Local Women

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold. Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they'll find....

Author Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in 17th-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society and attempts to answer the question why some women were vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession.

Betty Boyd Caroli's engrossing and informative First Ladies is an essential resource for anyone interested in the role of America's First Ladies. Caroli observes the role as it has shifted and evolved from ceremonial backdrop to substantive world figure. This expanded and updated fifth edition presents Caroli's keen political analysis and astute observations of recent developments, including Melania Trump's reluctance to take on the mantle and former First Lady Hilary Clinton's recent run for president. Caroli here contributes a new preface and updated chapters.

Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective—or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she'd ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing—the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes. Elise can only guess what really happens behind closed doors. But Dee Eastwood, her house cleaner, often knows. She’s an invisible presence in many of the houses in town, but she sees and hears everything.

On a winding mountain road into the town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape. Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, who waitressed with Dina. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked.

When Samantha Harrigan attends the local rodeo, she doesn't expect to wind up in jail. But that's precisely what happens when she tries to stop a drunkard from abusing his horse. At least she isn't alone. Tucker Coulter, a handsome local veterinarian, comes to her defense - and is arrested too. The charges are dropped, but Sam's troubles have only started. Her champion quarter horses are falling ill and the culprit is poison. As the insurance beneficiary, Sam is the prime suspect. Unswayed by the rumors floating around town, Tucker offers to help prove her innocence.

Hester Wallace is proud of her independence. She needs only one man in her life - her nine-year-old son, Radley. But when Rad starts idolizing their neighbor Mitch Dempsey, Hester wonders if her son needs a male role model. Hester would do anything for her boy, but inviting Mitch into their lives is dangerous. She might start to rely on Mitch…or worse, fall in love with him.

Connie McColl is finally free to make her own decisions for the first time in decades. And when she meets glamorous Gill and downtrodden Maggie, at a rather dull flower arranging class, it seems that she’s not the only one dreaming of adventure. The three very different women all agree it’s about time they had a holiday to remember. So they make a pact for this summer to be their best yet - and drive off into the sunset together....

When local woman Deborah goes missing, her colleagues Adrian, Yvonne and Merriel are all left in shock. Gossip around the office begins to swirl – what could have happened to Deborah? Is she dead or alive? And who could be responsible for her disappearance? Everyone is terrified that they could be next...except the one person who has all the answers. The last person people expect. Because Deborah is being held captive by a monster, a psychopath. But not a stranger...it’s someone she knows all too well.

Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future.

At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices faced by their families, the women followed Babb and his dream.

From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews and historical research help recreate the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived.

A heartwarming coastal novella about connection, belonging, and the unseen threads that tie generations together. Jovi arrives at the beach hoping for a simple escape, but nothing about this summer turns out as expected. With two young kids in tow and a heart weighed down by guilt, questions, and the ache of imperfection, she finds herself drawn into unexpected friendships and unspoken stories. As the days unfold, Jovi discovers that sometimes the people who leave the biggest mark are the ones who arrive quietly, and the ones who feel like outsiders may be the ones most meant to be there.

Olivia Andrews is locally famous for her blog and podcast, Forget Me Not: A Crime Victim’s Storyboard, which is dedicated to telling the stories of victims of crime. Now she has a stunning story to tell about a decades-old murder mystery involving a prominent citizen of Pecan Springs—someone who isn’t the man everybody thinks he is. But she is killed by a hit-and-run driver while she’s out jogging early one morning. Was it an accident—or something else? Her sister wants to know.

The annual fishing tournament and festival in Hokes Folly, North Carolina, is the high-water mark event of the year. Antiquarian bookseller Jenna Quinn, owner of the Twice Upon a Time bookstore, is ready to catch some new customers with her fishing-themed book display at the festival. That is, she was...until a local author was found dead in his booth. All fingers point to Frank Sutter, a former detective with the police department. His soon-to-be ex-wife had been dating the victim, and Frank had been seen having an argument with him earlier that day.

Born and raised in Hawai‘i by a father whose ancestors are indigenous to the land and a mother from the American South, Jessica Machado wrestles with what it means to be “local.” Feeling separate from the history and tenets of Hawaiian culture that have been buried under the continental imports of malls and MTV, Jessica often sees her homeland reflected back to her from the tourist perspective—as an uncomplicated paradise. Her existence, however, feels far from that ideal. Balancing her parents’ divorce, an ailing mother, and growing anxiety, Jessica rebels.

Many new believers have questions about what it means to live as a Christian in the context of a local church, and pastors are looking for resources to pass along to their congregations to help them think biblically about the Christian life. Church Questions is a series by 9Marks that seeks to provide Christians with sound and accessible biblical teaching by answering common questions about church life. Each booklet offers biblical answers and practical applications with the goal of nurturing healthy church practice and commitment.

היא עדיין רווקה בת 30, כפי שהיתה לפני עשרים שנה בדיוק. היא עדיין גרה בבאר שבע וכותבת במקומון, עונדת עגילי פלסטיק זולים, מדשדשת ברגליה הגדולות מזירת פשע אחת לאחרת, מסתבכת בתעלומות בלשיות שאיש לא הטיל עליה לחקור. מתחת לחזותה הגמלונית והאטומה-לכאורה מסתתר מוח חד וחריף, שממשיך להפתיע את עמיתיה ויריביה. ואחרי ששת רבי-המכר שכתבה עליה שולמית לפיד - אין ספק שליזי בדיחי היא האנטי-גיבורה הכובשת ביותר בספרות הבלש העברית.

What’s a local girl to do when she catches her long-term boyfriend doing the nasty on their sofa with another women? Cry? Fall apart? Not Lily! Armed with a new look, her best friends, and a fresh take on life, Lily hightails it to Spain for sun, sangria, and Spanish men. But Lily quickly discovers that leaving bad mojo behind isn’t as easy as getting on a plane.

In a fit of anger, radio DJ Jaye Jordan blows a snowman’s head off with a Revolutionary War-style musket. But the corpse that tumbles out is all too human. Jaye thought life would be quieter when she left New York City and bought a tiny Vermont radio station. But now Edwin Anger — the ranting and raving radio talk-show host who Jaye recently fired — lies dead in the snow. And the Edwin Anger fans who protested his dismissal are sure she killed him.