Glitter Girl A Swamp Yankee Mystery

The smallest town in the smallest state has some BIG problems! His Dad's in jail, a local guy and his fishing boat disappeared at sea, the RI Attorney General has appointed a Special Master to oversee his department and he's got a touch of PTSD. And then SHE walks in ... the Glitter Girl: young, beautiful and involved in something right up to her gorgeous eyes! Not to worry: Chief Gus Haddock is a Swamp Yankee. He's got this. This first novel in award-winning author James Y. Bartlett's Swamp Yankee Mystery series, Glitter Girl will take you inside small town police work where who you know is often more important that what you know.

Julius Haddock is mad as hell and he’s gonna do something about it! In Glitter Girl, Book One of the Swamp Yankee mysteries, Julius Haddock, the former chief of police of Little Penwick, Rhode Island, was in jail, thanks to a corrupt District Attorney and a few bent judges. Now, after some good police work by his son Gus Haddock, the new chief of police, he’s out. And free. Julius wants revenge, but he’s going to get it on his own schedule. In the meantime, armed with his new private investigator’s license, Julius decides to take another look at one of Little Penwick’s coldest cases: the thirty-year-old murder of Donna Dixon, a seventeen year old who was abducted and killed while riding her bike to work at her summer job. But as he starts to look into what happened to Donna thirty years ago, Julius Haddock finds that everyone seems to have some secrets from that long-ago time. And he even finds a few secrets in Little Penwick that are fresh and brand new. But nobody doubts that Julius Haddock can figure out what happened. He’s a Swamp Yankee, after all. Proud, determined and relentless.

She’s Baa-a-ack! With more headaches for Chief Gus Haddock In Book 1 of the Swamp Yankee Mysteries, the ‘Glitter Girl’ Janine Stone created all kinds of trouble for Chief of Police Gus Haddock in Little Penwick, Rhode Island: the smallest town in the smallest state. She managed to escape when Chief Haddock and his force broke up her human smuggling ring. But in the newest entry in the Swamp Yankee Mystery series, Janine is back in town. And that means trouble is afoot. After barely escaping assault by auto, Chief Gus determines that Janine is back in town, and looking for the money she is owed for setting up her smuggling ring. Most of her compatriots from that crime ring are in jail, but somewhere in Little Penwick there’s a pot of cash with Janine’s name on it. So Janine is looking for her cash and the police are looking for her. But life in Little Penwick doesn’t stop. Gus’ significant other, Maggie Wells, announces she’s pregnant. Maggie’s new women’s support center in Providence is having some problems, and Gus needs to hire two new cops.

From Suspect to Sleuth! When Rhode Island Attorney General Preston Knox is brutally murdered in his home, just weeks before getting elected Governor, the state police immediately pull in Julius Haddock for questioning. After all, Julius, the now-retired chief of police in the town of Little Penwick, had a beef with the AG, when Knox drummed up some fake charges and put him in jail. (Glitter Girl, Book 1) But Julius didn’t do it, and has an unshakeable alibi—he was out having breakfast with his son Gus Haddock, the current chief in Little Penwick. So the outgoing governor appoints Julius to the task force investigating Preston Knox’s murder because she was impressed with his recent work on a cold case (Cold Secrets, Book 2). And that’s how Julius Haddock went from suspect to sleuth, working with the state police to track down leads and eliminate suspects, one by one. Along the way, Julius is befriended by a local kid on a bike, who has some family secrets of his own; and with his partner Siggi, Julius has to try and convince the last surviving member of an old Little Penwick family to consider donating his land to the Little Penwick Land Trust. But there are old family ghosts in the way there, too. Family Affairs, Book 4 in the Swamp Yankee Mystery series, is another page-turning adventure of police procedural, small-town relationships and family secrets. Just the kind of stew that makes James Y. Bartlett’s inventive new series so popular with readers.

From USA TODAY bestselling author Candice Proctor (aka C. S. Harris) comes an unforgettable tale of lust and murder set against the steamy, decadent backdrop of nineteenth-century New Orleans . . . Occupied New Orleans, 1863: When a beloved elderly doctor is killed by a silver-tipped crossbow bolt while visiting his wife's tomb, Federal provost marshal Zach Cooper is assigned to investigate. A career cavalry officer reluctantly sidelined by a battle wound, Zach soon finds himself dangerously attracted to one of the main suspects in the murder: the beautiful, mysterious young French widow Emmanuelle de Beauvais.As Zach's investigation takes him from the crumbling mansions of New Orleans's impoverished aristocracy to the slave gatherings of Congo Square and a Voodoo practitioner hidden deep in the treacherous swamps beyond the city, he becomes increasingly torn between duty and a blinding, all-consuming passion. And as one brutal murder follows another, Zach must race to unmask a vicious killer who may-or may not-be the woman he has come to love."Proctor is in top form here. A gripping plot, arresting characters and a thoroughly researched setting combine to make this a remarkable read." Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Superbly suspenseful." BooklistFrom Booklist: When Zach Cooper, the provost marshal of the Union forces occupying New Orleans in 1862, meets Emmanuelle de Bourdonnay [sic] in the course of a murder investigation, he is attracted to the beautiful widow only to discover that she withholds the truth from him, if not her body, even as those close to her continue to die. Despite her anti-Yankee feelings and grudgingly revealed secrets, Zach comes to love her, fears for her safety, ignores his suspicions that she should be a suspect, and single-mindedly pursues his investigation of those who have been involved with Emmanuelle and her work at the Hospital de Santerre. Although this is a superbly suspenseful historical romance, the book's real appeal is its mood, for which Proctor has an obvious gift. The reader actually feels weighed down by the heat, humidity, despair, corruption, superstition, sense of foreboding, and hatreds of old New Orleans. Even knowing that the two lovers will commit to each other doesn't lessen the drama leading up to the exciting--and to some extent surprising--ending. Mary K. Chelton Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved.From Publishers Weekly (starred review): The Union occupation of New Orleans provides the backdrop for the latest novel from Proctor (Whispers of Heaven; Women, Equality and the French Revolution), a versatile author whose firsthand knowledge of the region and vivid descriptions infuse this story with a strong sense of place. A series of tragic incidents draw Emmanuelle de Beauvais, a widowed single mother and doctor who hates the occupying Union forces, and Zachary Cooper, a Union provost marshal, together. After witnessing the death of her old friend, Dr. Henri Santerre, Emmanuelle questions whether the arrow that killed him had really been meant for her. Her fear intensifies when other friends, also associated with the hospital, are murdered. Cooper initially suspects the self-possessed Emmanuelle of the crimes, but when a serious attempt is made on her life, Cooper's investigation takes him from the city's crowded docks to the homes of old aristocrats and even into a swamp to question a man renowned as a seer and an herbalist. The attraction between Cooper and Emmanuelle intensifies as they uncover a twisted web of passion and betrayal spun by those she trusts most. Proctor is in top form here. A gripping plot, arresting characters and a thoroughly researched setting combine to make this a remarkable read. (June 2)

Joseph Mitchell was a legendary New Yorker writer and the author of the national bestseller Up in the Old Hotel, in which these two pieces appeared. What Joseph Mitchell wrote about, principally, was New York. In Joe Gould, Mitchell found the perfect subject. And Joe Gould's Secret has become a legendary piece of New York history. Joe Gould may have been the quintessential Greenwich Village bohemian. In 1916, he left behind patrician roots for a scrappy, hand-to-mouth existence: he wore ragtag clothes, slept in Bowery flophouses, and mooched food, drinks, and money off of friends and strangers. Thus he was able to devote his energies to writing "An Oral History of Our Time," which Gould said would constitute "the informal history of the shirt-sleeved multitude." But when Joe Gould died in 1957, the manuscript could not be found. Where had he hidden it? This is Joe Gould's Secret. "[Mitchell is] one of our finest journalists."--Dawn Powell, The Washington Post "What people say is history--Joe Gould was right about that--and history, when recorded by Mitchell, is literature."--The New Criterion