On this special Thursday episode, V chats with Suzanne Uttaro Samuels about her novel "Seeds of the Pomegranate"

A gritty story of a woman learning to survive in 20th century Gangland New York

In early 20th-century Sicily, noblewoman Mimi Inglese, a talented painter, dreams of escaping the rigid expectations of her class by gaining admission to the Palermo Art Academy. But when she contracts tuberculosis, her ambitions are shattered. With the Sicilian nobility in decline, she and her family leave for New York City in search of a fresh start.

Instead of opportunity, Mimi is pulled into the dark underbelly of city life and her father’s money laundering scheme. When he is sent to prison, desperation forces her to put her artistic talent to a new use—counterfeiting $5 bills to keep her family from starvation and, perhaps, to one day reclaim her dream of painting. But as Gangland violence escalates and tragedy strikes, Mimi must summon the courage to flee before she is trapped forever in a life she never wanted.

On this Sunday, V chats with Lori Duffy Foster about her upcoming historical novel "Spring Melt"

As a doctor’s wife in a thriving Adirondack village in the 1920s, Ella Devine seems to have an ideal life. Her husband grew rich catering to New York City socialites who wanted to hide their TB diagnoses from their friends. Their marriage is devoid of emotion, but so is she, having learned long ago to quietly accept whatever life offers. But all that changes when three men are charged with a nineteen-year-old murder, and the long-buried crime that shaped Ella’s childhood is exposed.

Spring Melt draws on the rich and fascinating history of the Adirondacks, where hikers who see only low hills and lush vegetation fail to perceive the hidden dangers and lose their lives by stepping two feet off the trail. Since the late 1800s, the wilderness that is the Adirondacks has been both a frontier to be conquered only by the hardiest of humans and a playland for the wealthy. When these two worlds collide, the resulting explosion can be fatal.

On this Sunday episode, V chats with Susan Van Kirk about her book "Fabric of Lies: An Endurance Mystery 6"

What happened to the Blackburns?

Grace Kimball and Jeff Maitlin are now married, and into their lives comes an unsolved mystery from 30-some years earlier. In 1981, Matt and Gemma Blackburn disappeared from the house next door to Grace and her then-husband, Roger Kimball. At that time, the Blackburn’s two-year-old, Anthony, was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia. Now, it’s 2014, and a thirty-five-year-old Anthony Blackburn returns to Endurance to find out what happened to his parents and solve a mystery deeply embedded in the history of the town.

Meanwhile, Jeff Maitlin, Editor-in-Chief of the Endurance Register, is threatened with a takeover of his local newspaper. The newspaper has been owned by the same family for four generations, and it would be a disaster for the tight-knit community to lose their local news and local ownership. But Jeff is fighting against a huge competitor—a corporate vulture hoping to steal everything of value and destroy the fabric of the town and Jeff’s beloved newspaper. Can he win? Can Grace help Anthony Blackburn solve the mystery of his parents’ disappearance?