Showing results by narrator "C. S. E Cooney" in All Categories

Lee has been promoted from field reporter to program director. Keeping track of all the shows and managing the local TV personalities - including a cowboy, a clown, and a performing dog - has her head spinning. Perhaps that's what makes her take pity on the distraught woman she finds sitting alone on a bench on the Salem common. When she realizes that the poor woman doesn't even know her own name, Lee takes her into the warmth of the home she shares with her Aunt Ibby and their clairvoyant gentleman cat, O'Ryan.

A cold case update in Salem, Massachusetts... Life at the house on Winter Street is abuzz with preparations for Aunt Ibby's 45th high school reunion, and Lee Barrett is happy to pitch in, tracking down addresses, and licking envelopes. But as a field reporter for Salem's WICH-TV, her priority is to be on top of the town's latest news before anyone else.   

Elsie Stutzman's plain-spoken ways got her in trouble once before, so she needs to make a good impression at her new teaching job. But she's not about to let disabled student Wally Sensenig work below his potential. And she definitely won't put up with his hot-headed older brother sabotaging her efforts, no matter how handsome he is....

Despite multiple waves of feminist revolution, today's single woman is still mired in judgment or, worse, pity. But for one brief exclamatory period in the 1930s, she was all the rage. Marjorie Hillis was working at Vogue when she published the radical self-help book Live Alone and Like It: A Guide for the Extra Woman. With Dorothy Parker-esque wit, she urged spinsters, divorcees, and old maids to shed derogatory labels, and her philosophy became a phenomenon.

The staff at Salem, Massachusetts's local station, WICH-TV, is looking forward to the wedding of their program director, Lee Barrett. But when Lee heads off on her Maine honeymoon, she'll be haunted by the ghosts of her own past. Lee and Detective Sergeant Pete Mondello are finally tying the knot - and Lee is tying up loose ends before the big day. After the celebration, complete with a cake made by the station magician, there should be time to relax—but the Maine island happens to be near the site of the crash that killed Lee's parents, a mystery she's never been able to solve.

Casa del Chocolate is one of Salem's most charming boutique candy shops, making it a perfect profile story. Although preoccupied with her own personal sweet news—Lee and her detective husband Pete Mondello are expecting a bundle of joy—she cheerfully agrees to interview the chocolatier. Since becoming pregnant, the radiant and exhilarated mother-to-be has discovered that she is finally free of the unwanted haunting "visions" she has endured since childhood.

Field reporter Lee Barrett is not happy that her hours are being cut back at WICH-TV, although it is nice to spend more time volunteering with Aunt Ibby, a research librarian. But Lee's least favorite task is going up to the stacks, a spooky, seldom-frequented upper section of the library. On this day she has good reason to be afraid - she finds a dead man, surrounded by hundreds of scattered books and torn-out pages. Her police detective beau, Pete Mondello, is soon on the scene, and the deceased is identified as a former minor league baseball player - and ex-con....

Sedona, Arizona's, New Chapter bookstore is a haven for Rarity Cole, who's survived cancer and started an exciting second act in her life. With a film festival about to open in town, she has two big author events lined up—but after a live appearance, one of them winds up very unalive . . . Business is booming as an Olympic cyclist and a famous filmmaker come to town for a film festival and schedule signings at Rarity's bookshop. Luckily, her former employee Darby is back from Scotland and ready to help out.

When the body of "how-to" book writer Terry Holiday is found by Aster Paterson in her flower garden, the townspeople of Haven are shocked. But they're even more surprised when the beloved bookshop owner insists that the spirit of her late husband Peter Paterson led her to the grim discovery. Only Aster seems unsurprised—she's been baking his favorite shortbread cookies every day, hoping to lure his ghost back home . . . Even Maureen is a little skeptical—until Peter's ghost appears in the bookshop window for all to see.

Rarity is excited about expanding the romance section of her store—but not nearly as excited as her best friend Sam is about reuniting with her brother after many years. Marcus makes the trek from California to Arizona, is welcomed with a party, and hints that he may stick around now that remote work is an option. But is it just a coincidence that not long after his arrival, a body is found near a local swimming hole? Especially considering that the dead woman had recently gone on a date with him—and even worse, that Marcus has a startling secret in his past?

Lee Barrett has agreed to attend a storage auction with Aunt Ibby - even though she suspects the forgotten rooms will yield more junk than treasure. Her skepticism vanishes once the two win a bid on an overlooked locker and uncover a trove of beautiful curiosities, including a stunning wooden carousel horse with gentle eyes and fading paint. But just before Lee leaves the fairground relic at a local repair shop, the sight of a silver samovar awakens her psychic abilities and conjures visions of murder.

When Christopher Hostettler comes from Ohio to work at his uncle's shop in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, he gets off on the wrong foot with Emily Fisher. But when he finally opens up to her about his tragic reasons for leaving home, her heart begins to change. When Christopher compliments an old quilt, Emily decides to make a similar quilt for Christopher as a gesture of friendship. Emily knows she must guard her heart, as Christopher is not a baptized member of the church, but she's suddenly found someone with whom she can imagine sharing a future.

Cat Latimer and her neighbor, Dante, are throwing a party the weekend before her monthly writers' retreat starts. Dante had asked her to help find out who stole money from the Covington College endowment fund. The party's going strong until a dead body is found in Dante's conservatory after the desserts are served. With a retreat to run, Cat doesn't have time to find a killer, but when it looks like the dead guy was setting Dante up for the fall, the list of suspects explodes and includes Dante, who's now the primary suspect on Uncle Pete's list.

When her week begins, Rarity expects the biggest mystery she'll need to solve is how a rare first edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland ended up in her bookstore bathroom. But after book club member Shirley tells her that her husband George, who has dementia, is the prime suspect in a nursing home murder, Rarity feels as if she's stepped through the looking glass.

When Lee Barrett joins a former student's bridal party as maid of honor, she expects cake tastings and dress fittings. But wedding planning becomes more peculiar than Lee's scrying talents could ever predict. There's a magical baker, a best man with a checkered past, and a talking crow named Poe as the ring bearer. There's also a kindly old man dead under his apple tree - one of a series of unexplained deaths hanging over the Wiccan community....

"Spring Is in the Air": As the young people of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, plant a garden in memory of their friend, Katie Ann begins to worry that her older brother, Ephraim, is dating her best friend. What if she somehow loses them both? "Home by Summer": Clara Hertzler's surprised when Jerry Petersheim, her old friend, comes to the garden to drop off his younger sister-especially because Jerry has been gone for years and now seems to be living as an Englisher. As the friends get to know each other again, Clara pushes Jerry to examine why he abandoned his Amish beliefs.

For the first time collected all together, C. S. E. Cooney releases fiction including the novella "The Witch in the Almond Tree," her erotic fairy tale "Witch, Beast, Saint," and the haunting "Braiding the Ghosts."

Carol J. Perry presents Book 5 in the Haunted Haven Mystery series.

Sarah Mae wants to let you in on a little secret about being a good homemaker: It's not about having a clean house. She'd never claim to be a natural, organized cleaner herself - yet, like you, she wants a beautiful space to call home, a place where people feel loved and at peace. Where people can really settle in with good food, comfy pillows, and wide-open hearts. Journey with Sarah Mae on this easy, practical 31-day plan to get you moving and have your house looking and feeling fresh.

In this debut collection from C. S. E. Cooney, a swan princess hunted for her bones, a broken musician and his silver pipe, and a rat named Maurice bring justice to a town under fell enchantment. A gang of courageous kids confront both a plague-destroyed world and an afterlife infested with clowns but robbed of laughter. In an island city, the murder of a child unites two lovers, but vengeance will part them. Only human sacrifice will save a city trapped in ice and darkness.