March 2011 Challenge #2

March 2011 Challenge #1

"Spring has Sprung" layout Exchange March 2011

Audiobook "Just take my heart" by Mary Higgins Clark

In her new thriller, America's #1 bestselling Queen of Suspense delves into a legal battle over the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murdering his wife. Woven into her plot is an eerie, little-understood but documented medical phenomenon -- the emergence of a donor's traits and memories in the recipient of a heart transplant.

Natalie Raines, one of Broadway's brightest stars, accidentally discovers who killed her former roommate and sets in motion a series of shocking events that puts more than one life in extreme peril.

While Natalie and her roommate, Jamie Evans, were both struggling young actresses, Jamie had been involved with a mysterious married man to whom she referred only by nickname. Natalie comes face to face with him years later and inadvertently addresses him by the nickname Jamie had used. A few days later, Natalie is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound.

Immediately the police suspect Natalie's theatrical agent and soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gregg Aldrich. He had long been a "person of interest" and was known to have stalked Natalie to find out if she was seeing another man. But no charges are brought against him until two years later, when Jimmy Easton, a career criminal, suddenly comes forward to claim that Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill his wife. Easton knows details about the Aldrich home that only someone who had been there -- to plan a murder, for instance -- could possibly know.

The case is a plum assignment for Emily Wallace, an attractive thirty-two-year-old assistant prosecutor. As she spends increasingly long hours preparing for the trial, a seemingly well-meaning neighbor offers to take care of her dog in her absence. Unaware of his violent past, she gives him a key to her home...

As Aldrich's trial is making headlines, her boss warns Emily that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant. And, during the trial, Emily experiences sentiments that defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich's fate is decided by the jury.

In the meantime, she does not realize that her own life is now at risk.

A compelling novel that probes the mysteries of the human heart and mind, Just Take My Heart is Mary Higgins Clark's most spellbinding tale.

Audiobook "He sees you when you're sleeping" by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark

From the "Queen of Suspense," Mary Higgins Clark, and bestselling author Carol Higgins Clark -- the acclaimed mother/daughter duo -- comes this holiday treat, a heartwarming tale of redemption and love.

Sterling Brooks has been cooling his heels in the Celestial Waiting Room for forty-six years, waiting for admission to heaven. Finally, just days before Christmas, he's summoned before the Heavenly Council and found unworthy; throughout his life he had been hopelessly self-absorbed. To redeem himself, he is given the chance to go back to Earth and find someone to help.

At New York's Rockefeller Center skating rink, Sterling encounters Marissa, a heartbroken seven-year-old whose father and grandmother have been forced into the Witness Protection Program; they had overheard two gangsters hatch a sinister plot to collect money from a debtor. Able to travel through time and space, Sterling devises a master plan to reunite little Marissa with her family in time for Christmas. Along the way, he discovers within himself what it takes to earn his wings.

Currently Reading "Loves Music, Loves to Dance" by Mary Higgins Clark

New York's trendy magazines are a source of peril when a killer enacts a bizarre dance of death, using the personal ads to lure his victims...

After college, best friends Erin Kelley and Darcy Scott move to the city to pursue exciting careers; Erin is a promising jewelry designer, Darcy finds success as a decorator. On a lark, Darcy persuades Erin to help their TV producer friend research the kinds of people who place personal ads. It seems like innocent fun...until Erin disappears.

Erin's body is found on an abandoned Manhattan pier -- on one foot is her own shoe, on the other, a high-heeled dancing slipper. Soon after, startling communiques from the killer reveal that Erin is not the first victim of this "dancing shoe murderer." And, if the killer has his way, she won't be his last. Next on his death list is Darcy.

Audiobook "Tick Tock" by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

NYC's #1 detective, Michael Bennett, has a huge problem—the Son of Sam, the Werewolf of Wisteria and the Mad Bomber are all back. The city has never been more terrified!

Tick—a killer's countdown begins, but... A rash of horrifying crimes tears through the city, throwing it into complete chaos and terrorizing everyone living there. Immediately, it becomes clear that they are not the work of an amateur, but of a calculating, efficient, and deadly mastermind.

Tick—can Michael Bennett catch him before... The city calls on Detective Michael Bennett, pulling him away from a seaside retreat with his ten adopted children, his grandfather, and their beloved nanny, Mary Catherine. Not only does it tear apart their first vacation since Michael's wife Maeve died—it leaves the entire family open to attack.

Tock—your time is up. Bennett enlists the help of a former colleague, FBI Agent Emily Parker. As his affection for Emily grows into something stronger, his relationship with Mary Catherine takes an unexpected turn. All too soon, another appalling crime leads Bennett to a shocking discovery that exposes the killer's pattern and the earth-shattering enormity of his plan. From the creator of the #1 New York detective series comes the most volatile and most explosive Michael Bennett novel ever.

Audiobook "Fatal Burn" by Lisa Jackson

It's the companion book to DEEP FREEZE in that Travis Settler and his daughter Dani, who both showed up in DEEP FREEZE and live in the town of Falls Creek, Oregon, are also two of the main characters in FATAL BURN.

When Dani Settler is kidnapped, Travis leaves Falls Creek for northern California, hoping he's following the trail of the kidnapper. He connects with Shannon Flannery in whose tortured past the answers to Dani's disappearance, several unsolved murders, and a series of arsons might lie. And romance abounds...!

Birthday Card for Melanis

C-c-c-old

No this is not Antarctica, just LaPorte County, Indiana... -10 degrees F stadning temps, -25 wind chill.... brrrrr


Non ce n'est pas l'Antarctique! -23 degrés C température ambiante, presque -32 C en plein vent...

Audiobook "Absolute Fear" by Lisa Jackson

For the past three months, Eve Renner has struggled to remember the night she was nearly killed and her lover was tried for murder. She remembers getting the anxious call from a friend from her past: “Meet me at the cabin. I’ve got evidence.” She remembers seeing that friend lying in a pool of blood. And she remembers a horrifying glimpse of her lover Cole Dennis’s face as a gunshot plunged her into darkness. Now, her memory and emotions scarred, Eve has returned to New Orleans to forget the past. But the past will not be forgotten. Eve’s shattered memory has helped Cole walk on murder charges just as a new series of killings begins.

The latest murders are bizarre and baffling. The victims are killed in ritual fashion, a series of numbers tattooed into their bodies. 212. 101. 111. 323. There is no clue to their meaning, no connection to the victims except one: Our Lady of Virtues Hospital, the crumbling old asylum that was once the scene of unspeakable madness. For Eve, it was a second home as a child. Her father was a doctor there and she spent hours exploring its secret chambers, hidden rooms, and forbidden passageways. Somewhere in its decaying rooms lies the key to a terrible crime, a betrayal beyond imagining whose echoes are now being felt with vengeance--a crime that seems to lead to Eve herself. And the only man she can trust with the search is Cole, her former lover and, just possibly, a cold-blooded killer.

As forgotten memories begin to surface, bodies are found and each twist leads to another terrifying piece of the puzzle. Someone is watching, planning, luring her back to the ruins of Our Lady and the shocking truths hidden there—someone who has been waiting for this moment to strike. He is deadlier than she could ever have imagined and closer than she knows. For the sins of the past must be revealed, the crimes brought to justice, and the price paid—in blood.

Currently reading "The Lottery Winner" by Mary Higgins Clark

Alvirah Meehan, one of Mary Higgins Clark's most beloved characters, returns in these dazzling, intertwined tales of sleuthing and suspense. Alvirah, the former cleaning lady who struck it rich in the lottery, made her first appearance in Weep No More, My Lady. Now, with her devoted mate, Willy, the ever-resourceful Alvirah delves into crime-solving on a grand scale -- and with her own inimitable style.

Among their many adventures, Alvirah and Willy find a dead actress in their Central Park South condominium upon their return from London in "The Body in the Closet." Needing a break from the big city, they escape to Cape Cod -- only to meet a would-be heiress framed for murder in "Death on the Cape." When Alvirah and Willy seek the tranquillity of the Cypress Point Spa, it's the perfect getaway -- until a jewel thief turns up in "The Lottery Winner." Back in Manhattan, the search for a neighbor's missing newborn makes for a suspense-filled Christmas in "Bye, Baby Bunting."

Audiobook "Eloquent Silence" by Sandra Brown

Covering up an unhappy past by throwing herself into her job as a teacher for the deaf, Lauri does not suspect that one of her own pupils, the daughter of a popular television star, may hold the key to a new life.

Lauri is a dedicated young teacher for the deaf. Her past conceals a wound still unhealed, her present is a facade, and she uses her career to hide her loneliness. Drake, daytime TV's most popular star, has two heartaches - the daughter he believes will never have a normal life and the dead wife he can't forget. Jennifer is the beautiful hearing-impaired child who may become a pawn between the man and the woman she needs the most. Now, in the heart of a New Mexico arts community, the three may become a family...but only if each one dares to find a voice and lets his or her fears and needs speak for themselves.

Stuck on Lake Shore Drive (Chicago)

A quite impressive sight... Chicago got hit hard by the 2011 Blizzard...

Currently Reading "A Stranger is Watching" by Mary Higgins Clark

Ronald Thompson knows he never killed Nina Peterson... yet in two days the state of Connecticut will take his life, having found him guilty via due process of law. But Thompson's death will not stop the pain and anger of Nina's husband, Steve. Thompson's death will not still the fears of Nina's six-year-old son, Neil, witness to his mother's brutal slaying. Not even the love and friendship of Sharon Martin, a journalist who is slowly becoming a part of their world, will ever erase their bitter memories. Only time, perhaps, will heal their wounds. But in the shadows a stranger waits, a cunning psychopath who has killed before, who has unfinished business at the Peterson home...

Tired of snow anyone?

I found this while surfing the web tonight. Enough said...



But then, the "half-full glass" attitude in me does enjoy this one:

Sympathy card

One of my fellow Cave Scrappers lost her mom last week. I made this card to show my support and most sincere sympathy...

Here's the poem I included in the card:

Those we love remain with us
For love itself lives on,
And cherished memories never fade
Because a loved one's gone.
Those we love can never be
More than a thought apart,
For as long as there is memory,
They'll live on in the heart.

Audiobook "Unspoken" by Lisa Jackson

Shelby Cole thought she'd put Bad Luck behind her. Bad Luck, Texas, that is. She left her hometown ten years ago, her world shattered and her illegitimate baby dead. Now she's receiving anonymous letters claiming that her daughter is alive. But going home means demanding answers that her father won't be happy to give - and facing Nevada Smith, the man who broke her heart. But Shelby's not the only person returning to Bad Luck. Falsely accused of murder and sent to prison for ten years, Ross McCallum is coming home to settle the score, especially with Shelby and Nevada. Shelby's search for the truth boils over into violence as a lethal web of secrets threatens everything she believes about the man she loves - and even her very own life.

Audiobook "The End of the Road" by Sue Henry

When murder strikes the bucolic town of Homer, Alaska, when a solitary traveler is found shot in the head in his hotel room. It seems it's up to the sexagenarian amateur sleuth, Maxie McNabb (with the reliable help of her dog Stretch) to get to the bottom of this puzzling crime.

Drifter John Walker has no friends, but he's so engaging that Maxie invites him over for dinner. The next day he moves on-and is later found dead in his motel room. What looks like a simple suicide quickly grows more complicated when police discover that Walker was living under an assumed identity. Maxie tries to fathom why he would choose to end his life where the U.S. highway system ends-and where Maxie just might meet a dead end of her own.

January Challenge card #2

I started with: