Northern California Fiction

There are many things 12-year-old Clover Blue isn't sure of: his exact date of birth, his name before he was adopted into the Saffron Freedom Community, or who his first parents were. What he does know with certainty is that among this close-knit, nature-loving group, he is happy. Here, everyone is family, regardless of their disparate backgrounds - surfer, midwife, Grateful Dead groupie, Vietnam deserter. But despite his loyalty to the commune and its guru-like founder Goji, Blue grapples with invisible ties toward another family - the one he doesn't remember.

If it weren't for the fact that she's replacing a dead man, Kelly Jackson would love her new job managing the Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast on the coast of Northern California. But Bob Phillips did plunge off the cliff to his death, and Kelly's starting to think it may not have been an accident. Bob's retired friends - The "Silver Sentinels" - are also on the case, especially when Kelly is attacked...and another body turns up.

On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a neglected dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women called the Tattooed Ladies Club. They’re there for Kyra—and for each other.

Fifteen amazing authors. Fifteen tales with “cemetery plots”. Welcome to the 2021 Capitol Crimes Anthology. A cadre of superlative judges selected the best of the best to put in this audiobook. With a foreword by best-selling author Catriona McPherson, delve into the creative minds of Capitol Crimes members. The setting: Northern California. The theme: that place we all finally must visit, the cemetery. The plots and characters are as diverse as the authors. And their stories will touch your spirit where adventure and fear intersect.

Ever since her husband Sean’s death, Jo Myers just can’t move on. Until she receives a video Sean made during his final days, urging her to find happiness after he’s gone. Jolted from her rut, she embarks on a journey forward. Her first step is buying a house she and her daughters can call home. Framed by the snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Nevada, it’s the very house she and Sean dreamed of owning together one day. It comes with a kindly and elderly resident lodger and an opportunity to make new memories. Jo even dips her toes into the dating pool.

Ava grew up in a haunted mansion, envied by all her friends. But when her mother died mysteriously there, the thrills of Blackworth Mansion became nightmares. Ava never accepted that her mother perished from natural causes, but no one would believe her. Seventeen years later, Ava returns home to unravel the truth of her mother’s death—and her own demons quickly follow. Her estranged and vindictive father may be stalking her. Her secretive new sister-in-law lands on her doorstep with troubles of her own. And then there’s the strange girl who may or may not be haunting the grounds.

Silicon Valley resident Marjorie Veil has been conditioned to ignore her own truth, to give away her power, to subjugate in relationships with others, and to settle for the path of least resistance. But she has many surprises in store, for there are synchronistic forces at work in her life that, if she listens, will lead her to her authentic heart and happiness.

Brynn honors her passion for horses by studying at the toughest veterinary program in the country. Months from graduating, tragedy strikes - tragedy for which she can't help but feel responsible. Brynn feels suffocated by the weight of her father's legacy and his dusty hopes for horse show jumping success. When Brynn's frenetic efforts to dig the family business out of debt fail, she's down to one desperate hope.

Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just 16. In the decades that followed - through Liz's marriage and Sarabeth's attempts to make a happy life for herself - their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters that threaten to engulf the family, the fault lines in the women's friendship are revealed.

Alexis “Lex” Blake swore she would never return to the town where she’d lost her home and her family in a devastating fire that only she survived and can barely remember. But when her aunt dies, leaving behind a mountain of debt, Lex has no choice but to head back to Northern California to settle her family’s estate.

Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal—a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts. But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he’s been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself.