National Network for Equitable Library Service

It’s the bleak midwinter and the Shenandoah Valley is poised on the brink of an unusually icy and snowy season. Alexei Kamarov’s body is discovered in a forest within the Picketsville town limits.

Maddy Sprowls gets to The Hannawa Herald-Union on the stroke of nine. She makes her first mug of Darjeeling tea and settles down at her desk to read the obituaries.

In the fifth installment of the series, Deal is being awarded the Presidential Medal of Valor, and as a campaign gimmick, the presentation ceremony is held in Miami.

The railroad is coming west, all the way to Leadville and its rich Rocky Mountain mines, not to mention millionaires.

Ansel Phoenix makes her living drawing dinosaurs for magazines, books, and museum displays.

Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman can’t help but feel that the recent beating of Carmen Acosta and the disappearance of Carmen’s neighbor, Kevin Ziegler, are related. She’s just not sure how.

Former Chief Warrant Officer Sam Blackman lost a leg in Iraq and emerged from the V.A. hospital in Asheville, NC, as a bitter civilian without a job or a future.

Death has come twice to Ravenbank, a remote community in England’s Lake District, each time on Halloween.

When a cut-price franchise bakery opens its doors just down the street from Earthly Delights and crowds flock to purchase the bread, Corinna Chapman is understandably nervous.

Bob Dillon can’t get a break.

Benteen County, Kansas is a hellhole in summer of scorching heat and wind and turns even meaner in winter.

The championship race weekend and an undercurrent of threats on all sides rev Kate’s nerves to their limits.

In the spring of 1812, the Luddites are on the march, Lord Byron is taking London drawing rooms by storm, and Penelope Wolfe has become a lady’s companion.

Baker Corinna Chapman is happy with her life. Jason, the former addict she rescued from her alleyway, is shaping into a good apprentice.

On a stifling mid-summer day, 11-year-old Claire Hofer descends from her perch in a pine tree and sets out carrying lunch to her father, where he’s at work raking hay.