Showing results by narrator "Becket Royce" in All Categories

Boston girl Molly Sutton moves to a small village in France to lick her wounds after a divorce. Castillac is charming, the croissants amazing, the wine delectable. Molly's new life is full of contentment, if a bit short on excitement. But then a girl goes missing... and Molly's world gets turned upside down. Truth be told, no one in the village feels safe. They struggle to believe such darkness could exist in a friendly village, where people spend most of their time thinking about nothing more frightening than what to have for lunch.

Ripley's a tomboy at heart who has never met a stranger. Her plans were to finish her veterinary studies and take her family to the country, where life wouldn't be such a struggle. She thought the worst she'd have to deal with at the University of Maryland were the unwelcome advances and attitudes of affluent students, and the occasional East Coast hurricane. She never expected the sun to fall down.

A modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone, set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death.

A beautiful corpse. Zero clues. Peace in Castillac shattered once more. When another native of the French village is found dead, Molly and the gendarmes are stumped. Complicating matters, Ben is hired to defend Molly’s prime suspect. Uh oh, mixing romance with detective work can be a dangerous business… or at least, it can lead to some unsteady conclusions. Will Molly figure out where she’s gone wrong in time to nail the killer? Or will her scheme to unmask the murderer at Lawrence’s disco birthday party fall apart?

A dead Baron. A missing emerald. And way too many suspects. Amateur sleuth Molly Sutton has her hands full this time! Shut out of Castillac’s latest murder case and running out of money, she’s praying for a brilliant scheme or at least some dumb luck to strike. Believing good food can be the solution to almost any problem, she comes up with a culinary idea designed to stave off financial disaster—and finds that even a perfect meal can end up a flop. As for the poor late Baron, once Molly manages to get inside the Château, she quickly pokes her nose where it doesn’t belong.

Molly Sutton’s B&B is jam-packed for the holiday, but whatever romance is in the air is quickly snuffed out when somebody turns up dead. In addition to worrying that one of her remaining guests is a killer, Molly’s not feeling tip-top and spends more time napping than sleuthing. That’s no way to catch a murderer!

Ripley and her friends have escaped the University's lockdown and started their journey home on foot. They've found an opportunity to get supplies they sorely need, but the risk is high. Marco insists that the world is already far more dangerous than it seems, while Ripley's not yet convinced. She's about to get a very bloody wake-up call.

The year is 1896, and college professor Concordia Wells has her hands full: teaching classes, acting as live-in chaperone to a cottage of lively female students, and directing the student play, Macbeth. But mystery and murder are not confined to the stage, especially when the death of Concordia's sister, Mary, appears to be foul play. To make matters worse, the women's college is plagued by malicious pranks, arson, money troubles, and the apparent suicide of a college official.

A widow in a mansion. Dark secrets. And poison, deadly poison. After amateur detective Molly Sutton stumbles on a dead body, she wastes no time before eavesdropping and elbowing her way into conversations all over the French village of Castillac. But when Chief Dufort is about to clap handcuffs on the wrong man, she’s got to do more than chat to save him. Will she have the stuff—and the skill—to pull it off?

The story opens on the first sledding day of the season, and all of the children in town are out in force. Our hero and heroine, 13-year-olds Jack Minot and Janey Pecq, go down a particularly treacherous run and are both seriously injured. Over the next year, Jack and Jill (as she is called) are nurtured back to health by their widowed mothers. As the seasons pass, we become intimately acquainted with not only Jack and Jill, but their group of friends.

When Angela Ellis returns to her childhood home on St. Nabor Island, South Carolina, her junior year of college interrupted indefinitely by her mother's death, she doesn't know how she'll ever be able to function in the world without her mother's love, support, and guidance. Soon after her mother's funeral, strange sounds begin to trouble her in the night, sounds she swears are her mother's angry voice. In an effort to find peace for herself and for her mother's restless spirit, Angela begins a ghost hunt that makes her friends fear for her sanity.

Renowned inventor Peter Sanbourne - working on Project Blue Arrow for the navy - heads the school's new engineering program, and literature professor Concordia Wells prepares to leave to marry David Bradley. The new routine soon goes awry when a bludgeoned body - clutching a torn scrap of the only blueprint for Blue Arrow - is discovered on the property Concordia and David were planning to call home.

It is 1898, and Professor Concordia Wells has come to expect the hectic routine of classes, clubs, teas, and the inevitable student pranks at the women's college. If only she could avoid the cantankerous dean, Randolph Maynard, who has learned about her past experiences as a "lady sleuth." To Concordia’s dismay, he scrutinizes her every move for evidence of unseemly conduct. Then a mysterious woman claims that Concordia's young friend, the eleven-year-old Eli, is her long-lost child. Soon after, they find the woman murdered and the boy gone.

It is the fall of 1896, and Miss Concordia Wells is hip-deep in the usual tumult of a lady professor's life: classes, clubs, student pranks, and the unending drama generated by the girls she lives with on campus. Events take a grave turn, however, when an ancient Egyptian amulet donated to the college mysteriously disappears, the donor is found murdered, and his daughter - Concordia's best friend - confesses to killing him.

A disturbed wife. A nanny. And a pack of cowardly, lying friends. Simon Valette, a cultured and successful Parisian, moves his family to Castillac looking for peace and quiet. Before they've had a chance to settle in, someone is found murdered in their library. Molly and Ben work double-time to disentangle all the lies--including those told by their own friends. Will they manage to trap the killer before another victim trusts the wrong person and winds up dead?

June, 2007. Castillac appears calm, even serene. Roses spill over stone walls, the Saturday market is overflowing. Villagers are lulled into feeling safe and secure. But a dark corruption is spreading underneath the surface. Unbeknownst to anyone but those involved, the village has been infiltrated from within and without. And Molly Sutton, the best detective in town, has her eye off the ball as she juggles her gîte business along with planning her best friend’s wedding. A shocking murder shatters the illusion of peace, and Molly and Ben jump into action.

What if Valerie is still alive? Virtually no one in the village of Castillac holds out any hope. It has been seven years, after all. Seven years since the popular, mischievous Valerie Boutillier disappeared without a trace. The exertions of the gendarmes, led by Chief Dufort, yielded almost no clues, and his failure to solve the case had been one of the main reasons he quit the force. But then a shred of evidence appears. It might be nothing. But Molly Sutton isn’t afraid to grab hold of it and take it as far as she can. Will a shred be enough?

Dana Clarke has always longed for the stability of home and family–her own childhood was not an easy one. Now she has married a man she adores and is about to give birth to their first child. But though her daughter is born beautiful and healthy, no one can help noticing the African American...

“Dear Ones.” So begins each of an extraordinary collection of letters written to friends and family by Catherine Royce as she contemplated how she would live out her life as it was slowly taken from her by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Writing with great humor, candor, and insight, Catherine stares, unblinking, into the glare of her own mortality.

When a killer crashes the honeymoon, three’s a crowd...It’s the summer of 1899, and Professor Concordia Wells - now Mrs. David Bradley - eagerly anticipates their honeymoon in the Hamptons. She has one errand along the way, to visit a former student seeking advice. About a love interest, no doubt. If only it were that benign. The young lady, now employed as a switchboard operator, inadvertently eavesdropped on a murder plot involving the high finance world of the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club. How to notify the police without losing her position?