Showing results by author "Helen Macie Osterman" in All Categories

While 60-ish Emma Winberry and her friend, Gladys Foster, are enjoying a tour of southern Italy, they overhear a conversation by two members of the opera chorus. One of them shows his hatred of the famous tenor, Marcantonio Speranza. When Emma returns to her home in Brookfield, IL, she reads a notice in the newspaper reporting an accident to Speranza during a rehearsal. Another report of a near miss accident to Speranza convinces Emma that someone is attempting to harm the tenor.

The year is 1950. The place: Hillside State Mental Hospital. In this atmosphere of hopelessness and despair come student nurses from surrounding hospitals for their three-month psychiatric rotation. Mary Lou Hammond and Kate Stephens are two of these young girls. Mary Lou begins receiving messages from a woman who died in the previous century. She becomes obsessed with finding proof that the woman existed. Follow Mary Lou to the life-threatening climax in this frigid winter of 1950.

Eve Moore appears to have an ideal life: a lovely home, two grown children and a husband who is a good provider. Samuel Moore's alcoholism escalates and he becomes abusive. After a violent episode, she leaves. Through a mutual friend, she meets Paul Connors, a retired psychologist. They fall in love, but live 300 miles apart. Neither is willing nor able to give up their lifestyle. Can Eve and Paul sustain a meaningful long-distance relationship? Does their love transcend the limits of space?

Why do a sleazy antique dealer and a wealthy collector suddenly become interested in an unknown artist named Jo Allison? Is it the mysterious goblet she used in three still-life paintings? Jo's apartment is burglarized, and she is followed and threatened. When she attempts to determine the provenance of the goblet, she discovers that it might be a priceless artifact. Thieves follow her to Chicago and to the home of a blind woman in Riverside who also owns one of the goblets.