Caterina DeLuca, burned by her run-around now ex-husband, Johnnie Ricco, took the skills she mastered during marriage and opened her own private-eye agency. Now she’s armed with a camera, ready to print the evidence on 8 × 10 glossies for use in divorce court. The men in her big, crazy family, all Chicago cops and one a crook, aren’t sure what to make of Cat’s career choice. But hey, it’s serve and protect!Then one Rita Polansky retains Cat. Rita’s liar-liar husband is the mysterio...

When an old friend buys a trench coat and opens his own detective agency, PI Cat DeLuca sees a train wreck coming. Everything Billy Bonham knows about being a private eye he learned from Humphrey Bogart. And that's just enough to make him dangerous.The bungling detective is in way over his head on a case involving murder and a stolen pair of Marilyn Monroe's dazzling diamond earrings. His outrageous client, Cristina McTigue, is pursued by men who want her dead. Five minutes after m...

Sticks and stones may break my bones—or they might actually kill me.What does a woman do when she discovers her husband is an incurable cheater? If she’s Cat DeLuca, she launches the Pants on Fire Detective Agency. Now Cat does what two years of unholy matrimony taught her to do: she catches cheaters. When a client, Cleo Jones, shoots her cheating husband’s bum full of buckshot, he disappears, taking her money, dog, and sister with him. Private Investigator Cat DeLuca promises to r...

Maggie Silver does her best to scramble up the ladder at an exclusive, high-powered PR firm in Southern California whose clients are movie stars and famous athletes. She is asked to take on her toughest client yet: Senator Henry Paxton, distinguished statesman from Southern California, who also happens to be the father of Anabelle, Maggie’s best friend in high school. Senator Paxton’s young female aide has been found murdered, and it is up to Maggie to run damage control and prevent the sc...

One of F. Scott Fitzgerald's earliest short stories, "The Ice Palace" is about Sally Carrol Happer, a young Southern woman who is bored with her conventional life. She's engaged to Harry Bellamy, a young man from the North. Despite concern from her family and friends, Sally travels to Harry's hometown to meet his family. Hoping for an exciting adventure, she instead finds herself in a cold, unfamiliar place. There, in the dead of winter, she begins to question everything.Proceeds f...

More than ever, Americans are realizing that if we want to keep this country great, we must be citizen-patriots. And here’s the handbook every citizen-patriot needs: The Essential American, featuring the fundamental documents of our nation’s history.Compiled by syndicated columnist Jackie Gingrich Cushman and featuring a foreword by her father—bestselling author and former Speaker of the House—Newt Gingrich, The Essential American is the ultimate...

In the quiet confines of her own world, Crystal discovers that a hidden realm of intense desire exists when she crosses paths with John. While John's allure lies partly in his mysterious charm and striking good looks, there's a captivating secret that sets him apart—he's a shape-shifter with an insatiable craving for honey, and for Crystal.As their worlds collide, the temperature soars, awakening the dormant Kodiak within John, a primal force longing for the connection it senses in...

A leader's role is to move others. To engage them and to inspire them to action. Effective leaders use every speaking opportunity to influence and inspire-in their phone calls, in meetings, in elevator conversations, in presentations, and in their formal speeches. They realize that the true task of leaders is to create believers. Many leaders take time to craft effective formal speeches and presentations, but fall down on the day-to-day communication. For too many leaders, "informal" is sy...

The Ask will give anyone the confidence to ask anyone for any size gift for any purpose. With winning language, sample dialogues, and a wealth of tips and tools, this book addresses common mistakes made when asking and shows how to correct each mistake, providing guidance and direction on how to make a great ask. Most nonprofit professionals are not born fundraisers. There are many fears that those raising support must overcome, such as fear of rejection. Fredricks argues that personal sol...

If you can measure your key business relationships, you can improve them - with powerful results. This book explains simple, step-by-step procedures for measuring customers, social media reputation, influence and authority, the media, and other key constituencies. This book is based on hundreds of case studies about how organizations have used measurement to improve their reputations, strength their bottom lines, and improve efficiencies all around. Readers will learn how to collect the da...

When the human and the vampire worlds collide, there will be hell to pay.Luca Ambrus is a rare breed: vampire from birth, begotten by vampire parents, blood born. He is also an agent of the Council—the centuries-old cabal that governs vampirekind, preserving their secrecy and destroying those who betray them.When a cryptic summons leads him to the scene of the brutal killing of a powerful Council member, Luca begins the hunt for an assassin among his own people. But instead...

Strong new book from our established house self-help author on how to regain your self-esteem while recovering from negative parental messages and treatment.