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the Rita Farmer series |
The Actress#1
Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur
Aspiring actress and single mom Rita Farmer has gone from struggling to find work to downright desperate. If she doesn’t land a paying job soon—horror movie, soap commercial, anything—she’s afraid her ex-husband will use her dire financial straits to take away Petey, her cherished four-year-old son. While she's charming the crowd at storytime at the L.A. library, a celebrity defense attorney approaches her with an unusual job offer: So long as she’s discreet, Rita can rake in $1,000 a day preparing his client for her appearance in court. Easy money? Hardly. His client, Eileen Tenaway, is not only a wealthy heiress and a queen of the tabloids but she’s been charged with the murder of her own child. The attorney needs Rita to coach Eileen secretly to help her seem more sympathetic, more human. He needs the jury to believe not only her words, but the subtle cues of body language, facial expressions, even vocal style. Rita knows she can do it, but what she doesn’t know is how determined she’ll become to find out what really happened to Eileen’s child that night. Her life, and Petey's, will depend on it. |
the Lillian Byrd series |
Holy Hell#1
Published 2002 by Alyson Books Lillian Byrd is a small-time reporter with a flair for making big-time mistakes—like getting fired for fending off the boss's son with an X-Acto knife and breaking up with her girlfriend for no good reason—so her investigation into the disappearances of women around the Detroit area might not be the best idea. But when one of the missing women turns up dead and Lillian recognizes the curiously mutilated corpse, she's in too deep to get out. Of course, it doesn't help that she's still fighting off the boss's son and ducking the intensely aggressive attentions of the roughest dyke in town. Now, after simultaneously blowing the case for the police and revealing herself to the killers, she is completely on her own. Can she catch the murderers before they catch up with her? | ||||||||
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Damn Straight#2
Published 2003 by Alyson Books After her narrow brush with death in Holy Hell, you'd think Lillian Byrd would have learned to keep her head down, but when a friend in crisis calls from California, Lillian jumps on a plane and wings her way from Detroit to Palm Springs—and danger. It's the long weekend of the Dinah Shore golf tournament, the wildest women's sporting event in the world, when thousands of lesbians descend on the desert community of Rancho Mirage and take over. At a pre-championship party, Lillian leaps into a slippery romance with a top LPGA star. But her superstar athlete has a secret: Someone is quietly terrorizing her. Lillian, eager to help, goes undercover as a high-profile reporter, an unhinged nun, and a professional caddie while uncovering layer after disturbing layer of the golfer’s past. Finally, with violence erupting at every turn, Lillian uncovers her lover's ultimate horrifying secret—and it is not at all what she had guessed. With this new book, Elizabeth Sims presents another nail-biting thriller featuring her oh-so-human amateur detective. Damn Straight sizzles and zings and will have you laughing through your shivers. | ||||||||
Lucky Stiff#3
Published 2004 by Alyson Books Once again Lillian Byrd is down on her luck, strumming her mandolin for spare quarters alongside Blind Lonnie, Detroit's resident blues guitarist. But a chance encounter with her childhood friend Duane is about to completely turn her life on its heels. One summer night when Lillian was 12, flames ripped through the Polka Dot, a bar owned and run by her parents. Three bodies were found in the ashes: those of her mother, her father, and the barmaid, Trix Hawley. Or so Lillian has always thought. But when Lillian and Duane put their stories together, the past erupts into a wild enigma. As the two friends travel—accompanied by the tenacious crime writer Minerva LeBlanc—to the underbelly of Las Vegas to find the truth about their parents, Lillian must face the demons of the past in ways she never dreamed possible. With Lucky Stiff, the author of the best-selling Lillian Byrd Crime Stories has crafted yet another white-knuckle thriller. | ||||||||
Easy Street#4
Published 2005 by Alyson Books Her old Caprice is convulsing through the last of its death throes, her pet rabbit and constant companion Todd ails, and as usual Lillian Byrd is flat broke. For a few extra bucks she agrees to help an old friend renovate her house, but as you know, nothing ever goes smoothly in the life of Lillian Byrd. By the end of the first day on the job there's a partially demolished wall, a mysterious stash of cash, and a dead body. And Lillian's attentions have been diverted by the appearance of a drop-dead gorgeous neighbor. |
nonfiction |
The Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra
SEVENTYFIVE YEARS OF MUSIC ON THE STRAIT
by Elizabeth Sims and Ned Thomas
In celebration of the 75th year of the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra of Washington State, U.S.A.
percussionist Elizabeth Sims compiled engaging personal accounts for this extraordinary historical record.
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