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

Maureen's career as a sportswear buyer hits a snag just before Halloween, when the department store declares bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Finn's lost his way as a guide dog after flunking his test for being too friendly and easily distracted. Sadly, only one of them can earn unemployment, so Maureen's facing a winter of discontent in Boston - when she realizes she can't afford her apartment. Salvation comes when she receives a mysterious inheritance: an inn in Haven, Florida.

Most folks associate the city of Salem, Massachusetts, with witches, but for Lee Barrett it's home. This October she's returned to her hometown - where her beloved Aunt Ibby still lives - to interview for a job as a reporter at WICH-TV. But the only opening is for a call-in psychic to host the late-night horror movies. It seems the previous host, Ariel Constellation, never saw her own murder coming.

Sawyer Davis's new life in picturesque Sunset Cove is crumbling around her as fast as the old Victorian house she lives in. She's a chef whose matchmaking mother has left her a puppy, a bevy of single men to choose from, and a bookshop dedicated to whodunnits. Complete with a book club of amateur sleuths who live for death. When one of the members dies just after eating Sawyer's amazing truffle mac and cheese, Sawyer is immersed in an even bigger soup pot of trouble.

Two things got Rarity Jones through her breast cancer treatments: friends and books. Now cancer-free, Rarity is devoting her life to helping others find their way through the maze to healing. She's opened a bookstore focusing on the power of healing—Eastern medicine, Western medicine, the healing power of food, the power of meditation, and the importance of developing a support community. To that end, she's also started the Tuesday Night Survivors book club. But their therapeutic unity is disrupted when one of their members suddenly goes missing.

Shinn begins with the following statement: "Most people consider life a battle. It's not a battle.... It's a game. And, like most games, it can't be played successfully without understanding the rules." In a clear and accessible manner, Shinn then sets forth and explores the six key rules for the game of life, providing to listeners the user's manual for making informed decisions and fully embracing a life of success and happiness.

After losing her job as a TV psychic, Lee Barrett volunteers at the Tabitha Trumbull Academy of the Arts. When the school handyman turns up dead, Lee's clairvoyance begins bubbling. The Tabby is housed in long-vacant Trumbull's Department Store. As Lee and her students work on a documentary charting the store's history, they unravel a century of family secrets, deathbed whispers, and a mysterious labyrinth of tunnels hidden right below the streets of Salem. Even the witches in town are spooked.

To be born into a family of royal assassins pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be rather unusual. Especially if, like Miscellaneous 'Lanie' Stones, you also have a vicious allergy to all forms of violence and bloodshed, and an uncanny affinity for bringing the dead back to life. To make matters worse, family debt looms—a debt that will have to be paid sooner rather than later if Lanie and her sister are to retain ownership of the ancestral seat, Stones Manor.

Christmas lights on palm trees and Santa hats on plastic pink flamingoes are far from the snowy landscape Maureen and her beloved golden retriever, Finn, are used to. But Maureen is determined to make this a holiday to remember—which means finding a way to promote Haven House on a shoestring. Fortunately, Haven's vintage movie theater, the Paramount, has come up with a great "Twelve Days of Christmas" idea. They'll feature an impressive list of the best classic Christmas movies ever made—shown by one-time movie actor-turned-projectionist Decklin Monroe.

If Lexi Balefire's matchmaking skills seem like magic, it's for a good reason - being witchy runs in her family. Too bad the family magic has passed her by. Without access to enough power, Lexi might never control the Balefire legacy. Even worse, power might turn her into a wicked witch like her mother and grandmother before her. Lexi can only hope her dedication to bringing soul mates together is enough to counteract her family's sordid past.

Tax cheats, beware: The Treasury Department's Criminal Investigations Division has a new special agent on its payroll. A recovering tomboy with a head for numbers, Tara's fast becoming the Annie Oakley of the IRS-kicking ass, taking social security numbers, and keeping the world safe for honest taxpayers. Or else. Tara's latest mission finds her in hot pursuit of ice-cream vendor Joseph "Joe Cool" Cullen. Along with frozen treats he's selling narcotics-and failing to report his ill-gotten gains on his tax returns. Over Tara's dead body.

As local merchants unite to attract tourists for a much anticipated weekend quilting event, business is sure to spill over into eateries like Daisy's Tea Garden. Gorgeous craftwork is hanging everywhere - but among the quilts, potholders, and placemats, one gallery owner is wrapped up in some dangerous affairs....Reese Masemer had been dating one of Daisy's employees, Tessa, an artist, though their last interaction was as strained as a cup of loose leaf tea. Now Reese has been found dead near a covered bridge where Tessa's been practicing her sketches.

The challenges we face can be difficult even to think about. Climate change, the depletion of oil, economic upheaval, and mass extinction together create a planetary emergency of overwhelming proportions. Active Hope shows us how to strengthen our capacity to face this crisis so that we can respond with unexpected resilience and creative power

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.

Sawyer Davis, a chef who inherited her mother's mystery bookshop, is hosting her first book signing for the world's biggest diva. Between juggling the author's lofty demands, learning how to be a surrogate mother to a 15-year-old, and dealing with the sheriff who once broke her heart, Sawyer's menu is full. She longs for the good old days when the worst thing that happened was a flopped souffle. But when the author's husband ends up dead in Sawyer's best friend Renee's ice cream shop, things really heat up. Sawyer believes her friend is being framed.

In the ruins of his world, Harrison Cody follows a mysterious voice on the radio as he and his pixie sidekick travel on foot across a terrifyingly random landscape. They discover Dorothy O'Neill, who has had to survive among monsters when her greatest worry used to be how to navigate high school. Together they search for what remains of Chicago, and the hope that civilization can be rebuilt.

The latest novel in this supernatural cozy series from the author of the Witch City Mysteries features a New Englander transplanted to a Florida town along the Gulf of Mexico when she inherits a charming, century-old—and very haunted—inn from a mysterious benefactor.

Lia Shetler is resigned to being a spinster. She's too tall and sturdy to ever be marriageable - so says her overbearing dad. Instead, she's helping her pretty, spoiled sister, Rachel, secure the perfect husband - the Helmuths' grandson, Moses Zimmerman. But the more Lia sees of his gently teasing ways and quiet understanding, the more she wishes that Moses could be hers alone.

Matchmaker Lexi Balefire just found out she's no ordinary witch - she's also a Daughter of Cupid - which explains how she's always been able to recognize a true love match when she sees one. For the first time ever, Lexi's own love life is heating up, and that's not all she's got on her plate. Presumed dead for the past 25 years, Lexi's mother, Sylvana, has suddenly walked back into her life, and is about to reveal just how many skeletons are hidden in the Balefire closet. Can Lexi learn to trust her mother, or is Sylvana just after her daughter's power?

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.

For residents of Salem, Massachusetts, the day after Halloween brings empty candy wrappers, sagging pumpkins, and a community-wide identity crisis. That is, until Lee Barrett's TV production class suggests extending the spooky season with the traditional Mexican celebration Dia de Los Muertos. But when the students discover not all of Salem's dead are resting in peace, the post-October blues don't seem so bad after all....