Bøger af Susan Oleksiw

When Ron Faroli is put to rest in Mellingham, Chief of Police Joe Silva knows more trouble will follow. Soon after the funeral, one of Ron's friends is found dead after a fall from a third-floor window. Although Joe finds no evidence of foul play, he is reluctant to write off Miles Stine's death as a tragic accident. Swirling around the small Community Center are stories about the two dead men, their lives on and off drugs, and the small coterie of struggling addicts they called their friends. The death of two of their number threatens the little stability some of them have managed to hold on to, and unexpected friendships emerge in the crucible of fear. Joe knows the dead men's parents, and finds himself deeply sympathetic as he investigates the second death. George Faroli has been Joe's poker buddy for years, and Edna Stine, mother of the second victim, has been a fixture in town all her life, struggling to make a better life for her children. Complicating his investigations are his feelings for Gwen McDuffy and her two children. Now that he and Gwen are living together, Joe finds it harder to remain objective when drugs threaten to invade the small family he now calls his own. Philip, Gwen's younger child, hangs out with a crowd of bored, hyped-up teens, trying desperately to fit in. Fearing the worst for her child, Gwen turns to Joe.

Mellingham's police chief Joe Silva, "the likable protagonist of this polished series" (The New York Times Book Review), has his hands full when the Mellingham High School Class of 1969 holds their twenty-fifth reunion. Not every member of the class is looking forward to the gathering. Eliot Keogh is returning to his hometown to find the person responsible for sending his father to prison on a false charge. Becka Chase, on the reunion committee, is distracted because the husband of her best friend, Mindy, Vic Rabelard, is trying to revive their long-dead affair. She fears her husband will find out and leave her. The reunion has barely begun when Mindy Rabelard disappears and Vic is found near death, apparently the victim of some strange toxin. Joe Silva will have to travel back twenty-five years and fit together a series of interlocking events and crimes to figure out what's going on in Mellingham. Kirkus Reviews calls it "a red-herring heydey for whodunit fans."

Beautiful Mellingham--it appears to be a safe haven on the New England coast where men, women, and children, old and young, can live in peace and harmony. But looks can deceive, as Chief of Police Joe Silva has discovered all too often in his long investigative career. When murder occurs at the Arbella House, the headquarters of the local historical society, Silva is probably the only one in town who is not surprised. He knows all too well that crime, even murder, can take place in the most genteel environment. He's worried, though, about at least one of the suspects, Gwen McDuffy, who volunteers at the Arbella House. A single mother with two young children, Gwen seems to have a secret that is too heavy to bear. But is the secret related to the murder, or is it something more personally threatening to Gwen and her young family? Silva wants to know, for reasons that are not entirely professional. There are others connected to the Arbella Society who are even more upset than Gwen when George Frome, the only member who pushed to bring the Society into the twentieth century, is found murdered in the Arbella attic. Catherine Rocklynd, the oldest and wealthiest member, seems to be crustier and more resentful than ever after the murder. Her nephew, Edwin Bennett, is hardly himself these days, but insists it's because he's worried about his aunt's health. Society board member Kelly Kuhn, an art dealer and collector, worries about his escalating debt and becomes even more obsessed than before with building up his private art collection. And Annalee Windolow, one of Kelly's customers as well as a generous donor to the Society, develops her own compulsive habits and knows just how to exploit Kelly's weaknesses. They all claim to know nothing about the murder. George Frome had suspected theft at the Arbella House. Now George is dead, and Silva is left to sift through the lives of these always unpredictable suspects in his search for a killer. The only obvious clue is a collection of five paintings hidden away by an unknown hand. Rich in character, setting, and finely crafted plot, Family Album asks meaningful questions about family and place and the need to belong. It is the best yet in a critically acclaimed series.

Life seems to be just about perfect at the Massasoit College of Art in the picturesque village of Mellingham. Certainly things couldn't be much better for Preston H. Mattson, chairman of the painting department, as the students prepare for a show honoring his work. It hardly matters that Mattson's work is mediocre. As long as he can play the role of expert and get the students to do his bidding, Mattson is satisfied. But there are potential problems at Massasoit too. Work-study student Hank Vinnio is a surprisingly gifted artist. his talent may be enough to threaten Preston Mattson's sense of superiority. New to the area and without close friends, Vinnio has at least one enemy--and perhaps more. Another member of the college community sows unrest and fear just by his presence. Chickie Morelli appears to be indifferent to the effect he has on people. He lingers contentedly on the sidelines, watching and waiting. In town, sculptor Henry Muir has been known for years for his disdain for some of the local artists. Now their mutual animosity moves toward a crisis. When someone at the college is murdered, Chief of Police Joe Silva must study both art and diplomacy as he searches for the killer in a crime that envelops both town and gown.

The sharp sea air and the biting tongue of Beth O'Donnell invigorate the lovely coastal village of Mellingham. Younger sister of one of Mellingham's most prominent residents, Beth arrives uninvited, unexpected, and unwelcome every two years from New York City to renew her shaky relationship with her generous brother and to share her venomous view of life with anyone who will listen. Her current visit will be her last. Surrounded by her brother and sister-in-law's cocktail party guests, Beth insults anyone who catches her interest. She sends a dart to test the thickness of a young editor's skin; she threatens another young man who only wants to do his job; a knowing look at an older woman unaccountably strikes fear into the other woman's heart. Those who have met Beth before move quickly away, eager to escape someone who is as intensely disliked as her brother is loved. Chief of Police Joe Silva has plenty of suspects as he investigates the murder of the perfect victim, a woman whose death brings relief instead of sorrow. A thoughtful, attractive man, Chief Silva had hoped never to encounter another murder when he moved to Mellingham, but he soon recovers his old investigative skills and discovers exceptional depths in the members of his force. He also finds unexpected secrets behind the polished facades of the moneyed families of Mellingham. With a kindly and humorous eye, the author takes us into a world now eclipsed by suburban tracts and shopping malls, a world as refreshing as a cool ocean breeze.

On an old estate along a quiet river in South India, a family waits for the arrival of a granddaughter they haven't seen in quite a while. When she fails to appear, they begin to worry. Anita Ray arrives at her grandmother's house to comfort the family and try to figure out where her cousin has got to. While she is there, a maidservant falls into a trance and reports that Devi, the Great Goddess, is angry with the family, very angry. Even worse, the maidservant predicts that Surya, the granddaughter, will never arrive. When the family astrologer advises an exorcism to cure the maidservant, Anita becomes curious about the astrologer, his associates, and a number of family antiques that have gone missing. The Wrath of Shiva takes the reader into a little-known world in Kerala, South India, a place of sacred groves and gods who guard them, of devotees who face divine possession and exorcists who would cure them, of treasures that lie scattered across the Indian landscape and those who would claim them.

No relationship is so fraught with ambivalence as the one we have with our aging parents. Chief Joe Silva, second son in a large and loving family, finds himself drawn into a decades old drama when his ninety-year-old father brings the entire family together for one last reunion--to dispel a dark cloud that has hung over his family for decades. To do this the aging patriarch has had to persuade the two youngest children to return to the family after decades of silence and separation. Reluctantly, Joe travels with his partner, Gwen, and her daughter, Jennie, to join in the family gathering, but he does so with a sense of foreboding. Last Call for Justice brings together Joe's rambunctious brother and sisters and their partners in a weekend of revelations and discoveries, and a demand for justice once denied. Steady and decent, Joe Silva faces the greatest challenge of his career as a policeman when he faces a conspiracy within his own family to bring another to justice, an attempt that brings one to near death and another to jail.

"Featuring Chief of Police Joe Silva"--Cover.

In the foothills of South India a man struggles to free himself from ropes tying him to an old bridge while the monsoon rages. In the valley below, Anita Ray and her aunt are stopped at a roadblock while the car and luggage are searched. The police offer no explanation, but a sharpshooter watching from a tree nearby hints at danger. When Anita and Meena arrive at their destination, they find Lalita Amma's household in turmoil. Lalita's daughter, Valli, has left her husband, and Lalita's son, Prakash, the priest at a nearby temple, has left his job temporarily. He is strangely silent about troubles at the temple. The old servant, Thampi, has gone on a pilgrimage and Lalita has hired a new maidservant, Parvati, who speaks little but appears silently and unexpectedly throughout the house as she goes about her duties. When the monsoon clears for an afternoon, Anita escapes from the house. On a walk through the forest she comes across a body washed up along the riverbank. The police whisk the body away, insisting there is nothing sinister in the death. But Anita is certain she saw signs the man had been attacked. In this tale Anita comes face to face with a killer determined to exact revenge for a code of honor broken, a lover determined to rescue his beloved, and a woman desperate to survive.