2 Candles for Maureen


Book Description

Margaret had been diagnosed with a rare, aggressive type of breast cancer and desperately wanted to find someone else who had the same disease or who had survived it, as the prognosis was not good. This is the poignant story of two people who met through a cancer website and who supported each other by e-mail and telephone through very trying times and who met in person only once. It is a highly personal story that offers insight into how you can build a different kind of friendship and find happiness in each other, even in the face of adversity. Margaret Darling, a retired medical secretary, lives in Fife, Scotland, with her husband. Since recovering from cancer, she felt it was quite unusual to find an Internet friend and make such a connection as she did. She felt she had a story to tell, and this is the result.










The Book of Love


Book Description

Once there was a gospel written in Christ's own hand: a treasure of almost unimaginable magnitude, referred to by the Cathars of medieval France as The Book of Love... Fresh from her successful search for the long-hidden scrolls written by Mary Magdelene, journalist Maureen Pascal now finds herself on the trail of the legendary lost gospel known as the Book of Love. But just as there were those who would stop at nothing to seize and suppress the Book of Love seven centuries ago, so there are those today who are equally determined that its radical message should never be revealed. In a race across Italy and France, new dangers await Maureen and her lover Sinclair as they begin to uncover secrets and shine new light on the hidden corners of Christianity. Combining expert research with dazzling plot twists, The Book of Love is sure to thrill readers as they follow Maureen's search for clues through some of the world's greatest art, architecture and history, until a potentially fatal encounter reveals the Book of Love to her -- and to us.




In Our Lifetime...


Book Description

The Nun The Bishop The Suburban Housewife and Mother.. What do they have in common? Sister Maureen Connally has little sympathy for the agenda of the radical feminist nuns until the U.S. Bishops edit her sensitive report on "Women in the Catholic Church" into superficial nothingness and publish it under the name of a well known male cleric. John O'Malley, Bishop of San Francisco, has never been a risk taker until his innocent attendance at a feminist Mass for a dying nun brings angry Vatican accusations that he is sanctioning priesthood for women. Linda Bonn, the loving mother of three teenagers, is a dutiful wife and the pillar of her local parish church until her husband, jealous of her sudden success as a suburban Real Estate Agent, tricks her into an unwanted pregnancy. Equally oppressed by inflexible "superiors" and forced to confront personal fears and inadequacies they have never before acknowledged, these three devote Catholics discover both problem and solution in their religion. Upset by the out of touch official pronouncements of the Vatican, as well as the dishonest machinations for the hierarchy, yet unable and unwilling to break the spiritual ties of their childhood, they come to believe that THEY are the Catholic Church. At last, with their help, the time bomb that is within the Catholic Church in American today explodes IN THEIR LIFETIME.




Sweet Miss Seeton


Book Description

Sweet-natured Emily Seeton, retired art teacher and nowadays invaluable artist-aide to Scotland Yard, always tries to keep an open mind. But really, her feelings about the flamboyant Antony Scarlett, ‘the modern Rubens’ whose chosen medium is chocolate, and who is bullying her to sell her beloved cottage so he can fill it with the confection and knock it down, are anything but warm. Yet Antony persists, and while infesting Plummergen he encounters lovely redheaded Tina Holloway, his rejected muse, here recovering from his ungallant treatment. Tina is proving a talented artist herself. Her drawings of the village, combined with Miss Seeton’s mysterious sketches, help local police Superintendent Brinton to uncover how elderly residents fall victim to a gang of heartless criminals . . . Serene amidst every kind of skullduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella! What people are saying about Miss Seeton: “Miss Seeton is a hoot! I was torn between laughter and eye rolling with each page turn. The characters are loveable and thoroughly British. This is a perfect specimen of classic British mystery.“ “What a joy Miss Seeton is. Why did I wait so long to read them? Splashy characters, lovely setting, and just plain funny.” “I've become a Miss Ess addict. Great characters that get better with each book. A must for anyone who loves a good British cozy with a twist, and surprising revelations of what a good brollie can do in a pinch.” “What a great series. This is one of the best in English light reading mysteries.” “Miss Seeton is a delightful sendup of the amateur sleuth. If your doctor has prescribed laughter as the best medicine, run and buy the entire series as fast as you can.” Editorial reviews: “A most beguiling protagonist!” New York Times “Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.” San Francisco Chronicle “This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.” The Sun “Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.” Publishers Weekly “Fun to be had with a full cast of endearingly zany villagers . . . and the ever gently intuitive Miss Seeton.” Kirkus Reviews “Miss Seeton is the most delightfully satisfactory character since Miss Marple.” Ogden Nash “I think, on the whole, Miss Seeton is the most loveable and entertaining of any of today’s fiction detectives. May she live forever.” London Mystery Selection




The Hand on the Wall


Book Description

New York Times and USA Today bestseller! New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson delivers the witty and pulse-pounding conclusion to the Truly Devious series as Stevie Bell solves the mystery that has haunted Ellingham Academy for over 75 years. Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie’s greatest triumph . . . She knows who Truly Devious is. She’s solved it. The greatest case of the century. At least, she thinks she has. With this latest tragedy, it’s hard to concentrate on the past. Not only has someone died in town, but David disappeared of his own free will and is up to something. Stevie is sure that somehow—somehow—all these things connect. The three deaths in the present. The deaths in the past. The missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles there must be answers. Then another accident occurs as a massive storm heads toward Vermont. This is too much for the parents and administrators. Ellingham Academy is evacuated. Obviously, it’s time for Stevie to do something stupid. It’s time to stay on the mountain and face the storm—and a murderer. In the tantalizing finale to the Truly Devious trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson expertly tangles her dual narrative threads and ignites an explosive end for all who’ve walked through Ellingham Academy. Praise for the Truly Devious series: “Readers, hang tight: there’s one more round to come, and if the signs are right, it’ll be to die for.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The Agatha Christie-like ecosystem pairs with lacerating contemporary wit, and alternating past and present scenes makes for a multilayered, modern detective story.” —New York Times Book Review “Remember the first time reading Harry Potter and knowing it was special? There’s that same sense of magic in the introduction of teen Sherlock-in-training Stevie Bell.” —USA Today (four stars) “Be still, my Agatha-Christie-loving beating heart.” —Bustle




Bread and Salt


Book Description

Compelling and vivid, the stories in Bread and Salt use the metaphor of salvage to consider the reclamation of the natural environment, human relationships, and material objects. The characters in these stories live and travel in Tunisia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, France, and the United States and consider their individual agency in both local and global contexts. The characters' conflicts reveal how family and friendships are enriched by differences.




Collected Stories


Book Description

‘Characters all but leap off the page with believability in these marvellous stories of life (and death) in Belfast’ Sunday Times Melding his native Irish sensibilities to those of his adopted west-coast Scotland, these tales attend to life’s big events: love and loss, separation and violence, death and betrayal. But the stories teem with smaller significant moments too – private epiphanies, chilling exchanges, intimate encounters. Each of these extraordinary stories – with their wry, self-deprecating humour, their elegance and subtle wisdom – gets to the very heart of life.




Constant Conundrums


Book Description

Leaving her dark past behind, Raina moves to New York, hoping for a better future and finds herself working with one of the biggest companies in Manhattan, with her friends who soon become her family, in a very short period of time. Her nearly perfect life is interrupted by someone who tries to uncover the secret she strived so hard to conceal. Little does she know, this interruption will change, not just her world, but also everyone else’s around her, when someone is pushed off the edge. Will vengeance take over and destroy everyone in sight or will love conquer all?