"Two independent people find love, passion, intimacy, and sexual attraction despite the obstacles of career, fear, and distance. Can they banish the demons of their past?"--Page 4 of cover

After a Sweet Sixteen ceremony, Reyna Clifton - the mother of the birthday girl - is found severely injured at the bottom of the grand staircase of the Regal Phoenix Resort and Spa. The Clifton family blames the resort for Reyna's fall, and sues for negligence. Daniel Mendoza and his firm are called in to defend the lawsuit, but when Mrs. Clifton is found dead in her hospital room, Daniel's suspicions arise. With the help of his legal team and a private investigator, Daniel is determined to find out what really happened to Mrs. Clifton. But who would have wanted to murder her, and is there some other foul play involved?

"0n the Street of the Seven Angels in Paris, we find a gathering of humanity's finest and most frivolous. The Paris bookseller, Charles Edmund Dantes Durand; the liberal-minded, generous monks of a poor Dominican monastery; Madame Culuhac, the personally abstemious owner of the local whorehouse; the Mademoiselle Mailleferre, whose Religious Arts Shop is the headquarters for the newly formed Société for the Preservation of Christian Morality Against Contemporary Indecency; and a host of other finely delineated characters and caricatures. The Société stations a catty collection of spinsters and housewives to spy on their neighbors, resulting in an hilarious citizen's arrest and a revealing censorship trial that intrigues all of Paris. As Jonathan Kozol writes of this novel, "the literary magic here is in the vivid details. I felt I was back in Paris once again after so many years, and followed the delicious story of Durand (a wonderful creation!) as if I were walking with him through the city""--Jacket flap.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1889.

wo ordinary people. One extraordinary love, mixed with murder, legal corruption and espionage. Will doing the right thing cost them everything? Cowboy in Her Courtroom (Book 1, previously published as Incredulity) A romantic cowboy. A sunset kiss. Everything is perfect until he's charged with murder. Callie Fletcher just wanted to sit on the terrace of her favorite hot spot and watch the sunset over the Texas Hill Country. A table for one, a glass of pinot and the best view in Austin. When Dominic Jaxson, a gorgeous, wealthy cowboy, charms her into sharing the view, the sunset gets even more magical. Months of sunsets later, their affection blooms into love, with dreams of a future together. Never does Callie imagine that this caring and tender man might hide a secret or that he might be a criminal. But then he walks through the doors of her courtroom, charged with a crime. Murder. As a court reporter, Callie knows her way around the legal system, and she's certain Dominic isn't guilty. But can she uncover the clues to prove his innocence, or have she and her handsome cowboy shared their last Texas sunset? Renegade Romance (Book 2) A woman whose life is crumbling with every tick of the clock. A federal judge accused of corruption. A rookie undercover FBI agent sent to find the truth. Mercedes had found the perfect job and an apartment overlooking the San Juan beaches. No one would ever know the secrets she was required to keep in order to hold onto this perfect life. When she discovers just how little control she has and wants out, she decides she will turn the tables. But how? An ocean and thousands of miles away, the budding romance between Callie Fletcher, a Texas court reporter, and her very romantic cowboy, Dominic, continues to flourish. Love and life couldn't get any better for the two of them. Until the call from an old FBI acquaintance. Callie has the perfect set of skills necessary to uncover the truth of crimes lodged by Mercedes against her boss, a federal district court judge. And when asked to serve her country in this unusual way, Callie accepts without hesitation. Not so fast, says Dominic. He isn't happy that the new love of his life is putting herself in extreme peril. Notwithstanding Dom's concerns, however, Callie feels that uncovering the truth outweighs any risk put in her path. The two agree to disagree. Sort of. Are these unspeakable allegations true? Will the romance between Callie and her cowboy survive? Will Callie? Hand in Hand (Book 3) A father desperate to find his daughter. A woman's forgotten past and a captor who's always watching. Time is running out. Emily knows she's being watched. Being locked away like a precious toy is all she knows, but when faded memories start to surface, she decides to take matters into her own hands and find the truth. Unfortunately, her husband tracks her every move... and she doesn't know what, or who, to trust. Enter Callie and Dom. After recovering from a close call with a human trafficking ring, they step back in to help a new friend find his abducted daughter. But even if they find Emily, she may not let them help. The search leads Callie and Dom to places they never expected — in both their mission and their romance. Can they work past the tension between them to bring Emily back home, or will distrust pull them apart? *** KEYWORDS: cowboy love, happily ever after, billionaire romance books, later in life romance, sweet romance books, legal romance, romantic cowboy, contemporary western romance, guaranteed HEA, sweet contemporary romance, sweet romantic suspense, Texas, Austin, Texas romance, Austin romance, sunsets, romance novels, feel good reads, horses, ranch, courtroom, crime, lawyer, attorney, judge, court reporter, cowgirl, country western music, boots, dating, love, adventure, travel, FBI romance SIMILAR AUTHORS: Nora Roberts, J. D. Robb, Liz Isaacson, Shanae Johnson, Jill Shalvis, Robyn Carr, RayAnne Thayne, Debra Clopton, Calle J. Brookes, Kelly Hunter, Cheyenne McCray, Hanna Hart, Mindy Neff, Carolyn Brown, Jojo Moyes, Nicholas Sparks, Pamela M. Kelley, Debbie Macomber, Danielle Steele, Susan Mallery, Brenda Novak, Melissa Crosby SIMILAR BOOKS: The Notebook, Virgin River, Safe Haven, Tapestry for Two: Journey to Us

St Louis lawyer Rachel Gold deals with many a family drama, mostly of the dysfunctional variety. Divorce. Paternity. And death. Occasionally, all three combine into a "dead hand" trifecta, where the deceased seeks to control the living—and especially his descendants—from beyond the grave. Rachel calls them "zombies." The legal term for such inheritance plans is "the dead hand," the English translation of the Old French term "mortmain." The term refers to the attempt by wealthy individuals to exert perpetual ownership over property (and future generations) through legal documents prepared before they die. But not even the most obsessed tycoon or his skilled attorneys can foresee every future contingency. To quote the old Yiddish maxim, "Man plans, and God laughs." And angry descendants sue. It's so true. Rachel suddenly finds herself representing two women—one a young widow, one an older divorcee—in a pair of nasty zombie cases where the outcome of each hinges upon a clause in a contested estate plan. Client Cyndi Mulligan is the trophy widow of the late Bert Mulligan, a billionaire entrepreneur whose last will and testament left his estate to Cyndi's unborn daughter. The challenge comes from Bert's angry first wife and her angrier only son. Their claim: Cyndi's daughter—born eleven months after Bert's death—cannot possibly be Bert's child. In the other case, Rachel represents Marsha Knight, the first wife of the wealthy founder of a women's lingerie manufacturer. Marsha has been sued by his young widow, who seeks to invalidate Marsha's divorce settlement and, in the process, impoverish her through invocation of the ancient and nearly inscrutable Rule Against Perpetuities. As the trial date approaches in each lawsuit, the threats to Rachel and her two clients begin to escalate. Zombies, as Rachel discovers, are hard to kill. And even worse, they can still kill—and where least expected. The Dead Hand is written with the verve, humor, and legal smarts that are trademark Michael Kahn.

It doesn’t pay to be an outspoken Jewish girl in a small Southern town, battling drug-dealing cops, a corrupt judge and backstabbing lawyers. Star, a brash young public defender, is charged with murdering the judge presiding over the biggest trial of her career. Randleman County, North Carolina is a frontier mix of homegrown trouble and imported woe on the Cape Fear River. Racial tensions flare when a white deputy sheriff kills an unarmed Lumbee Indian boy. The District Attorney declares the shooting accidental. The deputy's patrol car explodes in front of the courthouse. Jimmy Ray Oxendine, a Lumbee, and explosives expert, is charged. Star is appointed to represent Jimmy Ray, a man some proclaim to be a political prisoner. There’s another explosion. Presiding Judge Owen Otis O'Brien, nicknamed Death Row O for sending so many men to the death chamber, dies in his canary yellow Lincoln Town Car on the second day of Jimmy Ray’s trial. This time Star is charged with murder. Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers, and the Supreme Court (Univ. of Illinois Press 1992)