffling text from an anonymous source.

Too late, she realizes the message was a hastily coded warning.

What begins as a series of apparent terrorist attacks is revealed to be the beginning of an international chess game involving the volatile and Byzantine politics of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran; the race to develop nuclear weapons in the region; the Russian mob; a burgeoning rogue terrorist organization; and an American government set back on its heels in the international arena.

As the horrifying scale of the threat becomes clear, Secretary Adams and her team realize it has been carefully planned to take advantage of four years of an American government out of touch with international affairs, out of practice with diplomacy, and out of power in the places where it counts the most.

To defeat such an intricate, carefully constructed conspiracy, it will take the skills of a unique team: a passionate young FSO; a dedicated journalist; and a smart, determined, but as yet untested new secretary of state.

Flash sale on Immersed in the View and more!

Reg Rawlins Psychic Investigator 13-15

Don’t want to miss it—Don’t You Cry

Celebrate World Book Day with Me!

Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers 1-4

What is Behind Her Eyes

They Came for Him

Their Walls Were Empty

Finding out What She Knew

Get Gentle Angel for $0.99 and other great deals!

Reading about People Like Her

He Drowned in Memory

In suspense with Mother May I

Something could happen in the Blink of an Eye

New release day! Gentle Angel and more

Reg Rawlins 1-12

A deal on Dosed to Death and other books

Gamache Explores The Madness of Crowds

Back to Paranormal – Grey Dawn

Get Your Halloween Reads! #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title { font-family: 'Arial', Arial, serif !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; color: #be1e2d !important; font-weight: 600 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a:hover, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title:hover { color: #000000 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp { background-color: #be1e2d !important }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp * { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #be1e2d !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore:hover { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pt-cv-more , #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pagination .active a, .pt-cv-pagination[data-sid='7e4f13eayf'] .active a { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf { text-align: center; }

EBOOK PAPERBACK RETAILERS

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Published on May 10, 2022 05:04

May 5, 2022

Flash sale on Immersed in the View and more!

You’ll need to act fast if you want to pick up Immersed in the View, Parks Pat Mystery #4 for free. If you haven’t yet read any of the Parks Pat Mysteries, you can read it as a stand alone mystery.

These short mysteries are just right for those days when you could use a break from your busy life. Take a walk in a Calgary park with Parks Pat. Detective “Parks” Pat — Margie Patenaude — is a new Calgary homicide detective. Being Métis and a single mom, she has a few things on her plate. Working on a spate of murders in Calgary and area parks earns Margie her nickname.

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-6309a59 .ugb-img{width:640px;height:auto !important}}Immersed in the View

A Wake Up Call

Detective “Parks” Pat is back. Now an established and accepted member of the homicide squad, she unexpectedly brings a new case to the table when she stumbles across a body as Canada Day dawns. While it was initially assumed to be an accidental drowning, the autopsy results say otherwise.

Margie is soon off and running, but the lack of witnesses has her going in circles. Meanwhile, the brass wants the investigation put to bed before the city is flooded with Calgary Stampede tourists and dignitaries.

Ms. Workman never disappoints! Well developed characters, a tight plot and expert craftsmanship make this one a fast read.

Looking for a police procedural set in picturesque Canada? Let Award-winning and Bestselling Author P.D. Workman take you to her favourite Calgary parks, as Métis detective Margie Patenaude investigates a murder in this fast-paced new series.

These short mysteries are just right for those days when you could use a break from your busy life. Take a walk in a Calgary park with Parks Pat.

Wade into this new mystery today!

I also appreciate the imagery of these books – they afford a wonderful armchair travel experience. I understand the author draws on personal encounters when choosing the parks featured in this series so I suppose that is why the descriptions are so vivid and detailed. I find I can easily visualize the scenery, I can almost feel the sun and smell the breeze.

Flash sale on Immersed in the View and more!

And more!

Here are some other books you might like to add to your TBR pile while you are at it!

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-2cc2cfd .ugb-img{width:333px;height:auto !important}}Publishable by Death

Change is hard in a small Southern town, especially when it brings a side of murder.

All Harvey Beckett wants to do is help the residents of St. Marin’s find the perfect book for that moment, snuggle with her hound dog Mayhem, and be ignored by her cat Aslan. But when the small, waterside town’s newest resident discovers the body of the community’s persnickety reporter in her bookshop storeroom just before her grand opening, Harvey can’t help trying to solve the crime, even when it might cost her business and her life. The more questions Harvey asks, the more secrets she uncovers.

Will Harvey and her friends be able to solve the murder of the town reporter without her becoming a victim herself?

This book addresses racism in both the plot and the writing style.

Free at Multiple Stores

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-c7b98b6 .ugb-img{width:321px;height:auto !important}}The Innocent Girls

When Detective Casey White is called early one morning to a beachside vacation campsite in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she finds the bodies of Carl and Peggy Pearson side-by-side, their throats cut, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Lisa nowhere to be found. Haunted by memories of her own missing girl, Casey fears this could soon become a triple murder: because without the medication found in the bathroom cabinet, Lisa has just days to live.

As her team struggle to untangle the meaning of the cryptic symbol carved into the victims’ skin, Casey searches the area for signs of Lisa and is rewarded when she finds her blistered and barefoot, staggering along the highway. The girl barely has breath left to whisper ‘he invited me’ before blacking out.

Days later, another couple is found murdered on a vacation yacht. A different symbol is etched on their bodies, and their teenage daughter is also missing. Casey’s only clue is an unsettling ‘invitation’ found on the girl’s phone, to a secluded building out in the cornfields.

Desperate to uncover who is luring these innocent families to their deaths, and certain forensics have missed something vital, Casey matches up the crime scene photos herself. The symbols combine to form an upcoming date. The killer is taunting them with the timing of the next murder.

Racing to follow the invitation in time, when Casey arrives she is shocked to glimpse not the missing girls from this case, but her own missing daughter…

Amazon $0.99

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-6f950f3 .ugb-img{width:312px;height:auto !important}}The House that Jack Built

Scott Kingston is afraid of monsters. He thinks they’re lurking outside his bedroom window at night when his mother tucks him in. He asks his mother to keep the light on to scare the monsters away. But that light is exactly what lures the kidnapper to his window and the next morning, Scott Kingston is gone.

Twenty-eight years later, Vernon Johnson is released from jail after spending the biggest part of his life on death row, convicted of having kidnapped and killed Scott Kingston. As so many times before, he has appealed his case, but this time, the judge decides to let him go. A witness has finally told the truth, and there is no longer sufficient evidence to keep him in jail.

But shortly after Vernon Johnson is released and has returned to his childhood town, another child disappears, and soon all eyes are on him again.

Jack Ryder is getting ready to build the house of his dreams while hoping that Shannon won’t end up in jail for the murder her ex-husband committed. She is expecting their child and the pregnancy, along with the worrying, takes a toll on the both of them, especially when a dark secret is revealed about the lot where they are preparing to build their house.

Free

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-19d3651 .ugb-img{width:333px;height:auto !important}}Tell Me Why

What will they risk for answers?

Picturesque Daylesford has a darker side. Melbourne writer Georgie Harvey heads to the mineral springs region in central Victoria to look for a missing farmer, and soon links the woman’s disappearance with the unsolved mystery surrounding her husband.

Meanwhile, maverick police officer and solo dad John Franklin is working a case that’s a step up from Daylesford’s usual soft crime: a stalker targeting single mothers.

Georgie’s investigation stirs up long-buried secrets, and attracts enemies. When she reports the missing person to local cops, sparks fly between her and Franklin.

Has he dismissed the writer too quickly? And what will the truth cost?

Free

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-541c8ed .ugb-img{width:313px;height:auto !important}}Run for Your Life

With the weekend right around the corner, Homicide Detective Mitch Cannon is looking forward to Saturday night. It isn’t often he has a date, and this one will be particularly interesting. His new friend Liza is beautiful, edgy, outspoken, and somewhat odd.

But Mitch’s usual Friday-morning phone call to his mom sets the wheels in motion for five days of pure hell. Mitch’s sister, Marie, has gone missing without a trace. His date is canceled, and Mitch’s partner, Devon, and Liza also go missing the following night. The only clue is a call Mitch gets from someone whose number is blocked, the anonymous speaker saying, “Ticktock, ticktock.”

Mitch and the entire Habersham precinct set out on a white-knuckle search to find his sister, partner, and new friend before time runs out and all three are gone forever.

Free

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-1f9a18d .ugb-img{width:333px;height:auto !important}}Girl Missing

When her 13-year-old sister vanishes on her way back from a friend’s house, Detective Kaitlyn Carr must confront demons from her own past in order to bring her sister home.

The small mountain town of Big Bear Lake is only three hours away but a world away from her life in Los Angeles. It’s the place she grew up and the place that’s plagued her with lies, death and secrets.

As Kaitlyn digs deeper into the murder that she is investigating and her sister’s disappearance, she finds out that appearances are misleading and few things are what they seem.

A murderer is lurking in the shadows and the more of the mystery that Kaitlyn unspools the closer she gets to danger herself.

Free

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-02fd4cb .ugb-img{width:375px;height:auto !important}}Frozen

For once, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is managing to have a good day off. Strolling around town, she ducks into a new bookshop in a renovated chapel. But just as she does, a skeleton is discovered in the old baptismal font. Soon, a decade old mystery is revived, and Vera must uncover secrets long buried before this case once again goes cold.

Free

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-720d604 .ugb-img{width:333px;height:auto !important}}Bitter Roots

Murder in a small town is always personal.

Dispatcher Zak Waller prefers working behind the scenes in the Sheriff’s Office of Lost Trail, Montana, but when a newcomer to the sparsely populated town is brutally murdered—and the Sheriff is quick to pin the death on an unknown outsider—Zak starts his own private sleuthing.

On the surface Lost Trail is a picture-perfect western town, offering a simple way of life revolving around the local ranches and ski hill. But almost everyone has a secret to protect, and no one knows that more than Zak. He’s part of a younger generation hoping to revitalize the town. But evil has dug in deeper than he knows.

Free

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A New Year—Starting Over

Henry and other New Releases

In suspense with Mother May I #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title { font-family: 'Arial', Arial, serif !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; color: #be1e2d !important; font-weight: 600 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a:hover, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title:hover { color: #000000 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp { background-color: #be1e2d !important }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp * { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #be1e2d !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore:hover { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pt-cv-more , #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pagination .active a, .pt-cv-pagination[data-sid='7e4f13eayf'] .active a { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf { text-align: center; }

Get Cozy with Darned if You Do

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Published on May 05, 2022 21:51

May 3, 2022

Get Cozy with Darned if You Do

Mother’s Day is coming up soon. Check out my Mother’s Day post for this year.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

I have just finished reading Monica Ferris’s Darned if You Do. I don’t think I have read any other books in the Needlcraft Mystery series. This is #17, but there was enough context and backstory that I was comfortable with the characters and small town and didn’t feel lost. This mystery had an interesting premise—a hoarder who was murdered before his sister could finish inventorying all of the junk and valuables he’d been forced to leave in his house when he was taken to the hospital after a tree came crashing through his roof. I was sorry to see the neurodivergent character killed. I think he would have made an interesting repeat character in future mysteries in the series.

The clues are given away a bit early. It was pretty obvious to me by 3/4 of the way through who the culprit was. But it was still fun to see how Betsy investigated the various mysteries to come to a conclusion, the characters and storyline were engaging enough that I didn’t feel cheated knowing who the murderer was.

“No, please. I don’t want . . . no people in my house.” The man’s voice was weak, but his desperate plea was clear.
Monica Ferris, Darned if You Do

The USA Today bestselling Needlecraft Mysteries have shown that when it comes to murder, Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop, doesn’t mess around. But when a local hoarder is murdered, she’ll need all her wits to dig a new friend out of a heap of trouble…

After a tree falls on Tom Riordan’s house, landing him in the hospital, the police discover a mountain of junk piled high in his home. Locals in Excelsior, Minnesota—including Betsy and her Crewel World Monday Bunch—offer to help with the cleanup while Tom recuperates.

But when Tom is found murdered in his hospital bed, the sole heir to his property—his cousin Valentina—becomes the number one suspect. Betsy believes there’s more to the case than meets the eye, but finding clues to the killer’s identity in the clutter Tom left behind will be like looking for a needle in a haystack …

Reg Rawlins Psychic Investigator 13-15

Have you heard of Anteater of Death?

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Reg Rawlins 1-12

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Unlawful Harvest and other great DEALS! #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title { font-family: 'Arial', Arial, serif !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; color: #be1e2d !important; font-weight: 600 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a:hover, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title:hover { color: #000000 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp { background-color: #be1e2d !important }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp * { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #be1e2d !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore:hover { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pt-cv-more , #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pagination .active a, .pt-cv-pagination[data-sid='7e4f13eayf'] .active a { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf { text-align: center; }

How about putting these Easter treats in your basket?

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Published on May 03, 2022 05:04

April 30, 2022

Reg Rawlins Psychic Investigator 13-15

by P.D. Workman
Bundle/Collection, New Release!
Series: Reg Rawlins Psychic Investigator
Genres: Cozy Mystery

eBook Price: $ 9.99 USD

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Sure to weave a spell of enjoyment as you read of Reg's mishaps and adventures, past and present.

By USA Today bestselling author P.D. Workman

A self-professed con artist practicing as a contact to the dead, a drop dead gorgeous warlock , and a psychic cat—what could go wrong?

Give yourself a treat and buy three books in the Reg Rawlins, Psychic Detective series for one low price. This set includes:

13. Careful of Thy Wishes

Reg thought when she received the box of gemstones from the fairies that her wishes had been fulfilled and it was the end of her troubles. But it was only the beginning. What Reg had thought was a generous gift in recompense of saving Calliopia from certain death turns out to be a major in pain the backside.

14. Time to Your Elf

Timing had never been Reg’s strong suit. It seemed like she was always arriving late or on the wrong day, starting a new venture at the worst possible time, or otherwise fouling things up. But her bad timing was nothing compared to that of Orri.

15. Undiscovered Tomb

Powerful rings, a couple of cuddly kitties, and never-ending ice cream in the freezer; Reg would have thought that she would be happy with her new normal. Or paranormal. But it isn’t quite as much fun as it sounds like. Egypt isn’t all lollypops and rainbows either. It’s hot. It’s dusty. And Reg had hoped to have put her mummy issues behind her.

Sure to weave a spell of enjoyment as you read of Reg’s mishaps and adventures, past and present.

This is a brilliant read … Can’t wait to read what the author brings out next.

Like paranormal mysteries? Psychics, witches, fairies, and more! Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author P.D. Workman waves her wand to transport readers to the myth- and magic-filled small town of Black Sands for another paranormal cozy mystery to be solved by Reg Rawlins and her friends.

A self-professed con artist practicing as a contact to the dead, a drop-dead gorgeous warlock, and a psychic cat—what could go wrong?

Fall under Reg’s spell today.

+ Praise for Reg Rawlins Psychic Detective Series

—Another great work of art by Ms. Workman. I am amazed at the diversity of her writing and how much I really enjoy them all. She can write cozy mystery, YA books that should be read by all, medical thrillers, Zach Goldman series and now a paranormal series. I am so glad to have found this author. I am honored that I get to read them early also.

—This book has all my favourite things: heart, great writing, nearly-flawless editing, something unusual in the air, and a cat. I needed a light read, and this fit the bill perfectly. Recommended.

—This book actually surprised me. I knew that a psychic cat would be entertaining. I just didn’t expect it to be this good. You really do get wrapped up in the people and story. It sounds like a fairly gentle story, but there is a lot of suspense involved. Add a bunch of humor to the mix and you are in for a treat. I love the characters. Wish I had some friends like them. And the cat is so very well done. Acts like a typical cat, but a lot smarter than his human. This is a story that you don’t want to put down.

—Extremely well written as are all of P.D. Workman’s books, the characters well developed. I’m a character reader, I get into the characters. Who and what they are. Why they do the things they do. The things that make a reader get invested into the characters and thereby the book. I look forward to P.D. Workman’s next book.

—P D Workman has done it again; created a cast of characters and a storyline that are captivating and enthralling. Once I started this cozy I didn’t want to put it down (which can be a bad thing when you have a family to take care of…lol). I can’t wait for the other books in this series. I think Reg is going to turn out to be one of my favorite new characters. Pick up your copy as soon as possible.

+ Praise for P.D. Workman

“Every single one of [P.D. Workman’s] books has spoken to me in ways no one or almost anything else has. And I have found strength in the books I’ve read.”

“The way that P.D. Workman writes just flows amazingly and allows the reader to get really invested in a book.”

“This is one author I certainly will be looking out for, I can’t recommend her enough.”

“I’ll read anything by P. D. Workman that I can get my hands on.”

“Every book by PD Workman that I’ve read has been a gripping one, however different the genres are, going from lighter mysteries to really dark ones… this is one of my favourite, most dependable authors.”

“P.D. Workman is an incredibly versatile writer. No matter which of her books I read I am drawn into a great story and honestly, I don’t think I’ve followed another author that could go from cozy mystery to YA to a PI series dealing with mental health issues. Really enjoy her books!”

“[P.D. Workman’s] stories are so believable and you can’t help but feel like you know these people. You find yourself crying, laughing and feeling the characters emotions. Now if an author can make you cry and feel every emotion in a story, she is one hell of an author.”

+ Reg Rawlins on my Blog

Undiscovered Tomb and Other Whodunnits Featuring Egypt

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Another Bookiversary

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The year ahead

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Upcoming in 2019

What’s coming up #pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl .pt-cv-title a, #pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl .panel-title { font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; color: #be1e2d !important; font-weight: 600 !important; }#pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl .pt-cv-title a:hover, #pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl .panel-title:hover { color: #0c0c0c !important; }#pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl .pt-cv-readmore { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl .pt-cv-readmore:hover { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pt-cv-more , #pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pagination .active a, .pt-cv-pagination[data-sid='0d3d7f5iwl'] .active a { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-0d3d7f5iwl { text-align: center; }

About P.D. Workman

P.D. (Pamela) Workman writes riveting mystery/suspense and young adult books dealing with mental illness, addiction, abuse, and other real-life issues. For as long as she can remember, the blank page has held an incredible allure and from a very young age she was trying to write her own books.

Workman wrote her first complete novel at the age of twelve and continued to write as a hobby for many years. She started publishing in 2013. She has won several literary awards from Library Services for Youth in Custody for her young adult fiction. She made the USA Today Bestseller list in 2019. She currently has over 80 published titles and can be found at pdworkman.com.

Born and raised in Alberta, Workman has been married for over 25 years and has one son.

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Published on April 30, 2022 12:24

April 28, 2022

Reading about Strong Mothers

Well, Mother’s Day is coming up next week and I thought I would showcase some fiction with good/strong mothers.

So many of my characters are foster children and street kids that I don’t have a lot of wonderful mothers in my stories. But I do have a few! And truth be told, sometimes the best mothers are fathers or grandfathers!

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-42a700e .ugb-img{width:640px;height:auto !important}}Out With the Sunset

There’s nothing like jumping straight into the deep end.

Margie Patenaude is new in town and wasn’t expecting to get called to a murder scene on her daughter’s first day of school.

It’s an ugly murder in a beautiful setting. How can Calgary’s park-goers feel safe with a murderer still on the streets—or pathways? Margie and the team are on the case while at the same time she and her daughter try to acclimatize to the new city.

If she wants her coworkers to believe that she’s not just a ‘diversity hire,’ she needs to show them what she’s made of and track this killer down.

This promises to be a wonderful series with fantastic characters, interesting locations, and fascinating glimpses into different cultures. The story is of novella length and can easily be read in one sitting if so desired, there is no offensive language, no sex, no graphic violence – just a whopping good story everyone can enjoy.
—txdoc

Looking for a police procedural set in picturesque Canada? Let Award-winning and Bestselling Author P.D. Workman take you her favourite Calgary parks, as Métis detective Margie Patenaude investigates a murder in this fast-paced new series.

These short mysteries are just right for those days when you could use a break from your busy life. Take a walk in a Calgary park with Parks Pat.

Lose yourself in a new mystery today!

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BOOKS 1-3

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-dc8dfc8 .ugb-img{width:671px;height:auto !important}}Endless Change

She was a broken bird
He was a mender of wings

Parker’s mother always said he jumped into things without thinking first, and that’s exactly what he did when he saw Dakota, cold and hungry, fending for herself on the city streets. How could he ignore the pain and fear in her dark eyes? Dakota was eager to go to school and she made friends quickly, eager to make up for a dismal childhood full of deprivation and abuse by enjoying every moment she could.

But there was something wrong with Dakota. It wasn’t just the hollowness in her eyes or her traumatic past. Others sensed it too and warned Parker not to get too close to Dakota. But despite his questions, he just can’t help falling for her.

Dakota holds her secrets close, and Parker is worried that if he pushes too hard for answers, she’ll just run away.

Placed on the In the Margins Committee Recommended Reads, 2018 by Library Services for Youth in Custody.

In a genre dominated by kick-ass heroines in post-apocalyptic dystopian worlds, wizards and magical realism, Ms. Workman is carving out her own niche. Her books show us real kids facing scary real-life problems in the modern world. Her work is both an invitation to empathy and a cautionary tale.
—Talena Winters

And more…

Check out these additional books with strong moms too!

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-87fc336 .ugb-img{width:347px;height:auto !important}}Room

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.
Amazon

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-a66a9af .ugb-img{width:500px;height:auto !important}}Love You Forever

A young woman holds her newborn son
And looks at him lovingly.
Softly she sings to him:
“I’ll love you forever
I’ll like you for always
As long as I’m living
My baby you’ll be.”So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide.
Amazon

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-4deaa99 .ugb-img{width:331px;height:auto !important}}The Light Between Oceans

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
Amazon

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-ec71f88 .ugb-img{width:357px;height:auto !important}}Little Women

Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn’t be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they’re putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there’s one thing they can’t help wondering: Will Father return home safely?
Amazon

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-91dd202 .ugb-img{width:333px;height:auto !important}}Little House on the Prairie

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-5413eb1 .ugb-img{width:366px;height:auto !important}}Are You my Mother?

A baby bird goes in search of his mother in this hilarious Beginner Book edited by Dr. Seuss. When a mother bird’s egg starts to jump, she hurries off to make sure she has something for her little one to eat. But as soon as she’s gone, out pops the baby bird. He immediately sets off to find his mother, but not knowing what she looks like makes it a challenge. The little hatchling is determined to find his mother, even after meeting a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a Snort. The timeless message of the bond between mother and child make P. D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? a treasured classic.
Amazon

Back to the school yard with Big Little Lies

Reading about People Like Her

Books for Father’s Day

Get some free reads this weekend. Changing Fortune Cookies and more

Whisper Network speaks loud and clear

She Was at Risk

Virtually Harmless

Excerpt from The Perfect Mother

Toxo Medical Kidnap Files #4 [image error] Labour Day Weekend Freebies

Excerpt from The Breach

Give yourself books for Mother’s Day!

Make 2018 Great!

Advent Readers, a Gift, and other Christmas Reads

Teaser Tuesday Double-Header! [image error] Excerpt from Jodi Picoult’s Leaving Time #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title { font-family: 'Arial', Arial, serif !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; color: #be1e2d !important; font-weight: 600 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-title a:hover, #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .panel-title:hover { color: #000000 !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp { background-color: #be1e2d !important }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-specialp * { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #be1e2d !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf .pt-cv-readmore:hover { color: #ffffff !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pt-cv-more , #pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf + .pt-cv-pagination-wrapper .pagination .active a, .pt-cv-pagination[data-sid='7e4f13eayf'] .active a { color: #ffffff !important; background-color: #00aeef !important; }#pt-cv-view-7e4f13eayf { text-align: center; }

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Published on April 28, 2022 22:13

April 26, 2022

Don’t want to miss it—Don’t You Cry

I’d love to hear about your favourite books! Check out my World Book Day post and leave a comment about your favourites!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

Right now I am reading Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica. I have read other books by Kubica, so I knew it would be a good read. I think she only writes stand alones, which straddle the edge of suspense/domestic thriller. Lots of intriguing hints as the plot unfolds, good character development and narration. And Don’t You Cry doesn’t disappoint. I am towards the end now, and though I have figured out some of the clues and twists, I was not able to join up the two separate storylines until now. I am looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

And that’s when it hits me: maybe Saint Esther isn’t such a saint, after all.
Mary Kubica, Don’t You Cry

In downtown Chicago, Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her roommate Quinn Collins to question how well she really knew her friend. Meanwhile, in a small town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more sinister.

As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under the stranger’s spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us.

April 21, 2022

Celebrate World Book Day with Me!

April 23 is World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day or International Day of the Book. It is a day to celebrate reading, publishing, and copyright. The day was first conceived of in 1922. April 23 was selected as the death date of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and William Shakespeare.

Apparently the traditional gift is a book and a rose. So be sure to by yourself a book today!

I thought I would share a couple of favourite books from my backlist that could use some attention, and then some of my favourites by other authors.

@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-a3d1b9d .ugb-img{width:675px;height:auto !important}}Questing for a Dream

Nadie is a bright, caring teen growing up Manitoba Cree growing up in abject poverty. She tries to balance school attendance, caring for her younger cousin Luyu, and spending time with handsome, impish Mouse, her best friend and confidante. Together, they strive to find the path to happiness on the reservation.

But tragedy strikes and Nadie’s is devastated by Luyu’s accidental death. Unable to find comfort in Mouse’s arms or Grandfather’s traditional mourning rites, Nadie leaves the band and strikes off on her own, searching for meaning and a new life in the outside world.

Can Nadie find happiness and a place of her own in a foreign world where she is abused and discriminated against? Completely alone for the first time in her life, it is a challenge such as Nadie has never before faced.

“Easily one of the most thought-provoking and compelling reads of the year, Ms. Workman has written a masterful contemporary account of one native teen’s journey from home and the possibilities for hope even for those drowning in poverty, prejudice, and addiction. Examining hard concepts such as death, rape, abuse, neglect, addiction, and wounds passed down from generation to generation, this story is full of raw emotion that will bring the reader to tears, yet unable to put the smoothly-paced story down. With true-to-life characters both good and bad, Nadie is inspirational. It isn’t because she’s perfect but rather because she is far from it and somehow manages to find the courage in the end to become someone who can help bring her tribe forward. A must-read tale for any book lover!“
Sarah E. Bradley, InD’tale Magazine

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@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-57c45c6 .ugb-img{width:676px;height:auto !important}}Chloe

Chloe had always been the perfect daughter. Diligent, obedient, good at caring for the other children when Mom wasn’t home. She always worked hard and did everything she was asked.

But she couldn’t please her mother and the parade of stepfathers. It seemed like the harder she tried, the worse the abuse got.

Chloe had known for a long time that she was two people. The Chloe who watched and the Chloe who experienced. She had been watching for so long, she wasn’t sure she could feel anything anymore. But if she can’t overcome her past and start living in the real world, she knows she will lose herself forever.

Placed on the In the Margins Committee Recommended Reads, 2018 by Library Services for Youth in Custody.

“I read a lot of books, and often struggle to remember the plot points a few years later. But this is a book that I will never, ever forget.“
—Talena, Amazon Reader

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Some of my other favourites.ugb-f616c4e .ugb-button{background-color:#BE1E2D;border-radius:25px !important}.ugb-f616c4e .ugb-button .ugb-button--inner,.ugb-f616c4e .ugb-button svg:not(.ugb-custom-icon){color:#ffffff !important}.ugb-f616c4e .ugb-button:before{border-radius:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-f616c4e .ugb-img{width:325px;height:auto !important}}The Count of Monte Christo

I love the suspense and intrigue and the way that this story all comes together in the end. No matter how many times I read it, I am always impressed at how the pieces fit together so well. And who doesn’t want to see the poor, oppressed, wrongly-accused victim get his retribution?

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration.

Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

Robin Buss’s lively English translation is complete and unabridged, and remains faithful to the style of Dumas’s original. This edition includes an introduction, explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading.

.ugb-3421952 .ugb-button{background-color:#BE1E2D;border-radius:25px !important}.ugb-3421952 .ugb-button .ugb-button--inner,.ugb-3421952 .ugb-button svg:not(.ugb-custom-icon){color:#ffffff !important}.ugb-3421952 .ugb-button:before{border-radius:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-3421952 .ugb-img{width:301px;height:auto !important}}Les Miserables

Speaking of the oppressed, what better story of the rising up out of the ashes is more heartrending and inspiring than Les Miserables.

Introducing one of the most famous characters in literature, Jean Valjean—the noble peasant imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread—Les Misérables ranks among the greatest novels of all time. In it, Victor Hugo takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld, immerses them in a battle between good and evil, and carries them to the barricades during the uprising of 1832 with a breathtaking realism that is unsurpassed in modern prose.

Within his dramatic story are themes that capture the intellect and the emotions: crime and punishment, the relentless persecution of Valjean by Inspector Javert, the desperation of the prostitute Fantine, the amorality of the rogue Thénardier, and the universal desire to escape the prisons of our own minds. Les Misérables gave Victor Hugo a canvas upon which he portrayed his criticism of the French political and judicial systems, but the portrait that resulted is larger than life, epic in scope—an extravagant spectacle that dazzles the senses even as it touches the heart.

.ugb-e43904f .ugb-button{background-color:#BE1E2D;border-radius:25px !important}.ugb-e43904f .ugb-button .ugb-button--inner,.ugb-e43904f .ugb-button svg:not(.ugb-custom-icon){color:#ffffff !important}.ugb-e43904f .ugb-button:before{border-radius:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-e43904f .ugb-img{width:341px;height:auto !important}}The Outsiders

This is a terrible cover, but I couldn’t leave this one off the list. The Outsiders had a huge effect on me as a young teen.

No one ever said life was easy. But Ponyboy is pretty sure that he’s got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop. And he knows that he can count on his friends—true friends who would do anything for him, like Johnny and Two-Bit.

But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up on “greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.

.ugb-ddf7aa9 .ugb-button{background-color:#BE1E2D;border-radius:25px !important}.ugb-ddf7aa9 .ugb-button .ugb-button--inner,.ugb-ddf7aa9 .ugb-button svg:not(.ugb-custom-icon){color:#ffffff !important}.ugb-ddf7aa9 .ugb-button:before{border-radius:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-ddf7aa9 .ugb-img{width:325px;height:auto !important}}I Am Malala

I have written about this one before. Malala is an amazing person and this memoire is an engrossing account of her life before and after being shot by the Taliban for standing up for education. Malala continues to be an inspiration.

“I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.”

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.

.ugb-ac152d3 .ugb-button{background-color:#BE1E2D;border-radius:25px !important}.ugb-ac152d3 .ugb-button .ugb-button--inner,.ugb-ac152d3 .ugb-button svg:not(.ugb-custom-icon){color:#ffffff !important}.ugb-ac152d3 .ugb-button:before{border-radius:25px !important}@media screen and (min-width:768px){.ugb-ac152d3 .ugb-img{width:331px;height:auto !important}}The Hate U Give

I was recently reminded of this book by its coverage in the media as being banned in some schools/English programs. According to the American Library Association, this number 1 bestseller was one of the most challenged books of 2017, 2018, and 2020. I have written about this one before too.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.