Deadly Secrets: A Mapleton Mystery by Terry Odell

Mapleton, Colorado’s police chief, Gordon Hepler, would rather be on the streets than behind a desk dealing with budgets and the town council, but he promised his late mentor he’d accept the position. And to Gordon, a promise is a promise, even if the person you made it to isn’t around anymore. However, doubts creep in, and he wonders if he was shoved into the job because his mentor thought he couldn’t cut it on the streets.

Everything changes when a fatal traffic accident well outside Mapleton seems connected to elderly Rose and Sam Kretzer, two of Mapleton’s most beloved citizens. The arrival of Megan, the Kretzer’s grown ward, and Justin, their grandson add to his troubles when Megan is mugged. In addition, Justin is renovating his grandparents’ house despite their objections, and then someone breaks in and the house is ransacked. When Gordon ties the car accident to a grisly murder in Mapleton—the first anyone in town can remember—he’s afraid he’s into more than he bargained for.

His fears are realized when his investigation seems to link the Kretzers to a Nazi war criminal. Can he work with the big-city detective brought in to assist? Will he be able to solve the crime without revealing the secrets of his citizens?

DEADLY SECRETS revolves around a secret journal kept by a Nazi during WWII, and the lengths people will go to protect those they love. Set in a small Colorado community, Deadly Secrets deals with people trying to do what they think is right while protecting those they love.

About the author of Deadly Secrets: A Mapleton Mystery,Terry Odell:

I was born in Los Angeles and now make my home in Divide, Colorado. An avid reader (my parents tell everyone they had to move from our first home because I finished the local library), I always wanted to “fix” stories so the characters did what I wanted, in books, television, and the movies. Once I began writing, I found this wasn’t always possible, as evidenced when the mystery I intended to write rapidly became a romance.

I love getting into the minds of my characters, turning them loose in tight spots and seeing what they do. Too often, they surprise me.

My published works include the Pine Hills Police Series, the Blackthorne, Inc. series as well as the Romantic Suspense novel, What’s in a Name? and the Mapleton Mystery series. I’ve also published numerous short stories with The Wild Rose Press.

I’m an active member of Romance Writers of America, and its Kiss of Death chapter, as well as Mystery Writers of America. When I’m not writing, or watching wildlife from my window, I’m probably reading.

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Are the wedding plans of five women forever altered by a cursed wedding gown?

The Almost Wives Club: Kate by Nancy Warren

Kate Winton-Jones plans to marry Edward Carnarvon III, a rich and handsome bachelor, but a seemingly minor incident occurs while having her wedding gown fitted. A seamstress unintentionally pricks her, causing a tiny spot of blood to appear on the outrageously expensive wedding gown. The seamstress Is immediately fired and storms out, but not before putting a curse on the dress.  Kate doesn’t believe in curses and forgets about the whole incident. Nothing can go wrong with her plans to marry the man she loves. Or can it?

That evening Kate meets a man that will change her future. She also finds out that her future husband has been keeping secrets from her.  It’s all too much for Kate and she decides to run away from it all. Is it possible that the wedding gown is cursed?

Kate falls for a sexy private investigator and decides it’s time to throw caution to the wind, along with the satin shoes she won’t be wearing. Playing it safe hasn’t done her much good. Maybe it’s time to play by a new set of rules. Her rules.

Kate discovers that sometimes Mr. Right isn’t who you thought he was.

Five brides, one possibly cursed designer wedding gown—The Almost Wives Club. Will any of these brides actually walk down the aisle in the fabulous dress?

Follow along in this romantic comedy as five women’s lives are changed forever by this enchanted wedding gown. Each story in The Almost Wives Club series is a standalone novel.

Find out more about the author of the series about the cursed wedding gown, Nancy Warren:

Nancy’s a USA today bestselling author of more than 60 novels. Nancy’s originally from Vancouver, Canada but she tends to wander. She currently lives in an 18th century house in Bath, England where she loves to pretend she’s Jane Austen, or at least a character in a Jane Austen novel. When she’s not writing, she’s hiking, skiing, traveling or sipping wine. She’s appeared on the front page of the New York Times (when her book, Speed Dating launched Harlequin’s NASCAR series), has been a clue in a crossword puzzle (National Post, Canada) and she’s been a finalist for the RITA award three times, honored by Romantic Times Magazine and often shares her love of writing in her popular workshops.

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If you haven’t read anything by Mary McPhee then now is a great time to start.

Absolution by Mary McPhee

A burnt-out Catholic priest and a woman doctor with a past meet at a make-shift clinic on the Syrian-Iraqi border. It is a reconnection for them: ten years ago Father Joseph Luger (Lujhere) heard Jane Browne’s desperate, late-night confession. Jane—who was Angela Perrault in those days—was a seventeen-year-old student at a high school in a U.S. city where Father Luger taught religion. He was a young, untried new priest. She confessed to a terrible crime but evaded his questions about it, trying his patience. Although he doesn’t quite believe her, he gives her absolution. Soon after, there are serious consequences of his less than wise handling of a distraught young person.

Through their growing relationship under stressful conditions of aiding refugees from the Syrian rebellion, a strong attraction grows between them, plus the understanding that each is the reason the other is there, in such an unforgiving place. But forgiveness is what they both seek, or absolution. Their need for this is rooted in what happened ten years before. One of them is forced to make a devastating choice.

About the author, Mary McPhee:

Mary McPhee lives in Denver. It is the scene of most of her books with the exception of her fictionalized memoirs. Mary’s first book on Kindle was “Code Name Nora: Life in a Retirement Home.” According to Nora, it’s fun, companionable, and a little zany.
Her second book on Kindle is an imaginative stretch—about a woman who doesn’t age like her contemporaries. In “The Woman Who Lived to Be 150,” Katie Bonner awakens on the morning of her 75th birthday feeling distinctly different. The difference in Katie goes on for 75 more years. It’s an intriguing story and hard to put down, so reviewers have said.

Her third book is a novelized memoir, “A Small Flame.” If you want to read a loving portrayal of a Catholic parochial school education, this book is for you. “A Small Flame” isn’t all sweetness and light, however. Its protagonist, young Nora, has a hard time with a stepmother out of Central Casting, and an autocratic nun whose mere glance is said to “stop sin in its tracks. “Flame” presents a vivid picture of life in the 1930s in Middle America, leading up to the start of WWII.

Back to lighthearted semi-fantasy: “(What to do?) About Ben Adams” presents a man whom people love to hate. Ben Adams is a stinker both in his private and professional life. But when he has surgery to repair a brain aneurysm, the poking around in his grey matter throws his empathy center into overdrive. Ben awakens from a coma feeling unconditional love for the human race. While a wonderful change, those around him find it difficult to deal with the new Ben. He has a series of adventures, the last sending him to meet with a dreaded Mid-Eastern terrorist. But unfortunately for Ben, he’s losing his “mojo,” and the only way to keep his head (literally) is to charm the evil one.

“The Smell of Rain” is a short novella about the memory of walking in the rain with a special person; years later, the memory is relived.

“A Fresh Start in a New Place,” another fictionalized memoir, is about a fifty-something woman who drops out of big city life to live in the country. She hopes to embrace everything about her new life, but the best-laid plans don’t always work out.

Mary McPhee’s next book is a cozy mystery set in a rural village (as most delightful ones are). Again, the story has to do with aging. But in a strange way. “Green Old Age” is a malady that strikes young people. They become aged overnight. It’s almost worse than murder. Can green old age be reversed? This is what young investigative reporter Tory Grey races to find out before she’s put into a rocking chair herself.

“Flowers in a Window” is a suspense thriller. Interior decorator Andrea Clarke returns to her posh condo in Denver to find Maurice, her husband of less than a year, fully clothed in the bathtub, half his face blown away and a gun in his hand. Traumatized, Andrea seeks a place of refuge to await the birth of her baby. She recreates the scene of a farmhouse from an old decorating book and is content there until a stranger shows up. He tells her the man in the bathtub with the destroyed face was not Maurice, but his brother, a homeless man. Andrea must return to the city and go into a boarded-up, abandoned building frequented by homeless people to learn the truth.

For a change of pace, as if the classic “Pride and Prejudice” needed another take-off, Mary wrote “Darcy and Lizzy: Bewitched.” The Regency couple find themselves time-traveling to a recreation of the movie “Dirty Dancing,” and learn new moves to take back to Pemberley.
“Report from the Writers Conference,” a long short story, is a humorous take on an aspiring writer hoping to connect with an agent for her novel.

Mary McPhee’s next book on Kindle is “Absolution.” A burnt-out priest and a woman doctor with a past meet at a clinic aiding refugees on the Syrian-Iraqi border. It’s a reconnection for them: ten years before, Father Joseph Luger heard Jane Browne’s desperate, late-night confession. Their presence in the Mid East stems from that, and their mutual need for absolution.

“The Third Memory” is about a man with total amnesia whose injured brain becomes the prize in a sinister plot. It’s set partially in the Middle East, and several of the characters from “Absolution” appear in this new book.

Mary McPhee has fourteen books available on Amazon for a fraction of their worth!

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Fury in the Storm: Where Christians Dare (The Leeward Set Book 1) by D.I. Telbat

FURY in the STORM: Where Christians Dare, Book One of The Leeward Set by D.I. TELBAT, previously published as SEA SCRIBE, is a covert mission suspense that takes place in and around North Korea.

Protagonist Troy Forge was stabbed in a work-related incident, and now every ounce of his faith is tested as he lives to hate the man, Juan Ambula, who scarred and damaged him for life.  As a storm brews across the high seas, Troy, though still suffering from pain and loss, sets sail in his customized catamaran on a dangerous smuggling mission to the closed communist country of North Korea. Just days after leaving California’s West Coast, the voyage proves to be anything but a smooth trip. Facing many risks and dangers, Troy makes discoveries—including an opportunity for revenge—that change his life forever.

Ho Kichun—cut off from the outside world—is a networker for the Christian Underground Church inside North Korea. As he travels secretly serving the persecuted throughout the mountainous terrain, he prays to meet the covert contact—if Kichun isn’t killed by an assassin first!

Contraband smuggler Merrick Jolan is hot after Troy to kill the Christian sailor by way of his Russian bodyguard, Dmitri Volkov. But if Troy can’t meet Elephant on time, the Christian underground network may crumble.

Laura Zisk leaves a broken past in her wake that she refuses to face. As a professed atheist, she tries to run as far from her life as she can, only to be confronted with the hardest test of her being.

Fury in the Storm: Where Christians Dare (The Leeward Set Book 1) is a 70,000-word novel of clean action/suspense, with cover design by Streetlight Graphics. It reveals the boldness of Christians who risk everything to assist their foreign brothers and sisters in underground danger! This page-turning adventure will leave you gasping for air as the stormy deep threatens to drown God’s people in the closed frontier of forbidden land and waters of North Korea. And we see that God uses anyone who is willing.

About the author of the Leeward Series, D.I. Telbat:

D. I. Telbat is a Christian author best known for his Suspenseful Fiction with a Faith Focus, which includes his bestselling COIL Series and several End Times novels, such as The Steadfast Series. He wrote his first book at age 14, and hasn’t stopped since!

Telbat’s Tablet, David Telbat’s website/blog https://ditelbat.com, offers free weekly Christian short stories, or related posts, to entertain, but also to bring attention to the persecuted worldwide. Because of his interest in the Persecuted Church and missions, many of D.I. Telbat’s stories are about persecuted Christians—their sacrifice, suffering, and rescues.

Also on his site, he shares his author reflections, book reviews, writing research, and challenges for today’s Christian. His complete biography can be found at ditelbat.com/about/.

Getting into trouble with the law as a young man became a turning point in David’s life. The Lord used that experience to draw David into a personal relationship with Him. Re-focusing his life for Christ, David now seeks to honor God with his life and his writing.

David studied writing in college, and worked for a time in the newspaper field, but he is now doing what he loves: writing and Christian ministry. When not busy with ministry, he focuses on writing novels, short stories, blog posts, and prison Bible curriculum.

Though D.I. Telbat is currently living in California, he has kept his home office in the Northwest U.S. where his assistant, Dee, lives and helps with his writing and editing needs.

There is no redemption without sacrifice.

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