Private investigator Tom Bennett's daughter was kidnapped ten years ago. As he attempts to find solace, a series of unexpected phone calls lead him down a dark and desperate path. Against the better judgment of his partner, therapist, and ex-wife, he digs into past suspects that he had previously given up on. Vengeful parents? Ruthless drug syndicate he had stripped apart and put behind bars? Or an entirely new suspect he’d missed? One new question, one new answer. Pull the thread and follow Tom on his journey of heartache as he stops at nothing to get his daughter back.

    Number five Kitchener Avenue heralds the start of a new life for the Hope family. For pregnant Miriam it is a warm, safe environment to bring up her child. For her sister, fourteen-year-old Barbara, it means independence . . . and boys. And for Fred it provides the security he craves for his young family. In the lead up to Christmas, the Hopes settle in, and start to make happy memories in their new home. But World War II is round the corner, and this carefree life can't last. Soon the family are split up. Bar, wanting to do her bit for the war effort, joins the ATS, while Miriam and her children are evacuated to the countryside and away from her husband. As the country is thrown into turmoil, can the Hope family come back together and find the happiness they crave? 'A Winter Hope is a heartwarming novel following two sisters from pre-war to post-war, their parallel stories filled with love and loss. I found myself completely wrapped up with their experiences and shed a tear at the twists and turns of their lives.' Mollie Walton, author of The Daughters of Ironbridge 'I have long been a fan of Sheila Newberry's novels. I love their wonderful warmth and charm.' Maureen Lee, bestselling author of The Seven Streets of Liverpool 'Reading a Sheila Newberry book is like having dinner with your mother in her warm and cosy kitchen. You can feel the love and care put into every juicy morsel' - Diane Allen, bestselling author of For the Sake of Her Family Previously published as The Family at Number Five.

    But strange events at the house have her worried for the safety of her charges. Steeped in horrific history Rose Mansion isn't a welcome place. Floorboards creak, doors open and close, and strange sounds resonate at night. Nothing unusual for such an old house. Surely? But Ashley feels there is something else. Something dark. Something sinister. As matters begin to escalate, she begins to doubt her own sanity...

    Journey through the deep south and follow the lives of several families as they intertwine throughout the decades in this collection of southern short stories.

    Separated from her husband, Henrietta now faces an uncertain future and the possibility of becoming estranged from her child. Luckily, fortune shifts in her favor when Olivia Hendricks—the wife of a wealthy planter—purchases her as a nursemaid for their unborn infant. During her years at Livingston Plantation, Henrietta finds sanctuary and safety in the big house, eventually becoming a caregiver to both Mrs. Hendricks and her child. However, this all changes when the missus ends up dead and the master involves Henrietta in a ruse to cover up his wife's murder. Now Henrietta is vulnerable without protection from the lady of the estate, and she is left with no choice but to take action. Chained together by secrets, slave and master must fight to maintain all they hold dear. But how far will Henrietta be forced to go, and what consequences will ultimately be paid to save her daughter and herself?

    Her eyes could still penetrate the soul, but they were paler in color, maybe because they were covered with the whitish film of cataracts. I remember watching her take her hair from the neat bun she wore and let it down to comb. Her hair was long, but no longer black as coal. It was the color of newly formed storm clouds and fell in a silvery braid to her hips. I watched her comb it out and then she would braid it, wind it back into a bun and pin it low, just above the nape of her neck. Everyone always said that I favored her a lot. Annabelle was my great-grandmother; she was a Full Blood, a Choctaw Indian from Savannah, Georgia. When a child, I thought she was tall, larger than life. My admiration of her as we walked in the yard and I helped her gather eggs and pick flowers, was unsurpassable; but as I grew, I realized that she was a tiny woman. Shrunken from her many years on earth, she stood barely four feet, ten inches tall. In her older years, maybe even her younger ones too, she was never without a jar of Garrett snuff. One summer, when I was about twelve years old, I went to stay with my grandmother Annabelle. And because her house was so small, I slept in her bedroom with her. Each night before we went to sleep, she pulled a leather bound book from underneath her mattress and wrote for a few minutes before she extinguished the bedside lamp. She seemed intent on what she was doing so I did not bother her with questions, but after several nights, curiosity got the better of me and when she finished and placed the book under the mattress, I asked what she was writing in the book. She told me that she was writing her thoughts on the events of the day so that if she wanted she could look back and know exactly what she was thinking and how she felt that particular day. “Is that how you remember all of those stories you tell me, about when you were a child and about your kinfolks back then” I asked. “It is a part of it,” she replied, “but some things you just do not ever forget. They remain with you your entire life.” “Tell me a story, Grandmother,” I begged. “Tell me about when you were a child; a young girl like me.” She began her story that night, by telling me how she met and married my grandfather Jesse. She also told me about leaving her home and family in Savannah to move to Mobile to live near my grandfather’s family. And in that telling, I discovered that my grandmother had led a very interesting life, especially in her earlier years. Her life was filled with heartbreaks, heartaches, great times, and sad times. She attended Mardi Gras Balls and traveled extensively around the South. She was involved with an assortment of ill-fated lovers. Indulged in hoodoo, voodoo, even murder! Hers was a life I found extremely fascinating; a life, I wished I could live. That summer, I decided that when I grew old, I wanted to be just like my grandmother Annabelle. However, today, as I sat staring across the haphazard layer of hills to the west and thought of Annabelle and the olden days of grace and charm. I realized that those days were forever gone. They were days that I myself would never know, except through my grandmother’s eyes and memories. No longer that young inquisitive girl, I am an old woman now. On my own, I have lived a long uneventful life. Only through her stories could I live the life I dreamt of; therefore, I decided to share her story with the world. I am certain she would approve. I hope you all enjoy reading her story, as much as I enjoyed writing it. Her story began April 1865, at the end of the Civil War, as was told to me by my grandmother, Rebecca Annabelle Maples Foster.

    The Department of Justice’s endeavors to capture him on video surveillance likewise came up empty, because he rarely left his modest row house at 2230 Ocean Pkwy., in Brooklyn, New York. He was silent and reclusive to a fault. And by the time the public got their first look at him in 1970 (following an arrest on a trumped-up charge that was never prosecuted) he was already the most powerful mafia boss in the country, controlling a crew of 800 mafiosi, who oversaw nearly 50 criminal and legitimate businesses, which netted his crime family over $1 billion in annual revenue. Yet few even knew his name, let alone his story. Now, for the first time ever, the true story of Carlo Gambino is told in full, gory detail. Gambino: The Rise, A Novel Based on a True Story, unveils the intricate machinations of Gambino’s ascent, from poor, immigrant stowaway, to billionaire boss of America’s most deadly and elite crime family. On this journey, we meet such celebrity hoods as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Al “Scarface” Capone, Meyer Lansky, Vito Genovese, and Albert “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia… all of whom became pawns on Gambino’s Machiavellian chess set. Gambino’s story is a rags to riches tail of the bloodiest kind, which explores the dichotomies of family, wealth, and power within the mafia environment. With its careful scrutiny of mob business and brutality, Gambino: The Rise will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Mario Puzo’s timeless classic, The Godfather. But this is to be expected, especially when Puzo’s fictional crime patriarch, Vito Corleone, was based on none other than Carlo Gambino. Gambino: The Rise is a historical novel for the ages that will leave readers shell-shocked with every flip of the page, until its earth-shattering and climactic end.

    Five years later he finally turned up - as a corpse in a car wreck. Missing persons investigator David Raker doesn't want the work: it's clearly a sad but hopeless case of mistaken identity brought to him by a woman unable to let go of her son. But haunted by a loss of his own, Raker reluctantly agrees.The Dead TracksSeventeen-year-old Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. A straight-A student from a happy home, she studied hard and rarely got into trouble. Six months on, she's never been found. David Raker knows what it's like to grieve. He knows the shadowy world of the lost too. So, when he's hired by Megan's parents to find out what happened, he recognizes their pain - but knows that the darkest secrets can be buried deep. And Megan's secrets could cost him his life.VanishedFor millions of Londoners, the morning of 17 December is just like any other. But not for Sam Wren. An hour after leaving home, he gets onto a tube train - and never gets off again. No eyewitnesses. No trace of him on security cameras. Six months later, he's still missing. Out of options and desperate for answers, Sam's wife Julia hires David Raker to track him down. Raker has made a career out of finding the lost. He knows how they think. And, in missing person cases, the only certainty is that everyone has something to hide.But in this case the secrets go deeper than anyone imagined . . .

    The only reason she agreed to take it was because the position hinged on her father winning a presidential election. She figured she could agree to take the job, he'd lose the election, and she'd be off the hook. James Cartwright won the election. He was a widower, and had no interest in living in the White House residence by himself. Not only did he lobby to have his daughter appointed as Vice President, on the grounds of bringing her in to help reform education, he also talked her into giving up the Vice Presidential home to live in the White House with him. Things were going along well. They're now six years into their jobs, making strides in their agendas, when life as they know it comes to a screeching halt. Molly is in the middle of making a speech when Secret Service agents surround her and carry her off the stage. Within the next few hours, she is given devastating news, sworn in as the next President, charged with trying to discover who the traitor is, needs to figure out which nation is responsible for this mess, and is put into the precarious position of fending off a war, all while trying to mourn a parent. Molly's challenges do not stop there. She's contending with two sets of senior staff; her own and her father's. Certain people doubt her ability to maintain focus when her personal life has just been through the spin cycle. A staff member disappears when the Secret Service is spread too thin. Everyone thinks there may be pertinent information on the President's phone, and Molly has a plan on trying to hack into it, if they could just get the thing to her. Her personal aide is afraid and refuses to even step foot into the residence for fear of Lincoln's ghost. The man who targeted her father reveals himself enough to torture Molly with images, threats, and a FedEx shipment. A little digging around reveals a surprising relationship, and a long-harbored dream Daddy was keeping secret. And, in her bid to get to the truth of all that is afoot, the rookie President turns suspicion onto herself, hoping to draw the enemy forward.

    When a decent, regular guy does his thieving neighbor a favor by driving him out to a long-neglected farm to steal an old panel truck, the two accidentally spark the ire of the hidden, quasi-occult residents of the place who prove eager to inflict Old Testament vengeance on just about every male within reach.  It's Me Too gone feral in a story of moral anxiety, misguided romance, and the age-old wages of sin.

    Her unabashed faith shines through as she shares details of her life as an adviser to her best friend, Beatrice, and as a voice of reason to her women's Sunday school class, the Willing Workers. The pettiness of the women at the Apostolic Bible Church gets under Esmeralda's skin, but when she rallies them to the side of an impoverished mother with AIDS, the very best of human love and compassion is portrayed.Told in delightfully eccentric first-person narration, this story will inspire, uplift, amuse, and move readers to tears. Despite Esmeralda's lack of education and sophistication-or perhaps because of it-she is used mightily by God and meets everyday challenges with gumption, humor, and grace. Her struggle to maintain her faith in the midst of pain and suffering is a timeless and universal theme with which many will identify, and the love and mercy the story unfolds will delight both young and old.

    The couple who survived the Great Hunger have had to watch more than half their family leave the parish. The responsibility to care for one another extends beyond blood or marriage ties for the McGrother family in New York, when a young Irishman goes missing in America. Back in Ireland, at a time when James and Mary least expect it, a family member returns - but not everyone is pleased with the reunion.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

     After the unfortunate events that took place in Britain, Jacob Hunter is no longer certain of many things, but this ill-fated truth is one he understands implicitly. Having spent months battling his addiction to the all-powerful blue orb, a device capable of traveling through time but equally adept at breaking a man’s mind, Jacob has finally succumbed to it. Once aided by loyal companions and the woman he loves, Jacob has abandoned everyone he has ever trusted, his mind warped by the orb’s influence. However, recently given new clues concerning the orb’s potential, Jacob departs for Rome, where he now knows a second orb lay hidden, waiting to be reunited with the orb he already possesses. Accompanied only by Rome’s manipulative empress, Agrippina the Younger, the pair journey to Rome where they hope to discover the secret to the orb’s power, but a destructive truth lies behind what they seek, one he may not be fully prepared to combat… But Jacob is not the only one about to embark on a daring quest. Having been abandoned and left without direction in the hinterlands of ancient Britain, Jacob’s sister, Diana, must find it in herself to rally Jacob’s jilted friends and corral an enraged Helena, the woman he loves, who carries her own mysterious secret after her life was miraculously saved at the brink of death. Unprepared for the responsibility suddenly thrust on her by Jacob's disappearance, Diana understands that she and her friends must find him before it's too late. Clouded and perverted though his mind may be, she knows her brother all too well. Jacob, tormented and driven beyond rationality, is prepared to sacrifice everything to find the lost orb. Including his life...

    Though with his parents deceased since he was a boy, and with no way of uncovering who they were, finding a sense of family is more than a daunting task-it seems impossible. Until he goes to Louisiana's Cajun country, with hopes of finding a man who perhaps knew them. After enduring blistering heat, torment from mosquitoes, venturing into eerie, backwater swamps, and fending off alligators, snakes, and a few sinister locals, Sam finds what he had sought all of his life. He's also given a second chance, one to leave behind a pained past that he would rather forget. But finding what he wants most means that he'll eventually have to lose it.