Old Books and Faded Dreams invites readers into the heart of Tilden, a picturesque small town nestled in Madison County, Nebraska. At the story’s core is Maggie Davis, a resilient widow navigating the complexities of loss, motherhood, and the legacy of her grand Victorian estate. The manor, both a cherished home and a once-bustling bed-and-breakfast, now echoes with memories and the laughter of her spirited nine-year-old daughter, Jenna.
The kitchen table becomes a lively stage for the town’s most colorful personalities: Maggie’s outspoken, sharp-tongued neighbor, whose provocative opinions keep everyone on their toes, and an elderly, candid family member who has recently taken up permanent residence, balancing the household with wisdom and wit.
As Maggie grapples with the shadows of her husband’s tragic passing, she finds herself drawn to a mysterious new guest whose presence stirs hope and uncertainty. The tranquility of Tilden is shattered by a shocking death and a devious plot to steal Maggie’s inheritance, casting suspicion within her own family. When a long-buried secret emerges from an attic trunk, it threatens to unravel the family’s esteemed reputation and cherished bonds.
Through heartbreak, scandal, and the healing power of friendship, Maggie and the townspeople must confront painful truths and rediscover the meaning of love and forgiveness. Old Books and Faded Dreams is a poignant, uplifting tale of community, resilience, and the enduring magic of second chances.
Anthrax to Zodiac - A Snarky PI Delves into the Most Notorious Unsolved Mysteries of the Past 150 Years by Denise Diana Huddle
Reeling from the devastation of 9/11, Americans anxiously waited for the other shoe to drop. Then the anthrax letters came, branded by the FBI as the worst biological attacks in U.S. history. Despite a lengthy and expensive investigation, no suspect was ever charged.
Six hours after Patsy Ramsey called the Boulder police and frantically reported that her daughter had been kidnapped on the day after Christmas in 1996, JonBenét Ramsey’s father cried out from the basement of their home and emerged carrying the body of his six-year-old daughter, launching one of the most notorious murder investigations of modern times. More than twenty-seven years later, no one has ever been tried for the murder.
In the summer of 1969, as the first astronaut stepped on the moon and 350,000 Americans flocked to Woodstock, the Zodiac Killer terrorized California residents, claiming his murder victims would become his slaves in the afterlife. Despite one of the longest-running investigations in California history, the killer has never been identified.
On January 15, 1947, the body of the woman known as the Black Dahlia was discovered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. The corpse had been cut in two at the waist, eviscerated, and drained of blood. The search for her killer became one of the most extensive homicide investigations in LAPD history. Despite thousands of leads and multiple confessions, the murder of Elizabeth Short has never been solved. Or has it?
Twenty-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped from the nursery of his family's New Jersey home on March 1, 1932. Bruno Hauptmann was convicted and executed, but did he act alone? Or could Charles Lindbergh himself have played a role?
On August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, were found murdered in Fall River, Massachusetts. Their daughter Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted, no one else was ever charged, and the murders remain officially unsolved.
Journey back through time from 2001 to 1892 as veteran private investigator Denise Diana Huddle brings her field-honed investigative skills and trademark snark to an in-depth examination of seven of America's most notorious unsolved mysteries.
From A to Z, Huddle lays out the events and evidence, identifies patterns, and tests theories. As disturbing details emerge, the cases you thought you knew may not be so clear-cut after all.
You be the judge... Who did it?
Hey Diddle Diddle, the Runaway Riddle: A Retired Sleuth and Dog Historical Cozy Mystery by P.C. James
Now retired, Inspector Ramsay, of Miss Riddell Cozy Mysteries fame, has adopted a dog, Bracken, and taken to hiking the highest peaks of his native lands, Scotland and England.
In the English Lake District, he and Bracken aid a young woman to escape her pursuers. She's been held captive for days before escaping. Ramsay is puzzled by this because he's heard on the radio, and read in the local papers, only that she'd run away from home. Had the kidnappers not demanded a ransom? Or were her parents and the police keeping that quiet, hoping for someone to give them a lead on where she was being held? This last didn't sit right with Ramsay, but nor did the idea that the kidnappers hadn't asked for a ransom. Ramsay begins to investigate, only to have the young woman run away from him. What's going on here in the quiet English countryside?
The Red Road - A historical fiction set in 1930s Maine by J.E. McCarthy
There is no greater duty than family.
If your brother was murdered on a dark dirt road, would you wait for justice?
When teenager Jim McGinn is killed on a dark Maine road, the police want to call it an accident, but the facts don't add up. Jim is a middle child of twelve children to a widow in depression era Maine. When his older brothers and extended family begin an investigation of their own, they soon find themselves at odds with the most powerful family in the county.
Parker Moreland is the richest man in the county. Not only because he owns more land than everyone else, but because he is the biggest bootlegger in central Maine. In 1933, prohibition is coming to an end and the last thing he needs is an investigation to hamper his operations.
Mary McGinn lost her husband with a brood of twelve children from teenagers to infants. She and the oldest boys have done their best to keep the farm alive during the midst of the great depression. But now she has to do the unthinkable and bury a child. In her mind, she wants to turn the other cheek, but in her heart, she knows that will never happen.
The Red Road pits rich against poor in a search for justice, but beyond that, it tests the limits of conscience when ordinary people are forced into extraordinary situations. Only the power of family will bring justice for Jim in book one of the McGinn Family Saga.
Hidden Histories: The Lost Mu Civilization in the Pacific Ocean by Stephanie K. L. Lam
The Lost Mu Civilization in the Pacific Ocean is a book that directly pits the enduring legend of Mu against the hard evidence of modern archaeology.
Author Stephanie K. L. Lam traces the myth of a lost Pacific civilization from its 19th-century origins through its rise in esoteric circles, and then beyond the debunking into the genuine wonders of the Pacific that the myth has long overshadowed.
Lam guides readers through the megalithic stone cities of Nan Madol and the remarkable true history of Oceania’s seafaring peoples, offering a narrative that replaces fantasy with a truth that is, as the book argues, far more compelling. The book does not simply ask what we believe about Mu it explores why we need such myths, and what humanity’s hunger for origin stories reveals about our own world.
The Secret Courtesan - historical adventure fiction by Kerry Chaput
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $1.99 (regularly $12.99) 6/29/2026 - 7/5/2026!
Art historian Mia has days to prove an unearthed erotic statue was sculpted by a courtesan erased from history—a theory no one believes and someone wants buried.
Chasing hidden clues through Venice, she unravels the life of Sofia, a 1609 courtesan who left illicit art scattered across the city—and paid for it when the couple who owned her stole her work and destroyed her world.
Now Mia knows too much. Italy's most powerful crime family wants her to authenticate the statue. Her boss may be helping them. And if she can't prove Sofia existed, they'll erase her too.
Long Lost Midwife: A Historical Thriller of Race, Secrets, and a Woman's Fight for Control by Skye Smith
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $3.99 (regularly $6.99) 6/26/2026 - 6/28/2026!
A pregnant woman trapped under constant watch risks everything to find the Black midwife she believes can save her.
Pamela Dorset has wealth, status, and a baby on the way. But behind closed doors, every decision about her body and future is controlled by others.
Desperate for answers, she begins searching for Miss Minnie, the midwife who brought her into the world. What starts as a secret act of defiance soon spirals into something far more dangerous.
Strange messages. Impossible sightings. Buried secrets that refuse to stay hidden.
As Pamela crosses racial and social boundaries she was never meant to cross, she risks her marriage, her safety, and her sanity to uncover the truth.
A gripping historical thriller filled with suspense, mystery, and psychological tension, Long Lost Midwife explores race, power, memory, and one woman's fight to reclaim control of her life.
Magda Revealed -- a historical fiction novel by Ursula Werner
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $0.99 (regularly $12.99) 6/22/2026 - 6/26/2026!
Jesus Christ—Yeshua, to his friends—is not happy. Two thousand years after his death, he sees Earth heading toward oblivion. Ever eager to save humanity, he asks Mary Magdalene (Magda) for help. Still angry that she’s been called a whore for almost two millennia, Magda resists—but ultimately, out of love for Yeshua, agrees.
Magda’s evocative story revisits Yeshua’s life, depicting him as a man of flesh and blood, one wholly devoted to spreading his message of radical equality. Magda recounts her travels with Yeshua and his followers around Galilee, where they are menaced at every turn by Roman rulers. She weaves tales of miracles and murder, jealousy and acceptance, misogyny and female empowerment. She uncovers her relationship with Yeshua, clarifying centuries of speculation about whether or not they were in love. And, painfully, she reveals the truth about who orchestrated his death.
Magda’s life with Yeshua teaches her that she has more strength than she ever imagined, and she begins to tap into a spiritual power uniquely her own—the power to connect people. Magda’s true role in the history of humanity, it turns out, is just beginning to unfold.
Talmadge Farm - a historical fiction novel by Leo Daughtry
It’s 1957, and tobacco is king.
Wealthy landowner Gordon Talmadge enjoys the lavish lifestyle he inherited but doesn’t like getting his hands dirty; he leaves that to the two sharecroppers – one white, one Black – who farm his tobacco but have bigger dreams for their own children. While Gordon takes no interest in the lives of his tenant farmers, a brutal attack between his son and the sharecropper children sets off a chain of events that leaves no one unscathed. Over the span of a decade, Gordon struggles to hold on to his family’s legacy as the old order makes way for a New South.
“Talmadge Farm” is a sweeping drama that follows three unforgettable families navigating the changing culture of North Carolina at a pivotal moment in history. A love letter to the American South, the novel is a story of resilience, hope, and family – both lost and found.
The Montana Gold Mine (Jubilee Walker Book 4) -- a historical fiction by Tim Piper
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $0.99 (regularly $4.99) 5/25/2026 - 5/29/2026!
In Spring 1874, the American economy is descending into a depression, following the collapse of Jay Cooke’s financial empire. Amid the chain of bank and business failures set off by Cooke’s bankruptcy, Jubilee Walker struggles to keep Warner and Walker Outfitters solvent. Jubil’s grand plans for developing Yellowstone National Park into a popular tourist destination were dashed when Cooke’s business plan failed, but he is still determined to fulfill the park’s potential—not to mention his promise to his friend White Dog to end the corruption affecting the well-being of the people living on the Crow reservation.
When Jubil solicits support from the highest levels of government, he sets off a chain of events that puts not only him but the ones he loves most in grave danger. What is the nature of the secret Jubil’s nemesis is hiding? And how far will he go to protect it?
Color of Fire - A Sweeping Caribbean Saga / Dark Historical Fiction by Gina Giordano
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $0.99 (regularly $3.99) 5/15/2026 - 5/17/2026!
Nassau, 1794: After the devastating capture of her husband, Eliza Sharpe must make a deal with the devil himself, Captain Hiram Bruin, a man more pirate than privateer. Just how deep do the roots of revenge lie? Find out in the epic, thrilling conclusion to the STRANGE EDEN series.
Love in the Morning Calm by Judythe Morgan
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $0.99 (regularly $2.99) 5/11/2026 - 5/18/2026!
Between war and women’s liberation, one woman seeks her own freedom.
In the turbulent ’60s, preacher’s daughter Lily Reed heads to South Korea searching for freedom far from small-town expectations. Instead, she falls for the one man she shouldn’t—Green Beret Major Alex Cabot, a rising Army officer with everything to lose. In a world shadowed by war and uncertainty, one forbidden love will change them both forever.
The Second Signature: An Edmund Finch Art Forgery Mystery - a cozy art forgery mystery by Edward Ellis
The Second Signature: An Edmund Finch Art Forgery Mystery is a clue-driven cozy mystery set in the world of museum conservation, Dutch Golden Age painting, and wartime provenance.
Houston, 1974. Edmund Finch is a senior conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, a man whose life is built around routine, precision, and the patient study of surfaces. He is not a detective. He does not chase danger. He examines paintings, records what he sees, and trusts that enough attention will eventually reveal the truth.
When a seventeenth-century Dutch market scene arrives in his studio for restoration, Edmund expects a difficult but ordinary conservation project: darkened varnish, surface grime, old repairs, and the familiar uncertainties of attribution. The painting has long been catalogued as the work of an artist in the circle of Jan van Kessel the Elder — valuable, interesting, but not especially mysterious.
Then Edmund finds a pigment that should not be there.
A section of the sky contains titanium white, a modern material that could not belong to a painting from the 1600s. What first seems like a technical irregularity soon becomes something stranger and more deliberate. The painting is not simply damaged, misattributed, or poorly restored. Someone has left evidence inside it, and the evidence points back to 1943.
With the help of his friend Victor Holm, an art historian at Rice University, Edmund begins to follow the trail through archives, old records, provenance files, and the evidence held in the painting itself. The deeper he looks, the clearer it becomes that the forgery was not made simply to deceive. It was made to preserve something.
For readers who enjoy atmospheric mysteries without graphic violence, The Second Signature offers a slower, more thoughtful investigation, one built on observation, patience, art history, and the small details other people miss.
A cozy art mystery for readers who enjoy museum settings, historical secrets, provenance puzzles, no graphic violence, no explicit sex, and a methodical male protagonist who solves mysteries by looking more closely than anyone else.
This Thing of Darkness - historical fiction and horror book by Allan Batchelder
Free book promotion on Amazon 3/3/2026 - 3/7/2026!
Shakespeare fakes his death to escape a troubled marriage and the burdens of celebrity and sails for the New World, where he must grapple with paranoid settlers, mercurial natives, and a monster out of legend.
The Golden Promise of Cripple Creek - intense time travel historical by Mary Ellen Johnson
Social media influencer Maeve Mooney has one goal in life: to marry a rich politician. Not because she loves him, but because Maeve’s decided that, at twenty-nine, she’s worked long enough. After her plans, along with her reputation, end in disgrace, Maeve decides to hide away at the family ranch—only to tumble down an abandoned mine shaft to awaken in the world’s greatest gold camp.
Although 1901 Cripple Creek glitters with opera houses, fancy hotels, $250 a night brothels and instant millionaires, miners toil underground in dangerous conditions for wages that barely sustain their families. As resentments build, the Western Federation of Miners prepares to fight for recognition, dignity, and the chance for a better life.
Maeve, a talented piano player, begins entertaining wealthy businessmen with songs that won’t be written for decades, though her sympathies increasingly rest with the miners. She is particularly drawn to charismatic labor leader Ronan Doyle.
While Ronan’s heart belongs to the union, Maeve is determined to change that.
When a strike is called in August 1903, Colorado’s governor sends in both the National Guard and the state militia. Soldiers flood the streets. Martial law is declared. Suspension of habeas corpus. Hundreds arrested, including children. As the Colorado Labor Wars ignite into one of the most brutal conflicts in American history, Maeve stands squarely with the workers--even while knowing the outcome. In a matter of months Cripple Creek will be reduced to ruins, the Western Federation of Miners annihilated, and Ronan Doyle will disappear from the history books.
Maeve begs Ronan to return with her to the 21st century where they can build a life together. But can a man who’s devoted his life to a cause, forsake it--even for the woman he loves?
Storykeeper: Epic Historical Saga of Destruction and Survival in 16th Century America by Daniel A. Smith
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $0.99 (regularly $4.99) 2/18/2026 - 2/24/2026!
The first recorded Europeans to cross the Mississippi River reached the western shore on June 18, 1541. Hernando De Soto and his army of three hundred and fifty battle-hardened conquistadors spent the next year and a half conquering the nations in the fertile flood-plains of eastern Arkansas.
Three surviving sixteenth-century journals written during the expedition detailed a complex array of twelve different nations. Each had separate beliefs, languages, and interconnected villages with capital towns comparable in size to European cities of the time.
Through these densely populated sites, the Spanish carried a host of deadly old-world diseases, a powerful new religion, famines and wars. During this short timeframe, ninety to ninety-five percent of the existing population perished according to current estimations.
Hernando De Soto died in the land he ravaged and plundered, disillusioned that he could not find the gold and great treasures he had promised his army. The surviving war-weary conquistadors under constant attacks fled down the Mississippi River on hastily built barges.
No other Europeans ventured into this land until French explorers arrived one hundred and thirty years later. They found nothing of the vibrant people, the flourishing societies, or the grand cities that the Spanish had so vividly described.
A hundred cold winters passed since the Son-of-the-Sun (their name for De Soto) and his conquistadors arrived with war and destruction. Manaha, Mother-of-None steps before the village fire of the small tribe of survivors. Rejecting long-held taboos, the old woman demands that the tribe allow the children to hear her passed-down stories about their ancient, abandoned homeland and the time of the Great Dying.
Before Manaha can finish her first story, an angry tribal leader douses her fire and frightens her young listeners into the night. Friends shun her and tribal elders threaten banishment. Manaha refuses to stop for those few children who come to listen while hiding the shadows. The only hope that the unique history and stories, the last remaining essence of a forgotten people, will survive lies with one unlikely Storykeeper.
Marie Conner, A Leading Lady: Her Life and Civic Leadership in a Bygone Era - historical biography by Elle Mott
"Wow, this book is such a delight! It tells the incredible story of Marie Conner, an amazing woman whose life had me hooked from the very start. As a businesswoman and community volunteer in Lebanon, Oregon, I felt a real connection to her journey. I recognized names that begat generations of hard working, generous people.
Marie’s blend of business savvy and commitment to helping others is truly inspiring. The author does a fantastic job of painting a vivid picture of Marie’s day-to-day life, making you feel like you’re right there with her, experiencing all the ups and downs. This book is a beautiful reminder of how one person can make a difference, and it’s perfect for anyone who loves stories about community spirit and dedication. Definitely worth a read!”
Jennifer Stewart Grove
Entertainment Chair of the Lebanon Strawberry Festival
Woman of the Year, 2019, Lebanon, Oregon.
This historical biography is for you if you ever question why there are so many problems in society and what you can do to truly make life better for everyone. If Marie Conner could do it, so can we. Although her true story takes place in bygone days, it is relevant today given the unsettling stories that infiltrate our news.
Newly released book:
Marie Conner, A Leading Lady: Her Life and Civic Leadership in a Bygone Era.
Mrs. Wallenberg - a historical romance by J. Michael Dolan
Free book promotion on Amazon on 2/5/2026!
Though this tour de force of historical fiction opens in 1997, Dolan quickly whisks you back to a time befitting the genre. Her health failing, the aged if still feisty Dutchwoman Berber Smit recalls the sizzling love affair she had in Budapest half a century earlier with the greatest hero of the Holocaust, the Swedish diplomat to the capital Raoul Wallenberg.
Nor does she end her story there. Having joined him in not only bed but, to her growing peril, in his mission to wrest Hungary's last surviving Jews from the clutches of a blood-crazed Adolf Eichmann, Berber gives an insider's account of what made Raoul the legend he is today.
The first in-depth work of fiction yet, not to mention the most entertaining, about the man who out-Schindlered Schindler in both the number of lives saved and the price he paid for it.
"Bold, erotic, dripping with emotion, the adventure novel Mrs. Wallenberg delivers a heady blend of history most people have never heard of, sex they might not have thought of. A true-life tale of unparalleled courage laced with uncensored desire." --- New In Books
The Eye of Nefertiti: A Pharaoh's Cat Novel, a tragic-comic historical fantasy by Maria Luisa Lang
This book is free on Amazon!
Now a New Yorker, the Pharaoh’s cat--the ancient Egyptian feline with human powers--travels back in time to free Egypt’s legendary Queen Nefertiti from a horrific curse, discovering firsthand why her mummy has never been found and her famous bust is missing one eye.
As in the first Pharaoh’s cat novel, the cat is quick-witted, wisecracking narrator as well as free-spirited, ever-curious protagonist, and the story he tells is an exotic, imaginative, spell-binding tragicomedy. The Eye of Nefertiti also interweaves feline and human, past and present, natural and supernatural. It too contains numerous surprises, twists and turns, intriguing characters, both human and animal, fascinating revelations about ancient Egyptian history and culture. Added to all this is an ingenious use of the Tarot and Italian opera.
The Pharaoh's Cat - a historical fantasy book by Maria Luisa Lang
This book is free on Amazon!
Suddenly talking and walking upright, a stray tomcat in ancient Egypt becomes the young Pharaoh’s intimate and, when accused of his murder, time travels to New York City and learns how to raise him from the dead.
The cat is quick-witted, wisecracking narrator as well as free-spirited, ever-curious protagonist, and the story he tells is an exotic, imaginative, spell-binding tragicomedy. The novel interweaves feline and human, past and present, natural and supernatural. It contains numerous surprises, twists and turns, intriguing characters, both human and animal, fascinating revelations about ancient Egyptian history and culture.









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