On the beach you'll be laughing and crying between the changing of the tides. Take a ride with the main character, Lily Clarke, as you contemplate her and your own lasting legacy. Lily Clarke, the elderly mother of three dysfunctional and distant daughters, makes life altering discoveries regarding her new found wealth and other dark secrets, after she receives a diagnosis that she has a terminal illness. The challenges and decisions she must face in her final months will define her lasting legacy. To execute her plan, she invites her three dysfunctional and distant daughters to her home for a short stay to determine you will receive her new found wealth. Her plans become disrupted when dark secrets emerge, questioning her decision making and the meaning of her entire life. The book includes family dysfunction, drama, humor, an a bit of historical fiction. From the book: Chapter 1: The old saying goes that everyone has a story. Unfortunately today, October 2, 2016, Lily Elizabeth Clarke’s story was coming to a quick end. It was a sunny day at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Dundalk, Maryland, as cars began pulling up shortly after noon for her 1:00 p.m. funeral. Old rusted smoke stacks from a bankrupt steel mill could be seen in the background of the cemetery in this gritty part of Baltimore. Neighborhoods with seventy-year-old brick weathered rowhouses surrounded the neatly manicured cemetery. The funeral was taking place exactly as Lily had arranged it. No details were left out of the planning. While she was alive, she made sure that her funeral, burial arrangements, and reading of her Last Will and Testament were organized and would be executed exactly to her wishes. No one knew what would take place over the next twenty-four hours and weeks to follow except Lily, and she was deceased. Not even her lawyer and confidant, Jake Snyder, knew all of the hidden details that Lily had intentionally failed to disclose to him; some of which had remained bottled and silenced for a lifetime. He had been Lily’s lawyer for more than twenty years, and over the next two days, he would implement her final plan exactly as she had instructed. Jake knew her for almost his whole life and thought he knew everything about her, but he didn’t know the dark secrets about her past or the ones she intended to reveal in stages following her death. The health crisis that led to Lily’s death was nothing compared to the mental struggle she faced as a result of the long forgotten secrets resurfacing during the final months of her life. Lily’s struggle whether to reveal her secrets while she was alive and how to reveal them after her death would change lives and define her legacy. Lily didn’t want to have a formal viewing at a funeral home. She wanted her funeral to be short and sweet at the gravesite, so that everyone could get on with their lives. Lily’s three daughters didn’t remain close to her after they graduated from college and settled in the state of their college alma maters. Lily was unsure why her children didn’t stay close to her. She wasn’t sure if it was her sometimes overbearing husband or the fact that her children wanted to get out of the dirty blue-collar town Baltimore was in the 1970s. Maybe they were a little rebellious, stubborn, and adventurous, all rolled into one. In truth, Lily often wondered if the secrets she harbored created impenetrable barriers in her relationship with her daughters. However, it seemed the longer they were away from Baltimore, the further they grew apart from Lily, and she didn’t have the strength or courage to correct the situation. ...

     What if the detour signs you are following are a trap? Sharon Perez is finally getting her big break to become a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Kevin, a seasoned crime reporter has offered to share a breaking news story with her in hopes of sparking a relationship. As Sharon races toward the seedier side of town her GPS guides her to Exit 141. An exit where she is kidnapped, drugged and next in line to face an unspeakable horror. Detectives Nick Stryker and Jen Taylor are called to a crime scene at an abandoned brewery. They find themselves standing over a young family entombed in blue hazmat body bags. The condition of their remains a testament to the evil they had encountered. This highly organized team of killers made two mistakes. The first was leaving a clue as to their identity; the second was committing murder in Detective Nick Stryker's jurisdiction. Nick and Jen frantically follow the one clue they have into a vapor trail of evidence and a storm of violence. As they peel through the layers of horror in the case they realize that Sharon is in the hands of the killers. With time running out and the forces of money and power aligned against them, Nick and Jen fight their way to the twisted and shocking truth.

    

    The oldest of four girls. Graduate of New York Law School, two years earlier than expected, at the top of my class and apple of my father’s eye. After years of hard work and dedication, I’m finally rewarded by being able to sit in on one of the biggest trials in the city, being handled by the district attorney himself. I’m excited and terrified about working with him. After all my years of dreaming, the time has finally come. But then I met him... Luke “Outlaw” Murray. The youngest of six boys. Graduate at the top of his class at hood university where he got his degree in the streets. Certified in Street Nigga-ology. He’s rude. He’s arrogant. He’s abrasive and he’s… did I say he was rude? He’s everything I don’t want in a man. Everything I shouldn’t want… until I do. And this... this is a story about us. But beware, because it's not your average love story.

    He had decided he wanted a fresh start, and that was exactly what he got. Life has never been better for Seattle’s most storied detective. But Grant knows better than anyone that all good things come to an end, and peace of mind has an expiration date.

    In a shallow attempt to move forward, she marries the older Deacon of the church, but is liberated when he dies on their wedding night. Now free to find love and happiness, Sabrina discovers the dark side of love and lust when she is confronted by her new best friend Blair; when Blair thinks Sabrina has stolen the man she loves.

    Then, a single shot rang out. Moments later, Marty Dillon, a promising young lawyer, was dead of a gunshot wound to the chest. His friend, Dr. Stephen Scher, later tearfully explained that Dillon had been running with a shotgun after a porcupine, and tripped and fell, accidentally killing himself. But what really happened?Marty Dillon's violent death was immediately declared an accident by the local coroner in 1976. But as Dillon's body was lowered into the cold ground, did a damning secret, one that would haunt his friends and family for decades, go with him?* Were rumors of an affair between Dr. Scher and Marty's wife, Pat, true?* Why did the couple marry so soon after Dillon's death?* If the shot was self-inflicted, why did the bullet come from Dr. Scher's gun?* What was it about Dillon's bloody wound that cast suspicion on Scher?After 20 years of pleading with authorities, and finally hiring their own investigators, Dillon's parents persuaded the Pennsylvania State Police to reopen the case. They exhumed Dillon's body - and his decayed remains told the real story of that tragic day two decades earlier. On October 22, 1997, Dr. Stephen Scher was convicted of the murder of Marty Dillon - final justice for a cold-blooded killer who for 20 years thought he had gotten away with murder.

    For years their lives of idle luxury, shopping, and lunching have come at the price of staying loyally behind the scenes as their men rule the East End criminal underworld with violence and terror. But when their husbands' positions of power are jeopardized, they seize the opportunity to fight back and try to beat the men at their own game.

    But before he can make a start, he is suddenly reassigned by his boss, Terrance Singleton, to the cold case of Timothy Waters, who had served 20 years in prison for the murder of Elizabeth Mitchell, the daughter of the then mayor.A review of his conviction has set him free and as a friend of the family, Singleton wants to make sure Mallory finds more evidence to put him back behind bars.But the case is complex and before long Mallory discovers that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye; family tensions, a witness run out of town and the possibility the victim had a second boyfriend. It all points to a shoddy investigation and a blunder that sent an innocent man to prison.When Mallory’s investigation reveals a link between the girl in the alley, Elizabeth, and another murder victim from seven years ago, he can’t help but wonder if they are connected. With the motive unclear, and the perpetrator a mystery, Mallory must piece together the evidence that may solve three cases instead of one, overcome a miscarriage of justice and uncover a killer who may be closer than he thinks.

    The four brothers of the Kinsey Cartel were as crazy as hell. The oldest two, Tremell and Tristan, aka Tre and Tripp, might just have been the craziest of all. Crossing any of them could end your life, especially given Tre’s unique skills at murder. No one messed with them… until a pair of best friends, Shamar and Cyn, came in and turned Tre and Tripp’s world upside down. Shamar Parker, a quiet college girl, found herself caught up in the game, given to Tre as collateral. Tre’s captive would soon become his lover and he vowed never to let her go. With an attitude the polar-opposite of her best friend, Cyn Murray stormed into Tripp’s life, demanding the return of her friend. In the process, she also stormed into his heart and Tripp knew he had to lock her down. But the Kinseys’ old habits died hard and their lifestyle threatened to push the women they wanted most out of their lives. Can their love survive the streets?

    That's the lesson a fine brother with a wounded heart learns when an eccentric old woman grants him a wish for true love--if he's not too blind to see it--in Francis Ray's The Wish.Beverly Jenkins spins a soul-touching tale of a soldier reunited with the woman who deserted him as they discover that love isn't just sweeter the second time around, it's downright decadent in Homecoming.In Monica Jackson's The Way Back Home, a biracial young woman sets out to spend Kwanzaa with the African-American family she never knew and finds and extra gift in the strong, loving professor who wants to teacher her about her heritage...and so much more.When a mild-mannered high school principal battles small-town prejudice over a Kwanzaa celebration, he fins an unlikely ally in a fiery woman from his past in Geri Guillaume's moving story, The Seventh Principal.The love of a good man. The hope of a new family. The promise of a fantasy fulfilled. This soulful collection of holiday stories proves there's more than one reason for gettin' merry...and they all lead straight to the heart.

    Gang lords Blanket and Guerilla have been growing their numbers, never beefing until Guerilla decides to expand, thanks to the help of his enemy s own rook. Caught in the middle of this battle from different sides of the track are London and Saint.Spoiled rich Roanoke girl London Royal is no exception to the old saying that every girl loves a bad boy and his ways. When she visits the downtrodden Jonesboro neighborhood of Goodman with her best friends, her privileged world changes drastically with one party and later, a tow-truck pickup by bad boy Santana Black.Santana "Saint" Black is anything but a saint. Caught up in the drug game, Saint is a runner and enforcer for Blanket not to mention he s from the wrong side of the tracks to have his sights set on London.Can they find love in the middle of a kingpin war, or will both fall to the game of the streets?"

    Christmas time can be murder…A suburban housewife is found dead in her garden.There is no weapon, no witnesses, and the only set of footprints belong to her cat.Probationary detective Kay Hunter and her colleagues are convinced it’s murder – but how can they find a killer when there are no clues?

    How will these church families handle the sins of their past and the challenges that life is giving them?Stacy Wilmington is on her way to college when a devastating secret from her father’s past threatens to ruin her relationship with him and causes her to commit a sin of her own. In hiding his past for so long, will Stacy’s father lose the two most important people in his life — his wife and his daughter?Terrence Montague, a man committed to providing for his wife, Stella, and daughter, Monica, finds himself caught up in an illegal drug delivering business that he knows is against the law and against his Christian convictions. Will he choose to love God and be true to his family over loving money?Meanwhile, the new assistant pastor of New Mt. Zion Missionary Evangelical Church, Dwayne Reynolds, believes he has left his past behind…only to discover that it has found him again. Will he choose to face it head on or hide it from the congregation that has come to love and trust his family? In the middle of all this drama, is Reynolds’ son, Jonathan, and Montague’s daughter, Monica. What does the future hold for them?

    He never allows an enemy or their families a chance to come back and seek revenge.... until he met Zaria. Zaria is young and living the life. Spoiled to the core she didn’t take anyone’s feelings into consideration... she wanted it all and she didn’t care what someone had to do to get it for her... Her family did whatever to get her what she wanted and It cost them their lives... Now indebted to Phantom, Zaria not only has to look at the man that killed her family every day, but also deal with the guilt of them being gone because of her.. With hatred in her heart, she refuses to allow herself to fall for the man that brought her so much heartache and vows to bring him down at any cost.. Phantom doesn’t deal with emotions but something about Zaria pulls him in. The more he fights his feelings for her the stronger they get. Zaria feels the same attraction, but how can she fall for the man who took everything from her? Will she continue with her plan and avenge her family and make Phantom’s kingdom fall or will Phantom break down her walls and charm his way into her heart? Will Zaria succeed and avenge her family, or will Phantom break down her walls and charm his way into her heart?