True Colors (Various)

Mysterious Disappearances Taint the Chicago World's Fair Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime While attending the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, Winnifred Wylde believes she witnessed a woman being kidnapped. She tries to convince her father, an inspector with the Chicago police, to look into reports of mysterious disappearances around the White City. Inspector Wylde tries to dismiss her claims as exaggeration of an overactive imagination, but he eventually concedes to letting her go undercover as secretary to the man in question-if she takes her pistol for protection and Jude Thorpe, a policeman, for bodyguard. Will she be able to expose H. H. Holmes's illicit activity, or will Winnifred become his next victim?

A Desperate Mother Searches for Her Child Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime Widowed in Memphis during 1932, Cecile Dowd is struggling to provide for her three-year-old daughter. Unwittingly trusting a neighbor puts little Millie Mae into the clutches of Georgia Tann, corrupt Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society director suspected of the disappearance of hundreds of children. With the help of a sympathetic lawyer, the search for Millie uncovers a deep level of corruption that threatens their very lives. How far will a mother go to find out what happened to her child?

Josephine Is Forced to Spy for Grave Robbers Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime In Massachusetts in 1824, Josephine Clayton awakes on the table of the doctor she's assisted all these months. She was presumed dead by all and has become the doctor's next corpse for his medical research. Frightened, the doctor tries to kill her, but Josephine begs to be spared. A deal is struck-Josie will leave her village and work at a distant cotton mill. All the while, she'll await her true mission-posing as a mourner to help his body snatcher procure her replacement. At the mill though, Josie is praised for her medical remedies among the mill girls, gaining attention from the handsome factory manager Braham Taylor. Yet, when Braham's own loved one becomes the prey for the next grave robbing, Josie must make a choice that could put her dark past behind her or steal away the promise of any future at all.

True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime Fiction Based on Strange, But True, History Will Edyth prove her sanity before it is too late? On Blackwell Island, New York, a hospital was built to keep its patients from ever leaving. With her late father's fortune under her uncle's care until her twenty-fifth birthday in the year 1887, Edyth Foster does not feel pressured to marry or to bow to society's demands. She freely indulges in eccentric hobbies like fencing and riding her velocipede in her cycling costume about the city for all to see. Finding a loophole in the will, though, her uncle whisks Edyth off to the women's lunatic asylum just weeks before her birthday. Do any of Edyth's friends care that she disappeared? At the asylum she meets another inmate, who upon discovering Edyth's plight, confesses that she is Nellie Bly, an undercover journalist for The World. Will either woman find a way to leave the terrifying island and reclaim her true self?

Evil incarnate leaves a trail of destruction across the frontier Rachel Taylor lives a rather mundane existence in 1797 at the way station her family runs along the Wilderness Road in Tennessee. She attends her friend Sally Rice’s wedding only to watch the marriage dissolve into horror as the groom, Wiley Harpe, and his cousin Micajah become murderers on the run, who drag their families along. Declaring a war on all humanity, the Harpes won’t be stopped, and Ben Langford is on their trail to see if his own cousin was one of their latest victims. How many will die before peace can return to the frontier?

Death plagues the Robinson family When Harriet Peters came to Boston four years ago, the Robinson family took her in like one of their own, and Harriet became closer to Lizzie Robinson than her own siblings. Now Lizzie is deathly sick, failing quickly just like several others in her family have done over the past few years. How can so many in one family die from the same mysterious illness? Harriet doesn’t have answers, but she is determined to help the family, bringing in a new-to-the neighborhood doctor, Michael Wheaton. As Harriet and Michael close in on the answer, putting their own lives at risk, can the cause be found before anyone else dies?

Two killers, two detectives, and a menace called "The Black Midnight" may be the death of both of them. Three years before Jack the Ripper began his murderous spree on the streets of London, women were dying in their beds as The Midnight Assassin terrorized the citizens of Austin, Texas. Now, with suspicion falling on Her Majesty's family and Scotland Yard at a loss as to who the Ripper might be, Queen Victoria summons her great-granddaughter Alice Anne von Wettin, a former Pinkerton agent who worked the unsolved Austin case, and orders her to discreetly form a team to look into the London matter. The prospect of a second chance to work with Annie just might entice Isaiah Joplin out of his comfortable life as an Austin lawyer. If his theories are right, they'll find The Midnight Assassin and, by default, the Ripper. If they're wrong, he and Annie are in a bigger mess than the one the feisty female left behind when she departed Austin under cover of darkness three years ago. Can the unlikely pair find the truth of who is behind the murders before they are drawn into the killer's deadly game? From Texas to London, the story navigates the fine line between truth and fiction as Annie and Isaiah ultimately find the hunters have become the hunted.

An Appalachian Feud Blows Up in 1912 Step into True Colors - a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime In Carroll County, a corn shucking is the social event of the season, until a mischievous kiss leads to one of the biggest tragedies in Virginia history. Ava Burcham isn't your typical Blue Ridge Mountain girl. She has a bad habit of courtin' trouble, and her curiosity has opened a rift in the middle of a feud between politicians and would-be outlaws, the Allen family. Ava's tenacious desire to find a story worth reporting may land her and her best friend, Jeremiah Sutphin, into more trouble than either of them planned. The end result? The Hillsville Courthouse Massacre of 1912.

A Widow's Ad for a Husband Leads to Mysterious Disappearances In 1907, shy but loyal Ingrid Storset has traveled from Norway to support her grieving sister, Belle Gunness, who owns a farm in LaPorte, Indiana. Well-to-do widow Belle, who has lost two husbands and several children, provides Ingrid with enough money to start a small business. But Ingrid is confused by the string of men Belle claims to be interviewing for her next husband. When Nils Lindherud comes to town looking for his missing brother, who said he was going to marry Belle, Ingrid has a sinking feeling her sister is up to no good. Just how many of Belle's suitors are missing and why?

Step into True Colors -- a series of Historical Stories of Romance and True American Crime Marvel at true but forgotten history when patients check into Linda Hazzard's Washington state spa in 1912 and soon become victim of her twisted greed. Heiress Stella Burke is plagued by insincere suitors and nonstop headaches. Exhausting all other medical aides for her migraines, Stella reads Fasting for the Cure of Disease by Linda Hazzard and determines to go to the spa the author runs. Stella's chauffer and long-time friend, Henry Clayton, is reluctant to leave her at the spa. Something doesn't feel right to him, still Stella submits herself into Linda Hazzard's care. Stella soon learns the spa has a dark side and Linda a mean streak. But when Stella has had enough, all ways to leave are suddenly blocked. Will Stella become a walking skeleton like many of the other patients or succumb to a worse fate?

A Shadowy Figure Swings a Dangerous Club Denver of 1900 is still a perilous place to be following the silver crash of 1893. And of out of the dark comes a shadow intent on harming women. Ambitious young Denver newspaper reporter Polly Blythe is searching for the big story that's going to launch her career. On Friday evening, August 24, 1900, she gets her break when two women are cracked over the head within a two-minute walk of each other. But policeman Edwin Timmer thwarts Polly's ideas of a serial criminal … until the shadowy figure strikes again. Will the reporter and the policeman team up to find the culprit before he strikes too close for comfort?

Has Emma Draycott Been Hoodwinked by a Cunning Charmer? Secret Service agent Clay Timmons arrives in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, in 1876 to track purchases made with fake currency. Every trail leads back to Stephen Dee Richards-and therefore, Emma Draycott. Emma has a soft spot for underdogs like Stephen and soon agrees to marry him. But within a week, he leaves to "make his fame and fortune." The heartbroken Emma gives him a special fountain pen to write to her, and Stephen does with tales of grand adventures. Clay is soon in hot pursuit of Richards, crisscrossing Nebraska and Iowa. Can Clay convince Miss Draycott she is engaged to a charlatan who is now being linked to several deaths out west before Stephen returns to seal their vows?