Murder In Volume

In 1868, Comanche warrior Spotted Tongue finds his second wife's body in Palo Duro Canyon, murdered by one of his fellow Comanche. To spill the blood of Spotted Tongue's wife is a forbidden act. Comanches do not murder other Comanches, and Little Flower became a Comanche when Spotted Tongue married her. But Little Flower was a white captive first, and many of the Comanche still despise her. But who hated her enough to break a taboo by murdering her. Spotted Tongue vows to track down the murderer and exact his own revenge. In the present, Megan Clark and members of the Murder by the Yard Reading Circle are enjoying a picnic in Palo Duro Canyon. When Megan's two beagles escape and dig up a blue shirt filled with bones, she and reading group find themselves involved in another murder case, much to Dr. Ryan Stevens' horror. The situation escalates when Megan discovers another body next to her beagles' discovery, this one the mummy of a long-dead woman. As Spotted Tongue searches for a murderer in 1868, so does Megan in the present day. The two detectives, separated by time and race, each confront a killer, so that the two victims may find peace.

Planning to write a paper for Smithsonian Magazine on the cultural significance of string figures, such as Cat's Cradle, librarian and unemployed paleopathologist Dr. Megan Clark has a wonderful idea that will help her with her research. She will organize a convention and invite all the members of the International String Figure Association to attend. She invites the Murder by the Yard Reading Circle to forgo discussing mysteries and help her with her convention. The membership, eccentrics all, and recently introduced to making string figures themselves by Megan, enthusiastically agree, even Ryan Stevens, history professor and Megan's best friend. Ryan mainly agrees because he sees no way that Megan can get into trouble at a string figure convention. What's the worse that can happen? She gets tangled up in her own string? When a long-lost manuscript about string figure art is offered for silent auction by a greedy and very unpleasant conventioneer, Ryan discovers that Megan Clark can attract murder like a magnet attracts metal files, and that certain string figures can be lethal.

Ivy Appleford is not a diva.  Most librarians aren't.
But for once in her life, she's breaking all the rules.
Take Tariq Zahid.  In fact, that's the main problem:  she wants to take him.  He's tall, dark, and handsome, but off-limits in so many ways.  First of all, she just broke up with her professor boyfriend.  Everyone knows you shouldn't scoop a new guy up on the rebound.  Someone's bound to get hurt. 
But she literally falls at his feet during his Mediterranean cooking class, thanks to borrowed shoes and a little mutt named Jerry, and they can't keep their hands off each other.
Tariq's got problems of his own.  His catering business is on its last loan.  What's more, the loan is from his parents, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan and devoted their lives to him. Shouldn't Tariq retreat to the safe world of computer programming, marry a good Muslim gal, and set up an RRSP?
Instead, he falls in love with Ivy.
Will Tariq and Ivy live--and eat--happily ever after?

This short story is over 4,600 words and suitable for any age.  I hope you find the offbeat characters both amusing, and the story entertaining and romantic.  Helen Keating.

The Librarian & The Rare Book Collector, is a story about an off-the-wall librarian in a small town who discovers that one of her rare books is missing.  She suspects that a rare book theft ring is involved but learns who the real culprits are when a visiting antiquities and book collector collaborates with her.  It ends up being a lot more than trying to find out who stole the book as they learn about the equally as quirky town inhabitants, both living and passed on, and the supposedly haunted mansion next door to her own humble home.

With This Child…

She'd dreamed of finding a hero like those she'd read about. So when prim librarian Claire Cooper encountered Nate Callahan, she nearly swooned! The detective was not only devastatingly handsome, he was heroically searching for a missing orphan-a little boy she loved, too. And now Claire had a new wish….

I Thee Wed?

Somehow sweet Claire had turned Nate's latest assignment into a gut-level longing for the home he didn't dare dream of. But since locating the boy-and promising to find him a real family-the brooding and lonely man wondered if partnering with Claire would lead him to the best kept secret of all….

When Wild Horse Lake dries up due to drought, an old 1938 Ford surfaces to present a puzzle to Megan Clark, assistant librarian and unemployed paleopathologist, that she can't resist. When the skeleton of a homicide victim is found buried between the walls of an old laundry on Sixth Street, Megan is sure there is a connection to the old Ford. Excited by the possibility of tracking down the connection, as well as uncovering the murderer, Megan asks her mystery readers discussion group for help. To her surprise the group refuses except for Randal Anderson and his obsessive-compulsive girlfriend, Candi, not Megan's first choices for assistants. The question becomes: what is the rest of the members hiding and why. If the old skeleton and its murderer isn't enough, Megan stumbles over another dead body. Sergeant Schroder doesn't believe the same person could find so many murdered bodies without having something to do with their unfortunate demise. When Megan discovers two more bodies, all obviously killed by the same person, who leaves a message scratched on the forehead of each, Schroder is ready to read Megan her Miranda warning and arrest her. All the murders occur on Sixth Street, all occur the nights the mystery discussion group meets, and all occur when Megan's alibis are shaky. Meanwhile, a resident at a local retirement home is watching Megan's activities closely. The resident doesn't care about a possible serial killer loose on Sixth Street, but is very interested in Megan's involvement with the skeleton. Megan, in the meantime, is disillusioned because it is becoming clear that not only is the serial killer probably a member of the Murder by the Yard Reading Circle, but so is whoever buried the skeleton in the old laundry.