Book picks similar to
The Staggerford Murders and Nancy Clancy's Nephew by Jon Hassler
fiction
mystery
contemporary
minnesota-authors
The Vineyard
Barbara Delinsky - 2000
To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances. She is exquisitely mannered, socially adept, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir. There is much that her children don't know about her life -- about her love of the vineyard, her role in fighting to build it up, and the sacrifices she made for her family. Olivia Jones is a dreamer, living vicariously through the old photographs she restores. She and her daughter, Tess, have no one but themselves, so they cling to the fantasy that a big, happy family is out there somewhere, just waiting to welcome them home. When Olivia is hired by Natalie to help with her memoir, a summer at Natalie's beautiful vineyard by the sea seems the perfect opportunity to live out that fantasy -- an elegant home by the shore, a salary that allows her to hire a tutor for her dyslexic daughter, a job that is creative, hours spent with a woman who has led a charmed life. But all is not as it seems, Olivia and Tess discover when they arrive at Asquonset, the vineyard in Rhode Island. While welcoming, Natalie is not quite the mothering type, as is quickly evident in the hostility her daughter and son have toward her -- it's a hostility that Olivia must buffer. Another dose of stark reality comes in the form of Simon Burke, who runs the vineyard's day-to-day operation and sees in Olivia and Tess an unwelcome reminder of the wife and daughter he tragically lost. And then there is the cruel reality of Olivia's own life -- the mother who never wanted her, and a career that has floundered. Natalie's story, intended for her own children, enlightens Olivia as well. The lives of these two women of different generations, parallel in so many ways, become, in The Vineyard, a powerful and moving story as the fantasy of an idealized life, complete with perfect romance, crashes headlong into reality.
Stigma
Philip Hawley Jr. - 2007
physician and former secret member of a black ops unit of the Navy SEALS who vows to get to the bottom of an unidentifiable illness that killed a young Guatemalan boy. His investigation, however, only succeeds in putting his life and those of his loved ones in mortal danger. After the boy -- who was flown all the way to Los Angeles from Central America -- inexplicably dies, McKenna orders an autopsy, only to find himself stymied by hospital administrators who are obviously trying to cover something up. McKenna realizes that a conspiracy of international proportions is being pulled off: The boy's body is suddenly transported back to Guatemala and a former lover and employee of pharmaceutical giant Zenavax is found murdered just minutes after she called McKenna, desperately wanting to meet with him. Framed for her murder, the E.R. doctor must use all of his former military training to stay alive long enough to identity the true villain Hawley Jr. joins a growing number of doctors-turned-novelists (Daniel Kalla, Allen Wyler, et al.) who have reinvigorated the medical suspense genre with their terrifyingly insightful speculation. Chillingly realistic and utterly readable, Philip Hawley Jr. could very well be the next Robin Cook. Paul Goat Allen
Strange Allure
Susan Lewis - 2000
And Avril Hayden, Carla's flamboyant and sensual friend, finds herself increasingly intrigued by this mysterious connection - a connection that won't go away.But as hidden truths are finally revealed, intrigue turns to fear, and risk to terrible danger...From a village in Somerset, to the grandeur of London's Belgravia and the exotic island of Zanzibar, Strange Allure is a story of love's passions gone utterly wild.
Unwound
Jonathan Baine - 2007
Chronicling the sordid world of a teenage prostitute, it was the biggest bestseller of the year. It broke conventions, inspired a cult following, and made Peter Robertson rich, admired...and scared. There, on the edge of the crowd, he always sees her. She not only looks like Angel, she embodies the desperate creature he created. Everywhere Peter goes, she goes, obsessed with everything about him. What could she possibly want? Soon, curiosity will get the best of him. So will the girl with the haunted eyes. Because what she's really after is something that will explode Peter's world.
OLD SINS, LONG MEMORIES
Angela Arney - 2014
Lizzie Browne moves from London to a small town on the coast, looking forward to a quiet life, but when she finds a murdered patient on her first day it seems that perhaps Stibbington is not so quiet after all. DCI Adam Maguire, and colleague Steve Grayson, haven’t been challenged by a case for a long time, and welcome this break from their normal routine, except that there seems to be no apparent motive for anyone to kill a harmless young drop-out. When a second body, similar to the first, is found in Lizzie’s garden she is drawn into Adam’s investigation against her will, and against her better judgment her quiet life is riven with tension and conflict.
Your Pastor, My Husband
B.M. Hardin - 2014
Despite rough beginnings, she could finally say that above all else...she was happy. Her life changed for the better when she married the respected, adored and handsome Pastor Shelton Cartwright. To her, her husband was nothing less than perfect...at least that was what she'd thought. But soon Maxine is reminded that even Pastors have a Past. Maxine's life spirals out of control and little by little she discovers that her Pastor of a husband isn't who he appears to be. Soon she discovers that she doesn't have a clue as to who she's really married to. Was he really a Saint...or was he still a Sinner? That's the one question that Maxine was dying to know the answer to. But there was more than one missing piece to this puzzle. And when the answers start showing up at Maxine's front door, all hell breaks loose, and things for the Cartwright's will never be the same. Whats a woman to do when she learns that the one man that she thought was "praying" for her...had all along been "preying" on her? A full, complete story of lies, deceit...and everything else in between! **Also order authors newest book "Read the Warning Label First***
The Muse Asylum
David Czuchlewski - 2001
. . . David Czuchlewski writes with imagination, vision, and style."--Joyce Carol OatesWho is Horace Jacob Little, and what is he trying to hide?Legend has is that not even his agent had met him, that they communicated via post office box. Horace Jacob Little had insisted on blank covers for all his books. . . . No one knew what he looked like or where he lived. . . . I used to imagine him: a death-row inmate, a mild-mannered accountant, a disfigured cripple. . . . He was none of these, as it turned out, nothing my imagination could conjure.Andrew Wallace, recent Princeton graduate and troubled genius, spends his days in the Overlook Psychiatric Institute--the Muse Asylum--writing about a dark conspiracy against him engineered by the elusive author Horace Jacob Little. When fellow classmate Jake Burnett, a novice reporter, arrives on the hospital grounds to visit Andrew, he learns that Andrew's problems run much deeper than simple paranoia and obsession.Along with Lara Knowles, the girl they both love, they try to break through the shadows of the enigmatic Horace Jacob Little. Instead, they find themselves caught in a twisted game of reflections and reversals, where each seems to be pursuing the other--for love, for success, or for a far more sinister purpose."[A] cleverly devised, sharply composed, entertaining and moving novel."--The Wall Street Journal
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!
Fannie Flagg - 1998
Many inhabit small-town or suburban America. But this time, her heroine is urban: a brainy, beautiful, and ambitious rising star of 1970s television. Dena Nordstrom, pride of the network, is a woman whose future is full of promise, her present rich with complications, and her past marked by mystery.
The Book of Bright Ideas
Sandra Kring - 2006
Evelyn “Button” Peters is nine the summer Winnalee and her fiery-spirited older sister, Freeda, blow into her small town–and from the moment she sees them, Button knows this will be a summer unlike any other.Much to her mother’s dismay, Button is fascinated by the Malone sisters, especially Winnalee, a feisty scrap of a thing who carries around a shiny silver urn containing her mother’s ashes and a tome she calls “The Book of Bright Ideas.” It is here, Winnalee tells Button, that she records everything she learns: her answers to the mysteries of life. But sometimes those mysteries conceal a truth better left buried. And when a devastating secret is suddenly revealed, dividing loyalties and uprooting lives, no one–from Winnalee and her sister to Button and her family–will ever be the same.
Moving
Jenny Eclair - 2015
It used to be a busy, crowded family home but now Edwina lives alone and it has grown too big for her. She has decided to sell it.The young estate agent who comes to value the house sees potential. Knock down a few walls, add a wet room. 'People like a project.' But as Edwina takes him from room to room, she is transported back to her old life as a young mother. Back to her first husband Ollie and their twins, James and Rowena. Back to lies and dark secrets and to a stepson whose name Edwina cannot even bear to speak aloud. As Edwina's story unravels she is revealed as a complex and intriguing person. Not just the 'frail old lady' trapped in her dated house, but a woman who has lived an extraordinary life, full of love and tragedy. Why is she now so alone? What happened to Edwina's family all those years ago?Moving - Jenny Eclair's fourth novel - reveals a writer at the height of her powers. Gripping, heart-breaking and laced with black humour, it is a novel of family secrets, shocking betrayals and most of all, of home.
American Gospel
Lin Enger - 2020
When word gets out, Last Days Ranch becomes ground zero for The End, drawing zealots, curiosity seekers, and reporters—among them the prophet’s son, a skeptical New York writer suddenly caught between his overbearing father and the news story of a lifetime. Into the mix comes Melanie Magnus, a glamorous actress who has old allegiances to both father and son. Meanwhile, Nixon’s resignation has transfixed the nation.Writing with clear compassion and gentle wit, Lin Enger draws us into these disparate yet inextricably linked lives, each enacting a part in a drama forever being replayed and together moving toward a conclusion that will take all of them—and us—by surprise. Set during a time that resonates with our own tension-filled moment, American Gospel cuts close to the battles occurring within ourselves and for the soul of the nation, and in doing so radiates light on a dark strain in America’s psyche, when the false security of dogma competes with the risky tumult of freedom.
Treasure Borrowed and Blue
S.W. Hubbard - 2018
She knows first-hand that funerals are family events that bring out the worst in people.Now Audrey is just six weeks away from a joyful family event--her wedding. The band has been hired, the invitations mailed.Wedded bliss is right around the corner.Then a thief strikes and destroys Audrey's happiness. As she narrows the list of possible culprits,her suspicion falls on the family she's about to join.Will catching the thief ruin Audrey's shot at the ideal family she's always dreamed of?When the crime is solved with one final twist, Audrey learns a lesson about the bonds that tie families together and the expectations that can drive them apart.A note from the author: In the chronology of Audrey's life, this short mystery novella fits between the events in This Bitter Treasure (which ended with Audrey's engagement) and Treasure in Exile (which begins with Audrey already married).Loyal readers let me know that they wanted to see Audrey's wedding. So I wrote Treasure Borrowed and Blue because I want to keep my readers happy! Nothing ever goes quite as planned for our Audrey, so the tale of her wedding takes quite a few twists and turns (but no murders!).
The Family that Lies
Lakisha Johnson - 2016
With a father who thought the world of them, life was good. Until one day everything changed. While Grayce got love and attention, Merci got all the hell, forcing her to leave home. She never looks back, putting the past behind her until … her sister shows up over a decade later begging for help, bringing all of the forgotten past with her. Merci wasn't the least bit prepared for what was about to happen next. Merci realizes, she’s been a part of something much bigger than she'd ever imagined. Yea, every family has their secrets, hidden truths and ties but Merci had no idea she’d been born into the family that lies.
My Sisters
Ann Roth - 2008
— When sisters Margaret, Rose, and Quincy Lansing receive the tragic news that a car accident has claimed the life of their mother, they must return to their childhood home-and to one another's company. Although they are shocked and heartbroken, none of the Lansing sisters is eager to be back. For the painful memories they thought they'd left behind have suddenly resurfaced...But there is also an unbreakable bond of love.The Lansings were never a close or loving family. And each sibling had long ago found her own means of escape-Margaret into her lab work, Rose into her "perfect" marriage, Quincy into her acts of rebellion. So when crisis forces them together again, they discover that they know as little about one another as they did about their mother. And in unraveling her secrets, they find not only revelation, but also strength, hope, sisterhood, and a chance for love...
Shoot the Moon
Billie Letts - 2004
In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found.Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town and stirring up long-buried memories. But what he discovers about the night he vanished is more astonishing than he or anyone could have imagine. Piece by piece, what emerges is a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a secret that still cries out for justice...and redemption.