Shadow The Books

Chasing Shadows is a mystery that will compel you.
Shelby gets a job at a restaurant. Then a waitress, Nadine, goes missing. This book will grip you as Shelby finds the clues that will lead to where Nadine is. Who took Nadine, and why? Read Chasing Shadows to find out. Chasing Shadows is a great installment to the Shelby Belgarden mysteries. I've read the other ones, and they are mysteries worth your while. I suggest reading every book in the series.

Chasing Shadows is one of the most awesome mysterys I ever read. It kept me turning pages and guessing but when Shelby solved the case I was totaly surprised. Lover's of whodunnits will be amazed at the job the author did with this book.

Every year we like to add a few Christmas books to our collection. This was a touching story, although a sad one for Christmas. We loved the illustrations.

You need to get this book for Christmas! It will give you the Christmas Spirit and it will touch your heart. This book also makes a great holiday gift!

Also recommended: Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voicesby John Allen. This story will make you cry...and ultimately give you comfort.

Full of twists and turns, suspense and sensitivity and good versus evil. Uniquley written with credible dialogue between the characters and God. An exciting read for all ages.

Hey Rachel, it's Elder Kerr (do you remember me and Elder Kelley?). I saw your book on here and I'd thought that I'd tell everyone to get it!

So, buy this book! She's a cool person and deserves to have lots of sales!

Rowena Graham inherits the home and restaurant of her sister Claudia after Claudia’s apparent suicide, but isn’t convinced that her sister would have committed suicide. Claudia quickly leaves behind her old life as head librarian after remodeling the house that hadn’t been changed since they were children. Claudia goes to work in the upscale restaurant, wears her sister’s expensive designer clothes and shoes and drives her Mercedes.

Rowena’s relationship with Claudia had always been turbulent; Claudia was unpredictable, self-centered and often cruel. After Rowena discovers Claudia’s habit of videotaping her ... antics with a string of lovers, Rowena is even more suspicious that one of the lovers might have been involved in her death. Claudia’s former therapist, with whom she claimed she had been having an affair, takes an interest in Rowena but she is reluctant to pursue the relationship with him and somewhat suspicious of his motives.

As the secrets, lies and distortions of her family life gradually unravel, Rowena is even more disturbed with her sister and deceased, alcoholic mother. Rowena had been made to feel for years that she was the plain, ugly unsuccessful sister. Her mother lied to the children for years about the disappearance of their father after the divorce when Rowena was 7.

The book explores the devastating effects of FAE – Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. With the support of some wonderful friends, Rowena starts to get her life back on track and eventually solves the mystery of Claudia’s death. As in other books by Charlotte Vale Allen, you feel you know the characters so well that they have become part of your family, and you are reluctant to leave them behind when the book ends.

I recently discovered Charlotte Vale Allen by reading "Illusions", one of her older novels. I become so deeply meshed in the story that I literally wept at the end. I was emotionally drained and in a daze! She has a way of getting inside a woman's psyche. You know in your soul that she is an expert on the subjects about which she writes. "Claudia's Shadow" follows the theme that you just never really know a person, not even your own sister. I was captivated until the very end. I highly recommend her books. I'm working my way through all them. I've not been disappointed yet and I'm on my seventh one!

WONDERFUL BOOK, KEEPS YOU ON THE EDGE WANTING TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. GREAT HISTORICAL THAT SWEEPS YOU BACK IN TIME. THE ADDED BONUS OF SOME GREAT DESCRIPTIVE SEX...COWBOYS AND INDIANS, OH MY!!!!!

This was a terrific book. The story was really powerful and the writing was evocative. The landscape becomes another character in the book, it so intricately woven into the story. Terrific love scenes, too!

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. A very gentle story that just asks to be read to kids at bedtime. (In fact I'm ordering a second copy for my nieces and nephews.) It will make you laugh out loud and bring a tear to your eye in the same page. Last I knew there was still a monument to Shep in Fort Benton - still standing vigil awaiting his master to return. You will not regret buying this book!

After I finished reading "Cold Train Coming," I gave my dog a biscuit and a big hug! I loved this book. I especially liked the part about Ben's "mouth-to-beak" resuscitation of a chicken (but I'm not going to try it). I still find myself laughing about that scene. Overall, it made me think more seriously about the important relationships in my life. It's a great book on loyalty and faithfulness. Tonight, I am going to go out, point myself toward the North Star and rethink life.

"Confronting Abuse" is an excellent resource for all manner of abuse, also solutions... the SOLUTION part is the best. Many books reveal types of abuse and how to recognize, but no solutions. This one teaches Godly principles for LDS members and gives excellent guidance in seeking help in resolving issues for the victims as well as the offender. It addresses issues that many of us may not be aware are abusive habits...to habits that are entrenched and need serious therapy and how to get professional help. It is one of the best self-help books I have found on the subject, as well as a resource for professionals. I recommend it to anyone, but especially LDS members who have issues of abuse that need to be confronted.

Locking secrets behind closed doors, many L.D.S. members try to ignore abuse ... they're told to pray harder, talk to their bishop then the situation will change, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Utah has the highest spouse/child abuse in the United States. Why? This book takes a penetrating look at the problem. It's an LDS perspective on understanding and healing. Although I do not agree with many of the solutions, it's a valuable guide for anyone who has been physically, emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually abused. One significant chapter on Elderly abuse was particularly interesting. The Church MUST face the problem squarely and this book suggests answers.

These Cowgirls are cool! I recieved this little book as a gift,and now I carry it with me as inspiration. It's fiilled with bright color pictures of cowgirls and great quotes about being a cowgirl and getting out there and living your dreams. I like how it makes me feel like I am a sister to cowgirls even if I don't own a horse or live in the country. I'm going to get another copy so I can cut out some of the pages and frame them...I especially liked the "Cowgirl Spirit" picture in the back.

Steve Shelton, besides being a rare true cowboy and a gentleman, has put together a beautiful little book for anyone wondering What ever happened to the West? He asks, "Are there still cowgirls?" and answers, "You bet there are!" And he's taken photos of some of the boldest and most awesomely dressed ones out there, the sharp-shooters of Cowboy Action Shooting at End of Trail: women with nicknames like Holy Terror, Wicked Felina, Cassie Redwine, 2-Gun Dana, Darn-It Darr, Calico Starr, Cactus Christy, and Sasparilla Sally. But there are more than just typical cowgirls here ... with his camera Steve's captured a range of bold American West women, including "saucy ladies" in beautiful corset outfits, and peppered them in amidst the fun facts and old photos. It's an inspiring book, one you'll want to leave on the coffeetable, and it's Steve's enthusiasm for these awesome women that will leave an impression on you. A must-have for everyone with cowgirl spirit.

I read through the first ten Mario Balzic novels by K.C. Constantine consecutively, not knowing that I had stopped short of the final book in the series, "Cranks and Shadows." The end of the road for Mario Balzic is a bittersweet conclusion, although over the course of the last few novels I had found myself in total agreement with his wife Ruth that he needs to pay more attention to her and learn to stop being totally consumed by his job as Police Chief of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania. For ten books Balzic has stubbornly avoided doing either and his Achilles heel has been that as good as he is at wearing people done through intense conversations, his wife can turn the tables on him in that particular arena. The question is whether Balzis is going to go out with a bang or with a whimper.

Rockburg is seeing hard times. Already the Sanitation Department, the city's vehicle mechanics, its plumber, and two carpenters have been replaced by private contractors. It has been eight years since Balzic has hired any new officers for the Police Department or that his men have seen a promotion. Now Mayor Kenny Strohn has told Balzic to layoff five officers, leaving him but twenty-five members to police an economically depressed city of 15,000. As if that was not bad enough, Balzic is stunned to discover a small group of heavily armed, camouflaged commandos rappelling out of a blue-and-white helicopter. The chief cannot get any answers out of these para-military figures, which means he is going to start asking hard questions. When he learns what is going on in his town and discovers that not everybody has the same idea of public service that has been the rock upon which Balzic has built his career, he realizes it is time to reconsider what is left of his life.

The first part of "Cranks and Shadows" was a bit of rough going for me because it seemed that Balzic was no longer raging against the injustice of the world around him but had been reduced to ranting. His conversations, always the strong point of these novels and the way by which he does his job, were becoming decidedly one sided and it was becoming commonplace for people to tell Balzic they were not telling him things he should probably know because they did not want to get into it with him. But then there is a point in the story where everything changes and Balzic does more listening to Ruth and engages in more introspective examinations of his life. Constantine is setting up not only his character for the end of the road, but his readers as well.

The ending to "Cranks and Shadows" is not particularly satisfying, but that presupposes that a "happy" ending is possible in Balzic's world of Rocksburg in the Reagan-Bush eighties where the end of revenue sharing changed everything for local governments. Constantine cannot be faulted for providing a realistic conclusion to Balzic's career and it is difficult not to agree that there is an appropriateness to the way the story ends given the rocky road the character has traveled. After all, to quote my old college professor, nobody promised fair. These eleven Mario Balzic novels, the first half of which are more traditional mystery books, remains a superb character study of irascible hero and the particular region he calls home. I realize this is not Constantine's last novel and I will be interesting to see what it is like to read one his novels that is not about Mario Balzic.

K.C. Constantine started his publishing career with The Rocksburg Railroad Murders, which was published by a small literary press in Boston. Over the years, Constantine's eye and skill have become so remarkable that he transcends both the mystery genre and the limitations of series character works.

Constantine has an ear for dialogue that rivals George V. Higgins, and his narrator, Police Chief Mario Balzic, is a proud, despairing, upstanding man in a town that's been falling apart for 20 years. Rocksburg is the mystery novel's answer to Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, rendered with all the family intrigue and hardscrabble perseverance alive and intact. Often there's no murder, or mystery in a conventional sense in these novels -- the thing that is grand about them is that through Balzic's eyes we can see our everyday lives as a mystery, where we do the best we can with the clues we've got.

As an already established fan of James Michael Pratt's novels, I looked forward to the release of this non-fiction book. The advice that Grant Pratt gave his son was simple. But the simpleness is what makes it so universal. Not only was the book humorous but deeply insightful. Some of my favorite "virtues" include, "It's better to be kind than right," and "Remember, Son--There's no substitute for a good name." The words and traditions we pass onto our children will never leave them. Mr. Pratt's book reminds us of the truly important elements of life. And with the second anniversary of 9/11 just behind us, I think we'd all agree that we should, "Express your love while time is on your side. In the end, it will be the only thing that matters."

They suffered the greatest economic depression in America's history only to come out of it and take on the Nazi's and Imperial Japan. This book, an homage to James Michael Pratt's father, reveals ten core values which shaped his father's generation and helped them to take on and defeat two of the greatest challenges which have faced America.

With wry humor, Pratt reveals life principles which are both timely and timeless. A bargain at any price, reading "Dad" is nourishment to the soul. It is an ideal book for those who lived through this era, were raised by "The Greatest Generation" or, most importantly, would like to transmit these important values to their children.