Linda B. Myers

1921. THE ALASKA TERRITORYNurse Leona Herkimer arrives in the Tlingit village of Hoonah to help the tribe through frontier plagues and wilderness calamities. Together, she and teacher Ivy Bolton face misfortunes, threats to their patients and students, dangerous wildlife, and the frailties of loving roughhewn men. Yet Leona's greatest peril is her own past's hold on her.1946. WASHINTON STATE'S OLYMPIC PENINSULAIvy, now a senior with attitude, befriends a young amputee fresh from war. She becomes his support through mental and physical recovery. Over lemonade and macaroons on the front porch, Ivy tells him a story of a past he never knew.

What psychologist Laura Covington learns is unimaginable...what she does is unprecedented. Oregon 1989. Dr. Covington is the newest nutcracker at a desert town's community mental health department. Her caseload includes the gently weird as well as genuinely damaged people who cling to her as their last hope. One client is so traumatized he suffers what was then called Multiple Personality Disorder. Through him, Laura discovers a desert cult run by a monster who shatters children's minds into vivid - and deadly - personalities. Is it real or imagined? Inexplicable antagonism from her boss, unexplained murders, and the terrorizing of her child convince Laura she has unleashed dangerous secrets. She must now decide how far she is willing to go to protect everything she loves...and whether she, too, is capable of the creation of madness. This is psychological suspense to keep you guessing as it builds toward its unpredictable conclusion. NOTE: Creation of Madness was originally published as Lessons of Evil. It has been edited and reissued under the new title.

To escape her dangerous family, a young girl vanishes on the 1890s Oregon coast. Adelia Wright never knew her mother. Her father, a lighthouse keeper far out to sea, is distant, literally and figuratively. After her brother terrorizes her once too often, Adelia decides there must be a better home elsewhere, one with less pain, more affection, and enough to eat. She is armed only with survival skills learned from a Clatsop native and immigrant Finnish settlers. Her perilous journey takes her to Seaside, Oregon where she works in the scullery of a posh hotel. Adelia is soon on the run again, sought regarding a murdered guest...this time with a frightened little boy in tow. Adelia finds temporary shelter in a logging camp, then makes her way to the filthy docks of Swilltown in what is today's Astoria. As she grows to womanhood, her path includes abandonment and romance, sorrow and joy. It is a twisting pilgrimage to Adelia's discovery that a collected family can outshine a birth family. The lighthouse at Tillamook Rock is not the only beacon that lights her way. Fog Coast Runaway is historical fiction for anyone who loves the pioneer spirit, the pluck of True Grit, and the wilds of the Pacific Northwest.

Edgy suspense and hot Hawaiian nights... Life is uncomplicated in a Big Island village until Maile Palea, an 8-year-old girl, disappears. Twelve years later she is still missing. Secrets of the Big Island is the story of Maile's sister and brother who never give up trying to find her and cannot heal until they do, of a village that no longer feels safe from a changing world, and of a perpetrator who discovers what disastrous things happen when you keep secrets too long. The story unfolds with equal parts dread and humor, seen through the eyes of many quirky villagers and mainlanders. While trying to discover what happened to Maile, a volcanic romance erupts between her grieving sister and the island cop who faces down his own fears to solve the crime. If you love authentic Hawaiian lifestyle from crafts to art to foods - and if you like your stories served up with nail-biting suspense - this is a rich, satisfying adventure just for you. Aloha

"Humans are imperfect fabrications, often nasty as wolverines even when their bellies are full. They are angry with each other in ways that mystify every Presence here ... You must have missed an essential lyric in their Creation Song. Do something " And so, the humanoid spirit Cascadia is created by First Female to find the problem with people and clean up what the gods have screwed up. The Slightly Altered History of Cascadia is a quick-witted quest through history, mythology and modern day ills. To prepare her for life among humans, Cascadia is first trained in the use of lust by the hot goddess Helen of Troy and in the art of the knife by Jim Bowie. In time, other gods and historic humans teach her additional emotional and physical skills. Along with the help of her human familiar, a magic blade, a flying bear and a logging horse named Blue, Cascadia takes on a serial killer, ends the traffic in bear gall bladders, and leads a war in the woods to end the slavery that one survivalist group is inflicting on others. In the end, Cascadia creates a plan for a better kind of human. Will the gods agree or scrap the whole damn planet? This fantasy for grown ups is part magical reality, part myths and legends, part paranormal and all fun.

CRUISES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MORE FUN THAN THISEunice Taylor wins the Arctic Angel Award for her effort to save the dwindling short-tailed albatross population. The wealthy octogenarian invites the Latin's Ranch gang on an Alaskan cruise to pick up her prize. Bear Jacobs, with bad memories of a sea voyage on a troop carrier bound for Vietnam, refuses to go. Then a murder at a nearby senior center puts the retired PI on the alert. Is Eunice in grave danger? His fear for her life - along with the prodding from his eWatson Lily - changes his mind about the cruise. He joins the other Latin's Ranch residents, along with two aides, as they sail away from Seattle. But high life on shipboard is soon dashed by low life murderers and thieves. Good times turn to grief when one of their aides is struck down, the other disappears and multiple attempts are made to murder Eunice. This cruise is full of harrowing surprises. Bear and the gang put themselves in danger to solve the case of the short-tailed albatross. Bear at Sea is the third book in the Bear Jacobs series.

Life at Latin's Ranch adult care home is anything but restful. In HARD TO BEAR, the second in the PI Bear Jacobs series, a vicious gang is producing old-fashioned snuff films with a violent new twist: custom-order murder for sale. Innocent victims are being kidnapped and murdered, and Bear, a cane-wielding, XXL grouch of a shamus, investigates. He is aware there is enough evil loose in the land that there is a market for such things. Bear's sidekick and eWatson, Lily Gilbert, is back in action, too, keeping the case notes in a style all her own. Meanwhile, the quirky life at the adult home goes on as Lily's daughter draws a bead on a hot new lover, the mob capo living there comes out of hiding, one of the octogenarians takes up a new craft to everyone's dismay, and their caregiver takes in a baby to protect. Unbeknown to them all, they come under danger themselves as Bear joins forces with an avenging mobster family, a special forces soldier tormented by PTSD, and a pack of mad dogs. Together, they seek out the evil that has taken root in the Pacific Northwest woods.

IT TAKES A SAVVY GANG OF SENIOR SLEUTHS TO SOLVE SOME CRIMES. Retired P. I. Bear Jacobs is a curmudgeon, but he hates injustice more than he hates being old. He has the time to help Washington State law enforcement tackle complex crimes. Bear, his case note-keeping sidekick Lily Gilbert, and the rest of his quirky gang of seniors stand tall on their canes, walkers and wheels. In Bear in Mind, the first of the PI Bear Jacobs series, Bear and Lily hunt for a missing wife. At first they think she's just a heart breaking bitch who abandons her hubby. But Bear soon learns that older women in the community are disappearing at an alarming rate. It appears a madman is murdering them, a la the Boston Strangler...but then men start to disappear. Are body parts being harvested? Is a local crematory burning up the evidence? It's a dangerous and twisted trail that Bear follows toward a surprising conclusion.