Showing results by narrator "Margaret Strom" in All Categories

Molly's been handed the reins for this year's creative retreat - an exhilarating weekend out on the Monterey Peninsula, complete with crochet classes. Unfortunately for one teacher, though, the breathtaking scenery is where she'll take her last breath. Now Molly will have to find a new instructor, and, if she can squeeze it in, solve this murder - with the help of her pals from the Tarzana Hookers.

Merry's career as a New York City stylist has crumbled, but her passion for muffins has helped her rise upstate in Autumn Vale. Everyone in town loves the tasty treats. Still, she would like to return to her glamorous life. Besides, the upkeep of Wynter Castle is expensive, and Merry's cup isn't exactly overflowing. So in order to bring some prospective buyers into the mix, Merry whisks together a spooky soiree and decorates the castle with dashes of fabric and a sprinkling of spiderwebs.

Her crochet group, The Tarzana Hookers, is working overtime for the holidays - but Molly Pink is having trouble finding time to crochet so much as a snowflake. The bookstore where she works is adding a yarn department and planning a huge launch party where the mysterious author of a popular series will reveal his or her true identity. But before the author appears, another person disappears. The husband of Molly's neighbor is missing. When a suicide note arrives, it appears the husband has jumped off the Catalina Ferry - but Molly smells something fishy.

With two yarn retreats in the bag, Casey Feldstein is looking forward to running her third one at Cadbury by the Sea's Vista Del Mar hotel on the Monterey Peninsula. This time, each knitter will get a Mystery Bag of knitting materials to turn into a personal project. But Casey gets tangled up in another retreat at the same hotel, when the organizer and his wife have a very public spat.

There's nothing the Tarzana Hookers love more than doing a good deed. They're so preoccupied with crocheting and selling scarves, teddy bears, and blankets to raise money for the local park that they don't even notice the brown paper bag at the end of the table - until it's too late to find its owner. Unable to resist a good mystery, they open the bag and find a note that speaks of remorse, a diary entry of the sorrow of parting, and a complicated piece of filet crochet that offers an obscure clue in pictures.

Knitting and crocheting books are selling like crazy at the bookstore where Molly works, so to keep the customers coming, she sets up a series of classes where the Tarzana Hookers can pass on their skills to others: a Yarn University. The only problem is the teacher of the most popular seminar—Sheila—is getting a massive case of stage fright about being in front of a crowd.

Dessert chef Casey Feldstein is running a new retreat called From Sheep to Shawl at a resort on the atmospheric Monterey Peninsula. Participants will learn about sheep-shearing, fixing up the fleece, and spinning, and will eventually knit a lovely shawl. Nicole Welton has been hired to teach the fleece-to-fiber portion of the retreat. She's an expert spinner, and her small shop in Cadbury by the Sea houses a beautiful assortment of spinning wheels and drop spindles.

When a charismatic life coach and his devoted followers descend on Vista Del Mar, Casey Feldstein and the yarn retreat group she's hosting literally get pushed aside, out of sight and out of mind of the struggling participants seeking enlightenment. But Casey can't help overhearing the rancorous argument between two members of the guru's staff, and when one of them turns up dead after ingesting poisonous mushrooms, Casey finds herself tangled up in a murder investigation while the self-help group looks on helplessly.

Whenever Amy McCready mentions the "entitlement epidemic" to a group of parents, she is inevitably met with eye rolls, nodding heads, and loaded comments about affected children. It seems everywhere one looks, there are preschoolers who only behave in the grocery store for a treat, narcissistic teenagers posting selfies across all forms of social media, and adult children living off their parents. Parenting expert Amy McCready reveals in this book that the solution is to help kids develop healthy attitudes in life.

Guiding Rory through crocheting-for-beginners will have to wait, as Molly suddenly has to untangle the mysterious death of a new Tarzana Hookers member. Marianne Freeman and her live-in companion, Connie Richards, haven't exactly been gabby since they joined the Hookers, but Connie's voice is silenced permanently when she is electrocuted while walking on a wet lawn—electrified by an old radio plugged into a faulty extension cord.

Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers are busy crocheting baby blankets for charity, but before long, they're tangled up in a mystery that may be their unraveling. The Hookers are a tight-knit group, but some of the members harbor secret aspirations. Adele dreams of becoming an actress, and her acting coach has filled her head with promises of a career as a crochet show host. Elise Belmont has earned her real estate license and is itching to show her first house. When the house's tenant turns up dead from a pink squirrel cocktail laced with cyanide, the Hookers could be in double treble.

For my birthday, my best friends Gilly and Pippa signed us up for a weekend at the Central Midwest Spa Convention. Yay. Massages, fine dining, maid service, and best of all, as long as we attend a few workshops, the weekend is a tax write-off. It should be all sunshine and roses, right? Wrong. My former intern at Belliza Beauty aka the Job Stealer, Carmen Carraway, is a featured presenter. Yuck. Throw in an ex-boyfriend, a number one fan, a brewing scandal, and a dead body, and my relaxing birthday weekend is DOA.

When my scratch-n-sniff psychic gift acts up, and it sniffs out an actual murderous plot, our fun outing takes a totally deadly turn. My scent-o-rama is spazzing out to the max! The clues are in the past, and we're racing against the clock to turn back time. But with my nose for clues and a little luck, hopefully, we can find a killer before school's out for murder.

These are the dog days of August, but you won't catch the Tarzana Hookers crochet club napping. While Molly Pink knits together an idea for a new project, Miami Wilson busily converts a house she inherited into a rental property. But Miami is left shorthanded when Sloan Renner, the woman helping her clean out the house ends up dead under a pile of smelly seafood.

Molly and her friends can't wait to get people hooked on crochet at the annual SoCal Knit Style Show. This year, for the first time ever, the knitting show also features crochet, including crochet classes and a crochet competition. The show's organizer is K. D. Kirby, publisher of several knitting magazines and owner of an elite Beverly Hills yarn store. Concern when K. D. doesn't show up for the opening reception turns into shock when she's found dead in her hotel suite.

When a typically closed-off Peg attempts online dating at Rose's strong urging, the experience plays out like an embarrassing mistake. At least, until she matches with Nolan Abercrombie—intelligent, attractive, and a self-proclaimed dog lover. The two share an instant connection that has Peg cautiously excited to finally bring someone special into her busy world of Standard Poodles and conformation shows.

My name is Nora Black, and I'm 51 years young. At least that's what I tell myself, when I'm not having hot flashes; my knees don't hurt; and I can find my reading glasses. I'm also the proud owner of a salon called Scents & Scentsability in the small resort town of Garden Cove, where I make a cozy living selling handmade bath and beauty products. All in all, my life is pretty good. Except for one little glitch.

Casey Feldstein has her hands full with preparations at the Vista Del Mar hotel on the scenic Monterey Peninsula as another yarn retreat begins. The retreaters will be thrown for a loop this time, learning the trendy art of arm knitting and finger crocheting. But not everyone is enthusiastic about trying something new, and Casey is forced to come up with an alternative craft for her less adventurous pupils. Things go from worst to worsted when a travel writer from a neighboring retreat group is found dead in his room among a sea of feathers.

Prison abolition and decarceration are increasingly debated, but it is often without taking into account the largest exodus of people from carceral facilities in the 20th century: the closure of disability institutions and psychiatric hospitals. Decarcerating Disability provides a much-needed corrective, combining a genealogy of deinstitutionalization with critiques of the current prison system.

My name is Nora Black. I'm over 50 and loving it. I've embraced the aches and pains, the failing vision, and the new slightly odoriferous physic gift that seems to keep on giving. My latest smell-o-vision adventure includes a deadly snake, a high-drama baby shower, sibling secrets, and - surprise - a murder. With my two BFFs, my sweetie cop, and a whole bunch of nutty Garden Covians by my side, we'll sniff out the killer. But if we're not careful, we'll come out smelling like...manure. Forget roses, honey. This aroma with a view is starting to stink.