All the classic ingredients are there: Christmas decorations, tea and cake, a faithful butler, a foreigner, snow falling and an interesting cast of characters thrown together. The murders and detective work are far from conventional though ...

    What happened all those years ago, and what is it she so desperately needs him to find? The old villa in Sonoma holds the answers, but it is now owned by a young woman who neither knows nor cares about his mission. But Rese Barret is a force to contend with, and her own impending storm could sweep him up as their sparring creates a fierce and uncomfortable attraction. From bestselling author Kristen Heitzmann.

    Her first stop is Savannah’s Southern Palace. On the eve of the second night’s performance, something goes horribly wrong. Her co-star, Arthur Sterling, is shot dead on stage in front of a packed house, and India is arrested and accused of the crime.A benefactor hires Philip Sinclair, the best—and handsomest—lawyer in Savannah to defend India. A widower, Philip is struggling to reinvent his worn-out plantation on St. Simons Island. He needs to increase his income from his law practice in order to restore Indigo Point, and hardly anything will bring him more new clients than successfully defending a famous actress on a murder charge.Because India can’t go anywhere in town without being mobbed, Philip persuades the judge handling her case to let him take her to Indigo Point until her trial date. India is charmed by the beauty of the Georgia low country and is increasingly drawn to Philip. But a locked room that appears to be a shrine to Philip’s dead wife and the unsolved disappearance of a former slave girl raise troubling questions. Piecing together clues in an abandoned boat and a burned-out chapel, India discovers a trail of dark secrets that lead back to Philip, secrets that ultimately may hold the key to her freedom. If only he will believe her.

    After opening his heart to Jesus in prison, Alex Villa has left his criminal past behind him. However, his efforts to take down a gang producing meth in Sonoma have made him a target. Set up to look like he’s being bribed by the gang, the police blame him for the death of a cop. Only the evidence on an encrypted laptop can prove he’s innocent. Software engineer Jane Lawton has been betrayed by the men closest to her, including a God she thought would protect her. She won’t let Alex down, because she knows what it feels like to be disbelieved and abandoned. However, the men after them have orders to repossess the evidence and make sure Jane and Alex take their knowledge to the grave. Can they prove Alex’s innocence before time runs out for them both? (Those of you who have read my Love Inspired Suspense, FORMULA FOR DANGER, will have met Jane and Alex as minor characters in that book. I'm so excited to finally write their own love story!) Camy Tang's Sonoma series: #1: Deadly Intent #2: Formula for Danger #3: Stalker in the Shadows #4: Narrow Escape #4.1: Necessary Proof (novella)#4.2: Unshakeable Pursuit (novella)#5: Treacherous Intent (coming December 2014) Excerpt: Jane Lawton nearly dropped her steaming pot of Mac-N-Cheese at the sound of a powerful fist knocking at her apartment door. "Coming!" She spooned the gooey, bad-for-you goodness into a bowl, then ran some water in the pot in the sink. The urgent knocking sounded again. Somehow it didn't sound like one of her neighbors, wanting Jane's help with a computer problem. She looked through the peephole. She felt a sharp pulse at the base of her throat. "Alex?" She opened the door. Normally a walking Calvin Klein ad, he now had a grim, serious cast to his face as he hurriedly entered her apartment with a messenger bag slung across one broad shoulder. "Quick, close the door." "What's going on?" She locked the deadbolt. It frightened her that he looked so different now, lacking his usual smile and dimples. "I need your help, Jane." She couldn't control the bitterness that burned the back of her throat. It seemed that was the only thing she was good for, helping the men in her life so they could leave her and move on. She swallowed and said carefully, "Doing what?" He pulled a laptop from his messenger bag. "There's information on this that I need, but I'm not sure if there's any type of security protecting it." "Whoa." Jane took a step back. "You're saying that's not your laptop, and you want me to get into it? What's going on?" She knew he had been in prison for a few years, but she thought he'd put his illegal past behind him. He scrubbed his hand over his high forehead. "It's not what it looks like." "That makes it sound even worse." He exhaled and seemed to study her. His intent, dark eyes made her squirm. She knew she'd changed a lot in the past year. She'd only spoken to him once in all that time, a few months ago at the party celebrating his brother's engagement to Rachel, Jane's second cousin but as close as a sister. After a minute or two of chit-chat, he had been quick to leave her to speak to Detective Carter, which had given her a pang even though she hadn't been in a sociable mood. What a difference from when she and Alex had first met years ago. He had seemed interested in her, but she'd been ... She shoved the memories aside. "I'm only going to ask this one more time. What's going on?" "I just ... I can trust you, right?" "Trust me with what?"

    But Caleb Nelson is positive he inherited the mercantile, and he's not about to let some obstinate woman with newfangled ideas mess up all he's worked for. He's determined to get Melanie married off as soon as possible, and luckily there are plenty of single men in town quite interested in taking her off his hands.The problem is, Caleb soon realizes he doesn't want her to marry up with any of them. He's drawn to Melanie more every day, and he has to admit some of her ideas for the store unexpectedly offer positive results.But someone doesn't want the store to succeed, and what used to be just threatening words has escalated into deliberate destruction and lurkers in the night. When a body shows up on the mercantile steps--and the man obviously didn't die from natural causes--things really get dangerous. Can Melanie and Caleb's business--and romance--survive the trouble that's about to come their way?

    Honouring the last wish of a dying friend, he is irresistibly drawn into a web of intriguing clues, hinting at a long forgotten treasure.Joining forces with Cecilia Crawford, a glamorous New York journalist, and Tristan, a remarkable boy with psychic powers, Jack soon finds himself on a precarious journey of discovery, exposing dark secrets from a distant, violent time, when life was cheap and cruelty ruled without mercy.Will Rogan succeed? Can he find the forgotten treasure he has been searching for, or will it be lost forever, depriving the world of a masterpiece that belongs to all mankind

    He disappeared on the very day they were to be married. It's a challenge Holmes can't turn down.This is #3 in Doyle's first collection of Holmes' short stories, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes."Librarian's note: this entry is for the story, "A Case of Identity." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere.

    Desperate to keep up the family name and give the man a decent burial, penniless Lil cooks up a shady deal that lands her smack-dab in the slammer.Burdened by her shameful secret and a crumbling family estate, Lil entrusts Summer Haven’s care to her best friend, Maggie, who recruits two more over-fifty ladies to help. But when Maggie discovers that Lil’s restitution is ten times the amount she “borrowed” from the federal government, she’s convinced Lil has taken the fall for someone else’s crime.Will these gals be able to get some vigilante justice for Lil, or will the swindler get away with hoodwinking a sweet little old lady?Recipes included!(Originally published as In for a Penny in the Granny/G Team series)

    Who could have killed rising artist Marc Solomon, and what does Castle Cay, the Solomon's mysterious Caribbean island, have to do with it? Before long, Julie's sixth-sense pulls a hidden string that unravels a deadly conspiracy...and her own troubled past.

    And now granddaughter Virginia faces the test of her young life. Caught in the difficult period between childhood and adulthood, feeling that she doesn't fit in, Virginia struggles against what she considers to be unreasonable restrictions and expectations. A new girl at school represents the daring and freedom that Virginia thinks she wants -- until one fateful day . . .

    But when her lightkeeper father rescues a young man from the lake, her sheltered world is turned upside down.Bestselling author Jody Hedlund's Out of the Storm is her first ever novella and introduces readers to Beacons of Hope, a new series set in the 1800s amid the romance, history, and danger surrounding the Great Lakes lighthouses of Michigan.

    However, this day will be unlike any other. Over twenty-four hours, Ann will find her life turned upside-down as she discovers a murder, meets a handsome widower, Detective Inspector Max Deveraux, and confronts the murderer in a tale of temptation and duplicity.

    Everyone but newly appointed yoriki Sano Ichiro.Despite the official verdict and warnings from his superiors, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People suspects the deaths weren't just a tragedy; they were murder. Risking his family's good name and his own life, Sano will search for a killer across every level of society determined to find answers to a mystery no one wants solved. No one but Sano...As subtle and beautiful as the culture it evokes, Shinju vividly re-creates a world of ornate tearooms and gaudy pleasure-palaces, cloistered mountaintop convents and deathly prisons. Part love story, part mystery, Shinju is a tour that will dazzle and entertain all who enter its world.

    Perhaps this individual is simply sleeping there to stay warm. Whoever this individual is, they clean up before they leave. So Hannah plans, with Norman's help, to catch the intruder in the act (and they do). What unwinds is a tale of innocence and a dysfunctional family who is reunited due to Hannah's understanding and sense of fairness.

    Not exactly the dream she’d had in mind when she moved into her rustic fixer-upper cottage. Marc Shepherd wasn’t part of her plans either. The Stetson-wearing contractor moved in next door, kicking up dust and threatening to cut down a beloved pine that shaded Tasha’s cabin. With Christmas around the bend, and a criminal threatening the community’s peace, will Tasha solve the puzzle … before it’s too late? JULIE CAROBINI writes novels from her home on the California coast.