Archive for January, 2011

		Mixed Blessings: Excerpt Chapter One The sky was a brilliant blue, and the day was hot and still as Diana Goode stepped out of the limousine with her father. The angles of her face were softer than usual beneath a haze of creamy ivory veil, and the heavy satin dress whooshed softly as the driver helped her out […] Read more
		Vanished: Excerpt Chapter One Charles Delauney limped only slightly as he walked slowly up the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, as a bitter wind reached its icy fingers deep into his collar. It was two weeks before Christmas, and he had forgotten how cold it was in New York in December. It was years since he’d been […] Read more
		Accident: Excerpt Chapter One It was one of those perfect, deliciously warm Saturday afternoons in April, when the air on your cheek feels like silk, and you want to stay outdoors forever. It had been a long, sunny day, and driving across the Golden Gate Bridge at five o’clock, into Marin, it took Page’s breath away as […] Read more
		Wings: Excerpt Chapter One The road to O’Malley’s Airport was a long, dusty thin trail that seemed to drift first left, then right, and loop lazily around the cornfields. The airport was a small dry patch of land near Good Hope in McDonough County, a hundred and ninety miles southwest of Chicago. When Pat O’Malley first saw […] Read more
		The Gift: Excerpt Chapter One Annie Whittaker loved everything about Christmas. She loved the weather, and the trees, brightly lit on everyone’s front lawn, and the Santas outlined in lights on the roofs of people’s houses. She loved the carols, and waiting for Santa Claus to come, going skating and drinking hot chocolate afterwards, and stringing popcorn with […] Read more
		Lightning: Excerpt Chapter One The voices droned around the conference room as Alexandra Parker stretched long legs beneath the huge mahogany table. She jotted a note on a yellow legal pad, and glanced across the table briefly at one of her partners. Matthew Billings was older than Alex by a dozen years, he was in his mid-fifties, […] Read more
		Five Days in Paris: Excerpt Chapter One The weather in Paris was unusually warm as Peter Haskell’s plane landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The plane taxied neatly to the gate, and a few minutes later, briefcase in hand, Peter was striding through the airport. He was almost smiling as he got on the customs line, despite the heat of […] Read more
		Malice: Excerpt Chapter One The sounds of the organ music drifted up to the Wedgwood blue sky. Birds sang in the trees, and in the distance, a child called out to a friend on a lazy summer morning. The voices inside the church rose in powerful unison, as they sang the familiar hymns that Grace had sung […] Read more
		Silent Honor: Excerpt Chapter One Masao Takashimaya’s family had searched for five years for a suitable bride for him, ever since his twenty-first birthday. But in spite of all their efforts to find a young woman who suited him, he rejected each of the girls as soon as he met them. He wanted a very special girl, a […] Read more
		The Ranch: Excerpt Chapter One In any other supermarket, the woman walking down the aisle, pushing a cart between canned goods and gourmet spices, would have looked strangely out of place. She had impeccably groomed shoulder-length brown hair, beautiful skin, huge brown eyes, a trim figure, perfectly done nails, and she was wearing a navy linen suit that […] Read more