Gina Gallo is a mob goddaughter who doesn't want to be one. She's left her loopy family behind to elope with Pete to Vegas. Except that eloping may be a mortal sin in an Italian family. Between that a
Sadie works as a framer, building houses. She lost her own home in a recent divorce and now lives with her two daughters in a rented bungalow. When her landlady says she needs to move out, Sadie finds
The 2018 Rapid Reads New Titles collection is intended for ESL students, reluctant readers, adults who struggle with literacy and anyone who wants a high-interest quick read.Features of the Rapid Read
Paramedic Ashley Grant is settling into her new life in the Caribbean, although sometimes she still feels like a fish out of water. The ambulance is called to a fire at a prestigious resort, and Ashle
On the anniversary of her mother's death, Rhonda receives a mysterious package in the mail. And it's from her deceased mother! As she tries to figure out how this is possible, Rhonda turns to the peop
Small-town police chief Maxine "Max" Benson is just settling into her new life when her ex appears on the scene. Apparently, he and his new young lover just happen to be visiting her area on holiday.
Del's great-aunt has retired from a life of crime and embarked on a new venture, the B-Team. Although Del works at an animal shelter by day, by night she, her great-aunt and their cohorts use their cr
Missy Turner thinks of herself as the most ordinary woman in the world. Then one day everything gets turned upside down—she loses her job, catches her husband making out with the neighbor and is brief
When paramedic Ashley Grant finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, she moves out of her house (okay, his house), quits her job and takes a new one in a tiny Caribbean country, the Victoria and
Cookie is about to lose her job at the local bakery. She dreams of owning her own bakery but doesn't think she has the skills or money to do it. Most of all, she doesn't have the self-confidence. When
Jennie has been a widow for two years. Her twelve-year-old son thinks it's about time she started dating, and so does her best friend, Angela. So with Angela's help, Jennie signs up to an online datin
Sixteen-year-old Rasheed is smart, tough and a survivor. In his neighborhood, he has to be. The streets are run by a gang called the E Street Locals, and they've been trying to jump him in since he wa
RCMP Sergeant Ray Robertson is in the Turks and Caicos Islands, enjoying two weeks of leave from his job training police in Haiti with the UN. On an early-morning jog along famed Grace Bay Beach he di
Peter Strand is half Chinese and half Cherokee and was adopted by an elderly white couple from Phoenix. Now he's a forensic accountant in San Francisco, where he's struggling with his identity. When
As Gina gets ready for her Christmas wedding, all is quiet in Steeltown. Then she's robbed, cousin Jimmy has a heart attack, and someone in the city has hijacked a transport truck full of booze. But w
Toronto homicide detectives Pratt and Ellis are brought in to investigate a series of hit-and-runs. Someone seems to be trying to kill random people using stolen cars. The detectives try to find any c
Escaping the pressures of big-city policing and memories of a bad marriage, Maxine Benson is happy to be appointed police chief in the resort town of Port Ainslie. The town's police force consists of
Small-town reporter Claire Abbott wakes from a nightmare, convinced a bomb will go off in the local school. And then, strangely enough, there really is a bomb scare. After the school is cleared by pol
For piano tuner and jazz musician Frank Ryan, what starts out as a holiday in Japan turns into a painful lesson in cultural differences. A faceless foreigner in a city of thirteen million, Frank finds
Vancouver Post gossip columnist Nicole Charles is only slightly put out when she discovers she’s been downsized. She figures she’s lucky to still have a job. It just means she needs to get a desk so s
Kat is a tough, independent woman who makes her living as a professional poker player. She is single, childless and happy about it. But when her best friend, Josie, commits suicide, she names Kat as t
When the daughter of the most powerful Mafia don in New York goes missing, the don’s right-hand man comes to Gulliver Dowd for help. Problem is, the right-hand man and Dowd despise each other. Plus, t
In The Goddaughter Caper, Gina Gallo finds herself embroiled in her families shady dealings when a body turns up at her uncle’s restaurant. But it’s just the beginning of her problems. Strange things
Small-town journalist Claire Abbott has a sixth sense, what the fire chief calls a “radar for crime.” When a string of suspicious fires breaks out in town, Claire thinks she knows who the firebug is.
A murder at the Blue Dragon, a small apartment building in San Francisco’s Chinatown, prompts the absentee owner to hire Chinese American Peter Strand to calm the anxious tenants. But Strand isn’t exa
Keno is twenty-three, a high-school dropout working as a rent collector for a slum landlord. Apart from hitting on the office secretary, Cass, his life is bleak. His job takes him into sad, mean place
RCMP sergeant Ray Robertson is serving with the United Nations in Haiti, a land of brilliant color and vibrant life, Vodou and vast above-ground cemeteries. Ray’s job is to train the local police and
Simple country handyman Cedric O’Toole relies on his organic vegetable garden to supplement his meager income, so he’s upset when vegetables begin disappearing. After several futile attempts to protec
Piano tuner Frank Ryan is paid in kind by an aging music teacher with an old manuscript that turns out to be Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony. Launched into a world of intrigue and violence, Ryan, an unlike
At age twenty, Leena O'Neil walked away from her old life. Anything to avoid becoming a lawyer like her mother and older sister, Georgia. Three years later, Georgia contacts her, convinced that her hu
Mob goddaughter Gina Gallo stands to inherit two million bucks from her great-uncle Seb, a master forger. But there’s a catch: Uncle Seb wants Gina to make things right and return an extremely valuabl
Detective Mervin Pratt is enjoying a quiet dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant when he’s called in to assist at a murder scene at a popular downtown nightclub. The manager has been stabbed to de
Juba, South Sudan. RCMP Sergeant Ray Robertson has spent eleven and a half months serving with the United Nations in the world’s newest country. He’s tired of the chaotic traffic and jostling crowds
When Gina Gallo discovers that someone has been switching real gems for fakes in the jewelry of some of her best customers, she takes matters into her own hands.
It all begins when PI Gulliver Dowd is approached by Ellis Torres, a street kid, on Valentino Pier in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. Ellis has lost his dog, and after Gulliver helps to find the dog
Gulliver Dowd is a little person in a world of hurt. After his sister, an NYPD policewoman, is murdered, he becomes a licensed PI. Dowd is shocked to discover that his mysterious new client is Nina, h
For his Valentine's night call-in show, host Charlie D plans to offer his listeners two hours on the topic of "satisfaction." His in-studio guest is twenty-five-year-old Misty de Vol Burgh, formerly t
