When Storm Kayama walks into her lucrative Honolulu law firm one morning, she's shocked - and grieved -to find her adopted uncle at his desk, stiff and cold. As questions surround Miles'death and her adopted family begins to close ranks, Storm suspects that he has been murdered.
Heading to the Big Island for a weekend escape from escalating pressures, Storm takes refuge in the home of her Aunt Maile,a traditional Hawaiian healer, and Uncle Keone,a paniolo on the huge Parker Ranch.There she encounters a legend from her youth and a family totem, or'aumakua, which Aunt Maile promises will protect her. As Storm struggles to heal her own childhood wounds and bring justice to Hamasaki's killer, she also comes to grips with the rifts in her own life and culture.

Deborah Turrell Atkinson lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, with her husband and two children. A zest for travelling off the beaten path, friends, and her deep interest in the native myths and lore that abound among Hawaii's rich and varied cultures contribute to her books. Primitive Secrets is her debut novel. www.debbyatkinson.com

War time Tangier, policed by Franco's Guardia Civil, thick with many nationalities including Germans and Allies, bitter with the insults of Colonialism, is a dangerous place. Archaeologist Lily Sampson, recruited from her studies in Chicago by the enigmatic Dr Drury, finds herself in Morocco digging up Neanderthal artefacts at the Cave of Hercules. And soon, working at the American Legation on an undercover mission linked to Operation Torch.
The target date: November 8, 1942.The mission: to control French Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, squash Rommel, and thrust into Europe's underbelly. Out in the Atlantic, Ike will rely on relayed communications. But Lily's mastery of code is interrupted by murder - not one, but two - which not only imperils her, butTorch itself.

Kathleen Hills spent the first forty years of her life in rural northern Minnesota before leaving for the real world and a career in speech and language pathology. After determining that ten years in the real world should be all that is demanded of anyone, she turned to writing. Her first novel, Past Imperfect, is available from Poisoned Pen Press. Kathleen divides her time between her home in Duluth, Minnesota and North Scotland.

A late-night chance encounter in Boston's Beacon Hill area throws art critic Fred Taylor and wealthy, reclusive art collector Clayton Reed together. Reed has been tricked into purchasing a collection of paintings of uncertain provenance and ownership. With Taylor's help, Reed buys a painting which might be by one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance. But is it what it seems? Can The Madonna of the Apes be a forgery? How did it come to be, so quietly, in Boston?
These questions propel Reed and Fred into an increasingly murderous tangle, guided only by the assurances of a sequence of art dealers who lie as easily as they withhold the truth about the painting, its true nature, and its history.

Ann Parker and her family reside near Silicon Valley, California, where she is a science writer. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Women Writing the West, Sisters in Crime, Western Writers of America, and the National Association of Science Writers.This is her second novel.
www.annparker.net

Ike Schwartz thought he could return to his hometown and ditch the demons that pursue him. More than anything, he wanted to blot out the pain and anger that came when his wife of less than a month was gunned down in a CIA foul- up. So he buried himself as sheriff in rural, indistinguishable Picketsville,Virginia.
Aside from its Civil War history, Picketsville's only real claim to fame is Callend College, a private women's school and storage facility for half of a billion dollar art collection. It's bad news for both Dr Ruth Harris, new president of the college, and for a shadowy group whose services have been contracted by Middle Eastern fanatics, when the collection
is scheduled to be removed to New York.The plan is to steal the half billion dollars worth of fine art and statuary, and ransom it back for millions. But Ike Schwartz is no typical rural sheriff...

Dr Frederick Ramsay, a physician and former faculty member of the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, is also an Episcopal priest. He is the author of several scientific and general articles, tracts and theses; co-author of The Baltimore Declaration; and an iconographer with works displayed around the world. Artscape is his debut novel. www.frederickramsay.com