Haleigh Wenger

Anne Louise Bannon

Managing the Matthews

Christmas time is here. Not so much happiness and cheer. The Christmas season may be Lisa Wycherly's favorite time of the year, but December 1989 is shaping up to be the worst ever. First, her husband, Sid Hackbirn, gets the shock of his life when an old high school buddy turns up unexpectedly, triggering Sid's terrifying memories of fighting in the Vietnam War. Worse yet, the encounter pushes Sid and Lisa into investigating three crooked Federal agents while trying to hide their own top-secret work from their family and Sid's other friends. But there's a family problem too. Lisa's nephew Darby may be heading for trouble thanks to his exceptional talent as a violinist. A persistent agent is courting the 16-year-old, as are any number of girls. With Darby determined to stand on his own two feet, the rest of the family is worried that the boy is about to get himself into the kind of trouble adults can't handle. With Darby's ego spinning out of control, and each attempt to capture the crooked Feds going ever more disastrously awry, Lisa's merry little Christmas is turning into one deadly mess.

Necessary Chances

From the popular romantic serial fiction blog - a story of two people desperately trying not to fall in love with each other. He's the newly inaugurated president of the United States. She's one of his top aides. Both Mark Jerguessen and Sharon Wheatly have many good reasons why they do not want that kind of relationship. Mark is a little busy running the country, and he has some secrets from his tragic past that could put Sharon in danger. Sharon has already had her time in the public eye and wants nothing more to do with it. The problem is, she comes from a high-powered, extremely talented family. Her older brother Michael is a rock star. Her younger sisters all excel in their fields. Sharon is pretty talented, herself, speaking ten different languages fluently and skilled in working with governments. She loves high-powered guys. But it's not the right time, never mind that Mark's sister and Sharon's colleagues are all conspiring to get the couple together.

White House Rhapsody Books One & Two

Karen Cantwell

Margaret Lucke

M. E. Browning

The Malice Domestic anthology series returns with a new take on mysteries in the Agatha Christie tradition—original tales with a theatrical bent! Included are: Preface, by Ellen Hart The Rock Star, by Frances Aylor Perfectly Awry, by Anne Louise Bannon The Ghost in Balcony B, by Michele Bazan Reed Drama-Rama Flip Flop, by Cindy Brown It’s Not O.K. Corral, by M. E. Browning Mary-Alice Imagines Her Life as a Movie, by Karen Cantwell The Ghost of Hamnet, by R. M. Chastleton When the Wind is Southerly, by Leone Ciporin Raising Cain, by Carla Coupe Death of Another Hero, by Susan Daly The Stars Are Fire, by Phillip DePoy Death Plays the Palace, by Margaret Dumas The Homicidal Understudy, by Elizabeth Elwood No Final Act, by Daryl Wood Gerber Deus Ex Machina, by B. J. Graf The Nine Deaths in Hamlet?, by A. P. Jamison Heat Wave, by Maureen Jennings Thus With a Kiss, by Margaret Lucke Such Tricks As These, by Jaquelyn Lyman-Thomas Final Curtain, by Sharon Lynn The Mask, by Cheryl Marceau The Ultimate Tie-Breaker, by Deborah Maxey True Crime, by Adam Meyer A Star Goes Dark, by Raquel V. Reyes Not Your Lolita, by Merrilee Robson A Death in Shubert Alley, by Lee Sauer Dance on Fire, by Shawn Reilly Simmons Missed Cue, by Lynn Slaughter You Know How Actresses Are, by C. M. Surrisi Five Words, by Elaine Togneri Ask Fred the Usher, by Arthur Vidro Death Takes a Bow, by Mo Walsh Deal With the Devil, by James Lincoln Warren Method for Murder, by Carol L. Wright

Ellen Hart Presents Malice Domestic 15: Mystery Most Theatrical

In 1982, Lisa Wycherly was broke, out of work and desperate. So when Sid Hackbirn offered her a job as his live-in secretary, she jumped at it, little knowing just how dangerous it would be. Sid was a spy for an ultra-top-secret agency and had recruited Lisa to work as his associate.

That Old Cloak and Dagger Routine

Finally, it's real love... Now what? Lisa Wycherly's surprise birthday party ends in a terrifying disaster when she's kidnapped off the street. Her partner, Sid Hackbirn, is so devastated that he loses his interest in sleeping around - the one thing keeping the two of them apart. The kidnapping gets messy enough when it comes to light that the kidnappers got the wrong target. There's also a defecting KGB agent playing games with the CIA, who are involved with the Colombian kidnappers. Then Lisa's recovery sets in motion a whole other set of challenges as she and Sid deal with her trauma and try to get the KGB agent under control, only to find that Sid's randy past will continue to haunt them. The only thing worse? Figuring out how to be a couple.

My Sweet Lisa

Life changes at the speed of light After Lisa makes a disastrous pickup for Operation Quickline, the top-secret courier group that she and her partner Sid Hackbirn work for, she realizes it's time for her and Sid to get married. They're already re-building their house and have merged their assets. Sid's given up sleeping around. But then the two have to take custody of Sid's son, Nick, after the boy's mother dies. Suddenly becoming full-time parents to an almost adolescent is hard enough. There's also getting a grieving and clingy Nick settled, planning a wedding with Lisa's mother intent on going hog-wild, and even finding someone to take care of the pets. Sid's and Lisa's lives have gotten far more complicated than either imagined. And that's not counting their little side business. Thanks to the bad pickup, Sid and Lisa are ordered to find a missing operative and get embroiled in an arms-trading scheme. Worse yet, Nick figures out all too quickly that his dad and Lisa don't have a normal job, and it's not long before the spy business becomes a family thing, assuming they all can stay alive long enough.

A Little Family Business

Who knew collecting cheap serigraphs could cause such trouble? Dancer and aspiring actor Donna Brechter thinks that driving around Delilah Sperling is just the job she needs to be self-supporting and living away from her parents. But Mrs. Sperling isn't just any older woman. She's blind and a private investigator with a nose for murder. When Mrs. Sperling's housekeeper, Glen Weir, picks up a counterfeit print, Mrs. Sperling has Donna drive her and Glen to confront the gallery owner, Josh Stein. But they find Stein dead in his stockroom, instead. Mrs. Sperling "finds" a client and takes on the chase to find Stein's killer and the party behind the counterfeit prints. Could it be Stein's soon-to-be ex-wife? What about his closest competitor? Then there's the flamboyant clothing designer. The suspect list grows. But then Donna finds herself face to face with the man of her dreams, who happens to be Mrs. Sperling's courtesy nephew. Donna is tongue-tied, yet does her best to help her boss. Because while Mrs. Sperling may not be able to see, she's an expert at sniffing out a killer.

A Nose for a Niedeman

When the unmentionable stalks the pueblo It starts when the inheritance that Lavina Gaines was to receive is stolen by her brother Timothy. Then an old Indian healing woman is murdered. Winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox wants to find the person responsible for Mama Jane's death, but is also occupied with another killer - the measles. When Lavina's friend Julia Carson dies trying to rid herself of a pregnancy, Lavina asks Maddie's help finding the man responsible for Julia's child. Soon after, Lavina is killed and her murder bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Mama Jane's. The only motive Maddie can find involves Julia's death, which is not the sort of thing one talks about. Not only that, Lavina’s nether garments are missing. How does a proper lady in 1872 get the answers she needs to stop a killer determined to stop her first?

Death of an Heiress

It doesn't mean they're not out to get you Lisa Wycherly and Sid Hackbirn find themselves up against a relentless enemy and about to get the shock of their lives in book nine of the Operation Quickline series. First, there's the wedding. Not Sid and Lisa's, but her cousin Maggie's, where Sid and his son, Nick, raise all sorts of eyebrows. Then there's the attempt on Sid's life. Then Sid and Lisa's good friends are recruited into their top secret organization. Then there's Lisa's sister being jealous, and a new house getting close to being ready, and Sid and Lisa's own wedding to work on, and Nick bringing home every bug there is at his new school and sharing it with his parents. Being highly-trained top secret counter-intelligence agents will only help so far as the circles of family complications ripple outward. Sid and Lisa try to cope with the multiple surprises as they train their two friends and track down a ruthless killer determined to take both of them out.

Just Because You're Paranoid

After a hard afternoon waiting in the rain for a contact that doesn't show, all spy and freelance writer Lisa Wycherly wants to do is go home and read a book by the fireplace. But family matters intervene. Lisa's nephew Darby is having trouble at school. Lisa's boss and housemate Sid Hackbirn agrees to let Darby come stay with him and Lisa, not realizing that his own life is about to be turned upside-down. An old friend comes by the house with a boy about Darby's age who looks remarkably like Sid. Rachel never told Sid that she was pregnant, but now it's time for Nick to know where he came from. Lisa suddenly finds her hands full trying to get Sid to acknowledge Nick, figure out what Darby's problem is and working undercover to set up a sting on a group of defense plant employees who are selling secrets. It's a case that gets messier by the minute, with British intelligence sticking their noses in for an unknown reason and the likelihood that there's a leak connected to Sid and Lisa's FBI supervisor Henry James. As usual, it's hard for Lisa to say whether the greater danger is to her heart or to her life.

Fugue in a Minor Key

The color of passion is Blood Red. For Freddie Little, it is not only the color of the family heirloom ruby necklace, it is the color of his deep love for his wife, Kathy Briscow Little. When Kathy wears the gem to a gala party, relatives and friends start seeing red. But only one is angry enough to kill Freddie's father. Freddie remains oddly reluctant to search for his father's killer, and Kathy gets worried that perhaps the killer is far closer to them than they thought. Freddie's mother, Gloria, takes up the chase, aided and abetted by his sister Honoria. Freddie feels all too relieved when the police arrest a couple of former laborers at the family business. But then his Uncle Stephen is killed and the police have good reason to believe that the shooter was the same person who killed Freddie's father. Worse yet, Kathy's younger brother is kidnapped, and then there is the daring burglary of Freddie's apartment while everyone is asleep inside. Already feeling the weight of his new role as family patriarch, Freddie works to squeeze in investigation among all the other demands on his time. There's help from Honoria and her friend Ivy. Freddie's dear friend Lowell provides disturbing evidence about Freddie's father. But it's Freddie's demons that get the better of him and it takes almost losing Kathy to bring him to his senses and a renewed sense of purpose. With luck, it will be in time to save all that he holds dear.

Blood Red

In December, 1924, there were plenty of people who wanted to see Frank Selby dead. He was a cad when it came to women. His illegal trade in booze could have made him the target of mobsters.. But it was his laziness that made Kathy Briscow the main suspect in his murder. Kathy, an ambitious secretary at Healcroft House, Publishers, was doing Selby's work for him, including editing The Old Money Story, by dilettante millionaire Freddie Little. Freddie had good reason to believe that Kathy was innocent. But getting the police to look at Frank's wealthy cousin Percy was going to be all but impossible. And there were other suspects, such as Frank Selby's former secretary, who had been fired without cause, not to mention competing rum runners, or even Mr. Healcroft, the head of the publishing house. So Freddie and Kathy join forces to dig up the evidence by combing the streets and speakeasies of New York City, only to become targets, themselves, for a killer with an obsession

Fascinating Rhythm

When teacher Brenda Finnegan and her animal trainer boyfriend Bob Zebrinski witness a kidnapping, Brenda decides it's time to deal with the violence that has dogged her life. Too late, she realizes that the search for the kidnappers means facing an angry religious cult, helping the little girl left behind by the kidnappers and facing her own neuroses. All of that's got to be easier that facing the fact that Bob really loves her.

Tyger, Tyger

Lisa Wycherly's secret life as a spy has always made things tricky for her social life. When her boyfriend, George Hernandez, proposes, she shocks everyone, including herself, by accepting. And no one is less thrilled by the news than Lisa's boss and housemate, Sid Hackbirn. Not that he's saying so, of course. The new situation complicates their latest case - trying to follow and capture a double agent that is trying to bring down Operation Quickline, the ultra-secret espionage agency that Sid and Lisa work for. Then Sid gets kidnapped and rescued. George starts to resent Lisa not telling him everything that's going on in her life. Lisa is ready to give up on men altogether, only to find that Sid has another bombshell to drop on her. Confused and frustrated, Lisa has to keep her head together long enough to work the case - which soon blows up into the worst of all possible nightmares.

Sad Lisa

She was someone no one would suspect Heading for a simple pickup in Stateline, Nevada, Lisa Wycherly was nervous. She and Sid Hackbirn, her partner in Operation Quickline, had been asked to not hide behind their usual aliases, but work as themselves. After all, Lisa's hometown was just across the state line in South Lake Tahoe, and thanks to her good girl reputation in town, odds were good no one would pick her as an undercover counter-espionage operative. But it was Sid who first ran into an old friend from high school - his teacher and former lover Della Riordan, who was murdered shortly after leaving Sid. Then Lisa found a small box filled with cocaine instead of the coded instructions she'd been expecting from the pickup. Sid got tagged as the main suspect in Riordan's murder, and took full advantage of all the women who threw themselves at him as a result. With Sid cutting a randy swathe through the female population on both sides of the state line, the last thing Lisa needed was her parents coming home early from a trip. The only thing worse was finding out that her father's store might be at the center of a drug ring, let alone harboring a spy selling secrets to the other side. With a crooked cop bent on setting Sid and Lisa up for the murder and an enemy agent spying on them, keeping their secret from Lisa's family will be almost as hard as staying out of jail.

Deceptive Appearances

When past, present, and future collide Robin Parker does not know what to make of her brother Dean's discovery in the old English castle, namely a strangely modern room with a young woman named Elizabeth inside dressed like she's from the 17th Century. The equipment looks like it could be a suspended animation set-up, and when Robin sends herself to the future from one of the modules, she realizes that Elizabeth has been on suspended animation for almost 500 years, put there by a "magician" named Roger. The three escape the room with a portable time machine in hand, but it's soon clear that Elizabeth is not up to life in the 21st Century. Robin is also dying to travel back in time, so she makes the decision to take Elizabeth back to England in the 1640s, with Dean in tow. They land in a village similar to Elizabeth's home so as to avoid Roger finding her again. What they don't realize is that there's another traveler from the future - one who is determined to take Elizabeth at all costs.

But World Enough and Time

A reluctant PI with two hot cases... All Daria Barnes wants to do is produce plays, but can't make a living at it. So, her best friend, private investigator Berto Esparza, talks her into working for him as his associate investigating the death of Larry Ochoa, drummer for country-western star Luke Winston. Then Berto is seriously injured in a hit and run that was probably not an accident. and Daria gets tagged with keeping the Ochoa investigation going long enough for Berto to recover. More importantly, she needs to find out who wants to kill Berto. No surprise, the bad guys are practically taking numbers to take Esparza out. And Luke Winston is not only keeping tabs on Daria, he's showing more than an appropriate interest in her, especially after Jay Swanson, Luke's young assistant, disappears. It doesn't matter how many people are reminding Daria that she's a natural at the investigation game, she feels completely out of her element. As the leads go nowhere, the suspects get meaner. Daria struggles on, and eventually finds the path to a suspect who isn't just enraged. He's desperate.

Rage issues

A deadly amateur, a top-secret formula, and full mating plumage. In the sixth Operation Quickline story, operatives Lisa Wycherly and Sid Hackbirn are sent undercover at a small arts college in Wisconsin. The job is to find out who is stealing a top-secret chemical formula being developed by someone on the faculty. The catch is that no one knows who the developer is, let alone who is stealing the formula or even how. The other catch is that Lisa's cover is as an English professor and Sid's is as an older student, which means the two aren't working side-by-side. With their relationship still at an impasse, Lisa sees an opportunity to find out just how good she is on her own. Faculty politics are rank enough, not to mention the food in the Faculty Dining Room. There's also trying to figure out which, if any, of her colleagues has been working with the KGB. Then managing three wet-behind-the-ears fellow operatives. The one thing Lisa can't do is let on just how much in love she is with her gorgeous Basic Composition student.

Anne Louise Bannon

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