Books

A Corner of Universe

Coming from Five Star/Gale February 2010

After caring for her mother until her death, forty-one year old Zoe Sterling finally has it all: a prominent physician husband, her first baby on the way, a vintage Chicago home. Zoe has even planned a dream vacation to Bermuda-a second honeymoon that she hopes will inspire her ambitious husband, Cal, to focus more of his attention on her rather than his burgeoning career. But two days before they're to leave, Cal's grown son from a former girlfriend saunters into their lives. Seeing the delight on her husband's face, Zoe sacrifices the trip and opens her home on Universe Street to Seth Pruitt.

Handsome and spoiled, Seth plunges headlong into the Chicago club scene, but Zoe is preoccupied with the state of her marriage. Cal has accepted a long-term position in Africa to establish medical clinics and will leave soon for a survey trip. The night before he leaves, Seth wrecks his car; the repairs will take at least two weeks. Cal assures Zoe that Seth will be good company for her while he's gone.

Nineteen-year-old Neva Reckart lives next door with her mother, and Zoe pities the misfit's lonely and friendless life. One morning when Neva visits, Seth struts into her desperate radar. Seth treats her with casual disrespect, and over the next days, Neva's attempts to win him become increasingly outrageous. Zoe pleads with Seth not to toy with the mentally unstable girl, but Seth laughs off her concerns. Cal becomes distant during their phone calls, and his associate, beautiful Melissa Delany, assumes a more prominent role in Cal's job; Zoe's marriage begins to splinter. When Seth's attitude toward Zoe shifts to aggressive defiance, Zoe is forced into a situation that will jeopardize everything she holds dear, including the life of her unborn child.

"A Corner of Universe will leave readers breathlessly saying, 'And then what happened? And then what happened?'"--Lauren Baratz-Logstead, author of Vertigo and The Thin Pink Line.

Cast the First Stone

Now available from Five Star/Gale

In Depression era Colorado, my Hispanic heroine vows to save her brother from a murder conviction by using the ancient art of dowsing.

Using a divining rod or a crystal pendulum, dowser Trini Bates can locate the unseen: underground water, buried minerals, lost valuables.
Some claim she's a wonder worker.

Others say she's a liar, a cheat, a fake.

Trini is neither saint nor charlatan. Recently widowed, struggling with the daily demands of living in Colorado during the Great Depression, she only wants to be left alone to grieve. However, when her brother's bootlegging partner disappears, Trini is summoned from her seclusion to dowse for his whereabouts. She finds his body at the bottom of a canyon; she's devastated when the sheriff accuses Parn-the brother she raised after their mother's death-with murder.

Trini admits her brother is wild and reckless, but he's not a murderer.

And if he's innocent, then who is guilty?

Trini's investigation plunges her into the bloody Prohibition world of moonshine and machine guns. She discovers Sheriff George Mallis hides a secret. Before he wore a sheriff's badge, he spearheaded the largest illegal liquor trade in Colorado-a trade that cost him the lives of his sons. Mallis blames Parn for their deaths, and Trini is terrified he will wreak his vengeance on an innocent man.

Mallis isolates his prisoner in jail. Her only link to Parn is through the chief deputy-a man willing to risk his job for Trini's affection, a complication that rocks her fragile emotional balance. Trini bonds with the murder victim's children, and with their help, unearths disturbing truths about her brother's life. When her dowsing fails to find a friend's missing daughter, Trini realizes her doubts about Parn's innocence have sabotaged her ability. Even when the children are threatened and someone tries to kill her, her precious gift lies dormant. Somehow, Trini must reclaim her power if she's to save the children, her brother and finally, her own life.

Buy the book:  Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble

To read more about dowsing, click here.

"You will love Trini Bates, her resolute strength, her love, and talent." -Armchair Interviews