Showing results by author "Amanda Ashby" in All Categories

Life in Little Shaw is as nice as pie for librarian Ginny Cole. She’s got a tentative truce with her grumpy neighbor Detective Inspector Wallace, and Sunday quiz nights at The Lost Goat with her friends (team name: The Merry Widows). Until the young quizmaster is found dead in the cellar. The police call it an accident; Ginny suspects murder. But with Wallace strangely impossible to locate and convince, she and the other widows must step—carefully, mind—into the breach.

When librarian Ginny Cole discovers a body in Little Shaw’s beloved haberdashery shop, she finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation. The victim? Arrogant shop owner and spring fete judge, Timothy Harlow, found with a pair of sewing scissors plunged into his back. While the police are quick to arrest Milos, a charming young upholsterer, Ginny thinks the case has been sewn up too neatly. Together with her friends – no-nonsense JM, craft-obsessed Hen, and irrepressible Tuppence – Ginny delves into the village’s secrets.

Sixty-year-old widow Ginny Cole thought she’d used up her life quota of bad luck. So she’s dismayed when her move to the quaint village of Little Shaw begins with finding the murdered body of rude and dislikeable library manager, Louisa Farnsworth. Has misfortune followed her cross-country? When suspicion falls on the daughter of her friend Hen, because of a perfectly innocent threatening letter, Ginny’s sure the police are letting the real killer walk free, and together with fellow widows JM, Tuppence, she’s determined to find the truth.

From the moment I met Nathan, a widower with two small children, I knew I would do anything for him. Sam and Sienna were both desperate for a mother and I knew I was perfect for them. I would raise them as my own, love them like my own. I would die for them. So when a missing teenager is found lying on the side of the road, my first through is for my precious kids. Are they home? Are they safe?

Three sisters...one secret. Ashleigh: a creative, free spirit and loyal. But Ash is tormented by her demons and a past that refuses to be laid to rest. Jessica: perfect wife and loving mother. While Jessica might seem to have it all, she lives a secret life built on lies. Grace: an outsider, has never known the love of her sisters, and her resentment can make her do bad things. When Ashleigh goes missing, Jessica and Grace do all they can to find their eldest sister. But the longer Ashleigh is missing, the more secrets and lies these women are hiding threaten to tear this family apart.

My life was perfect until she came along. Norah. Younger, prettier and about to marry my own ex-husband, they are a walking cliché. I hate her. I hate them both. She’s taken everything from me - my husband, my life, my home - but I refuse to allow her to take Cassie, my beautiful daughter. That's a step too far. Now I’ve discovered that Norah plans to have a baby of her own and that causes me no end of problems. She could destroy everything and reveal my deepest, darkest secrets. That can never be allowed to happen. No matter what it costs.

When a human skull gatecrashes her friends’ big day, it officially becomes the worst wedding Ginny Cole has ever been to. But as the assembled guests await the police, the two families staring daggers at each other across the aisle, Ginny starts to suspect that these nuptials were deliberately sabotaged. Together with her fellow widows in crime-solving, JM, Tuppence and Hen, she decides to uncover who wanted this marriage dead on arrival.

Paul Henderson leads a normal life. A deputy headteacher at a good school, a loving relationship with girlfriend Jenna and a baby on the way. Everything seems perfect. Until Paul receives a message from his ex-fiancé, Nicole. Beautiful, ambitious and fierce, Nicole is everything Jenna is not. Now it seems Nicole is back, and she has a score to settle. But Paul can’t understand how Nicole is back. Because he’s pretty sure he killed her with his own bare hands. Which means someone else knows the truth about what happened that night. And they’ll stop at nothing to make Paul pay.

After her carefully ordered world imploded, Paige Taylor cracks up. On her tenth self-help book, it seemed like a good idea at the time to reinvent herself—move from Manhattan to the tiny beachside town of St. Clair—and take over the local bookstore. But instead of discovering her spiritual Nirvana, she's neck-deep in a floundering business, the locals treat her like a plague victim, and her mom's suddenly decided to visit—with no end in sight—and keeps coming home with one surprise after the next.

Florist Laney George has a successful business, amazing friends, and big, big dreams—oh, and a broken heart. But she's working through that last one. Then the man she hoped to never see again shows up—and Laney's carefully ordered plans are experiencing technical difficulties. Celebrated Author Adam Fitzpatrick planned to be in St. Clair for no more than a day. Sign the books, and get out. Same story, different day. What he didn't count on was Laney George, who happens to be the star of his somewhat fictional tale. Now that he's seen her again, he wants answers.