Showing results by author "Connie Chappell" in All Categories

FINALIST IN INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2023 FICTION/MYSTERY/SUSPENSE “All the books in the Wrenn Grayson Mystery series are simply brilliant.” –The Baltimore SunHistorian Wrenn Grayson is invited to the Foundling estate. She anticipates meeting the estate’s heiress, Clotilde Bronwyn. Upon arrival, though, she learns of Clotilde’s recent death and that the heiress left a letter addressed to Wrenn. Clotilde writes that she wishes to hire Wrenn to compose her memoriam. Wrenn accepts the challenge. Clotilde’s family mansion is now the home of the Foundling Historical Society. Society...

"Dialogue and flow of the story are excellent." -- NetGalley Every heart is asked, at some point, to leave something or someone behind while it yearns and aches for a different outcome. Beebe Walker is pulled into a compelling story of lost and found. Inside, she’s haunted by a farewell that never came. Her mother abandoned her and her father without a word when she was sixteen. Beebe is surprised by a visit from her ex-fiancé, Vincent Bostick. He brings shocking news. Reluctantly, Beebe decides to move back home, to face the past and renew a relationship with her father. Time and again,...

“A captivating read that flows effortlessly.” –Virginia GazetteTerri Miller is recruited by Frank Cordell to advocate for Michigan’s homeless. She’s homeless herself, so she possesses the qualifications. She also harbors a secret. If discovered, that secret will taint the very shelters Frank is charged with establishing statewide. Self-imposed penance for past sins takes her on the road every summer. Shoe leather is her mode of transportation. Along this incredible journey, she’s caught up with Iris Cordell, Frank’s daughter, who idolizes Terri’s lifestyle. She saves the ...

“Chappell leaves readers begging for another mystery.” –Los Angeles Post-ExaminerHistorian Wrenn Grayson’s decision to sell her grandmother’s farmhouse brings unimagined consequences. It leads to the meeting of Foster Spears and Nate Edwards, uncanny lookalikes. Nate hires Wrenn to investigate. His question is: Are Foster and he family? Her first clue leads to derelict Langford Hospital, sitting on the edge of town, forgotten. The private women’s hospital opened in 1940, but when it closed thirty years later, one enormously dark secret remained locked within the walls. Selling ...

"A nonstop suspense thriller with an amazing cast of characters." --NetGalleyHistorian Wrenn Grayson arrives at the Rosemont mansion expecting to receive payment for her services from the mansion's new owner, Clay Addison. That expectation dies when she and Clay find Trey Rosemont murdered on the foyer floor. Across town, police officers race to Eastwood University. Priceless Egyptian artifacts were stolen from the history department safe. Wrenn's longtime love, Eastwood professor Gideon Douglas, heads the department. Only recovery of the artifacts will save his career. Life in Havens, Ohio...

SILVER MEDAL READERS' FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FICTION-MYSTERY-GENERAL "The detective's one-of-a-kind process will have readers flipping pages." --Best Thrillers Historian-for-hire Wrenn Grayson takes on a difficult client in Kerry St. John. Kerry seeks justice for his great-grandfather's lifelong heartache. Wrenn meets the renowned jeweler through words recorded in his tattered journal. The year is 1946. He writes from the tiny crossroads of Wyatt, Ohio, about the theft of a treasured locket and the identity of three possible suspects. The cold case heats up when Lori Hammond ...

RECIPIENT OF MAXY AWARD FOR BEST LITERARY FICTION AND READERS' FAVORITE AWARD FOR WOMEN'S FICTION When Callie MacCallum sews her first quilt after the death of her lover Jack Sebring, she doesn’t realize she’ll be drawn into a Sebring family battle between wife and daughter-in-law. She simply wants to fulfill her promise to Jack to visit their cabin in the West Virginia mountains, where their long love affair was safely hidden. Instead, her emotionally reminiscent trip becomes crowded with the two Sebring women, a grief counselor, and the massive role Callie assumes. She must speak for ...

CHAPPELL AND LILY WHITE LIE ARE RECIPIENTS OF COMMENDATION FROM OHIO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS "Simply brilliant. Descriptiveness around every turn." --The Baltimore Sun In Lily White Lie, engravings on a pocketwatch, cryptic messages, Easter lilies, and sidelined spy Bret Kilmore combine to thrust historian Wrenn Grayson into the mysterious world of symbolism. A worried Wrenn connects the messages to her longtime love Gideon and his father. Contact is impossible. Gideon deer hunts deep in the West Virginia wilderness. His father, a prominent banker, vanished ...

"Once again, Chappell delivers!" –The American ReporterWrenn Grayson’s first summer as archivist for the Foundling Historical Society and Museum begins as unsettlingly as the electrical storms that plague Havens, Ohio. On her initial assignment, she investigates Madelaine Manor and its deceased owner, Hollis Bronwyn Jenner. Hollis blazed a trail in the late-1910s as a women’s rights activist. Her past is shadowed by World War I and the belief she sheltered a German spy. In truth, Wrenn isn’t completely finished with a final obligation to her City Hall job. A worrisome woman who ...

New York City Book Awards Bronze Medal WinnerWrenn Grayson is hired to write the history behind Honeysuckle Blue Nursery. She digs into past generations of one family, the Hawthorn nurserymen. That research reveals the unsolved murders of four townspeople, collectively known as the lords, each poisoned by hemlock. Fifty years ago, the first lord poisoned was Commodore Theo Hawthorn. As Wrenn is pulled deeper into this old mystery, she struggles to understand other ancient secrets involving deadly nightshade, Socrates’ patience, and the “telling of the bees” lore. With nursery ...

2021 Silver Medalist, Fiction-Humor-Satire, Global Book Awards "Chappell is a gifted storyteller." –The American Reporter The four grown children of Artemus Deconcini spend their summer at Moorings, the family’s Maryland estate, while he spends the season abroad. Nevertheless, his presence is felt. Jillian is brokenhearted again. Another man raced off in pursuit of his lifelong dream. Moorings’ tower room acts as her sanctuary. With mementos from this lost love, she creates uniquely expressive wall art and finds determination to launch a dream of her own. Gus covets his privacy shield...