While on Injured on Duty status, Lauren Riley's hired as a private investigator to travel to rural Ireland in search of a Picasso painting stolen twenty years earlier in this nerve-shredding thriller. An old wound forces Cold Case Detective Lauren Riley onto Injured on Duty leave. Unless she rests she faces the threat of early retirement. However, dreading the prospect of doing nothing for six months, Lauren renews her private investigator license. She's soon contacted by Sharon Whitney, the ex-wife of wealthy Buffalo resident - and suspected mob boss - Howard Whitney. During their bitter divorce twenty years earlier a Picasso painting was stolen from their home and never recovered. After the main suspect passes away from ill health in Ireland, Sharon to hires Lauren to locate the painting - before her ex-husband does. Lauren expects a low-stress, fact-finding trip yet arrives in Ireland to discover suspicions around the suspect's death and his home ransacked. With the clock ticking, uncovering the truth behind the painting's disappearance may be far more dangerous than Lauren imagined.

On the eve of the Victorian era, London has a new sleuth . . . In the winter of 1835, young Charles Dickens is a journalist on the rise at the Evening Chronicle. Invited to dinner at the estate of the newspaper's co-editor, Charles is smitten with his boss's daughter, vivacious nineteen-year-old Kate Hogarth. They are having the best of times when a scream shatters the pleasant evening. Charles, Kate, and her father rush to the neighbors' home, where Miss Christiana Lugoson lies unconscious on the floor. By morning, the poor young woman will be dead. When Charles hears from a colleague of a very similar mysterious death a year ago to the date, also a young woman, he begins to suspect poisoning and feels compelled to investigate. The lovely Kate offers to help—using her social position to gain access to the members of the upper crust, now suspects in a murder. If Charles can find justice for the victims, it will be a far, far better thing than he has ever done. But with a twist or two in this most peculiar case, he and Kate may be in for the worst of times . . . “Mr. Dickens himself would thoroughly enjoy this literary play on his early life and sleuthing abilities. Great fun to read!” —Catherine Lloyd, author of the Kurland St. Mary Mysteries “An all-over twisty read and a Dickens of a good mystery!” —Julie Mulhern, USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders “Sharp, incisive, and delightfully twisty.” —Anna Lee Huber, bestselling author of the Lady Darby Mysteries

The democratic ideal demands that the citizenry think critically about matters of public import. Yet many Democrats and Republicans in the United States have fallen short of that standard because political tribalism motivates them to acquire, perceive and evaluate political information in a biased manner. The result is an electorate that is more extreme, hostile and willing to reject unfavorable democratic outcomes. In this work, the author provides a host of actionable strategies that are designed to reduce the influence of political tribalism in our lives. The text includes instructions for plumbing the depths of political views; evaluating sources of political information; engaging in difficult political conversations; appraising political data; and assessing political arguments. The first of its kind, this how-to guide is a must-read for partisans who want to become more critical political thinkers.

Fine art meets fabric! Compose, create, and print innovative art quilts starting from your own digital photographs—even those from your phone! Well-known fiber artist Wen Redmond starts with the tools and equipment you'll need—any image editing software and a standard inkjet printer—and teaches you to alter images, print them on a variety of fibers, and accentuate them with stitching. With a sense of adventure, even a beginner can apply these techniques to create new and innovative works of art. - Transform your photographs into matchless works of art with mixed-media techniques and quilting - Explore inkjet printing on almost anything! Design with fabric, paper, and other substrates - Get photo editing, layering, and printing tips from respected fiber artist and teacher Wen Redmond - Learn new approaches to digital printing—perfect for quilters, fabric and paper artists, digital artists, mixed-media artists, photographers, art teachers, and more

For nearly twenty years, Mark L. Redmond had been telling stories about the old West to young readers. Finally he's turning his attention to "big kids." Here's a collection of some of his best stories, including three that were unpublished until now. Remond's stories are not typical tales of shootouts and quick draws. In his unique way, he has created some delightful characters who choose to outsmart their opponents instead of out-shooting them. Redmond is the author of the six-book middle grade series, The Adventures of Arty Anderson (Sword of the Lord Publishers, Murfreesboro, Tennessee). His story "The Spittoon" was a finalist in the 2010 Moonlight Mesa competition; "The Switch" appeared in a storyteller's edition of Grit magazine; and "The Reward" was published in Elbow Creek. Mark and his wife Susie are workampers. They live in a motor home and work in camp resort parks from Indiana to Arizona. Together they have six children and nine grandchildren.

In this clever reimagining of Charles Dickens’s life, he and fiancée Kate Hogarth must solve the murder of an old miser, just before Christmas . . . London, December 1835: Charles and Kate are out with friends and family for a chilly night of caroling and good cheer. But their blood truly runs cold when their singing is interrupted by a body plummeting from an upper window of a house. They soon learn the dead man, his neck strangely wrapped in chains, is Jacob Harley, the business partner of the resident of the house, an unpleasant codger who owns a counting house, one Emmanuel Screws. Ever the journalist, Charles dedicates himself to discovering who's behind the diabolical defenestration. But before he can investigate further, Harley's corpse is stolen. Following that, Charles is visited in his quarters by what appears to be Harley's ghost—or is it merely Charles’s overwrought imagination? He continues to suspect Emmanuel, the same penurious penny pincher who denied his father a loan years ago, but Kate insists the old man is too weak to heave a body out a window. Their mutual affection and admiration can accommodate a difference of opinion, but matters are complicated by the unexpected arrival of an infant orphan. Charles must find the child a home while solving a murder, to ensure that the next one in chains is the guilty party . . . Praise for the Dickens of a Crime Mysteries! “Mystery fans and history buffs alike should cheer.” —KirkusSTARRED Review “Sharp, incisive, and delightfully twisty. I’m sure I won't be the only reader exclaiming, ‘What the Dickens?!’” —Anna Lee Huber, bestselling author. “As easy to read as one of Mr. Dickens’ actual novels and as entertaining.” —New York Journal of Books “Fans of Anne Perry will love this one.” —Dianne Freeman, award–winning author

A gay man returns to his conservative hometown in a tale of memory and murder inspired by true events: “An emotionally resonant, page-turning story.”—Booklist Some Go Hungry is a fictional account drawn from the author’s own experiences working in his family’s provincial Indiana restaurant, and wrestling with his sexual orientation, in a town that was rocked by the scandalous murder of his gay high school classmate in the 1980s. Now a young man who has embraced his sexuality, Grey Daniels returns from Miami Beach, Florida, to Fort Sackville, Indiana, to run Daniels’ Family Buffet for his ailing father. Understanding that knowledge of his sexuality may reap disastrous results on his family's half-century-old restaurant legacy—a popular Sunday dinner spot for the after-church crowd—Grey struggles to live his authentic, openly gay life. But he is truly put to the test when his former high school lover—and fellow classmate of the murdered student—returns to town as the youth pastor and choir director of the local fundamentalist Christian church. Some Go Hungry is the story of a man forced to choose between the happiness of others and his own joy, all the while realizing that compromising oneself—sacrificing your soul for the sake of others—is not living, but death. “This literary mystery follows Grey Daniels on a return trip to his hometown of Fort Sackville, Indiana where, decades earlier, one of his gay classmates was brutally murdered. While visiting, Grey must confront a painful past riddled in homophobia, secrets, religious hypocrisy and fear.”—Queerty “Some Go Hungry is at its best when confronting religious prejudice, and is even pulse-quickening when the narrator sits through one of his friend's sermons aimed directly at him....Only someone who has grown up in rural America could write so convincingly of the pressures there. It's also refreshing to find a book that relates the experience of being gay somewhere other than in a large city.”—Gay & Lesbian Review “Tells an important tale that in some ways is timeless, and in other ways could have been ripped from today's headlines.”—Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama