COZIES (WITH AN EDGE)

Stain on the Soul

A STAINED GLASS MYSTERY

Who murdered Winston Duke? Why?
His widow, Rosalind (Roz) had no answers, but to put her life back together, the internationally known stained glass artist moved to a small town on the Oregon coast.

Here, where she knew no one, she planned to use the beach, scoured by wind and water, to cleanse her soul and rebuild her creativity. That is, until one morning when her peace was smashed by the lights and sirens of emergency vehicles, and the sight of her neighbor’s bloody body being taken away. Meeting others from the town, Roz is pulled into a mystery of who the neighbor was and finds a circle of friends far removed the Los Angeles of her life with Winston.



PARANORMAL/VAMPIRES

THE KANDESKY VAMPIRE CHRONICLES: VOLUMES 1-10


SNAP: The World Unfolds: Book One of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles (Volume 1)

SNAP, a multinational celeb TV show and magazine, is the holy grail for Maxie Gwenoch. When she snags the job as managing editor, she’s looking for fame, fortune and Jimmy Choos. What she finds is a media empire owned by Baron Kandesky and his family. A family of vampires. They’re European, urbane, wealthy and mesmerizing. And when she meets Jean-Louis, vampire and co-worker, she’s a goner. </p>

The Kandesky vampire family rose in Hungary centuries ago. They gave up violence and killing to make a killing on the world’s commodities markets and with that beginning they built SNAP, an international celebrity multimedia empire. Now cultured…and having found food substitutes for killing…they’ve cornered the world market for celebrity and gossip journalism.

They haven’t fully left the past behind. Their Hungarian neighbors and rival vampire clan, the Huszars are starting to ramp up attacks, maybe looking to start a war to take over all the Kandeskys have built.

Maxie believes she’s found her ultimate career. She doesn’t realize that she’s found a family feud like none other, a centuries-old rivalry between vampire families, with her as the linchpin. Bells ring with Jean-Louis, but she doesn’t realize they’re alarm sirens until she learns that Jean-Louis is second in command of the Kandeskys…but by then it’s too late.

SNAP: New Talent (The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 2)

In the second book of the SNAP Kandesky vampire series, Maxie Gwenoch, media-savvy editor of the multinational celeb gossip magazine SNAP, is pummeled in Paris and kidnapped in Kiev as the Huszars ramp up the race to oust their centuries-old rivals, the Kandeskys.

SNAP’s owners, the Kandesky family of vampires, built the world’s most popular celeb coverage empire but this isn’t just a business take-over. These powerful vampire families lived with an uneasy peace for four centuries until Maxie came in to boost SNAP’s coverage and started making inroads into the Huszar’s traditional hunting territories.

Although Jean-Louis, Maxie’s lover, vampire and second-in-command of the Kandeskys, tries to keep her safe, Maxie is determined to do things her way, a way that may lose her her job, her love and her life.

This is a new edition.  It has been reformatted and contains additional bonus material.

PLAGUE: A Love Story (The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 3)

The third book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles begins the saga of the family’s start during the chaos of 14th century Hungary. When Stefan’s wife and infant son die in a minor plague outbreak, he has nothing to live for, so Theron’s turning him to a vampire is just a way out of his anguish

 
Until he takes over the estate of a merchant, recruits Jean-Louis to teach him business and meets Lady Penelope Kandesky.
Plague returns to Budapest and this time paves the way for Stefan to become Baron Stefan Kandesky, a businessman who builds a trading empire with the help of Jean-Louis and Pen.

DANUBE: A Tale of Murder (The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 4)

The Kandesky management trio, Stefan, Jean-Louis and Pen, find themselves embroiled in a war with their rivals, the Huszars, which is bad for PR and bad for business, but after a judicious assassination they hammer out a pact.

This fourth book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles tells of peace agreements with their rivals and the growth of their now-international business ventures.

It also follows Jean-Louis as he meets and falls in love with a young artist, Magda, who desires travel and adventure but never imagined the world the Kandeskys inhabit

SNAP: Love for Blood (The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 5)

When Maxie Gwenoch snags the job as managing editor of SNAP, an international gossip conglomerate, she’s looking for fame, fortune and Jimmy Choos. What she finds is a media empire owned by Baron Kandesky and his family. A family of vampires. They’re European, urbane, wealthy and mesmerizing. And when she meets Jean-Louis, vampire and co-worker, she’s a goner. 

Maxie believes she’s found her ultimate career. She doesn’t realize that she’s found a family feud like none other, a centuries-old rivalry between vampire families, with her as the linchpin. Bells ring with Jean-Louis, but she doesn’t realize they’re alarm sirens until she learns that Jean-Louis is second in command of the Kandeskys…but by then it’s too late.

In this fifth book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, Maxie and Jean-Louis come to deeper understandings after her rescue from Leonid, a Huszar strong-man who kidnapped and brutally abused her. They reach a separate peace against the backdrop of the death penalty trial of Huszar leader Matthais, bringing an end to centuries of war between the two vampire families.


SNAP: Happily Ever After? (The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book 6)

Loving Jean-Louis for eternity doesn’t mean that Maxie Gwenoch will let him turn her. Jean-Louis is a vampire, is gorgeous, is the second-in-command of the Kandesky Family of Hungarian vampires, and is her boss at SNAP, the multinational, multimedia celeb gossip empire where she is the VP for International Planning. She moves to Kiev to build a home with Jean-Louis and finds her future under a cloud from Leonid, a rival from the Huszar family, now living in a bolthole in the ruins of Chernobyl. Will Maxie find safety by giving up her days and joining Jean-Louis in the vampire nights?

SNAP: White Nights: Book Seven of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles

Nik, the third-in-command of the Hungarian Kandesky vampire family, has been handling the family’s interests in Czech munition factories for upwards of four hundred years. He’s been a contented bachelor, throwing himself into business until Jazz strolls into his life. Jazz is Maxie Gwenoch’s successor as the managing editor for SNAP, the international celeb gossip magazine, another Kandesky company. Maxie, Nik, Jazz and Jean-Louis, the Kandesky second-in-command, are headed to Moscow to assess the business potential for a SNAP Russian bureau, until an old enemy shows up. Set against the tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the short Russian nights teach Maxie to cherish her time with Jean-Louis while Jazz faces her own questions about loving a vampire.

SNAP: All That Jazz: Book Eight of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles (The Kandesky Vampire Chronices 8) 

Nik and Jazz, both employees of Kandesky Enterprises and passionate lovers, are having a tumultuous time. Are their differences too great? She’s a contemporary, hip, young career woman working in the fast-changing world of celebrity gossip journalism in Los Angeles. He’s a 500-year old vampire living in Kiev, Ukraine and running the Kandesky Munitions factories. She deals with celebs and sun, he deals with terrorists and dark.

Is their overpowering attraction enough to build a life-long future, or will their relationship fizzle out before Maxie’s and Jean-Louis’ wedding, dying faster than a Fourth of July sparkler?

SNAP: I, Vampire: Book Nine of The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles 

Maxie Gwenoch, LA-based media star, VP for International Planning for the multi-national gossip conglomerate, SNAP, has finally agreed to marry Jean-Louis Kandesky, a 500-year-old Hungarian vampire a leader of the family that owns SNAP.
Is marriage a big change? Not as big as the fact that Maxie is now a vampire, as well. When munitions from the Kandesky Enterprises weapons plant in Slovakia turn up at the bombing of a Royal’s house in England, Jean-Louis and his “brother,” Nik, are hot on the trail of shadowy terrorist groups dealing in international weapons sales. Are the Kandesky arms being sold to terrorists groups? Should Maxie use her new-found vampire strengths to ferret out the scum?

SNAP: Red Bear Rising: The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles Book Ten

Nik Kandesky and Jazz Fall are engaged, meaning Jazz agrees to be changed into a vampire, a dicey situation. Set against the continuing Russian incursions into Crimea and Ukraine, Jazz must dig deep into her core to find her courage and become a member of the high echelon Kandeskys, who have guided and led the family for half a millennium. Born and bred a SoCal woman, she has to swallow her fears as Nik takes on challenges that leave him injured and close to death.


MYSTERIES


Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. OK, many surprises.

From dead politicians to dead hookers, from vineyards to the lush Sacramento Delta, Hobbs is far too busy to worry about a six-letter across word that starts with ‘M’ and ends with “R”…but murder keeps cropping up. Amy was expecting to manage a newspaper not solve crimes. Destiny. A seven-letter word down that starts with ‘D’–well, you get the point. A sparkling series with just enough clues to make you think you’ve got it…but you don’t! Click on a book to purchase. And thank you!


Stand-Alone Novel

Ashes of Memories

Getting what you wish for can bring unintended circumstances.Jennifer in New York and Matt in San Francisco worry that they’re losing their memories. Jennifer from an earlier trauma and Matt while watching his father succumb to Alzheimer’s. After finding a new medical technology designed to help people with cognitive disorders, they independently track down a grey-market supply, but when they meet they find unknown terrors.