The story takes us back in time to when Blade, Hickok and Geronimo were just teenagers. A young 16-year-old Blade and his friends are off on a little adventure. The journals of their founder Kurt Carpenter mention that a recluse millionaire built a castle fifteen miles from the Home. The young boys are on an adventure to explore and find out if the castle still exists. They do indeed find that the castle is still standing and inhabited. Angus Morlock is the descendent of the millionaire Morey Morlock. He lives with his son a big dumb simpleton named Elphinstone and his wife/daughter Endora. (The Morlocks have a family history of incest that dates back centuries.) They also have to deal with the servants of Morlock called serfs, descendants of survivors enslaved and now are little more than congenital idiots. They also must deal with Grell a mutant bear that was raised from a cub by the Morlocks. Now the young boys get their baptism of fire as warriors. This was a change of pace in giving us a story from Blades youth. I suppose that during this time it was in vogue to go back to when characters were young. Muppet babies and Scooby-Doo kids come to mind. Indeed, this story is sort of a Scooby-Doo after the apocalypse. You have a spooky old castle with all sorts of traps and secret passages. A ten-foot mutant monster with red eyes. And of course, the creepy inhabitants lead by an inbred madman.
Samantha Sweet is back at Sweet's Sweets, her bakery with a magical flair, while husband Beau is now a full-time rancher. When he hires a young cowboy to help out, no one suspects that Danny Flores comes with a lot of baggage until Lila, the girl he left behind, shows up. She says she has romance on her mind, but Danny finds her manipulative and domineering. He changed his number and moved out of state, but she has managed to track him down. Beau and Sam wish Danny all the best, but there isn't a lot they can do. But then Lila is murdered and the most damning clue, the words Sweet Dreams, point to Danny. Sam doesn't want a mystery to solve-she's ready for cozy time with her young granddaughter. Plus, she and Kelly have been cooking up some new mischief, discovering that the strange book with the rune-like writing actually contains something magical. As Danny's situation gets worse, Sam realizes no one else, except maybe Eliza the calico cat, is going to help her solve the murder. Plus, Sam is more than a little involved, since it might have been a potion she and Kelly brewed up from the magic book that got Danny into this jam in the first place.
Charlie is alone in the office when a teen girl comes in, wanting to hire RJP Investigations to find her mom, who vanished without a trace years ago. The clues were sparse at the time, and the old police file doesn't have much that can help Charlie with the search. The problem for young Cassie is that the grandmother who has raised her is now dying and Cassie's life is about to be upended. All that's holding her together is the belief that her mom is out there somewhere. Meanwhile, Charlie's neighbor Elsa may have a boyfriend! Or not. Iris, a friend from her church is trying to set her up with a buddy of the new hunk she's dating. But Charlie smells scam all over this deal. Now she just has to keep an eye on both Elsa and her friend ... at the same time she's on the clock with her new missing persons case. Charlie sees so many parallels to her own teen years and her heart goes out to Cassie. Knowing she has mere weeks to find answers the police couldn't uncover in years ...well, the pressure is on!
A cryptic message in a fortune cookie sends Charlie again to England, to visit her favorite aunt. She's having lunch in a local café when construction workers come upon a human skeleton behind a wall. The police are called to a more urgent case, so Charlie begins sleuthing around on a cold-case crime website, only to discover Aunt Louisa was one of those questioned when the victim disappeared. Can she save her aunt from arrest, or will the real killer come after them both?
Women are flocking to invest in film producer Robert Williams' latest project, and Gracie's mother is no exception. She has sunk her life savings into his latest movie investment scheme. Big returns were promised, along with the chance to hobnob with famous actors. Now, the money's gone, the bank is threatening foreclosure, and Mama has also taken on the responsibility of Gracie's younger sister and her two kids. Left homeless, the whole brood may be showing up at Gracie's door! As the Heist Ladies investigate, they learn the film's producer is a fake, a crooked, dirty rat, and the legal system is doing nothing to help. That's when they decide they're going to take him down!
Samantha Sweet's life is a little crazy right now, beginning with her daughter's wedding, which coincides with Sam's receiving a huge new contract for her chocolate factory. The day after the wedding someone takes a shot at Sam and she discovers the bad guys are back. OSM's henchman, Marcus Fitch, who showed up in Taos once before, is more determined than ever to get his hands on the carved box that gives Sam her unusual powers. But as the sheriff's department investigates the shooting, it seems Fitch has an airtight alibi. Meanwhile, Sam's daughter is honeymooning in England where she and her new husband discover some interesting clues that connect to home. As Kelly learns of her mother's secrets, she is pulled into the world of the magical artifacts in ways no one could have foreseen. And Sam discovers that her own world is about to change-forever.
Charlie and Drake are working a helicopter job in rural Maine when a man approaches and asks for their help. At first glance, it seems he's just an old man who needs to get to his son's remote cabin in the woods. But the cabin holds more secrets than Fergus McNab will admit, and it isn't until Charlie returns to Albuquerque that she discovers they may have just aided and abetted a criminal who has escaped the law back home. The secrets get twistier, the more she looks into the ten-year-old case where Rory McNab, facing a life in prison, seemed to vanish from the reach of the law. Just as Charlie is thinking she should report McNab's whereabouts, there's a murder that seems to rock the foundation of the old case. And Charlie is in handcuffs, caught in the middle.
The weather turns to spring, and Charlie faces a pair of puzzles. Against Charlie's better judgment Ron, her PI partner, takes a cheating-spouse case that turns into a comedy of errors involving a star football player and his wife's petty vengeance. Meanwhile, Charlie's neighbor Elsa has a bad feeling about a family up the street. Is it a case of the neighborhood busybody having too much time on her hands, or is there truly something sinister happening with twin teen girls who've been left with too much money and not enough supervision? Charlie finds herself remembering what her own teen years were like as she tries to decipher what the twins are up to.
It's a freezing January day when Samantha Sweet finds herself facing the unpleasant task of going back to her old job of breaking into houses. Meanwhile, a customer who's just a little bit too nice seems to be worming her way into Jen's confidence. Sheriff Beau, on the other hand, is dealing with a car-crash-turned-murder, and somehow it all seems to tie together in a great big sticky situation.
Sandy Werner's longtime client walks into Desert Trust Bank, clearly down on her luck. Sandy is shocked to find Mary Holbrook's once-hefty account is down to less than $200. Mary worked alongside her husband for years to build a successful business, but when she wasn't looking, all their money vanished; and Clint found himself a cute new wife. Abandoned, Mary might be homeless, but she certainly isn't helpless. She teams up with Sandy and her friends who call themselves the Heist Ladies. It's their mission to see justice done, and Clint Holbrook is the perfect guy to do it to. The ladies discover a huge shell game and track the deceitful ex to the other side of the world, determined to win back Mary's financial security as well as her self-esteem. But Clint Holbrook has even more ominous problems involving Chinese mobsters, and he's willing to take drastic measures to avoid being caught. Will the women catch up with him, or will his deadlier foes get him first?
A nearly flawless museum robbery, a missing million-dollar necklace, a stalled investigation. For the victim of the crime, the situation calls for desperate measures, and spunky 72-year-old Pen Fitzpatrick isn't going to sit by and do nothing. When the police have a dozen excuses why they can't solve the crime, Pen does the only thing she can do-gather a group of friends to help catch the crooks and steal back the necklace. They call themselves The Heist Ladies. It becomes apparent the thief is a master con man who is likely working with an international theft ring. The chase takes the Ladies far from home and into elegant European enclaves as they attempt to face him down. Close calls and near misses-it's never quite certain whether the women will be able to pull their own spectacular heist and see justice done.
Now that Samantha Sweet has a contract to provide her special handmade chocolates for the wealthy jet-set clients of Book It Travel, Sweet's Sweets bakery is taking on a whole new dimension. Only problem, Sam isn't ready. It's almost Halloween, her pastry shop is bursting at the seams and she needs extra employees but there is no place to put them. Right before the witching day, she comes upon a large Victorian house she can adapt for the business, and it seems her problem is solved. But is it? The mysterious, spooky noises at night are way more than the normal creaks and groans of an old building. Something else is going on and Sam suspects it may be related to her husband's newest case, investigating where an abandoned duffle bag crammed full of cash came from. Beau is dealing with a greedy reward-seeker, a robbery with no leads, and a waif who appears and vanishes. Sam's mystery has her watching for ghosts and working almost around the clock. Is she relying on magic?-well, occasionally.
