Lucas Landry receives an email from a teenager, Mikayla Carson, who thinks her legal guardian and great-grandmother, Elisabeth Hoffman, is related to his great-grandfather, Franz Nagel. She’s not certain, because Elisabeth suffers from dementia. Mikayla wants Lucas to help her find out more about her family's past. As a genealogist, Lucas is eager to untangle the family roots. He travels to Arizona to meet Mikayla, her younger brother, and Elisabeth, and begins reading old Nagel-family diaries, but his eagerness dampens when he discovers Nazis in their bloodline. Further complicating the task, he can’t even figure out how Elisabeth is related to those Nagels, and she can’t explain, either; her mind is a jumbled mess and her answers to his questions are unreliable. He returns home, ready to give up until two events pull him back in—his discovery of an old newspaper clipping about the war-time murder of one of the Nagels, and Mikayla’s frantic call about the danger of her family being torn apart unless a family member steps in and helps.Against his wife’s wishes, Lucas returns to Arizona and delves deeper into the WWII diaries, learning about a Lebensborn home, a Polish concentration camp, and the tragic lives of three Nagel teens; their father’s young mistress; and two nieces. But will those diaries tell what he really needs to know and empower him to help Elisabeth and her great-grandchildren?

Bloodlines and Barbed Wire: A Tangled Roots Historical Mystery

Literature & Fiction

Finlay, Susan

Genre Fiction

Independently published

There is a stranger amongst the residents of the cave-riddled village of Reynier, France. Suspicious, they believe there's only one reason Maurelle Dupre would be lurking in their small village—she's a gypsy, a thief. But a former Chicago detective turned mystery author, Dave Martin, who happens to be visiting his French grandmother, isn't so sure about the beautiful stranger when happenstance causes them to meet. He wonders why she seems so frightened and distrustful. He knows he shouldn’t get involved. The last time he trusted a woman in distress, the consequences resulted in the loss of his detective’s shield and his wife. But, as always, the detective in him can't seem to leave well enough alone. However, what Dave couldn't know is how persuading Maurelle to reveal herself will ultimately unveil something far worse than mere theft. In the Shadows is a story of trust, belonging, and murder.

In the Shadows: An Outsiders Mystery (The Outsiders)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

In Reynier, France, a sleepy hillside village peppered with ancient picturesque troglodyte cave dwellings, the locals value their privacy and their quiet life. Few tourists know it exits, which suits the locals just fine. One day, after a torrential storm, a townswoman happens across a terrified soaked toddler sitting alone in the woods. She brings the toddler into town, but no one recognizes the child. Suspecting the child’s parents—rare tourists perhaps—must be lost or in trouble nearby, the locals organize a search party to find them. Their search leads instead to the discovery of a murder victim, another stranger, in one of the caves. As the investigation gets underway, the situation heats up. The residents of this once peaceful close-knit village find themselves terrorized by a possible serial killer. Facing their own mortality, they wonder whether the killer is an outsider, or one of their own? And who will be the next victim? Captain Pascal Goddard of the local Gendarmerie has his hands full; he must solve the biggest murder case the region has ever seen. The residents will not let him rest until he uncovers the killer’s identity, putting a stop to the killing so a frantic village can return to normal. But as the list of suspects grows, some begin to worry that past history will paint them as guilty even if they are not; at least not of murder. Where Secrets Reside is the second book in the Outsiders series. Praise for the first book, In the Shadows— “Impeccable Characters. . . Susan Finlay’s sense of character development in IN THE SHADOWS is impeccable. I’m very fond of this author and this story.”—Susan Wingate, Author of the award-winning, #1 Amazon bestsellers Drowning and the Bobby’s Diner series “Atmospheric, great setting. . . the descriptive prose drew me right into a convincing story from the outset and I can only imagine that the author’s experience as a photographer, with a photographer’s eye, must be the other side of the coin to the compelling eye for setting.”—Raymond Nickford, Author of A Child From the Wishing Well and Aristo’s Family “One of My Favorite Novelists. . . Susan Finlay is an accomplished writer who can bring a story to life. It was easy for me to get lost In the Shadows. I loved this Outsiders Mystery.”—Mary Enck, Author

Where Secrets Reside: An Outsiders Mystery (The Outsiders)

Our Lady of Everything

Contemporary

Serpent's Tail

My Other Spruce and Maple Self

Travel

MOIST

It's fall (or autumn) 2018. The Trump administration wants to fortify the United States-Mexico border, Robert 'Beto' O'Rourke is running for Senate, and British grifter Nicki Smith has just secured a "low-paid glamour job" at the University of Texas' Jacques Lacan Foundation. In between sleeping with the air-conditioning repair guy (or man) and watching Kate Moss make-up commercials (or advertisements) Nicki completes the first ever American-English translation of Lacan's newly discovered and highly controversial notebook - without knowing any French. An Anglo-American comedy of manners about identity and class The Jacques Lacan Foundation reveals-and revels in-the numerous pretentions that surround academia and authorship, and the institutions that foster them.

The Jacques Lacan Foundation

Twenty-eight year old Lucas Landry, a Sacramento, California native, is a counseling psychologist specializing in drug abuse treatment, yet couldn’t save his own opioid-addicted father. His feelings about his father and his death get complicated when he discovers his father hid many secrets about their ancestry from Lucas and his brother. Lucas embarks on a journey to find answers: What secrets had his father hidden, who are the Landrys, and where did they come from? Are Lucas and his estranged brother destined to repeat their ancestors’ mistakes? A hidden attic in Lucas’s father’s old Victorian house is a goldmine of memorabilia and clues from the past, clues which seem to lead to Nazi Germany and the former Sudetenland, breadcrumbs to other lives. Ten year old Christa Nagel is an ethnic German living in the Sudetenland near the Polish border in 1943 with her parents and five younger siblings. When her father is conscripted into the Wehrmacht, leaving Christa and family alone to fend for themselves, she is horrified and worried for him. After a while, though, she’s not sure which is worse, fighting in the war or trying to keep their family together and safe. When the war ends, she and her family, as well as millions of other ethnic Germans face expulsion from their home, marched away into the unknown.Fifteen year old Ilse Seidel, a German girl living in a small Bavarian city, knows more about danger than anyone her age should know. She’s survived bombings, lost loved ones, and witnessed Jewish friends being carted away from their homes. She wants nothing to do with the war or with soldiers. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she finds a wounded soldier in need of help.Lucas is determined to assemble these breadcrumbs, find out how their stories intertwine, and reveal his ancestry. Will what he learns make him feel better about himself and his family, or worse? Breadcrumbs and Bombs is about secrets, lies, prejudice, betrayal, guilt, love, genealogy, and what it means to be a family.

Breadcrumbs and Bombs: A Tangled Roots Historical Mystery

Berlin and Betrayal (Tangled Roots)

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