Small towns are supposed to be idyllic and peaceful, but when Kate Chambers returns to her hometown of Wheeler, Texas, she soon learns it is not the comfortable place it was when she grew up. First there's Gram's sudden death, which leaves her suspicious, and then the death of her married sister's lover. Kate runs Gram's restaurant, the Blue Plate Café, but she must defend her sister against a murder charge, solve the murders to keep her business open, and figure out where the café's profi...

Arson, a bad beating, and a recluse who claims someone is trying to kill her all collide in this third Blue Plate Café Mystery with Kate Chambers. Torn between trying to save David Clinkscales, her old boss and new lover, and curiosity about Edith Aldridge's story of an attempt on her life, Kate has to remind herself she has a café to run. She nurses a morose David, whose spirit has been hurt as badly as his body, and tries to placate Mrs. Aldridge, who was once accused of murdering her hu...

When a serial killer begins targeting older women in Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood, realtor/renovator Kelly O’Connell investigates, in spite of the pleas of her companion, policeman Mike Shandy, and her assistant, the colorful Keisha, that she stay out of it. Kelly knows a serial killer will hurt business, and she worries about the frightened old women in the neighborhood. And when Claire Guthrie, a friend and former client, shows up at Kelly’s front door announcing that she’s just s...

Kelly O’Connell never thought real estate was a dangerous profession. But while updating early-twentieth-century Craftsman houses in an older neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas, she stumbles over a skeleton and begins unraveling an old murder. The police call it a cold case, but Kelly knows she must solve the murder if she is to finish the house and sell it. She and her two young daughters quickly become the target of threats and vandalism, and someone is telling her ex-husband in Californi...

Arson, a bad beating, and a recluse who claims someone is trying to kill her all collide in this third Blue Plate Café Mystery with Kate Chambers. Torn between trying to save David Clinkscales, her old boss and new lover, and curiosity about Edith Aldridge's story of an attempt on her life, Kate has to remind herself she has a café to run. She nurses a morose David, whose spirit has been hurt as badly as his body, and tries to placate Mrs. Aldridge, who was once accused of murdering her hu...

Kelly O’Connell has her hands full: her husband Mike Shandy is badly injured in an automobile accident, developer Tom Lattimore wants to build a big-box grocery store called Wild Things in Kelly’s Fairmount neighborhood, and someone is stalking Kelly. Tom Lattimore’s pressure turns to threats when Kelly activates a neighborhood coalition to fight the project and tries to find out who is stalking her and why. Mike is both powerless to stop her and physically unable to protect her and his fa...

Dallas developer Silas Fletcher sees endless real estate opportunities in Wheeler, Texas if only he can "grow" the town. Blue Plate Café owner Kate Chambers likes her hometown just the way it is, thank you very much, without big box and chain stores. When Fletcher tries to capitalize on a thirty-year-old unsolved murder, Kate know she must fight for her town, and she uses historic preservation of the old bus depot as one of her weapons. A suspicious death and a new murder make her also fig...

When free-lance journalist Sara Jo Cavanaugh comes to Wheeler to do an in-depth study for a feature on small-town America, Kate senses she will be trouble. Sara Jo stays at the B&B, Tremont House, run by Kate's sister, Donna, and drives a further wedge int Donna's marriage to Wheeler's mayor Tom Bryson.Soon she's spending way too much time interviewing high school students, one young athlete in particular. Police chief Rick Samuels ignores Kate's instinct, but lawyer David Cinkscales, her ...

Susan Hogan is smart, pretty—and prickly—with those who love her, prickly with her academic colleagues in the English department at Oak Grove University. When a coed’s body is found in her car and she is suspected of murder, Susan gets even more defensive.But when someone begins to stalk and threaten her, prickly mixes with fear. Susan must find the killer to save her reputation—and her life. What she suspects she’s found on a quiet campus in Texas is so bizarre no one believes her...

This cookbook grew out of Alter's lifelong love of cooking, the tips and recipes of her mother, and her own experience in a tiny kitchen with no stove. You won't find the Thanksgiving feast here, but you will find recipes from appetizers to skillet suppers, with hints on how to stock the pantry. You can use these if your kitchen is tiny or as big as all outdoors.

Against the background of sparsley settled western Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century, Mattie tells the story of a pioneer woman physician. Through the years of her practice, Mattie finds romance and disappointment, battles won and loved ones lost. She endures to find a richness she could only find on the plains. A realistic portrait of life on the plains and one unforgettable woman.

When four young men sign the rental contract on a Fairmount House, realtor Kelly O'Connell has no idea she has just signed a contract for chaos. But the racial tensions sweeping the country erupt in Fort Worth, and her tenants fan the flames. A young black policeman shoots an unarmed white teenage thief who charged him, the chief of police is shot by a sniper, and Kelly's husband, Mike, is appointed interim chief of police. Life changes dramatically for Kelly and her family. Protests, thre...