Cautious observer Nicasia is at the Wilber Hotel for a wedding. She is careful when it comes to small spaces due to an attack as a teen, but intrigued by the antique phone booth, she steps inside to investigate. A just man with a star, Logan grew up at the end of the nineteenth century in a very religious home. But his reverend father led two lives and left Logan believing there was something wrong with him. Boom! Nicasia is bowled over and knocked to the floor by a force that comes out of nowhere. Where had the man been hiding? Logan is drawn to the 21st century maiden, but will he stay in the future? Each wants to forgive those who hurt them and put the past where it belongs, but neither knows how. Will they help one another?
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. An archeological object without conservationists, the phone booth exists as a memory to those over thirty-and as a strange, curious, and dysfunctional occupier of public space for those under thirty. This book approaches the phone booth as an entity that, in its myriad manifestations in different parts of the world, embodies a cluster of attitudes concerning privacy, freedom, power, sanctuary, and communication. Playing off of varied surfaces-literature, film, personal narrative, philosophy, and religion-Phone Booth looks at the place of an object on the cusp of obsolescence. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.
'Absolutely breathtaking' Christy Lefteri, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo. We all have something to tell those we have lost . . . On a windy hill in Japan, in a garden overlooking the sea stands a disused phone box. For years, people have travelled to visit the phone box, to pick up the receiver and speak into the wind: to pass their messages to loved ones no longer with us. When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she is plunged into despair and wonders how she will ever carry on. One day she hears of the phone box, and decides to make her own pilgrimage there, to speak once more to the people she loved the most. But when you have lost everything, the right words can be the hardest thing to find . . . Then she meets Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss. What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking... The Phone Box at the Edge of the World is an unforgettable story of the depths of grief, the lightness of love and the human longing to keep the people who are no longer with us close to our hearts. Everyone is talking about The Phone Box at the Edge of the World 'A moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief and the small miraculous moments that persuade people to start looking forward again' Sunday Times 'Strangely beautiful, uplifting and memorable, it's a book to savour' Choice, Book of the Month 'A poignant, atmospheric novel dealing with love, coming to terms with loss and the restoration of one's self' Daily Mail 'A story about the dogged survival of hope when all else is lost . . . A striking haiku of the human heart' The Times 'Beautiful. A message of hope for anyone who is lost, frightened or grieving' Clare Mackintosh, Sunday Times bestselling author of After the End 'Incredibly moving. It will break your heart and soothe your soul' Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars 'Mesmerising . . . beautiful . . . a joy to read' Joanna Glen, Costa shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope 'Spare and poetic, this beautiful book is both a small, quiet love story and a vast expansive meditation on grieving and loss' Heat 'A perfect poignant read' Woman & Home
Welcome to Banford, where townsfolk are family, tea is hot, and murder is inevitable. Fishers of Menace Cassie Bridgestone’s life is simple. Along with running her country décor shop, she loves to cuddle her cat, sip tea, attend church, and watch birds. But then, things go awry. First, the handsome but mysterious Daniel opens a bookstore in her building and challenges her to face long-buried feelings about her previous relationship Then, a friendly fishing tournament turns deadly and her friend is accused of murder, throwing Cassie’s world into a tailspin she might never recover from. Unless she finds the real killer. But the folks in Banford have secrets. Secrets they’ll do anything to protect, including bringing Cassie’s life to a quick and surreptitious end. Ablazing Grace Welcome to autumn in Banford, where foliage is vibrant, apple pie is sweet, and fire is fatal... Cassie Bridgestone enjoys her simple life in Banford, grateful for fall, her cat, and her growing friendship with Daniel, the handsome bookstore owner. But once again, her life is turned upside down when a deliberate explosion kills a woman, and injures Cassie – and the wrong person is blamed. Now she must juggle an attractive fireman’s affections along with Daniel’s, but not let the intense love triangle distract her from finding the truth. Before the real murderer silences her for good. Peril of the Bells Welcome to Christmas in Banford, where sleigh bells are jingling, cookies are scrumptious, and decorations are deadly… Cassie Bridgestone adores Christmastime in Banford when crowds descend on the cozy village to visit its quaint shops, see the Christmas train, and enjoy the week-long festival. And this year will be extra special now that she’s dating the gorgeous firefighter, Spencer. But when she decides to help out the local food bank, she runs into her old flame, Daniel, and finds her heart torn in two all over again. Then, one of the food bank volunteers is murdered. When Cassie is called upon to assist in the investigation, she has a hard time believing any of the kind-hearted workers could be involved. Yet as she delves further into the mystery, Cassie finds herself embroiled in a far more sinister plot, with a killer willing to silence anyone to keep things secret.
This book is about the times of growing up in the fifties as a baby boomer, living on a farm, and then moving to town, becoming a teenager, witnessing the growing pains of post-WWII America, and the turbulence of the Vietnam War and its consequences on American society. This book has romance and adventure, from cruising around town to actual accounts of the things that happened during that era that have diminished over time-sock hops, car hops, the county fair, the beginning of Rock N Roll from Elvis to the British Invasion, to men landing on the moon, to Americas march to the new drumbeat for freedom and equality for all, and the street drag racing scene of teenage America. This book puts the spotlight on the late sixties, which were the times that I call magical.
In forty-five years as one of Chicago's liveliest journalists for Time, Life, and the Chicago Tribune, Jon Anderson has established a reputation for picking up on what someone once called "the beauty of the specific fact." Part "Talk of the Town," part On the Road with Charles Kuralt, Anderson's twice-a-week "City Watch" columns in the Chicago Tribune seek out interesting and unexpected people and places from the everyday life of what the author calls the "most typical American big city." In the process he discovers the joys and triumphs of ordinary people. Anderson writes with wit and insight about those who find themselves inspired or obsessed with alternative ways of viewing life or getting through the day. Like the man who started with one light pole, then painted all the poles in his southside neighborhood. Or the founder of Cats-Are-Purrsons-Too, a nun who lives with sixty-seven cats. Or the philosopher who, with no financial success, still publishes a newsletter called "The Meaning of Life." After years of hunting down moments of everyday life that have drama and meaning, Anderson offers a book that has curious power, because all of its stories are true. Drawn from the best of Anderson's columns, City Watch introduces readers to an eclectic mix of social clubs, subcultures, and minor celebrities. From Foraging Friends, a group of penniless ecologists who forage for wild foods in a county forest preserve, to the annual Dumpster Diver fashion show, from the Oakton Elementary School chess team to a group that calls itself Some Chicago Anarchists, readers will discover the characters and events that define Chicago's local color.
"Great suspense and action, and wonderful world-building. Such a thrilling read." Books 4-6 in the addictive Hoskins & Fletcher crime series are now available as a 3-Book Collection, starting with the gripping cold case thriller, Missing Piece: Sometimes to defeat the monster… You have to become the monster In the summer of 1985 an eight-year-old boy vanishes near his home and is never seen again. Five years later, in the fall of 1990, a nine-year-old missing girl reappears after six months. She is enlightened, she says, and has been with Jehovah in the Garden of Eden. She changes her name to Eve. And thirty years later, she still stands by her story. The two cases couldn’t be more different – the children were from different districts, different schools, different ages and social status, one child returned, the other never did. Only their shared religion offers the faintest of connections. But that doesn’t stop private investigator Cass Fletcher. She knows that for her and her partner to find out what happened to the missing boy before his mother loses her fight with a terminal illness, they’re going to have to look in the places no one else has. They’re going to have to take a leap of faith. Though while her partner’s concerns about the thirty-five-year-old case grow with every passing minute, and the boy’s mother deteriorates, Fletcher refuses to back down. She knows what it's like to live with injustice, she’s been doing just that for the last nineteen years. And with the reappearance in her life of an old adversary, she’s more determined than ever to settle the scores of past hurts, no matter what it takes. But at what cost? Because facing your enemies is deadly. More so when the greatest enemy of all is yourself. "If you are looking for a series to keep you totally absorbed and wanting more, this is it."
Sometimes to defeat the monster, you have to become the monster… In the summer of 1985 an eight-year-old boy vanishes near his home. Five years later and eighty miles away, a nine-year-old girl reappears after going missing for six months. She doesn’t speak at first. When she does no one believes where she says she’s been, what she’s done, who she’s seen. But three decades later and the now thirty-nine-year-old ordained pastor may be private investigator Cass Fletcher’s only hope; a last chance to find the missing boy before his mother loses her battle with a terminal illness. The two cases couldn’t be more different – the children were from different districts, different schools, different ages and social status, one child returned, the other didn’t. Only their faith offers the faintest of connections. But it’s enough for Fletcher. She knows that for her and her partner to do in months what law enforcement haven’t been able to do in thirty-five years they’re going to have to look in the places no one else has. Except while time might be their greatest enemy, it isn’t their only one. Because the closer Fletcher gets to the ghosts of the past, the clearer the consequences of disturbing them become. Devastating for some. For others deadly. Missing Piece sees the return of the PIs in the much-anticipated fourth book in the Hoskins & Fletcher crime series "Grabbed me from the first chapter and kept me reading late into the night." "Will remain with you even after you've read the last page." "Best one yet." "Another great read... They never disappoint." "A superb series that only gets better with each book."
