Bøger af Theresa Jenner Garrido

When Jennifer Wakeford hears a dog howling late one night, the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Their house, situated on a large man-made lake and surrounded by trees, is far from any neighbor. Visitors are few and far between. That is, until a mangy beagle shows up at their doorstep only to mysteriously disappear as suddenly as he came. Slowly, insidiously, their complacency is being eaten away. One strange occurrence follows another and when a family member is horribly injured in a freak accident, Jennifer is certain someone-or something-wants to destroy them. The question is, why?

When fifteen-year-old Jacquelyn "Jack" Fletcher moves in with her elderly aunt, she thinks there is nothing to do in the sleepy island town except walk the beach. Then she meets boy-genius, Murphy Goldstein. Despite the unpleasant feeling growing in the pit of her stomach, Jack lets Murphy persuade her into exploring Penley Hall, an abandoned, pre-Civil War homestead outside of town. There they find a hopelessly tangled overgrowth that has been untouched for generations. The massive estate reeks of death and decay. Jack balks at venturing further, convinced something evil lurks about the place, but an unlocked door is too tempting for Murphy. Armed with flashlights and reckless determination, they investigate the moldy mansion. What they discover leaves them breathless. Something sinister has taken possession of the old house; something better left alone.

Trying to heal from an emotional wound, Jane Fletcher travels from her home in Seattle to Shell Island, off the coast of South Carolina. A widowed aunt, whom Jane hardly knows, welcomes the company and Jane is content--except for one thing. Her Aunt Irene demands that all windows and door be closed and locked at all times. What's more, she warns Jane about leaving the safety of the front yard, saying that her niece knows nothing about the dangers found in the low country. It isn't long before Jane discovers the sinister secret behind her elderly aunt's fears.

Someone on the island is breaking into houses, killing pets, and hurting innocent people. The authorities are on the case, but sixteen-year-old Aggie Callaway and her best friend, Babs Butler, aren't convinced they are giving it their all. Determined to find out who is behind the nightmarish events, the girls do a little sleuthing on their own--never dreaming that the very individual they are seeking is watching their every move.

Fifteen-year-old Lucy Elliott's family has just moved to Seattle from Atlanta. The middle-child of seven adopted siblings, Lucy is at her wits' end. She is not happy about relocating to the rainy port city on the northwest coast of Washington State and misses her friends and her old school. Even worse, she is bored to death. So, when her little sister is frightened beyond reason by a gargoyle-like face, looking out of an upstairs window in a neighboring house, hidden by a tall fence, Lucy is curious. With nothing else to do, she may as well try to solve the mystery. The only trouble is, some mysteries can lead to tragic accidents--even death.

Book Three in the Ford's Crossing Mystery series. Retired teacher Alex Matthews has already tangled with two serial killers in the past year and is more than ready to return to a boring life of walking the dog and vacuuming up pet hair. She certainly does not want to deal with threatening notes and neighborhood burglaries. Even worse is the suspicion that her good friend's next door neighbor may be hiding a heinous secret. Is Alex a magnet for mayhem and murder?

An afternoon hike through the Olympic Peninsula rain forest turns into the adventure of a lifetime for two sixteen-year-old cousins, Hannah and Jonah. The splendor of Olympic National Park beckons, and the cousins are eager to explore. The trails take them deep into a primeval forest of gigantic Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, and western red cedar. Like a scene out of Middle Earth, one particular behemoth stands as a monument to a time before time began. Jonah finds a small totem-a Native American artifact-wedged deep in the tree roots. Searching for more treasures, he climbs the gigantic roots and disappears into a hollowed spot on the massive trunk. Hannah, left alone in an eerie primordial solitude, calls for her cousin to return but only silence replies. When a strange mist begins swirling and ebbing around the lichen covered tree trunk, Hannah circles the tree, looking for Jonah, but he is gone. Convinced he is playing a practical joke on her, she heads back to camp. However, it isn't long before she realizes she is lost. Nothing looks familiar. It is getting late, and she tries not to imagine what may be lurking around the next tree. Maybe Bigfoot himself. Night falls and so does a heavy rain. Hannah is forced to sleep in the shelter in a hollow log overnight. What Hannah discovers when she awakes the next morning is so unbelievable she is sure she is still dreaming.

A young woman alone in a remote house finds herself in sudden, round the clock impenetrable darkness. Where is everyone and what's outside, waiting and watching? Has the Book of Revelation come to life?

Mysterious secrets await Randy Smith at The Shadows - her deceased mother's Civil War era ancestral home in South Carolina's Low Country. A month long summer stay at the foreboding mansion full of relatives she has never met isn't how Randy planned to spend her vacation. But her father has decided to remarry and while he and his new wife honeymoon in Europe, it will be a perfect time for Randy to reunite with her mother's family. The Shadows lives up to its name - dark, gloomy, and stuck in a century, long gone. What's more, the place is shrouded with tragedies and unsolved mysteries. Foremost is the question of her missing aunt, who disappeared without a trace over forty years ago. Randy sets out to solve the mystery and soon opens one door too many. Will discovering the whereabouts of the missing woman put Randy's own life in jeopardy?

Happy about her move to a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, Jane Fletcher is settling in nicely. The horror of September has been replaced with anticipation for the coming holidays. When a decade-old missing persons' case is reawakened, Jane and her friend, Tori James, decide to do a little investigating on their own. Jane soon learns, however, that poking your nose where it doesn't belong can be lethal.

Emma Byrd is happy to accompany her older cousin, Pat, to their mothers' ancestral home in the South Carolina Low Country. As summer jobs go, typing, editing and researching material for her cousin's proposed book on low country myths and legends beats flipping burgers. The antebellum homestead is a perfect setting, too, offering peace, tranquility, and plenty of motivation in which to work. Emma does not know her Carolina relatives very well and wonders why her mother kept her brother and her away from this side of the family. The tragic accident that took the life of her older cousin, Felicity-Pat's dearest friend-happened over twenty years ago, so that can't have anything to do with her mother's reticence in visiting her childhood home. Aunt Faith and Uncle Loyal are both dears and Emma is sure the summer will pass quickly. However, after only a few days in the isolated mansion, wedged between a swamp and a jungle of vegetation, Emma's enthusiasm wanes. Something just isn't right but she can't put her finger on it. When she voices her concerns to her cousin, Pat only scoffs and puts it down to an over-active imagination. Yet strange things are happening; odd things appear in places where they shouldn't be. When Emma is awakened by a dark figure in her room, she is convinced it isn't her imagination. Someone walks the halls after dark, laughing and sighing. Someone who shouldn't be there.

Rebecca Donne lost her father in a tragic accident when she was only five-years-old. Now, ten years later, her mother has remarried. Her stepfather, a college professor and writer, plans a month-long vacation at the beach, jokingly calling it their "honeymoon," and wants the whole family there, while he works on a novel. Everyone is excited. Everyone, that is, except Becca. Ever since her father's boating accident, she has had nightmares about being under water; about drowning. A month on a barrier island, off the coast of South Carolina, is the last place she wants to be. Because if she goes, Becca is certain her dream will come true. The ocean will find her. And she will drown.

Fifteen-year-old Abby Johnson's world changes the moment a drunk driver kills her parents a week before Christmas. With no family or friends to take her in, Abby is put into foster care. The place is noisy and filled with strangers. Abby is confused, angry and determined to escape. Then she meets an elderly neighbor who befriends her. The only problem? The eccentric old lady is said to be a witch.

Junior year is a blast until Kristy's best friend is caught shoplifting and Kristy along with her. Jessica gets off with a reprimand and a few hours community service. Kristy, although innocent, gets sent to her mother's widowed friend in Gettysburg, PA. Barbara is sweet but her mother-in-law, Claire, is something else. Suffering from Alzheimer's, the elderly lady is a handful. What's more, she claims to walk, talk, and even dance with ghosts. Kristy chalks it up to the woman's condition until a series of bizarre occurrences disturbs her complacency. Are there such things as ghosts? Kristy is unprepared for the answer.

Grace Hammond sheds her dismal past and moves to the South Carolina Low Country to help close friends manage their historic bed and breakfast. The change offers her the chance to make a fresh start and to forget her handicap. Welcomed with open arms, the locals charm and delight.They also terrify.One of them is soon to become the love of her life.Another one is a killer and watching her closely.

Sixteen-year-old Kerry Campbell isn't sure she wants to babysit her little brother and sister all day Saturday--even with her BFF there to help. She has felt uneasy all week and their home, situated on Clamshell Point on an island near Seattle, Washington, is isolated, with no close neighbors. Something isn't right, but she is afraid to say anything and be labeled a sissy. Her life is hard enough, trying to keep up with her talented and outgoing older sister. The day progresses uneventfully and Kerry decides the eeriness was due to her over-active imagination. Then night settles in and things change. Just when the girls are beginning to relax, the unimaginable happens. An intruder tries to break in and there is nothing Kerry and her friend can do to stop him.

Jillian Drummond brought a lot of baggage with her when she left her rural Missouri home to teach fifth grade in Seattle, Washington-most of it, emotional. Jill professes to believe in God and attends church regularly. She manages her fifth grade well and is respected by students, parents, and fellow teachers. No one suspects her life is a charade. It takes an accident in a pouring rain to shake things up a bit, and an old man to remove her mask of anonymity. Jill must come face to face with her worst enemy-herself-before she can accept friendship and the greatest miracle of all-love.

Sixteen-year-old Annie Wren's life is miserable. What with her parents' constant bickering and her failing grades, Annie is sure her world is falling apart and she can forget being accepted at any college. Junior year is a nightmare. The final straw? She is taken out of orchestra and forced to endure an after-school remedial program. Even worse, reoccurring dreams of a colorful sea world, where music floods the senses, plague her. Then the unexpected happens. A single scene in a movie sparks a memory, long buried. Annie is convinced that sometime in her past, she was abducted by "aliens" and taken up in a spaceship. She needs to talk to someone but who? Who would believe such a bizarre story? She would be mocked or worse, sent away for psychiatric help. Annie's search for the truth about her "abduction" takes her back to her grandparents' isolated cabin in Maine, where, as a small child, the impossible became possible.

Alex is back in her cozy home in the unpretentious but historically significant town of Ford's Crossing, where rooting for the Clemson Tigers is everyone's favorite pastime. Alex's days are filled with mundane chores like walking the dog, vacuuming up pet hair, sorting laundry and obeying the commands of octogenarian, Dorothea "Ducky" Pennington Holmes, who literally rules the local woman's club. This time, Ducky has Alex, modeling in the upcoming fall fashion show. Alex protests but her nemesis won't budge an inch. So, Alex, wearing a fashionable pant suit (thank God it's not a dress!) is posing and primping along with the other fine ladies. The only fly in the soup is the cloud hanging over their peaceful town. Young men are showing up dead, a teen is missing, and Alex can't find her girdle. But that conundrum quickly takes second place as Alex finds herself, knee-deep in evil doings. It isn't long before Alex suspects the perpetrator of the heinous crimes is living in her very own neighborhood.

After having his appendix removed in the hospital, young Timothy Thomas is sent home. The only problem is the doctor insists Timothy Thomas stay in bed for a few days. Timothy Thomas is very unhappy. There is nothing to do and he is feeling sad. His dad, however, has the perfect remedy to cure Timothy Thomas's blues.

Babysitting four-year-old Cassie Lord will be a piece of cake, as far as Lisa Kingsley is concerned. The little girl doesn't do much except stare out the window, seemingly lost in another place and time. The money is good--really good--and Lisa needs a dress for the harvest dance, Christmas presents for friends and family, as well as dorm room necessities for her coming freshman year at college. But things are strange at the Lord's isolated house, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Western Washington State. The little girl claims she has a missing twin, which, according to Mr. and Mrs. Lord, doesn't exist and is merely a figment of their child's imagination. And then there's the massive Chinese chest in the off-limits room called "Daddy's Imagination Room." Cassie insists her lost twin is in the chest, even though Lisa shows her its empty shelves. Something just isn't right in the old house, and Lisa doggedly searches for answers. And then, after opening one door too many, she inadvertently discovers something so hideous, it can hardly be imagined. When Lisa realizes what has been happening in the isolated house by the sea, it is already too late...

Tabitha Brown loses her world when her fiancé, Sam, is killed while on a skiing trip in the Cascade Mountains. With no family except a great-aunt whom she's met only once, Tabitha feels alone-bereft of everything meaningful. When great-aunt Rita dies, leaving Tabitha an old house, overlooking the Strait of Georgia in the northwest corner of Washington State, as well as a sizable sum of money, she resigns from her teaching position, packs up her meager possessions and leaves Seattle for a fresh start in life. The old house is nothing like the dream-house she and Sam had planned to have. In dire need of refurbishing, the place reeks of mildew and decay. But it's too late to regret her hasty move, so Tabitha buckles down, determined to make it the show-place it was at the turn of the last century. It isn't long before Tabitha realizes she needs help. Local handyman, J. Hampton Stewart, arrives in a battered truck with a "friend" named Raymond. Hampton proves to be more help than she cares to admit, and Tabitha reluctantly hires him to repair her leaky roof and do a number of odd jobs about the house. Despite her firm resolve, Tabitha is falling in love with the surprisingly talented carpenter. Not only does he fashion intricately beautiful pieces of furniture, he plays the violin like a master. He is kind to a fault and has a keen sense of humor. The only fly in the ointment is his live-in friend, Raymond, who is mentally challenged with the mind of a five-year-old. Although she tries, Tabitha cannot shake her loathing of the big man. A series of accidents force Tabitha and Hampton together, and their mutual respect and love grows until both are sure they want to spend the rest of their lives as husband and wife. Not believing she could ever find happiness like this again, Tabitha is filled with awe. She is certain of her love for this enigmatic man but just as certain of her loathing for his charge, Raymond. Is it possible to change a heart? Can someone learn how to love? Yes, it is...when you wish upon a star. And have faith in God.

Kate Merrick's goal is to be the most popular girl in high school. Already part of the "in" crowd and one of only four freshman accepted into drama club, she is well on her way to achieving this dream. Only one obstacle stands in her way. Rose Coughlin. The girl no one wants around. The girl who shuffles; never looks anyone in the eye. The girl who wears stained, ill-fitting clothes. The girl who smells. When the unthinkable happens and Kate is paired with Rose on a class project, her world falls apart. Shunned by her friends, Kate is desperate for a way out of this dilemma. So, no one is more surprised than she when a simple act of kindness changes her life forever.