Showing results by narrator "Karen Commins" in All Categories

In 1888, Nellie Bly, a feisty, investigative reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World newspaper, pitched a story idea of traveling around the world in 75 days to beat the record achieved by Phileas Fogg, the character in Verne's book. While the editor thought it a great idea, he naturally thought the trip should be made by a man. The idea was shelved for over a year.

Like "Junior" Castellano, a big-time land developer who hires Harriet to find the silver-haired gigolo who broke Mama Castellano's heart, Harriet is practical when it comes to solving problems. Simple enough, until the Boca police find Junior bulldozed at one of his construction sites. Was Junior killed by his mother's con man? Or by a bitter ex-wife or spurned ex-girlfriend? Maybe by his estranged sons?

One of Laguna Beach's best-known plastic surgeons may need a new leash on life. Unless he's just taking a very long nap on the bench outside Melinda Langston's Bow Wow Boutique... Dr. O'Doggle continued to give us the silent treatment. Fluffy eyed him intently. I studied him too. Tova Randall wasn't my BFF, to say the least, but I didn't wish her boyfriend any bad luck. My neighbor, Darby, relaxed her grip on Fluffy's leash. The big Afghan lunged toward Dr. O and knocked him over.

Halloween's just around the corner, and business is brisk at Memphis Tour Tyme. Harley doesn't need an extra job, but when her pal Tootsie asks her to help Jordan Cleveland, his fellow drag queen, she can't resist poking around in the mystery. How dangerous could it be for her? After all, Jordan's the target of the threats, not her. He's had his brake line cut, a concrete flower pot dropped over his head, a pickup truck nearly ran him down, and someone tried to push him off a sidewalk into heavy traffic.

"I'm just a nosy little ad exec who's dying to see who invited me to meet you." "Listen, Sherry Whoever-You-Are, I'm very, very busy," Kit Fleming answered. "If you could just speed this up, I'd be wildly grateful." Sherry became uncomfortably aware that he had a very sexy phone voice. "Well, you see, I got a delivery tonight, and I didn't have anything smaller than a fifty, so the kid had to give me change."

Although the story is over 100 years old, it offers an important truth that is still relevant to the modern listener. Rather than rely on dialogue to advance the plot, noted American Edna Ferber is an exceptional storyteller who delights and entertains the listener with narrative. Her stories featuring strong heroines are as fresh and original today as when they were written.

The story revolves around Fanny Brandeis, starting with her childhood in Winnebago, WI, where her parents run a shop. After Fanny's father dies, her mother Molly must make extremely difficult choices about Fanny's and her brother Theodore's educations. These choices set the course for the entire family throughout their lives. Rather than rely on dialogue to advance the plot, noted American author Edna Ferber is an exceptional storyteller who delights the listener with narrative. Fanny must decide whether to pursue wealth or follow her creative dreams.

Once again, it's Harriet's job to kick some butt in Boca Raton. Someone is murdering clergy members in Florida's ritzy resort haven - starting with the minister at the gay wedding of private detective Harriet Horowitz's best friends. Suspicion focuses on the drag queens of the Holy Rollers Motorcycle Club and Gospel Choir, who provided the wedding's musical entertainment. Harriet - always defending the underdog - is hired to clear the choir's name.

Sibyl is either dying - or just dying to cause trouble.Sympathy for a man-hunting siren? Sibyl says she’s dying. But this sexy new neighbor in a small Georgia town, circa 1960, may be lying. After all, her main goal seems to be milking her story in order to keep her husband, Robert, under her thumb while also enchanting his best friend, P.W.

Lights! Camera! Murder! Trinket and the gang, beware! Hollywood descends on Holly Springs, and soon it’s up to the Divas to keep the stars from falling like magnolia blooms in a trailer-park tornado. Someone doesn’t want dark secrets under the holly to reach the big screen. He - or she - is willing to kill locals, movie stars, and maybe even Divas to stop it. Diva-sister Dixie Lee Forsythe wrote the juicy tell-all about a Mississippi town very much like Holly Springs, and a lot of townsfolk would be happy to strangle her.

When Mary Potter Kenyon's husband David was diagnosed with cancer she searched libraries and bookstores for books on cancer and the caregiving experience. What she discovered was a plethora of technical and medically-oriented books or those written by a caregiver whose loved one had died, a scenario she refused to contemplate.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote this classic text in the "New Thought" movement over 100 years ago, yet much of her advice and wisdom is still true today. If you want to be happy, the change must first start with your thoughts. Wilcox suggests ways to change your thinking and specific actions to take in order to feel better about yourself and improve your life.

Coupon Crazy examines the phenomena of avid coupon use and the socio-cultural and socioeconomic factors that construct it. By delving into the history of couponing, refunding, the science of shopping, and the dark underbelly of a coupon world the average American didn't even know existed, author Mary Potter Kenyon manages to both fascinate and educate the reader.

Goodbye mansion, hello Hog. This former Boca Babe is now a Biker Babe with a rap sheet and a license to track down bad guys and solve crimes. Go ahead. Make her day. Harriet "Dirty Harriet" Horowitz had it all. Money. Plastic Surgery. Servants. Then her husband raised his fist one time too many, and she shot and killed him. Now, she lives in the South Florida swamps, rides a Harley, and owns a private eye agency.

"You'd think a midnight prowler would have sense enough to get out after being discovered by a group of middle-aged women armed with flower vases. Or at least stop what he was doing. Not this one. Despite our menacing appearance, he kept opening cabinet doors and drawers. Our intruder wore what looked like a black Ninja outfit. It did not flatter. He was a bit chunky and not much taller than me. Nor did he move very fast as Gaynelle and I bore down on him like a freight train."

Caro Lamont, pet therapist, and her cousin Melinda Langston, owner of The Bow Wow Boutique, pamper the kitties and pooches of Laguna Beach's elites. Unfortunately, their human clients keep turning up dead.

The events of July 19, 1878, marked the beginning of what became known as the Lincoln County War and catapulted Susan McSween and a young cowboy named Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid, into the history books. The so-called war, a fight for control of the mercantile economy of southeastern New Mexico, is one of the most documented conflicts in the history of the American West, but it is an event that up to now has been interpreted through the eyes of men.

The bestselling Dixie Divas mystery series continues! Trinket and her pals are, once again, caught in the middle of a murder scene... "Professor Sturgis is dead. What I'd thought was an untidy pile of clothing tumbling out of the closet turned out to be a professor with whom Bitty had just quarreled that very morning."

The Elvis impersonators were dead ringers for the King. Very dead. Harley Jean Davidson's job as a Memphis tour guide is about to get even stranger than usual.

Memphis tour guide Harley Jean Davidson is about to enjoy a rare day off when her parents call with news that King, their border collie, has been dognapped. Harley Jean's mom insists the culprit is Bruno Jett, their next door neighbor. Harley Jean would rather run over her own foot with a motorcycle than talk to him. He's drop-dead gorgeous - with a dangerous attitude she'd like to avoid. But King has to be rescued, so she sets off to find him. Harley Jean gets more than she bargains for when she finds a body, as well. Bruno Jett is definitely involved, but how?