National Network for Equitable Library Service

Deep in Texas hill country, ex-lawyer China thinks life is hectic enough already, and then her teenaged son unearths human remains while digging in a nearby cave. The bones indicate foul play--and are much too recent to be an archeological find. Despite the unexpected turn of events, China keeps her cool and attends the opening of the new community theater. But the party abruptly ends when the elderly Jane Obermann shoots a local handyman in the name of self-defense. China begins to snoop around--and what she finds is shocking.

When a man dies soon after Tullie bashes his head with her cane, China's estranged mother frantically calls for her daughter's help. Rushing to her family's Mississippi plantation, China must determine if her Great Aunt Tullie is guilty of homicide. She must also face the possibility of developing the same terrifying disease that tortures Tullie.

The high school principal asks China Bayles to secretly investigate the popular football coach who led the Panthers to six state championships. Soon after China confirms the coach's predilection for teenage girls, one of his victims turns up dead and suspicion falls upon the lecherous coach.

After his haystacks are burned, Farmer Harmsworth barricades the common path through Applebeck Orchard. Reliable witnesses say the arson was the work of a lantern-bearing specter. But has the culprit left clues Miss Potter can decipher?

A.J. and his classmates are convinced that new school librarian, Mrs. Roopy, has multiple personality disorder because she keeps pretending to be famous people.

When sixteen-year-old Dulcie's father dies, her mother makes a decision to move them to California, where Dulcie makes an equally radical decision to steal her dad's old truck and head back home.

Abbott's go-for-broke style is on full display in Panic, the tale of a man dodging threats on his life after his world is turned upside down. Evan Casher discovers his mother's murdered corpse and is then rescued from certain death by a shotgun-wielding stranger. His life in immediate peril, Evan races to uncover the truth of his existence.

What causes a nightmare? For federal witness Miles Kendrick it is the crippling memory of killing his best friend. For teenager Amanda Groote it is the terror of being trapped in a car wreck next to her mother's mangled body. They are both patients of psychiatrist Dr. Alison Vance, who is testing an experimental drug that may erase their fears. But when Dr. Vance is murdered, Miles must leave the witness protection program to track down someone who would sacrifice anything to acquire the drug.

When Captain Octavia Pye discovers people not wearing proper 19th-century fashions aboard her Victorian airship, she wonders if they're pirates. The reality is--they're actually from an alternate universe.