Returning to her scavenger-devastated Wyoming ranch after the Civil War, Elyssa Sutton vows that she will never again abandon her home and hires mysterious stranger Hunter Maxwell to be her companion before learning about his private agenda for revenge. Book available.

Meghann Dontess is a woman haunted by heartbreak. Twenty-seven years ago she was forced to make a terrible choice, one that cost her everything, including the love of her sister, Claire. Now, Meghann is a hotshot divorce attorney who doesn’t believe in intimacy—until she meets the one man who can change her mind.Claire Cavenaugh has fallen in love for the first time in her life. As her wedding day approaches, she prepares to face her harsh, judgmental older sister. It is the first time they have been together in more than two decades. Over the course of a hot Pacific Northwest summer, these two women who believe they have nothing in common will try to become what they never were: a family.Tender, funny, bittersweet, and wonderfully moving, Between Sisters celebrates the joys and heartaches that can be shared only by sisters, the mistakes made in the name of love, and the healing power of new beginnings—all beautifully told by acclaimed author Kristin Hannah.

Thursday, 8:00 a.m. Mocha moments, breakfast club!Every week, these words appear in the calendars of four women. Every week, they meet for breakfast―and to talk, to share the truths they’ve discovered about their lives. To tell their stories. To offer each other encouragement and unfailing support.Clare has just been through a devastating and unexpected divorce. She’s driven by anger and revenge―until she learns something about her ex-husband that forces her to question her own actions. Forces her to look deep inside for the forgiveness she’s rejected…and the person she used to be.Elizabeth is a widow, in her late fifties, a successful professional. A woman who’s determined not to waste another second of her life. And if that life should include romantic possibilities―well, why not?Karen is in her twenties, and she believes these should be the years for taking risks, reaching for your dreams. Her dream is to be an actor. Except that her parents think she should be more like her sister, the very conventional Victoria!Julia is turning forty this year. Her husband’s career is established, her kids are finally in their teens and she’s just started her own business. Everything’s going according to schedule―until she discovers she’s pregnant. That’s not part of the plan.

It was the year that changed everything.When Susannah Nelson turned eighteen, she said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake―and never saw him again. She never saw her brother again, either. Doug died in a car accident that same year.Now, at fifty, she finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Long married, a mother and a teacher, she should be happy. But she feels there's something missing in her life, although she doesn't know exactly what. Not only that, she's balancing the demands of an aging mother and a temperamental twenty-year-old daughter. Her mother, Vivan, a recent widow, is having difficulty coping and living alone, so Susannah goes home to Colville, Washington. In returning to her parents' house, her girlhood friends and the garden she's always loved, she also returns to the past―and the choices she made back then. What she discovers is that things are not as they once seemed. Some paths are dead ends. But some gardens remain beautiful….

Robbie Jordan may have had reservations about the murder victim, but she still needs to turn up the heat on a killer if she wants to keep her new restaurant open for business. In the charming small town of South Lick, Indiana, Robbie has transformed a rundown country store into the runaway hit Pans 'N Pancakes. But the most popular destination for miles around can also invite trouble. Erica Shermer may be the widow of handsome local lawyer Jim Shermer's brother, but she doesn't appear to be in mourning. At a homecoming party held in Robbie's store, Erica is alternately obnoxious and flirtatious-even batting her eyelashes at Jim. When Erica turns up dead in the store the next morning, apparently clobbered with cookware, the police suspect Robbie's friend Phil, who closed up after the party. To clear Phil and calm her customers, Robbie needs to step out from behind the counter and find the real killer in short order . . .

“America’s best true-crime writer” (Kirkus Reviews), Ann Rule presents her 8th collection of crime stories drawn from her private files—and featuring the riveting case of a fraudulent doctor whose lifelong deceptions had deadly consequences.Dr. Anthony Pignataro was a cosmetic surgeon and a famed medical researcher whose flashy red Lamborghini and flamboyant lifestyle in western New York State suggested a highly successful career. But appearances, as this shocking insider account of Pignataro’s tailspin from physician to prisoner proves, can be deceiving—and, for the doctor’s wife, very nearly deadly. No one was safe if they got in his way. With scalpel, drugs, and arsenic, he betrayed every oath a physician makes—until his own schemes backfired. Now, the motivations of the classic sociopath are plumbed with chilling accuracy by Ann Rule. Along with other shocking true cases, this worldwide headline-making case will have you listening in disbelief that a trusted medical professional could sink to the depths of greed, manipulation, and self-aggrandizement where even slow, deliberate murder is not seen for what it truly is: pure evil.

Real-life murder. Real-life mystery.In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 bestselling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase? Even the most devoted true-crime listener won't predict the outcome of these truly baffling cases until the conclusions revealed in Ann Rule's marvelously insightful narrative: An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars…. A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument—but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a collection you won't be able to stop listening to.

Why would a man kill his lover's husband and then his wife, the woman who fought successfully to have him paroled from prison? Why would he risk arrest by kidnapping the child of another woman who adored him?Because they were…Worth More DeadA cold case reopened—and solved—with dogged police work and new evidence. One of the shocking true crimes of passion and greed from Ann Rule's Crime Files.Former Marine sergeant and judo instructor Roland Pitre Jr. claimed it was all an elaborate plan to win back his wife's love - it wasn't supposed to end with her dead body in the trunk of a car. Nearly twenty years later, he acknowledged that he had hired someone to kill his estranged wife in 1988, though his alleged excuse for why a monstrous "mistake" happened is as shocking and convoluted as the crime itself. Eventually, he was charged with first-degree murder in the long-unsolved death of Cheryl Pitre, after a mysterious witness betrayed Pitre to save his own skin. Tracing back the dark and bloody path of Pitre's life, two generations of detectives found a chain of brutal and terrifying crimes by a man who manipulated the courts and prisons to walk free.

A ship's pilot legendary for guiding mammoth freighters through the narrows of Puget Sound, Rolf Neslund was a proud Norwegian, a ladies' man, and a beloved resident of Washington State's idyllic Lopez Island. Virtually indestructible even into his golden years, he made electrifying headlines more than once: after a ship he was helming crashed into the soaring West Seattle Bridge, causing millions in damages; and following his inexplicable disappearance at age 80. Was he a suicide, a man broken by one costly misstep? Had he run off with a lifelong love? Or did a trail of gruesome evidence lead to the home Rolf shared with his wife, Ruth? On an island where everyone thought they knew their neighbors, the veneer of the Neslunds' marriage masked a convoluted case that took many years to solve. And, indeed, some still believe that the old sea captain will come home one day."The Sea Captain" is a classic tale as blood chilling as murder itself. Along with six other equally riveting, detailed accounts of destruction and murder committed without conscience or regret, Ann Rule takes listeners into frightening places they never could have imagined in No Regrets.

I'll be watching you.Walking home on a dark night, you hear footsteps coming up behind you. As they get closer, your heart pounds harder. Who is closing in with dangerous intent—a total stranger? Or someone you know and trust? The answer is as simple as turning around, but don’t look behind you…run.Ann Rule, who shared her own nerve-jangling account of unknowingly befriending sadistic sociopath Ted Bundy in The Stranger Beside Me, chronicles other fateful encounters with the hidden predators among us in this riveting collection, fifteenth in the bestselling series drawn from her personal files. First in line is a stunning case that spanned thirty years and took a determined detective to four states—ending, finally, in Alaska—where he unraveled not one but two murders. A second case appears to begin and end with the hunt for the Green River Killer, focusing on a Washington State man who was once cleared as a suspect in that deadly chain of homicides. But the millionaire property owner believed he had successfully buried his own murderous past and the awful truth behind his young wife’s disappearance. She vanished soon after she left for a day at the Seattle World’s Fair, and her three small children grew up believing their mother had abandoned them. But one amazing witness remained—the missing woman’s best friend, who heard her last words in a frantic phone call—“He’s coming!”—before the line went dead. Only since Robert Hansen’s suicide has the monster within been revealed.In another true story, a petite woman went to a tavern, looking only for conversation and fun. Instead, she met violent death in the form of a seven-foot man who had seemed shy and harmless. You’ll feel a chill as you uncover these and numerous other cases of unfortunate victims who made one tragic mistake: trusting the wrong person—even someone they’d known intimately, or thought they knew.

A Fever in the Heart dissects an explosive triangle that led to obsession and murder in a small town in the northwest of America. Ann Rule reveals the story of an alluring wife and the two men desperate for her love; a story with a bizarre and deadly twist that no one could have suspected. In this and several other riveting true-crime cases from her personal files, Ann Rule masterfully probes the delusions of the criminal mind, the fateful circumstances and the unrelenting investigative forces at work in the aftermath of murder.

The dark side of love is no fairy tale.... And while we may like to believe that crimes of the heart only victimize those who aren't careful, this shocking collection of real-life accounts will convince you otherwise. America's #1 true-crime writer, Ann Rule reveals how lovers become predators, how sex and lust can push ordinary people to desperate acts, and how investigators and forensics experts work to unravel the most entangled crimes of passion. Extracting behind-the-scenes details, Rule makes these volatile relationships utterly real, and masterfully re-creates the ill-fated chains of events in such cases as the ex-Marine and martial arts master who seduced vulnerable women and then destroyed their lives...the killer whose calling card was a single bloodred rose...the faithless wife who manipulated and murdered without conscience...the blind date that set the stage for a killer's brutality...and more. In every case, the victim - young and innocent or older and experienced - unknowingly trusted a stranger with the sociopathic skill to hide their dark motives, until it was too late to escape a web of deadly lies, fatal promises, and homicidal possession.

It’s a hot, sunny afternoon on the mountain top, and the sisters are enjoying sitting around the pool chatting and laughing, frosty glasses of lemonade to keep them cool and relaxed. It’s a welcome hiatus after their last harrowing mission, and the only cloud over the happy occasion is that Charles, their mentor, is still mysteriously absent.But amid the friendly bickering about who’s going to make dinner and what that might be, the Ladies of Pinewood receive some dreadful news: Harry Wong—Yoko’s true love and a staunch supporter of the Sisterhood—has become the victim of a ruthless identity theft ring. Harry’s bank accounts have been closed out, his beloved dojo is being foreclosed, and he’s being evicted. Distraught, Yoko is about to rush down the mountain to Harry’s aid when the Sisters intercept her. A situation like Harry’s requires finesse, careful planning, and the Sisterhood’s distinctive brand of vigilante justice.…

Shortly after arriving on Cape Cod to spend a year by herself, Joan Anderson’s chance encounter with a wise, playful, and astonishing woman helped her usher in the transformations and self-discoveries that led to her ongoing renewal. First glimpsed as a slender figure on a fogged-in beach, Joan Erikson was not only a friend and confidante when one was most needed, but also a guide as Anderson stretched and grew into her unfinished self.Joan Erikson was perhaps best known for her collaboration with her husband, Erik, a pioneering psychoanalyst and noted author. After Erik’s death, she wrote several books extending their theory of the stages of life to reflect her understanding of aging as she neared ninety-five. But her wisdom was best taught through their friendship; as she sat with Anderson, weaving tapestries of their lives with brightly colored yarn and exploring the strength gathered from their accumulated experiences, Joan Erikson’s lessons took shape on their small cardboard looms as well as in her friend’s revitalized life.In writing about their extraordinary friendship, Anderson reveals a need she didn’t know she had: for a mentor to help navigate the transitions she faced as she grew beyond middle age. And when Joan Erikson had to face her husband’s death and the growing limitations of her own body, Anderson was able to give back some of the wisdom she had gleaned. To this poignant and ultimately joyful account, Joan Anderson brings the candor and sensitivity that have made her an acclaimed speaker and writer on midlife and its possibilities. A Walk on the Beach is an experience to savor and treasure, a glimpse of the exuberant spirit that can be sustained and passed on in all our friendships.

HollyShe is a fragile innocent haunted by memories of her past and by dreams of the man who once shared her secrets…the only man she can ever truly love.ShannonOne of the world’s great beauties, her face and figure grace the fashion pages of the most elegant magazines. Though many desire her, only one may have her.Holly Shannon NorthShe is a contradiction: assured yet vulnerable, irresistible yet untouched. Destiny has brought her back to Hidden Springs, where she can be one person, where romance once touched her tender young heart—back to Lincoln McKenzie, the proud California rancher, long since hardened by life’s tragedies. Now, in the icy chill of a desert storm, they must find the way back to love together—to rekindle the fire whose healing warmth has drawn them home.

An artist in glass and light, Angel has loved with passion and fire―and learned the true depths of sadness when what she loved was taken from her. When she first meets Miles Hawkins―a solitary, distant man―their mutual mistrust seems insurmountable. Hawk has never known what Angel has freely enjoyed, having experienced only cruelty and betrayal from the women in his life. But Angel is willing to risk everything that proud, silent Hawk cannot, as she strives to bring truth and love to a tormented soul who believes in neither. Yet giving her heart again could be a gamble with stakes too high and too painful for her to endure―for she fears that, by loving Hawk, she will surely lose him.