Something Wicked

"Arsenic and Old Lace" may be everybody's favorite play, but someone on Broward Rock has spotted its murderous potential. When the corpses on stage in the local amateur production become real ones, bookshop owner Annie Laurance must move fast to save her fiance, Max, from a murder charge. Original.

Design for Murder

Annie is asked to stage a murder for the annual spring house tour sponsored by the Historical Society of Chastain, South Carolina. Her only problem is deciding which fictional murder to stage--until a corpse turns up in the town pond. The second Annie Laurance/Max Darling novel. Original.

Annie's Song

Catherine Anderson - Annie's Song

Alex is horrified to learn his brother forced himself on a helpless girl. Tormented by guilt, Alex marries her and intends to raise the child she carries. Soon after the wedding, Alex discovers that Annie, the "idiot" daughter of a local judge, is not mentally handicapped but deaf. As Alex learns to communicate with Annie, he awakens her unexplored self to a world of love.

Teen idol (audio only)

This predictable but wholly satisfying combination of three love stories reads like a cross between a teen sitcom and Much Ado about Nothing. Cabot has an uncanny ear for both teen dialogue and interior monologue, and she punctuates the plot with aptly selected excerpts from "Ask Annie" and instant messages. The text is peppered with pop-culture references that may date the story eventually, but which, for the moment, give it an extra jolt of immediacy.

Murder on the Menu

Annie, Eve, and their former cooking teacher are in the trenches, trying to keep a new restaurant, Bellywasher's, from going belly up.

Everything's simmering along just fine until Annie and Eve find their friend Sarah, staffer to a powerful congressman, lying dead in her tub. The cops want to write it off as a suicide, but the facts just don't add up. Then, after a series of suspicious "accidents," Annie and Eve realize that this kitchen fire isn't about to put itself out.