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On Your Toes, Susie (Susie the Young Ballerina #4)
by Lee Wyndham"I've waited three whole years for these pink toe shoes!" No wonder Susie is excited. At last she is to dance on her toes! Surely this will be her happiest year at ballet school. Perhaps she will even win the dance scholarship! Then the new girl comes--unpleasant Mimi who is such a fine dancer. Because of Mimi and her pet monkey, everything seems to go wrong for Susie. Especially when Susie sprains her ankle--just before the big recital. There is a surprise ending to this delightful story. It proves that nothing can stop a girl who wants to dance as much as Susie does.
Firefighter Daddy
by Lee MckenzieWidowed firefighter Mitch Donovan isn't looking for a replacement wife. He's concentrating on working hard. Making a stable home for his little girl. Then along comes Rory Borland. His daughter's teacher is an unpredictable free spirit who challenges his ideas about fatherhood and makes him think about things he didn't even know he wanted. Like her. Rory loves kids--that's why the job teaching at an inner-city San Francisco school is her dream come true. But the last thing on her mind is a family of her own when she meets her young student's hunky dad. She's his daughter's teacher, not a stand-in mother. So what are they to do about the smoldering attraction between them?Will they both realize that what they want is within their grasp. . . before it bursts into flames?
A Conspiracy Of Strangers
by Lee Martin"You're a cop? But-but-but... you look like somebody's sweet little aunt!" Such comments are nothing new to officer Deb Ralston, heroine of Lee Martin's Too Sane a Murder. In her second difficult case, this five-foot-two mother of three proves once again that looks can be deceiving. Several young women have disappeared from the Fort Worth area, and when Deb finds one of them brutally murdered, she is plunged into an investigation almost against her will. Only one disturbing fact links the missing women-they were all pregnant at the time of their disappearance-and Deb's own history makes a case of this kind particularly unsettling.
Bird In A Cage
by Lee MartinFort Worth policewoman Deb Ralston is celebrating her 25th anniversary in one of the city's new restaurants when a young performer plunges to her death from a golden velvet bird cage. Deb begins to sort through a maze of family secrets and circus traditions to find a murderer before he strikes again.
Death Warmed Over
by Lee MartinWhen Deb Ralston discovers the dead body of a faithful Fort Worth postman alongside a smoldering 1957 Chevrolet, the last thing she thinks about is the value of the car. A forty-two-year- old expectant mother and veteran police detective, Deb Ralston has learned to focus on the human side of her cases-the clues of nuance and personality-especially when it comes to murder. When Deb starts asking questions this time, she quickly discovers that quite a few Fort Worth residents own '57 Chevrolets-and that you'd have to have a very good reason to burn one. The clues point up a twisting rural road to a farmhouse where a little girl is found dead, still in her parochial school uniform. Deb is suddenly investigating a kidnap-murder in which the parents were foolish enough to send the ransom money through the mail. Spurred into action by the facts of the case, Deb is held back by Federal postal regulations and long-standing Fort Worth rivalries and dismayed by the realization that some of the chief suspects are people she's known all her life.
Deficit Ending (Deb Ralston series, No.6)
by Lee MartinFort Worth Police Detective Deb Ralston is less than enthusiastic about returning to work at the end of her maternity leave, but she's suddenly catapulted back on the job a few days early. With baby Cameron on her hip, Deb is standing in line at her bank when two men with sawed-off shotguns stage a holdup. To get away, they take a hostage. Deb, who will never forget the look in that young teller's eyes, knows that statistics on the live return of hostages aren't very good. So she hands the baby over to her husband and sets out to gather evidence, bit by bit, piece by piece. But then she gets a phone call in the night. The teller's body has been found. Juggling her baby and her badge, Deb uses every ounce of her training, her experience, and her instinct to track down the most murderous bunch of bank robbers since Bonnie and Clyde. Once again sleuth Deb Ralston delivers.
Genealogy of Murder: A Deb Ralston Mystery
by Lee MartinWhen it comes to murder, mothering, and missing persons, Detective Deb Ralston is the woman for the job. In this, her twelfth case, Deb is called in to untangle a case of mistaken identity - or is it? First, an extra body is discovered among other cadavers that make up an ongoing forensics experiment. Then, Marvin Tutwiler, a local genealogist, turns up missing. Is the body his? If not, then whose is it? And where is the genealogist? Before Deb can figure out this mess, Matilda Greenwood, her close friend and researcher for the missing Marvin Tutwiler, disappears herself. Tracing Matilda and Marvin's work only confuses the issue: it seems that Marvin has racked up quite a number of unhappy ex-wives, ex-fiancees, and ex-girlfriends. Could one of them have been involved? It promises to take all of Deb's famous courage in the face of a crisis, her detecting instincts, and the help of her husband, Harry, to find her friend before it's too late. FROM THE CRITICS Kirkus Reviews Hours after finding a freshly embalmed John Doe smuggled in among the other participants in an experiment on cadaveric decomposition, Fort Worth Det. Deb Ralston (Bird in a Cage, 1995, etc.) hears her friend Matilda Greenwood complain that Marvin Tutwiler, the genealogist who hired her to help him write his latest book, has disappeared. But there's no evidence that John Doe ever lived in Tutwiler's apartment. Before Deb can establish just who John Doe is, though, Tutwiler's place is burgled; so is his fiancée's; so is Matilda's. Then the fiancée is killed and Matilda kidnapped, obviously by somebody who's really interested in all that genealogical research. So far, so good; but Martin's 12th novel supplies only the pettiest motive for the villain's enterprising crime spree. Below average for the series.
Hacker
by Lee MartinIn this eighth outing for Fort Worth policewoman Deb Ralston, 2 murder victims seem to be connected by a computer virus, a virus that also appears on Deb's home computer. Is the young man living with them a clueless kid or an ax murderer? Meanwhile, Deb's son's girlfriend lies in the hospital, the victim of a hit and run driver. Can Deb solve the crimes, help Lorie, and keep her baby from eating from their dog's food dish without losing her mind?
Hal's Own Murder Case
by Lee MartinWhen Fort Worth Police Detective Deb Ralston comes home to find a cryptic note from her sixteen-year-old son Hal announcing that he and his girlfriend, Lorie, have decided to spend their spring break in Los Alamos, she is furious. Hal has always been a bit scatterbrained, but this is the first time he's ever pulled a stunt like this-and Deb is determined it will be the last. Wanting to kill Hal, the pragmatic Deb realizes that she must first find him and fetch him back to Fort Worth, and so, disregarding the fact that she is eight and a half months pregnant, Deb is soon hot on his trail. But in the small town of Las Vegas, New Mexico, that trail comes to an abrupt and bloody end, as Deb discovers that Lorie is missing. The body of a murdered teenager has been found in Lorie's sleeping bag, and Hal is in jail on suspicion of murder. Desperate to find Lorie and determined to exonerate her son, Deb joins forces with Las Vegas Police Chief Alberto Salazar to discover the identity-and the killer-of the murdered girl, and to find out what happened to Lorie.
Inherited Murder
by Lee MartinDetective Deb Ralston has promised her husband, Harry, that she'll happily forget work for three weeks and concentrate on relaxing, sightseeing, picnicking-they'll have a real family vacation (although taking a teenager, his girlfriend, a toddler, and a pit bull by van from Fort Worth, Texas, to Salt Lake City, Utah, can't be all that relaxing). The Ralstons settle into Georgina Grafton's bed-and-breakfast in Salt Lake City. But while sightseeing in Gilgal Sculpture Garden on the trip's second day, they find the body of Georgina's sister, Alexandra, who has been killed by a fist-sized rock aimed at the back of her head. Georgina tells them that Alexandra, a victim of multiple personality disorder, was a handful, but she was certainly not dangerous enough to murder. Or was she? While Deb may be out of her jurisdiction, she's not out of her league: Because their grieving hostess trusts them, she and Harry volunteer to help Salt Lake City Police Detective Charlie Sosa with the case. Promising not to get too involved, because she wouldn't want to put her family in jeopardy and, anyway, she is supposed to be on vacation.
Murder At The Blue Owl
by Lee MartinDeb Ralston, the savvy, compassionate, "immensely appealing" (Kirkus) police detective who first came on the scene in Too Sane a Murder and A Conspiracy of Strangers, is back in full force-even fuller, as she's carrying the child she has finally been able to conceive. Suffering through the early stages of a first pregnancy at the age of 42, Deb hopes to spend a relaxing weekend at the birthday celebration of her old school friend's mother, former screen star Margali Bowman. Deb remembers Margali as eccentric and flamboyant, putting her staid daughter, Deb's friend Fara, into the shade; what she doesn't remember is the hysterical paranoia that Margali is now exhibiting. Maudlin melodrama turns to murder when the lights come up after a private viewing of Margali's screen gems to reveal her dead body. Abruptly placed on duty, Deb must sift through Margali's household of family and friends to come up with a murderer. Poisoned drinks, a mysterious stab wound, and a proliferation of wills
The Day That Dusty Died
by Lee Martin"Debra, I've got to ask you-Rhonda's been telling me the most awful things about your dad-they're not true, are they?" I sat up. In a loud, harsh voice I scarcely recognized as my own, I told my mother, "Let the past be the past." After she left, silently, I sat up for a long time thinking Fort Worth Police Detective Deb Ralston ought to know that she can't follow her own advice to leave well enough alone. For example, there's Dusty Miller: a popular, pretty, straight "A" student who leaps off her fourteenth-story balcony just before Deb barrels onto the scene. Too late. It's out of her hands, everyone tells her, but the question of why Dusty did it keeps nagging at Deb. That's not all, of course. Partially laid up after foot surgery, Deb grudgingly agrees to work in the Sex Crimes Unit, where she'll be the only woman and maybe the only one competent enough to get to the bottom of tricky cases like the Super Glue rapist and the overfriendly Mr. Washington. Deb finds the work disturbing, especially since she can't seem to stop thinking about her own dreadful childhood. Life at home isn't easy either, what with the reappearance of her desperately ill younger sister Rhonda after a ten-year absence, her mother's insistence that Deb needs her over bearing brand of help, and her husband's tendency to keep his thoughts to himself. And the dreams, of poison-spitting snakes and tidal waves, peppered with Dusty and Rhonda and the girl whose mother killed her, that appear whenever she closes her eyes
The Mensa Murders
by Lee MartinFor once a sudden death doesn't seem to be a police matter: A middle-aged Fort Worth city employee with a serious heart condition has apparently died in her own bed of natural causes. But something about the scoured bathroom floors, hospital-cornered bed, and lack of dirty laundry bothers police detective Deb Ralston: It's too neat. When two similar murders follow, Deb finds herself on the baffling trail of a murderer who leaves no trail-because he or she always cleans up afterward. Deb looks beyond the scrubbed surfaces and discovers some curious connections: All three victims belonged to the church of Sister Eagle Feather (not her real name), and all three were also members of Mensa, the society for people who score in the top two percent on intelligence tests. As a result, the three murdered women had many acquaintances in common, from Sister Eagle Feather to a couple of psychiatrists to fellow members of Mensa-not all of whom are as sane as they are smart. Perhaps, though, the killer was after one woman in particular and set up the other murders to make them look like serial killings. In any event, there must be someone out there who is obsessed with cleaning up after the crime-and who just may be planning to come clean Deb's house next.
The Thursday Club (Deb Ralston series, No.13)
by Lee MartinCurtis had to have his handgun close enough he could reach it. even now, even retired and paraplegic, even in his own bedroom. There were too many people who wanted to kill him. That wasn't paranoia; that was fact. It starts like any other Thursday- Deb Ralston and her friends Jeanne and Sue, who call themselves "The Thursday Club," go for a short jog in the quiet of the early morning. What they find upon their return, however, horrifies them: Jeanne's husband, Curtis Minot, has been shot to death in his bed. The gun lies below his own hand, but Deb is sure it is cold-blooded murder. In the hours and days that follow, two more people are somehow killed in Jeanne's home, and the chain of events baffles even Deb, a seasoned police officer. Details of Curtis's shady business dealings emerge, and the cast of characters widens to include Kenneth, the Minots' strangely nonchalant twelve-year-old son; Daniel Ellis, Curtis's mysterious business partner; Nudara Akhbar, whose imprisoned but seemingly innocent husband has a connection with Curtis; and a host of others.
Too Sane A Murder
by Lee MartinHe wanted his bag of marbles. Around him, in the den of his own home, lie the bodies of his parents, two guests, and a cat-all brutally murdered. And Olead Baker wants his bag of marbles. To most of the police force, Olead seems the obvious suspect. At twenty-six, he has spent much of his life institutional ized for schizophrenia. He has also, in the past, displayed a violent fear of cats Deb Ralston, though, is not like most of the other police detectives. She's been a cop for fifteen years, but, as she explains to Olead, she's "been a mother a lot longer than that." Deb becomes convinced- despite the evidence mounting against him-that Olead is innocent. In a race against time-and the death sentence-Deb must reconcile the evidence that proves that Olead did indeed fire a gun that fatal evening with her certainty that Olead could not have committed such an inhuman act. If Olead did not commit those murders, then somebody else did. But who? And why?
The New Year's Eve Murder (Christine Bennett Mystery #9)
by Lee HarrisTHE PARTY'S OVER On December 30th, Susan Stark was dropped off in front of her parents' house. She hasn't been heard from since. Not a good scenario, especially in New York. Former nun (now crime investigator) Christine Bennett fears the worst. Armed with only a few phone numbers and a photo of Susan, she steps into the missing girl's life- and meets a Susan that neither her parents nor her boyfriend knew existed ... with strange obsessions and a secret life that may have lured her to a deadly end.
Shooting Stars
by Buzz Bissinger Lebron JamesFrom the ultimate team- basketball superstar LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August--a poignant, thrilling tale of the power of teamwork to transform young lives, including James's own. The Shooting Stars were a bunch of kids--LeBron James and his best friends--from Akron, Ohio, who first met on a youth basketball team of the same name when they were ten and eleven years old. United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond that would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to a national championship in their senior year of high school. They were a motley group who faced challenges all too typical of inner-city America. LeBron grew up without a father and had moved with his mother more than a dozen times by the age of ten. Willie McGee, the quiet one, had left both his parents behind in Chicago to be raised by his older brother in Akron. Dru Joyce was outspoken, and his dad was ever present; he would end up coaching all five of the boys in high school. Sian Cotton, who also played football, was the happy-go-lucky enforcer, while Romeo Travis was unhappy, bitter, even surly, until he finally opened himself up to the bond his teammates offered him. In the summer after seventh grade, the Shooting Stars tasted glory when they qualified for a national championship tournament in Memphis. But they lost their focus and had to go home early. They promised one another they would stay together and do whatever it took to win a national title. They had no idea how hard it would be to pursue that promise. In the years that followed, they would endure jealousy, hostility, exploitation, resentment from the black community (because they went to a "white" high school), and the consequences of their own overconfidence. Not least, they would all have to wrestle with LeBron's outsize success, which brought too much attention and even a whiff of scandal their way. But together these five boys became men, and together they claimed the prize they had fought for all those years--a national championship.
Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson<P>I am clanless. I wasted the last weeks of August watching bad cartoons. I didn't go to the mall, the lake, or the pool, or answer the phone. I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with. <P>From her first moment at Merryweather High, Melinda Sordino knows she's an outcast. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops-a major infraction in high-school society-so her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't know glare at her. <P>She retreats into her head, where the lies and hypocrisies of high school stand in stark relief to her own silence, making her all the more mute. <P>But it's not so comfortable in her head, either-there's something banging around in there that she doesn't want to think about. Try as she might to it won't go away, until there is a particular confrontation. <P>Once that happens, she can't be silent-she must speak the truth. In this powerful novel, an utterly believable, bitterly ironic heroine speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while learning that, although it's hard to speak up for yourself, keeping your mouth shut is worse.
Liar, Liar
by Laurence YepSIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD MARSH WEISS IS famous for being the biggest practical joker in the county, a wise guy with more than a few enemies. So when Marsh is killed in a late-night car crash, his best friend, Sean Pierce, wonders: Was it an accident? True, Marsh's battered old heap had a history of brake trouble. Yet Sean can't help thinking that one of Marsh's vengeful victims might be responsible, and he's haunted by the memory of Russ, the man with the radar eyes. . . . But when Sean sets out to prove his suspicions, he finds his family, friends, and even the police refuse to believe him. Only Marsh's sister, Nora, seems to understand, but soon she too doubts him when Sean's credibility is destroyed by something in his past. Sean is determined to continue the investigation on his own, until, in a shattering climax, he finds he has no choice. Sean must prove that he's found Marsh's killer, or he will be the next victim!
Eleven
by Lauren MyracleMeet Winnie, age eleven. Winnie knows that "change" isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when it means her best friend, Amanda, might be dropping her for someone else. Throw in a grumpy teenage sister, a cat who gets trapped in the wall, and a crush who has pinkeye, and Winnie decides that the rest of the world can do what it wants, but she's going to remain exactly the same. But every month brings hilarious adventures and crazy ups and downs. A lot can change in a year, maybe even Winnie.
Kissing Kate
by Lauren MyracleWhen you've been best friends for four years, when you finish each other's sentences, laugh at the same jokes, and share a secret cure for hiccups, what could ever come between you? A kiss. Lissa and Kate had spent almost every day together since they were twelve. But then one night last summer, Kate leaned in to kiss Lissa, and Lissa kissed her back. Now Kate is pretending that her friend doesn't exist, and it is Lissa who needs a secret cure for her feelings and confusion. With the help of a book on lucid dreaming, a flaky new friend who claims to be an alien abductee, and her own keen sense of humor, Lissa discovers that there isn't a cure for life-and that sometimes falling in love with the wrong person is the only way to find your footing.
Rhymes with Witches
by Lauren MyracleSEE JANE. Jane is invisible. She can walk down her school hallways without being noticed by anyone-not the jocks, the stoners, the debaters, the drama geeks, or the cheerleaders, and especially not the Bitches, the school royalty. Made up of one girl from each class, the Bitches are so popular that no one can help but worship them. Ever. SEE JANE BEG. Miraculously, though, the Bitches do notice Jane, and they seem to be testing her for the freshman place in their group-she just has to want it more than she's ever wanted anything. And Jane does. SEE JANE BECOME. Even when the Bitches' beautiful veneer cracks and Jane begins to glimpse the strange, rotten source of their power, she goes along with it all. Jane doesn't want to be invisible ever again. And she won't be. Dark, dazzling, and dead on, Lauren Myracle's latest novel will leave readers shivering in recognition.
Thirteen
by Lauren MyracleWinnie Perry is a teenager--at last! And it's a really big deal. A ginormous deal, which, wouldn't you know it, brings ginormous problems along with it. Winnie's bff #1 is growing up too slowly, while her bff #2 is growing up too fast, leaving Winnie stuck in the middle. Winnie's boyfriend, Lars, is fabulous--except when he's not. And as for Winnie's family, well, BIG changes are in the air. Bestselling author Lauren Myracle concludes her enormously popular trilogy about a winning young heroine whose humor, daring, and compassion for others is infectious and unforgettable.
Twelve
by Lauren Myracle[From The Front Flap.] Eleven was big-a new best friend and a new worst friend- but twelve is going to be huge. Last year everyone else changed, but now it's Winnie's turn to "develop": junior high, pierced ears, sleepaway camp, and bra shopping with Mom- in public. Ack! It's a whole new year of big changes and small moments for Winnie, the beloved, quirky-cool heroine of Eleven. Funny, sweet, real, and sometimes really awkward, being twelve is fabulous!
Sugar and Spice (L.A. Candy #3)
by Lauren ConradSugar and Spice ... Not everyone's nice. Fresh from being betrayed by one of her closest friends, new reality-television celebrity Jane Roberts has learned a few lessons. Most important: know who to trust. And in Hollywood, that list is short. Although the press is intent on creating a tabloid war between her and ex-friend/current-costar Madison Parker, Jane just wants to take control of her life. She's started by swearing off guys and the drama that comes with them. But when her high school sweetheart Caleb and her unrequited L. A. crush Braden show up, both acting sweeter than ever, Jane has a hard time remembering her no-boys rule. . . . Her best friend, Scarlett, has only one guy on her mind: her new boyfriend, Liam. The girl who once thought love was a four-letter word is now head over heels. The problem is, being on a hit reality show means hanging out with other guys on-camera, and Liam isn't too happy with pretending to play a bit part in her love life. Just when everything feels out of control, Jane makes a shocking discovery--one that changes everyone's definition of "reality" forever. In her deliciously entertaining novel, television star Lauren Conrad pulls back the curtain on young Hollywood and shows that sometimes the real drama is behind the scenes.